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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/10456-0.txt b/10456-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22faa29 --- /dev/null +++ b/10456-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8799 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10456 *** + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. II.--SEPTEMBER, 1858.--NO. XI. + + + + + +ELOQUENCE. + +It is the doctrine of the popular music-masters, that whoever can +speak can sing. So, probably, every man is eloquent once in his life. +Our temperaments differ in capacity of heat, or we boil at different +degrees. One man is brought to the boiling point by the excitement of +conversation in the parlor. The waters, of course, are not very deep. +He has a two-inch enthusiasm, a pattypan ebullition. Another requires +the additional caloric of a multitude, and a public debate; a third +needs an antagonist, or a hot indignation; a fourth needs a +revolution; and a fifth, nothing less than the grandeur of absolute +ideas, the splendors and shades of Heaven and Hell. + +But because every man is an orator, how long soever he may have been a +mute, an assembly of men is so much more susceptible. The eloquence of +one stimulates all the rest, some up to the speaking point, and all +others to a degree that makes them good receivers and conductors, and +they avenge themselves for their enforced silence by increased +loquacity on their return to the fireside. + +The plight of these phlegmatic brains is better than that of those who +prematurely boil, and who impatiently break the silence before their +time. Our county conventions often exhibit a small-pot-soon-hot style +of eloquence. We are too much reminded of a medical experiment, where +a series of patients are taking nitrous-oxide gas. Each patient, in +turn, exhibits similar symptoms,--redness in the face, volubility, +violent gesticulation, delirious attitudes, occasional stamping, an +alarming loss of perception of the passage of time, a selfish +enjoyment of his sensations, and loss of perception of the sufferings +of the audience. + +Plato says, that the punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to +take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse +men; and the like regret is suggested to all the auditors, as the +penalty of abstaining to speak, that they shall hear worse orators +than themselves. + +But this lust to speak marks the universal feeling of the energy of +the engine, and the curiosity men feel to touch the springs. Of all +the musical instruments on which men play, a popular assembly is that +which has the largest compass and variety, and out of which, by genius +and study, the most wonderful effects can be drawn. An audience is not +a simple addition of the individuals that compose it. Their sympathy +gives them a certain social organism, which fills each member, in his +own degree, and most of all the orator, as a jar in a battery is +charged with the whole electricity of the battery. No one can survey +the face of an excited assembly, without being apprised of new +opportunity for painting in fire human thought, and being agitated to +agitate. How many orators sit mute there below! They come to get +justice done to that ear and intuition which no Chatham and no +Demosthenes has begun to satisfy. + +The Welsh Triads say, "Many are the friends of the golden tongue." Who +can wonder at the attractiveness of Parliament, or of Congress, or the +bar, for our ambitious young men, when the highest bribes of society +are at the feet of the successful orator? He has his audience at his +devotion. All other fames must hush before his. He is the true +potentate; for they are not kings who sit on thrones, but they who +know how to govern. The definitions of eloquence describe its +attraction for young men. Antiphon the Rhamnusian, one of Plutarch's +ten orators, advertised in Athens, "that he would cure distempers of +the mind with words." No man has a prosperity so high or firm, but two +or three words can dishearten it. There is no calamity which right +words will not begin to redress. Isocrates described his art, as "the +power of magnifying what was small and diminishing what was +great";--an acute, but partial definition. Among the Spartans, the art +assumed a Spartan shape, namely, of the sharpest weapon. Socrates +says, "If any one wishes to converse with the meanest of the +Lacedaemonians, he will at first find him despicable in conversation; +but, when a proper opportunity offers, this same person, like a +skilful jaculator, will hurl a sentence worthy of attention, short and +contorted, so that he who converses with him will appear to be in no +respect superior to a boy." Plato's definition of rhetoric is, "the +art of ruling the minds of men." The Koran says, "A mountain may +change its place, but a man will not change his disposition";--yet the +end of eloquence is,--is it not?--to alter in a pair of hours, perhaps +in a half-hour's discourse, the convictions and habits of years. Young +men, too, are eager to enjoy this sense of added power and enlarged +sympathetic existence. The orator sees himself the organ of a +multitude, and concentrating their valors and powers: + + "But now the blood of twenty thousand men + Blushed in my face." + +That which he wishes, that which eloquence ought to reach, is, not a +particular skill in telling a story, or neatly summing up evidence, or +arguing logically, or dexterously addressing the prejudice of the +company; no, but a taking sovereign possession of the audience. Him we +call an artist, who shall play on an assembly of men as a master on +the keys of the piano,--who, seeing the people furious, shall soften +and compose them, shall draw them, when he will, to laughter and to +tears. Bring him to his audience, and, be they who they may, coarse or +refined, pleased or displeased, sulky or savage, with their opinions +in the keeping of a confessor, or with their opinions in their +bank-safes,--he will have them pleased and humored as he chooses; and +they shall carry and execute that which he bids them. + +This is that despotism which poets have celebrated in the "Pied Piper +of Hamelin," whose music drew like the power of gravitation,--drew +soldiers and priests, traders and feasters, women and boys, rats and +mice; or that of the minstrel of Meudon, who made the pallbearers +dance around the bier. This is a power of many degrees, and requiring +in the orator a great range of faculty and experience, requiring a +large composite man, such as Nature rarely organizes, so that, in our +experience, we are forced to gather up the figure in fragments, here +one talent, and there another. + +The audience is a constant metre of the orator. There are many +audiences in every public assembly, each one of which rules in turn. +If anything comic and coarse is spoken, you shall see the emergence of +the boys and rowdies, so loud and vivacious, that you might think the +house was filled with them. If new topics are started, graver and +higher, these roisters recede; a more chaste and wise attention takes +place. You would think the boys slept, and that the men have any +degree of profoundness. If the speaker utter a noble sentiment, the +attention deepens, a new and highest audience now listens, and the +audiences of the fun and of facts and of the understanding are all +silenced and awed. There is also something excellent in every +audience,--the capacity of virtue. They are ready to be beatified. +They know so much more than the orator,--and are so just! There is a +tablet there for every line he can inscribe, though he should mount to +the highest levels. Humble persons are conscious of new illumination; +narrow brows expand with enlarged affections: delicate spirits, long +unknown to themselves, masked and muffled in coarsest fortunes, who +now hear their own native language for the first time, and leap to +hear it. But all these several audiences, each above each, which +successively appear to greet the variety of style and topic, are +really composed out of the same persons; nay, sometimes the same +individual will take active part in them all, in turn. + +This range of many powers in the consummate speaker and of many +audiences in one assembly leads us to consider the successive stages +of oratory. + +Perhaps it is the lowest of the qualities of an orator, but it is, on +so many occasions, of chief importance,--a certain robust and radiant +physical health,--or, shall I say? great volumes of animal heat. When +each auditor feels himself to make too large a part of the assembly, +and shudders with cold at the thinness of the morning audience, and +with fear lest all will heavily fail through one bad speech, mere +energy and mellowness are then inestimable. Wisdom and learning would +be harsh and unwelcome, compared with a substantial cordial man, made +of milk, as we say, who is a house-warmer, with his obvious honesty +and good meaning, and a hue-and-cry style of harangue, which inundates +the assembly with a flood of animal spirits, and makes all safe and +secure, so that any and every sort of good speaking becomes at once +practicable. I do not rate this animal eloquence very highly, and yet, +as we must be fed and warmed before we can do any work well, even the +best, so is this semi-animal exuberance, like a good stove, of the +first necessity in a cold house. + +Climate has much to do with it,--climate and race. Set a New Englander +to describe any accident which happened in his presence. What +hesitation and reserve in his narrative! He tells with difficulty some +particulars, and gets as fast as he can to the result, and, though he +cannot describe, hopes to suggest the whole scene. Now listen to a +poor Irish-woman recounting some experience of hers. Her speech flows +like a river,--so unconsidered, so humorous, so pathetic, such justice +done to all the parts! It is a true transubstantiation,--the fact +converted into speech, all warm and colored and alive, as it fell out. +Our Southern people are almost all speakers, and have every advantage +over the New England people, whose climate is so cold, that, 'tis said, +we do not like to open our mouths very wide. But neither can the +Southerner in the United States, nor the Irish, compare with the +lively inhabitant of the South of Europe. The traveller in Sicily +needs no gayer melodramatic exhibition than the _table d'hôte_ of his +inn will afford him, in the conversation of the joyous guests. They +mimic the voice and manner of the person they describe; they crow, +squeal, hiss, cackle, bark, and scream like mad, and, were it only by +the physical strength exerted in telling the story, keep the table in +unbounded excitement. But in every constitution some large degree of +animal vigor is necessary as material foundation for the higher +qualities of the art. + +But eloquence must be attractive, or it is none. The virtue of books +is to be readable, and of orators to be interesting, and this is a +gift of Nature; as Demosthenes, the most laborious student in that +kind, signified his sense of this necessity when he wrote, "Good +Fortune," as his motto on his shield. As we know, the power of +discourse of certain individuals amounts to fascination, though it may +have no lasting effect. Some portion of this sugar must intermingle. +The right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no +constable to keep them. It draws the children from their play, the old +from their arm-chairs, and the invalid from his warm chamber; it holds +the hearer fast, steals away his feet, that he shall not depart,--his +memory, that he shall not remember the most pressing affairs,--his +belief, that he shall not admit any opposing considerations. The +pictures we have of it in semi-barbarous ages, when it has some +advantages in the simpler habit of the people, show what it aims at. +It is said that the Khans, or story-tellers in Ispahan and other +cities of the East, attain a controlling power over their audience, +keeping them for many hours attentive to the most fanciful and +extravagant adventures. The whole world knows pretty well the style of +these improvisators, and how fascinating they are, in our translations +of the "Arabian Nights." Scheherzarade tells these stories to save her +life, and the delight of young Europe and young America in them proves +that she fairly earned it. And who does not remember in childhood some +white or black or yellow Scheherzarade, who, by that talent of telling +endless feats of fairies and magicians, and kings and queens, was more +dear and wonderful to a circle of children than any orator of England +or America is now? The more indolent and imaginative complexion of the +Eastern nations makes them much more impressible by these appeals to +the fancy. + +These legends are only exaggerations of real occurrences, and every +literature contains these high compliments to the art of the orator +and the bard, from the Hebrew and the Greek down to the Scottish +Glenkindie, who + + --"harpit a fish out o' saut water, + Or water out of a stone, + Or milk out of a maiden's breast + Who bairn had never none." + +Homer specially delighted in drawing the same figure. For what is the +"Odyssey," but a history of the orator, in the largest style, carried +through a series of adventures furnishing brilliant opportunities to +his talent? See with what care and pleasure the poet brings him on the +stage. Helen is pointing out to Antenor, from a tower, the different +Grecian chiefs. "Antenor said: 'Tell me, dear child, who is that man, +shorter by a head than Agamemnon, yet he looks broader in his +shoulders and breast. His arms lie on the ground, but he, like a +leader, walks about the bands of the men. He seems to me like a +stately ram, who goes as a master of the flock.' Him answered Helen, +daughter of Jove: 'This is the wise Ulysses, son of Laertes, who was +reared in the state of craggy Ithaca, knowing all wiles and wise +counsels.' To her the prudent Antenor replied again: 'O woman, you +have spoken truly. For once the wise Ulysses came hither on an +embassy, with Menelaus, beloved by Mars. I received them, and +entertained them at my house. I became acquainted with the genius and +the prudent judgments of both. When they mixed with the assembled +Trojans and stood, the broad shoulders of Menelaus rose above the +other; but, both sitting, Ulysses was more majestic. When they +conversed, and interweaved stories and opinions with all; Menelaus +spoke succinctly, few but very sweet words, since he was not +talkative, nor superfluous in speech, and was the younger. But when +the wise Ulysses arose, and stood, and looked down, fixing his eyes on +the ground, and neither moved his sceptre backward nor forward, but +held it still, like an awkward person, you would say it was some angry +or foolish man; but when he sent his great voice forth out of his +breast, and his words fell like the winter snows, not then would any +mortal contend with Ulysses; and we, beholding, wondered not +afterwards so much at his aspect." [_Iliad_, III. 192.] + +Thus he does not fail to arm Ulysses at first with this power of +overcoming all opposition by the blandishments of speech. Plutarch +tells us that Thucydides, when Archidamus, king of Sparta, asked him, +Which was the best wrestler, Pericles or he? replied, "When I throw +him, he says he was never down, and he persuades the very spectators +to believe him." Philip of Macedon said of Demosthenes, on hearing the +report of one of his orations, "Had I been there, he would have +persuaded me to take up arms against myself"; and Warren Hastings said +of Burke's speech on his impeachment, "As I listened to the orator, I +felt for more than half an hour as if I were the most culpable being +on earth." + +In these examples, higher qualities have already entered; but the +power of detaining the ear by pleasing speech, and addressing the +fancy and imagination, often exists without higher merits. Thus +separated, as this fascination of discourse aims only at amusement, +though it be decisive in its momentary effect, it is yet a juggle, and +of no lasting power. It is heard like a band of music passing through +the streets, which converts all the passengers into poets, but is +forgotten as soon as it has turned the next corner; and unless this +oiled tongue could, in Oriental phrase, lick the sun and moon away, it +must take its place with opium and brandy. I know no remedy against it +but cotton-wool, or the wax which Ulysses stuffed into the ears of his +sailors to pass the Sirens safely. + +There are all degrees of power, and the least are interesting, but +they must not be confounded. There is the glib tongue and cool +self-possession of the salesman in a large shop, which, as is well +known, overpower the prudence and resolution of housekeepers of both +sexes. There is a petty lawyer's fluency, which is sufficiently +impressive to him who is devoid of that talent, though it be, in so +many cases, nothing more than a facility of expressing with accuracy +and speed what everybody thinks and says more slowly, without new +information, or precision of thought,--but the same thing, neither +less nor more. It requires no special insight to edit one of our +country newspapers. Yet whoever can say off currently, sentence by +sentence, matter neither better nor worse than what is there printed, +will be very impressive to our easily-pleased population. These +talkers are that class who prosper like the celebrated schoolmaster, +by being only one lesson ahead of the pupil. Add a little sarcasm, and +prompt allusion to passing occurrences, and you have the mischievous +member of Congress. A spice of malice, a ruffian touch in his +rhetoric, will do him no harm with his audience. These accomplishments +are of the same kind, and only a degree higher than the coaxing of the +auctioneer, or the vituperative style well described in the +street-word "jawing." These kinds of public and private speaking have +their use and convenience to the practitioners; but we may say of such +collectively, that the habit of oratory is apt to disqualify them for +eloquence. + +One of our statesmen said, "The curse of this country is eloquent +men." And one cannot wonder at the uneasiness sometimes manifested by +trained statesmen, with large experience of public affairs, when they +observe the disproportionate advantage suddenly given to oratory over +the most solid and accumulated public service. In a Senate or other +business committee, the solid result depends on a few men with working +talent. They know how to deal with the facts before them, to put +things into a practical shape, and they value men only as they can +forward the work. But some new man comes there, who has no capacity +for helping them at all, is insignificant, and nobody in the +committee, but has a talent for speaking. In the debate with open +doors, this precious person makes a speech, which is printed, and read +all over the Union, and he at once becomes famous, and takes the lead +in the public mind over all these executive men, who, of course, are +full of indignation to find one who has no tact or skill, and knows he +has none, put over them by means of this talking power which they +despise. + +Leaving behind us these pretensions, better or worse, to come a little +nearer to the verity, eloquence is attractive as an example of the +magic of personal ascendency;--a total and resultant power,--rare, +because it requires a rich coincidence of powers, intellect, will, +sympathy, organs, and, over all, good-fortune in the cause. We have a +half-belief that the person is possible who can counterpoise all other +persons. We believe that there may be a man who is a match for +events,--one who never found his match,--against whom other men being +dashed are broken,--one of inexhaustible personal resources, who can +give you any odds and beat you. What we really wish for is a mind +equal to any exigency. You are safe in your rural district, or in the +city, in broad daylight, amidst the police, and under the eyes of a +hundred thousand people. But how is it on the Atlantic, in a storm? Do +you understand how to infuse your reason into men disabled by terror, +and to bring yourself off safe then?--how among thieves, or among an +infuriated populace, or among cannibals? Face to face with a +highwayman who has every temptation and opportunity for violence and +plunder, can you bring yourself off safe by your wit, exercised +through speech?--a problem easy enough to Caesar, or Napoleon. +Whenever a man of that stamp arrives, the highwayman has found a +master. What a difference between men in power of face! A man succeeds +because he has more power of eye than another, and so coaxes or +confounds him. The newspapers, every week, report the adventures of +some impudent swindler, who, by steadiness of carriage, duped those +who should have known better. Yet any swindlers we have known are +novices and bunglers, as is attested by their ill name. A greater +power of face would accomplish anything, and, with the rest of their +takings, take away the bad name. A greater power of carrying the thing +loftily, and with perfect assurance, would confound merchant, banker, +judge, men of influence and power, poet, and president, and might head +any party, unseat any sovereign, and abrogate any constitution in +Europe and America. It was said, that a man has at one step attained +vast power, who has renounced his moral sentiment, and settled it with +himself that he will no longer stick at anything. It was said of Sir +William Pepperel, one of the worthies of New England, that, "put him +where you might, he commanded, and saw what he willed come to pass." +Julius Caesar said to Metellus, when that tribune interfered to hinder +him from entering the Roman treasury, "Young man, it is easier for me +to put you to death than to say that I will"; and the youth yielded. +In earlier days, he was taken by pirates. What then? He threw himself +into their ship; established the most extraordinary intimacies; told +them stories; declaimed to them; if they did not applaud his speeches, +he threatened them with hanging,--which he performed afterwards,--and, +in a short time, was master of all on board. A man this is who cannot +be disconcerted, and so can never play his last card, but has a +reserve of power when he has hit his mark. With a serene face, he +subverts a kingdom. What is told of him is miraculous; it affects men +so. The confidence of men in him is lavish, and he changes the face of +the world, and histories, poems, and new philosophies arise to account +for him. A supreme commander over all his passions and affections; but +the secret of his ruling is higher than that. It is the power of +Nature running without impediment from the brain and will into the +hands. Men and women are his game. Where they are, he cannot be +without resource. "Whoso can speak well," said Luther, "is a man." It +was men of this stamp that the Grecian States used to ask of Sparta +for generals. They did not send to Lacedaemon for troops, but they +said, "Send us a commander"; and Pausanias, or Gylippus, or Brasidas, +or Agis, was despatched by the Ephors. + +It is easy to illustrate this overpowering personality by these +examples of soldiers and kings; but there are men of the most peaceful +way of life, and peaceful principle, who are felt, wherever they go, +as sensibly as a July sun or a December frost,--men who, if they +speak, are heard, though they speak in a whisper,--who, when they act, +act effectually, and what they do is imitated: and these examples may +be found on very humble platforms, as well as on high ones. + +In old countries, a high money-value is set on the services of men who +have achieved a personal distinction. He who has points to carry must +hire, not a skilful attorney, but a commanding person. A barrister in +England is reputed to have made twenty or thirty thousand pounds _per +annum_ in representing the claims of railroad companies before +committees of the House of Commons. His clients pay not so much for +legal as for manly accomplishments,--for courage, conduct, and a +commanding social position, which enable him to make their claims +heard and respected. + +I know very well, that, among our cool and calculating people, where +every man mounts guard over himself, where heats and panics and +abandonments are quite out of the system, there is a good deal of +skepticism as to extraordinary influence. To talk of an overpowering +mind rouses the same jealousy and defiance which one may observe round +a table where anybody is recounting the marvellous anecdotes of +mesmerism. Each auditor puts a final stroke to the discourse by +exclaiming, "Can he mesmerize _me_?" So each man inquires if any +orator can change _his_ convictions. + +But does any one suppose himself to be quite impregnable? Does he +think that not possibly a man may come to him who shall persuade him +out of his most settled determination?--for example, good sedate +citizen as he is, to make a fanatic of him? or, if he is penurious, to +squander money for some purpose he now least thinks of? or, if he is a +prudent, industrious person, to forsake his work, and give days and +weeks to a new interest? No, he defies any one, every one. Ah! he is +thinking of resistance, and of a different turn from his own. But what +if one should come of the same turn of mind as his own, and who sees +much farther on his own way than he? A man who has tastes like mine, +but in greater power, will rule me any day, and make me love my ruler. + +Thus it is not powers of speech that we primarily consider under this +word Eloquence, but the power that, being present, gives them their +perfection, and, being absent, leaves them a merely superficial value. +Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy. +Personal ascendency may exist with or without adequate talent for its +expression. It is as surely felt as a mountain or a planet; but when +it is weaponed with a power of speech, it seems first to become truly +human, works actively in all directions, and supplies the imagination +with fine materials. + +This circumstance enters into every consideration of the power of +orators, and is the key to all their effects. In the assembly, you +shall find the orator and the audience in perpetual balance, and the +predominance of either is indicated by the choice of topic. If the +talents for speaking exist, but not the strong personality, then there +are good speakers who perfectly receive and express the will of the +audience, and the commonest populace is flattered by hearing its low +mind returned to it with every ornament which happy talent can add. +But if there be personality in the orator, the face of things changes. +The audience is thrown into the attitude of pupil, follows like a +child its preceptor, and hears what he has to say. It is as if, amidst +the king's council at Madrid, Ximenes urged that an advantage might be +gained of France, and Mendoza that Flanders might be kept down, and +Columbus, being introduced, was interrogated whether his geographical +knowledge could aid the cabinet, and he can say nothing to one party +or to the other, but he can show how all Europe can be diminished and +reduced under the king by annexing to Spain a continent as large as +six or seven Europes. + +This balance between the orator and the audience is expressed in what +is called the pertinence of the speaker. There is always a rivalry +between the orator and the occasion, between the demands of the hour +and the prepossession of the individual. The emergency which has +convened the meeting is usually of more importance than anything the +debaters have in their minds, and therefore becomes imperative to +them. But if one of them have anything of commanding necessity in his +heart, how speedily he will find vent for it, and with the applause of +the assembly! This balance is observed in the privatest intercourse. +Poor Tom never knew the time when the present occurrence was so +trivial that he could tell what was passing in his mind without being +checked for unseasonable speech; but let Bacon speak, and wise men +would rather listen, though the revolution of kingdoms was on foot. I +have heard it reported of an eloquent preacher, whose voice is not yet +forgotten in this city, that, on occasions of death or tragic +disaster, which overspread the congregation with gloom, he ascended +the pulpit with more than his usual alacrity, and, turning to his +favorite lessons of devout and jubilant thankfulness, "Let us praise +the Lord," carried audience, mourners, and mourning along with him, +and swept away all the impertinence of private sorrow with his +hosannas and songs of praise. Pepys says of Lord Clarendon, with whom +"he is mad in love," on his return from a conference, "I did never +observe how much easier a man do speak when he knows all the company +to be below him, than in him; for, though he spoke indeed excellent +well, yet his manner and freedom of doing it, as if he played with it, +and was informing only all the rest of the company, was mighty +pretty." [_Diary_, I. 469.] + +This rivalry between the orator and the occasion is inevitable, and +the occasion always yields to the eminence of the speaker; for a great +man is the greatest of occasions. Of course, the interest of the +audience and of the orator conspire. It is well with them only when +his influence is complete; then only they are well pleased. +Especially, he consults his power by making instead of taking his +theme. If he should attempt to instruct the people in that which they +already know, he would fail; but, by making them wise in that which he +knows, he has the advantage of the assembly every moment. Napoleon's +tactics of marching on the angle of an army, and always presenting a +superiority of numbers, is the orator's secret also. + +The several talents which the orator employs, the splendid weapons +which went to the equipment of Demosthenes, of AEchines, of Demades, +the natural orator, of Fox, of Pitt, of Patrick Henry, of Adams, of +Mirabeau, deserve a special enumeration. We must not quite omit to +name the principal pieces. + +The orator, as we have seen, must be a substantial personality. Then, +first, he must have power of statement,--must have the fact, and know +how to tell it. In any knot of men conversing on any subject, the +person who knows most about it will have the ear of the company, if he +wishes it, and lead the conversation,--no matter what genius or +distinction other men there present may have; and in any public +assembly, him who has the facts, and can and will state them, people +will listen to, though he is otherwise ignorant, though he is hoarse +and ungraceful, though he stutters and screams. + +In a court of justice, the audience are impartial; they really wish to +sift the statements, and know what the truth is. And, in the +examination of witnesses, there usually leap out, quite unexpectedly, +three or four stubborn words or phrases which are the pith and fate of +the business, which sink into the ear of all parties, and stick there, +and determine the cause. All the rest is repetition and qualifying; +and the court and the county have really come together to arrive at +these three or four memorable expressions, which betrayed the mind and +meaning of somebody. + +In every company, the man with the fact is like the guide you hire to +lead your party up a mountain or through a difficult country. He may +not compare with any of the party in mind, or breeding, or courage, or +possessions, but he is much more important to the present need than +any of them. That is what we go to the court-house for,--the statement +of the fact, and the elimination of a general fact, the real relation +of all the parties; and it is the certainty with which, indifferently +in any affair that is well handled, the truth stares us in the face, +through all the disguises that are put upon it,--a piece of the +well-known human life,--that makes the interest of a court-room to the +intelligent spectator. + +I remember, long ago, being attracted by the distinction of the +counsel, and the local importance of the cause, into the court-room. +The prisoner's counsel were the strongest and cunningest lawyers in +the Commonwealth. They drove the attorney for the State from corner to +corner, taking his reasons from under him, and reducing him to +silence, but not to submission. When hard-pressed, he revenged +himself, in his turn, on the judge, by requiring the court to define +what salvage was. The court, thus pushed, tried words, and said +everything it could think of to fill the time, supposing cases, and +describing duties of insurers, captains, pilots, and miscellaneous +sea-officers that are or might be,--like a schoolmaster puzzled by a +hard sum, who reads the context with emphasis. But all this flood not +serving the cuttle-fish to get away in, the horrible shark of the +district-attorney being still there, grimly awaiting with his "The +court must define,"--the poor court pleaded its inferiority. The +superior court must establish the law for this, and it read away +piteously the decisions of the Supreme Court, but read to those who +had no pity. The judge was forced at last to rule something, and the +lawyers saved their rogue under the fog of a definition. The parts +were so well cast and discriminated, that it was an interesting game +to watch. The government was well enough represented. It was stupid, +but it had a strong will and possession, and stood on that to the +last. The judge had a task beyond his preparation, yet his position +remained real; he was there to represent a great reality, the justice +of states, which we could well enough see beetling over his head, and +which his trifling talk nowise affected, and did not impede, since he +was entirely well-meaning. + +The statement of the fact, however, sinks before the statement of the +law, which requires immeasurably higher powers, and is a rarest gift, +being in all great masters one and the same thing,--in lawyers, +nothing technical, but always some piece of common sense, alike +interesting to laymen as to clerks. Lord Mansfield's merit is the +merit of common sense. It is the same quality we admire in Aristotle, +Montaigne, Cervantes, or in Samuel Johnson, or Franklin. Its +application to law seems quite accidental. Each of Mansfield's famous +decisions contains a level sentence or two, which hit the mark. His +sentences are not always finished to the eye, but are finished to the +mind. The sentences are involved, but a solid proposition is set +forth, a true distinction is drawn. They come from and they go to the +sound human understanding; and I read, without surprise, that the +black-letter lawyers of the day sneered at his "equitable decisions," +as if they were not also learned. This, indeed, is what speech is for, +to make the statement; and all that is called eloquence seems to me of +little use, for the most part, to those who have it, but inestimable +to such as have something to say. + +Next to the knowledge of the fact and its law, is method, which +constitutes the genius and efficiency of all remarkable men. A crowd +of men go up to Faneuil Hall; they are all pretty well acquainted with +the object of the meeting; they have all read the facts in the same +newspapers. The orator possesses no information which his hearers have +not; yet he teaches them to see the thing with his eyes. By the new +placing, the circumstances acquire new solidity and worth. Every fact +gains consequence by his naming it, and trifles become important. His +expressions fix themselves in men's memories, and fly from mouth to +mouth. His mind has some new principle of order. Where he looks, all +things fly into their places. What will he say next? Let this man +speak, and this man only. By applying the habits of a higher style of +thought to the common affairs of this world, he introduces beauty and +magnificence wherever he goes. Such a power was Burke's, and of this +genius we have had some brilliant examples in our own political and +legal men. + +Imagery. The orator must be, to a certain extent, a poet. We are such +imaginative creatures, that nothing so works on the human mind, +barbarous or civil, as a trope. Condense some daily experience into a +glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified. They feel as if they +already possessed some new right and power over a fact, which they can +detach, and so completely master in thought. It is a wonderful aid to +the memory, which carries away the image, and never loses it. A +popular assembly, like the House of Commons, or the French Chamber, or +the American Congress, is commanded by these two powers,--first by a +fact, then by skill of statement. Put the argument into a concrete +shape, into an image, some hard phrase, round and solid as a ball, +which they can see and handle and carry home with them, and the cause +is half won. + +Statement, method, imagery, selection, tenacity of memory, power of +dealing with facts, of illuminating them, of sinking them by ridicule +or by diversion of the mind, rapid generalization, humor, pathos, are +keys which the orator holds; and yet these fine gifts are not +eloquence, and do often hinder a man's attainment of it. And if we +come to the heart of the mystery, perhaps we should say that the truly +eloquent man is a sane man with power to communicate his sanity. If +you arm the man with the extraordinary weapons of this art, give him a +grasp of facts, learning, quick fancy, sarcasm, splendid allusion, +interminable illustration,--all these talents, so potent and charming, +have an equal power to insnare and mislead the audience and the +orator. His talents are too much for him, his horses run away with +him; and people always perceive whether you drive, or whether the +horses take the bits in their teeth and run. But these talents are +quite something else when they are subordinated and serve him; and we +go to Washington, or to Westminster Hall, or might well go round the +world, to see a man who drives, and is not run away with,--a man who, +in prosecuting great designs, has an absolute command of the means of +representing his ideas, and uses them only to express these; placing +facts, placing men; amid the inconceivable levity of human beings, +never for an instant warped from his erectness. There is for every man +a statement possible of that truth which he is most unwilling to +receive,--a statement possible, so broad and so pungent, that he +cannot get away from it, but must either bend to it or die of it. Else +there would be no such word as eloquence, which means this. The +listener cannot hide from himself that something has been shown him +and the whole world, which he did not wish to see; and, as he cannot +dispose of it, it disposes of him. The history of public men and +affairs in America will readily furnish tragic examples of this fatal +force. + +For the triumphs of the art somewhat more must still be required, +namely, a reinforcing of man from events, so as to give the double +force of reason and destiny. In transcendent eloquence, there was ever +some crisis in affairs, such as could deeply engage the man to the +cause he pleads, and draw all this wide power to a point. For the +explosions and eruptions, there must be accumulations of heat +somewhere, beds of ignited anthracite at the centre. And in cases +where profound conviction has been wrought, the eloquent man is he who +is no beautiful speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain +belief. It agitates and tears him, and perhaps almost bereaves him of +the power of articulation. Then it rushes from him as in short, abrupt +screams, in torrents of meaning. The possession the subject has of his +mind is so entire, that it insures an order of expression which is the +order of Nature itself, and so the order of greatest force, and +inimitable by any art. And the main distinction between him and other +well-graced actors is the conviction, communicated by every word, that +his mind is contemplating a whole and inflamed by the contemplation of +the whole, and that the words and sentences uttered by him, however +admirable, fall from him as unregarded parts of that terrible whole +which he sees, and which he means that you shall see. Add to this +concentration a certain regnant calmness, which, in all the tumult, +never utters a premature syllable, but keeps the secret of its means +and method; and the orator stands before the people as a demoniacal +power to whose miracles they have no key. This terrible earnestness +makes good the ancient superstition of the hunter, that the bullet +will hit its mark, which is first dipped in the marksman's blood. + +Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative. Afterwards, it +may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and color, +speaks only through the most poetic forms; but, first and last, it +must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact. The orator is +thereby an orator, that he keeps his feet ever on a fact. Thus only is +he invincible. No gifts, no graces, no power of wit or learning or +illustration will make any amends for want of this. All audiences are +just to this point. Fame of voice or of rhetoric will carry people a +few times to hear a speaker, but they soon begin to ask, "What is he +driving at?" and if this man does not stand for anything, he will be +deserted. A good upholder of anything which they believe, a +fact-speaker of any kind, they will long follow; but a pause in the +speaker's own character is very properly a loss of attraction. The +preacher enumerates his classes of men, and I do not find my place +therein; I suspect, then, that no man does. Every thing is my cousin, +and whilst he speaks things, I feel that he is touching some of my +relations, and I am uneasy; but whilst he deals in words, we are +released from attention. If you would lift me, you must be on higher +ground. If you would liberate me, you must be free. If you would +correct my false view of facts,--hold up to me the same facts in the +true order of thought, and I cannot go back from the new conviction. + +The power of Chatham, of Pericles, of Luther, rested on this strength +of character, which, because it did not and could not fear anybody, +made nothing of their antagonists, and became sometimes exquisitely +provoking and sometimes terrific to these. + +We are slenderly furnished with anecdotes of these men, nor can we +help ourselves by those heavy books in which their discourses are +reported. Some of them were writers, like Burke; but most of them were +not, and no record at all adequate to their fame remains. Besides, +what is best is lost, the fiery life of the moment. But the conditions +for eloquence always exist. It is always dying out of famous places, +and appearing in corners. Wherever the polarities meet, wherever the +fresh moral sentiment, the instinct of freedom and duty, come in +direct opposition to fossil conservatism and the thirst of gain, the +spark will pass. The resistance to slavery in this country has been a +fruitful nursery of orators. The natural connection by which it drew +to itself a train of moral reforms, and the slight yet sufficient +party organization it offered, reinforced the city with new blood from +the woods and mountains. Wild men, John Baptists, Hermit Peters, John +Knoxes, utter the savage sentiment of Nature in the heart of +commercial capitals. They send us every year some piece of aboriginal +strength, some tough oak-stick of a man who is not to be silenced or +insulted or intimidated by a mob, because he is more mob than +they,--one who mobs the mob,--some sturdy countryman, on whom neither +money, nor politeness, nor hard words, nor eggs, nor blows, nor +brickbats, make any impression. He is fit to meet the bar-room wits +and bullies; he is a wit and a bully himself, and something more; he +is a graduate of the plough, and the stub-hoe, and the bush-whacker; +knows all the secrets of swamp and snow-bank, and has nothing to learn +of labor or poverty or the rough of farming. His hard head went +through in childhood the drill of Calvinism, with text and +mortification, so that he stands in the New England assembly a purer +bit of New England than any, and flings his sarcasms right and left. +He has not only the documents in his pocket to answer all cavils and +to prove all his positions, but he has the eternal reason in his head. +This man scornfully renounces your civil organizations,--county, or +city, or governor, or army,--is his own navy and artillery, judge and +jury, legislature and executive. He has learned his lessons in a +bitter school. Yet, if the pupil be of a texture to bear it, the best +university that can be recommended to a man of ideas is the gauntlet +of the mobs. + +He who will train himself to mastery in this science of persuasion +must lay the emphasis of education, not on popular arts, but on +character and insight. Let him see that his speech is not differenced +from action; that, when he has spoken, he has not done nothing, nor +done wrong, but has cleared his own skirts, has engaged himself to +wholesome exertion. Let him look on opposition as opportunity. He +cannot be defeated or put down. There is a principle of resurrection +in him, an immortality of purpose. Men are averse and hostile, to give +value to their suffrages. It is not the people that are in fault for +not being convinced, but he that cannot convince them. He should mould +them, armed as he is with the reason and love which are also the core +of their nature. He is not to neutralize their opposition, but he is +to convert them into fiery apostles and publishers of the same wisdom. + +The highest platform of eloquence is the moral sentiment. It is what +is called affirmative truth, and has the property of invigorating the +hearer; and it conveys a hint of our eternity, when he feels himself +addressed on grounds which will remain when everything else is taken, +and which have no trace of time or place or party. Everything hostile +is stricken down in the presence of the sentiments; their majesty is +felt by the most obdurate. It is observable, that, as soon as one acts +for large masses, the moral element will and must be allowed for, will +and must work; and the men least accustomed to appeal to these +sentiments invariably recall them when they address nations. Napoleon, +even, must accept and use it as he can. + +It is only to these simple strokes that the highest power belongs, +when a weak human hand touches, point by point, the eternal beams and +rafters on which the whole structure of Nature and society is laid. In +this tossing sea of delusion, we feel with our feet the adamant; in +this dominion of chance, we find a principle of permanence. For I do +not accept that definition of Isocrates, that the office of his art is +to make the great small and the small great; but I esteem this to be +its perfection,--when the orator sees through all masks to the eternal +scale of truth, in such sort that he can hold up before the eyes of +men the fact of today steadily to that standard, thereby making the +great great and the small small,--which is the true way to astonish +and to reform mankind. + +All the first orators of the world have been grave men, relying on +this reality. One thought the philosophers of Demosthenes's own time +found running through all his orations,--this, namely, that "virtue +secures its own success." "To stand on one's own feet" Heeren finds +the keynote to the discourses of Demosthenes, as of Chatham. + +Eloquence, like every other art, rests on laws the most exact and +determinate. It is the best speech of the best soul. It may well stand +as the exponent of all that is grand and immortal in the mind. If it +do not so become an instrument, but aspires to be somewhat of itself, +and to glitter for show, it is false and weak. In its right exercise, +it is an elastic, unexhausted power,--who has sounded, who has +estimated it?--expanding with the expansion of our interests and +affections. Its great masters, whilst they valued every help to its +attainment, and thought no pains too great which contributed in any +manner to further it, and, resembling the Arabian warrior of fame, who +wore seventeen weapons in his belt, and in personal combat used them +all occasionally,--yet undervalued all means, never permitted any +talent, neither voice, rhythm, poetic power, anecdote, sarcasm, to +appear for show, but were grave men, who preferred their integrity to +their talent, and esteemed that object for which they toiled, whether +the prosperity of their country, or the laws, or a reformation, or +liberty of speech or of the press, or letters, or morals, as above the +whole world, and themselves also. + + * * * * * + +THE KINLOCH ESTATE, AND HOW IT WAS SETTLED. + +[Concluded.] + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The disappearance of Lucy Ransom did not long remain a secret; it rang +through the town, and was accompanied by all sorts of rumors. Some +thought she had eloped; but the prevailing opinion was, that she had +been tempted into a fatal error, and then, in the frenzy of remorse +and shame, had destroyed herself, in order to hide her disgrace from +the world. Slight hints were now recalled by many of the poor girl's +acquaintance,--hints of love, unrequited and hopeless,--of base and +unfeeling treachery,--of remediless sorrow, appealing to the deepest +sympathy, and not the less because her heart found utterance in rude +and homely phrases. This idea of self-destruction gained the more +currency because no one had seen the least trace of the girl after the +twilight of the preceding night, and it was deemed improbable that she +could have made her way on foot the whole distance to the +railway-station without being seen by some one. And when it was +reported that a boy had found a shawl not far from the dam, the public +became so much aroused that it was determined to make a thorough +search. The pond and canal were dragged, and the bank of the river +carefully explored for miles below the town. The search was kept up +far into the night, the leaders being provided with pitch-pine +torches. At every bend, or eddy, or sand-bar, or fallen tree, where it +might be supposed that a drifting body would be stopped, the boldest +breathed faster, and started at the first glimpse of a white stone or +a peeled and bleached poplar-trunk, or other similar object, fearing +it might prove to be what they expected, yet dreaded to see. But it +was in vain. Lucy, whether alive or dead, was not to be found. Her +grandmother hobbled down to the village, moaning piteously; but she +could get little consolation, least of all from Mrs. Kinloch. This +incident made a lasting impression. The village boys, who remembered +the search with shuddering horror, avoided the river, and even Hugh +found means to persuade Mildred to give up the pleasant road on its +bank and take the hill district for their afternoon rides. + +Meanwhile the time for the trial of the ejectment suit was rapidly +approaching, and it was difficult to say whether plaintiff or +defendant showed the more signs of anxiety. Mr. Hardwick's life seemed +to be bound up in his shop; it was dear to him in the memory of long +years of cheerful labor; it was his pride as well as his dependence; +he had grown old by its flaming forge, and he could never feel at home +in any other spot. "Young trees may be moved," he would say; "an old +one dies in transplanting." It was noticed by all his friends that the +stoop in his shoulders was more decided, his step less elastic, and +his ordinary flow of spirits checked. + +Mrs. Kinloch, too, grew older unaccountably fast. Her soft brown hair +began to whiten, her features grew sharp, and her expression quick, +watchful, and intense. Upon being spoken to, she would start and +tremble in her whole frame; her cheeks would glow momentarily, and +then become waxen again. + +Impatient at the slow progress of her son's wooing, and impelled now +by a new fear that all her plans might be frustrated, if Mildred +should happen to hear any rumor touching the cause of Lucy's +disappearance, Mrs. Kinloch proposed to herself to assist him more +openly than she had hitherto done--She was not aware that anything +implicating Hugh had been reported, but she knew enough of human +nature to be sure that some one would be peering into the mystery,--a +mystery which she divined by instinct, but had not herself dared to +explore. So, finding a favorable opportunity, she sat down beside +Mildred, determined to read the secret of her soul; for she made no +question that she could scan her, as she might the delicate machinery +of the French clock, noiselessly moving under its crystal cover. + +Mildred shuddered unconsciously, as she felt her step-mother's thin +fingers gently smoothing the hair upon her temples; still more, as the +pale and quivering lips were pressed to her forehead. The caress was +not a feigned tenderness. Mrs. Kinloch really loved the girl, with +such love as she had to bestow; and if her manner had been latterly +abstracted or harsh, it was from preoccupation. She was soon satisfied +that the suspicion she dreaded had not found place in the girl's mind. +Leading the way by imperceptible approaches, she spoke in her softest +tones of her joy at Hugh's altered manners, her hopes of his future, +and especially of her desire to have him leave the navy and settle on +shore. + +"How happy we might be, Hugh and we," she said, "if we could live here +in this comfortable home, and feel that nothing but death would break +up the circle! How much your dear father counted on the happiness in +store for him in growing old with his children around him!--and would +he not be rejoiced to see us cling together, bound by ties as strong +as life, and cherishing his memory by our mutual affection?" + +Mildred replied in some commonplaces,--rather wondering at the vein of +sentiment, and in no way suspecting the object which her step-mother +had in view. + +Mrs. Kinloch continued:--"Hugh needs some new attraction now to detain +him; he is tired of the sea, but he finds the village dull. He is just +of the age to think of looking for some romantic attachment; but you +know how few girls there are here whose manners and education are such +as to please a cultivated man." + +Mildred grew uneasy, but remained silent. Mrs. Kinloch was every +moment more eager in her manner; a novice, waiting for the turn of the +cards in _rouge et noir_, would not have manifested a greater anxiety +as to the result. But the girl looked out of the window, and did not +see the compressed lips, dilated nostrils, and glittering eyes, that +gave such a contradiction to the bland words. + +"Mildred, my daughter," she continued, "I have no secrets from +you,--least of all about matters that concern us both. Don't you see +what I would say? Don't you know what would make our circle complete, +inseparable? Pardon the boldness of a fond mother, whose only desire +is to see her children happy." + +Mildred felt a tear dropping upon the hand which Mrs. Kinloch held +with a passionate grasp. She felt the powerful magnetism which the +woman exerted upon her, and she trembled, but still kept silent. + +"It is for Hugh that I speak. He loves you. Has he not told you so?" + +"I do not wish to talk with you about it," said Mildred. + +"But I have a right, as his mother and your guardian, to know. I +should be wanting in my duty, if I suffered your happiness to be +perilled for want of a clear understanding between you. Hugh is proud +and sensitive, and you bashful and just the least foolish; so that you +are at cross purposes." + +"Hugh fully understands my feelings towards him." + +"You have given him encouragement?" she asked, eagerly. + +"None whatever: it would have been wrong in me to do so." + +"Wrong to love him! Why, he is your brother only in name." + +"Wrong to encourage him in a love I do not and cannot return," replied +Mildred, with a mighty effort, at the same time disengaging her hand. + +Mrs. Kinloch could not repress a feeling of admiration, even in her +despair, as she saw the clear, brave glance, the heightened color, and +the heaving bosom of the girl. + +"But, in time, you may think differently," she said, almost piteously. + +"I wished to be spared this pain, mother," Mildred replied, trembling +at her own boldness, "but you will not let me; and I must tell you, +kindly, but decidedly, that I never could marry Hugh under any +circumstances whatever." + +Her mother did not wince at the rebuff, but followed on even closer. +"And why? Who is there more manly, well-educated, kindly, dutiful, +than Hugh?" + +"I don't wish to analyze his character; probably we shouldn't +altogether agree in our judgment; but it is enough that I don't feel +in the least attracted by him, and that I could not love him, if he +were all that you imagine." + +"Then you love another!" said Mrs. Kinloch, fiercely. + +Mildred was excessively agitated; but, though her knees trembled, her +voice was clear and soft as it had been. "Yes, I do love another; and +I don't hesitate to avow it." + +"That blacksmith's upstart?" in a still louder key. + +"You mean Mark Davenport, probably, who deserves more respectful +language." + +"Brought up in coal-dust,--the spoiled and forward pet of a foolish +old stutterer, who depends for his bread on his dirty work, and who, +if he had only his own, would have to leave even the hovel he works +in." It was fearful to see how these contemptuous words were hissed +out by the infuriated woman. + +Mildred was courageous, but she had not passed through the discipline +that had developed her step-mother's faculties. So she burst into +tears, saying, amidst her sobs, that Mark was allowed by all who knew +him to be a young man of promise; that, for herself, she didn't care +how much coal-dust he had been through,--_that_ would wash off; that, +at any rate, she loved him, and would never marry anybody else. + +Mrs. Kinloch began to consider. Anger had whirled her away once; a +second explosion might create an irreparable breach between them. + +"Don't lay up what I have said, Mildred," she urged, in a mild voice. +"If I object to your choice, it is because I am proud of you and want +you to look high. You can marry whom you choose; no rank or station +need be considered above you. Come, don't cry, dear!" + +But Mildred refused to be soothed. She could not sympathize with the +tropical nature, that smiled like sunshine at one moment, and the next +burst into the fury of a tornado. She pushed off the beseeching hand, +turned from the offered endearments, and, with reddened, tear-stained +face, left the room. + +Hugh presently passed through the hall. "Well, mother," said he, "I +suppose you think you've done it now." + +"Go about your business, you foolish boy!" she retorted. "Go and try +something that you do know about. You can snare a partridge, or shoot +a woodcock, perhaps!" + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Mildred had now no peace; after what had happened, she could not meet +Hugh and his mother with any composure. The scheming woman had risked +everything in the appeal she made to her daughter,--risked everything, +and lost. Nothing could restore harmony; neither could forget the +struggle and live the old quiet life. Mrs. Kinloch, always pursued by +anxiety, was one day full of courage, fruitful in plans and resources, +and the next day cast down into the pit of despair. Now she clung to +her first hope, believing that time, patience, kindness, would soften +Mildred's resolution; then, seeing the blank indifference with which +she treated Hugh, she racked her invention to provide other means of +attaining her end. + +Again, the thought of her inexplicable loss came over her, and she was +frightened to madness; creeping chills alternating with cold sweats +tortured her. It was a mystery she could not penetrate. She could not +but implicate Lucy: but then Lucy might be in her grave. After every +circumstance had passed in review, her suspicions inevitably returned +and fastened upon her lawyer, Clamp. She almost wished he would come +to see her again; for he, being naturally sulky at his first +reception, had left the haughty woman severely alone. She determined +to send for him, on business, and then to try her fascinations upon +him, to draw him out, and see if he held her secret. + +"Aha!" thought the Squire, as he received the message, "she comes to +her senses! Give a woman like Mrs. Kinloch time enough to consider, +and she will not turn her back on her true interest. O Theophilus, you +are not by any means a fool! Slow and steady, slow and steady you go! +Let the frisky woman _appear_ to have her way,--you will win in the +end!" + +The wig and best suit were brushed anew, water was brought into +requisition for the visible portions of his person, and, with his most +engaging expression arranged upon his parchment face, he presented +himself before the widow. + +There was a skirmish of small talk, during which Mr. Clamp was placid +and self-conscious, while his _vis-à -vis_, though smiling and +apparently at ease, was yet alert and excited,--darting furtive +glances, that would have startled him like flashes of sunlight +reflected from a mirror, if he had not been shielded by his own +self-complacency. + +"You-have-sent-for-me-on-business,-I-believe," said the lawyer, in a +tone continuous and bland as a stream of honey. + +"Yes, Sir; I have great confidence in your judgment, and I know that +you are devoted to the interests of our family. My poor husband always +esteemed you highly." + +"Oh, Ma'am! you do me honor!" + +"If I have not consulted you about our affairs of late, it is because +I have had troubles which I did not wish to burden you with." + +"We all have our troubles, Mrs. Kinloch." + +"They are very sad to bear,--but profitable, nevertheless. + +"But I'm sure you must be wonderfully supported in your trials; I never +saw you looking better." + +And truly, her thin and mobile lips were of a strangely bright coral, +and her usually wan cheeks wore a delicate flush, lending her a +beauty, not youthful, to be sure, but yet fascinating. One might +desire to see an eye less intense and restless, but he would rarely +see a woman of forty so charming. + +"You notice my color," said Mrs. Kinloch, mournfully, and with a faint +smile; "it's only the effect of a headache. I am far enough from +well." + +"Indeed!" was the sympathetic reply. + +"I have met with a great loss, Mr. Clamp,--some papers of the greatest +importance. I was going to consult you about them." + +"In which I got ahead of you," thought he. + +"Now, ever since the disappearance of Lucy, I have thought she had +something to do with them. I never went to the secretary, but she was +sure to be spying about. And I believe she knew about my affairs as +well as I do myself." + +"Or I," mentally ejaculated the lawyer,--meanwhile keeping as close as +an oyster. + +She continued,--"As the girl was ignorant, and without any interest in +the matter more than that of curiosity, I am puzzled to account for +all this." + +"'Tis strange, truly!" + +"Yes, I'm sure she must be only the tool of some shrewder person." + +"You alarm me! Who can it be?" + +"Perhaps Mildred, or some one who is plotting for her. The Hardwicks, +you know, expect she will marry Mark Davenport." + +"Do they, indeed? Well, now, that's a shrewd conjecture. Then you +think Lucy didn't drown herself?" + +"She? By no means!" + +"But what can I do in the matter, Mrs. Kinloch?" + +"We must find Lucy, or else discover her confidant,"--looking fixedly +at him. + +"Not very easy to do," said he, never once wincing under her scrutiny. + +"Not easy for me. But those that hide can find. Nothing is beyond +search, if one really tries." + +During this cross-examination, Mr. Clamp's premeditated gallantry had +been kept in the background; but he was determined not to let the +present opportunity pass by; he therefore turned the current of +conversation. + +"You have not told me, Mrs. Kinloch, _what_ the loss is; so I cannot +judge of its importance. You don't wish to have any more repositories +of secrets than are necessary; but I think you will readily see that +our interests lie in the same direction. If the girl can be found and +the papers recovered by anybody, I am the one to do it. If that is +impossible, however, the next thing is to be prepared for what may +happen; in either emergency, you can hardly do better than to accept +my aid." + +"Of course, I depend entirely upon you." + +"We may as well understand each other," said the lawyer, forgetting +the wily ways by which he had intended to approach her. "I have +certain views, myself, which I think run parallel with yours; and if I +am able to carry you and your property safely through these +difficulties, I think you will not scruple to---- + +"To pay you to your heart's content," she broke in, quickly. "No, I +shall not scruple, unless you ask more than half the estate." + +"I ask for nothing but yourself," said he, with sudden boldness. + +"That is to say, you want the whole of it." + +"Charming woman! don't, pray, compel me to talk in this language of +traffic. It is you I desire,--not the estate. If there is enough to +make you more comfortable than would be possible with my means, I +shall be happy for your sake." + +Her lips writhed and her eyes shot fire. Should she breathe the scorn +she felt, and brave the worst? Or should she temporize? Time might +bring about a change, when she could safely send the mercenary suitor +back to his dusty and cobwebbed office. + +"We do understand each other," she said, slowly. "This is a matter to +think of. I had never thought to marry again, and I cannot answer your +delicate proposal now. Let me have a week to consider." + +"Couldn't we arrange the matter just as well now? I beg your pardon, +Ma'am, if I seem too bold." + +"Oh, your youthful ardor and impetuosity! To be sure, one must forgive +the impatience of a lover in his first passion! But you must wait, +nevertheless." + +Mr. Clamp laughed. It was a good joke, he thought. + +"I must bid you good afternoon, Squire Clamp. I have made my headache +worse by talking on a subject I was not prepared for." + +So Mr. Clamp was bowed out. He did not clearly understand her quick +and subtle movements, but he felt sure of his game in the end. The +scornful irony that had played about him like electricity he had not +felt. + +When he was gone, the woman's worst enemy would have pitied her +distress. She believed more than ever that Clamp had used Lucy to +abstract her papers, and that he now would hold his power over her to +bring about the hated marriage. Her firmness gave way; she sank on the +sofa and wept like a child. Would that she might yet retreat! But no, +the way is closed up behind her. She must go on to her destiny. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Mark Davenport was prosperous in all his undertakings. His position in +the school did not give much scope to his ambition, but the salary he +received was ample enough to pay his expenses, while the duties were +not so onerous as to engross all his time. All his leisure was given +to literary pursuits. He had many times thought he would relinquish +the drudgery of teaching, and support himself by his pen; but he +remembered the maxim of Scott,--that literature was a good staff, but +a poor crutch,--and he stuck to his school. As he grew into a +practised writer, he became connected with the staff of a daily +newspaper in the great city, furnishing leading articles when called +upon, and he soon acquired a position of influence among his +associates. He had maintained a correspondence with Mildred, and was +looking forward to the time when he should make a visit to his native +town, hoping then to be so well established in the world that he might +be able to bring her back with him as his bride. Every thought centred +in her. He coveted fame, wealth, position, only for her sake; and +stimulated by this thought, he had made exertions that would have +broken down a man less vigorous and less resolute. + +He received a letter from Innisfield one day, after a long +interval,--so long that he had become uneasy, and imagined every kind +of evil as the cause of delay. He broke the seal; it was not from +Mildred, but from his cousin Lizzie. These were the contents:-- + +"My dear Mark,--I suppose you may have been anxious before this, at +not hearing from us; but the truth is, we have not had anything very +pleasant to write, and so have put off sending to you. Father is by no +means well or strong. The lawsuit, which is now likely to go wrong, +has troubled him very much. He has grown thin, he stoops as he walks +about, and by night he coughs terribly. I rarely hear him sing as he +used to. Then Squire Clamp has complained of him before the church, +and you know father is over-sensitive about his relations with 'the +brethren,'--even with those who are trying to ruin him. He is +melancholy enough. I hope he will be better, if he gets through his +difficulties; otherwise I am afraid to think of what may happen. + +"You wonder, probably, at not getting a letter from Mildred. Don't be +surprised when I tell you that she has left home and is staying at Mr. +Alford's. Mrs. Kinloch has for a long time wanted her to marry that +hateful Hugh Branning, and became so violent about it that Mildred was +afraid of her. Lucy Ransom, who lived there, ran away a short time +ago, very mysteriously. It seems that the girl had stolen something +from the house, and, after Mildred had plumply refused to marry Hugh, +Mrs. Kinloch charged upon her that she had induced Lucy to steal the +papers or money, or whatever it was. Mrs. Kinloch acted so like an +insane woman, that Mildred would not stay in the house, but ran over +to Mr. Alford's, with only the clothes she wore. She passed by our +house yesterday and told me this hurriedly. I have heard, too, that +Squire Clamp is about to marry Mrs. Kinloch, and that he actually has +procured the license. It's a very strange affair. + +"To fill out the account of disagreeable things,--last evening, in one +of the stores, people were talking of Lucy Ransom's fate, (as they +have been for weeks,) when Will Fenton, the cripple, said, 'he guessed +Hugh Branning could tell what had become of her, if he chose.' Hugh, +it seems, heard of the remark, and to-day he went with a dandyish +doctor, belonging to the navy, I believe, and beat the poor cripple +with a horsewhip, most shamefully. I think this violence has turned +suspicion against him. + +"I am sorry not to have one pleasant thing to say, except that we all +love you as warmly as ever, and hope to see you soon here. Indeed, +Cousin Mark, I dread to write it,--but if you don't come soon, I think +you will see father only on his last bed. + + "Good-bye, dear Mark! + Your Cousin,--LIZZIE." + +We will waste no time in attempting to analyze Mark's conflicting +emotions, but follow him to Innisfield, whither he went the same day. +Great as was his desire to see his betrothed, from whom he had +received no letter for many weeks, he went first of all, where duty +and affection called, to see the dear old man who had been to him more +than a father. + +Mr. Hardwick was sitting in the corner, but rose up with a new energy +as he heard the well-known voice. Mark was not prepared, even by his +cousin's foreboding letter, to see such a change as his uncle +exhibited;--the hollow eyes, the wasted cheeks, the bent figure, the +trembling hands, bore painful testimony to his enfeebled condition. He +held both of Mark's hands in his, and, while his eyes were dim in a +tear-mist, said, with a faltering voice, "Bless you, m-my boy! I'm +glad to see you once more. I thought I might hear my s-summons before +you'd come. You do remember your old uncle!" + +Mark could not restrain himself, but wept outright. The old gentleman +sank into his chair, still clasping Mark's hands. Neither could speak, +but they looked towards each other an unutterable tenderness. + +At length, controlling the tide of feeling, Mr. Hardwick +said,--"D-don't be cast down, Mark; these tears are not b-bitter, but +f-full of joy. Th-there, now, go and kiss your sister and Lizzie." + +The girls appeared wiping their eyes, for they had left the room +overpowered; they greeted Mark affectionately, and then all sat down +about the hearth. Topics enough there were. Mark told of his pursuits +and prospects. The village gossip about the lost servant-girl, (of +whom Mark knew something, but had reasons for silence,) the +approaching marriage of Mrs. Kinloch, and the exile of the heiress +from her own home, were all discussed. After a reasonable time, Mark +excused himself and went to Mr. Alford's, pondering much on the +strange events that had perplexed the usually quiet village. He +reached the house, after a brief walk, and was met by Aunt Mercy, the +portly mistress, but with something less than her accustomed +cordiality. + +"Miss Kinloch is not able to see company," she said, "and must be +excused." + +Mark poured forth a torrent of questions, to which Mrs. Alford +listened, her broad features softening visibly; and at length, with an +apparent effort, she asked him "to come agin to-morrer or the day +arter." + +The more Mark reflected on Mrs. Alford's behavior, the more he was +puzzled. Had Mildred denied him admission? His own betrothed refuse to +see him! No, he was sure she was sick; and besides, she could not have +heard of his coming. So he soothed himself. But the imps of suspicion +and jealousy still haunted him at intervals, and a more miserable man +than the usually buoyant and sanguine Mark it would be difficult to +find. + +The next day, as soon as breakfast was over, Mark, though trying to +cheer up his uncle, was secretly longing for the hour when it would be +proper to present himself at Mr. Alford's. But time does move, albeit +with lagging pace to a lover, and in due season Mark was on his way. +Near the house he met the farmer, who greeted him heartily, and wished +him joy with a knowing smile. Mark took a freer breath; if there was +any difficulty, Mr. Alford certainly did not know it. But then it +occurred to him, that shy young ladies do not often make confidants of +elderly husbandmen in long blue frocks, and his spirits fell again. + +Mr. Alford leaned against a fence and threshed his hands to keep them +warm, while he told Mark that "he had been with Mildred privately out +to the Probate Court,--that the case had been stated to the jedge, who +allowed, that, as she was above fourteen, she had a right to choose +her own guardeen,--that he, Alford, was to be put in, in place of the +Squire,--and that then, in his opinion, there would be an overhaulin' +so's to hev things set to rights." + +Mark shook the hand of his good friend warmly, and commended his +shrewdness. + +"But 'ta'n't best to stan' talkin' with an ol' feller like me," said +the farmer, "when you can do so much better. Jest look!" + +Mark turned his head, and through the window of the house saw the +retreating figure of Mildred. He bounded across the yard, opened the +door without knocking, and rushed into the house. She had vanished: no +one was visible but Mrs. Alford, who was cutting up golden pumpkins in +long coils to dry. + +"Come, Milly," said the good woman, "'ta'n't no use; he saw ye." + +And Mildred appeared, coming slowly out of the buttery. + +"Ye see, Mildred felt a little hurt about a letter; but I _knew_ there +was some mistake; so I wa'n't a-goin' to hev ye go off 'thout some +explanation." + +"A letter?--explanation?" said Mark, thoroughly bewildered. + +"Here it is," said Mildred, taking a letter from her pocket, still +looking down. Mark hastily took and opened it. The envelope bore +Mildred's address in a hand not unlike his own; the inclosure was a +letter from Mildred to himself, which he now saw for the first time. + +"Mildred," said he, holding out his hands, "could you doubt me?" + +She covered her face with her apron, but stood irresolute. He looked +again at the letter. + +"Why, the clumsy trick, Mildred! This post-office stamp, 'New York,' +is not genuine. Just look! it is a palpable cheat, an imitation made +with a pen. The color did not spread, you see, as ink mixed with oil +does. This letter never left this village. I never saw it +before,--could not have seen it. Do you doubt me now, dear Mildred?" + +Even if the evidence had been less convincing, the earnest, heartfelt +tone, the pleading look and gesture, would have satisfied a much more +exacting woman. She sprang towards her lover, and flung her arms about +his neck. The pent-up feeling of days and weeks rushed over her like a +flood, and the presence of Mrs. Alford was forgotten. + +Mrs. Alford, it would seem, suddenly thought of something; for, +gathering herself up, she walked off as fast as the laws of +gravitation allowed, exclaiming,--"There! I never did see! Sech hens! +Allus a-flyin' into the kitchen. I wonder now who left that are door +open." + +The frightened cackle of the hens, the rattling of pots and pans by +the assiduous housewife in the kitchen, were unheeded by the lovers, +"emparadised in one another's arms." The conversation took too wide a +range and embraced too many trivial details to be set down here. Only +this I may say: they both believed, (as every enamored couple +believes,) that, though other people might cherish the properest +affection for each other, yet no man or woman ever did or could +experience such intense and all-pervading emotion as now throbbed in +their breasts,--in fact, that they had been created to exemplify the +passion, which, before, poets had only imagined. Simple children! they +had only found out what hearts are made for! + + +CHAPTER XV. + +The last picture was a pleasant relief in a rather sombre story, +therefore we prefer to commence a stormier scene in a new chapter. +Mark and Mildred were sitting cozily by the ample fireplace,--not at +opposite corners, you may believe,--when there was a warning _ahem!_ +at the door, and the sound of feet "a-raspin' on the scraper." Mr. +Alford entered and said, "Milly, your step-mother's team is comin' up +the road." In a moment there was a bustle in the house, but before any +preparation could be made the carriage was at the gate, and Mrs. +Kinloch, accompanied by Squire Clamp, knocked at the door. + +"Milly, you go into the kitchen with Mrs. Alford," said the farmer. +"I'll attend to matters for them." + +"No, Mr. Alford," she answered; "you are very good, but I think I'll +stay and see them. Shan't I, Mark?" + +Mrs. Kinloch and the lawyer entered. She had left off her mourning, +but looked as pale and thoughtful as ever. After the common +courtesies, brief and cool in this case, Mrs. Kinloch made known her +errand. She had been grieved that Mildred should have left her +father's house and remained so long with strangers, and she had now +come to beg her to return home. Mildred replied, that she had not left +home without cause, and that she had no intention of going back at +present. Mrs. Kinloch looked hurt, and said that this unusual conduct, +owing partly to the common and wicked prejudice against step-mothers, +had wounded her sorely, and she hoped Mildred would do her the simple +justice of returning to a mother who loved her, and would make every +sacrifice for her happiness. Mildred said she did not wish to go over +the ground again; she thought she understood the love that had been +shown her; and she did not desire any further sacrifices, such as she +had witnessed. The request was renewed in various forms, but to no +purpose. Then Squire Clamp interposed with great solemnity, saying, +that, if she had forgotten the respect and affection due to the mother +who had fostered her, she ought to know that the law had conferred +upon him, as her guardian, the authority of a father, and he begged +her not to give him the pain of exercising the control which it would +be his bounden duty to use. + +Mr. Alford had been uneasy during this conversation, and broke in at +the first pause. + +"Well, Square, I guess you'd best wait till 'bout next week-a-Thursday +afore you try to use your 'thority. Probate Court sets on Wednesday, +an' I guess that'll 'bout wind up your business as guardeen." + +What a magazine of wrath that shot exploded! The lawyer was dumb for a +moment, but presently he and Mrs. Kinloch both found breath for their +indignation. + +The woman turned first upon Mark. "This is your doing, Sir!" + +"You do too much honor to my foresight," he replied. "I am heartily +glad that my good friend here was thoughtful enough and ready to +interfere for the protection of a fatherless girl." + +"Insolence!" shouted the lawyer. + +"The impertinent puppy!" chimed in the woman. + +"Come, come!" said the farmer, "too loud talkin'!" + +"Then you uphold this girl in her undutiful behavior, do you?" asked +Mrs. Kinloch. + +"You are amenable to the statutes, Sir," said the Squire. + +Mr. Alford rose to his feet. "Now you might jest as well get inter yer +kerridge an' drive back ter town," said he; "you won't make one o' +them hairs o' yourn black or white, Square, not by talkin' all day." + +The lawyer settled his wig in a foaming rage. "Come, Mrs. Clamp," said +he, "we shall not remain here to be insulted. Let us go; I shall know +how to protect our property, our authority, and honor, from the +assault of adventurers and meddlers." + +"I beg your pardon, Sir," said Mark, "but what was the appellation you +gave to the lady just now? You can call us what you like." + +"Mrs. Clamp, Sir," he answered, with a portentous emphasis,--"Mrs. +Clamp,--united to me, Sir, this morning, by the Reverend Mr. Rook, in +the holy bands of matrimony." + +They swept out of the house. Mildred sank to her chair as if stunned. +"O God!" she said, "_my_ mother and father!" + +"Poor gal!" said Mr. Alford, "small comfort you'll hev in sich +parents. But cheer up; you won't need for friends." + +She looked up through her tears at Mark's manly face, full now of +sympathy, and blessed the farmer for his words. + +Mr. Alford, taking Mark aside, said, "You know about Lucy's runnin' +away, most likely. Wal, now, ef she could be found, there's no knowin' +what might happen; for it's my opinion she knows about Square +Kinloch's affairs. I thought mebbe you might 'a' seen her in York?" + +Mark replied, that he did meet her in Broadway late one afternoon, and +that she looked as if she would speak; but that he hurried on, for the +flaunting style of her dress was not calculated to prepossess the +passers by. + +"Good gracious! you don't say so! Seen her yourself? Now do you go +right back to York an' hunt her up--no matter what it costs." + +"But my uncle?" + +"We'll look arter him." + +It was speedily determined, and Mark set out the same day. Meanwhile, +Mildred had promised to go and see Mr. Hardwick and endeavor to make +him cheerful. + +"It beats all," said Mr. Alford to his wife. "Now 'f he _should_ find +that unfort'nate gal! Wal, wal, I begin to think the Lord does look +arter things some, even in this world." + +We leave Squire Clamp and his new wife to their happiness; it would +not be well to lift the decent veil which drops over their household. +The dark, perchance guilty, past,--the stormy present, and the +retribution of the future,--let memory and conscience deal with them! + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Never was a little village in greater commotion than Innisfield after +Mark's departure. The succession of events had been such as to engage +the attention of the most indifferent. The mysterious exile of +Mildred, the failing health and spirits of the blacksmith, the new +rumors respecting the fate of Lucy, the sudden and unaccountable +marriage of Mrs. Kinloch, and her fruitless attempt to bring her +daughter back, were all discussed in every house, as well as in places +of public resort. Hugh Branning was soon convinced that the village +was no place for him. He had bravely horsewhipped a cripple, but he +could not stop the tongues of the whole parish, even if he could +protect himself from swift and extempore justice. He gathered his +clothes, and, after a long private conference with his mother, started +before daylight for the railway-station. As he does not appear on the +stage again, we may say here, that, not long after, during a financial +panic in New York, he made a fortune of nearly half a million dollars +by speculating in stocks. He used to tell his friends in after years +that he had "only five thousand to begin with,--the sole property left +him by his lamented parents." He has now a handsome mansion in the +Fifth Avenue, is a conspicuous member of the Rev. Dr. Holdfast's +church, and most zealous against the ill-timed discussions and +philanthropic vagaries of the day. What would he not give to forget +that slowly-moving figure, with swimming eyes, carrying a flaring +candle? How far along the years that feeble light was thrown! He never +went through the hall of his house at night without a shudder, +dreading to catch a glimpse of that sorrowing face. + +It was on Tuesday evening, the night preceding the Probate Court to +which Squire Clamp had been cited. Nothing had been heard from Mark, +and his friends were much depressed. Mildred sat by Mr. Hardwick's +bedside, during the long hours, and read to him from his favorite +authors. About ten o'clock, just as the family were preparing to go to +bed, Mark drove up to the door. He was warmly welcomed, and at once +overwhelmed with questions. "Did he find Lucy?" "What did she know?" +"Why did she secrete herself?" To all these Mark merely replied, "I +found Lucy; how much I have accomplished I dare not say. But do you, +James, come with me. We will go up to old Mrs. Ransom's." + +"Why, she's not there; she's gone to the poor-house." + +"Broken down with old age and sorrow, I suppose. But I don't care to +see her now. Let us go to the old house; and meantime, you girls, go +to bed." + +But they protested they should wait till he returned,--that they could +not sleep a wink until they knew the result. + +Provided with a lantern, the young men set out. They found the hovel +nearly in ruins; for pilferers had taken such pieces as they could +strip off for firewood. Mark eagerly ripped up the floor near the +hearth. At the first flash of the light he saw a paper, dusty and +discolored. He seized and opened it. _It was the will of Mr. Kinloch, +duly signed and attested_. Lucy had not deceived him. + +With hurried pace they returned to the village, scarcely stopping to +take breath until they reached Mr. Hardwick's house. It was no vain +hope, then! It was true! The schemes of the step-mother would be +frustrated. The odious control of Squire Clamp would end. Mark began +to read the will, then stopped, embraced his cousins and Mildred by +turns, then read again. He was beside himself with joy. + +All were too much excited to sleep; and when the first transports of +surprise were over, they naturally inquired after the unfortunate +girl. He had found her, after great difficulty, in a miserable garret. +The surmises of the villagers were correct. She was ruined, +heart-broken. Dissipation, exposure, and all the frightful influences +of her wretched life had brought on a fever, and now, destitute and +forsaken, she was left by those who had made merchandise of her +beauty, to die. He learned from Lucy what she knew of the affair of +the will. She became satisfied, soon after Mr. Kinloch's death, that +some wrong was intended, and she watched her mistress. Then Squire +Clamp had induced her by threats and bribes to get for him the papers. +As she took them out of the desk, one, larger than the rest, and with +several seals, attracted her attention. She felt quite sure it was Mr. +Kinloch's will; so she secreted it and gave the lawyer the rest. The +Monday afternoon following, she took the will to her grandmother's and +put it under a plank in the floor. Squire Clamp, strangely enough, +chanced to stop just as she had hidden it. He gave her back the +papers, as she supposed, and she replaced them in the secretary. On +her way home she fell in with Hugh,--a day neither of them would ever +forget. + +The lawyer, who had counted on an easy victory over Mr. Alford, was +greatly surprised, the next day, to see him accompanied by Mark, as he +came into court; he had not heard of the young man's return. Besides, +their unmistakable air of confidence and exultation caused him some +misgivings. But he was boldness itself, compared with his wife. Her +face was bloodless, her hands tremulous, and her expression like that +of one ready to faint. Imagine the horror with which she saw the +production of the will, and then the proof by the only surviving +witness, brought to court from his residence in a neighboring town! +The letters of administration were revoked, and Mr. Alford, one of the +executors, was appointed Mildred's guardian. Completely baffled, dumb +and despairing, Squire Clamp and his bride left the room and drove +homeward. A pleasant topic for conversation they had by the way, each +accusing the other of duplicity, treachery, and folly! The will +provided that she should receive an annuity of one thousand dollars +_during her widowhood_; so that the Squire, by wedding her, had a new +incumbrance without any addition to his resources; a bad bargain, +decidedly, he thought. She, on the other hand, had thrown away her +sure dependence, in the hope of retaining the control of the whole +estate; for when she consented to marry Clamp, she had no doubt that +he had possession of the will and would, of course, keep it concealed. +Seldom it is that _both_ parties to a transaction are so overreached. + +The successful party stopped at Mr. Hardwick's that evening to +exchange congratulations. He, as well as Mildred and Mark, was +interested in the lost will; for Mr. Kinloch had mentioned the fact of +the unsettled boundary-line, and directed his executors to make a +clear title of the disputed tract to the blacksmith. The shop was his; +the boys, at all events, would be undisturbed. One provision in the +will greatly excited Mark's curiosity. The notes which he owed to the +estate were to be cancelled, and there was an unexplained reference to +his uncle Hardwick and to some occurrences of long ago. Mildred at +once recalled to mind her father's dying words,--his calling for Mr. +Hardwick, and his mention of the cabinet. She had often thought of her +search in its drawers, and of her finding the lock of sunny hair and +the dried flower. And the blacksmith now, when asked, shook his head +mournfully, and said, (as he had before,) "Sus-some time; nun-not +now!" + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The next day Mr. Alford came to town and advised Mark to marry +forthwith. + +"I've ben thinkin' it over," he said, "and I b'lieve it's the best +thing to be done. You've got a tough customer to deal with, and it may +be some trouble to git all the property out of his hands. But when the +heiress is married, her husband can act for her to better advantage. I +guess I'll speak to Mr. Rook and have the 'fair 'tended to right +away." + +Mark submitted the matter to Mildred, who blushed properly, and +thought it rather hasty. But Mr. Alford's clear reasoning prevailed, +and the time was appointed at once. Mark and Mr. Alford then went to +call upon the lawyer. They entered his office without knocking, and by +chance found him busy with the accounts and papers; they were +scattered over the table, and he was making computations. As soon as +he was aware of the presence of visitors, he made an effort to slide +the documents under some loose sheets of paper; but Mark knew the bold +hand at once, and without a word seized the papers and handed them to +Mr. Alford. + +"Not very p'lite, Square, I know," said Mr. Alford, "but possession is +nine p'ints of the law, as I've heerd you say; and as you won't deny +the handwritin', I s'pose you don't question my right to these 'ere." + +The rage of Mr. Clamp may be imagined. + +"Good mornin', Square," said the triumphant executor. "When we've +looked over these affairs, we'll trouble you and the widder that was, +to 'count for what the schedool calls for." + +The simple preparations for the wedding were soon made, and the +honest, great-hearted farmer had the pleasure of giving away the +bride. It was a joyful, but not a merry wedding; both had passed +through too many trials, and had too many recollections. And the +evident decline of Mr. Hardwick made Mark sad and apprehensive. But he +devoutly thanked God, as he clasped his bride to his bosom, for the +providence that had brought to him the fulfilment of his dearest +hopes. + +Here we might stop, according to ancient custom, leaving our hero and +heroine to their happiness. But though a wedding is always an event of +interest, there are other things to be narrated before we have done +with our story. + +Not long after, Mark called at the Kinloch house, then occupied by Mr. +Clamp; as a measure of precaution, he took Mr. Alford with him. +Mildred had never regained her wardrobe; everything that was dear to +her was still in her stepmother's keeping,--her father's picture, her +own mother's miniature, the silver cup she had used from infancy, and +all the elegant and tasteful articles that had accumulated in a house +in which no wish was left ungratified. Ever since the session of the +Probate Court, the house had been shut to visitors, if any there had +been. Mrs. Clamp had not been seen once out of doors. But after +waiting a time, Mark and his friend were admitted. As they entered the +house, the bare aspect of the rooms confirmed the rumors which Mark +had heard. Mrs. Clamp received them with a kind of sullen civility, +and, upon hearing the errand, replied,-- + +"Certainly, Mrs. Davenport can have her clothes. She need not have +sent more than one man to get them. Is that all?" + +"Not quite," said Mark. "Perhaps you are not aware of the change which +the discovery of the will may make in your circumstances. I do not +speak of the punishment which the fraud merits, but of the rights +which are now vested in me. First, I am desired to ask after the +plate, jewels, furs, and wardrobe of the first Mrs. Kinloch." + +Mrs. Clamp was silent. A word let fall by Lucy suddenly flashed into +Mark's mind, and he intimated to the haughty woman his purpose to go +into the east front-chamber. + +"Fine gentlemen," she said at length, "to pry into a lady's private +apartment! You will not dare enter it without my permission!" + +And she stood defiantly in the doorway. But, without parley, Mark and +Mr. Alford pushed by her and walked up the staircase, not heeding the +shout of Mr. Clamp, who had followed them to the house. + +"It might seem mean," said Mark to Mr. Alford; "but I think you'll +agree presently, that it wasn't a case for ceremony." + +He stripped the clothes from the bed. The pillows were stuffed with +valuable furs; fine linen and embroideries filled the bolsters. The +feather-sack contained dresses of rich and costly fabrics,--the styles +showing them to be at least twenty years old. And in the mattress were +stowed away the dinner and tea services of silver, together with +porcelain, crystal, and Bohemian ware. + +"What a deal o' comfort a body could take in sleepin' on a bed stuffed +like this 'ere!" said Mr. Alford; "I sh'd think he'd dream of the +'Rabian Nights." + +"After this, Madam," said Mark, upon returning to the hall, "you can +hardly expect any special lenity from me. The will allowed you an +annuity of one thousand dollars while you remained single; since you +are married your interest ceases, but you shall receive two hundred a +year. The house, however, belongs to my wife. Your husband there has a +home to which you can go." + +"Yes," said the lawyer, "he _has_ a home, and won't be beholden to any +man for a roof to shelter his family." + +The pride of the woman was still unbent. Though her cheek was blanched +and her lips were bitten blue, still she stood erect and her head +turned queenly as ever. The glance she threw to the man who called her +wife was enough to have pierced him. Turning to Mark, she said,-- + +"If you will come to-morrow,--or Monday, rather,--you can have +possession of the house and property. My own things can be easily +removed, and it will be a simple matter to make ready for new comers." + +"I could keep them out of it a year, if I chose," said Mr. Clamp. + +"But I do not choose," said she, with superb haughtiness. + +"Wal, good mornin'," said Mr. Alford. + +As they left the house, Mrs. Clamp sat down in the silent room. +Without, the wind whistled through the naked trees and whirled up +spiral columns of leaves; the river below was cased in ice; the +passers-by looked pinched with cold, and cast hurried glances over +their shoulders at the ill-fated house and the adjacent +burying-ground. Within, the commotion, the chill, the hurry, the +fright, were even more intense. What now remained to be done? Her son, +vanquished in love by a blacksmith's _protégé_, had fled, and left her +to meet her fate alone. The will had been discovered, and, as if by a +special interposition of Providence, the victim of her son's passions +had been the instrument of vengeance. The lawyer who had worked upon +her fears had proved unable to protect her. The estate was out of her +hands; the property with which she had hoped to escape from the hated +town and join her son was seized; she was a ruined, disgraced woman. +She had faced the battery of curious eyes, as she walked with the +husband she despised to the Sunday services; but what screen had she +now that her pride was humbled? The fearful struggle in the mind of +the lonely woman in the chill and silent room, who shall describe it? +She denied admission to the servants and her husband, and through the +long evening still sat by the darkening window, far into the dim and +gusty night. + +Squire Clamp went to bed moody, if not enraged; but when, on waking, +he found his wife still absent, he became alarmed. Early in the +morning he tracked her through a light snow, that had sifted down +during the night, to the river-bank, at the bend where the current +keeps the ice from closing over. An hour after, some neighbors, +hastily summoned, made a search at the dam. One of them, crossing the +flume by Mr. Hardwick's shop, broke the newly-formed ice and there +found the drifting body of Mrs. Clamp. Her right hand, stretched out +stiff, was thrust against the floats of the water-wheel, as if, even +in death, she remembered her hate against the family whose fortune had +risen upon her overthrow! + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Mark and Mr. Alford, after their disagreeable interview with the +Clamps, went to see Mr. Hardwick, whom they wished to congratulate. At +the door they were met by Lizzie, whose sad face said, "Hush!" Mark's +spirits fell instantly. "Is he worse?" he asked. A tear was the only +answer. He asked Mr. Alford to go for Mildred. "She has just come," +said Lizzie. + +They found Mr. Hardwick propped up in bed, whence he could look out of +the window. The church-spire rose on the one hand, and on the other +the chimney of the shop was seen above the trees on the river-bank. By +night the column of sparks had gladdened his eye, as he thought of the +cheerful industry of his sons. Mark tenderly pressed his uncle's hand, +and leaned over him with an affectionate, sorrowing interest. + +"Der-don't take it to heart, my boy," said Mr. Hardwick. "I am very +h-happy." + +"I am glad that the boys won't lose the shop," said Mark. "I see you +are looking out to the chimney." + +"Yer-yes, it was thoughtful of Mr. Kinloch, and a special +Pr-Providence that the will was found." + +"You know he mentioned his claim against me," said Mark; "that is +paid, and it doesn't matter; but I can't guess the reason for the +unusual kindness he has shown towards me." + +The old man answered slowly, for his breathing was difficult and often +painful. + +"It is an old story,--old as the dried f-flowers that Mildred told me +of,--but it had a f-fragrance once. Yer-your mother, Mark, was as +per-pretty a girl as you'd often see. Walter Kinloch ler-loved her, +and she him. He sailed to the Indies, an' some der-diff'culty +happened, so that the letters stopped. I d-don't know how 'twas. But +arter a while sh-she married your father. Mr. Kinloch, he m-married, +too; but I guess he nun-never forgot the girl of his choice." + +Mark grasped his young wife's hand, at this tale of years gone by. + +"The lock of hair and the rose were your mother's, then!" she +whispered. "Dear father! faithful, even in death, to his friends, and +to the memory of his first love! How much suffering and crime would +have been prevented, if he could only have uttered the words which his +heart prompted!" + +"God forgive the woman!" said Mr. Hardwick, solemnly. None knew then +how much she had need of forgiveness, standing as she was on the brink +of that last fatal plunge! + +Mr. Alford suggested that the fatigue of talking would wear upon the +enfeebled man, and advised that he should be left to get some rest, if +possible. + +"To-morrow is S-Sabba'-day, ef I've counted right," said Mr. Hardwick. +"I sh-should like to see the sun on the st-heeple once more." + +"Dear uncle, I hope you may see it a great many times. We must leave +you to rest." + +"Good-night, mum-my children," he replied. "God b-bless you all! Let +me put my hands on your h-heads." + +They knelt by his bedside, and he blessed them fervently. Mr. Alford +and Lizzie remained to attend upon him, and the others withdrew. + +The night passed, how wearily! None could sleep, for through all the +air there was a presage of sorrow, a solemn "tingling silentness," to +which their senses were painfully alive. Who, that has passed the +interminable gloomy hours that preceded the departure of a loved and +venerated friend into the world of spirits, does not remember this +unutterable suspense, this fruitless struggle with eternal decrees, +this clinging of affection to the parting soul? What a sinking of the +heart even the recollection of such a scene produces! + +The day dawned upon sleepless, tear-stained eyes. The dying man was +conscious, cheerful, and calmly breathing. In the adjoining room the +family sat beside the table on which was spread their untasted +breakfast. + +The bell began to ring for meeting. Mr. Hardwick roused up at the +sound, and called for his children. He blessed them again, and placed +his hands on their bowed heads in turn. He thought of the psalms which +he had so often led, and he asked all to join in singing Billings's +"Jordan." + + "There is a land of pure delight, + Where saints immortal reign; + Infinite day excludes the night, + And pleasures banish pain." + +With faltering voices they sang the triumphal hymn. The old man's +eyes were fixed upon the steeple, which pointed upward through the +clear air, and shone in the golden light of the sun. He kept time with +a feeble movement, and once or twice essayed to raise his own wavering +voice. A smile of heavenly beauty played over his pallid features as +the music ceased,--a radiance like that crimson glow which covers the +mountain-top at dawn. He spoke almost inaudibly, as if in a trance; +then repeating with a musical flow the words of his favorite author, + + "Where the bright seraphim in burning row + Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow, + And the cherubic host in thousand choirs + Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, + With those just spirits that wear victorious palms + Hymns devout and holy psalms + Singing everlastingly,"-- + +his voice sank again, though it was easy to see that a prayer trembled +on his lips. As a strain of music fades into silence, his tones fell +away, fainter and fainter; and with the same seraphic light on his +countenance his breathing ceased. + + + + +THE BIRTH-MARK. + +A.D. 12--. + + See, here it is, upon my breast,-- + The bloody image of a hand! + On her white bosom it was pressed, + Who should have nursed--you understand;-- + I never yet have named her name, + Nor will I, till 'tis free from shame. + + The good old crone that tended me + Through sickly childhood, lonely youth, + Told me the story: so, you see, + I know it is God's sacred truth, + That holy lips and holy hands + In secrecy had blessed the bands. + + And well he knew it, too,--the accursed!-- + To whom my grandsire gave his child + With dying breath;--for from the first + He saw, and tried to snare the wild + And frightened love that thought to rest + Its wings upon my father's breast. + + You may have seen him riding by,-- + This same Count Bernard, stern and cold; + You know, then, how his creeping eye + One's very soul in charm will hold. + Snow-locks he wears, and gracious art; + But hell is whiter than his heart. + + Well, as I said, the secret rite + Had joined them, and the two were one; + And so it chanced, one summer night, + When the half-moon had set, and none + But faint star-shadows on the grass + Lay watching for his feet to pass, + + Led by the waiting light that gleamed + From out one chamber-window, came + The husband-lover;--soon they dreamed,-- + Her lips still murmuring his name + In sleep,--while, as to guard her, fell + His arm across her bosom's swell. + + The low wind shook the darkened pane, + The far clock chimed along the hall, + There came a moment's gust of rain, + The swallow chirped a single call + From his eaves'-nest, the elm-bough swayed + Moaning;--they slumbered unafraid. + + Without a creak the chamber-door + Crept open!--with a cat-like tread, + Shading his lamp with hand that bore + A dagger, came beside their bed + The Count. His hair was tinged with gray: + Gold locks brown-mixed before him lay. + + A thrust,--a groan,--a fearful scream, + As from the peace of love's sweet rest + She starts!--O God! what horrid dream + Swells her bound eyeballs? From her breast + Fall off the garments of the night,-- + A red hand strikes her bosom's white! + + She knew no more that passed; her ear + Caught not the hurried cries,--the rush + Of the scared household,--nor could hear + The voice that broke the after-hush:-- + "There with her paramour she lay! + He lies here!--carry her away!" + + The evening after I was born + No roses on the bier were spread, + As when for maids or mothers mourn + Pure-hearted ones who love the dead; + They buried her, so young, so fair, + With hasty hands and scarce a prayer. + + Count Bernard gained the lands, while I, + Cast forth, forgotten, thus have grown + To manhood; for I could not die-- + I cannot die--till I atone + For her great shame; and so you see + I track him, and he flies from me. + + And one day soon my hand I'll lay + Upon his arm, with lighter touch + Than ladies use when in their play + They tap you with their fans; yet such + A thrill will freeze his every limb + As if the dead were clutching him! + + I think that it would make you smile + To see him kneel and hear him plead,-- + I leaning on my sword the while, + With a half-laugh, to watch his need:-- + At last my good blade finds his heart, + And then this red stain will depart. + + + + +RAMBLES IN AQUIDNECK. + + +I. + +NEWPORT BEACH. + +Newport has many beaches, each bearing a distinctive appellation. To +the one of which we are speaking rightfully belongs the name of +Easton; but it is more widely known by that of the town itself, and +still more familiarly to the residents as "The Beach." It lies east of +the city, a mile from the harbor, and is about half a mile in length. +Its form is that of the new moon, the horns pointing southward. + +Let us go there now. No better time could be chosen by the naturalist, +for the tide will be at its lowest ebb. Descending Bath Road, the +beautiful crescent lies before us on the right,--Easton's Pond, with +its back-ground of farms, upon the left. There is no wind to-day to +break the surface of the standing water, and it gives back the dwarf +willows upon its banks and the houses on the hill-side with more than +Daguerrian fidelity. The broad ocean lies rocking in the sunshine, not +as one a-weary, but resting at his master's bidding, waiting to begin +anew the work he loves. In the horizon, the ships, motionless in the +calm, spread all sail to catch the expected breeze. The waves idly +chase each other to the shore, in childish strife to kiss first the +mother Earth. + +Turning the sea-wall and crossing a bit of shingle on the right, we +stand upon the western extremity of the beach. + +At our feet, a smooth, globular object, of the size of a crab-apple, +is lying half-buried in the sand. Taking it in your hand, you find it +to be a univalve shell, the inhabitant of which is concealed behind a +closely-fitting door, resembling a flake of undissolved glue. + +It is a Natica. Place it gently in this pool and watch for a few +moments. Slowly and cautiously the horny operculum is pushed out, +turned back, and hidden beneath a thick fleshy mantle, which spreads +over half the shell. Two long tentacles appear upon its front, like +the horns of an ox, and it begins to glide along upon its one huge +foot. + +Had you seen it thus at first, you could not have believed it possible +for so bulky a body to be retracted into so small a shell. Lift it +into the air, and a stream of water pours forth as it contracts. + +Two kinds are common here, one of which has a more conical spire than +the other. The animals differ somewhat in other points, but both have +a cream-colored base, and a mantle of pale cream clouded with purple. +You may get them from half an inch to three inches in diameter. Take +them home and domesticate them, and you will see surprising things. + +I kept one of middling size for many months. During two or three weeks +I wondered how he lived, for he was never seen to eat. He used to +climb to the top of the tank and slide down the slippery glass as +though it were a _montagne russe_. Then he would wander about upon the +bottom, ploughing deep furrows in the sand, and end by burrowing +beneath it. There he would stay whole days, entirely out of sight. + +One morning I found him on his back, his body bent upward, with the +edge of the base turned in all round towards the centre. Did you ever +see an apple-dumpling before it was boiled, just as the cook was +pinching the dough together? Yes? Then you may imagine the appearance +of my Natica; but no greening pared and cored lay within that puckered +wrapper. + +Two days passed with no visible change; but on the third day the +strange gasteropod unfolded both himself and the mystery. From his +long embrace fell the shell of a Mactra, nearly as broad as his own. +Near the hinge was a smooth, round hole, through which the poor Clam +had been sucked. Foot, stomach, siphon, muscles, all but a thin strip +of mantle, were gone. The problem of the Natica's existence was +solved, and the verification was found in more than one Buccinum minus +the animal,--the number of the latter victims being still an unknown +quantity. + +Not in sport had Natty driven the plough, not in idleness had he +hollowed the sand. He sought his food in the furrow, and dug riches in +the mine. + +Doubtless he killed the bivalve,--for until the time of its +disappearance it had been in full vigor,--but with what weapon? And +whereabouts in that soft bundle was hidden the wimble which bored the +hole? + +A few days after, a Crab, of the size of a dime, died. Nat soon +learned the fact, and enveloped the crustacean as he had done the +mollusk. Thirty hours sufficed to drill through the Crab's +foundation-wall, and to abstract the unguarded treasure. + +Every week some rifled Trivittatum tells a new tale of his felonious +deeds. + +His last feat was worthy of a cannibal, for it was the savage act of +devouring a fellow-Natica. You might suppose that in this case the +trap-like operculum would afford an easy entrance to one familiar with +its use; but, true to his secret system, the burglar broke in as +before. How did he do this? Did he abrade the stone-work with flinty +sand until a hole was worn? Did he apply an acid to the limy wall +until it opened before him? Who can find the tools of the cunning +workman, or the laboratory where his corrodents are composed? + +Some rods farther south, the shore is covered with smooth stones, and +there you may find the Limpet in great numbers. Patella is the Latin +name, but children call it Tent-Shell. Oval at the base, it slopes +upward to a point a little aside from the centre. + +In this locality they are small, seldom more than an inch in length. +At first, you will not readily distinguish them, they are so nearly of +the color of the stones to which they are attached. This is one of +those Providential adjustments by which the weak are rendered as +secure as the strong. Slow in their movements, without offensive +weapons, their form and their coloring are their two great safeguards. +The stones to which they adhere are variegated with brown and purple +blotches of incipient Coralline, and the shells are beautifully +mottled with every shade of those colors. Some are lilac, heightening +nearly to crimson; others are dark chocolate and white, sharply +checkered. + +Pebbles and Patella alike are half-covered with Confervae, and from +the top of the latter, fronds of Ulva are often found floating like +flags. I have one with a clump of Corallina rising from its apex, like +a coppice on the summit of a hill. + +By atmospheric pressure, its union with the stone is so close that it +is not easy to pull it away without injury; but if you slip it along, +until by some slight inequality air is admitted beneath the hitherto +exhausted receiver, the little pneumatician is obliged to yield. + +When turned upon its back, or resting against glass, the soft arms, +sprawling aimlessly about, and the bare, round head, give it the +appearance of an infant in a cradle, so that a tank well stocked with +them might be taken for a Liliputian foundling-hospital. + +They are as innocent as they look, being vegetable-feeders, and +finding most of their sustenance in matters suspended in the water. A +friend of mine placed several upon the side of a vessel coated with +Conferva. In a few days, each industrious laborer had mowed round him +a circular space several times larger than himself. + +They are not ambulatory, but remain on one spot for successive weeks, +perhaps longer. + +Sometimes they raise the shell so as to allow a free circulation +beneath; but if some predatory Prawn draw near, the tent is lowered in +a twinkling, so as effectually to shut out the submarine Tartar. + +Tread warily, or you will trip upon the slimy Fucus that fringes the +seaward side of every rock. This is one of the few Algae that grow +here in luxuriance. The slate has not the deep fissures necessary to +afford shelter to the more delicate kinds; and the heavy swell of the +sea drags them from their slight moorings. Therefore, though Ulva, +Chondrus, Cladophora, Enteromorpha, and as many more, are within our +reach, we will not stop to gather them; for Newport has other shores, +where we can get them in full perfection. + +We will take some tufts of Corallina, however, for that is temptingly +fine. What a curious plant it is! Its root, a mere crustaceous disk, +and its fronds, depositing shelly matter upon their surface, bear so +strong a resemblance to the true Corals, that, until recently, +naturalists have thought it a zoophyte. + +Here the plants are of a dull brick-red; but in less exposed +situations they are purple. If you wish them to live and increase, you +must chip off a bit of the rock on which they are growing. With a +chisel, or even a knife, you can do it without difficulty, for the +soft slate scales and crumbles under a slight blow. + +For an herbarium, it ought to be gummed at once to the paper, for it +becomes so brittle, in drying, that it falls to pieces with the most +careful handling. In the air and light it fades white, but the +elegance of its pinnate branches will well repay any pains you may +bestow upon it. + +If you have a lingering belief in its animal nature, steeping it in +acid will cause the carbonate of lime and your credulity to disappear +together, leaving the vegetable tissue clearly revealed. + +Between low-water and the Cliff are hundreds of pools rich in +vegetable and animal life--Look at this one: it is a lakelet of +exquisite beauty. Bordered with the olive-colored Rock-Weed, fronds of +purple and green Laver rise from its limpid depths. Amphipods of +varied hue emerge from the clustering weeds, cleave the clear water +with easy swiftness, and hide beneath the opposite bank. Here a +graceful Annelid describes Hogarth's line of beauty upon the sandy +bottom. There another glides over the surface with sinuous course, +rowed by more oars than a Venetian galley, more brilliant in its +iridescence than the barge of Cleopatra, albeit + + "The poop was beaten gold, + Purple the sails." + +We loiter here, forgetful that we are only at the first end of the bow +along whose curve we propose to walk. Let us go on. The firm sand +affords pleasanter footing than the slippery stones we leave behind +us, but it seems bare of promise to the curiosity-hunter. Nevertheless +we will hunt, and quite at variance with my experience will it be, if +we return empty-handed. + +Here is something already. Dark-colored, horny, flat, oblong, each +corner furnished with a wiry, thorn-like projection;--what is it? A +child tells you it is a Mermaid's Purse, and, giving the empty bag a +shake, you straightway conclude that the maids of the sea know "hard +times," as well as those of the land. But the Purse is not always so +light. Sometimes it is found to contain a most precious deposit, the +egg which is to produce a future fish. + +These egg-cases belong to different members of the Ray family. I saw +one last winter, in which the inmate was fully developed. Should some +old seaman hear me, he might say that I am telling a "fish-story" in +good earnest. He might inform you furthermore, that the object in +question is "but a pod of sea-weed, and that he has seen hundreds of +them in the Gulf Stream." I cannot help it, neither do I question his +veracity. Notwithstanding, these two eyes of mine, in sound condition, +awake, and in broad day, did see the supposed pericarp, with one side +taken off, and did behold, lying within, as veritable a Raia as ever +was caught upon the New-England coast. Moreover, its countenance was +no more classical, in its minuteness, than that of its most ancient +ancestor in its hugeness. + +Observe those bubbles trembling upon the edge of the wave. One is left +by the receding tide, and a nearer view shows it to be a jelly-like +globe, clearer than the crystal of Merlin. Dropped softly into a +vessel of water, at first it lies quiescent and almost invisible upon +the bottom. A moment after, it rises in quick undulations, flashing +prismatic tints with every motion. Again it rests, and we see that it +is banded by eight meridians, composed of square, overlapping plates. +It swims, and the plates become paddles, propelling the frail craft,-- +prisms, dividing the sunbeams into rainbow hues. Suddenly two lines of +gossamer are dropped from unseen openings in its sides, and trailed +behind it as it goes. Twisting, lengthening, shortening, they are +drawn back and re-coiled within, and + + "The ethereal substance closed, + Not long divisible." + +This delicate wonder is the Cydippe. Though among the most charming of +marine creatures, none is more liable to be overlooked, owing to its +extreme subtilty. So unsubstantial and shadowy are they, that a lady, +on seeing them for the first time, declared them to be "the ghosts of +gooseberries." Indeed, you will find them ghost-like, if you attempt +to keep them, for they + + "Shrink in haste away + And vanish from our sight." + +The whole high-water line is strewn with the blanched and parted +valves of the Beach Clam. Here and there yellowish streaks appear upon +the gray sand, formed by the detritus of submarine shells. Among the +fragments are often found perfect specimens, some of them with the +living animal. + +We can examine them as we go back, but now let us cross the "Creek." +It is a creek only by courtesy or an Americanism, at the present day; +but when those miles of fertile fields upon the north were +unreclaimed, the dank herbage hindered evaporation, and Easton's Pond +was fed by unfailing streams. Then the vast body of overflowing water +swept a deep channel, which the sea, rolling far up towards the pond, +widened and made permanent. Boats came from ships in the offing, and +followed its course to "Green End," with no fear of grounding; and +traditionary pirates there bestowed in secret caves their ill-gotten +gains. + +Now, the Creek is a mere streamlet, and the flow of the tide is +restricted to its mouth. With our rubbers we may ford it dry-shod; but +if you choose to cross the bridge, we must wade through shifting sand, +and our walk will be the longer. In midsummer the bed is dry, and +almost obliterated by the drift. On the approach of autumnal rains, +the farmers plough a passage for the water, to prevent their lands +from being submerged. + +On the east side, masses of conglomerate rock are strewn in wild +confusion. By the action of untold ages the connecting cement is worn +away from between the pebbles, leaving them prominent; and wherever +the attrition of the sea has loosened one from its bed, the hollow has +become the habitation of Mollusca and Algae. + +Beyond that ponderous boulder are many dark recesses among the +overlying stones. Strip back your sleeve, thrust in your hand, and +grope carefully about. In this way I once grasped a prickly thing that +startled me. Drawing it to light, it proved to be an Echinus, +Sea-Urchin, or Sea-Egg. That one was not larger than a walnut, was +shaped like a _brioche_, and resembled a chestnut-burr. Its color was +a delicate green, verging to brown. + +Much larger living Echini are found on this spot. There is a shell +now, more than two inches in diameter. It is wholly covered with +spines half an inch in length. Radiating from a common centre, +flexible at the base, they stand erect at right angles with the shell +when the Urchin is in health; but in disease or death order is lost, +and they lie across each other in great confusion. Their connection +with the shell is very remarkable, for it is by a ball-and-socket +joint,--the same articulation which gives the human hip its marvellous +liberty of action. Between them are five rows of minute holes, and, in +life, a transparent, hair-like foot is protruded from each, at the +pleasure of the owner. When disposed to change its situation, it +stretches forth those on the side towards which it would go, fixes +them by means of the sucker at the tip of each, and, simultaneously +withdrawing those in the rear, pulls itself along. + +The mouth, placed in the centre of the base, is very large in +proportion to the size of the animal. It is formed of five shelly, +wedge-shaped pieces, each ending in a hard, triangular tooth. The +whole mouth is a conical box, called by naturalists "Aristotle's +lantern." + +The shell is hardly thicker than that of a hen's egg, and is even more +fragile. When the spines are rubbed off, the brioche-like shape is +modified, and in place of the depression in the middle of the upper +side there is seen a slight prominence. + +Mine was a very inoffensive creature. He occupied the same corner for +many weeks, and changed his place only when a different arrangement of +stones was made. He then wandered to a remote part of the tank and +chose a new abode. Both retreats were on the shady side of a stone +overhung with plants. There for months he quietly kept house, only +going up and down his hand-breadth of room once or twice a day. +Minding his own business without hurt to his neighbor, he dwelt in +unambitious tranquillity. Had he not fallen a victim to the most cruel +maltreatment, he might still adorn his humble station. + +As he was sitting one evening at the door of his house, bending about +his lithe arms in the way he was wont, two itinerant Sticklebacks +chanced to pass that way. They paused, and, not seeing the necessity +for organs of which they had never known the use, they at once decided +on their removal. + +In vain did the poor Hedgehog oppose them. With all the pertinacity of +ignorance, they maintained their certainty of his abnormal condition; +and with all the officiousness of quackery, they insisted upon +immediate amputation. Aided by two volunteer assistants, the self-made +surgeons cut off limb after limb before their reckless butchery could +be stopped. + +At last I effected their dismissal. But their pitiable patient was too +far reduced for recovery. His exhausted system never rallied from the +shock, and he survived but a few days. + +Alas! alas! that so exemplary a member of the community should have +perished through piscine empiricism! + +How many things you have collected! Your well-filled basket attests +your industry and zeal, and suggests the fruitful question of the +novelist, "What will you do with it?" Will you throw its contents on +the sand, and go away satisfied with these imperfect glimpses of +sea-life? Will you take them home indeed, but consign them to a +crowded bowl, to die like the prisoners in the Black Hole of Calcutta? +Or will you give to each a roomy basin with water, and plants to keep +it pure? + +This were well; and you could thus study their structure at leisure, +but not their habits. To know the character of an individual, you must +watch him among his fellows; you must observe his bearing to the +small; you must see how he demeans himself in presence of the great. +To do this, the surroundings must be such that none shall be conscious +of restraint, but that every one, with homely ease, may act out his +own peculiar nature. In short, you must make ready for them another +Atlantic, in all things but breadth like its grand prototype. + +Nor is this a difficult undertaking. By following the advice of some +experienced person, you may avoid all those failures which are apt to +attend the experiments of a tyro. I will direct you to our pioneer in +aquarian science, Mr. Charles E. Hammett. He can furnish you with all +you want, give you most efficient aid, and add thereto a great amount +of practical information. + +You need have no fears for the population of your colony; for in our +future walks we shall meet new objects of beauty and interest, and in +such variety and abundance that your only embarrassment will be which +to choose. + +And now the ramble of to-day is ended. The "punctual sea" has risen, +and, waking his dreaming waves, he gives to them their several tasks. +Some, with gentle touch, lave the heated rock; these, swift of foot, +bring drink to the thirsty sand; those carry refreshing coolness to +the tepid pool. Charged with blessings come they all, and, singing +'mid their joyous labor, they join in a chorus of praise to their God +and our God; while from each of our hearts goes up the ready response, +"Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy works, and I will rejoice +in giving praise for the operations of thy hands!" + + + + +ANN POTTER'S LESSON. + +My sister Mary Jane is older than I,--as much as four years. Father +died when we were both small, and didn't leave us much means beside +the farm. Mother was rather a weakly woman; she didn't feel as though +she could farm it for a living. It's hard work enough for a man to get +clothes and victuals off a farm in West Connecticut; it's up-hill work +always; and then a man can turn to, himself, to ploughin' and +mowin';--but a woman a'n't of no use, except to tell folks what to do; +and everybody knows it's no way to have a thing done, to send. + +Mother talked it all over with Deacon Peters, and he counselled her to +sell off all the farm but the home-lot, which was sot out for an +orchard with young apple-trees, and had a garden-spot to one end of +it, close by the house. Mother calculated to raise potatoes and beans +and onions enough to last us the year round, and to take in sewin' +so's to get what few groceries we was goin' to want. We kept Old Red, +the best cow; there was pasture enough for her in the orchard, for the +trees wa'n't growed to be bearin' as yet, and we 'lotted a good deal +on milk to our house; besides, it saved butcher's meat. + +Mother was a real pious woman, and she was a high-couraged woman too. +Old Miss Perrit, an old widder-woman that lived down by the bridge, +come up to see her the week after father died. I remember all about +it, though I wa'n't but ten years old; for when I see Miss Perrit +comin' up the road, with her slimpsy old veil hanging off from her +bumbazine bonnet, and her doleful look, (what Nancy Perrit used to +call "mother's company-face,") I kinder thought she was comin' to our +house; and she was allers so musical to me, I went in to the +back-door, and took up a towel I was hemmin', and set down in the +corner, all ready to let her in. It don't seem as if I could 'a' been +real distressed about father's dyin' when I could do so; but children +is just like spring weather, rainin' one hour and shinin' the next, +and it's the Lord's great mercy they be; if they begun to be feelin' +so early, there wouldn't be nothin' left to grow up. So pretty quick +Miss Perrit knocked, and I let her in. We hadn't got no spare room in +that house; there was the kitchen in front, and mother's bed-room, and +the buttery, and the little back-space opened out on't behind. Mother +was in the bed-room; so, while I called her, Miss Perrit set down in +the splint rockin'-chair that creaked awfully, and went to rockin' +back and forth, and sighin', till mother come in. "Good-day, Miss +Langdon!" says she, with a kind of a snuffle, "how _dew_ you dew? I +thought I'd come and see how you kep' up under this here affliction. I +rec'lect very well how I felt when husband died. It's a dreadful thing +to be left a widder in a hard world;--don't you find it out by this?" + +I guess mother felt quite as bad as ever Miss Perrit did, for +everybody knew old Perrit treated his wife like a dumb brute while he +was alive, and died drunk; but she didn't say nothin'. I see her give +a kind of a swaller, and then she spoke up bright and strong. + +"I don't think it is a hard world, Miss Perrit. I find folks kind and +helpful, beyond what I'd any right to look for. I try not to think +about my husband, any more than I can help, because I couldn't work, +if I did, and I've got to work. It's most helpful to think the Lord +made special promises to widows, and when I remember Him I a'n't +afeard." + +Miss Perrit stopped rockin' a minute, and then she begun to creak the +chair and blow her nose again, and she said,-- + +"Well, I'm sure it's a great mercy to see anybody rise above their +trouble the way you do; but, law me! Miss Langdon, you a'n't got +through the fust pair o' bars on't yet. Folks is allers kinder +neighborly at the fust; they feel to help you right off, every way +they can,--but it don't stay put, they get tired on't; they blaze +right up like a white-birch-stick, an' then they go out all of a heap; +there's other folks die, and they don't remember you, and you're just +as bad off as though you wa'n't a widder." + +Mother kind of smiled,--she couldn't help it; but she spoke up again +just as steady. + +"I don't expect to depend on people, Miss Perrit, so long as I have my +health. I a'n't above takin' friendly help when I need to, but I mean +mostly to help myself. I can get work to take in, and when the girls +have got their schoolin' they will be big enough to help me. I am not +afraid but what I shall live and prosper, if I only keep my health." + +"Hem, well!" whined out Miss Perrit. "I allers thought you was a +pretty mighty woman, Miss Langdon, and I'm glad to see you're so +high-minded; but you a'n't sure of your health, never. I used to be +real smart to what I am now, when Perrit was alive; but I took on so, +when he was brought home friz to death that it sp'iled my nerves; and +then I had to do so many chores out in the shed, I got cold and had +the dreadfullest rheumatiz! and when I'd got past the worst spell of +that and was quite folksy again, I slipped down on our door-step and +kinder wrenched my ankle, and ef't hadn't 'a' been for the neighbors, +I don't know but what Nancy and I should 'a' starved." + +Mother did laugh this time. Miss Perrit had overshot the mark. + +"So the neighbors were helpful, after all!" said she. "And if ever I +get sick, I shall be willin' to have help, Miss Perrit. I'm sure I +would take what I would give; I think givin' works two ways. I don't +feel afraid yet." + +Miss Perrit groaned a little, and wiped her eyes, and got up to go +away. She hadn't never offered to help mother, and she went off to the +sewing-circle and told that Miss Langdon hadn't got no feelings at +all, and she b'lieved she'd just as soon beg for a livin' as not. +Polly Mariner, the tailoress, come and told mother all she said next +day, but mother only smiled, and set Polly to talkin' about the best +way to make over her old cloak. When she was gone, I begun to talk +about Miss Perrit, and I was real mad; but mother hushed me right up. + +"It a'n't any matter, Ann," said she. "Her sayin' so don't make it so. +Miss Perrit's got a miserable disposition, and I'm sorry for her; a +mint of money wouldn't make her happy; she's a doleful Christian, she +don't take any comfort in anything, and I really do pity her." + +And that was just the way mother took everything. + +At first we couldn't sell the farm. It was down at the foot of +Torringford Hill, two good miles from meetin', and a mile from the +school-house; most of it was woodsy, and there wa'n't no great market +for wood about there. So for the first year Squire Potter took it on +shares, and, as he principally seeded it down to rye, why, we sold the +rye and got a little money, but 'twa'n't a great deal,--no more than +we wanted for clothes the next winter. Aunt Langdon sent us down a lot +of maple-sugar from Lee, and when we wanted molasses we made it out of +that. We didn't have to buy no great of groceries, for we could spin +and knit by fire-light, and, part of the land bein' piny woods, we had +a good lot of knots that were as bright as lamps for all we wanted. +Then we had a dozen chickens, and by pains and care they laid pretty +well, and the eggs were as good as gold. So we lived through the first +year after father died, pretty well. + +Anybody that couldn't get along with mother and Major (I always called +Mary Jane "Major" when I was real little, and the name kind of stayed +by) couldn't get along with anybody. I was as happy as a cricket +whilst they were by, though, to speak truth, I wasn't naturally so +chirpy as they were; I took after father more, who was a kind of a +despondin' man, down-hearted, never thinkin' things could turn out +right, or that he was goin' to have any luck. That was my natur', and +mother see it, and fought ag'inst it like a real Bunker-Hiller; but +natur' is hard to root up, and there was always times when I wanted to +sulk away into a corner and think nobody wanted me, and that I was +poor and humbly, and had to work for my living. + +I remember one time I'd gone up into my room before tea to have one of +them dismal fits. Miss Perrit had been in to see mother, and she'd +been tellin' over what luck Nancy'd had down to Hartford: how't she +had gone into a shop, and a young man had been struck with her good +looks, an' he'd turned out to be a master-shoemaker, and Nancy was +a-goin' to be married, and so on, a rigmarole as long as the moral +law,--windin' up with askin' mother why she didn't send us girls off +to try our luck, for Major was as old as Nance Perrit. I'd waited to +hear mother say, in her old bright way, that she couldn't afford it, +and she couldn't spare us, if she had the means, and then I flung up +into our room, that was a lean-to in the garret, with a winder in the +gable end, and there I set down by the winder with my chin on the +sill, and begun to wonder why we couldn't have as good luck as the +Perrits. After I'd got real miserable, I heerd a soft step comin' up +stairs, and Major come in and looked at me and then out of the winder. + +"What's the matter of you, Anny?" said she. + +"Nothing," says I, as sulky as you please. + +"Nothing always means something," says Major, as pleasant as pie; and +then she scooched down on the floor and pulled my two hands away, and +looked me in the face as bright and honest as ever you see a dandelion +look out of the grass. "What is it, Anny? Spit it out, as John Potter +says; you'll feel better to free your mind." + +"Well," says I, "Major, I'm tired of bad luck." + +"Why, Anny! I didn't know as we'd had any. I'm sure, it's three years +since father died, and we have had enough to live on all that time, +and I've got my schooling, and we are all well; and just look at the +apple-trees,--all as pink as your frock with blossoms; that's good for +new cloaks next winter, Anny." + +"'Ta'n't that, Major. I was thinkin' about Nancy Perrit. If we'd had +the luck to go to Hartford, may-be you'd have been as well off as she; +and then I'd have got work, too. And I wish I was as pretty as she is, +Major; it does seem too bad to be poor and humbly too." + +I wonder she didn't laugh at me, but she was very feelin' for folks, +always. She put her head on the window-sill along of mine, and kinder +nestled up to me in her lovin' way, and said, softly,-- + +"I wouldn't quarrel with the Lord, Anny." + +"Why, Major! you scare me! I haven't said nothing against the Lord. +What do you mean?" said I,--for I was touchy, real touchy. + +"Well, dear, you see we've done all we can to help ourselves; and +what's over and above, that we can't help,--that is what the Lord +orders, a'n't it? and He made you, didn't He? You can't change your +face; and I'm glad of it, for it is Anny's face, and I wouldn't have +it changed a mite: there'll always be two people to think it's sightly +enough, and may-be more by-and-by; so I wouldn't quarrel with it, if I +was you." + +Major's happy eyes always helped me. I looked at her and felt better. +She wasn't any better-lookin' than I; but she always was so chirk, and +smart, and neat, and pretty-behaved, that folks thought she was +handsome after they knowed her. + +Well, after a spell, there was a railroad laid out up the valley, and +all the land thereabouts riz in price right away; and Squire Potter he +bought our farm on speculation, and give a good price for it; so't we +had two thousand dollars in the bank, and the house and lot, and the +barn, and the cow. By this time Major was twenty-two and I was +eighteen; and Squire Potter he'd left his house up on the hill, and +he'd bought out Miss Perrit's house, and added on to't, and moved down +not far from us, so's to be near the railroad-depot, for the sake of +bein' handy to the woods, for cuttin' and haulin' of them down to the +track. Twasn't very pleasant at first to see our dear old woods goin' +off to be burned that way; but Squire Potter's folks were such good +neighbors, we gained as much as we lost, and a sight more, for folks +are greatly better'n trees,--at least, clever folks. + +There was a whole raft of the Potters, eight children of 'em all, some +too young to be mates for Major and me; but Mary Potter, and Reuben, +and Russell, they were along about as old as we were: Russell come +between Major and me; the other two was older. + +We kinder kept to home always, Major and me, because we hadn't any +brothers to go out with us; so we were pretty shy of new friends at +first. But you couldn't help bein' friendly with the Potters, they was +such outspoken, kindly creturs, from the Squire down to little Hen. +And it was very handy for us, because now we could go to +singin'-schools and quiltin's, and such-like places, of an evenin'; +and we had rather moped at home for want of such things,--at least I +had, and I should have been more moped only for Major's sweet ways. +She was always as contented as a honey-bee on a clover-head, for the +same reason, I guess. + +Well, there was a good many good things come to us from the Potters' +movin' down; but by-and-by it seemed as though I was goin' to get the +bitter of it. I'd kept company pretty steady with Russell. I hadn't +give much thought to it, neither; I liked his ways, and he seemed to +give in to mine very natural, so't we got along together first-rate. +It didn't seem as though we'd ever been strangers, and I wasn't one to +make believe at stiffness when I didn't feel it. I told Russell pretty +much all I had to tell, and he was allers doin' for me and runnin' +after me jest as though he'd been my brother. I didn't know how much I +did think of him, till, after a while, he seemed to take a sight of +notice of Major. I can't say he ever stopped bein' clever to me, for +he didn't; but he seemed to have a kind of a hankerin' after Major all +the time. He'd take her off to walk with him; he'd dig up roots in the +woods for her posy-bed; he'd hold her skeins of yarn as patient as a +little dog; he'd get her books to read. Well, he'd done all this for +me; but when I see him doin' it for her, it was quite different; and +all to once I know'd what was the matter. I'd thought too much of +Russell Potter. + +Oh, dear! those was dark times! I couldn't blame him; I knew well +enough Major was miles and miles better and sweeter and cleverer than +I was; I didn't wonder he liked her; but I couldn't feel as if he'd +done right by me. So I schooled myself considerable, talking to myself +for being jealous of Major. But 'twasn't all that;--the hardest of it +all was that I had to mistrust Russell. To be sure, he hadn't said +nothin' to me in round words; I couldn't ha' sued him; but he'd looked +and acted enough; and now,--dear me! I felt all wrung out and flung +away! + +By-and-by Major begun to see somethin' was goin' wrong, and so did +Russell. She was as good as she could be to me, and had patience with +all my little pettish ways, and tried to make me friendly with +Russell; but I wouldn't. I took to hard work, and, what with cryin' +nights, and hard work all day, I got pretty well overdone. But it all +went on for about three months, till one day Russell come up behind +me, as I was layin' out some yarn to bleach down at the end of the +orchard, and asked me if I'd go down to Meriden with him next day, to +a pic-nic frolic, in the woods. + +"No!" says I, as short as I could. + +Russell looked as though I had slapped him. "Anny," says he, "what +have I done?" + +I turned round to go away, and I catched my foot in a hank of yarn, +and down I come flat on to the ground, havin' sprained my ankle so bad +that Russell had to pick me up and carry me into the house like a +baby. + +There was an end of Meriden for me; and he wouldn't go, either, but +come over and sat by me, and read to me, and somehow or other, I don't +remember just the words, he gave me to understand that--well--that he +wished I'd marry him. + +It's about as tirin' to be real pleased with anything as it is to be +troubled, at first. I couldn't say anything to Russell; I just cried. +Major wasn't there; mother was dryin' apples out in the shed; so +Russell he didn't know what to do; he kind of hushed me up, and begged +of me not to cry, and said he'd come for his answer next day. So he +come, and I didn't say, "No," again. I don't believe I stopped to +think whether Major liked him. She would have thought of me, first +thing;--I believe she wouldn't have had him, if she'd thought I wanted +him. But I a'n't like Major; it come more natural to me to think about +myself; and besides, she was pious, and I wasn't. Russell was. + +However, it turned out all right, for Major was 'most as pleased as I +was; and she told me, finally, that she'd known a long spell that +Russell liked me, and the reason he'd been hangin' round her so long +was, he'd been tellin' her his plans, and they'd worked out +considerable in their heads before she could feel as though he had a +good enough lookout to ask me to marry him. + +That wasn't so pleasant to me, when I come to think of it; I thought +I'd ought to have been counselled with. But it was just like Major; +everybody come to her for a word of help or comfort, whether they took +her idee or not,--she had such feelin' for other folks's trouble. + +I got over that little nub after a while; and then I was so pleased, +everything went smooth ag'in. I was goin' to be married in the spring; +and we were goin' straight out to Indiana, onto some wild land Squire +Potter owned out there, to clear it and settle it, and what Russell +cleared he was to have. So mother took some money out of the bank to +fit me out, and Major and I went down to Hartford to buy my things. + +I said before, we wasn't either of us any great things to look at; but +it come about that one day I heerd somebody tell how we did look, and +I thought considerable about it then and afterwards. We was buyin' +some cotton to a store in the city, and I was lookin' about at all the +pretty things, and wonderin' why I was picked out to be poor when so +many folks was rich and had all they wanted, when presently I heerd a +lady in a silk gown say to another one, so low she thought I didn't +hear her,--"There are two nice-looking girls, Mrs. Carr." + +"Hem,--yes," said the other one; "they look healthy and strong: the +oldest one has a lovely expression, both steady and sweet; the other +don't look happy." + +I declare, that was a fact. I was sorry, too, for I'd got everything +in creation to make anybody happy, and now I was frettin' to be rich. +I thought I'd try to be like Major; but I expect it was mostly because +of the looks of it, for I forgot to try before long. + +Well, in the spring we was married; and when I come to go away, Major +put a little red Bible into my trunk for a weddin' present; but I was +cryin' too hard to thank her. She swallowed down whatever choked her, +and begged of me not to cry so, lest Russell should take it hard that +I mourned to go with him. But just then I was thinkin' more of Major +and mother than I was of Russell; they'd kept me bright and cheery +always, and kept up my heart with their own good ways when I hadn't no +strength to do it for myself; and now I was goin' off alone with +Russell, and he wasn't very cheerful-dispositioned, and somehow my +courage give way all to once. + +But I had to go; railroads don't wait for nobody; and what with the +long journey, and the new ways and things and people, I hadn't no time +to get real down once before we got to Indiana. After we left the boat +there was a spell of railroad, and then a long stage-ride to +Cumberton; and then we had to hire a big wagon and team, so's to get +us out to our claim, thirty miles west'ard of Cumberton. I hadn't no +time to feel real lonesome now, for all our things hed got to be +onpacked, and packed over ag'in in the wagon; some on 'em had to be +stored up, so's to come another time. We was two days gettin' to the +claim, the roads was so bad,--mostly what they call corduroy, but a +good stretch clear mud-holes. By the time we got to the end on't, I +was tired out, just fit to cry; and such a house as was waitin' for +us!--a real log shanty! I see Russell looked real beat when he see my +face; and I tried to brighten up; but I wished to my heart I was back +with mother forty times that night, if I did once. Then come the worst +of all, clutterin' everything right into that shanty; for our +frame-house wouldn't be done for two months, and there wa'n't scarce +room for what we'd brought, so't we couldn't think of sendin' for what +was stored to Cumberton. I didn't sleep none for two nights, because +of the whip-poor-wills that set on a tree close by, and called till +mornin' light; but after that I was too tired to lie awake. + +Well, it was real lonesome, but it was all new at first, and Russell +was to work near by, so't I could see him, and oftentimes hear him +whistle; and I had the garden to make, round to the new house, for I +knew more about the plantin' of it than he did, 'specially my +posy-bed, and I had a good time gettin' new flowers out of the woods. +And the woods was real splendid,--great tall tulip-trees, as high as a +steeple and round as a quill, without any sort o' branches ever so fur +up, and the whole top full of the yeller tulips and the queer +snipped-lookin' shiny leaves, till they looked like great bow-pots on +sticks; then there's lots of other great trees, only they're all +mostly spindled up in them woods. But the flowers that grow round on +the ma'sh edges and in the clearin's do beat all. + +So time passed along pretty glib till the frame-house was done, and +then we had to move in, and to get the things from Cumberton, and +begin to feel as though we were settled for good and all; and after +the newness had gone off, and the clearin' got so fur that I couldn't +see Russell no more, and nobody to look at, if I was never so +lonesome, then come a pretty hard spell. Everything about the house +was real handy, so't I'd get my work cleared away, and set down to sew +early; and them long summer-days that was still and hot, I'd set, and +set, never hearin' nothin' but the clock go "tick, tick, tick," (never +"tack," for a change,) and every now'n'then a great crash and roar in +the woods where he was choppin', that I knew was a tree; and I worked +myself up dreadfully when there was a longer spell 'n common come +betwixt the crashes, lest that Russell might 'a' been ketched under +the one that fell. And settin' so, and worryin' a good deal, day in +and day out, kinder broodin' over my troubles, and never thinkin' +about anybody but myself, I got to be of the idee that I was the +worst-off creature goin'. If I'd have stopped to think about Russell, +may-be I should have had some sort of pity for him, for he was jest as +lonesome as I, and I wasn't no kind of comfort to come home to,--'most +always cryin', or jest a-goin' to. + +So the summer went along till 'twas nigh on to winter, and I wa'n't in +no better sperrits. And now I wa'n't real well, and I pined for +mother, and I pined for Major, and I'd have given all the honey and +buckwheat in Indiana for a loaf of mother's dry rye-bread and a drink +of spring-water. And finally I got so miserable, I wished I wa'n't +never married,--and I'd have wished I was dead, if 'twa'n't for bein' +doubtful where I'd go to, if I was. And worst of all, one day I got so +worked up I told Russell all that. I declare, he turned as white as a +turnip. I see I'd hurt him, and I'd have got over it in a minute and +told him so,--only he up with his axe and walked out of the door, and +never come home till night, and then I was too stubborn to speak to +him. + +Well, things got worse, 'n' one day I was sewin' some things and +cryin' over 'em, when I heard a team come along by, and, before I +could get to the door, Russell come in, all red for joy, and says,-- + +"Who do you want to see most, Anny?" + +Somehow the question kind of upset me;--I got choked, and then I bu'st +out a-cryin'. + +"Oh, mother and Major!" says I; and I hadn't more'n spoke the word +before mother had both her good strong arms round me, and Major's real +cheery face was a-lookin' up at me from the little pine cricket, where +she'd sot down as nateral as life. Well, I _was_ glad, and so was +Russell, and the house seemed as shiny as a hang-bird's-nest, and +by-and-by the baby came;--but I had mother. + +'Twas 'long about in March when I was sick, and by the end of April I +was well, and so's to be stirrin' round again. And mother and Major +begun to talk about goin' home; and I declare, my heart was up in my +mouth every time they spoke on't, and I begun to be miserable ag'in. +One day I was settin' beside of mother; Major was out in the garden, +fixin' up things, and settin' out a lot of blows she'd got in the +woods, and singin' away, and says I to mother,-- + +"What be I going to do, mother, without you and Major? I 'most died of +clear lonesomeness before you come!" + +Mother laid down her knittin', and looked straight at me. + +"I wish you'd got a little of Major's good cheer, Anny," says she. +"You haven't any call to be lonely here; it's a real good country, and +you've got a nice house, and the best of husbands, and a dear little +baby, and you'd oughter try to give up frettin'. I wish you was pious, +Anny; you wouldn't fault the Lord's goodness the way you do." + +"Well, Major don't have nothin' to trouble her, mother," says I. +"She's all safe and pleasant to home; she a'n't homesick." + +Mother spoke up pretty resolute:-- + +"There a'n't nobody in the world, Anny, but what has troubles. I +didn't calculate to tell you about Major's; but sence you lay her +lively ways to luck, may-be you'd better know 'em. She's been engaged +this six months to Reuben Potter, and he's goin' off in a slow +consumption; he won't never live to marry her, and she knows it." + +"And she come away to see me, mother?" + +"Yes, she did. I can't say I thought she need to, but Russell wrote +you was pinin' for both of us, and I didn't think you could get along +without me, but I told her to stay with Reuben, and I'd come on alone. +And says she, 'No, mother, you a'n't young and spry enough to go alone +so fur, and the Lord made you my mother and Anny my sister before I +picked out Reuben for myself. I can't never have any kin but you, and +I might have had somebody beside Reuben, though it don't seem likely +now; but he's got four sisters to take care of him, and he thinks and +I think it's what I ought to do; so I'm goin' with you.' So she come, +Anny; and you see how lively she keeps, just because she don't want to +dishearten you none. I don't know as you can blame her for kinder +hankerin' to get home." + +I hadn't nothin' to say; I was beat. So mother she went on:-- + +"Fact is, Anny, Major's always a-thinkin' about other folks; it comes +kind of nateral to her, and then bein' pious helps it. I guess, dear, +when you get to thinkin' more about Russell an' the baby, you'll +forget some of your troubles. I hope the Lord won't have to give you +no harder lesson than lovin', to teach you Major's ways." + +So, after that, I couldn't say no more to mother about stayin'; but +when they went away, I like to have cried myself sick,--only baby had +to be looked after, and I couldn't dodge her. + +Bym-by we had letters from home; they got there all safe, and Reuben +wa'n't no worse, Major said;--ef't had been me wrote the letter, I +should have said he wa'n't no better!--And I fell back into the old +lonesome days, for baby slept mostly; and the summer come on extreme +hot; and in July, Russell, bein' forced to go to Cumberton on some +land business, left me to home with baby and the hired man, +calculatin' to be gone three days and two nights. + +The first day he was away was dreadful sultry; the sun went down away +over the woods in a kind of a red-hot fog, and it seemed as though the +stars were dull and coppery at night; even the whip-poor-wills was too +hot to sing; nothin' but a doleful screech-owl quavered away, a half a +mile off, a good hour, steady. When it got to be mornin', it didn't +seem no cooler; there wa'n't a breath of wind, and the locusts in the +woods chittered as though they was fryin'. Our hired man was an old +Scotchman, by name Simon Grant; and when he'd got his breakfast, he +said he'd go down the clearin' and bring up a load of brush for me to +burn. So he drove off with the team, and, havin' cleared up the +dishes, I put baby to sleep, and took my pail to the barn to milk the +cow,--for we kept her in a kind of a home-lot like, a part that had +been cleared afore we come, lest she should stray away in the woods, +if we turned her loose; she was put in the barn, too, nights, for fear +some stray wild-cat or bear might come along and do her a harm. So I +let her into the yard, and was jest a-goin' to milk her when she begun +to snort and shake, and finally giv' the pail a kick, and set off, +full swing, for the fence to the lot. I looked round to see what was +a-comin', and there, about a quarter of a mile off, I see the most +curus thing I ever see before or since,--a cloud as black as ink in +the sky, and hangin' down from it a long spout like, something like an +elephant's trunk, and the whole world under it looked to be all beat +to dust. Before I could get my eyes off on't, or stir to run, I see it +was comin' as fast as a locomotive; I heerd a great roar and +rush,--first a hot wind, and then a cold one, and then a crash,--an' +'twas all as dark as death all round, and the roar appeared to be +a-passin' off. + +I didn't know for quite a spell where I was. I was flat on my face, +and when I come to a little, I felt the grass against my cheek, and I +smelt the earth; but I couldn't move, no way; I couldn't turn over, +nor raise my head more'n two inches, nor draw myself up one. I was +comfortable so long as I laid still; but if I went to move, I +couldn't. It wasn't no use to wriggle; and when I'd settled that, I +jest went to work to figger out where I was and how I got there, and +the best I could make out was that the barn-roof had blowed off and +lighted right over me, jest so as not to hurt me, but so't I could'nt +move. + +Well, there I lay. I knew baby was asleep in the trundle-bed, and +there wa'n't no fire in the house; but how did I know the house wa'n't +blowed down? I thought that as quick as a flash of lightnin'; it +kinder struck me; I couldn't even see, so as to be certain! I wasn't +naterally fond of children, but somehow one's own is different, and +baby was just gettin' big enough to be pretty; and there I lay, +feelin' about as bad as I could, but hangin' on to one hope,--that old +Simon, seein' the tornado, would come pretty soon to see where we was. + +I lay still quite a spell, listenin'. Presently I heerd a low, +whimperin', pantin' noise, comin' nearer and nearer, and I knew it was +old Lu, a yeller hound of Simon's, that he'd set great store by, +because he brought him from the Old Country. I heerd the dog come +pretty near to where I was, and then stop, and give a long howl. I +tried to call him, but I was all choked up with dust, and for a while +I couldn't make no sound. Finally I called, "Lu! Lu! here, Sir!" and +if ever you heerd a dumb creature laugh, he barked a real laugh, and +come springin' along over towards me. I called ag'in, and he begun to +scratch and tear and pull,--at boards, I guessed, for it sounded like +that; but it wa'n't no use, he couldn't get at me, and he give up at +length and set down right over my head and give another howl, so long +and so dismal I thought I'd as lieves hear the bell a-tollin' my age. + +Pretty soon, I heerd another sound,--the baby cryin'; and with that Lu +jumped off whatever 'twas that buried me up, and run. "At any rate," +thinks I, "baby's alive." And then I bethought myself if 'twa'n't a +painter, after all; they scream jest like a baby, and there's a lot of +them, or there was then, right round in our woods; and Lu was dreadful +fond to hunt 'em; and he never took no notice of baby;--and I couldn't +stir to see! + +Oh, dear! the sweat stood all over me! And there I lay, and Simon +didn't come, nor I didn't hear a mouse stir; the air was as still as +death, and I got nigh distracted. Seemed as if all my life riz right +up there in the dark and looked at me. Here I was, all helpless, +may-be never to get out alive; for Simon didn't come, and Russell was +gone away. I'd had a good home, and a kind husband, and all I could +ask; but I hadn't had a contented mind; I'd quarrelled with +Providence, 'cause I hadn't got everything,--and now I hadn't got +nothing. I see just as clear as daylight how I'd nussed up every +little trouble till it growed to a big one,--how I'd sp'ilt Russell's +life, and made him wretched,--how I'd been cross to him a great many +times when I had ought to have been a comfort; and now it was like +enough I shouldn't never see him again,--nor baby, nor mother, nor +Major. And how could I look the Lord in the face, if I did die? That +took all my strength out. I lay shakin' and chokin' with the idee, I +don't know how long; it kind of got hold of me and ground me down; it +was worse than all. I wished to gracious I didn't believe in hell; but +then it come to mind, What should I do in heaven, ef I was there? I +didn't love nothin' that folks in heaven love, except the baby; I +hadn't been suited with the Lord's will on earth, and 'twa'n't likely +I was goin' to like it any better in heaven; and I should be ashamed +to show my face where I didn't belong, neither by right nor by want. So +I lay. Presently I heerd in my mind this verse, that I'd learned years +back in Sabbath School,-- + + "Wherefore He is able also to save them to + the uttermost"-- + +there it stopped, but it was a plenty for me. I see at once there +wasn't no help anywhere else, and for once in my life I did pray, real +earnest, and--queer enough--not to get out, but to be made good. I +kind of forgot where I was, I see so complete what I was; but after a +while I did pray to live in the flesh; I wanted to make some amends to +Russell for pesterin' on him so. + +It seemed to me as though I'd laid there two days. A rain finally come +on, with a good even-down pour, that washed in a little, and cooled my +hot head; and after it passed by I heerd one whip-poor-will singin', +so't I knew it was night. And pretty soon I heerd the tramp of a +horse's feet;--it come up; it stopped; I heerd Russell say out loud, +"O Lord!" and give a groan, and then I called to him. I declare, he +jumped! + +So I got him to go look for baby first, because I could wait; and lo! +she was all safe in the trundle-bed, with Lu beside of her, both on +'em stretched out together, one of her little hands on his nose; and +when Russell looked in to the door she stirred a bit, and Lu licked +her hand to keep her quiet. It tells in the Bible about children's +angels always seein' the face of God, so's to know quick what to do +for 'em, I suppose; and I'm sure her'n got to her afore the tornado; +for though the house-roof had blowed off, and the chimbley tumbled +down, there wa'n't a splinter nor a brick on her bed, only close by +the head on't a great hunk of stone had fell down, and steadied up the +clothes-press from tumblin' right on top of her. + +So then Russell rode over, six miles, to a neighbor's, and got two +men, and betwixt 'em all they pried up the beams of the barn, that had +blowed on to the roof and pinned it down over me, and then lifted up +the boards and got me out; and I wa'n't hurt, except a few bruises: +but after that day I begun to get gray hairs. + +Well, Russell was pretty thankful, I b'lieve,--more so'n he need to be +for such a wife. We fixed up some kind of a shelter, but Lu howled so +all night we couldn't sleep. It seems Russell had seen the tornado to +Cumberton, and, judgin' from its course 'twould come past the +clearin', he didn't wait a minute, but saddled up and come off; but it +had crossed the road once or twice, so it was nigh about eleven +o'clock afore he got home; but it was broad moonlight. So I hadn't +been under the roof only about fifteen hours; but it seemed more. + +In the mornin' Russell set out to find Simon, and I was so trembly I +couldn't bear to stay alone, and I went with him, he carryin' baby, +and Lu goin' before, as tickled as he could be. We went a long spell +through the woods, keepin' on the edge of the tornado's road; for't +had made a clean track about a quarter of a mile wide, and felled the +trees flat,--great tulips cut off as sharp as pipe-stems, oaks twisted +like dandelion-stems, and hickories curled right up in a heap. +Presently Lu give a bark, and then such a howl! and there was Simon, +dead enough; a big oak had blowed down, with the trunk right acrost +his legs above the knees, and smashed them almost off. 'Twas plain it +hadn't killed him to once, for the ground all about his head was tore +up as though he'd fought with it, and Russell said his teeth and hands +was full of grass and grit where he'd bit and tore, a-dyin' so hard. I +declare, I shan't never forget that sight! Seems as if my body was +full of little ice-spickles every time I think on't. + +Well, Russell couldn't do nothin'; we had no chance to lift the tree, +so we went back to the house, and he rode away after neighbors; and +while he was gone, I had a long spell of thinkin'. Mother said she +hoped I wouldn't have no hard lesson to teach me Major's ways; but I +had got it, and I know I needed it, 'cause it did come so hard. I +b'lieve I was a better woman after that. I got to think more of other +folks's comfort than I did afore, and whenever I got goin' to be +dismal ag'in I used to try 'n' find somebody to help; it was a sure +cure. + +When the neighbors come, Russell and they blasted and chopped the tree +off of Simon, and buried him under a big pine that we calculated not +to fell. Lu pined, and howled, and moaned for his master, till I got +him to look after baby now and then, when I was hangin' out clothes or +makin' garden, and he got to like her in the end on't near as well as +Simon. + +After a while there come more settlers out our way, and we got a +church to go to; and the minister, Mr. Jones, he come to know if I was +a member, and when I said I wa'n't, he put in to know if I wasn't a +pious woman. + +"Well," says I, "I don't know, Sir." So I up and told him all about +it, and how I had had a hard lesson; and he smiled once or twice, and +says he,-- + +"Your husband thinks you are a Christian, Sister Potter, don't he?" + +"Yes, I do," says Russell, a-comin' in behind me to the door,--for +he'd just stepped out to get the minister a basket of plums. "I ha'n't +a doubt on't, Mr. Jones." + +The minister looked at him, and I see he was kinder pleased. + +"Well," says he, "I don't think there's much doubt of a woman's bein' +pious when she's pious to home; and I don't want no better testimony'n +yours, Mr. Potter. I shall admit you to full fellowship, sister, when +we have a church-meetin' next; for it's my belief you experienced +religion under that blowed-down barn." + +And I guess I did. + + + + +LE MARAIS DU CYGNE.[1] + +[1: The massacre of unarmed and unoffending men in Southern Kansas +took place near the Marais du Cygne of the French _voyageurs_.] + + A blush as of roses + Where rose never grew! + Great drops on the bunch-grass, + But not of the dew! + A taint in the sweet air + For wild bees to shun! + A stain that shall never + Bleach out in the sun! + + Back, steed of the prairies! + Sweet song-bird, fly back! + Wheel hither, bald vulture! + Gray wolf, call thy pack! + The foul human vultures + Have feasted and fled; + The wolves of the Border + Have crept from the dead. + + From the hearths of their cabins, + The fields of their corn, + Unwarned and unweaponed, + The victims were torn,-- + By the whirlwind of murder + Swooped up and swept on + To the low, reedy fen-lands, + The Marsh of the Swan. + + With a vain plea for mercy + No stout knee was crooked; + In the mouths of the rifles + Right manly they looked. + How paled the May sunshine, + Green Marais du Cygne, + When the death-smoke blew over + Thy lonely ravine! + + In the homes of their rearing, + Yet warm with their lives, + Ye wait the dead only, + Poor children and wives! + Put out the red forge-fire, + The smith shall not come; + Unyoke the brown oxen, + The ploughman lies dumb. + + Wind slow from the Swan's Marsh, + O dreary death-train, + With pressed lips as bloodless + As lips of the slain! + Kiss down the young eyelids, + Smooth down the gray hairs; + Let tears quench the curses + That burn through your prayers. + + Strong man of the prairies, + Mourn bitter and wild! + Wail, desolate woman! + Weep, fatherless child! + But the grain of God springs up + From ashes beneath, + And the crown of His harvest + Is life out of death. + + Not in vain on the dial + The shade moves along + To point the great contrasts + Of right and of wrong: + Free homes and free altars + And fields of ripe food; + The reeds of the Swan's Marsh, + Whose bloom is of blood. + + On the lintels of Kansas + That blood shall not dry; + Henceforth the Bad Angel + Shall harmless go by: + Henceforth to the sunset, + Unchecked on her way, + Shall Liberty follow + The march of the day. + + + + +YOUTH. + +The ancient statue of Minerva, in the Villa Albani, was characterized +as the Goddess of Wisdom by an aged countenance. Phidias reformed this +idea, and gave to her beauty and youth. Previous artists had imitated +Nature too carelessly,--not deeply perceiving that wisdom and virtue, +striving in man to resist senescence and decay, must in a goddess +accomplish their purpose, and preserve her in perpetual bloom. Yet +even decay and disease are often ineffectual; the young soul gleams +through these impediments, and would be poorly expressed in figures of +age. Accepting, therefore, this ideal representation, age and wisdom +can never be companions; youth is wise, and age is imbecile. + +Our childhood grows in value as we grow in years. It is to that time +that every one refers the influence which reaches to his present and +somehow moulds it. It may have been an insignificant circumstance,--a +word,--a book,--praise or reproof; but from it has flowed all that he +is. We should seem ridiculous in men's eyes, were we known to give +that importance to certain trifles which in our private and inmost +thought they really have. Each finds somewhat in his childhood +peculiar and remarkable, on which he loves to dwell. It gives him a +secret importance in his own eyes, and he bears it about with him as a +kind of inspiring genius. Intimations of his destiny, gathered from +early memories, float dimly before him, and are ever beckoning him on. +That which he really is no one knows save himself. His words and +actions do but inadequately reveal the being he is. We are all greater +than we seem to each other. The heart's deepest secrets will not be +told. The secret of the interest and delight we take in romances and +poetry is that they realize the expectations and hopes of youth. It is +the world we had painted and expected. He is unhappy who has never +known the eagerness of childish anticipation. + +Full of anticipations, full of simple, sweet delights, are these +years, the most valuable of lifetime. Then wisdom and religion are +intuitive. But the child hastens to leave its beautiful time and +state, and watches its own growth with impatient eye. Soon he will +seek to return. The expectation of the future has been disappointed. +Manhood is not that free, powerful, and commanding state the +imagination had delineated. And the world, too, disappoints his hope. +He finds there things which none of his teachers ever hinted to him. +He beholds a universal system of compromise and conformity, and in a +fatal day he learns to compromise and conform. At eighteen the youth +requires much stricter truth of men than at twenty-four. + +At twenty-four the prophecies of childhood and boyhood begin to be +fulfilled, the longings of the heart to be satisfied. He finds and +tastes that life which once seemed to him so full of satisfaction and +advantage. The inclination to speak in the first person passes away, +and his composition is less autobiographical. The claims of society +and friends begin to be respected. Solitude and musing are less sweet. +The morbid effusions of earlier years, once so precious, no longer +please. Now he regards most his unwritten thought. He uses fewer +adjectives and alliterations, more verbs and dogmatism. There was a +time when his genius was not domesticated, and he did his work +somewhat awkwardly, yet with a fervor prophetic of settled wisdom and +eloquence. The youth is almost too much in earnest. He aims at nothing +less than all knowledge, all wisdom, all power. Perchance the end of +all this is that he may discover his own proper work and tendency, and +learn to know himself from the revelations of his own nature in +universal nature. + +For it is by this sign we choose companions and books. Not that they +are the best persons or the best thoughts; but some subtile affinity +attracts and invites as to another self. In the choosing of companions +there seems to be no choice at all. "We meet, we know not how or when; +and though we should remember the history, yet friendship has an +anterior history we know not of. We all have friends, but the one want +of the soul is a friend,--that other self, that one without whom man +is incomplete and but the opaque face of a planet. For such we +patiently wait and hope, knowing that when we become worthy of him, +continents, nor caste, nor opinion can separate us." + +A like experience is known to the young man in his reading. 'Tis in +vain to advise as to reading; a higher power controls the matter. Of +course there are some books all must read, as every one learns the +alphabet and spelling-book; but his use and combination of them he +shall share with no one. Some spiritual power is ever drawing us +towards what we love. Thus in books one constantly meets his own idea, +his own feelings, even his most private ones, which he thought could +not be known or appreciated beyond his own bosom. Therefore he quickly +falls in love with those books that discover him to himself, and that +are the keepers of his secrets. Here is a part of himself written out +in immortal letters. Here is that thought long dimly haunting the +mind, but which never before found adequate expression. Here is a +memorable passage transcribed out of his experience. + +The fascination of books consists in their revelations of the +half-conscious images of the reader's mind. There is a wonderful +likeness and coincidence in the thoughts of men. But not alone in +books does one meet his own image at every turn. He beholds himself +strewn in a thousand fragments throughout the world; and all his +culture is nothing but assimilation of himself to them, until he can +say with wise Ulysses, "I am a part of all that I have met." + +Thus Nature compels the youth to seek every means of stimulating +himself to activity. He has learned that in periods of transition and +change fresh life flows in upon him, dilating the heart and disclosing +new realms of thought. He thanks the gods for every mood, Doric or +dithyrambic, for each new relation, for each new friend, and even for +his sorrows and misfortunes. Out of these comes the complete wisdom +which shall make old age but another more fair and perfect youth. Even +the face and form shall be fortified against time and fate. In the +physiognomy of age much personal history is revealed. The dimples and +folds of infancy have become the furrows of thought and care. Yet, +sometimes retaining their original beauty, they are an ornament, and +in them we read the record of deep thought and experience. + +But the wrinkles of some old people are characterless; running in all +directions, appearing as though a finely-woven cloth had left its +impress upon the face, revealing a life aimless and idle, or +distracted by a thousand cross-purposes and weaknesses. + +If now youth will permit us to look a little deeper into its heart, we +will attempt to celebrate that unpublished and vestal wisdom written +there. Age does us only indirect justice,--by the value it gives to +memory. It slights and forgets its own present. This day with its +trivialities dwindles and vanishes before the teeming hours wherein it +learned and felt and suffered;--so the circles, which are the tree's +memories of its own growth, are more distinct near the centre, where +its growth began, than in the outer and later development. Give age +the past, and let us be content with our legacy, which is the future. +Still shall youth cast one retrospective glance at the experience of +its nonage, ere it assumes its prerogative, and quite forgets it. + +When the first surprise at the discovery of the faculties is over, +begins the era of experience. The aspiration conducting to experiment +has revealed the power or the inability. Henceforth the youth will +know his relations to the world. But as yet men are ignorant how it +stands between them. There has been only a closet performance, a +morning rehearsal. He sees the tribute to genius, to industry, to +birth, to fortune. At first he yields reluctantly to novitiate and +culture; he yearns for action. His masters tell him that the world is +coy, must be approached cautiously, and with something substantial in +the hand. The old bird will not be caught with chaff. He does not yet +understand the process of accumulation and transmutation. The fate of +the Danaides is his, and he draws long with a bottomless bucket. But +at last his incompetency can no further be concealed. Then he either +submits to the suggestions of despair and oblivion or bravely begins +his work. The exhilaration and satisfaction which he felt at his first +performances, in this hour of renunciation, are changed to bitterness +and disgust. He remembers the old oracle: "In the Bacchic procession +many carry the thyrsus, but few are inspired." The possibility of +ultimate failure threatens him more and more while he reflects; as the +chasm which you wish to leap grows impassable, if you measure and +deliberate. But the vivacity of youth preserves him from any permanent +misanthropy or doubt. Nature makes us blind where we should be injured +by seeing. We partake of the lead of Saturn, the activity of fire, the +forgetfulness of water. His academic praises console him, maugre his +depreciation of them. His little fame, the homage of his little world, +have in them the same sweetness as the reverberation of ages. Heaven +would show him his capacity for those things to which he aspires by +giving him an early and representative realization of them. It is a +happy confidence. Reality is tyrannous. Let him construe everything in +the poet's mood. He shall dream, and the day will have more +significance. Youth belongs to the Muse. + +How the old men envy us! They wisely preclude us from their world, +since they know how it would bereave us of all that makes our state so +full of freedom and delight, and to them so suggestive of the past. + + "I remember, when I think, + That my youth was half divine." + +Thus the great have ever chosen young men for companions. Was it not +Plato who wished he were the heavens, that he might look down upon his +young companion with a thousand eyes? Thus they do homage to the gift +of youth, and by its presence contrive to nestle into its buoyant and +pure existence. If youth will enjoy itself virtuously with gymnastics, +with music, with friendship, with poetry, there will come no hours of +lamentation and repentance. They attend the imbecile and thoughtless. +These halcyon days will return to temper and grace the period of old +age; as upon the ripened peach reappear the hues of its early +blossoms. + +Among his seniors the youth perceives a certain jealousy of him. They +pretend that all has been said and done. They awe him with their great +names. He has to learn, that, though Jew and Greek have spoken, +nevertheless he must reiterate and interpret to his own people and +generation. Perchance in the process something new will likewise be +added. Many things still wait an observer. Still is there infinite +hope and expectation, which youth must realize. In war, in peace, in +politics, in books, all eyes are turned to behold the rising of his +star. + +Reluctantly does the youth yield to the claims of moderation and +reserve. Abandonment to an object has hitherto been his highest +wisdom. But in the pursuit of the most heroic friendship, or the most +sovereign passion, the youth discovers that a certain continence is +necessary. He cannot approach too closely; for that moment love is +changed into disgust and hate. He would drink the nectar to the lees. +This is one of Nature's limitations, and has many analogies; and he +who would never see the bottom of any cup, and always be possessed +with a divine hunger, must observe them. I remember how it piqued my +childish curiosity that the moon seemed always to retreat when I ran +towards her, and to pursue when I fled. It was a very significant +symbol. Stand a little apart, and things of their own accord will come +more than half-way. Nobody ever goes to meet a loafer. Self-centred, +domesticated persons attract. What would be the value of the heavens, +if we could bring the stars into our lap? They cannot be approached or +appropriated. Upon the highest mountain the horizon sinks you in a +valley, and far aloft in night and mystery gleam the retreating stars. + +It must be remembered that indirect vision is much more delicate than +direct. Looking askance, with a certain oblique and upward glance, +constitutes the art and power of the poet; for so a gentle invitation +is offered the imagination to contribute its aid. We see clearest when +the eye is elongated and slightly curtained. Persons with round, +protuberant eyes are obliged to reduce their superfluous visual power +by artificial means. We subordinate the external organ in order to +liberate the inner eye of the mind. The musing, pensive Hindoos, who +have elongated eyes, look through the surface of things to their +essence, and call the world Illusion,--the illusory energy of Vishnu. + +There is a vulgar trick of wishing to touch everything. But the +greatest caution is necessary, in beholding a statue or painting, not +to draw too near; and it is thus with every other beautiful thing. +Nature secretly writes, _Hands off!_--and men do but translate her +hieroglyph in their galleries and museums. The sense of touch is only +a provision against the loss of sight and hearing. We should cultivate +these, until, like the Scandinavian Heimdal, we can hear the trees and +the flowers grow, and see with Heraclitus the breathing of the stars. + +The youth once loved Nature after this somewhat gross and material +fashion, for the berries she gave him, the flowers she wove in his +hair, and the brooks that drove his mimic mills. He chased the +butterfly, he climbed the trees, he would stand in the rain, paint his +cheeks with berry juice, dabble in the mud, and nothing was secure +from his prying fingers and curious eyes. He must touch and taste of +everything, and know every secret. But it eluded him; and he lay down +from his giddy chase, tired and unsatisfied, yet still anticipating +that the morning would reveal all. Later he approaches men and things +in a different mood. Experience has taught him so much. He begins to +feel the use of the past. Memory renders many present advantages as +nothing, and there is a rare and peculiar value to every reminiscence +that connects him with the years from which he is so fast receding. +The bower which his own hands wove from birch-trees and interwove with +green brakes, where at the noon-time he was wont to retreat from the +hot school-house, with the little maid of his choice, and beguile the +hour so happily, suggests a spell and charm to preserve him in +perpetual childhood. + + * * * * * + + +PINTAL. + +In San Francisco, in 1849, on Dupont Street near Washington, a +wretched tent, patched together from mildewed and weather-worn sails, +was pitched on a hill-side lot, unsightly with sand and thorny bushes, +filthy cast-aways of clothing, worn-out boots, and broken bottles. The +forlorn loneliness of this poor abode, and the perfection of its +Californianness, in all the circumstances of exposure, frailness, +destitution, and dirt, were enough of themselves to make it an object +of interest to the not-too-busy passer; yet, to complete its pitiful +picturesqueness, Pathos had bestowed a case of miniatures and a +beautiful child. Beside the entrance of the tent a rough shingle was +fastened to the canvas, and against this hung an unpainted +picture-frame of pine, in humble counterpart of those gilded rosewood +signs which, at the doors of Daguerreotype galleries, display fancy +"specimens" to the goers-to-and-fro of Broadway. Attracted by an +object so novel in San Francisco then, I paused one morning, in my +walk officeward from the "Anglo-Saxon Dining-Saloon," to examine it. + +There were six of them,--six dainty miniature portraits on ivory, +elaborately finished, and full of the finest marks of talent. The +whole were seemingly reproductions of but two heads, a lady's and a +child's,--the lady well fitted to be the mother of the child, which +might well have been divine. There were three studies of each; each +was presented in three characters, chosen as by an artist possessed of +a sentiment of sadness, some touching reminiscence. + +In one picture, the lady--evidently English, a pensive blonde, with +large and most sweet blue eyes curtained by the longest lashes, +regular and refined features suggestive of pure blood, budding lips +full of sensibility, a chin and brow that showed intellect as well as +lineage, and cheeks touched with the young rose's tint--was as a +beautiful _debutante_, the flower of rich drawing-rooms, in her first +season: one white moss-rosebud in her smoothly-braided hair; her +dimpled, round, white shoulders left to their own adornment; and for +jewels, only one opal on her ripening bosom;--as much of her dress as +was shown was the simple white bodice of pure maidenhood. + +In the next, she had passed an interval of trial, for her courage, her +patience, and her pride,--a very few years, perhaps, but enough to +bestow that haughty, defiant glance, and fix those matchless features +in an almost sneer. No longer was her fair head bowed, her eyes +downcast, in shrinking diffidence; but erect and commanding, she +looked some tyranny, or insolence, or malice, in the face, to look it +down. Jewels encircled her brow, and a bouquet of pearls was happy on +her fuller bosom. + +Still a few years further on,--and how changed! "So have I seen a +rose," says that Shakspeare of the pulpit, old Jeremy Taylor, when it +has "bowed the head and broke its stalk; and at night, having lost +some of its leaves and all its beauty, it has fallen into the portion +of weeds and outworn faces." Alas, Farewell, and Nevermore sighed from +those hollow cheeks, those woebegone eyes, those pallid lips, that +willow-like long hair, and the sad vesture of the forsaken Dido. + +So with the child. At first, a rosy, careless, curly-pate of three +years or so,--wonder-eyed and eager, all spring and joyance, and +beautiful as Love. + +Then pale and pain-fretted, heavy-eyed and weary, feebly half-lying in +a great chair, still,--an unheeded locket scarce held by his thin +fingers, his forehead wrinkled with cruel twinges, the sweet bowed +lines of his lips twisted in whimpering puckers, the curls upon his +vein-traced temples unnaturally bright, as with clamminess,--a painful +picture for a mother's eyes! + +But not tragic, like the last; for there the boy had grown. Nine years +had deepened for his clustered curls their hue of golden brown, and +set a seal of anxious thought upon the cold, pale surface of his +intellectual brow, and traced his mouth about with lines of a martyr's +resignation, and filled his profound eyes, dim as violets, with +foreboding speculation, making the lad seem a seer of his own sad +fate. Here, thought I, if I mistake not, is another melancholy chapter +in this San Franciscan romance. This painter learned his art of +Sorrow, and pitiless Experience has bestowed his style; he shall be +for my finding-out. + +Home-sickness had marked me for its own one day. I sat alone in my +rude little office, conning over again for the hundredth time strange +chapters of a waif's experience,--reproducing auld-lang-syne, with all +its thronged streets and lonely forest-paths, its old familiar faces, +talks, and songs,--ingathering there, in the name of Love or +Friendship, forms that were dim and voices that were echoes; and many +an "alas," and "too late," and "it might have been," they brought +along with them. + + "Let this remembrance comfort me,--that when + My heart seemed bursting,--like a restless wave + That, swollen with fearful longing for the shore, + Throws its strong life on the imagined bliss + Of finding peace and undisturbed calm,-- + It fell on rocks and broke in many tears. + + "Else could I bear, on all days of the year,-- + Not now alone, this gentle summer night, + When scythes are busy in the headed grass, + And the full moon warms me to thoughtfulness,-- + This voice that haunts the desert of my soul: + 'It might have been!' Alas! 'It might have been!'" + +I drew from my battered, weather-beaten sea-box sad store of old +letters, bethumbed and soiled,--an accusation in every one of them, +and small hope of forgiveness, save what the gentle dead might render. +There were pretty little portraits, too.--Ah, well! I put them back, +--a frown, or a shadow of reproachful sadness, on the picture of a +once loving and approving face is the hardest bitterness to bide, the +self-unsparing wanderer can know. Therefore I would fain let these +faces be turned from me,--all save one, a merry minx of maidenhood, of +careless heart, and laughing lips, and somewhat naughty eyes. It was a +steel engraving, not of the finest, torn from some Book of Beauty, or +other silly-sentimental keepsake of the literary catch-penny class, +brought all the way from home, and tenderly saved for the sake of its +strange by-chance resemblance to a smart little _lionne_ I had known +in Virginia, in the days when smart little _lionnes_ made me a sort of +puppy Cumming. The picture, unframed, and exposed to all the chances +of rough travel, had partaken of my share of foul weather and coarse +handling, and been spotted and smutched, and creased and torn, and +every way defaced. I had often wished that I might have a pretty +painting made from it, before it should be spoiled past copying. So +here, I thought, shall be my introduction to my fly-in-amber artist, +of the seedy tent and the romantic miniatures. So pocketing my +picture, I hied me forthwith to Dupont Street. + +The tent seemed quite deserted. At first, I feared my rare bird had +flitted; I shook the bit of flying-jib that answered for a door, and +called to any one within, more than once, before an inmate stirred. +Then, so quietly that I had not heard his approach, a lad, of ten +perhaps, came to the entrance, and, timidly peering up into my face, +asked, "Is it my father you wish to see, Sir?" + +How beautiful! how graceful! with what touching sweetness of voice! +how intellectual his expression, and how well-bred his air!--plainly a +gentleman's son, and the son of no common gentleman! Instinctively I +drew back a pace to compare him with the child of the "specimens." +Unquestionably the same,--there were the superior brow, the richly +clustered curls of golden brown, the painful lips, and the foreboding +eyes. + +"If your father painted these pretty pictures, my boy,--yes, I would +be glad to see him, if he is within." + +"He is not here at present, Sir; he went with my mother to the ship, +to bring away our things. But it is quite a long while since they +went; and I think they will return presently. Take a seat, Sir, +please." + +I accepted the stool he offered,--a canvas one, made to "unship" and +fold together,--such a patent accommodation for tired "hurdies" as +amateur sketchers and promiscuous lovers of the picturesque in +landscape take with them on excursions. My accustomed eye took in at a +glance the poor furniture of that very Californian make-shift of a +shelter for fortune-seeking heads. There were chests, boxes, and +trunks, the usual complement, bestowed in every corner, as they could +best be got out of the way,--a small, rough table, on temporary legs, +and made, like the seats, to unship and be stowed,--several other of +the same canvas stools,--a battered chest of drawers, at present doing +the duty of a cupboard,--some kitchen utensils, and a few articles of +table furniture of the plainest delft. As for the kitchen, I had +noticed, as I passed, a portable furnace for charcoal, without, and at +the rear of the tent; it was plain they did their cooking in the open +air. On one side of the entrance, and near the top of the tent, a +small square had been cut from the canvas, and the sides framed with +slats of wood, making a sort of Rembrandtish skylight, through which +some scanty rays of barbaric glory fell on an easel, with its palette, +brushes, and paints. A canvas framed, on which the ground had been +laid, and the outline of a head already traced, was mounted on the +easel; other such frames, as if of finished portraits with their faces +turned to the wall, stood on the earthen floor, supported by a strip +of wood tacked to the tent-cloth near the bottom. On the floor, at the +foot of the easel, lay an artist's sketch-book. A part of the tent +behind was divided off from what, by way of melancholy jest, I may +call the reception-room, or the studio, by a rope stretched across, +from which were suspended a blanket, a travelling shawl, and a +voluminous, and evidently costly, Spanish cloak. Protruding beyond the +edge of this extemporaneous screen, I could see the footposts of an +iron bedstead, and the end of a large _poncho_, which served for a +counterpane. + +"Will you amuse yourself with this sketch-book, please," said the +pretty lad, "till my father comes?" + +"With pleasure, my boy,--if you are sure your father will not object." + +"Oh, no, indeed, Sir! My father has told me I must always entertain +any gentlemen who may call when he is out,--that is, if he is to +return soon; and any one may look at this book;--it is only his +portfolio, in which he sketches whatever new or pretty things we see +on our travels; but there are some very nice pictures in +it,--landscapes, and houses, and people." + +"Have you travelled much, then?" + +"Oh, yes! we have been travelling ever since I can remember; we have +been far, and seen a great many strange sights, and some such queer +people!--There! that is our shepherd in Australia; isn't he funny? his +name was Dirk. I tied that blue ribbon round his straw hat, that seems +big enough for an umbrella. He looks as if he were laughing, doesn't +he? That's because I was there when my father sketched him; and he +made such droll faces, with his brown skin and his great grizzly +moustaches, when father told him he must make up a pleasant +expression, that it set me laughing,--for my father said he looked +like a Cape lion making love; and then Dirk would laugh too, and spoil +his pleasant expression; and father would scold; and it was so funny! +I loved Dirk very much, he was so good to me; he gave me a tame +kangaroo, and a black swan, and taught me to throw the boomerang; and +once, when he went to Sydney, he spent ever so much money to buy me a +silver bell for Lipse, my yellow lamb. I wonder if Dirk is living yet? +Do you think he is dead, Sir? I should be very much grieved, if he +were; for I promised I would come back to see him when I am a man." + +--"_That_ is Dolores,--dear old Dolores! Isn't she fat?" + +"Yes, and good, too, I should think, from the kind face she has. Who +was Dolores?" + +"Ah! you never saw Dolores, did you? And you never heard her sing. She +was my Chilena nurse in Valparaiso; and she had a mother--oh, so very +old!--who lived in Santiago. We went once to see her; the other +Santiago--that was Dolores's son--drove us there in the _veloche_. +Wasn't it curious, his name should be the same as the city's? But he +was a bad boy, Santiago,--so mischievous! such a scamp! Father had to +whip him many times; and once the _vigilantes_ took him up, and would +have put him in the chain-gang, for cutting an American sailor with a +knife, in the Calle de San Francisco, if father had not paid five +ounces, and become security for his good behavior. But he ran away, +after all, and went as a common sailor in a nasty guano ship. Dolores +cried very much, and it was long before she would sing for me again. +Oh, she did know such delightful songs!--_Mi Niña_, and _Yo tengo Ojos +Negros_, and + + "'No quiero, no quiero casarme; + Es mejor, es mejor soltera!'" + +And the delightful little fellow merrily piped the whole of that "song +of pleasant glee," one of the most melodious and sauciest bits of +lyric coquetry to be found in Spanish. + +"Ah," said he, "but I cannot sing it half so well as Dolores. She had +a beautiful guitar, with a blue ribbon, that her sweetheart gave her +before I was born, when she was young and very pretty;--he brought it +all the way from Acapulco." + +--"And _that_ pretty girl is Juanita; she sold pine-apples and grapes +in the Almendral, and every night she would go with her guitar--it was +a very nice one, but did not cost near so much money as Dolores's--and +sing to the American gentlemen in the Star Hotel. My mother said she +was a naughty person, and that she did not dare tell where she got her +gold cross and those jet ear-rings. But I liked her very much, for all +that; and I'm sure she would not steal, for she used to give me a +fresh pine-apple every morning; and whenever her brother José came +down from Casa Blanca with the mules and the _pisco_, she sent me a +large melon and some lovely roses." + +--"That is the house we lived in at Baltimore. It was painted white, +and there was a paling in front, and a dooryard with grass. We had +some honeysuckles on the porch;--there they are, and there's the +grape-vine. I had a dog-house, too, made to look like a church, and my +father promised to buy me a Newfoundland dog,--one of those great +hairy fellows, with brass collars, you know, that you can ride +on,--when he had sold a great many pictures, and made his fortune. But +we did not make our fortune in Baltimore, and I never got my dog; so +we came here to Tom Tiddler's ground, to pick up gold and silver. When +we are fixed, and get a new tent, my father is going to give me a +little spade and a cradle, to dig gold enough to buy a Newfoundland +dog with, and then I shall borrow a saw and make a dog-house, like the +one I had in Baltimore, out of that green chest. Charley Saunders +lived in that next house in the picture, and he had a martin-box, with +a steeple to it; but his father gave fencing-lessons, and was very +rich." + +As the intelligent little fellow ran on with his pretty prattle, I was +diligently pursuing the lady and child of the specimens through the +sketches. On every leaf I encountered them, ever changing, yet always +the same. Here was the child by my side,--unquestionably the same; +though now I looked in vain for the anxious mouth and the foreboding +eyes in his face of careless, hopeful urchinhood. But who was the +other?--his mother, no doubt; and yet no trace of resemblance. + +"And tell me, who is this beautiful lady, my lad,--here, and here, and +here, and here again? You see I recognize her always,--so lovely, and +so gentle-looking. Your mother?" + +"Oh, no, Sir!" and he laughed,--"my mother is very different from +that. That is nobody,--only a fancy sketch." + +"Only a fancy sketch!" So, then, I thought, my pretty entertainer, +confiding and communicative as you are, it is plain there are some +things you do not know, or will not tell. + +"She is not any one we ever saw;--she never lived. My father made her +out of his own head, as I make stories sometimes; or he dreamed her, +or saw her in the fire. But he is very fond of her, I suppose, because +he made her himself,--just as I think my own stories prettier than any +true ones; and he's always drawing her, and drawing her, and drawing +her. I love her, too, very much,--she looks so natural, and has such +nice ways. Isn't it strange my father--but he's _so_ clever with his +pencil and brushes!--should be able to invent the Lady Angelica? +--that's her name. But my mother does not like her at all, and +gets out of patience with my father for painting so many of her. +Mamma says she has a stuck-up expression,--such a funny word, +'stuck-up'!--and does not look like a lady. Once I told mamma I was +sure she was only jealous, and she grew very angry, and made me cry; +so now I never speak of Lady Angelica before her. What makes me think +my father must have dreamed her is that I dreamed her once myself. I +thought she came to me in such a splendid dress, and told me that she +was not only a live lady, but my own mother, and that mamma was---- +Hush! This is my father, Sir." + +Wonderful! how the lad had changed!--like a phantom, the thoughtless +prattler was gone in a moment, and in his place stood the seer-boy of +the picture, the profound foreboding eyes fixed anxiously, earnestly, +on the singular man who at that moment entered: a singularly small +man, cheaply but tidily attired in black; even his shoes polished,--a +rare and dandyish indulgence in San Francisco, before the French +bootblacks inaugurated the sumptuary vanity of Day and Martin's lustre +on the stoop of the California Exchange, and made it a necessity no +less than diurnal ablutions; a well-preserved English hat on his head, +which, when he with a somewhat formal air removed it, discovered thin +black locks, beginning to part company with the crown of his head. In +his large, brown eyes an expression of moving melancholy was +established; a nervous tremulousness almost twitched his refined lips, +which, to my surprise, were not concealed by the universal +moustache,--indeed, the smooth chin and symmetrically trimmed +mutton-chop whiskers, in the orthodox English mode, showed that the +man shaved. His nose, slightly aquiline, was delicately cut, and his +nostrils fine; and he had small feet and hands, the latter remarkably +white and tender. As he stood before me, he was never at rest for an +instant, but changed his support from one leg to the other,--they were +slight as a young boy's,--and fumbled, as it were, with his feet; as I +have seen a distinguished medical lecturer, of Boston, gesticulate +with his toes. He played much with his whiskers, too, and his fingers +were often in his hair--as a fidgety and vulgar man would bite his +nails. From all of which I gathered that my new acquaintance was an +intensely nervous person,--very sensitive, of course, and no doubt +irritable. + +He was accompanied by a--female, much taller than he, and as stalwart +as dear woman can be; an especially common-looking person, bungled as +to her dress, which was tawdry-fine, unseasonable for the place as +well as time, inappropriate to herself, inharmonious in its +composition, and every way most vilely put on; a clumsy and, as I +presently perceived, a loud person, whose face, still showing traces +of the coarse but decided beauty it must once have possessed, fell far +short of compensating for the complete gracelessness of her presence. + +Her eyes had a bibulous quality, and the bright redness of her nose +vied vulgarly with the rusty redness of her cheeks. I suspected her +complexion of potations, but charitably let it off with--beer; for she +was, at first glance, English. As she jerked off her flaunting bonnet, +and dragged off her loud shawl, saluting me, as she did so, with an +overdone obeisance, she said, "This San Fanfrisko"--why would she, how +could she, always twist the decent name of the metropolis of the +Pacific into such an absurd shape?--"was a norrid 'ole; she happealed +to the gentleman,"--meaning me,--"didn't 'e find it a norrid 'ole, +habsolutely hawful?" And then she went clattering among tinware and +crockery, and snubbed the gentlemanly boy in a sort of tender +Billingsgate. + +While she was thus gracefully employed, the agonized artist, his face +suffused with blushes and fairly ghastly with an enforced smile, was +painfully struggling to abstract himself, by changing the places of +things, shifting the position of his easel, prying in a lost way into +lumbered corners, and pretending to be in search of something, +--ingenious, but unable to disguise his chagrin. He pranced +with his legs, and tumbled his hair, and twitched at his whiskers more +than ever, as he said,-- + +"My dear," (and the boy had called her Mamma; so, then, it must be a +fancy sketch, after all,) "my dear, no doubt the gentleman is more a +cosmopolite than yourself, and blessed with more facility in adapting +himself to circumstances." + +"You know, Madam," I came to his assistance, "we Americans have a +famous trick of living and enjoying a little in advance, of 'going +ahead' of the hour, as it were. We find in San Francisco rather what +it promises to be than what it is, and we take it at its word." + +"Oh, pray, don't mention Americans! I positively 'ate the hodious +people. I confess I 'ave a hinsurmountable prejudice hagainst the +race; you are not haware that I am Hinglish. I think I might endure +heven San Fanfrisko, if it were not for the Americans. Are you an +American?" + +Alternating between the pallor of rage and the flush of mortification, +her husband now turned, with a calmness that had something of +desperation in it, and saved me the trouble and the pain of replying, +by asking, in the frigid tone of one who resented my presence as the +cause of his shame,-- + +"Did you wish to see me on business, Sir? and have you been waiting +long?" + +"The success with which your charming little boy has entertained me +has made the time seem very short. I could willingly have waited +longer." + +That last remark was a mere _contretemps_. I did not mean to be as +severe as he evidently thought me, for he bowed haughtily and +resentfully. + +I came at once to business,--drew from my pocket the engraving I had +brought,--"Could he copy that for me?" + +"How?--in miniature or life-size?--ivory or canvas?" + +"You are, then, a portrait-painter, also?--Ah! to be sure!" and I +glanced at the canvas on the easel. + +"Certainly,--I prefer to make portraits." + +"And in this case I should prefer to have one. Extravagant as the +vanity may seem, I am willing to indulge in it, for the sake of being +the first, in this land of primitive wants and fierce unrefinements, +to take a step in the direction of the Fine Arts,--unless you have had +calls upon your pencil already." + +"None, Sir." + +"Then to-morrow, if you please,--for I cannot remain longer at +present,--we will discuss my whim in detail." + +"I shall be at your service, Sir." + +"Good day, Madam! And you, my pretty lad, well met,--what is your +name?" + +"Ferdy, Sir,--Ferdinand Pintal." + +At that moment, his father, as if reminded of a neglected courtesy, or +a business form, handed me his card,--"Camillo Alvarez y Pintal." + +"Thanks, then, Ferdy, for the pains you took to entertain me. You must +let me improve an acquaintance so pleasantly begun." + +The boy's hand trembled as it lay in mine, and his eyes, fixed upon +his father's, wore again the ominous expression of the picture. He did +not speak, and his father took a step toward the door significantly. + +But the doleful silence that might have attended my departure was +broken by a demonstration, "as per sample," from my country's fair and +gentle 'ater. "She 'oped I would not be hoffended by the freedom of +'er hobservations on my countrymen. I must hexcuse 'er Hinglish +bluntness; she was haware that she 'ad a somewhat hoff-'and way of +hexpressing 'er hemotions; but when she 'ated she 'ated, and it +relieved 'er to hout with it hat once. Certainly she would +never--bless 'er 'eart, no!--'ave taken me for an American; I was so +huncommonly genteel." + +With my hand upon the region of my heart, as I had seen stars, when +called before the curtain on the proudest evening of their lives, give +anatomical expression to their overwhelming sense of the honor done +them, I backed off, hat in hand. + +"Camillo Alvarez y Pintal," I read again, as I approached the Plaza. +"Can this man be Spanish, then? Surely not;--how could he have +acquired his excellent English, without a trace of foreign accent, or +the least eccentricity of idiom? His child, too, said nothing of that. +English, no doubt, of Spanish parentage; or,--oh, patience! I shall +know by-and-by, thanks to my merry Virginia jade, who shall be arrayed +in resplendent hues, and throned in a golden frame, if she but feed my +curiosity generously enough." + +Next day, in the afternoon, having bustled through my daily programme +of business, I betook myself with curious pleasure to my appointment +with Pintal. To my regret, at first, I found him alone; but I derived +consolation from the assurance, that, wherever the engaging boy had +gone, his mother had accompanied him. Even more than at my first +visit, the artist was frigidly reserved and full of warning-off +politeness. With but a brief prelude of courteous commonplaces, he +called me to the business of my visit. + +My picture, as I have said, was a fairly executed steel engraving, +taken from some one of the thousands of "Tokens," or "Keepsakes," or +"Amulets," or "Gems," or such like harmless giftbooks, with which +youths of tender sentiment remind preoccupied damsels of their careful +_penchants_. It represented an "airy, fairy Lilian" of eighteen, or +thereabouts, lolling coquettishly, fan in hand, in an antique, +high-backed chair, with "carven imageries," and a tasselled cushion. +She rejoiced in a profusion of brown ringlets, and her costume was +pretty and quaint,--a dainty chemisette, barred with narrow bands of +velvet, as though she had gone to Switzerland, or the South of Italy, +for the sentiment of her bodice,--sleeves quaintly puffed and +"slashed,"--the ample skirt looped up with rosettes and natty little +ends of ribbon; her feet beneath her petticoat, "like little mice," +stole out, "as if they feared the light." Somewhere, among the many +editions of Dickens's works, I have seen a Dolly Varden that resembled +her. + +It was agreed between us that she should be reproduced in a life-size +portrait, with such a distribution of rich colors as the subject +seemed to call for, as his fine taste might select, and his cunning +hand lay on. I sought to break down his reserve, and make myself +acceptable to him, by the display of a discreet geniality, and a +certain frankness, not falling into familiarity, which should seem to +proceed from sympathy, and a _bonhommie_, that, assured of its own +kindly purpose, would take no account of his almost angry distance. +The opportunity was auspicious, and I was on the alert to turn it to +account. I made a little story of the picture, and touched it with +romance. I told him of Virginia,--especially of that part of the State +in which this saucy little lady lived,--of its famous scenery, its +historic places, and the peculiar features of its society. I strove to +make the lady present to his mind's eye by dwelling on her certain +eccentricities, and helping my somewhat particular description of her +character with anecdotes, more or less pointed and amusing, especially +to so grave a foreigner, of her singular ready-wittedness and graceful +audacity. Then I had much to say about her little "ways" of attitude, +gesture, and expression, and some hints to offer for slight changes in +the finer lines of the face, and in the expression, which might make +the likeness more real to both of us, and, by getting up an interest +in him for the picture, procure his favorable impression for myself. + +I had the gratification, as my experiment proceeded, to find that it +was by no means unsuccessful. His austerity appreciably relaxed, and +the kindly tone into which his few, but intelligent observations +gradually fell, was accompanied by an encouraging smile, when the +drift of our talk was light. Then I spoke of his child, and eagerly +praised the beauty, the intelligence, and sweet temper of the lad. +'Twas strange how little pleasure he seemed to derive from my sincere +expressions of admiration; indeed, the slight satisfaction he did +permit himself to manifest appeared in his words only, not at all in +his looks; for a shade of deep sadness fell at once upon his handsome +face, and his expression, so full of sensibility, assumed the cast of +anxiety and pain. "He thanked me for my eloquent praises of the boy, +and--not too partially, he hoped--believed that he deserved them all. +A prize of beauty and of love had fallen to him in his little Ferdy, +for which he would be grieved to seem ungrateful. But yet--but +yet--the responsibility, the anxiety, the ceaseless fretting care! +This fierce, unbroken city";--he spoke of it as though it were a +newly-lassoed and untamed mustang,--I liked the simile; "this lawless, +blasphemous, obscene, and dangerous community; these sights of +heartlessness and cruelty; these sounds of selfish, greedy contention; +the absence of all taste and culture,--no lines of beauty, no strains +of music, no tones of kindness, no gestures of gentleness and grace, +no delicate attentions, no ladies' presence, no social circle, no +books, no home, no church;--Good God! what a heathenish barbarism of +coarse instincts, and irreverence, and insulting equalities, and all +manner of gracelessnesses, to bring the dangerous impressionability of +fine childhood to! The boy was nervous, sensitive, of a spirit quick +to take alarms or hurts,--physically unprepared to wrestle with +arduous toil, privation, and exposure,--most apt for the teachings of +gentleness and taste. It was cruel to think--he could wish him dead +first--that his clean, white mind must become smeared and spotted +here, his well-tuned ear reconciled to loud discords, and his fine eye +at peace with deformity; but there was no help for it." And then, as +though he had suddenly detected in my face an expression of surprised +discovery, he said, "But I am sure I do not know how I came to say so +much, or let myself be tedious with sickly egotisms to a polite, but +indifferent, stranger. If you have gathered from them more than I +meant should appear, you will at least do me the justice to believe +that I have not been boasting of what I regard as a calamity." + +I essayed to reassure him by urging upon his consideration the +manifest advantages of courage, self-reliance, ingenuity, quick and +economical application of resources, independence, and perseverance, +which his son, if well-trained, must derive from even those rude +surroundings,--at the same time granting the necessity of sleepless +vigilance and severe restraints. But he only shook his head sadly, and +said, "No doubt, no doubt; and I hope, Sir, the fault is in myself, +that I do not appreciate the force and value of all that." + +The subject was so plainly full of a peculiar pain for him, he was so +ill at mind on this point, that I could not find it in my heart to +pursue it further at the cost of his feelings. So we talked of other +things: of gold, and the placers, and their unimpaired productiveness, +--of the prospects of the country, and of the character the +mineral element must stamp upon its politics, its commerce, and +its social system,--of San Francisco, and all the enchantments of its +sudden upspringing,--of Alcaldes and town-councils,--of hounds and +gamblers,--of real estate and projected improvements,--of canvas +houses, and iron houses, and fires,--of sudden fortunes, and as sudden +failures,--of speculations and markets, and the prices of clothing, +provisions, and labor,--of intemperance, disease, and hospitals,--of +brawls, murder, and suicide,--till we had exhausted all the +Californian budget; and then I bade him good day. He parted with me +with flattering reluctance, cordially shaking my hand and urging me to +repeat my visit in a few days, when he should be sufficiently forward +with the picture to admit me to a sight of it. I confessed my +impatience for the interval to pass; for my interest was now fully +awakened and very lively;--so well-informed and so polished a +gentleman, so accomplished and so fluent, so ill-starred and sad, so +every way a man with a history! + +I saw much of Pintal after this, and he sometimes visited me at my +office. Impelled by increasing admiration and esteem, I succeeded by +the exercise of studious tact in ingratiating myself in his friendship +and confidence; he talked with freedom of his feelings and his +affairs; and although he had not yet admitted me to the knowledge of +his past, he evinced but little shyness in speaking of the present. At +our interviews in his tent I seldom met his wife; indeed, I suspected +him of contriving to keep her out of the way; for I was always told +she had just stepped out;--or if by chance I found her there, she was +never again vulgarly loquacious, but on some pretext or other at once +took herself away. On the other hand, the child was rarely +absent,--from which I argued that I was in favor; nor was his pretty +prattle, even his boldest communicativeness, harshly checked, save +when, as I guessed, he was approaching too near some forbidden theme. +Then a quick flash from his father's eye instantaneously imposed +silence upon him: as if that eye were an evil one, and there were a +malison in its glance, the whole demeanor of the child underwent at +once a magical change; the foreboding look took possession of his +beautiful eyes, the anxious lines appeared around his mouth, his lips +and chin became tremulous, his head drooped, he let fall my hand which +he was fond of holding as he talked, and quietly, penitently slunk +away; and though he might presently be recalled by his father's +kindliest tones, his brightness would not be restored that time. + +This mysterious, severe understanding between the father and the child +affected me painfully; I was at a loss to surmise its nature, whence +it proceeded, or how it could be; for Ferdy evinced in his every word, +look, movement, an undivided fondness for his father. And in his +tender-proud allusions to the boy, at times let fall to me,--in the +anxious watchfulness with which he followed him with his eye, when an +interval of peace and comparative happiness had set childhood's spirit +free, and lent a degree of graceful gayety to all his motions,--I saw +the brimming measure of the father's love. Could it be but his +morbidly repellant pride, his jealous guarding of the domestic +privacies, his vigilant pacing up and down forever before the +close-drawn curtain of the heart?--was there no Bluebeard's chamber +there? No! Pride was all the matter,--pride was the Spartan fox that +tore the vitals of Pintal, while he but bit his lips, and bowed, and +passed. + +Among the pictures in Pintal's tent was one which had in an especial +manner attracted my attention. It was a cabinet portrait, nearly +full-length, of a venerable gentleman, of grave but benevolent aspect, +and an air of imposing dignity. Care had evidently been taken to +render faithfully the somewhat remarkable vigor of his frame; his +iron-gray hair was cropped quite short, and he wore a heavy grizzled +moustache, but no other beard; the lines of his mouth were not severe, +and his eye was soft and gentle. But what made the portrait +particularly noticeable was the broad red ribbon of a noble order +crossing the breast, and a Maltese cross suspended from the neck by a +short chain of massive and curiously wrought links. I had many times +been on the point of asking the name of this singularly handsome and +distinguished-looking personage; but an instinctive feeling of +delicacy always deterred me. + +One day I found little Ferdy alone, and singing merrily some pretty +Spanish song. I told him I was rejoiced to find him in such good +spirits, and asked him if he had not been having a jolly romp with the +American carpenter's son, who lived in the Chinese house close by. My +question seemed to afflict him with puzzled surprise;--he half smiled, +as if not quite sure but I might be jesting. + +"Oh, no, indeed! I have never played with him; I do not know him; I +never play with any boys here. Oh, no, indeed!" + +"But why not, Ferdy? What! a whole month in this tiresome tent, and +not make the acquaintance of your nearest neighbor,--such a sturdy, +hearty chunk of a fellow as that is?--I have no doubt he's +good-natured, too, for he's fat and funny, tough and independent. +Besides, he's a carpenter's son, you know; so there's a chance to +borrow a saw to make the dog-house with. Who knows but his father will +take a fancy to you,--I'm sure he is very likely to,--and make you a +church dog-house, steeple and all complete and painted, and much finer +than Charley Saunders's martin-box?" + +"Oh, I should like to, so much! And perhaps he has a Newfoundlander +with a bushy tail and a brass collar,--that would be nicer than a +kangaroo. But--but"--looking comically bothered,--"I never knew a +carpenter's son in my life. I am sure my father would not give me +permission,--I am sure he would be very angry, if I asked him. Are +they not very disagreeable, that sort of boys? Don't they swear, and +tear their clothes, and fight, and sing vulgar songs, and tell lies, +and sit down in the middle of the street?" + +Merciful Heaven! thought I,--here's a crying shame! here's an +interesting case for professors of moral hygiene! An apt, intelligent +little man, with an empty mind, and a by-no-means overloaded stomach, +I'll engage,--with a pride-paralyzed father, and a beer-bewitched +slattern of a mother,--with his living to get, in San Francisco, too, +and the world to make friends with,--who has never enjoyed the +peculiar advantages to be derived from the society of little dirty +boys, never been admitted to the felicity of popular songs, nor +exercised his pluck in a rough-and-tumble, nor ventilated himself in +wholesome "giddy, giddy, gout,"--to whom dirt-pies are a fable! + +"Ferdy," said I, "I'll talk with your father myself. But tell me, now, +what makes you so happy to-day." + +"My father got a letter this morning,"--a mail had just arrived; it +brought no smile or tear for me,--no parallelogram of tragedy or +comedy in stationery,--"such a pleasant one, from my uncle Miguel, at +Florence, in Italy, you know. He is well, and quite rich, my father +says; they have restored to him his property that he thought was all +lost forever, and they have made him a chevalier again. But I am sure +my father will tell you all about it, for he said he did hope you +would come to-day; and he is so happy and so kind!" + +"They have made him a chevalier again," I wondered. "Your uncle Miguel +is your father's brother, then, Ferdy. And did you ever see him?" + +Before he could reply, Pintal entered, stepping smartly, his color +heightened with happiness, his eyes full of an extraordinary elation. + +"Ah! my dear Doctor, I am rejoiced to find you here; I have been +wishing for you. See! your picture is finished. Tell me if you like +it." + +"Indeed, a work of beauty, Pintal." + +"To me, too, it never looked so well before; but I see things with +glad eyes to-day. I have much to tell you. Ferdy, your mother is +dining at the restaurant; go join her. And when you have finished your +dinner, ask her to take you to walk. Say that I am engaged. Would you +not like to walk, my boy, and see how fast the new streets spring up? +When you return, you can tell me of all you saw." + +The boy turned up his lovely face to be kissed, and for a moment hung +fondly on his father's neck. The poor painter's lips quivered, and his +eyes winked quickly. Then the lad took his cap, and without another +word went forth. + +"I am happy to-day, Doctor,--Heaven save the mark! My happiness is so +much more than my share, that I shall insist, will ye, nill ye, on +your sharing it with me. I have a heart to open to somebody, and you +are the very man. So, sit you down, and bear with my egotism, for I +have a little tale to tell you, of who I am and how I came here. The +story is not so commonplace but that your kindness will find, here and +there, an interesting passage in it. + +"I have seen that that picture,"--indicating the one I have last +described,--"attracted your attention, and that you were prevented +from questioning me about it only by delicacy. That is my father's +likeness. He was of English birth, the younger son of a rich Liverpool +merchant. An impulsive, romantic, adventurous boy, seized early with a +passion for seeing the world, his unimaginative, worldly-wise father, +practical and severe, kept him within narrow, fretting bounds, and +imposed harsh restraints upon him. When he was but sixteen years old, +he ran away from home, shipped before the mast, and, after several +long voyages, was discharged, at his own request, at Carthagena, where +he entered a shipping-house as clerk, and, having excellent mercantile +talents, was rapidly promoted. + +"Meantime, through a sister, the only remaining child, except a +half-witted brother, he heard at long intervals from home. His father +remained strangely inexorable, fiercely forbade his return, and became +violent at the slightest mention of his name by his sister, or some +old and attached servant; he died without bequeathing his forgiveness, +or, of course, a single shilling. But the young man thrived with his +employers, whose business growing rapidly more and more prosperous, +and becoming widely extended, they transferred him to a branch house +at Malaga. Here he formed the acquaintance of the Don Francisco de +Zea-Bermudez, whose rising fortunes made his own. + +"Zea-Bermudez was at that time engaged in large commercial operations. +Although, under the diligent and ambitious teaching of his famous +relative, the profound, sagacious, patriotic, bold, and gloriously +abused Jovellanos, he had become accomplished in politics, law, and +diplomacy, he seemed to be devoting himself for the present to large +speculations and the sudden acquisition of wealth, and to let the +state of the nation, the Cortes, and its schemes, alone. + +"Only a young, beautiful, and accomplished sister shared his splendid +establishment in Malaga; and for her my father formed an engrossing +attachment, reciprocated in the fullest, almost simultaneously with +his friendship for her brother. Zea favored the suit of the +high-spirited and clever young Englishman, whose intelligence, +independence, and perseverance, to say nothing of his good looks and +his engaging manners, had quite won his heart. By policy, too, no less +than by pleasure, the match recommended itself to him;--my father +would make a famous junior-partner. So they were married under the +name of Pintal, bestowed upon his favorite English clerk by the +adventurous first patron at Carthagena, who had found the boy provided +with only a 'purser's name,' as sailors term it. + +"I will not be so disrespectful to the memory of my distinguished +uncle, nor so rude toward your intelligence, my friend, as to presume +that you are not familiar with the main points of his history,--the +great strides he took, almost from that time, in a most influential +diplomatic career: the embassy to St. Petersburg, and the +Romanzoff-Bermudez treaty of amity and alliance in 1812, by which +Alexander acknowledged the legality of the ordinary and extraordinary +Cortes of Cadiz; the embassy to the Porte in 1821; his recall in 1823, +and extraordinary mission to the Court of St. James; his appointment +to lead the Ministry in 1824; my father's high place in the Treasury; +their joint efforts from this commanding position to counteract the +violence of the Apostolical party, to meet the large requisitions of +France, to cover the deficit of three hundred millions of reals, and +to restore the public credit; the insults of the Absolutists, and +their machinations to thwart his liberal and sagacious measures; his +efforts to resign, opposed by the King; the suppression of a +formidable Carlist conspiracy in 1825; the execution of Bessières, and +the 'ham-stringing' of Absolutist leaders; his dismissal from the +Ministry in October, 1825, Ferdinand yielding to the Apostolic storm; +the embassy to Dresden; his appointment as Minister at London. + +"And here my story begins, for I was his Secretary of Legation then; +while my brother Miguel, younger than I, was _attaché_ at Paris, where +he had succeeded me, on my promotion,--a promotion that procured for +me congratulations for which I could with difficulty affect a decent +show of gratitude, for I knew too well what it meant. It was not the +enlightened, liberal Minister I had to deal with, but the hard, proud +uncle, full of expediencies, and calculating schemes for family +advancement, and the exaltation of a lately obscure name. + +"In Paris I had been admitted first to the flattering friendship, and +then to the inmost heart of--of a most lovely young lady, as noble by +her character as by her lineage,"--and he glanced at the open +sketch-book. + +"The Lady Angelica," I quietly said. + +"Sir!" he exclaimed, quickly changing color, and assuming his most +frigid expression and manner. But as quickly, and before I could +speak, his sad smile and friendly tone returned, and he said,-- + +"Ah! I see,--Ferdy has been babbling of his visions and his dreams. +Yes, the Lady Angelica. 'Very charming,' my uncle granted, 'but very +poor; less of the angel and more of the heiress was desirable,' he +said,--'less heaven and more land. A decayed family was only a little +worse than an obscure one,--a poor knight not a whit more respectable +than a rich merchant. I must relinquish my little romance,--I had not +time for it; I had occupation enough for the scant leisure my family +duties'--and he laid stress on the words--'left me in the duties of my +post. He would endeavor to find arguments for the lady and employment +for me.' + +"It was in vain for me to remonstrate,--I was too familiar with my +uncle's temper to waste my time and breath so. I would be silent, I +resolved, and pursue my honorable and gallant course without regard to +his scandalous schemes. I wrote to the 'Lady Angelica,'--since Ferdy's +name for her is so well chosen,--telling her all, giving her solemn +assurances of my unchangeable purpose toward her, and scorn of my +uncle's mercenary ambition. She replied very quietly: 'She, also, was +not without pride; she would come and see for herself';--and she came +at once. + +"The family arrived in London in the evening. Within two hours I was +sent--after the fashion of an old-time courier, 'Ride! ride! +ride!--for your life! for your life! for your life!'--to Turin with +despatches, and sealed instructions for my own conduct, not to be +opened till I arrived; then I found my orders were, to remain at Turin +until it should be my uncle's pleasure to recall me. + +"I had not been in Turin a month when a letter came from------the Lady +Angelica. 'It was her wish that all intercourse between us, by +interview or correspondence, should cease at once and forever. She +assumed this position of her own free will, and she was resolute to +maintain it. She trusted that I would not inquire obtrusively into her +motives,--she had no fear that I would doubt that they were worthy of +her. Her respect for me was unabated,--her faith in me perfect. I had +her blessing and her anxious prayers. I must go on my way in brave +silence and patience, nor ever for one moment be so weak as to fool +myself into a hope that she would change her purpose.' + +"What should I do? I had no one to advise with; my mother, whose faith +in her brother's wisdom was sure, was in Madrid, and my father had +been dead some years. At first my heart was full of bitter curses, and +my uncle had not at his heels a heartier hater than I. Then came the +merely romantic thought, that this might be but a test she would put +me to,--that he might be innocent and ignorant of my misfortune. With +the thought I flung my heart into writing, and madly plied her with +one long, passionate letter after another. I got no answers; but by +his spies my uncle was apprised of all I did. + +"About this time,--it was in 1832,--Zea-Bermudez was recalled to +Madrid in a grave crisis, and appointed to the administration of +foreign affairs. Ferdinand VII. was apparently approaching the end of +his reign and his life. The Apostolical party, exulting in their +strength, and confiding in those well-laid plans which, with mice and +men, 'gang aft agley,' imprudently showed their hand, and suffered +their favorite project to transpire; which was, to set aside the +ordinance by which the King had made null the Salic law, in favor of +his infant daughter, and to support the pretensions of the King's +brother, Carlos, to the throne. + +"By this stupid flourish the Apostolical party threw themselves bound +at the feet of Zea. All of their persuasion who filled high places +under government were without ceremony removed, and their seats filled +by Liberals. Many of them did not escape without more crippling blows. +As for me, I looked on with indifference, or at most some philosophic +sneers. What had I to fear or care? In my uncle's estimation, my +politics had been always healthy, no doubt; and although he had on +more than one occasion hinted, with sarcastic wit, that such a +lady's-man must, of his devoir, be a 'gallant champion of the Salic +law,' and dropped something rude and ill-natured about my English +blood,--still, that was only in his dyspeptic moods; his temper was +sure to improve, I fancied, with his political and material digestion. + +"But I deceived myself. When, in the name of the infant Queen, +Isabella Segunda, and in honor of the reestablishment of order and +public safety, the pleasant duty devolved upon Zea-Bermudez of +awarding approbation and encouragement to all the officers, from an +ambassador to the youngest _attaché_ of foreign legations, and +presenting them with tokens of the nation's happiness in the shape of +stars, and seals with heraldic devices, and curious chains of historic +significance, not even a paltry ribbon fell to my share, but only a +few curt lines of advice, 'to look well to my opinions, and be +modest,--obediently to discharge the duties prescribed to me, and +remember that presumption was a fault most intolerable in a young +gentleman so favored by chance as to be honored with the confidence of +government.' + +"That exhausted the little patience I had left. Savagely I tore the +note into contemptible fragments, tossed into my travelling-boxes as +much of my wardrobe as happened to be at hand, consigned to a sealed +case my diplomatic instructions and all other documents pertaining to +my office, placed them in the hands of a confidential friend, Mr. +Ballard, the British Agent, and secretly took passage for England, +where, without losing an hour, I made the best of my way to the abode +of an ambitious cockney wine-merchant, to whose daughter I had not +been disagreeable in other days, and within a fortnight married her. +You have seen the lady, Sir," he said, eyeing me searchingly as he +spoke, with a sardonic smile,--the only ugly expression I ever saw him +wear. + +"Certain title-deeds and certificates of stock, part of my father's +legacy, which, as if foreseeing the present emergency, I had brought +away with me, were easily converted into cash. I had then twenty +thousand sterling pounds, to which my father-in-law generously added +ten thousand more, by way of portion with his daughter. + +"And now to what should I betake myself? I had small time to cast +about me, and was easy to please; any tolerably promising enterprise, +so the field of it were remote, would serve my purpose. The papers +were full of Australian speculations, the wonderful prosperity of the +several colonies there, the great fortunes suddenly made in wool. +Good! I would go to Australia, and be a gentle shepherd on an imposing +scale. But first I sought out my father's old friends, my Lords +Palmerston and Brougham, and the Bishop of Dublin, and besought the +aid of their wisdom. With but slight prudential hesitation they with +one accord approved my project. Observe: a first-rate Minister, +especially if he be a very busy one, always likes the plan that +pleases his young friend best,--that is, if it be not an affair of +State, and all the risks lie with his young friend. They would have +spoken of Turin and Zea-Bermudez; but I had been bred a diplomat and +knew how to stick to my point, which, this time, was wool. In another +fortnight I had sailed for Sydney with my shekels and my wife. But +first, and for the first time, I caused the announcement of my +marriage to appear in the principal papers of London, Paris, St. +Petersburg, and Madrid. + +"Arrived in Australia, I at once made myself the proprietor of a +considerable farm, and stocked it abundantly with sheep. Speculation +had not yet burst itself, like the frog in the fable; and large +successes, as in water-lot and steamboat operations here, to-day, were +the rule. On the third anniversary of my landing at Sydney, I was +worth three hundred thousand pounds, and my commercial name was among +the best in the colony. Six months after that, the rot, the infernal +rot, had turned my thriving populous pastures into shambles for +carrion-mutton, and I had not sixpence of my own in the wide world. A +few of the more generous of my creditors left me a hundred pounds with +which to make my miserable way to some South American port on the +Pacific. + +"So I chose Valparaiso, to paint miniatures, and teach English, +French, Italian, and German in. But earthquakes shook my poor house, +and the storm-fiend shook my soul with fear;--for skies in lightning +and thunder are to me as the panorama and hurly-burly of the Day of +Wrath, in all the stupid rushing to and fro and dazed stumbling of +Martin's great picture. I shall surely die by lightning; I have not +had that live shadow of a sky-reaching fear hanging over me, with its +black wings and awful mutterings, so long for nothing; in every flash +my eyes are scathed by the full blaze of hell. If I had been deaf and +blind, I might have lived in Valparaiso. As it was, I must go +somewhere where I need not sit all day and night stopping my ears and +with my face covered, fearing that the rocks would fall upon me too +soon. + +"So, with my wife and the child,--we have had no other, thank God!--I +got round Cape Horn--Heaven knows how! I dare not think of that +time--to the United States. We were making for Boston; but the ship, +strained by long stress of heavy weather, sprung a leak, and we put in +at Baltimore. I was pleased with the place; it is picturesque, and has +a kindly look; and as all places were alike to me then, save by the +choice of a whim, I let go my weary anchor there. + +"But the Baltimoreans only admired my pictures,--they did not buy +them; they only wondered at my polyglot accomplishment, and were +content with ringing silly-kind changes on an Encyclopaedic compliment +about the Admirable Crichton, and other well-educated personages, to +be found alphabetically embalmed in Conversations-Lexicons,--they did +not inquire into my system of teaching, or have quarterly knowledge of +my charges. So I fled from Baltimore, pretty speeches, and starvation, +to San Francisco, plain talk, and pure gold. And now--see here, +Sir!--I carry these always about with me, lest the pretty pickings of +this Tom Tiddler's ground should make my experience forget." + +He drew from his pocket an "illuminated" card, bearing a likeness of +Queen Victoria, and a creased and soiled bit of yellow paper. The one +was, by royal favor, a complimentary pass to a reserved place in +Westminster Abbey, on the occasion of the coronation of her Britannic +Majesty, "For the Señor Camillo Alvarez y Pintal, Chevalier of the +Noble Order of the Cid, Secretary to His Catholic Majesty's Legation +near the Court of St. James,"--the other, a Sydney pawnbroker's ticket +for books pledged by "Mr. Camilla Allverris i Pintal." He held these +contrasted certificates of Fortune,--her mocking visiting-cards, when +she called on him in palace and in cabin,--one in each hand for a +moment; and bitterly smiling, and shaking his head, turned from one to +the other. Then suddenly he let them fall to the ground, and, burying +his face in his hands, was roughly shaken through all his frame by a +great gust of agony. + +I laid my hand tenderly on his shoulder: "But, Pintal," I said,--"the +Lady Angelica,--tell me why she chose that course." + +In a moment the man was fiercely aroused. "Ah, true! I had forgotten +that delectable passage in my story. Why, man, Bermudez went to her, +told her that my aspirations and my prospects were so and so,--faring, +brilliant,--that she, only she, stood in the way, an impassable +stumbling-block to my glorious advancement,--told her, (devil!) that, +with all my fine passion for her, he was aware that I was not without +embarrassment on this score,--appealed to her disinterested love, to +her pride,--don't you see?--to her pride." + +"And where is she now, Pintal?" + +No anger now, no flush of excitement;--the man, all softened as by an +angel's touch, arose, and, with clasped hands and eyes upturned +devoutly, smiled through big tears, and without a word answered me. + +I, too, was silent. Whittier had not yet written,-- + + "Of all sad words of tongue or pen + The saddest are these: 'It might have been!' + + "Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies + Deeply buried from human eyes; + + "And, in the hereafter, angels may + Roll the stone from its grave away!" + +Then Pintal paced briskly to and fro a few turns across the narrow +floor of his tent, and presently stopping, said,--his first +cheerfulness, with its unwonted smile, returning,-- + +"But I must tell you why I should be happy today. I have a letter from +my brother Miguel, who is Secretary to the Legation at the Porte. He +has leave of absence, and is happy with his dearest friends in +Florence. He shared my disgrace until lately, but bore it patiently; +and now is reinstated in his office and his honors, a large portion of +his property restored, which had been temporarily confiscated, while +he was under suspicion as a Carlist. He is authorized to offer me +pardon, and all these pretty things, if I will return and take a new +oath of allegiance." + +"And you will accept, Pintal?" + +"Why, in God's name, what do you take me for?--Pardon! I forgot +myself, Sir. Your question is a natural one. But no, I shall surely +not accept. Zea-Bermudez is dead, but there is a part of me which can +never die; and I am happy today because I feel that I am not so poor +as I thought I was." + +Ferdy entered, alone. He went straight to his father and whispered +something in his ear,--about the mother, I suspected, for both +blushed, and Pintal said, with a vexed look,--"Ah, very well! never +mind that, my boy." + +Then Ferdy threw off his cap and cloak, and, seating himself on a pile +of books at his father's feet, quietly rested his head upon his knee. +I observed that his face was vividly flushed, and his eyes looked +weary. I felt his pulse,--it indicated high fever; and to our anxious +questions he answered, that his head ached terribly, and he was "every +minute hot or cold." I persuaded him to go to bed at once, and left +anxious instructions for his treatment, for I saw that he was going to +be seriously ill. + +In three days little Ferdy was with the Lady Angelica in heaven. He +died in my arms, of scarlet fever. In the delirium of his last moments +he saw _her_, and he departed with strange words on his lips: "I am +coming, Lady, I am coming!--my father will be ready presently!" + +Some strangers from the neighborhood helped me to bury him; we laid +him near the grave of the First Lady; but very soon his pretty bones +were scattered, and there's a busy street there now. + +Pintal, when I told him that the boy was dead, only bowed and smiled. +He did not go to the grave, he never again named the child, nor by the +least word or look confessed the change. But when, a little later, a +fire swept down Dupont Street and laid the poor tent in ashes, +spoiling the desolate house whose beautiful _lar_ had flitted,--when +his wife went moaning maudlinly among the yet warm ashes, and groping, +in mean misery, with a stick, for some charred nothing she would cheat +the Spoiler of, there was a dangerous quality in Pintal's look, as, +with folded arms and vacant eyes, he seemed to stare upon, yet not to +see, the shocking scene. Presently the woman, poking with the stick, +found something under the ashes. With her naked hands she greedily +dug it out;--it was a tin shaving-case. Another moment, and Pintal had +snatched it from her grasp, torn it open, and had a naked razor in his +hand. I wrested it from him, as he fairly foamed, and dragged him from +the place. + +A few days after that, I took leave of them on board a merchant ship +bound for England, and with a heavy-hearted prayer sped them on their +way. On the voyage, as Pintal stood once, trembling in a storm, near +the mainmast, a flash of lightning transfixed him.--That was well! He +had been distinguished by his sorrows, and was worthy of that special +messenger. + + * * * * * + +That picture,--it was the first and last he painted in California. I +kept it long, rejoicing in the admiration it excited, and only grieved +that the poor comfort of the praises I daily heard lavished upon it +could never reach him. + +Once, when I was ill in Sacramento, my San Francisco house was burned, +but not before its contents had been removed. In the hopeless +scattering of furniture and trunks, this picture disappeared,--no one +knew whither. I sought it everywhere, and advertised for it, but in +vain. About a year afterward, I sailed for Honolulu. I had letters of +introduction to some young American merchants there, one of whom +hospitably made me his guest for several weeks. On the second day of +my stay with him, he was showing me over his house, where, hanging +against the wall in a spare room, I found,--not the Pintal picture, +but a Chinese copy of it, faithful in its every detail. There were the +several alterations I had suggested, and there the rich, warm colors +that Pintal's taste had chosen. Of course, it was a copy. No doubt, my +picture had been stolen at the fire, or found its way by mistake among +the "traps" of other people. Then it had been sold at auction,--some +Chinaman had bought it,--it had been shipped to Canton or Hong +Kong,--some one of the thousand "artists" of China Street or the +Victoria Road had copied it for the American market. A ship-load of +Chinese goods--Canton crape shawls, camphor-boxes, carved toys, +curiosities, and pictures--had been sold in Honolulu,--and here it +was. + + * * * * * + + +THE HOUSE THAT WAS JUST LIKE ITS NEIGHBORS. + + Oh, the houses are all alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + You'll see a hat-stand in the hall, + Against the painted and polished wall; + And the threaded sunbeams softly fall + On the long stairs, winding up, away + Up to the garret, lone and gray: + And you can hear, if you wait awhile, + Odd little noises to make you smile; + And minutes will be as long as a mile;-- + Just as they would in the house below, + Were you in the entry waiting to go. + + Oh, the houses are all alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + And the world swings sadly to and fro,-- + Mayhap the shining, but sure the woe! + For in the sunlight the shadows grow + Over the new name on the door, + Over the face unseen before. + Yet who shall number, by any art, + The chasms that keep so wide apart + The dancing step and the weary heart? + Oh, who shall guess that the polished wall + Is a headstone over his neighbor's hall? + + Yet the houses are just alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + And solemn sounds are heard at night, + And solemn forms shut out the light, + And hideous thoughts the soul affright: + Death and despair, in solemn state, + In the silent, vaulted chambers wait; + And up the stairs as your children go, + Spectres follow them, to and fro,-- + Only a wall between them, oh! + And the darkest demons, grinning, see + The fairest angels that dwell with thee! + + For the houses are all alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + My chariot waited, gold and gay: + "I'll ride," I said, "to the woods to-day,-- + Out to the blithesome woods away,-- + Where the old trees, swaying thoughtfully, + Watch the breeze and the shadow's glee." + I smiled but once, with my joy elate, + For a chariot stood at my neighbor's gate,-- + A grim old chariot, dark as fate. + "Oh, where are you taking my neighbor?" I cried. + And the gray old driver thus replied:-- + + "Where the houses are all alike, you know,-- + Narrow houses, all in a row! + Unto a populous city," he saith: + "The road lies steep through the Vale of Death + Oh, it makes the old steeds gasp for breath! + There'll be a new name over the door, + In a place where _he's_ never been before,-- + Where the neighbors never visit, they say,-- + Where the streets are echoless, night and day, + And the children forget their childish play. + And if you should live next door, I doubt + If you'd ever hear what they were about + Who lived in the next house in the row,-- + Though the houses are all alike, you know!" + + + + +DAPHNAIDES: + + +OR THE ENGLISH LAUREL, FROM CHAUCER TO TENNYSON. + + +[Concluded.] + +Dorset was still Lord Chamberlain when the death of Shadwell placed +the laurel again at his disposal. Had he listened to Dryden, William +Congreve would have received it. Of all the throng of young gentlemen +who gathered about the chair of the old poet at Wills's, Congreve was +his prime favorite. That his advice was not heeded was long a matter +of pensive regret:-- + + "Oh that your brows my laurel had sustained! + Well had I been deposed, if you had reigned! + The father had descended for the son; + For only you are lineal to the throne. + Thus, when the state one Edward did depose, + A greater Edward in his room arose."[1] + +The choice fell upon Nahum Tate:-- + + "But now not I, but poetry is cursed; + For Tom the Second reigns like Tom the First." + +What particular quality recommended Tate we are not wholly able to +explain. Dryden alleges "charity" as the single impulse of the +appointment,--not the merit or aptitude of the candidate. But +throughout life Dorset continued to countenance Nahum, serving as +standing dedicatee of his works, and the prompter of several of them. +We have remarked the want of judgment which Lord Dorset exhibited in +his anxious patronage of the scholars and scribblers of his time,--a +trait which stood the Blackmores, Bradys, and Tates in good stead. + +But there was still another reason why Tate was preferred to Congreve. +Dorset was too practised a courtier not to study the tastes of his +master to good purpose. A liking for the stage, or a lively sense of +poetic excellence, was not among the preferences of King William. The +Laureate was sub-purveyor of amusement for the court; but there was no +longer a court to amuse, and the King himself never once in his reign +entered a theatre. The piety of Queen Mary rendered her a rare +attendant at the play-house. Plays were therefore no longer wanted. A +playwright could not amuse. Congreve was a dramatist who had never +exhibited even passable talent for other forms of poetical +composition. But Tate's limited gifts, displayed to Dorset's +satisfaction in various encomiastic verses addressed to himself, were +fully equal to the exigencies of the office under the new order of +things; he was by profession a eulogist, not a dramatist. He was a +Tory; and the King was out of humor with the Whigs. He was +pretentiously moral and exemplary of life and pen, and so suited the +Queen. The duties of the office were conformed, as far as practicable, +to the royal tastes. Their scene was transferred from the play-house +to the church. On the anniversaries of the birthdays of the two +sovereigns, and upon New Year's day, the Laureate was expected to have +ready congratulatory odes befitting the occasion, set to music by the +royal organist, and sung after service in the Chapel Royal of St. +James. Similar duties were required when great victories were to be +celebrated, or national calamities to be deplored. In short, from +writing dramas to amuse a merry monarch and his courtiers, an office +not without dignity, the Laureate sunk into a hired writer of +adulatory odes; a change in which originated that prevalent contempt +for the laurel which descended from the era of Tate to that of +Southey. + +And yet the odes were in no sense more thoroughly Pindaric than in the +circumstance of their flatteries being bought and paid for at a stated +market value. The triumphal lyrics of Pindar himself were very far +from being those spontaneous and enthusiastic tributes to the prowess +of his heroes, which the vulgar receive them for. Hear the painful +truth, as revealed by the Scholiast.[2] Pytheas of AEgina had +conquered in rough-and-tumble fight all antagonists in the Pancratium. +Casting about for the best means of perpetuating his fame, he found +the alternative to lie between a statuette to be erected in the temple +of the hero-god, or one of the odes of the learned Theban. Choosing +the latter, he proceeded to the poet's shop, cheapened the article, +and would have secured it without hesitation, had not the extortionate +bard demanded the sum of three drachmas,[3] nearly equal to half a +dollar, for the poem, and refused to bate a fraction. The disappointed +bargainer left, and was for some days decided in favor of the brazen +image, which could be had at half the price. But reflecting that what +Pindar would give for his money was a draft upon universal fame and +immortality, while the statue might presently be lost, or melted down, +or its identity destroyed, his final determination was in favor of the +ode,--a conclusion which time has justified. Nor was the Bard of the +Victors ashamed of his mercenary Muse. In the Second Isthmian Ode, we +find an elaborate justification of his practice of praising for +pay,--a practice, he admits, unknown to primitive poets, but rendered +inevitable, in his time, by the poverty of the craft, and the +degeneracy of the many, with whom, in the language of the Spartan +sage, "money made the man." With this Pindaric precedent, therefore, +for selling Pindaric verses, it is no wonder, if the children of the +Muse, in an age still more degenerate than that of their great +original, found ample excuse for dealing out their wares at the best +market. When such as Dryden and Pope lavished in preface and +dedication their encomiums upon wealth and power, and waited eagerly +for the golden guineas the bait might bring them, we have no right to +complain of the Tates and Eusdens for prostituting their neglected +Muses for a splendid sum certain _per annum_. Surely, if royalty, thus +periodically and mercenarily eulogized, were content, the poet might +well be so. And quite as certainly, the Laureate stipend never +extracted from poet panegyric more fulsome, ill-placed, and degrading, +than that which Laureate Dryden volunteered over the pall of Charles +II.[4] + +Tate had been known as a hanger-on at the court of Charles, and as a +feeble versifier and pamphleteer of the Tory school, before an +alliance with Dryden gave him a certain degree of importance. The +first part of "Absalom and Achitophel," in 1681, convulsed the town +and angered the city. Men talked for a time of nothing else. Tate, who +was in the secret of its authorship, talked of it to Dryden, and urged +an extension of the poem. Were there not enough of Shaftesbury's brisk +boys running at large who deserved to be gibbeted? Were there not +enough Hebrew names in the two books of Samuel to name each as +appropriately as those already nomenclatured? But Dryden was +indisposed to undertake a continuation which must fall short of what +had been executed in the exact proportion that the characters left for +it were of minor consequence. He recommended the task to Tate. Tate, +flattered and nothing loath, accordingly sent to the press the second +part of "Absalom and Achitophel," embodying a contribution from Dryden +of two hundred lines, which are as plainly distinguishable from the +rest as a patch of cloth of gold upon cloth of frieze. The credit of +this first alliance proved so grateful to Nahum, that he never after +ventured upon literary enterprise without the aid of a similar +coalition. His genius was inherently parasitic. In conjunction with +Tory and Jesuit, he coalesced in the celebration of Castlemaine's +gaudy reception at Rome. + +In conjunction with Nicholas Brady, he prepared that version of the +Psalms still appended to the English Book of Common Prayer. In +conjunction with Dryden and others, he translated Juvenal. In +conjunction with Lord Dorset, he edited a praiseworthy edition of the +poems of Sir John Davies, which might otherwise have been lost or +forgotten. In conjunction with Garth, he translated the +"Metamorphoses" of Ovid. And in conjunction with Dr. Blow, he prepared +those Pindaric flights which set King William asleep, and made +Godolphin ashamed that the deeds of Marlborough should be so +unworthily sung. + +So long as he continued to enjoy the patronage of his liberal +Maecenas, Tate, with his aid, and these labors, and the income of his +office, contrived to maintain the state of a gentleman. But Dorset +died in 1706; the Laureate's dull heroics found no vent; and ere the +death of Queen Anne,--an event which he bewailed in the least +contemptible of his odes,--his revenues were contracted to the +official stipend. The accession of the house of Hanover, in 1714, was +the downfall of Toryism; and Tate was a Tory. His ruin was complete. +The Elector spared not the house of Pindar. The Laureate was stripped +of the wreath; his only income confiscated; and after struggling +feebly with fate in the form of implacable creditors, he took refuge +in the Old Mint, the resort of thieves and debtors, where in 1715 he +died,--it is said, of starvation. Alas, that the common lot of Grub +Street should have precedent in the person of laurelled royalty +itself! + +The coronation of Laureate Rowe was simultaneous with that of George +I. His immediate claim to the honor dated back to the year 1702, when +his play of "Tamerlane" had caught the popular fancy, and proved of +vast service to the ministry at a critical moment in stimulating the +national antipathy to France. The effect was certainly not due to +artistic nicety or refinement. King William, as _Tamerlane_, was +invested with all virtues conceivable of a Tartar conqueror, united +with the graces of a primitive saint; while King Louis, as _Bajazet_, +fell little short of the perfections of Satan. These coarse daubs, +executed in the broadest style of the sign-post school of Art, so +gratified the mob, that for half a century their exhibition was called +for on the night of November the fifth. Rowe, moreover, belonged to +the straitest sect of Whiggery,--was so bigoted, indeed, as to decline +the acquaintance of a Tory, and in play and prologue missed no chance +of testifying devotion to liberal opinions.[5] His investiture with +the laurel was only another proof that at moments of revolution +extremists first rise to the surface. A man of affluent fortune, and +the recipient of redundant favors from the new ministry, Rowe enjoyed +the sunshine of life, while the dethroned Nahum starved in the Mint, +as the dethroned James starved at Rome. Had the dramatic tribute still +been exacted, there is little doubt that the author of the "Fair +Penitent," and of "Jane Shore," would have lent splendid lustre to his +office. His odes, however,--such, at least, as have been thought +worthy of preservation among his works,--are a prodigious improvement +upon the tenuity of his predecessor, and immeasurably superior in +poetical fire and elegance to those of any successor antecedent to +Warton. + +For, following Nicholas Rowe, there were dark ages of Laureate +dulness,--a period redeemed by nothing, unless by the ridicule and +controversy to which the wearers of the leaf gave occasion. Rowe died +in the last days of 1718. The contest for the vacant place is presumed +to have been unusually active. John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, +imitating Suckling's "Session of the Poets," brings all the +versifiers of the time into the canvas, and after humorously +dispatching one after another, not sparing himself, closes,-- + + "At last, in rushed Eusden, and cried, 'Who shall have it, + But I, the true Laureate, to whom the King gave it?' + Apollo begged pardon, and granted his claim, + But vowed, though, till then, he ne'er heard of his name."[6] + +This Laurence Eusden was a scribbling parson, whose model in Art was +Sir Richard Blackmore, and whose morality was of the Puritanical +stripe. He had assisted Garth in his Ovid, assuming, doubtless upon +high moral grounds, the rendering of the impurest fables. He had +written odes to great people upon occasions more or less great, +therein exhibiting some ingenuity in varying the ordinary staple of +adulation. He had addressed an epithalamium to the Duke of Newcastle +upon his marriage with the Lady Henrietta Godolphin,--a tribute so +gratifying to his Grace, then Lord Chamberlain, as to secure the poet +the place of Rowe. Eusden's was doubtless the least honorable name as +yet associated with the laurel. His contemporaries allude to him with +uniform disdain. Cooke, the translator of Hesiod, tells us,-- + + "Eusden, a laurelled bard, by fortune raised, + By very few was read, by fewer praised," + +Pope, as cavalierly, in the "Dunciad":-- + + "She saw old Prynne in restless Daniel shine, + And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line." + +Jacobs, in his "Lives of the Poets," speaks of him as a multifarious +writer of unreadable trash,--and names but few of his productions. The +truth was, Eusden, secluding himself at his rectory among the fens of +Lincolnshire, took no part in society, declined all association with +the polite circles of the metropolis, thus inviting attacks, from +which his talents were not respectable enough to screen him. That the +loftiest revelations of poetry were not required of the Laureate of +George I., who understood little or no English, there can be no +question. George II. was equally insensible to the Muses; and had the +annual lyrics been a mosaic of the merest gibberish, they would have +satisfied his earlier tastes as thoroughly as the odes of Collins or +Gray. A court, at which Pope and Swift, Young and Thomson were +strangers, had precisely that share of Augustan splendor which enabled +such as Eusden to shine lustrously.[7] + +And so Eusden shone and wrote, and in the fulness of time--September, +1730--died and was buried; and his laurel others desired.[8] The +leading claimants were Richard Savage and Colley Cibber. The touching +story of Savage had won the heart of the Queen, and she had extracted +from the King the promise of the Laureateship for its hero. But in the +Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Savage had an irreconcilable opponent. +The apprehension of exciting powerful enmities, if he elevated the +"Bastard" and his wrongs to so conspicuous a place, had, no doubt, an +influence with the shrewd statesman. Possibly, too, so keen and +practical a mind could not but entertain thorough contempt for the +man, who, with brains, thews, and sinews of his own, a fair education, +and as many golden opportunities of advancement as a reasonable being +could desire, should waste his days in profitless mendicancy at the +doors of great people, in whining endeavors to excite the sympathies +of the indifferent, in poem and petition, in beastly drunkenness, or, +if sober, in maudlin lamentations at the bitterness of his fortune. A +Falconbridge would have better suited the ministerial taste. At all +events, when his Majesty came to request the appointment of the +Queen's _protégé_, he found that the patent had already been made out +in the name of Cibber: and Cibber had to be Laureate. The disappointed +one raved, got drunk, sober again, and finally wrote an ode to her +Majesty, announcing himself as her "Volunteer Laureate," who should +repeat his congratulations upon each recurrence of her birthday. The +Queen, in pity, sent him fifty pounds, with a promise of an equal +amount for each of his annual verses. And although Cibber protested, +and ridiculed the new title, as no more sensible than "Volunteer Duke, +Marquis, or Prime Minister," still Savage adhered to it and the +pension tenaciously, sharing the Queen's favor with Stephen Duck, the +marvellous "Thresher,"[9] whose effusions were still more to her +taste. That the yearly fifty pounds were expended in inexcusable riot, +almost as soon as received, was a matter of course. Upon the demise of +Queen Caroline, in 1738, Savage experienced another proof of Walpole's +dislike. The pensions found upon her Majesty's private list were all +continued out of the exchequer, one excepted. The pension of Savage +was the exception. Right feelingly, therefore, might he mourn his +royal mistress, and vituperate the insensible minister; and that he +did both with some degree of animation, the few who still read his +poems will freely admit. + +Colley Cibber had recommended himself to promotion by consistent +partisanship, and by two plays of fair merit and exceeding popularity. +"The Careless Husband" even Pope had praised; "The Nonjuror," an +adaptation of Molière's "Tartuffe," was one of the most successful +comedies of the period. The King had been delighted with it,--a +circumstance doubtless considered by Sir Robert in selecting a rival +for Savage. Cibber had likewise been the manager, time out of mind, of +Drury-Lane Theatre; and if now and then he had failed to recognize the +exact direction of popular taste,--as in the instance of the "Beggar's +Opera," which he rejected, and which, being accepted by Manager Rich +of Covent Garden, made Rich gay and Gay rich,--he was generally a +sound stage-tactician and judicious caterer. His career, however, had +not been so profitable that an additional hundred pounds should be a +thing of indifference; in fact, the sum seemed to be just what was +needed to enable him to forsake active duty on the stage,--for the +patent was no sooner signed than the veteran retired upon his laurels. + +The annals of the Laureateship, during Cibber's reign, are without +incident.[10] The duties remained unchanged, and were performed, there +is no reason to doubt, to the contentment of the King and court.[11] +But the Laureate himself was peculiarly the object of sarcastic +satire. The standing causes were of course in operation: the envy of +rival poetasters, the dislike of political opponents, the enmities +originating in professional disputes and jealousies. Cibber's manners +had not been studied in the school of Chesterfield, although that +school was then open and flourishing. He was rude, presumptuous, +dogmatic. To superiors in rank he was grudgingly respectful; to equals +and inferiors, insupportably insolent. But when to these aggravating +traits he added the vanity of printing an autobiography, exposing a +thousand assailable points in his life and character, the temptation +was irresistible, and the whole population of Grub Street enlisted in +a crusade against him.[12] Fortunately, beneath the crust of insolence +and vanity, there was a substratum of genuine power in the Laureate's +make, which rendered him not only a match for these, but for even a +greater than these, the author of the "Dunciad." Pope's antipathy for +the truculent actor dated some distance back. + + Back to the 'Devil,' the last echoes roll, + And 'Coll!' each butcher roars at Hockley-hole. + +The latter accounts for it by telling, that at the first +representation of Gay's "Three Hours after Marriage," in 1717, where +one of the scenes was violently hissed, some angry words passed +between the irritated manager and Pope, who was behind the scenes, and +was erroneously supposed to have aided in the authorship. The odds of +a scolding match must have been all in favor of the blustering Cibber, +rather than of the nervous and timid Pope; but then the latter had a +faculty of hate, which his antagonist had not, and he exercised it +vigorously. The allusions to Cibber in his later poems are frequent. +Thus, in the "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot":-- + + "And has not Colley still his Lord and whore? + His butchers Henley? his freemasons Moore?" + +And again:-- + + "So humble he has knocked at Tibbald's door, + Has drunk with Colley, nay, has rhymed for Moore." + +And in the "Imitation of Horace," addressed to Lord Fortescue:-- + + "Better be Cibber, I maintain it still, + Than ridicule all taste, blaspheme, quadrille." + +"The Dunciad," as originally published in 1728, had Lewis Theobald for +its hero. There was neither sense nor justice in the selection. Pope +hated Theobald for presuming to edit the plays of Shakspeare with +greatly more ability and acuteness than himself had brought to the +task. His dislike had no better foundation. Neither the works, the +character, nor the associations of the man authorized his elevation to +the throne of dulness. The disproportion between the subject and the +satire instantly impresses the reader. After the first explosion of +his malice, it impressed Pope; and anxious to redeem his error, he +sought diligently for some plan of dethroning Tibbald, and raising +another to the vacant seat. Cibber, in the mean time, was elevated to +the laurel, and that by statesmen whom it was the fate of Pope to +detest in secret, and yet not dare to attack in print. The Fourth Book +of the "Dunciad" appeared in 1742, and its attacks were mainly +levelled at the Laureate. The Laureate replied in a pamphlet, +deprecating the poet's injustice, and declaring his unconsciousness of +any provocation for these reiterated assaults. At the same time he +announced his determination to carry on the war in prose as long as +the satirist should wage it in verse,--pamphlet for poem, world +without end. Hostilities were now fairly established. Pope issued a +fresh edition of his satire complete. The change he had long coveted +he now made. The name of Cibber was substituted throughout for that of +Theobald, the portraiture remaining the same. Johnson properly +ridicules the absurdity of leaving the heavy traits of Theobald on the +canvas, and simply affixing the name of his mercurial contemporary +beneath; and, indeed, there is much reason to doubt whether the mean +jealousy which inspired the first "Dunciad," or the blundering rage +which disfigured the second, is in the worse taste. Cibber kept his +engagement, replying in pamphlet. The immediate victory was +unquestionably his. Morbidly sensitive to ridicule, Pope suffered +acutely. Richardson, who found him once with the Cibberine leaves in +his hand, declared his persuasion, from the spectacle of rage, +vexation, and mortification he witnessed, that the poet's death +resulted from the strokes of the Laureate. If so, we must concede him +to have been the victor who laid his adversary at his feet on the +field. Posterity, however, which listens only to the satirist, has +judged differently and unjustly.[13] Theobald, though of no original +talent, was certainly, in his generation, the most successful +illustrator of Shakspeare, and the first, though Rowe and Pope had +preceded him in the effort, who had brought a sound verbal criticism +to bear on the text. It is to his credit, that many of the most +ingenious emendations suggested in Mr. Collier's famous folio were +anticipated by this "king of the dunces"; and it must be owned, that +his edition is as far superior to Warburton's and Hanmer's, which were +not long after brought out with a deafening flourish of trumpets, as +the editions of Steevens and Malone are to his. Yet, prompted by the +"Dunciad," it is the fashion of literature to regard Theobald with +compassion, as a block-head and empiric. Cibber escapes but little +better, and yet he was a man of respectable talent, and played no +second-rate part in the literary history of the time. + +As Laureate Cibber drew near the end of earthly things, a desire, +common to poetical as well as political potentates, possessed him,--a +desire to nominate a successor. In his case, indeed, the idea may have +been borrowed from "MacFlecknoe" or the "Dunciad." The Earl of +Chesterfield, during his administration in Ireland, had discovered a +rival to Ben Jonson in the person of a poetical bricklayer, one Henry +Jones, whom his Lordship carried with him to London, as a specimen of +the indigenous tribes of Erin. It was easier for this Jones to rhyme +in heroics than to handle a trowel or construct a chimney. He rhymed, +therefore, for the amusement and in honor of the polite circle of +which Stanhope was the centre; the fashionable world subscribed +magnificently for his volume of "Poems upon Several Occasions";[14] +his tragedy, "The Earl of Essex," in the composition of which his +patron is said to have shared, was universally applauded. Its +introduction to the stage was the work of Cibber; and Cibber, assisted +by Chesterfield, labored zealously to secure the author a reversion of +the laurel upon his own lamented demise. + +The effort was unsuccessful. Cibber's death occurred in December, +1757. The administration of the elder Pitt, which had been restored +six months before, was insensible to the merits of the prodigious +bricklayer. The wreath was tendered to Thomas Gray. It would, no +doubt, have proved a grateful relief to royalty, obliged for +twenty-seven years to listen twice yearly, if not oftener, to the +monotonous felicitations of Colley, to hear in his stead the author of +the "Bard," of the "Progress of Poetry," of the "Ode at Eton College." +But the relief was denied it. Gray, ambitious only of the historical +chair at Cambridge, declined the laurel. In the mean time, the claims +of William Whitehead were earnestly advocated with the Lord +Chamberlain, by Lord and Lady Jersey, and by the Earl Harcourt. A +large vote in the House of Commons might be affected by a refusal. +Pitt, who cared nothing for the laurel, but much for the votes, gave +his assent, and Whitehead was appointed. Whitehead was the son of a +baker, and, as an eleëmosynary scholar at Winchester School, had won a +poetical prize offered to the students by Alexander Pope. Obtaining a +free scholarship at Cambridge, he became in due time a fellow of Clare +Hall, and subsequently tutor to the sons of Lord Jersey and Lord +Harcourt, with whom he made the tour of the Continent. Two of his +tragedies, "The Roman Father," and "Creüsa," met with more success +than they deserved. A volume of poems, not without merit, was given to +the press in 1756, and met with unusual favor through the exertions of +his two noble friends. That he was not a personal applicant for the +laurel, nor conscious of the movement in his behalf, he takes occasion +in one of his poems to state:-- + + "Howe'er unworthily I wear the crown, + unasked it came, and from a hand unknown."[15] + +From the warm championship of his friends, and the commendations of +Mason, the friend of Gray, we infer that Whitehead was not destitute +of fine social qualities. His verse, which is of the only type current +a century ago, is elegantly smooth, and wearisomely tame,--nowhere +rising into striking or original beauties. Among his merits as a poet +modesty was not. His "Charge to the Poets," published in 1762, drew +upon him the wrath and ridicule of his fellow-verse-wrights, and +perhaps deservedly. Assuming, with amusing vanity, what, if ever true, +was only so a century before or a half-century after, that the laurel +was the emblem of supremacy in the realm of letters, and that it had +been granted him as a token of his matchless merit,-- + + "Since my king and patron have thought fit + To place me on the throne of modern wit,--" + +he proceeds to read the subject throng a saucy lecture on their vices +and follies,-- + + "As bishops to their clergy give their charge." + +A good-natured dogmatism is the tone of the whole; but presumption and +dogmatism find no charity among the _genus irritabile_, and Whitehead +received no quarter. Small wits and great levelled their strokes at a +hide which self-conceit had happily rendered proof. The sturdiest +assailant was Charles Churchill. He never spares him,-- + + "Who in the Laureate chair-- + By grace, not merit, planted there-- + In awkward pomp is seen to sit, + And by his patent proves his wit; + For favors of the great, we know, + Can wit as well as rank bestow; + And they who, without one pretension, + Can get for fools a place or pension, + Must able be supposed, of course, + If reason is allowed due force, + To give such qualities and grace + As may equip them for the place. + + "But he who measures as he goes + A mongrel kind of tinkling prose, + And is too frugal to dispense + At once both poetry and sense,-- + Who, from amidst his slumbering guards, + Deals out a charge to subject bards, + Where couplets after couplets creep, + Propitious to the reign of sleep," etc. + +Again, in the "Prophecy of Famine,"-- + + "A form, by silken smile, and tone + Dull and unvaried, for the Laureate known, + Folly's chief friend, Decorum's eldest son, + In every party found, and yet of none, + This airy substance, this substantial shade." + +And elsewhere he begs for + + "Some such draught... + As makes a Whitehead's ode go down, + Or slakes the feverette of Brown." + +But satire disturbed not the calm equanimity of the pensioner and +placeman. + + "The laurel worn + By poets in old time, but destined now + In grief to wither on a Whitehead's brow," + +continued to fade there, until a whole generation of poets had passed +away. It was not until the middle of April, 1785, that Death made way +for a successor. + +The suddenness of Whitehead's decease came near leaving a royal +birthday unsung,--an omission scarcely pardonable with one of George +the Third's methodical habits. An impromptu appointment had to be +made. It was made before the Laureate was buried. Thomas Warton, the +Professor of Poetry at Oxford, received the patent on the 30th of +April, and his ode, married to fitting music, was duly forthcoming on +the 24th of May. The selection of Warton was faultless. His lyrical +verse was the best of a vicious school; his sonnets, according to that +exquisite sonneteer, Sir Egerton Brydges, were the finest in the +language; his "History of English Poetry," of which three volumes had +appeared, displayed an intimate acquaintance with the early English +writers. Nor should we pass unnoticed his criticisms and annotations +upon Milton and Spenser, manifesting as they did the acutest +sensitiveness to the finest beauties of poetry. If the laurel implied +the premiership of living poets, Warton certainly deserved it. He was +a head and shoulders taller than his actual contemporaries.[16] He +stood in the gap between the old school and the new, between the dead +and the coming. Goldsmith and Johnson were no more; Cowper did not +print his "Task" until the autumn of 1785; Burns made his _début_ +about the same moment; Rogers published his "Ode to Superstition" the +next year; the famous "Fourteen Sonnets" of Bowles came two years +later; while Wordsworth and Landor made their first appearance in +1793. Fortunate thus in time, Warton was equally fortunate in +politics. He was an Oxford Tory, a firm believer in divine right and +passive obedience, and a warm supporter of the new ministers. To the +King, it may be added, no nomination could have given greater +satisfaction. The official odes of Warton evince all the elegant +traits which characterize his other writings. Their refined taste and +exquisite modulation are admirable; while the matter is far less +sycophantic than was to be expected from so devout a monarchist. The +tender of the laurel certainly gratified him:-- + + "Yet still one joy remains, that not obscure + Nor useless all my vacant days have flowed, + From youth's gay dawn to manhood's prime mature, + Nor with the Muse's laurel unbestowed."[17] + +And, like Southey, he was not indisposed to enhance the dignity of the +wreath by classing Chaucer and Spenser, as we have seen, among its +wearers. The genuine claims of Warton to respect probably saved him +from the customary attacks. Bating a few bungling thrusts amid the +doggerel of "Peter Pindar," he escaped scathless,--gaining, on the +other hand, a far more than ordinary proportion of poetical panegyric. + + "Affection and applause alike he shared; + All loved the man, all venerate the bard: + E'en Prejudice his fate afflicted hears, + And lettered Envy sheds reluctant tears. + Such worth the laurel could alone repay, + Profaned by Cibber, and contemned by Gray; + Yet hence its Breath shall new distinction claim, + And, though it gave not, take from Warton fame."[18] + +The last of Warton's odes was written in his last illness, and +performed three days after his death. Appositely enough, it was an +invocation to Health, meriting more than ordinary praise for eloquent +fervor. Warton died May 21st, 1790. The laurel was vacant for a month, +when Henry James Pye was gazetted. There was hardly a hungry placeman +in London who had not as just pretensions to the honor. What poetical +gifts he had displayed had been in school or college exercises. His +real claims consisted in having spent a fortune in electioneering for +ministers; and these claims being pressed with unusual urgency at the +moment of Warton's death, he was offered the Laureateship as +satisfaction in part.[19] He eagerly accepted it, and received the +balance two years later in the shape of a commission as Police +Magistrate of Middlesex. Thereafter, like Henry Fielding, or Gilbert +A'Beckett, he divided his days between penal law and polite +literature. His version of the "Poetics" of Aristotle, with +illustrations drawn liberally from recent authors, was perhaps +begotten of a natural wish to satisfy the public that qualifications +for the laurel were not wholly wanting. A barren devotion to the drama +was always his foible. It was freely indulged. With few exceptions, +his plays were affairs of partnership with Samuel James Arnold, a +writer of ephemeral popularity, whose tale of "The Haunted Island" was +wildly admired by readers of the intensely romantic school, but whose +tragedies, melodramas, comedies, farces, operas, are now forgotten. In +addition to these auxiliary labors, which ripened yearly, Pye tried +his hand at an epic,--the subject, King Alfred,--the plot and +treatment not greatly differing from those which Blackmore brought to +the same enterprise. The poem passed at once from the bookshop to the +trunk-maker,--not, however, before an American publisher was found +daring enough to reprint it. There are also to be mentioned +translations from Pindar, Horace, and other classics, for Sharpe's +edition of the British Poets, a collection to which he lent editorial +aid. "Poet Pye"[20] was fortunate in escaping contemporary wit and +satire. Gifford alluded to him, but Gifford's Toryism was security +that no Tory Court-Poet would be roughly handled. Byron passed him in +silence. The Smiths treated him as respectfully as they treated +anybody. Moore's wit at the expense of the Regent and his courtiers +had only found vent in the "Two-Penny Post-Bag" when Pye was gathered +to his predecessors. + +That calamity occurred in August, 1813. With it ended the era of +birthday songs and New-Year's verses. The King was mad; his nativity +was therefore hardly a rational topic of rejoicing. The Prince Regent +had no taste for the solemn inanity of stipulated ode, the performance +of which only served to render insufferably tedious the services of +the two occasions in the year when imperative custom demanded his +attendance at the Chapel. Consultation was had with John Wilson +Croker, Secretary of the Admiralty. Croker's sharp common-sense at +once suggested the abolition of the Laureate duties, but the retention +of the office as a sinecure. Walter Scott, to whom the place was +offered, as the most popular of living poets, seconded the counsel of +Croker, but declined the appointment, as beneath the dignity of the +intended founder of a long line of border knights. He recommended +Southey. He had already recommended Southey to the "Quarterly," and +through the "Quarterly" to Croker, then and still its most brilliant +contributor; and this second instance of disinterested kindness was +equally efficacious. Southey was appointed. The tierce of Canary +ceased to be a perquisite of the office, the Laureate disclaiming it; +and instead of annual odes upon set occasions, such effusions as the +poet might choose to offer at the suggestion of passing events were to +be accepted as the sum of official duty. These were to be said or +read, not sung,--a change that completed the radical revolution of the +office. + +However important the salary of a hundred pounds may have been to +Southey, it is very sure that the laurel seemed to infuse all its +noxious and poisonous juices into his literary character. His vanity, +like Whitehead's, led him to regard his chaplet as the reward of +unrivalled merit. His study-chair was glorified, and became a throne. +His supremacy in poetry was as indubitable as the king's supremacy in +matters ecclesiastical. He felt himself constrained to eliminate +utterly from his conscience whatever traces of early republicanism, +pantisocracy, and heresy still disfigured it; and to conform +unreservedly to the exactest requirements of high Toryism in politics +and high Churchism in religion. He was in the pay and formed a part of +the government; could he do else than toil mightily in his department +for the service of a master who had so sagaciously anticipated the +verdict of posterity, as to declare him, who was the least popular, +the greatest of living poets? He found it a duty to assume a rigid +censorship over as many of his Majesty's lieges as were addicted to +verse,--to enact the functions of minister of literary police,--to +reprehend the levity of Moore, the impiety of Byron, the democracy of +Leigh Hunt, the unhappy lapse of Hazlitt, the drunkenness of Lamb. +Assumptions so open to ridicule, and so disparaging to far abler men, +told as disadvantageously upon his fame as upon his character. He +became the butt of contemporary satire. Horace Smith, Moore, Shelley, +Byron, lampooned him savagely. The latter made him the hero of his +wicked "Vision of Judgment," and to him dedicated his "Don Juan." The +dedication was suppressed; but no chance offered in the body of that +profligate rhapsody to assail Bob Southey, that was not vigorously +employed. The self-content of the Laureate armed him, however, against +every thrust. Contempt he interpreted as envy of his sublime +elevation:-- + + "Grin, Envy, through thy ragged mask of scorn! + In honor it was given; with honor it is worn." + +Of course such matchless self-complacency defied assault. + +Southey's congratulatory odes appeared as often as public occasion +seemed to demand them. There were in rapid succession the "Ode to the +Regent," the "Carmen Triumphale," the "Pilgrimage to Waterloo," the +"Vision of Judgment," the "Carmen Nuptiale," the "Ode on the Death of +the Princess Charlotte." The "Quarterly" exalted them, one and all; +the "Edinburgh" poured upon them volleys of keen but ineffectual +ridicule. At last the Laureate desisted. The odes no longer appeared; +and during the long and dark closing years of his life, the only +production of the Laureate pen was the yearly signature to a receipt +for one hundred pounds sterling, official salary. + +Robert Southey died in March, 1843. Sir Robert Peel, who had obliged +Wordsworth the year before, by transferring the post in the excise, +which he had so long held, to the poet's son, and substituting a +pension for its salary, testified further his respect for the Bard of +Rydal by tendering him the laurel. It was not to be refused. Had the +office been hampered with any demands upon the occupant for popular +lyric, in celebration of notable events, Wordsworth was certainly the +last man to place in it. His frigid nature was incapable of that +prompt enthusiasm, without which, poetry, especially poetry responsive +to some strong emotion momentarily agitating the popular heart, is +lifeless and worthless. Fortunately, there were no such exactions. The +office had risen from its once low estate to be a dignified sinecure. +As such, Wordsworth filled it; and, dying, left it without one +poetical evidence of having worn the wreath. + +To him, in May, 1850, succeeded, who, as the most acceptable poet of +the day, could alone rightly succeed, Alfred Tennyson, the actual +Poet-Laureate. Not without opposition. There were those who endeavored +to extinguish the office, and hang up the laurel forever,--and to that +end brought pregnant argument to bear upon government. "The Times" was +more than usually decided in favor of the policy of extinguishment. +Give the salary, it was urged, as a pension to some deserving writer +of verse, whose necessities are exacting; but abolish a title degraded +by association with names and uses so unworthy, as to confer shame, +not honor, on the wearer. The laurel is presumed to be granted to the +ablest living English poet. What vocation have the Tite Barnacles, +red-tapists, vote-mongers, of Downing Street to discriminate and +determine this supreme poetical excellence, in regard to which the +nicest critics, or the most refined and appreciative reading public +may reasonably differ among themselves as widely as the stars? On the +other hand, it was argued, that the laurel had, from its last two +wearers, recovered its lost dignity. They had lent it honor, which it +could not fail to confer upon any survivor, however great his name. +If, then, the old odium had disappeared, why not retain the place for +the sake of the ancient worthies whom tradition had handed down as at +one time or another connected with it? There was rarely difficulty in +selecting from among contemporary poets one of preëminent talent, +whose elevation to the laurel would offend none of his fellows. There +was certainly no difficulty in the present case. There was palpable +evidence that Tennyson was by all admission the hierophant of his +order; and it would be time enough to dispense with the title when a +future occasion should be at a loss to decide among contending +candidates. The latter reasoning prevailed. Tennyson accepted the +laurel, and with it a self-imposed obligation to make occasional +acknowledgments for the gift. + +The first opportunity presented itself in the issue of a fresh edition +of his poems, in 1851. To these he prefixed some noble verses, +dedicating the volumes to the Queen, and referring with as much +delicacy as modesty to his place and his predecessor:-- + + "Victoria,--since your royal grace + To one of less desert allows + This laurel, greener from the brows + Of him that uttered nothing base."-- + +The next occasion was of a different order. The hero of Waterloo ended +his long life in 1852, and a nation was in mourning. Then, if ever, +poets, whether laurelled or leafless, were called to give eloquent +utterance to the popular grief; and Tennyson, of all the poets, was +looked to for its highest expression. The Threnode of the Laureate was +duly forthcoming. The public was, as it had no right to be, +disappointed. Tennyson's Muse was ever a wild and wilful creature, +defiant of rules, and daringly insubordinate to arbitrary forms. It +could not, with the witling in the play, cap verses with any man. The +moment its tasks were dictated and the form prescribed, that moment +there was ground to expect the self-willed jade to play a jade's +trick, and leave us with no decent results of inspiration. For odes +and sonnets, and other such Procrustean moulds into which poetic +thought is at times cast, Tennyson had neither gift nor liking. When, +therefore, with the Duke's death, came a sudden demand upon his Muse, +and that in shape so solemn as to forbid, as the poet conceived, any +fanciful license of invention, the Pindaric form seemed inevitable; +and that form rendered a fair exhibition of the poet's peculiar genius +out of the question. Strapped up in prescription, and impelled to move +by official impulse, his Pegasus was as awkward as a cart-horse. And +yet men did him the justice to say that his failure out-topped the +success of others. + +Far better--indeed, with the animating thrill of the war-trumpet--was +"The Charge of the Light Brigade," and simply because the topic +admitted of whatever novelty of treatment the bias of the bard might +devise. This is the Laureate's most successful attempt at strictly +popular composition. It proves him to possess the stuff of a Tyrtaeus +or a Körner,--something vastly more stirring and stimulating than the +usual staple of + + "The dry-tongued laurel's pattering talk."[21] + +Howbeit, late may he have call for another war-song! + +With the name of Tennyson we reach the term of our Laureate calendar. +Long ages and much perilously dry research must he traverse who shall +enlarge these outlines to the worthier proportions of history. Yet +will the labor not be wholly barren. It will bring him in contact with +all the famous of letters and poetry; he will fight over again +numberless quarrels of authors; he will soar in boundless Pindaric +flights, or sink, sooth to say, in unfathomed deeps of bathos. With +one moral he will be profoundly impressed: Of all the more splendid +results of genius which adorn our language and literature,--for the +literature of the English language is ours,--not one owes its +existence to the laurel; not one can be directly or indirectly traced +to royal encouragement, or the stimulus of salary or stipend. The +laurel, though ever green, and throwing out blossoms now and then of +notable promise, has borne no fruit. We might strike from the language +all that is ascribable solely to the honor and emolument of this +office, without inflicting a serious loss upon letters. The masques of +Jonson would be regretted; a few lines of Tennyson would be missed. +For the rest, we might readily console ourselves. It may certainly be +urged, that the laurel was designed rather as a reward than as a +provocative of merit; but the allegation has become true only within +the last half-century. Antecedently to Southey, it was the +consideration for which return in poetry was demanded,--in the first +instance, a return in dramatic poetry, and then in the formal lyric. +It was put forth as the stimulus to works good in their several kinds, +and it may be justly complained of for never having provoked any good +works. To represent it as a reward commensurate with the merits of +Wordsworth and Tennyson, or even of Southey, is to rate three +first-class names in modern poetry on a level with the names of those +third-rate "poetillos" who, during the eighteenth century, obtained +the same reward for two intolerable effusions yearly. Upon the whole, +therefore, we incline to the opinion that the laurel can no longer +confer honor or profit upon literature. Sack is palatable, and a +hundred pounds are eminently useful; but the arbitrary judgments of +queens and courtiers upon poetical issues are neither useful nor +palatable. The world may, in fact, contrive to content itself, should +King Alfred prove the last of the Laureates. + +[Footnote 1: Schol. Vet. ad _Nem. Od._ 5.] + +[Footnote 2: Commentators agree, we believe, that there was an error +as to the sum. But we tell the story as we find it.] + +[Footnote 3: DRYDEN, _Epistle to Wm. Congreve_, 1693.] + +[Footnote 4: The _Threnodia Augustalis_, 1685, where the eulogy is +equitably distributed between the dead Charles and the living James.] + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Johnson tells the story of Rowe having applied to +Lord Oxford for promotion, and being asked whether he understood +Spanish. Elated with the prospect of an embassy to Madrid, Rowe +hurried home, shut himself up, and for months devoted himself to the +study of a language the possession of which was to make his fortune. +At length, he reappeared at the Minister's _levée_ and announced +himself a Spanish scholar. "Then," said Lord Oxford, shaking his hand +cordially, "let me congratulate you on your ability to enjoy _Don +Quixote_, in the original." Johnson seems to throw doubt on the story, +because Rowe would not even speak to a Tory, and certainly would not +apply to a Tory minister for advancement. But Oxford was once a Whig, +and was in office as such; and it was probably at that period the +incident occurred.] + +[Footnote 6: Battle of the Poets, 1725.] + +[Footnote 7: + + "Harmonious Cibber entertains + The court with annual birthday strains, + Whence Gay was banished in disgrace, + Where Pope will never show his face, + Where Young must torture his invention + To flatter knaves, or lose his pension." + + SWIFT, _Poetry, a Rhapsody,_ 1733.] + +[Footnote 8: + + "Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise; + He sleeps among the dull of ancient days; + Where wretched Withers, Ward, and Gildon rest, + And high-born Howard, more majestic sire, + With fool of quality completes the choir. + Thou, Cibber! thou his laurel shalt support; + Folly, my son, has still a friend at court." + + _Dunciad_, Bk. I. + +Warburton, by-the-by, exculpates Eusden from any worse fault, as a +writer, than being too prolix and too prolific.--See Note to +_Dunciad_, Bk. II. 291.] + +[Footnote 9: Duck stands at the head of the prodigious school in +English literature. All the poetical bricklayers, weavers, cobblers, +farmer's boys, shepherds, and basket-makers, who have since astonished +their day and generation, hail him as their general father.] + +[Footnote 10: The antiquary may be pleased to know that the "Devil" +tavern in Fleet Street, the old haunt of the dramatists, was the place +where the choir of the Chapel Royal gathered to rehearse the Laureate +odes. Hence Pope, at the close of _Dunciad I._, + + "Then swells the Chapel-Royal throat; + 'God save King Cibber!' mounts in every note. + Familiar White's 'God save King Colley!' cries; + 'God save King Colley!' Drury-Lane replies;"] + +[Footnote 11: + + "On his own works with laurel crowned, + Neatly and elegantly bound,-- + For this is one of many rules + With writing Lords and laureate fools, + And which forever must succeed + With other Lords who cannot read, + However destitute of wit, + To make their works for bookcase fit,-- + Acknowledged master of those seats, + Cibber his birthday odes repeats." + + CHURCHILL, _The Ghost_.] + +[Footnote 12: Swift charges Colley with having wronged Grub Street, by +appropriating to himself all the money Britain designed for its +poets:-- + + "Your portion, taking Britain round, + Was just one annual hundred pound; + Now not so much as in remainder, + Since Cibber brought in an attainder, + Forever fixed by right divine, + A monarch's right, on Grub-Street line." + + _Poetry, a Rhapsody_, 1733.] + +[Footnote 13: Whatever momentary benefit may result from satire, it is +clear that its influence in the long run is injurious to literature. +The satirist, like a malignant Archimago, creates a false medium, +through which posterity is obliged to look at his contemporaries,--a +medium which so refracts and distorts their images, that it is almost +out of the question to see them correctly. There is no rule, as in +astronomy, by which this refraction may be allowed for and corrected.] + +[Footnote 14: London, 1749, 8vo.] + +[Footnote 15: Charge to the Poets, 1762.] + +[Footnote 16: If the reader cares to hear the best that can be said of +Thomas Warton, let him read the Life of Milton, prefixed by Sir +Egerton Brydges to his edition of the poet. If he has any curiosity to +hear the other side, let him read all that Ritson ever wrote, and Dr. +Charles Symnions, in the Life of Milton, prefixed to the standard +edition of the Prose Works, 1806. Symnions denies to Warton the +possession of taste, learning, or sense. Certainly, to an American, +the character of Joseph Warton, the brother of Thomas, is far more +amiable. Joseph was as liberal as his brother was bigoted. While +Thomas omits no chance of condemning Milton's republicanism, in his +notes to the Minor Poems, Joseph is always disposed to sympathize with +the poet. The same generous temper characterizes his commentary upon +Dryden.] + +[Footnote 17: _Sonnet upon the River Lodon_.] + +[Footnote 18: Dr. Huddersford's _Salmagundi_.] + +[Footnote 19: One of the earlier poems of Alexander Wilson, the +ornithologist, was entitled, _The Laurel Disputed_, and was published +in 1791. We have not met with it; but we apprehend, from title and +date, that it is a _jeu d'esprit_, founded upon the recent +appointment. The poetry of Wilson was characterized by much original +humor.] + +[Footnote 20: + + "Come to our _fête_, and show again + That pea-green coat, thou pink of men! + Which charmed all eyes, that last surveyed it; + When Brummel's self inquired, 'Who made it?' + When Cits came wondering from the East, + And thought thee Poet Pye at least." + _Two-Penny Post-Bag_, 1812.] + +[Footnote 21: TENNYSON, _Maud_.] + + + + +WATER-LILIES. + +The inconstant April mornings drop showers or sunbeams over the +glistening lake, while far beneath its surface a murky mass disengages +itself from the muddy bottom, and rises slowly through the waves. The +tasselled alder-branches droop above it; the last year's blackbird's +nest swings over it in the grapevine; the newly-opened Hepaticas and +Epigaeas on the neighboring bank peer down modestly to look for it; +the water-skater (Gerris) pauses on the surface near it, casting on +the shallow bottom the odd shadow of his feet, like three pairs of +boxing-gloves; the Notonecta, or water-boatman, rows round and round +it, sometimes on his breast, sometimes on his back; queer caddis-worms +trail their self-made homesteads of leaves or twigs beside it; the +Dytiscus, dorbug of the water, blunders clumsily against it; the +tadpole wriggles his stupid way to it, and rests upon it, meditating +of future frogdom; the passing wild-duck dives and nibbles at it; the +mink and musk-rat brush it with their soft fur; the spotted turtle +slides over it; the slow larvae of gauzy dragon-flies cling sleepily +to its sides and await their change: all these fair or uncouth +creatures feel, through the dim waves, the blessed longing of spring; +and yet not one of them dreams that within that murky mass there lies +a treasure too white and beautiful to be yet intrusted to the waves, +and that for many a day that bud must yearn toward the surface, +before, aspiring above it, as mortals to heaven, it meets the sunshine +with the answering beauty of the Water-Lily. + +Days and weeks have passed away; the wild-duck has flown onward, to +dive for his luncheon in some remoter lake; the tadpoles have made +themselves legs, with which they have vanished; the caddis-worms have +sealed themselves up in their cylinders, and emerged again as winged +insects; the dragon-flies have crawled up the water-reeds, and, +clinging with heads upward, (not downward, as strangely described in a +late "North British Review,") have undergone the change which +symbolizes immortality; the world is transformed from spring to +summer; the lily-buds are opened into glossy leaf and radiant flower, +and we have come for the harvest. + +We lodged, last night, in the old English phrase, "at the sign of the +Oak and Star." Wishing, not, indeed, like the ancient magicians, to +gather magic berry and bud before sunrise, but at least to see these +treasures of the lake in their morning hour, we camped last night on a +little island, which one tall tree almost covers with its branches, +while a dense undergrowth of young chestnuts and birches fills all the +intervening space, touching the water all around the circular, +shelving shore. Yesterday was hot, but the night was cool, and we +kindled a gypsy fire of twigs, less for warmth than for society. The +first gleam made the dark lonely islet into a cheering home, turned +the protecting tree to a starlit roof, and the chestnut-sprays to +illuminated walls. Lying beneath their shelter, every fresh flickering +of the fire kindled the leaves into brightness and banished into dark +interstices the lake and sky; then the fire died into embers, the +leaves faded into solid darkness in their turn, and water and heavens +showed light and close and near, until fresh twigs caught fire and the +blaze came up again. Rising to look forth, at intervals, during the +night,--for it is the worst feature of a night out-doors, that +sleeping seems such a waste of time,--we watched the hilly and wooded +shores of the lake sink into gloom and glimmer into dawn again, amid +the low plash of waters and the noises of the night. + +Precisely at half-past three, a song-sparrow above our heads gave one +liquid trill, so inexpressibly sudden and delicious, that it seemed to +set to music every atom of freshness and fragrance that Nature held; +then the spell was broken, and the whole shore and lake were vocal +with song. Joining in this jubilee of morning, we were early in +motion; bathing and breakfast, though they seemed indisputably in +accordance with the instincts of the Universe, yet did not detain us +long, and we were promptly on our way to Lily Pond. Will the reader +join us? + +It is one of those summer days when a veil of mist gradually burns +away before the intense sunshine, and the sultry morning only plays at +coolness, and that with its earliest visitors alone. But we are before +the sunlight, though not before the sunrise, and can watch the pretty +game of alternating mist and shine. Stray gleams of glory lend their +trailing magnificence to the tops of chestnut-trees, floating vapors +raise the outlines of the hills and make mystery of the wooded +islands, and, as we glide through the placid water, we can sing, with +the Chorus in the "Ion" of Euripides, "O immense and brilliant air, +resound with our cries of joy!" + +Almost every town has its Lily Pond, dear to boys and maidens, and +partially equalizing, by its annual delights, the presence or absence +of other geographical advantages. Ours is accessible from the larger +lake only by taking the skiff over a narrow embankment, which protects +our fairyland by its presence, and eight distant factories by its dam. +Once beyond it, we are in a realm of dark Lethean water, utterly +unlike the sunny depths of the main lake. Hither the water-lilies have +retreated, to a domain of their own. Darker than these dark waves, +there stand in their bosom hundreds of submerged trees, and dismasted +roots still upright, spreading their vast, uncouth limbs like enormous +spiders beneath the surface. They are remnants of border wars with the +axe, vegetable Witheringtons, still fighting on their stumps, but +gradually sinking into the soft ooze, and ready, perhaps, when a score +of centuries has piled two more strata of similar remains in mud above +them, to furnish foundations for a newer New Orleans; that city having +been lately discovered to be thus supported. + +The present decline in business is clear revenue to the water-lilies, +and these waters are higher than usual because the idle factories do +not draw them off. But we may notice, in observing the shores, that +peculiar charm of water, that, whether its quantity be greater or +less, its grace is the same; it makes its own boundary in lake or +river, and where its edge is, there seems the natural and permanent +margin. And the same natural fitness, without reference to mere +quantity, extends to its children. Before us lie islands and +continents of lilies, acres of charms, whole, vast, unbroken surfaces +of stainless whiteness. And yet, as we approach them, every islanded +cup that floats in lonely dignity, apart from the multitude, appears +as perfect in itself, couched in white expanded perfection, its +reflection taking a faint glory of pink that is scarcely perceptible +in the flower. As we glide gently among them, the air grows fragrant, +and a stray breeze flaps the leaves, as if to welcome us. Each +floating flower becomes suddenly a ship at anchor, or rather seems +beating up against the summer wind, in a regatta of blossoms. + +Early as it is, the greater part of the flowers are already expanded. +Indeed, that experience of Thoreau's, of watching them open in the +first sunbeams, rank by rank, is not easily obtained, unless perhaps +in a narrow stream, where the beautiful slumberers are more regularly +marshalled. In our lake, at least, they open irregularly, though +rapidly. But, this morning, many linger as buds, while others peer up, +in half-expanded beauty, beneath the lifted leaves, frolicsome as +Pucks or baby-nymphs. As you raise the leaf, in such cases, it is +impossible not to imagine that a pair of tiny hands have upheld it, or +else that the pretty head will dip down again, and disappear. Others, +again, have expanded all but the inmost pair of white petals, and +these spring apart at the first touch of the finger on the stem. Some +spread vast vases of fragrance, six or seven inches in diameter, while +others are small and delicate, with petals like fine lace-work. +Smaller still, we sometimes pass a flotilla of infant leaves, an inch +in diameter. All these grow from the deep, dark water,--and the +blacker it is, the fairer their whiteness shows. But your eye follows +the stem often vainly into those sombre depths, and vainly seeks to +behold Sabrina fair, sitting with her twisted braids of lilies, +beneath the glassy, cool, but not translucent wave. Do not start, +when, in such an effort, only your own dreamy face looks back upon +you, beyond the gunwale of the reflected boat, and you find that you +float double, self and shadow. + +Let us rest our paddles, and look round us, while the idle motion +sways our light skiff onward, now half-embayed among the lily-pads, +now lazily gliding over intervening gulfs. There is a great deal going +on in these waters and their fringing woods and meadows. All the +summer long, the pond is bordered with successive walls of flowers. In +early spring emerge the yellow catkins of the swamp-willow, first; +then the long tassels of the graceful alders expand and droop, till +they weep their yellow dust upon the water; then come the +birch-blossoms, more tardily; then the downy leaves and white clusters +of the medlar or shadbush (_Amelanchier Canadensis_ of Gray); these +dropping, the roseate chalices of the mountain-laurel open; as they +fade into melancholy brown, the sweet Azalea uncloses; and before its +last honeyed blossom has trailed down, dying, from the stem, the more +fragrant Clethra starts out above, the button-bush thrusts forth its +merry face amid wild roses, and the Clematis waves its sprays of +beauty. Mingled with these grow, lower, the spiraeas, white and pink, +yellow touch-me-not, fresh white arrowhead, bright blue vervain and +skullcap, dull snakehead, gay monkey-flower, coarse eupatoriums, +milk-weeds, golden-rods, asters, thistles, and a host beside. Beneath, +the brilliant scarlet cardinal-flower begins to palisade the moist +shores; and after its superb reflection has passed away from the +waters, the grotesque witch-hazel flares out its narrow yellow petals +amidst the October leaves, and so ends the floral year. There is not a +week during all these months, when one cannot stand in the boat and +wreathe garlands of blossoms from the shores. + +These all crowd around the brink, and watch, day and night, the +opening and closing of the water-lilies. Meanwhile, upon the waters, +our queen keeps her chosen court, nor can one of these mere +land-loving blossoms touch the hem of her garment. In truth, she bears +no sister near her throne. There is but this one species among us, +_Nymphaea odorata_. The beautiful little rose-colored _Nymphaea +sanguinea_, which once adorned the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, was +merely an occasional variety of costume. She has, indeed, an English +half-sister, _Nymphaea alba_, less beautiful, less fragrant, but +keeping more fashionable hours,--not opening (according to Linnaeus) +till seven, nor closing till four. Her humble cousin, the yellow +Nuphar, keeps commonly aloof, as becomes a poor relation, though +created from the selfsame mud,--a fact which Hawthorne has beautifully +moralized. The prouder Nelumbium, a second-cousin, lineal descendant +of the sacred bean of Pythagoras, keeps aloof, through pride, not +humility, and dwells, like a sturdy democrat, in the Far West. + +But, undisturbed, the water-lily keeps her fragrant court, with +few attendants. The tall pickerel-weed (Pontederia) is her +gentleman-usher, gorgeous in blue and gold through July, somewhat +rusty in August. The water-shield (Hydropeltis) is chief +maid-of-honor; she is a highborn lady, not without royal blood indeed, +but with rather a bend sinister; not precisely beautiful, but very +fastidious; encased over her whole person with a gelatinous covering, +literally a starched duenna. Sometimes she is suspected of conspiring +to drive her mistress from the throne; for we have observed certain +slow watercourses where the leaves of the water-lily have been almost +wholly replaced by the similar, but smaller, leaves of the +water-shield. More rarely seen is the slender Utricularia, a dainty +maiden, whose light feet scarce touch the water,--with the still more +delicate floating white Water-Ranunculus, and the shy Villarsia, whose +submerged flowers merely peep one day above the surface and then close +again forever. Then there are many humbler attendants, Potamogetons or +pond-weeds. And here float little emissaries from the dominions of +land; for the fallen florets of the Viburnum drift among the +lily-pads, with mast-like stamens erect, sprinkling the water with a +strange beauty, and cheating us with the promise of a new aquatic +flower. + +These are the still life of this sequestered nook; but it is in fact a +crowded thoroughfare. No tropic jungle more swarms with busy existence +than these midsummer waters and their bushy banks. The warm and +humming air is filled with insect sounds, ranging from the murmur of +invisible gnats and midges, to the impetuous whirring of the great +Libellulae, large almost as swallows, and hawking high in air for +their food. Swift butterflies glance by, moths flutter, flies buzz, +grasshoppers and katydids pipe their shrill notes, sharp as the edges +of the sunbeams. Busy bees go humming past, straight as arrows, +express-freight-trains from one blossoming copse to another. Showy +wasps of many species fume uselessly about, in gallant uniforms, +wasting an immense deal of unnecessary anger on the sultry universe. +Graceful, stingless Sphexes and Ichneumon-flies emulate their bustle, +without their weapons. Delicate lady-birds come and go to the +milkweeds, spotted almost as regularly as if Nature had decided to +number the species, like policemen or hack-drivers, from one to +twenty. Elegant little Lepturae fly with them, so gay and airy, they +hardly seem like beetles. Phryganeae, (_nés_ caddisworms,) laceflies, +and long-tailed Ephemerae flutter more heavily by. On the large +alder-flowers clings the superb _Desmocerus palliatus_, beautiful as a +tropical insect, with his steel-blue armor and his golden cloak +(_pallium_) above his shoulders, grandest knight on this Field of the +Cloth of Gold. The countless fireflies which spangled the evening mist +now only crawl sleepily, daylight creatures, with the lustre buried in +their milky bodies. More wholly children of night, the soft, luxurious +Sphinxes (or hawk-moths) come not here; fine ladies of the insect +world, their home is among gardens and green-houses, late and languid +by day, but all night long upon the wing, dancing in the air with +unwearied muscles till long past midnight, and supping on honey at +last. They come not here; but the nobler butterflies soar above us, +stoop a moment to the water, and then with a few lazy wavings of their +sumptuous wings float far over the oak-trees to the woods they love. + +All these hover near the water-lily; but its special parasites are an +elegant beetle (_Donacia metallica_) which keeps house permanently in +the flower, and a few smaller ones which tenant the surface of the +leaves,--larva, pupa, and perfect insect, forty feeding like one, and +each leading its whole earthly career on this floating island of +perishable verdure. The "beautiful blue damsel-flies" alight also in +multitudes among them, so fearless that they perch with equal +readiness on our boat or paddle, and so various that two adjacent +ponds will sometimes be haunted by two distinct sets of species. In +the water, among the leaves, little shining whirlwigs wheel round and +round, fifty joining in the dance, till, at the slightest alarm, they +whirl away to some safer ballroom, and renew the merriment. On every +floating log, as we approach it, there is a convention of turtles, +sitting in calm debate, like mailed barons, till, as we approach, they +plump into the water, and paddle away for some subaqueous Runnymede. +Beneath, the shy and stately pickerel vanishes at a glance, shoals of +minnows glide, black and bearded pouts frisk aimlessly, soft +water-lizards hang poised without motion, and slender pickerel-frogs +cease occasionally their submerged croaking, and, darting to the +surface with swift vertical strokes, gulp a mouthful of fresh air, and +down again to renew the moist soliloquy. + +Time would fail us to tell of the feathered life around us,--the +blackbirds that build securely in these thickets, the stray swallows +that dip their wings in the quiet waters, and the kingfishers that +still bring, as the ancients fabled, halcyon days. Yonder stands, +against the shore, a bittern, motionless in that wreath of mist which +makes his long-legged person almost as dim as his far-off booming by +night. There poises a hawk, before sweeping down to some chosen bough +in the dense forest; and there fly a pair of blue-jays, screaming, +from tree to tree. As for wild quadrupeds, the race is almost passed +away. Far to the North, indeed, the great moose still browses on the +lily-pads, and the shy beaver nibbles them; but here the few lingering +four-footed creatures only haunt, but do not graze upon these floating +pastures. Eyes more favored than ours may yet chance to spy an otter +in this still place; there by the shore are the small footprints of a +mink; that dark thing disappearing in the waters, yonder, a soft mass +of drowned fur, is a "musquash." Later in the season, a mound of earth +will be his winter dwelling-place; and those myriad muscle-shells at +the water's edge are the remnant of his banquets,--once banquets for +the Indians, too. + +But we must return to our lilies. There is no sense of wealth like +floating in this archipelago of white and green. The emotions of +avarice become almost demoralizing. Every flower bears a fragrant +California in its bosom, and you feel impoverished at the thought of +leaving one behind. But after the first half-hour of eager grasping, +one becomes fastidious, rather scorns those on which the wasps and +flies have alighted, and seeks only the stainless. But handle them +tenderly, as if you loved them. Do not grasp at the open flower as if +it were a peony or a hollyhock, for then it will come off, stalkless, +in your hand, and you will cast it blighted upon the water; but coil +your thumb and second finger affectionately around it, press the +extended forefinger firmly to the stem below, and with one steady pull +you will secure a long and delicate stalk, fit to twine around the +graceful head of your beloved, as the Hindoo goddess of beauty +encircled with a Lotus the brow of Rama. + +Consider the lilies. All over our rural watercourses, at midsummer, +float these cups of snow. They are Nature's symbols of coolness. They +suggest to us the white garments of their Oriental worshippers. They +come with the white roses and prepare the way for the white lilies of +the garden. The white doe of Rylstone and Andrew Marvell's fawn might +fitly bathe amid their beauties. Yonder steep bank slopes down to the +lake-side, one solid mass of pale pink laurel, but, once upon the +water, a purer tint prevails. The pink fades into a lingering flush, +and the white creature floats peerless, set in green without and gold +within. That bright circle of stamens is the very ring with which +Doges once wedded the Adriatic, Venice has lost it, but it dropped +into the water-lily's bosom, and there it rests forever. So perfect in +form, so redundant in beauty, so delicate, so spotless, so +fragrant,--what presumptuous lover ever dared, in his most enamored +hour, to liken his mistress to a water-lily? No human Blanche or +Lilian was ever so fair as that. + +The water-lily comes of an ancient and sacred family of white-robed +priests. They assisted at the most momentous religious ceremonies, +from the beginning of recorded time. The Egyptian Lotus was a sacred +plant; it was dedicated to Harpocrates and to the god Nofr +Atmoo,--Nofr meaning _good_, whence the name of our yellow lily, +Nuphar. But the true Egyptian flower was _Nymphaea Lotus_, though +_Nymphaea caerulea_, Moore's "blue water-lilies," can be traced on the +sculptures also. It was cultivated in tanks in the gardens; it was the +chief material for festal wreaths; a single bud hung over the forehead +of many a queenly dame; and the sculptures represent the weary flowers +as dropping from the heated hands of belles, in the later hours of the +feast. Rock softly on the waters, fair lilies! your Eastern kindred +have rocked on the stormier bosom of Cleopatra. The Egyptian Lotus +was, moreover, the emblem of the sacred Nile,--as the Hindoo species, +of the sacred Ganges; and both the one and the other was held the +symbol of the creation of the world from the waters. The sacred bull +Apis was wreathed with its garlands; there were niches for water, to +place it among tombs; it was carved in the capitals of columns; it was +represented on plates and vases; the sculptures show it in many sacred +uses, even as a burnt-offering; Isis holds it; and the god Nilus still +binds a wreath of water-lilies around the throne of Memnon. + +From Egypt the Lotus was carried to Assyria, and Layard found it among +fir-cones and honeysuckles on the later sculptures of Nineveh. The +Greeks dedicated it to the nymphs, whence the name _Nymphaea_. Nor did +the Romans disregard it, though the Lotus to which Ovid's nymph Lotis +was changed, _servato nomine_, was a tree, and not a flower. Still +different a thing was the enchanted stem of the Lotus-eaters of +Herodotus, which prosaic botanists have reduced to the _Zizyphus +Lotus_ found by Mungo Park, translating also the yellow Lotus-dust +into a mere "farina, tasting like sweet gingerbread." + +But in the Lotus of Hindostan we find our flower again, and the +Oriental sacred books are cool with water-lilies. Open the Vishnu +Purana at any page, and it is a _Sortes Lilianae_. The orb of the +earth is Lotus-shaped, and is upborne by the tusks of Vesava, as if he +had been sporting in a lake where the leaves and blossoms float. +Brahma, first incarnation of Vishnu, creator of the world, was born +from a Lotus; so was Sri or Lakshmu, the Hindoo Venus, goddess of +beauty and prosperity, protectress of womanhood, whose worship guards +the house from all danger. "Seated on a full-blown Lotus, and holding +a Lotus in her hand, the goddess Sri, radiant with beauty, rose from +the waves." The Lotus is the chief ornament of the subterranean Eden, +Patala, and the holy mountain Meru is thought to be shaped like its +seed-vessel, larger at summit than at base. When the heavenly Urvasi +fled from her earthly spouse, Purúvavas, he found her sporting with +four nymphs of heaven, in a lake beautified with the Lotus. When the +virtuous Prahlada was burned at the stake, he cried to his cruel +father, "The fire burneth me not, and all around I behold the face of +the sky, cool and fragrant with beds of Lotus-flowers!" Above all, the +graceful history of the transformations of Krishna is everywhere hung +with these fresh chaplets. Every successive maiden whom the deity +wooes is Lotus-eyed, Lotus-mouthed, or Lotus-cheeked, and the youthful +hero wears always a Lotus-wreath. Also "the clear sky was bright with +the autumnal moon, and the air fragrant with the perfume of the wild +water-lily, in whose buds the clustering bees were murmuring their +song." + +Elsewhere we find fuller details. "In the primordial state of the +world, the rudimental universe, submerged in water, reposed on the +bosom of the Eternal. Brahma, the architect of the world, poised on a +Lotus-leaf, floated upon the waters, and all that he was able to +discern with his eight eyes was water and darkness. Amid scenes so +ungenial and dismal, the god sank into a profound reverie, when he +thus soliloquized: 'Who am I? Whence am I?' In this state of +abstraction Brahma continued during the period of a century and a half +of the gods, without apparent benefit or a solution of his inquiries, +a circumstance which caused him great uneasiness of mind." It is a +comfort, however, to know, that subsequently a voice came to him, on +which he rose, "seated himself upon the Lotus in an attitude of +contemplation, and reflected upon the Eternal, who soon appeared to +him in the form of a man with a thousand heads": a questionable +exchange for his Lotus-solitude. + +This is Brahminism; but the other great form of Oriental religion has +carried the same fair symbol with it. One of the Bibles of the +Buddhists is named "The White Lotus of the Good Laer." A pious +Nepaulese bowed in reverence before a vase of lilies which perfumed +the study of Sir William Jones. At sunset in Thibet, the French +missionaries tell us, every inhabitant of every village prostrates +himself in the public square, and the holy invocation, "Oh, the gem in +the Lotus!" goes murmuring over hill and valley, like the sound of +many bees. It is no unmeaning phrase, but an utterance of ardent +desire to be absorbed into that Brahma whose emblem is the sacred +flower. The mystic formula or "mani" is imprinted on the pavement of +the streets, it floats on flags from the temples, and the wealthy +Buddhists maintain sculptor-missionaries, Old Mortalities of the +water-lily, who, wandering to distant lands, carve the blessed words +upon cliff and stone. + +Having got thus far into Orientalism, we can hardly expect to get out +again without some slight entanglement in philology. Lily-pads. Whence +_pads_? No other leaf is identified with that singular monosyllable. +Has our floating Lotus-leaf any connection with padding, or with a +footpad? with the ambling pad of an abbot, or a paddle, or a paddock, +or a padlock? with many-domed Padua proud, or with St. Patrick? Is the +name derived from the Anglo-Saxon _paad_ or _petthian_, or the Greek +[Greek: pateo]? All the etymologists are silent; Tooke and Richardson +ignore the problem; and of the innumerable pamphlets in the Worcester +and Webster Controversy, loading the tables of school-committee-men, +not one ventures to grapple with the lily-pad. + +But was there ever a philological trouble for which the Sanscrit could +not afford at least a conjectural cure? A dictionary of that extremely +venerable tongue is an ostrich's stomach, which can crack the hardest +etymological nut. The Sanscrit name for the Lotus is simply _Padma_. +The learned Brahmins call the Egyptian deities Padma Devi, or +Lotus-Gods; the second of the eighteen Hindoo Puranas is styled the +Padma Purana, because it treats of the "epoch when the world was a +golden Lotus"; and the sacred incantation which goes murmuring through +Thibet is "Om mani padme houm." It would be singular, if upon these +delicate floating leaves a fragment of our earliest vernacular has +been borne down to us, so that here the schoolboy is more learned than +the _savans_. + +This lets us down easily to the more familiar uses of this plant +divine. By the Nile, in early days, the water-lily was good not merely +for devotion, but for diet. "From the seeds of the Lotus," said Pliny, +"the Egyptians make bread." The Hindoos still eat the seeds, roasted +in sand; also the stalks and roots. In South America, from the seeds +of the Victoria (_Nymphaea Victoria_, now _Victoria Regia_) a farina +is made, preferred to that of the finest wheat,--Bonpland even +suggesting to our reluctant imagination Victoria-pies. But the +European species are used, so far as we know, only in dyeing, and as +food (if the truth be told) of swine. Our own water-lily is rather +more powerful in its uses; the root contains tannin and gallic acid, +and a decoction of it "gives a black precipitate, with sulphate of +iron." It graciously consents to become an astringent, and a styptic, +and a poultice, and, banished from all other temples, still lingers in +those of AEsculapius. + +The botanist also finds his special satisfactions in our flower. It +has some strange peculiarities of structure. So loose is the internal +distribution of its tissues, that it was for some time held doubtful +to which of the two great vegetable divisions, exogenous or +endogenous, it belonged. Its petals, moreover, furnish the best +example of the gradual transition of petals into stamens, +--illustrating that wonderful law of identity which is the +great discovery of modern science. Every child knows this peculiarity +of the water-lily, but the extent of it seems to vary with season and +locality, and sometimes one finds a succession of flowers almost +entirely free from this confusion of organs. + +Our readers may not care to know that the order of Nymphaeaceae +"differs from Ranunculaceae in the consolidation of its carpels, from +Papaveraceae in the placentation not being parietal, and from +Nelumbiaceae in the want of a large truncated disc containing +monospermous achenia"; but they may like to know that the water-lily +has relations on land, in all gradations of society, from poppy to +magnolia, and yet does not conform its habits precisely to those of +any of them. Its great black roots, sometimes as large as a man's arm, +form a network at the bottom of the water. Its stem floats, an airy +four-celled tube, adapting itself to the depth, though never stiff in +shallows, like the stalk of the yellow lily: and it contracts and +curves when seed-time approaches, though not so ingeniously as the +spiral threads of the European Vallisneria, which uncoil to let the +flowers rise to the surface, and then cautiously retract, that the +seeds may ripen on the very bottom of the lake. The leaves show +beneath the magnifier beautiful adaptations of structure. They are +not, like those of land-plants, constructed with deep veins to receive +the rain and conduct it to the stem, but are smooth and glossy, and of +even surface. The leaves of land-vegetation have also thousands of +little breathing-pores, principally on the under side: the apple-leaf, +for instance, has twenty-four thousand to a square inch. But here they +are fewer; they are wholly on the upper side, and, whereas in other +cases they open or shut according to the moisture of the atmosphere, +here the greedy leaves, secure of moisture, scarcely deign to close +them. Nevertheless, even these give some recognition of hygrometric +necessities, and, though living on the water, and not merely +christened with dewdrops like other leaves, but baptized by immersion +all the time, they are yet known to suffer in drought and to take +pleasure in the rain. + +We have spoken of the various kindred of the water-lily; but we must +not leave our fragrant subject without due mention of its most +magnificent, most lovely relative, at first claimed even as its twin +sister, and classed as a Nymphaea. We once lived near neighbor to a +Victoria Regia. Nothing, in the world of vegetable existence, has such +a human interest. The charm is not in the mere size of the plant, +which disappoints everybody, as Niagara does, when tried by that sole +standard. The leaves of the Victoria, indeed, attain a diameter of six +feet; the largest flowers, of twenty-three inches,--less than four +times the size of the largest of our water-lilies. But it is not the +mere looks of the Victoria, it is its life which fascinates. It is not +a thing merely of dimensions, nor merely of beauty, but a creature of +vitality and motion. Those vast leaves expand and change almost +visibly. They have been known to grow half an inch an hour, eight +inches a day. Rising one day from the water, a mere clenched mass of +yellow prickles, a leaf is transformed the next day to a crimson +salver, gorgeously tinted on its upturned rim. Then it spreads into a +raft of green, armed with long thorns, and supported by a frame-work +of ribs and cross-pieces, an inch thick, and so substantial, that the +Brazil Indians, while gathering the seed-vessels, place their young +children on the leaves;--_yrupe_, or water-platter, they call the +accommodating plant. But even these expanding leaves are not the glory +of the Victoria; the glory is in the opening of the flower. + +We have sometimes looked in, for a passing moment, at the green-house, +its dwelling-place, during the period of flowering,--and then stayed +for more than an hour, unable to leave the fascinating scene. After +the strange flower-bud has reared its dark head from the placid tank, +moving it a little, uneasily, like some imprisoned water-creature, it +pauses for a moment in a sort of dumb despair. Then trembling again, +and collecting all its powers, it thrusts open, with an indignant +jerk, the rough calyx-leaves, and the beautiful disrobing begins. The +firm, white, central cone, first so closely infolded, quivers a +little, and swiftly, before your eyes, the first of the hundred petals +detaches its delicate edges, and springs back, opening towards the +water, while its white reflection opens to meet it from below. Many +moments of repose follow,--you watch,--another petal trembles, +detaches, springs open, and is still. Then another, and another, and +another. Each movement is so quiet, yet so decided, so living, so +human, that the radiant creature seems a Musidora of the water, and +you almost blush with a sense of guilt, in gazing on that peerless +privacy. As petal by petal slowly opens, there still stands the +central cone of snow, a glacier, an alp, a jungfrau, while each +avalanche of whiteness seems the last. Meanwhile, a strange rich odor +fills the air, and Nature seems to concentrate all fascinations and +claim all senses for this jubilee of her darling. + +So pass the enchanted moments of the evening, till the fair thing +pauses at last, and remains for hours unchanged. In the morning, one +by one, those white petals close again, shutting all their beauty in, +and you watch through the short sleep for the period of waking. Can +this bright transfigured creature appear again, in the same chaste +beauty? Your fancy can scarcely trust it, fearing some disastrous +change; and your fancy is too true a prophet. Come again, after the +second day's opening, and you start at the transformation which one +hour has secretly produced. Can this be the virgin Victoria,--this +thing of crimson passion, this pile of pink and yellow, relaxed, +expanded, voluptuous, lolling languidly upon the water, never to rise +again? In this short time every tint of every petal is transformed; it +is gorgeous in beauty, but it is "Hebe turned to Magdalen." + +But our rustic water-lily, our innocent Nymphaea, never claiming such +a hot-house glory, never drooping into such a blush, blooms on +placidly in the quiet waters, till she modestly folds her leaves for +the last time, and bows her head beneath the surface forever. Next +year she lives for us only in her children, fair and pure as herself. + +Nay, not alone in them, but also in memory. The fair vision will not +fade from us, though the paddle has dipped its last crystal drop from +the waves, and the boat is drawn upon the shore. We may yet visit many +lovely and lonely places,--meadows thick with violet, or the homes of +the shy Rhodora, or those sloping forest-haunts where the slight +Linnaea hangs its twin-born heads,--but no scene will linger on our +vision like this annual Feast of the Lilies. On scorching mountains, +amid raw prairie-winds, or upon the regal ocean, the white pageant +shall come back to us again, with all the luxury of summer heats, and +all the fragrant coolness that can relieve them. We shall fancy +ourselves again among these fleets of anchored lilies,--again, like +Urvasi, sporting amid the Lake of Lotuses. + +For that which is remembered is often more vivid than that which is +seen. The eye paints better in the presence, the heart in the absence, +of the object most dear. "He who longs after beautiful Nature can best +describe her," said Bettine; "he who is in the midst of her loveliness +can only lie down and enjoy." It enhances the truth of the poet's +verses, that he writes them in his study. Absence is the very air of +passion, and all the best description is _in memoriam_. As with our +human beloved, when the graceful presence is with us, we cannot +analyze or describe, but merely possess, and only after its departure +can it be portrayed by our yearning desires; so is it with Nature: +only in losing her do we gain the power to describe her, and we are +introduced to Art, as we are to Eternity, by the dropping away of our +companions. + + + + +FIFTY AND FIFTEEN. + + With gradual gleam the day was dawning, + Some lingering stars were seen, + When swung the garden-gate behind us,-- + He fifty, I fifteen. + + The high-topped chaise and old gray pony + Stood waiting in the lane: + Idly my father swayed the whip-lash, + Lightly he held the rein. + + The stars went softly back to heaven, + The night-fogs rolled away, + And rims of gold and crowns of crimson + Along the hill-tops lay. + + That morn, the fields, they surely never + So fair an aspect wore; + And never from the purple clover + Such perfume rose before. + + O'er hills and low romantic valleys + And flowery by-roads through, + I sang my simplest songs, familiar, + That he might sing them too. + + Our souls lay open to all pleasure,-- + No shadow came between; + Two children, busy with their leisure,-- + He fifty, I fifteen. + + * * * * * + + As on my couch in languor, lonely, + I weave beguiling rhyme, + Comes back with strangely sweet remembrance + That far-removed time. + + The slow-paced years have brought sad changes, + That morn and this between; + And now, on earth, my years are fifty, + And his, in heaven, fifteen. + + + + +ILLINOIS IN SPRING-TIME: WITH A LOOK AT CHICAGO. + +I remember very well, that, when I studied the "Arabian Nights," with +a devotion which I have since found it difficult to bestow on the +perusal of better books, the thing that most excited my imagination +was the enchanted locomotive carpet, granted by one of the amiable +genii to his favorite, to whom it gave the power of being in a moment +where nobody expected him, paying visits at the most unfashionable +hours, and making himself generally ubiquitous when interest or +curiosity prompted. The other wonders were none of them inexhaustible. +Donkeys that talked after their heads were cut off, just as well as +some donkeys do with them on,--old cats turned into beautiful +damsels,--birds that obligingly carried rings between parted +lovers,--one soon had enough of. Caves full of gold and silver, and +lighted by gems resplendent as the stars, were all very well, but soon +tired. After your imagination had selected a few rings and bracelets, +necklaces and tiaras, and carried off one or two chests full of gold, +what could it do with the rest,--especially as they might vanish or +turn to pebbles or hazel-nuts in your caskets? + +But flying carpets! They could never tire. You seated yourself just in +the middle, in the easiest possible attitude, and at a wish you were +off, (not off the carpet, but off this work-a-day world,) careering +through sunny fields of air with the splendid buoyancy of the eagle, +steering your intelligent vehicle by a mere thought, and descending, +gently as a snow-flake, to garden-bower or palace-window, moonlit +kiosk or silent mountain-peak, as whim suggested or affairs urged. +This was magic indeed, and worthy the genii of any age. + +The sense of reality with which I accepted this wonder of wonders has +furnished forth many a dream, sleeping and waking, since those days; +and it is no uncommon thing for me, even now, to be sailing through +the air, feeling its soft waves against my face, and the delicious +refreshment of the upper ether in my breast, only to wake as if I had +dropped into bed with a celerity that made the arrival upon earth +anything but pleasant. I am not sure but there is some reality in +these flights, after all. These aërial journeys may be foretastes of +those we shall make after we are freed from the incumbrance of +avoirdupois. I hope so, at least. + +Yet there are good things of the kind here below, too. After all, what +were a magic carpet that could carry a single lucky wight,--at best, +but a species of heavenly sulky,--compared with a railroad train that +speeds along hundreds of men, women, and children, over land and +water, with any amount of heavy baggage, as well as a boundless extent +of crinoline? And if this equipage, gift of genii of our age, seem to +lack some of the celerity and secrecy which attended the voyagers of +the flying carpet, suppose we add the power of whispering to a friend +a thousand miles off the inmost thoughts of the heart, the most +desperate plans, the most dangerous secrets! Do not the two powers +united leave the carpet immeasurably behind? + +Shakspeare is said, in those noted lines,-- + + "Dear as the ruddy drops + That visit this sad heart," + +to have anticipated the discovery of the circulation of the blood: did +not the writers of the Oriental stories foresee rail and telegraph, +and describe them in their own tropical style? + +It is often said, that, although medical science leaves us pretty much +as it found us with regard to the days of the years of our pilgrimage, +and has as yet, with all its discoveries, done little towards +prolonging "this pleasing, anxious being," yet the material +improvements of our day do in effect lengthen mortal life for us. And +truly, what must Indian life have been worth, when it took a month to +cut down a tree with a stone hatchet, and when the shaping of a canoe +was the work of a year? When two hundred miles of travel consumed a +week's time, every two hundred miles' journey was worth a week's life; +and if we accept the idea of a certain celebrated character, (not +"Quintus Curtius," but Geoffrey Crayon, I believe,) that the time we +spend in journeying is just so much subtracted from our little span of +days, what a fearful loss of life must have resulted from our old +modes of locomotion! And yet we inconsiderately grumble at an +occasional smash-up! So easily are we spoiled! + +There are grave doubts, however, in some minds, whether our present +celerity of travel be wholly a gain upon the old methods. It must +depend upon circumstances. If agreeable people virtually live longer +now, so do bores, cheats, slanderers, hypocrites, and people who eat +onions and chew tobacco; and the rail enables these to pursue their +victims with inevitable, fatal swiftness. + +Some hold that the pleasure of travelling is even impaired by this +increase of speed. There is such a thing as fatal facility. As well +eat a condensed dinner, or hear a concert in one comprehensive crash, +ear-splitting and soul-confounding, as see miles of landscape at a +glance. Willis says, travelling on an English railway is equivalent to +having so many miles of green damask unrolled before your weary eyes. +And one may certainly have too much of a good thing. + +But, instead of discussing railroads in general,--too grand a theme +for me,--let me say that nobody can persuade me it is not delightful +to fly over ground scarcely yet trodden by the foot of man; to +penetrate, with the most subtle resources of inventive art, the +recesses in which Nature has enshrined herself most privately,--her +dressing-room, as it were, where we find her in her freshness, before +man-milliners have marred her beauty by attempts at improvement. The +contrast between that miracle of art, a railroad-train at full speed, +and a wide, lonely prairie, or a dusky forest, leafless, chilly, and +silent,--save for the small tinkling of streams beginning to break +from their frosty limits,--is one of the most striking in all the wide +range of rural effects. It reminds me, though perhaps unaccountably to +some, of Browning's fine image,-- + + "And ever and anon some bright white shaft + Burnt through the pine-tree roof, here burnt + and there, + As if God's messenger through the close + wood-screen + Plunged and re-plunged his weapon at a venture." + +Even where fields have begun to be tilled and houses and barns to be +built, the scared flying of domestic animals at sound of the terrific +visitor,--the resistless chariot of civilization with scythed axles +mowing down ignorance and prejudice as it whirls along,--tells a whole +story of change and wonder. We can almost see the shadows of the past +escaping into the dim woods, or flitting over the boundless prairie, +shivering at the fearful whistle, and seeking shelter from the wind of +our darting. + +The season for this romantic pleasure of piercing primeval Nature on +the wings of subtilest Art is rapidly drawing to a close. How few +penetrable regions can we now find where the rail-car is a novelty! +The very cows and horses, in most places, know when to expect it, and +hardly vouchsafe a sidelong glance as they munch their green dinner. A +railroad to the Pacific may give excitement of this kind a somewhat +longer date, but those who would enjoy the sensation on routes already +in use must begin their explorings at once. There is no time to be +lost. If we much longer spend all our summers in beating the +changeless paths of the Old World, our chance for the fresh but +fleeting delight I have been speaking of will have passed by, never to +return. It were unwise to lose this, one of the few remaining avenues +to a new sensation. Europe will keep; but the prairies will not, the +woods will not, hardly the rivers. Already the flowery waving oceans +of Illinois begin to abound in ships, or what seem such,--houses +looming up from the horizon, like three-masters sometimes, sometimes +schooners, and again little tentative sloops. These are creeping +nearer and nearer together, filling and making commonplace those +lovely deserts where the imagination can still find wings, and +world-wearied thought a temporary repose. Where neighbors were once +out of beacon-sight, they are now within bell-sound; and however +pleasant this may be for the neighbors, it is not so good for the +traveller, especially the traveller who has seen Europe. Only think of +a virgin forest or prairie, after over-populated Belgium or finished +England! Europeans understand the thing, and invariably rush for the +prairies; but we Americans, however little we may have seen of either +world, care little for the wonders of our own. Yet, when we go abroad, +we cannot help blushing to acknowledge that we have not seen the most +striking features of our own country. I speak from experience. Scott, +describing the arid wastes of the Hebrides,-- + + "Placed far amid the melancholy main," + +and swept bare by wintry-cold sea-breezes, said,-- + + "Yes! 'twas sublime, but sad; the loneliness + Loaded thy heart, the desert tired thine eye." + +But how different the loneliness of a soft-waving prairie,--soft even +before the new grass springs; soft in outline, in coloring, in its +whispering silence! Nothing sad or harsh; no threat or repulsion; only +mild hope, and promise of ease and abundance. Whether the glad flames +sport amid the long dry grass of last year, or the plough turn up a +deep layer of the exhaustless soil, or flocks of prairie-chickens fly +up from every little valley, images of life, joy, and plenty belong to +the scene. The summer flowers are not more cheerful than the spring +blaze, the spring blackness of richness, or the spring whirr and +flutter. The sky is alive with the return of migratory birds, swinging +back and forth, as if hesitating where to choose, where all is good. +Frogs hold noisy jubilees, ("Anniversary Meetings," perhaps,)--very +hoarse, and no wonder, considering their damp lodging,--but singing, +in words more intelligible than those of the opera-choruses, "Winter's +gone! Spring's come! No, it isn't! Yes, it is!"--and the Ayes have it. +The woodpecker's hammer helps the field-music, wherever he can find a +tree. He seems to know the carpenter is coming, and he makes the most +of his brief season. All is life, movement, freedom, joy. Not on the +very Alps, where their black needles seem to dart into the blue +depths, or snow-fields to mingle with the clouds, is the immediate, +vital sympathy of Earth with Heaven more evident and striking. + +The comparative ease with which prairie regions are prepared for the +advent of the great steam-car is exactly typical of the facilities +which they offer to other particulars of civilization. As the +smoothing of the prairie path, preparatory to railway speed, is but +short work, compared with the labor required in grading and levelling +mountainous tracts for the same purpose, so the introduction of all +that makes life desirable goes on with unexampled rapidity where the +land requires no felling of heavy timber to make it ready for the +plough, and where the soil is rich to such a depth that no man fears +any need of new fertilizing in his life-time or his son's. We observe +this difference everywhere in prairiedom; and it is perhaps this +thought, this close interweaving of marked outward aspect with great +human interests, that gives the prairie country its air of peculiar +cheerfulness. To man the earth was given; for him its use and its +beauty were created; it is his idea which endows it with expression, +whether savage or kindly. Rocks and mountains suggest the force +required to conquer difficulties, and the power with which the lord of +creation is endowed to subdue them; and the chief charm and interest +of such regions is derived, consciously or unconsciously, from this +suggestion. Prairie images are more domestic, quiet, leisurely. No +severe, wasting labor is demanded before corn and milk for wife and +little ones are wrung from reluctant clods. No danger is there of sons +or daughters being obliged to quit their homes and roam over foreign +lands for a precarious and beggarly subsistence. No prairie-boy will +ever carry about a hand-organ and a monkey, or see his sister yoked to +the plough, by the side of horse or ox. Blessed be God that there are +still places where grinding poverty is unfelt and unfeared! "Riches +fineless" belong to these deep, soft fields, and they become +picturesque by the thought, as the sea becomes so by the passing of a +ship, and the burning desert by the foot-print of a traveller or the +ashes of his fire. + +It was in spring weather, neither cold nor warm, now and then shiny, +and again spattering with a heavy shower, or misty under a warm, slow +rain,--the snow still lying in little streaks under shady +ridges,--that I first saw the prairies of Illinois. Everybody--kind +everybody!--said, "Why didn't you come in June?" But I, not being a +bird of the air, who alone travels at full liberty, the world before +him where to choose and Providence his guide, cared not to answer this +friendly query, but promised to be interested in the spring aspect of +the prairies, after my fashion, as sincerely as more fastidious +travellers can be in the summer one. It is very well to be prepared +when company is expected, but friends may come at any time. "Brown +fields and pastures bare" have no terrors for me. Green is gayer, but +brown softer. Blue skies are not alone lovely; gray ones set them +off--Rain enhances shine. Mud, to be sure;--but then railroads are the +Napoleons of mud. Planks and platforms quench it completely. One may +travel through tenacious seas of it without smirching one's boot-heel. +There is even a feeling of triumph as we see it lying sulky and +impotent on either side, while we bowl along dry-shod. When Noah and +his family came out of the Ark, and found all "soft with the Deluge," +it was very different. The prospect must have been discouraging. I +thought of it as we went through, or rather over, the prairies. But if +there had been in those days an Ararat Central, with good "incline" +and stationary engine, they need not have sent out dove or raven, but +might have started for home as soon as the rails shone in the sun and +they could get the Ark on wheels. It would have been well to move +carefully, to be sure; and it is odd to think what a journey they +might have had, now and then stopping or switching-off because of a +dead Mastodon across the track, or a panting Leviathan lashing out, +thirstily, with impertinent tail,--to say nothing of sadder sights and +impediments. + +There were only pleasant reminiscences of the Great Deluge as we flew +along after a little one. Happy we! in a nicely-cushioned car, +berthed, curtained, and, better than all, furnished with the "best +society," _sans_ starch, _sans_ crinoline; the gentlemen sitting on +their hats as much as they pleased, and the ladies giving curls and +collars the go-by, all in tip-top humor to be pleased. I could imagine +but one improvement to our equipage,--that a steam-organ attached to +it should have played, very softly, Felicien David's lovely level +music of "The Desert," as we bowled along. There were long glittering +side-streams between us and the black or green prairie,--streams with +little ripples on their faces, as the breeze kissed them in passing, +and now and then a dimple, under the visit of a vagrant new-born +beetle. To call such shining waters mud or puddles did not accord with +the spirit of the hour; so we fancied them the "mirroring waters" of +the poet, and compared them to fertilizing Nile,--whose powers, +indeed, they share, to some extent. By their sides _ought_ to be +planted willows and poplars, and alders of half a dozen kinds, but are +not yet. All in good time. Thirsty trees would drink up superfluous +moisture, and in return save fuel by keeping off sweeping winds, and +money by diverting heavy snows, those Russian enemies to the Napoleon +rail, and by preserving embankments, to which nothing but interlacing +roots can give stability. Rows of trees bordering her railroads would +make Illinois look more like France, which in many respects she +already resembles. + +The haze or _mirage_ of the prairies is wonderfully fantastic and +deceptive. The effect which seamen call _looming_ is one of the +commonest of its forms. This brings real but distant objects into +view, and dignifies them in size and color, till we can take a +farm-house for a white marble palace, and leafless woods with sunset +clouds behind them for enchanted gardens hung with golden fruit. But +the most gorgeous effects are, as is usual with air-castles, created +out of nothing,--that is, nothing more substantial than air, mist, and +sun- or moon- or star-beams. Fine times the imagination has, riding on +purple and crimson rays, and building Islands of the Blest among +vapors that have just risen from the turbid waters of the Mississippi! +No Loudon or Downing is invoked for the contriving or beautifying of +these villa-residences and this landscape-gardening. Genius comes with +inspiration, as inspiration does with genius; and we are our own +architects and draughtsmen, rioting at liberty with Nature's splendid +palette at our command, and no thought of rule or stint. Why should we +not, in solider things, derive more aid, like the poor little +"Marchioness" of Dickens, from this blessed power of imagination? +Those who do so are always laughed at as unpractical; but are they not +most truly practical, if they find and use the secret of gilding over, +and so making beautiful or tolerable, things in themselves mean or +sad? + +Once upon a time, then, the great State of Illinois was all under +water;--at least, so say the learned and statistical. If you doubt it, +go count the distinctly-marked ridges in the so-called bluffs, and see +how many years or ages this modern deluge has been subsiding. Where +its remains once lay sweltering under the hot sun, and sucking miasms +from his beams, now spread great green expanses, wholesome and +fertile, making the best possible use of sunbeams, and offering, by +their aid, every earthly thing that men and animals need for their +bodily growth and sustenance, in almost fabulous abundance. + +The colored map of Illinois, as given in a nice, new book, called, +"Illinois as it is," looks like a beautiful piece of silk, brocaded in +green (prairies) on a brownish ground (woodland tracts),--the surface +showing a nearly equal proportion of the two; while the swampy lands, +designated by dark blue,--in allusion, probably, to the occasional +state of mind of those who live near them,--take up a scarce +appreciable part of the space. Long, straggling "bluffs," on the banks +of the rivers, occupy still less room; but they make, on land and +paper, an agreeable variety. People thus far go to them only for the +mineral wealth with which they abound. It will be many years, yet, +before they will be thought worth farming; not because they would not +yield well, but because there is so much land that yields better. + +Some parts of the State are hilly, and covered with the finest timber. +The scenery of these tracts is equal to any of the kind in the United +States; and much of it has been long under cultivation, having been +early chosen by Southern settlers, who have grown old upon the soil. +Here and there, on these beautiful highlands, we find ancient ladies, +bright-eyed and cheerful, who tell us they have occupied the selfsame +house--built, Kentucky-fashion, with chimney outside--for forty years +or so. The legends these good dames have to tell are, no doubt, quite +as interesting in their way as those which Sir Walter Scott used to +thread the wilds of Scotland to gather up; but we value them not. +By-and-by, posterity will anathematize us for letting our old national +stories die in blind contempt or sheer ignorance of their value. + +The only thing to be found fault with in the landscape is the want of +great fields full of stumps. It does not seem like travelling in a new +country to see all smooth and ready for the plough. Trees are not here +looked upon as natural enemies; and so, where they grow, there they +stand, and wave triumphant over the field like victors' banners. No +finer trees grow anywhere, and one loves to see them so prized. Yet we +miss the dear old stumps. My heart leaps up when I behold hundreds of +them so close together that you can hardly get a plough between. Long, +long years ago, I have seen a dozen men toiling in one little cleared +spot, jollily engaged in burning them with huge fires of brush-wood, +chopping at them with desperate axes, and tearing the less tenacious +out by the roots, with a rude machine made on the principle of that +instrument by the aid of which the dentist revenges you on an +offending tooth. The country looks tame, at first, without these +characteristic ornaments, so suggestive of human occupancy. The ground +is excellently fertile where stumps have been, and association makes +us rather distrustful of its goodness where nothing but grass has ever +grown. + +The prairies are not as flat in surface as one expects to find them. +Except in the scarcity of trees, their surface is very much like other +portions of what is considered the best farming land. There are great +tracts of what are called bushy prairies, covered with a thick growth +of hazel and sassafras, jessamine and honey-suckle, and abounding in +grape-vines. These tracts possess springs in abundance. The "islands" +so often alluded to by travellers are most picturesque and beautiful +features in the landscape. They must not be compared to oases, for +they are surrounded by anything but sterility; but they are the +evidence of springs, and generally of a slight rise in the ground, and +the timber upon them is of almost tropical luxuriance. Herds of deer +are feeding in their shade, the murmur of wild bees fills the air, and +the sweet vine-smell invites birds and insects of every brilliant +color. Prairie-chickens are in flocks everywhere, and the approach of +civilization scarcely ever disturbs them. No engine-driver in the +southern part of the State but has often seen deer startled by the +approach of his train, and many tell tales of more ferocious denizens +of the wilds. Buffalo have all long since disappeared; but what times +they must have had in this their paradise, before they went! On the +higher prairies the grass is of a superior quality, and its seed +almost like wheat. On those which are low and humid it grows rank and +tough, and sometimes so high that a man on horseback may pass through +it unobserved. The crowding of vegetation, owing to the over-fertility +of the soil, causes all to tend upward, so that most of the growth is +extra high, rather than spreading in breadth. In the very early +spring, the low grass is interspersed with quantities of violets, +strawberry-blossoms, and other delicate flowers. As the grass grows +taller, flowers of larger size and more brilliant hues diversify it, +till at length the whole is like a flowery forest, but destined to be +burnt over in the autumn, leaving their ashes to help forward the +splendid growth of their successors. + +One of the marvels of this marvellous prairiedom, at the present hour, +is the taste and skill displayed in houses and gardens. One fancies a +"settler" in the Western wilds so occupied with thoughts of shelter +and sustenance as hardly to remember that a house must be +perpendicular to be safe, and a garden fenced before it is worth +planting. But every mile of our prairie-flight reminds us, that, where +no time and labor are to be consumed in felling trees and "toting" +logs to mill,--planks and joists, and such like, walking in, by rail, +all ready for the framing,--there is leisure for reflection and choice +as to form; and also, that, where fertility is the inevitable +attendant upon the first incision of the plough, _what_ we shall plant +and _how_ we shall plant it become the only topics for consideration. +Setting aside the merely temporary residences of the poorer class of +farmers,--houses sure to be replaced by palaces of pine-boards, at +least, before a great while, provided the owner does not "move West," +or take to whiskey,--the cottages we catch glimpses of from +car-windows are pretty and well-planned, and some of them show even +better on the inside than on the out. I must forbear to enlarge on the +comfort and abundance of these dwellings, lest I trench upon private +matters; but I may mention, by way of illustrating my subject, and +somewhat as the painter introduces human figures into his picture to +give an idea of the height of a tower or the vastness of a cathedral, +that I have found an abundant and even elegant table, under frescoed +ceiling, in a cottage near the Illinois Central, and far south of the +mid-line of this wonderful State, so lately a seeming waste through +much of its extent. + +And thus throughout. At one moment a bare expanse, looking +man-despised, if not God-forgotten,--and at the next, a smiling +village, with tasteful dwelling, fine shrubbery, great hotels, spires +pointing heavenward, and trees that look down with the conscious +dignity of old settlers, as if they had stood just so since the time +of good Father Marquette, that stout old missionary, who first planted +the holy cross in their shade, and, "after offering to the Mightiest +thanks and supplications, fell asleep to wake no more." + +There are many interesting reminiscences or traditions of the early +European settlers of Illinois. After Father Marquette,--whom I always +seem to see in Hicks's sweet picture of a monk inscribing the name +JESU on the bark of a tree in the forest,--came La Salle, an emissary +of the great Colbert, under Louis XIV.; an explorer of many heroic +qualities, who has left in this whole region important traces of his +wanderings, and the memory of his bloody and cruel murder at the +impious hands of his own followers, who had not patience to endure to +the end. Counted as part of Florida, under Spanish rule, and part of +Louisiana, under that of the French,--falling into the hands of the +celebrated John Law, in the course of his bubble Mississippi scheme, +and afterwards ceded with Canada and Nova Scotia to the English, +Illinois was never Americanized until the peace of '83. The spongy +turf of her prairies bore the weight of many a fort, and drank the +blood of the slain in many a battle, when all around her was at peace. +The fertility of her soil and the comparative mildness of her climate +caused her to be eagerly contended for, as far back as 1673, when the +pioneers grew poetical under the inspiration of "a joy that could not +be expressed," as they passed her "broad plains, all garlanded with +majestic forests and checkered with illimitable prairies and island +groves." "We are Illinois," said the poor Indians to Father +Marquette,--meaning, in their language, "We are men." And the Jesuits +treated them as men; but by traders they soon began to be treated like +beasts; and of course--poor things!--they did their best to behave +accordingly. All the forts are ruins now; there is no longer occasion +for them. The Indians are nothing. There can scarcely be found the +slightest trace of their occupancy of these rich acres. Nations that +build nothing but uninscribed burial-places foreshadow their own +doom,--to return to the soil and be forgotten. But the mode of their +passing away is not, therefore, a matter of indifference. + +On the stronger and more intelligent rests the responsibility of such +changes; and in the case of our Indians, it is certain that a load of +guilt, individual and national, rests somewhere. Necessity is no +Christian plea, "It must needs be that offences come, but woe to him +by whom the offence cometh!" The Indian and the negro shall rise up in +judgment against our rich and happy land, and condemn it for +inhumanity and selfishness. Have they not already done so? Blood and +treasure, poured out like water, have been the beginnings of +retribution in one case; a deeper and more vital punishment, such as +belongs to bosom-sins, awaits us in the other. Shall no penitence, no +sacrifice, attempt to avert it? + +Illinois, level, fertile, joyous, took French rule very kindly. The +missionaries, who were physicians, schoolmasters, and artisans, as +well as preachers, lived among the people, instructed them in the arts +of life as well as in the ceremonies and spirit of the Catholic faith; +and natives and foreigners seem to have dwelt together in peace and +love. The French brought with them the regularity and neatness that +characterize their home-settlements, and the abundance in which they +lived enabled them to be public-spirited and to deal liberally even +with the Indians. They raised wheat in such plenty that Indian corn +was cultivated chiefly for provender, although they found the +_voyageurs_ glad to buy it as they passed back and forth on their +adventurous journeys. The remains of their houses show how +substantially they built; two or three modern sudden houses could be +made out of one old French picketed and porticoed cottage. + +The appearance of an Illinois settler in those days was rather +picturesque than elegant,--substance before show being the principle +upon which it was planned. While the Indian still wore his paint and +feathers when he came to trade, the rural swain appeared in a _capote_ +made of blanket, with a hood that served in cold weather instead of a +Leary, buck-skin overalls, moccasins of raw-hide, and, generally, only +a natural shock of Sampsonian locks between his head and the sun; +while his lady-love was satisfied with an outfit not very +different,--save that there is no tradition that she ever capped the +climax of ugliness by wearing Bloomers. There were gay colors for +holidays, no doubt; but not till 1830, we are told, did the genuine +Illinois settler adopt the commonplace dress of this imitative land. +What pity when people are in such haste to do away with everything +characteristic in costume! + +Both sexes worked hard, bore rough weather without flinching, and +attended carefully to their religious duties; but, withal, they were +gay and joyous, ready for dance and frolic, and never so anxious to +make money that they forgot to make fun. + +What must the ghosts of these primitive Christians think of their +successors, ploughing in broadcloth and beaver, wading through the mud +in patent-leather boots, and all the while wrinkled with anxiety, +gaunt with ambition, and grudging themselves three holidays a year! + +Immigrants in time changed the character of the population as well as +its dress, and for a while there seems to have been something of a +jumble of elements, new laws conflicting with old habits, hungry +politicians preying upon a simple people, who only desired to be let +alone, and who, when they discovered some gross imposition, were +philosophical enough to call it, jokingly, being "greased and +swallowed." This anarchical condition resulted, as usual, in habits of +personal violence; and, at one time, an adverse vote was considered +matter for stabbing or gouging, and juries often dismissed +indictments, fearing private vengeance in case of a discharge of their +duty. They made a wide distinction, in murder trials, between him who +committed the crime in a passion and those who did the thing quietly; +so that you had only to walk up to the person who had offended you, +and shoot him in the open street, to feel tolerably sure of impunity. +In short, there seems to have prevailed, at that time, north of Mason +and Dixon's line, very much the same state of things that still +prevails south of it; but there was other leaven at work, and the good +sense of the people gradually got the better of this short-sighted +folly of violence. + +It is reported as fact, by all writers on the earlier history of this +State, that the holding of courts was conducted very much in the style +reported of the back counties of Georgia and Alabama in our day. The +sheriff would go out into the court-yard and say to the people, "Come +in, boys,--the court is going to begin,"--or sometimes, "Our John is +going to open court now,"--the judge being just one of the "boys." + +Judges did not like to take upon themselves the _onus_ of deciding +cases, but shared it with the jury as far as possible. One story, well +authenticated, runs thus: A certain judge, having to pass sentence of +death upon one of his neighbors, did it in the following form: "Mr. +Green, the jury in their verdict say you are guilty of murder, and the +law in that case says you are to be hung. Now I want you and all your +friends down on Indian Creek to know that it is not me that condemns +you, but the jury and the law. What time would you like to be hung, +Sir?" The poor man replied, that it made no difference to him; he +would rather the court should appoint a time. "Well, then, Mr. Green," +says the judge, "the court will allow you four weeks' time to prepare +for death and settle up your business." It was here suggested by the +Attorney-General that it was usual in such cases for the court to +recapitulate the essential parts of the evidence, to set forth the +nature and enormity of the crime, and solemnly to exhort the prisoner +to repent and fit himself for the awful doom awaiting him. "Oh!" said +the judge, "Mr. Green understands all that as well as if I had +preached to him a month. Don't you, Mr. Green? You understand you're +to be hung this day four weeks?" "Yes, Sir," replied Mr. Green, and so +the matter ended. + +One legal brilliant blazes on the forehead of youthful Illinois, in +the shape of a summary remedy for duelling. One of those heroes who +think it safer to appeal to chance than to logic in vindication of +tarnished honor, and who imagine the blood of a dead friend the only +salve to be relied on for the cure of wounded feelings, killed his +opponent in a duel. The law of Illinois very coolly hanged the +survivor; and from that time to this, other remedies have been found +for spiritual hurts, real or imaginary. Nobody has fancied it +necessary to fight with a noose round his neck. If ever capital +punishment were lawful, (which I confess I do not think it ever can +be,) it would be as a desperate remedy against this horrid relic of +mediaeval superstition and impiety, no wiser or more Christian than +the ordeal by burning ploughshares or poisoned wine. The rope in +judicial hands is certainly as lawful as the pistol in rash ones; so +the duellist has no reason to complain. + +Some of the later days of Illinois, the days of Indian wars and Mormon +wars, pro-slavery wars and financial wars, are too red and black for +peaceful pages; and as they were incidental rather than +characteristic, they do not come within our narrow limits. There is +still too large an infusion of the cruel slavery spirit in the laws of +Illinois; but the immense tide of immigration will necessarily remedy +that, by overpowering the influence introduced over the southern +border. So nearly a Southern State was Illinois once considered to be, +that, in settling the northern boundary, it was deemed essential to +give her a portion of the lake-shore, that her interests might be at +least balanced. They have proved to be more than balanced by this wise +provision. + +The little excuse there is in this favored region for a sordid +devotion to toil, a journey through the State, even at flying pace, is +sufficient to show. The fertility of the soil is the despair of +scientific farming. Who cares for rules, when he has only to drop a +seed and tread on it, to be sure of a hundred-fold return? Who talks +of succession of crops, when twelve burdens of wheat, taken from the +same soil in as many years, leave the ground black and ready for +another yield of almost equal abundance? An alluvial tract of about +three hundred thousand acres, near the Mississippi, has been +cultivated in Indian corn a hundred and fifty years,--indeed, ever +since the French occupation of Illinois. What of under-draining? Some +forty or fifty rivers threading the State, besides smaller streams +innumerable, always will do that, as soon as the Nilic floods of +spring have accomplished their work by floating to the surface the +finest part of the soil. Irrigation? You may now grow rice on one farm +and grapes on another, without travelling far between. It is true, +there must be an end to this universality of power and advantage, some +day; but nobody can see far enough ahead to feel afraid, and it is not +in the spirit of our time to think much about the good of our +grandchildren. "What has posterity done for me?" is the instinctive +question of the busy Westerner, as he sits down under vine and +fig-tree which his own hands have planted, to enjoy peace and plenty, +after suffering the inevitable hardships of pioneer life. You may tell +him he is not wise to scorn good rules; but he will reply, that he did +not come so far West, and begin life anew, for the sake of being wise, +but of making money, and that as rapidly as possible. He has forgotten +the care and economy learned among the cold and stony hills of New +England, and wants to do everything on a large scale. He likes to hear +of patent reapers, Briarean threshing-machines, and anything that will +save him most of the time and trouble of gathering in his heavy +crops,--but that is all. The growth of those crops he has nothing to +do with. That is provided for by Nature in Illinois; if it were not, +he would move "out West." + +Stories of this boundless fertility are rife here. One pioneer told +us, that, when a fence is to be made and post-holes are wanted, it is +only necessary to drop beet-seed ten feet apart all around the field, +and, when the beet is ripe, you pull it up and your post-hole is +ready! To be sure, there was a twinkle in the corner of his eye as he +stated this novel and interesting fact; but, after all, the fertility +in question was not so extravagantly "poefied" by this _canard_ as +some may suppose. Our friend went on to state, that, in his district, +they had a kind of corn which produced from a single grain a dozen +stalks of twelve ears each; and not content with this, on _most_ of +the stalks you would find, somewhere near the top, a small calabash +full of shelled corn! To put the matter beyond doubt, he pulled a +handful of the corn from his pocket, which he invited us to plant, and +satisfy ourselves. + +The reader has probably concluded, by this time, that beets and corn +are not the only enormous things grown in Illinois. + +A friend told us, in perfectly good faith, that a tract of his, some +fourteen thousand acres, in the southern part of the State, contained +coal enough to warm the world, and more iron than that coal would +smelt,--salt enough for all time, and marble and rich metallic ores of +various kinds besides. In one region are found inexhaustible beds of +limestone, the smoke of whose burning fills the whole spring air, and +the crevices of whose formation make very pokerish-looking caves, +which young and adventurous ladies are fond of exploring; in another +we come to quantities of that snow-white porcelain clay of which some +people suppose themselves to have been originally formed, but which +has been, in a commercial point of view, hitherto a _desideratum_ in +these United States of ours. The people at Mound City (an aspiring +rival of Cairo, on the banks of the Ohio) are about building a factory +for the exploitation of this clay, not into ladies and gentlemen, +(unpopular articles here,) but into china-ware, the quality of which +will be indisputable. + +One soon ceases wondering at the tropicality of the Illinoisian +imagination. Ali Baba's eye-straining experiences were poor, compared +to these every-day realities. + +The "Open Sesame" in this case has been spoken through the +railroad-whistle. Railroads cannot make mines and quarries, and fat +soil and bounteous rivers; yet railroads have been the making of +Illinois. Nobody who has ever seen her spring roads, where there are +no rails, can ever question it. From the very fatness of her soil, the +greater part of the State must have been one Slough of Despond for +three quarters of the year, and her inhabitants strangers to each +other, if these iron arms had not drawn the people together and +bridged the gulfs for them. No roads but railroads could possibly have +threaded the State, a large and the best portion of whose surface is +absolutely devoid of timber, stone, gravel, or any other available +material. The prairies must have remained flowery deserts, visited as +a curiosity every year by strangers, but without dwellings for want of +wood. The vast quarries must, of course, have lain useless, for want +of transporting power,--our friend's coal and iron undisturbed, +waiting for an earthquake,--and the poetical pioneer's beets and +Indian corn unplanted, and therefore uncelebrated. Well may it be said +here, that iron is more valuable than gold. Population, agriculture, +the mechanic arts, literature, taste, civilization, in short, are all +magnetized by the beneficent rail, and follow wherever it leads. The +whole southern portion of Illinois has been nicknamed "Egypt," +--whether because at its utmost point, on a dampish delta, +reposes the far-famed city of Cairo,--or whether, as wicked satirists +pretend, its denizens have been found, in certain particulars, rather +behind our times in intellectual light. Whatever may have been the +original excuse for the _sobriquet_, the derogatory one exists no +more. Light has penetrated, and darkness can reign no longer. Every +day, a fiery visitant, bearing the collective intelligence of the +whole world's doings and sayings, dashes through Egypt into Cairo, +giving off scintillations at every hamlet on the way,--and every day +the brilliant marvel returns, bringing northward, not only the good +things of the Ohio and Mississippi, but tropic _on-dits_ and oranges, +only a few hours old, to the citizens of Chicago, far "in advance of +the (New York) mail." With the rail comes the telegraph; and whispers +of the rise and fall of fancies and potatoes, of speculations and +elections, of the sale of corner-lots and the evasion of +bank-officers, are darting about in every direction over our heads, as +we unconsciously admire the sunset, or sketch a knot of rosy children +as they come trooping from a quaint school-house on the prairie edge. +Fancy the rail gone, and we have neither telegraph, nor school-house, +nor anything of all this but the sunset,--and even that we could not +be there to see in spring-time, at least, unless we could transmigrate +for the time into the relinquished forms of some of these aboriginal +bull-frogs, which grow to the nice size of two feet in length, +destined, no doubt, to receive the souls of habitual croakers +hereafter. + +But if the railroads have been the making of the land, it is not to be +denied that the land has been the making of the railroads. Egyptian +minds they must have been, that grudged the tracts given by the United +States to the greatest of roads, the greatest road in the world. +Having bestowed a line of alternate sections on this immense +undertaking,--vital in importance, and impossible without such +aid,--the Government at once doubled the price of the intermediate +sections, _and sold them at the doubled price_, though they had been +years, and might have been ages, in market unsold, without means of +communication and building. Who, then, was the loser? Not the United +States; for they received for half the land just what they would +otherwise have received for the whole. Not the State; for it lays +hands on a good slice of the annual profits, not to speak of +incalculable benefits beside. Not the farmer, surely; for what would +his now high-priced land be worth, if the grand road were annihilated? +Not the bond-holder; for he receives a fair, full interest on his +money. Not the stock-holder; for he looks with eyes of faith toward a +great future. It was a sort of triangular or quadrangular or +pentangular bargain, in which all these parties were immensely +benefited. The traveller blesses such liberal policy, as he flies +along towards the land of oranges, or turns aside to measure mammoth +beets or weigh extra-supernal corn, to "bore" or to "prospect," to +pick at oölite and shale or to "peep and botanize" through an +inexhaustible Flora. The present writer has certainly reason to be +grateful,--not, alas! with that gushing warmth of feeling which the +owners of shares or bonds naturally experience,--but as an "'umble +individual" who could not have found material for this valuable +article, if certain gentlemen who do own the said shares had not been +very enterprising. + +The man who may be said to have devised the land-basis for railroads +through unsettled tracts--a financier of unsurpassed sagacity, and +once the soul of commercial honor as well as intelligence--should not, +in his dishonored grave, and far beyond the reach of human scorn or +vengeance, be denied the credit of what he accomplished before the +fatal madness seized his soul and dragged him to perdition. Let it be +enough that his name has come to be an epithet of infamy in his land's +language. Let not the grandeur of his views, the intent with which he +set out, and the good he achieved, be lost in oblivion. Pride--"by +that sin fell the angels!"--cast him headlong down the irrecoverable +steep,-- + + "And when he fell, he fell like Lucifer,"-- + +aye! like Wolsey and Bacon,-- + + "Never to rise again!" + +It is no sin to hope that the All-seeing eye discerned in those noble +undertakings and beneficent results the germ of wings that shall one +day bear him back to light and mercy. Let us, who benefit by his good +deeds, not insist on remembering only the evil! + +Chicago, the Wondrous, sits amid her wealth, like a magnificent +sultana, half-reclining over a great oval mirror, supplied by that +lake of lakes, the fathomless Michigan. Perhaps the resemblance might +be unpoetically traced to particulars; for we are told by lotos-eating +travellers, that Oriental beauties, with all their splendor, are not +especially clean. Certain it is that our Occidental sultana dresses +her fair head with towers and spires, and hangs about her neck long +rows of gems in the shape of stately and elegant dwellings,--yet, +descending to her feet, we sink in mud and mire, or tumble unguardedly +into excavations set like traps for the unwary, or oust whole colonies +of rats from beneath plank walks where they have burrowed securely +ever since "improvements" began. At some seasons, indeed, there is no +mud; because the high winds from the lake or the prairies turn the mud +into dust, which blinds our eyes, fills our mouths, and makes us +Quakers in appearance and anything but saints in heart. +Chicago-walking resembles none but such as Christian encountered as he +fled from the City of Destruction; yet in this case the ills are those +of a City of _Con_struction.--sure to disappear as soon as the +builders find time to care for such trifles. Chicago people, it is +well known, walk with their heads in the clouds, and, naturally, do +not mind what happens to their feet. It is only strangers who exclaim, +and sometimes more than exclaim, at the dangers of the way. Cast-away +carriages lie along the road-side, like ships on Fire Island beach. +Nobody minds them. If you see a gentleman at a distance, progressing +slowly with a gliding or floundering pace, you conclude he has a horse +under him, and, perhaps, on nearer approach, you see bridle and +headstall. This is in early spring, while the frost is coming out of +the ground. As the season advances, the horse emerges, and you are +just getting a fair sight of him when the dust begins and he +disappears again. So say the scoffers, and those who would, but do +not, own any city-lots in that favored vicinity; and to the somewhat +heated mind of the traveller who encounters such things for the first +time, the story does not seem so very much exaggerated. Simple +wayfarers like myself, however, tell no such wicked tales of the +Garden City; but remember only her youth, her grandeur, her spirit, +her hospitality, her weight of cares, her immense achievements, and +her sure promise of future metropolitan splendors. + +The vicinity of Chicago is all dotted with beautiful villa-residences. +To drive among them is like turning over a book of architectural +drawings,--so great is their variety, and so marked the taste which +prevails. Many of them are of the fine light-colored stone found in +the neighborhood, and their substantial excellence inspires a feeling +that all this prosperity is of no ephemeral character. People do not +build such country-houses until they feel settled and secure. The +lake-shore is of course the line of attraction, for it is the only +natural beauty of the place. But what trees! Several of the streets of +Chicago may easily become as beautiful drives as the far-famed Cascine +at Florence, and will be so before her population doubles +again,--which is giving but a short interval for the improvement. No +parks as yet, however. Land on the lake-shore is too precious, and the +flats west of the town are quite despised. Yet city parks do not +demand very unequal surface, and it would not require a very potent +landscape-gardener or an unheard-of amount of dollars to make a fine +driving-and riding-ground, where the new carriages of the fortunate +might be aired, and the fine horses of the gay exercised, during a +good part of the year. + +To describe Chicago, one would need all the superlatives set in a row. +Grandest, flattest,--muddiest, dustiest,--hottest, coldest,--wettest, +driest,--farthest north, south, east, and west from other places, +consequently most central,--best harbor on Lake Michigan, worst harbor +and smallest river any great commercial city ever lived on,--most +elegant in architecture, meanest in hovel-propping,--wildest in +speculation, solidest in value,--proudest in self-esteem, loudest in +self-disparagement,--most lavish, most grasping,--most public-spirited +in some things, blindest and darkest on some points of highest +interest. + +And some poor souls would doubtless add,--most fascinating, or most +desolate,--according as one goes there, gay and hopeful, to find +troops of prosperous friends, or, lonely and poor, with the distant +hope of bettering broken fortunes by struggling among the driving +thousands already there on the same errand. There is, perhaps, no +place in the world where it is more necessary to take a bright and +hopeful view of life, and none where this is more difficult. There is +too much at stake. Those who have visited Baden-Baden and her Kursaal +sisters in the height of the season need not be told that no +"church-face" ever equalled in solemnity the countenances of those who +surround the fatal tables, waiting for the stony lips of the croupier +to announce "_Noir perd_" or "_Rouge gagne_." At Chicago are a wider +table, higher stakes, more desperate throws, and Fate herself +presiding, or what seems Fate, at once partial and inexorable. + +But, on this great scale, even success fails to bring smiles. The +winners sit "with hair on end at their own wonders," and half-fearing +that such golden showers have some illusion about them and may prove +fairy favors at last. Next to this fueling comes the thirst for more. +Enlarged means bring enlarged desires and ever-extending plans. The +repose and lightness of heart that were at first to be the reward of +success recede farther and farther into the dim distance, until at +last they are lost sight of entirely, confessed, with a sigh, to be +unattainable. How can people in this State wear cheerful countenances? +When one looks at the gay and social faces and habits of some little +German town, where are cultivated people, surrounded by the books and +pictures they love, with leisure enough for music and dancing and +tea-garden chat, for deep friendships and lofty musings, it would seem +as if our shrewd Yankee-land and its outcroppings at the West had not +yet found out everything worth knowing. Froissart's famous remark +about the English in France--"They take their pleasure sadly, after +their fashion"--may apply to the population of Chicago, and it will be +some time yet, I fancy, before they will take it very gayly. + +At a little country-town, the other day, not within a thousand miles +of Chicago, a family about leaving for a distant place advertised +their movables for sale at auction. There was such a stir throughout +the settlement as called forth an expression of wonder from a +stranger. "Ah!" said a good lady, "auctions are the only gayety we +have here!" + +Joking apart, there was a deep American truth in this seeming +_niaiserie_. + +Chicago has, as we have said, with all her wealth, no public park or +other provision for out-door recreation. She has no gallery of Art, or +the beginning of one,--no establishment of music, no public +library,--no social institution whatever, except the church. Without +that blessed bond, her people would be absolute units, as independent +of each other as the grains of sand on the seashore, swept hither and +thither by the ocean winds. + +But even before these words have found their way to the Garden City, +they will, perhaps, be inapplicable,--so rapid is progress at the +West. The people are like a great family moving into a new house. +There is so much sweeping and dusting to do, so much finding of places +for the furniture, so much time to spend in providing for breakfast, +dinner, and tea, lodging and washing, that nobody thinks of unpacking +the pictures, taking the books out of their boxes, or getting up +drives or riding-parties. All these come in good time, and will be the +better done for a little prudent delay. + +There is, to the stranger, an appearance of extreme hurry in Chicago, +and the streets are very peculiar in not having a lady walking in +them. Day after day I traversed them, meeting crowds of men, who +looked like the representatives of every nation and tongue and +people,--and every class of society, from the greenest rustic, or the +most undisguised sharper, to the man of most serious respectability, +or him of highest _ton_. Yet one lady walking in the streets I saw +not; and when I say not one lady, I mean that I did not meet a woman +who seemed to claim that title, or any title much above that of an +ordinary domestic. Perhaps this is only a spring symptom, which passes +off when the mud dries up a little,--but it certainly gave a rather +forlorn or funereal aspect to the streets for the time. + +There is, nevertheless, potent inspiration in the resolute and +occupied air of these crowds. Hardly any one stays long among them +without feeling a desire to share their excitement, and do something +towards the splendid future which is evidently beckoning them on. +Preparing the future! It is glorious business. No wonder it makes the +pulse quicken and the eye look as if it saw spirits. It may be said, +that in some sense we are all preparing the future; but in the West +there is a special meaning in the expression. In circumstances so new +and wondrous, first steps are all-important. Those who have been +providentially led to become early settlers have immense power for +good or evil. One can trace in many or most of our Western towns, and +even States, the spirit of their first influential citizens. Happy is +it for Chicago that she has been favored in this respect,--and to her +honor be it said, that she appreciates her benefactors. Of one +citizen, who has been for twenty years past doing the quiet and modest +work of a good genius in the city of his adoption, it is currently +said, that he has built a hundred miles of her streets,--and there is +no mark of respect and gratitude that she would not gladly show him. +Other citizens take the most faithful and disinterested care of her +schools; and to many she is indebted for an amount of liberality and +public spirit which is constantly increasing her enormous prosperity. +Happy the city which possesses such citizens! Happy the citizens who +have a city so nobly deserving of their best services! + + + + +AN EVENING WITH THE TELEGRAPH-WIRES. + +My cousin Moses has made the discovery that he is a powerful +magnetizer. + +Like many others who have newly come into possession of a small tract +in those mysterious, outlying, unexplored wildernesses of Nature, +which we call by so many names, but which as yet refuse to be defined +or classed, he has been naturally eager to commence operations, and +_exploit_ and farm it a little. He is making experiments on a narrow +border of his wild lands. He is a man of will and of strong +_physique_, with an inquiring and scientific turn of mind, which +inclines him chiefly to metaphysical studies. It is not to be wondered +at, that, having lately discovered that he possesses the mesmeric +gift, he should not sufficiently discriminate as to its application. +Later he will see that it is an agent not to be tampered with, and +never to be used on healthy subjects, but applied only to invalids. +To-day he is like a newly-armed knight-errant, bounding off on his +steed at sunrise, in search of adventures. + +One afternoon, not long since, he was telling me of his extraordinary +successes with somnambulists and _somnoparlists_,--of old ladies cured +of nervous headaches and face-twitches, and of young ones put to sleep +at a distance from the magnetizer, dropping into a trance suddenly as +a bird struck by a gun-shot, simply by an act of his volition,--of +water turned into wine, and wine into brandy, to the somnambulic +taste,--and so on, till we got wandering into crooked by-paths of +physics and metaphysics, that seemed to lead us nowhere in +particular,--when I said, "Come, Cousin Moses, suppose you try it on +me, by way of experiment. But I have my doubts if you'll ever put me +to sleep." + +My cousin yielded to my request with alacrity;--every subject for +mesmerism was for him legitimate;--and I relinquished myself to his +passes with the docility of a man about to be shaved. + +The passes from the head downward were kept up perseveringly for half +an hour, without my experiencing any change, or manifesting the least +symptom of drowsiness. At last the charm began to work. I began to be +conscious of a singular trickling or creeping sensation following the +motion of his passes down my arms. My respiration grew short. I +experienced, however, no tendency to sleep, and my mind was perfectly +calm and unexcited. My cousin was satisfied with his experiment so +far, but we both concluded it had better end here. So he made the +reverse passes, in order to undo the knot he was beginning to tie in +my nerves. He did not, however, entirely succeed in untying it. I was +a healthy subject, and the magnetism continued to affect my nerves, in +spite of the untangling passes. + +Soon after, I rose and took my leave. I was strangely excited, but it +was a purely physical, and not a mental excitement. Thinking that a +walk would quiet me, I went through street after street, until I +reached the outskirts of the city. It was a mild September evening. +The fine weather and the sight of the trees and fields tempted me to +continue my walk. It was near sunset, and I strolled on and on, +watching the purple gray and ruddy gold of the clouds, until I had got +fairly into the country. + +As I rambled on, I was suddenly seized with a fancy to climb a tree +which stood by the roadside, and rest myself in a convenient notch +which I observed between two of the limbs. I was soon seated in among +the branches, with a canopy of leaves around and over me,--feeling, in +my still nervous condition, as I leaned my back against the mossy +bark, like a magnified tree-toad in clothes. + +The air was balmy and fragrant, and against the amber of the western +sky rose and fell numberless little clouds of insects. The birds were +chirping and fluttering about me, and made their arrangements for +their night's lodging, in manifest dread of the clothed tree-toad who +had invaded their leafy premises. + +The peculiar nervousness which had taken possession of me was now +passing off, to be replaced by a species of mental exaltation. I was +becoming conscious of something approaching semi-clairvoyance, and yet +not in the ordinary form. Sensation, emotion, thought were +intensified. The landscape around me was dotted with farm-houses, +pillowed in soft, dark clumps of trees. One by one, the lights began +to appear at the windows,--soft rising stars of home-joys. The +glorious September sunset was fading, but still resplendent in the +west. The landscape was pervaded with a deeper repose, the glowing +clouds with a diviner splendor than that which filled the eye. Then +thronging memories awoke. My remembrances of all my past life in the +crowded cities of America and Europe rose vividly before me. In the +long strata of solid gray clouds, where the sun had gone down, leaving +only a few vapory gold-fishes swimming in the clear spaces above, I +could fancy I saw the lonely Roman Campagna and the wondrous dome of +St. Peter's, as when first beheld on the horizon ten years ago. Then, +as from the slopes of San Miniato at sunset, gray, red-tiled Florence, +with its Boboli gardens, full of nightingales, its old towers and +cathedrals, and its soaring Giotto Campanile. Then Genoa, with its +terraces and marble palaces, and that huge statue of André Doria. Then +Naples, gleaming white in the eye of day over her pellucid depths of +sea. The golden days of Italy floated by me. Then came the memories, +glad or sad, of days that had passed in my own native land,--in the +very city that lay behind me,--the intimate communings with dear +friends,--the musical and the merry nights,--the trials, anxieties, +sorrows---- + +But all this is very egotistical and unnecessary. I merely meant to +say that I was in a peculiar, almost abnormal state of mind, that +evening. The spirit had, as it were, been drawn outwards, and perhaps +slightly dislocated, by those mesmeric passes of my cousin, and I had +not succeeded as yet in adjusting it quite satisfactorily in its old +bodily grooves and sockets. The condition I was in was not as pleasant +as I could have wished; for I was as alive to painful remembrances and +imaginations, as to pleasant ones. I seemed to myself like a revolving +lantern of a light-house,--now dark, now glowing with a fiery +radiance. + +I asked myself, Is it that I have been blind and deaf and dull all my +life, and am just waking into real existence? or am I developing into +a _medium_,--Heaven forbid!--and the spirits pushing at some unguarded +portal of the nervous system, and striving to take possession? Shall I +hear raps and knockings when I return to my solitary chamber, and sit +a powerless beholder of damaged furniture, which the spirits will +never have the conscience to promise payment for, when my landlady's +bill comes in? (By the way, have the spirits _ever_ behaved like +gentlemen in this respect, and settled up fair and square for the +breakages they have indulged in by way of exemplifying the doctrine of +a future state?) + +As I soliloquized thus, I was attracted by a low vibrating note among +the leaves. Looking through them, I saw, for the first time, that two +or three telegraph-wires, which I had observed skirting the road, ran +directly through the tree in which I was seated. It was a strange sort +of sound, that came in hurried jerks, as it were, accompanied with a +corresponding jerk of the wire. + +A gigantic fancy flashed across me:--This State of New York is a great +guitar; yonder, at Albany, are the legislative pegs and screws; down +there in Manhattan Island is the great sounding-board; these iron +wires are the strings! The spirits are singing, perhaps, with their +heads up there in the sweet heavens and the rosy clouds,--and this +vibration of the wires is a sort of loose jangling accompaniment of +their unpractised hands on earth. The voice is always above the +strings.--This I thought in my semi-mesmeric condition, perhaps. I +soon laughed at my Brobdignagian nonsense, and said,--There is a +telegraphic despatch passing. Now if I could only find out what it +is!--that would be something new in science,--a discovery worth +knowing,--to be able to hear or feel the purport of a telegraphic +message, simply by touching the wire along which it runs! + +So, regardless of any electric shock I might receive, I thrust out my +hand through the leaves of the tree, and boldly grasped the wire. The +jerks instantly were experienced in my elbow, and it was not long +before certain short sentences were conveyed, magnetically, to my +brain. In my amazement at the discovery, I almost dropped out of the +tree. However, I kept firm hold of the wire, and my sensorium made me +aware of something passing like this:--"Market active. Fair demand for +exchange. Transactions from five to ten thousand shares. Aristides +railroad-stock scarce. Rates of freight to Liverpool firm. Yours +respectfully, Grabber and Holdham." + +Upon my word, said I, this is rather dry!--only a merchant! I expected +something better than this, to commence with. + +The wire being now quiet, I fell into a musing upon the singular +discovery I had made,--and whether I should get anything from the +public or the government for revealing it. And then my thoughts +wandered across the Atlantic, and I remembered those long rows of +telegraphic wires in France, ruled along the tops of high +barrier-walls, and looking against the sky like immense +music-lines,--and those queer inverted-coffee-cup-like supports for +the wires, on the tall posts. Then I thought of music and coffee at +the Jardin Mabille. Then my fancy wandered down the Champs Elysées to +those multitudinous spider-web wires that radiate from the palace of +the Tuileries, where the Imperial spider sits plotting and weaving his +meshes around the liberties of France. Then I thought, What a thing +this discovery of mine would be for political conspirators,--to +reverse the whispering-gallery of Dionysius, and, instead of the +tyrant hearing the secrets of the people, the people hearing the +secrets of the tyrant! Then I thought of Robespierre, and Marat, and +Charlotte Corday, and Marie Antoinette,--then of Delaroche's and +Müller's pictures of the unfortunate Queen,--then of pictures in +general,--then of landscape-scenery,--till I almost fell into a doze, +when I was startled by a faint sound along the wire, as of a sigh, +like the first thrill of the AEolian harp in the evening wind. Another +message was passing. I reached my hand out to the iron thread. A +confused sadness began to oppress me. A mother's voice weeping over +her sick child pulsed along the wire. Her husband was far away. Her +little daughter lay very ill. "Come quick," said the voice. "I have +little hope; but if you were only here, I should be calmer. If she +must die, it would be such a comfort to have you here!" + +I drew my hand away. I saw the whole scene too vividly. Who this +mother was I knew not; but the news of the death of a child whom I +knew and loved could not have affected me more strangely and keenly +than this semi-articulate sob which quivered along the iron airtrack, +in the silence of the evening, from one unknown--to another unknown. + +I roused myself from my sadness, and thought I would descend the tree +and stroll home. The moon was up, and a pleasant walk before me, with +enough to meditate upon in the singular discovery I had made. I was +about to get down from my crotch in the tree, and was just reaching +out my dexter leg to feel if I could touch a bough below me, when a +low, wild shriek ran along the wire,--as when the wind-harp, above +referred to for illustration, is blown upon by some rude, sharp +northwester. In spite of myself, I touched the vibrating cord. The +message was brief and abrupt, like a sea-captain's command:--"Ship +Trinidad wrecked off Wildcat's Beach,--all hands lost,--no insurance!" + +Do you recollect, when sitting alone sometimes in your room, at +midnight, in the month of November, how, after a lull in the blast, +the bleak wind will all at once seem to clutch at the windows, with a +demoniac howl that makes the house rock? Do you remember the +half-whistles and half-groans through the key-holes and crevices,--the +cries and shrieks that rise and fall,--the roaring in the +chimney,--the slamming of distant doors and shutters? Well, all this +seemed to be suggested in the ringing of the iron cord. The very +leaves, green and dewy, and the delicate branches, seemed to quiver as +the dreary message passed. + +I thought,--This is a little too much! This old tree is getting to be +a very lugubrious spot. I don't want to hear any more such messages. I +almost wish I had never touched the wire. Strange! one reads such an +announcement in a newspaper very coolly;--why is it that I can't take +it coolly in a telegraphic despatch? We can read a thing with +indifference which we hear spoken with a shudder,--such prisoners are +we to our senses! I have had enough of this telegraphing. I sha'n't +close my eyes to-night, if I have any more of it. + +I had now fairly got my foot on the branch below, and was slipping +myself gradually down, when the wire began to ring like a horn, and in +the merriest of strains. I paused and listened. I could fancy the +joyful barking of dogs in accompaniment. Ah, surely, this is some +sportsman,--"the hunter's call, to faun and dryad known." This smacks +of the bright sunshine and the green woods and the yellow fields. I +will stop and hear it.--It was just what I expected,--a jolly citizen +telegraphing his country friend to meet him with his guns and dogs at +such a place. + +And immediately afterwards, in much the same key, came a musical note +and a message babbling of green fields, from a painter:--"I shall +leave town to-morrow. Meet me at Bullshornville at ten, A.M. Don't +forget to bring my field-easel, canvases, and the other traps." + +If there is more of this music, I said, I think I shall stay. I love +the sportsmen and the artists, and am glad they are going to have a +good time. The weather promises well for them. + +There was a little pause, and then a strain of perfect jubilation came +leaping along the wire, like the flying song of the bobolink over +tracts of blowing clover and apple-blossoms. I expected something very +rare,--a strain of poetry at least. It was only this:--"Mr. Grimkins, +Sir, we shall expect rooms for the bridal party at your hotel, on the +side overlooking the lake, if possible. Yours, P. Simpkins." + +Ah, I said, that's all Greek to me,--poor, lonely bachelor that I am! +I wonder, by the way, if they ever wrote their love-letters by +telegraph.--But what is this coming? I am clearly getting back to my +normal condition:--"Miss Polly Wogg wishes to say that she has been +unable to procure the silk for Mrs. Papillon for less than five +dollars a yard."--Nonsense! I'm not in the dry-goods, nor millinery, +nor young-lady department. + +And here was another:--"I have found an excellent school for Adolphus +in Birchville, near Mastersville Corners. Send him up without delay, +with all the school-books you can find." + +And another,--important, very:--"I find that 'One touch of Nature +makes the whole world kin' is in 'Troilus and Cressida.' Don't send +the MS. without this correction." + +But what's this, accompanied with a long, low whistle?--"The cars have +run off the track at Breakneck Hollow. Back your engine and wait for +further orders." + +We are getting into the minor key again, I thought. Listen!--"Mr. S. +died last night. You must be here to-morrow, if possible, at the +opening of the will." + +Well, said I, I have had plenty of despatches, and have expended +enough sympathy, for one night. I have been very mysteriously +affected,--how, I can't exactly tell. But who will ever believe my +evening's adventure? Who will not laugh at my pretended discovery? +Even my cousin Moses will be incredulous. I shall be at least looked +upon as a _medium_, and so settled. + +And here allow me to remark,--Have you not observed how easily things +apparently difficult and mysterious are arranged in the popular +understanding by the use of certain stereotyped names applied to them? +Only give a name to a wonder, or an unclassified phenomenon, or even +an unsound notion, and you instantly clear away all the fog of +mystery. Let an unprincipled fellow call his views Latitudinarianism +or Longitudinarianism, he may, with a little adroitness, go for a +respectable and consistent member of some sect. A filibuster may pass +current under some such label as Political or Territorial +Extensionist;--the name is a long, decent overcoat for his shabby +ideas. So when wonderful phenomena in the nervous system are +observed,--when tables are smashed by invisible hands,--when people +see ghosts through stone walls, and know what is passing in the heart +of Africa,--how easily you unlock your wardrobe of terms and clap on +the back of every eccentric fact your ready-made phrase-coat,--Animal +Magnetism, Biology, Odic Force, Optical Illusion, Second Sight, +Spirits, and what not! It is a wonderful labor-saving and faith-saving +process. People say, "Oh, is that all?" and pass on complacently. +There are such explanatory labels to be met with everywhere. They save +a deal of trouble. All the shops keep these overcoats,--shops +ecclesiastical, medical, juridical, professional, political, social. + +Now all I have to do is, not to go to the second-hand slop-shops for +the phrase-coat I need for my naked discovery, but look for some +unfamiliar robe,--some name more _recherché_, learned, and +transcendental than my neighbors sport,--and then I shall pass muster. +The classic togas seem to be the most imposing. The Germans, who weave +their names out of their indigenous Saxon roots, are much too _naïve_. +I will get a Greek Lexicon and set about it this very night. + +After all, why should it be thought so improbable, in this age of +strange phenomena, that the ideas transmitted through the +electro-magnetic wire may be communicated to the brain,--especially +when there exist certain abnormal or semi-abnormal conditions of that +brain and its nerves? Is it not reasonable to suppose that all +magnetisms are one in essence? The singular experiences above related +seem to hint at the truth of such a view. If it be true that certain +delicately-organized persons have the power of telling the character +of others, who are entire strangers to them, simply by holding in +their hands letters written by those strangers, is it not full as much +within the scope of belief that there are those who, under certain +physical conditions, may detect the purport of an electro-magnetic +message,--that message being sent by vibrations of the wire through +the nerves to the brain? If all magnetisms are one in essence,--as I +am inclined to believe,--and if the nerves, the brain, and the mind +are so swayed by what we term animal magnetism, why not allow for the +strong probability of their being also, under certain conditions, +equally impressible by electro-magnetism? I put these questions to +scientific men; and I do not see why they should be answered by +silence or ridicule, merely because the whole subject is veiled in +mystery. + +It may be asked,--How can an electro-magnetic message be communicated +to the mind, without a knowledge of the alphabet used by the +telegraphers? This question may seem a poser to some minds. But I +don't see that it raises any grave difficulty. I answer the question +by asking another:--How can persons in the somnambulic state read with +the tops of their heads? + +Besides, I once had the telegraph alphabet explained to me by one of +the wire-operators,--though I have forgotten it,--and it is possible, +that, in my semi-mesmeric condition, the recollection revived, so that +I knew that such and such pulsations of the wire stood for such and +such letters. + +But is there not a certain spiritual significance, also, in these +singular experiences here related? + +We may safely lay down this doctrine,--a very old and much-thumbed +doctrine, but none the less true for all its dog-ears:--No man lives +for himself alone. He is related not only to the silent stars and the +singing-birds and the sunny landscape, but to every other human soul. +You say, This should not be stated so sermonically, but symbolically. +That is just what I have been doing in my narrative of the wires. + +It gives one a great idea of human communion,--this power of sending +these spark-messages thousands of miles in a second. Far more +poetical, too,--is it not?--as well as more practical, than tying +billets under the wings of carrier-pigeons. It is removing so much +time and space out of the way,--those absorbents of spirits,--and +bringing mind into close contact with mind. But when one can read +these messages without the aid of machinery, by merely touching the +wires, how much greater does the symbol become! + +All mankind are one. As some philosophers express it,--one great mind +includes us all. But then, as it would never do for all minds to be +literally one, any more than it would for all magnetisms to be +identical in their modes of manifestation, or for all the rivers, +creeks, and canals to flow together, so we have our natural barriers +and channels, our _propriums_, as the Swedish seer has it,--and so we +live and let live. We feel with others and think with others, but with +strict reservations. That evening among the wires, for instance, +brought me into wonderful intimate contact with a few of the joys and +sorrows of some of my fellow-beings; but an excess of such experiences +would interfere with our freedom and our happiness. It is our +self-hood, properly balanced, which constitutes our dignity, our +humanity. A certain degree, and a very considerable degree of +insulation is necessary, that individual life and mental equanimity +may go on. + +But there may be a degree of insulation which is unbecoming a member +of the human family. It may become brutish,--or it may amount to the +ridiculous. In Paris, there was an old lady, of uncertain age, who +lived in the apartment beneath mine. I think I never saw her but +twice. She manifested her existence sometimes by complaining of the +romping of the children overhead, who called her the "bonne femme." +Why they gave her the name I don't know; for she seemed to have no +human ties in the world, and wasted her affections on a private +menagerie of parrots, canaries, and poodle-dogs. A few shocks of the +electric telegraph might have raised her out of her desert island, and +given her some glimpses of the great continents of human love and +sympathy. + +A man who lives for himself alone sits on a sort of insulated glass +stool, with a _noli-me-tangere_ look at his fellow-men, and a +shivering dread of some electric shock from contact with them. He is a +non-conductor in relation to the great magnetic currents which run +pulsing along the invisible wires that connect one heart with another. +Preachers, philanthropists, and moralists are in the habit of saying +of such a person,--"How cold! how selfish! how unchristian!" I +sometimes fancy a citizen of the planet Venus, that social star of +evening and morning, might say,--"How absurd!" What a figure he cuts +there, sitting in solitary state upon his glass tripod,--in the middle +of a crowd of excited fellow-beings, hurried to and fro by their +passions and sympathies,--like an awkward country-bumpkin caught in +the midst of a gay crowd of polkers and waltzers at a ball,--or an +oyster bedded on a rock, with silver fishes playing rapid games of +hide and seek, love and hate, in the clear briny depths above and +beneath! If the angels ever look out of their sphere of intense +spiritual realities to indulge in a laugh, methinks such a lonely +tripod-sitter, cased over with his invulnerable, non-conducting cloak +and hood,--shrinking, dodging, or bracing himself up on the defensive, +as the crowd fans him with its rush or jostles up against him,--like +the man who fancied himself a teapot, and was forever warning people +not to come too near him,--might furnish a subject for a planetary +joke not unworthy of translation into the language of our dim earth. + +One need not be a lonely bachelor, nor a lonely spinster, in order to +live alone. The loneliest are those who mingle with men bodily and yet +have no contact with them spiritually. There is no desert solitude +equal to that of a crowded city where you have no sympathies. I might +here quote Paris again, in illustration,--or, indeed, any foreign +city. A friend of mine had an _atelier_ once in the top of a house in +the Rue St. Honoré. He knew not a soul in the house nor in the +neighborhood. There was a German tailor below, who once made him a +pair of pantaloons,--so they were connected sartorically and +pecuniarily, and, when they met, recognized one another: and there was +the _concierge_ below, who knew when he came in and went out,--that +was all. All day long the deafened roar of carts and carriages, and +the muffled cry of the _marchands des légumes_, were faintly heard +from below. And in an adjoining room a female voice (my friend could +never tell whether child's or woman's, for he never saw any one) +overflowed in tones of endearment on some unresponding creature,--he +could never guess whether it was a baby, or a bird, or a cat, or a +dog, or a lizard, (the French have such pets sometimes,) or an +enchanted prince, like that poor half-marble fellow in the "Arabian +Nights." In that garret the painter experienced for six months the +perfection of Parisian solitude. Now I dare say he or I might have +found social sympathies, by hunting them up; but he didn't, and I dare +say he was to blame, as I should be in the same situation,--and I am +willing to place myself in the same category with the menagerie-loving +old lady, above referred to, omitting the feathered and canine pets. + +As to my mesmerico-telegraphic discovery, it may pass for what it is +worth. I shall submit it at least to my cousin Moses, as soon as he +returns from the South. People may believe it or not. People may say +it may be of practical use, or not. I shall overhaul my terminologies, +and, with the "metaphysical aid" of my cousin, fit it with a +scientific name which shall overtop all the _ologies_. + +Having dressed my new Fact in a respectable and scholarlike coat, I +shall let him take his chance with the judicious public,--and content +myself, for the present, with making him a sort of humble _colporteur_ +of the valuable tract on Human Brotherhood of which I have herewith +furnished a few dry specimens. + + + + +THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +EVERY MAN HIS OWN BOSWELL. + +The company looked a little flustered one morning when I came in,--so +much so, that I inquired of my neighbor, the divinity-student, what +had been going on. It appears that the young fellow whom they call +John had taken advantage of my being a little late (I having been +rather longer than usual dressing that morning) to circulate several +questions involving a quibble or play upon words,--in short, +containing that indignity to the human understanding, condemned in the +passages from the distinguished moralist of the last century and the +illustrious historian of the present, which I cited on a former +occasion, and known as a _pun_. After breakfast, one of the boarders +handed me a small roll of paper containing some of the questions and +their answers. I subjoin two or three of them, to show what a tendency +there is to frivolity and meaningless talk in young persons of a +certain sort, when not restrained by the presence of more reflective +natures.--It was asked, "Why tertian and quartan fevers were like +certain short-lived insects." Some interesting physiological relation +would be naturally suggested. The inquirer blushes to find that the +answer is in the paltry equivocation, that they _skip_ a day or +two.--"Why an Englishman must go to the Continent to weaken his grog +or punch." The answer proves to have no relation whatever to the +temperance-movement, as no better reason is given than that +island--(or, as it is absurdly written, _ile and_) water won't +mix.--But when I came to the next question and its answer, I felt that +patience ceased to be a virtue. "Why an onion is like a piano" is a +query that a person of sensibility would be slow to propose; but that +in an educated community an individual could be found to answer it in +these words,--"Because it smell odious," _quasi_, it's melodious,--is +not credible, but too true. I can show you the paper. + +Dear reader, I beg your pardon for repeating such things. I know most +conversations reported in books are altogether above such trivial +details, but folly will come up at every table as surely as purslain +and chickweed and sorrel will come up in gardens. This young fellow +ought to have talked philosophy, I know perfectly well; but he +didn't,--he made jokes. + +I am willing,--I said,--to exercise your ingenuity in a rational and +contemplative manner.--No, I do not proscribe certain forms of +philosophical speculation which involve an approach to the absurd or +the ludicrous, such as you may find, for example, in the folio of the +Reverend Father Thomas Sanchez, in his famous tractate, "De Sancto +Matrimonio." I will therefore turn this levity of yours to profit by +reading you a rhymed problem, wrought out by my friend the Professor. + + +THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE: OR THE WONDERFUL "ONE-HOSS-SHAY." + +A LOGICAL STORY. + + Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss-shay, + That was built in such a logical way + It ran a hundred years to a day, + And then, of a sudden, it----ah, but stay, + I'll tell you what happened without delay, + Scaring the parson into fits, + Frightening people out of their wits,-- + Have you ever heard of that, I say? + + Seventeen hundred and fifty-five. + _Georgius Secundus_ was then alive,-- + Snuffy old drone from the German hive! + That was the year when Lisbon-town + Saw the earth open and gulp her down, + And Braddock's army was done so brown, + Left without a scalp to its crown. + It was on the terrible Earthquake-day + That the Deacon finished the one-hoss-shay. + + Now in building of chaises, I tell you what, + There is always _somewhere_, a weakest spot,-- + In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill, + In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill, + In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,--lurking still + Find it somewhere you must and will,-- + Above or below, or within or without,-- + And that's the reason, beyond a doubt, + A chaise _breaks down_, but doesn't _wear out_, + + But the Deacon swore (as Deacons do, + With an "I dew vum," or an "I tell _yeou_,") + He would build one shay to beat the taown + 'n' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun'; + It should be so built that it _couldn'_ break daown: + --"Fur," said the Deacon, "'t's mighty plain + Thut the weakes' place mus' stan' the strain; + 'n' the way t' fix it, uz I maintain, + Is only jest + To make that place uz strong uz the rest." + + So the Deacon inquired of the village folk + Where he could find the strongest oak, + That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke,-- + That was for spokes and floor and sills; + He sent for lancewood to make the thills; + The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees; + The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese, + But lasts like iron for things like these; + The hubs of logs from the "Settler's ellum,"-- + Last of its timber,--they couldn't sell 'em,-- + Never an axe had seen their chips, + And the wedges flew from between their lips, + Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips; + Step and prop-iron, bolt and screw, + Spring, tire, axle, and linchpin too, + Steel of the finest, bright and blue; + Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide; + Boot, top, dasher, from tough old hide + Found in the pit when the tanner died. + That was the way he "put her through."-- + "There!" said the Deacon, "naow she'll dew!" + + Do! I tell you, I rather guess + She was a wonder, and nothing less! + Colts grew horses, beards turned gray, + Deacon and deaconess dropped away, + Children and grand-children--where were they? + But there stood the stout old one-hoss-shay + As fresh as on Lisbon-earthquake-day! + + EIGHTEEN HUNDRED;--it came and found + The Deacon's Masterpiece strong and sound. + Eighteen hundred increased by ten;-- + "Hahnsum kerridge" they called it then. + Eighteen hundred and twenty came;-- + Running as usual; much the same. + Thirty and forty at last arrive, + And then come fifty, and FIFTY-FIVE. + + Little of all we value here + Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year + Without both feeling and looking queer. + In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth, + So far as I know, but a tree and truth. + (This is a moral that runs at large; + Take it.--You're welcome--No extra charge.) + + FIRST OF NOVEMBER,--the Earthquake-day.-- + There are traces of age in the one-hoss-shay, + A general flavor of mild decay, + But nothing local, as one may say. + There couldn't be,--for the Deacon's art + Had made it so like in every part + That there wasn't a chance for one to start. + For the wheels were just as strong as the thills, + And the floor was just as strong as the sills, + And the panels just as strong as the floor, + And the whippletree neither less nor more, + And the back-crossbar as strong as the fore, + And spring and axle and hub _encore_. + And yet, _as a whole_, it is past a doubt + In another hour it will be _worn out_! + + First of November, 'Fifty-five! + This morning the parson takes a drive. + Now, small boys, get out of the way! + Here comes the wonderful one-hoss-shay, + Drawn by a rat-tailed, ewe-necked bay. + "Huddup!" said the parson.--Off went they. + + The parson was working his Sunday's text,-- + Had got to _fifthly_, and stopped perplexed + At what the--Moses--was coming next. + All at once the horse stood still, + Close by the meet'n'-house on the hill. + --First a shiver, and then a thrill, + Then something decidedly like a spill,-- + And the parson was sitting upon a rock, + At half-past nine by the meet'n'-house-clock,-- + Just the hour of the Earthquake-shock! + --What do you think the parson found, + When he got up and stared around? + The poor old chaise in a heap or mound, + As if it had been to the mill and ground! + You see, of course, if you're not a dunce, + How it went to pieces all at once,-- + All at once, and nothing first,-- + Just as bubbles do when they burst. + + End of the wonderful one-hoss-shay. + Logic is logic. That's all I say. + +--I think there is one habit,--I said to our company a day or two +afterwards,--worse than that of punning. It is the gradual +substitution of cant or flash terms for words which truly characterize +their objects. I have known several very genteel idiots whose whole +vocabulary had deliquesced into some half dozen expressions. All +things fell into one of two great categories,--_fast_ or _slow_. Man's +chief end was to be a _brick_. When the great calamities of life +overtook their friends, these last were spoken of as being _a good +deal cut up_. Nine-tenths of human existence were summed up in the +single word, _bore_. These expressions come to be the algebraic +symbols of minds which have grown too weak or indolent to +discriminate. They are the blank checks of intellectual +bankruptcy;--you may fill them up with what idea you like; it makes no +difference, for there are no funds in the treasury upon which they are +drawn. Colleges and good-for-nothing smoking-clubs are the places +where these conversational fungi spring up most luxuriantly. Don't +think I undervalue the proper use and application of a cant word or +phrase. It adds piquancy to conversation, as a mushroom does to a +sauce. But it is no better than a toadstool, odious to the sense and +poisonous to the intellect, when it spawns itself all over the talk of +men and youths capable of talking, as it sometimes does. As we hear +flash phraseology, it is commonly the dishwater from the washings of +English dandyism, school-boy or full-grown, wrung out of a +three-volume novel which had sopped it up, or decanted from the +pictured urn of Mr. Verdant Green, and diluted to suit the provincial +climate. + +----The young fellow called John spoke up sharply and said, it was +"rum" to hear me "pitchin' into fellers" for "goin' it in the slang +line," when I used all the flash words myself just when I pleased. + +----I replied with my usual forbearance.--Certainly, to give up the +algebraic symbol, because _a_ or _b_ is often a cover for ideal +nihility, would be unwise. I have heard a child laboring to express a +certain condition, involving a hitherto undescribed sensation, (as it +supposed,) all of which could have been sufficiently explained by +the participle--_bored_. I have seen a country-clergyman, with a +one-story intellect and a one-horse vocabulary, who has consumed his +valuable time (and mine) freely, in developing an opinion of a +brother-minister's discourse which would have been abundantly +characterized by a peach-down-lipped sophomore in the one +word--_slow_. Let us discriminate, and be shy of absolute +proscription. I am omniverbivorous by nature and training. Passing by +such words as are poisonous, I can swallow most others, and chew such +as I cannot swallow. + +Dandies are not good for much, but they are good for something. They +invent or keep in circulation those conversational blank checks or +counters just spoken of, which intellectual capitalists may sometimes +find it worth their while to borrow of them. They are useful, too, in +keeping up the standard of dress, which, but for them, would +deteriorate, and become, what some old fools would have it, a matter +of convenience, and not of taste and art. Yes, I like dandies well +enough,--on one condition. + +----What is that, Sir?--said the divinity-student. + +----That they have pluck. I find that lies at the bottom of all true +dandyism. A little boy dressed up very fine, who puts his finger in +his mouth and takes to crying, if other boys make fun of him, looks +very silly. But if he turns red in the face and knotty in the fists, +and makes an example of the biggest of his assailants, throwing off +his fine Leghorn and his thickly-buttoned jacket, if necessary, to +consummate the act of justice, his small toggery takes on the +splendors of the crested helmet that frightened Astyanax. You remember +that the Duke said his dandy officers were his best officers. The +"Sunday blood," the super-superb sartorial equestrian of our annual +Fast-day, is not imposing or dangerous. But such fellows as Brummel +and D'Orsay and Byron are not to be snubbed quite so easily. Look out +for "la main de fer sous le gant de velours" (which I printed in +English the other day without quotation-marks, thinking whether any +_scarabaeus criticus_ would add this to his globe and roll in glory +with it into the newspapers,--which he didn't do it, in the charming +pleonasm of the London language, and therefore I claim the sole merit +of exposing the same). A good many powerful and dangerous people have +had a decided dash of dandyism about them. There was Alcibiades, the +"curled son of Clinias," an accomplished young man, but what would be +called a "swell" in these days. There was Aristoteles, a very +distinguished writer, of whom you have heard,--a philosopher, in +short, whom it took centuries to learn, centuries to unlearn, and is +now going to take a generation or more to learn over again. Regular +dandy, he was. So was Marcus Antonius: and though he lost his game, he +played for big stakes, and it wasn't his dandyism that spoiled his +chance. Petrarca was not to be despised as a scholar or a poet, but he +was one of the same sort. So was Sir Humphrey Davy; so was Lord +Palmerston, formerly, if I am not forgetful. Yes,--a dandy is good for +something as such; and dandies such as I was just speaking of have +rocked this planet like a cradle,--aye, and left it swinging to this +day.--Still, if I were you, I wouldn't go to the tailor's, on the +strength of these remarks, and run up a long bill which will render +pockets a superfluity in your next suit. _Elegans "nascitur, non +fit._" A man is born a dandy, as he is born a poet. There are heads +that can't wear hats; there are necks that can't fit cravats; there +are jaws that can't fill out collars--(Willis touched this last point +in one of his earlier ambrotypes, if I remember rightly); there are +_tournures_ nothing can humanize, and movements nothing can subdue to +the gracious suavity or elegant languor or stately serenity which +belong to different styles of dandyism. + +We are forming an aristocracy, as you may observe, in this +country,--not a _gratiâ-Dei_, nor a _jure-divino_ one,--but a +_de-facto_ upper stratum of being, which floats over the turbid waves +of common life as the iridescent film you may have seen spreading over +the water about our wharves,--very splendid, though its origin may +have been tar, tallow, train-oil, or other such unctuous commodities. +I say, then, we are forming an aristocracy; and, transitory as its +individual life often is, it maintains itself tolerably, as a whole. +Of course, money is its corner-stone. But now observe this. Money kept +for two or three generations transforms a race,--I don't mean merely +in manners and hereditary culture, but in blood and bone. Money buys +air and sunshine, in which children grow up more kindly, of course, +than in close, back streets; it buys country-places to give them happy +and healthy summers, good nursing, good doctoring, and the best cuts +of beef and mutton. When the spring-chickens come to market----I beg +your pardon,--that is not what I was going to speak of. As the young +females of each successive season come on, the finest specimens among +them, other things being equal, are apt to attract those who can +afford the expensive luxury of beauty. The physical character of the +next generation rises in consequence. It is plain that certain +families have in this way acquired an elevated type of face and +figure, and that in a small circle of city-connections one may +sometimes find models of both sexes which one of the rural counties +would find it hard to match from all its townships put together. +Because there is a good deal of running down, of degeneration and +waste of life, among the richer classes, you must not overlook the +equally obvious fact I have just spoken of,--which in one or two +generations more will be, I think, much more patent than just now. + +The weak point in our chryso-aristocracy is the same I have alluded to +in connection with cheap dandyism. Its thorough manhood, its +high-caste gallantry, are not so manifest as the plate-glass of its +windows and the more or less legitimate heraldry of its coach-panels. +It is very curious to observe of how small account military folks are +held among our Northern people. Our young men must gild their spurs, +but they need not win them. The equal division of property keeps the +younger sons of rich people above the necessity of military service. +Thus the army loses an element of refinement, and the moneyed upper +class forgets what it is to count heroism among its virtues. Still I +don't believe in any aristocracy without pluck as its backbone. Ours +may show it when the time comes, if it ever does come. + +----These United States furnish the greatest market for intellectual +_green fruit_ of all the places in the world. I think so, at any rate. +The demand for intellectual labor is so enormous and the market so far +from nice, that young talent is apt to fare like unripe +gooseberries--get plucked to make a fool of. Think of a country which +buys eighty thousand copies of the "Proverbial Philosophy," while the +author's admiring countrymen have been buying twelve thousand! How can +one let his fruit hang in the sun until it gets fully ripe, while +there are eighty thousand such hungry mouths ready to swallow it and +proclaim its praises? Consequently, there never was such a collection +of crude pippins and half-grown windfalls as our native literature +displays among its fruits. There are literary green-groceries at every +corner, which will buy anything, from a button-pear to a pine-apple. +It takes a long apprenticeship to train a whole people to reading and +writing. The temptation of money and fame is too great for young +people. Do I not remember that glorious moment when the late Mr. ---- +we won't say who,--editor of the ---- we won't say what, offered me +the sum of fifty cents _per_ double-columned quarto page for shaking +my young boughs over his foolscap apron? Was it not an intoxicating +vision of gold and glory? I should doubtless have revelled in its +wealth and splendor, but for learning the fact that the _fifty cents_ +was to be considered a rhetorical embellishment, and by no means a +literal expression of past fact or present intention. + +----Beware of making your moral staple consist of the negative +virtues. It is good to abstain, and teach others to abstain, from all +that is sinful or hurtful. But making a business of it leads to +emaciation of character, unless one feeds largely also on the more +nutritious diet of active sympathetic benevolence. + +----I don't believe one word of what you are saying,--spoke up the +angular female in black bombazine. + +I am sorry you disbelieve it, Madam,--I said, and added softly to my +next neighbor,--but you prove it. + +The young fellow sitting near me winked; and the divinity-student +said, in an undertone,--_Optime dictum_. + +Your talking Latin,--said I,--reminds me of an odd trick of one of my +old tutors. He read so much of that language, that his English half +turned into it. He got caught in town, one hot summer, in pretty close +quarters, and wrote, or began to write, a series of city pastorals. +Eclogues he called them, and meant to have published them by +subscription. I remember some of his verses, if you want to hear +them.--You, Sir, (addressing myself to the divinity-student,) and all +such as have been through college, or, what is the same thing, +received an honorary degree, will understand them without a +dictionary. The old man had a great deal to say about "aestivation," +as he called it, in opposition, as one might say, to _hibernation_. +Intramural festivation, or town-life in summer, he would say, is a +peculiar form of suspended existence or semi-asphyxia. One wakes up +from it about the beginning of the last week in September. This is +what I remember of his poem:-- + +AESTIVATION. + +_An Unpublished Poem, by my late Latin Tutor._ + + In candent ire the solar splendor flames; + The foles, languescent, pend from arid rances; + His humid front the cive, anheling, wipes, + And dreams of erring on ventiferous ripes. + + How dulce to vive occult to mortal eyes, + Dorm on the herb with none to supervise, + Carp the suave berries from the crescent vine, + And bibe the flow from longicaudate kine! + + To me, alas! no verdurous visions come, + Save yon exigous pool's conferva-scum,-- + No concave vast repeats the tender hue + That laves my milk-jug with celestial blue! + + Me wretched! Let me curr to quercine shades! + Effund your albid hausts, lactiferous maids! + Oh, might I vole to some umbrageous clump,-- + Depart,--be off,--excede,--evade,--crump! + +--I have lived by the sea-shore and by the mountains.--No, I am not +going to say which is best. The one where your place is is the best +for you. But this difference there is: you can domesticate mountains, +but the sea is _ferae naturae_. You may have a hut, or know the owner +of one, on the mountain-side; you see a light half-way up its ascent +in the evening, and you know there is a home, and you might share it. +You have noted certain trees, perhaps; you know the particular zone +where the hemlocks look so black in October, when the maples and +beeches have faded. All its reliefs and intaglios have electrotyped +themselves in the medallions that hang round the walls of your +memory's chamber.--The sea remembers nothing. It is feline. It licks +your feet,--its huge flanks purr very pleasantly for you; but it will +crack your bones and eat you, for all that, and wipe the crimsoned +foam from its jaws as if nothing had happened. The mountains give +their lost children berries and water; the sea mocks their thirst and +lets them die. The mountains have a grand, stupid, lovable +tranquillity; the sea has a fascinating, treacherous intelligence. The +mountains lie about like huge ruminants, their broad backs awful to +look upon, but safe to handle. The sea smooths its silver scales until +you cannot see their joints,--but their shining is that of a snake's +belly, after all.--In deeper suggestiveness I find as great a +difference. The mountains dwarf mankind and foreshorten the procession +of its long generations. The sea drowns out humanity and time; it has +no sympathy with either; for it belongs to eternity, and of that it +sings its monotonous song forever and ever. + +Yet I should love to have a little box by the sea-shore. I should love +to gaze out on the wild feline element from a front window of my own, +just as I should love to look on a caged panther, and see it stretch +its shining length, and then curl over and lap its smooth sides, and +by-and-by begin to lash itself into rage and show its white teeth and +spring at its bars, and howl the cry of its mad, but, to me, harmless +fury.--And then,--to look at it with that inward eye,--who does not +love to shuffle off time and its concerns, at intervals,--to forget +who is President and who is Governor, what race he belongs to, what +language he speaks, which golden-headed nail of the firmament his +particular planetary system is hung upon, and listen to the great +liquid metronome as it beats its solemn measure, steadily swinging +when the solo or duet of human life began, and to swing just as +steadily after the human chorus has died out and man is a fossil on +its shores? + +--What should decide one, in choosing a summer +residence?--Constitution, first of all. How much snow could you melt +in an hour, if you were planted in a hogshead of it? Comfort is +essential to enjoyment. All sensitive people should remember that +persons in easy circumstances suffer much more from cold in +summer--that is, the warm half of the year--than in winter, or the +other half. You must cut your climate to your constitution, as much as +your clothing to your shape. After this, consult your taste and +convenience. But if you would be happy in Berkshire, you must carry +mountains in your brain; and if you would enjoy Nahant, you must have +an ocean in your soul. Nature plays at dominos with you; you must +match her piece, or she will never give it up to you. + +----The schoolmistress said, in rather a mischievous way, that she was +afraid some minds or souls would be a little crowded, if they took in +the Rocky Mountains or the Atlantic. + +Have you ever read the little book called "The Stars and the +Earth?"--said I.--Have you seen the Declaration of Independence +photographed in a surface that a fly's foot would cover? The forms or +conditions of Time and Space, as Kant will tell you, are nothing in +themselves,--only our way of looking at things. You are right, I +think, however, in recognizing the category of Space as being quite as +applicable to minds as to the outer world. Every man of reflection is +vaguely conscious of an imperfectly-defined circle which is drawn +about his intellect. He has a perfectly clear sense that the fragments +of his intellectual circle include the curves of many other minds of +which he is cognizant. He often recognizes those as manifestly +concentric with his own, but of less radius. On the other hand, when +we find a portion of an arc outside of our own, we say it _intersects_ +ours, but are very slow to confess or to see that it _circumscribes_ +it. Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or +sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions. After +looking at the Alps, I felt that my mind had been stretched beyond the +limits of its elasticity, and fitted so loosely on my old ideas of +space that I had to spread these to fit it. + +----If I thought I should ever see the Alps!--said the schoolmistress. + +Perhaps you will, some time or other,--I said. + +It is not very likely,--she answered.--I have had one or two +opportunities, but I had rather be anything than governess in a rich +family. + +Proud, too, you little soft-voiced woman! Well, I can't say I like you +any the worse for it. How long will schoolkeeping take to kill you? Is +it possible the poor thing works with her needle, too? I don't like +those marks on the side of her forefinger. + +_Tableau_. Chamouni. Mont Blanc in full view. Figures in the +foreground; two of them standing apart; one of them a gentleman +of----oh,--ah,--yes! the other a lady in a white cashmere, leaning on +his shoulder.--The ingenuous reader will understand that this was an +internal, private, personal, subjective diorama, seen for one instant +on the background of my own consciousness, and abolished into black +non-entity by the first question which recalled me to actual life, as +suddenly as if one of those iron shop-blinds (which I always pass at +dusk with a shiver, expecting to stumble over some poor but honest +shop-boy's head, just taken off by its sudden and unexpected descent, +and left outside upon the sidewalk) had come down "by the run." + +----Should you like to hear what moderate wishes life brings one to at +last? I used to be very ambitious,--wasteful, extravagant, and +luxurious in all my fancies. Head too much in the "Arabian Nights." +Must have the lamp,--couldn't do without the ring. Exercise every +morning on the brazen horse. Plump down into castles as full of little +milk-white princesses as a nest is of young sparrows. All love me +dearly at once.--Charming idea of life, but too high-colored for the +reality. I have outgrown all this; my tastes have become exceedingly +primitive,--almost, perhaps, ascetic. We carry happiness into our +condition, but must not hope to find it there. I think you will be +willing to hear some lines which embody the subdued and limited +desires of my maturity. + + +CONTENTMENT. + + "Man wants but little here below." + + Little I ask; my wants are few; + I only wish a hut of stone, + (A _very plain_ brown stone will do,) + That I may call my own:-- + And close at hand is such a one, + In yonder street that fronts the sun. + + Plain food is quite enough for me; + Three courses are as good as ten;-- + If Nature can subsist on three, + Thank Heaven for three. Amen! + I always thought cold victual nice;-- + My _choice_ would be vanilla-ice. + + I care not much for gold or land;-- + Give me a mortgage here and there,-- + Some good bank-stock,--some note of hand, + Or trifling railroad share;-- + I only ask that Fortune send + A _little_ more than I shall spend. + + Honors are silly toys, I know, + And titles are but empty names;-- + I would, _perhaps_, be Plenipo,-- + But only near St. James;-- + I'm very sure I should not care + To fill our Gubernator's chair. + + Jewels are baubles; 'tis a sin + To care for such unfruitful things;-- + One good-sized diamond in a pin,-- + Some, _not so large_, in rings,-- + A ruby, and a pearl, or so, + Will do for me;--I laugh at show. + + My dame should dress in cheap attire; + (Good, heavy silks are never dear;)-- + I own perhaps I _might_ desire + Some shawls of true cashmere,-- + Some marrowy crapes of China silk, + Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk. + + I would not have the horse I drive + So fast that folks must stop and stare; + An easy gait--two, forty-five-- + Suits me; I do not care;-- + Perhaps, for just a _single spurt_, + Some seconds less would do no hurt. + + Of pictures, I should like to own + Titians and Raphaels three or four,-- + I love so much their style and tone,-- + One Turner, and no more + (A landscape,--foreground golden dirt; + The sunshine painted with a squirt). + + Of books but few,--some fifty score + For daily use, and bound for wear; + The rest upon an upper floor;-- + Some _little_ luxury _there_ + Of red morocco's gilded gleam, + And vellum rich as country cream. + + Busts, cameos, gems,--such things as these, + Which others often show for pride, + _I_ value for their power to please, + And selfish churls deride;-- + _One_ Stradivarius, I confess, + _Two_ Meerschaums, I would fain possess. + + Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn, + Nor ape the glittering upstart fool;-- + Shall not carved tables serve my turn, + But _all_ must be of buhl? + Give grasping pomp its double share,-- + I ask but _one_ recumbent chair. + + Thus humble let me live and die, + Nor long for Midas' golden touch; + If Heaven more generous gifts deny, + I shall not miss them _much_.-- + Too grateful for the blessing lent + Of simple tastes and mind content! + + +MY LAST WALK WITH THE SCHOOLMISTRESS. + +(_A Parenthesis_.) + +I can't say just how many walks she and I had taken together before +this one. I found the effect of going out every morning was decidedly +favorable on her health. Two pleasing dimples, the places for which +were just marked when she came, played, shadowy, in her freshening +cheeks when she smiled and nodded good-morning to me from the +schoolhouse-steps. + +I am afraid I did the greater part of the talking. At any rate, if I +should try to report all that I said during the first half-dozen walks +we took together, I fear that I might receive a gentle hint from my +friends the publishers, that a separate volume, at my own risk and +expense, would be the proper method of bringing them before the +public. + +--I would have a woman as true as Death. At the first real lie which +works from the heart outward, she should be tenderly chloroformed into +a better world, where she can have an angel for a governess, and feed +on strange fruits which will make her all over again, even to her +bones and marrow.--Whether gifted with the accident of beauty or not, +she should have been moulded in the rose-red clay of Love, before the +breath of life made a moving mortal of her. Love-capacity is a +congenital endowment; and I think, after a while, one gets to know the +warm-hued natures it belongs to from the pretty pipe-clay counterfeits +of it.--Proud she may be, in the sense of respecting herself; but +pride, in the sense of contemning others less gifted than herself, +deserves the two lowest circles of a vulgar woman's Inferno, where the +punishments are Small-pox and Bankruptcy.--She who nips off the end of +a brittle courtesy, as one breaks the tip of an icicle, to bestow upon +those whom she ought cordially and kindly to recognize, proclaims the +fact that she comes not merely of low blood, but of bad blood. +Consciousness of unquestioned position makes people gracious in proper +measure to all; but if a woman puts on airs with her real equals, she +has something about herself or her family she is ashamed of, or ought +to be. Middle, and more than middle-aged people, who know family +histories, generally see through it. An official of standing was rude +to me once. Oh, that is the maternal grandfather,--said a wise old +friend to me,--he was a boor.--Better too few words, from the woman we +love, than too many: while she is silent, Nature is working for her; +while she talks, she is working for herself.--Love is sparingly +soluble in the words of men; therefore they speak much of it; but one +syllable of woman's speech can dissolve more of it than a man's heart +can hold. + +--Whether I said any or all of these things to the schoolmistress, or +not,--whether I stole them out of Lord Bacon,--whether I cribbed them +from Balzac,--whether I dipped them from the ocean of Tupperian +wisdom,--or whether I have just found them in my head, laid there by +that solemn fowl, Experience, (who, according to my observation, +cackles oftener than she drops real live eggs,) I cannot say. Wise men +have said more foolish things,--and foolish men, I don't doubt, have +said as wise things. Anyhow, the schoolmistress and I had pleasant +walks and long talks, all of which I do not feel bound to report. + +--You are a stranger to me, Ma'am.--I don't doubt you would like to +know all I said to the schoolmistress.--I sha'n't do it;--I had rather +get the publishers to return the money you have invested in this. +Besides, I have forgotten a good deal of it. I shall tell only what I +like of what I remember. + +--My idea was, in the first place, to search out the picturesque spots +which the city affords a sight of, to those who have eyes. I know a +good many, and it was a pleasure to look at them in company with my +young friend. There were the shrubs and flowers in the Franklin-Place +front-yards or borders; Commerce is just putting his granite foot upon +them. Then there are certain small seraglio-gardens, into which one +can get a peep through the crevices of high fences,--one in Myrtle +Street, or backing on it,--here and there one at the North and South +Ends. Then the great elms in Essex Street. Then the stately +horse-chestnuts in that vacant lot in Chambers Street, which hold +their outspread hands over your head, (as I said in my poem the other +day,) and look as if they were whispering, "May grace, mercy, and +peace be with you!"--and the rest of that benediction. Nay, there are +certain patches of ground, which, having lain neglected for a time, +Nature, who always has her pockets full of seeds, and holes in all her +pockets, has covered with hungry plebeian growths, which fight for +life with each other, until some of them get broad-leaved and +succulent, and you have a coarse vegetable tapestry which Raphael +would not have disdained to spread over the foreground of his +masterpiece. The Professor pretends that he found such a one in +Charles Street, which, in its dare-devil impudence of rough-and-tumble +vegetation, beat the pretty-behaved flower-beds of the Public Garden +as ignominiously as a group of young tatterdemalions playing +pitch-and-toss beats a row of Sunday-school-boys with their teacher at +their head. + +But then the Professor has one of his burrows in that region, and puts +everything in high colors relating to it. That is his way about +everything.--I hold any man cheap,--he said,--of whom nothing stronger +can be uttered than that all his geese are swans.----How is that, +Professor?--said I;--I should have set you down for one of that +sort.--Sir,--said he,--I am proud to say, that Nature has so far +enriched me, that I cannot own so much as a _duck_ without seeing in +it as pretty a swan as ever swam the basin in the garden of the +Luxembourg. And the Professor showed the whites of his eyes devoutly, +like one returning thanks after a dinner of many courses. + +I don't know anything sweeter than this leaking in of Nature through +all the cracks in the walls and floors of cities. You heap up a +million tons of hewn rocks on a square mile or two of earth which was +green once. The trees look down from the hill-sides and ask each +other, as they stand on tiptoe,--"What are these people about?" And +the small herbs at their feet look up and whisper back,--"We will go +and see." So the small herbs pack themselves up in the least possible +bundles, and wait until the wind steals to them at night and +whispers,--"Come with me." Then they go softly with it into the great +city,--one to a cleft in the pavement, one to a spout on the roof, one +to a seam in the marbles over a rich gentleman's bones, and one to the +grave without a stone where nothing but a man is buried,--and there +they grow, looking down on the generations of men from mouldy roofs, +looking up from between the less-trodden pavements, looking out +through iron cemetery-railings. Listen to them, when there is only a +light breath stirring, and you will hear them saying to each +other,--"Wait awhile!" The words run along the telegraph of those +narrow green lines that border the roads leading from the city, until +they reach the slope of the hills, and the trees repeat in low murmurs +to each other,--"Wait awhile!" By-and-by the flow of life in the +streets ebbs, and the old leafy inhabitants--the smaller tribes always +in front--saunter in, one by one, very careless seemingly, but very +tenacious, until they swarm so that the great stones gape from each +other with the crowding of their roots, and the feldspar begins to be +picked out of the granite to find them food. At last the trees take up +their solemn line of march, and never rest until they have encamped in +the market-place. Wait long enough and you will find an old doting oak +hugging a huge worn block in its yellow underground arms; that was the +corner-stone of the State-House. Oh, so patient she is, this +imperturbable Nature! + +--Let us cry!-- + +But all this has nothing to do with my walks and talks with the +schoolmistress. I did not say that I would not tell you something +about them. Let me alone, and I shall talk to you more than I ought +to, probably. We never tell our secrets to people that pump for them. + +Books we talked about, and education. It was her duty to know +something of these, and of course she did. Perhaps I was somewhat more +learned than she, but I found that the difference between her reading +and mine was like that of a man's and a woman's dusting a library. The +man flaps about with a bunch of feathers; the woman goes to work +softly with a cloth. She does not raise half the dust, nor fill her +own eyes and mouth with it,--but she goes into all the corners, and +attends to the leaves as much as the covers.--Books are the _negative_ +pictures of thought, and the more sensitive the mind that receives +their images, the more nicely the finest lines are reproduced. A +woman, (of the right kind,) reading after a man, follows him as Ruth +followed the reapers of Boaz, and her gleanings are often the finest +of the wheat. + +But it was in talking of Life that we came most nearly together. I +thought I knew something about that,--that I could speak or write +about it somewhat to the purpose. + +To take up this fluid earthly being of ours as a sponge sucks up +water,--to be steeped and soaked in its realities as a hide fills its +pores lying seven years in a tan-pit,--to have winnowed every wave of +it as a mill-wheel works up the stream that runs through the flume +upon its float-boards,--to have curled up in the keenest spasms and +flattened out in the laxest languors of this breathing-sickness, which +keeps certain parcels of matter uneasy for three or four score +years,--to have fought all the devils and clasped all the angels of +its delirium,--and then, just at the point when the white-hot passions +have cooled down to cherry-red, plunge our experience into the +ice-cold stream of some human language or other, one might think would +end in a rhapsody with something of spring and temper in it. All this +I thought my power and province. + +The schoolmistress had tried life, too. Once in a while one meets with +a single soul greater than all the living pageant that passes before +it. As the pale astronomer sits in his study with sunken eyes and thin +fingers, and weighs Uranus or Neptune as in a balance, so there are +meek, slight women who have weighed all that this planetary life can +offer, and hold it like a bauble in the palm of their slender hands. +This was one of them. Fortune had left her, sorrow had baptized her; +the routine of labor and the loneliness of almost friendless city-life +were before her. Yet, as I looked upon her tranquil face, gradually +regaining a cheerfulness that was often sprightly, as she became +interested in the various matters we talked about and places we +visited, I saw that eye and lip and every shifting lineament were made +for love,--unconscious of their sweet office as yet, and meeting the +cold aspect of Duty with the natural graces which were meant for the +reward of nothing less than the Great Passion. + +----I never spoke one word of love to the schoolmistress in the course +of these pleasant walks. It seemed to me that we talked of everything +but love on that particular morning. There was, perhaps, a little more +timidity and hesitancy on my part than I have commonly shown among our +people at the boarding-house. In fact, I considered myself the master +at the breakfast-table; but, somehow, I could not command myself just +then so well as usual. The truth is, I had secured a passage to +Liverpool in the steamer which was to leave at noon,--with the +condition, however, of being released in case circumstances occurred +to detain me. The schoolmistress knew nothing about all this, of +course, as yet. + +It was on the Common that we were walking. The _mall_, or boulevard of +our Common, you know, has various branches leading from it in +different directions. One of these runs downward from opposite Joy +Street southward across the whole length of the Common to Boylston +Street. We called it the long path, and were fond of it. + +I felt very weak indeed (though of a tolerably robust habit) as we +came opposite the head of this path on that morning. I think I tried +to speak twice without making myself distinctly audible. At last I got +out the question,----Will you take the long path with me?-- +Certainly,--said the schoolmistress,--with much pleasure.----Think,--I +said,--before you answer; if you take the long path with me now, I +shall interpret it that we are to part no more!----The schoolmistress +stepped back with a sudden movement, as if an arrow had struck her. +One of the long granite blocks used as seats was hard by,--the one you +may still see close by the Gingko-tree.----Pray, sit down,--I +said.----No, no,--she answered, softly,--I will walk the _long path_ +with you! + +----The old gentleman who sits opposite met us walking, arm in arm, +about the middle of the long path, and said, very charmingly,--"Good +morning, my dears!" + + + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + +_The Life of John Fitch, the Inventor of the Steamboat_. By THOMPSON +WESTCOTT. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. + +What would not honest Sancho have given for a good biography of the +man who invented sleep? And will not the adventurous pleasure-tourist, +who has been jarred, jammed, roasted, coddled, and suffocated in a +railroad-car for a whole night, with two days to sandwich it, on being +deposited in an airy stateroom for the last two hundred miles of his +journey, think the man who invented the steamboat deserving of a +"first-rate" life? We well remember the time when nobody suspected +that person, whoever he might be,--and nobody much cared who he +was,--of any relationship to the individual whose memory Sancho +blessed, so great was the churning in the palaces that then floated. +But in our present boats this unpalace-like operation has been so +localized and mollified as to escape the notice of all but the +greenest and most inquisitive passengers. And now that we find the +luxury of travelling by water actually superior to that of staying at +home on land, we begin to feel a budding veneration for the man who +first found out that steam could be substituted, with such marvellous +advantage, for helpless dependence on the wind and miserable tugging +at oars and setting-poles. Who was he? What circumstances conspired to +shape his life and project it with so notable an aim? How did he look, +act, think, on all matters of human concernment? Here comes a book, +assuming in its title that one John Fitch, of whom his generation +seems not to have thought enough to paint his portrait, was the +inventor of the steamboat. It professes to be "The Life of John +Fitch"; but we are sorry to say it is rather a documentary argument to +prove that he was "the inventor of the steamboat." As an argument, it +is both needless and needlessly strong. We already knew to a certainty +that nobody could present a better claim to that honor than John +Fitch. True, the _idea_ did not wait for him. The engine could not +have been working a hundred years in the world without giving birth to +that. But till Watt invented it anew in 1782, by admitting the steam +alternately at both ends of the cylinder, it was too awkward and +clumsy to become a practical navigator. Moreover, though it could pump +admirably, it had not been taught to turn a crank. The French assert, +that experiments in steam-propulsion were made on the Seine, by Count +Auxiron and Perrier, in 1774, and on the Saone, by De Jouffroy, in +1782; but we know they led to no practical results, and the knowledge +of them probably did not, for some years, travel beyond the limits of +the French language. There is no satisfactory evidence that a boat was +ever moved by steam, within the boundaries of Anglo-Saxondom, before +John Fitch did it, on the 27th of July, 1786. His successful and every +way brilliant experiment on that occasion led directly to practical +results,--to wit, the formation of a company, embracing some of the +foremost men of Philadelphia, which built a small steam-packet for the +conveyance of passengers, and ran it during three summers, ending with +that of 1790. The company then failed, and broke poor Fitch's heart, +simply because the investment had not thus far proved lucrative, and +they were unwilling to make the further advances requisite to carry +out his moderate and reasonable plans. The only person who ever +claimed, in English, to have made a steamboat experiment before Fitch, +was James Rumsey, of Virginia, who, in 1788, published some testimony +to show that he had done it as early as April, 1786, that he had +broached the idea, _confidentially_, two years earlier, and that Fitch +_might_ have received it from one who violated his confidence. Fitch +promptly annihilated these pretences by a pamphlet, a reprint of which +maybe found in the Patent-Office Report for 1850. This, and a +contribution to Sparks's "American Biography," by Col. Charles +Whittlesey, of Ohio, seem quite sufficient to establish the historical +fact that John Fitch was the father of steam-navigation, whoever may +have been its prophets. Though the infant, with the royal blood of +both Neptune and Pluto in its veins, and a brand-new empire waiting to +crown it, fell into a seventeen years' swoon, during which Fitch died, +and the public at large forgot all that he had ever said or done, its +life did not become extinct. It was not created, but revived, by +Fulton, aided by the refreshing effusion of Chancellor Livingston's +money. We did not need a new book to make us more certain of these +facts, but we did need a more thorough biography of John Fitch, and, +with great respect for the industry and faithfulness of Mr. Westcott, +it is our opinion that we do still. He has demonstrated that the +materials for such a work are abundant, and a glance at the mortal +career of Fitch will show him to be an uncommonly interesting subject. + +John Fitch was born in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1743. At the age of +five, while his father was absent from home, courting his stepmother, +he heroically extinguished a fire of blazing flax, which would +otherwise have consumed the house, and while he was smarting from his +burns was cruelly beaten by an elder brother, who misapprehended the +case of the little boy, very much as the world did that of the man he +became. The domestic discipline he encountered under the paternal roof +was of the severest New England pattern of those days, and between its +theology and its economy he grew out of shape, like a thrifty pumpkin +between two rocks. He loved to learn, but had few books and little +schooling. His taste tended to mechanism, and he was apprenticed to a +stingy clock-maker, who obliged him to work on his farm and kept him +ignorant of his trade. Getting his liberty at last, he set up +brass-founding, on a capital of twenty shillings, and made money at +it. Then he went into the manufacture of potash, in which he was less +successful. He married a wife who proved more caustic than the potash +and more than a match for his patience. He settled his affairs so as +to leave her all his little property in the most manageable shape, and +left her with two children, to seek a separate fortune in the wide +world. The war of the Revolution found him at Trenton, New Jersey, a +man of some substance, acquired as a silversmith and peddler of silver +and brass sleeve-buttons of his own manufacture. It made him an +officer and then an armorer in the Continental service. As a +fabricator of patriotic weapons, he incurred the displeasure of his +Methodist brethren by working on the Sabbath, and lost his orthodoxy +in his disgust at their rebukes. Towards the close of the Revolution, +getting poor in fact by getting rich in Continental money, he +endeavored to save himself by investing in Virginia land-warrants, +went to Kentucky as a surveyor, and became possessed of sixteen +hundred acres of that wilderness. On a second expedition down the +Ohio, early in 1782, he fell into the hands of the savages, in the +most melodramatic style, was led captive through the vast forests and +swamps to Detroit, had a very characteristic and remarkable +prison-experience under British authority at Prison Island, was +exchanged, and by a sea-voyage reached his home in Bucks County, +Pennsylvania, at the close of the same year. Immediately after the +establishment of peace, he formed a company to speculate in Ohio +lands, and made extensive surveys for the purpose of forestalling the +best locations. Mr. Westcott's book confuses this portion of his +chronology by misprinting two or three dates, on the 113th page. The +hopeful game was spoiled by unexpected measures of the Confederated +government; but Fitch's explorations had deeply impressed him with the +sublime character of the Western rivers, and when, in April, 1785, the +thought first struck him that steam could easily make them navigable +upwards as well as downwards, he cared no more for lands. He had +noticed the mechanical power of steam, but had never seen an engine, +and did not know that one existed out of his own brain. This is the +less wonderful, seeing there were only three then in America, and his +science extended only to arithmetic. When his minister showed him a +drawing of Newcomen's engine, in "Martin's Philosophy," he was +chagrined to find that his invention had been anticipated in regard to +the mode of producing the power, but he was confirmed in his belief of +its availability for navigation. With no better resources than a +blacksmith's shop could furnish, he set himself at work to make a +steam-engine to test his theory. His success is one of those wonders +of human ingenuity struggling with difficulties, moral, financial, and +physical combined, which deserve both a Homer and a Macaulay to +celebrate and record them. He was supposed by most people, and almost +by himself, to have gone crazy. If anything, at this day, is more +incredible than the feat which he accomplished, it is the derision +with which the public viewed his labors, decried his success, and +sneered at the rags which betokened the honesty of his poverty. To +every one who had brains capable of logic, he had demonstrated the +feasibility of his visions. But no amount of even physical +demonstration, then possible, could bring out the funds requisite to +pecuniary profit, against the head-wind of public scorn. It whistled +down his high hopes of fortune. At last, dropping the file and the +hammer, he took the pen, determined, that, if others must get rich by +his invention, he would at least save for himself the fame of it. The +result of his literary labors was an autobiography of great frankness +and detail, extending to several hundred pages, and embracing almost +every conceivable violation of standard English orthography, with +which he seems to have had very little acquaintance or sympathy. It +was placed under seal in the Philadelphia Library, not to be opened +for thirty years. At the expiration of that period, in 1823, the seal +was broken, and the quaint old manuscript, with the stamp of honest +truth on every word, stood ready to reveal what the world is but just +beginning to "want to know" about John Fitch. He afterwards went to +Europe to promote his steamboat interests,--to little purpose, +--wandered about a few years, settled in Bardstown, Kentucky, +made a model steamboat with a brass engine, drowned disappointment in +the drink of that country, and at last departed by his own will, two +years before the close of the last century. A life so full of truth +that is stranger than fiction ought not to be treated in the +Dry-as-dust style, quite so largely as Mr. Westcott has done it. + + * * * * * + +_Life Beneath the Waters; or, The Aquarium in America_. Illustrated by +Plates and Wood-Cuts drawn from Life. By ARTHUR M. EDWARDS. New York: +1858. + +This book has appeared since the notice in our July number of two +English works on the Aquarium. Like so many books by which our +literature is discredited, it is a work got up hastily to meet a +public demand, and is deficient in method, thoroughness, and accuracy. +There is much repetition in it, and the observations of its author +seem to have been limited to the waters around New York, and to have +extended over but a short period. In spite of these and other minor +defects, it may be recommended as containing much useful information +for those just beginning an aquarium and forming an acquaintance with +the sea. + +We trust that a misprint in our former notice has not brought +disappointment to any of our readers, by leading them to expose their +aquaria to too much sunshine; for the sunshine should be "_not_ +enough" (and not, as it was printed, "_hot_ enough") "to raise the +water to a temperature above that of the outer air." + + * * * * * + +_The Exiles of Florida: or the Crimes committed by our Government +against the Maroons, who fled from South Carolina and other Slave +States, seeking Protection under Spanish Laws_. By JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS. +Columbus, Ohio: Follett, Foster, & Co. 1858. + +A cruel story this, Mr. Giddings tells us. Too cruel, but too true. It +is full of pathetic and tragic interest, and melts and stirs the heart +at once with pity for the sufferers, and with anger, that sins not, at +their mean and ruthless oppressors. Every American citizen should read +it; for it is an indictment which recites crimes which have been +committed in his name, perpetrated by troops and officials in his +service, and all done at his expense. The whole nation is responsible +at the bar of the world and before the tribunal of posterity for these +atrocities, devised by members of its Cabinet and its Congress, +directed by its Presidents, and executed by its armies and its courts. +The cruelties of Alva in the Netherlands, which make the pen of Motley +glow as with fire as he tells them, the _dragonnades_ which scorched +over the fairest regions of France after the Revocation of the Edict +of Nantes, have a certain excuse, as being instigated by a sincere, +though misguided religious zeal. For Philip II. and Louis XIV. had, at +least, a fanatical belief that they were doing God service by those +holocausts of his children; while no motive inspired these massacres, +tortures, and banishments, but the most sordid rapacity and avarice, +the lowest and basest passions of the human breast. + +And so carefully has the truth of this story been covered up with +lies, that, probably, very few indeed of the people of the Free States +have any just idea of the origin, character, and purposes of the +Seminole Wars, or of the character of the race against which they were +waged. And yet there is no episode in American history more full of +romantic interest, of heroic struggles, and of moving griefs. We have +been taught to believe that these wars were provoked by incursions of +the savages of Florida on the frontier, and, if the truth could not be +concealed, that an incidental motive of our war of extermination +against them was to be found in the sanctuary which the fugitive +slaves of the neighboring States found in their fastnesses. The +general impression has been, that these were mainly runaways of recent +date, who had made their escape from contemporary masters. How many of +our readers know that for more than three quarters of a century before +the purchase of Florida there had been a nation of negroes established +there, enjoying the wild freedom they loved, mingling and gradually +becoming identified with the Indians, who had made it their city of +refuge from slavery also? For the slaveholders of Carolina had no +scruples against enslaving Indians any more than Africans, until it +was discovered that the untamable nature of the red man made him an +unprofitable and a dangerous servant. These Indian slaves fled into +the wilderness, which is now the State of Georgia, pushing their way +even to the peninsula of Florida, and were followed, in their flight +and to their asylum, by many of their black companions in bondage. For +near seventy-five years this little nation lived happy and contented, +till the State of Georgia commenced the series of piratical incursions +into their country, then a Spanish dependency, from which they were +never afterwards free; the nation at last taking up the slaveholders' +quarrel and prosecuting it to the bitter and bloody end. + +This whole story is told, and well told, by Mr. Giddings. And a most +touching picture it is. First, the original evasion of the slaves into +that peninsular wilderness, which they reclaimed as far as the supply +of their simple wants demanded. They planted, they hunted, they +multiplied their cattle, they intermarried with their Indian friends +and allies, their children and their children's children grew up +around them, knowing of slavery only by traditionary legend. The +original founders of the tribe passed away, and their sons and +grandsons possessed their corn-fields and their hunting-grounds in +peace. For many years no fears disturbed their security. Under the +Spanish rule they were safe and happy. Then comes the gradual +gathering of the cloud on the edges of their wilderness, its first +fitful and irregular flashes, till it closes over their heads and +bursts upon them in universal ruin and devastation. Their heroic +resistance to the invasion of the United States troops follows, +sublime from its very desperation. A more unequal contest was never +fought. On one side one of the mightiest powers on earth, with endless +stores of men and money at its beck,--and on the other a handful of +outcasts fighting for their homes, and the liberties, in no +metaphorical sense, of themselves, their wives, and their children, +and protracting the fight for as many years as the American Revolution +lasted. + +Then succeeded the victory of Slavery, and the reduction to hopeless +bondage of multitudes who had been for generations free, on claim of +pretended descendants of imaginary owners, by the decision of petty +government-officials, without trial or real examination. More than +five hundred persons, some of them recent fugitives, but mostly men +born free, were thus reduced to slavery at a cost to us all of forty +millions of dollars, or eighty thousand dollars for each recovered +slave! Then comes their removal to the Cherokee lands, west of +Arkansas, under the pledge of the faith of the nation, plighted by +General Jessup, its authorized agent, that they should be sent to the +West, and settled in a village separate from the Seminole Indians, and +that, in the mean time, they should be protected, should not be +separated, "nor any of them be sold to white men or others." This, +however, was not a legitimate issue of a war waged solely for the +reduction of these exiles to slavery; and so the doubts of President +Polk as to the construction of this treaty were solved by Mr. John Y. +Mason, of Virginia, who was sandwiched in between two Free-State +Attorney-Generals for this single piece of dirty work, (of which +transaction see a most curious account, pp. 328-9 of this book,) and +who enlightened the Presidential mind by the information, that, though +the exiles were entitled to their freedom, under the treaty, and had a +right to remain in the towns assigned to them, "the Executive _could +not in any manner interfere to protect them_!" + +The bordering Creeks, who by long slave-holding had sunk to the level +of the whites around them, longed to seize on these valuable +neighbors, and, indeed, they claimed rights of property in them as +fugitives in fact from themselves. The exiles were assured by the +President that they "_had the right to remain in their villages, free +from all interference or interruption from the Creeks_." Trusting to +the plighted word of the Head of the Nation, they built their huts and +planted their ground, and began again their little industries and +enjoyments. + +But the sight of so many able-bodied negroes, belonging only to +themselves, and setting an evil example to the slaves in the spectacle +of an independent colony of blacks, was too tempting and too +irritating to be resisted. A slave-dealer appeared amongst the Creeks +and offered to pay one hundred dollars for every Floridian exile they +would seize and deliver to him,--he taking the risk of the title. Two +hundred armed Creek warriors made a foray into the colony and seized +all they could secure. They were repulsed, but carried their prisoners +with them and delivered them to the tempter, receiving the stipulated +pieces of silver for their reward. The Seminole agent had the +prisoners brought before the nearest Arkansas judge by Habeas Corpus, +and the whole matter was reviewed by this infamous magistrate, who +overruled the opinion of the Attorney-General as to their right to +reside in their villages, overrode the decision of the President, +repealed the treaty-stipulations, pronounced the title of the Creek +Indians, and consequently that of their vendee, legal and perfect, and +directed the kidnapped captives to be delivered up to the claimant! We +regret that Mr. Giddings has omitted the name of this wretch, and we +hope that in a future edition he will tell the world how to catalogue +this choice specimen in its collection of judicial monsters. + +Then comes the last scene of this drama of exile. Finding that there +was no rest for the sole of their foot in the United States, these +peeled and hunted men resolved to turn their backs upon the country +that had thus cruelly entreated them, and to seek a new home within +the frontiers of Mexico. The sad procession began its march westward +by night, the warriors keeping themselves always in readiness for an +attack. The Creeks, finding that their prey had escaped them, went in +pursuit, but were bravely repulsed and fled, leaving their dead upon +the field,--the greatest disgrace that can befall, according to the +code of Indian honor. The exiles then pursued their march into Mexico +without further molestation. There, in a fertile and picturesque +region, they have established themselves and resumed the pursuits of +peaceful life. But they have not been permitted to live in peace even +there. At least one marauding party, in 1853, was organized in Texas, +and went in search of adventures towards the new settlement. Of the +particulars of the expedition we have no account. Only, it is known +that it returned without captives, and, as the Texan papers announcing +the fact admitted, "_with slightly diminished numbers_." How long they +will be permitted to dwell unmolested in their new homes no one can +say. Complaints are already abroad that the escape of slaves is +promoted by the existence of this colony, which receives and protects +them. And when the Government shall be ordered by its Slave-holding +Directory to add another portion of Mexico to the Area of Freedom, +these "outrages" will be sure to be found in the catalogue of +grievances to be redressed. Then they will have to dislodge again and +fly yet farther from before the face of their hereditary oppressors. + +Mr. Giddings has done his task admirably well. It is worthy to be the +crowning work of his long life of public service. His style is of that +best kind which is never remarked upon, but serves as a clear medium +through which the events he portrays are seen without distortion or +exaggeration. He has done his country one more service in entire +consistency with those that have filled up the whole course of his +honorable and beneficent life. We have said that this is fit to be the +crowning work of Mr. Giddings's life; but we trust that it is far from +being the last that he will do for his country. A winter such as +rounds his days is fuller of life and promise than a century of vulgar +summers. He has won for himself an honorable and enduring place in the +hearts and memories of men by the fidelity to principle and the +unfaltering courage of his public course. Of the ignoble hundreds who +have flitted through the Capitol, since he first took his place there, + + "Heads without name, no more remembered," + +his is one of the two or three that are household words on the lips of +the nation. And it will so remain and be familiar in the mouths of +posterity, with a fame as pure as it is noble. The ear that hath _not_ +heard him shall bless him, and the eye that hath _not_ seen him shall +give witness to him. + + * * * * * + + +OBITUARY. + +The conductors of "The Atlantic" have the painful duty of announcing +to their readers the death of CALVIN W. PHILLEO, author of "Akin by +Marriage," published in the earlier numbers of this magazine. The plot +of the story was sketched at length, and in the brain of the writer it +was complete; but no hand save his own could give it life and form: it +must remain an unfinished work. The mind of Mr. Philleo was singularly +clear, his observation of nature and character sharp and +discriminating, and his feeling for beauty, in its more placid forms, +was intense and pervading. His previous work, "Twice Married," and the +various sketches of New England life, with which the readers of +magazine literature are familiar, are sufficient to give him a high +place among novelists. He was warm in his friendships, pure in life, +and his early death will be lamented by a wide circle of friends. _In +pace!_ + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10456 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17bea10 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10456 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10456) diff --git a/old/10456-8.txt b/old/10456-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d87f560 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10456-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9231 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 11, +September, 1858, 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, Volume 2, Issue 11, September, 1858 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 14, 2003 [eBook #10456] +[Date last updated: June 15, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 2, ISSUE +11, SEPTEMBER, 1858*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Keith M. Eckrich, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. II.--SEPTEMBER, 1858.--NO. XI. + + + + + +ELOQUENCE. + +It is the doctrine of the popular music-masters, that whoever can +speak can sing. So, probably, every man is eloquent once in his life. +Our temperaments differ in capacity of heat, or we boil at different +degrees. One man is brought to the boiling point by the excitement of +conversation in the parlor. The waters, of course, are not very deep. +He has a two-inch enthusiasm, a pattypan ebullition. Another requires +the additional caloric of a multitude, and a public debate; a third +needs an antagonist, or a hot indignation; a fourth needs a +revolution; and a fifth, nothing less than the grandeur of absolute +ideas, the splendors and shades of Heaven and Hell. + +But because every man is an orator, how long soever he may have been a +mute, an assembly of men is so much more susceptible. The eloquence of +one stimulates all the rest, some up to the speaking point, and all +others to a degree that makes them good receivers and conductors, and +they avenge themselves for their enforced silence by increased +loquacity on their return to the fireside. + +The plight of these phlegmatic brains is better than that of those who +prematurely boil, and who impatiently break the silence before their +time. Our county conventions often exhibit a small-pot-soon-hot style +of eloquence. We are too much reminded of a medical experiment, where +a series of patients are taking nitrous-oxide gas. Each patient, in +turn, exhibits similar symptoms,--redness in the face, volubility, +violent gesticulation, delirious attitudes, occasional stamping, an +alarming loss of perception of the passage of time, a selfish +enjoyment of his sensations, and loss of perception of the sufferings +of the audience. + +Plato says, that the punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to +take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse +men; and the like regret is suggested to all the auditors, as the +penalty of abstaining to speak, that they shall hear worse orators +than themselves. + +But this lust to speak marks the universal feeling of the energy of +the engine, and the curiosity men feel to touch the springs. Of all +the musical instruments on which men play, a popular assembly is that +which has the largest compass and variety, and out of which, by genius +and study, the most wonderful effects can be drawn. An audience is not +a simple addition of the individuals that compose it. Their sympathy +gives them a certain social organism, which fills each member, in his +own degree, and most of all the orator, as a jar in a battery is +charged with the whole electricity of the battery. No one can survey +the face of an excited assembly, without being apprised of new +opportunity for painting in fire human thought, and being agitated to +agitate. How many orators sit mute there below! They come to get +justice done to that ear and intuition which no Chatham and no +Demosthenes has begun to satisfy. + +The Welsh Triads say, "Many are the friends of the golden tongue." Who +can wonder at the attractiveness of Parliament, or of Congress, or the +bar, for our ambitious young men, when the highest bribes of society +are at the feet of the successful orator? He has his audience at his +devotion. All other fames must hush before his. He is the true +potentate; for they are not kings who sit on thrones, but they who +know how to govern. The definitions of eloquence describe its +attraction for young men. Antiphon the Rhamnusian, one of Plutarch's +ten orators, advertised in Athens, "that he would cure distempers of +the mind with words." No man has a prosperity so high or firm, but two +or three words can dishearten it. There is no calamity which right +words will not begin to redress. Isocrates described his art, as "the +power of magnifying what was small and diminishing what was +great";--an acute, but partial definition. Among the Spartans, the art +assumed a Spartan shape, namely, of the sharpest weapon. Socrates +says, "If any one wishes to converse with the meanest of the +Lacedaemonians, he will at first find him despicable in conversation; +but, when a proper opportunity offers, this same person, like a +skilful jaculator, will hurl a sentence worthy of attention, short and +contorted, so that he who converses with him will appear to be in no +respect superior to a boy." Plato's definition of rhetoric is, "the +art of ruling the minds of men." The Koran says, "A mountain may +change its place, but a man will not change his disposition";--yet the +end of eloquence is,--is it not?--to alter in a pair of hours, perhaps +in a half-hour's discourse, the convictions and habits of years. Young +men, too, are eager to enjoy this sense of added power and enlarged +sympathetic existence. The orator sees himself the organ of a +multitude, and concentrating their valors and powers: + + "But now the blood of twenty thousand men + Blushed in my face." + +That which he wishes, that which eloquence ought to reach, is, not a +particular skill in telling a story, or neatly summing up evidence, or +arguing logically, or dexterously addressing the prejudice of the +company; no, but a taking sovereign possession of the audience. Him we +call an artist, who shall play on an assembly of men as a master on +the keys of the piano,--who, seeing the people furious, shall soften +and compose them, shall draw them, when he will, to laughter and to +tears. Bring him to his audience, and, be they who they may, coarse or +refined, pleased or displeased, sulky or savage, with their opinions +in the keeping of a confessor, or with their opinions in their +bank-safes,--he will have them pleased and humored as he chooses; and +they shall carry and execute that which he bids them. + +This is that despotism which poets have celebrated in the "Pied Piper +of Hamelin," whose music drew like the power of gravitation,--drew +soldiers and priests, traders and feasters, women and boys, rats and +mice; or that of the minstrel of Meudon, who made the pallbearers +dance around the bier. This is a power of many degrees, and requiring +in the orator a great range of faculty and experience, requiring a +large composite man, such as Nature rarely organizes, so that, in our +experience, we are forced to gather up the figure in fragments, here +one talent, and there another. + +The audience is a constant metre of the orator. There are many +audiences in every public assembly, each one of which rules in turn. +If anything comic and coarse is spoken, you shall see the emergence of +the boys and rowdies, so loud and vivacious, that you might think the +house was filled with them. If new topics are started, graver and +higher, these roisters recede; a more chaste and wise attention takes +place. You would think the boys slept, and that the men have any +degree of profoundness. If the speaker utter a noble sentiment, the +attention deepens, a new and highest audience now listens, and the +audiences of the fun and of facts and of the understanding are all +silenced and awed. There is also something excellent in every +audience,--the capacity of virtue. They are ready to be beatified. +They know so much more than the orator,--and are so just! There is a +tablet there for every line he can inscribe, though he should mount to +the highest levels. Humble persons are conscious of new illumination; +narrow brows expand with enlarged affections: delicate spirits, long +unknown to themselves, masked and muffled in coarsest fortunes, who +now hear their own native language for the first time, and leap to +hear it. But all these several audiences, each above each, which +successively appear to greet the variety of style and topic, are +really composed out of the same persons; nay, sometimes the same +individual will take active part in them all, in turn. + +This range of many powers in the consummate speaker and of many +audiences in one assembly leads us to consider the successive stages +of oratory. + +Perhaps it is the lowest of the qualities of an orator, but it is, on +so many occasions, of chief importance,--a certain robust and radiant +physical health,--or, shall I say? great volumes of animal heat. When +each auditor feels himself to make too large a part of the assembly, +and shudders with cold at the thinness of the morning audience, and +with fear lest all will heavily fail through one bad speech, mere +energy and mellowness are then inestimable. Wisdom and learning would +be harsh and unwelcome, compared with a substantial cordial man, made +of milk, as we say, who is a house-warmer, with his obvious honesty +and good meaning, and a hue-and-cry style of harangue, which inundates +the assembly with a flood of animal spirits, and makes all safe and +secure, so that any and every sort of good speaking becomes at once +practicable. I do not rate this animal eloquence very highly, and yet, +as we must be fed and warmed before we can do any work well, even the +best, so is this semi-animal exuberance, like a good stove, of the +first necessity in a cold house. + +Climate has much to do with it,--climate and race. Set a New Englander +to describe any accident which happened in his presence. What +hesitation and reserve in his narrative! He tells with difficulty some +particulars, and gets as fast as he can to the result, and, though he +cannot describe, hopes to suggest the whole scene. Now listen to a +poor Irish-woman recounting some experience of hers. Her speech flows +like a river,--so unconsidered, so humorous, so pathetic, such justice +done to all the parts! It is a true transubstantiation,--the fact +converted into speech, all warm and colored and alive, as it fell out. +Our Southern people are almost all speakers, and have every advantage +over the New England people, whose climate is so cold, that, 'tis said, +we do not like to open our mouths very wide. But neither can the +Southerner in the United States, nor the Irish, compare with the +lively inhabitant of the South of Europe. The traveller in Sicily +needs no gayer melodramatic exhibition than the _table d'hôte_ of his +inn will afford him, in the conversation of the joyous guests. They +mimic the voice and manner of the person they describe; they crow, +squeal, hiss, cackle, bark, and scream like mad, and, were it only by +the physical strength exerted in telling the story, keep the table in +unbounded excitement. But in every constitution some large degree of +animal vigor is necessary as material foundation for the higher +qualities of the art. + +But eloquence must be attractive, or it is none. The virtue of books +is to be readable, and of orators to be interesting, and this is a +gift of Nature; as Demosthenes, the most laborious student in that +kind, signified his sense of this necessity when he wrote, "Good +Fortune," as his motto on his shield. As we know, the power of +discourse of certain individuals amounts to fascination, though it may +have no lasting effect. Some portion of this sugar must intermingle. +The right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no +constable to keep them. It draws the children from their play, the old +from their arm-chairs, and the invalid from his warm chamber; it holds +the hearer fast, steals away his feet, that he shall not depart,--his +memory, that he shall not remember the most pressing affairs,--his +belief, that he shall not admit any opposing considerations. The +pictures we have of it in semi-barbarous ages, when it has some +advantages in the simpler habit of the people, show what it aims at. +It is said that the Khans, or story-tellers in Ispahan and other +cities of the East, attain a controlling power over their audience, +keeping them for many hours attentive to the most fanciful and +extravagant adventures. The whole world knows pretty well the style of +these improvisators, and how fascinating they are, in our translations +of the "Arabian Nights." Scheherzarade tells these stories to save her +life, and the delight of young Europe and young America in them proves +that she fairly earned it. And who does not remember in childhood some +white or black or yellow Scheherzarade, who, by that talent of telling +endless feats of fairies and magicians, and kings and queens, was more +dear and wonderful to a circle of children than any orator of England +or America is now? The more indolent and imaginative complexion of the +Eastern nations makes them much more impressible by these appeals to +the fancy. + +These legends are only exaggerations of real occurrences, and every +literature contains these high compliments to the art of the orator +and the bard, from the Hebrew and the Greek down to the Scottish +Glenkindie, who + + --"harpit a fish out o' saut water, + Or water out of a stone, + Or milk out of a maiden's breast + Who bairn had never none." + +Homer specially delighted in drawing the same figure. For what is the +"Odyssey," but a history of the orator, in the largest style, carried +through a series of adventures furnishing brilliant opportunities to +his talent? See with what care and pleasure the poet brings him on the +stage. Helen is pointing out to Antenor, from a tower, the different +Grecian chiefs. "Antenor said: 'Tell me, dear child, who is that man, +shorter by a head than Agamemnon, yet he looks broader in his +shoulders and breast. His arms lie on the ground, but he, like a +leader, walks about the bands of the men. He seems to me like a +stately ram, who goes as a master of the flock.' Him answered Helen, +daughter of Jove: 'This is the wise Ulysses, son of Laertes, who was +reared in the state of craggy Ithaca, knowing all wiles and wise +counsels.' To her the prudent Antenor replied again: 'O woman, you +have spoken truly. For once the wise Ulysses came hither on an +embassy, with Menelaus, beloved by Mars. I received them, and +entertained them at my house. I became acquainted with the genius and +the prudent judgments of both. When they mixed with the assembled +Trojans and stood, the broad shoulders of Menelaus rose above the +other; but, both sitting, Ulysses was more majestic. When they +conversed, and interweaved stories and opinions with all; Menelaus +spoke succinctly, few but very sweet words, since he was not +talkative, nor superfluous in speech, and was the younger. But when +the wise Ulysses arose, and stood, and looked down, fixing his eyes on +the ground, and neither moved his sceptre backward nor forward, but +held it still, like an awkward person, you would say it was some angry +or foolish man; but when he sent his great voice forth out of his +breast, and his words fell like the winter snows, not then would any +mortal contend with Ulysses; and we, beholding, wondered not +afterwards so much at his aspect." [_Iliad_, III. 192.] + +Thus he does not fail to arm Ulysses at first with this power of +overcoming all opposition by the blandishments of speech. Plutarch +tells us that Thucydides, when Archidamus, king of Sparta, asked him, +Which was the best wrestler, Pericles or he? replied, "When I throw +him, he says he was never down, and he persuades the very spectators +to believe him." Philip of Macedon said of Demosthenes, on hearing the +report of one of his orations, "Had I been there, he would have +persuaded me to take up arms against myself"; and Warren Hastings said +of Burke's speech on his impeachment, "As I listened to the orator, I +felt for more than half an hour as if I were the most culpable being +on earth." + +In these examples, higher qualities have already entered; but the +power of detaining the ear by pleasing speech, and addressing the +fancy and imagination, often exists without higher merits. Thus +separated, as this fascination of discourse aims only at amusement, +though it be decisive in its momentary effect, it is yet a juggle, and +of no lasting power. It is heard like a band of music passing through +the streets, which converts all the passengers into poets, but is +forgotten as soon as it has turned the next corner; and unless this +oiled tongue could, in Oriental phrase, lick the sun and moon away, it +must take its place with opium and brandy. I know no remedy against it +but cotton-wool, or the wax which Ulysses stuffed into the ears of his +sailors to pass the Sirens safely. + +There are all degrees of power, and the least are interesting, but +they must not be confounded. There is the glib tongue and cool +self-possession of the salesman in a large shop, which, as is well +known, overpower the prudence and resolution of housekeepers of both +sexes. There is a petty lawyer's fluency, which is sufficiently +impressive to him who is devoid of that talent, though it be, in so +many cases, nothing more than a facility of expressing with accuracy +and speed what everybody thinks and says more slowly, without new +information, or precision of thought,--but the same thing, neither +less nor more. It requires no special insight to edit one of our +country newspapers. Yet whoever can say off currently, sentence by +sentence, matter neither better nor worse than what is there printed, +will be very impressive to our easily-pleased population. These +talkers are that class who prosper like the celebrated schoolmaster, +by being only one lesson ahead of the pupil. Add a little sarcasm, and +prompt allusion to passing occurrences, and you have the mischievous +member of Congress. A spice of malice, a ruffian touch in his +rhetoric, will do him no harm with his audience. These accomplishments +are of the same kind, and only a degree higher than the coaxing of the +auctioneer, or the vituperative style well described in the +street-word "jawing." These kinds of public and private speaking have +their use and convenience to the practitioners; but we may say of such +collectively, that the habit of oratory is apt to disqualify them for +eloquence. + +One of our statesmen said, "The curse of this country is eloquent +men." And one cannot wonder at the uneasiness sometimes manifested by +trained statesmen, with large experience of public affairs, when they +observe the disproportionate advantage suddenly given to oratory over +the most solid and accumulated public service. In a Senate or other +business committee, the solid result depends on a few men with working +talent. They know how to deal with the facts before them, to put +things into a practical shape, and they value men only as they can +forward the work. But some new man comes there, who has no capacity +for helping them at all, is insignificant, and nobody in the +committee, but has a talent for speaking. In the debate with open +doors, this precious person makes a speech, which is printed, and read +all over the Union, and he at once becomes famous, and takes the lead +in the public mind over all these executive men, who, of course, are +full of indignation to find one who has no tact or skill, and knows he +has none, put over them by means of this talking power which they +despise. + +Leaving behind us these pretensions, better or worse, to come a little +nearer to the verity, eloquence is attractive as an example of the +magic of personal ascendency;--a total and resultant power,--rare, +because it requires a rich coincidence of powers, intellect, will, +sympathy, organs, and, over all, good-fortune in the cause. We have a +half-belief that the person is possible who can counterpoise all other +persons. We believe that there may be a man who is a match for +events,--one who never found his match,--against whom other men being +dashed are broken,--one of inexhaustible personal resources, who can +give you any odds and beat you. What we really wish for is a mind +equal to any exigency. You are safe in your rural district, or in the +city, in broad daylight, amidst the police, and under the eyes of a +hundred thousand people. But how is it on the Atlantic, in a storm? Do +you understand how to infuse your reason into men disabled by terror, +and to bring yourself off safe then?--how among thieves, or among an +infuriated populace, or among cannibals? Face to face with a +highwayman who has every temptation and opportunity for violence and +plunder, can you bring yourself off safe by your wit, exercised +through speech?--a problem easy enough to Caesar, or Napoleon. +Whenever a man of that stamp arrives, the highwayman has found a +master. What a difference between men in power of face! A man succeeds +because he has more power of eye than another, and so coaxes or +confounds him. The newspapers, every week, report the adventures of +some impudent swindler, who, by steadiness of carriage, duped those +who should have known better. Yet any swindlers we have known are +novices and bunglers, as is attested by their ill name. A greater +power of face would accomplish anything, and, with the rest of their +takings, take away the bad name. A greater power of carrying the thing +loftily, and with perfect assurance, would confound merchant, banker, +judge, men of influence and power, poet, and president, and might head +any party, unseat any sovereign, and abrogate any constitution in +Europe and America. It was said, that a man has at one step attained +vast power, who has renounced his moral sentiment, and settled it with +himself that he will no longer stick at anything. It was said of Sir +William Pepperel, one of the worthies of New England, that, "put him +where you might, he commanded, and saw what he willed come to pass." +Julius Caesar said to Metellus, when that tribune interfered to hinder +him from entering the Roman treasury, "Young man, it is easier for me +to put you to death than to say that I will"; and the youth yielded. +In earlier days, he was taken by pirates. What then? He threw himself +into their ship; established the most extraordinary intimacies; told +them stories; declaimed to them; if they did not applaud his speeches, +he threatened them with hanging,--which he performed afterwards,--and, +in a short time, was master of all on board. A man this is who cannot +be disconcerted, and so can never play his last card, but has a +reserve of power when he has hit his mark. With a serene face, he +subverts a kingdom. What is told of him is miraculous; it affects men +so. The confidence of men in him is lavish, and he changes the face of +the world, and histories, poems, and new philosophies arise to account +for him. A supreme commander over all his passions and affections; but +the secret of his ruling is higher than that. It is the power of +Nature running without impediment from the brain and will into the +hands. Men and women are his game. Where they are, he cannot be +without resource. "Whoso can speak well," said Luther, "is a man." It +was men of this stamp that the Grecian States used to ask of Sparta +for generals. They did not send to Lacedaemon for troops, but they +said, "Send us a commander"; and Pausanias, or Gylippus, or Brasidas, +or Agis, was despatched by the Ephors. + +It is easy to illustrate this overpowering personality by these +examples of soldiers and kings; but there are men of the most peaceful +way of life, and peaceful principle, who are felt, wherever they go, +as sensibly as a July sun or a December frost,--men who, if they +speak, are heard, though they speak in a whisper,--who, when they act, +act effectually, and what they do is imitated: and these examples may +be found on very humble platforms, as well as on high ones. + +In old countries, a high money-value is set on the services of men who +have achieved a personal distinction. He who has points to carry must +hire, not a skilful attorney, but a commanding person. A barrister in +England is reputed to have made twenty or thirty thousand pounds _per +annum_ in representing the claims of railroad companies before +committees of the House of Commons. His clients pay not so much for +legal as for manly accomplishments,--for courage, conduct, and a +commanding social position, which enable him to make their claims +heard and respected. + +I know very well, that, among our cool and calculating people, where +every man mounts guard over himself, where heats and panics and +abandonments are quite out of the system, there is a good deal of +skepticism as to extraordinary influence. To talk of an overpowering +mind rouses the same jealousy and defiance which one may observe round +a table where anybody is recounting the marvellous anecdotes of +mesmerism. Each auditor puts a final stroke to the discourse by +exclaiming, "Can he mesmerize _me_?" So each man inquires if any +orator can change _his_ convictions. + +But does any one suppose himself to be quite impregnable? Does he +think that not possibly a man may come to him who shall persuade him +out of his most settled determination?--for example, good sedate +citizen as he is, to make a fanatic of him? or, if he is penurious, to +squander money for some purpose he now least thinks of? or, if he is a +prudent, industrious person, to forsake his work, and give days and +weeks to a new interest? No, he defies any one, every one. Ah! he is +thinking of resistance, and of a different turn from his own. But what +if one should come of the same turn of mind as his own, and who sees +much farther on his own way than he? A man who has tastes like mine, +but in greater power, will rule me any day, and make me love my ruler. + +Thus it is not powers of speech that we primarily consider under this +word Eloquence, but the power that, being present, gives them their +perfection, and, being absent, leaves them a merely superficial value. +Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy. +Personal ascendency may exist with or without adequate talent for its +expression. It is as surely felt as a mountain or a planet; but when +it is weaponed with a power of speech, it seems first to become truly +human, works actively in all directions, and supplies the imagination +with fine materials. + +This circumstance enters into every consideration of the power of +orators, and is the key to all their effects. In the assembly, you +shall find the orator and the audience in perpetual balance, and the +predominance of either is indicated by the choice of topic. If the +talents for speaking exist, but not the strong personality, then there +are good speakers who perfectly receive and express the will of the +audience, and the commonest populace is flattered by hearing its low +mind returned to it with every ornament which happy talent can add. +But if there be personality in the orator, the face of things changes. +The audience is thrown into the attitude of pupil, follows like a +child its preceptor, and hears what he has to say. It is as if, amidst +the king's council at Madrid, Ximenes urged that an advantage might be +gained of France, and Mendoza that Flanders might be kept down, and +Columbus, being introduced, was interrogated whether his geographical +knowledge could aid the cabinet, and he can say nothing to one party +or to the other, but he can show how all Europe can be diminished and +reduced under the king by annexing to Spain a continent as large as +six or seven Europes. + +This balance between the orator and the audience is expressed in what +is called the pertinence of the speaker. There is always a rivalry +between the orator and the occasion, between the demands of the hour +and the prepossession of the individual. The emergency which has +convened the meeting is usually of more importance than anything the +debaters have in their minds, and therefore becomes imperative to +them. But if one of them have anything of commanding necessity in his +heart, how speedily he will find vent for it, and with the applause of +the assembly! This balance is observed in the privatest intercourse. +Poor Tom never knew the time when the present occurrence was so +trivial that he could tell what was passing in his mind without being +checked for unseasonable speech; but let Bacon speak, and wise men +would rather listen, though the revolution of kingdoms was on foot. I +have heard it reported of an eloquent preacher, whose voice is not yet +forgotten in this city, that, on occasions of death or tragic +disaster, which overspread the congregation with gloom, he ascended +the pulpit with more than his usual alacrity, and, turning to his +favorite lessons of devout and jubilant thankfulness, "Let us praise +the Lord," carried audience, mourners, and mourning along with him, +and swept away all the impertinence of private sorrow with his +hosannas and songs of praise. Pepys says of Lord Clarendon, with whom +"he is mad in love," on his return from a conference, "I did never +observe how much easier a man do speak when he knows all the company +to be below him, than in him; for, though he spoke indeed excellent +well, yet his manner and freedom of doing it, as if he played with it, +and was informing only all the rest of the company, was mighty +pretty." [_Diary_, I. 469.] + +This rivalry between the orator and the occasion is inevitable, and +the occasion always yields to the eminence of the speaker; for a great +man is the greatest of occasions. Of course, the interest of the +audience and of the orator conspire. It is well with them only when +his influence is complete; then only they are well pleased. +Especially, he consults his power by making instead of taking his +theme. If he should attempt to instruct the people in that which they +already know, he would fail; but, by making them wise in that which he +knows, he has the advantage of the assembly every moment. Napoleon's +tactics of marching on the angle of an army, and always presenting a +superiority of numbers, is the orator's secret also. + +The several talents which the orator employs, the splendid weapons +which went to the equipment of Demosthenes, of AEchines, of Demades, +the natural orator, of Fox, of Pitt, of Patrick Henry, of Adams, of +Mirabeau, deserve a special enumeration. We must not quite omit to +name the principal pieces. + +The orator, as we have seen, must be a substantial personality. Then, +first, he must have power of statement,--must have the fact, and know +how to tell it. In any knot of men conversing on any subject, the +person who knows most about it will have the ear of the company, if he +wishes it, and lead the conversation,--no matter what genius or +distinction other men there present may have; and in any public +assembly, him who has the facts, and can and will state them, people +will listen to, though he is otherwise ignorant, though he is hoarse +and ungraceful, though he stutters and screams. + +In a court of justice, the audience are impartial; they really wish to +sift the statements, and know what the truth is. And, in the +examination of witnesses, there usually leap out, quite unexpectedly, +three or four stubborn words or phrases which are the pith and fate of +the business, which sink into the ear of all parties, and stick there, +and determine the cause. All the rest is repetition and qualifying; +and the court and the county have really come together to arrive at +these three or four memorable expressions, which betrayed the mind and +meaning of somebody. + +In every company, the man with the fact is like the guide you hire to +lead your party up a mountain or through a difficult country. He may +not compare with any of the party in mind, or breeding, or courage, or +possessions, but he is much more important to the present need than +any of them. That is what we go to the court-house for,--the statement +of the fact, and the elimination of a general fact, the real relation +of all the parties; and it is the certainty with which, indifferently +in any affair that is well handled, the truth stares us in the face, +through all the disguises that are put upon it,--a piece of the +well-known human life,--that makes the interest of a court-room to the +intelligent spectator. + +I remember, long ago, being attracted by the distinction of the +counsel, and the local importance of the cause, into the court-room. +The prisoner's counsel were the strongest and cunningest lawyers in +the Commonwealth. They drove the attorney for the State from corner to +corner, taking his reasons from under him, and reducing him to +silence, but not to submission. When hard-pressed, he revenged +himself, in his turn, on the judge, by requiring the court to define +what salvage was. The court, thus pushed, tried words, and said +everything it could think of to fill the time, supposing cases, and +describing duties of insurers, captains, pilots, and miscellaneous +sea-officers that are or might be,--like a schoolmaster puzzled by a +hard sum, who reads the context with emphasis. But all this flood not +serving the cuttle-fish to get away in, the horrible shark of the +district-attorney being still there, grimly awaiting with his "The +court must define,"--the poor court pleaded its inferiority. The +superior court must establish the law for this, and it read away +piteously the decisions of the Supreme Court, but read to those who +had no pity. The judge was forced at last to rule something, and the +lawyers saved their rogue under the fog of a definition. The parts +were so well cast and discriminated, that it was an interesting game +to watch. The government was well enough represented. It was stupid, +but it had a strong will and possession, and stood on that to the +last. The judge had a task beyond his preparation, yet his position +remained real; he was there to represent a great reality, the justice +of states, which we could well enough see beetling over his head, and +which his trifling talk nowise affected, and did not impede, since he +was entirely well-meaning. + +The statement of the fact, however, sinks before the statement of the +law, which requires immeasurably higher powers, and is a rarest gift, +being in all great masters one and the same thing,--in lawyers, +nothing technical, but always some piece of common sense, alike +interesting to laymen as to clerks. Lord Mansfield's merit is the +merit of common sense. It is the same quality we admire in Aristotle, +Montaigne, Cervantes, or in Samuel Johnson, or Franklin. Its +application to law seems quite accidental. Each of Mansfield's famous +decisions contains a level sentence or two, which hit the mark. His +sentences are not always finished to the eye, but are finished to the +mind. The sentences are involved, but a solid proposition is set +forth, a true distinction is drawn. They come from and they go to the +sound human understanding; and I read, without surprise, that the +black-letter lawyers of the day sneered at his "equitable decisions," +as if they were not also learned. This, indeed, is what speech is for, +to make the statement; and all that is called eloquence seems to me of +little use, for the most part, to those who have it, but inestimable +to such as have something to say. + +Next to the knowledge of the fact and its law, is method, which +constitutes the genius and efficiency of all remarkable men. A crowd +of men go up to Faneuil Hall; they are all pretty well acquainted with +the object of the meeting; they have all read the facts in the same +newspapers. The orator possesses no information which his hearers have +not; yet he teaches them to see the thing with his eyes. By the new +placing, the circumstances acquire new solidity and worth. Every fact +gains consequence by his naming it, and trifles become important. His +expressions fix themselves in men's memories, and fly from mouth to +mouth. His mind has some new principle of order. Where he looks, all +things fly into their places. What will he say next? Let this man +speak, and this man only. By applying the habits of a higher style of +thought to the common affairs of this world, he introduces beauty and +magnificence wherever he goes. Such a power was Burke's, and of this +genius we have had some brilliant examples in our own political and +legal men. + +Imagery. The orator must be, to a certain extent, a poet. We are such +imaginative creatures, that nothing so works on the human mind, +barbarous or civil, as a trope. Condense some daily experience into a +glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified. They feel as if they +already possessed some new right and power over a fact, which they can +detach, and so completely master in thought. It is a wonderful aid to +the memory, which carries away the image, and never loses it. A +popular assembly, like the House of Commons, or the French Chamber, or +the American Congress, is commanded by these two powers,--first by a +fact, then by skill of statement. Put the argument into a concrete +shape, into an image, some hard phrase, round and solid as a ball, +which they can see and handle and carry home with them, and the cause +is half won. + +Statement, method, imagery, selection, tenacity of memory, power of +dealing with facts, of illuminating them, of sinking them by ridicule +or by diversion of the mind, rapid generalization, humor, pathos, are +keys which the orator holds; and yet these fine gifts are not +eloquence, and do often hinder a man's attainment of it. And if we +come to the heart of the mystery, perhaps we should say that the truly +eloquent man is a sane man with power to communicate his sanity. If +you arm the man with the extraordinary weapons of this art, give him a +grasp of facts, learning, quick fancy, sarcasm, splendid allusion, +interminable illustration,--all these talents, so potent and charming, +have an equal power to insnare and mislead the audience and the +orator. His talents are too much for him, his horses run away with +him; and people always perceive whether you drive, or whether the +horses take the bits in their teeth and run. But these talents are +quite something else when they are subordinated and serve him; and we +go to Washington, or to Westminster Hall, or might well go round the +world, to see a man who drives, and is not run away with,--a man who, +in prosecuting great designs, has an absolute command of the means of +representing his ideas, and uses them only to express these; placing +facts, placing men; amid the inconceivable levity of human beings, +never for an instant warped from his erectness. There is for every man +a statement possible of that truth which he is most unwilling to +receive,--a statement possible, so broad and so pungent, that he +cannot get away from it, but must either bend to it or die of it. Else +there would be no such word as eloquence, which means this. The +listener cannot hide from himself that something has been shown him +and the whole world, which he did not wish to see; and, as he cannot +dispose of it, it disposes of him. The history of public men and +affairs in America will readily furnish tragic examples of this fatal +force. + +For the triumphs of the art somewhat more must still be required, +namely, a reinforcing of man from events, so as to give the double +force of reason and destiny. In transcendent eloquence, there was ever +some crisis in affairs, such as could deeply engage the man to the +cause he pleads, and draw all this wide power to a point. For the +explosions and eruptions, there must be accumulations of heat +somewhere, beds of ignited anthracite at the centre. And in cases +where profound conviction has been wrought, the eloquent man is he who +is no beautiful speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain +belief. It agitates and tears him, and perhaps almost bereaves him of +the power of articulation. Then it rushes from him as in short, abrupt +screams, in torrents of meaning. The possession the subject has of his +mind is so entire, that it insures an order of expression which is the +order of Nature itself, and so the order of greatest force, and +inimitable by any art. And the main distinction between him and other +well-graced actors is the conviction, communicated by every word, that +his mind is contemplating a whole and inflamed by the contemplation of +the whole, and that the words and sentences uttered by him, however +admirable, fall from him as unregarded parts of that terrible whole +which he sees, and which he means that you shall see. Add to this +concentration a certain regnant calmness, which, in all the tumult, +never utters a premature syllable, but keeps the secret of its means +and method; and the orator stands before the people as a demoniacal +power to whose miracles they have no key. This terrible earnestness +makes good the ancient superstition of the hunter, that the bullet +will hit its mark, which is first dipped in the marksman's blood. + +Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative. Afterwards, it +may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and color, +speaks only through the most poetic forms; but, first and last, it +must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact. The orator is +thereby an orator, that he keeps his feet ever on a fact. Thus only is +he invincible. No gifts, no graces, no power of wit or learning or +illustration will make any amends for want of this. All audiences are +just to this point. Fame of voice or of rhetoric will carry people a +few times to hear a speaker, but they soon begin to ask, "What is he +driving at?" and if this man does not stand for anything, he will be +deserted. A good upholder of anything which they believe, a +fact-speaker of any kind, they will long follow; but a pause in the +speaker's own character is very properly a loss of attraction. The +preacher enumerates his classes of men, and I do not find my place +therein; I suspect, then, that no man does. Every thing is my cousin, +and whilst he speaks things, I feel that he is touching some of my +relations, and I am uneasy; but whilst he deals in words, we are +released from attention. If you would lift me, you must be on higher +ground. If you would liberate me, you must be free. If you would +correct my false view of facts,--hold up to me the same facts in the +true order of thought, and I cannot go back from the new conviction. + +The power of Chatham, of Pericles, of Luther, rested on this strength +of character, which, because it did not and could not fear anybody, +made nothing of their antagonists, and became sometimes exquisitely +provoking and sometimes terrific to these. + +We are slenderly furnished with anecdotes of these men, nor can we +help ourselves by those heavy books in which their discourses are +reported. Some of them were writers, like Burke; but most of them were +not, and no record at all adequate to their fame remains. Besides, +what is best is lost, the fiery life of the moment. But the conditions +for eloquence always exist. It is always dying out of famous places, +and appearing in corners. Wherever the polarities meet, wherever the +fresh moral sentiment, the instinct of freedom and duty, come in +direct opposition to fossil conservatism and the thirst of gain, the +spark will pass. The resistance to slavery in this country has been a +fruitful nursery of orators. The natural connection by which it drew +to itself a train of moral reforms, and the slight yet sufficient +party organization it offered, reinforced the city with new blood from +the woods and mountains. Wild men, John Baptists, Hermit Peters, John +Knoxes, utter the savage sentiment of Nature in the heart of +commercial capitals. They send us every year some piece of aboriginal +strength, some tough oak-stick of a man who is not to be silenced or +insulted or intimidated by a mob, because he is more mob than +they,--one who mobs the mob,--some sturdy countryman, on whom neither +money, nor politeness, nor hard words, nor eggs, nor blows, nor +brickbats, make any impression. He is fit to meet the bar-room wits +and bullies; he is a wit and a bully himself, and something more; he +is a graduate of the plough, and the stub-hoe, and the bush-whacker; +knows all the secrets of swamp and snow-bank, and has nothing to learn +of labor or poverty or the rough of farming. His hard head went +through in childhood the drill of Calvinism, with text and +mortification, so that he stands in the New England assembly a purer +bit of New England than any, and flings his sarcasms right and left. +He has not only the documents in his pocket to answer all cavils and +to prove all his positions, but he has the eternal reason in his head. +This man scornfully renounces your civil organizations,--county, or +city, or governor, or army,--is his own navy and artillery, judge and +jury, legislature and executive. He has learned his lessons in a +bitter school. Yet, if the pupil be of a texture to bear it, the best +university that can be recommended to a man of ideas is the gauntlet +of the mobs. + +He who will train himself to mastery in this science of persuasion +must lay the emphasis of education, not on popular arts, but on +character and insight. Let him see that his speech is not differenced +from action; that, when he has spoken, he has not done nothing, nor +done wrong, but has cleared his own skirts, has engaged himself to +wholesome exertion. Let him look on opposition as opportunity. He +cannot be defeated or put down. There is a principle of resurrection +in him, an immortality of purpose. Men are averse and hostile, to give +value to their suffrages. It is not the people that are in fault for +not being convinced, but he that cannot convince them. He should mould +them, armed as he is with the reason and love which are also the core +of their nature. He is not to neutralize their opposition, but he is +to convert them into fiery apostles and publishers of the same wisdom. + +The highest platform of eloquence is the moral sentiment. It is what +is called affirmative truth, and has the property of invigorating the +hearer; and it conveys a hint of our eternity, when he feels himself +addressed on grounds which will remain when everything else is taken, +and which have no trace of time or place or party. Everything hostile +is stricken down in the presence of the sentiments; their majesty is +felt by the most obdurate. It is observable, that, as soon as one acts +for large masses, the moral element will and must be allowed for, will +and must work; and the men least accustomed to appeal to these +sentiments invariably recall them when they address nations. Napoleon, +even, must accept and use it as he can. + +It is only to these simple strokes that the highest power belongs, +when a weak human hand touches, point by point, the eternal beams and +rafters on which the whole structure of Nature and society is laid. In +this tossing sea of delusion, we feel with our feet the adamant; in +this dominion of chance, we find a principle of permanence. For I do +not accept that definition of Isocrates, that the office of his art is +to make the great small and the small great; but I esteem this to be +its perfection,--when the orator sees through all masks to the eternal +scale of truth, in such sort that he can hold up before the eyes of +men the fact of today steadily to that standard, thereby making the +great great and the small small,--which is the true way to astonish +and to reform mankind. + +All the first orators of the world have been grave men, relying on +this reality. One thought the philosophers of Demosthenes's own time +found running through all his orations,--this, namely, that "virtue +secures its own success." "To stand on one's own feet" Heeren finds +the keynote to the discourses of Demosthenes, as of Chatham. + +Eloquence, like every other art, rests on laws the most exact and +determinate. It is the best speech of the best soul. It may well stand +as the exponent of all that is grand and immortal in the mind. If it +do not so become an instrument, but aspires to be somewhat of itself, +and to glitter for show, it is false and weak. In its right exercise, +it is an elastic, unexhausted power,--who has sounded, who has +estimated it?--expanding with the expansion of our interests and +affections. Its great masters, whilst they valued every help to its +attainment, and thought no pains too great which contributed in any +manner to further it, and, resembling the Arabian warrior of fame, who +wore seventeen weapons in his belt, and in personal combat used them +all occasionally,--yet undervalued all means, never permitted any +talent, neither voice, rhythm, poetic power, anecdote, sarcasm, to +appear for show, but were grave men, who preferred their integrity to +their talent, and esteemed that object for which they toiled, whether +the prosperity of their country, or the laws, or a reformation, or +liberty of speech or of the press, or letters, or morals, as above the +whole world, and themselves also. + + * * * * * + +THE KINLOCH ESTATE, AND HOW IT WAS SETTLED. + +[Concluded.] + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The disappearance of Lucy Ransom did not long remain a secret; it rang +through the town, and was accompanied by all sorts of rumors. Some +thought she had eloped; but the prevailing opinion was, that she had +been tempted into a fatal error, and then, in the frenzy of remorse +and shame, had destroyed herself, in order to hide her disgrace from +the world. Slight hints were now recalled by many of the poor girl's +acquaintance,--hints of love, unrequited and hopeless,--of base and +unfeeling treachery,--of remediless sorrow, appealing to the deepest +sympathy, and not the less because her heart found utterance in rude +and homely phrases. This idea of self-destruction gained the more +currency because no one had seen the least trace of the girl after the +twilight of the preceding night, and it was deemed improbable that she +could have made her way on foot the whole distance to the +railway-station without being seen by some one. And when it was +reported that a boy had found a shawl not far from the dam, the public +became so much aroused that it was determined to make a thorough +search. The pond and canal were dragged, and the bank of the river +carefully explored for miles below the town. The search was kept up +far into the night, the leaders being provided with pitch-pine +torches. At every bend, or eddy, or sand-bar, or fallen tree, where it +might be supposed that a drifting body would be stopped, the boldest +breathed faster, and started at the first glimpse of a white stone or +a peeled and bleached poplar-trunk, or other similar object, fearing +it might prove to be what they expected, yet dreaded to see. But it +was in vain. Lucy, whether alive or dead, was not to be found. Her +grandmother hobbled down to the village, moaning piteously; but she +could get little consolation, least of all from Mrs. Kinloch. This +incident made a lasting impression. The village boys, who remembered +the search with shuddering horror, avoided the river, and even Hugh +found means to persuade Mildred to give up the pleasant road on its +bank and take the hill district for their afternoon rides. + +Meanwhile the time for the trial of the ejectment suit was rapidly +approaching, and it was difficult to say whether plaintiff or +defendant showed the more signs of anxiety. Mr. Hardwick's life seemed +to be bound up in his shop; it was dear to him in the memory of long +years of cheerful labor; it was his pride as well as his dependence; +he had grown old by its flaming forge, and he could never feel at home +in any other spot. "Young trees may be moved," he would say; "an old +one dies in transplanting." It was noticed by all his friends that the +stoop in his shoulders was more decided, his step less elastic, and +his ordinary flow of spirits checked. + +Mrs. Kinloch, too, grew older unaccountably fast. Her soft brown hair +began to whiten, her features grew sharp, and her expression quick, +watchful, and intense. Upon being spoken to, she would start and +tremble in her whole frame; her cheeks would glow momentarily, and +then become waxen again. + +Impatient at the slow progress of her son's wooing, and impelled now +by a new fear that all her plans might be frustrated, if Mildred +should happen to hear any rumor touching the cause of Lucy's +disappearance, Mrs. Kinloch proposed to herself to assist him more +openly than she had hitherto done--She was not aware that anything +implicating Hugh had been reported, but she knew enough of human +nature to be sure that some one would be peering into the mystery,--a +mystery which she divined by instinct, but had not herself dared to +explore. So, finding a favorable opportunity, she sat down beside +Mildred, determined to read the secret of her soul; for she made no +question that she could scan her, as she might the delicate machinery +of the French clock, noiselessly moving under its crystal cover. + +Mildred shuddered unconsciously, as she felt her step-mother's thin +fingers gently smoothing the hair upon her temples; still more, as the +pale and quivering lips were pressed to her forehead. The caress was +not a feigned tenderness. Mrs. Kinloch really loved the girl, with +such love as she had to bestow; and if her manner had been latterly +abstracted or harsh, it was from preoccupation. She was soon satisfied +that the suspicion she dreaded had not found place in the girl's mind. +Leading the way by imperceptible approaches, she spoke in her softest +tones of her joy at Hugh's altered manners, her hopes of his future, +and especially of her desire to have him leave the navy and settle on +shore. + +"How happy we might be, Hugh and we," she said, "if we could live here +in this comfortable home, and feel that nothing but death would break +up the circle! How much your dear father counted on the happiness in +store for him in growing old with his children around him!--and would +he not be rejoiced to see us cling together, bound by ties as strong +as life, and cherishing his memory by our mutual affection?" + +Mildred replied in some commonplaces,--rather wondering at the vein of +sentiment, and in no way suspecting the object which her step-mother +had in view. + +Mrs. Kinloch continued:--"Hugh needs some new attraction now to detain +him; he is tired of the sea, but he finds the village dull. He is just +of the age to think of looking for some romantic attachment; but you +know how few girls there are here whose manners and education are such +as to please a cultivated man." + +Mildred grew uneasy, but remained silent. Mrs. Kinloch was every +moment more eager in her manner; a novice, waiting for the turn of the +cards in _rouge et noir_, would not have manifested a greater anxiety +as to the result. But the girl looked out of the window, and did not +see the compressed lips, dilated nostrils, and glittering eyes, that +gave such a contradiction to the bland words. + +"Mildred, my daughter," she continued, "I have no secrets from +you,--least of all about matters that concern us both. Don't you see +what I would say? Don't you know what would make our circle complete, +inseparable? Pardon the boldness of a fond mother, whose only desire +is to see her children happy." + +Mildred felt a tear dropping upon the hand which Mrs. Kinloch held +with a passionate grasp. She felt the powerful magnetism which the +woman exerted upon her, and she trembled, but still kept silent. + +"It is for Hugh that I speak. He loves you. Has he not told you so?" + +"I do not wish to talk with you about it," said Mildred. + +"But I have a right, as his mother and your guardian, to know. I +should be wanting in my duty, if I suffered your happiness to be +perilled for want of a clear understanding between you. Hugh is proud +and sensitive, and you bashful and just the least foolish; so that you +are at cross purposes." + +"Hugh fully understands my feelings towards him." + +"You have given him encouragement?" she asked, eagerly. + +"None whatever: it would have been wrong in me to do so." + +"Wrong to love him! Why, he is your brother only in name." + +"Wrong to encourage him in a love I do not and cannot return," replied +Mildred, with a mighty effort, at the same time disengaging her hand. + +Mrs. Kinloch could not repress a feeling of admiration, even in her +despair, as she saw the clear, brave glance, the heightened color, and +the heaving bosom of the girl. + +"But, in time, you may think differently," she said, almost piteously. + +"I wished to be spared this pain, mother," Mildred replied, trembling +at her own boldness, "but you will not let me; and I must tell you, +kindly, but decidedly, that I never could marry Hugh under any +circumstances whatever." + +Her mother did not wince at the rebuff, but followed on even closer. +"And why? Who is there more manly, well-educated, kindly, dutiful, +than Hugh?" + +"I don't wish to analyze his character; probably we shouldn't +altogether agree in our judgment; but it is enough that I don't feel +in the least attracted by him, and that I could not love him, if he +were all that you imagine." + +"Then you love another!" said Mrs. Kinloch, fiercely. + +Mildred was excessively agitated; but, though her knees trembled, her +voice was clear and soft as it had been. "Yes, I do love another; and +I don't hesitate to avow it." + +"That blacksmith's upstart?" in a still louder key. + +"You mean Mark Davenport, probably, who deserves more respectful +language." + +"Brought up in coal-dust,--the spoiled and forward pet of a foolish +old stutterer, who depends for his bread on his dirty work, and who, +if he had only his own, would have to leave even the hovel he works +in." It was fearful to see how these contemptuous words were hissed +out by the infuriated woman. + +Mildred was courageous, but she had not passed through the discipline +that had developed her step-mother's faculties. So she burst into +tears, saying, amidst her sobs, that Mark was allowed by all who knew +him to be a young man of promise; that, for herself, she didn't care +how much coal-dust he had been through,--_that_ would wash off; that, +at any rate, she loved him, and would never marry anybody else. + +Mrs. Kinloch began to consider. Anger had whirled her away once; a +second explosion might create an irreparable breach between them. + +"Don't lay up what I have said, Mildred," she urged, in a mild voice. +"If I object to your choice, it is because I am proud of you and want +you to look high. You can marry whom you choose; no rank or station +need be considered above you. Come, don't cry, dear!" + +But Mildred refused to be soothed. She could not sympathize with the +tropical nature, that smiled like sunshine at one moment, and the next +burst into the fury of a tornado. She pushed off the beseeching hand, +turned from the offered endearments, and, with reddened, tear-stained +face, left the room. + +Hugh presently passed through the hall. "Well, mother," said he, "I +suppose you think you've done it now." + +"Go about your business, you foolish boy!" she retorted. "Go and try +something that you do know about. You can snare a partridge, or shoot +a woodcock, perhaps!" + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Mildred had now no peace; after what had happened, she could not meet +Hugh and his mother with any composure. The scheming woman had risked +everything in the appeal she made to her daughter,--risked everything, +and lost. Nothing could restore harmony; neither could forget the +struggle and live the old quiet life. Mrs. Kinloch, always pursued by +anxiety, was one day full of courage, fruitful in plans and resources, +and the next day cast down into the pit of despair. Now she clung to +her first hope, believing that time, patience, kindness, would soften +Mildred's resolution; then, seeing the blank indifference with which +she treated Hugh, she racked her invention to provide other means of +attaining her end. + +Again, the thought of her inexplicable loss came over her, and she was +frightened to madness; creeping chills alternating with cold sweats +tortured her. It was a mystery she could not penetrate. She could not +but implicate Lucy: but then Lucy might be in her grave. After every +circumstance had passed in review, her suspicions inevitably returned +and fastened upon her lawyer, Clamp. She almost wished he would come +to see her again; for he, being naturally sulky at his first +reception, had left the haughty woman severely alone. She determined +to send for him, on business, and then to try her fascinations upon +him, to draw him out, and see if he held her secret. + +"Aha!" thought the Squire, as he received the message, "she comes to +her senses! Give a woman like Mrs. Kinloch time enough to consider, +and she will not turn her back on her true interest. O Theophilus, you +are not by any means a fool! Slow and steady, slow and steady you go! +Let the frisky woman _appear_ to have her way,--you will win in the +end!" + +The wig and best suit were brushed anew, water was brought into +requisition for the visible portions of his person, and, with his most +engaging expression arranged upon his parchment face, he presented +himself before the widow. + +There was a skirmish of small talk, during which Mr. Clamp was placid +and self-conscious, while his _vis-à-vis_, though smiling and +apparently at ease, was yet alert and excited,--darting furtive +glances, that would have startled him like flashes of sunlight +reflected from a mirror, if he had not been shielded by his own +self-complacency. + +"You-have-sent-for-me-on-business,-I-believe," said the lawyer, in a +tone continuous and bland as a stream of honey. + +"Yes, Sir; I have great confidence in your judgment, and I know that +you are devoted to the interests of our family. My poor husband always +esteemed you highly." + +"Oh, Ma'am! you do me honor!" + +"If I have not consulted you about our affairs of late, it is because +I have had troubles which I did not wish to burden you with." + +"We all have our troubles, Mrs. Kinloch." + +"They are very sad to bear,--but profitable, nevertheless. + +"But I'm sure you must be wonderfully supported in your trials; I never +saw you looking better." + +And truly, her thin and mobile lips were of a strangely bright coral, +and her usually wan cheeks wore a delicate flush, lending her a +beauty, not youthful, to be sure, but yet fascinating. One might +desire to see an eye less intense and restless, but he would rarely +see a woman of forty so charming. + +"You notice my color," said Mrs. Kinloch, mournfully, and with a faint +smile; "it's only the effect of a headache. I am far enough from +well." + +"Indeed!" was the sympathetic reply. + +"I have met with a great loss, Mr. Clamp,--some papers of the greatest +importance. I was going to consult you about them." + +"In which I got ahead of you," thought he. + +"Now, ever since the disappearance of Lucy, I have thought she had +something to do with them. I never went to the secretary, but she was +sure to be spying about. And I believe she knew about my affairs as +well as I do myself." + +"Or I," mentally ejaculated the lawyer,--meanwhile keeping as close as +an oyster. + +She continued,--"As the girl was ignorant, and without any interest in +the matter more than that of curiosity, I am puzzled to account for +all this." + +"'Tis strange, truly!" + +"Yes, I'm sure she must be only the tool of some shrewder person." + +"You alarm me! Who can it be?" + +"Perhaps Mildred, or some one who is plotting for her. The Hardwicks, +you know, expect she will marry Mark Davenport." + +"Do they, indeed? Well, now, that's a shrewd conjecture. Then you +think Lucy didn't drown herself?" + +"She? By no means!" + +"But what can I do in the matter, Mrs. Kinloch?" + +"We must find Lucy, or else discover her confidant,"--looking fixedly +at him. + +"Not very easy to do," said he, never once wincing under her scrutiny. + +"Not easy for me. But those that hide can find. Nothing is beyond +search, if one really tries." + +During this cross-examination, Mr. Clamp's premeditated gallantry had +been kept in the background; but he was determined not to let the +present opportunity pass by; he therefore turned the current of +conversation. + +"You have not told me, Mrs. Kinloch, _what_ the loss is; so I cannot +judge of its importance. You don't wish to have any more repositories +of secrets than are necessary; but I think you will readily see that +our interests lie in the same direction. If the girl can be found and +the papers recovered by anybody, I am the one to do it. If that is +impossible, however, the next thing is to be prepared for what may +happen; in either emergency, you can hardly do better than to accept +my aid." + +"Of course, I depend entirely upon you." + +"We may as well understand each other," said the lawyer, forgetting +the wily ways by which he had intended to approach her. "I have +certain views, myself, which I think run parallel with yours; and if I +am able to carry you and your property safely through these +difficulties, I think you will not scruple to---- + +"To pay you to your heart's content," she broke in, quickly. "No, I +shall not scruple, unless you ask more than half the estate." + +"I ask for nothing but yourself," said he, with sudden boldness. + +"That is to say, you want the whole of it." + +"Charming woman! don't, pray, compel me to talk in this language of +traffic. It is you I desire,--not the estate. If there is enough to +make you more comfortable than would be possible with my means, I +shall be happy for your sake." + +Her lips writhed and her eyes shot fire. Should she breathe the scorn +she felt, and brave the worst? Or should she temporize? Time might +bring about a change, when she could safely send the mercenary suitor +back to his dusty and cobwebbed office. + +"We do understand each other," she said, slowly. "This is a matter to +think of. I had never thought to marry again, and I cannot answer your +delicate proposal now. Let me have a week to consider." + +"Couldn't we arrange the matter just as well now? I beg your pardon, +Ma'am, if I seem too bold." + +"Oh, your youthful ardor and impetuosity! To be sure, one must forgive +the impatience of a lover in his first passion! But you must wait, +nevertheless." + +Mr. Clamp laughed. It was a good joke, he thought. + +"I must bid you good afternoon, Squire Clamp. I have made my headache +worse by talking on a subject I was not prepared for." + +So Mr. Clamp was bowed out. He did not clearly understand her quick +and subtle movements, but he felt sure of his game in the end. The +scornful irony that had played about him like electricity he had not +felt. + +When he was gone, the woman's worst enemy would have pitied her +distress. She believed more than ever that Clamp had used Lucy to +abstract her papers, and that he now would hold his power over her to +bring about the hated marriage. Her firmness gave way; she sank on the +sofa and wept like a child. Would that she might yet retreat! But no, +the way is closed up behind her. She must go on to her destiny. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Mark Davenport was prosperous in all his undertakings. His position in +the school did not give much scope to his ambition, but the salary he +received was ample enough to pay his expenses, while the duties were +not so onerous as to engross all his time. All his leisure was given +to literary pursuits. He had many times thought he would relinquish +the drudgery of teaching, and support himself by his pen; but he +remembered the maxim of Scott,--that literature was a good staff, but +a poor crutch,--and he stuck to his school. As he grew into a +practised writer, he became connected with the staff of a daily +newspaper in the great city, furnishing leading articles when called +upon, and he soon acquired a position of influence among his +associates. He had maintained a correspondence with Mildred, and was +looking forward to the time when he should make a visit to his native +town, hoping then to be so well established in the world that he might +be able to bring her back with him as his bride. Every thought centred +in her. He coveted fame, wealth, position, only for her sake; and +stimulated by this thought, he had made exertions that would have +broken down a man less vigorous and less resolute. + +He received a letter from Innisfield one day, after a long +interval,--so long that he had become uneasy, and imagined every kind +of evil as the cause of delay. He broke the seal; it was not from +Mildred, but from his cousin Lizzie. These were the contents:-- + +"My dear Mark,--I suppose you may have been anxious before this, at +not hearing from us; but the truth is, we have not had anything very +pleasant to write, and so have put off sending to you. Father is by no +means well or strong. The lawsuit, which is now likely to go wrong, +has troubled him very much. He has grown thin, he stoops as he walks +about, and by night he coughs terribly. I rarely hear him sing as he +used to. Then Squire Clamp has complained of him before the church, +and you know father is over-sensitive about his relations with 'the +brethren,'--even with those who are trying to ruin him. He is +melancholy enough. I hope he will be better, if he gets through his +difficulties; otherwise I am afraid to think of what may happen. + +"You wonder, probably, at not getting a letter from Mildred. Don't be +surprised when I tell you that she has left home and is staying at Mr. +Alford's. Mrs. Kinloch has for a long time wanted her to marry that +hateful Hugh Branning, and became so violent about it that Mildred was +afraid of her. Lucy Ransom, who lived there, ran away a short time +ago, very mysteriously. It seems that the girl had stolen something +from the house, and, after Mildred had plumply refused to marry Hugh, +Mrs. Kinloch charged upon her that she had induced Lucy to steal the +papers or money, or whatever it was. Mrs. Kinloch acted so like an +insane woman, that Mildred would not stay in the house, but ran over +to Mr. Alford's, with only the clothes she wore. She passed by our +house yesterday and told me this hurriedly. I have heard, too, that +Squire Clamp is about to marry Mrs. Kinloch, and that he actually has +procured the license. It's a very strange affair. + +"To fill out the account of disagreeable things,--last evening, in one +of the stores, people were talking of Lucy Ransom's fate, (as they +have been for weeks,) when Will Fenton, the cripple, said, 'he guessed +Hugh Branning could tell what had become of her, if he chose.' Hugh, +it seems, heard of the remark, and to-day he went with a dandyish +doctor, belonging to the navy, I believe, and beat the poor cripple +with a horsewhip, most shamefully. I think this violence has turned +suspicion against him. + +"I am sorry not to have one pleasant thing to say, except that we all +love you as warmly as ever, and hope to see you soon here. Indeed, +Cousin Mark, I dread to write it,--but if you don't come soon, I think +you will see father only on his last bed. + + "Good-bye, dear Mark! + Your Cousin,--LIZZIE." + +We will waste no time in attempting to analyze Mark's conflicting +emotions, but follow him to Innisfield, whither he went the same day. +Great as was his desire to see his betrothed, from whom he had +received no letter for many weeks, he went first of all, where duty +and affection called, to see the dear old man who had been to him more +than a father. + +Mr. Hardwick was sitting in the corner, but rose up with a new energy +as he heard the well-known voice. Mark was not prepared, even by his +cousin's foreboding letter, to see such a change as his uncle +exhibited;--the hollow eyes, the wasted cheeks, the bent figure, the +trembling hands, bore painful testimony to his enfeebled condition. He +held both of Mark's hands in his, and, while his eyes were dim in a +tear-mist, said, with a faltering voice, "Bless you, m-my boy! I'm +glad to see you once more. I thought I might hear my s-summons before +you'd come. You do remember your old uncle!" + +Mark could not restrain himself, but wept outright. The old gentleman +sank into his chair, still clasping Mark's hands. Neither could speak, +but they looked towards each other an unutterable tenderness. + +At length, controlling the tide of feeling, Mr. Hardwick +said,--"D-don't be cast down, Mark; these tears are not b-bitter, but +f-full of joy. Th-there, now, go and kiss your sister and Lizzie." + +The girls appeared wiping their eyes, for they had left the room +overpowered; they greeted Mark affectionately, and then all sat down +about the hearth. Topics enough there were. Mark told of his pursuits +and prospects. The village gossip about the lost servant-girl, (of +whom Mark knew something, but had reasons for silence,) the +approaching marriage of Mrs. Kinloch, and the exile of the heiress +from her own home, were all discussed. After a reasonable time, Mark +excused himself and went to Mr. Alford's, pondering much on the +strange events that had perplexed the usually quiet village. He +reached the house, after a brief walk, and was met by Aunt Mercy, the +portly mistress, but with something less than her accustomed +cordiality. + +"Miss Kinloch is not able to see company," she said, "and must be +excused." + +Mark poured forth a torrent of questions, to which Mrs. Alford +listened, her broad features softening visibly; and at length, with an +apparent effort, she asked him "to come agin to-morrer or the day +arter." + +The more Mark reflected on Mrs. Alford's behavior, the more he was +puzzled. Had Mildred denied him admission? His own betrothed refuse to +see him! No, he was sure she was sick; and besides, she could not have +heard of his coming. So he soothed himself. But the imps of suspicion +and jealousy still haunted him at intervals, and a more miserable man +than the usually buoyant and sanguine Mark it would be difficult to +find. + +The next day, as soon as breakfast was over, Mark, though trying to +cheer up his uncle, was secretly longing for the hour when it would be +proper to present himself at Mr. Alford's. But time does move, albeit +with lagging pace to a lover, and in due season Mark was on his way. +Near the house he met the farmer, who greeted him heartily, and wished +him joy with a knowing smile. Mark took a freer breath; if there was +any difficulty, Mr. Alford certainly did not know it. But then it +occurred to him, that shy young ladies do not often make confidants of +elderly husbandmen in long blue frocks, and his spirits fell again. + +Mr. Alford leaned against a fence and threshed his hands to keep them +warm, while he told Mark that "he had been with Mildred privately out +to the Probate Court,--that the case had been stated to the jedge, who +allowed, that, as she was above fourteen, she had a right to choose +her own guardeen,--that he, Alford, was to be put in, in place of the +Squire,--and that then, in his opinion, there would be an overhaulin' +so's to hev things set to rights." + +Mark shook the hand of his good friend warmly, and commended his +shrewdness. + +"But 'ta'n't best to stan' talkin' with an ol' feller like me," said +the farmer, "when you can do so much better. Jest look!" + +Mark turned his head, and through the window of the house saw the +retreating figure of Mildred. He bounded across the yard, opened the +door without knocking, and rushed into the house. She had vanished: no +one was visible but Mrs. Alford, who was cutting up golden pumpkins in +long coils to dry. + +"Come, Milly," said the good woman, "'ta'n't no use; he saw ye." + +And Mildred appeared, coming slowly out of the buttery. + +"Ye see, Mildred felt a little hurt about a letter; but I _knew_ there +was some mistake; so I wa'n't a-goin' to hev ye go off 'thout some +explanation." + +"A letter?--explanation?" said Mark, thoroughly bewildered. + +"Here it is," said Mildred, taking a letter from her pocket, still +looking down. Mark hastily took and opened it. The envelope bore +Mildred's address in a hand not unlike his own; the inclosure was a +letter from Mildred to himself, which he now saw for the first time. + +"Mildred," said he, holding out his hands, "could you doubt me?" + +She covered her face with her apron, but stood irresolute. He looked +again at the letter. + +"Why, the clumsy trick, Mildred! This post-office stamp, 'New York,' +is not genuine. Just look! it is a palpable cheat, an imitation made +with a pen. The color did not spread, you see, as ink mixed with oil +does. This letter never left this village. I never saw it +before,--could not have seen it. Do you doubt me now, dear Mildred?" + +Even if the evidence had been less convincing, the earnest, heartfelt +tone, the pleading look and gesture, would have satisfied a much more +exacting woman. She sprang towards her lover, and flung her arms about +his neck. The pent-up feeling of days and weeks rushed over her like a +flood, and the presence of Mrs. Alford was forgotten. + +Mrs. Alford, it would seem, suddenly thought of something; for, +gathering herself up, she walked off as fast as the laws of +gravitation allowed, exclaiming,--"There! I never did see! Sech hens! +Allus a-flyin' into the kitchen. I wonder now who left that are door +open." + +The frightened cackle of the hens, the rattling of pots and pans by +the assiduous housewife in the kitchen, were unheeded by the lovers, +"emparadised in one another's arms." The conversation took too wide a +range and embraced too many trivial details to be set down here. Only +this I may say: they both believed, (as every enamored couple +believes,) that, though other people might cherish the properest +affection for each other, yet no man or woman ever did or could +experience such intense and all-pervading emotion as now throbbed in +their breasts,--in fact, that they had been created to exemplify the +passion, which, before, poets had only imagined. Simple children! they +had only found out what hearts are made for! + + +CHAPTER XV. + +The last picture was a pleasant relief in a rather sombre story, +therefore we prefer to commence a stormier scene in a new chapter. +Mark and Mildred were sitting cozily by the ample fireplace,--not at +opposite corners, you may believe,--when there was a warning _ahem!_ +at the door, and the sound of feet "a-raspin' on the scraper." Mr. +Alford entered and said, "Milly, your step-mother's team is comin' up +the road." In a moment there was a bustle in the house, but before any +preparation could be made the carriage was at the gate, and Mrs. +Kinloch, accompanied by Squire Clamp, knocked at the door. + +"Milly, you go into the kitchen with Mrs. Alford," said the farmer. +"I'll attend to matters for them." + +"No, Mr. Alford," she answered; "you are very good, but I think I'll +stay and see them. Shan't I, Mark?" + +Mrs. Kinloch and the lawyer entered. She had left off her mourning, +but looked as pale and thoughtful as ever. After the common +courtesies, brief and cool in this case, Mrs. Kinloch made known her +errand. She had been grieved that Mildred should have left her +father's house and remained so long with strangers, and she had now +come to beg her to return home. Mildred replied, that she had not left +home without cause, and that she had no intention of going back at +present. Mrs. Kinloch looked hurt, and said that this unusual conduct, +owing partly to the common and wicked prejudice against step-mothers, +had wounded her sorely, and she hoped Mildred would do her the simple +justice of returning to a mother who loved her, and would make every +sacrifice for her happiness. Mildred said she did not wish to go over +the ground again; she thought she understood the love that had been +shown her; and she did not desire any further sacrifices, such as she +had witnessed. The request was renewed in various forms, but to no +purpose. Then Squire Clamp interposed with great solemnity, saying, +that, if she had forgotten the respect and affection due to the mother +who had fostered her, she ought to know that the law had conferred +upon him, as her guardian, the authority of a father, and he begged +her not to give him the pain of exercising the control which it would +be his bounden duty to use. + +Mr. Alford had been uneasy during this conversation, and broke in at +the first pause. + +"Well, Square, I guess you'd best wait till 'bout next week-a-Thursday +afore you try to use your 'thority. Probate Court sets on Wednesday, +an' I guess that'll 'bout wind up your business as guardeen." + +What a magazine of wrath that shot exploded! The lawyer was dumb for a +moment, but presently he and Mrs. Kinloch both found breath for their +indignation. + +The woman turned first upon Mark. "This is your doing, Sir!" + +"You do too much honor to my foresight," he replied. "I am heartily +glad that my good friend here was thoughtful enough and ready to +interfere for the protection of a fatherless girl." + +"Insolence!" shouted the lawyer. + +"The impertinent puppy!" chimed in the woman. + +"Come, come!" said the farmer, "too loud talkin'!" + +"Then you uphold this girl in her undutiful behavior, do you?" asked +Mrs. Kinloch. + +"You are amenable to the statutes, Sir," said the Squire. + +Mr. Alford rose to his feet. "Now you might jest as well get inter yer +kerridge an' drive back ter town," said he; "you won't make one o' +them hairs o' yourn black or white, Square, not by talkin' all day." + +The lawyer settled his wig in a foaming rage. "Come, Mrs. Clamp," said +he, "we shall not remain here to be insulted. Let us go; I shall know +how to protect our property, our authority, and honor, from the +assault of adventurers and meddlers." + +"I beg your pardon, Sir," said Mark, "but what was the appellation you +gave to the lady just now? You can call us what you like." + +"Mrs. Clamp, Sir," he answered, with a portentous emphasis,--"Mrs. +Clamp,--united to me, Sir, this morning, by the Reverend Mr. Rook, in +the holy bands of matrimony." + +They swept out of the house. Mildred sank to her chair as if stunned. +"O God!" she said, "_my_ mother and father!" + +"Poor gal!" said Mr. Alford, "small comfort you'll hev in sich +parents. But cheer up; you won't need for friends." + +She looked up through her tears at Mark's manly face, full now of +sympathy, and blessed the farmer for his words. + +Mr. Alford, taking Mark aside, said, "You know about Lucy's runnin' +away, most likely. Wal, now, ef she could be found, there's no knowin' +what might happen; for it's my opinion she knows about Square +Kinloch's affairs. I thought mebbe you might 'a' seen her in York?" + +Mark replied, that he did meet her in Broadway late one afternoon, and +that she looked as if she would speak; but that he hurried on, for the +flaunting style of her dress was not calculated to prepossess the +passers by. + +"Good gracious! you don't say so! Seen her yourself? Now do you go +right back to York an' hunt her up--no matter what it costs." + +"But my uncle?" + +"We'll look arter him." + +It was speedily determined, and Mark set out the same day. Meanwhile, +Mildred had promised to go and see Mr. Hardwick and endeavor to make +him cheerful. + +"It beats all," said Mr. Alford to his wife. "Now 'f he _should_ find +that unfort'nate gal! Wal, wal, I begin to think the Lord does look +arter things some, even in this world." + +We leave Squire Clamp and his new wife to their happiness; it would +not be well to lift the decent veil which drops over their household. +The dark, perchance guilty, past,--the stormy present, and the +retribution of the future,--let memory and conscience deal with them! + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Never was a little village in greater commotion than Innisfield after +Mark's departure. The succession of events had been such as to engage +the attention of the most indifferent. The mysterious exile of +Mildred, the failing health and spirits of the blacksmith, the new +rumors respecting the fate of Lucy, the sudden and unaccountable +marriage of Mrs. Kinloch, and her fruitless attempt to bring her +daughter back, were all discussed in every house, as well as in places +of public resort. Hugh Branning was soon convinced that the village +was no place for him. He had bravely horsewhipped a cripple, but he +could not stop the tongues of the whole parish, even if he could +protect himself from swift and extempore justice. He gathered his +clothes, and, after a long private conference with his mother, started +before daylight for the railway-station. As he does not appear on the +stage again, we may say here, that, not long after, during a financial +panic in New York, he made a fortune of nearly half a million dollars +by speculating in stocks. He used to tell his friends in after years +that he had "only five thousand to begin with,--the sole property left +him by his lamented parents." He has now a handsome mansion in the +Fifth Avenue, is a conspicuous member of the Rev. Dr. Holdfast's +church, and most zealous against the ill-timed discussions and +philanthropic vagaries of the day. What would he not give to forget +that slowly-moving figure, with swimming eyes, carrying a flaring +candle? How far along the years that feeble light was thrown! He never +went through the hall of his house at night without a shudder, +dreading to catch a glimpse of that sorrowing face. + +It was on Tuesday evening, the night preceding the Probate Court to +which Squire Clamp had been cited. Nothing had been heard from Mark, +and his friends were much depressed. Mildred sat by Mr. Hardwick's +bedside, during the long hours, and read to him from his favorite +authors. About ten o'clock, just as the family were preparing to go to +bed, Mark drove up to the door. He was warmly welcomed, and at once +overwhelmed with questions. "Did he find Lucy?" "What did she know?" +"Why did she secrete herself?" To all these Mark merely replied, "I +found Lucy; how much I have accomplished I dare not say. But do you, +James, come with me. We will go up to old Mrs. Ransom's." + +"Why, she's not there; she's gone to the poor-house." + +"Broken down with old age and sorrow, I suppose. But I don't care to +see her now. Let us go to the old house; and meantime, you girls, go +to bed." + +But they protested they should wait till he returned,--that they could +not sleep a wink until they knew the result. + +Provided with a lantern, the young men set out. They found the hovel +nearly in ruins; for pilferers had taken such pieces as they could +strip off for firewood. Mark eagerly ripped up the floor near the +hearth. At the first flash of the light he saw a paper, dusty and +discolored. He seized and opened it. _It was the will of Mr. Kinloch, +duly signed and attested_. Lucy had not deceived him. + +With hurried pace they returned to the village, scarcely stopping to +take breath until they reached Mr. Hardwick's house. It was no vain +hope, then! It was true! The schemes of the step-mother would be +frustrated. The odious control of Squire Clamp would end. Mark began +to read the will, then stopped, embraced his cousins and Mildred by +turns, then read again. He was beside himself with joy. + +All were too much excited to sleep; and when the first transports of +surprise were over, they naturally inquired after the unfortunate +girl. He had found her, after great difficulty, in a miserable garret. +The surmises of the villagers were correct. She was ruined, +heart-broken. Dissipation, exposure, and all the frightful influences +of her wretched life had brought on a fever, and now, destitute and +forsaken, she was left by those who had made merchandise of her +beauty, to die. He learned from Lucy what she knew of the affair of +the will. She became satisfied, soon after Mr. Kinloch's death, that +some wrong was intended, and she watched her mistress. Then Squire +Clamp had induced her by threats and bribes to get for him the papers. +As she took them out of the desk, one, larger than the rest, and with +several seals, attracted her attention. She felt quite sure it was Mr. +Kinloch's will; so she secreted it and gave the lawyer the rest. The +Monday afternoon following, she took the will to her grandmother's and +put it under a plank in the floor. Squire Clamp, strangely enough, +chanced to stop just as she had hidden it. He gave her back the +papers, as she supposed, and she replaced them in the secretary. On +her way home she fell in with Hugh,--a day neither of them would ever +forget. + +The lawyer, who had counted on an easy victory over Mr. Alford, was +greatly surprised, the next day, to see him accompanied by Mark, as he +came into court; he had not heard of the young man's return. Besides, +their unmistakable air of confidence and exultation caused him some +misgivings. But he was boldness itself, compared with his wife. Her +face was bloodless, her hands tremulous, and her expression like that +of one ready to faint. Imagine the horror with which she saw the +production of the will, and then the proof by the only surviving +witness, brought to court from his residence in a neighboring town! +The letters of administration were revoked, and Mr. Alford, one of the +executors, was appointed Mildred's guardian. Completely baffled, dumb +and despairing, Squire Clamp and his bride left the room and drove +homeward. A pleasant topic for conversation they had by the way, each +accusing the other of duplicity, treachery, and folly! The will +provided that she should receive an annuity of one thousand dollars +_during her widowhood_; so that the Squire, by wedding her, had a new +incumbrance without any addition to his resources; a bad bargain, +decidedly, he thought. She, on the other hand, had thrown away her +sure dependence, in the hope of retaining the control of the whole +estate; for when she consented to marry Clamp, she had no doubt that +he had possession of the will and would, of course, keep it concealed. +Seldom it is that _both_ parties to a transaction are so overreached. + +The successful party stopped at Mr. Hardwick's that evening to +exchange congratulations. He, as well as Mildred and Mark, was +interested in the lost will; for Mr. Kinloch had mentioned the fact of +the unsettled boundary-line, and directed his executors to make a +clear title of the disputed tract to the blacksmith. The shop was his; +the boys, at all events, would be undisturbed. One provision in the +will greatly excited Mark's curiosity. The notes which he owed to the +estate were to be cancelled, and there was an unexplained reference to +his uncle Hardwick and to some occurrences of long ago. Mildred at +once recalled to mind her father's dying words,--his calling for Mr. +Hardwick, and his mention of the cabinet. She had often thought of her +search in its drawers, and of her finding the lock of sunny hair and +the dried flower. And the blacksmith now, when asked, shook his head +mournfully, and said, (as he had before,) "Sus-some time; nun-not +now!" + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The next day Mr. Alford came to town and advised Mark to marry +forthwith. + +"I've ben thinkin' it over," he said, "and I b'lieve it's the best +thing to be done. You've got a tough customer to deal with, and it may +be some trouble to git all the property out of his hands. But when the +heiress is married, her husband can act for her to better advantage. I +guess I'll speak to Mr. Rook and have the 'fair 'tended to right +away." + +Mark submitted the matter to Mildred, who blushed properly, and +thought it rather hasty. But Mr. Alford's clear reasoning prevailed, +and the time was appointed at once. Mark and Mr. Alford then went to +call upon the lawyer. They entered his office without knocking, and by +chance found him busy with the accounts and papers; they were +scattered over the table, and he was making computations. As soon as +he was aware of the presence of visitors, he made an effort to slide +the documents under some loose sheets of paper; but Mark knew the bold +hand at once, and without a word seized the papers and handed them to +Mr. Alford. + +"Not very p'lite, Square, I know," said Mr. Alford, "but possession is +nine p'ints of the law, as I've heerd you say; and as you won't deny +the handwritin', I s'pose you don't question my right to these 'ere." + +The rage of Mr. Clamp may be imagined. + +"Good mornin', Square," said the triumphant executor. "When we've +looked over these affairs, we'll trouble you and the widder that was, +to 'count for what the schedool calls for." + +The simple preparations for the wedding were soon made, and the +honest, great-hearted farmer had the pleasure of giving away the +bride. It was a joyful, but not a merry wedding; both had passed +through too many trials, and had too many recollections. And the +evident decline of Mr. Hardwick made Mark sad and apprehensive. But he +devoutly thanked God, as he clasped his bride to his bosom, for the +providence that had brought to him the fulfilment of his dearest +hopes. + +Here we might stop, according to ancient custom, leaving our hero and +heroine to their happiness. But though a wedding is always an event of +interest, there are other things to be narrated before we have done +with our story. + +Not long after, Mark called at the Kinloch house, then occupied by Mr. +Clamp; as a measure of precaution, he took Mr. Alford with him. +Mildred had never regained her wardrobe; everything that was dear to +her was still in her stepmother's keeping,--her father's picture, her +own mother's miniature, the silver cup she had used from infancy, and +all the elegant and tasteful articles that had accumulated in a house +in which no wish was left ungratified. Ever since the session of the +Probate Court, the house had been shut to visitors, if any there had +been. Mrs. Clamp had not been seen once out of doors. But after +waiting a time, Mark and his friend were admitted. As they entered the +house, the bare aspect of the rooms confirmed the rumors which Mark +had heard. Mrs. Clamp received them with a kind of sullen civility, +and, upon hearing the errand, replied,-- + +"Certainly, Mrs. Davenport can have her clothes. She need not have +sent more than one man to get them. Is that all?" + +"Not quite," said Mark. "Perhaps you are not aware of the change which +the discovery of the will may make in your circumstances. I do not +speak of the punishment which the fraud merits, but of the rights +which are now vested in me. First, I am desired to ask after the +plate, jewels, furs, and wardrobe of the first Mrs. Kinloch." + +Mrs. Clamp was silent. A word let fall by Lucy suddenly flashed into +Mark's mind, and he intimated to the haughty woman his purpose to go +into the east front-chamber. + +"Fine gentlemen," she said at length, "to pry into a lady's private +apartment! You will not dare enter it without my permission!" + +And she stood defiantly in the doorway. But, without parley, Mark and +Mr. Alford pushed by her and walked up the staircase, not heeding the +shout of Mr. Clamp, who had followed them to the house. + +"It might seem mean," said Mark to Mr. Alford; "but I think you'll +agree presently, that it wasn't a case for ceremony." + +He stripped the clothes from the bed. The pillows were stuffed with +valuable furs; fine linen and embroideries filled the bolsters. The +feather-sack contained dresses of rich and costly fabrics,--the styles +showing them to be at least twenty years old. And in the mattress were +stowed away the dinner and tea services of silver, together with +porcelain, crystal, and Bohemian ware. + +"What a deal o' comfort a body could take in sleepin' on a bed stuffed +like this 'ere!" said Mr. Alford; "I sh'd think he'd dream of the +'Rabian Nights." + +"After this, Madam," said Mark, upon returning to the hall, "you can +hardly expect any special lenity from me. The will allowed you an +annuity of one thousand dollars while you remained single; since you +are married your interest ceases, but you shall receive two hundred a +year. The house, however, belongs to my wife. Your husband there has a +home to which you can go." + +"Yes," said the lawyer, "he _has_ a home, and won't be beholden to any +man for a roof to shelter his family." + +The pride of the woman was still unbent. Though her cheek was blanched +and her lips were bitten blue, still she stood erect and her head +turned queenly as ever. The glance she threw to the man who called her +wife was enough to have pierced him. Turning to Mark, she said,-- + +"If you will come to-morrow,--or Monday, rather,--you can have +possession of the house and property. My own things can be easily +removed, and it will be a simple matter to make ready for new comers." + +"I could keep them out of it a year, if I chose," said Mr. Clamp. + +"But I do not choose," said she, with superb haughtiness. + +"Wal, good mornin'," said Mr. Alford. + +As they left the house, Mrs. Clamp sat down in the silent room. +Without, the wind whistled through the naked trees and whirled up +spiral columns of leaves; the river below was cased in ice; the +passers-by looked pinched with cold, and cast hurried glances over +their shoulders at the ill-fated house and the adjacent +burying-ground. Within, the commotion, the chill, the hurry, the +fright, were even more intense. What now remained to be done? Her son, +vanquished in love by a blacksmith's _protégé_, had fled, and left her +to meet her fate alone. The will had been discovered, and, as if by a +special interposition of Providence, the victim of her son's passions +had been the instrument of vengeance. The lawyer who had worked upon +her fears had proved unable to protect her. The estate was out of her +hands; the property with which she had hoped to escape from the hated +town and join her son was seized; she was a ruined, disgraced woman. +She had faced the battery of curious eyes, as she walked with the +husband she despised to the Sunday services; but what screen had she +now that her pride was humbled? The fearful struggle in the mind of +the lonely woman in the chill and silent room, who shall describe it? +She denied admission to the servants and her husband, and through the +long evening still sat by the darkening window, far into the dim and +gusty night. + +Squire Clamp went to bed moody, if not enraged; but when, on waking, +he found his wife still absent, he became alarmed. Early in the +morning he tracked her through a light snow, that had sifted down +during the night, to the river-bank, at the bend where the current +keeps the ice from closing over. An hour after, some neighbors, +hastily summoned, made a search at the dam. One of them, crossing the +flume by Mr. Hardwick's shop, broke the newly-formed ice and there +found the drifting body of Mrs. Clamp. Her right hand, stretched out +stiff, was thrust against the floats of the water-wheel, as if, even +in death, she remembered her hate against the family whose fortune had +risen upon her overthrow! + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Mark and Mr. Alford, after their disagreeable interview with the +Clamps, went to see Mr. Hardwick, whom they wished to congratulate. At +the door they were met by Lizzie, whose sad face said, "Hush!" Mark's +spirits fell instantly. "Is he worse?" he asked. A tear was the only +answer. He asked Mr. Alford to go for Mildred. "She has just come," +said Lizzie. + +They found Mr. Hardwick propped up in bed, whence he could look out of +the window. The church-spire rose on the one hand, and on the other +the chimney of the shop was seen above the trees on the river-bank. By +night the column of sparks had gladdened his eye, as he thought of the +cheerful industry of his sons. Mark tenderly pressed his uncle's hand, +and leaned over him with an affectionate, sorrowing interest. + +"Der-don't take it to heart, my boy," said Mr. Hardwick. "I am very +h-happy." + +"I am glad that the boys won't lose the shop," said Mark. "I see you +are looking out to the chimney." + +"Yer-yes, it was thoughtful of Mr. Kinloch, and a special +Pr-Providence that the will was found." + +"You know he mentioned his claim against me," said Mark; "that is +paid, and it doesn't matter; but I can't guess the reason for the +unusual kindness he has shown towards me." + +The old man answered slowly, for his breathing was difficult and often +painful. + +"It is an old story,--old as the dried f-flowers that Mildred told me +of,--but it had a f-fragrance once. Yer-your mother, Mark, was as +per-pretty a girl as you'd often see. Walter Kinloch ler-loved her, +and she him. He sailed to the Indies, an' some der-diff'culty +happened, so that the letters stopped. I d-don't know how 'twas. But +arter a while sh-she married your father. Mr. Kinloch, he m-married, +too; but I guess he nun-never forgot the girl of his choice." + +Mark grasped his young wife's hand, at this tale of years gone by. + +"The lock of hair and the rose were your mother's, then!" she +whispered. "Dear father! faithful, even in death, to his friends, and +to the memory of his first love! How much suffering and crime would +have been prevented, if he could only have uttered the words which his +heart prompted!" + +"God forgive the woman!" said Mr. Hardwick, solemnly. None knew then +how much she had need of forgiveness, standing as she was on the brink +of that last fatal plunge! + +Mr. Alford suggested that the fatigue of talking would wear upon the +enfeebled man, and advised that he should be left to get some rest, if +possible. + +"To-morrow is S-Sabba'-day, ef I've counted right," said Mr. Hardwick. +"I sh-should like to see the sun on the st-heeple once more." + +"Dear uncle, I hope you may see it a great many times. We must leave +you to rest." + +"Good-night, mum-my children," he replied. "God b-bless you all! Let +me put my hands on your h-heads." + +They knelt by his bedside, and he blessed them fervently. Mr. Alford +and Lizzie remained to attend upon him, and the others withdrew. + +The night passed, how wearily! None could sleep, for through all the +air there was a presage of sorrow, a solemn "tingling silentness," to +which their senses were painfully alive. Who, that has passed the +interminable gloomy hours that preceded the departure of a loved and +venerated friend into the world of spirits, does not remember this +unutterable suspense, this fruitless struggle with eternal decrees, +this clinging of affection to the parting soul? What a sinking of the +heart even the recollection of such a scene produces! + +The day dawned upon sleepless, tear-stained eyes. The dying man was +conscious, cheerful, and calmly breathing. In the adjoining room the +family sat beside the table on which was spread their untasted +breakfast. + +The bell began to ring for meeting. Mr. Hardwick roused up at the +sound, and called for his children. He blessed them again, and placed +his hands on their bowed heads in turn. He thought of the psalms which +he had so often led, and he asked all to join in singing Billings's +"Jordan." + + "There is a land of pure delight, + Where saints immortal reign; + Infinite day excludes the night, + And pleasures banish pain." + +With faltering voices they sang the triumphal hymn. The old man's +eyes were fixed upon the steeple, which pointed upward through the +clear air, and shone in the golden light of the sun. He kept time with +a feeble movement, and once or twice essayed to raise his own wavering +voice. A smile of heavenly beauty played over his pallid features as +the music ceased,--a radiance like that crimson glow which covers the +mountain-top at dawn. He spoke almost inaudibly, as if in a trance; +then repeating with a musical flow the words of his favorite author, + + "Where the bright seraphim in burning row + Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow, + And the cherubic host in thousand choirs + Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, + With those just spirits that wear victorious palms + Hymns devout and holy psalms + Singing everlastingly,"-- + +his voice sank again, though it was easy to see that a prayer trembled +on his lips. As a strain of music fades into silence, his tones fell +away, fainter and fainter; and with the same seraphic light on his +countenance his breathing ceased. + + + + +THE BIRTH-MARK. + +A.D. 12--. + + See, here it is, upon my breast,-- + The bloody image of a hand! + On her white bosom it was pressed, + Who should have nursed--you understand;-- + I never yet have named her name, + Nor will I, till 'tis free from shame. + + The good old crone that tended me + Through sickly childhood, lonely youth, + Told me the story: so, you see, + I know it is God's sacred truth, + That holy lips and holy hands + In secrecy had blessed the bands. + + And well he knew it, too,--the accursed!-- + To whom my grandsire gave his child + With dying breath;--for from the first + He saw, and tried to snare the wild + And frightened love that thought to rest + Its wings upon my father's breast. + + You may have seen him riding by,-- + This same Count Bernard, stern and cold; + You know, then, how his creeping eye + One's very soul in charm will hold. + Snow-locks he wears, and gracious art; + But hell is whiter than his heart. + + Well, as I said, the secret rite + Had joined them, and the two were one; + And so it chanced, one summer night, + When the half-moon had set, and none + But faint star-shadows on the grass + Lay watching for his feet to pass, + + Led by the waiting light that gleamed + From out one chamber-window, came + The husband-lover;--soon they dreamed,-- + Her lips still murmuring his name + In sleep,--while, as to guard her, fell + His arm across her bosom's swell. + + The low wind shook the darkened pane, + The far clock chimed along the hall, + There came a moment's gust of rain, + The swallow chirped a single call + From his eaves'-nest, the elm-bough swayed + Moaning;--they slumbered unafraid. + + Without a creak the chamber-door + Crept open!--with a cat-like tread, + Shading his lamp with hand that bore + A dagger, came beside their bed + The Count. His hair was tinged with gray: + Gold locks brown-mixed before him lay. + + A thrust,--a groan,--a fearful scream, + As from the peace of love's sweet rest + She starts!--O God! what horrid dream + Swells her bound eyeballs? From her breast + Fall off the garments of the night,-- + A red hand strikes her bosom's white! + + She knew no more that passed; her ear + Caught not the hurried cries,--the rush + Of the scared household,--nor could hear + The voice that broke the after-hush:-- + "There with her paramour she lay! + He lies here!--carry her away!" + + The evening after I was born + No roses on the bier were spread, + As when for maids or mothers mourn + Pure-hearted ones who love the dead; + They buried her, so young, so fair, + With hasty hands and scarce a prayer. + + Count Bernard gained the lands, while I, + Cast forth, forgotten, thus have grown + To manhood; for I could not die-- + I cannot die--till I atone + For her great shame; and so you see + I track him, and he flies from me. + + And one day soon my hand I'll lay + Upon his arm, with lighter touch + Than ladies use when in their play + They tap you with their fans; yet such + A thrill will freeze his every limb + As if the dead were clutching him! + + I think that it would make you smile + To see him kneel and hear him plead,-- + I leaning on my sword the while, + With a half-laugh, to watch his need:-- + At last my good blade finds his heart, + And then this red stain will depart. + + + + +RAMBLES IN AQUIDNECK. + + +I. + +NEWPORT BEACH. + +Newport has many beaches, each bearing a distinctive appellation. To +the one of which we are speaking rightfully belongs the name of +Easton; but it is more widely known by that of the town itself, and +still more familiarly to the residents as "The Beach." It lies east of +the city, a mile from the harbor, and is about half a mile in length. +Its form is that of the new moon, the horns pointing southward. + +Let us go there now. No better time could be chosen by the naturalist, +for the tide will be at its lowest ebb. Descending Bath Road, the +beautiful crescent lies before us on the right,--Easton's Pond, with +its back-ground of farms, upon the left. There is no wind to-day to +break the surface of the standing water, and it gives back the dwarf +willows upon its banks and the houses on the hill-side with more than +Daguerrian fidelity. The broad ocean lies rocking in the sunshine, not +as one a-weary, but resting at his master's bidding, waiting to begin +anew the work he loves. In the horizon, the ships, motionless in the +calm, spread all sail to catch the expected breeze. The waves idly +chase each other to the shore, in childish strife to kiss first the +mother Earth. + +Turning the sea-wall and crossing a bit of shingle on the right, we +stand upon the western extremity of the beach. + +At our feet, a smooth, globular object, of the size of a crab-apple, +is lying half-buried in the sand. Taking it in your hand, you find it +to be a univalve shell, the inhabitant of which is concealed behind a +closely-fitting door, resembling a flake of undissolved glue. + +It is a Natica. Place it gently in this pool and watch for a few +moments. Slowly and cautiously the horny operculum is pushed out, +turned back, and hidden beneath a thick fleshy mantle, which spreads +over half the shell. Two long tentacles appear upon its front, like +the horns of an ox, and it begins to glide along upon its one huge +foot. + +Had you seen it thus at first, you could not have believed it possible +for so bulky a body to be retracted into so small a shell. Lift it +into the air, and a stream of water pours forth as it contracts. + +Two kinds are common here, one of which has a more conical spire than +the other. The animals differ somewhat in other points, but both have +a cream-colored base, and a mantle of pale cream clouded with purple. +You may get them from half an inch to three inches in diameter. Take +them home and domesticate them, and you will see surprising things. + +I kept one of middling size for many months. During two or three weeks +I wondered how he lived, for he was never seen to eat. He used to +climb to the top of the tank and slide down the slippery glass as +though it were a _montagne russe_. Then he would wander about upon the +bottom, ploughing deep furrows in the sand, and end by burrowing +beneath it. There he would stay whole days, entirely out of sight. + +One morning I found him on his back, his body bent upward, with the +edge of the base turned in all round towards the centre. Did you ever +see an apple-dumpling before it was boiled, just as the cook was +pinching the dough together? Yes? Then you may imagine the appearance +of my Natica; but no greening pared and cored lay within that puckered +wrapper. + +Two days passed with no visible change; but on the third day the +strange gasteropod unfolded both himself and the mystery. From his +long embrace fell the shell of a Mactra, nearly as broad as his own. +Near the hinge was a smooth, round hole, through which the poor Clam +had been sucked. Foot, stomach, siphon, muscles, all but a thin strip +of mantle, were gone. The problem of the Natica's existence was +solved, and the verification was found in more than one Buccinum minus +the animal,--the number of the latter victims being still an unknown +quantity. + +Not in sport had Natty driven the plough, not in idleness had he +hollowed the sand. He sought his food in the furrow, and dug riches in +the mine. + +Doubtless he killed the bivalve,--for until the time of its +disappearance it had been in full vigor,--but with what weapon? And +whereabouts in that soft bundle was hidden the wimble which bored the +hole? + +A few days after, a Crab, of the size of a dime, died. Nat soon +learned the fact, and enveloped the crustacean as he had done the +mollusk. Thirty hours sufficed to drill through the Crab's +foundation-wall, and to abstract the unguarded treasure. + +Every week some rifled Trivittatum tells a new tale of his felonious +deeds. + +His last feat was worthy of a cannibal, for it was the savage act of +devouring a fellow-Natica. You might suppose that in this case the +trap-like operculum would afford an easy entrance to one familiar with +its use; but, true to his secret system, the burglar broke in as +before. How did he do this? Did he abrade the stone-work with flinty +sand until a hole was worn? Did he apply an acid to the limy wall +until it opened before him? Who can find the tools of the cunning +workman, or the laboratory where his corrodents are composed? + +Some rods farther south, the shore is covered with smooth stones, and +there you may find the Limpet in great numbers. Patella is the Latin +name, but children call it Tent-Shell. Oval at the base, it slopes +upward to a point a little aside from the centre. + +In this locality they are small, seldom more than an inch in length. +At first, you will not readily distinguish them, they are so nearly of +the color of the stones to which they are attached. This is one of +those Providential adjustments by which the weak are rendered as +secure as the strong. Slow in their movements, without offensive +weapons, their form and their coloring are their two great safeguards. +The stones to which they adhere are variegated with brown and purple +blotches of incipient Coralline, and the shells are beautifully +mottled with every shade of those colors. Some are lilac, heightening +nearly to crimson; others are dark chocolate and white, sharply +checkered. + +Pebbles and Patella alike are half-covered with Confervae, and from +the top of the latter, fronds of Ulva are often found floating like +flags. I have one with a clump of Corallina rising from its apex, like +a coppice on the summit of a hill. + +By atmospheric pressure, its union with the stone is so close that it +is not easy to pull it away without injury; but if you slip it along, +until by some slight inequality air is admitted beneath the hitherto +exhausted receiver, the little pneumatician is obliged to yield. + +When turned upon its back, or resting against glass, the soft arms, +sprawling aimlessly about, and the bare, round head, give it the +appearance of an infant in a cradle, so that a tank well stocked with +them might be taken for a Liliputian foundling-hospital. + +They are as innocent as they look, being vegetable-feeders, and +finding most of their sustenance in matters suspended in the water. A +friend of mine placed several upon the side of a vessel coated with +Conferva. In a few days, each industrious laborer had mowed round him +a circular space several times larger than himself. + +They are not ambulatory, but remain on one spot for successive weeks, +perhaps longer. + +Sometimes they raise the shell so as to allow a free circulation +beneath; but if some predatory Prawn draw near, the tent is lowered in +a twinkling, so as effectually to shut out the submarine Tartar. + +Tread warily, or you will trip upon the slimy Fucus that fringes the +seaward side of every rock. This is one of the few Algae that grow +here in luxuriance. The slate has not the deep fissures necessary to +afford shelter to the more delicate kinds; and the heavy swell of the +sea drags them from their slight moorings. Therefore, though Ulva, +Chondrus, Cladophora, Enteromorpha, and as many more, are within our +reach, we will not stop to gather them; for Newport has other shores, +where we can get them in full perfection. + +We will take some tufts of Corallina, however, for that is temptingly +fine. What a curious plant it is! Its root, a mere crustaceous disk, +and its fronds, depositing shelly matter upon their surface, bear so +strong a resemblance to the true Corals, that, until recently, +naturalists have thought it a zoophyte. + +Here the plants are of a dull brick-red; but in less exposed +situations they are purple. If you wish them to live and increase, you +must chip off a bit of the rock on which they are growing. With a +chisel, or even a knife, you can do it without difficulty, for the +soft slate scales and crumbles under a slight blow. + +For an herbarium, it ought to be gummed at once to the paper, for it +becomes so brittle, in drying, that it falls to pieces with the most +careful handling. In the air and light it fades white, but the +elegance of its pinnate branches will well repay any pains you may +bestow upon it. + +If you have a lingering belief in its animal nature, steeping it in +acid will cause the carbonate of lime and your credulity to disappear +together, leaving the vegetable tissue clearly revealed. + +Between low-water and the Cliff are hundreds of pools rich in +vegetable and animal life--Look at this one: it is a lakelet of +exquisite beauty. Bordered with the olive-colored Rock-Weed, fronds of +purple and green Laver rise from its limpid depths. Amphipods of +varied hue emerge from the clustering weeds, cleave the clear water +with easy swiftness, and hide beneath the opposite bank. Here a +graceful Annelid describes Hogarth's line of beauty upon the sandy +bottom. There another glides over the surface with sinuous course, +rowed by more oars than a Venetian galley, more brilliant in its +iridescence than the barge of Cleopatra, albeit + + "The poop was beaten gold, + Purple the sails." + +We loiter here, forgetful that we are only at the first end of the bow +along whose curve we propose to walk. Let us go on. The firm sand +affords pleasanter footing than the slippery stones we leave behind +us, but it seems bare of promise to the curiosity-hunter. Nevertheless +we will hunt, and quite at variance with my experience will it be, if +we return empty-handed. + +Here is something already. Dark-colored, horny, flat, oblong, each +corner furnished with a wiry, thorn-like projection;--what is it? A +child tells you it is a Mermaid's Purse, and, giving the empty bag a +shake, you straightway conclude that the maids of the sea know "hard +times," as well as those of the land. But the Purse is not always so +light. Sometimes it is found to contain a most precious deposit, the +egg which is to produce a future fish. + +These egg-cases belong to different members of the Ray family. I saw +one last winter, in which the inmate was fully developed. Should some +old seaman hear me, he might say that I am telling a "fish-story" in +good earnest. He might inform you furthermore, that the object in +question is "but a pod of sea-weed, and that he has seen hundreds of +them in the Gulf Stream." I cannot help it, neither do I question his +veracity. Notwithstanding, these two eyes of mine, in sound condition, +awake, and in broad day, did see the supposed pericarp, with one side +taken off, and did behold, lying within, as veritable a Raia as ever +was caught upon the New-England coast. Moreover, its countenance was +no more classical, in its minuteness, than that of its most ancient +ancestor in its hugeness. + +Observe those bubbles trembling upon the edge of the wave. One is left +by the receding tide, and a nearer view shows it to be a jelly-like +globe, clearer than the crystal of Merlin. Dropped softly into a +vessel of water, at first it lies quiescent and almost invisible upon +the bottom. A moment after, it rises in quick undulations, flashing +prismatic tints with every motion. Again it rests, and we see that it +is banded by eight meridians, composed of square, overlapping plates. +It swims, and the plates become paddles, propelling the frail craft,-- +prisms, dividing the sunbeams into rainbow hues. Suddenly two lines of +gossamer are dropped from unseen openings in its sides, and trailed +behind it as it goes. Twisting, lengthening, shortening, they are +drawn back and re-coiled within, and + + "The ethereal substance closed, + Not long divisible." + +This delicate wonder is the Cydippe. Though among the most charming of +marine creatures, none is more liable to be overlooked, owing to its +extreme subtilty. So unsubstantial and shadowy are they, that a lady, +on seeing them for the first time, declared them to be "the ghosts of +gooseberries." Indeed, you will find them ghost-like, if you attempt +to keep them, for they + + "Shrink in haste away + And vanish from our sight." + +The whole high-water line is strewn with the blanched and parted +valves of the Beach Clam. Here and there yellowish streaks appear upon +the gray sand, formed by the detritus of submarine shells. Among the +fragments are often found perfect specimens, some of them with the +living animal. + +We can examine them as we go back, but now let us cross the "Creek." +It is a creek only by courtesy or an Americanism, at the present day; +but when those miles of fertile fields upon the north were +unreclaimed, the dank herbage hindered evaporation, and Easton's Pond +was fed by unfailing streams. Then the vast body of overflowing water +swept a deep channel, which the sea, rolling far up towards the pond, +widened and made permanent. Boats came from ships in the offing, and +followed its course to "Green End," with no fear of grounding; and +traditionary pirates there bestowed in secret caves their ill-gotten +gains. + +Now, the Creek is a mere streamlet, and the flow of the tide is +restricted to its mouth. With our rubbers we may ford it dry-shod; but +if you choose to cross the bridge, we must wade through shifting sand, +and our walk will be the longer. In midsummer the bed is dry, and +almost obliterated by the drift. On the approach of autumnal rains, +the farmers plough a passage for the water, to prevent their lands +from being submerged. + +On the east side, masses of conglomerate rock are strewn in wild +confusion. By the action of untold ages the connecting cement is worn +away from between the pebbles, leaving them prominent; and wherever +the attrition of the sea has loosened one from its bed, the hollow has +become the habitation of Mollusca and Algae. + +Beyond that ponderous boulder are many dark recesses among the +overlying stones. Strip back your sleeve, thrust in your hand, and +grope carefully about. In this way I once grasped a prickly thing that +startled me. Drawing it to light, it proved to be an Echinus, +Sea-Urchin, or Sea-Egg. That one was not larger than a walnut, was +shaped like a _brioche_, and resembled a chestnut-burr. Its color was +a delicate green, verging to brown. + +Much larger living Echini are found on this spot. There is a shell +now, more than two inches in diameter. It is wholly covered with +spines half an inch in length. Radiating from a common centre, +flexible at the base, they stand erect at right angles with the shell +when the Urchin is in health; but in disease or death order is lost, +and they lie across each other in great confusion. Their connection +with the shell is very remarkable, for it is by a ball-and-socket +joint,--the same articulation which gives the human hip its marvellous +liberty of action. Between them are five rows of minute holes, and, in +life, a transparent, hair-like foot is protruded from each, at the +pleasure of the owner. When disposed to change its situation, it +stretches forth those on the side towards which it would go, fixes +them by means of the sucker at the tip of each, and, simultaneously +withdrawing those in the rear, pulls itself along. + +The mouth, placed in the centre of the base, is very large in +proportion to the size of the animal. It is formed of five shelly, +wedge-shaped pieces, each ending in a hard, triangular tooth. The +whole mouth is a conical box, called by naturalists "Aristotle's +lantern." + +The shell is hardly thicker than that of a hen's egg, and is even more +fragile. When the spines are rubbed off, the brioche-like shape is +modified, and in place of the depression in the middle of the upper +side there is seen a slight prominence. + +Mine was a very inoffensive creature. He occupied the same corner for +many weeks, and changed his place only when a different arrangement of +stones was made. He then wandered to a remote part of the tank and +chose a new abode. Both retreats were on the shady side of a stone +overhung with plants. There for months he quietly kept house, only +going up and down his hand-breadth of room once or twice a day. +Minding his own business without hurt to his neighbor, he dwelt in +unambitious tranquillity. Had he not fallen a victim to the most cruel +maltreatment, he might still adorn his humble station. + +As he was sitting one evening at the door of his house, bending about +his lithe arms in the way he was wont, two itinerant Sticklebacks +chanced to pass that way. They paused, and, not seeing the necessity +for organs of which they had never known the use, they at once decided +on their removal. + +In vain did the poor Hedgehog oppose them. With all the pertinacity of +ignorance, they maintained their certainty of his abnormal condition; +and with all the officiousness of quackery, they insisted upon +immediate amputation. Aided by two volunteer assistants, the self-made +surgeons cut off limb after limb before their reckless butchery could +be stopped. + +At last I effected their dismissal. But their pitiable patient was too +far reduced for recovery. His exhausted system never rallied from the +shock, and he survived but a few days. + +Alas! alas! that so exemplary a member of the community should have +perished through piscine empiricism! + +How many things you have collected! Your well-filled basket attests +your industry and zeal, and suggests the fruitful question of the +novelist, "What will you do with it?" Will you throw its contents on +the sand, and go away satisfied with these imperfect glimpses of +sea-life? Will you take them home indeed, but consign them to a +crowded bowl, to die like the prisoners in the Black Hole of Calcutta? +Or will you give to each a roomy basin with water, and plants to keep +it pure? + +This were well; and you could thus study their structure at leisure, +but not their habits. To know the character of an individual, you must +watch him among his fellows; you must observe his bearing to the +small; you must see how he demeans himself in presence of the great. +To do this, the surroundings must be such that none shall be conscious +of restraint, but that every one, with homely ease, may act out his +own peculiar nature. In short, you must make ready for them another +Atlantic, in all things but breadth like its grand prototype. + +Nor is this a difficult undertaking. By following the advice of some +experienced person, you may avoid all those failures which are apt to +attend the experiments of a tyro. I will direct you to our pioneer in +aquarian science, Mr. Charles E. Hammett. He can furnish you with all +you want, give you most efficient aid, and add thereto a great amount +of practical information. + +You need have no fears for the population of your colony; for in our +future walks we shall meet new objects of beauty and interest, and in +such variety and abundance that your only embarrassment will be which +to choose. + +And now the ramble of to-day is ended. The "punctual sea" has risen, +and, waking his dreaming waves, he gives to them their several tasks. +Some, with gentle touch, lave the heated rock; these, swift of foot, +bring drink to the thirsty sand; those carry refreshing coolness to +the tepid pool. Charged with blessings come they all, and, singing +'mid their joyous labor, they join in a chorus of praise to their God +and our God; while from each of our hearts goes up the ready response, +"Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy works, and I will rejoice +in giving praise for the operations of thy hands!" + + + + +ANN POTTER'S LESSON. + +My sister Mary Jane is older than I,--as much as four years. Father +died when we were both small, and didn't leave us much means beside +the farm. Mother was rather a weakly woman; she didn't feel as though +she could farm it for a living. It's hard work enough for a man to get +clothes and victuals off a farm in West Connecticut; it's up-hill work +always; and then a man can turn to, himself, to ploughin' and +mowin';--but a woman a'n't of no use, except to tell folks what to do; +and everybody knows it's no way to have a thing done, to send. + +Mother talked it all over with Deacon Peters, and he counselled her to +sell off all the farm but the home-lot, which was sot out for an +orchard with young apple-trees, and had a garden-spot to one end of +it, close by the house. Mother calculated to raise potatoes and beans +and onions enough to last us the year round, and to take in sewin' +so's to get what few groceries we was goin' to want. We kept Old Red, +the best cow; there was pasture enough for her in the orchard, for the +trees wa'n't growed to be bearin' as yet, and we 'lotted a good deal +on milk to our house; besides, it saved butcher's meat. + +Mother was a real pious woman, and she was a high-couraged woman too. +Old Miss Perrit, an old widder-woman that lived down by the bridge, +come up to see her the week after father died. I remember all about +it, though I wa'n't but ten years old; for when I see Miss Perrit +comin' up the road, with her slimpsy old veil hanging off from her +bumbazine bonnet, and her doleful look, (what Nancy Perrit used to +call "mother's company-face,") I kinder thought she was comin' to our +house; and she was allers so musical to me, I went in to the +back-door, and took up a towel I was hemmin', and set down in the +corner, all ready to let her in. It don't seem as if I could 'a' been +real distressed about father's dyin' when I could do so; but children +is just like spring weather, rainin' one hour and shinin' the next, +and it's the Lord's great mercy they be; if they begun to be feelin' +so early, there wouldn't be nothin' left to grow up. So pretty quick +Miss Perrit knocked, and I let her in. We hadn't got no spare room in +that house; there was the kitchen in front, and mother's bed-room, and +the buttery, and the little back-space opened out on't behind. Mother +was in the bed-room; so, while I called her, Miss Perrit set down in +the splint rockin'-chair that creaked awfully, and went to rockin' +back and forth, and sighin', till mother come in. "Good-day, Miss +Langdon!" says she, with a kind of a snuffle, "how _dew_ you dew? I +thought I'd come and see how you kep' up under this here affliction. I +rec'lect very well how I felt when husband died. It's a dreadful thing +to be left a widder in a hard world;--don't you find it out by this?" + +I guess mother felt quite as bad as ever Miss Perrit did, for +everybody knew old Perrit treated his wife like a dumb brute while he +was alive, and died drunk; but she didn't say nothin'. I see her give +a kind of a swaller, and then she spoke up bright and strong. + +"I don't think it is a hard world, Miss Perrit. I find folks kind and +helpful, beyond what I'd any right to look for. I try not to think +about my husband, any more than I can help, because I couldn't work, +if I did, and I've got to work. It's most helpful to think the Lord +made special promises to widows, and when I remember Him I a'n't +afeard." + +Miss Perrit stopped rockin' a minute, and then she begun to creak the +chair and blow her nose again, and she said,-- + +"Well, I'm sure it's a great mercy to see anybody rise above their +trouble the way you do; but, law me! Miss Langdon, you a'n't got +through the fust pair o' bars on't yet. Folks is allers kinder +neighborly at the fust; they feel to help you right off, every way +they can,--but it don't stay put, they get tired on't; they blaze +right up like a white-birch-stick, an' then they go out all of a heap; +there's other folks die, and they don't remember you, and you're just +as bad off as though you wa'n't a widder." + +Mother kind of smiled,--she couldn't help it; but she spoke up again +just as steady. + +"I don't expect to depend on people, Miss Perrit, so long as I have my +health. I a'n't above takin' friendly help when I need to, but I mean +mostly to help myself. I can get work to take in, and when the girls +have got their schoolin' they will be big enough to help me. I am not +afraid but what I shall live and prosper, if I only keep my health." + +"Hem, well!" whined out Miss Perrit. "I allers thought you was a +pretty mighty woman, Miss Langdon, and I'm glad to see you're so +high-minded; but you a'n't sure of your health, never. I used to be +real smart to what I am now, when Perrit was alive; but I took on so, +when he was brought home friz to death that it sp'iled my nerves; and +then I had to do so many chores out in the shed, I got cold and had +the dreadfullest rheumatiz! and when I'd got past the worst spell of +that and was quite folksy again, I slipped down on our door-step and +kinder wrenched my ankle, and ef't hadn't 'a' been for the neighbors, +I don't know but what Nancy and I should 'a' starved." + +Mother did laugh this time. Miss Perrit had overshot the mark. + +"So the neighbors were helpful, after all!" said she. "And if ever I +get sick, I shall be willin' to have help, Miss Perrit. I'm sure I +would take what I would give; I think givin' works two ways. I don't +feel afraid yet." + +Miss Perrit groaned a little, and wiped her eyes, and got up to go +away. She hadn't never offered to help mother, and she went off to the +sewing-circle and told that Miss Langdon hadn't got no feelings at +all, and she b'lieved she'd just as soon beg for a livin' as not. +Polly Mariner, the tailoress, come and told mother all she said next +day, but mother only smiled, and set Polly to talkin' about the best +way to make over her old cloak. When she was gone, I begun to talk +about Miss Perrit, and I was real mad; but mother hushed me right up. + +"It a'n't any matter, Ann," said she. "Her sayin' so don't make it so. +Miss Perrit's got a miserable disposition, and I'm sorry for her; a +mint of money wouldn't make her happy; she's a doleful Christian, she +don't take any comfort in anything, and I really do pity her." + +And that was just the way mother took everything. + +At first we couldn't sell the farm. It was down at the foot of +Torringford Hill, two good miles from meetin', and a mile from the +school-house; most of it was woodsy, and there wa'n't no great market +for wood about there. So for the first year Squire Potter took it on +shares, and, as he principally seeded it down to rye, why, we sold the +rye and got a little money, but 'twa'n't a great deal,--no more than +we wanted for clothes the next winter. Aunt Langdon sent us down a lot +of maple-sugar from Lee, and when we wanted molasses we made it out of +that. We didn't have to buy no great of groceries, for we could spin +and knit by fire-light, and, part of the land bein' piny woods, we had +a good lot of knots that were as bright as lamps for all we wanted. +Then we had a dozen chickens, and by pains and care they laid pretty +well, and the eggs were as good as gold. So we lived through the first +year after father died, pretty well. + +Anybody that couldn't get along with mother and Major (I always called +Mary Jane "Major" when I was real little, and the name kind of stayed +by) couldn't get along with anybody. I was as happy as a cricket +whilst they were by, though, to speak truth, I wasn't naturally so +chirpy as they were; I took after father more, who was a kind of a +despondin' man, down-hearted, never thinkin' things could turn out +right, or that he was goin' to have any luck. That was my natur', and +mother see it, and fought ag'inst it like a real Bunker-Hiller; but +natur' is hard to root up, and there was always times when I wanted to +sulk away into a corner and think nobody wanted me, and that I was +poor and humbly, and had to work for my living. + +I remember one time I'd gone up into my room before tea to have one of +them dismal fits. Miss Perrit had been in to see mother, and she'd +been tellin' over what luck Nancy'd had down to Hartford: how't she +had gone into a shop, and a young man had been struck with her good +looks, an' he'd turned out to be a master-shoemaker, and Nancy was +a-goin' to be married, and so on, a rigmarole as long as the moral +law,--windin' up with askin' mother why she didn't send us girls off +to try our luck, for Major was as old as Nance Perrit. I'd waited to +hear mother say, in her old bright way, that she couldn't afford it, +and she couldn't spare us, if she had the means, and then I flung up +into our room, that was a lean-to in the garret, with a winder in the +gable end, and there I set down by the winder with my chin on the +sill, and begun to wonder why we couldn't have as good luck as the +Perrits. After I'd got real miserable, I heerd a soft step comin' up +stairs, and Major come in and looked at me and then out of the winder. + +"What's the matter of you, Anny?" said she. + +"Nothing," says I, as sulky as you please. + +"Nothing always means something," says Major, as pleasant as pie; and +then she scooched down on the floor and pulled my two hands away, and +looked me in the face as bright and honest as ever you see a dandelion +look out of the grass. "What is it, Anny? Spit it out, as John Potter +says; you'll feel better to free your mind." + +"Well," says I, "Major, I'm tired of bad luck." + +"Why, Anny! I didn't know as we'd had any. I'm sure, it's three years +since father died, and we have had enough to live on all that time, +and I've got my schooling, and we are all well; and just look at the +apple-trees,--all as pink as your frock with blossoms; that's good for +new cloaks next winter, Anny." + +"'Ta'n't that, Major. I was thinkin' about Nancy Perrit. If we'd had +the luck to go to Hartford, may-be you'd have been as well off as she; +and then I'd have got work, too. And I wish I was as pretty as she is, +Major; it does seem too bad to be poor and humbly too." + +I wonder she didn't laugh at me, but she was very feelin' for folks, +always. She put her head on the window-sill along of mine, and kinder +nestled up to me in her lovin' way, and said, softly,-- + +"I wouldn't quarrel with the Lord, Anny." + +"Why, Major! you scare me! I haven't said nothing against the Lord. +What do you mean?" said I,--for I was touchy, real touchy. + +"Well, dear, you see we've done all we can to help ourselves; and +what's over and above, that we can't help,--that is what the Lord +orders, a'n't it? and He made you, didn't He? You can't change your +face; and I'm glad of it, for it is Anny's face, and I wouldn't have +it changed a mite: there'll always be two people to think it's sightly +enough, and may-be more by-and-by; so I wouldn't quarrel with it, if I +was you." + +Major's happy eyes always helped me. I looked at her and felt better. +She wasn't any better-lookin' than I; but she always was so chirk, and +smart, and neat, and pretty-behaved, that folks thought she was +handsome after they knowed her. + +Well, after a spell, there was a railroad laid out up the valley, and +all the land thereabouts riz in price right away; and Squire Potter he +bought our farm on speculation, and give a good price for it; so't we +had two thousand dollars in the bank, and the house and lot, and the +barn, and the cow. By this time Major was twenty-two and I was +eighteen; and Squire Potter he'd left his house up on the hill, and +he'd bought out Miss Perrit's house, and added on to't, and moved down +not far from us, so's to be near the railroad-depot, for the sake of +bein' handy to the woods, for cuttin' and haulin' of them down to the +track. Twasn't very pleasant at first to see our dear old woods goin' +off to be burned that way; but Squire Potter's folks were such good +neighbors, we gained as much as we lost, and a sight more, for folks +are greatly better'n trees,--at least, clever folks. + +There was a whole raft of the Potters, eight children of 'em all, some +too young to be mates for Major and me; but Mary Potter, and Reuben, +and Russell, they were along about as old as we were: Russell come +between Major and me; the other two was older. + +We kinder kept to home always, Major and me, because we hadn't any +brothers to go out with us; so we were pretty shy of new friends at +first. But you couldn't help bein' friendly with the Potters, they was +such outspoken, kindly creturs, from the Squire down to little Hen. +And it was very handy for us, because now we could go to +singin'-schools and quiltin's, and such-like places, of an evenin'; +and we had rather moped at home for want of such things,--at least I +had, and I should have been more moped only for Major's sweet ways. +She was always as contented as a honey-bee on a clover-head, for the +same reason, I guess. + +Well, there was a good many good things come to us from the Potters' +movin' down; but by-and-by it seemed as though I was goin' to get the +bitter of it. I'd kept company pretty steady with Russell. I hadn't +give much thought to it, neither; I liked his ways, and he seemed to +give in to mine very natural, so't we got along together first-rate. +It didn't seem as though we'd ever been strangers, and I wasn't one to +make believe at stiffness when I didn't feel it. I told Russell pretty +much all I had to tell, and he was allers doin' for me and runnin' +after me jest as though he'd been my brother. I didn't know how much I +did think of him, till, after a while, he seemed to take a sight of +notice of Major. I can't say he ever stopped bein' clever to me, for +he didn't; but he seemed to have a kind of a hankerin' after Major all +the time. He'd take her off to walk with him; he'd dig up roots in the +woods for her posy-bed; he'd hold her skeins of yarn as patient as a +little dog; he'd get her books to read. Well, he'd done all this for +me; but when I see him doin' it for her, it was quite different; and +all to once I know'd what was the matter. I'd thought too much of +Russell Potter. + +Oh, dear! those was dark times! I couldn't blame him; I knew well +enough Major was miles and miles better and sweeter and cleverer than +I was; I didn't wonder he liked her; but I couldn't feel as if he'd +done right by me. So I schooled myself considerable, talking to myself +for being jealous of Major. But 'twasn't all that;--the hardest of it +all was that I had to mistrust Russell. To be sure, he hadn't said +nothin' to me in round words; I couldn't ha' sued him; but he'd looked +and acted enough; and now,--dear me! I felt all wrung out and flung +away! + +By-and-by Major begun to see somethin' was goin' wrong, and so did +Russell. She was as good as she could be to me, and had patience with +all my little pettish ways, and tried to make me friendly with +Russell; but I wouldn't. I took to hard work, and, what with cryin' +nights, and hard work all day, I got pretty well overdone. But it all +went on for about three months, till one day Russell come up behind +me, as I was layin' out some yarn to bleach down at the end of the +orchard, and asked me if I'd go down to Meriden with him next day, to +a pic-nic frolic, in the woods. + +"No!" says I, as short as I could. + +Russell looked as though I had slapped him. "Anny," says he, "what +have I done?" + +I turned round to go away, and I catched my foot in a hank of yarn, +and down I come flat on to the ground, havin' sprained my ankle so bad +that Russell had to pick me up and carry me into the house like a +baby. + +There was an end of Meriden for me; and he wouldn't go, either, but +come over and sat by me, and read to me, and somehow or other, I don't +remember just the words, he gave me to understand that--well--that he +wished I'd marry him. + +It's about as tirin' to be real pleased with anything as it is to be +troubled, at first. I couldn't say anything to Russell; I just cried. +Major wasn't there; mother was dryin' apples out in the shed; so +Russell he didn't know what to do; he kind of hushed me up, and begged +of me not to cry, and said he'd come for his answer next day. So he +come, and I didn't say, "No," again. I don't believe I stopped to +think whether Major liked him. She would have thought of me, first +thing;--I believe she wouldn't have had him, if she'd thought I wanted +him. But I a'n't like Major; it come more natural to me to think about +myself; and besides, she was pious, and I wasn't. Russell was. + +However, it turned out all right, for Major was 'most as pleased as I +was; and she told me, finally, that she'd known a long spell that +Russell liked me, and the reason he'd been hangin' round her so long +was, he'd been tellin' her his plans, and they'd worked out +considerable in their heads before she could feel as though he had a +good enough lookout to ask me to marry him. + +That wasn't so pleasant to me, when I come to think of it; I thought +I'd ought to have been counselled with. But it was just like Major; +everybody come to her for a word of help or comfort, whether they took +her idee or not,--she had such feelin' for other folks's trouble. + +I got over that little nub after a while; and then I was so pleased, +everything went smooth ag'in. I was goin' to be married in the spring; +and we were goin' straight out to Indiana, onto some wild land Squire +Potter owned out there, to clear it and settle it, and what Russell +cleared he was to have. So mother took some money out of the bank to +fit me out, and Major and I went down to Hartford to buy my things. + +I said before, we wasn't either of us any great things to look at; but +it come about that one day I heerd somebody tell how we did look, and +I thought considerable about it then and afterwards. We was buyin' +some cotton to a store in the city, and I was lookin' about at all the +pretty things, and wonderin' why I was picked out to be poor when so +many folks was rich and had all they wanted, when presently I heerd a +lady in a silk gown say to another one, so low she thought I didn't +hear her,--"There are two nice-looking girls, Mrs. Carr." + +"Hem,--yes," said the other one; "they look healthy and strong: the +oldest one has a lovely expression, both steady and sweet; the other +don't look happy." + +I declare, that was a fact. I was sorry, too, for I'd got everything +in creation to make anybody happy, and now I was frettin' to be rich. +I thought I'd try to be like Major; but I expect it was mostly because +of the looks of it, for I forgot to try before long. + +Well, in the spring we was married; and when I come to go away, Major +put a little red Bible into my trunk for a weddin' present; but I was +cryin' too hard to thank her. She swallowed down whatever choked her, +and begged of me not to cry so, lest Russell should take it hard that +I mourned to go with him. But just then I was thinkin' more of Major +and mother than I was of Russell; they'd kept me bright and cheery +always, and kept up my heart with their own good ways when I hadn't no +strength to do it for myself; and now I was goin' off alone with +Russell, and he wasn't very cheerful-dispositioned, and somehow my +courage give way all to once. + +But I had to go; railroads don't wait for nobody; and what with the +long journey, and the new ways and things and people, I hadn't no time +to get real down once before we got to Indiana. After we left the boat +there was a spell of railroad, and then a long stage-ride to +Cumberton; and then we had to hire a big wagon and team, so's to get +us out to our claim, thirty miles west'ard of Cumberton. I hadn't no +time to feel real lonesome now, for all our things hed got to be +onpacked, and packed over ag'in in the wagon; some on 'em had to be +stored up, so's to come another time. We was two days gettin' to the +claim, the roads was so bad,--mostly what they call corduroy, but a +good stretch clear mud-holes. By the time we got to the end on't, I +was tired out, just fit to cry; and such a house as was waitin' for +us!--a real log shanty! I see Russell looked real beat when he see my +face; and I tried to brighten up; but I wished to my heart I was back +with mother forty times that night, if I did once. Then come the worst +of all, clutterin' everything right into that shanty; for our +frame-house wouldn't be done for two months, and there wa'n't scarce +room for what we'd brought, so't we couldn't think of sendin' for what +was stored to Cumberton. I didn't sleep none for two nights, because +of the whip-poor-wills that set on a tree close by, and called till +mornin' light; but after that I was too tired to lie awake. + +Well, it was real lonesome, but it was all new at first, and Russell +was to work near by, so't I could see him, and oftentimes hear him +whistle; and I had the garden to make, round to the new house, for I +knew more about the plantin' of it than he did, 'specially my +posy-bed, and I had a good time gettin' new flowers out of the woods. +And the woods was real splendid,--great tall tulip-trees, as high as a +steeple and round as a quill, without any sort o' branches ever so fur +up, and the whole top full of the yeller tulips and the queer +snipped-lookin' shiny leaves, till they looked like great bow-pots on +sticks; then there's lots of other great trees, only they're all +mostly spindled up in them woods. But the flowers that grow round on +the ma'sh edges and in the clearin's do beat all. + +So time passed along pretty glib till the frame-house was done, and +then we had to move in, and to get the things from Cumberton, and +begin to feel as though we were settled for good and all; and after +the newness had gone off, and the clearin' got so fur that I couldn't +see Russell no more, and nobody to look at, if I was never so +lonesome, then come a pretty hard spell. Everything about the house +was real handy, so't I'd get my work cleared away, and set down to sew +early; and them long summer-days that was still and hot, I'd set, and +set, never hearin' nothin' but the clock go "tick, tick, tick," (never +"tack," for a change,) and every now'n'then a great crash and roar in +the woods where he was choppin', that I knew was a tree; and I worked +myself up dreadfully when there was a longer spell 'n common come +betwixt the crashes, lest that Russell might 'a' been ketched under +the one that fell. And settin' so, and worryin' a good deal, day in +and day out, kinder broodin' over my troubles, and never thinkin' +about anybody but myself, I got to be of the idee that I was the +worst-off creature goin'. If I'd have stopped to think about Russell, +may-be I should have had some sort of pity for him, for he was jest as +lonesome as I, and I wasn't no kind of comfort to come home to,--'most +always cryin', or jest a-goin' to. + +So the summer went along till 'twas nigh on to winter, and I wa'n't in +no better sperrits. And now I wa'n't real well, and I pined for +mother, and I pined for Major, and I'd have given all the honey and +buckwheat in Indiana for a loaf of mother's dry rye-bread and a drink +of spring-water. And finally I got so miserable, I wished I wa'n't +never married,--and I'd have wished I was dead, if 'twa'n't for bein' +doubtful where I'd go to, if I was. And worst of all, one day I got so +worked up I told Russell all that. I declare, he turned as white as a +turnip. I see I'd hurt him, and I'd have got over it in a minute and +told him so,--only he up with his axe and walked out of the door, and +never come home till night, and then I was too stubborn to speak to +him. + +Well, things got worse, 'n' one day I was sewin' some things and +cryin' over 'em, when I heard a team come along by, and, before I +could get to the door, Russell come in, all red for joy, and says,-- + +"Who do you want to see most, Anny?" + +Somehow the question kind of upset me;--I got choked, and then I bu'st +out a-cryin'. + +"Oh, mother and Major!" says I; and I hadn't more'n spoke the word +before mother had both her good strong arms round me, and Major's real +cheery face was a-lookin' up at me from the little pine cricket, where +she'd sot down as nateral as life. Well, I _was_ glad, and so was +Russell, and the house seemed as shiny as a hang-bird's-nest, and +by-and-by the baby came;--but I had mother. + +'Twas 'long about in March when I was sick, and by the end of April I +was well, and so's to be stirrin' round again. And mother and Major +begun to talk about goin' home; and I declare, my heart was up in my +mouth every time they spoke on't, and I begun to be miserable ag'in. +One day I was settin' beside of mother; Major was out in the garden, +fixin' up things, and settin' out a lot of blows she'd got in the +woods, and singin' away, and says I to mother,-- + +"What be I going to do, mother, without you and Major? I 'most died of +clear lonesomeness before you come!" + +Mother laid down her knittin', and looked straight at me. + +"I wish you'd got a little of Major's good cheer, Anny," says she. +"You haven't any call to be lonely here; it's a real good country, and +you've got a nice house, and the best of husbands, and a dear little +baby, and you'd oughter try to give up frettin'. I wish you was pious, +Anny; you wouldn't fault the Lord's goodness the way you do." + +"Well, Major don't have nothin' to trouble her, mother," says I. +"She's all safe and pleasant to home; she a'n't homesick." + +Mother spoke up pretty resolute:-- + +"There a'n't nobody in the world, Anny, but what has troubles. I +didn't calculate to tell you about Major's; but sence you lay her +lively ways to luck, may-be you'd better know 'em. She's been engaged +this six months to Reuben Potter, and he's goin' off in a slow +consumption; he won't never live to marry her, and she knows it." + +"And she come away to see me, mother?" + +"Yes, she did. I can't say I thought she need to, but Russell wrote +you was pinin' for both of us, and I didn't think you could get along +without me, but I told her to stay with Reuben, and I'd come on alone. +And says she, 'No, mother, you a'n't young and spry enough to go alone +so fur, and the Lord made you my mother and Anny my sister before I +picked out Reuben for myself. I can't never have any kin but you, and +I might have had somebody beside Reuben, though it don't seem likely +now; but he's got four sisters to take care of him, and he thinks and +I think it's what I ought to do; so I'm goin' with you.' So she come, +Anny; and you see how lively she keeps, just because she don't want to +dishearten you none. I don't know as you can blame her for kinder +hankerin' to get home." + +I hadn't nothin' to say; I was beat. So mother she went on:-- + +"Fact is, Anny, Major's always a-thinkin' about other folks; it comes +kind of nateral to her, and then bein' pious helps it. I guess, dear, +when you get to thinkin' more about Russell an' the baby, you'll +forget some of your troubles. I hope the Lord won't have to give you +no harder lesson than lovin', to teach you Major's ways." + +So, after that, I couldn't say no more to mother about stayin'; but +when they went away, I like to have cried myself sick,--only baby had +to be looked after, and I couldn't dodge her. + +Bym-by we had letters from home; they got there all safe, and Reuben +wa'n't no worse, Major said;--ef't had been me wrote the letter, I +should have said he wa'n't no better!--And I fell back into the old +lonesome days, for baby slept mostly; and the summer come on extreme +hot; and in July, Russell, bein' forced to go to Cumberton on some +land business, left me to home with baby and the hired man, +calculatin' to be gone three days and two nights. + +The first day he was away was dreadful sultry; the sun went down away +over the woods in a kind of a red-hot fog, and it seemed as though the +stars were dull and coppery at night; even the whip-poor-wills was too +hot to sing; nothin' but a doleful screech-owl quavered away, a half a +mile off, a good hour, steady. When it got to be mornin', it didn't +seem no cooler; there wa'n't a breath of wind, and the locusts in the +woods chittered as though they was fryin'. Our hired man was an old +Scotchman, by name Simon Grant; and when he'd got his breakfast, he +said he'd go down the clearin' and bring up a load of brush for me to +burn. So he drove off with the team, and, havin' cleared up the +dishes, I put baby to sleep, and took my pail to the barn to milk the +cow,--for we kept her in a kind of a home-lot like, a part that had +been cleared afore we come, lest she should stray away in the woods, +if we turned her loose; she was put in the barn, too, nights, for fear +some stray wild-cat or bear might come along and do her a harm. So I +let her into the yard, and was jest a-goin' to milk her when she begun +to snort and shake, and finally giv' the pail a kick, and set off, +full swing, for the fence to the lot. I looked round to see what was +a-comin', and there, about a quarter of a mile off, I see the most +curus thing I ever see before or since,--a cloud as black as ink in +the sky, and hangin' down from it a long spout like, something like an +elephant's trunk, and the whole world under it looked to be all beat +to dust. Before I could get my eyes off on't, or stir to run, I see it +was comin' as fast as a locomotive; I heerd a great roar and +rush,--first a hot wind, and then a cold one, and then a crash,--an' +'twas all as dark as death all round, and the roar appeared to be +a-passin' off. + +I didn't know for quite a spell where I was. I was flat on my face, +and when I come to a little, I felt the grass against my cheek, and I +smelt the earth; but I couldn't move, no way; I couldn't turn over, +nor raise my head more'n two inches, nor draw myself up one. I was +comfortable so long as I laid still; but if I went to move, I +couldn't. It wasn't no use to wriggle; and when I'd settled that, I +jest went to work to figger out where I was and how I got there, and +the best I could make out was that the barn-roof had blowed off and +lighted right over me, jest so as not to hurt me, but so't I could'nt +move. + +Well, there I lay. I knew baby was asleep in the trundle-bed, and +there wa'n't no fire in the house; but how did I know the house wa'n't +blowed down? I thought that as quick as a flash of lightnin'; it +kinder struck me; I couldn't even see, so as to be certain! I wasn't +naterally fond of children, but somehow one's own is different, and +baby was just gettin' big enough to be pretty; and there I lay, +feelin' about as bad as I could, but hangin' on to one hope,--that old +Simon, seein' the tornado, would come pretty soon to see where we was. + +I lay still quite a spell, listenin'. Presently I heerd a low, +whimperin', pantin' noise, comin' nearer and nearer, and I knew it was +old Lu, a yeller hound of Simon's, that he'd set great store by, +because he brought him from the Old Country. I heerd the dog come +pretty near to where I was, and then stop, and give a long howl. I +tried to call him, but I was all choked up with dust, and for a while +I couldn't make no sound. Finally I called, "Lu! Lu! here, Sir!" and +if ever you heerd a dumb creature laugh, he barked a real laugh, and +come springin' along over towards me. I called ag'in, and he begun to +scratch and tear and pull,--at boards, I guessed, for it sounded like +that; but it wa'n't no use, he couldn't get at me, and he give up at +length and set down right over my head and give another howl, so long +and so dismal I thought I'd as lieves hear the bell a-tollin' my age. + +Pretty soon, I heerd another sound,--the baby cryin'; and with that Lu +jumped off whatever 'twas that buried me up, and run. "At any rate," +thinks I, "baby's alive." And then I bethought myself if 'twa'n't a +painter, after all; they scream jest like a baby, and there's a lot of +them, or there was then, right round in our woods; and Lu was dreadful +fond to hunt 'em; and he never took no notice of baby;--and I couldn't +stir to see! + +Oh, dear! the sweat stood all over me! And there I lay, and Simon +didn't come, nor I didn't hear a mouse stir; the air was as still as +death, and I got nigh distracted. Seemed as if all my life riz right +up there in the dark and looked at me. Here I was, all helpless, +may-be never to get out alive; for Simon didn't come, and Russell was +gone away. I'd had a good home, and a kind husband, and all I could +ask; but I hadn't had a contented mind; I'd quarrelled with +Providence, 'cause I hadn't got everything,--and now I hadn't got +nothing. I see just as clear as daylight how I'd nussed up every +little trouble till it growed to a big one,--how I'd sp'ilt Russell's +life, and made him wretched,--how I'd been cross to him a great many +times when I had ought to have been a comfort; and now it was like +enough I shouldn't never see him again,--nor baby, nor mother, nor +Major. And how could I look the Lord in the face, if I did die? That +took all my strength out. I lay shakin' and chokin' with the idee, I +don't know how long; it kind of got hold of me and ground me down; it +was worse than all. I wished to gracious I didn't believe in hell; but +then it come to mind, What should I do in heaven, ef I was there? I +didn't love nothin' that folks in heaven love, except the baby; I +hadn't been suited with the Lord's will on earth, and 'twa'n't likely +I was goin' to like it any better in heaven; and I should be ashamed +to show my face where I didn't belong, neither by right nor by want. So +I lay. Presently I heerd in my mind this verse, that I'd learned years +back in Sabbath School,-- + + "Wherefore He is able also to save them to + the uttermost"-- + +there it stopped, but it was a plenty for me. I see at once there +wasn't no help anywhere else, and for once in my life I did pray, real +earnest, and--queer enough--not to get out, but to be made good. I +kind of forgot where I was, I see so complete what I was; but after a +while I did pray to live in the flesh; I wanted to make some amends to +Russell for pesterin' on him so. + +It seemed to me as though I'd laid there two days. A rain finally come +on, with a good even-down pour, that washed in a little, and cooled my +hot head; and after it passed by I heerd one whip-poor-will singin', +so't I knew it was night. And pretty soon I heerd the tramp of a +horse's feet;--it come up; it stopped; I heerd Russell say out loud, +"O Lord!" and give a groan, and then I called to him. I declare, he +jumped! + +So I got him to go look for baby first, because I could wait; and lo! +she was all safe in the trundle-bed, with Lu beside of her, both on +'em stretched out together, one of her little hands on his nose; and +when Russell looked in to the door she stirred a bit, and Lu licked +her hand to keep her quiet. It tells in the Bible about children's +angels always seein' the face of God, so's to know quick what to do +for 'em, I suppose; and I'm sure her'n got to her afore the tornado; +for though the house-roof had blowed off, and the chimbley tumbled +down, there wa'n't a splinter nor a brick on her bed, only close by +the head on't a great hunk of stone had fell down, and steadied up the +clothes-press from tumblin' right on top of her. + +So then Russell rode over, six miles, to a neighbor's, and got two +men, and betwixt 'em all they pried up the beams of the barn, that had +blowed on to the roof and pinned it down over me, and then lifted up +the boards and got me out; and I wa'n't hurt, except a few bruises: +but after that day I begun to get gray hairs. + +Well, Russell was pretty thankful, I b'lieve,--more so'n he need to be +for such a wife. We fixed up some kind of a shelter, but Lu howled so +all night we couldn't sleep. It seems Russell had seen the tornado to +Cumberton, and, judgin' from its course 'twould come past the +clearin', he didn't wait a minute, but saddled up and come off; but it +had crossed the road once or twice, so it was nigh about eleven +o'clock afore he got home; but it was broad moonlight. So I hadn't +been under the roof only about fifteen hours; but it seemed more. + +In the mornin' Russell set out to find Simon, and I was so trembly I +couldn't bear to stay alone, and I went with him, he carryin' baby, +and Lu goin' before, as tickled as he could be. We went a long spell +through the woods, keepin' on the edge of the tornado's road; for't +had made a clean track about a quarter of a mile wide, and felled the +trees flat,--great tulips cut off as sharp as pipe-stems, oaks twisted +like dandelion-stems, and hickories curled right up in a heap. +Presently Lu give a bark, and then such a howl! and there was Simon, +dead enough; a big oak had blowed down, with the trunk right acrost +his legs above the knees, and smashed them almost off. 'Twas plain it +hadn't killed him to once, for the ground all about his head was tore +up as though he'd fought with it, and Russell said his teeth and hands +was full of grass and grit where he'd bit and tore, a-dyin' so hard. I +declare, I shan't never forget that sight! Seems as if my body was +full of little ice-spickles every time I think on't. + +Well, Russell couldn't do nothin'; we had no chance to lift the tree, +so we went back to the house, and he rode away after neighbors; and +while he was gone, I had a long spell of thinkin'. Mother said she +hoped I wouldn't have no hard lesson to teach me Major's ways; but I +had got it, and I know I needed it, 'cause it did come so hard. I +b'lieve I was a better woman after that. I got to think more of other +folks's comfort than I did afore, and whenever I got goin' to be +dismal ag'in I used to try 'n' find somebody to help; it was a sure +cure. + +When the neighbors come, Russell and they blasted and chopped the tree +off of Simon, and buried him under a big pine that we calculated not +to fell. Lu pined, and howled, and moaned for his master, till I got +him to look after baby now and then, when I was hangin' out clothes or +makin' garden, and he got to like her in the end on't near as well as +Simon. + +After a while there come more settlers out our way, and we got a +church to go to; and the minister, Mr. Jones, he come to know if I was +a member, and when I said I wa'n't, he put in to know if I wasn't a +pious woman. + +"Well," says I, "I don't know, Sir." So I up and told him all about +it, and how I had had a hard lesson; and he smiled once or twice, and +says he,-- + +"Your husband thinks you are a Christian, Sister Potter, don't he?" + +"Yes, I do," says Russell, a-comin' in behind me to the door,--for +he'd just stepped out to get the minister a basket of plums. "I ha'n't +a doubt on't, Mr. Jones." + +The minister looked at him, and I see he was kinder pleased. + +"Well," says he, "I don't think there's much doubt of a woman's bein' +pious when she's pious to home; and I don't want no better testimony'n +yours, Mr. Potter. I shall admit you to full fellowship, sister, when +we have a church-meetin' next; for it's my belief you experienced +religion under that blowed-down barn." + +And I guess I did. + + + + +LE MARAIS DU CYGNE.[1] + +[1: The massacre of unarmed and unoffending men in Southern Kansas +took place near the Marais du Cygne of the French _voyageurs_.] + + A blush as of roses + Where rose never grew! + Great drops on the bunch-grass, + But not of the dew! + A taint in the sweet air + For wild bees to shun! + A stain that shall never + Bleach out in the sun! + + Back, steed of the prairies! + Sweet song-bird, fly back! + Wheel hither, bald vulture! + Gray wolf, call thy pack! + The foul human vultures + Have feasted and fled; + The wolves of the Border + Have crept from the dead. + + From the hearths of their cabins, + The fields of their corn, + Unwarned and unweaponed, + The victims were torn,-- + By the whirlwind of murder + Swooped up and swept on + To the low, reedy fen-lands, + The Marsh of the Swan. + + With a vain plea for mercy + No stout knee was crooked; + In the mouths of the rifles + Right manly they looked. + How paled the May sunshine, + Green Marais du Cygne, + When the death-smoke blew over + Thy lonely ravine! + + In the homes of their rearing, + Yet warm with their lives, + Ye wait the dead only, + Poor children and wives! + Put out the red forge-fire, + The smith shall not come; + Unyoke the brown oxen, + The ploughman lies dumb. + + Wind slow from the Swan's Marsh, + O dreary death-train, + With pressed lips as bloodless + As lips of the slain! + Kiss down the young eyelids, + Smooth down the gray hairs; + Let tears quench the curses + That burn through your prayers. + + Strong man of the prairies, + Mourn bitter and wild! + Wail, desolate woman! + Weep, fatherless child! + But the grain of God springs up + From ashes beneath, + And the crown of His harvest + Is life out of death. + + Not in vain on the dial + The shade moves along + To point the great contrasts + Of right and of wrong: + Free homes and free altars + And fields of ripe food; + The reeds of the Swan's Marsh, + Whose bloom is of blood. + + On the lintels of Kansas + That blood shall not dry; + Henceforth the Bad Angel + Shall harmless go by: + Henceforth to the sunset, + Unchecked on her way, + Shall Liberty follow + The march of the day. + + + + +YOUTH. + +The ancient statue of Minerva, in the Villa Albani, was characterized +as the Goddess of Wisdom by an aged countenance. Phidias reformed this +idea, and gave to her beauty and youth. Previous artists had imitated +Nature too carelessly,--not deeply perceiving that wisdom and virtue, +striving in man to resist senescence and decay, must in a goddess +accomplish their purpose, and preserve her in perpetual bloom. Yet +even decay and disease are often ineffectual; the young soul gleams +through these impediments, and would be poorly expressed in figures of +age. Accepting, therefore, this ideal representation, age and wisdom +can never be companions; youth is wise, and age is imbecile. + +Our childhood grows in value as we grow in years. It is to that time +that every one refers the influence which reaches to his present and +somehow moulds it. It may have been an insignificant circumstance,--a +word,--a book,--praise or reproof; but from it has flowed all that he +is. We should seem ridiculous in men's eyes, were we known to give +that importance to certain trifles which in our private and inmost +thought they really have. Each finds somewhat in his childhood +peculiar and remarkable, on which he loves to dwell. It gives him a +secret importance in his own eyes, and he bears it about with him as a +kind of inspiring genius. Intimations of his destiny, gathered from +early memories, float dimly before him, and are ever beckoning him on. +That which he really is no one knows save himself. His words and +actions do but inadequately reveal the being he is. We are all greater +than we seem to each other. The heart's deepest secrets will not be +told. The secret of the interest and delight we take in romances and +poetry is that they realize the expectations and hopes of youth. It is +the world we had painted and expected. He is unhappy who has never +known the eagerness of childish anticipation. + +Full of anticipations, full of simple, sweet delights, are these +years, the most valuable of lifetime. Then wisdom and religion are +intuitive. But the child hastens to leave its beautiful time and +state, and watches its own growth with impatient eye. Soon he will +seek to return. The expectation of the future has been disappointed. +Manhood is not that free, powerful, and commanding state the +imagination had delineated. And the world, too, disappoints his hope. +He finds there things which none of his teachers ever hinted to him. +He beholds a universal system of compromise and conformity, and in a +fatal day he learns to compromise and conform. At eighteen the youth +requires much stricter truth of men than at twenty-four. + +At twenty-four the prophecies of childhood and boyhood begin to be +fulfilled, the longings of the heart to be satisfied. He finds and +tastes that life which once seemed to him so full of satisfaction and +advantage. The inclination to speak in the first person passes away, +and his composition is less autobiographical. The claims of society +and friends begin to be respected. Solitude and musing are less sweet. +The morbid effusions of earlier years, once so precious, no longer +please. Now he regards most his unwritten thought. He uses fewer +adjectives and alliterations, more verbs and dogmatism. There was a +time when his genius was not domesticated, and he did his work +somewhat awkwardly, yet with a fervor prophetic of settled wisdom and +eloquence. The youth is almost too much in earnest. He aims at nothing +less than all knowledge, all wisdom, all power. Perchance the end of +all this is that he may discover his own proper work and tendency, and +learn to know himself from the revelations of his own nature in +universal nature. + +For it is by this sign we choose companions and books. Not that they +are the best persons or the best thoughts; but some subtile affinity +attracts and invites as to another self. In the choosing of companions +there seems to be no choice at all. "We meet, we know not how or when; +and though we should remember the history, yet friendship has an +anterior history we know not of. We all have friends, but the one want +of the soul is a friend,--that other self, that one without whom man +is incomplete and but the opaque face of a planet. For such we +patiently wait and hope, knowing that when we become worthy of him, +continents, nor caste, nor opinion can separate us." + +A like experience is known to the young man in his reading. 'Tis in +vain to advise as to reading; a higher power controls the matter. Of +course there are some books all must read, as every one learns the +alphabet and spelling-book; but his use and combination of them he +shall share with no one. Some spiritual power is ever drawing us +towards what we love. Thus in books one constantly meets his own idea, +his own feelings, even his most private ones, which he thought could +not be known or appreciated beyond his own bosom. Therefore he quickly +falls in love with those books that discover him to himself, and that +are the keepers of his secrets. Here is a part of himself written out +in immortal letters. Here is that thought long dimly haunting the +mind, but which never before found adequate expression. Here is a +memorable passage transcribed out of his experience. + +The fascination of books consists in their revelations of the +half-conscious images of the reader's mind. There is a wonderful +likeness and coincidence in the thoughts of men. But not alone in +books does one meet his own image at every turn. He beholds himself +strewn in a thousand fragments throughout the world; and all his +culture is nothing but assimilation of himself to them, until he can +say with wise Ulysses, "I am a part of all that I have met." + +Thus Nature compels the youth to seek every means of stimulating +himself to activity. He has learned that in periods of transition and +change fresh life flows in upon him, dilating the heart and disclosing +new realms of thought. He thanks the gods for every mood, Doric or +dithyrambic, for each new relation, for each new friend, and even for +his sorrows and misfortunes. Out of these comes the complete wisdom +which shall make old age but another more fair and perfect youth. Even +the face and form shall be fortified against time and fate. In the +physiognomy of age much personal history is revealed. The dimples and +folds of infancy have become the furrows of thought and care. Yet, +sometimes retaining their original beauty, they are an ornament, and +in them we read the record of deep thought and experience. + +But the wrinkles of some old people are characterless; running in all +directions, appearing as though a finely-woven cloth had left its +impress upon the face, revealing a life aimless and idle, or +distracted by a thousand cross-purposes and weaknesses. + +If now youth will permit us to look a little deeper into its heart, we +will attempt to celebrate that unpublished and vestal wisdom written +there. Age does us only indirect justice,--by the value it gives to +memory. It slights and forgets its own present. This day with its +trivialities dwindles and vanishes before the teeming hours wherein it +learned and felt and suffered;--so the circles, which are the tree's +memories of its own growth, are more distinct near the centre, where +its growth began, than in the outer and later development. Give age +the past, and let us be content with our legacy, which is the future. +Still shall youth cast one retrospective glance at the experience of +its nonage, ere it assumes its prerogative, and quite forgets it. + +When the first surprise at the discovery of the faculties is over, +begins the era of experience. The aspiration conducting to experiment +has revealed the power or the inability. Henceforth the youth will +know his relations to the world. But as yet men are ignorant how it +stands between them. There has been only a closet performance, a +morning rehearsal. He sees the tribute to genius, to industry, to +birth, to fortune. At first he yields reluctantly to novitiate and +culture; he yearns for action. His masters tell him that the world is +coy, must be approached cautiously, and with something substantial in +the hand. The old bird will not be caught with chaff. He does not yet +understand the process of accumulation and transmutation. The fate of +the Danaides is his, and he draws long with a bottomless bucket. But +at last his incompetency can no further be concealed. Then he either +submits to the suggestions of despair and oblivion or bravely begins +his work. The exhilaration and satisfaction which he felt at his first +performances, in this hour of renunciation, are changed to bitterness +and disgust. He remembers the old oracle: "In the Bacchic procession +many carry the thyrsus, but few are inspired." The possibility of +ultimate failure threatens him more and more while he reflects; as the +chasm which you wish to leap grows impassable, if you measure and +deliberate. But the vivacity of youth preserves him from any permanent +misanthropy or doubt. Nature makes us blind where we should be injured +by seeing. We partake of the lead of Saturn, the activity of fire, the +forgetfulness of water. His academic praises console him, maugre his +depreciation of them. His little fame, the homage of his little world, +have in them the same sweetness as the reverberation of ages. Heaven +would show him his capacity for those things to which he aspires by +giving him an early and representative realization of them. It is a +happy confidence. Reality is tyrannous. Let him construe everything in +the poet's mood. He shall dream, and the day will have more +significance. Youth belongs to the Muse. + +How the old men envy us! They wisely preclude us from their world, +since they know how it would bereave us of all that makes our state so +full of freedom and delight, and to them so suggestive of the past. + + "I remember, when I think, + That my youth was half divine." + +Thus the great have ever chosen young men for companions. Was it not +Plato who wished he were the heavens, that he might look down upon his +young companion with a thousand eyes? Thus they do homage to the gift +of youth, and by its presence contrive to nestle into its buoyant and +pure existence. If youth will enjoy itself virtuously with gymnastics, +with music, with friendship, with poetry, there will come no hours of +lamentation and repentance. They attend the imbecile and thoughtless. +These halcyon days will return to temper and grace the period of old +age; as upon the ripened peach reappear the hues of its early +blossoms. + +Among his seniors the youth perceives a certain jealousy of him. They +pretend that all has been said and done. They awe him with their great +names. He has to learn, that, though Jew and Greek have spoken, +nevertheless he must reiterate and interpret to his own people and +generation. Perchance in the process something new will likewise be +added. Many things still wait an observer. Still is there infinite +hope and expectation, which youth must realize. In war, in peace, in +politics, in books, all eyes are turned to behold the rising of his +star. + +Reluctantly does the youth yield to the claims of moderation and +reserve. Abandonment to an object has hitherto been his highest +wisdom. But in the pursuit of the most heroic friendship, or the most +sovereign passion, the youth discovers that a certain continence is +necessary. He cannot approach too closely; for that moment love is +changed into disgust and hate. He would drink the nectar to the lees. +This is one of Nature's limitations, and has many analogies; and he +who would never see the bottom of any cup, and always be possessed +with a divine hunger, must observe them. I remember how it piqued my +childish curiosity that the moon seemed always to retreat when I ran +towards her, and to pursue when I fled. It was a very significant +symbol. Stand a little apart, and things of their own accord will come +more than half-way. Nobody ever goes to meet a loafer. Self-centred, +domesticated persons attract. What would be the value of the heavens, +if we could bring the stars into our lap? They cannot be approached or +appropriated. Upon the highest mountain the horizon sinks you in a +valley, and far aloft in night and mystery gleam the retreating stars. + +It must be remembered that indirect vision is much more delicate than +direct. Looking askance, with a certain oblique and upward glance, +constitutes the art and power of the poet; for so a gentle invitation +is offered the imagination to contribute its aid. We see clearest when +the eye is elongated and slightly curtained. Persons with round, +protuberant eyes are obliged to reduce their superfluous visual power +by artificial means. We subordinate the external organ in order to +liberate the inner eye of the mind. The musing, pensive Hindoos, who +have elongated eyes, look through the surface of things to their +essence, and call the world Illusion,--the illusory energy of Vishnu. + +There is a vulgar trick of wishing to touch everything. But the +greatest caution is necessary, in beholding a statue or painting, not +to draw too near; and it is thus with every other beautiful thing. +Nature secretly writes, _Hands off!_--and men do but translate her +hieroglyph in their galleries and museums. The sense of touch is only +a provision against the loss of sight and hearing. We should cultivate +these, until, like the Scandinavian Heimdal, we can hear the trees and +the flowers grow, and see with Heraclitus the breathing of the stars. + +The youth once loved Nature after this somewhat gross and material +fashion, for the berries she gave him, the flowers she wove in his +hair, and the brooks that drove his mimic mills. He chased the +butterfly, he climbed the trees, he would stand in the rain, paint his +cheeks with berry juice, dabble in the mud, and nothing was secure +from his prying fingers and curious eyes. He must touch and taste of +everything, and know every secret. But it eluded him; and he lay down +from his giddy chase, tired and unsatisfied, yet still anticipating +that the morning would reveal all. Later he approaches men and things +in a different mood. Experience has taught him so much. He begins to +feel the use of the past. Memory renders many present advantages as +nothing, and there is a rare and peculiar value to every reminiscence +that connects him with the years from which he is so fast receding. +The bower which his own hands wove from birch-trees and interwove with +green brakes, where at the noon-time he was wont to retreat from the +hot school-house, with the little maid of his choice, and beguile the +hour so happily, suggests a spell and charm to preserve him in +perpetual childhood. + + * * * * * + + +PINTAL. + +In San Francisco, in 1849, on Dupont Street near Washington, a +wretched tent, patched together from mildewed and weather-worn sails, +was pitched on a hill-side lot, unsightly with sand and thorny bushes, +filthy cast-aways of clothing, worn-out boots, and broken bottles. The +forlorn loneliness of this poor abode, and the perfection of its +Californianness, in all the circumstances of exposure, frailness, +destitution, and dirt, were enough of themselves to make it an object +of interest to the not-too-busy passer; yet, to complete its pitiful +picturesqueness, Pathos had bestowed a case of miniatures and a +beautiful child. Beside the entrance of the tent a rough shingle was +fastened to the canvas, and against this hung an unpainted +picture-frame of pine, in humble counterpart of those gilded rosewood +signs which, at the doors of Daguerreotype galleries, display fancy +"specimens" to the goers-to-and-fro of Broadway. Attracted by an +object so novel in San Francisco then, I paused one morning, in my +walk officeward from the "Anglo-Saxon Dining-Saloon," to examine it. + +There were six of them,--six dainty miniature portraits on ivory, +elaborately finished, and full of the finest marks of talent. The +whole were seemingly reproductions of but two heads, a lady's and a +child's,--the lady well fitted to be the mother of the child, which +might well have been divine. There were three studies of each; each +was presented in three characters, chosen as by an artist possessed of +a sentiment of sadness, some touching reminiscence. + +In one picture, the lady--evidently English, a pensive blonde, with +large and most sweet blue eyes curtained by the longest lashes, +regular and refined features suggestive of pure blood, budding lips +full of sensibility, a chin and brow that showed intellect as well as +lineage, and cheeks touched with the young rose's tint--was as a +beautiful _debutante_, the flower of rich drawing-rooms, in her first +season: one white moss-rosebud in her smoothly-braided hair; her +dimpled, round, white shoulders left to their own adornment; and for +jewels, only one opal on her ripening bosom;--as much of her dress as +was shown was the simple white bodice of pure maidenhood. + +In the next, she had passed an interval of trial, for her courage, her +patience, and her pride,--a very few years, perhaps, but enough to +bestow that haughty, defiant glance, and fix those matchless features +in an almost sneer. No longer was her fair head bowed, her eyes +downcast, in shrinking diffidence; but erect and commanding, she +looked some tyranny, or insolence, or malice, in the face, to look it +down. Jewels encircled her brow, and a bouquet of pearls was happy on +her fuller bosom. + +Still a few years further on,--and how changed! "So have I seen a +rose," says that Shakspeare of the pulpit, old Jeremy Taylor, when it +has "bowed the head and broke its stalk; and at night, having lost +some of its leaves and all its beauty, it has fallen into the portion +of weeds and outworn faces." Alas, Farewell, and Nevermore sighed from +those hollow cheeks, those woebegone eyes, those pallid lips, that +willow-like long hair, and the sad vesture of the forsaken Dido. + +So with the child. At first, a rosy, careless, curly-pate of three +years or so,--wonder-eyed and eager, all spring and joyance, and +beautiful as Love. + +Then pale and pain-fretted, heavy-eyed and weary, feebly half-lying in +a great chair, still,--an unheeded locket scarce held by his thin +fingers, his forehead wrinkled with cruel twinges, the sweet bowed +lines of his lips twisted in whimpering puckers, the curls upon his +vein-traced temples unnaturally bright, as with clamminess,--a painful +picture for a mother's eyes! + +But not tragic, like the last; for there the boy had grown. Nine years +had deepened for his clustered curls their hue of golden brown, and +set a seal of anxious thought upon the cold, pale surface of his +intellectual brow, and traced his mouth about with lines of a martyr's +resignation, and filled his profound eyes, dim as violets, with +foreboding speculation, making the lad seem a seer of his own sad +fate. Here, thought I, if I mistake not, is another melancholy chapter +in this San Franciscan romance. This painter learned his art of +Sorrow, and pitiless Experience has bestowed his style; he shall be +for my finding-out. + +Home-sickness had marked me for its own one day. I sat alone in my +rude little office, conning over again for the hundredth time strange +chapters of a waif's experience,--reproducing auld-lang-syne, with all +its thronged streets and lonely forest-paths, its old familiar faces, +talks, and songs,--ingathering there, in the name of Love or +Friendship, forms that were dim and voices that were echoes; and many +an "alas," and "too late," and "it might have been," they brought +along with them. + + "Let this remembrance comfort me,--that when + My heart seemed bursting,--like a restless wave + That, swollen with fearful longing for the shore, + Throws its strong life on the imagined bliss + Of finding peace and undisturbed calm,-- + It fell on rocks and broke in many tears. + + "Else could I bear, on all days of the year,-- + Not now alone, this gentle summer night, + When scythes are busy in the headed grass, + And the full moon warms me to thoughtfulness,-- + This voice that haunts the desert of my soul: + 'It might have been!' Alas! 'It might have been!'" + +I drew from my battered, weather-beaten sea-box sad store of old +letters, bethumbed and soiled,--an accusation in every one of them, +and small hope of forgiveness, save what the gentle dead might render. +There were pretty little portraits, too.--Ah, well! I put them back, +--a frown, or a shadow of reproachful sadness, on the picture of a +once loving and approving face is the hardest bitterness to bide, the +self-unsparing wanderer can know. Therefore I would fain let these +faces be turned from me,--all save one, a merry minx of maidenhood, of +careless heart, and laughing lips, and somewhat naughty eyes. It was a +steel engraving, not of the finest, torn from some Book of Beauty, or +other silly-sentimental keepsake of the literary catch-penny class, +brought all the way from home, and tenderly saved for the sake of its +strange by-chance resemblance to a smart little _lionne_ I had known +in Virginia, in the days when smart little _lionnes_ made me a sort of +puppy Cumming. The picture, unframed, and exposed to all the chances +of rough travel, had partaken of my share of foul weather and coarse +handling, and been spotted and smutched, and creased and torn, and +every way defaced. I had often wished that I might have a pretty +painting made from it, before it should be spoiled past copying. So +here, I thought, shall be my introduction to my fly-in-amber artist, +of the seedy tent and the romantic miniatures. So pocketing my +picture, I hied me forthwith to Dupont Street. + +The tent seemed quite deserted. At first, I feared my rare bird had +flitted; I shook the bit of flying-jib that answered for a door, and +called to any one within, more than once, before an inmate stirred. +Then, so quietly that I had not heard his approach, a lad, of ten +perhaps, came to the entrance, and, timidly peering up into my face, +asked, "Is it my father you wish to see, Sir?" + +How beautiful! how graceful! with what touching sweetness of voice! +how intellectual his expression, and how well-bred his air!--plainly a +gentleman's son, and the son of no common gentleman! Instinctively I +drew back a pace to compare him with the child of the "specimens." +Unquestionably the same,--there were the superior brow, the richly +clustered curls of golden brown, the painful lips, and the foreboding +eyes. + +"If your father painted these pretty pictures, my boy,--yes, I would +be glad to see him, if he is within." + +"He is not here at present, Sir; he went with my mother to the ship, +to bring away our things. But it is quite a long while since they +went; and I think they will return presently. Take a seat, Sir, +please." + +I accepted the stool he offered,--a canvas one, made to "unship" and +fold together,--such a patent accommodation for tired "hurdies" as +amateur sketchers and promiscuous lovers of the picturesque in +landscape take with them on excursions. My accustomed eye took in at a +glance the poor furniture of that very Californian make-shift of a +shelter for fortune-seeking heads. There were chests, boxes, and +trunks, the usual complement, bestowed in every corner, as they could +best be got out of the way,--a small, rough table, on temporary legs, +and made, like the seats, to unship and be stowed,--several other of +the same canvas stools,--a battered chest of drawers, at present doing +the duty of a cupboard,--some kitchen utensils, and a few articles of +table furniture of the plainest delft. As for the kitchen, I had +noticed, as I passed, a portable furnace for charcoal, without, and at +the rear of the tent; it was plain they did their cooking in the open +air. On one side of the entrance, and near the top of the tent, a +small square had been cut from the canvas, and the sides framed with +slats of wood, making a sort of Rembrandtish skylight, through which +some scanty rays of barbaric glory fell on an easel, with its palette, +brushes, and paints. A canvas framed, on which the ground had been +laid, and the outline of a head already traced, was mounted on the +easel; other such frames, as if of finished portraits with their faces +turned to the wall, stood on the earthen floor, supported by a strip +of wood tacked to the tent-cloth near the bottom. On the floor, at the +foot of the easel, lay an artist's sketch-book. A part of the tent +behind was divided off from what, by way of melancholy jest, I may +call the reception-room, or the studio, by a rope stretched across, +from which were suspended a blanket, a travelling shawl, and a +voluminous, and evidently costly, Spanish cloak. Protruding beyond the +edge of this extemporaneous screen, I could see the footposts of an +iron bedstead, and the end of a large _poncho_, which served for a +counterpane. + +"Will you amuse yourself with this sketch-book, please," said the +pretty lad, "till my father comes?" + +"With pleasure, my boy,--if you are sure your father will not object." + +"Oh, no, indeed, Sir! My father has told me I must always entertain +any gentlemen who may call when he is out,--that is, if he is to +return soon; and any one may look at this book;--it is only his +portfolio, in which he sketches whatever new or pretty things we see +on our travels; but there are some very nice pictures in +it,--landscapes, and houses, and people." + +"Have you travelled much, then?" + +"Oh, yes! we have been travelling ever since I can remember; we have +been far, and seen a great many strange sights, and some such queer +people!--There! that is our shepherd in Australia; isn't he funny? his +name was Dirk. I tied that blue ribbon round his straw hat, that seems +big enough for an umbrella. He looks as if he were laughing, doesn't +he? That's because I was there when my father sketched him; and he +made such droll faces, with his brown skin and his great grizzly +moustaches, when father told him he must make up a pleasant +expression, that it set me laughing,--for my father said he looked +like a Cape lion making love; and then Dirk would laugh too, and spoil +his pleasant expression; and father would scold; and it was so funny! +I loved Dirk very much, he was so good to me; he gave me a tame +kangaroo, and a black swan, and taught me to throw the boomerang; and +once, when he went to Sydney, he spent ever so much money to buy me a +silver bell for Lipse, my yellow lamb. I wonder if Dirk is living yet? +Do you think he is dead, Sir? I should be very much grieved, if he +were; for I promised I would come back to see him when I am a man." + +--"_That_ is Dolores,--dear old Dolores! Isn't she fat?" + +"Yes, and good, too, I should think, from the kind face she has. Who +was Dolores?" + +"Ah! you never saw Dolores, did you? And you never heard her sing. She +was my Chilena nurse in Valparaiso; and she had a mother--oh, so very +old!--who lived in Santiago. We went once to see her; the other +Santiago--that was Dolores's son--drove us there in the _veloche_. +Wasn't it curious, his name should be the same as the city's? But he +was a bad boy, Santiago,--so mischievous! such a scamp! Father had to +whip him many times; and once the _vigilantes_ took him up, and would +have put him in the chain-gang, for cutting an American sailor with a +knife, in the Calle de San Francisco, if father had not paid five +ounces, and become security for his good behavior. But he ran away, +after all, and went as a common sailor in a nasty guano ship. Dolores +cried very much, and it was long before she would sing for me again. +Oh, she did know such delightful songs!--_Mi Niña_, and _Yo tengo Ojos +Negros_, and + + "'No quiero, no quiero casarme; + Es mejor, es mejor soltera!'" + +And the delightful little fellow merrily piped the whole of that "song +of pleasant glee," one of the most melodious and sauciest bits of +lyric coquetry to be found in Spanish. + +"Ah," said he, "but I cannot sing it half so well as Dolores. She had +a beautiful guitar, with a blue ribbon, that her sweetheart gave her +before I was born, when she was young and very pretty;--he brought it +all the way from Acapulco." + +--"And _that_ pretty girl is Juanita; she sold pine-apples and grapes +in the Almendral, and every night she would go with her guitar--it was +a very nice one, but did not cost near so much money as Dolores's--and +sing to the American gentlemen in the Star Hotel. My mother said she +was a naughty person, and that she did not dare tell where she got her +gold cross and those jet ear-rings. But I liked her very much, for all +that; and I'm sure she would not steal, for she used to give me a +fresh pine-apple every morning; and whenever her brother José came +down from Casa Blanca with the mules and the _pisco_, she sent me a +large melon and some lovely roses." + +--"That is the house we lived in at Baltimore. It was painted white, +and there was a paling in front, and a dooryard with grass. We had +some honeysuckles on the porch;--there they are, and there's the +grape-vine. I had a dog-house, too, made to look like a church, and my +father promised to buy me a Newfoundland dog,--one of those great +hairy fellows, with brass collars, you know, that you can ride +on,--when he had sold a great many pictures, and made his fortune. But +we did not make our fortune in Baltimore, and I never got my dog; so +we came here to Tom Tiddler's ground, to pick up gold and silver. When +we are fixed, and get a new tent, my father is going to give me a +little spade and a cradle, to dig gold enough to buy a Newfoundland +dog with, and then I shall borrow a saw and make a dog-house, like the +one I had in Baltimore, out of that green chest. Charley Saunders +lived in that next house in the picture, and he had a martin-box, with +a steeple to it; but his father gave fencing-lessons, and was very +rich." + +As the intelligent little fellow ran on with his pretty prattle, I was +diligently pursuing the lady and child of the specimens through the +sketches. On every leaf I encountered them, ever changing, yet always +the same. Here was the child by my side,--unquestionably the same; +though now I looked in vain for the anxious mouth and the foreboding +eyes in his face of careless, hopeful urchinhood. But who was the +other?--his mother, no doubt; and yet no trace of resemblance. + +"And tell me, who is this beautiful lady, my lad,--here, and here, and +here, and here again? You see I recognize her always,--so lovely, and +so gentle-looking. Your mother?" + +"Oh, no, Sir!" and he laughed,--"my mother is very different from +that. That is nobody,--only a fancy sketch." + +"Only a fancy sketch!" So, then, I thought, my pretty entertainer, +confiding and communicative as you are, it is plain there are some +things you do not know, or will not tell. + +"She is not any one we ever saw;--she never lived. My father made her +out of his own head, as I make stories sometimes; or he dreamed her, +or saw her in the fire. But he is very fond of her, I suppose, because +he made her himself,--just as I think my own stories prettier than any +true ones; and he's always drawing her, and drawing her, and drawing +her. I love her, too, very much,--she looks so natural, and has such +nice ways. Isn't it strange my father--but he's _so_ clever with his +pencil and brushes!--should be able to invent the Lady Angelica? +--that's her name. But my mother does not like her at all, and +gets out of patience with my father for painting so many of her. +Mamma says she has a stuck-up expression,--such a funny word, +'stuck-up'!--and does not look like a lady. Once I told mamma I was +sure she was only jealous, and she grew very angry, and made me cry; +so now I never speak of Lady Angelica before her. What makes me think +my father must have dreamed her is that I dreamed her once myself. I +thought she came to me in such a splendid dress, and told me that she +was not only a live lady, but my own mother, and that mamma was---- +Hush! This is my father, Sir." + +Wonderful! how the lad had changed!--like a phantom, the thoughtless +prattler was gone in a moment, and in his place stood the seer-boy of +the picture, the profound foreboding eyes fixed anxiously, earnestly, +on the singular man who at that moment entered: a singularly small +man, cheaply but tidily attired in black; even his shoes polished,--a +rare and dandyish indulgence in San Francisco, before the French +bootblacks inaugurated the sumptuary vanity of Day and Martin's lustre +on the stoop of the California Exchange, and made it a necessity no +less than diurnal ablutions; a well-preserved English hat on his head, +which, when he with a somewhat formal air removed it, discovered thin +black locks, beginning to part company with the crown of his head. In +his large, brown eyes an expression of moving melancholy was +established; a nervous tremulousness almost twitched his refined lips, +which, to my surprise, were not concealed by the universal +moustache,--indeed, the smooth chin and symmetrically trimmed +mutton-chop whiskers, in the orthodox English mode, showed that the +man shaved. His nose, slightly aquiline, was delicately cut, and his +nostrils fine; and he had small feet and hands, the latter remarkably +white and tender. As he stood before me, he was never at rest for an +instant, but changed his support from one leg to the other,--they were +slight as a young boy's,--and fumbled, as it were, with his feet; as I +have seen a distinguished medical lecturer, of Boston, gesticulate +with his toes. He played much with his whiskers, too, and his fingers +were often in his hair--as a fidgety and vulgar man would bite his +nails. From all of which I gathered that my new acquaintance was an +intensely nervous person,--very sensitive, of course, and no doubt +irritable. + +He was accompanied by a--female, much taller than he, and as stalwart +as dear woman can be; an especially common-looking person, bungled as +to her dress, which was tawdry-fine, unseasonable for the place as +well as time, inappropriate to herself, inharmonious in its +composition, and every way most vilely put on; a clumsy and, as I +presently perceived, a loud person, whose face, still showing traces +of the coarse but decided beauty it must once have possessed, fell far +short of compensating for the complete gracelessness of her presence. + +Her eyes had a bibulous quality, and the bright redness of her nose +vied vulgarly with the rusty redness of her cheeks. I suspected her +complexion of potations, but charitably let it off with--beer; for she +was, at first glance, English. As she jerked off her flaunting bonnet, +and dragged off her loud shawl, saluting me, as she did so, with an +overdone obeisance, she said, "This San Fanfrisko"--why would she, how +could she, always twist the decent name of the metropolis of the +Pacific into such an absurd shape?--"was a norrid 'ole; she happealed +to the gentleman,"--meaning me,--"didn't 'e find it a norrid 'ole, +habsolutely hawful?" And then she went clattering among tinware and +crockery, and snubbed the gentlemanly boy in a sort of tender +Billingsgate. + +While she was thus gracefully employed, the agonized artist, his face +suffused with blushes and fairly ghastly with an enforced smile, was +painfully struggling to abstract himself, by changing the places of +things, shifting the position of his easel, prying in a lost way into +lumbered corners, and pretending to be in search of something, +--ingenious, but unable to disguise his chagrin. He pranced +with his legs, and tumbled his hair, and twitched at his whiskers more +than ever, as he said,-- + +"My dear," (and the boy had called her Mamma; so, then, it must be a +fancy sketch, after all,) "my dear, no doubt the gentleman is more a +cosmopolite than yourself, and blessed with more facility in adapting +himself to circumstances." + +"You know, Madam," I came to his assistance, "we Americans have a +famous trick of living and enjoying a little in advance, of 'going +ahead' of the hour, as it were. We find in San Francisco rather what +it promises to be than what it is, and we take it at its word." + +"Oh, pray, don't mention Americans! I positively 'ate the hodious +people. I confess I 'ave a hinsurmountable prejudice hagainst the +race; you are not haware that I am Hinglish. I think I might endure +heven San Fanfrisko, if it were not for the Americans. Are you an +American?" + +Alternating between the pallor of rage and the flush of mortification, +her husband now turned, with a calmness that had something of +desperation in it, and saved me the trouble and the pain of replying, +by asking, in the frigid tone of one who resented my presence as the +cause of his shame,-- + +"Did you wish to see me on business, Sir? and have you been waiting +long?" + +"The success with which your charming little boy has entertained me +has made the time seem very short. I could willingly have waited +longer." + +That last remark was a mere _contretemps_. I did not mean to be as +severe as he evidently thought me, for he bowed haughtily and +resentfully. + +I came at once to business,--drew from my pocket the engraving I had +brought,--"Could he copy that for me?" + +"How?--in miniature or life-size?--ivory or canvas?" + +"You are, then, a portrait-painter, also?--Ah! to be sure!" and I +glanced at the canvas on the easel. + +"Certainly,--I prefer to make portraits." + +"And in this case I should prefer to have one. Extravagant as the +vanity may seem, I am willing to indulge in it, for the sake of being +the first, in this land of primitive wants and fierce unrefinements, +to take a step in the direction of the Fine Arts,--unless you have had +calls upon your pencil already." + +"None, Sir." + +"Then to-morrow, if you please,--for I cannot remain longer at +present,--we will discuss my whim in detail." + +"I shall be at your service, Sir." + +"Good day, Madam! And you, my pretty lad, well met,--what is your +name?" + +"Ferdy, Sir,--Ferdinand Pintal." + +At that moment, his father, as if reminded of a neglected courtesy, or +a business form, handed me his card,--"Camillo Alvarez y Pintal." + +"Thanks, then, Ferdy, for the pains you took to entertain me. You must +let me improve an acquaintance so pleasantly begun." + +The boy's hand trembled as it lay in mine, and his eyes, fixed upon +his father's, wore again the ominous expression of the picture. He did +not speak, and his father took a step toward the door significantly. + +But the doleful silence that might have attended my departure was +broken by a demonstration, "as per sample," from my country's fair and +gentle 'ater. "She 'oped I would not be hoffended by the freedom of +'er hobservations on my countrymen. I must hexcuse 'er Hinglish +bluntness; she was haware that she 'ad a somewhat hoff-'and way of +hexpressing 'er hemotions; but when she 'ated she 'ated, and it +relieved 'er to hout with it hat once. Certainly she would +never--bless 'er 'eart, no!--'ave taken me for an American; I was so +huncommonly genteel." + +With my hand upon the region of my heart, as I had seen stars, when +called before the curtain on the proudest evening of their lives, give +anatomical expression to their overwhelming sense of the honor done +them, I backed off, hat in hand. + +"Camillo Alvarez y Pintal," I read again, as I approached the Plaza. +"Can this man be Spanish, then? Surely not;--how could he have +acquired his excellent English, without a trace of foreign accent, or +the least eccentricity of idiom? His child, too, said nothing of that. +English, no doubt, of Spanish parentage; or,--oh, patience! I shall +know by-and-by, thanks to my merry Virginia jade, who shall be arrayed +in resplendent hues, and throned in a golden frame, if she but feed my +curiosity generously enough." + +Next day, in the afternoon, having bustled through my daily programme +of business, I betook myself with curious pleasure to my appointment +with Pintal. To my regret, at first, I found him alone; but I derived +consolation from the assurance, that, wherever the engaging boy had +gone, his mother had accompanied him. Even more than at my first +visit, the artist was frigidly reserved and full of warning-off +politeness. With but a brief prelude of courteous commonplaces, he +called me to the business of my visit. + +My picture, as I have said, was a fairly executed steel engraving, +taken from some one of the thousands of "Tokens," or "Keepsakes," or +"Amulets," or "Gems," or such like harmless giftbooks, with which +youths of tender sentiment remind preoccupied damsels of their careful +_penchants_. It represented an "airy, fairy Lilian" of eighteen, or +thereabouts, lolling coquettishly, fan in hand, in an antique, +high-backed chair, with "carven imageries," and a tasselled cushion. +She rejoiced in a profusion of brown ringlets, and her costume was +pretty and quaint,--a dainty chemisette, barred with narrow bands of +velvet, as though she had gone to Switzerland, or the South of Italy, +for the sentiment of her bodice,--sleeves quaintly puffed and +"slashed,"--the ample skirt looped up with rosettes and natty little +ends of ribbon; her feet beneath her petticoat, "like little mice," +stole out, "as if they feared the light." Somewhere, among the many +editions of Dickens's works, I have seen a Dolly Varden that resembled +her. + +It was agreed between us that she should be reproduced in a life-size +portrait, with such a distribution of rich colors as the subject +seemed to call for, as his fine taste might select, and his cunning +hand lay on. I sought to break down his reserve, and make myself +acceptable to him, by the display of a discreet geniality, and a +certain frankness, not falling into familiarity, which should seem to +proceed from sympathy, and a _bonhommie_, that, assured of its own +kindly purpose, would take no account of his almost angry distance. +The opportunity was auspicious, and I was on the alert to turn it to +account. I made a little story of the picture, and touched it with +romance. I told him of Virginia,--especially of that part of the State +in which this saucy little lady lived,--of its famous scenery, its +historic places, and the peculiar features of its society. I strove to +make the lady present to his mind's eye by dwelling on her certain +eccentricities, and helping my somewhat particular description of her +character with anecdotes, more or less pointed and amusing, especially +to so grave a foreigner, of her singular ready-wittedness and graceful +audacity. Then I had much to say about her little "ways" of attitude, +gesture, and expression, and some hints to offer for slight changes in +the finer lines of the face, and in the expression, which might make +the likeness more real to both of us, and, by getting up an interest +in him for the picture, procure his favorable impression for myself. + +I had the gratification, as my experiment proceeded, to find that it +was by no means unsuccessful. His austerity appreciably relaxed, and +the kindly tone into which his few, but intelligent observations +gradually fell, was accompanied by an encouraging smile, when the +drift of our talk was light. Then I spoke of his child, and eagerly +praised the beauty, the intelligence, and sweet temper of the lad. +'Twas strange how little pleasure he seemed to derive from my sincere +expressions of admiration; indeed, the slight satisfaction he did +permit himself to manifest appeared in his words only, not at all in +his looks; for a shade of deep sadness fell at once upon his handsome +face, and his expression, so full of sensibility, assumed the cast of +anxiety and pain. "He thanked me for my eloquent praises of the boy, +and--not too partially, he hoped--believed that he deserved them all. +A prize of beauty and of love had fallen to him in his little Ferdy, +for which he would be grieved to seem ungrateful. But yet--but +yet--the responsibility, the anxiety, the ceaseless fretting care! +This fierce, unbroken city";--he spoke of it as though it were a +newly-lassoed and untamed mustang,--I liked the simile; "this lawless, +blasphemous, obscene, and dangerous community; these sights of +heartlessness and cruelty; these sounds of selfish, greedy contention; +the absence of all taste and culture,--no lines of beauty, no strains +of music, no tones of kindness, no gestures of gentleness and grace, +no delicate attentions, no ladies' presence, no social circle, no +books, no home, no church;--Good God! what a heathenish barbarism of +coarse instincts, and irreverence, and insulting equalities, and all +manner of gracelessnesses, to bring the dangerous impressionability of +fine childhood to! The boy was nervous, sensitive, of a spirit quick +to take alarms or hurts,--physically unprepared to wrestle with +arduous toil, privation, and exposure,--most apt for the teachings of +gentleness and taste. It was cruel to think--he could wish him dead +first--that his clean, white mind must become smeared and spotted +here, his well-tuned ear reconciled to loud discords, and his fine eye +at peace with deformity; but there was no help for it." And then, as +though he had suddenly detected in my face an expression of surprised +discovery, he said, "But I am sure I do not know how I came to say so +much, or let myself be tedious with sickly egotisms to a polite, but +indifferent, stranger. If you have gathered from them more than I +meant should appear, you will at least do me the justice to believe +that I have not been boasting of what I regard as a calamity." + +I essayed to reassure him by urging upon his consideration the +manifest advantages of courage, self-reliance, ingenuity, quick and +economical application of resources, independence, and perseverance, +which his son, if well-trained, must derive from even those rude +surroundings,--at the same time granting the necessity of sleepless +vigilance and severe restraints. But he only shook his head sadly, and +said, "No doubt, no doubt; and I hope, Sir, the fault is in myself, +that I do not appreciate the force and value of all that." + +The subject was so plainly full of a peculiar pain for him, he was so +ill at mind on this point, that I could not find it in my heart to +pursue it further at the cost of his feelings. So we talked of other +things: of gold, and the placers, and their unimpaired productiveness, +--of the prospects of the country, and of the character the +mineral element must stamp upon its politics, its commerce, and +its social system,--of San Francisco, and all the enchantments of its +sudden upspringing,--of Alcaldes and town-councils,--of hounds and +gamblers,--of real estate and projected improvements,--of canvas +houses, and iron houses, and fires,--of sudden fortunes, and as sudden +failures,--of speculations and markets, and the prices of clothing, +provisions, and labor,--of intemperance, disease, and hospitals,--of +brawls, murder, and suicide,--till we had exhausted all the +Californian budget; and then I bade him good day. He parted with me +with flattering reluctance, cordially shaking my hand and urging me to +repeat my visit in a few days, when he should be sufficiently forward +with the picture to admit me to a sight of it. I confessed my +impatience for the interval to pass; for my interest was now fully +awakened and very lively;--so well-informed and so polished a +gentleman, so accomplished and so fluent, so ill-starred and sad, so +every way a man with a history! + +I saw much of Pintal after this, and he sometimes visited me at my +office. Impelled by increasing admiration and esteem, I succeeded by +the exercise of studious tact in ingratiating myself in his friendship +and confidence; he talked with freedom of his feelings and his +affairs; and although he had not yet admitted me to the knowledge of +his past, he evinced but little shyness in speaking of the present. At +our interviews in his tent I seldom met his wife; indeed, I suspected +him of contriving to keep her out of the way; for I was always told +she had just stepped out;--or if by chance I found her there, she was +never again vulgarly loquacious, but on some pretext or other at once +took herself away. On the other hand, the child was rarely +absent,--from which I argued that I was in favor; nor was his pretty +prattle, even his boldest communicativeness, harshly checked, save +when, as I guessed, he was approaching too near some forbidden theme. +Then a quick flash from his father's eye instantaneously imposed +silence upon him: as if that eye were an evil one, and there were a +malison in its glance, the whole demeanor of the child underwent at +once a magical change; the foreboding look took possession of his +beautiful eyes, the anxious lines appeared around his mouth, his lips +and chin became tremulous, his head drooped, he let fall my hand which +he was fond of holding as he talked, and quietly, penitently slunk +away; and though he might presently be recalled by his father's +kindliest tones, his brightness would not be restored that time. + +This mysterious, severe understanding between the father and the child +affected me painfully; I was at a loss to surmise its nature, whence +it proceeded, or how it could be; for Ferdy evinced in his every word, +look, movement, an undivided fondness for his father. And in his +tender-proud allusions to the boy, at times let fall to me,--in the +anxious watchfulness with which he followed him with his eye, when an +interval of peace and comparative happiness had set childhood's spirit +free, and lent a degree of graceful gayety to all his motions,--I saw +the brimming measure of the father's love. Could it be but his +morbidly repellant pride, his jealous guarding of the domestic +privacies, his vigilant pacing up and down forever before the +close-drawn curtain of the heart?--was there no Bluebeard's chamber +there? No! Pride was all the matter,--pride was the Spartan fox that +tore the vitals of Pintal, while he but bit his lips, and bowed, and +passed. + +Among the pictures in Pintal's tent was one which had in an especial +manner attracted my attention. It was a cabinet portrait, nearly +full-length, of a venerable gentleman, of grave but benevolent aspect, +and an air of imposing dignity. Care had evidently been taken to +render faithfully the somewhat remarkable vigor of his frame; his +iron-gray hair was cropped quite short, and he wore a heavy grizzled +moustache, but no other beard; the lines of his mouth were not severe, +and his eye was soft and gentle. But what made the portrait +particularly noticeable was the broad red ribbon of a noble order +crossing the breast, and a Maltese cross suspended from the neck by a +short chain of massive and curiously wrought links. I had many times +been on the point of asking the name of this singularly handsome and +distinguished-looking personage; but an instinctive feeling of +delicacy always deterred me. + +One day I found little Ferdy alone, and singing merrily some pretty +Spanish song. I told him I was rejoiced to find him in such good +spirits, and asked him if he had not been having a jolly romp with the +American carpenter's son, who lived in the Chinese house close by. My +question seemed to afflict him with puzzled surprise;--he half smiled, +as if not quite sure but I might be jesting. + +"Oh, no, indeed! I have never played with him; I do not know him; I +never play with any boys here. Oh, no, indeed!" + +"But why not, Ferdy? What! a whole month in this tiresome tent, and +not make the acquaintance of your nearest neighbor,--such a sturdy, +hearty chunk of a fellow as that is?--I have no doubt he's +good-natured, too, for he's fat and funny, tough and independent. +Besides, he's a carpenter's son, you know; so there's a chance to +borrow a saw to make the dog-house with. Who knows but his father will +take a fancy to you,--I'm sure he is very likely to,--and make you a +church dog-house, steeple and all complete and painted, and much finer +than Charley Saunders's martin-box?" + +"Oh, I should like to, so much! And perhaps he has a Newfoundlander +with a bushy tail and a brass collar,--that would be nicer than a +kangaroo. But--but"--looking comically bothered,--"I never knew a +carpenter's son in my life. I am sure my father would not give me +permission,--I am sure he would be very angry, if I asked him. Are +they not very disagreeable, that sort of boys? Don't they swear, and +tear their clothes, and fight, and sing vulgar songs, and tell lies, +and sit down in the middle of the street?" + +Merciful Heaven! thought I,--here's a crying shame! here's an +interesting case for professors of moral hygiene! An apt, intelligent +little man, with an empty mind, and a by-no-means overloaded stomach, +I'll engage,--with a pride-paralyzed father, and a beer-bewitched +slattern of a mother,--with his living to get, in San Francisco, too, +and the world to make friends with,--who has never enjoyed the +peculiar advantages to be derived from the society of little dirty +boys, never been admitted to the felicity of popular songs, nor +exercised his pluck in a rough-and-tumble, nor ventilated himself in +wholesome "giddy, giddy, gout,"--to whom dirt-pies are a fable! + +"Ferdy," said I, "I'll talk with your father myself. But tell me, now, +what makes you so happy to-day." + +"My father got a letter this morning,"--a mail had just arrived; it +brought no smile or tear for me,--no parallelogram of tragedy or +comedy in stationery,--"such a pleasant one, from my uncle Miguel, at +Florence, in Italy, you know. He is well, and quite rich, my father +says; they have restored to him his property that he thought was all +lost forever, and they have made him a chevalier again. But I am sure +my father will tell you all about it, for he said he did hope you +would come to-day; and he is so happy and so kind!" + +"They have made him a chevalier again," I wondered. "Your uncle Miguel +is your father's brother, then, Ferdy. And did you ever see him?" + +Before he could reply, Pintal entered, stepping smartly, his color +heightened with happiness, his eyes full of an extraordinary elation. + +"Ah! my dear Doctor, I am rejoiced to find you here; I have been +wishing for you. See! your picture is finished. Tell me if you like +it." + +"Indeed, a work of beauty, Pintal." + +"To me, too, it never looked so well before; but I see things with +glad eyes to-day. I have much to tell you. Ferdy, your mother is +dining at the restaurant; go join her. And when you have finished your +dinner, ask her to take you to walk. Say that I am engaged. Would you +not like to walk, my boy, and see how fast the new streets spring up? +When you return, you can tell me of all you saw." + +The boy turned up his lovely face to be kissed, and for a moment hung +fondly on his father's neck. The poor painter's lips quivered, and his +eyes winked quickly. Then the lad took his cap, and without another +word went forth. + +"I am happy to-day, Doctor,--Heaven save the mark! My happiness is so +much more than my share, that I shall insist, will ye, nill ye, on +your sharing it with me. I have a heart to open to somebody, and you +are the very man. So, sit you down, and bear with my egotism, for I +have a little tale to tell you, of who I am and how I came here. The +story is not so commonplace but that your kindness will find, here and +there, an interesting passage in it. + +"I have seen that that picture,"--indicating the one I have last +described,--"attracted your attention, and that you were prevented +from questioning me about it only by delicacy. That is my father's +likeness. He was of English birth, the younger son of a rich Liverpool +merchant. An impulsive, romantic, adventurous boy, seized early with a +passion for seeing the world, his unimaginative, worldly-wise father, +practical and severe, kept him within narrow, fretting bounds, and +imposed harsh restraints upon him. When he was but sixteen years old, +he ran away from home, shipped before the mast, and, after several +long voyages, was discharged, at his own request, at Carthagena, where +he entered a shipping-house as clerk, and, having excellent mercantile +talents, was rapidly promoted. + +"Meantime, through a sister, the only remaining child, except a +half-witted brother, he heard at long intervals from home. His father +remained strangely inexorable, fiercely forbade his return, and became +violent at the slightest mention of his name by his sister, or some +old and attached servant; he died without bequeathing his forgiveness, +or, of course, a single shilling. But the young man thrived with his +employers, whose business growing rapidly more and more prosperous, +and becoming widely extended, they transferred him to a branch house +at Malaga. Here he formed the acquaintance of the Don Francisco de +Zea-Bermudez, whose rising fortunes made his own. + +"Zea-Bermudez was at that time engaged in large commercial operations. +Although, under the diligent and ambitious teaching of his famous +relative, the profound, sagacious, patriotic, bold, and gloriously +abused Jovellanos, he had become accomplished in politics, law, and +diplomacy, he seemed to be devoting himself for the present to large +speculations and the sudden acquisition of wealth, and to let the +state of the nation, the Cortes, and its schemes, alone. + +"Only a young, beautiful, and accomplished sister shared his splendid +establishment in Malaga; and for her my father formed an engrossing +attachment, reciprocated in the fullest, almost simultaneously with +his friendship for her brother. Zea favored the suit of the +high-spirited and clever young Englishman, whose intelligence, +independence, and perseverance, to say nothing of his good looks and +his engaging manners, had quite won his heart. By policy, too, no less +than by pleasure, the match recommended itself to him;--my father +would make a famous junior-partner. So they were married under the +name of Pintal, bestowed upon his favorite English clerk by the +adventurous first patron at Carthagena, who had found the boy provided +with only a 'purser's name,' as sailors term it. + +"I will not be so disrespectful to the memory of my distinguished +uncle, nor so rude toward your intelligence, my friend, as to presume +that you are not familiar with the main points of his history,--the +great strides he took, almost from that time, in a most influential +diplomatic career: the embassy to St. Petersburg, and the +Romanzoff-Bermudez treaty of amity and alliance in 1812, by which +Alexander acknowledged the legality of the ordinary and extraordinary +Cortes of Cadiz; the embassy to the Porte in 1821; his recall in 1823, +and extraordinary mission to the Court of St. James; his appointment +to lead the Ministry in 1824; my father's high place in the Treasury; +their joint efforts from this commanding position to counteract the +violence of the Apostolical party, to meet the large requisitions of +France, to cover the deficit of three hundred millions of reals, and +to restore the public credit; the insults of the Absolutists, and +their machinations to thwart his liberal and sagacious measures; his +efforts to resign, opposed by the King; the suppression of a +formidable Carlist conspiracy in 1825; the execution of Bessières, and +the 'ham-stringing' of Absolutist leaders; his dismissal from the +Ministry in October, 1825, Ferdinand yielding to the Apostolic storm; +the embassy to Dresden; his appointment as Minister at London. + +"And here my story begins, for I was his Secretary of Legation then; +while my brother Miguel, younger than I, was _attaché_ at Paris, where +he had succeeded me, on my promotion,--a promotion that procured for +me congratulations for which I could with difficulty affect a decent +show of gratitude, for I knew too well what it meant. It was not the +enlightened, liberal Minister I had to deal with, but the hard, proud +uncle, full of expediencies, and calculating schemes for family +advancement, and the exaltation of a lately obscure name. + +"In Paris I had been admitted first to the flattering friendship, and +then to the inmost heart of--of a most lovely young lady, as noble by +her character as by her lineage,"--and he glanced at the open +sketch-book. + +"The Lady Angelica," I quietly said. + +"Sir!" he exclaimed, quickly changing color, and assuming his most +frigid expression and manner. But as quickly, and before I could +speak, his sad smile and friendly tone returned, and he said,-- + +"Ah! I see,--Ferdy has been babbling of his visions and his dreams. +Yes, the Lady Angelica. 'Very charming,' my uncle granted, 'but very +poor; less of the angel and more of the heiress was desirable,' he +said,--'less heaven and more land. A decayed family was only a little +worse than an obscure one,--a poor knight not a whit more respectable +than a rich merchant. I must relinquish my little romance,--I had not +time for it; I had occupation enough for the scant leisure my family +duties'--and he laid stress on the words--'left me in the duties of my +post. He would endeavor to find arguments for the lady and employment +for me.' + +"It was in vain for me to remonstrate,--I was too familiar with my +uncle's temper to waste my time and breath so. I would be silent, I +resolved, and pursue my honorable and gallant course without regard to +his scandalous schemes. I wrote to the 'Lady Angelica,'--since Ferdy's +name for her is so well chosen,--telling her all, giving her solemn +assurances of my unchangeable purpose toward her, and scorn of my +uncle's mercenary ambition. She replied very quietly: 'She, also, was +not without pride; she would come and see for herself';--and she came +at once. + +"The family arrived in London in the evening. Within two hours I was +sent--after the fashion of an old-time courier, 'Ride! ride! +ride!--for your life! for your life! for your life!'--to Turin with +despatches, and sealed instructions for my own conduct, not to be +opened till I arrived; then I found my orders were, to remain at Turin +until it should be my uncle's pleasure to recall me. + +"I had not been in Turin a month when a letter came from------the Lady +Angelica. 'It was her wish that all intercourse between us, by +interview or correspondence, should cease at once and forever. She +assumed this position of her own free will, and she was resolute to +maintain it. She trusted that I would not inquire obtrusively into her +motives,--she had no fear that I would doubt that they were worthy of +her. Her respect for me was unabated,--her faith in me perfect. I had +her blessing and her anxious prayers. I must go on my way in brave +silence and patience, nor ever for one moment be so weak as to fool +myself into a hope that she would change her purpose.' + +"What should I do? I had no one to advise with; my mother, whose faith +in her brother's wisdom was sure, was in Madrid, and my father had +been dead some years. At first my heart was full of bitter curses, and +my uncle had not at his heels a heartier hater than I. Then came the +merely romantic thought, that this might be but a test she would put +me to,--that he might be innocent and ignorant of my misfortune. With +the thought I flung my heart into writing, and madly plied her with +one long, passionate letter after another. I got no answers; but by +his spies my uncle was apprised of all I did. + +"About this time,--it was in 1832,--Zea-Bermudez was recalled to +Madrid in a grave crisis, and appointed to the administration of +foreign affairs. Ferdinand VII. was apparently approaching the end of +his reign and his life. The Apostolical party, exulting in their +strength, and confiding in those well-laid plans which, with mice and +men, 'gang aft agley,' imprudently showed their hand, and suffered +their favorite project to transpire; which was, to set aside the +ordinance by which the King had made null the Salic law, in favor of +his infant daughter, and to support the pretensions of the King's +brother, Carlos, to the throne. + +"By this stupid flourish the Apostolical party threw themselves bound +at the feet of Zea. All of their persuasion who filled high places +under government were without ceremony removed, and their seats filled +by Liberals. Many of them did not escape without more crippling blows. +As for me, I looked on with indifference, or at most some philosophic +sneers. What had I to fear or care? In my uncle's estimation, my +politics had been always healthy, no doubt; and although he had on +more than one occasion hinted, with sarcastic wit, that such a +lady's-man must, of his devoir, be a 'gallant champion of the Salic +law,' and dropped something rude and ill-natured about my English +blood,--still, that was only in his dyspeptic moods; his temper was +sure to improve, I fancied, with his political and material digestion. + +"But I deceived myself. When, in the name of the infant Queen, +Isabella Segunda, and in honor of the reestablishment of order and +public safety, the pleasant duty devolved upon Zea-Bermudez of +awarding approbation and encouragement to all the officers, from an +ambassador to the youngest _attaché_ of foreign legations, and +presenting them with tokens of the nation's happiness in the shape of +stars, and seals with heraldic devices, and curious chains of historic +significance, not even a paltry ribbon fell to my share, but only a +few curt lines of advice, 'to look well to my opinions, and be +modest,--obediently to discharge the duties prescribed to me, and +remember that presumption was a fault most intolerable in a young +gentleman so favored by chance as to be honored with the confidence of +government.' + +"That exhausted the little patience I had left. Savagely I tore the +note into contemptible fragments, tossed into my travelling-boxes as +much of my wardrobe as happened to be at hand, consigned to a sealed +case my diplomatic instructions and all other documents pertaining to +my office, placed them in the hands of a confidential friend, Mr. +Ballard, the British Agent, and secretly took passage for England, +where, without losing an hour, I made the best of my way to the abode +of an ambitious cockney wine-merchant, to whose daughter I had not +been disagreeable in other days, and within a fortnight married her. +You have seen the lady, Sir," he said, eyeing me searchingly as he +spoke, with a sardonic smile,--the only ugly expression I ever saw him +wear. + +"Certain title-deeds and certificates of stock, part of my father's +legacy, which, as if foreseeing the present emergency, I had brought +away with me, were easily converted into cash. I had then twenty +thousand sterling pounds, to which my father-in-law generously added +ten thousand more, by way of portion with his daughter. + +"And now to what should I betake myself? I had small time to cast +about me, and was easy to please; any tolerably promising enterprise, +so the field of it were remote, would serve my purpose. The papers +were full of Australian speculations, the wonderful prosperity of the +several colonies there, the great fortunes suddenly made in wool. +Good! I would go to Australia, and be a gentle shepherd on an imposing +scale. But first I sought out my father's old friends, my Lords +Palmerston and Brougham, and the Bishop of Dublin, and besought the +aid of their wisdom. With but slight prudential hesitation they with +one accord approved my project. Observe: a first-rate Minister, +especially if he be a very busy one, always likes the plan that +pleases his young friend best,--that is, if it be not an affair of +State, and all the risks lie with his young friend. They would have +spoken of Turin and Zea-Bermudez; but I had been bred a diplomat and +knew how to stick to my point, which, this time, was wool. In another +fortnight I had sailed for Sydney with my shekels and my wife. But +first, and for the first time, I caused the announcement of my +marriage to appear in the principal papers of London, Paris, St. +Petersburg, and Madrid. + +"Arrived in Australia, I at once made myself the proprietor of a +considerable farm, and stocked it abundantly with sheep. Speculation +had not yet burst itself, like the frog in the fable; and large +successes, as in water-lot and steamboat operations here, to-day, were +the rule. On the third anniversary of my landing at Sydney, I was +worth three hundred thousand pounds, and my commercial name was among +the best in the colony. Six months after that, the rot, the infernal +rot, had turned my thriving populous pastures into shambles for +carrion-mutton, and I had not sixpence of my own in the wide world. A +few of the more generous of my creditors left me a hundred pounds with +which to make my miserable way to some South American port on the +Pacific. + +"So I chose Valparaiso, to paint miniatures, and teach English, +French, Italian, and German in. But earthquakes shook my poor house, +and the storm-fiend shook my soul with fear;--for skies in lightning +and thunder are to me as the panorama and hurly-burly of the Day of +Wrath, in all the stupid rushing to and fro and dazed stumbling of +Martin's great picture. I shall surely die by lightning; I have not +had that live shadow of a sky-reaching fear hanging over me, with its +black wings and awful mutterings, so long for nothing; in every flash +my eyes are scathed by the full blaze of hell. If I had been deaf and +blind, I might have lived in Valparaiso. As it was, I must go +somewhere where I need not sit all day and night stopping my ears and +with my face covered, fearing that the rocks would fall upon me too +soon. + +"So, with my wife and the child,--we have had no other, thank God!--I +got round Cape Horn--Heaven knows how! I dare not think of that +time--to the United States. We were making for Boston; but the ship, +strained by long stress of heavy weather, sprung a leak, and we put in +at Baltimore. I was pleased with the place; it is picturesque, and has +a kindly look; and as all places were alike to me then, save by the +choice of a whim, I let go my weary anchor there. + +"But the Baltimoreans only admired my pictures,--they did not buy +them; they only wondered at my polyglot accomplishment, and were +content with ringing silly-kind changes on an Encyclopaedic compliment +about the Admirable Crichton, and other well-educated personages, to +be found alphabetically embalmed in Conversations-Lexicons,--they did +not inquire into my system of teaching, or have quarterly knowledge of +my charges. So I fled from Baltimore, pretty speeches, and starvation, +to San Francisco, plain talk, and pure gold. And now--see here, +Sir!--I carry these always about with me, lest the pretty pickings of +this Tom Tiddler's ground should make my experience forget." + +He drew from his pocket an "illuminated" card, bearing a likeness of +Queen Victoria, and a creased and soiled bit of yellow paper. The one +was, by royal favor, a complimentary pass to a reserved place in +Westminster Abbey, on the occasion of the coronation of her Britannic +Majesty, "For the Señor Camillo Alvarez y Pintal, Chevalier of the +Noble Order of the Cid, Secretary to His Catholic Majesty's Legation +near the Court of St. James,"--the other, a Sydney pawnbroker's ticket +for books pledged by "Mr. Camilla Allverris i Pintal." He held these +contrasted certificates of Fortune,--her mocking visiting-cards, when +she called on him in palace and in cabin,--one in each hand for a +moment; and bitterly smiling, and shaking his head, turned from one to +the other. Then suddenly he let them fall to the ground, and, burying +his face in his hands, was roughly shaken through all his frame by a +great gust of agony. + +I laid my hand tenderly on his shoulder: "But, Pintal," I said,--"the +Lady Angelica,--tell me why she chose that course." + +In a moment the man was fiercely aroused. "Ah, true! I had forgotten +that delectable passage in my story. Why, man, Bermudez went to her, +told her that my aspirations and my prospects were so and so,--faring, +brilliant,--that she, only she, stood in the way, an impassable +stumbling-block to my glorious advancement,--told her, (devil!) that, +with all my fine passion for her, he was aware that I was not without +embarrassment on this score,--appealed to her disinterested love, to +her pride,--don't you see?--to her pride." + +"And where is she now, Pintal?" + +No anger now, no flush of excitement;--the man, all softened as by an +angel's touch, arose, and, with clasped hands and eyes upturned +devoutly, smiled through big tears, and without a word answered me. + +I, too, was silent. Whittier had not yet written,-- + + "Of all sad words of tongue or pen + The saddest are these: 'It might have been!' + + "Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies + Deeply buried from human eyes; + + "And, in the hereafter, angels may + Roll the stone from its grave away!" + +Then Pintal paced briskly to and fro a few turns across the narrow +floor of his tent, and presently stopping, said,--his first +cheerfulness, with its unwonted smile, returning,-- + +"But I must tell you why I should be happy today. I have a letter from +my brother Miguel, who is Secretary to the Legation at the Porte. He +has leave of absence, and is happy with his dearest friends in +Florence. He shared my disgrace until lately, but bore it patiently; +and now is reinstated in his office and his honors, a large portion of +his property restored, which had been temporarily confiscated, while +he was under suspicion as a Carlist. He is authorized to offer me +pardon, and all these pretty things, if I will return and take a new +oath of allegiance." + +"And you will accept, Pintal?" + +"Why, in God's name, what do you take me for?--Pardon! I forgot +myself, Sir. Your question is a natural one. But no, I shall surely +not accept. Zea-Bermudez is dead, but there is a part of me which can +never die; and I am happy today because I feel that I am not so poor +as I thought I was." + +Ferdy entered, alone. He went straight to his father and whispered +something in his ear,--about the mother, I suspected, for both +blushed, and Pintal said, with a vexed look,--"Ah, very well! never +mind that, my boy." + +Then Ferdy threw off his cap and cloak, and, seating himself on a pile +of books at his father's feet, quietly rested his head upon his knee. +I observed that his face was vividly flushed, and his eyes looked +weary. I felt his pulse,--it indicated high fever; and to our anxious +questions he answered, that his head ached terribly, and he was "every +minute hot or cold." I persuaded him to go to bed at once, and left +anxious instructions for his treatment, for I saw that he was going to +be seriously ill. + +In three days little Ferdy was with the Lady Angelica in heaven. He +died in my arms, of scarlet fever. In the delirium of his last moments +he saw _her_, and he departed with strange words on his lips: "I am +coming, Lady, I am coming!--my father will be ready presently!" + +Some strangers from the neighborhood helped me to bury him; we laid +him near the grave of the First Lady; but very soon his pretty bones +were scattered, and there's a busy street there now. + +Pintal, when I told him that the boy was dead, only bowed and smiled. +He did not go to the grave, he never again named the child, nor by the +least word or look confessed the change. But when, a little later, a +fire swept down Dupont Street and laid the poor tent in ashes, +spoiling the desolate house whose beautiful _lar_ had flitted,--when +his wife went moaning maudlinly among the yet warm ashes, and groping, +in mean misery, with a stick, for some charred nothing she would cheat +the Spoiler of, there was a dangerous quality in Pintal's look, as, +with folded arms and vacant eyes, he seemed to stare upon, yet not to +see, the shocking scene. Presently the woman, poking with the stick, +found something under the ashes. With her naked hands she greedily +dug it out;--it was a tin shaving-case. Another moment, and Pintal had +snatched it from her grasp, torn it open, and had a naked razor in his +hand. I wrested it from him, as he fairly foamed, and dragged him from +the place. + +A few days after that, I took leave of them on board a merchant ship +bound for England, and with a heavy-hearted prayer sped them on their +way. On the voyage, as Pintal stood once, trembling in a storm, near +the mainmast, a flash of lightning transfixed him.--That was well! He +had been distinguished by his sorrows, and was worthy of that special +messenger. + + * * * * * + +That picture,--it was the first and last he painted in California. I +kept it long, rejoicing in the admiration it excited, and only grieved +that the poor comfort of the praises I daily heard lavished upon it +could never reach him. + +Once, when I was ill in Sacramento, my San Francisco house was burned, +but not before its contents had been removed. In the hopeless +scattering of furniture and trunks, this picture disappeared,--no one +knew whither. I sought it everywhere, and advertised for it, but in +vain. About a year afterward, I sailed for Honolulu. I had letters of +introduction to some young American merchants there, one of whom +hospitably made me his guest for several weeks. On the second day of +my stay with him, he was showing me over his house, where, hanging +against the wall in a spare room, I found,--not the Pintal picture, +but a Chinese copy of it, faithful in its every detail. There were the +several alterations I had suggested, and there the rich, warm colors +that Pintal's taste had chosen. Of course, it was a copy. No doubt, my +picture had been stolen at the fire, or found its way by mistake among +the "traps" of other people. Then it had been sold at auction,--some +Chinaman had bought it,--it had been shipped to Canton or Hong +Kong,--some one of the thousand "artists" of China Street or the +Victoria Road had copied it for the American market. A ship-load of +Chinese goods--Canton crape shawls, camphor-boxes, carved toys, +curiosities, and pictures--had been sold in Honolulu,--and here it +was. + + * * * * * + + +THE HOUSE THAT WAS JUST LIKE ITS NEIGHBORS. + + Oh, the houses are all alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + You'll see a hat-stand in the hall, + Against the painted and polished wall; + And the threaded sunbeams softly fall + On the long stairs, winding up, away + Up to the garret, lone and gray: + And you can hear, if you wait awhile, + Odd little noises to make you smile; + And minutes will be as long as a mile;-- + Just as they would in the house below, + Were you in the entry waiting to go. + + Oh, the houses are all alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + And the world swings sadly to and fro,-- + Mayhap the shining, but sure the woe! + For in the sunlight the shadows grow + Over the new name on the door, + Over the face unseen before. + Yet who shall number, by any art, + The chasms that keep so wide apart + The dancing step and the weary heart? + Oh, who shall guess that the polished wall + Is a headstone over his neighbor's hall? + + Yet the houses are just alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + And solemn sounds are heard at night, + And solemn forms shut out the light, + And hideous thoughts the soul affright: + Death and despair, in solemn state, + In the silent, vaulted chambers wait; + And up the stairs as your children go, + Spectres follow them, to and fro,-- + Only a wall between them, oh! + And the darkest demons, grinning, see + The fairest angels that dwell with thee! + + For the houses are all alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + My chariot waited, gold and gay: + "I'll ride," I said, "to the woods to-day,-- + Out to the blithesome woods away,-- + Where the old trees, swaying thoughtfully, + Watch the breeze and the shadow's glee." + I smiled but once, with my joy elate, + For a chariot stood at my neighbor's gate,-- + A grim old chariot, dark as fate. + "Oh, where are you taking my neighbor?" I cried. + And the gray old driver thus replied:-- + + "Where the houses are all alike, you know,-- + Narrow houses, all in a row! + Unto a populous city," he saith: + "The road lies steep through the Vale of Death + Oh, it makes the old steeds gasp for breath! + There'll be a new name over the door, + In a place where _he's_ never been before,-- + Where the neighbors never visit, they say,-- + Where the streets are echoless, night and day, + And the children forget their childish play. + And if you should live next door, I doubt + If you'd ever hear what they were about + Who lived in the next house in the row,-- + Though the houses are all alike, you know!" + + + + +DAPHNAIDES: + + +OR THE ENGLISH LAUREL, FROM CHAUCER TO TENNYSON. + + +[Concluded.] + +Dorset was still Lord Chamberlain when the death of Shadwell placed +the laurel again at his disposal. Had he listened to Dryden, William +Congreve would have received it. Of all the throng of young gentlemen +who gathered about the chair of the old poet at Wills's, Congreve was +his prime favorite. That his advice was not heeded was long a matter +of pensive regret:-- + + "Oh that your brows my laurel had sustained! + Well had I been deposed, if you had reigned! + The father had descended for the son; + For only you are lineal to the throne. + Thus, when the state one Edward did depose, + A greater Edward in his room arose."[1] + +The choice fell upon Nahum Tate:-- + + "But now not I, but poetry is cursed; + For Tom the Second reigns like Tom the First." + +What particular quality recommended Tate we are not wholly able to +explain. Dryden alleges "charity" as the single impulse of the +appointment,--not the merit or aptitude of the candidate. But +throughout life Dorset continued to countenance Nahum, serving as +standing dedicatee of his works, and the prompter of several of them. +We have remarked the want of judgment which Lord Dorset exhibited in +his anxious patronage of the scholars and scribblers of his time,--a +trait which stood the Blackmores, Bradys, and Tates in good stead. + +But there was still another reason why Tate was preferred to Congreve. +Dorset was too practised a courtier not to study the tastes of his +master to good purpose. A liking for the stage, or a lively sense of +poetic excellence, was not among the preferences of King William. The +Laureate was sub-purveyor of amusement for the court; but there was no +longer a court to amuse, and the King himself never once in his reign +entered a theatre. The piety of Queen Mary rendered her a rare +attendant at the play-house. Plays were therefore no longer wanted. A +playwright could not amuse. Congreve was a dramatist who had never +exhibited even passable talent for other forms of poetical +composition. But Tate's limited gifts, displayed to Dorset's +satisfaction in various encomiastic verses addressed to himself, were +fully equal to the exigencies of the office under the new order of +things; he was by profession a eulogist, not a dramatist. He was a +Tory; and the King was out of humor with the Whigs. He was +pretentiously moral and exemplary of life and pen, and so suited the +Queen. The duties of the office were conformed, as far as practicable, +to the royal tastes. Their scene was transferred from the play-house +to the church. On the anniversaries of the birthdays of the two +sovereigns, and upon New Year's day, the Laureate was expected to have +ready congratulatory odes befitting the occasion, set to music by the +royal organist, and sung after service in the Chapel Royal of St. +James. Similar duties were required when great victories were to be +celebrated, or national calamities to be deplored. In short, from +writing dramas to amuse a merry monarch and his courtiers, an office +not without dignity, the Laureate sunk into a hired writer of +adulatory odes; a change in which originated that prevalent contempt +for the laurel which descended from the era of Tate to that of +Southey. + +And yet the odes were in no sense more thoroughly Pindaric than in the +circumstance of their flatteries being bought and paid for at a stated +market value. The triumphal lyrics of Pindar himself were very far +from being those spontaneous and enthusiastic tributes to the prowess +of his heroes, which the vulgar receive them for. Hear the painful +truth, as revealed by the Scholiast.[2] Pytheas of AEgina had +conquered in rough-and-tumble fight all antagonists in the Pancratium. +Casting about for the best means of perpetuating his fame, he found +the alternative to lie between a statuette to be erected in the temple +of the hero-god, or one of the odes of the learned Theban. Choosing +the latter, he proceeded to the poet's shop, cheapened the article, +and would have secured it without hesitation, had not the extortionate +bard demanded the sum of three drachmas,[3] nearly equal to half a +dollar, for the poem, and refused to bate a fraction. The disappointed +bargainer left, and was for some days decided in favor of the brazen +image, which could be had at half the price. But reflecting that what +Pindar would give for his money was a draft upon universal fame and +immortality, while the statue might presently be lost, or melted down, +or its identity destroyed, his final determination was in favor of the +ode,--a conclusion which time has justified. Nor was the Bard of the +Victors ashamed of his mercenary Muse. In the Second Isthmian Ode, we +find an elaborate justification of his practice of praising for +pay,--a practice, he admits, unknown to primitive poets, but rendered +inevitable, in his time, by the poverty of the craft, and the +degeneracy of the many, with whom, in the language of the Spartan +sage, "money made the man." With this Pindaric precedent, therefore, +for selling Pindaric verses, it is no wonder, if the children of the +Muse, in an age still more degenerate than that of their great +original, found ample excuse for dealing out their wares at the best +market. When such as Dryden and Pope lavished in preface and +dedication their encomiums upon wealth and power, and waited eagerly +for the golden guineas the bait might bring them, we have no right to +complain of the Tates and Eusdens for prostituting their neglected +Muses for a splendid sum certain _per annum_. Surely, if royalty, thus +periodically and mercenarily eulogized, were content, the poet might +well be so. And quite as certainly, the Laureate stipend never +extracted from poet panegyric more fulsome, ill-placed, and degrading, +than that which Laureate Dryden volunteered over the pall of Charles +II.[4] + +Tate had been known as a hanger-on at the court of Charles, and as a +feeble versifier and pamphleteer of the Tory school, before an +alliance with Dryden gave him a certain degree of importance. The +first part of "Absalom and Achitophel," in 1681, convulsed the town +and angered the city. Men talked for a time of nothing else. Tate, who +was in the secret of its authorship, talked of it to Dryden, and urged +an extension of the poem. Were there not enough of Shaftesbury's brisk +boys running at large who deserved to be gibbeted? Were there not +enough Hebrew names in the two books of Samuel to name each as +appropriately as those already nomenclatured? But Dryden was +indisposed to undertake a continuation which must fall short of what +had been executed in the exact proportion that the characters left for +it were of minor consequence. He recommended the task to Tate. Tate, +flattered and nothing loath, accordingly sent to the press the second +part of "Absalom and Achitophel," embodying a contribution from Dryden +of two hundred lines, which are as plainly distinguishable from the +rest as a patch of cloth of gold upon cloth of frieze. The credit of +this first alliance proved so grateful to Nahum, that he never after +ventured upon literary enterprise without the aid of a similar +coalition. His genius was inherently parasitic. In conjunction with +Tory and Jesuit, he coalesced in the celebration of Castlemaine's +gaudy reception at Rome. + +In conjunction with Nicholas Brady, he prepared that version of the +Psalms still appended to the English Book of Common Prayer. In +conjunction with Dryden and others, he translated Juvenal. In +conjunction with Lord Dorset, he edited a praiseworthy edition of the +poems of Sir John Davies, which might otherwise have been lost or +forgotten. In conjunction with Garth, he translated the +"Metamorphoses" of Ovid. And in conjunction with Dr. Blow, he prepared +those Pindaric flights which set King William asleep, and made +Godolphin ashamed that the deeds of Marlborough should be so +unworthily sung. + +So long as he continued to enjoy the patronage of his liberal +Maecenas, Tate, with his aid, and these labors, and the income of his +office, contrived to maintain the state of a gentleman. But Dorset +died in 1706; the Laureate's dull heroics found no vent; and ere the +death of Queen Anne,--an event which he bewailed in the least +contemptible of his odes,--his revenues were contracted to the +official stipend. The accession of the house of Hanover, in 1714, was +the downfall of Toryism; and Tate was a Tory. His ruin was complete. +The Elector spared not the house of Pindar. The Laureate was stripped +of the wreath; his only income confiscated; and after struggling +feebly with fate in the form of implacable creditors, he took refuge +in the Old Mint, the resort of thieves and debtors, where in 1715 he +died,--it is said, of starvation. Alas, that the common lot of Grub +Street should have precedent in the person of laurelled royalty +itself! + +The coronation of Laureate Rowe was simultaneous with that of George +I. His immediate claim to the honor dated back to the year 1702, when +his play of "Tamerlane" had caught the popular fancy, and proved of +vast service to the ministry at a critical moment in stimulating the +national antipathy to France. The effect was certainly not due to +artistic nicety or refinement. King William, as _Tamerlane_, was +invested with all virtues conceivable of a Tartar conqueror, united +with the graces of a primitive saint; while King Louis, as _Bajazet_, +fell little short of the perfections of Satan. These coarse daubs, +executed in the broadest style of the sign-post school of Art, so +gratified the mob, that for half a century their exhibition was called +for on the night of November the fifth. Rowe, moreover, belonged to +the straitest sect of Whiggery,--was so bigoted, indeed, as to decline +the acquaintance of a Tory, and in play and prologue missed no chance +of testifying devotion to liberal opinions.[5] His investiture with +the laurel was only another proof that at moments of revolution +extremists first rise to the surface. A man of affluent fortune, and +the recipient of redundant favors from the new ministry, Rowe enjoyed +the sunshine of life, while the dethroned Nahum starved in the Mint, +as the dethroned James starved at Rome. Had the dramatic tribute still +been exacted, there is little doubt that the author of the "Fair +Penitent," and of "Jane Shore," would have lent splendid lustre to his +office. His odes, however,--such, at least, as have been thought +worthy of preservation among his works,--are a prodigious improvement +upon the tenuity of his predecessor, and immeasurably superior in +poetical fire and elegance to those of any successor antecedent to +Warton. + +For, following Nicholas Rowe, there were dark ages of Laureate +dulness,--a period redeemed by nothing, unless by the ridicule and +controversy to which the wearers of the leaf gave occasion. Rowe died +in the last days of 1718. The contest for the vacant place is presumed +to have been unusually active. John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, +imitating Suckling's "Session of the Poets," brings all the +versifiers of the time into the canvas, and after humorously +dispatching one after another, not sparing himself, closes,-- + + "At last, in rushed Eusden, and cried, 'Who shall have it, + But I, the true Laureate, to whom the King gave it?' + Apollo begged pardon, and granted his claim, + But vowed, though, till then, he ne'er heard of his name."[6] + +This Laurence Eusden was a scribbling parson, whose model in Art was +Sir Richard Blackmore, and whose morality was of the Puritanical +stripe. He had assisted Garth in his Ovid, assuming, doubtless upon +high moral grounds, the rendering of the impurest fables. He had +written odes to great people upon occasions more or less great, +therein exhibiting some ingenuity in varying the ordinary staple of +adulation. He had addressed an epithalamium to the Duke of Newcastle +upon his marriage with the Lady Henrietta Godolphin,--a tribute so +gratifying to his Grace, then Lord Chamberlain, as to secure the poet +the place of Rowe. Eusden's was doubtless the least honorable name as +yet associated with the laurel. His contemporaries allude to him with +uniform disdain. Cooke, the translator of Hesiod, tells us,-- + + "Eusden, a laurelled bard, by fortune raised, + By very few was read, by fewer praised," + +Pope, as cavalierly, in the "Dunciad":-- + + "She saw old Prynne in restless Daniel shine, + And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line." + +Jacobs, in his "Lives of the Poets," speaks of him as a multifarious +writer of unreadable trash,--and names but few of his productions. The +truth was, Eusden, secluding himself at his rectory among the fens of +Lincolnshire, took no part in society, declined all association with +the polite circles of the metropolis, thus inviting attacks, from +which his talents were not respectable enough to screen him. That the +loftiest revelations of poetry were not required of the Laureate of +George I., who understood little or no English, there can be no +question. George II. was equally insensible to the Muses; and had the +annual lyrics been a mosaic of the merest gibberish, they would have +satisfied his earlier tastes as thoroughly as the odes of Collins or +Gray. A court, at which Pope and Swift, Young and Thomson were +strangers, had precisely that share of Augustan splendor which enabled +such as Eusden to shine lustrously.[7] + +And so Eusden shone and wrote, and in the fulness of time--September, +1730--died and was buried; and his laurel others desired.[8] The +leading claimants were Richard Savage and Colley Cibber. The touching +story of Savage had won the heart of the Queen, and she had extracted +from the King the promise of the Laureateship for its hero. But in the +Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Savage had an irreconcilable opponent. +The apprehension of exciting powerful enmities, if he elevated the +"Bastard" and his wrongs to so conspicuous a place, had, no doubt, an +influence with the shrewd statesman. Possibly, too, so keen and +practical a mind could not but entertain thorough contempt for the +man, who, with brains, thews, and sinews of his own, a fair education, +and as many golden opportunities of advancement as a reasonable being +could desire, should waste his days in profitless mendicancy at the +doors of great people, in whining endeavors to excite the sympathies +of the indifferent, in poem and petition, in beastly drunkenness, or, +if sober, in maudlin lamentations at the bitterness of his fortune. A +Falconbridge would have better suited the ministerial taste. At all +events, when his Majesty came to request the appointment of the +Queen's _protégé_, he found that the patent had already been made out +in the name of Cibber: and Cibber had to be Laureate. The disappointed +one raved, got drunk, sober again, and finally wrote an ode to her +Majesty, announcing himself as her "Volunteer Laureate," who should +repeat his congratulations upon each recurrence of her birthday. The +Queen, in pity, sent him fifty pounds, with a promise of an equal +amount for each of his annual verses. And although Cibber protested, +and ridiculed the new title, as no more sensible than "Volunteer Duke, +Marquis, or Prime Minister," still Savage adhered to it and the +pension tenaciously, sharing the Queen's favor with Stephen Duck, the +marvellous "Thresher,"[9] whose effusions were still more to her +taste. That the yearly fifty pounds were expended in inexcusable riot, +almost as soon as received, was a matter of course. Upon the demise of +Queen Caroline, in 1738, Savage experienced another proof of Walpole's +dislike. The pensions found upon her Majesty's private list were all +continued out of the exchequer, one excepted. The pension of Savage +was the exception. Right feelingly, therefore, might he mourn his +royal mistress, and vituperate the insensible minister; and that he +did both with some degree of animation, the few who still read his +poems will freely admit. + +Colley Cibber had recommended himself to promotion by consistent +partisanship, and by two plays of fair merit and exceeding popularity. +"The Careless Husband" even Pope had praised; "The Nonjuror," an +adaptation of Molière's "Tartuffe," was one of the most successful +comedies of the period. The King had been delighted with it,--a +circumstance doubtless considered by Sir Robert in selecting a rival +for Savage. Cibber had likewise been the manager, time out of mind, of +Drury-Lane Theatre; and if now and then he had failed to recognize the +exact direction of popular taste,--as in the instance of the "Beggar's +Opera," which he rejected, and which, being accepted by Manager Rich +of Covent Garden, made Rich gay and Gay rich,--he was generally a +sound stage-tactician and judicious caterer. His career, however, had +not been so profitable that an additional hundred pounds should be a +thing of indifference; in fact, the sum seemed to be just what was +needed to enable him to forsake active duty on the stage,--for the +patent was no sooner signed than the veteran retired upon his laurels. + +The annals of the Laureateship, during Cibber's reign, are without +incident.[10] The duties remained unchanged, and were performed, there +is no reason to doubt, to the contentment of the King and court.[11] +But the Laureate himself was peculiarly the object of sarcastic +satire. The standing causes were of course in operation: the envy of +rival poetasters, the dislike of political opponents, the enmities +originating in professional disputes and jealousies. Cibber's manners +had not been studied in the school of Chesterfield, although that +school was then open and flourishing. He was rude, presumptuous, +dogmatic. To superiors in rank he was grudgingly respectful; to equals +and inferiors, insupportably insolent. But when to these aggravating +traits he added the vanity of printing an autobiography, exposing a +thousand assailable points in his life and character, the temptation +was irresistible, and the whole population of Grub Street enlisted in +a crusade against him.[12] Fortunately, beneath the crust of insolence +and vanity, there was a substratum of genuine power in the Laureate's +make, which rendered him not only a match for these, but for even a +greater than these, the author of the "Dunciad." Pope's antipathy for +the truculent actor dated some distance back. + + Back to the 'Devil,' the last echoes roll, + And 'Coll!' each butcher roars at Hockley-hole. + +The latter accounts for it by telling, that at the first +representation of Gay's "Three Hours after Marriage," in 1717, where +one of the scenes was violently hissed, some angry words passed +between the irritated manager and Pope, who was behind the scenes, and +was erroneously supposed to have aided in the authorship. The odds of +a scolding match must have been all in favor of the blustering Cibber, +rather than of the nervous and timid Pope; but then the latter had a +faculty of hate, which his antagonist had not, and he exercised it +vigorously. The allusions to Cibber in his later poems are frequent. +Thus, in the "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot":-- + + "And has not Colley still his Lord and whore? + His butchers Henley? his freemasons Moore?" + +And again:-- + + "So humble he has knocked at Tibbald's door, + Has drunk with Colley, nay, has rhymed for Moore." + +And in the "Imitation of Horace," addressed to Lord Fortescue:-- + + "Better be Cibber, I maintain it still, + Than ridicule all taste, blaspheme, quadrille." + +"The Dunciad," as originally published in 1728, had Lewis Theobald for +its hero. There was neither sense nor justice in the selection. Pope +hated Theobald for presuming to edit the plays of Shakspeare with +greatly more ability and acuteness than himself had brought to the +task. His dislike had no better foundation. Neither the works, the +character, nor the associations of the man authorized his elevation to +the throne of dulness. The disproportion between the subject and the +satire instantly impresses the reader. After the first explosion of +his malice, it impressed Pope; and anxious to redeem his error, he +sought diligently for some plan of dethroning Tibbald, and raising +another to the vacant seat. Cibber, in the mean time, was elevated to +the laurel, and that by statesmen whom it was the fate of Pope to +detest in secret, and yet not dare to attack in print. The Fourth Book +of the "Dunciad" appeared in 1742, and its attacks were mainly +levelled at the Laureate. The Laureate replied in a pamphlet, +deprecating the poet's injustice, and declaring his unconsciousness of +any provocation for these reiterated assaults. At the same time he +announced his determination to carry on the war in prose as long as +the satirist should wage it in verse,--pamphlet for poem, world +without end. Hostilities were now fairly established. Pope issued a +fresh edition of his satire complete. The change he had long coveted +he now made. The name of Cibber was substituted throughout for that of +Theobald, the portraiture remaining the same. Johnson properly +ridicules the absurdity of leaving the heavy traits of Theobald on the +canvas, and simply affixing the name of his mercurial contemporary +beneath; and, indeed, there is much reason to doubt whether the mean +jealousy which inspired the first "Dunciad," or the blundering rage +which disfigured the second, is in the worse taste. Cibber kept his +engagement, replying in pamphlet. The immediate victory was +unquestionably his. Morbidly sensitive to ridicule, Pope suffered +acutely. Richardson, who found him once with the Cibberine leaves in +his hand, declared his persuasion, from the spectacle of rage, +vexation, and mortification he witnessed, that the poet's death +resulted from the strokes of the Laureate. If so, we must concede him +to have been the victor who laid his adversary at his feet on the +field. Posterity, however, which listens only to the satirist, has +judged differently and unjustly.[13] Theobald, though of no original +talent, was certainly, in his generation, the most successful +illustrator of Shakspeare, and the first, though Rowe and Pope had +preceded him in the effort, who had brought a sound verbal criticism +to bear on the text. It is to his credit, that many of the most +ingenious emendations suggested in Mr. Collier's famous folio were +anticipated by this "king of the dunces"; and it must be owned, that +his edition is as far superior to Warburton's and Hanmer's, which were +not long after brought out with a deafening flourish of trumpets, as +the editions of Steevens and Malone are to his. Yet, prompted by the +"Dunciad," it is the fashion of literature to regard Theobald with +compassion, as a block-head and empiric. Cibber escapes but little +better, and yet he was a man of respectable talent, and played no +second-rate part in the literary history of the time. + +As Laureate Cibber drew near the end of earthly things, a desire, +common to poetical as well as political potentates, possessed him,--a +desire to nominate a successor. In his case, indeed, the idea may have +been borrowed from "MacFlecknoe" or the "Dunciad." The Earl of +Chesterfield, during his administration in Ireland, had discovered a +rival to Ben Jonson in the person of a poetical bricklayer, one Henry +Jones, whom his Lordship carried with him to London, as a specimen of +the indigenous tribes of Erin. It was easier for this Jones to rhyme +in heroics than to handle a trowel or construct a chimney. He rhymed, +therefore, for the amusement and in honor of the polite circle of +which Stanhope was the centre; the fashionable world subscribed +magnificently for his volume of "Poems upon Several Occasions";[14] +his tragedy, "The Earl of Essex," in the composition of which his +patron is said to have shared, was universally applauded. Its +introduction to the stage was the work of Cibber; and Cibber, assisted +by Chesterfield, labored zealously to secure the author a reversion of +the laurel upon his own lamented demise. + +The effort was unsuccessful. Cibber's death occurred in December, +1757. The administration of the elder Pitt, which had been restored +six months before, was insensible to the merits of the prodigious +bricklayer. The wreath was tendered to Thomas Gray. It would, no +doubt, have proved a grateful relief to royalty, obliged for +twenty-seven years to listen twice yearly, if not oftener, to the +monotonous felicitations of Colley, to hear in his stead the author of +the "Bard," of the "Progress of Poetry," of the "Ode at Eton College." +But the relief was denied it. Gray, ambitious only of the historical +chair at Cambridge, declined the laurel. In the mean time, the claims +of William Whitehead were earnestly advocated with the Lord +Chamberlain, by Lord and Lady Jersey, and by the Earl Harcourt. A +large vote in the House of Commons might be affected by a refusal. +Pitt, who cared nothing for the laurel, but much for the votes, gave +his assent, and Whitehead was appointed. Whitehead was the son of a +baker, and, as an eleëmosynary scholar at Winchester School, had won a +poetical prize offered to the students by Alexander Pope. Obtaining a +free scholarship at Cambridge, he became in due time a fellow of Clare +Hall, and subsequently tutor to the sons of Lord Jersey and Lord +Harcourt, with whom he made the tour of the Continent. Two of his +tragedies, "The Roman Father," and "Creüsa," met with more success +than they deserved. A volume of poems, not without merit, was given to +the press in 1756, and met with unusual favor through the exertions of +his two noble friends. That he was not a personal applicant for the +laurel, nor conscious of the movement in his behalf, he takes occasion +in one of his poems to state:-- + + "Howe'er unworthily I wear the crown, + unasked it came, and from a hand unknown."[15] + +From the warm championship of his friends, and the commendations of +Mason, the friend of Gray, we infer that Whitehead was not destitute +of fine social qualities. His verse, which is of the only type current +a century ago, is elegantly smooth, and wearisomely tame,--nowhere +rising into striking or original beauties. Among his merits as a poet +modesty was not. His "Charge to the Poets," published in 1762, drew +upon him the wrath and ridicule of his fellow-verse-wrights, and +perhaps deservedly. Assuming, with amusing vanity, what, if ever true, +was only so a century before or a half-century after, that the laurel +was the emblem of supremacy in the realm of letters, and that it had +been granted him as a token of his matchless merit,-- + + "Since my king and patron have thought fit + To place me on the throne of modern wit,--" + +he proceeds to read the subject throng a saucy lecture on their vices +and follies,-- + + "As bishops to their clergy give their charge." + +A good-natured dogmatism is the tone of the whole; but presumption and +dogmatism find no charity among the _genus irritabile_, and Whitehead +received no quarter. Small wits and great levelled their strokes at a +hide which self-conceit had happily rendered proof. The sturdiest +assailant was Charles Churchill. He never spares him,-- + + "Who in the Laureate chair-- + By grace, not merit, planted there-- + In awkward pomp is seen to sit, + And by his patent proves his wit; + For favors of the great, we know, + Can wit as well as rank bestow; + And they who, without one pretension, + Can get for fools a place or pension, + Must able be supposed, of course, + If reason is allowed due force, + To give such qualities and grace + As may equip them for the place. + + "But he who measures as he goes + A mongrel kind of tinkling prose, + And is too frugal to dispense + At once both poetry and sense,-- + Who, from amidst his slumbering guards, + Deals out a charge to subject bards, + Where couplets after couplets creep, + Propitious to the reign of sleep," etc. + +Again, in the "Prophecy of Famine,"-- + + "A form, by silken smile, and tone + Dull and unvaried, for the Laureate known, + Folly's chief friend, Decorum's eldest son, + In every party found, and yet of none, + This airy substance, this substantial shade." + +And elsewhere he begs for + + "Some such draught... + As makes a Whitehead's ode go down, + Or slakes the feverette of Brown." + +But satire disturbed not the calm equanimity of the pensioner and +placeman. + + "The laurel worn + By poets in old time, but destined now + In grief to wither on a Whitehead's brow," + +continued to fade there, until a whole generation of poets had passed +away. It was not until the middle of April, 1785, that Death made way +for a successor. + +The suddenness of Whitehead's decease came near leaving a royal +birthday unsung,--an omission scarcely pardonable with one of George +the Third's methodical habits. An impromptu appointment had to be +made. It was made before the Laureate was buried. Thomas Warton, the +Professor of Poetry at Oxford, received the patent on the 30th of +April, and his ode, married to fitting music, was duly forthcoming on +the 24th of May. The selection of Warton was faultless. His lyrical +verse was the best of a vicious school; his sonnets, according to that +exquisite sonneteer, Sir Egerton Brydges, were the finest in the +language; his "History of English Poetry," of which three volumes had +appeared, displayed an intimate acquaintance with the early English +writers. Nor should we pass unnoticed his criticisms and annotations +upon Milton and Spenser, manifesting as they did the acutest +sensitiveness to the finest beauties of poetry. If the laurel implied +the premiership of living poets, Warton certainly deserved it. He was +a head and shoulders taller than his actual contemporaries.[16] He +stood in the gap between the old school and the new, between the dead +and the coming. Goldsmith and Johnson were no more; Cowper did not +print his "Task" until the autumn of 1785; Burns made his _début_ +about the same moment; Rogers published his "Ode to Superstition" the +next year; the famous "Fourteen Sonnets" of Bowles came two years +later; while Wordsworth and Landor made their first appearance in +1793. Fortunate thus in time, Warton was equally fortunate in +politics. He was an Oxford Tory, a firm believer in divine right and +passive obedience, and a warm supporter of the new ministers. To the +King, it may be added, no nomination could have given greater +satisfaction. The official odes of Warton evince all the elegant +traits which characterize his other writings. Their refined taste and +exquisite modulation are admirable; while the matter is far less +sycophantic than was to be expected from so devout a monarchist. The +tender of the laurel certainly gratified him:-- + + "Yet still one joy remains, that not obscure + Nor useless all my vacant days have flowed, + From youth's gay dawn to manhood's prime mature, + Nor with the Muse's laurel unbestowed."[17] + +And, like Southey, he was not indisposed to enhance the dignity of the +wreath by classing Chaucer and Spenser, as we have seen, among its +wearers. The genuine claims of Warton to respect probably saved him +from the customary attacks. Bating a few bungling thrusts amid the +doggerel of "Peter Pindar," he escaped scathless,--gaining, on the +other hand, a far more than ordinary proportion of poetical panegyric. + + "Affection and applause alike he shared; + All loved the man, all venerate the bard: + E'en Prejudice his fate afflicted hears, + And lettered Envy sheds reluctant tears. + Such worth the laurel could alone repay, + Profaned by Cibber, and contemned by Gray; + Yet hence its Breath shall new distinction claim, + And, though it gave not, take from Warton fame."[18] + +The last of Warton's odes was written in his last illness, and +performed three days after his death. Appositely enough, it was an +invocation to Health, meriting more than ordinary praise for eloquent +fervor. Warton died May 21st, 1790. The laurel was vacant for a month, +when Henry James Pye was gazetted. There was hardly a hungry placeman +in London who had not as just pretensions to the honor. What poetical +gifts he had displayed had been in school or college exercises. His +real claims consisted in having spent a fortune in electioneering for +ministers; and these claims being pressed with unusual urgency at the +moment of Warton's death, he was offered the Laureateship as +satisfaction in part.[19] He eagerly accepted it, and received the +balance two years later in the shape of a commission as Police +Magistrate of Middlesex. Thereafter, like Henry Fielding, or Gilbert +A'Beckett, he divided his days between penal law and polite +literature. His version of the "Poetics" of Aristotle, with +illustrations drawn liberally from recent authors, was perhaps +begotten of a natural wish to satisfy the public that qualifications +for the laurel were not wholly wanting. A barren devotion to the drama +was always his foible. It was freely indulged. With few exceptions, +his plays were affairs of partnership with Samuel James Arnold, a +writer of ephemeral popularity, whose tale of "The Haunted Island" was +wildly admired by readers of the intensely romantic school, but whose +tragedies, melodramas, comedies, farces, operas, are now forgotten. In +addition to these auxiliary labors, which ripened yearly, Pye tried +his hand at an epic,--the subject, King Alfred,--the plot and +treatment not greatly differing from those which Blackmore brought to +the same enterprise. The poem passed at once from the bookshop to the +trunk-maker,--not, however, before an American publisher was found +daring enough to reprint it. There are also to be mentioned +translations from Pindar, Horace, and other classics, for Sharpe's +edition of the British Poets, a collection to which he lent editorial +aid. "Poet Pye"[20] was fortunate in escaping contemporary wit and +satire. Gifford alluded to him, but Gifford's Toryism was security +that no Tory Court-Poet would be roughly handled. Byron passed him in +silence. The Smiths treated him as respectfully as they treated +anybody. Moore's wit at the expense of the Regent and his courtiers +had only found vent in the "Two-Penny Post-Bag" when Pye was gathered +to his predecessors. + +That calamity occurred in August, 1813. With it ended the era of +birthday songs and New-Year's verses. The King was mad; his nativity +was therefore hardly a rational topic of rejoicing. The Prince Regent +had no taste for the solemn inanity of stipulated ode, the performance +of which only served to render insufferably tedious the services of +the two occasions in the year when imperative custom demanded his +attendance at the Chapel. Consultation was had with John Wilson +Croker, Secretary of the Admiralty. Croker's sharp common-sense at +once suggested the abolition of the Laureate duties, but the retention +of the office as a sinecure. Walter Scott, to whom the place was +offered, as the most popular of living poets, seconded the counsel of +Croker, but declined the appointment, as beneath the dignity of the +intended founder of a long line of border knights. He recommended +Southey. He had already recommended Southey to the "Quarterly," and +through the "Quarterly" to Croker, then and still its most brilliant +contributor; and this second instance of disinterested kindness was +equally efficacious. Southey was appointed. The tierce of Canary +ceased to be a perquisite of the office, the Laureate disclaiming it; +and instead of annual odes upon set occasions, such effusions as the +poet might choose to offer at the suggestion of passing events were to +be accepted as the sum of official duty. These were to be said or +read, not sung,--a change that completed the radical revolution of the +office. + +However important the salary of a hundred pounds may have been to +Southey, it is very sure that the laurel seemed to infuse all its +noxious and poisonous juices into his literary character. His vanity, +like Whitehead's, led him to regard his chaplet as the reward of +unrivalled merit. His study-chair was glorified, and became a throne. +His supremacy in poetry was as indubitable as the king's supremacy in +matters ecclesiastical. He felt himself constrained to eliminate +utterly from his conscience whatever traces of early republicanism, +pantisocracy, and heresy still disfigured it; and to conform +unreservedly to the exactest requirements of high Toryism in politics +and high Churchism in religion. He was in the pay and formed a part of +the government; could he do else than toil mightily in his department +for the service of a master who had so sagaciously anticipated the +verdict of posterity, as to declare him, who was the least popular, +the greatest of living poets? He found it a duty to assume a rigid +censorship over as many of his Majesty's lieges as were addicted to +verse,--to enact the functions of minister of literary police,--to +reprehend the levity of Moore, the impiety of Byron, the democracy of +Leigh Hunt, the unhappy lapse of Hazlitt, the drunkenness of Lamb. +Assumptions so open to ridicule, and so disparaging to far abler men, +told as disadvantageously upon his fame as upon his character. He +became the butt of contemporary satire. Horace Smith, Moore, Shelley, +Byron, lampooned him savagely. The latter made him the hero of his +wicked "Vision of Judgment," and to him dedicated his "Don Juan." The +dedication was suppressed; but no chance offered in the body of that +profligate rhapsody to assail Bob Southey, that was not vigorously +employed. The self-content of the Laureate armed him, however, against +every thrust. Contempt he interpreted as envy of his sublime +elevation:-- + + "Grin, Envy, through thy ragged mask of scorn! + In honor it was given; with honor it is worn." + +Of course such matchless self-complacency defied assault. + +Southey's congratulatory odes appeared as often as public occasion +seemed to demand them. There were in rapid succession the "Ode to the +Regent," the "Carmen Triumphale," the "Pilgrimage to Waterloo," the +"Vision of Judgment," the "Carmen Nuptiale," the "Ode on the Death of +the Princess Charlotte." The "Quarterly" exalted them, one and all; +the "Edinburgh" poured upon them volleys of keen but ineffectual +ridicule. At last the Laureate desisted. The odes no longer appeared; +and during the long and dark closing years of his life, the only +production of the Laureate pen was the yearly signature to a receipt +for one hundred pounds sterling, official salary. + +Robert Southey died in March, 1843. Sir Robert Peel, who had obliged +Wordsworth the year before, by transferring the post in the excise, +which he had so long held, to the poet's son, and substituting a +pension for its salary, testified further his respect for the Bard of +Rydal by tendering him the laurel. It was not to be refused. Had the +office been hampered with any demands upon the occupant for popular +lyric, in celebration of notable events, Wordsworth was certainly the +last man to place in it. His frigid nature was incapable of that +prompt enthusiasm, without which, poetry, especially poetry responsive +to some strong emotion momentarily agitating the popular heart, is +lifeless and worthless. Fortunately, there were no such exactions. The +office had risen from its once low estate to be a dignified sinecure. +As such, Wordsworth filled it; and, dying, left it without one +poetical evidence of having worn the wreath. + +To him, in May, 1850, succeeded, who, as the most acceptable poet of +the day, could alone rightly succeed, Alfred Tennyson, the actual +Poet-Laureate. Not without opposition. There were those who endeavored +to extinguish the office, and hang up the laurel forever,--and to that +end brought pregnant argument to bear upon government. "The Times" was +more than usually decided in favor of the policy of extinguishment. +Give the salary, it was urged, as a pension to some deserving writer +of verse, whose necessities are exacting; but abolish a title degraded +by association with names and uses so unworthy, as to confer shame, +not honor, on the wearer. The laurel is presumed to be granted to the +ablest living English poet. What vocation have the Tite Barnacles, +red-tapists, vote-mongers, of Downing Street to discriminate and +determine this supreme poetical excellence, in regard to which the +nicest critics, or the most refined and appreciative reading public +may reasonably differ among themselves as widely as the stars? On the +other hand, it was argued, that the laurel had, from its last two +wearers, recovered its lost dignity. They had lent it honor, which it +could not fail to confer upon any survivor, however great his name. +If, then, the old odium had disappeared, why not retain the place for +the sake of the ancient worthies whom tradition had handed down as at +one time or another connected with it? There was rarely difficulty in +selecting from among contemporary poets one of preëminent talent, +whose elevation to the laurel would offend none of his fellows. There +was certainly no difficulty in the present case. There was palpable +evidence that Tennyson was by all admission the hierophant of his +order; and it would be time enough to dispense with the title when a +future occasion should be at a loss to decide among contending +candidates. The latter reasoning prevailed. Tennyson accepted the +laurel, and with it a self-imposed obligation to make occasional +acknowledgments for the gift. + +The first opportunity presented itself in the issue of a fresh edition +of his poems, in 1851. To these he prefixed some noble verses, +dedicating the volumes to the Queen, and referring with as much +delicacy as modesty to his place and his predecessor:-- + + "Victoria,--since your royal grace + To one of less desert allows + This laurel, greener from the brows + Of him that uttered nothing base."-- + +The next occasion was of a different order. The hero of Waterloo ended +his long life in 1852, and a nation was in mourning. Then, if ever, +poets, whether laurelled or leafless, were called to give eloquent +utterance to the popular grief; and Tennyson, of all the poets, was +looked to for its highest expression. The Threnode of the Laureate was +duly forthcoming. The public was, as it had no right to be, +disappointed. Tennyson's Muse was ever a wild and wilful creature, +defiant of rules, and daringly insubordinate to arbitrary forms. It +could not, with the witling in the play, cap verses with any man. The +moment its tasks were dictated and the form prescribed, that moment +there was ground to expect the self-willed jade to play a jade's +trick, and leave us with no decent results of inspiration. For odes +and sonnets, and other such Procrustean moulds into which poetic +thought is at times cast, Tennyson had neither gift nor liking. When, +therefore, with the Duke's death, came a sudden demand upon his Muse, +and that in shape so solemn as to forbid, as the poet conceived, any +fanciful license of invention, the Pindaric form seemed inevitable; +and that form rendered a fair exhibition of the poet's peculiar genius +out of the question. Strapped up in prescription, and impelled to move +by official impulse, his Pegasus was as awkward as a cart-horse. And +yet men did him the justice to say that his failure out-topped the +success of others. + +Far better--indeed, with the animating thrill of the war-trumpet--was +"The Charge of the Light Brigade," and simply because the topic +admitted of whatever novelty of treatment the bias of the bard might +devise. This is the Laureate's most successful attempt at strictly +popular composition. It proves him to possess the stuff of a Tyrtaeus +or a Körner,--something vastly more stirring and stimulating than the +usual staple of + + "The dry-tongued laurel's pattering talk."[21] + +Howbeit, late may he have call for another war-song! + +With the name of Tennyson we reach the term of our Laureate calendar. +Long ages and much perilously dry research must he traverse who shall +enlarge these outlines to the worthier proportions of history. Yet +will the labor not be wholly barren. It will bring him in contact with +all the famous of letters and poetry; he will fight over again +numberless quarrels of authors; he will soar in boundless Pindaric +flights, or sink, sooth to say, in unfathomed deeps of bathos. With +one moral he will be profoundly impressed: Of all the more splendid +results of genius which adorn our language and literature,--for the +literature of the English language is ours,--not one owes its +existence to the laurel; not one can be directly or indirectly traced +to royal encouragement, or the stimulus of salary or stipend. The +laurel, though ever green, and throwing out blossoms now and then of +notable promise, has borne no fruit. We might strike from the language +all that is ascribable solely to the honor and emolument of this +office, without inflicting a serious loss upon letters. The masques of +Jonson would be regretted; a few lines of Tennyson would be missed. +For the rest, we might readily console ourselves. It may certainly be +urged, that the laurel was designed rather as a reward than as a +provocative of merit; but the allegation has become true only within +the last half-century. Antecedently to Southey, it was the +consideration for which return in poetry was demanded,--in the first +instance, a return in dramatic poetry, and then in the formal lyric. +It was put forth as the stimulus to works good in their several kinds, +and it may be justly complained of for never having provoked any good +works. To represent it as a reward commensurate with the merits of +Wordsworth and Tennyson, or even of Southey, is to rate three +first-class names in modern poetry on a level with the names of those +third-rate "poetillos" who, during the eighteenth century, obtained +the same reward for two intolerable effusions yearly. Upon the whole, +therefore, we incline to the opinion that the laurel can no longer +confer honor or profit upon literature. Sack is palatable, and a +hundred pounds are eminently useful; but the arbitrary judgments of +queens and courtiers upon poetical issues are neither useful nor +palatable. The world may, in fact, contrive to content itself, should +King Alfred prove the last of the Laureates. + +[Footnote 1: Schol. Vet. ad _Nem. Od._ 5.] + +[Footnote 2: Commentators agree, we believe, that there was an error +as to the sum. But we tell the story as we find it.] + +[Footnote 3: DRYDEN, _Epistle to Wm. Congreve_, 1693.] + +[Footnote 4: The _Threnodia Augustalis_, 1685, where the eulogy is +equitably distributed between the dead Charles and the living James.] + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Johnson tells the story of Rowe having applied to +Lord Oxford for promotion, and being asked whether he understood +Spanish. Elated with the prospect of an embassy to Madrid, Rowe +hurried home, shut himself up, and for months devoted himself to the +study of a language the possession of which was to make his fortune. +At length, he reappeared at the Minister's _levée_ and announced +himself a Spanish scholar. "Then," said Lord Oxford, shaking his hand +cordially, "let me congratulate you on your ability to enjoy _Don +Quixote_, in the original." Johnson seems to throw doubt on the story, +because Rowe would not even speak to a Tory, and certainly would not +apply to a Tory minister for advancement. But Oxford was once a Whig, +and was in office as such; and it was probably at that period the +incident occurred.] + +[Footnote 6: Battle of the Poets, 1725.] + +[Footnote 7: + + "Harmonious Cibber entertains + The court with annual birthday strains, + Whence Gay was banished in disgrace, + Where Pope will never show his face, + Where Young must torture his invention + To flatter knaves, or lose his pension." + + SWIFT, _Poetry, a Rhapsody,_ 1733.] + +[Footnote 8: + + "Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise; + He sleeps among the dull of ancient days; + Where wretched Withers, Ward, and Gildon rest, + And high-born Howard, more majestic sire, + With fool of quality completes the choir. + Thou, Cibber! thou his laurel shalt support; + Folly, my son, has still a friend at court." + + _Dunciad_, Bk. I. + +Warburton, by-the-by, exculpates Eusden from any worse fault, as a +writer, than being too prolix and too prolific.--See Note to +_Dunciad_, Bk. II. 291.] + +[Footnote 9: Duck stands at the head of the prodigious school in +English literature. All the poetical bricklayers, weavers, cobblers, +farmer's boys, shepherds, and basket-makers, who have since astonished +their day and generation, hail him as their general father.] + +[Footnote 10: The antiquary may be pleased to know that the "Devil" +tavern in Fleet Street, the old haunt of the dramatists, was the place +where the choir of the Chapel Royal gathered to rehearse the Laureate +odes. Hence Pope, at the close of _Dunciad I._, + + "Then swells the Chapel-Royal throat; + 'God save King Cibber!' mounts in every note. + Familiar White's 'God save King Colley!' cries; + 'God save King Colley!' Drury-Lane replies;"] + +[Footnote 11: + + "On his own works with laurel crowned, + Neatly and elegantly bound,-- + For this is one of many rules + With writing Lords and laureate fools, + And which forever must succeed + With other Lords who cannot read, + However destitute of wit, + To make their works for bookcase fit,-- + Acknowledged master of those seats, + Cibber his birthday odes repeats." + + CHURCHILL, _The Ghost_.] + +[Footnote 12: Swift charges Colley with having wronged Grub Street, by +appropriating to himself all the money Britain designed for its +poets:-- + + "Your portion, taking Britain round, + Was just one annual hundred pound; + Now not so much as in remainder, + Since Cibber brought in an attainder, + Forever fixed by right divine, + A monarch's right, on Grub-Street line." + + _Poetry, a Rhapsody_, 1733.] + +[Footnote 13: Whatever momentary benefit may result from satire, it is +clear that its influence in the long run is injurious to literature. +The satirist, like a malignant Archimago, creates a false medium, +through which posterity is obliged to look at his contemporaries,--a +medium which so refracts and distorts their images, that it is almost +out of the question to see them correctly. There is no rule, as in +astronomy, by which this refraction may be allowed for and corrected.] + +[Footnote 14: London, 1749, 8vo.] + +[Footnote 15: Charge to the Poets, 1762.] + +[Footnote 16: If the reader cares to hear the best that can be said of +Thomas Warton, let him read the Life of Milton, prefixed by Sir +Egerton Brydges to his edition of the poet. If he has any curiosity to +hear the other side, let him read all that Ritson ever wrote, and Dr. +Charles Symnions, in the Life of Milton, prefixed to the standard +edition of the Prose Works, 1806. Symnions denies to Warton the +possession of taste, learning, or sense. Certainly, to an American, +the character of Joseph Warton, the brother of Thomas, is far more +amiable. Joseph was as liberal as his brother was bigoted. While +Thomas omits no chance of condemning Milton's republicanism, in his +notes to the Minor Poems, Joseph is always disposed to sympathize with +the poet. The same generous temper characterizes his commentary upon +Dryden.] + +[Footnote 17: _Sonnet upon the River Lodon_.] + +[Footnote 18: Dr. Huddersford's _Salmagundi_.] + +[Footnote 19: One of the earlier poems of Alexander Wilson, the +ornithologist, was entitled, _The Laurel Disputed_, and was published +in 1791. We have not met with it; but we apprehend, from title and +date, that it is a _jeu d'esprit_, founded upon the recent +appointment. The poetry of Wilson was characterized by much original +humor.] + +[Footnote 20: + + "Come to our _fête_, and show again + That pea-green coat, thou pink of men! + Which charmed all eyes, that last surveyed it; + When Brummel's self inquired, 'Who made it?' + When Cits came wondering from the East, + And thought thee Poet Pye at least." + _Two-Penny Post-Bag_, 1812.] + +[Footnote 21: TENNYSON, _Maud_.] + + + + +WATER-LILIES. + +The inconstant April mornings drop showers or sunbeams over the +glistening lake, while far beneath its surface a murky mass disengages +itself from the muddy bottom, and rises slowly through the waves. The +tasselled alder-branches droop above it; the last year's blackbird's +nest swings over it in the grapevine; the newly-opened Hepaticas and +Epigaeas on the neighboring bank peer down modestly to look for it; +the water-skater (Gerris) pauses on the surface near it, casting on +the shallow bottom the odd shadow of his feet, like three pairs of +boxing-gloves; the Notonecta, or water-boatman, rows round and round +it, sometimes on his breast, sometimes on his back; queer caddis-worms +trail their self-made homesteads of leaves or twigs beside it; the +Dytiscus, dorbug of the water, blunders clumsily against it; the +tadpole wriggles his stupid way to it, and rests upon it, meditating +of future frogdom; the passing wild-duck dives and nibbles at it; the +mink and musk-rat brush it with their soft fur; the spotted turtle +slides over it; the slow larvae of gauzy dragon-flies cling sleepily +to its sides and await their change: all these fair or uncouth +creatures feel, through the dim waves, the blessed longing of spring; +and yet not one of them dreams that within that murky mass there lies +a treasure too white and beautiful to be yet intrusted to the waves, +and that for many a day that bud must yearn toward the surface, +before, aspiring above it, as mortals to heaven, it meets the sunshine +with the answering beauty of the Water-Lily. + +Days and weeks have passed away; the wild-duck has flown onward, to +dive for his luncheon in some remoter lake; the tadpoles have made +themselves legs, with which they have vanished; the caddis-worms have +sealed themselves up in their cylinders, and emerged again as winged +insects; the dragon-flies have crawled up the water-reeds, and, +clinging with heads upward, (not downward, as strangely described in a +late "North British Review,") have undergone the change which +symbolizes immortality; the world is transformed from spring to +summer; the lily-buds are opened into glossy leaf and radiant flower, +and we have come for the harvest. + +We lodged, last night, in the old English phrase, "at the sign of the +Oak and Star." Wishing, not, indeed, like the ancient magicians, to +gather magic berry and bud before sunrise, but at least to see these +treasures of the lake in their morning hour, we camped last night on a +little island, which one tall tree almost covers with its branches, +while a dense undergrowth of young chestnuts and birches fills all the +intervening space, touching the water all around the circular, +shelving shore. Yesterday was hot, but the night was cool, and we +kindled a gypsy fire of twigs, less for warmth than for society. The +first gleam made the dark lonely islet into a cheering home, turned +the protecting tree to a starlit roof, and the chestnut-sprays to +illuminated walls. Lying beneath their shelter, every fresh flickering +of the fire kindled the leaves into brightness and banished into dark +interstices the lake and sky; then the fire died into embers, the +leaves faded into solid darkness in their turn, and water and heavens +showed light and close and near, until fresh twigs caught fire and the +blaze came up again. Rising to look forth, at intervals, during the +night,--for it is the worst feature of a night out-doors, that +sleeping seems such a waste of time,--we watched the hilly and wooded +shores of the lake sink into gloom and glimmer into dawn again, amid +the low plash of waters and the noises of the night. + +Precisely at half-past three, a song-sparrow above our heads gave one +liquid trill, so inexpressibly sudden and delicious, that it seemed to +set to music every atom of freshness and fragrance that Nature held; +then the spell was broken, and the whole shore and lake were vocal +with song. Joining in this jubilee of morning, we were early in +motion; bathing and breakfast, though they seemed indisputably in +accordance with the instincts of the Universe, yet did not detain us +long, and we were promptly on our way to Lily Pond. Will the reader +join us? + +It is one of those summer days when a veil of mist gradually burns +away before the intense sunshine, and the sultry morning only plays at +coolness, and that with its earliest visitors alone. But we are before +the sunlight, though not before the sunrise, and can watch the pretty +game of alternating mist and shine. Stray gleams of glory lend their +trailing magnificence to the tops of chestnut-trees, floating vapors +raise the outlines of the hills and make mystery of the wooded +islands, and, as we glide through the placid water, we can sing, with +the Chorus in the "Ion" of Euripides, "O immense and brilliant air, +resound with our cries of joy!" + +Almost every town has its Lily Pond, dear to boys and maidens, and +partially equalizing, by its annual delights, the presence or absence +of other geographical advantages. Ours is accessible from the larger +lake only by taking the skiff over a narrow embankment, which protects +our fairyland by its presence, and eight distant factories by its dam. +Once beyond it, we are in a realm of dark Lethean water, utterly +unlike the sunny depths of the main lake. Hither the water-lilies have +retreated, to a domain of their own. Darker than these dark waves, +there stand in their bosom hundreds of submerged trees, and dismasted +roots still upright, spreading their vast, uncouth limbs like enormous +spiders beneath the surface. They are remnants of border wars with the +axe, vegetable Witheringtons, still fighting on their stumps, but +gradually sinking into the soft ooze, and ready, perhaps, when a score +of centuries has piled two more strata of similar remains in mud above +them, to furnish foundations for a newer New Orleans; that city having +been lately discovered to be thus supported. + +The present decline in business is clear revenue to the water-lilies, +and these waters are higher than usual because the idle factories do +not draw them off. But we may notice, in observing the shores, that +peculiar charm of water, that, whether its quantity be greater or +less, its grace is the same; it makes its own boundary in lake or +river, and where its edge is, there seems the natural and permanent +margin. And the same natural fitness, without reference to mere +quantity, extends to its children. Before us lie islands and +continents of lilies, acres of charms, whole, vast, unbroken surfaces +of stainless whiteness. And yet, as we approach them, every islanded +cup that floats in lonely dignity, apart from the multitude, appears +as perfect in itself, couched in white expanded perfection, its +reflection taking a faint glory of pink that is scarcely perceptible +in the flower. As we glide gently among them, the air grows fragrant, +and a stray breeze flaps the leaves, as if to welcome us. Each +floating flower becomes suddenly a ship at anchor, or rather seems +beating up against the summer wind, in a regatta of blossoms. + +Early as it is, the greater part of the flowers are already expanded. +Indeed, that experience of Thoreau's, of watching them open in the +first sunbeams, rank by rank, is not easily obtained, unless perhaps +in a narrow stream, where the beautiful slumberers are more regularly +marshalled. In our lake, at least, they open irregularly, though +rapidly. But, this morning, many linger as buds, while others peer up, +in half-expanded beauty, beneath the lifted leaves, frolicsome as +Pucks or baby-nymphs. As you raise the leaf, in such cases, it is +impossible not to imagine that a pair of tiny hands have upheld it, or +else that the pretty head will dip down again, and disappear. Others, +again, have expanded all but the inmost pair of white petals, and +these spring apart at the first touch of the finger on the stem. Some +spread vast vases of fragrance, six or seven inches in diameter, while +others are small and delicate, with petals like fine lace-work. +Smaller still, we sometimes pass a flotilla of infant leaves, an inch +in diameter. All these grow from the deep, dark water,--and the +blacker it is, the fairer their whiteness shows. But your eye follows +the stem often vainly into those sombre depths, and vainly seeks to +behold Sabrina fair, sitting with her twisted braids of lilies, +beneath the glassy, cool, but not translucent wave. Do not start, +when, in such an effort, only your own dreamy face looks back upon +you, beyond the gunwale of the reflected boat, and you find that you +float double, self and shadow. + +Let us rest our paddles, and look round us, while the idle motion +sways our light skiff onward, now half-embayed among the lily-pads, +now lazily gliding over intervening gulfs. There is a great deal going +on in these waters and their fringing woods and meadows. All the +summer long, the pond is bordered with successive walls of flowers. In +early spring emerge the yellow catkins of the swamp-willow, first; +then the long tassels of the graceful alders expand and droop, till +they weep their yellow dust upon the water; then come the +birch-blossoms, more tardily; then the downy leaves and white clusters +of the medlar or shadbush (_Amelanchier Canadensis_ of Gray); these +dropping, the roseate chalices of the mountain-laurel open; as they +fade into melancholy brown, the sweet Azalea uncloses; and before its +last honeyed blossom has trailed down, dying, from the stem, the more +fragrant Clethra starts out above, the button-bush thrusts forth its +merry face amid wild roses, and the Clematis waves its sprays of +beauty. Mingled with these grow, lower, the spiraeas, white and pink, +yellow touch-me-not, fresh white arrowhead, bright blue vervain and +skullcap, dull snakehead, gay monkey-flower, coarse eupatoriums, +milk-weeds, golden-rods, asters, thistles, and a host beside. Beneath, +the brilliant scarlet cardinal-flower begins to palisade the moist +shores; and after its superb reflection has passed away from the +waters, the grotesque witch-hazel flares out its narrow yellow petals +amidst the October leaves, and so ends the floral year. There is not a +week during all these months, when one cannot stand in the boat and +wreathe garlands of blossoms from the shores. + +These all crowd around the brink, and watch, day and night, the +opening and closing of the water-lilies. Meanwhile, upon the waters, +our queen keeps her chosen court, nor can one of these mere +land-loving blossoms touch the hem of her garment. In truth, she bears +no sister near her throne. There is but this one species among us, +_Nymphaea odorata_. The beautiful little rose-colored _Nymphaea +sanguinea_, which once adorned the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, was +merely an occasional variety of costume. She has, indeed, an English +half-sister, _Nymphaea alba_, less beautiful, less fragrant, but +keeping more fashionable hours,--not opening (according to Linnaeus) +till seven, nor closing till four. Her humble cousin, the yellow +Nuphar, keeps commonly aloof, as becomes a poor relation, though +created from the selfsame mud,--a fact which Hawthorne has beautifully +moralized. The prouder Nelumbium, a second-cousin, lineal descendant +of the sacred bean of Pythagoras, keeps aloof, through pride, not +humility, and dwells, like a sturdy democrat, in the Far West. + +But, undisturbed, the water-lily keeps her fragrant court, with +few attendants. The tall pickerel-weed (Pontederia) is her +gentleman-usher, gorgeous in blue and gold through July, somewhat +rusty in August. The water-shield (Hydropeltis) is chief +maid-of-honor; she is a highborn lady, not without royal blood indeed, +but with rather a bend sinister; not precisely beautiful, but very +fastidious; encased over her whole person with a gelatinous covering, +literally a starched duenna. Sometimes she is suspected of conspiring +to drive her mistress from the throne; for we have observed certain +slow watercourses where the leaves of the water-lily have been almost +wholly replaced by the similar, but smaller, leaves of the +water-shield. More rarely seen is the slender Utricularia, a dainty +maiden, whose light feet scarce touch the water,--with the still more +delicate floating white Water-Ranunculus, and the shy Villarsia, whose +submerged flowers merely peep one day above the surface and then close +again forever. Then there are many humbler attendants, Potamogetons or +pond-weeds. And here float little emissaries from the dominions of +land; for the fallen florets of the Viburnum drift among the +lily-pads, with mast-like stamens erect, sprinkling the water with a +strange beauty, and cheating us with the promise of a new aquatic +flower. + +These are the still life of this sequestered nook; but it is in fact a +crowded thoroughfare. No tropic jungle more swarms with busy existence +than these midsummer waters and their bushy banks. The warm and +humming air is filled with insect sounds, ranging from the murmur of +invisible gnats and midges, to the impetuous whirring of the great +Libellulae, large almost as swallows, and hawking high in air for +their food. Swift butterflies glance by, moths flutter, flies buzz, +grasshoppers and katydids pipe their shrill notes, sharp as the edges +of the sunbeams. Busy bees go humming past, straight as arrows, +express-freight-trains from one blossoming copse to another. Showy +wasps of many species fume uselessly about, in gallant uniforms, +wasting an immense deal of unnecessary anger on the sultry universe. +Graceful, stingless Sphexes and Ichneumon-flies emulate their bustle, +without their weapons. Delicate lady-birds come and go to the +milkweeds, spotted almost as regularly as if Nature had decided to +number the species, like policemen or hack-drivers, from one to +twenty. Elegant little Lepturae fly with them, so gay and airy, they +hardly seem like beetles. Phryganeae, (_nés_ caddisworms,) laceflies, +and long-tailed Ephemerae flutter more heavily by. On the large +alder-flowers clings the superb _Desmocerus palliatus_, beautiful as a +tropical insect, with his steel-blue armor and his golden cloak +(_pallium_) above his shoulders, grandest knight on this Field of the +Cloth of Gold. The countless fireflies which spangled the evening mist +now only crawl sleepily, daylight creatures, with the lustre buried in +their milky bodies. More wholly children of night, the soft, luxurious +Sphinxes (or hawk-moths) come not here; fine ladies of the insect +world, their home is among gardens and green-houses, late and languid +by day, but all night long upon the wing, dancing in the air with +unwearied muscles till long past midnight, and supping on honey at +last. They come not here; but the nobler butterflies soar above us, +stoop a moment to the water, and then with a few lazy wavings of their +sumptuous wings float far over the oak-trees to the woods they love. + +All these hover near the water-lily; but its special parasites are an +elegant beetle (_Donacia metallica_) which keeps house permanently in +the flower, and a few smaller ones which tenant the surface of the +leaves,--larva, pupa, and perfect insect, forty feeding like one, and +each leading its whole earthly career on this floating island of +perishable verdure. The "beautiful blue damsel-flies" alight also in +multitudes among them, so fearless that they perch with equal +readiness on our boat or paddle, and so various that two adjacent +ponds will sometimes be haunted by two distinct sets of species. In +the water, among the leaves, little shining whirlwigs wheel round and +round, fifty joining in the dance, till, at the slightest alarm, they +whirl away to some safer ballroom, and renew the merriment. On every +floating log, as we approach it, there is a convention of turtles, +sitting in calm debate, like mailed barons, till, as we approach, they +plump into the water, and paddle away for some subaqueous Runnymede. +Beneath, the shy and stately pickerel vanishes at a glance, shoals of +minnows glide, black and bearded pouts frisk aimlessly, soft +water-lizards hang poised without motion, and slender pickerel-frogs +cease occasionally their submerged croaking, and, darting to the +surface with swift vertical strokes, gulp a mouthful of fresh air, and +down again to renew the moist soliloquy. + +Time would fail us to tell of the feathered life around us,--the +blackbirds that build securely in these thickets, the stray swallows +that dip their wings in the quiet waters, and the kingfishers that +still bring, as the ancients fabled, halcyon days. Yonder stands, +against the shore, a bittern, motionless in that wreath of mist which +makes his long-legged person almost as dim as his far-off booming by +night. There poises a hawk, before sweeping down to some chosen bough +in the dense forest; and there fly a pair of blue-jays, screaming, +from tree to tree. As for wild quadrupeds, the race is almost passed +away. Far to the North, indeed, the great moose still browses on the +lily-pads, and the shy beaver nibbles them; but here the few lingering +four-footed creatures only haunt, but do not graze upon these floating +pastures. Eyes more favored than ours may yet chance to spy an otter +in this still place; there by the shore are the small footprints of a +mink; that dark thing disappearing in the waters, yonder, a soft mass +of drowned fur, is a "musquash." Later in the season, a mound of earth +will be his winter dwelling-place; and those myriad muscle-shells at +the water's edge are the remnant of his banquets,--once banquets for +the Indians, too. + +But we must return to our lilies. There is no sense of wealth like +floating in this archipelago of white and green. The emotions of +avarice become almost demoralizing. Every flower bears a fragrant +California in its bosom, and you feel impoverished at the thought of +leaving one behind. But after the first half-hour of eager grasping, +one becomes fastidious, rather scorns those on which the wasps and +flies have alighted, and seeks only the stainless. But handle them +tenderly, as if you loved them. Do not grasp at the open flower as if +it were a peony or a hollyhock, for then it will come off, stalkless, +in your hand, and you will cast it blighted upon the water; but coil +your thumb and second finger affectionately around it, press the +extended forefinger firmly to the stem below, and with one steady pull +you will secure a long and delicate stalk, fit to twine around the +graceful head of your beloved, as the Hindoo goddess of beauty +encircled with a Lotus the brow of Rama. + +Consider the lilies. All over our rural watercourses, at midsummer, +float these cups of snow. They are Nature's symbols of coolness. They +suggest to us the white garments of their Oriental worshippers. They +come with the white roses and prepare the way for the white lilies of +the garden. The white doe of Rylstone and Andrew Marvell's fawn might +fitly bathe amid their beauties. Yonder steep bank slopes down to the +lake-side, one solid mass of pale pink laurel, but, once upon the +water, a purer tint prevails. The pink fades into a lingering flush, +and the white creature floats peerless, set in green without and gold +within. That bright circle of stamens is the very ring with which +Doges once wedded the Adriatic, Venice has lost it, but it dropped +into the water-lily's bosom, and there it rests forever. So perfect in +form, so redundant in beauty, so delicate, so spotless, so +fragrant,--what presumptuous lover ever dared, in his most enamored +hour, to liken his mistress to a water-lily? No human Blanche or +Lilian was ever so fair as that. + +The water-lily comes of an ancient and sacred family of white-robed +priests. They assisted at the most momentous religious ceremonies, +from the beginning of recorded time. The Egyptian Lotus was a sacred +plant; it was dedicated to Harpocrates and to the god Nofr +Atmoo,--Nofr meaning _good_, whence the name of our yellow lily, +Nuphar. But the true Egyptian flower was _Nymphaea Lotus_, though +_Nymphaea caerulea_, Moore's "blue water-lilies," can be traced on the +sculptures also. It was cultivated in tanks in the gardens; it was the +chief material for festal wreaths; a single bud hung over the forehead +of many a queenly dame; and the sculptures represent the weary flowers +as dropping from the heated hands of belles, in the later hours of the +feast. Rock softly on the waters, fair lilies! your Eastern kindred +have rocked on the stormier bosom of Cleopatra. The Egyptian Lotus +was, moreover, the emblem of the sacred Nile,--as the Hindoo species, +of the sacred Ganges; and both the one and the other was held the +symbol of the creation of the world from the waters. The sacred bull +Apis was wreathed with its garlands; there were niches for water, to +place it among tombs; it was carved in the capitals of columns; it was +represented on plates and vases; the sculptures show it in many sacred +uses, even as a burnt-offering; Isis holds it; and the god Nilus still +binds a wreath of water-lilies around the throne of Memnon. + +From Egypt the Lotus was carried to Assyria, and Layard found it among +fir-cones and honeysuckles on the later sculptures of Nineveh. The +Greeks dedicated it to the nymphs, whence the name _Nymphaea_. Nor did +the Romans disregard it, though the Lotus to which Ovid's nymph Lotis +was changed, _servato nomine_, was a tree, and not a flower. Still +different a thing was the enchanted stem of the Lotus-eaters of +Herodotus, which prosaic botanists have reduced to the _Zizyphus +Lotus_ found by Mungo Park, translating also the yellow Lotus-dust +into a mere "farina, tasting like sweet gingerbread." + +But in the Lotus of Hindostan we find our flower again, and the +Oriental sacred books are cool with water-lilies. Open the Vishnu +Purana at any page, and it is a _Sortes Lilianae_. The orb of the +earth is Lotus-shaped, and is upborne by the tusks of Vesava, as if he +had been sporting in a lake where the leaves and blossoms float. +Brahma, first incarnation of Vishnu, creator of the world, was born +from a Lotus; so was Sri or Lakshmu, the Hindoo Venus, goddess of +beauty and prosperity, protectress of womanhood, whose worship guards +the house from all danger. "Seated on a full-blown Lotus, and holding +a Lotus in her hand, the goddess Sri, radiant with beauty, rose from +the waves." The Lotus is the chief ornament of the subterranean Eden, +Patala, and the holy mountain Meru is thought to be shaped like its +seed-vessel, larger at summit than at base. When the heavenly Urvasi +fled from her earthly spouse, Purúvavas, he found her sporting with +four nymphs of heaven, in a lake beautified with the Lotus. When the +virtuous Prahlada was burned at the stake, he cried to his cruel +father, "The fire burneth me not, and all around I behold the face of +the sky, cool and fragrant with beds of Lotus-flowers!" Above all, the +graceful history of the transformations of Krishna is everywhere hung +with these fresh chaplets. Every successive maiden whom the deity +wooes is Lotus-eyed, Lotus-mouthed, or Lotus-cheeked, and the youthful +hero wears always a Lotus-wreath. Also "the clear sky was bright with +the autumnal moon, and the air fragrant with the perfume of the wild +water-lily, in whose buds the clustering bees were murmuring their +song." + +Elsewhere we find fuller details. "In the primordial state of the +world, the rudimental universe, submerged in water, reposed on the +bosom of the Eternal. Brahma, the architect of the world, poised on a +Lotus-leaf, floated upon the waters, and all that he was able to +discern with his eight eyes was water and darkness. Amid scenes so +ungenial and dismal, the god sank into a profound reverie, when he +thus soliloquized: 'Who am I? Whence am I?' In this state of +abstraction Brahma continued during the period of a century and a half +of the gods, without apparent benefit or a solution of his inquiries, +a circumstance which caused him great uneasiness of mind." It is a +comfort, however, to know, that subsequently a voice came to him, on +which he rose, "seated himself upon the Lotus in an attitude of +contemplation, and reflected upon the Eternal, who soon appeared to +him in the form of a man with a thousand heads": a questionable +exchange for his Lotus-solitude. + +This is Brahminism; but the other great form of Oriental religion has +carried the same fair symbol with it. One of the Bibles of the +Buddhists is named "The White Lotus of the Good Laer." A pious +Nepaulese bowed in reverence before a vase of lilies which perfumed +the study of Sir William Jones. At sunset in Thibet, the French +missionaries tell us, every inhabitant of every village prostrates +himself in the public square, and the holy invocation, "Oh, the gem in +the Lotus!" goes murmuring over hill and valley, like the sound of +many bees. It is no unmeaning phrase, but an utterance of ardent +desire to be absorbed into that Brahma whose emblem is the sacred +flower. The mystic formula or "mani" is imprinted on the pavement of +the streets, it floats on flags from the temples, and the wealthy +Buddhists maintain sculptor-missionaries, Old Mortalities of the +water-lily, who, wandering to distant lands, carve the blessed words +upon cliff and stone. + +Having got thus far into Orientalism, we can hardly expect to get out +again without some slight entanglement in philology. Lily-pads. Whence +_pads_? No other leaf is identified with that singular monosyllable. +Has our floating Lotus-leaf any connection with padding, or with a +footpad? with the ambling pad of an abbot, or a paddle, or a paddock, +or a padlock? with many-domed Padua proud, or with St. Patrick? Is the +name derived from the Anglo-Saxon _paad_ or _petthian_, or the Greek +[Greek: pateo]? All the etymologists are silent; Tooke and Richardson +ignore the problem; and of the innumerable pamphlets in the Worcester +and Webster Controversy, loading the tables of school-committee-men, +not one ventures to grapple with the lily-pad. + +But was there ever a philological trouble for which the Sanscrit could +not afford at least a conjectural cure? A dictionary of that extremely +venerable tongue is an ostrich's stomach, which can crack the hardest +etymological nut. The Sanscrit name for the Lotus is simply _Padma_. +The learned Brahmins call the Egyptian deities Padma Devi, or +Lotus-Gods; the second of the eighteen Hindoo Puranas is styled the +Padma Purana, because it treats of the "epoch when the world was a +golden Lotus"; and the sacred incantation which goes murmuring through +Thibet is "Om mani padme houm." It would be singular, if upon these +delicate floating leaves a fragment of our earliest vernacular has +been borne down to us, so that here the schoolboy is more learned than +the _savans_. + +This lets us down easily to the more familiar uses of this plant +divine. By the Nile, in early days, the water-lily was good not merely +for devotion, but for diet. "From the seeds of the Lotus," said Pliny, +"the Egyptians make bread." The Hindoos still eat the seeds, roasted +in sand; also the stalks and roots. In South America, from the seeds +of the Victoria (_Nymphaea Victoria_, now _Victoria Regia_) a farina +is made, preferred to that of the finest wheat,--Bonpland even +suggesting to our reluctant imagination Victoria-pies. But the +European species are used, so far as we know, only in dyeing, and as +food (if the truth be told) of swine. Our own water-lily is rather +more powerful in its uses; the root contains tannin and gallic acid, +and a decoction of it "gives a black precipitate, with sulphate of +iron." It graciously consents to become an astringent, and a styptic, +and a poultice, and, banished from all other temples, still lingers in +those of AEsculapius. + +The botanist also finds his special satisfactions in our flower. It +has some strange peculiarities of structure. So loose is the internal +distribution of its tissues, that it was for some time held doubtful +to which of the two great vegetable divisions, exogenous or +endogenous, it belonged. Its petals, moreover, furnish the best +example of the gradual transition of petals into stamens, +--illustrating that wonderful law of identity which is the +great discovery of modern science. Every child knows this peculiarity +of the water-lily, but the extent of it seems to vary with season and +locality, and sometimes one finds a succession of flowers almost +entirely free from this confusion of organs. + +Our readers may not care to know that the order of Nymphaeaceae +"differs from Ranunculaceae in the consolidation of its carpels, from +Papaveraceae in the placentation not being parietal, and from +Nelumbiaceae in the want of a large truncated disc containing +monospermous achenia"; but they may like to know that the water-lily +has relations on land, in all gradations of society, from poppy to +magnolia, and yet does not conform its habits precisely to those of +any of them. Its great black roots, sometimes as large as a man's arm, +form a network at the bottom of the water. Its stem floats, an airy +four-celled tube, adapting itself to the depth, though never stiff in +shallows, like the stalk of the yellow lily: and it contracts and +curves when seed-time approaches, though not so ingeniously as the +spiral threads of the European Vallisneria, which uncoil to let the +flowers rise to the surface, and then cautiously retract, that the +seeds may ripen on the very bottom of the lake. The leaves show +beneath the magnifier beautiful adaptations of structure. They are +not, like those of land-plants, constructed with deep veins to receive +the rain and conduct it to the stem, but are smooth and glossy, and of +even surface. The leaves of land-vegetation have also thousands of +little breathing-pores, principally on the under side: the apple-leaf, +for instance, has twenty-four thousand to a square inch. But here they +are fewer; they are wholly on the upper side, and, whereas in other +cases they open or shut according to the moisture of the atmosphere, +here the greedy leaves, secure of moisture, scarcely deign to close +them. Nevertheless, even these give some recognition of hygrometric +necessities, and, though living on the water, and not merely +christened with dewdrops like other leaves, but baptized by immersion +all the time, they are yet known to suffer in drought and to take +pleasure in the rain. + +We have spoken of the various kindred of the water-lily; but we must +not leave our fragrant subject without due mention of its most +magnificent, most lovely relative, at first claimed even as its twin +sister, and classed as a Nymphaea. We once lived near neighbor to a +Victoria Regia. Nothing, in the world of vegetable existence, has such +a human interest. The charm is not in the mere size of the plant, +which disappoints everybody, as Niagara does, when tried by that sole +standard. The leaves of the Victoria, indeed, attain a diameter of six +feet; the largest flowers, of twenty-three inches,--less than four +times the size of the largest of our water-lilies. But it is not the +mere looks of the Victoria, it is its life which fascinates. It is not +a thing merely of dimensions, nor merely of beauty, but a creature of +vitality and motion. Those vast leaves expand and change almost +visibly. They have been known to grow half an inch an hour, eight +inches a day. Rising one day from the water, a mere clenched mass of +yellow prickles, a leaf is transformed the next day to a crimson +salver, gorgeously tinted on its upturned rim. Then it spreads into a +raft of green, armed with long thorns, and supported by a frame-work +of ribs and cross-pieces, an inch thick, and so substantial, that the +Brazil Indians, while gathering the seed-vessels, place their young +children on the leaves;--_yrupe_, or water-platter, they call the +accommodating plant. But even these expanding leaves are not the glory +of the Victoria; the glory is in the opening of the flower. + +We have sometimes looked in, for a passing moment, at the green-house, +its dwelling-place, during the period of flowering,--and then stayed +for more than an hour, unable to leave the fascinating scene. After +the strange flower-bud has reared its dark head from the placid tank, +moving it a little, uneasily, like some imprisoned water-creature, it +pauses for a moment in a sort of dumb despair. Then trembling again, +and collecting all its powers, it thrusts open, with an indignant +jerk, the rough calyx-leaves, and the beautiful disrobing begins. The +firm, white, central cone, first so closely infolded, quivers a +little, and swiftly, before your eyes, the first of the hundred petals +detaches its delicate edges, and springs back, opening towards the +water, while its white reflection opens to meet it from below. Many +moments of repose follow,--you watch,--another petal trembles, +detaches, springs open, and is still. Then another, and another, and +another. Each movement is so quiet, yet so decided, so living, so +human, that the radiant creature seems a Musidora of the water, and +you almost blush with a sense of guilt, in gazing on that peerless +privacy. As petal by petal slowly opens, there still stands the +central cone of snow, a glacier, an alp, a jungfrau, while each +avalanche of whiteness seems the last. Meanwhile, a strange rich odor +fills the air, and Nature seems to concentrate all fascinations and +claim all senses for this jubilee of her darling. + +So pass the enchanted moments of the evening, till the fair thing +pauses at last, and remains for hours unchanged. In the morning, one +by one, those white petals close again, shutting all their beauty in, +and you watch through the short sleep for the period of waking. Can +this bright transfigured creature appear again, in the same chaste +beauty? Your fancy can scarcely trust it, fearing some disastrous +change; and your fancy is too true a prophet. Come again, after the +second day's opening, and you start at the transformation which one +hour has secretly produced. Can this be the virgin Victoria,--this +thing of crimson passion, this pile of pink and yellow, relaxed, +expanded, voluptuous, lolling languidly upon the water, never to rise +again? In this short time every tint of every petal is transformed; it +is gorgeous in beauty, but it is "Hebe turned to Magdalen." + +But our rustic water-lily, our innocent Nymphaea, never claiming such +a hot-house glory, never drooping into such a blush, blooms on +placidly in the quiet waters, till she modestly folds her leaves for +the last time, and bows her head beneath the surface forever. Next +year she lives for us only in her children, fair and pure as herself. + +Nay, not alone in them, but also in memory. The fair vision will not +fade from us, though the paddle has dipped its last crystal drop from +the waves, and the boat is drawn upon the shore. We may yet visit many +lovely and lonely places,--meadows thick with violet, or the homes of +the shy Rhodora, or those sloping forest-haunts where the slight +Linnaea hangs its twin-born heads,--but no scene will linger on our +vision like this annual Feast of the Lilies. On scorching mountains, +amid raw prairie-winds, or upon the regal ocean, the white pageant +shall come back to us again, with all the luxury of summer heats, and +all the fragrant coolness that can relieve them. We shall fancy +ourselves again among these fleets of anchored lilies,--again, like +Urvasi, sporting amid the Lake of Lotuses. + +For that which is remembered is often more vivid than that which is +seen. The eye paints better in the presence, the heart in the absence, +of the object most dear. "He who longs after beautiful Nature can best +describe her," said Bettine; "he who is in the midst of her loveliness +can only lie down and enjoy." It enhances the truth of the poet's +verses, that he writes them in his study. Absence is the very air of +passion, and all the best description is _in memoriam_. As with our +human beloved, when the graceful presence is with us, we cannot +analyze or describe, but merely possess, and only after its departure +can it be portrayed by our yearning desires; so is it with Nature: +only in losing her do we gain the power to describe her, and we are +introduced to Art, as we are to Eternity, by the dropping away of our +companions. + + + + +FIFTY AND FIFTEEN. + + With gradual gleam the day was dawning, + Some lingering stars were seen, + When swung the garden-gate behind us,-- + He fifty, I fifteen. + + The high-topped chaise and old gray pony + Stood waiting in the lane: + Idly my father swayed the whip-lash, + Lightly he held the rein. + + The stars went softly back to heaven, + The night-fogs rolled away, + And rims of gold and crowns of crimson + Along the hill-tops lay. + + That morn, the fields, they surely never + So fair an aspect wore; + And never from the purple clover + Such perfume rose before. + + O'er hills and low romantic valleys + And flowery by-roads through, + I sang my simplest songs, familiar, + That he might sing them too. + + Our souls lay open to all pleasure,-- + No shadow came between; + Two children, busy with their leisure,-- + He fifty, I fifteen. + + * * * * * + + As on my couch in languor, lonely, + I weave beguiling rhyme, + Comes back with strangely sweet remembrance + That far-removed time. + + The slow-paced years have brought sad changes, + That morn and this between; + And now, on earth, my years are fifty, + And his, in heaven, fifteen. + + + + +ILLINOIS IN SPRING-TIME: WITH A LOOK AT CHICAGO. + +I remember very well, that, when I studied the "Arabian Nights," with +a devotion which I have since found it difficult to bestow on the +perusal of better books, the thing that most excited my imagination +was the enchanted locomotive carpet, granted by one of the amiable +genii to his favorite, to whom it gave the power of being in a moment +where nobody expected him, paying visits at the most unfashionable +hours, and making himself generally ubiquitous when interest or +curiosity prompted. The other wonders were none of them inexhaustible. +Donkeys that talked after their heads were cut off, just as well as +some donkeys do with them on,--old cats turned into beautiful +damsels,--birds that obligingly carried rings between parted +lovers,--one soon had enough of. Caves full of gold and silver, and +lighted by gems resplendent as the stars, were all very well, but soon +tired. After your imagination had selected a few rings and bracelets, +necklaces and tiaras, and carried off one or two chests full of gold, +what could it do with the rest,--especially as they might vanish or +turn to pebbles or hazel-nuts in your caskets? + +But flying carpets! They could never tire. You seated yourself just in +the middle, in the easiest possible attitude, and at a wish you were +off, (not off the carpet, but off this work-a-day world,) careering +through sunny fields of air with the splendid buoyancy of the eagle, +steering your intelligent vehicle by a mere thought, and descending, +gently as a snow-flake, to garden-bower or palace-window, moonlit +kiosk or silent mountain-peak, as whim suggested or affairs urged. +This was magic indeed, and worthy the genii of any age. + +The sense of reality with which I accepted this wonder of wonders has +furnished forth many a dream, sleeping and waking, since those days; +and it is no uncommon thing for me, even now, to be sailing through +the air, feeling its soft waves against my face, and the delicious +refreshment of the upper ether in my breast, only to wake as if I had +dropped into bed with a celerity that made the arrival upon earth +anything but pleasant. I am not sure but there is some reality in +these flights, after all. These aërial journeys may be foretastes of +those we shall make after we are freed from the incumbrance of +avoirdupois. I hope so, at least. + +Yet there are good things of the kind here below, too. After all, what +were a magic carpet that could carry a single lucky wight,--at best, +but a species of heavenly sulky,--compared with a railroad train that +speeds along hundreds of men, women, and children, over land and +water, with any amount of heavy baggage, as well as a boundless extent +of crinoline? And if this equipage, gift of genii of our age, seem to +lack some of the celerity and secrecy which attended the voyagers of +the flying carpet, suppose we add the power of whispering to a friend +a thousand miles off the inmost thoughts of the heart, the most +desperate plans, the most dangerous secrets! Do not the two powers +united leave the carpet immeasurably behind? + +Shakspeare is said, in those noted lines,-- + + "Dear as the ruddy drops + That visit this sad heart," + +to have anticipated the discovery of the circulation of the blood: did +not the writers of the Oriental stories foresee rail and telegraph, +and describe them in their own tropical style? + +It is often said, that, although medical science leaves us pretty much +as it found us with regard to the days of the years of our pilgrimage, +and has as yet, with all its discoveries, done little towards +prolonging "this pleasing, anxious being," yet the material +improvements of our day do in effect lengthen mortal life for us. And +truly, what must Indian life have been worth, when it took a month to +cut down a tree with a stone hatchet, and when the shaping of a canoe +was the work of a year? When two hundred miles of travel consumed a +week's time, every two hundred miles' journey was worth a week's life; +and if we accept the idea of a certain celebrated character, (not +"Quintus Curtius," but Geoffrey Crayon, I believe,) that the time we +spend in journeying is just so much subtracted from our little span of +days, what a fearful loss of life must have resulted from our old +modes of locomotion! And yet we inconsiderately grumble at an +occasional smash-up! So easily are we spoiled! + +There are grave doubts, however, in some minds, whether our present +celerity of travel be wholly a gain upon the old methods. It must +depend upon circumstances. If agreeable people virtually live longer +now, so do bores, cheats, slanderers, hypocrites, and people who eat +onions and chew tobacco; and the rail enables these to pursue their +victims with inevitable, fatal swiftness. + +Some hold that the pleasure of travelling is even impaired by this +increase of speed. There is such a thing as fatal facility. As well +eat a condensed dinner, or hear a concert in one comprehensive crash, +ear-splitting and soul-confounding, as see miles of landscape at a +glance. Willis says, travelling on an English railway is equivalent to +having so many miles of green damask unrolled before your weary eyes. +And one may certainly have too much of a good thing. + +But, instead of discussing railroads in general,--too grand a theme +for me,--let me say that nobody can persuade me it is not delightful +to fly over ground scarcely yet trodden by the foot of man; to +penetrate, with the most subtle resources of inventive art, the +recesses in which Nature has enshrined herself most privately,--her +dressing-room, as it were, where we find her in her freshness, before +man-milliners have marred her beauty by attempts at improvement. The +contrast between that miracle of art, a railroad-train at full speed, +and a wide, lonely prairie, or a dusky forest, leafless, chilly, and +silent,--save for the small tinkling of streams beginning to break +from their frosty limits,--is one of the most striking in all the wide +range of rural effects. It reminds me, though perhaps unaccountably to +some, of Browning's fine image,-- + + "And ever and anon some bright white shaft + Burnt through the pine-tree roof, here burnt + and there, + As if God's messenger through the close + wood-screen + Plunged and re-plunged his weapon at a venture." + +Even where fields have begun to be tilled and houses and barns to be +built, the scared flying of domestic animals at sound of the terrific +visitor,--the resistless chariot of civilization with scythed axles +mowing down ignorance and prejudice as it whirls along,--tells a whole +story of change and wonder. We can almost see the shadows of the past +escaping into the dim woods, or flitting over the boundless prairie, +shivering at the fearful whistle, and seeking shelter from the wind of +our darting. + +The season for this romantic pleasure of piercing primeval Nature on +the wings of subtilest Art is rapidly drawing to a close. How few +penetrable regions can we now find where the rail-car is a novelty! +The very cows and horses, in most places, know when to expect it, and +hardly vouchsafe a sidelong glance as they munch their green dinner. A +railroad to the Pacific may give excitement of this kind a somewhat +longer date, but those who would enjoy the sensation on routes already +in use must begin their explorings at once. There is no time to be +lost. If we much longer spend all our summers in beating the +changeless paths of the Old World, our chance for the fresh but +fleeting delight I have been speaking of will have passed by, never to +return. It were unwise to lose this, one of the few remaining avenues +to a new sensation. Europe will keep; but the prairies will not, the +woods will not, hardly the rivers. Already the flowery waving oceans +of Illinois begin to abound in ships, or what seem such,--houses +looming up from the horizon, like three-masters sometimes, sometimes +schooners, and again little tentative sloops. These are creeping +nearer and nearer together, filling and making commonplace those +lovely deserts where the imagination can still find wings, and +world-wearied thought a temporary repose. Where neighbors were once +out of beacon-sight, they are now within bell-sound; and however +pleasant this may be for the neighbors, it is not so good for the +traveller, especially the traveller who has seen Europe. Only think of +a virgin forest or prairie, after over-populated Belgium or finished +England! Europeans understand the thing, and invariably rush for the +prairies; but we Americans, however little we may have seen of either +world, care little for the wonders of our own. Yet, when we go abroad, +we cannot help blushing to acknowledge that we have not seen the most +striking features of our own country. I speak from experience. Scott, +describing the arid wastes of the Hebrides,-- + + "Placed far amid the melancholy main," + +and swept bare by wintry-cold sea-breezes, said,-- + + "Yes! 'twas sublime, but sad; the loneliness + Loaded thy heart, the desert tired thine eye." + +But how different the loneliness of a soft-waving prairie,--soft even +before the new grass springs; soft in outline, in coloring, in its +whispering silence! Nothing sad or harsh; no threat or repulsion; only +mild hope, and promise of ease and abundance. Whether the glad flames +sport amid the long dry grass of last year, or the plough turn up a +deep layer of the exhaustless soil, or flocks of prairie-chickens fly +up from every little valley, images of life, joy, and plenty belong to +the scene. The summer flowers are not more cheerful than the spring +blaze, the spring blackness of richness, or the spring whirr and +flutter. The sky is alive with the return of migratory birds, swinging +back and forth, as if hesitating where to choose, where all is good. +Frogs hold noisy jubilees, ("Anniversary Meetings," perhaps,)--very +hoarse, and no wonder, considering their damp lodging,--but singing, +in words more intelligible than those of the opera-choruses, "Winter's +gone! Spring's come! No, it isn't! Yes, it is!"--and the Ayes have it. +The woodpecker's hammer helps the field-music, wherever he can find a +tree. He seems to know the carpenter is coming, and he makes the most +of his brief season. All is life, movement, freedom, joy. Not on the +very Alps, where their black needles seem to dart into the blue +depths, or snow-fields to mingle with the clouds, is the immediate, +vital sympathy of Earth with Heaven more evident and striking. + +The comparative ease with which prairie regions are prepared for the +advent of the great steam-car is exactly typical of the facilities +which they offer to other particulars of civilization. As the +smoothing of the prairie path, preparatory to railway speed, is but +short work, compared with the labor required in grading and levelling +mountainous tracts for the same purpose, so the introduction of all +that makes life desirable goes on with unexampled rapidity where the +land requires no felling of heavy timber to make it ready for the +plough, and where the soil is rich to such a depth that no man fears +any need of new fertilizing in his life-time or his son's. We observe +this difference everywhere in prairiedom; and it is perhaps this +thought, this close interweaving of marked outward aspect with great +human interests, that gives the prairie country its air of peculiar +cheerfulness. To man the earth was given; for him its use and its +beauty were created; it is his idea which endows it with expression, +whether savage or kindly. Rocks and mountains suggest the force +required to conquer difficulties, and the power with which the lord of +creation is endowed to subdue them; and the chief charm and interest +of such regions is derived, consciously or unconsciously, from this +suggestion. Prairie images are more domestic, quiet, leisurely. No +severe, wasting labor is demanded before corn and milk for wife and +little ones are wrung from reluctant clods. No danger is there of sons +or daughters being obliged to quit their homes and roam over foreign +lands for a precarious and beggarly subsistence. No prairie-boy will +ever carry about a hand-organ and a monkey, or see his sister yoked to +the plough, by the side of horse or ox. Blessed be God that there are +still places where grinding poverty is unfelt and unfeared! "Riches +fineless" belong to these deep, soft fields, and they become +picturesque by the thought, as the sea becomes so by the passing of a +ship, and the burning desert by the foot-print of a traveller or the +ashes of his fire. + +It was in spring weather, neither cold nor warm, now and then shiny, +and again spattering with a heavy shower, or misty under a warm, slow +rain,--the snow still lying in little streaks under shady +ridges,--that I first saw the prairies of Illinois. Everybody--kind +everybody!--said, "Why didn't you come in June?" But I, not being a +bird of the air, who alone travels at full liberty, the world before +him where to choose and Providence his guide, cared not to answer this +friendly query, but promised to be interested in the spring aspect of +the prairies, after my fashion, as sincerely as more fastidious +travellers can be in the summer one. It is very well to be prepared +when company is expected, but friends may come at any time. "Brown +fields and pastures bare" have no terrors for me. Green is gayer, but +brown softer. Blue skies are not alone lovely; gray ones set them +off--Rain enhances shine. Mud, to be sure;--but then railroads are the +Napoleons of mud. Planks and platforms quench it completely. One may +travel through tenacious seas of it without smirching one's boot-heel. +There is even a feeling of triumph as we see it lying sulky and +impotent on either side, while we bowl along dry-shod. When Noah and +his family came out of the Ark, and found all "soft with the Deluge," +it was very different. The prospect must have been discouraging. I +thought of it as we went through, or rather over, the prairies. But if +there had been in those days an Ararat Central, with good "incline" +and stationary engine, they need not have sent out dove or raven, but +might have started for home as soon as the rails shone in the sun and +they could get the Ark on wheels. It would have been well to move +carefully, to be sure; and it is odd to think what a journey they +might have had, now and then stopping or switching-off because of a +dead Mastodon across the track, or a panting Leviathan lashing out, +thirstily, with impertinent tail,--to say nothing of sadder sights and +impediments. + +There were only pleasant reminiscences of the Great Deluge as we flew +along after a little one. Happy we! in a nicely-cushioned car, +berthed, curtained, and, better than all, furnished with the "best +society," _sans_ starch, _sans_ crinoline; the gentlemen sitting on +their hats as much as they pleased, and the ladies giving curls and +collars the go-by, all in tip-top humor to be pleased. I could imagine +but one improvement to our equipage,--that a steam-organ attached to +it should have played, very softly, Felicien David's lovely level +music of "The Desert," as we bowled along. There were long glittering +side-streams between us and the black or green prairie,--streams with +little ripples on their faces, as the breeze kissed them in passing, +and now and then a dimple, under the visit of a vagrant new-born +beetle. To call such shining waters mud or puddles did not accord with +the spirit of the hour; so we fancied them the "mirroring waters" of +the poet, and compared them to fertilizing Nile,--whose powers, +indeed, they share, to some extent. By their sides _ought_ to be +planted willows and poplars, and alders of half a dozen kinds, but are +not yet. All in good time. Thirsty trees would drink up superfluous +moisture, and in return save fuel by keeping off sweeping winds, and +money by diverting heavy snows, those Russian enemies to the Napoleon +rail, and by preserving embankments, to which nothing but interlacing +roots can give stability. Rows of trees bordering her railroads would +make Illinois look more like France, which in many respects she +already resembles. + +The haze or _mirage_ of the prairies is wonderfully fantastic and +deceptive. The effect which seamen call _looming_ is one of the +commonest of its forms. This brings real but distant objects into +view, and dignifies them in size and color, till we can take a +farm-house for a white marble palace, and leafless woods with sunset +clouds behind them for enchanted gardens hung with golden fruit. But +the most gorgeous effects are, as is usual with air-castles, created +out of nothing,--that is, nothing more substantial than air, mist, and +sun- or moon- or star-beams. Fine times the imagination has, riding on +purple and crimson rays, and building Islands of the Blest among +vapors that have just risen from the turbid waters of the Mississippi! +No Loudon or Downing is invoked for the contriving or beautifying of +these villa-residences and this landscape-gardening. Genius comes with +inspiration, as inspiration does with genius; and we are our own +architects and draughtsmen, rioting at liberty with Nature's splendid +palette at our command, and no thought of rule or stint. Why should we +not, in solider things, derive more aid, like the poor little +"Marchioness" of Dickens, from this blessed power of imagination? +Those who do so are always laughed at as unpractical; but are they not +most truly practical, if they find and use the secret of gilding over, +and so making beautiful or tolerable, things in themselves mean or +sad? + +Once upon a time, then, the great State of Illinois was all under +water;--at least, so say the learned and statistical. If you doubt it, +go count the distinctly-marked ridges in the so-called bluffs, and see +how many years or ages this modern deluge has been subsiding. Where +its remains once lay sweltering under the hot sun, and sucking miasms +from his beams, now spread great green expanses, wholesome and +fertile, making the best possible use of sunbeams, and offering, by +their aid, every earthly thing that men and animals need for their +bodily growth and sustenance, in almost fabulous abundance. + +The colored map of Illinois, as given in a nice, new book, called, +"Illinois as it is," looks like a beautiful piece of silk, brocaded in +green (prairies) on a brownish ground (woodland tracts),--the surface +showing a nearly equal proportion of the two; while the swampy lands, +designated by dark blue,--in allusion, probably, to the occasional +state of mind of those who live near them,--take up a scarce +appreciable part of the space. Long, straggling "bluffs," on the banks +of the rivers, occupy still less room; but they make, on land and +paper, an agreeable variety. People thus far go to them only for the +mineral wealth with which they abound. It will be many years, yet, +before they will be thought worth farming; not because they would not +yield well, but because there is so much land that yields better. + +Some parts of the State are hilly, and covered with the finest timber. +The scenery of these tracts is equal to any of the kind in the United +States; and much of it has been long under cultivation, having been +early chosen by Southern settlers, who have grown old upon the soil. +Here and there, on these beautiful highlands, we find ancient ladies, +bright-eyed and cheerful, who tell us they have occupied the selfsame +house--built, Kentucky-fashion, with chimney outside--for forty years +or so. The legends these good dames have to tell are, no doubt, quite +as interesting in their way as those which Sir Walter Scott used to +thread the wilds of Scotland to gather up; but we value them not. +By-and-by, posterity will anathematize us for letting our old national +stories die in blind contempt or sheer ignorance of their value. + +The only thing to be found fault with in the landscape is the want of +great fields full of stumps. It does not seem like travelling in a new +country to see all smooth and ready for the plough. Trees are not here +looked upon as natural enemies; and so, where they grow, there they +stand, and wave triumphant over the field like victors' banners. No +finer trees grow anywhere, and one loves to see them so prized. Yet we +miss the dear old stumps. My heart leaps up when I behold hundreds of +them so close together that you can hardly get a plough between. Long, +long years ago, I have seen a dozen men toiling in one little cleared +spot, jollily engaged in burning them with huge fires of brush-wood, +chopping at them with desperate axes, and tearing the less tenacious +out by the roots, with a rude machine made on the principle of that +instrument by the aid of which the dentist revenges you on an +offending tooth. The country looks tame, at first, without these +characteristic ornaments, so suggestive of human occupancy. The ground +is excellently fertile where stumps have been, and association makes +us rather distrustful of its goodness where nothing but grass has ever +grown. + +The prairies are not as flat in surface as one expects to find them. +Except in the scarcity of trees, their surface is very much like other +portions of what is considered the best farming land. There are great +tracts of what are called bushy prairies, covered with a thick growth +of hazel and sassafras, jessamine and honey-suckle, and abounding in +grape-vines. These tracts possess springs in abundance. The "islands" +so often alluded to by travellers are most picturesque and beautiful +features in the landscape. They must not be compared to oases, for +they are surrounded by anything but sterility; but they are the +evidence of springs, and generally of a slight rise in the ground, and +the timber upon them is of almost tropical luxuriance. Herds of deer +are feeding in their shade, the murmur of wild bees fills the air, and +the sweet vine-smell invites birds and insects of every brilliant +color. Prairie-chickens are in flocks everywhere, and the approach of +civilization scarcely ever disturbs them. No engine-driver in the +southern part of the State but has often seen deer startled by the +approach of his train, and many tell tales of more ferocious denizens +of the wilds. Buffalo have all long since disappeared; but what times +they must have had in this their paradise, before they went! On the +higher prairies the grass is of a superior quality, and its seed +almost like wheat. On those which are low and humid it grows rank and +tough, and sometimes so high that a man on horseback may pass through +it unobserved. The crowding of vegetation, owing to the over-fertility +of the soil, causes all to tend upward, so that most of the growth is +extra high, rather than spreading in breadth. In the very early +spring, the low grass is interspersed with quantities of violets, +strawberry-blossoms, and other delicate flowers. As the grass grows +taller, flowers of larger size and more brilliant hues diversify it, +till at length the whole is like a flowery forest, but destined to be +burnt over in the autumn, leaving their ashes to help forward the +splendid growth of their successors. + +One of the marvels of this marvellous prairiedom, at the present hour, +is the taste and skill displayed in houses and gardens. One fancies a +"settler" in the Western wilds so occupied with thoughts of shelter +and sustenance as hardly to remember that a house must be +perpendicular to be safe, and a garden fenced before it is worth +planting. But every mile of our prairie-flight reminds us, that, where +no time and labor are to be consumed in felling trees and "toting" +logs to mill,--planks and joists, and such like, walking in, by rail, +all ready for the framing,--there is leisure for reflection and choice +as to form; and also, that, where fertility is the inevitable +attendant upon the first incision of the plough, _what_ we shall plant +and _how_ we shall plant it become the only topics for consideration. +Setting aside the merely temporary residences of the poorer class of +farmers,--houses sure to be replaced by palaces of pine-boards, at +least, before a great while, provided the owner does not "move West," +or take to whiskey,--the cottages we catch glimpses of from +car-windows are pretty and well-planned, and some of them show even +better on the inside than on the out. I must forbear to enlarge on the +comfort and abundance of these dwellings, lest I trench upon private +matters; but I may mention, by way of illustrating my subject, and +somewhat as the painter introduces human figures into his picture to +give an idea of the height of a tower or the vastness of a cathedral, +that I have found an abundant and even elegant table, under frescoed +ceiling, in a cottage near the Illinois Central, and far south of the +mid-line of this wonderful State, so lately a seeming waste through +much of its extent. + +And thus throughout. At one moment a bare expanse, looking +man-despised, if not God-forgotten,--and at the next, a smiling +village, with tasteful dwelling, fine shrubbery, great hotels, spires +pointing heavenward, and trees that look down with the conscious +dignity of old settlers, as if they had stood just so since the time +of good Father Marquette, that stout old missionary, who first planted +the holy cross in their shade, and, "after offering to the Mightiest +thanks and supplications, fell asleep to wake no more." + +There are many interesting reminiscences or traditions of the early +European settlers of Illinois. After Father Marquette,--whom I always +seem to see in Hicks's sweet picture of a monk inscribing the name +JESU on the bark of a tree in the forest,--came La Salle, an emissary +of the great Colbert, under Louis XIV.; an explorer of many heroic +qualities, who has left in this whole region important traces of his +wanderings, and the memory of his bloody and cruel murder at the +impious hands of his own followers, who had not patience to endure to +the end. Counted as part of Florida, under Spanish rule, and part of +Louisiana, under that of the French,--falling into the hands of the +celebrated John Law, in the course of his bubble Mississippi scheme, +and afterwards ceded with Canada and Nova Scotia to the English, +Illinois was never Americanized until the peace of '83. The spongy +turf of her prairies bore the weight of many a fort, and drank the +blood of the slain in many a battle, when all around her was at peace. +The fertility of her soil and the comparative mildness of her climate +caused her to be eagerly contended for, as far back as 1673, when the +pioneers grew poetical under the inspiration of "a joy that could not +be expressed," as they passed her "broad plains, all garlanded with +majestic forests and checkered with illimitable prairies and island +groves." "We are Illinois," said the poor Indians to Father +Marquette,--meaning, in their language, "We are men." And the Jesuits +treated them as men; but by traders they soon began to be treated like +beasts; and of course--poor things!--they did their best to behave +accordingly. All the forts are ruins now; there is no longer occasion +for them. The Indians are nothing. There can scarcely be found the +slightest trace of their occupancy of these rich acres. Nations that +build nothing but uninscribed burial-places foreshadow their own +doom,--to return to the soil and be forgotten. But the mode of their +passing away is not, therefore, a matter of indifference. + +On the stronger and more intelligent rests the responsibility of such +changes; and in the case of our Indians, it is certain that a load of +guilt, individual and national, rests somewhere. Necessity is no +Christian plea, "It must needs be that offences come, but woe to him +by whom the offence cometh!" The Indian and the negro shall rise up in +judgment against our rich and happy land, and condemn it for +inhumanity and selfishness. Have they not already done so? Blood and +treasure, poured out like water, have been the beginnings of +retribution in one case; a deeper and more vital punishment, such as +belongs to bosom-sins, awaits us in the other. Shall no penitence, no +sacrifice, attempt to avert it? + +Illinois, level, fertile, joyous, took French rule very kindly. The +missionaries, who were physicians, schoolmasters, and artisans, as +well as preachers, lived among the people, instructed them in the arts +of life as well as in the ceremonies and spirit of the Catholic faith; +and natives and foreigners seem to have dwelt together in peace and +love. The French brought with them the regularity and neatness that +characterize their home-settlements, and the abundance in which they +lived enabled them to be public-spirited and to deal liberally even +with the Indians. They raised wheat in such plenty that Indian corn +was cultivated chiefly for provender, although they found the +_voyageurs_ glad to buy it as they passed back and forth on their +adventurous journeys. The remains of their houses show how +substantially they built; two or three modern sudden houses could be +made out of one old French picketed and porticoed cottage. + +The appearance of an Illinois settler in those days was rather +picturesque than elegant,--substance before show being the principle +upon which it was planned. While the Indian still wore his paint and +feathers when he came to trade, the rural swain appeared in a _capote_ +made of blanket, with a hood that served in cold weather instead of a +Leary, buck-skin overalls, moccasins of raw-hide, and, generally, only +a natural shock of Sampsonian locks between his head and the sun; +while his lady-love was satisfied with an outfit not very +different,--save that there is no tradition that she ever capped the +climax of ugliness by wearing Bloomers. There were gay colors for +holidays, no doubt; but not till 1830, we are told, did the genuine +Illinois settler adopt the commonplace dress of this imitative land. +What pity when people are in such haste to do away with everything +characteristic in costume! + +Both sexes worked hard, bore rough weather without flinching, and +attended carefully to their religious duties; but, withal, they were +gay and joyous, ready for dance and frolic, and never so anxious to +make money that they forgot to make fun. + +What must the ghosts of these primitive Christians think of their +successors, ploughing in broadcloth and beaver, wading through the mud +in patent-leather boots, and all the while wrinkled with anxiety, +gaunt with ambition, and grudging themselves three holidays a year! + +Immigrants in time changed the character of the population as well as +its dress, and for a while there seems to have been something of a +jumble of elements, new laws conflicting with old habits, hungry +politicians preying upon a simple people, who only desired to be let +alone, and who, when they discovered some gross imposition, were +philosophical enough to call it, jokingly, being "greased and +swallowed." This anarchical condition resulted, as usual, in habits of +personal violence; and, at one time, an adverse vote was considered +matter for stabbing or gouging, and juries often dismissed +indictments, fearing private vengeance in case of a discharge of their +duty. They made a wide distinction, in murder trials, between him who +committed the crime in a passion and those who did the thing quietly; +so that you had only to walk up to the person who had offended you, +and shoot him in the open street, to feel tolerably sure of impunity. +In short, there seems to have prevailed, at that time, north of Mason +and Dixon's line, very much the same state of things that still +prevails south of it; but there was other leaven at work, and the good +sense of the people gradually got the better of this short-sighted +folly of violence. + +It is reported as fact, by all writers on the earlier history of this +State, that the holding of courts was conducted very much in the style +reported of the back counties of Georgia and Alabama in our day. The +sheriff would go out into the court-yard and say to the people, "Come +in, boys,--the court is going to begin,"--or sometimes, "Our John is +going to open court now,"--the judge being just one of the "boys." + +Judges did not like to take upon themselves the _onus_ of deciding +cases, but shared it with the jury as far as possible. One story, well +authenticated, runs thus: A certain judge, having to pass sentence of +death upon one of his neighbors, did it in the following form: "Mr. +Green, the jury in their verdict say you are guilty of murder, and the +law in that case says you are to be hung. Now I want you and all your +friends down on Indian Creek to know that it is not me that condemns +you, but the jury and the law. What time would you like to be hung, +Sir?" The poor man replied, that it made no difference to him; he +would rather the court should appoint a time. "Well, then, Mr. Green," +says the judge, "the court will allow you four weeks' time to prepare +for death and settle up your business." It was here suggested by the +Attorney-General that it was usual in such cases for the court to +recapitulate the essential parts of the evidence, to set forth the +nature and enormity of the crime, and solemnly to exhort the prisoner +to repent and fit himself for the awful doom awaiting him. "Oh!" said +the judge, "Mr. Green understands all that as well as if I had +preached to him a month. Don't you, Mr. Green? You understand you're +to be hung this day four weeks?" "Yes, Sir," replied Mr. Green, and so +the matter ended. + +One legal brilliant blazes on the forehead of youthful Illinois, in +the shape of a summary remedy for duelling. One of those heroes who +think it safer to appeal to chance than to logic in vindication of +tarnished honor, and who imagine the blood of a dead friend the only +salve to be relied on for the cure of wounded feelings, killed his +opponent in a duel. The law of Illinois very coolly hanged the +survivor; and from that time to this, other remedies have been found +for spiritual hurts, real or imaginary. Nobody has fancied it +necessary to fight with a noose round his neck. If ever capital +punishment were lawful, (which I confess I do not think it ever can +be,) it would be as a desperate remedy against this horrid relic of +mediaeval superstition and impiety, no wiser or more Christian than +the ordeal by burning ploughshares or poisoned wine. The rope in +judicial hands is certainly as lawful as the pistol in rash ones; so +the duellist has no reason to complain. + +Some of the later days of Illinois, the days of Indian wars and Mormon +wars, pro-slavery wars and financial wars, are too red and black for +peaceful pages; and as they were incidental rather than +characteristic, they do not come within our narrow limits. There is +still too large an infusion of the cruel slavery spirit in the laws of +Illinois; but the immense tide of immigration will necessarily remedy +that, by overpowering the influence introduced over the southern +border. So nearly a Southern State was Illinois once considered to be, +that, in settling the northern boundary, it was deemed essential to +give her a portion of the lake-shore, that her interests might be at +least balanced. They have proved to be more than balanced by this wise +provision. + +The little excuse there is in this favored region for a sordid +devotion to toil, a journey through the State, even at flying pace, is +sufficient to show. The fertility of the soil is the despair of +scientific farming. Who cares for rules, when he has only to drop a +seed and tread on it, to be sure of a hundred-fold return? Who talks +of succession of crops, when twelve burdens of wheat, taken from the +same soil in as many years, leave the ground black and ready for +another yield of almost equal abundance? An alluvial tract of about +three hundred thousand acres, near the Mississippi, has been +cultivated in Indian corn a hundred and fifty years,--indeed, ever +since the French occupation of Illinois. What of under-draining? Some +forty or fifty rivers threading the State, besides smaller streams +innumerable, always will do that, as soon as the Nilic floods of +spring have accomplished their work by floating to the surface the +finest part of the soil. Irrigation? You may now grow rice on one farm +and grapes on another, without travelling far between. It is true, +there must be an end to this universality of power and advantage, some +day; but nobody can see far enough ahead to feel afraid, and it is not +in the spirit of our time to think much about the good of our +grandchildren. "What has posterity done for me?" is the instinctive +question of the busy Westerner, as he sits down under vine and +fig-tree which his own hands have planted, to enjoy peace and plenty, +after suffering the inevitable hardships of pioneer life. You may tell +him he is not wise to scorn good rules; but he will reply, that he did +not come so far West, and begin life anew, for the sake of being wise, +but of making money, and that as rapidly as possible. He has forgotten +the care and economy learned among the cold and stony hills of New +England, and wants to do everything on a large scale. He likes to hear +of patent reapers, Briarean threshing-machines, and anything that will +save him most of the time and trouble of gathering in his heavy +crops,--but that is all. The growth of those crops he has nothing to +do with. That is provided for by Nature in Illinois; if it were not, +he would move "out West." + +Stories of this boundless fertility are rife here. One pioneer told +us, that, when a fence is to be made and post-holes are wanted, it is +only necessary to drop beet-seed ten feet apart all around the field, +and, when the beet is ripe, you pull it up and your post-hole is +ready! To be sure, there was a twinkle in the corner of his eye as he +stated this novel and interesting fact; but, after all, the fertility +in question was not so extravagantly "poefied" by this _canard_ as +some may suppose. Our friend went on to state, that, in his district, +they had a kind of corn which produced from a single grain a dozen +stalks of twelve ears each; and not content with this, on _most_ of +the stalks you would find, somewhere near the top, a small calabash +full of shelled corn! To put the matter beyond doubt, he pulled a +handful of the corn from his pocket, which he invited us to plant, and +satisfy ourselves. + +The reader has probably concluded, by this time, that beets and corn +are not the only enormous things grown in Illinois. + +A friend told us, in perfectly good faith, that a tract of his, some +fourteen thousand acres, in the southern part of the State, contained +coal enough to warm the world, and more iron than that coal would +smelt,--salt enough for all time, and marble and rich metallic ores of +various kinds besides. In one region are found inexhaustible beds of +limestone, the smoke of whose burning fills the whole spring air, and +the crevices of whose formation make very pokerish-looking caves, +which young and adventurous ladies are fond of exploring; in another +we come to quantities of that snow-white porcelain clay of which some +people suppose themselves to have been originally formed, but which +has been, in a commercial point of view, hitherto a _desideratum_ in +these United States of ours. The people at Mound City (an aspiring +rival of Cairo, on the banks of the Ohio) are about building a factory +for the exploitation of this clay, not into ladies and gentlemen, +(unpopular articles here,) but into china-ware, the quality of which +will be indisputable. + +One soon ceases wondering at the tropicality of the Illinoisian +imagination. Ali Baba's eye-straining experiences were poor, compared +to these every-day realities. + +The "Open Sesame" in this case has been spoken through the +railroad-whistle. Railroads cannot make mines and quarries, and fat +soil and bounteous rivers; yet railroads have been the making of +Illinois. Nobody who has ever seen her spring roads, where there are +no rails, can ever question it. From the very fatness of her soil, the +greater part of the State must have been one Slough of Despond for +three quarters of the year, and her inhabitants strangers to each +other, if these iron arms had not drawn the people together and +bridged the gulfs for them. No roads but railroads could possibly have +threaded the State, a large and the best portion of whose surface is +absolutely devoid of timber, stone, gravel, or any other available +material. The prairies must have remained flowery deserts, visited as +a curiosity every year by strangers, but without dwellings for want of +wood. The vast quarries must, of course, have lain useless, for want +of transporting power,--our friend's coal and iron undisturbed, +waiting for an earthquake,--and the poetical pioneer's beets and +Indian corn unplanted, and therefore uncelebrated. Well may it be said +here, that iron is more valuable than gold. Population, agriculture, +the mechanic arts, literature, taste, civilization, in short, are all +magnetized by the beneficent rail, and follow wherever it leads. The +whole southern portion of Illinois has been nicknamed "Egypt," +--whether because at its utmost point, on a dampish delta, +reposes the far-famed city of Cairo,--or whether, as wicked satirists +pretend, its denizens have been found, in certain particulars, rather +behind our times in intellectual light. Whatever may have been the +original excuse for the _sobriquet_, the derogatory one exists no +more. Light has penetrated, and darkness can reign no longer. Every +day, a fiery visitant, bearing the collective intelligence of the +whole world's doings and sayings, dashes through Egypt into Cairo, +giving off scintillations at every hamlet on the way,--and every day +the brilliant marvel returns, bringing northward, not only the good +things of the Ohio and Mississippi, but tropic _on-dits_ and oranges, +only a few hours old, to the citizens of Chicago, far "in advance of +the (New York) mail." With the rail comes the telegraph; and whispers +of the rise and fall of fancies and potatoes, of speculations and +elections, of the sale of corner-lots and the evasion of +bank-officers, are darting about in every direction over our heads, as +we unconsciously admire the sunset, or sketch a knot of rosy children +as they come trooping from a quaint school-house on the prairie edge. +Fancy the rail gone, and we have neither telegraph, nor school-house, +nor anything of all this but the sunset,--and even that we could not +be there to see in spring-time, at least, unless we could transmigrate +for the time into the relinquished forms of some of these aboriginal +bull-frogs, which grow to the nice size of two feet in length, +destined, no doubt, to receive the souls of habitual croakers +hereafter. + +But if the railroads have been the making of the land, it is not to be +denied that the land has been the making of the railroads. Egyptian +minds they must have been, that grudged the tracts given by the United +States to the greatest of roads, the greatest road in the world. +Having bestowed a line of alternate sections on this immense +undertaking,--vital in importance, and impossible without such +aid,--the Government at once doubled the price of the intermediate +sections, _and sold them at the doubled price_, though they had been +years, and might have been ages, in market unsold, without means of +communication and building. Who, then, was the loser? Not the United +States; for they received for half the land just what they would +otherwise have received for the whole. Not the State; for it lays +hands on a good slice of the annual profits, not to speak of +incalculable benefits beside. Not the farmer, surely; for what would +his now high-priced land be worth, if the grand road were annihilated? +Not the bond-holder; for he receives a fair, full interest on his +money. Not the stock-holder; for he looks with eyes of faith toward a +great future. It was a sort of triangular or quadrangular or +pentangular bargain, in which all these parties were immensely +benefited. The traveller blesses such liberal policy, as he flies +along towards the land of oranges, or turns aside to measure mammoth +beets or weigh extra-supernal corn, to "bore" or to "prospect," to +pick at oölite and shale or to "peep and botanize" through an +inexhaustible Flora. The present writer has certainly reason to be +grateful,--not, alas! with that gushing warmth of feeling which the +owners of shares or bonds naturally experience,--but as an "'umble +individual" who could not have found material for this valuable +article, if certain gentlemen who do own the said shares had not been +very enterprising. + +The man who may be said to have devised the land-basis for railroads +through unsettled tracts--a financier of unsurpassed sagacity, and +once the soul of commercial honor as well as intelligence--should not, +in his dishonored grave, and far beyond the reach of human scorn or +vengeance, be denied the credit of what he accomplished before the +fatal madness seized his soul and dragged him to perdition. Let it be +enough that his name has come to be an epithet of infamy in his land's +language. Let not the grandeur of his views, the intent with which he +set out, and the good he achieved, be lost in oblivion. Pride--"by +that sin fell the angels!"--cast him headlong down the irrecoverable +steep,-- + + "And when he fell, he fell like Lucifer,"-- + +aye! like Wolsey and Bacon,-- + + "Never to rise again!" + +It is no sin to hope that the All-seeing eye discerned in those noble +undertakings and beneficent results the germ of wings that shall one +day bear him back to light and mercy. Let us, who benefit by his good +deeds, not insist on remembering only the evil! + +Chicago, the Wondrous, sits amid her wealth, like a magnificent +sultana, half-reclining over a great oval mirror, supplied by that +lake of lakes, the fathomless Michigan. Perhaps the resemblance might +be unpoetically traced to particulars; for we are told by lotos-eating +travellers, that Oriental beauties, with all their splendor, are not +especially clean. Certain it is that our Occidental sultana dresses +her fair head with towers and spires, and hangs about her neck long +rows of gems in the shape of stately and elegant dwellings,--yet, +descending to her feet, we sink in mud and mire, or tumble unguardedly +into excavations set like traps for the unwary, or oust whole colonies +of rats from beneath plank walks where they have burrowed securely +ever since "improvements" began. At some seasons, indeed, there is no +mud; because the high winds from the lake or the prairies turn the mud +into dust, which blinds our eyes, fills our mouths, and makes us +Quakers in appearance and anything but saints in heart. +Chicago-walking resembles none but such as Christian encountered as he +fled from the City of Destruction; yet in this case the ills are those +of a City of _Con_struction.--sure to disappear as soon as the +builders find time to care for such trifles. Chicago people, it is +well known, walk with their heads in the clouds, and, naturally, do +not mind what happens to their feet. It is only strangers who exclaim, +and sometimes more than exclaim, at the dangers of the way. Cast-away +carriages lie along the road-side, like ships on Fire Island beach. +Nobody minds them. If you see a gentleman at a distance, progressing +slowly with a gliding or floundering pace, you conclude he has a horse +under him, and, perhaps, on nearer approach, you see bridle and +headstall. This is in early spring, while the frost is coming out of +the ground. As the season advances, the horse emerges, and you are +just getting a fair sight of him when the dust begins and he +disappears again. So say the scoffers, and those who would, but do +not, own any city-lots in that favored vicinity; and to the somewhat +heated mind of the traveller who encounters such things for the first +time, the story does not seem so very much exaggerated. Simple +wayfarers like myself, however, tell no such wicked tales of the +Garden City; but remember only her youth, her grandeur, her spirit, +her hospitality, her weight of cares, her immense achievements, and +her sure promise of future metropolitan splendors. + +The vicinity of Chicago is all dotted with beautiful villa-residences. +To drive among them is like turning over a book of architectural +drawings,--so great is their variety, and so marked the taste which +prevails. Many of them are of the fine light-colored stone found in +the neighborhood, and their substantial excellence inspires a feeling +that all this prosperity is of no ephemeral character. People do not +build such country-houses until they feel settled and secure. The +lake-shore is of course the line of attraction, for it is the only +natural beauty of the place. But what trees! Several of the streets of +Chicago may easily become as beautiful drives as the far-famed Cascine +at Florence, and will be so before her population doubles +again,--which is giving but a short interval for the improvement. No +parks as yet, however. Land on the lake-shore is too precious, and the +flats west of the town are quite despised. Yet city parks do not +demand very unequal surface, and it would not require a very potent +landscape-gardener or an unheard-of amount of dollars to make a fine +driving-and riding-ground, where the new carriages of the fortunate +might be aired, and the fine horses of the gay exercised, during a +good part of the year. + +To describe Chicago, one would need all the superlatives set in a row. +Grandest, flattest,--muddiest, dustiest,--hottest, coldest,--wettest, +driest,--farthest north, south, east, and west from other places, +consequently most central,--best harbor on Lake Michigan, worst harbor +and smallest river any great commercial city ever lived on,--most +elegant in architecture, meanest in hovel-propping,--wildest in +speculation, solidest in value,--proudest in self-esteem, loudest in +self-disparagement,--most lavish, most grasping,--most public-spirited +in some things, blindest and darkest on some points of highest +interest. + +And some poor souls would doubtless add,--most fascinating, or most +desolate,--according as one goes there, gay and hopeful, to find +troops of prosperous friends, or, lonely and poor, with the distant +hope of bettering broken fortunes by struggling among the driving +thousands already there on the same errand. There is, perhaps, no +place in the world where it is more necessary to take a bright and +hopeful view of life, and none where this is more difficult. There is +too much at stake. Those who have visited Baden-Baden and her Kursaal +sisters in the height of the season need not be told that no +"church-face" ever equalled in solemnity the countenances of those who +surround the fatal tables, waiting for the stony lips of the croupier +to announce "_Noir perd_" or "_Rouge gagne_." At Chicago are a wider +table, higher stakes, more desperate throws, and Fate herself +presiding, or what seems Fate, at once partial and inexorable. + +But, on this great scale, even success fails to bring smiles. The +winners sit "with hair on end at their own wonders," and half-fearing +that such golden showers have some illusion about them and may prove +fairy favors at last. Next to this fueling comes the thirst for more. +Enlarged means bring enlarged desires and ever-extending plans. The +repose and lightness of heart that were at first to be the reward of +success recede farther and farther into the dim distance, until at +last they are lost sight of entirely, confessed, with a sigh, to be +unattainable. How can people in this State wear cheerful countenances? +When one looks at the gay and social faces and habits of some little +German town, where are cultivated people, surrounded by the books and +pictures they love, with leisure enough for music and dancing and +tea-garden chat, for deep friendships and lofty musings, it would seem +as if our shrewd Yankee-land and its outcroppings at the West had not +yet found out everything worth knowing. Froissart's famous remark +about the English in France--"They take their pleasure sadly, after +their fashion"--may apply to the population of Chicago, and it will be +some time yet, I fancy, before they will take it very gayly. + +At a little country-town, the other day, not within a thousand miles +of Chicago, a family about leaving for a distant place advertised +their movables for sale at auction. There was such a stir throughout +the settlement as called forth an expression of wonder from a +stranger. "Ah!" said a good lady, "auctions are the only gayety we +have here!" + +Joking apart, there was a deep American truth in this seeming +_niaiserie_. + +Chicago has, as we have said, with all her wealth, no public park or +other provision for out-door recreation. She has no gallery of Art, or +the beginning of one,--no establishment of music, no public +library,--no social institution whatever, except the church. Without +that blessed bond, her people would be absolute units, as independent +of each other as the grains of sand on the seashore, swept hither and +thither by the ocean winds. + +But even before these words have found their way to the Garden City, +they will, perhaps, be inapplicable,--so rapid is progress at the +West. The people are like a great family moving into a new house. +There is so much sweeping and dusting to do, so much finding of places +for the furniture, so much time to spend in providing for breakfast, +dinner, and tea, lodging and washing, that nobody thinks of unpacking +the pictures, taking the books out of their boxes, or getting up +drives or riding-parties. All these come in good time, and will be the +better done for a little prudent delay. + +There is, to the stranger, an appearance of extreme hurry in Chicago, +and the streets are very peculiar in not having a lady walking in +them. Day after day I traversed them, meeting crowds of men, who +looked like the representatives of every nation and tongue and +people,--and every class of society, from the greenest rustic, or the +most undisguised sharper, to the man of most serious respectability, +or him of highest _ton_. Yet one lady walking in the streets I saw +not; and when I say not one lady, I mean that I did not meet a woman +who seemed to claim that title, or any title much above that of an +ordinary domestic. Perhaps this is only a spring symptom, which passes +off when the mud dries up a little,--but it certainly gave a rather +forlorn or funereal aspect to the streets for the time. + +There is, nevertheless, potent inspiration in the resolute and +occupied air of these crowds. Hardly any one stays long among them +without feeling a desire to share their excitement, and do something +towards the splendid future which is evidently beckoning them on. +Preparing the future! It is glorious business. No wonder it makes the +pulse quicken and the eye look as if it saw spirits. It may be said, +that in some sense we are all preparing the future; but in the West +there is a special meaning in the expression. In circumstances so new +and wondrous, first steps are all-important. Those who have been +providentially led to become early settlers have immense power for +good or evil. One can trace in many or most of our Western towns, and +even States, the spirit of their first influential citizens. Happy is +it for Chicago that she has been favored in this respect,--and to her +honor be it said, that she appreciates her benefactors. Of one +citizen, who has been for twenty years past doing the quiet and modest +work of a good genius in the city of his adoption, it is currently +said, that he has built a hundred miles of her streets,--and there is +no mark of respect and gratitude that she would not gladly show him. +Other citizens take the most faithful and disinterested care of her +schools; and to many she is indebted for an amount of liberality and +public spirit which is constantly increasing her enormous prosperity. +Happy the city which possesses such citizens! Happy the citizens who +have a city so nobly deserving of their best services! + + + + +AN EVENING WITH THE TELEGRAPH-WIRES. + +My cousin Moses has made the discovery that he is a powerful +magnetizer. + +Like many others who have newly come into possession of a small tract +in those mysterious, outlying, unexplored wildernesses of Nature, +which we call by so many names, but which as yet refuse to be defined +or classed, he has been naturally eager to commence operations, and +_exploit_ and farm it a little. He is making experiments on a narrow +border of his wild lands. He is a man of will and of strong +_physique_, with an inquiring and scientific turn of mind, which +inclines him chiefly to metaphysical studies. It is not to be wondered +at, that, having lately discovered that he possesses the mesmeric +gift, he should not sufficiently discriminate as to its application. +Later he will see that it is an agent not to be tampered with, and +never to be used on healthy subjects, but applied only to invalids. +To-day he is like a newly-armed knight-errant, bounding off on his +steed at sunrise, in search of adventures. + +One afternoon, not long since, he was telling me of his extraordinary +successes with somnambulists and _somnoparlists_,--of old ladies cured +of nervous headaches and face-twitches, and of young ones put to sleep +at a distance from the magnetizer, dropping into a trance suddenly as +a bird struck by a gun-shot, simply by an act of his volition,--of +water turned into wine, and wine into brandy, to the somnambulic +taste,--and so on, till we got wandering into crooked by-paths of +physics and metaphysics, that seemed to lead us nowhere in +particular,--when I said, "Come, Cousin Moses, suppose you try it on +me, by way of experiment. But I have my doubts if you'll ever put me +to sleep." + +My cousin yielded to my request with alacrity;--every subject for +mesmerism was for him legitimate;--and I relinquished myself to his +passes with the docility of a man about to be shaved. + +The passes from the head downward were kept up perseveringly for half +an hour, without my experiencing any change, or manifesting the least +symptom of drowsiness. At last the charm began to work. I began to be +conscious of a singular trickling or creeping sensation following the +motion of his passes down my arms. My respiration grew short. I +experienced, however, no tendency to sleep, and my mind was perfectly +calm and unexcited. My cousin was satisfied with his experiment so +far, but we both concluded it had better end here. So he made the +reverse passes, in order to undo the knot he was beginning to tie in +my nerves. He did not, however, entirely succeed in untying it. I was +a healthy subject, and the magnetism continued to affect my nerves, in +spite of the untangling passes. + +Soon after, I rose and took my leave. I was strangely excited, but it +was a purely physical, and not a mental excitement. Thinking that a +walk would quiet me, I went through street after street, until I +reached the outskirts of the city. It was a mild September evening. +The fine weather and the sight of the trees and fields tempted me to +continue my walk. It was near sunset, and I strolled on and on, +watching the purple gray and ruddy gold of the clouds, until I had got +fairly into the country. + +As I rambled on, I was suddenly seized with a fancy to climb a tree +which stood by the roadside, and rest myself in a convenient notch +which I observed between two of the limbs. I was soon seated in among +the branches, with a canopy of leaves around and over me,--feeling, in +my still nervous condition, as I leaned my back against the mossy +bark, like a magnified tree-toad in clothes. + +The air was balmy and fragrant, and against the amber of the western +sky rose and fell numberless little clouds of insects. The birds were +chirping and fluttering about me, and made their arrangements for +their night's lodging, in manifest dread of the clothed tree-toad who +had invaded their leafy premises. + +The peculiar nervousness which had taken possession of me was now +passing off, to be replaced by a species of mental exaltation. I was +becoming conscious of something approaching semi-clairvoyance, and yet +not in the ordinary form. Sensation, emotion, thought were +intensified. The landscape around me was dotted with farm-houses, +pillowed in soft, dark clumps of trees. One by one, the lights began +to appear at the windows,--soft rising stars of home-joys. The +glorious September sunset was fading, but still resplendent in the +west. The landscape was pervaded with a deeper repose, the glowing +clouds with a diviner splendor than that which filled the eye. Then +thronging memories awoke. My remembrances of all my past life in the +crowded cities of America and Europe rose vividly before me. In the +long strata of solid gray clouds, where the sun had gone down, leaving +only a few vapory gold-fishes swimming in the clear spaces above, I +could fancy I saw the lonely Roman Campagna and the wondrous dome of +St. Peter's, as when first beheld on the horizon ten years ago. Then, +as from the slopes of San Miniato at sunset, gray, red-tiled Florence, +with its Boboli gardens, full of nightingales, its old towers and +cathedrals, and its soaring Giotto Campanile. Then Genoa, with its +terraces and marble palaces, and that huge statue of André Doria. Then +Naples, gleaming white in the eye of day over her pellucid depths of +sea. The golden days of Italy floated by me. Then came the memories, +glad or sad, of days that had passed in my own native land,--in the +very city that lay behind me,--the intimate communings with dear +friends,--the musical and the merry nights,--the trials, anxieties, +sorrows---- + +But all this is very egotistical and unnecessary. I merely meant to +say that I was in a peculiar, almost abnormal state of mind, that +evening. The spirit had, as it were, been drawn outwards, and perhaps +slightly dislocated, by those mesmeric passes of my cousin, and I had +not succeeded as yet in adjusting it quite satisfactorily in its old +bodily grooves and sockets. The condition I was in was not as pleasant +as I could have wished; for I was as alive to painful remembrances and +imaginations, as to pleasant ones. I seemed to myself like a revolving +lantern of a light-house,--now dark, now glowing with a fiery +radiance. + +I asked myself, Is it that I have been blind and deaf and dull all my +life, and am just waking into real existence? or am I developing into +a _medium_,--Heaven forbid!--and the spirits pushing at some unguarded +portal of the nervous system, and striving to take possession? Shall I +hear raps and knockings when I return to my solitary chamber, and sit +a powerless beholder of damaged furniture, which the spirits will +never have the conscience to promise payment for, when my landlady's +bill comes in? (By the way, have the spirits _ever_ behaved like +gentlemen in this respect, and settled up fair and square for the +breakages they have indulged in by way of exemplifying the doctrine of +a future state?) + +As I soliloquized thus, I was attracted by a low vibrating note among +the leaves. Looking through them, I saw, for the first time, that two +or three telegraph-wires, which I had observed skirting the road, ran +directly through the tree in which I was seated. It was a strange sort +of sound, that came in hurried jerks, as it were, accompanied with a +corresponding jerk of the wire. + +A gigantic fancy flashed across me:--This State of New York is a great +guitar; yonder, at Albany, are the legislative pegs and screws; down +there in Manhattan Island is the great sounding-board; these iron +wires are the strings! The spirits are singing, perhaps, with their +heads up there in the sweet heavens and the rosy clouds,--and this +vibration of the wires is a sort of loose jangling accompaniment of +their unpractised hands on earth. The voice is always above the +strings.--This I thought in my semi-mesmeric condition, perhaps. I +soon laughed at my Brobdignagian nonsense, and said,--There is a +telegraphic despatch passing. Now if I could only find out what it +is!--that would be something new in science,--a discovery worth +knowing,--to be able to hear or feel the purport of a telegraphic +message, simply by touching the wire along which it runs! + +So, regardless of any electric shock I might receive, I thrust out my +hand through the leaves of the tree, and boldly grasped the wire. The +jerks instantly were experienced in my elbow, and it was not long +before certain short sentences were conveyed, magnetically, to my +brain. In my amazement at the discovery, I almost dropped out of the +tree. However, I kept firm hold of the wire, and my sensorium made me +aware of something passing like this:--"Market active. Fair demand for +exchange. Transactions from five to ten thousand shares. Aristides +railroad-stock scarce. Rates of freight to Liverpool firm. Yours +respectfully, Grabber and Holdham." + +Upon my word, said I, this is rather dry!--only a merchant! I expected +something better than this, to commence with. + +The wire being now quiet, I fell into a musing upon the singular +discovery I had made,--and whether I should get anything from the +public or the government for revealing it. And then my thoughts +wandered across the Atlantic, and I remembered those long rows of +telegraphic wires in France, ruled along the tops of high +barrier-walls, and looking against the sky like immense +music-lines,--and those queer inverted-coffee-cup-like supports for +the wires, on the tall posts. Then I thought of music and coffee at +the Jardin Mabille. Then my fancy wandered down the Champs Elysées to +those multitudinous spider-web wires that radiate from the palace of +the Tuileries, where the Imperial spider sits plotting and weaving his +meshes around the liberties of France. Then I thought, What a thing +this discovery of mine would be for political conspirators,--to +reverse the whispering-gallery of Dionysius, and, instead of the +tyrant hearing the secrets of the people, the people hearing the +secrets of the tyrant! Then I thought of Robespierre, and Marat, and +Charlotte Corday, and Marie Antoinette,--then of Delaroche's and +Müller's pictures of the unfortunate Queen,--then of pictures in +general,--then of landscape-scenery,--till I almost fell into a doze, +when I was startled by a faint sound along the wire, as of a sigh, +like the first thrill of the AEolian harp in the evening wind. Another +message was passing. I reached my hand out to the iron thread. A +confused sadness began to oppress me. A mother's voice weeping over +her sick child pulsed along the wire. Her husband was far away. Her +little daughter lay very ill. "Come quick," said the voice. "I have +little hope; but if you were only here, I should be calmer. If she +must die, it would be such a comfort to have you here!" + +I drew my hand away. I saw the whole scene too vividly. Who this +mother was I knew not; but the news of the death of a child whom I +knew and loved could not have affected me more strangely and keenly +than this semi-articulate sob which quivered along the iron airtrack, +in the silence of the evening, from one unknown--to another unknown. + +I roused myself from my sadness, and thought I would descend the tree +and stroll home. The moon was up, and a pleasant walk before me, with +enough to meditate upon in the singular discovery I had made. I was +about to get down from my crotch in the tree, and was just reaching +out my dexter leg to feel if I could touch a bough below me, when a +low, wild shriek ran along the wire,--as when the wind-harp, above +referred to for illustration, is blown upon by some rude, sharp +northwester. In spite of myself, I touched the vibrating cord. The +message was brief and abrupt, like a sea-captain's command:--"Ship +Trinidad wrecked off Wildcat's Beach,--all hands lost,--no insurance!" + +Do you recollect, when sitting alone sometimes in your room, at +midnight, in the month of November, how, after a lull in the blast, +the bleak wind will all at once seem to clutch at the windows, with a +demoniac howl that makes the house rock? Do you remember the +half-whistles and half-groans through the key-holes and crevices,--the +cries and shrieks that rise and fall,--the roaring in the +chimney,--the slamming of distant doors and shutters? Well, all this +seemed to be suggested in the ringing of the iron cord. The very +leaves, green and dewy, and the delicate branches, seemed to quiver as +the dreary message passed. + +I thought,--This is a little too much! This old tree is getting to be +a very lugubrious spot. I don't want to hear any more such messages. I +almost wish I had never touched the wire. Strange! one reads such an +announcement in a newspaper very coolly;--why is it that I can't take +it coolly in a telegraphic despatch? We can read a thing with +indifference which we hear spoken with a shudder,--such prisoners are +we to our senses! I have had enough of this telegraphing. I sha'n't +close my eyes to-night, if I have any more of it. + +I had now fairly got my foot on the branch below, and was slipping +myself gradually down, when the wire began to ring like a horn, and in +the merriest of strains. I paused and listened. I could fancy the +joyful barking of dogs in accompaniment. Ah, surely, this is some +sportsman,--"the hunter's call, to faun and dryad known." This smacks +of the bright sunshine and the green woods and the yellow fields. I +will stop and hear it.--It was just what I expected,--a jolly citizen +telegraphing his country friend to meet him with his guns and dogs at +such a place. + +And immediately afterwards, in much the same key, came a musical note +and a message babbling of green fields, from a painter:--"I shall +leave town to-morrow. Meet me at Bullshornville at ten, A.M. Don't +forget to bring my field-easel, canvases, and the other traps." + +If there is more of this music, I said, I think I shall stay. I love +the sportsmen and the artists, and am glad they are going to have a +good time. The weather promises well for them. + +There was a little pause, and then a strain of perfect jubilation came +leaping along the wire, like the flying song of the bobolink over +tracts of blowing clover and apple-blossoms. I expected something very +rare,--a strain of poetry at least. It was only this:--"Mr. Grimkins, +Sir, we shall expect rooms for the bridal party at your hotel, on the +side overlooking the lake, if possible. Yours, P. Simpkins." + +Ah, I said, that's all Greek to me,--poor, lonely bachelor that I am! +I wonder, by the way, if they ever wrote their love-letters by +telegraph.--But what is this coming? I am clearly getting back to my +normal condition:--"Miss Polly Wogg wishes to say that she has been +unable to procure the silk for Mrs. Papillon for less than five +dollars a yard."--Nonsense! I'm not in the dry-goods, nor millinery, +nor young-lady department. + +And here was another:--"I have found an excellent school for Adolphus +in Birchville, near Mastersville Corners. Send him up without delay, +with all the school-books you can find." + +And another,--important, very:--"I find that 'One touch of Nature +makes the whole world kin' is in 'Troilus and Cressida.' Don't send +the MS. without this correction." + +But what's this, accompanied with a long, low whistle?--"The cars have +run off the track at Breakneck Hollow. Back your engine and wait for +further orders." + +We are getting into the minor key again, I thought. Listen!--"Mr. S. +died last night. You must be here to-morrow, if possible, at the +opening of the will." + +Well, said I, I have had plenty of despatches, and have expended +enough sympathy, for one night. I have been very mysteriously +affected,--how, I can't exactly tell. But who will ever believe my +evening's adventure? Who will not laugh at my pretended discovery? +Even my cousin Moses will be incredulous. I shall be at least looked +upon as a _medium_, and so settled. + +And here allow me to remark,--Have you not observed how easily things +apparently difficult and mysterious are arranged in the popular +understanding by the use of certain stereotyped names applied to them? +Only give a name to a wonder, or an unclassified phenomenon, or even +an unsound notion, and you instantly clear away all the fog of +mystery. Let an unprincipled fellow call his views Latitudinarianism +or Longitudinarianism, he may, with a little adroitness, go for a +respectable and consistent member of some sect. A filibuster may pass +current under some such label as Political or Territorial +Extensionist;--the name is a long, decent overcoat for his shabby +ideas. So when wonderful phenomena in the nervous system are +observed,--when tables are smashed by invisible hands,--when people +see ghosts through stone walls, and know what is passing in the heart +of Africa,--how easily you unlock your wardrobe of terms and clap on +the back of every eccentric fact your ready-made phrase-coat,--Animal +Magnetism, Biology, Odic Force, Optical Illusion, Second Sight, +Spirits, and what not! It is a wonderful labor-saving and faith-saving +process. People say, "Oh, is that all?" and pass on complacently. +There are such explanatory labels to be met with everywhere. They save +a deal of trouble. All the shops keep these overcoats,--shops +ecclesiastical, medical, juridical, professional, political, social. + +Now all I have to do is, not to go to the second-hand slop-shops for +the phrase-coat I need for my naked discovery, but look for some +unfamiliar robe,--some name more _recherché_, learned, and +transcendental than my neighbors sport,--and then I shall pass muster. +The classic togas seem to be the most imposing. The Germans, who weave +their names out of their indigenous Saxon roots, are much too _naïve_. +I will get a Greek Lexicon and set about it this very night. + +After all, why should it be thought so improbable, in this age of +strange phenomena, that the ideas transmitted through the +electro-magnetic wire may be communicated to the brain,--especially +when there exist certain abnormal or semi-abnormal conditions of that +brain and its nerves? Is it not reasonable to suppose that all +magnetisms are one in essence? The singular experiences above related +seem to hint at the truth of such a view. If it be true that certain +delicately-organized persons have the power of telling the character +of others, who are entire strangers to them, simply by holding in +their hands letters written by those strangers, is it not full as much +within the scope of belief that there are those who, under certain +physical conditions, may detect the purport of an electro-magnetic +message,--that message being sent by vibrations of the wire through +the nerves to the brain? If all magnetisms are one in essence,--as I +am inclined to believe,--and if the nerves, the brain, and the mind +are so swayed by what we term animal magnetism, why not allow for the +strong probability of their being also, under certain conditions, +equally impressible by electro-magnetism? I put these questions to +scientific men; and I do not see why they should be answered by +silence or ridicule, merely because the whole subject is veiled in +mystery. + +It may be asked,--How can an electro-magnetic message be communicated +to the mind, without a knowledge of the alphabet used by the +telegraphers? This question may seem a poser to some minds. But I +don't see that it raises any grave difficulty. I answer the question +by asking another:--How can persons in the somnambulic state read with +the tops of their heads? + +Besides, I once had the telegraph alphabet explained to me by one of +the wire-operators,--though I have forgotten it,--and it is possible, +that, in my semi-mesmeric condition, the recollection revived, so that +I knew that such and such pulsations of the wire stood for such and +such letters. + +But is there not a certain spiritual significance, also, in these +singular experiences here related? + +We may safely lay down this doctrine,--a very old and much-thumbed +doctrine, but none the less true for all its dog-ears:--No man lives +for himself alone. He is related not only to the silent stars and the +singing-birds and the sunny landscape, but to every other human soul. +You say, This should not be stated so sermonically, but symbolically. +That is just what I have been doing in my narrative of the wires. + +It gives one a great idea of human communion,--this power of sending +these spark-messages thousands of miles in a second. Far more +poetical, too,--is it not?--as well as more practical, than tying +billets under the wings of carrier-pigeons. It is removing so much +time and space out of the way,--those absorbents of spirits,--and +bringing mind into close contact with mind. But when one can read +these messages without the aid of machinery, by merely touching the +wires, how much greater does the symbol become! + +All mankind are one. As some philosophers express it,--one great mind +includes us all. But then, as it would never do for all minds to be +literally one, any more than it would for all magnetisms to be +identical in their modes of manifestation, or for all the rivers, +creeks, and canals to flow together, so we have our natural barriers +and channels, our _propriums_, as the Swedish seer has it,--and so we +live and let live. We feel with others and think with others, but with +strict reservations. That evening among the wires, for instance, +brought me into wonderful intimate contact with a few of the joys and +sorrows of some of my fellow-beings; but an excess of such experiences +would interfere with our freedom and our happiness. It is our +self-hood, properly balanced, which constitutes our dignity, our +humanity. A certain degree, and a very considerable degree of +insulation is necessary, that individual life and mental equanimity +may go on. + +But there may be a degree of insulation which is unbecoming a member +of the human family. It may become brutish,--or it may amount to the +ridiculous. In Paris, there was an old lady, of uncertain age, who +lived in the apartment beneath mine. I think I never saw her but +twice. She manifested her existence sometimes by complaining of the +romping of the children overhead, who called her the "bonne femme." +Why they gave her the name I don't know; for she seemed to have no +human ties in the world, and wasted her affections on a private +menagerie of parrots, canaries, and poodle-dogs. A few shocks of the +electric telegraph might have raised her out of her desert island, and +given her some glimpses of the great continents of human love and +sympathy. + +A man who lives for himself alone sits on a sort of insulated glass +stool, with a _noli-me-tangere_ look at his fellow-men, and a +shivering dread of some electric shock from contact with them. He is a +non-conductor in relation to the great magnetic currents which run +pulsing along the invisible wires that connect one heart with another. +Preachers, philanthropists, and moralists are in the habit of saying +of such a person,--"How cold! how selfish! how unchristian!" I +sometimes fancy a citizen of the planet Venus, that social star of +evening and morning, might say,--"How absurd!" What a figure he cuts +there, sitting in solitary state upon his glass tripod,--in the middle +of a crowd of excited fellow-beings, hurried to and fro by their +passions and sympathies,--like an awkward country-bumpkin caught in +the midst of a gay crowd of polkers and waltzers at a ball,--or an +oyster bedded on a rock, with silver fishes playing rapid games of +hide and seek, love and hate, in the clear briny depths above and +beneath! If the angels ever look out of their sphere of intense +spiritual realities to indulge in a laugh, methinks such a lonely +tripod-sitter, cased over with his invulnerable, non-conducting cloak +and hood,--shrinking, dodging, or bracing himself up on the defensive, +as the crowd fans him with its rush or jostles up against him,--like +the man who fancied himself a teapot, and was forever warning people +not to come too near him,--might furnish a subject for a planetary +joke not unworthy of translation into the language of our dim earth. + +One need not be a lonely bachelor, nor a lonely spinster, in order to +live alone. The loneliest are those who mingle with men bodily and yet +have no contact with them spiritually. There is no desert solitude +equal to that of a crowded city where you have no sympathies. I might +here quote Paris again, in illustration,--or, indeed, any foreign +city. A friend of mine had an _atelier_ once in the top of a house in +the Rue St. Honoré. He knew not a soul in the house nor in the +neighborhood. There was a German tailor below, who once made him a +pair of pantaloons,--so they were connected sartorically and +pecuniarily, and, when they met, recognized one another: and there was +the _concierge_ below, who knew when he came in and went out,--that +was all. All day long the deafened roar of carts and carriages, and +the muffled cry of the _marchands des légumes_, were faintly heard +from below. And in an adjoining room a female voice (my friend could +never tell whether child's or woman's, for he never saw any one) +overflowed in tones of endearment on some unresponding creature,--he +could never guess whether it was a baby, or a bird, or a cat, or a +dog, or a lizard, (the French have such pets sometimes,) or an +enchanted prince, like that poor half-marble fellow in the "Arabian +Nights." In that garret the painter experienced for six months the +perfection of Parisian solitude. Now I dare say he or I might have +found social sympathies, by hunting them up; but he didn't, and I dare +say he was to blame, as I should be in the same situation,--and I am +willing to place myself in the same category with the menagerie-loving +old lady, above referred to, omitting the feathered and canine pets. + +As to my mesmerico-telegraphic discovery, it may pass for what it is +worth. I shall submit it at least to my cousin Moses, as soon as he +returns from the South. People may believe it or not. People may say +it may be of practical use, or not. I shall overhaul my terminologies, +and, with the "metaphysical aid" of my cousin, fit it with a +scientific name which shall overtop all the _ologies_. + +Having dressed my new Fact in a respectable and scholarlike coat, I +shall let him take his chance with the judicious public,--and content +myself, for the present, with making him a sort of humble _colporteur_ +of the valuable tract on Human Brotherhood of which I have herewith +furnished a few dry specimens. + + + + +THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +EVERY MAN HIS OWN BOSWELL. + +The company looked a little flustered one morning when I came in,--so +much so, that I inquired of my neighbor, the divinity-student, what +had been going on. It appears that the young fellow whom they call +John had taken advantage of my being a little late (I having been +rather longer than usual dressing that morning) to circulate several +questions involving a quibble or play upon words,--in short, +containing that indignity to the human understanding, condemned in the +passages from the distinguished moralist of the last century and the +illustrious historian of the present, which I cited on a former +occasion, and known as a _pun_. After breakfast, one of the boarders +handed me a small roll of paper containing some of the questions and +their answers. I subjoin two or three of them, to show what a tendency +there is to frivolity and meaningless talk in young persons of a +certain sort, when not restrained by the presence of more reflective +natures.--It was asked, "Why tertian and quartan fevers were like +certain short-lived insects." Some interesting physiological relation +would be naturally suggested. The inquirer blushes to find that the +answer is in the paltry equivocation, that they _skip_ a day or +two.--"Why an Englishman must go to the Continent to weaken his grog +or punch." The answer proves to have no relation whatever to the +temperance-movement, as no better reason is given than that +island--(or, as it is absurdly written, _ile and_) water won't +mix.--But when I came to the next question and its answer, I felt that +patience ceased to be a virtue. "Why an onion is like a piano" is a +query that a person of sensibility would be slow to propose; but that +in an educated community an individual could be found to answer it in +these words,--"Because it smell odious," _quasi_, it's melodious,--is +not credible, but too true. I can show you the paper. + +Dear reader, I beg your pardon for repeating such things. I know most +conversations reported in books are altogether above such trivial +details, but folly will come up at every table as surely as purslain +and chickweed and sorrel will come up in gardens. This young fellow +ought to have talked philosophy, I know perfectly well; but he +didn't,--he made jokes. + +I am willing,--I said,--to exercise your ingenuity in a rational and +contemplative manner.--No, I do not proscribe certain forms of +philosophical speculation which involve an approach to the absurd or +the ludicrous, such as you may find, for example, in the folio of the +Reverend Father Thomas Sanchez, in his famous tractate, "De Sancto +Matrimonio." I will therefore turn this levity of yours to profit by +reading you a rhymed problem, wrought out by my friend the Professor. + + +THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE: OR THE WONDERFUL "ONE-HOSS-SHAY." + +A LOGICAL STORY. + + Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss-shay, + That was built in such a logical way + It ran a hundred years to a day, + And then, of a sudden, it----ah, but stay, + I'll tell you what happened without delay, + Scaring the parson into fits, + Frightening people out of their wits,-- + Have you ever heard of that, I say? + + Seventeen hundred and fifty-five. + _Georgius Secundus_ was then alive,-- + Snuffy old drone from the German hive! + That was the year when Lisbon-town + Saw the earth open and gulp her down, + And Braddock's army was done so brown, + Left without a scalp to its crown. + It was on the terrible Earthquake-day + That the Deacon finished the one-hoss-shay. + + Now in building of chaises, I tell you what, + There is always _somewhere_, a weakest spot,-- + In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill, + In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill, + In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,--lurking still + Find it somewhere you must and will,-- + Above or below, or within or without,-- + And that's the reason, beyond a doubt, + A chaise _breaks down_, but doesn't _wear out_, + + But the Deacon swore (as Deacons do, + With an "I dew vum," or an "I tell _yeou_,") + He would build one shay to beat the taown + 'n' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun'; + It should be so built that it _couldn'_ break daown: + --"Fur," said the Deacon, "'t's mighty plain + Thut the weakes' place mus' stan' the strain; + 'n' the way t' fix it, uz I maintain, + Is only jest + To make that place uz strong uz the rest." + + So the Deacon inquired of the village folk + Where he could find the strongest oak, + That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke,-- + That was for spokes and floor and sills; + He sent for lancewood to make the thills; + The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees; + The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese, + But lasts like iron for things like these; + The hubs of logs from the "Settler's ellum,"-- + Last of its timber,--they couldn't sell 'em,-- + Never an axe had seen their chips, + And the wedges flew from between their lips, + Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips; + Step and prop-iron, bolt and screw, + Spring, tire, axle, and linchpin too, + Steel of the finest, bright and blue; + Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide; + Boot, top, dasher, from tough old hide + Found in the pit when the tanner died. + That was the way he "put her through."-- + "There!" said the Deacon, "naow she'll dew!" + + Do! I tell you, I rather guess + She was a wonder, and nothing less! + Colts grew horses, beards turned gray, + Deacon and deaconess dropped away, + Children and grand-children--where were they? + But there stood the stout old one-hoss-shay + As fresh as on Lisbon-earthquake-day! + + EIGHTEEN HUNDRED;--it came and found + The Deacon's Masterpiece strong and sound. + Eighteen hundred increased by ten;-- + "Hahnsum kerridge" they called it then. + Eighteen hundred and twenty came;-- + Running as usual; much the same. + Thirty and forty at last arrive, + And then come fifty, and FIFTY-FIVE. + + Little of all we value here + Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year + Without both feeling and looking queer. + In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth, + So far as I know, but a tree and truth. + (This is a moral that runs at large; + Take it.--You're welcome--No extra charge.) + + FIRST OF NOVEMBER,--the Earthquake-day.-- + There are traces of age in the one-hoss-shay, + A general flavor of mild decay, + But nothing local, as one may say. + There couldn't be,--for the Deacon's art + Had made it so like in every part + That there wasn't a chance for one to start. + For the wheels were just as strong as the thills, + And the floor was just as strong as the sills, + And the panels just as strong as the floor, + And the whippletree neither less nor more, + And the back-crossbar as strong as the fore, + And spring and axle and hub _encore_. + And yet, _as a whole_, it is past a doubt + In another hour it will be _worn out_! + + First of November, 'Fifty-five! + This morning the parson takes a drive. + Now, small boys, get out of the way! + Here comes the wonderful one-hoss-shay, + Drawn by a rat-tailed, ewe-necked bay. + "Huddup!" said the parson.--Off went they. + + The parson was working his Sunday's text,-- + Had got to _fifthly_, and stopped perplexed + At what the--Moses--was coming next. + All at once the horse stood still, + Close by the meet'n'-house on the hill. + --First a shiver, and then a thrill, + Then something decidedly like a spill,-- + And the parson was sitting upon a rock, + At half-past nine by the meet'n'-house-clock,-- + Just the hour of the Earthquake-shock! + --What do you think the parson found, + When he got up and stared around? + The poor old chaise in a heap or mound, + As if it had been to the mill and ground! + You see, of course, if you're not a dunce, + How it went to pieces all at once,-- + All at once, and nothing first,-- + Just as bubbles do when they burst. + + End of the wonderful one-hoss-shay. + Logic is logic. That's all I say. + +--I think there is one habit,--I said to our company a day or two +afterwards,--worse than that of punning. It is the gradual +substitution of cant or flash terms for words which truly characterize +their objects. I have known several very genteel idiots whose whole +vocabulary had deliquesced into some half dozen expressions. All +things fell into one of two great categories,--_fast_ or _slow_. Man's +chief end was to be a _brick_. When the great calamities of life +overtook their friends, these last were spoken of as being _a good +deal cut up_. Nine-tenths of human existence were summed up in the +single word, _bore_. These expressions come to be the algebraic +symbols of minds which have grown too weak or indolent to +discriminate. They are the blank checks of intellectual +bankruptcy;--you may fill them up with what idea you like; it makes no +difference, for there are no funds in the treasury upon which they are +drawn. Colleges and good-for-nothing smoking-clubs are the places +where these conversational fungi spring up most luxuriantly. Don't +think I undervalue the proper use and application of a cant word or +phrase. It adds piquancy to conversation, as a mushroom does to a +sauce. But it is no better than a toadstool, odious to the sense and +poisonous to the intellect, when it spawns itself all over the talk of +men and youths capable of talking, as it sometimes does. As we hear +flash phraseology, it is commonly the dishwater from the washings of +English dandyism, school-boy or full-grown, wrung out of a +three-volume novel which had sopped it up, or decanted from the +pictured urn of Mr. Verdant Green, and diluted to suit the provincial +climate. + +----The young fellow called John spoke up sharply and said, it was +"rum" to hear me "pitchin' into fellers" for "goin' it in the slang +line," when I used all the flash words myself just when I pleased. + +----I replied with my usual forbearance.--Certainly, to give up the +algebraic symbol, because _a_ or _b_ is often a cover for ideal +nihility, would be unwise. I have heard a child laboring to express a +certain condition, involving a hitherto undescribed sensation, (as it +supposed,) all of which could have been sufficiently explained by +the participle--_bored_. I have seen a country-clergyman, with a +one-story intellect and a one-horse vocabulary, who has consumed his +valuable time (and mine) freely, in developing an opinion of a +brother-minister's discourse which would have been abundantly +characterized by a peach-down-lipped sophomore in the one +word--_slow_. Let us discriminate, and be shy of absolute +proscription. I am omniverbivorous by nature and training. Passing by +such words as are poisonous, I can swallow most others, and chew such +as I cannot swallow. + +Dandies are not good for much, but they are good for something. They +invent or keep in circulation those conversational blank checks or +counters just spoken of, which intellectual capitalists may sometimes +find it worth their while to borrow of them. They are useful, too, in +keeping up the standard of dress, which, but for them, would +deteriorate, and become, what some old fools would have it, a matter +of convenience, and not of taste and art. Yes, I like dandies well +enough,--on one condition. + +----What is that, Sir?--said the divinity-student. + +----That they have pluck. I find that lies at the bottom of all true +dandyism. A little boy dressed up very fine, who puts his finger in +his mouth and takes to crying, if other boys make fun of him, looks +very silly. But if he turns red in the face and knotty in the fists, +and makes an example of the biggest of his assailants, throwing off +his fine Leghorn and his thickly-buttoned jacket, if necessary, to +consummate the act of justice, his small toggery takes on the +splendors of the crested helmet that frightened Astyanax. You remember +that the Duke said his dandy officers were his best officers. The +"Sunday blood," the super-superb sartorial equestrian of our annual +Fast-day, is not imposing or dangerous. But such fellows as Brummel +and D'Orsay and Byron are not to be snubbed quite so easily. Look out +for "la main de fer sous le gant de velours" (which I printed in +English the other day without quotation-marks, thinking whether any +_scarabaeus criticus_ would add this to his globe and roll in glory +with it into the newspapers,--which he didn't do it, in the charming +pleonasm of the London language, and therefore I claim the sole merit +of exposing the same). A good many powerful and dangerous people have +had a decided dash of dandyism about them. There was Alcibiades, the +"curled son of Clinias," an accomplished young man, but what would be +called a "swell" in these days. There was Aristoteles, a very +distinguished writer, of whom you have heard,--a philosopher, in +short, whom it took centuries to learn, centuries to unlearn, and is +now going to take a generation or more to learn over again. Regular +dandy, he was. So was Marcus Antonius: and though he lost his game, he +played for big stakes, and it wasn't his dandyism that spoiled his +chance. Petrarca was not to be despised as a scholar or a poet, but he +was one of the same sort. So was Sir Humphrey Davy; so was Lord +Palmerston, formerly, if I am not forgetful. Yes,--a dandy is good for +something as such; and dandies such as I was just speaking of have +rocked this planet like a cradle,--aye, and left it swinging to this +day.--Still, if I were you, I wouldn't go to the tailor's, on the +strength of these remarks, and run up a long bill which will render +pockets a superfluity in your next suit. _Elegans "nascitur, non +fit._" A man is born a dandy, as he is born a poet. There are heads +that can't wear hats; there are necks that can't fit cravats; there +are jaws that can't fill out collars--(Willis touched this last point +in one of his earlier ambrotypes, if I remember rightly); there are +_tournures_ nothing can humanize, and movements nothing can subdue to +the gracious suavity or elegant languor or stately serenity which +belong to different styles of dandyism. + +We are forming an aristocracy, as you may observe, in this +country,--not a _gratiâ-Dei_, nor a _jure-divino_ one,--but a +_de-facto_ upper stratum of being, which floats over the turbid waves +of common life as the iridescent film you may have seen spreading over +the water about our wharves,--very splendid, though its origin may +have been tar, tallow, train-oil, or other such unctuous commodities. +I say, then, we are forming an aristocracy; and, transitory as its +individual life often is, it maintains itself tolerably, as a whole. +Of course, money is its corner-stone. But now observe this. Money kept +for two or three generations transforms a race,--I don't mean merely +in manners and hereditary culture, but in blood and bone. Money buys +air and sunshine, in which children grow up more kindly, of course, +than in close, back streets; it buys country-places to give them happy +and healthy summers, good nursing, good doctoring, and the best cuts +of beef and mutton. When the spring-chickens come to market----I beg +your pardon,--that is not what I was going to speak of. As the young +females of each successive season come on, the finest specimens among +them, other things being equal, are apt to attract those who can +afford the expensive luxury of beauty. The physical character of the +next generation rises in consequence. It is plain that certain +families have in this way acquired an elevated type of face and +figure, and that in a small circle of city-connections one may +sometimes find models of both sexes which one of the rural counties +would find it hard to match from all its townships put together. +Because there is a good deal of running down, of degeneration and +waste of life, among the richer classes, you must not overlook the +equally obvious fact I have just spoken of,--which in one or two +generations more will be, I think, much more patent than just now. + +The weak point in our chryso-aristocracy is the same I have alluded to +in connection with cheap dandyism. Its thorough manhood, its +high-caste gallantry, are not so manifest as the plate-glass of its +windows and the more or less legitimate heraldry of its coach-panels. +It is very curious to observe of how small account military folks are +held among our Northern people. Our young men must gild their spurs, +but they need not win them. The equal division of property keeps the +younger sons of rich people above the necessity of military service. +Thus the army loses an element of refinement, and the moneyed upper +class forgets what it is to count heroism among its virtues. Still I +don't believe in any aristocracy without pluck as its backbone. Ours +may show it when the time comes, if it ever does come. + +----These United States furnish the greatest market for intellectual +_green fruit_ of all the places in the world. I think so, at any rate. +The demand for intellectual labor is so enormous and the market so far +from nice, that young talent is apt to fare like unripe +gooseberries--get plucked to make a fool of. Think of a country which +buys eighty thousand copies of the "Proverbial Philosophy," while the +author's admiring countrymen have been buying twelve thousand! How can +one let his fruit hang in the sun until it gets fully ripe, while +there are eighty thousand such hungry mouths ready to swallow it and +proclaim its praises? Consequently, there never was such a collection +of crude pippins and half-grown windfalls as our native literature +displays among its fruits. There are literary green-groceries at every +corner, which will buy anything, from a button-pear to a pine-apple. +It takes a long apprenticeship to train a whole people to reading and +writing. The temptation of money and fame is too great for young +people. Do I not remember that glorious moment when the late Mr. ---- +we won't say who,--editor of the ---- we won't say what, offered me +the sum of fifty cents _per_ double-columned quarto page for shaking +my young boughs over his foolscap apron? Was it not an intoxicating +vision of gold and glory? I should doubtless have revelled in its +wealth and splendor, but for learning the fact that the _fifty cents_ +was to be considered a rhetorical embellishment, and by no means a +literal expression of past fact or present intention. + +----Beware of making your moral staple consist of the negative +virtues. It is good to abstain, and teach others to abstain, from all +that is sinful or hurtful. But making a business of it leads to +emaciation of character, unless one feeds largely also on the more +nutritious diet of active sympathetic benevolence. + +----I don't believe one word of what you are saying,--spoke up the +angular female in black bombazine. + +I am sorry you disbelieve it, Madam,--I said, and added softly to my +next neighbor,--but you prove it. + +The young fellow sitting near me winked; and the divinity-student +said, in an undertone,--_Optime dictum_. + +Your talking Latin,--said I,--reminds me of an odd trick of one of my +old tutors. He read so much of that language, that his English half +turned into it. He got caught in town, one hot summer, in pretty close +quarters, and wrote, or began to write, a series of city pastorals. +Eclogues he called them, and meant to have published them by +subscription. I remember some of his verses, if you want to hear +them.--You, Sir, (addressing myself to the divinity-student,) and all +such as have been through college, or, what is the same thing, +received an honorary degree, will understand them without a +dictionary. The old man had a great deal to say about "aestivation," +as he called it, in opposition, as one might say, to _hibernation_. +Intramural festivation, or town-life in summer, he would say, is a +peculiar form of suspended existence or semi-asphyxia. One wakes up +from it about the beginning of the last week in September. This is +what I remember of his poem:-- + +AESTIVATION. + +_An Unpublished Poem, by my late Latin Tutor._ + + In candent ire the solar splendor flames; + The foles, languescent, pend from arid rances; + His humid front the cive, anheling, wipes, + And dreams of erring on ventiferous ripes. + + How dulce to vive occult to mortal eyes, + Dorm on the herb with none to supervise, + Carp the suave berries from the crescent vine, + And bibe the flow from longicaudate kine! + + To me, alas! no verdurous visions come, + Save yon exigous pool's conferva-scum,-- + No concave vast repeats the tender hue + That laves my milk-jug with celestial blue! + + Me wretched! Let me curr to quercine shades! + Effund your albid hausts, lactiferous maids! + Oh, might I vole to some umbrageous clump,-- + Depart,--be off,--excede,--evade,--crump! + +--I have lived by the sea-shore and by the mountains.--No, I am not +going to say which is best. The one where your place is is the best +for you. But this difference there is: you can domesticate mountains, +but the sea is _ferae naturae_. You may have a hut, or know the owner +of one, on the mountain-side; you see a light half-way up its ascent +in the evening, and you know there is a home, and you might share it. +You have noted certain trees, perhaps; you know the particular zone +where the hemlocks look so black in October, when the maples and +beeches have faded. All its reliefs and intaglios have electrotyped +themselves in the medallions that hang round the walls of your +memory's chamber.--The sea remembers nothing. It is feline. It licks +your feet,--its huge flanks purr very pleasantly for you; but it will +crack your bones and eat you, for all that, and wipe the crimsoned +foam from its jaws as if nothing had happened. The mountains give +their lost children berries and water; the sea mocks their thirst and +lets them die. The mountains have a grand, stupid, lovable +tranquillity; the sea has a fascinating, treacherous intelligence. The +mountains lie about like huge ruminants, their broad backs awful to +look upon, but safe to handle. The sea smooths its silver scales until +you cannot see their joints,--but their shining is that of a snake's +belly, after all.--In deeper suggestiveness I find as great a +difference. The mountains dwarf mankind and foreshorten the procession +of its long generations. The sea drowns out humanity and time; it has +no sympathy with either; for it belongs to eternity, and of that it +sings its monotonous song forever and ever. + +Yet I should love to have a little box by the sea-shore. I should love +to gaze out on the wild feline element from a front window of my own, +just as I should love to look on a caged panther, and see it stretch +its shining length, and then curl over and lap its smooth sides, and +by-and-by begin to lash itself into rage and show its white teeth and +spring at its bars, and howl the cry of its mad, but, to me, harmless +fury.--And then,--to look at it with that inward eye,--who does not +love to shuffle off time and its concerns, at intervals,--to forget +who is President and who is Governor, what race he belongs to, what +language he speaks, which golden-headed nail of the firmament his +particular planetary system is hung upon, and listen to the great +liquid metronome as it beats its solemn measure, steadily swinging +when the solo or duet of human life began, and to swing just as +steadily after the human chorus has died out and man is a fossil on +its shores? + +--What should decide one, in choosing a summer +residence?--Constitution, first of all. How much snow could you melt +in an hour, if you were planted in a hogshead of it? Comfort is +essential to enjoyment. All sensitive people should remember that +persons in easy circumstances suffer much more from cold in +summer--that is, the warm half of the year--than in winter, or the +other half. You must cut your climate to your constitution, as much as +your clothing to your shape. After this, consult your taste and +convenience. But if you would be happy in Berkshire, you must carry +mountains in your brain; and if you would enjoy Nahant, you must have +an ocean in your soul. Nature plays at dominos with you; you must +match her piece, or she will never give it up to you. + +----The schoolmistress said, in rather a mischievous way, that she was +afraid some minds or souls would be a little crowded, if they took in +the Rocky Mountains or the Atlantic. + +Have you ever read the little book called "The Stars and the +Earth?"--said I.--Have you seen the Declaration of Independence +photographed in a surface that a fly's foot would cover? The forms or +conditions of Time and Space, as Kant will tell you, are nothing in +themselves,--only our way of looking at things. You are right, I +think, however, in recognizing the category of Space as being quite as +applicable to minds as to the outer world. Every man of reflection is +vaguely conscious of an imperfectly-defined circle which is drawn +about his intellect. He has a perfectly clear sense that the fragments +of his intellectual circle include the curves of many other minds of +which he is cognizant. He often recognizes those as manifestly +concentric with his own, but of less radius. On the other hand, when +we find a portion of an arc outside of our own, we say it _intersects_ +ours, but are very slow to confess or to see that it _circumscribes_ +it. Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or +sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions. After +looking at the Alps, I felt that my mind had been stretched beyond the +limits of its elasticity, and fitted so loosely on my old ideas of +space that I had to spread these to fit it. + +----If I thought I should ever see the Alps!--said the schoolmistress. + +Perhaps you will, some time or other,--I said. + +It is not very likely,--she answered.--I have had one or two +opportunities, but I had rather be anything than governess in a rich +family. + +Proud, too, you little soft-voiced woman! Well, I can't say I like you +any the worse for it. How long will schoolkeeping take to kill you? Is +it possible the poor thing works with her needle, too? I don't like +those marks on the side of her forefinger. + +_Tableau_. Chamouni. Mont Blanc in full view. Figures in the +foreground; two of them standing apart; one of them a gentleman +of----oh,--ah,--yes! the other a lady in a white cashmere, leaning on +his shoulder.--The ingenuous reader will understand that this was an +internal, private, personal, subjective diorama, seen for one instant +on the background of my own consciousness, and abolished into black +non-entity by the first question which recalled me to actual life, as +suddenly as if one of those iron shop-blinds (which I always pass at +dusk with a shiver, expecting to stumble over some poor but honest +shop-boy's head, just taken off by its sudden and unexpected descent, +and left outside upon the sidewalk) had come down "by the run." + +----Should you like to hear what moderate wishes life brings one to at +last? I used to be very ambitious,--wasteful, extravagant, and +luxurious in all my fancies. Head too much in the "Arabian Nights." +Must have the lamp,--couldn't do without the ring. Exercise every +morning on the brazen horse. Plump down into castles as full of little +milk-white princesses as a nest is of young sparrows. All love me +dearly at once.--Charming idea of life, but too high-colored for the +reality. I have outgrown all this; my tastes have become exceedingly +primitive,--almost, perhaps, ascetic. We carry happiness into our +condition, but must not hope to find it there. I think you will be +willing to hear some lines which embody the subdued and limited +desires of my maturity. + + +CONTENTMENT. + + "Man wants but little here below." + + Little I ask; my wants are few; + I only wish a hut of stone, + (A _very plain_ brown stone will do,) + That I may call my own:-- + And close at hand is such a one, + In yonder street that fronts the sun. + + Plain food is quite enough for me; + Three courses are as good as ten;-- + If Nature can subsist on three, + Thank Heaven for three. Amen! + I always thought cold victual nice;-- + My _choice_ would be vanilla-ice. + + I care not much for gold or land;-- + Give me a mortgage here and there,-- + Some good bank-stock,--some note of hand, + Or trifling railroad share;-- + I only ask that Fortune send + A _little_ more than I shall spend. + + Honors are silly toys, I know, + And titles are but empty names;-- + I would, _perhaps_, be Plenipo,-- + But only near St. James;-- + I'm very sure I should not care + To fill our Gubernator's chair. + + Jewels are baubles; 'tis a sin + To care for such unfruitful things;-- + One good-sized diamond in a pin,-- + Some, _not so large_, in rings,-- + A ruby, and a pearl, or so, + Will do for me;--I laugh at show. + + My dame should dress in cheap attire; + (Good, heavy silks are never dear;)-- + I own perhaps I _might_ desire + Some shawls of true cashmere,-- + Some marrowy crapes of China silk, + Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk. + + I would not have the horse I drive + So fast that folks must stop and stare; + An easy gait--two, forty-five-- + Suits me; I do not care;-- + Perhaps, for just a _single spurt_, + Some seconds less would do no hurt. + + Of pictures, I should like to own + Titians and Raphaels three or four,-- + I love so much their style and tone,-- + One Turner, and no more + (A landscape,--foreground golden dirt; + The sunshine painted with a squirt). + + Of books but few,--some fifty score + For daily use, and bound for wear; + The rest upon an upper floor;-- + Some _little_ luxury _there_ + Of red morocco's gilded gleam, + And vellum rich as country cream. + + Busts, cameos, gems,--such things as these, + Which others often show for pride, + _I_ value for their power to please, + And selfish churls deride;-- + _One_ Stradivarius, I confess, + _Two_ Meerschaums, I would fain possess. + + Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn, + Nor ape the glittering upstart fool;-- + Shall not carved tables serve my turn, + But _all_ must be of buhl? + Give grasping pomp its double share,-- + I ask but _one_ recumbent chair. + + Thus humble let me live and die, + Nor long for Midas' golden touch; + If Heaven more generous gifts deny, + I shall not miss them _much_.-- + Too grateful for the blessing lent + Of simple tastes and mind content! + + +MY LAST WALK WITH THE SCHOOLMISTRESS. + +(_A Parenthesis_.) + +I can't say just how many walks she and I had taken together before +this one. I found the effect of going out every morning was decidedly +favorable on her health. Two pleasing dimples, the places for which +were just marked when she came, played, shadowy, in her freshening +cheeks when she smiled and nodded good-morning to me from the +schoolhouse-steps. + +I am afraid I did the greater part of the talking. At any rate, if I +should try to report all that I said during the first half-dozen walks +we took together, I fear that I might receive a gentle hint from my +friends the publishers, that a separate volume, at my own risk and +expense, would be the proper method of bringing them before the +public. + +--I would have a woman as true as Death. At the first real lie which +works from the heart outward, she should be tenderly chloroformed into +a better world, where she can have an angel for a governess, and feed +on strange fruits which will make her all over again, even to her +bones and marrow.--Whether gifted with the accident of beauty or not, +she should have been moulded in the rose-red clay of Love, before the +breath of life made a moving mortal of her. Love-capacity is a +congenital endowment; and I think, after a while, one gets to know the +warm-hued natures it belongs to from the pretty pipe-clay counterfeits +of it.--Proud she may be, in the sense of respecting herself; but +pride, in the sense of contemning others less gifted than herself, +deserves the two lowest circles of a vulgar woman's Inferno, where the +punishments are Small-pox and Bankruptcy.--She who nips off the end of +a brittle courtesy, as one breaks the tip of an icicle, to bestow upon +those whom she ought cordially and kindly to recognize, proclaims the +fact that she comes not merely of low blood, but of bad blood. +Consciousness of unquestioned position makes people gracious in proper +measure to all; but if a woman puts on airs with her real equals, she +has something about herself or her family she is ashamed of, or ought +to be. Middle, and more than middle-aged people, who know family +histories, generally see through it. An official of standing was rude +to me once. Oh, that is the maternal grandfather,--said a wise old +friend to me,--he was a boor.--Better too few words, from the woman we +love, than too many: while she is silent, Nature is working for her; +while she talks, she is working for herself.--Love is sparingly +soluble in the words of men; therefore they speak much of it; but one +syllable of woman's speech can dissolve more of it than a man's heart +can hold. + +--Whether I said any or all of these things to the schoolmistress, or +not,--whether I stole them out of Lord Bacon,--whether I cribbed them +from Balzac,--whether I dipped them from the ocean of Tupperian +wisdom,--or whether I have just found them in my head, laid there by +that solemn fowl, Experience, (who, according to my observation, +cackles oftener than she drops real live eggs,) I cannot say. Wise men +have said more foolish things,--and foolish men, I don't doubt, have +said as wise things. Anyhow, the schoolmistress and I had pleasant +walks and long talks, all of which I do not feel bound to report. + +--You are a stranger to me, Ma'am.--I don't doubt you would like to +know all I said to the schoolmistress.--I sha'n't do it;--I had rather +get the publishers to return the money you have invested in this. +Besides, I have forgotten a good deal of it. I shall tell only what I +like of what I remember. + +--My idea was, in the first place, to search out the picturesque spots +which the city affords a sight of, to those who have eyes. I know a +good many, and it was a pleasure to look at them in company with my +young friend. There were the shrubs and flowers in the Franklin-Place +front-yards or borders; Commerce is just putting his granite foot upon +them. Then there are certain small seraglio-gardens, into which one +can get a peep through the crevices of high fences,--one in Myrtle +Street, or backing on it,--here and there one at the North and South +Ends. Then the great elms in Essex Street. Then the stately +horse-chestnuts in that vacant lot in Chambers Street, which hold +their outspread hands over your head, (as I said in my poem the other +day,) and look as if they were whispering, "May grace, mercy, and +peace be with you!"--and the rest of that benediction. Nay, there are +certain patches of ground, which, having lain neglected for a time, +Nature, who always has her pockets full of seeds, and holes in all her +pockets, has covered with hungry plebeian growths, which fight for +life with each other, until some of them get broad-leaved and +succulent, and you have a coarse vegetable tapestry which Raphael +would not have disdained to spread over the foreground of his +masterpiece. The Professor pretends that he found such a one in +Charles Street, which, in its dare-devil impudence of rough-and-tumble +vegetation, beat the pretty-behaved flower-beds of the Public Garden +as ignominiously as a group of young tatterdemalions playing +pitch-and-toss beats a row of Sunday-school-boys with their teacher at +their head. + +But then the Professor has one of his burrows in that region, and puts +everything in high colors relating to it. That is his way about +everything.--I hold any man cheap,--he said,--of whom nothing stronger +can be uttered than that all his geese are swans.----How is that, +Professor?--said I;--I should have set you down for one of that +sort.--Sir,--said he,--I am proud to say, that Nature has so far +enriched me, that I cannot own so much as a _duck_ without seeing in +it as pretty a swan as ever swam the basin in the garden of the +Luxembourg. And the Professor showed the whites of his eyes devoutly, +like one returning thanks after a dinner of many courses. + +I don't know anything sweeter than this leaking in of Nature through +all the cracks in the walls and floors of cities. You heap up a +million tons of hewn rocks on a square mile or two of earth which was +green once. The trees look down from the hill-sides and ask each +other, as they stand on tiptoe,--"What are these people about?" And +the small herbs at their feet look up and whisper back,--"We will go +and see." So the small herbs pack themselves up in the least possible +bundles, and wait until the wind steals to them at night and +whispers,--"Come with me." Then they go softly with it into the great +city,--one to a cleft in the pavement, one to a spout on the roof, one +to a seam in the marbles over a rich gentleman's bones, and one to the +grave without a stone where nothing but a man is buried,--and there +they grow, looking down on the generations of men from mouldy roofs, +looking up from between the less-trodden pavements, looking out +through iron cemetery-railings. Listen to them, when there is only a +light breath stirring, and you will hear them saying to each +other,--"Wait awhile!" The words run along the telegraph of those +narrow green lines that border the roads leading from the city, until +they reach the slope of the hills, and the trees repeat in low murmurs +to each other,--"Wait awhile!" By-and-by the flow of life in the +streets ebbs, and the old leafy inhabitants--the smaller tribes always +in front--saunter in, one by one, very careless seemingly, but very +tenacious, until they swarm so that the great stones gape from each +other with the crowding of their roots, and the feldspar begins to be +picked out of the granite to find them food. At last the trees take up +their solemn line of march, and never rest until they have encamped in +the market-place. Wait long enough and you will find an old doting oak +hugging a huge worn block in its yellow underground arms; that was the +corner-stone of the State-House. Oh, so patient she is, this +imperturbable Nature! + +--Let us cry!-- + +But all this has nothing to do with my walks and talks with the +schoolmistress. I did not say that I would not tell you something +about them. Let me alone, and I shall talk to you more than I ought +to, probably. We never tell our secrets to people that pump for them. + +Books we talked about, and education. It was her duty to know +something of these, and of course she did. Perhaps I was somewhat more +learned than she, but I found that the difference between her reading +and mine was like that of a man's and a woman's dusting a library. The +man flaps about with a bunch of feathers; the woman goes to work +softly with a cloth. She does not raise half the dust, nor fill her +own eyes and mouth with it,--but she goes into all the corners, and +attends to the leaves as much as the covers.--Books are the _negative_ +pictures of thought, and the more sensitive the mind that receives +their images, the more nicely the finest lines are reproduced. A +woman, (of the right kind,) reading after a man, follows him as Ruth +followed the reapers of Boaz, and her gleanings are often the finest +of the wheat. + +But it was in talking of Life that we came most nearly together. I +thought I knew something about that,--that I could speak or write +about it somewhat to the purpose. + +To take up this fluid earthly being of ours as a sponge sucks up +water,--to be steeped and soaked in its realities as a hide fills its +pores lying seven years in a tan-pit,--to have winnowed every wave of +it as a mill-wheel works up the stream that runs through the flume +upon its float-boards,--to have curled up in the keenest spasms and +flattened out in the laxest languors of this breathing-sickness, which +keeps certain parcels of matter uneasy for three or four score +years,--to have fought all the devils and clasped all the angels of +its delirium,--and then, just at the point when the white-hot passions +have cooled down to cherry-red, plunge our experience into the +ice-cold stream of some human language or other, one might think would +end in a rhapsody with something of spring and temper in it. All this +I thought my power and province. + +The schoolmistress had tried life, too. Once in a while one meets with +a single soul greater than all the living pageant that passes before +it. As the pale astronomer sits in his study with sunken eyes and thin +fingers, and weighs Uranus or Neptune as in a balance, so there are +meek, slight women who have weighed all that this planetary life can +offer, and hold it like a bauble in the palm of their slender hands. +This was one of them. Fortune had left her, sorrow had baptized her; +the routine of labor and the loneliness of almost friendless city-life +were before her. Yet, as I looked upon her tranquil face, gradually +regaining a cheerfulness that was often sprightly, as she became +interested in the various matters we talked about and places we +visited, I saw that eye and lip and every shifting lineament were made +for love,--unconscious of their sweet office as yet, and meeting the +cold aspect of Duty with the natural graces which were meant for the +reward of nothing less than the Great Passion. + +----I never spoke one word of love to the schoolmistress in the course +of these pleasant walks. It seemed to me that we talked of everything +but love on that particular morning. There was, perhaps, a little more +timidity and hesitancy on my part than I have commonly shown among our +people at the boarding-house. In fact, I considered myself the master +at the breakfast-table; but, somehow, I could not command myself just +then so well as usual. The truth is, I had secured a passage to +Liverpool in the steamer which was to leave at noon,--with the +condition, however, of being released in case circumstances occurred +to detain me. The schoolmistress knew nothing about all this, of +course, as yet. + +It was on the Common that we were walking. The _mall_, or boulevard of +our Common, you know, has various branches leading from it in +different directions. One of these runs downward from opposite Joy +Street southward across the whole length of the Common to Boylston +Street. We called it the long path, and were fond of it. + +I felt very weak indeed (though of a tolerably robust habit) as we +came opposite the head of this path on that morning. I think I tried +to speak twice without making myself distinctly audible. At last I got +out the question,----Will you take the long path with me?-- +Certainly,--said the schoolmistress,--with much pleasure.----Think,--I +said,--before you answer; if you take the long path with me now, I +shall interpret it that we are to part no more!----The schoolmistress +stepped back with a sudden movement, as if an arrow had struck her. +One of the long granite blocks used as seats was hard by,--the one you +may still see close by the Gingko-tree.----Pray, sit down,--I +said.----No, no,--she answered, softly,--I will walk the _long path_ +with you! + +----The old gentleman who sits opposite met us walking, arm in arm, +about the middle of the long path, and said, very charmingly,--"Good +morning, my dears!" + + + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + +_The Life of John Fitch, the Inventor of the Steamboat_. By THOMPSON +WESTCOTT. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. + +What would not honest Sancho have given for a good biography of the +man who invented sleep? And will not the adventurous pleasure-tourist, +who has been jarred, jammed, roasted, coddled, and suffocated in a +railroad-car for a whole night, with two days to sandwich it, on being +deposited in an airy stateroom for the last two hundred miles of his +journey, think the man who invented the steamboat deserving of a +"first-rate" life? We well remember the time when nobody suspected +that person, whoever he might be,--and nobody much cared who he +was,--of any relationship to the individual whose memory Sancho +blessed, so great was the churning in the palaces that then floated. +But in our present boats this unpalace-like operation has been so +localized and mollified as to escape the notice of all but the +greenest and most inquisitive passengers. And now that we find the +luxury of travelling by water actually superior to that of staying at +home on land, we begin to feel a budding veneration for the man who +first found out that steam could be substituted, with such marvellous +advantage, for helpless dependence on the wind and miserable tugging +at oars and setting-poles. Who was he? What circumstances conspired to +shape his life and project it with so notable an aim? How did he look, +act, think, on all matters of human concernment? Here comes a book, +assuming in its title that one John Fitch, of whom his generation +seems not to have thought enough to paint his portrait, was the +inventor of the steamboat. It professes to be "The Life of John +Fitch"; but we are sorry to say it is rather a documentary argument to +prove that he was "the inventor of the steamboat." As an argument, it +is both needless and needlessly strong. We already knew to a certainty +that nobody could present a better claim to that honor than John +Fitch. True, the _idea_ did not wait for him. The engine could not +have been working a hundred years in the world without giving birth to +that. But till Watt invented it anew in 1782, by admitting the steam +alternately at both ends of the cylinder, it was too awkward and +clumsy to become a practical navigator. Moreover, though it could pump +admirably, it had not been taught to turn a crank. The French assert, +that experiments in steam-propulsion were made on the Seine, by Count +Auxiron and Perrier, in 1774, and on the Saone, by De Jouffroy, in +1782; but we know they led to no practical results, and the knowledge +of them probably did not, for some years, travel beyond the limits of +the French language. There is no satisfactory evidence that a boat was +ever moved by steam, within the boundaries of Anglo-Saxondom, before +John Fitch did it, on the 27th of July, 1786. His successful and every +way brilliant experiment on that occasion led directly to practical +results,--to wit, the formation of a company, embracing some of the +foremost men of Philadelphia, which built a small steam-packet for the +conveyance of passengers, and ran it during three summers, ending with +that of 1790. The company then failed, and broke poor Fitch's heart, +simply because the investment had not thus far proved lucrative, and +they were unwilling to make the further advances requisite to carry +out his moderate and reasonable plans. The only person who ever +claimed, in English, to have made a steamboat experiment before Fitch, +was James Rumsey, of Virginia, who, in 1788, published some testimony +to show that he had done it as early as April, 1786, that he had +broached the idea, _confidentially_, two years earlier, and that Fitch +_might_ have received it from one who violated his confidence. Fitch +promptly annihilated these pretences by a pamphlet, a reprint of which +maybe found in the Patent-Office Report for 1850. This, and a +contribution to Sparks's "American Biography," by Col. Charles +Whittlesey, of Ohio, seem quite sufficient to establish the historical +fact that John Fitch was the father of steam-navigation, whoever may +have been its prophets. Though the infant, with the royal blood of +both Neptune and Pluto in its veins, and a brand-new empire waiting to +crown it, fell into a seventeen years' swoon, during which Fitch died, +and the public at large forgot all that he had ever said or done, its +life did not become extinct. It was not created, but revived, by +Fulton, aided by the refreshing effusion of Chancellor Livingston's +money. We did not need a new book to make us more certain of these +facts, but we did need a more thorough biography of John Fitch, and, +with great respect for the industry and faithfulness of Mr. Westcott, +it is our opinion that we do still. He has demonstrated that the +materials for such a work are abundant, and a glance at the mortal +career of Fitch will show him to be an uncommonly interesting subject. + +John Fitch was born in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1743. At the age of +five, while his father was absent from home, courting his stepmother, +he heroically extinguished a fire of blazing flax, which would +otherwise have consumed the house, and while he was smarting from his +burns was cruelly beaten by an elder brother, who misapprehended the +case of the little boy, very much as the world did that of the man he +became. The domestic discipline he encountered under the paternal roof +was of the severest New England pattern of those days, and between its +theology and its economy he grew out of shape, like a thrifty pumpkin +between two rocks. He loved to learn, but had few books and little +schooling. His taste tended to mechanism, and he was apprenticed to a +stingy clock-maker, who obliged him to work on his farm and kept him +ignorant of his trade. Getting his liberty at last, he set up +brass-founding, on a capital of twenty shillings, and made money at +it. Then he went into the manufacture of potash, in which he was less +successful. He married a wife who proved more caustic than the potash +and more than a match for his patience. He settled his affairs so as +to leave her all his little property in the most manageable shape, and +left her with two children, to seek a separate fortune in the wide +world. The war of the Revolution found him at Trenton, New Jersey, a +man of some substance, acquired as a silversmith and peddler of silver +and brass sleeve-buttons of his own manufacture. It made him an +officer and then an armorer in the Continental service. As a +fabricator of patriotic weapons, he incurred the displeasure of his +Methodist brethren by working on the Sabbath, and lost his orthodoxy +in his disgust at their rebukes. Towards the close of the Revolution, +getting poor in fact by getting rich in Continental money, he +endeavored to save himself by investing in Virginia land-warrants, +went to Kentucky as a surveyor, and became possessed of sixteen +hundred acres of that wilderness. On a second expedition down the +Ohio, early in 1782, he fell into the hands of the savages, in the +most melodramatic style, was led captive through the vast forests and +swamps to Detroit, had a very characteristic and remarkable +prison-experience under British authority at Prison Island, was +exchanged, and by a sea-voyage reached his home in Bucks County, +Pennsylvania, at the close of the same year. Immediately after the +establishment of peace, he formed a company to speculate in Ohio +lands, and made extensive surveys for the purpose of forestalling the +best locations. Mr. Westcott's book confuses this portion of his +chronology by misprinting two or three dates, on the 113th page. The +hopeful game was spoiled by unexpected measures of the Confederated +government; but Fitch's explorations had deeply impressed him with the +sublime character of the Western rivers, and when, in April, 1785, the +thought first struck him that steam could easily make them navigable +upwards as well as downwards, he cared no more for lands. He had +noticed the mechanical power of steam, but had never seen an engine, +and did not know that one existed out of his own brain. This is the +less wonderful, seeing there were only three then in America, and his +science extended only to arithmetic. When his minister showed him a +drawing of Newcomen's engine, in "Martin's Philosophy," he was +chagrined to find that his invention had been anticipated in regard to +the mode of producing the power, but he was confirmed in his belief of +its availability for navigation. With no better resources than a +blacksmith's shop could furnish, he set himself at work to make a +steam-engine to test his theory. His success is one of those wonders +of human ingenuity struggling with difficulties, moral, financial, and +physical combined, which deserve both a Homer and a Macaulay to +celebrate and record them. He was supposed by most people, and almost +by himself, to have gone crazy. If anything, at this day, is more +incredible than the feat which he accomplished, it is the derision +with which the public viewed his labors, decried his success, and +sneered at the rags which betokened the honesty of his poverty. To +every one who had brains capable of logic, he had demonstrated the +feasibility of his visions. But no amount of even physical +demonstration, then possible, could bring out the funds requisite to +pecuniary profit, against the head-wind of public scorn. It whistled +down his high hopes of fortune. At last, dropping the file and the +hammer, he took the pen, determined, that, if others must get rich by +his invention, he would at least save for himself the fame of it. The +result of his literary labors was an autobiography of great frankness +and detail, extending to several hundred pages, and embracing almost +every conceivable violation of standard English orthography, with +which he seems to have had very little acquaintance or sympathy. It +was placed under seal in the Philadelphia Library, not to be opened +for thirty years. At the expiration of that period, in 1823, the seal +was broken, and the quaint old manuscript, with the stamp of honest +truth on every word, stood ready to reveal what the world is but just +beginning to "want to know" about John Fitch. He afterwards went to +Europe to promote his steamboat interests,--to little purpose, +--wandered about a few years, settled in Bardstown, Kentucky, +made a model steamboat with a brass engine, drowned disappointment in +the drink of that country, and at last departed by his own will, two +years before the close of the last century. A life so full of truth +that is stranger than fiction ought not to be treated in the +Dry-as-dust style, quite so largely as Mr. Westcott has done it. + + * * * * * + +_Life Beneath the Waters; or, The Aquarium in America_. Illustrated by +Plates and Wood-Cuts drawn from Life. By ARTHUR M. EDWARDS. New York: +1858. + +This book has appeared since the notice in our July number of two +English works on the Aquarium. Like so many books by which our +literature is discredited, it is a work got up hastily to meet a +public demand, and is deficient in method, thoroughness, and accuracy. +There is much repetition in it, and the observations of its author +seem to have been limited to the waters around New York, and to have +extended over but a short period. In spite of these and other minor +defects, it may be recommended as containing much useful information +for those just beginning an aquarium and forming an acquaintance with +the sea. + +We trust that a misprint in our former notice has not brought +disappointment to any of our readers, by leading them to expose their +aquaria to too much sunshine; for the sunshine should be "_not_ +enough" (and not, as it was printed, "_hot_ enough") "to raise the +water to a temperature above that of the outer air." + + * * * * * + +_The Exiles of Florida: or the Crimes committed by our Government +against the Maroons, who fled from South Carolina and other Slave +States, seeking Protection under Spanish Laws_. By JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS. +Columbus, Ohio: Follett, Foster, & Co. 1858. + +A cruel story this, Mr. Giddings tells us. Too cruel, but too true. It +is full of pathetic and tragic interest, and melts and stirs the heart +at once with pity for the sufferers, and with anger, that sins not, at +their mean and ruthless oppressors. Every American citizen should read +it; for it is an indictment which recites crimes which have been +committed in his name, perpetrated by troops and officials in his +service, and all done at his expense. The whole nation is responsible +at the bar of the world and before the tribunal of posterity for these +atrocities, devised by members of its Cabinet and its Congress, +directed by its Presidents, and executed by its armies and its courts. +The cruelties of Alva in the Netherlands, which make the pen of Motley +glow as with fire as he tells them, the _dragonnades_ which scorched +over the fairest regions of France after the Revocation of the Edict +of Nantes, have a certain excuse, as being instigated by a sincere, +though misguided religious zeal. For Philip II. and Louis XIV. had, at +least, a fanatical belief that they were doing God service by those +holocausts of his children; while no motive inspired these massacres, +tortures, and banishments, but the most sordid rapacity and avarice, +the lowest and basest passions of the human breast. + +And so carefully has the truth of this story been covered up with +lies, that, probably, very few indeed of the people of the Free States +have any just idea of the origin, character, and purposes of the +Seminole Wars, or of the character of the race against which they were +waged. And yet there is no episode in American history more full of +romantic interest, of heroic struggles, and of moving griefs. We have +been taught to believe that these wars were provoked by incursions of +the savages of Florida on the frontier, and, if the truth could not be +concealed, that an incidental motive of our war of extermination +against them was to be found in the sanctuary which the fugitive +slaves of the neighboring States found in their fastnesses. The +general impression has been, that these were mainly runaways of recent +date, who had made their escape from contemporary masters. How many of +our readers know that for more than three quarters of a century before +the purchase of Florida there had been a nation of negroes established +there, enjoying the wild freedom they loved, mingling and gradually +becoming identified with the Indians, who had made it their city of +refuge from slavery also? For the slaveholders of Carolina had no +scruples against enslaving Indians any more than Africans, until it +was discovered that the untamable nature of the red man made him an +unprofitable and a dangerous servant. These Indian slaves fled into +the wilderness, which is now the State of Georgia, pushing their way +even to the peninsula of Florida, and were followed, in their flight +and to their asylum, by many of their black companions in bondage. For +near seventy-five years this little nation lived happy and contented, +till the State of Georgia commenced the series of piratical incursions +into their country, then a Spanish dependency, from which they were +never afterwards free; the nation at last taking up the slaveholders' +quarrel and prosecuting it to the bitter and bloody end. + +This whole story is told, and well told, by Mr. Giddings. And a most +touching picture it is. First, the original evasion of the slaves into +that peninsular wilderness, which they reclaimed as far as the supply +of their simple wants demanded. They planted, they hunted, they +multiplied their cattle, they intermarried with their Indian friends +and allies, their children and their children's children grew up +around them, knowing of slavery only by traditionary legend. The +original founders of the tribe passed away, and their sons and +grandsons possessed their corn-fields and their hunting-grounds in +peace. For many years no fears disturbed their security. Under the +Spanish rule they were safe and happy. Then comes the gradual +gathering of the cloud on the edges of their wilderness, its first +fitful and irregular flashes, till it closes over their heads and +bursts upon them in universal ruin and devastation. Their heroic +resistance to the invasion of the United States troops follows, +sublime from its very desperation. A more unequal contest was never +fought. On one side one of the mightiest powers on earth, with endless +stores of men and money at its beck,--and on the other a handful of +outcasts fighting for their homes, and the liberties, in no +metaphorical sense, of themselves, their wives, and their children, +and protracting the fight for as many years as the American Revolution +lasted. + +Then succeeded the victory of Slavery, and the reduction to hopeless +bondage of multitudes who had been for generations free, on claim of +pretended descendants of imaginary owners, by the decision of petty +government-officials, without trial or real examination. More than +five hundred persons, some of them recent fugitives, but mostly men +born free, were thus reduced to slavery at a cost to us all of forty +millions of dollars, or eighty thousand dollars for each recovered +slave! Then comes their removal to the Cherokee lands, west of +Arkansas, under the pledge of the faith of the nation, plighted by +General Jessup, its authorized agent, that they should be sent to the +West, and settled in a village separate from the Seminole Indians, and +that, in the mean time, they should be protected, should not be +separated, "nor any of them be sold to white men or others." This, +however, was not a legitimate issue of a war waged solely for the +reduction of these exiles to slavery; and so the doubts of President +Polk as to the construction of this treaty were solved by Mr. John Y. +Mason, of Virginia, who was sandwiched in between two Free-State +Attorney-Generals for this single piece of dirty work, (of which +transaction see a most curious account, pp. 328-9 of this book,) and +who enlightened the Presidential mind by the information, that, though +the exiles were entitled to their freedom, under the treaty, and had a +right to remain in the towns assigned to them, "the Executive _could +not in any manner interfere to protect them_!" + +The bordering Creeks, who by long slave-holding had sunk to the level +of the whites around them, longed to seize on these valuable +neighbors, and, indeed, they claimed rights of property in them as +fugitives in fact from themselves. The exiles were assured by the +President that they "_had the right to remain in their villages, free +from all interference or interruption from the Creeks_." Trusting to +the plighted word of the Head of the Nation, they built their huts and +planted their ground, and began again their little industries and +enjoyments. + +But the sight of so many able-bodied negroes, belonging only to +themselves, and setting an evil example to the slaves in the spectacle +of an independent colony of blacks, was too tempting and too +irritating to be resisted. A slave-dealer appeared amongst the Creeks +and offered to pay one hundred dollars for every Floridian exile they +would seize and deliver to him,--he taking the risk of the title. Two +hundred armed Creek warriors made a foray into the colony and seized +all they could secure. They were repulsed, but carried their prisoners +with them and delivered them to the tempter, receiving the stipulated +pieces of silver for their reward. The Seminole agent had the +prisoners brought before the nearest Arkansas judge by Habeas Corpus, +and the whole matter was reviewed by this infamous magistrate, who +overruled the opinion of the Attorney-General as to their right to +reside in their villages, overrode the decision of the President, +repealed the treaty-stipulations, pronounced the title of the Creek +Indians, and consequently that of their vendee, legal and perfect, and +directed the kidnapped captives to be delivered up to the claimant! We +regret that Mr. Giddings has omitted the name of this wretch, and we +hope that in a future edition he will tell the world how to catalogue +this choice specimen in its collection of judicial monsters. + +Then comes the last scene of this drama of exile. Finding that there +was no rest for the sole of their foot in the United States, these +peeled and hunted men resolved to turn their backs upon the country +that had thus cruelly entreated them, and to seek a new home within +the frontiers of Mexico. The sad procession began its march westward +by night, the warriors keeping themselves always in readiness for an +attack. The Creeks, finding that their prey had escaped them, went in +pursuit, but were bravely repulsed and fled, leaving their dead upon +the field,--the greatest disgrace that can befall, according to the +code of Indian honor. The exiles then pursued their march into Mexico +without further molestation. There, in a fertile and picturesque +region, they have established themselves and resumed the pursuits of +peaceful life. But they have not been permitted to live in peace even +there. At least one marauding party, in 1853, was organized in Texas, +and went in search of adventures towards the new settlement. Of the +particulars of the expedition we have no account. Only, it is known +that it returned without captives, and, as the Texan papers announcing +the fact admitted, "_with slightly diminished numbers_." How long they +will be permitted to dwell unmolested in their new homes no one can +say. Complaints are already abroad that the escape of slaves is +promoted by the existence of this colony, which receives and protects +them. And when the Government shall be ordered by its Slave-holding +Directory to add another portion of Mexico to the Area of Freedom, +these "outrages" will be sure to be found in the catalogue of +grievances to be redressed. Then they will have to dislodge again and +fly yet farther from before the face of their hereditary oppressors. + +Mr. Giddings has done his task admirably well. It is worthy to be the +crowning work of his long life of public service. His style is of that +best kind which is never remarked upon, but serves as a clear medium +through which the events he portrays are seen without distortion or +exaggeration. He has done his country one more service in entire +consistency with those that have filled up the whole course of his +honorable and beneficent life. We have said that this is fit to be the +crowning work of Mr. Giddings's life; but we trust that it is far from +being the last that he will do for his country. A winter such as +rounds his days is fuller of life and promise than a century of vulgar +summers. He has won for himself an honorable and enduring place in the +hearts and memories of men by the fidelity to principle and the +unfaltering courage of his public course. Of the ignoble hundreds who +have flitted through the Capitol, since he first took his place there, + + "Heads without name, no more remembered," + +his is one of the two or three that are household words on the lips of +the nation. And it will so remain and be familiar in the mouths of +posterity, with a fame as pure as it is noble. The ear that hath _not_ +heard him shall bless him, and the eye that hath _not_ seen him shall +give witness to him. + + * * * * * + + +OBITUARY. + +The conductors of "The Atlantic" have the painful duty of announcing +to their readers the death of CALVIN W. PHILLEO, author of "Akin by +Marriage," published in the earlier numbers of this magazine. The plot +of the story was sketched at length, and in the brain of the writer it +was complete; but no hand save his own could give it life and form: it +must remain an unfinished work. The mind of Mr. Philleo was singularly +clear, his observation of nature and character sharp and +discriminating, and his feeling for beauty, in its more placid forms, +was intense and pervading. His previous work, "Twice Married," and the +various sketches of New England life, with which the readers of +magazine literature are familiar, are sufficient to give him a high +place among novelists. He was warm in his friendships, pure in life, +and his early death will be lamented by a wide circle of friends. _In +pace!_ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 2, ISSUE +11, SEPTEMBER, 1858*** + + +******* This file should be named 10456-8.txt or 10456-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/4/5/10456 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/10456-8.zip b/old/10456-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ac2db8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10456-8.zip diff --git a/old/10456.txt b/old/10456.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0e7ac0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10456.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9231 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 11, +September, 1858, 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, Volume 2, Issue 11, September, 1858 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 14, 2003 [eBook #10456] +[Date last updated: June 15, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 2, ISSUE +11, SEPTEMBER, 1858*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Keith M. Eckrich, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. II.--SEPTEMBER, 1858.--NO. XI. + + + + + +ELOQUENCE. + +It is the doctrine of the popular music-masters, that whoever can +speak can sing. So, probably, every man is eloquent once in his life. +Our temperaments differ in capacity of heat, or we boil at different +degrees. One man is brought to the boiling point by the excitement of +conversation in the parlor. The waters, of course, are not very deep. +He has a two-inch enthusiasm, a pattypan ebullition. Another requires +the additional caloric of a multitude, and a public debate; a third +needs an antagonist, or a hot indignation; a fourth needs a +revolution; and a fifth, nothing less than the grandeur of absolute +ideas, the splendors and shades of Heaven and Hell. + +But because every man is an orator, how long soever he may have been a +mute, an assembly of men is so much more susceptible. The eloquence of +one stimulates all the rest, some up to the speaking point, and all +others to a degree that makes them good receivers and conductors, and +they avenge themselves for their enforced silence by increased +loquacity on their return to the fireside. + +The plight of these phlegmatic brains is better than that of those who +prematurely boil, and who impatiently break the silence before their +time. Our county conventions often exhibit a small-pot-soon-hot style +of eloquence. We are too much reminded of a medical experiment, where +a series of patients are taking nitrous-oxide gas. Each patient, in +turn, exhibits similar symptoms,--redness in the face, volubility, +violent gesticulation, delirious attitudes, occasional stamping, an +alarming loss of perception of the passage of time, a selfish +enjoyment of his sensations, and loss of perception of the sufferings +of the audience. + +Plato says, that the punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to +take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse +men; and the like regret is suggested to all the auditors, as the +penalty of abstaining to speak, that they shall hear worse orators +than themselves. + +But this lust to speak marks the universal feeling of the energy of +the engine, and the curiosity men feel to touch the springs. Of all +the musical instruments on which men play, a popular assembly is that +which has the largest compass and variety, and out of which, by genius +and study, the most wonderful effects can be drawn. An audience is not +a simple addition of the individuals that compose it. Their sympathy +gives them a certain social organism, which fills each member, in his +own degree, and most of all the orator, as a jar in a battery is +charged with the whole electricity of the battery. No one can survey +the face of an excited assembly, without being apprised of new +opportunity for painting in fire human thought, and being agitated to +agitate. How many orators sit mute there below! They come to get +justice done to that ear and intuition which no Chatham and no +Demosthenes has begun to satisfy. + +The Welsh Triads say, "Many are the friends of the golden tongue." Who +can wonder at the attractiveness of Parliament, or of Congress, or the +bar, for our ambitious young men, when the highest bribes of society +are at the feet of the successful orator? He has his audience at his +devotion. All other fames must hush before his. He is the true +potentate; for they are not kings who sit on thrones, but they who +know how to govern. The definitions of eloquence describe its +attraction for young men. Antiphon the Rhamnusian, one of Plutarch's +ten orators, advertised in Athens, "that he would cure distempers of +the mind with words." No man has a prosperity so high or firm, but two +or three words can dishearten it. There is no calamity which right +words will not begin to redress. Isocrates described his art, as "the +power of magnifying what was small and diminishing what was +great";--an acute, but partial definition. Among the Spartans, the art +assumed a Spartan shape, namely, of the sharpest weapon. Socrates +says, "If any one wishes to converse with the meanest of the +Lacedaemonians, he will at first find him despicable in conversation; +but, when a proper opportunity offers, this same person, like a +skilful jaculator, will hurl a sentence worthy of attention, short and +contorted, so that he who converses with him will appear to be in no +respect superior to a boy." Plato's definition of rhetoric is, "the +art of ruling the minds of men." The Koran says, "A mountain may +change its place, but a man will not change his disposition";--yet the +end of eloquence is,--is it not?--to alter in a pair of hours, perhaps +in a half-hour's discourse, the convictions and habits of years. Young +men, too, are eager to enjoy this sense of added power and enlarged +sympathetic existence. The orator sees himself the organ of a +multitude, and concentrating their valors and powers: + + "But now the blood of twenty thousand men + Blushed in my face." + +That which he wishes, that which eloquence ought to reach, is, not a +particular skill in telling a story, or neatly summing up evidence, or +arguing logically, or dexterously addressing the prejudice of the +company; no, but a taking sovereign possession of the audience. Him we +call an artist, who shall play on an assembly of men as a master on +the keys of the piano,--who, seeing the people furious, shall soften +and compose them, shall draw them, when he will, to laughter and to +tears. Bring him to his audience, and, be they who they may, coarse or +refined, pleased or displeased, sulky or savage, with their opinions +in the keeping of a confessor, or with their opinions in their +bank-safes,--he will have them pleased and humored as he chooses; and +they shall carry and execute that which he bids them. + +This is that despotism which poets have celebrated in the "Pied Piper +of Hamelin," whose music drew like the power of gravitation,--drew +soldiers and priests, traders and feasters, women and boys, rats and +mice; or that of the minstrel of Meudon, who made the pallbearers +dance around the bier. This is a power of many degrees, and requiring +in the orator a great range of faculty and experience, requiring a +large composite man, such as Nature rarely organizes, so that, in our +experience, we are forced to gather up the figure in fragments, here +one talent, and there another. + +The audience is a constant metre of the orator. There are many +audiences in every public assembly, each one of which rules in turn. +If anything comic and coarse is spoken, you shall see the emergence of +the boys and rowdies, so loud and vivacious, that you might think the +house was filled with them. If new topics are started, graver and +higher, these roisters recede; a more chaste and wise attention takes +place. You would think the boys slept, and that the men have any +degree of profoundness. If the speaker utter a noble sentiment, the +attention deepens, a new and highest audience now listens, and the +audiences of the fun and of facts and of the understanding are all +silenced and awed. There is also something excellent in every +audience,--the capacity of virtue. They are ready to be beatified. +They know so much more than the orator,--and are so just! There is a +tablet there for every line he can inscribe, though he should mount to +the highest levels. Humble persons are conscious of new illumination; +narrow brows expand with enlarged affections: delicate spirits, long +unknown to themselves, masked and muffled in coarsest fortunes, who +now hear their own native language for the first time, and leap to +hear it. But all these several audiences, each above each, which +successively appear to greet the variety of style and topic, are +really composed out of the same persons; nay, sometimes the same +individual will take active part in them all, in turn. + +This range of many powers in the consummate speaker and of many +audiences in one assembly leads us to consider the successive stages +of oratory. + +Perhaps it is the lowest of the qualities of an orator, but it is, on +so many occasions, of chief importance,--a certain robust and radiant +physical health,--or, shall I say? great volumes of animal heat. When +each auditor feels himself to make too large a part of the assembly, +and shudders with cold at the thinness of the morning audience, and +with fear lest all will heavily fail through one bad speech, mere +energy and mellowness are then inestimable. Wisdom and learning would +be harsh and unwelcome, compared with a substantial cordial man, made +of milk, as we say, who is a house-warmer, with his obvious honesty +and good meaning, and a hue-and-cry style of harangue, which inundates +the assembly with a flood of animal spirits, and makes all safe and +secure, so that any and every sort of good speaking becomes at once +practicable. I do not rate this animal eloquence very highly, and yet, +as we must be fed and warmed before we can do any work well, even the +best, so is this semi-animal exuberance, like a good stove, of the +first necessity in a cold house. + +Climate has much to do with it,--climate and race. Set a New Englander +to describe any accident which happened in his presence. What +hesitation and reserve in his narrative! He tells with difficulty some +particulars, and gets as fast as he can to the result, and, though he +cannot describe, hopes to suggest the whole scene. Now listen to a +poor Irish-woman recounting some experience of hers. Her speech flows +like a river,--so unconsidered, so humorous, so pathetic, such justice +done to all the parts! It is a true transubstantiation,--the fact +converted into speech, all warm and colored and alive, as it fell out. +Our Southern people are almost all speakers, and have every advantage +over the New England people, whose climate is so cold, that, 'tis said, +we do not like to open our mouths very wide. But neither can the +Southerner in the United States, nor the Irish, compare with the +lively inhabitant of the South of Europe. The traveller in Sicily +needs no gayer melodramatic exhibition than the _table d'hote_ of his +inn will afford him, in the conversation of the joyous guests. They +mimic the voice and manner of the person they describe; they crow, +squeal, hiss, cackle, bark, and scream like mad, and, were it only by +the physical strength exerted in telling the story, keep the table in +unbounded excitement. But in every constitution some large degree of +animal vigor is necessary as material foundation for the higher +qualities of the art. + +But eloquence must be attractive, or it is none. The virtue of books +is to be readable, and of orators to be interesting, and this is a +gift of Nature; as Demosthenes, the most laborious student in that +kind, signified his sense of this necessity when he wrote, "Good +Fortune," as his motto on his shield. As we know, the power of +discourse of certain individuals amounts to fascination, though it may +have no lasting effect. Some portion of this sugar must intermingle. +The right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no +constable to keep them. It draws the children from their play, the old +from their arm-chairs, and the invalid from his warm chamber; it holds +the hearer fast, steals away his feet, that he shall not depart,--his +memory, that he shall not remember the most pressing affairs,--his +belief, that he shall not admit any opposing considerations. The +pictures we have of it in semi-barbarous ages, when it has some +advantages in the simpler habit of the people, show what it aims at. +It is said that the Khans, or story-tellers in Ispahan and other +cities of the East, attain a controlling power over their audience, +keeping them for many hours attentive to the most fanciful and +extravagant adventures. The whole world knows pretty well the style of +these improvisators, and how fascinating they are, in our translations +of the "Arabian Nights." Scheherzarade tells these stories to save her +life, and the delight of young Europe and young America in them proves +that she fairly earned it. And who does not remember in childhood some +white or black or yellow Scheherzarade, who, by that talent of telling +endless feats of fairies and magicians, and kings and queens, was more +dear and wonderful to a circle of children than any orator of England +or America is now? The more indolent and imaginative complexion of the +Eastern nations makes them much more impressible by these appeals to +the fancy. + +These legends are only exaggerations of real occurrences, and every +literature contains these high compliments to the art of the orator +and the bard, from the Hebrew and the Greek down to the Scottish +Glenkindie, who + + --"harpit a fish out o' saut water, + Or water out of a stone, + Or milk out of a maiden's breast + Who bairn had never none." + +Homer specially delighted in drawing the same figure. For what is the +"Odyssey," but a history of the orator, in the largest style, carried +through a series of adventures furnishing brilliant opportunities to +his talent? See with what care and pleasure the poet brings him on the +stage. Helen is pointing out to Antenor, from a tower, the different +Grecian chiefs. "Antenor said: 'Tell me, dear child, who is that man, +shorter by a head than Agamemnon, yet he looks broader in his +shoulders and breast. His arms lie on the ground, but he, like a +leader, walks about the bands of the men. He seems to me like a +stately ram, who goes as a master of the flock.' Him answered Helen, +daughter of Jove: 'This is the wise Ulysses, son of Laertes, who was +reared in the state of craggy Ithaca, knowing all wiles and wise +counsels.' To her the prudent Antenor replied again: 'O woman, you +have spoken truly. For once the wise Ulysses came hither on an +embassy, with Menelaus, beloved by Mars. I received them, and +entertained them at my house. I became acquainted with the genius and +the prudent judgments of both. When they mixed with the assembled +Trojans and stood, the broad shoulders of Menelaus rose above the +other; but, both sitting, Ulysses was more majestic. When they +conversed, and interweaved stories and opinions with all; Menelaus +spoke succinctly, few but very sweet words, since he was not +talkative, nor superfluous in speech, and was the younger. But when +the wise Ulysses arose, and stood, and looked down, fixing his eyes on +the ground, and neither moved his sceptre backward nor forward, but +held it still, like an awkward person, you would say it was some angry +or foolish man; but when he sent his great voice forth out of his +breast, and his words fell like the winter snows, not then would any +mortal contend with Ulysses; and we, beholding, wondered not +afterwards so much at his aspect." [_Iliad_, III. 192.] + +Thus he does not fail to arm Ulysses at first with this power of +overcoming all opposition by the blandishments of speech. Plutarch +tells us that Thucydides, when Archidamus, king of Sparta, asked him, +Which was the best wrestler, Pericles or he? replied, "When I throw +him, he says he was never down, and he persuades the very spectators +to believe him." Philip of Macedon said of Demosthenes, on hearing the +report of one of his orations, "Had I been there, he would have +persuaded me to take up arms against myself"; and Warren Hastings said +of Burke's speech on his impeachment, "As I listened to the orator, I +felt for more than half an hour as if I were the most culpable being +on earth." + +In these examples, higher qualities have already entered; but the +power of detaining the ear by pleasing speech, and addressing the +fancy and imagination, often exists without higher merits. Thus +separated, as this fascination of discourse aims only at amusement, +though it be decisive in its momentary effect, it is yet a juggle, and +of no lasting power. It is heard like a band of music passing through +the streets, which converts all the passengers into poets, but is +forgotten as soon as it has turned the next corner; and unless this +oiled tongue could, in Oriental phrase, lick the sun and moon away, it +must take its place with opium and brandy. I know no remedy against it +but cotton-wool, or the wax which Ulysses stuffed into the ears of his +sailors to pass the Sirens safely. + +There are all degrees of power, and the least are interesting, but +they must not be confounded. There is the glib tongue and cool +self-possession of the salesman in a large shop, which, as is well +known, overpower the prudence and resolution of housekeepers of both +sexes. There is a petty lawyer's fluency, which is sufficiently +impressive to him who is devoid of that talent, though it be, in so +many cases, nothing more than a facility of expressing with accuracy +and speed what everybody thinks and says more slowly, without new +information, or precision of thought,--but the same thing, neither +less nor more. It requires no special insight to edit one of our +country newspapers. Yet whoever can say off currently, sentence by +sentence, matter neither better nor worse than what is there printed, +will be very impressive to our easily-pleased population. These +talkers are that class who prosper like the celebrated schoolmaster, +by being only one lesson ahead of the pupil. Add a little sarcasm, and +prompt allusion to passing occurrences, and you have the mischievous +member of Congress. A spice of malice, a ruffian touch in his +rhetoric, will do him no harm with his audience. These accomplishments +are of the same kind, and only a degree higher than the coaxing of the +auctioneer, or the vituperative style well described in the +street-word "jawing." These kinds of public and private speaking have +their use and convenience to the practitioners; but we may say of such +collectively, that the habit of oratory is apt to disqualify them for +eloquence. + +One of our statesmen said, "The curse of this country is eloquent +men." And one cannot wonder at the uneasiness sometimes manifested by +trained statesmen, with large experience of public affairs, when they +observe the disproportionate advantage suddenly given to oratory over +the most solid and accumulated public service. In a Senate or other +business committee, the solid result depends on a few men with working +talent. They know how to deal with the facts before them, to put +things into a practical shape, and they value men only as they can +forward the work. But some new man comes there, who has no capacity +for helping them at all, is insignificant, and nobody in the +committee, but has a talent for speaking. In the debate with open +doors, this precious person makes a speech, which is printed, and read +all over the Union, and he at once becomes famous, and takes the lead +in the public mind over all these executive men, who, of course, are +full of indignation to find one who has no tact or skill, and knows he +has none, put over them by means of this talking power which they +despise. + +Leaving behind us these pretensions, better or worse, to come a little +nearer to the verity, eloquence is attractive as an example of the +magic of personal ascendency;--a total and resultant power,--rare, +because it requires a rich coincidence of powers, intellect, will, +sympathy, organs, and, over all, good-fortune in the cause. We have a +half-belief that the person is possible who can counterpoise all other +persons. We believe that there may be a man who is a match for +events,--one who never found his match,--against whom other men being +dashed are broken,--one of inexhaustible personal resources, who can +give you any odds and beat you. What we really wish for is a mind +equal to any exigency. You are safe in your rural district, or in the +city, in broad daylight, amidst the police, and under the eyes of a +hundred thousand people. But how is it on the Atlantic, in a storm? Do +you understand how to infuse your reason into men disabled by terror, +and to bring yourself off safe then?--how among thieves, or among an +infuriated populace, or among cannibals? Face to face with a +highwayman who has every temptation and opportunity for violence and +plunder, can you bring yourself off safe by your wit, exercised +through speech?--a problem easy enough to Caesar, or Napoleon. +Whenever a man of that stamp arrives, the highwayman has found a +master. What a difference between men in power of face! A man succeeds +because he has more power of eye than another, and so coaxes or +confounds him. The newspapers, every week, report the adventures of +some impudent swindler, who, by steadiness of carriage, duped those +who should have known better. Yet any swindlers we have known are +novices and bunglers, as is attested by their ill name. A greater +power of face would accomplish anything, and, with the rest of their +takings, take away the bad name. A greater power of carrying the thing +loftily, and with perfect assurance, would confound merchant, banker, +judge, men of influence and power, poet, and president, and might head +any party, unseat any sovereign, and abrogate any constitution in +Europe and America. It was said, that a man has at one step attained +vast power, who has renounced his moral sentiment, and settled it with +himself that he will no longer stick at anything. It was said of Sir +William Pepperel, one of the worthies of New England, that, "put him +where you might, he commanded, and saw what he willed come to pass." +Julius Caesar said to Metellus, when that tribune interfered to hinder +him from entering the Roman treasury, "Young man, it is easier for me +to put you to death than to say that I will"; and the youth yielded. +In earlier days, he was taken by pirates. What then? He threw himself +into their ship; established the most extraordinary intimacies; told +them stories; declaimed to them; if they did not applaud his speeches, +he threatened them with hanging,--which he performed afterwards,--and, +in a short time, was master of all on board. A man this is who cannot +be disconcerted, and so can never play his last card, but has a +reserve of power when he has hit his mark. With a serene face, he +subverts a kingdom. What is told of him is miraculous; it affects men +so. The confidence of men in him is lavish, and he changes the face of +the world, and histories, poems, and new philosophies arise to account +for him. A supreme commander over all his passions and affections; but +the secret of his ruling is higher than that. It is the power of +Nature running without impediment from the brain and will into the +hands. Men and women are his game. Where they are, he cannot be +without resource. "Whoso can speak well," said Luther, "is a man." It +was men of this stamp that the Grecian States used to ask of Sparta +for generals. They did not send to Lacedaemon for troops, but they +said, "Send us a commander"; and Pausanias, or Gylippus, or Brasidas, +or Agis, was despatched by the Ephors. + +It is easy to illustrate this overpowering personality by these +examples of soldiers and kings; but there are men of the most peaceful +way of life, and peaceful principle, who are felt, wherever they go, +as sensibly as a July sun or a December frost,--men who, if they +speak, are heard, though they speak in a whisper,--who, when they act, +act effectually, and what they do is imitated: and these examples may +be found on very humble platforms, as well as on high ones. + +In old countries, a high money-value is set on the services of men who +have achieved a personal distinction. He who has points to carry must +hire, not a skilful attorney, but a commanding person. A barrister in +England is reputed to have made twenty or thirty thousand pounds _per +annum_ in representing the claims of railroad companies before +committees of the House of Commons. His clients pay not so much for +legal as for manly accomplishments,--for courage, conduct, and a +commanding social position, which enable him to make their claims +heard and respected. + +I know very well, that, among our cool and calculating people, where +every man mounts guard over himself, where heats and panics and +abandonments are quite out of the system, there is a good deal of +skepticism as to extraordinary influence. To talk of an overpowering +mind rouses the same jealousy and defiance which one may observe round +a table where anybody is recounting the marvellous anecdotes of +mesmerism. Each auditor puts a final stroke to the discourse by +exclaiming, "Can he mesmerize _me_?" So each man inquires if any +orator can change _his_ convictions. + +But does any one suppose himself to be quite impregnable? Does he +think that not possibly a man may come to him who shall persuade him +out of his most settled determination?--for example, good sedate +citizen as he is, to make a fanatic of him? or, if he is penurious, to +squander money for some purpose he now least thinks of? or, if he is a +prudent, industrious person, to forsake his work, and give days and +weeks to a new interest? No, he defies any one, every one. Ah! he is +thinking of resistance, and of a different turn from his own. But what +if one should come of the same turn of mind as his own, and who sees +much farther on his own way than he? A man who has tastes like mine, +but in greater power, will rule me any day, and make me love my ruler. + +Thus it is not powers of speech that we primarily consider under this +word Eloquence, but the power that, being present, gives them their +perfection, and, being absent, leaves them a merely superficial value. +Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy. +Personal ascendency may exist with or without adequate talent for its +expression. It is as surely felt as a mountain or a planet; but when +it is weaponed with a power of speech, it seems first to become truly +human, works actively in all directions, and supplies the imagination +with fine materials. + +This circumstance enters into every consideration of the power of +orators, and is the key to all their effects. In the assembly, you +shall find the orator and the audience in perpetual balance, and the +predominance of either is indicated by the choice of topic. If the +talents for speaking exist, but not the strong personality, then there +are good speakers who perfectly receive and express the will of the +audience, and the commonest populace is flattered by hearing its low +mind returned to it with every ornament which happy talent can add. +But if there be personality in the orator, the face of things changes. +The audience is thrown into the attitude of pupil, follows like a +child its preceptor, and hears what he has to say. It is as if, amidst +the king's council at Madrid, Ximenes urged that an advantage might be +gained of France, and Mendoza that Flanders might be kept down, and +Columbus, being introduced, was interrogated whether his geographical +knowledge could aid the cabinet, and he can say nothing to one party +or to the other, but he can show how all Europe can be diminished and +reduced under the king by annexing to Spain a continent as large as +six or seven Europes. + +This balance between the orator and the audience is expressed in what +is called the pertinence of the speaker. There is always a rivalry +between the orator and the occasion, between the demands of the hour +and the prepossession of the individual. The emergency which has +convened the meeting is usually of more importance than anything the +debaters have in their minds, and therefore becomes imperative to +them. But if one of them have anything of commanding necessity in his +heart, how speedily he will find vent for it, and with the applause of +the assembly! This balance is observed in the privatest intercourse. +Poor Tom never knew the time when the present occurrence was so +trivial that he could tell what was passing in his mind without being +checked for unseasonable speech; but let Bacon speak, and wise men +would rather listen, though the revolution of kingdoms was on foot. I +have heard it reported of an eloquent preacher, whose voice is not yet +forgotten in this city, that, on occasions of death or tragic +disaster, which overspread the congregation with gloom, he ascended +the pulpit with more than his usual alacrity, and, turning to his +favorite lessons of devout and jubilant thankfulness, "Let us praise +the Lord," carried audience, mourners, and mourning along with him, +and swept away all the impertinence of private sorrow with his +hosannas and songs of praise. Pepys says of Lord Clarendon, with whom +"he is mad in love," on his return from a conference, "I did never +observe how much easier a man do speak when he knows all the company +to be below him, than in him; for, though he spoke indeed excellent +well, yet his manner and freedom of doing it, as if he played with it, +and was informing only all the rest of the company, was mighty +pretty." [_Diary_, I. 469.] + +This rivalry between the orator and the occasion is inevitable, and +the occasion always yields to the eminence of the speaker; for a great +man is the greatest of occasions. Of course, the interest of the +audience and of the orator conspire. It is well with them only when +his influence is complete; then only they are well pleased. +Especially, he consults his power by making instead of taking his +theme. If he should attempt to instruct the people in that which they +already know, he would fail; but, by making them wise in that which he +knows, he has the advantage of the assembly every moment. Napoleon's +tactics of marching on the angle of an army, and always presenting a +superiority of numbers, is the orator's secret also. + +The several talents which the orator employs, the splendid weapons +which went to the equipment of Demosthenes, of AEchines, of Demades, +the natural orator, of Fox, of Pitt, of Patrick Henry, of Adams, of +Mirabeau, deserve a special enumeration. We must not quite omit to +name the principal pieces. + +The orator, as we have seen, must be a substantial personality. Then, +first, he must have power of statement,--must have the fact, and know +how to tell it. In any knot of men conversing on any subject, the +person who knows most about it will have the ear of the company, if he +wishes it, and lead the conversation,--no matter what genius or +distinction other men there present may have; and in any public +assembly, him who has the facts, and can and will state them, people +will listen to, though he is otherwise ignorant, though he is hoarse +and ungraceful, though he stutters and screams. + +In a court of justice, the audience are impartial; they really wish to +sift the statements, and know what the truth is. And, in the +examination of witnesses, there usually leap out, quite unexpectedly, +three or four stubborn words or phrases which are the pith and fate of +the business, which sink into the ear of all parties, and stick there, +and determine the cause. All the rest is repetition and qualifying; +and the court and the county have really come together to arrive at +these three or four memorable expressions, which betrayed the mind and +meaning of somebody. + +In every company, the man with the fact is like the guide you hire to +lead your party up a mountain or through a difficult country. He may +not compare with any of the party in mind, or breeding, or courage, or +possessions, but he is much more important to the present need than +any of them. That is what we go to the court-house for,--the statement +of the fact, and the elimination of a general fact, the real relation +of all the parties; and it is the certainty with which, indifferently +in any affair that is well handled, the truth stares us in the face, +through all the disguises that are put upon it,--a piece of the +well-known human life,--that makes the interest of a court-room to the +intelligent spectator. + +I remember, long ago, being attracted by the distinction of the +counsel, and the local importance of the cause, into the court-room. +The prisoner's counsel were the strongest and cunningest lawyers in +the Commonwealth. They drove the attorney for the State from corner to +corner, taking his reasons from under him, and reducing him to +silence, but not to submission. When hard-pressed, he revenged +himself, in his turn, on the judge, by requiring the court to define +what salvage was. The court, thus pushed, tried words, and said +everything it could think of to fill the time, supposing cases, and +describing duties of insurers, captains, pilots, and miscellaneous +sea-officers that are or might be,--like a schoolmaster puzzled by a +hard sum, who reads the context with emphasis. But all this flood not +serving the cuttle-fish to get away in, the horrible shark of the +district-attorney being still there, grimly awaiting with his "The +court must define,"--the poor court pleaded its inferiority. The +superior court must establish the law for this, and it read away +piteously the decisions of the Supreme Court, but read to those who +had no pity. The judge was forced at last to rule something, and the +lawyers saved their rogue under the fog of a definition. The parts +were so well cast and discriminated, that it was an interesting game +to watch. The government was well enough represented. It was stupid, +but it had a strong will and possession, and stood on that to the +last. The judge had a task beyond his preparation, yet his position +remained real; he was there to represent a great reality, the justice +of states, which we could well enough see beetling over his head, and +which his trifling talk nowise affected, and did not impede, since he +was entirely well-meaning. + +The statement of the fact, however, sinks before the statement of the +law, which requires immeasurably higher powers, and is a rarest gift, +being in all great masters one and the same thing,--in lawyers, +nothing technical, but always some piece of common sense, alike +interesting to laymen as to clerks. Lord Mansfield's merit is the +merit of common sense. It is the same quality we admire in Aristotle, +Montaigne, Cervantes, or in Samuel Johnson, or Franklin. Its +application to law seems quite accidental. Each of Mansfield's famous +decisions contains a level sentence or two, which hit the mark. His +sentences are not always finished to the eye, but are finished to the +mind. The sentences are involved, but a solid proposition is set +forth, a true distinction is drawn. They come from and they go to the +sound human understanding; and I read, without surprise, that the +black-letter lawyers of the day sneered at his "equitable decisions," +as if they were not also learned. This, indeed, is what speech is for, +to make the statement; and all that is called eloquence seems to me of +little use, for the most part, to those who have it, but inestimable +to such as have something to say. + +Next to the knowledge of the fact and its law, is method, which +constitutes the genius and efficiency of all remarkable men. A crowd +of men go up to Faneuil Hall; they are all pretty well acquainted with +the object of the meeting; they have all read the facts in the same +newspapers. The orator possesses no information which his hearers have +not; yet he teaches them to see the thing with his eyes. By the new +placing, the circumstances acquire new solidity and worth. Every fact +gains consequence by his naming it, and trifles become important. His +expressions fix themselves in men's memories, and fly from mouth to +mouth. His mind has some new principle of order. Where he looks, all +things fly into their places. What will he say next? Let this man +speak, and this man only. By applying the habits of a higher style of +thought to the common affairs of this world, he introduces beauty and +magnificence wherever he goes. Such a power was Burke's, and of this +genius we have had some brilliant examples in our own political and +legal men. + +Imagery. The orator must be, to a certain extent, a poet. We are such +imaginative creatures, that nothing so works on the human mind, +barbarous or civil, as a trope. Condense some daily experience into a +glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified. They feel as if they +already possessed some new right and power over a fact, which they can +detach, and so completely master in thought. It is a wonderful aid to +the memory, which carries away the image, and never loses it. A +popular assembly, like the House of Commons, or the French Chamber, or +the American Congress, is commanded by these two powers,--first by a +fact, then by skill of statement. Put the argument into a concrete +shape, into an image, some hard phrase, round and solid as a ball, +which they can see and handle and carry home with them, and the cause +is half won. + +Statement, method, imagery, selection, tenacity of memory, power of +dealing with facts, of illuminating them, of sinking them by ridicule +or by diversion of the mind, rapid generalization, humor, pathos, are +keys which the orator holds; and yet these fine gifts are not +eloquence, and do often hinder a man's attainment of it. And if we +come to the heart of the mystery, perhaps we should say that the truly +eloquent man is a sane man with power to communicate his sanity. If +you arm the man with the extraordinary weapons of this art, give him a +grasp of facts, learning, quick fancy, sarcasm, splendid allusion, +interminable illustration,--all these talents, so potent and charming, +have an equal power to insnare and mislead the audience and the +orator. His talents are too much for him, his horses run away with +him; and people always perceive whether you drive, or whether the +horses take the bits in their teeth and run. But these talents are +quite something else when they are subordinated and serve him; and we +go to Washington, or to Westminster Hall, or might well go round the +world, to see a man who drives, and is not run away with,--a man who, +in prosecuting great designs, has an absolute command of the means of +representing his ideas, and uses them only to express these; placing +facts, placing men; amid the inconceivable levity of human beings, +never for an instant warped from his erectness. There is for every man +a statement possible of that truth which he is most unwilling to +receive,--a statement possible, so broad and so pungent, that he +cannot get away from it, but must either bend to it or die of it. Else +there would be no such word as eloquence, which means this. The +listener cannot hide from himself that something has been shown him +and the whole world, which he did not wish to see; and, as he cannot +dispose of it, it disposes of him. The history of public men and +affairs in America will readily furnish tragic examples of this fatal +force. + +For the triumphs of the art somewhat more must still be required, +namely, a reinforcing of man from events, so as to give the double +force of reason and destiny. In transcendent eloquence, there was ever +some crisis in affairs, such as could deeply engage the man to the +cause he pleads, and draw all this wide power to a point. For the +explosions and eruptions, there must be accumulations of heat +somewhere, beds of ignited anthracite at the centre. And in cases +where profound conviction has been wrought, the eloquent man is he who +is no beautiful speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain +belief. It agitates and tears him, and perhaps almost bereaves him of +the power of articulation. Then it rushes from him as in short, abrupt +screams, in torrents of meaning. The possession the subject has of his +mind is so entire, that it insures an order of expression which is the +order of Nature itself, and so the order of greatest force, and +inimitable by any art. And the main distinction between him and other +well-graced actors is the conviction, communicated by every word, that +his mind is contemplating a whole and inflamed by the contemplation of +the whole, and that the words and sentences uttered by him, however +admirable, fall from him as unregarded parts of that terrible whole +which he sees, and which he means that you shall see. Add to this +concentration a certain regnant calmness, which, in all the tumult, +never utters a premature syllable, but keeps the secret of its means +and method; and the orator stands before the people as a demoniacal +power to whose miracles they have no key. This terrible earnestness +makes good the ancient superstition of the hunter, that the bullet +will hit its mark, which is first dipped in the marksman's blood. + +Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative. Afterwards, it +may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and color, +speaks only through the most poetic forms; but, first and last, it +must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact. The orator is +thereby an orator, that he keeps his feet ever on a fact. Thus only is +he invincible. No gifts, no graces, no power of wit or learning or +illustration will make any amends for want of this. All audiences are +just to this point. Fame of voice or of rhetoric will carry people a +few times to hear a speaker, but they soon begin to ask, "What is he +driving at?" and if this man does not stand for anything, he will be +deserted. A good upholder of anything which they believe, a +fact-speaker of any kind, they will long follow; but a pause in the +speaker's own character is very properly a loss of attraction. The +preacher enumerates his classes of men, and I do not find my place +therein; I suspect, then, that no man does. Every thing is my cousin, +and whilst he speaks things, I feel that he is touching some of my +relations, and I am uneasy; but whilst he deals in words, we are +released from attention. If you would lift me, you must be on higher +ground. If you would liberate me, you must be free. If you would +correct my false view of facts,--hold up to me the same facts in the +true order of thought, and I cannot go back from the new conviction. + +The power of Chatham, of Pericles, of Luther, rested on this strength +of character, which, because it did not and could not fear anybody, +made nothing of their antagonists, and became sometimes exquisitely +provoking and sometimes terrific to these. + +We are slenderly furnished with anecdotes of these men, nor can we +help ourselves by those heavy books in which their discourses are +reported. Some of them were writers, like Burke; but most of them were +not, and no record at all adequate to their fame remains. Besides, +what is best is lost, the fiery life of the moment. But the conditions +for eloquence always exist. It is always dying out of famous places, +and appearing in corners. Wherever the polarities meet, wherever the +fresh moral sentiment, the instinct of freedom and duty, come in +direct opposition to fossil conservatism and the thirst of gain, the +spark will pass. The resistance to slavery in this country has been a +fruitful nursery of orators. The natural connection by which it drew +to itself a train of moral reforms, and the slight yet sufficient +party organization it offered, reinforced the city with new blood from +the woods and mountains. Wild men, John Baptists, Hermit Peters, John +Knoxes, utter the savage sentiment of Nature in the heart of +commercial capitals. They send us every year some piece of aboriginal +strength, some tough oak-stick of a man who is not to be silenced or +insulted or intimidated by a mob, because he is more mob than +they,--one who mobs the mob,--some sturdy countryman, on whom neither +money, nor politeness, nor hard words, nor eggs, nor blows, nor +brickbats, make any impression. He is fit to meet the bar-room wits +and bullies; he is a wit and a bully himself, and something more; he +is a graduate of the plough, and the stub-hoe, and the bush-whacker; +knows all the secrets of swamp and snow-bank, and has nothing to learn +of labor or poverty or the rough of farming. His hard head went +through in childhood the drill of Calvinism, with text and +mortification, so that he stands in the New England assembly a purer +bit of New England than any, and flings his sarcasms right and left. +He has not only the documents in his pocket to answer all cavils and +to prove all his positions, but he has the eternal reason in his head. +This man scornfully renounces your civil organizations,--county, or +city, or governor, or army,--is his own navy and artillery, judge and +jury, legislature and executive. He has learned his lessons in a +bitter school. Yet, if the pupil be of a texture to bear it, the best +university that can be recommended to a man of ideas is the gauntlet +of the mobs. + +He who will train himself to mastery in this science of persuasion +must lay the emphasis of education, not on popular arts, but on +character and insight. Let him see that his speech is not differenced +from action; that, when he has spoken, he has not done nothing, nor +done wrong, but has cleared his own skirts, has engaged himself to +wholesome exertion. Let him look on opposition as opportunity. He +cannot be defeated or put down. There is a principle of resurrection +in him, an immortality of purpose. Men are averse and hostile, to give +value to their suffrages. It is not the people that are in fault for +not being convinced, but he that cannot convince them. He should mould +them, armed as he is with the reason and love which are also the core +of their nature. He is not to neutralize their opposition, but he is +to convert them into fiery apostles and publishers of the same wisdom. + +The highest platform of eloquence is the moral sentiment. It is what +is called affirmative truth, and has the property of invigorating the +hearer; and it conveys a hint of our eternity, when he feels himself +addressed on grounds which will remain when everything else is taken, +and which have no trace of time or place or party. Everything hostile +is stricken down in the presence of the sentiments; their majesty is +felt by the most obdurate. It is observable, that, as soon as one acts +for large masses, the moral element will and must be allowed for, will +and must work; and the men least accustomed to appeal to these +sentiments invariably recall them when they address nations. Napoleon, +even, must accept and use it as he can. + +It is only to these simple strokes that the highest power belongs, +when a weak human hand touches, point by point, the eternal beams and +rafters on which the whole structure of Nature and society is laid. In +this tossing sea of delusion, we feel with our feet the adamant; in +this dominion of chance, we find a principle of permanence. For I do +not accept that definition of Isocrates, that the office of his art is +to make the great small and the small great; but I esteem this to be +its perfection,--when the orator sees through all masks to the eternal +scale of truth, in such sort that he can hold up before the eyes of +men the fact of today steadily to that standard, thereby making the +great great and the small small,--which is the true way to astonish +and to reform mankind. + +All the first orators of the world have been grave men, relying on +this reality. One thought the philosophers of Demosthenes's own time +found running through all his orations,--this, namely, that "virtue +secures its own success." "To stand on one's own feet" Heeren finds +the keynote to the discourses of Demosthenes, as of Chatham. + +Eloquence, like every other art, rests on laws the most exact and +determinate. It is the best speech of the best soul. It may well stand +as the exponent of all that is grand and immortal in the mind. If it +do not so become an instrument, but aspires to be somewhat of itself, +and to glitter for show, it is false and weak. In its right exercise, +it is an elastic, unexhausted power,--who has sounded, who has +estimated it?--expanding with the expansion of our interests and +affections. Its great masters, whilst they valued every help to its +attainment, and thought no pains too great which contributed in any +manner to further it, and, resembling the Arabian warrior of fame, who +wore seventeen weapons in his belt, and in personal combat used them +all occasionally,--yet undervalued all means, never permitted any +talent, neither voice, rhythm, poetic power, anecdote, sarcasm, to +appear for show, but were grave men, who preferred their integrity to +their talent, and esteemed that object for which they toiled, whether +the prosperity of their country, or the laws, or a reformation, or +liberty of speech or of the press, or letters, or morals, as above the +whole world, and themselves also. + + * * * * * + +THE KINLOCH ESTATE, AND HOW IT WAS SETTLED. + +[Concluded.] + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The disappearance of Lucy Ransom did not long remain a secret; it rang +through the town, and was accompanied by all sorts of rumors. Some +thought she had eloped; but the prevailing opinion was, that she had +been tempted into a fatal error, and then, in the frenzy of remorse +and shame, had destroyed herself, in order to hide her disgrace from +the world. Slight hints were now recalled by many of the poor girl's +acquaintance,--hints of love, unrequited and hopeless,--of base and +unfeeling treachery,--of remediless sorrow, appealing to the deepest +sympathy, and not the less because her heart found utterance in rude +and homely phrases. This idea of self-destruction gained the more +currency because no one had seen the least trace of the girl after the +twilight of the preceding night, and it was deemed improbable that she +could have made her way on foot the whole distance to the +railway-station without being seen by some one. And when it was +reported that a boy had found a shawl not far from the dam, the public +became so much aroused that it was determined to make a thorough +search. The pond and canal were dragged, and the bank of the river +carefully explored for miles below the town. The search was kept up +far into the night, the leaders being provided with pitch-pine +torches. At every bend, or eddy, or sand-bar, or fallen tree, where it +might be supposed that a drifting body would be stopped, the boldest +breathed faster, and started at the first glimpse of a white stone or +a peeled and bleached poplar-trunk, or other similar object, fearing +it might prove to be what they expected, yet dreaded to see. But it +was in vain. Lucy, whether alive or dead, was not to be found. Her +grandmother hobbled down to the village, moaning piteously; but she +could get little consolation, least of all from Mrs. Kinloch. This +incident made a lasting impression. The village boys, who remembered +the search with shuddering horror, avoided the river, and even Hugh +found means to persuade Mildred to give up the pleasant road on its +bank and take the hill district for their afternoon rides. + +Meanwhile the time for the trial of the ejectment suit was rapidly +approaching, and it was difficult to say whether plaintiff or +defendant showed the more signs of anxiety. Mr. Hardwick's life seemed +to be bound up in his shop; it was dear to him in the memory of long +years of cheerful labor; it was his pride as well as his dependence; +he had grown old by its flaming forge, and he could never feel at home +in any other spot. "Young trees may be moved," he would say; "an old +one dies in transplanting." It was noticed by all his friends that the +stoop in his shoulders was more decided, his step less elastic, and +his ordinary flow of spirits checked. + +Mrs. Kinloch, too, grew older unaccountably fast. Her soft brown hair +began to whiten, her features grew sharp, and her expression quick, +watchful, and intense. Upon being spoken to, she would start and +tremble in her whole frame; her cheeks would glow momentarily, and +then become waxen again. + +Impatient at the slow progress of her son's wooing, and impelled now +by a new fear that all her plans might be frustrated, if Mildred +should happen to hear any rumor touching the cause of Lucy's +disappearance, Mrs. Kinloch proposed to herself to assist him more +openly than she had hitherto done--She was not aware that anything +implicating Hugh had been reported, but she knew enough of human +nature to be sure that some one would be peering into the mystery,--a +mystery which she divined by instinct, but had not herself dared to +explore. So, finding a favorable opportunity, she sat down beside +Mildred, determined to read the secret of her soul; for she made no +question that she could scan her, as she might the delicate machinery +of the French clock, noiselessly moving under its crystal cover. + +Mildred shuddered unconsciously, as she felt her step-mother's thin +fingers gently smoothing the hair upon her temples; still more, as the +pale and quivering lips were pressed to her forehead. The caress was +not a feigned tenderness. Mrs. Kinloch really loved the girl, with +such love as she had to bestow; and if her manner had been latterly +abstracted or harsh, it was from preoccupation. She was soon satisfied +that the suspicion she dreaded had not found place in the girl's mind. +Leading the way by imperceptible approaches, she spoke in her softest +tones of her joy at Hugh's altered manners, her hopes of his future, +and especially of her desire to have him leave the navy and settle on +shore. + +"How happy we might be, Hugh and we," she said, "if we could live here +in this comfortable home, and feel that nothing but death would break +up the circle! How much your dear father counted on the happiness in +store for him in growing old with his children around him!--and would +he not be rejoiced to see us cling together, bound by ties as strong +as life, and cherishing his memory by our mutual affection?" + +Mildred replied in some commonplaces,--rather wondering at the vein of +sentiment, and in no way suspecting the object which her step-mother +had in view. + +Mrs. Kinloch continued:--"Hugh needs some new attraction now to detain +him; he is tired of the sea, but he finds the village dull. He is just +of the age to think of looking for some romantic attachment; but you +know how few girls there are here whose manners and education are such +as to please a cultivated man." + +Mildred grew uneasy, but remained silent. Mrs. Kinloch was every +moment more eager in her manner; a novice, waiting for the turn of the +cards in _rouge et noir_, would not have manifested a greater anxiety +as to the result. But the girl looked out of the window, and did not +see the compressed lips, dilated nostrils, and glittering eyes, that +gave such a contradiction to the bland words. + +"Mildred, my daughter," she continued, "I have no secrets from +you,--least of all about matters that concern us both. Don't you see +what I would say? Don't you know what would make our circle complete, +inseparable? Pardon the boldness of a fond mother, whose only desire +is to see her children happy." + +Mildred felt a tear dropping upon the hand which Mrs. Kinloch held +with a passionate grasp. She felt the powerful magnetism which the +woman exerted upon her, and she trembled, but still kept silent. + +"It is for Hugh that I speak. He loves you. Has he not told you so?" + +"I do not wish to talk with you about it," said Mildred. + +"But I have a right, as his mother and your guardian, to know. I +should be wanting in my duty, if I suffered your happiness to be +perilled for want of a clear understanding between you. Hugh is proud +and sensitive, and you bashful and just the least foolish; so that you +are at cross purposes." + +"Hugh fully understands my feelings towards him." + +"You have given him encouragement?" she asked, eagerly. + +"None whatever: it would have been wrong in me to do so." + +"Wrong to love him! Why, he is your brother only in name." + +"Wrong to encourage him in a love I do not and cannot return," replied +Mildred, with a mighty effort, at the same time disengaging her hand. + +Mrs. Kinloch could not repress a feeling of admiration, even in her +despair, as she saw the clear, brave glance, the heightened color, and +the heaving bosom of the girl. + +"But, in time, you may think differently," she said, almost piteously. + +"I wished to be spared this pain, mother," Mildred replied, trembling +at her own boldness, "but you will not let me; and I must tell you, +kindly, but decidedly, that I never could marry Hugh under any +circumstances whatever." + +Her mother did not wince at the rebuff, but followed on even closer. +"And why? Who is there more manly, well-educated, kindly, dutiful, +than Hugh?" + +"I don't wish to analyze his character; probably we shouldn't +altogether agree in our judgment; but it is enough that I don't feel +in the least attracted by him, and that I could not love him, if he +were all that you imagine." + +"Then you love another!" said Mrs. Kinloch, fiercely. + +Mildred was excessively agitated; but, though her knees trembled, her +voice was clear and soft as it had been. "Yes, I do love another; and +I don't hesitate to avow it." + +"That blacksmith's upstart?" in a still louder key. + +"You mean Mark Davenport, probably, who deserves more respectful +language." + +"Brought up in coal-dust,--the spoiled and forward pet of a foolish +old stutterer, who depends for his bread on his dirty work, and who, +if he had only his own, would have to leave even the hovel he works +in." It was fearful to see how these contemptuous words were hissed +out by the infuriated woman. + +Mildred was courageous, but she had not passed through the discipline +that had developed her step-mother's faculties. So she burst into +tears, saying, amidst her sobs, that Mark was allowed by all who knew +him to be a young man of promise; that, for herself, she didn't care +how much coal-dust he had been through,--_that_ would wash off; that, +at any rate, she loved him, and would never marry anybody else. + +Mrs. Kinloch began to consider. Anger had whirled her away once; a +second explosion might create an irreparable breach between them. + +"Don't lay up what I have said, Mildred," she urged, in a mild voice. +"If I object to your choice, it is because I am proud of you and want +you to look high. You can marry whom you choose; no rank or station +need be considered above you. Come, don't cry, dear!" + +But Mildred refused to be soothed. She could not sympathize with the +tropical nature, that smiled like sunshine at one moment, and the next +burst into the fury of a tornado. She pushed off the beseeching hand, +turned from the offered endearments, and, with reddened, tear-stained +face, left the room. + +Hugh presently passed through the hall. "Well, mother," said he, "I +suppose you think you've done it now." + +"Go about your business, you foolish boy!" she retorted. "Go and try +something that you do know about. You can snare a partridge, or shoot +a woodcock, perhaps!" + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Mildred had now no peace; after what had happened, she could not meet +Hugh and his mother with any composure. The scheming woman had risked +everything in the appeal she made to her daughter,--risked everything, +and lost. Nothing could restore harmony; neither could forget the +struggle and live the old quiet life. Mrs. Kinloch, always pursued by +anxiety, was one day full of courage, fruitful in plans and resources, +and the next day cast down into the pit of despair. Now she clung to +her first hope, believing that time, patience, kindness, would soften +Mildred's resolution; then, seeing the blank indifference with which +she treated Hugh, she racked her invention to provide other means of +attaining her end. + +Again, the thought of her inexplicable loss came over her, and she was +frightened to madness; creeping chills alternating with cold sweats +tortured her. It was a mystery she could not penetrate. She could not +but implicate Lucy: but then Lucy might be in her grave. After every +circumstance had passed in review, her suspicions inevitably returned +and fastened upon her lawyer, Clamp. She almost wished he would come +to see her again; for he, being naturally sulky at his first +reception, had left the haughty woman severely alone. She determined +to send for him, on business, and then to try her fascinations upon +him, to draw him out, and see if he held her secret. + +"Aha!" thought the Squire, as he received the message, "she comes to +her senses! Give a woman like Mrs. Kinloch time enough to consider, +and she will not turn her back on her true interest. O Theophilus, you +are not by any means a fool! Slow and steady, slow and steady you go! +Let the frisky woman _appear_ to have her way,--you will win in the +end!" + +The wig and best suit were brushed anew, water was brought into +requisition for the visible portions of his person, and, with his most +engaging expression arranged upon his parchment face, he presented +himself before the widow. + +There was a skirmish of small talk, during which Mr. Clamp was placid +and self-conscious, while his _vis-a-vis_, though smiling and +apparently at ease, was yet alert and excited,--darting furtive +glances, that would have startled him like flashes of sunlight +reflected from a mirror, if he had not been shielded by his own +self-complacency. + +"You-have-sent-for-me-on-business,-I-believe," said the lawyer, in a +tone continuous and bland as a stream of honey. + +"Yes, Sir; I have great confidence in your judgment, and I know that +you are devoted to the interests of our family. My poor husband always +esteemed you highly." + +"Oh, Ma'am! you do me honor!" + +"If I have not consulted you about our affairs of late, it is because +I have had troubles which I did not wish to burden you with." + +"We all have our troubles, Mrs. Kinloch." + +"They are very sad to bear,--but profitable, nevertheless. + +"But I'm sure you must be wonderfully supported in your trials; I never +saw you looking better." + +And truly, her thin and mobile lips were of a strangely bright coral, +and her usually wan cheeks wore a delicate flush, lending her a +beauty, not youthful, to be sure, but yet fascinating. One might +desire to see an eye less intense and restless, but he would rarely +see a woman of forty so charming. + +"You notice my color," said Mrs. Kinloch, mournfully, and with a faint +smile; "it's only the effect of a headache. I am far enough from +well." + +"Indeed!" was the sympathetic reply. + +"I have met with a great loss, Mr. Clamp,--some papers of the greatest +importance. I was going to consult you about them." + +"In which I got ahead of you," thought he. + +"Now, ever since the disappearance of Lucy, I have thought she had +something to do with them. I never went to the secretary, but she was +sure to be spying about. And I believe she knew about my affairs as +well as I do myself." + +"Or I," mentally ejaculated the lawyer,--meanwhile keeping as close as +an oyster. + +She continued,--"As the girl was ignorant, and without any interest in +the matter more than that of curiosity, I am puzzled to account for +all this." + +"'Tis strange, truly!" + +"Yes, I'm sure she must be only the tool of some shrewder person." + +"You alarm me! Who can it be?" + +"Perhaps Mildred, or some one who is plotting for her. The Hardwicks, +you know, expect she will marry Mark Davenport." + +"Do they, indeed? Well, now, that's a shrewd conjecture. Then you +think Lucy didn't drown herself?" + +"She? By no means!" + +"But what can I do in the matter, Mrs. Kinloch?" + +"We must find Lucy, or else discover her confidant,"--looking fixedly +at him. + +"Not very easy to do," said he, never once wincing under her scrutiny. + +"Not easy for me. But those that hide can find. Nothing is beyond +search, if one really tries." + +During this cross-examination, Mr. Clamp's premeditated gallantry had +been kept in the background; but he was determined not to let the +present opportunity pass by; he therefore turned the current of +conversation. + +"You have not told me, Mrs. Kinloch, _what_ the loss is; so I cannot +judge of its importance. You don't wish to have any more repositories +of secrets than are necessary; but I think you will readily see that +our interests lie in the same direction. If the girl can be found and +the papers recovered by anybody, I am the one to do it. If that is +impossible, however, the next thing is to be prepared for what may +happen; in either emergency, you can hardly do better than to accept +my aid." + +"Of course, I depend entirely upon you." + +"We may as well understand each other," said the lawyer, forgetting +the wily ways by which he had intended to approach her. "I have +certain views, myself, which I think run parallel with yours; and if I +am able to carry you and your property safely through these +difficulties, I think you will not scruple to---- + +"To pay you to your heart's content," she broke in, quickly. "No, I +shall not scruple, unless you ask more than half the estate." + +"I ask for nothing but yourself," said he, with sudden boldness. + +"That is to say, you want the whole of it." + +"Charming woman! don't, pray, compel me to talk in this language of +traffic. It is you I desire,--not the estate. If there is enough to +make you more comfortable than would be possible with my means, I +shall be happy for your sake." + +Her lips writhed and her eyes shot fire. Should she breathe the scorn +she felt, and brave the worst? Or should she temporize? Time might +bring about a change, when she could safely send the mercenary suitor +back to his dusty and cobwebbed office. + +"We do understand each other," she said, slowly. "This is a matter to +think of. I had never thought to marry again, and I cannot answer your +delicate proposal now. Let me have a week to consider." + +"Couldn't we arrange the matter just as well now? I beg your pardon, +Ma'am, if I seem too bold." + +"Oh, your youthful ardor and impetuosity! To be sure, one must forgive +the impatience of a lover in his first passion! But you must wait, +nevertheless." + +Mr. Clamp laughed. It was a good joke, he thought. + +"I must bid you good afternoon, Squire Clamp. I have made my headache +worse by talking on a subject I was not prepared for." + +So Mr. Clamp was bowed out. He did not clearly understand her quick +and subtle movements, but he felt sure of his game in the end. The +scornful irony that had played about him like electricity he had not +felt. + +When he was gone, the woman's worst enemy would have pitied her +distress. She believed more than ever that Clamp had used Lucy to +abstract her papers, and that he now would hold his power over her to +bring about the hated marriage. Her firmness gave way; she sank on the +sofa and wept like a child. Would that she might yet retreat! But no, +the way is closed up behind her. She must go on to her destiny. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Mark Davenport was prosperous in all his undertakings. His position in +the school did not give much scope to his ambition, but the salary he +received was ample enough to pay his expenses, while the duties were +not so onerous as to engross all his time. All his leisure was given +to literary pursuits. He had many times thought he would relinquish +the drudgery of teaching, and support himself by his pen; but he +remembered the maxim of Scott,--that literature was a good staff, but +a poor crutch,--and he stuck to his school. As he grew into a +practised writer, he became connected with the staff of a daily +newspaper in the great city, furnishing leading articles when called +upon, and he soon acquired a position of influence among his +associates. He had maintained a correspondence with Mildred, and was +looking forward to the time when he should make a visit to his native +town, hoping then to be so well established in the world that he might +be able to bring her back with him as his bride. Every thought centred +in her. He coveted fame, wealth, position, only for her sake; and +stimulated by this thought, he had made exertions that would have +broken down a man less vigorous and less resolute. + +He received a letter from Innisfield one day, after a long +interval,--so long that he had become uneasy, and imagined every kind +of evil as the cause of delay. He broke the seal; it was not from +Mildred, but from his cousin Lizzie. These were the contents:-- + +"My dear Mark,--I suppose you may have been anxious before this, at +not hearing from us; but the truth is, we have not had anything very +pleasant to write, and so have put off sending to you. Father is by no +means well or strong. The lawsuit, which is now likely to go wrong, +has troubled him very much. He has grown thin, he stoops as he walks +about, and by night he coughs terribly. I rarely hear him sing as he +used to. Then Squire Clamp has complained of him before the church, +and you know father is over-sensitive about his relations with 'the +brethren,'--even with those who are trying to ruin him. He is +melancholy enough. I hope he will be better, if he gets through his +difficulties; otherwise I am afraid to think of what may happen. + +"You wonder, probably, at not getting a letter from Mildred. Don't be +surprised when I tell you that she has left home and is staying at Mr. +Alford's. Mrs. Kinloch has for a long time wanted her to marry that +hateful Hugh Branning, and became so violent about it that Mildred was +afraid of her. Lucy Ransom, who lived there, ran away a short time +ago, very mysteriously. It seems that the girl had stolen something +from the house, and, after Mildred had plumply refused to marry Hugh, +Mrs. Kinloch charged upon her that she had induced Lucy to steal the +papers or money, or whatever it was. Mrs. Kinloch acted so like an +insane woman, that Mildred would not stay in the house, but ran over +to Mr. Alford's, with only the clothes she wore. She passed by our +house yesterday and told me this hurriedly. I have heard, too, that +Squire Clamp is about to marry Mrs. Kinloch, and that he actually has +procured the license. It's a very strange affair. + +"To fill out the account of disagreeable things,--last evening, in one +of the stores, people were talking of Lucy Ransom's fate, (as they +have been for weeks,) when Will Fenton, the cripple, said, 'he guessed +Hugh Branning could tell what had become of her, if he chose.' Hugh, +it seems, heard of the remark, and to-day he went with a dandyish +doctor, belonging to the navy, I believe, and beat the poor cripple +with a horsewhip, most shamefully. I think this violence has turned +suspicion against him. + +"I am sorry not to have one pleasant thing to say, except that we all +love you as warmly as ever, and hope to see you soon here. Indeed, +Cousin Mark, I dread to write it,--but if you don't come soon, I think +you will see father only on his last bed. + + "Good-bye, dear Mark! + Your Cousin,--LIZZIE." + +We will waste no time in attempting to analyze Mark's conflicting +emotions, but follow him to Innisfield, whither he went the same day. +Great as was his desire to see his betrothed, from whom he had +received no letter for many weeks, he went first of all, where duty +and affection called, to see the dear old man who had been to him more +than a father. + +Mr. Hardwick was sitting in the corner, but rose up with a new energy +as he heard the well-known voice. Mark was not prepared, even by his +cousin's foreboding letter, to see such a change as his uncle +exhibited;--the hollow eyes, the wasted cheeks, the bent figure, the +trembling hands, bore painful testimony to his enfeebled condition. He +held both of Mark's hands in his, and, while his eyes were dim in a +tear-mist, said, with a faltering voice, "Bless you, m-my boy! I'm +glad to see you once more. I thought I might hear my s-summons before +you'd come. You do remember your old uncle!" + +Mark could not restrain himself, but wept outright. The old gentleman +sank into his chair, still clasping Mark's hands. Neither could speak, +but they looked towards each other an unutterable tenderness. + +At length, controlling the tide of feeling, Mr. Hardwick +said,--"D-don't be cast down, Mark; these tears are not b-bitter, but +f-full of joy. Th-there, now, go and kiss your sister and Lizzie." + +The girls appeared wiping their eyes, for they had left the room +overpowered; they greeted Mark affectionately, and then all sat down +about the hearth. Topics enough there were. Mark told of his pursuits +and prospects. The village gossip about the lost servant-girl, (of +whom Mark knew something, but had reasons for silence,) the +approaching marriage of Mrs. Kinloch, and the exile of the heiress +from her own home, were all discussed. After a reasonable time, Mark +excused himself and went to Mr. Alford's, pondering much on the +strange events that had perplexed the usually quiet village. He +reached the house, after a brief walk, and was met by Aunt Mercy, the +portly mistress, but with something less than her accustomed +cordiality. + +"Miss Kinloch is not able to see company," she said, "and must be +excused." + +Mark poured forth a torrent of questions, to which Mrs. Alford +listened, her broad features softening visibly; and at length, with an +apparent effort, she asked him "to come agin to-morrer or the day +arter." + +The more Mark reflected on Mrs. Alford's behavior, the more he was +puzzled. Had Mildred denied him admission? His own betrothed refuse to +see him! No, he was sure she was sick; and besides, she could not have +heard of his coming. So he soothed himself. But the imps of suspicion +and jealousy still haunted him at intervals, and a more miserable man +than the usually buoyant and sanguine Mark it would be difficult to +find. + +The next day, as soon as breakfast was over, Mark, though trying to +cheer up his uncle, was secretly longing for the hour when it would be +proper to present himself at Mr. Alford's. But time does move, albeit +with lagging pace to a lover, and in due season Mark was on his way. +Near the house he met the farmer, who greeted him heartily, and wished +him joy with a knowing smile. Mark took a freer breath; if there was +any difficulty, Mr. Alford certainly did not know it. But then it +occurred to him, that shy young ladies do not often make confidants of +elderly husbandmen in long blue frocks, and his spirits fell again. + +Mr. Alford leaned against a fence and threshed his hands to keep them +warm, while he told Mark that "he had been with Mildred privately out +to the Probate Court,--that the case had been stated to the jedge, who +allowed, that, as she was above fourteen, she had a right to choose +her own guardeen,--that he, Alford, was to be put in, in place of the +Squire,--and that then, in his opinion, there would be an overhaulin' +so's to hev things set to rights." + +Mark shook the hand of his good friend warmly, and commended his +shrewdness. + +"But 'ta'n't best to stan' talkin' with an ol' feller like me," said +the farmer, "when you can do so much better. Jest look!" + +Mark turned his head, and through the window of the house saw the +retreating figure of Mildred. He bounded across the yard, opened the +door without knocking, and rushed into the house. She had vanished: no +one was visible but Mrs. Alford, who was cutting up golden pumpkins in +long coils to dry. + +"Come, Milly," said the good woman, "'ta'n't no use; he saw ye." + +And Mildred appeared, coming slowly out of the buttery. + +"Ye see, Mildred felt a little hurt about a letter; but I _knew_ there +was some mistake; so I wa'n't a-goin' to hev ye go off 'thout some +explanation." + +"A letter?--explanation?" said Mark, thoroughly bewildered. + +"Here it is," said Mildred, taking a letter from her pocket, still +looking down. Mark hastily took and opened it. The envelope bore +Mildred's address in a hand not unlike his own; the inclosure was a +letter from Mildred to himself, which he now saw for the first time. + +"Mildred," said he, holding out his hands, "could you doubt me?" + +She covered her face with her apron, but stood irresolute. He looked +again at the letter. + +"Why, the clumsy trick, Mildred! This post-office stamp, 'New York,' +is not genuine. Just look! it is a palpable cheat, an imitation made +with a pen. The color did not spread, you see, as ink mixed with oil +does. This letter never left this village. I never saw it +before,--could not have seen it. Do you doubt me now, dear Mildred?" + +Even if the evidence had been less convincing, the earnest, heartfelt +tone, the pleading look and gesture, would have satisfied a much more +exacting woman. She sprang towards her lover, and flung her arms about +his neck. The pent-up feeling of days and weeks rushed over her like a +flood, and the presence of Mrs. Alford was forgotten. + +Mrs. Alford, it would seem, suddenly thought of something; for, +gathering herself up, she walked off as fast as the laws of +gravitation allowed, exclaiming,--"There! I never did see! Sech hens! +Allus a-flyin' into the kitchen. I wonder now who left that are door +open." + +The frightened cackle of the hens, the rattling of pots and pans by +the assiduous housewife in the kitchen, were unheeded by the lovers, +"emparadised in one another's arms." The conversation took too wide a +range and embraced too many trivial details to be set down here. Only +this I may say: they both believed, (as every enamored couple +believes,) that, though other people might cherish the properest +affection for each other, yet no man or woman ever did or could +experience such intense and all-pervading emotion as now throbbed in +their breasts,--in fact, that they had been created to exemplify the +passion, which, before, poets had only imagined. Simple children! they +had only found out what hearts are made for! + + +CHAPTER XV. + +The last picture was a pleasant relief in a rather sombre story, +therefore we prefer to commence a stormier scene in a new chapter. +Mark and Mildred were sitting cozily by the ample fireplace,--not at +opposite corners, you may believe,--when there was a warning _ahem!_ +at the door, and the sound of feet "a-raspin' on the scraper." Mr. +Alford entered and said, "Milly, your step-mother's team is comin' up +the road." In a moment there was a bustle in the house, but before any +preparation could be made the carriage was at the gate, and Mrs. +Kinloch, accompanied by Squire Clamp, knocked at the door. + +"Milly, you go into the kitchen with Mrs. Alford," said the farmer. +"I'll attend to matters for them." + +"No, Mr. Alford," she answered; "you are very good, but I think I'll +stay and see them. Shan't I, Mark?" + +Mrs. Kinloch and the lawyer entered. She had left off her mourning, +but looked as pale and thoughtful as ever. After the common +courtesies, brief and cool in this case, Mrs. Kinloch made known her +errand. She had been grieved that Mildred should have left her +father's house and remained so long with strangers, and she had now +come to beg her to return home. Mildred replied, that she had not left +home without cause, and that she had no intention of going back at +present. Mrs. Kinloch looked hurt, and said that this unusual conduct, +owing partly to the common and wicked prejudice against step-mothers, +had wounded her sorely, and she hoped Mildred would do her the simple +justice of returning to a mother who loved her, and would make every +sacrifice for her happiness. Mildred said she did not wish to go over +the ground again; she thought she understood the love that had been +shown her; and she did not desire any further sacrifices, such as she +had witnessed. The request was renewed in various forms, but to no +purpose. Then Squire Clamp interposed with great solemnity, saying, +that, if she had forgotten the respect and affection due to the mother +who had fostered her, she ought to know that the law had conferred +upon him, as her guardian, the authority of a father, and he begged +her not to give him the pain of exercising the control which it would +be his bounden duty to use. + +Mr. Alford had been uneasy during this conversation, and broke in at +the first pause. + +"Well, Square, I guess you'd best wait till 'bout next week-a-Thursday +afore you try to use your 'thority. Probate Court sets on Wednesday, +an' I guess that'll 'bout wind up your business as guardeen." + +What a magazine of wrath that shot exploded! The lawyer was dumb for a +moment, but presently he and Mrs. Kinloch both found breath for their +indignation. + +The woman turned first upon Mark. "This is your doing, Sir!" + +"You do too much honor to my foresight," he replied. "I am heartily +glad that my good friend here was thoughtful enough and ready to +interfere for the protection of a fatherless girl." + +"Insolence!" shouted the lawyer. + +"The impertinent puppy!" chimed in the woman. + +"Come, come!" said the farmer, "too loud talkin'!" + +"Then you uphold this girl in her undutiful behavior, do you?" asked +Mrs. Kinloch. + +"You are amenable to the statutes, Sir," said the Squire. + +Mr. Alford rose to his feet. "Now you might jest as well get inter yer +kerridge an' drive back ter town," said he; "you won't make one o' +them hairs o' yourn black or white, Square, not by talkin' all day." + +The lawyer settled his wig in a foaming rage. "Come, Mrs. Clamp," said +he, "we shall not remain here to be insulted. Let us go; I shall know +how to protect our property, our authority, and honor, from the +assault of adventurers and meddlers." + +"I beg your pardon, Sir," said Mark, "but what was the appellation you +gave to the lady just now? You can call us what you like." + +"Mrs. Clamp, Sir," he answered, with a portentous emphasis,--"Mrs. +Clamp,--united to me, Sir, this morning, by the Reverend Mr. Rook, in +the holy bands of matrimony." + +They swept out of the house. Mildred sank to her chair as if stunned. +"O God!" she said, "_my_ mother and father!" + +"Poor gal!" said Mr. Alford, "small comfort you'll hev in sich +parents. But cheer up; you won't need for friends." + +She looked up through her tears at Mark's manly face, full now of +sympathy, and blessed the farmer for his words. + +Mr. Alford, taking Mark aside, said, "You know about Lucy's runnin' +away, most likely. Wal, now, ef she could be found, there's no knowin' +what might happen; for it's my opinion she knows about Square +Kinloch's affairs. I thought mebbe you might 'a' seen her in York?" + +Mark replied, that he did meet her in Broadway late one afternoon, and +that she looked as if she would speak; but that he hurried on, for the +flaunting style of her dress was not calculated to prepossess the +passers by. + +"Good gracious! you don't say so! Seen her yourself? Now do you go +right back to York an' hunt her up--no matter what it costs." + +"But my uncle?" + +"We'll look arter him." + +It was speedily determined, and Mark set out the same day. Meanwhile, +Mildred had promised to go and see Mr. Hardwick and endeavor to make +him cheerful. + +"It beats all," said Mr. Alford to his wife. "Now 'f he _should_ find +that unfort'nate gal! Wal, wal, I begin to think the Lord does look +arter things some, even in this world." + +We leave Squire Clamp and his new wife to their happiness; it would +not be well to lift the decent veil which drops over their household. +The dark, perchance guilty, past,--the stormy present, and the +retribution of the future,--let memory and conscience deal with them! + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Never was a little village in greater commotion than Innisfield after +Mark's departure. The succession of events had been such as to engage +the attention of the most indifferent. The mysterious exile of +Mildred, the failing health and spirits of the blacksmith, the new +rumors respecting the fate of Lucy, the sudden and unaccountable +marriage of Mrs. Kinloch, and her fruitless attempt to bring her +daughter back, were all discussed in every house, as well as in places +of public resort. Hugh Branning was soon convinced that the village +was no place for him. He had bravely horsewhipped a cripple, but he +could not stop the tongues of the whole parish, even if he could +protect himself from swift and extempore justice. He gathered his +clothes, and, after a long private conference with his mother, started +before daylight for the railway-station. As he does not appear on the +stage again, we may say here, that, not long after, during a financial +panic in New York, he made a fortune of nearly half a million dollars +by speculating in stocks. He used to tell his friends in after years +that he had "only five thousand to begin with,--the sole property left +him by his lamented parents." He has now a handsome mansion in the +Fifth Avenue, is a conspicuous member of the Rev. Dr. Holdfast's +church, and most zealous against the ill-timed discussions and +philanthropic vagaries of the day. What would he not give to forget +that slowly-moving figure, with swimming eyes, carrying a flaring +candle? How far along the years that feeble light was thrown! He never +went through the hall of his house at night without a shudder, +dreading to catch a glimpse of that sorrowing face. + +It was on Tuesday evening, the night preceding the Probate Court to +which Squire Clamp had been cited. Nothing had been heard from Mark, +and his friends were much depressed. Mildred sat by Mr. Hardwick's +bedside, during the long hours, and read to him from his favorite +authors. About ten o'clock, just as the family were preparing to go to +bed, Mark drove up to the door. He was warmly welcomed, and at once +overwhelmed with questions. "Did he find Lucy?" "What did she know?" +"Why did she secrete herself?" To all these Mark merely replied, "I +found Lucy; how much I have accomplished I dare not say. But do you, +James, come with me. We will go up to old Mrs. Ransom's." + +"Why, she's not there; she's gone to the poor-house." + +"Broken down with old age and sorrow, I suppose. But I don't care to +see her now. Let us go to the old house; and meantime, you girls, go +to bed." + +But they protested they should wait till he returned,--that they could +not sleep a wink until they knew the result. + +Provided with a lantern, the young men set out. They found the hovel +nearly in ruins; for pilferers had taken such pieces as they could +strip off for firewood. Mark eagerly ripped up the floor near the +hearth. At the first flash of the light he saw a paper, dusty and +discolored. He seized and opened it. _It was the will of Mr. Kinloch, +duly signed and attested_. Lucy had not deceived him. + +With hurried pace they returned to the village, scarcely stopping to +take breath until they reached Mr. Hardwick's house. It was no vain +hope, then! It was true! The schemes of the step-mother would be +frustrated. The odious control of Squire Clamp would end. Mark began +to read the will, then stopped, embraced his cousins and Mildred by +turns, then read again. He was beside himself with joy. + +All were too much excited to sleep; and when the first transports of +surprise were over, they naturally inquired after the unfortunate +girl. He had found her, after great difficulty, in a miserable garret. +The surmises of the villagers were correct. She was ruined, +heart-broken. Dissipation, exposure, and all the frightful influences +of her wretched life had brought on a fever, and now, destitute and +forsaken, she was left by those who had made merchandise of her +beauty, to die. He learned from Lucy what she knew of the affair of +the will. She became satisfied, soon after Mr. Kinloch's death, that +some wrong was intended, and she watched her mistress. Then Squire +Clamp had induced her by threats and bribes to get for him the papers. +As she took them out of the desk, one, larger than the rest, and with +several seals, attracted her attention. She felt quite sure it was Mr. +Kinloch's will; so she secreted it and gave the lawyer the rest. The +Monday afternoon following, she took the will to her grandmother's and +put it under a plank in the floor. Squire Clamp, strangely enough, +chanced to stop just as she had hidden it. He gave her back the +papers, as she supposed, and she replaced them in the secretary. On +her way home she fell in with Hugh,--a day neither of them would ever +forget. + +The lawyer, who had counted on an easy victory over Mr. Alford, was +greatly surprised, the next day, to see him accompanied by Mark, as he +came into court; he had not heard of the young man's return. Besides, +their unmistakable air of confidence and exultation caused him some +misgivings. But he was boldness itself, compared with his wife. Her +face was bloodless, her hands tremulous, and her expression like that +of one ready to faint. Imagine the horror with which she saw the +production of the will, and then the proof by the only surviving +witness, brought to court from his residence in a neighboring town! +The letters of administration were revoked, and Mr. Alford, one of the +executors, was appointed Mildred's guardian. Completely baffled, dumb +and despairing, Squire Clamp and his bride left the room and drove +homeward. A pleasant topic for conversation they had by the way, each +accusing the other of duplicity, treachery, and folly! The will +provided that she should receive an annuity of one thousand dollars +_during her widowhood_; so that the Squire, by wedding her, had a new +incumbrance without any addition to his resources; a bad bargain, +decidedly, he thought. She, on the other hand, had thrown away her +sure dependence, in the hope of retaining the control of the whole +estate; for when she consented to marry Clamp, she had no doubt that +he had possession of the will and would, of course, keep it concealed. +Seldom it is that _both_ parties to a transaction are so overreached. + +The successful party stopped at Mr. Hardwick's that evening to +exchange congratulations. He, as well as Mildred and Mark, was +interested in the lost will; for Mr. Kinloch had mentioned the fact of +the unsettled boundary-line, and directed his executors to make a +clear title of the disputed tract to the blacksmith. The shop was his; +the boys, at all events, would be undisturbed. One provision in the +will greatly excited Mark's curiosity. The notes which he owed to the +estate were to be cancelled, and there was an unexplained reference to +his uncle Hardwick and to some occurrences of long ago. Mildred at +once recalled to mind her father's dying words,--his calling for Mr. +Hardwick, and his mention of the cabinet. She had often thought of her +search in its drawers, and of her finding the lock of sunny hair and +the dried flower. And the blacksmith now, when asked, shook his head +mournfully, and said, (as he had before,) "Sus-some time; nun-not +now!" + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The next day Mr. Alford came to town and advised Mark to marry +forthwith. + +"I've ben thinkin' it over," he said, "and I b'lieve it's the best +thing to be done. You've got a tough customer to deal with, and it may +be some trouble to git all the property out of his hands. But when the +heiress is married, her husband can act for her to better advantage. I +guess I'll speak to Mr. Rook and have the 'fair 'tended to right +away." + +Mark submitted the matter to Mildred, who blushed properly, and +thought it rather hasty. But Mr. Alford's clear reasoning prevailed, +and the time was appointed at once. Mark and Mr. Alford then went to +call upon the lawyer. They entered his office without knocking, and by +chance found him busy with the accounts and papers; they were +scattered over the table, and he was making computations. As soon as +he was aware of the presence of visitors, he made an effort to slide +the documents under some loose sheets of paper; but Mark knew the bold +hand at once, and without a word seized the papers and handed them to +Mr. Alford. + +"Not very p'lite, Square, I know," said Mr. Alford, "but possession is +nine p'ints of the law, as I've heerd you say; and as you won't deny +the handwritin', I s'pose you don't question my right to these 'ere." + +The rage of Mr. Clamp may be imagined. + +"Good mornin', Square," said the triumphant executor. "When we've +looked over these affairs, we'll trouble you and the widder that was, +to 'count for what the schedool calls for." + +The simple preparations for the wedding were soon made, and the +honest, great-hearted farmer had the pleasure of giving away the +bride. It was a joyful, but not a merry wedding; both had passed +through too many trials, and had too many recollections. And the +evident decline of Mr. Hardwick made Mark sad and apprehensive. But he +devoutly thanked God, as he clasped his bride to his bosom, for the +providence that had brought to him the fulfilment of his dearest +hopes. + +Here we might stop, according to ancient custom, leaving our hero and +heroine to their happiness. But though a wedding is always an event of +interest, there are other things to be narrated before we have done +with our story. + +Not long after, Mark called at the Kinloch house, then occupied by Mr. +Clamp; as a measure of precaution, he took Mr. Alford with him. +Mildred had never regained her wardrobe; everything that was dear to +her was still in her stepmother's keeping,--her father's picture, her +own mother's miniature, the silver cup she had used from infancy, and +all the elegant and tasteful articles that had accumulated in a house +in which no wish was left ungratified. Ever since the session of the +Probate Court, the house had been shut to visitors, if any there had +been. Mrs. Clamp had not been seen once out of doors. But after +waiting a time, Mark and his friend were admitted. As they entered the +house, the bare aspect of the rooms confirmed the rumors which Mark +had heard. Mrs. Clamp received them with a kind of sullen civility, +and, upon hearing the errand, replied,-- + +"Certainly, Mrs. Davenport can have her clothes. She need not have +sent more than one man to get them. Is that all?" + +"Not quite," said Mark. "Perhaps you are not aware of the change which +the discovery of the will may make in your circumstances. I do not +speak of the punishment which the fraud merits, but of the rights +which are now vested in me. First, I am desired to ask after the +plate, jewels, furs, and wardrobe of the first Mrs. Kinloch." + +Mrs. Clamp was silent. A word let fall by Lucy suddenly flashed into +Mark's mind, and he intimated to the haughty woman his purpose to go +into the east front-chamber. + +"Fine gentlemen," she said at length, "to pry into a lady's private +apartment! You will not dare enter it without my permission!" + +And she stood defiantly in the doorway. But, without parley, Mark and +Mr. Alford pushed by her and walked up the staircase, not heeding the +shout of Mr. Clamp, who had followed them to the house. + +"It might seem mean," said Mark to Mr. Alford; "but I think you'll +agree presently, that it wasn't a case for ceremony." + +He stripped the clothes from the bed. The pillows were stuffed with +valuable furs; fine linen and embroideries filled the bolsters. The +feather-sack contained dresses of rich and costly fabrics,--the styles +showing them to be at least twenty years old. And in the mattress were +stowed away the dinner and tea services of silver, together with +porcelain, crystal, and Bohemian ware. + +"What a deal o' comfort a body could take in sleepin' on a bed stuffed +like this 'ere!" said Mr. Alford; "I sh'd think he'd dream of the +'Rabian Nights." + +"After this, Madam," said Mark, upon returning to the hall, "you can +hardly expect any special lenity from me. The will allowed you an +annuity of one thousand dollars while you remained single; since you +are married your interest ceases, but you shall receive two hundred a +year. The house, however, belongs to my wife. Your husband there has a +home to which you can go." + +"Yes," said the lawyer, "he _has_ a home, and won't be beholden to any +man for a roof to shelter his family." + +The pride of the woman was still unbent. Though her cheek was blanched +and her lips were bitten blue, still she stood erect and her head +turned queenly as ever. The glance she threw to the man who called her +wife was enough to have pierced him. Turning to Mark, she said,-- + +"If you will come to-morrow,--or Monday, rather,--you can have +possession of the house and property. My own things can be easily +removed, and it will be a simple matter to make ready for new comers." + +"I could keep them out of it a year, if I chose," said Mr. Clamp. + +"But I do not choose," said she, with superb haughtiness. + +"Wal, good mornin'," said Mr. Alford. + +As they left the house, Mrs. Clamp sat down in the silent room. +Without, the wind whistled through the naked trees and whirled up +spiral columns of leaves; the river below was cased in ice; the +passers-by looked pinched with cold, and cast hurried glances over +their shoulders at the ill-fated house and the adjacent +burying-ground. Within, the commotion, the chill, the hurry, the +fright, were even more intense. What now remained to be done? Her son, +vanquished in love by a blacksmith's _protege_, had fled, and left her +to meet her fate alone. The will had been discovered, and, as if by a +special interposition of Providence, the victim of her son's passions +had been the instrument of vengeance. The lawyer who had worked upon +her fears had proved unable to protect her. The estate was out of her +hands; the property with which she had hoped to escape from the hated +town and join her son was seized; she was a ruined, disgraced woman. +She had faced the battery of curious eyes, as she walked with the +husband she despised to the Sunday services; but what screen had she +now that her pride was humbled? The fearful struggle in the mind of +the lonely woman in the chill and silent room, who shall describe it? +She denied admission to the servants and her husband, and through the +long evening still sat by the darkening window, far into the dim and +gusty night. + +Squire Clamp went to bed moody, if not enraged; but when, on waking, +he found his wife still absent, he became alarmed. Early in the +morning he tracked her through a light snow, that had sifted down +during the night, to the river-bank, at the bend where the current +keeps the ice from closing over. An hour after, some neighbors, +hastily summoned, made a search at the dam. One of them, crossing the +flume by Mr. Hardwick's shop, broke the newly-formed ice and there +found the drifting body of Mrs. Clamp. Her right hand, stretched out +stiff, was thrust against the floats of the water-wheel, as if, even +in death, she remembered her hate against the family whose fortune had +risen upon her overthrow! + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Mark and Mr. Alford, after their disagreeable interview with the +Clamps, went to see Mr. Hardwick, whom they wished to congratulate. At +the door they were met by Lizzie, whose sad face said, "Hush!" Mark's +spirits fell instantly. "Is he worse?" he asked. A tear was the only +answer. He asked Mr. Alford to go for Mildred. "She has just come," +said Lizzie. + +They found Mr. Hardwick propped up in bed, whence he could look out of +the window. The church-spire rose on the one hand, and on the other +the chimney of the shop was seen above the trees on the river-bank. By +night the column of sparks had gladdened his eye, as he thought of the +cheerful industry of his sons. Mark tenderly pressed his uncle's hand, +and leaned over him with an affectionate, sorrowing interest. + +"Der-don't take it to heart, my boy," said Mr. Hardwick. "I am very +h-happy." + +"I am glad that the boys won't lose the shop," said Mark. "I see you +are looking out to the chimney." + +"Yer-yes, it was thoughtful of Mr. Kinloch, and a special +Pr-Providence that the will was found." + +"You know he mentioned his claim against me," said Mark; "that is +paid, and it doesn't matter; but I can't guess the reason for the +unusual kindness he has shown towards me." + +The old man answered slowly, for his breathing was difficult and often +painful. + +"It is an old story,--old as the dried f-flowers that Mildred told me +of,--but it had a f-fragrance once. Yer-your mother, Mark, was as +per-pretty a girl as you'd often see. Walter Kinloch ler-loved her, +and she him. He sailed to the Indies, an' some der-diff'culty +happened, so that the letters stopped. I d-don't know how 'twas. But +arter a while sh-she married your father. Mr. Kinloch, he m-married, +too; but I guess he nun-never forgot the girl of his choice." + +Mark grasped his young wife's hand, at this tale of years gone by. + +"The lock of hair and the rose were your mother's, then!" she +whispered. "Dear father! faithful, even in death, to his friends, and +to the memory of his first love! How much suffering and crime would +have been prevented, if he could only have uttered the words which his +heart prompted!" + +"God forgive the woman!" said Mr. Hardwick, solemnly. None knew then +how much she had need of forgiveness, standing as she was on the brink +of that last fatal plunge! + +Mr. Alford suggested that the fatigue of talking would wear upon the +enfeebled man, and advised that he should be left to get some rest, if +possible. + +"To-morrow is S-Sabba'-day, ef I've counted right," said Mr. Hardwick. +"I sh-should like to see the sun on the st-heeple once more." + +"Dear uncle, I hope you may see it a great many times. We must leave +you to rest." + +"Good-night, mum-my children," he replied. "God b-bless you all! Let +me put my hands on your h-heads." + +They knelt by his bedside, and he blessed them fervently. Mr. Alford +and Lizzie remained to attend upon him, and the others withdrew. + +The night passed, how wearily! None could sleep, for through all the +air there was a presage of sorrow, a solemn "tingling silentness," to +which their senses were painfully alive. Who, that has passed the +interminable gloomy hours that preceded the departure of a loved and +venerated friend into the world of spirits, does not remember this +unutterable suspense, this fruitless struggle with eternal decrees, +this clinging of affection to the parting soul? What a sinking of the +heart even the recollection of such a scene produces! + +The day dawned upon sleepless, tear-stained eyes. The dying man was +conscious, cheerful, and calmly breathing. In the adjoining room the +family sat beside the table on which was spread their untasted +breakfast. + +The bell began to ring for meeting. Mr. Hardwick roused up at the +sound, and called for his children. He blessed them again, and placed +his hands on their bowed heads in turn. He thought of the psalms which +he had so often led, and he asked all to join in singing Billings's +"Jordan." + + "There is a land of pure delight, + Where saints immortal reign; + Infinite day excludes the night, + And pleasures banish pain." + +With faltering voices they sang the triumphal hymn. The old man's +eyes were fixed upon the steeple, which pointed upward through the +clear air, and shone in the golden light of the sun. He kept time with +a feeble movement, and once or twice essayed to raise his own wavering +voice. A smile of heavenly beauty played over his pallid features as +the music ceased,--a radiance like that crimson glow which covers the +mountain-top at dawn. He spoke almost inaudibly, as if in a trance; +then repeating with a musical flow the words of his favorite author, + + "Where the bright seraphim in burning row + Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow, + And the cherubic host in thousand choirs + Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, + With those just spirits that wear victorious palms + Hymns devout and holy psalms + Singing everlastingly,"-- + +his voice sank again, though it was easy to see that a prayer trembled +on his lips. As a strain of music fades into silence, his tones fell +away, fainter and fainter; and with the same seraphic light on his +countenance his breathing ceased. + + + + +THE BIRTH-MARK. + +A.D. 12--. + + See, here it is, upon my breast,-- + The bloody image of a hand! + On her white bosom it was pressed, + Who should have nursed--you understand;-- + I never yet have named her name, + Nor will I, till 'tis free from shame. + + The good old crone that tended me + Through sickly childhood, lonely youth, + Told me the story: so, you see, + I know it is God's sacred truth, + That holy lips and holy hands + In secrecy had blessed the bands. + + And well he knew it, too,--the accursed!-- + To whom my grandsire gave his child + With dying breath;--for from the first + He saw, and tried to snare the wild + And frightened love that thought to rest + Its wings upon my father's breast. + + You may have seen him riding by,-- + This same Count Bernard, stern and cold; + You know, then, how his creeping eye + One's very soul in charm will hold. + Snow-locks he wears, and gracious art; + But hell is whiter than his heart. + + Well, as I said, the secret rite + Had joined them, and the two were one; + And so it chanced, one summer night, + When the half-moon had set, and none + But faint star-shadows on the grass + Lay watching for his feet to pass, + + Led by the waiting light that gleamed + From out one chamber-window, came + The husband-lover;--soon they dreamed,-- + Her lips still murmuring his name + In sleep,--while, as to guard her, fell + His arm across her bosom's swell. + + The low wind shook the darkened pane, + The far clock chimed along the hall, + There came a moment's gust of rain, + The swallow chirped a single call + From his eaves'-nest, the elm-bough swayed + Moaning;--they slumbered unafraid. + + Without a creak the chamber-door + Crept open!--with a cat-like tread, + Shading his lamp with hand that bore + A dagger, came beside their bed + The Count. His hair was tinged with gray: + Gold locks brown-mixed before him lay. + + A thrust,--a groan,--a fearful scream, + As from the peace of love's sweet rest + She starts!--O God! what horrid dream + Swells her bound eyeballs? From her breast + Fall off the garments of the night,-- + A red hand strikes her bosom's white! + + She knew no more that passed; her ear + Caught not the hurried cries,--the rush + Of the scared household,--nor could hear + The voice that broke the after-hush:-- + "There with her paramour she lay! + He lies here!--carry her away!" + + The evening after I was born + No roses on the bier were spread, + As when for maids or mothers mourn + Pure-hearted ones who love the dead; + They buried her, so young, so fair, + With hasty hands and scarce a prayer. + + Count Bernard gained the lands, while I, + Cast forth, forgotten, thus have grown + To manhood; for I could not die-- + I cannot die--till I atone + For her great shame; and so you see + I track him, and he flies from me. + + And one day soon my hand I'll lay + Upon his arm, with lighter touch + Than ladies use when in their play + They tap you with their fans; yet such + A thrill will freeze his every limb + As if the dead were clutching him! + + I think that it would make you smile + To see him kneel and hear him plead,-- + I leaning on my sword the while, + With a half-laugh, to watch his need:-- + At last my good blade finds his heart, + And then this red stain will depart. + + + + +RAMBLES IN AQUIDNECK. + + +I. + +NEWPORT BEACH. + +Newport has many beaches, each bearing a distinctive appellation. To +the one of which we are speaking rightfully belongs the name of +Easton; but it is more widely known by that of the town itself, and +still more familiarly to the residents as "The Beach." It lies east of +the city, a mile from the harbor, and is about half a mile in length. +Its form is that of the new moon, the horns pointing southward. + +Let us go there now. No better time could be chosen by the naturalist, +for the tide will be at its lowest ebb. Descending Bath Road, the +beautiful crescent lies before us on the right,--Easton's Pond, with +its back-ground of farms, upon the left. There is no wind to-day to +break the surface of the standing water, and it gives back the dwarf +willows upon its banks and the houses on the hill-side with more than +Daguerrian fidelity. The broad ocean lies rocking in the sunshine, not +as one a-weary, but resting at his master's bidding, waiting to begin +anew the work he loves. In the horizon, the ships, motionless in the +calm, spread all sail to catch the expected breeze. The waves idly +chase each other to the shore, in childish strife to kiss first the +mother Earth. + +Turning the sea-wall and crossing a bit of shingle on the right, we +stand upon the western extremity of the beach. + +At our feet, a smooth, globular object, of the size of a crab-apple, +is lying half-buried in the sand. Taking it in your hand, you find it +to be a univalve shell, the inhabitant of which is concealed behind a +closely-fitting door, resembling a flake of undissolved glue. + +It is a Natica. Place it gently in this pool and watch for a few +moments. Slowly and cautiously the horny operculum is pushed out, +turned back, and hidden beneath a thick fleshy mantle, which spreads +over half the shell. Two long tentacles appear upon its front, like +the horns of an ox, and it begins to glide along upon its one huge +foot. + +Had you seen it thus at first, you could not have believed it possible +for so bulky a body to be retracted into so small a shell. Lift it +into the air, and a stream of water pours forth as it contracts. + +Two kinds are common here, one of which has a more conical spire than +the other. The animals differ somewhat in other points, but both have +a cream-colored base, and a mantle of pale cream clouded with purple. +You may get them from half an inch to three inches in diameter. Take +them home and domesticate them, and you will see surprising things. + +I kept one of middling size for many months. During two or three weeks +I wondered how he lived, for he was never seen to eat. He used to +climb to the top of the tank and slide down the slippery glass as +though it were a _montagne russe_. Then he would wander about upon the +bottom, ploughing deep furrows in the sand, and end by burrowing +beneath it. There he would stay whole days, entirely out of sight. + +One morning I found him on his back, his body bent upward, with the +edge of the base turned in all round towards the centre. Did you ever +see an apple-dumpling before it was boiled, just as the cook was +pinching the dough together? Yes? Then you may imagine the appearance +of my Natica; but no greening pared and cored lay within that puckered +wrapper. + +Two days passed with no visible change; but on the third day the +strange gasteropod unfolded both himself and the mystery. From his +long embrace fell the shell of a Mactra, nearly as broad as his own. +Near the hinge was a smooth, round hole, through which the poor Clam +had been sucked. Foot, stomach, siphon, muscles, all but a thin strip +of mantle, were gone. The problem of the Natica's existence was +solved, and the verification was found in more than one Buccinum minus +the animal,--the number of the latter victims being still an unknown +quantity. + +Not in sport had Natty driven the plough, not in idleness had he +hollowed the sand. He sought his food in the furrow, and dug riches in +the mine. + +Doubtless he killed the bivalve,--for until the time of its +disappearance it had been in full vigor,--but with what weapon? And +whereabouts in that soft bundle was hidden the wimble which bored the +hole? + +A few days after, a Crab, of the size of a dime, died. Nat soon +learned the fact, and enveloped the crustacean as he had done the +mollusk. Thirty hours sufficed to drill through the Crab's +foundation-wall, and to abstract the unguarded treasure. + +Every week some rifled Trivittatum tells a new tale of his felonious +deeds. + +His last feat was worthy of a cannibal, for it was the savage act of +devouring a fellow-Natica. You might suppose that in this case the +trap-like operculum would afford an easy entrance to one familiar with +its use; but, true to his secret system, the burglar broke in as +before. How did he do this? Did he abrade the stone-work with flinty +sand until a hole was worn? Did he apply an acid to the limy wall +until it opened before him? Who can find the tools of the cunning +workman, or the laboratory where his corrodents are composed? + +Some rods farther south, the shore is covered with smooth stones, and +there you may find the Limpet in great numbers. Patella is the Latin +name, but children call it Tent-Shell. Oval at the base, it slopes +upward to a point a little aside from the centre. + +In this locality they are small, seldom more than an inch in length. +At first, you will not readily distinguish them, they are so nearly of +the color of the stones to which they are attached. This is one of +those Providential adjustments by which the weak are rendered as +secure as the strong. Slow in their movements, without offensive +weapons, their form and their coloring are their two great safeguards. +The stones to which they adhere are variegated with brown and purple +blotches of incipient Coralline, and the shells are beautifully +mottled with every shade of those colors. Some are lilac, heightening +nearly to crimson; others are dark chocolate and white, sharply +checkered. + +Pebbles and Patella alike are half-covered with Confervae, and from +the top of the latter, fronds of Ulva are often found floating like +flags. I have one with a clump of Corallina rising from its apex, like +a coppice on the summit of a hill. + +By atmospheric pressure, its union with the stone is so close that it +is not easy to pull it away without injury; but if you slip it along, +until by some slight inequality air is admitted beneath the hitherto +exhausted receiver, the little pneumatician is obliged to yield. + +When turned upon its back, or resting against glass, the soft arms, +sprawling aimlessly about, and the bare, round head, give it the +appearance of an infant in a cradle, so that a tank well stocked with +them might be taken for a Liliputian foundling-hospital. + +They are as innocent as they look, being vegetable-feeders, and +finding most of their sustenance in matters suspended in the water. A +friend of mine placed several upon the side of a vessel coated with +Conferva. In a few days, each industrious laborer had mowed round him +a circular space several times larger than himself. + +They are not ambulatory, but remain on one spot for successive weeks, +perhaps longer. + +Sometimes they raise the shell so as to allow a free circulation +beneath; but if some predatory Prawn draw near, the tent is lowered in +a twinkling, so as effectually to shut out the submarine Tartar. + +Tread warily, or you will trip upon the slimy Fucus that fringes the +seaward side of every rock. This is one of the few Algae that grow +here in luxuriance. The slate has not the deep fissures necessary to +afford shelter to the more delicate kinds; and the heavy swell of the +sea drags them from their slight moorings. Therefore, though Ulva, +Chondrus, Cladophora, Enteromorpha, and as many more, are within our +reach, we will not stop to gather them; for Newport has other shores, +where we can get them in full perfection. + +We will take some tufts of Corallina, however, for that is temptingly +fine. What a curious plant it is! Its root, a mere crustaceous disk, +and its fronds, depositing shelly matter upon their surface, bear so +strong a resemblance to the true Corals, that, until recently, +naturalists have thought it a zoophyte. + +Here the plants are of a dull brick-red; but in less exposed +situations they are purple. If you wish them to live and increase, you +must chip off a bit of the rock on which they are growing. With a +chisel, or even a knife, you can do it without difficulty, for the +soft slate scales and crumbles under a slight blow. + +For an herbarium, it ought to be gummed at once to the paper, for it +becomes so brittle, in drying, that it falls to pieces with the most +careful handling. In the air and light it fades white, but the +elegance of its pinnate branches will well repay any pains you may +bestow upon it. + +If you have a lingering belief in its animal nature, steeping it in +acid will cause the carbonate of lime and your credulity to disappear +together, leaving the vegetable tissue clearly revealed. + +Between low-water and the Cliff are hundreds of pools rich in +vegetable and animal life--Look at this one: it is a lakelet of +exquisite beauty. Bordered with the olive-colored Rock-Weed, fronds of +purple and green Laver rise from its limpid depths. Amphipods of +varied hue emerge from the clustering weeds, cleave the clear water +with easy swiftness, and hide beneath the opposite bank. Here a +graceful Annelid describes Hogarth's line of beauty upon the sandy +bottom. There another glides over the surface with sinuous course, +rowed by more oars than a Venetian galley, more brilliant in its +iridescence than the barge of Cleopatra, albeit + + "The poop was beaten gold, + Purple the sails." + +We loiter here, forgetful that we are only at the first end of the bow +along whose curve we propose to walk. Let us go on. The firm sand +affords pleasanter footing than the slippery stones we leave behind +us, but it seems bare of promise to the curiosity-hunter. Nevertheless +we will hunt, and quite at variance with my experience will it be, if +we return empty-handed. + +Here is something already. Dark-colored, horny, flat, oblong, each +corner furnished with a wiry, thorn-like projection;--what is it? A +child tells you it is a Mermaid's Purse, and, giving the empty bag a +shake, you straightway conclude that the maids of the sea know "hard +times," as well as those of the land. But the Purse is not always so +light. Sometimes it is found to contain a most precious deposit, the +egg which is to produce a future fish. + +These egg-cases belong to different members of the Ray family. I saw +one last winter, in which the inmate was fully developed. Should some +old seaman hear me, he might say that I am telling a "fish-story" in +good earnest. He might inform you furthermore, that the object in +question is "but a pod of sea-weed, and that he has seen hundreds of +them in the Gulf Stream." I cannot help it, neither do I question his +veracity. Notwithstanding, these two eyes of mine, in sound condition, +awake, and in broad day, did see the supposed pericarp, with one side +taken off, and did behold, lying within, as veritable a Raia as ever +was caught upon the New-England coast. Moreover, its countenance was +no more classical, in its minuteness, than that of its most ancient +ancestor in its hugeness. + +Observe those bubbles trembling upon the edge of the wave. One is left +by the receding tide, and a nearer view shows it to be a jelly-like +globe, clearer than the crystal of Merlin. Dropped softly into a +vessel of water, at first it lies quiescent and almost invisible upon +the bottom. A moment after, it rises in quick undulations, flashing +prismatic tints with every motion. Again it rests, and we see that it +is banded by eight meridians, composed of square, overlapping plates. +It swims, and the plates become paddles, propelling the frail craft,-- +prisms, dividing the sunbeams into rainbow hues. Suddenly two lines of +gossamer are dropped from unseen openings in its sides, and trailed +behind it as it goes. Twisting, lengthening, shortening, they are +drawn back and re-coiled within, and + + "The ethereal substance closed, + Not long divisible." + +This delicate wonder is the Cydippe. Though among the most charming of +marine creatures, none is more liable to be overlooked, owing to its +extreme subtilty. So unsubstantial and shadowy are they, that a lady, +on seeing them for the first time, declared them to be "the ghosts of +gooseberries." Indeed, you will find them ghost-like, if you attempt +to keep them, for they + + "Shrink in haste away + And vanish from our sight." + +The whole high-water line is strewn with the blanched and parted +valves of the Beach Clam. Here and there yellowish streaks appear upon +the gray sand, formed by the detritus of submarine shells. Among the +fragments are often found perfect specimens, some of them with the +living animal. + +We can examine them as we go back, but now let us cross the "Creek." +It is a creek only by courtesy or an Americanism, at the present day; +but when those miles of fertile fields upon the north were +unreclaimed, the dank herbage hindered evaporation, and Easton's Pond +was fed by unfailing streams. Then the vast body of overflowing water +swept a deep channel, which the sea, rolling far up towards the pond, +widened and made permanent. Boats came from ships in the offing, and +followed its course to "Green End," with no fear of grounding; and +traditionary pirates there bestowed in secret caves their ill-gotten +gains. + +Now, the Creek is a mere streamlet, and the flow of the tide is +restricted to its mouth. With our rubbers we may ford it dry-shod; but +if you choose to cross the bridge, we must wade through shifting sand, +and our walk will be the longer. In midsummer the bed is dry, and +almost obliterated by the drift. On the approach of autumnal rains, +the farmers plough a passage for the water, to prevent their lands +from being submerged. + +On the east side, masses of conglomerate rock are strewn in wild +confusion. By the action of untold ages the connecting cement is worn +away from between the pebbles, leaving them prominent; and wherever +the attrition of the sea has loosened one from its bed, the hollow has +become the habitation of Mollusca and Algae. + +Beyond that ponderous boulder are many dark recesses among the +overlying stones. Strip back your sleeve, thrust in your hand, and +grope carefully about. In this way I once grasped a prickly thing that +startled me. Drawing it to light, it proved to be an Echinus, +Sea-Urchin, or Sea-Egg. That one was not larger than a walnut, was +shaped like a _brioche_, and resembled a chestnut-burr. Its color was +a delicate green, verging to brown. + +Much larger living Echini are found on this spot. There is a shell +now, more than two inches in diameter. It is wholly covered with +spines half an inch in length. Radiating from a common centre, +flexible at the base, they stand erect at right angles with the shell +when the Urchin is in health; but in disease or death order is lost, +and they lie across each other in great confusion. Their connection +with the shell is very remarkable, for it is by a ball-and-socket +joint,--the same articulation which gives the human hip its marvellous +liberty of action. Between them are five rows of minute holes, and, in +life, a transparent, hair-like foot is protruded from each, at the +pleasure of the owner. When disposed to change its situation, it +stretches forth those on the side towards which it would go, fixes +them by means of the sucker at the tip of each, and, simultaneously +withdrawing those in the rear, pulls itself along. + +The mouth, placed in the centre of the base, is very large in +proportion to the size of the animal. It is formed of five shelly, +wedge-shaped pieces, each ending in a hard, triangular tooth. The +whole mouth is a conical box, called by naturalists "Aristotle's +lantern." + +The shell is hardly thicker than that of a hen's egg, and is even more +fragile. When the spines are rubbed off, the brioche-like shape is +modified, and in place of the depression in the middle of the upper +side there is seen a slight prominence. + +Mine was a very inoffensive creature. He occupied the same corner for +many weeks, and changed his place only when a different arrangement of +stones was made. He then wandered to a remote part of the tank and +chose a new abode. Both retreats were on the shady side of a stone +overhung with plants. There for months he quietly kept house, only +going up and down his hand-breadth of room once or twice a day. +Minding his own business without hurt to his neighbor, he dwelt in +unambitious tranquillity. Had he not fallen a victim to the most cruel +maltreatment, he might still adorn his humble station. + +As he was sitting one evening at the door of his house, bending about +his lithe arms in the way he was wont, two itinerant Sticklebacks +chanced to pass that way. They paused, and, not seeing the necessity +for organs of which they had never known the use, they at once decided +on their removal. + +In vain did the poor Hedgehog oppose them. With all the pertinacity of +ignorance, they maintained their certainty of his abnormal condition; +and with all the officiousness of quackery, they insisted upon +immediate amputation. Aided by two volunteer assistants, the self-made +surgeons cut off limb after limb before their reckless butchery could +be stopped. + +At last I effected their dismissal. But their pitiable patient was too +far reduced for recovery. His exhausted system never rallied from the +shock, and he survived but a few days. + +Alas! alas! that so exemplary a member of the community should have +perished through piscine empiricism! + +How many things you have collected! Your well-filled basket attests +your industry and zeal, and suggests the fruitful question of the +novelist, "What will you do with it?" Will you throw its contents on +the sand, and go away satisfied with these imperfect glimpses of +sea-life? Will you take them home indeed, but consign them to a +crowded bowl, to die like the prisoners in the Black Hole of Calcutta? +Or will you give to each a roomy basin with water, and plants to keep +it pure? + +This were well; and you could thus study their structure at leisure, +but not their habits. To know the character of an individual, you must +watch him among his fellows; you must observe his bearing to the +small; you must see how he demeans himself in presence of the great. +To do this, the surroundings must be such that none shall be conscious +of restraint, but that every one, with homely ease, may act out his +own peculiar nature. In short, you must make ready for them another +Atlantic, in all things but breadth like its grand prototype. + +Nor is this a difficult undertaking. By following the advice of some +experienced person, you may avoid all those failures which are apt to +attend the experiments of a tyro. I will direct you to our pioneer in +aquarian science, Mr. Charles E. Hammett. He can furnish you with all +you want, give you most efficient aid, and add thereto a great amount +of practical information. + +You need have no fears for the population of your colony; for in our +future walks we shall meet new objects of beauty and interest, and in +such variety and abundance that your only embarrassment will be which +to choose. + +And now the ramble of to-day is ended. The "punctual sea" has risen, +and, waking his dreaming waves, he gives to them their several tasks. +Some, with gentle touch, lave the heated rock; these, swift of foot, +bring drink to the thirsty sand; those carry refreshing coolness to +the tepid pool. Charged with blessings come they all, and, singing +'mid their joyous labor, they join in a chorus of praise to their God +and our God; while from each of our hearts goes up the ready response, +"Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy works, and I will rejoice +in giving praise for the operations of thy hands!" + + + + +ANN POTTER'S LESSON. + +My sister Mary Jane is older than I,--as much as four years. Father +died when we were both small, and didn't leave us much means beside +the farm. Mother was rather a weakly woman; she didn't feel as though +she could farm it for a living. It's hard work enough for a man to get +clothes and victuals off a farm in West Connecticut; it's up-hill work +always; and then a man can turn to, himself, to ploughin' and +mowin';--but a woman a'n't of no use, except to tell folks what to do; +and everybody knows it's no way to have a thing done, to send. + +Mother talked it all over with Deacon Peters, and he counselled her to +sell off all the farm but the home-lot, which was sot out for an +orchard with young apple-trees, and had a garden-spot to one end of +it, close by the house. Mother calculated to raise potatoes and beans +and onions enough to last us the year round, and to take in sewin' +so's to get what few groceries we was goin' to want. We kept Old Red, +the best cow; there was pasture enough for her in the orchard, for the +trees wa'n't growed to be bearin' as yet, and we 'lotted a good deal +on milk to our house; besides, it saved butcher's meat. + +Mother was a real pious woman, and she was a high-couraged woman too. +Old Miss Perrit, an old widder-woman that lived down by the bridge, +come up to see her the week after father died. I remember all about +it, though I wa'n't but ten years old; for when I see Miss Perrit +comin' up the road, with her slimpsy old veil hanging off from her +bumbazine bonnet, and her doleful look, (what Nancy Perrit used to +call "mother's company-face,") I kinder thought she was comin' to our +house; and she was allers so musical to me, I went in to the +back-door, and took up a towel I was hemmin', and set down in the +corner, all ready to let her in. It don't seem as if I could 'a' been +real distressed about father's dyin' when I could do so; but children +is just like spring weather, rainin' one hour and shinin' the next, +and it's the Lord's great mercy they be; if they begun to be feelin' +so early, there wouldn't be nothin' left to grow up. So pretty quick +Miss Perrit knocked, and I let her in. We hadn't got no spare room in +that house; there was the kitchen in front, and mother's bed-room, and +the buttery, and the little back-space opened out on't behind. Mother +was in the bed-room; so, while I called her, Miss Perrit set down in +the splint rockin'-chair that creaked awfully, and went to rockin' +back and forth, and sighin', till mother come in. "Good-day, Miss +Langdon!" says she, with a kind of a snuffle, "how _dew_ you dew? I +thought I'd come and see how you kep' up under this here affliction. I +rec'lect very well how I felt when husband died. It's a dreadful thing +to be left a widder in a hard world;--don't you find it out by this?" + +I guess mother felt quite as bad as ever Miss Perrit did, for +everybody knew old Perrit treated his wife like a dumb brute while he +was alive, and died drunk; but she didn't say nothin'. I see her give +a kind of a swaller, and then she spoke up bright and strong. + +"I don't think it is a hard world, Miss Perrit. I find folks kind and +helpful, beyond what I'd any right to look for. I try not to think +about my husband, any more than I can help, because I couldn't work, +if I did, and I've got to work. It's most helpful to think the Lord +made special promises to widows, and when I remember Him I a'n't +afeard." + +Miss Perrit stopped rockin' a minute, and then she begun to creak the +chair and blow her nose again, and she said,-- + +"Well, I'm sure it's a great mercy to see anybody rise above their +trouble the way you do; but, law me! Miss Langdon, you a'n't got +through the fust pair o' bars on't yet. Folks is allers kinder +neighborly at the fust; they feel to help you right off, every way +they can,--but it don't stay put, they get tired on't; they blaze +right up like a white-birch-stick, an' then they go out all of a heap; +there's other folks die, and they don't remember you, and you're just +as bad off as though you wa'n't a widder." + +Mother kind of smiled,--she couldn't help it; but she spoke up again +just as steady. + +"I don't expect to depend on people, Miss Perrit, so long as I have my +health. I a'n't above takin' friendly help when I need to, but I mean +mostly to help myself. I can get work to take in, and when the girls +have got their schoolin' they will be big enough to help me. I am not +afraid but what I shall live and prosper, if I only keep my health." + +"Hem, well!" whined out Miss Perrit. "I allers thought you was a +pretty mighty woman, Miss Langdon, and I'm glad to see you're so +high-minded; but you a'n't sure of your health, never. I used to be +real smart to what I am now, when Perrit was alive; but I took on so, +when he was brought home friz to death that it sp'iled my nerves; and +then I had to do so many chores out in the shed, I got cold and had +the dreadfullest rheumatiz! and when I'd got past the worst spell of +that and was quite folksy again, I slipped down on our door-step and +kinder wrenched my ankle, and ef't hadn't 'a' been for the neighbors, +I don't know but what Nancy and I should 'a' starved." + +Mother did laugh this time. Miss Perrit had overshot the mark. + +"So the neighbors were helpful, after all!" said she. "And if ever I +get sick, I shall be willin' to have help, Miss Perrit. I'm sure I +would take what I would give; I think givin' works two ways. I don't +feel afraid yet." + +Miss Perrit groaned a little, and wiped her eyes, and got up to go +away. She hadn't never offered to help mother, and she went off to the +sewing-circle and told that Miss Langdon hadn't got no feelings at +all, and she b'lieved she'd just as soon beg for a livin' as not. +Polly Mariner, the tailoress, come and told mother all she said next +day, but mother only smiled, and set Polly to talkin' about the best +way to make over her old cloak. When she was gone, I begun to talk +about Miss Perrit, and I was real mad; but mother hushed me right up. + +"It a'n't any matter, Ann," said she. "Her sayin' so don't make it so. +Miss Perrit's got a miserable disposition, and I'm sorry for her; a +mint of money wouldn't make her happy; she's a doleful Christian, she +don't take any comfort in anything, and I really do pity her." + +And that was just the way mother took everything. + +At first we couldn't sell the farm. It was down at the foot of +Torringford Hill, two good miles from meetin', and a mile from the +school-house; most of it was woodsy, and there wa'n't no great market +for wood about there. So for the first year Squire Potter took it on +shares, and, as he principally seeded it down to rye, why, we sold the +rye and got a little money, but 'twa'n't a great deal,--no more than +we wanted for clothes the next winter. Aunt Langdon sent us down a lot +of maple-sugar from Lee, and when we wanted molasses we made it out of +that. We didn't have to buy no great of groceries, for we could spin +and knit by fire-light, and, part of the land bein' piny woods, we had +a good lot of knots that were as bright as lamps for all we wanted. +Then we had a dozen chickens, and by pains and care they laid pretty +well, and the eggs were as good as gold. So we lived through the first +year after father died, pretty well. + +Anybody that couldn't get along with mother and Major (I always called +Mary Jane "Major" when I was real little, and the name kind of stayed +by) couldn't get along with anybody. I was as happy as a cricket +whilst they were by, though, to speak truth, I wasn't naturally so +chirpy as they were; I took after father more, who was a kind of a +despondin' man, down-hearted, never thinkin' things could turn out +right, or that he was goin' to have any luck. That was my natur', and +mother see it, and fought ag'inst it like a real Bunker-Hiller; but +natur' is hard to root up, and there was always times when I wanted to +sulk away into a corner and think nobody wanted me, and that I was +poor and humbly, and had to work for my living. + +I remember one time I'd gone up into my room before tea to have one of +them dismal fits. Miss Perrit had been in to see mother, and she'd +been tellin' over what luck Nancy'd had down to Hartford: how't she +had gone into a shop, and a young man had been struck with her good +looks, an' he'd turned out to be a master-shoemaker, and Nancy was +a-goin' to be married, and so on, a rigmarole as long as the moral +law,--windin' up with askin' mother why she didn't send us girls off +to try our luck, for Major was as old as Nance Perrit. I'd waited to +hear mother say, in her old bright way, that she couldn't afford it, +and she couldn't spare us, if she had the means, and then I flung up +into our room, that was a lean-to in the garret, with a winder in the +gable end, and there I set down by the winder with my chin on the +sill, and begun to wonder why we couldn't have as good luck as the +Perrits. After I'd got real miserable, I heerd a soft step comin' up +stairs, and Major come in and looked at me and then out of the winder. + +"What's the matter of you, Anny?" said she. + +"Nothing," says I, as sulky as you please. + +"Nothing always means something," says Major, as pleasant as pie; and +then she scooched down on the floor and pulled my two hands away, and +looked me in the face as bright and honest as ever you see a dandelion +look out of the grass. "What is it, Anny? Spit it out, as John Potter +says; you'll feel better to free your mind." + +"Well," says I, "Major, I'm tired of bad luck." + +"Why, Anny! I didn't know as we'd had any. I'm sure, it's three years +since father died, and we have had enough to live on all that time, +and I've got my schooling, and we are all well; and just look at the +apple-trees,--all as pink as your frock with blossoms; that's good for +new cloaks next winter, Anny." + +"'Ta'n't that, Major. I was thinkin' about Nancy Perrit. If we'd had +the luck to go to Hartford, may-be you'd have been as well off as she; +and then I'd have got work, too. And I wish I was as pretty as she is, +Major; it does seem too bad to be poor and humbly too." + +I wonder she didn't laugh at me, but she was very feelin' for folks, +always. She put her head on the window-sill along of mine, and kinder +nestled up to me in her lovin' way, and said, softly,-- + +"I wouldn't quarrel with the Lord, Anny." + +"Why, Major! you scare me! I haven't said nothing against the Lord. +What do you mean?" said I,--for I was touchy, real touchy. + +"Well, dear, you see we've done all we can to help ourselves; and +what's over and above, that we can't help,--that is what the Lord +orders, a'n't it? and He made you, didn't He? You can't change your +face; and I'm glad of it, for it is Anny's face, and I wouldn't have +it changed a mite: there'll always be two people to think it's sightly +enough, and may-be more by-and-by; so I wouldn't quarrel with it, if I +was you." + +Major's happy eyes always helped me. I looked at her and felt better. +She wasn't any better-lookin' than I; but she always was so chirk, and +smart, and neat, and pretty-behaved, that folks thought she was +handsome after they knowed her. + +Well, after a spell, there was a railroad laid out up the valley, and +all the land thereabouts riz in price right away; and Squire Potter he +bought our farm on speculation, and give a good price for it; so't we +had two thousand dollars in the bank, and the house and lot, and the +barn, and the cow. By this time Major was twenty-two and I was +eighteen; and Squire Potter he'd left his house up on the hill, and +he'd bought out Miss Perrit's house, and added on to't, and moved down +not far from us, so's to be near the railroad-depot, for the sake of +bein' handy to the woods, for cuttin' and haulin' of them down to the +track. Twasn't very pleasant at first to see our dear old woods goin' +off to be burned that way; but Squire Potter's folks were such good +neighbors, we gained as much as we lost, and a sight more, for folks +are greatly better'n trees,--at least, clever folks. + +There was a whole raft of the Potters, eight children of 'em all, some +too young to be mates for Major and me; but Mary Potter, and Reuben, +and Russell, they were along about as old as we were: Russell come +between Major and me; the other two was older. + +We kinder kept to home always, Major and me, because we hadn't any +brothers to go out with us; so we were pretty shy of new friends at +first. But you couldn't help bein' friendly with the Potters, they was +such outspoken, kindly creturs, from the Squire down to little Hen. +And it was very handy for us, because now we could go to +singin'-schools and quiltin's, and such-like places, of an evenin'; +and we had rather moped at home for want of such things,--at least I +had, and I should have been more moped only for Major's sweet ways. +She was always as contented as a honey-bee on a clover-head, for the +same reason, I guess. + +Well, there was a good many good things come to us from the Potters' +movin' down; but by-and-by it seemed as though I was goin' to get the +bitter of it. I'd kept company pretty steady with Russell. I hadn't +give much thought to it, neither; I liked his ways, and he seemed to +give in to mine very natural, so't we got along together first-rate. +It didn't seem as though we'd ever been strangers, and I wasn't one to +make believe at stiffness when I didn't feel it. I told Russell pretty +much all I had to tell, and he was allers doin' for me and runnin' +after me jest as though he'd been my brother. I didn't know how much I +did think of him, till, after a while, he seemed to take a sight of +notice of Major. I can't say he ever stopped bein' clever to me, for +he didn't; but he seemed to have a kind of a hankerin' after Major all +the time. He'd take her off to walk with him; he'd dig up roots in the +woods for her posy-bed; he'd hold her skeins of yarn as patient as a +little dog; he'd get her books to read. Well, he'd done all this for +me; but when I see him doin' it for her, it was quite different; and +all to once I know'd what was the matter. I'd thought too much of +Russell Potter. + +Oh, dear! those was dark times! I couldn't blame him; I knew well +enough Major was miles and miles better and sweeter and cleverer than +I was; I didn't wonder he liked her; but I couldn't feel as if he'd +done right by me. So I schooled myself considerable, talking to myself +for being jealous of Major. But 'twasn't all that;--the hardest of it +all was that I had to mistrust Russell. To be sure, he hadn't said +nothin' to me in round words; I couldn't ha' sued him; but he'd looked +and acted enough; and now,--dear me! I felt all wrung out and flung +away! + +By-and-by Major begun to see somethin' was goin' wrong, and so did +Russell. She was as good as she could be to me, and had patience with +all my little pettish ways, and tried to make me friendly with +Russell; but I wouldn't. I took to hard work, and, what with cryin' +nights, and hard work all day, I got pretty well overdone. But it all +went on for about three months, till one day Russell come up behind +me, as I was layin' out some yarn to bleach down at the end of the +orchard, and asked me if I'd go down to Meriden with him next day, to +a pic-nic frolic, in the woods. + +"No!" says I, as short as I could. + +Russell looked as though I had slapped him. "Anny," says he, "what +have I done?" + +I turned round to go away, and I catched my foot in a hank of yarn, +and down I come flat on to the ground, havin' sprained my ankle so bad +that Russell had to pick me up and carry me into the house like a +baby. + +There was an end of Meriden for me; and he wouldn't go, either, but +come over and sat by me, and read to me, and somehow or other, I don't +remember just the words, he gave me to understand that--well--that he +wished I'd marry him. + +It's about as tirin' to be real pleased with anything as it is to be +troubled, at first. I couldn't say anything to Russell; I just cried. +Major wasn't there; mother was dryin' apples out in the shed; so +Russell he didn't know what to do; he kind of hushed me up, and begged +of me not to cry, and said he'd come for his answer next day. So he +come, and I didn't say, "No," again. I don't believe I stopped to +think whether Major liked him. She would have thought of me, first +thing;--I believe she wouldn't have had him, if she'd thought I wanted +him. But I a'n't like Major; it come more natural to me to think about +myself; and besides, she was pious, and I wasn't. Russell was. + +However, it turned out all right, for Major was 'most as pleased as I +was; and she told me, finally, that she'd known a long spell that +Russell liked me, and the reason he'd been hangin' round her so long +was, he'd been tellin' her his plans, and they'd worked out +considerable in their heads before she could feel as though he had a +good enough lookout to ask me to marry him. + +That wasn't so pleasant to me, when I come to think of it; I thought +I'd ought to have been counselled with. But it was just like Major; +everybody come to her for a word of help or comfort, whether they took +her idee or not,--she had such feelin' for other folks's trouble. + +I got over that little nub after a while; and then I was so pleased, +everything went smooth ag'in. I was goin' to be married in the spring; +and we were goin' straight out to Indiana, onto some wild land Squire +Potter owned out there, to clear it and settle it, and what Russell +cleared he was to have. So mother took some money out of the bank to +fit me out, and Major and I went down to Hartford to buy my things. + +I said before, we wasn't either of us any great things to look at; but +it come about that one day I heerd somebody tell how we did look, and +I thought considerable about it then and afterwards. We was buyin' +some cotton to a store in the city, and I was lookin' about at all the +pretty things, and wonderin' why I was picked out to be poor when so +many folks was rich and had all they wanted, when presently I heerd a +lady in a silk gown say to another one, so low she thought I didn't +hear her,--"There are two nice-looking girls, Mrs. Carr." + +"Hem,--yes," said the other one; "they look healthy and strong: the +oldest one has a lovely expression, both steady and sweet; the other +don't look happy." + +I declare, that was a fact. I was sorry, too, for I'd got everything +in creation to make anybody happy, and now I was frettin' to be rich. +I thought I'd try to be like Major; but I expect it was mostly because +of the looks of it, for I forgot to try before long. + +Well, in the spring we was married; and when I come to go away, Major +put a little red Bible into my trunk for a weddin' present; but I was +cryin' too hard to thank her. She swallowed down whatever choked her, +and begged of me not to cry so, lest Russell should take it hard that +I mourned to go with him. But just then I was thinkin' more of Major +and mother than I was of Russell; they'd kept me bright and cheery +always, and kept up my heart with their own good ways when I hadn't no +strength to do it for myself; and now I was goin' off alone with +Russell, and he wasn't very cheerful-dispositioned, and somehow my +courage give way all to once. + +But I had to go; railroads don't wait for nobody; and what with the +long journey, and the new ways and things and people, I hadn't no time +to get real down once before we got to Indiana. After we left the boat +there was a spell of railroad, and then a long stage-ride to +Cumberton; and then we had to hire a big wagon and team, so's to get +us out to our claim, thirty miles west'ard of Cumberton. I hadn't no +time to feel real lonesome now, for all our things hed got to be +onpacked, and packed over ag'in in the wagon; some on 'em had to be +stored up, so's to come another time. We was two days gettin' to the +claim, the roads was so bad,--mostly what they call corduroy, but a +good stretch clear mud-holes. By the time we got to the end on't, I +was tired out, just fit to cry; and such a house as was waitin' for +us!--a real log shanty! I see Russell looked real beat when he see my +face; and I tried to brighten up; but I wished to my heart I was back +with mother forty times that night, if I did once. Then come the worst +of all, clutterin' everything right into that shanty; for our +frame-house wouldn't be done for two months, and there wa'n't scarce +room for what we'd brought, so't we couldn't think of sendin' for what +was stored to Cumberton. I didn't sleep none for two nights, because +of the whip-poor-wills that set on a tree close by, and called till +mornin' light; but after that I was too tired to lie awake. + +Well, it was real lonesome, but it was all new at first, and Russell +was to work near by, so't I could see him, and oftentimes hear him +whistle; and I had the garden to make, round to the new house, for I +knew more about the plantin' of it than he did, 'specially my +posy-bed, and I had a good time gettin' new flowers out of the woods. +And the woods was real splendid,--great tall tulip-trees, as high as a +steeple and round as a quill, without any sort o' branches ever so fur +up, and the whole top full of the yeller tulips and the queer +snipped-lookin' shiny leaves, till they looked like great bow-pots on +sticks; then there's lots of other great trees, only they're all +mostly spindled up in them woods. But the flowers that grow round on +the ma'sh edges and in the clearin's do beat all. + +So time passed along pretty glib till the frame-house was done, and +then we had to move in, and to get the things from Cumberton, and +begin to feel as though we were settled for good and all; and after +the newness had gone off, and the clearin' got so fur that I couldn't +see Russell no more, and nobody to look at, if I was never so +lonesome, then come a pretty hard spell. Everything about the house +was real handy, so't I'd get my work cleared away, and set down to sew +early; and them long summer-days that was still and hot, I'd set, and +set, never hearin' nothin' but the clock go "tick, tick, tick," (never +"tack," for a change,) and every now'n'then a great crash and roar in +the woods where he was choppin', that I knew was a tree; and I worked +myself up dreadfully when there was a longer spell 'n common come +betwixt the crashes, lest that Russell might 'a' been ketched under +the one that fell. And settin' so, and worryin' a good deal, day in +and day out, kinder broodin' over my troubles, and never thinkin' +about anybody but myself, I got to be of the idee that I was the +worst-off creature goin'. If I'd have stopped to think about Russell, +may-be I should have had some sort of pity for him, for he was jest as +lonesome as I, and I wasn't no kind of comfort to come home to,--'most +always cryin', or jest a-goin' to. + +So the summer went along till 'twas nigh on to winter, and I wa'n't in +no better sperrits. And now I wa'n't real well, and I pined for +mother, and I pined for Major, and I'd have given all the honey and +buckwheat in Indiana for a loaf of mother's dry rye-bread and a drink +of spring-water. And finally I got so miserable, I wished I wa'n't +never married,--and I'd have wished I was dead, if 'twa'n't for bein' +doubtful where I'd go to, if I was. And worst of all, one day I got so +worked up I told Russell all that. I declare, he turned as white as a +turnip. I see I'd hurt him, and I'd have got over it in a minute and +told him so,--only he up with his axe and walked out of the door, and +never come home till night, and then I was too stubborn to speak to +him. + +Well, things got worse, 'n' one day I was sewin' some things and +cryin' over 'em, when I heard a team come along by, and, before I +could get to the door, Russell come in, all red for joy, and says,-- + +"Who do you want to see most, Anny?" + +Somehow the question kind of upset me;--I got choked, and then I bu'st +out a-cryin'. + +"Oh, mother and Major!" says I; and I hadn't more'n spoke the word +before mother had both her good strong arms round me, and Major's real +cheery face was a-lookin' up at me from the little pine cricket, where +she'd sot down as nateral as life. Well, I _was_ glad, and so was +Russell, and the house seemed as shiny as a hang-bird's-nest, and +by-and-by the baby came;--but I had mother. + +'Twas 'long about in March when I was sick, and by the end of April I +was well, and so's to be stirrin' round again. And mother and Major +begun to talk about goin' home; and I declare, my heart was up in my +mouth every time they spoke on't, and I begun to be miserable ag'in. +One day I was settin' beside of mother; Major was out in the garden, +fixin' up things, and settin' out a lot of blows she'd got in the +woods, and singin' away, and says I to mother,-- + +"What be I going to do, mother, without you and Major? I 'most died of +clear lonesomeness before you come!" + +Mother laid down her knittin', and looked straight at me. + +"I wish you'd got a little of Major's good cheer, Anny," says she. +"You haven't any call to be lonely here; it's a real good country, and +you've got a nice house, and the best of husbands, and a dear little +baby, and you'd oughter try to give up frettin'. I wish you was pious, +Anny; you wouldn't fault the Lord's goodness the way you do." + +"Well, Major don't have nothin' to trouble her, mother," says I. +"She's all safe and pleasant to home; she a'n't homesick." + +Mother spoke up pretty resolute:-- + +"There a'n't nobody in the world, Anny, but what has troubles. I +didn't calculate to tell you about Major's; but sence you lay her +lively ways to luck, may-be you'd better know 'em. She's been engaged +this six months to Reuben Potter, and he's goin' off in a slow +consumption; he won't never live to marry her, and she knows it." + +"And she come away to see me, mother?" + +"Yes, she did. I can't say I thought she need to, but Russell wrote +you was pinin' for both of us, and I didn't think you could get along +without me, but I told her to stay with Reuben, and I'd come on alone. +And says she, 'No, mother, you a'n't young and spry enough to go alone +so fur, and the Lord made you my mother and Anny my sister before I +picked out Reuben for myself. I can't never have any kin but you, and +I might have had somebody beside Reuben, though it don't seem likely +now; but he's got four sisters to take care of him, and he thinks and +I think it's what I ought to do; so I'm goin' with you.' So she come, +Anny; and you see how lively she keeps, just because she don't want to +dishearten you none. I don't know as you can blame her for kinder +hankerin' to get home." + +I hadn't nothin' to say; I was beat. So mother she went on:-- + +"Fact is, Anny, Major's always a-thinkin' about other folks; it comes +kind of nateral to her, and then bein' pious helps it. I guess, dear, +when you get to thinkin' more about Russell an' the baby, you'll +forget some of your troubles. I hope the Lord won't have to give you +no harder lesson than lovin', to teach you Major's ways." + +So, after that, I couldn't say no more to mother about stayin'; but +when they went away, I like to have cried myself sick,--only baby had +to be looked after, and I couldn't dodge her. + +Bym-by we had letters from home; they got there all safe, and Reuben +wa'n't no worse, Major said;--ef't had been me wrote the letter, I +should have said he wa'n't no better!--And I fell back into the old +lonesome days, for baby slept mostly; and the summer come on extreme +hot; and in July, Russell, bein' forced to go to Cumberton on some +land business, left me to home with baby and the hired man, +calculatin' to be gone three days and two nights. + +The first day he was away was dreadful sultry; the sun went down away +over the woods in a kind of a red-hot fog, and it seemed as though the +stars were dull and coppery at night; even the whip-poor-wills was too +hot to sing; nothin' but a doleful screech-owl quavered away, a half a +mile off, a good hour, steady. When it got to be mornin', it didn't +seem no cooler; there wa'n't a breath of wind, and the locusts in the +woods chittered as though they was fryin'. Our hired man was an old +Scotchman, by name Simon Grant; and when he'd got his breakfast, he +said he'd go down the clearin' and bring up a load of brush for me to +burn. So he drove off with the team, and, havin' cleared up the +dishes, I put baby to sleep, and took my pail to the barn to milk the +cow,--for we kept her in a kind of a home-lot like, a part that had +been cleared afore we come, lest she should stray away in the woods, +if we turned her loose; she was put in the barn, too, nights, for fear +some stray wild-cat or bear might come along and do her a harm. So I +let her into the yard, and was jest a-goin' to milk her when she begun +to snort and shake, and finally giv' the pail a kick, and set off, +full swing, for the fence to the lot. I looked round to see what was +a-comin', and there, about a quarter of a mile off, I see the most +curus thing I ever see before or since,--a cloud as black as ink in +the sky, and hangin' down from it a long spout like, something like an +elephant's trunk, and the whole world under it looked to be all beat +to dust. Before I could get my eyes off on't, or stir to run, I see it +was comin' as fast as a locomotive; I heerd a great roar and +rush,--first a hot wind, and then a cold one, and then a crash,--an' +'twas all as dark as death all round, and the roar appeared to be +a-passin' off. + +I didn't know for quite a spell where I was. I was flat on my face, +and when I come to a little, I felt the grass against my cheek, and I +smelt the earth; but I couldn't move, no way; I couldn't turn over, +nor raise my head more'n two inches, nor draw myself up one. I was +comfortable so long as I laid still; but if I went to move, I +couldn't. It wasn't no use to wriggle; and when I'd settled that, I +jest went to work to figger out where I was and how I got there, and +the best I could make out was that the barn-roof had blowed off and +lighted right over me, jest so as not to hurt me, but so't I could'nt +move. + +Well, there I lay. I knew baby was asleep in the trundle-bed, and +there wa'n't no fire in the house; but how did I know the house wa'n't +blowed down? I thought that as quick as a flash of lightnin'; it +kinder struck me; I couldn't even see, so as to be certain! I wasn't +naterally fond of children, but somehow one's own is different, and +baby was just gettin' big enough to be pretty; and there I lay, +feelin' about as bad as I could, but hangin' on to one hope,--that old +Simon, seein' the tornado, would come pretty soon to see where we was. + +I lay still quite a spell, listenin'. Presently I heerd a low, +whimperin', pantin' noise, comin' nearer and nearer, and I knew it was +old Lu, a yeller hound of Simon's, that he'd set great store by, +because he brought him from the Old Country. I heerd the dog come +pretty near to where I was, and then stop, and give a long howl. I +tried to call him, but I was all choked up with dust, and for a while +I couldn't make no sound. Finally I called, "Lu! Lu! here, Sir!" and +if ever you heerd a dumb creature laugh, he barked a real laugh, and +come springin' along over towards me. I called ag'in, and he begun to +scratch and tear and pull,--at boards, I guessed, for it sounded like +that; but it wa'n't no use, he couldn't get at me, and he give up at +length and set down right over my head and give another howl, so long +and so dismal I thought I'd as lieves hear the bell a-tollin' my age. + +Pretty soon, I heerd another sound,--the baby cryin'; and with that Lu +jumped off whatever 'twas that buried me up, and run. "At any rate," +thinks I, "baby's alive." And then I bethought myself if 'twa'n't a +painter, after all; they scream jest like a baby, and there's a lot of +them, or there was then, right round in our woods; and Lu was dreadful +fond to hunt 'em; and he never took no notice of baby;--and I couldn't +stir to see! + +Oh, dear! the sweat stood all over me! And there I lay, and Simon +didn't come, nor I didn't hear a mouse stir; the air was as still as +death, and I got nigh distracted. Seemed as if all my life riz right +up there in the dark and looked at me. Here I was, all helpless, +may-be never to get out alive; for Simon didn't come, and Russell was +gone away. I'd had a good home, and a kind husband, and all I could +ask; but I hadn't had a contented mind; I'd quarrelled with +Providence, 'cause I hadn't got everything,--and now I hadn't got +nothing. I see just as clear as daylight how I'd nussed up every +little trouble till it growed to a big one,--how I'd sp'ilt Russell's +life, and made him wretched,--how I'd been cross to him a great many +times when I had ought to have been a comfort; and now it was like +enough I shouldn't never see him again,--nor baby, nor mother, nor +Major. And how could I look the Lord in the face, if I did die? That +took all my strength out. I lay shakin' and chokin' with the idee, I +don't know how long; it kind of got hold of me and ground me down; it +was worse than all. I wished to gracious I didn't believe in hell; but +then it come to mind, What should I do in heaven, ef I was there? I +didn't love nothin' that folks in heaven love, except the baby; I +hadn't been suited with the Lord's will on earth, and 'twa'n't likely +I was goin' to like it any better in heaven; and I should be ashamed +to show my face where I didn't belong, neither by right nor by want. So +I lay. Presently I heerd in my mind this verse, that I'd learned years +back in Sabbath School,-- + + "Wherefore He is able also to save them to + the uttermost"-- + +there it stopped, but it was a plenty for me. I see at once there +wasn't no help anywhere else, and for once in my life I did pray, real +earnest, and--queer enough--not to get out, but to be made good. I +kind of forgot where I was, I see so complete what I was; but after a +while I did pray to live in the flesh; I wanted to make some amends to +Russell for pesterin' on him so. + +It seemed to me as though I'd laid there two days. A rain finally come +on, with a good even-down pour, that washed in a little, and cooled my +hot head; and after it passed by I heerd one whip-poor-will singin', +so't I knew it was night. And pretty soon I heerd the tramp of a +horse's feet;--it come up; it stopped; I heerd Russell say out loud, +"O Lord!" and give a groan, and then I called to him. I declare, he +jumped! + +So I got him to go look for baby first, because I could wait; and lo! +she was all safe in the trundle-bed, with Lu beside of her, both on +'em stretched out together, one of her little hands on his nose; and +when Russell looked in to the door she stirred a bit, and Lu licked +her hand to keep her quiet. It tells in the Bible about children's +angels always seein' the face of God, so's to know quick what to do +for 'em, I suppose; and I'm sure her'n got to her afore the tornado; +for though the house-roof had blowed off, and the chimbley tumbled +down, there wa'n't a splinter nor a brick on her bed, only close by +the head on't a great hunk of stone had fell down, and steadied up the +clothes-press from tumblin' right on top of her. + +So then Russell rode over, six miles, to a neighbor's, and got two +men, and betwixt 'em all they pried up the beams of the barn, that had +blowed on to the roof and pinned it down over me, and then lifted up +the boards and got me out; and I wa'n't hurt, except a few bruises: +but after that day I begun to get gray hairs. + +Well, Russell was pretty thankful, I b'lieve,--more so'n he need to be +for such a wife. We fixed up some kind of a shelter, but Lu howled so +all night we couldn't sleep. It seems Russell had seen the tornado to +Cumberton, and, judgin' from its course 'twould come past the +clearin', he didn't wait a minute, but saddled up and come off; but it +had crossed the road once or twice, so it was nigh about eleven +o'clock afore he got home; but it was broad moonlight. So I hadn't +been under the roof only about fifteen hours; but it seemed more. + +In the mornin' Russell set out to find Simon, and I was so trembly I +couldn't bear to stay alone, and I went with him, he carryin' baby, +and Lu goin' before, as tickled as he could be. We went a long spell +through the woods, keepin' on the edge of the tornado's road; for't +had made a clean track about a quarter of a mile wide, and felled the +trees flat,--great tulips cut off as sharp as pipe-stems, oaks twisted +like dandelion-stems, and hickories curled right up in a heap. +Presently Lu give a bark, and then such a howl! and there was Simon, +dead enough; a big oak had blowed down, with the trunk right acrost +his legs above the knees, and smashed them almost off. 'Twas plain it +hadn't killed him to once, for the ground all about his head was tore +up as though he'd fought with it, and Russell said his teeth and hands +was full of grass and grit where he'd bit and tore, a-dyin' so hard. I +declare, I shan't never forget that sight! Seems as if my body was +full of little ice-spickles every time I think on't. + +Well, Russell couldn't do nothin'; we had no chance to lift the tree, +so we went back to the house, and he rode away after neighbors; and +while he was gone, I had a long spell of thinkin'. Mother said she +hoped I wouldn't have no hard lesson to teach me Major's ways; but I +had got it, and I know I needed it, 'cause it did come so hard. I +b'lieve I was a better woman after that. I got to think more of other +folks's comfort than I did afore, and whenever I got goin' to be +dismal ag'in I used to try 'n' find somebody to help; it was a sure +cure. + +When the neighbors come, Russell and they blasted and chopped the tree +off of Simon, and buried him under a big pine that we calculated not +to fell. Lu pined, and howled, and moaned for his master, till I got +him to look after baby now and then, when I was hangin' out clothes or +makin' garden, and he got to like her in the end on't near as well as +Simon. + +After a while there come more settlers out our way, and we got a +church to go to; and the minister, Mr. Jones, he come to know if I was +a member, and when I said I wa'n't, he put in to know if I wasn't a +pious woman. + +"Well," says I, "I don't know, Sir." So I up and told him all about +it, and how I had had a hard lesson; and he smiled once or twice, and +says he,-- + +"Your husband thinks you are a Christian, Sister Potter, don't he?" + +"Yes, I do," says Russell, a-comin' in behind me to the door,--for +he'd just stepped out to get the minister a basket of plums. "I ha'n't +a doubt on't, Mr. Jones." + +The minister looked at him, and I see he was kinder pleased. + +"Well," says he, "I don't think there's much doubt of a woman's bein' +pious when she's pious to home; and I don't want no better testimony'n +yours, Mr. Potter. I shall admit you to full fellowship, sister, when +we have a church-meetin' next; for it's my belief you experienced +religion under that blowed-down barn." + +And I guess I did. + + + + +LE MARAIS DU CYGNE.[1] + +[1: The massacre of unarmed and unoffending men in Southern Kansas +took place near the Marais du Cygne of the French _voyageurs_.] + + A blush as of roses + Where rose never grew! + Great drops on the bunch-grass, + But not of the dew! + A taint in the sweet air + For wild bees to shun! + A stain that shall never + Bleach out in the sun! + + Back, steed of the prairies! + Sweet song-bird, fly back! + Wheel hither, bald vulture! + Gray wolf, call thy pack! + The foul human vultures + Have feasted and fled; + The wolves of the Border + Have crept from the dead. + + From the hearths of their cabins, + The fields of their corn, + Unwarned and unweaponed, + The victims were torn,-- + By the whirlwind of murder + Swooped up and swept on + To the low, reedy fen-lands, + The Marsh of the Swan. + + With a vain plea for mercy + No stout knee was crooked; + In the mouths of the rifles + Right manly they looked. + How paled the May sunshine, + Green Marais du Cygne, + When the death-smoke blew over + Thy lonely ravine! + + In the homes of their rearing, + Yet warm with their lives, + Ye wait the dead only, + Poor children and wives! + Put out the red forge-fire, + The smith shall not come; + Unyoke the brown oxen, + The ploughman lies dumb. + + Wind slow from the Swan's Marsh, + O dreary death-train, + With pressed lips as bloodless + As lips of the slain! + Kiss down the young eyelids, + Smooth down the gray hairs; + Let tears quench the curses + That burn through your prayers. + + Strong man of the prairies, + Mourn bitter and wild! + Wail, desolate woman! + Weep, fatherless child! + But the grain of God springs up + From ashes beneath, + And the crown of His harvest + Is life out of death. + + Not in vain on the dial + The shade moves along + To point the great contrasts + Of right and of wrong: + Free homes and free altars + And fields of ripe food; + The reeds of the Swan's Marsh, + Whose bloom is of blood. + + On the lintels of Kansas + That blood shall not dry; + Henceforth the Bad Angel + Shall harmless go by: + Henceforth to the sunset, + Unchecked on her way, + Shall Liberty follow + The march of the day. + + + + +YOUTH. + +The ancient statue of Minerva, in the Villa Albani, was characterized +as the Goddess of Wisdom by an aged countenance. Phidias reformed this +idea, and gave to her beauty and youth. Previous artists had imitated +Nature too carelessly,--not deeply perceiving that wisdom and virtue, +striving in man to resist senescence and decay, must in a goddess +accomplish their purpose, and preserve her in perpetual bloom. Yet +even decay and disease are often ineffectual; the young soul gleams +through these impediments, and would be poorly expressed in figures of +age. Accepting, therefore, this ideal representation, age and wisdom +can never be companions; youth is wise, and age is imbecile. + +Our childhood grows in value as we grow in years. It is to that time +that every one refers the influence which reaches to his present and +somehow moulds it. It may have been an insignificant circumstance,--a +word,--a book,--praise or reproof; but from it has flowed all that he +is. We should seem ridiculous in men's eyes, were we known to give +that importance to certain trifles which in our private and inmost +thought they really have. Each finds somewhat in his childhood +peculiar and remarkable, on which he loves to dwell. It gives him a +secret importance in his own eyes, and he bears it about with him as a +kind of inspiring genius. Intimations of his destiny, gathered from +early memories, float dimly before him, and are ever beckoning him on. +That which he really is no one knows save himself. His words and +actions do but inadequately reveal the being he is. We are all greater +than we seem to each other. The heart's deepest secrets will not be +told. The secret of the interest and delight we take in romances and +poetry is that they realize the expectations and hopes of youth. It is +the world we had painted and expected. He is unhappy who has never +known the eagerness of childish anticipation. + +Full of anticipations, full of simple, sweet delights, are these +years, the most valuable of lifetime. Then wisdom and religion are +intuitive. But the child hastens to leave its beautiful time and +state, and watches its own growth with impatient eye. Soon he will +seek to return. The expectation of the future has been disappointed. +Manhood is not that free, powerful, and commanding state the +imagination had delineated. And the world, too, disappoints his hope. +He finds there things which none of his teachers ever hinted to him. +He beholds a universal system of compromise and conformity, and in a +fatal day he learns to compromise and conform. At eighteen the youth +requires much stricter truth of men than at twenty-four. + +At twenty-four the prophecies of childhood and boyhood begin to be +fulfilled, the longings of the heart to be satisfied. He finds and +tastes that life which once seemed to him so full of satisfaction and +advantage. The inclination to speak in the first person passes away, +and his composition is less autobiographical. The claims of society +and friends begin to be respected. Solitude and musing are less sweet. +The morbid effusions of earlier years, once so precious, no longer +please. Now he regards most his unwritten thought. He uses fewer +adjectives and alliterations, more verbs and dogmatism. There was a +time when his genius was not domesticated, and he did his work +somewhat awkwardly, yet with a fervor prophetic of settled wisdom and +eloquence. The youth is almost too much in earnest. He aims at nothing +less than all knowledge, all wisdom, all power. Perchance the end of +all this is that he may discover his own proper work and tendency, and +learn to know himself from the revelations of his own nature in +universal nature. + +For it is by this sign we choose companions and books. Not that they +are the best persons or the best thoughts; but some subtile affinity +attracts and invites as to another self. In the choosing of companions +there seems to be no choice at all. "We meet, we know not how or when; +and though we should remember the history, yet friendship has an +anterior history we know not of. We all have friends, but the one want +of the soul is a friend,--that other self, that one without whom man +is incomplete and but the opaque face of a planet. For such we +patiently wait and hope, knowing that when we become worthy of him, +continents, nor caste, nor opinion can separate us." + +A like experience is known to the young man in his reading. 'Tis in +vain to advise as to reading; a higher power controls the matter. Of +course there are some books all must read, as every one learns the +alphabet and spelling-book; but his use and combination of them he +shall share with no one. Some spiritual power is ever drawing us +towards what we love. Thus in books one constantly meets his own idea, +his own feelings, even his most private ones, which he thought could +not be known or appreciated beyond his own bosom. Therefore he quickly +falls in love with those books that discover him to himself, and that +are the keepers of his secrets. Here is a part of himself written out +in immortal letters. Here is that thought long dimly haunting the +mind, but which never before found adequate expression. Here is a +memorable passage transcribed out of his experience. + +The fascination of books consists in their revelations of the +half-conscious images of the reader's mind. There is a wonderful +likeness and coincidence in the thoughts of men. But not alone in +books does one meet his own image at every turn. He beholds himself +strewn in a thousand fragments throughout the world; and all his +culture is nothing but assimilation of himself to them, until he can +say with wise Ulysses, "I am a part of all that I have met." + +Thus Nature compels the youth to seek every means of stimulating +himself to activity. He has learned that in periods of transition and +change fresh life flows in upon him, dilating the heart and disclosing +new realms of thought. He thanks the gods for every mood, Doric or +dithyrambic, for each new relation, for each new friend, and even for +his sorrows and misfortunes. Out of these comes the complete wisdom +which shall make old age but another more fair and perfect youth. Even +the face and form shall be fortified against time and fate. In the +physiognomy of age much personal history is revealed. The dimples and +folds of infancy have become the furrows of thought and care. Yet, +sometimes retaining their original beauty, they are an ornament, and +in them we read the record of deep thought and experience. + +But the wrinkles of some old people are characterless; running in all +directions, appearing as though a finely-woven cloth had left its +impress upon the face, revealing a life aimless and idle, or +distracted by a thousand cross-purposes and weaknesses. + +If now youth will permit us to look a little deeper into its heart, we +will attempt to celebrate that unpublished and vestal wisdom written +there. Age does us only indirect justice,--by the value it gives to +memory. It slights and forgets its own present. This day with its +trivialities dwindles and vanishes before the teeming hours wherein it +learned and felt and suffered;--so the circles, which are the tree's +memories of its own growth, are more distinct near the centre, where +its growth began, than in the outer and later development. Give age +the past, and let us be content with our legacy, which is the future. +Still shall youth cast one retrospective glance at the experience of +its nonage, ere it assumes its prerogative, and quite forgets it. + +When the first surprise at the discovery of the faculties is over, +begins the era of experience. The aspiration conducting to experiment +has revealed the power or the inability. Henceforth the youth will +know his relations to the world. But as yet men are ignorant how it +stands between them. There has been only a closet performance, a +morning rehearsal. He sees the tribute to genius, to industry, to +birth, to fortune. At first he yields reluctantly to novitiate and +culture; he yearns for action. His masters tell him that the world is +coy, must be approached cautiously, and with something substantial in +the hand. The old bird will not be caught with chaff. He does not yet +understand the process of accumulation and transmutation. The fate of +the Danaides is his, and he draws long with a bottomless bucket. But +at last his incompetency can no further be concealed. Then he either +submits to the suggestions of despair and oblivion or bravely begins +his work. The exhilaration and satisfaction which he felt at his first +performances, in this hour of renunciation, are changed to bitterness +and disgust. He remembers the old oracle: "In the Bacchic procession +many carry the thyrsus, but few are inspired." The possibility of +ultimate failure threatens him more and more while he reflects; as the +chasm which you wish to leap grows impassable, if you measure and +deliberate. But the vivacity of youth preserves him from any permanent +misanthropy or doubt. Nature makes us blind where we should be injured +by seeing. We partake of the lead of Saturn, the activity of fire, the +forgetfulness of water. His academic praises console him, maugre his +depreciation of them. His little fame, the homage of his little world, +have in them the same sweetness as the reverberation of ages. Heaven +would show him his capacity for those things to which he aspires by +giving him an early and representative realization of them. It is a +happy confidence. Reality is tyrannous. Let him construe everything in +the poet's mood. He shall dream, and the day will have more +significance. Youth belongs to the Muse. + +How the old men envy us! They wisely preclude us from their world, +since they know how it would bereave us of all that makes our state so +full of freedom and delight, and to them so suggestive of the past. + + "I remember, when I think, + That my youth was half divine." + +Thus the great have ever chosen young men for companions. Was it not +Plato who wished he were the heavens, that he might look down upon his +young companion with a thousand eyes? Thus they do homage to the gift +of youth, and by its presence contrive to nestle into its buoyant and +pure existence. If youth will enjoy itself virtuously with gymnastics, +with music, with friendship, with poetry, there will come no hours of +lamentation and repentance. They attend the imbecile and thoughtless. +These halcyon days will return to temper and grace the period of old +age; as upon the ripened peach reappear the hues of its early +blossoms. + +Among his seniors the youth perceives a certain jealousy of him. They +pretend that all has been said and done. They awe him with their great +names. He has to learn, that, though Jew and Greek have spoken, +nevertheless he must reiterate and interpret to his own people and +generation. Perchance in the process something new will likewise be +added. Many things still wait an observer. Still is there infinite +hope and expectation, which youth must realize. In war, in peace, in +politics, in books, all eyes are turned to behold the rising of his +star. + +Reluctantly does the youth yield to the claims of moderation and +reserve. Abandonment to an object has hitherto been his highest +wisdom. But in the pursuit of the most heroic friendship, or the most +sovereign passion, the youth discovers that a certain continence is +necessary. He cannot approach too closely; for that moment love is +changed into disgust and hate. He would drink the nectar to the lees. +This is one of Nature's limitations, and has many analogies; and he +who would never see the bottom of any cup, and always be possessed +with a divine hunger, must observe them. I remember how it piqued my +childish curiosity that the moon seemed always to retreat when I ran +towards her, and to pursue when I fled. It was a very significant +symbol. Stand a little apart, and things of their own accord will come +more than half-way. Nobody ever goes to meet a loafer. Self-centred, +domesticated persons attract. What would be the value of the heavens, +if we could bring the stars into our lap? They cannot be approached or +appropriated. Upon the highest mountain the horizon sinks you in a +valley, and far aloft in night and mystery gleam the retreating stars. + +It must be remembered that indirect vision is much more delicate than +direct. Looking askance, with a certain oblique and upward glance, +constitutes the art and power of the poet; for so a gentle invitation +is offered the imagination to contribute its aid. We see clearest when +the eye is elongated and slightly curtained. Persons with round, +protuberant eyes are obliged to reduce their superfluous visual power +by artificial means. We subordinate the external organ in order to +liberate the inner eye of the mind. The musing, pensive Hindoos, who +have elongated eyes, look through the surface of things to their +essence, and call the world Illusion,--the illusory energy of Vishnu. + +There is a vulgar trick of wishing to touch everything. But the +greatest caution is necessary, in beholding a statue or painting, not +to draw too near; and it is thus with every other beautiful thing. +Nature secretly writes, _Hands off!_--and men do but translate her +hieroglyph in their galleries and museums. The sense of touch is only +a provision against the loss of sight and hearing. We should cultivate +these, until, like the Scandinavian Heimdal, we can hear the trees and +the flowers grow, and see with Heraclitus the breathing of the stars. + +The youth once loved Nature after this somewhat gross and material +fashion, for the berries she gave him, the flowers she wove in his +hair, and the brooks that drove his mimic mills. He chased the +butterfly, he climbed the trees, he would stand in the rain, paint his +cheeks with berry juice, dabble in the mud, and nothing was secure +from his prying fingers and curious eyes. He must touch and taste of +everything, and know every secret. But it eluded him; and he lay down +from his giddy chase, tired and unsatisfied, yet still anticipating +that the morning would reveal all. Later he approaches men and things +in a different mood. Experience has taught him so much. He begins to +feel the use of the past. Memory renders many present advantages as +nothing, and there is a rare and peculiar value to every reminiscence +that connects him with the years from which he is so fast receding. +The bower which his own hands wove from birch-trees and interwove with +green brakes, where at the noon-time he was wont to retreat from the +hot school-house, with the little maid of his choice, and beguile the +hour so happily, suggests a spell and charm to preserve him in +perpetual childhood. + + * * * * * + + +PINTAL. + +In San Francisco, in 1849, on Dupont Street near Washington, a +wretched tent, patched together from mildewed and weather-worn sails, +was pitched on a hill-side lot, unsightly with sand and thorny bushes, +filthy cast-aways of clothing, worn-out boots, and broken bottles. The +forlorn loneliness of this poor abode, and the perfection of its +Californianness, in all the circumstances of exposure, frailness, +destitution, and dirt, were enough of themselves to make it an object +of interest to the not-too-busy passer; yet, to complete its pitiful +picturesqueness, Pathos had bestowed a case of miniatures and a +beautiful child. Beside the entrance of the tent a rough shingle was +fastened to the canvas, and against this hung an unpainted +picture-frame of pine, in humble counterpart of those gilded rosewood +signs which, at the doors of Daguerreotype galleries, display fancy +"specimens" to the goers-to-and-fro of Broadway. Attracted by an +object so novel in San Francisco then, I paused one morning, in my +walk officeward from the "Anglo-Saxon Dining-Saloon," to examine it. + +There were six of them,--six dainty miniature portraits on ivory, +elaborately finished, and full of the finest marks of talent. The +whole were seemingly reproductions of but two heads, a lady's and a +child's,--the lady well fitted to be the mother of the child, which +might well have been divine. There were three studies of each; each +was presented in three characters, chosen as by an artist possessed of +a sentiment of sadness, some touching reminiscence. + +In one picture, the lady--evidently English, a pensive blonde, with +large and most sweet blue eyes curtained by the longest lashes, +regular and refined features suggestive of pure blood, budding lips +full of sensibility, a chin and brow that showed intellect as well as +lineage, and cheeks touched with the young rose's tint--was as a +beautiful _debutante_, the flower of rich drawing-rooms, in her first +season: one white moss-rosebud in her smoothly-braided hair; her +dimpled, round, white shoulders left to their own adornment; and for +jewels, only one opal on her ripening bosom;--as much of her dress as +was shown was the simple white bodice of pure maidenhood. + +In the next, she had passed an interval of trial, for her courage, her +patience, and her pride,--a very few years, perhaps, but enough to +bestow that haughty, defiant glance, and fix those matchless features +in an almost sneer. No longer was her fair head bowed, her eyes +downcast, in shrinking diffidence; but erect and commanding, she +looked some tyranny, or insolence, or malice, in the face, to look it +down. Jewels encircled her brow, and a bouquet of pearls was happy on +her fuller bosom. + +Still a few years further on,--and how changed! "So have I seen a +rose," says that Shakspeare of the pulpit, old Jeremy Taylor, when it +has "bowed the head and broke its stalk; and at night, having lost +some of its leaves and all its beauty, it has fallen into the portion +of weeds and outworn faces." Alas, Farewell, and Nevermore sighed from +those hollow cheeks, those woebegone eyes, those pallid lips, that +willow-like long hair, and the sad vesture of the forsaken Dido. + +So with the child. At first, a rosy, careless, curly-pate of three +years or so,--wonder-eyed and eager, all spring and joyance, and +beautiful as Love. + +Then pale and pain-fretted, heavy-eyed and weary, feebly half-lying in +a great chair, still,--an unheeded locket scarce held by his thin +fingers, his forehead wrinkled with cruel twinges, the sweet bowed +lines of his lips twisted in whimpering puckers, the curls upon his +vein-traced temples unnaturally bright, as with clamminess,--a painful +picture for a mother's eyes! + +But not tragic, like the last; for there the boy had grown. Nine years +had deepened for his clustered curls their hue of golden brown, and +set a seal of anxious thought upon the cold, pale surface of his +intellectual brow, and traced his mouth about with lines of a martyr's +resignation, and filled his profound eyes, dim as violets, with +foreboding speculation, making the lad seem a seer of his own sad +fate. Here, thought I, if I mistake not, is another melancholy chapter +in this San Franciscan romance. This painter learned his art of +Sorrow, and pitiless Experience has bestowed his style; he shall be +for my finding-out. + +Home-sickness had marked me for its own one day. I sat alone in my +rude little office, conning over again for the hundredth time strange +chapters of a waif's experience,--reproducing auld-lang-syne, with all +its thronged streets and lonely forest-paths, its old familiar faces, +talks, and songs,--ingathering there, in the name of Love or +Friendship, forms that were dim and voices that were echoes; and many +an "alas," and "too late," and "it might have been," they brought +along with them. + + "Let this remembrance comfort me,--that when + My heart seemed bursting,--like a restless wave + That, swollen with fearful longing for the shore, + Throws its strong life on the imagined bliss + Of finding peace and undisturbed calm,-- + It fell on rocks and broke in many tears. + + "Else could I bear, on all days of the year,-- + Not now alone, this gentle summer night, + When scythes are busy in the headed grass, + And the full moon warms me to thoughtfulness,-- + This voice that haunts the desert of my soul: + 'It might have been!' Alas! 'It might have been!'" + +I drew from my battered, weather-beaten sea-box sad store of old +letters, bethumbed and soiled,--an accusation in every one of them, +and small hope of forgiveness, save what the gentle dead might render. +There were pretty little portraits, too.--Ah, well! I put them back, +--a frown, or a shadow of reproachful sadness, on the picture of a +once loving and approving face is the hardest bitterness to bide, the +self-unsparing wanderer can know. Therefore I would fain let these +faces be turned from me,--all save one, a merry minx of maidenhood, of +careless heart, and laughing lips, and somewhat naughty eyes. It was a +steel engraving, not of the finest, torn from some Book of Beauty, or +other silly-sentimental keepsake of the literary catch-penny class, +brought all the way from home, and tenderly saved for the sake of its +strange by-chance resemblance to a smart little _lionne_ I had known +in Virginia, in the days when smart little _lionnes_ made me a sort of +puppy Cumming. The picture, unframed, and exposed to all the chances +of rough travel, had partaken of my share of foul weather and coarse +handling, and been spotted and smutched, and creased and torn, and +every way defaced. I had often wished that I might have a pretty +painting made from it, before it should be spoiled past copying. So +here, I thought, shall be my introduction to my fly-in-amber artist, +of the seedy tent and the romantic miniatures. So pocketing my +picture, I hied me forthwith to Dupont Street. + +The tent seemed quite deserted. At first, I feared my rare bird had +flitted; I shook the bit of flying-jib that answered for a door, and +called to any one within, more than once, before an inmate stirred. +Then, so quietly that I had not heard his approach, a lad, of ten +perhaps, came to the entrance, and, timidly peering up into my face, +asked, "Is it my father you wish to see, Sir?" + +How beautiful! how graceful! with what touching sweetness of voice! +how intellectual his expression, and how well-bred his air!--plainly a +gentleman's son, and the son of no common gentleman! Instinctively I +drew back a pace to compare him with the child of the "specimens." +Unquestionably the same,--there were the superior brow, the richly +clustered curls of golden brown, the painful lips, and the foreboding +eyes. + +"If your father painted these pretty pictures, my boy,--yes, I would +be glad to see him, if he is within." + +"He is not here at present, Sir; he went with my mother to the ship, +to bring away our things. But it is quite a long while since they +went; and I think they will return presently. Take a seat, Sir, +please." + +I accepted the stool he offered,--a canvas one, made to "unship" and +fold together,--such a patent accommodation for tired "hurdies" as +amateur sketchers and promiscuous lovers of the picturesque in +landscape take with them on excursions. My accustomed eye took in at a +glance the poor furniture of that very Californian make-shift of a +shelter for fortune-seeking heads. There were chests, boxes, and +trunks, the usual complement, bestowed in every corner, as they could +best be got out of the way,--a small, rough table, on temporary legs, +and made, like the seats, to unship and be stowed,--several other of +the same canvas stools,--a battered chest of drawers, at present doing +the duty of a cupboard,--some kitchen utensils, and a few articles of +table furniture of the plainest delft. As for the kitchen, I had +noticed, as I passed, a portable furnace for charcoal, without, and at +the rear of the tent; it was plain they did their cooking in the open +air. On one side of the entrance, and near the top of the tent, a +small square had been cut from the canvas, and the sides framed with +slats of wood, making a sort of Rembrandtish skylight, through which +some scanty rays of barbaric glory fell on an easel, with its palette, +brushes, and paints. A canvas framed, on which the ground had been +laid, and the outline of a head already traced, was mounted on the +easel; other such frames, as if of finished portraits with their faces +turned to the wall, stood on the earthen floor, supported by a strip +of wood tacked to the tent-cloth near the bottom. On the floor, at the +foot of the easel, lay an artist's sketch-book. A part of the tent +behind was divided off from what, by way of melancholy jest, I may +call the reception-room, or the studio, by a rope stretched across, +from which were suspended a blanket, a travelling shawl, and a +voluminous, and evidently costly, Spanish cloak. Protruding beyond the +edge of this extemporaneous screen, I could see the footposts of an +iron bedstead, and the end of a large _poncho_, which served for a +counterpane. + +"Will you amuse yourself with this sketch-book, please," said the +pretty lad, "till my father comes?" + +"With pleasure, my boy,--if you are sure your father will not object." + +"Oh, no, indeed, Sir! My father has told me I must always entertain +any gentlemen who may call when he is out,--that is, if he is to +return soon; and any one may look at this book;--it is only his +portfolio, in which he sketches whatever new or pretty things we see +on our travels; but there are some very nice pictures in +it,--landscapes, and houses, and people." + +"Have you travelled much, then?" + +"Oh, yes! we have been travelling ever since I can remember; we have +been far, and seen a great many strange sights, and some such queer +people!--There! that is our shepherd in Australia; isn't he funny? his +name was Dirk. I tied that blue ribbon round his straw hat, that seems +big enough for an umbrella. He looks as if he were laughing, doesn't +he? That's because I was there when my father sketched him; and he +made such droll faces, with his brown skin and his great grizzly +moustaches, when father told him he must make up a pleasant +expression, that it set me laughing,--for my father said he looked +like a Cape lion making love; and then Dirk would laugh too, and spoil +his pleasant expression; and father would scold; and it was so funny! +I loved Dirk very much, he was so good to me; he gave me a tame +kangaroo, and a black swan, and taught me to throw the boomerang; and +once, when he went to Sydney, he spent ever so much money to buy me a +silver bell for Lipse, my yellow lamb. I wonder if Dirk is living yet? +Do you think he is dead, Sir? I should be very much grieved, if he +were; for I promised I would come back to see him when I am a man." + +--"_That_ is Dolores,--dear old Dolores! Isn't she fat?" + +"Yes, and good, too, I should think, from the kind face she has. Who +was Dolores?" + +"Ah! you never saw Dolores, did you? And you never heard her sing. She +was my Chilena nurse in Valparaiso; and she had a mother--oh, so very +old!--who lived in Santiago. We went once to see her; the other +Santiago--that was Dolores's son--drove us there in the _veloche_. +Wasn't it curious, his name should be the same as the city's? But he +was a bad boy, Santiago,--so mischievous! such a scamp! Father had to +whip him many times; and once the _vigilantes_ took him up, and would +have put him in the chain-gang, for cutting an American sailor with a +knife, in the Calle de San Francisco, if father had not paid five +ounces, and become security for his good behavior. But he ran away, +after all, and went as a common sailor in a nasty guano ship. Dolores +cried very much, and it was long before she would sing for me again. +Oh, she did know such delightful songs!--_Mi Nina_, and _Yo tengo Ojos +Negros_, and + + "'No quiero, no quiero casarme; + Es mejor, es mejor soltera!'" + +And the delightful little fellow merrily piped the whole of that "song +of pleasant glee," one of the most melodious and sauciest bits of +lyric coquetry to be found in Spanish. + +"Ah," said he, "but I cannot sing it half so well as Dolores. She had +a beautiful guitar, with a blue ribbon, that her sweetheart gave her +before I was born, when she was young and very pretty;--he brought it +all the way from Acapulco." + +--"And _that_ pretty girl is Juanita; she sold pine-apples and grapes +in the Almendral, and every night she would go with her guitar--it was +a very nice one, but did not cost near so much money as Dolores's--and +sing to the American gentlemen in the Star Hotel. My mother said she +was a naughty person, and that she did not dare tell where she got her +gold cross and those jet ear-rings. But I liked her very much, for all +that; and I'm sure she would not steal, for she used to give me a +fresh pine-apple every morning; and whenever her brother Jose came +down from Casa Blanca with the mules and the _pisco_, she sent me a +large melon and some lovely roses." + +--"That is the house we lived in at Baltimore. It was painted white, +and there was a paling in front, and a dooryard with grass. We had +some honeysuckles on the porch;--there they are, and there's the +grape-vine. I had a dog-house, too, made to look like a church, and my +father promised to buy me a Newfoundland dog,--one of those great +hairy fellows, with brass collars, you know, that you can ride +on,--when he had sold a great many pictures, and made his fortune. But +we did not make our fortune in Baltimore, and I never got my dog; so +we came here to Tom Tiddler's ground, to pick up gold and silver. When +we are fixed, and get a new tent, my father is going to give me a +little spade and a cradle, to dig gold enough to buy a Newfoundland +dog with, and then I shall borrow a saw and make a dog-house, like the +one I had in Baltimore, out of that green chest. Charley Saunders +lived in that next house in the picture, and he had a martin-box, with +a steeple to it; but his father gave fencing-lessons, and was very +rich." + +As the intelligent little fellow ran on with his pretty prattle, I was +diligently pursuing the lady and child of the specimens through the +sketches. On every leaf I encountered them, ever changing, yet always +the same. Here was the child by my side,--unquestionably the same; +though now I looked in vain for the anxious mouth and the foreboding +eyes in his face of careless, hopeful urchinhood. But who was the +other?--his mother, no doubt; and yet no trace of resemblance. + +"And tell me, who is this beautiful lady, my lad,--here, and here, and +here, and here again? You see I recognize her always,--so lovely, and +so gentle-looking. Your mother?" + +"Oh, no, Sir!" and he laughed,--"my mother is very different from +that. That is nobody,--only a fancy sketch." + +"Only a fancy sketch!" So, then, I thought, my pretty entertainer, +confiding and communicative as you are, it is plain there are some +things you do not know, or will not tell. + +"She is not any one we ever saw;--she never lived. My father made her +out of his own head, as I make stories sometimes; or he dreamed her, +or saw her in the fire. But he is very fond of her, I suppose, because +he made her himself,--just as I think my own stories prettier than any +true ones; and he's always drawing her, and drawing her, and drawing +her. I love her, too, very much,--she looks so natural, and has such +nice ways. Isn't it strange my father--but he's _so_ clever with his +pencil and brushes!--should be able to invent the Lady Angelica? +--that's her name. But my mother does not like her at all, and +gets out of patience with my father for painting so many of her. +Mamma says she has a stuck-up expression,--such a funny word, +'stuck-up'!--and does not look like a lady. Once I told mamma I was +sure she was only jealous, and she grew very angry, and made me cry; +so now I never speak of Lady Angelica before her. What makes me think +my father must have dreamed her is that I dreamed her once myself. I +thought she came to me in such a splendid dress, and told me that she +was not only a live lady, but my own mother, and that mamma was---- +Hush! This is my father, Sir." + +Wonderful! how the lad had changed!--like a phantom, the thoughtless +prattler was gone in a moment, and in his place stood the seer-boy of +the picture, the profound foreboding eyes fixed anxiously, earnestly, +on the singular man who at that moment entered: a singularly small +man, cheaply but tidily attired in black; even his shoes polished,--a +rare and dandyish indulgence in San Francisco, before the French +bootblacks inaugurated the sumptuary vanity of Day and Martin's lustre +on the stoop of the California Exchange, and made it a necessity no +less than diurnal ablutions; a well-preserved English hat on his head, +which, when he with a somewhat formal air removed it, discovered thin +black locks, beginning to part company with the crown of his head. In +his large, brown eyes an expression of moving melancholy was +established; a nervous tremulousness almost twitched his refined lips, +which, to my surprise, were not concealed by the universal +moustache,--indeed, the smooth chin and symmetrically trimmed +mutton-chop whiskers, in the orthodox English mode, showed that the +man shaved. His nose, slightly aquiline, was delicately cut, and his +nostrils fine; and he had small feet and hands, the latter remarkably +white and tender. As he stood before me, he was never at rest for an +instant, but changed his support from one leg to the other,--they were +slight as a young boy's,--and fumbled, as it were, with his feet; as I +have seen a distinguished medical lecturer, of Boston, gesticulate +with his toes. He played much with his whiskers, too, and his fingers +were often in his hair--as a fidgety and vulgar man would bite his +nails. From all of which I gathered that my new acquaintance was an +intensely nervous person,--very sensitive, of course, and no doubt +irritable. + +He was accompanied by a--female, much taller than he, and as stalwart +as dear woman can be; an especially common-looking person, bungled as +to her dress, which was tawdry-fine, unseasonable for the place as +well as time, inappropriate to herself, inharmonious in its +composition, and every way most vilely put on; a clumsy and, as I +presently perceived, a loud person, whose face, still showing traces +of the coarse but decided beauty it must once have possessed, fell far +short of compensating for the complete gracelessness of her presence. + +Her eyes had a bibulous quality, and the bright redness of her nose +vied vulgarly with the rusty redness of her cheeks. I suspected her +complexion of potations, but charitably let it off with--beer; for she +was, at first glance, English. As she jerked off her flaunting bonnet, +and dragged off her loud shawl, saluting me, as she did so, with an +overdone obeisance, she said, "This San Fanfrisko"--why would she, how +could she, always twist the decent name of the metropolis of the +Pacific into such an absurd shape?--"was a norrid 'ole; she happealed +to the gentleman,"--meaning me,--"didn't 'e find it a norrid 'ole, +habsolutely hawful?" And then she went clattering among tinware and +crockery, and snubbed the gentlemanly boy in a sort of tender +Billingsgate. + +While she was thus gracefully employed, the agonized artist, his face +suffused with blushes and fairly ghastly with an enforced smile, was +painfully struggling to abstract himself, by changing the places of +things, shifting the position of his easel, prying in a lost way into +lumbered corners, and pretending to be in search of something, +--ingenious, but unable to disguise his chagrin. He pranced +with his legs, and tumbled his hair, and twitched at his whiskers more +than ever, as he said,-- + +"My dear," (and the boy had called her Mamma; so, then, it must be a +fancy sketch, after all,) "my dear, no doubt the gentleman is more a +cosmopolite than yourself, and blessed with more facility in adapting +himself to circumstances." + +"You know, Madam," I came to his assistance, "we Americans have a +famous trick of living and enjoying a little in advance, of 'going +ahead' of the hour, as it were. We find in San Francisco rather what +it promises to be than what it is, and we take it at its word." + +"Oh, pray, don't mention Americans! I positively 'ate the hodious +people. I confess I 'ave a hinsurmountable prejudice hagainst the +race; you are not haware that I am Hinglish. I think I might endure +heven San Fanfrisko, if it were not for the Americans. Are you an +American?" + +Alternating between the pallor of rage and the flush of mortification, +her husband now turned, with a calmness that had something of +desperation in it, and saved me the trouble and the pain of replying, +by asking, in the frigid tone of one who resented my presence as the +cause of his shame,-- + +"Did you wish to see me on business, Sir? and have you been waiting +long?" + +"The success with which your charming little boy has entertained me +has made the time seem very short. I could willingly have waited +longer." + +That last remark was a mere _contretemps_. I did not mean to be as +severe as he evidently thought me, for he bowed haughtily and +resentfully. + +I came at once to business,--drew from my pocket the engraving I had +brought,--"Could he copy that for me?" + +"How?--in miniature or life-size?--ivory or canvas?" + +"You are, then, a portrait-painter, also?--Ah! to be sure!" and I +glanced at the canvas on the easel. + +"Certainly,--I prefer to make portraits." + +"And in this case I should prefer to have one. Extravagant as the +vanity may seem, I am willing to indulge in it, for the sake of being +the first, in this land of primitive wants and fierce unrefinements, +to take a step in the direction of the Fine Arts,--unless you have had +calls upon your pencil already." + +"None, Sir." + +"Then to-morrow, if you please,--for I cannot remain longer at +present,--we will discuss my whim in detail." + +"I shall be at your service, Sir." + +"Good day, Madam! And you, my pretty lad, well met,--what is your +name?" + +"Ferdy, Sir,--Ferdinand Pintal." + +At that moment, his father, as if reminded of a neglected courtesy, or +a business form, handed me his card,--"Camillo Alvarez y Pintal." + +"Thanks, then, Ferdy, for the pains you took to entertain me. You must +let me improve an acquaintance so pleasantly begun." + +The boy's hand trembled as it lay in mine, and his eyes, fixed upon +his father's, wore again the ominous expression of the picture. He did +not speak, and his father took a step toward the door significantly. + +But the doleful silence that might have attended my departure was +broken by a demonstration, "as per sample," from my country's fair and +gentle 'ater. "She 'oped I would not be hoffended by the freedom of +'er hobservations on my countrymen. I must hexcuse 'er Hinglish +bluntness; she was haware that she 'ad a somewhat hoff-'and way of +hexpressing 'er hemotions; but when she 'ated she 'ated, and it +relieved 'er to hout with it hat once. Certainly she would +never--bless 'er 'eart, no!--'ave taken me for an American; I was so +huncommonly genteel." + +With my hand upon the region of my heart, as I had seen stars, when +called before the curtain on the proudest evening of their lives, give +anatomical expression to their overwhelming sense of the honor done +them, I backed off, hat in hand. + +"Camillo Alvarez y Pintal," I read again, as I approached the Plaza. +"Can this man be Spanish, then? Surely not;--how could he have +acquired his excellent English, without a trace of foreign accent, or +the least eccentricity of idiom? His child, too, said nothing of that. +English, no doubt, of Spanish parentage; or,--oh, patience! I shall +know by-and-by, thanks to my merry Virginia jade, who shall be arrayed +in resplendent hues, and throned in a golden frame, if she but feed my +curiosity generously enough." + +Next day, in the afternoon, having bustled through my daily programme +of business, I betook myself with curious pleasure to my appointment +with Pintal. To my regret, at first, I found him alone; but I derived +consolation from the assurance, that, wherever the engaging boy had +gone, his mother had accompanied him. Even more than at my first +visit, the artist was frigidly reserved and full of warning-off +politeness. With but a brief prelude of courteous commonplaces, he +called me to the business of my visit. + +My picture, as I have said, was a fairly executed steel engraving, +taken from some one of the thousands of "Tokens," or "Keepsakes," or +"Amulets," or "Gems," or such like harmless giftbooks, with which +youths of tender sentiment remind preoccupied damsels of their careful +_penchants_. It represented an "airy, fairy Lilian" of eighteen, or +thereabouts, lolling coquettishly, fan in hand, in an antique, +high-backed chair, with "carven imageries," and a tasselled cushion. +She rejoiced in a profusion of brown ringlets, and her costume was +pretty and quaint,--a dainty chemisette, barred with narrow bands of +velvet, as though she had gone to Switzerland, or the South of Italy, +for the sentiment of her bodice,--sleeves quaintly puffed and +"slashed,"--the ample skirt looped up with rosettes and natty little +ends of ribbon; her feet beneath her petticoat, "like little mice," +stole out, "as if they feared the light." Somewhere, among the many +editions of Dickens's works, I have seen a Dolly Varden that resembled +her. + +It was agreed between us that she should be reproduced in a life-size +portrait, with such a distribution of rich colors as the subject +seemed to call for, as his fine taste might select, and his cunning +hand lay on. I sought to break down his reserve, and make myself +acceptable to him, by the display of a discreet geniality, and a +certain frankness, not falling into familiarity, which should seem to +proceed from sympathy, and a _bonhommie_, that, assured of its own +kindly purpose, would take no account of his almost angry distance. +The opportunity was auspicious, and I was on the alert to turn it to +account. I made a little story of the picture, and touched it with +romance. I told him of Virginia,--especially of that part of the State +in which this saucy little lady lived,--of its famous scenery, its +historic places, and the peculiar features of its society. I strove to +make the lady present to his mind's eye by dwelling on her certain +eccentricities, and helping my somewhat particular description of her +character with anecdotes, more or less pointed and amusing, especially +to so grave a foreigner, of her singular ready-wittedness and graceful +audacity. Then I had much to say about her little "ways" of attitude, +gesture, and expression, and some hints to offer for slight changes in +the finer lines of the face, and in the expression, which might make +the likeness more real to both of us, and, by getting up an interest +in him for the picture, procure his favorable impression for myself. + +I had the gratification, as my experiment proceeded, to find that it +was by no means unsuccessful. His austerity appreciably relaxed, and +the kindly tone into which his few, but intelligent observations +gradually fell, was accompanied by an encouraging smile, when the +drift of our talk was light. Then I spoke of his child, and eagerly +praised the beauty, the intelligence, and sweet temper of the lad. +'Twas strange how little pleasure he seemed to derive from my sincere +expressions of admiration; indeed, the slight satisfaction he did +permit himself to manifest appeared in his words only, not at all in +his looks; for a shade of deep sadness fell at once upon his handsome +face, and his expression, so full of sensibility, assumed the cast of +anxiety and pain. "He thanked me for my eloquent praises of the boy, +and--not too partially, he hoped--believed that he deserved them all. +A prize of beauty and of love had fallen to him in his little Ferdy, +for which he would be grieved to seem ungrateful. But yet--but +yet--the responsibility, the anxiety, the ceaseless fretting care! +This fierce, unbroken city";--he spoke of it as though it were a +newly-lassoed and untamed mustang,--I liked the simile; "this lawless, +blasphemous, obscene, and dangerous community; these sights of +heartlessness and cruelty; these sounds of selfish, greedy contention; +the absence of all taste and culture,--no lines of beauty, no strains +of music, no tones of kindness, no gestures of gentleness and grace, +no delicate attentions, no ladies' presence, no social circle, no +books, no home, no church;--Good God! what a heathenish barbarism of +coarse instincts, and irreverence, and insulting equalities, and all +manner of gracelessnesses, to bring the dangerous impressionability of +fine childhood to! The boy was nervous, sensitive, of a spirit quick +to take alarms or hurts,--physically unprepared to wrestle with +arduous toil, privation, and exposure,--most apt for the teachings of +gentleness and taste. It was cruel to think--he could wish him dead +first--that his clean, white mind must become smeared and spotted +here, his well-tuned ear reconciled to loud discords, and his fine eye +at peace with deformity; but there was no help for it." And then, as +though he had suddenly detected in my face an expression of surprised +discovery, he said, "But I am sure I do not know how I came to say so +much, or let myself be tedious with sickly egotisms to a polite, but +indifferent, stranger. If you have gathered from them more than I +meant should appear, you will at least do me the justice to believe +that I have not been boasting of what I regard as a calamity." + +I essayed to reassure him by urging upon his consideration the +manifest advantages of courage, self-reliance, ingenuity, quick and +economical application of resources, independence, and perseverance, +which his son, if well-trained, must derive from even those rude +surroundings,--at the same time granting the necessity of sleepless +vigilance and severe restraints. But he only shook his head sadly, and +said, "No doubt, no doubt; and I hope, Sir, the fault is in myself, +that I do not appreciate the force and value of all that." + +The subject was so plainly full of a peculiar pain for him, he was so +ill at mind on this point, that I could not find it in my heart to +pursue it further at the cost of his feelings. So we talked of other +things: of gold, and the placers, and their unimpaired productiveness, +--of the prospects of the country, and of the character the +mineral element must stamp upon its politics, its commerce, and +its social system,--of San Francisco, and all the enchantments of its +sudden upspringing,--of Alcaldes and town-councils,--of hounds and +gamblers,--of real estate and projected improvements,--of canvas +houses, and iron houses, and fires,--of sudden fortunes, and as sudden +failures,--of speculations and markets, and the prices of clothing, +provisions, and labor,--of intemperance, disease, and hospitals,--of +brawls, murder, and suicide,--till we had exhausted all the +Californian budget; and then I bade him good day. He parted with me +with flattering reluctance, cordially shaking my hand and urging me to +repeat my visit in a few days, when he should be sufficiently forward +with the picture to admit me to a sight of it. I confessed my +impatience for the interval to pass; for my interest was now fully +awakened and very lively;--so well-informed and so polished a +gentleman, so accomplished and so fluent, so ill-starred and sad, so +every way a man with a history! + +I saw much of Pintal after this, and he sometimes visited me at my +office. Impelled by increasing admiration and esteem, I succeeded by +the exercise of studious tact in ingratiating myself in his friendship +and confidence; he talked with freedom of his feelings and his +affairs; and although he had not yet admitted me to the knowledge of +his past, he evinced but little shyness in speaking of the present. At +our interviews in his tent I seldom met his wife; indeed, I suspected +him of contriving to keep her out of the way; for I was always told +she had just stepped out;--or if by chance I found her there, she was +never again vulgarly loquacious, but on some pretext or other at once +took herself away. On the other hand, the child was rarely +absent,--from which I argued that I was in favor; nor was his pretty +prattle, even his boldest communicativeness, harshly checked, save +when, as I guessed, he was approaching too near some forbidden theme. +Then a quick flash from his father's eye instantaneously imposed +silence upon him: as if that eye were an evil one, and there were a +malison in its glance, the whole demeanor of the child underwent at +once a magical change; the foreboding look took possession of his +beautiful eyes, the anxious lines appeared around his mouth, his lips +and chin became tremulous, his head drooped, he let fall my hand which +he was fond of holding as he talked, and quietly, penitently slunk +away; and though he might presently be recalled by his father's +kindliest tones, his brightness would not be restored that time. + +This mysterious, severe understanding between the father and the child +affected me painfully; I was at a loss to surmise its nature, whence +it proceeded, or how it could be; for Ferdy evinced in his every word, +look, movement, an undivided fondness for his father. And in his +tender-proud allusions to the boy, at times let fall to me,--in the +anxious watchfulness with which he followed him with his eye, when an +interval of peace and comparative happiness had set childhood's spirit +free, and lent a degree of graceful gayety to all his motions,--I saw +the brimming measure of the father's love. Could it be but his +morbidly repellant pride, his jealous guarding of the domestic +privacies, his vigilant pacing up and down forever before the +close-drawn curtain of the heart?--was there no Bluebeard's chamber +there? No! Pride was all the matter,--pride was the Spartan fox that +tore the vitals of Pintal, while he but bit his lips, and bowed, and +passed. + +Among the pictures in Pintal's tent was one which had in an especial +manner attracted my attention. It was a cabinet portrait, nearly +full-length, of a venerable gentleman, of grave but benevolent aspect, +and an air of imposing dignity. Care had evidently been taken to +render faithfully the somewhat remarkable vigor of his frame; his +iron-gray hair was cropped quite short, and he wore a heavy grizzled +moustache, but no other beard; the lines of his mouth were not severe, +and his eye was soft and gentle. But what made the portrait +particularly noticeable was the broad red ribbon of a noble order +crossing the breast, and a Maltese cross suspended from the neck by a +short chain of massive and curiously wrought links. I had many times +been on the point of asking the name of this singularly handsome and +distinguished-looking personage; but an instinctive feeling of +delicacy always deterred me. + +One day I found little Ferdy alone, and singing merrily some pretty +Spanish song. I told him I was rejoiced to find him in such good +spirits, and asked him if he had not been having a jolly romp with the +American carpenter's son, who lived in the Chinese house close by. My +question seemed to afflict him with puzzled surprise;--he half smiled, +as if not quite sure but I might be jesting. + +"Oh, no, indeed! I have never played with him; I do not know him; I +never play with any boys here. Oh, no, indeed!" + +"But why not, Ferdy? What! a whole month in this tiresome tent, and +not make the acquaintance of your nearest neighbor,--such a sturdy, +hearty chunk of a fellow as that is?--I have no doubt he's +good-natured, too, for he's fat and funny, tough and independent. +Besides, he's a carpenter's son, you know; so there's a chance to +borrow a saw to make the dog-house with. Who knows but his father will +take a fancy to you,--I'm sure he is very likely to,--and make you a +church dog-house, steeple and all complete and painted, and much finer +than Charley Saunders's martin-box?" + +"Oh, I should like to, so much! And perhaps he has a Newfoundlander +with a bushy tail and a brass collar,--that would be nicer than a +kangaroo. But--but"--looking comically bothered,--"I never knew a +carpenter's son in my life. I am sure my father would not give me +permission,--I am sure he would be very angry, if I asked him. Are +they not very disagreeable, that sort of boys? Don't they swear, and +tear their clothes, and fight, and sing vulgar songs, and tell lies, +and sit down in the middle of the street?" + +Merciful Heaven! thought I,--here's a crying shame! here's an +interesting case for professors of moral hygiene! An apt, intelligent +little man, with an empty mind, and a by-no-means overloaded stomach, +I'll engage,--with a pride-paralyzed father, and a beer-bewitched +slattern of a mother,--with his living to get, in San Francisco, too, +and the world to make friends with,--who has never enjoyed the +peculiar advantages to be derived from the society of little dirty +boys, never been admitted to the felicity of popular songs, nor +exercised his pluck in a rough-and-tumble, nor ventilated himself in +wholesome "giddy, giddy, gout,"--to whom dirt-pies are a fable! + +"Ferdy," said I, "I'll talk with your father myself. But tell me, now, +what makes you so happy to-day." + +"My father got a letter this morning,"--a mail had just arrived; it +brought no smile or tear for me,--no parallelogram of tragedy or +comedy in stationery,--"such a pleasant one, from my uncle Miguel, at +Florence, in Italy, you know. He is well, and quite rich, my father +says; they have restored to him his property that he thought was all +lost forever, and they have made him a chevalier again. But I am sure +my father will tell you all about it, for he said he did hope you +would come to-day; and he is so happy and so kind!" + +"They have made him a chevalier again," I wondered. "Your uncle Miguel +is your father's brother, then, Ferdy. And did you ever see him?" + +Before he could reply, Pintal entered, stepping smartly, his color +heightened with happiness, his eyes full of an extraordinary elation. + +"Ah! my dear Doctor, I am rejoiced to find you here; I have been +wishing for you. See! your picture is finished. Tell me if you like +it." + +"Indeed, a work of beauty, Pintal." + +"To me, too, it never looked so well before; but I see things with +glad eyes to-day. I have much to tell you. Ferdy, your mother is +dining at the restaurant; go join her. And when you have finished your +dinner, ask her to take you to walk. Say that I am engaged. Would you +not like to walk, my boy, and see how fast the new streets spring up? +When you return, you can tell me of all you saw." + +The boy turned up his lovely face to be kissed, and for a moment hung +fondly on his father's neck. The poor painter's lips quivered, and his +eyes winked quickly. Then the lad took his cap, and without another +word went forth. + +"I am happy to-day, Doctor,--Heaven save the mark! My happiness is so +much more than my share, that I shall insist, will ye, nill ye, on +your sharing it with me. I have a heart to open to somebody, and you +are the very man. So, sit you down, and bear with my egotism, for I +have a little tale to tell you, of who I am and how I came here. The +story is not so commonplace but that your kindness will find, here and +there, an interesting passage in it. + +"I have seen that that picture,"--indicating the one I have last +described,--"attracted your attention, and that you were prevented +from questioning me about it only by delicacy. That is my father's +likeness. He was of English birth, the younger son of a rich Liverpool +merchant. An impulsive, romantic, adventurous boy, seized early with a +passion for seeing the world, his unimaginative, worldly-wise father, +practical and severe, kept him within narrow, fretting bounds, and +imposed harsh restraints upon him. When he was but sixteen years old, +he ran away from home, shipped before the mast, and, after several +long voyages, was discharged, at his own request, at Carthagena, where +he entered a shipping-house as clerk, and, having excellent mercantile +talents, was rapidly promoted. + +"Meantime, through a sister, the only remaining child, except a +half-witted brother, he heard at long intervals from home. His father +remained strangely inexorable, fiercely forbade his return, and became +violent at the slightest mention of his name by his sister, or some +old and attached servant; he died without bequeathing his forgiveness, +or, of course, a single shilling. But the young man thrived with his +employers, whose business growing rapidly more and more prosperous, +and becoming widely extended, they transferred him to a branch house +at Malaga. Here he formed the acquaintance of the Don Francisco de +Zea-Bermudez, whose rising fortunes made his own. + +"Zea-Bermudez was at that time engaged in large commercial operations. +Although, under the diligent and ambitious teaching of his famous +relative, the profound, sagacious, patriotic, bold, and gloriously +abused Jovellanos, he had become accomplished in politics, law, and +diplomacy, he seemed to be devoting himself for the present to large +speculations and the sudden acquisition of wealth, and to let the +state of the nation, the Cortes, and its schemes, alone. + +"Only a young, beautiful, and accomplished sister shared his splendid +establishment in Malaga; and for her my father formed an engrossing +attachment, reciprocated in the fullest, almost simultaneously with +his friendship for her brother. Zea favored the suit of the +high-spirited and clever young Englishman, whose intelligence, +independence, and perseverance, to say nothing of his good looks and +his engaging manners, had quite won his heart. By policy, too, no less +than by pleasure, the match recommended itself to him;--my father +would make a famous junior-partner. So they were married under the +name of Pintal, bestowed upon his favorite English clerk by the +adventurous first patron at Carthagena, who had found the boy provided +with only a 'purser's name,' as sailors term it. + +"I will not be so disrespectful to the memory of my distinguished +uncle, nor so rude toward your intelligence, my friend, as to presume +that you are not familiar with the main points of his history,--the +great strides he took, almost from that time, in a most influential +diplomatic career: the embassy to St. Petersburg, and the +Romanzoff-Bermudez treaty of amity and alliance in 1812, by which +Alexander acknowledged the legality of the ordinary and extraordinary +Cortes of Cadiz; the embassy to the Porte in 1821; his recall in 1823, +and extraordinary mission to the Court of St. James; his appointment +to lead the Ministry in 1824; my father's high place in the Treasury; +their joint efforts from this commanding position to counteract the +violence of the Apostolical party, to meet the large requisitions of +France, to cover the deficit of three hundred millions of reals, and +to restore the public credit; the insults of the Absolutists, and +their machinations to thwart his liberal and sagacious measures; his +efforts to resign, opposed by the King; the suppression of a +formidable Carlist conspiracy in 1825; the execution of Bessieres, and +the 'ham-stringing' of Absolutist leaders; his dismissal from the +Ministry in October, 1825, Ferdinand yielding to the Apostolic storm; +the embassy to Dresden; his appointment as Minister at London. + +"And here my story begins, for I was his Secretary of Legation then; +while my brother Miguel, younger than I, was _attache_ at Paris, where +he had succeeded me, on my promotion,--a promotion that procured for +me congratulations for which I could with difficulty affect a decent +show of gratitude, for I knew too well what it meant. It was not the +enlightened, liberal Minister I had to deal with, but the hard, proud +uncle, full of expediencies, and calculating schemes for family +advancement, and the exaltation of a lately obscure name. + +"In Paris I had been admitted first to the flattering friendship, and +then to the inmost heart of--of a most lovely young lady, as noble by +her character as by her lineage,"--and he glanced at the open +sketch-book. + +"The Lady Angelica," I quietly said. + +"Sir!" he exclaimed, quickly changing color, and assuming his most +frigid expression and manner. But as quickly, and before I could +speak, his sad smile and friendly tone returned, and he said,-- + +"Ah! I see,--Ferdy has been babbling of his visions and his dreams. +Yes, the Lady Angelica. 'Very charming,' my uncle granted, 'but very +poor; less of the angel and more of the heiress was desirable,' he +said,--'less heaven and more land. A decayed family was only a little +worse than an obscure one,--a poor knight not a whit more respectable +than a rich merchant. I must relinquish my little romance,--I had not +time for it; I had occupation enough for the scant leisure my family +duties'--and he laid stress on the words--'left me in the duties of my +post. He would endeavor to find arguments for the lady and employment +for me.' + +"It was in vain for me to remonstrate,--I was too familiar with my +uncle's temper to waste my time and breath so. I would be silent, I +resolved, and pursue my honorable and gallant course without regard to +his scandalous schemes. I wrote to the 'Lady Angelica,'--since Ferdy's +name for her is so well chosen,--telling her all, giving her solemn +assurances of my unchangeable purpose toward her, and scorn of my +uncle's mercenary ambition. She replied very quietly: 'She, also, was +not without pride; she would come and see for herself';--and she came +at once. + +"The family arrived in London in the evening. Within two hours I was +sent--after the fashion of an old-time courier, 'Ride! ride! +ride!--for your life! for your life! for your life!'--to Turin with +despatches, and sealed instructions for my own conduct, not to be +opened till I arrived; then I found my orders were, to remain at Turin +until it should be my uncle's pleasure to recall me. + +"I had not been in Turin a month when a letter came from------the Lady +Angelica. 'It was her wish that all intercourse between us, by +interview or correspondence, should cease at once and forever. She +assumed this position of her own free will, and she was resolute to +maintain it. She trusted that I would not inquire obtrusively into her +motives,--she had no fear that I would doubt that they were worthy of +her. Her respect for me was unabated,--her faith in me perfect. I had +her blessing and her anxious prayers. I must go on my way in brave +silence and patience, nor ever for one moment be so weak as to fool +myself into a hope that she would change her purpose.' + +"What should I do? I had no one to advise with; my mother, whose faith +in her brother's wisdom was sure, was in Madrid, and my father had +been dead some years. At first my heart was full of bitter curses, and +my uncle had not at his heels a heartier hater than I. Then came the +merely romantic thought, that this might be but a test she would put +me to,--that he might be innocent and ignorant of my misfortune. With +the thought I flung my heart into writing, and madly plied her with +one long, passionate letter after another. I got no answers; but by +his spies my uncle was apprised of all I did. + +"About this time,--it was in 1832,--Zea-Bermudez was recalled to +Madrid in a grave crisis, and appointed to the administration of +foreign affairs. Ferdinand VII. was apparently approaching the end of +his reign and his life. The Apostolical party, exulting in their +strength, and confiding in those well-laid plans which, with mice and +men, 'gang aft agley,' imprudently showed their hand, and suffered +their favorite project to transpire; which was, to set aside the +ordinance by which the King had made null the Salic law, in favor of +his infant daughter, and to support the pretensions of the King's +brother, Carlos, to the throne. + +"By this stupid flourish the Apostolical party threw themselves bound +at the feet of Zea. All of their persuasion who filled high places +under government were without ceremony removed, and their seats filled +by Liberals. Many of them did not escape without more crippling blows. +As for me, I looked on with indifference, or at most some philosophic +sneers. What had I to fear or care? In my uncle's estimation, my +politics had been always healthy, no doubt; and although he had on +more than one occasion hinted, with sarcastic wit, that such a +lady's-man must, of his devoir, be a 'gallant champion of the Salic +law,' and dropped something rude and ill-natured about my English +blood,--still, that was only in his dyspeptic moods; his temper was +sure to improve, I fancied, with his political and material digestion. + +"But I deceived myself. When, in the name of the infant Queen, +Isabella Segunda, and in honor of the reestablishment of order and +public safety, the pleasant duty devolved upon Zea-Bermudez of +awarding approbation and encouragement to all the officers, from an +ambassador to the youngest _attache_ of foreign legations, and +presenting them with tokens of the nation's happiness in the shape of +stars, and seals with heraldic devices, and curious chains of historic +significance, not even a paltry ribbon fell to my share, but only a +few curt lines of advice, 'to look well to my opinions, and be +modest,--obediently to discharge the duties prescribed to me, and +remember that presumption was a fault most intolerable in a young +gentleman so favored by chance as to be honored with the confidence of +government.' + +"That exhausted the little patience I had left. Savagely I tore the +note into contemptible fragments, tossed into my travelling-boxes as +much of my wardrobe as happened to be at hand, consigned to a sealed +case my diplomatic instructions and all other documents pertaining to +my office, placed them in the hands of a confidential friend, Mr. +Ballard, the British Agent, and secretly took passage for England, +where, without losing an hour, I made the best of my way to the abode +of an ambitious cockney wine-merchant, to whose daughter I had not +been disagreeable in other days, and within a fortnight married her. +You have seen the lady, Sir," he said, eyeing me searchingly as he +spoke, with a sardonic smile,--the only ugly expression I ever saw him +wear. + +"Certain title-deeds and certificates of stock, part of my father's +legacy, which, as if foreseeing the present emergency, I had brought +away with me, were easily converted into cash. I had then twenty +thousand sterling pounds, to which my father-in-law generously added +ten thousand more, by way of portion with his daughter. + +"And now to what should I betake myself? I had small time to cast +about me, and was easy to please; any tolerably promising enterprise, +so the field of it were remote, would serve my purpose. The papers +were full of Australian speculations, the wonderful prosperity of the +several colonies there, the great fortunes suddenly made in wool. +Good! I would go to Australia, and be a gentle shepherd on an imposing +scale. But first I sought out my father's old friends, my Lords +Palmerston and Brougham, and the Bishop of Dublin, and besought the +aid of their wisdom. With but slight prudential hesitation they with +one accord approved my project. Observe: a first-rate Minister, +especially if he be a very busy one, always likes the plan that +pleases his young friend best,--that is, if it be not an affair of +State, and all the risks lie with his young friend. They would have +spoken of Turin and Zea-Bermudez; but I had been bred a diplomat and +knew how to stick to my point, which, this time, was wool. In another +fortnight I had sailed for Sydney with my shekels and my wife. But +first, and for the first time, I caused the announcement of my +marriage to appear in the principal papers of London, Paris, St. +Petersburg, and Madrid. + +"Arrived in Australia, I at once made myself the proprietor of a +considerable farm, and stocked it abundantly with sheep. Speculation +had not yet burst itself, like the frog in the fable; and large +successes, as in water-lot and steamboat operations here, to-day, were +the rule. On the third anniversary of my landing at Sydney, I was +worth three hundred thousand pounds, and my commercial name was among +the best in the colony. Six months after that, the rot, the infernal +rot, had turned my thriving populous pastures into shambles for +carrion-mutton, and I had not sixpence of my own in the wide world. A +few of the more generous of my creditors left me a hundred pounds with +which to make my miserable way to some South American port on the +Pacific. + +"So I chose Valparaiso, to paint miniatures, and teach English, +French, Italian, and German in. But earthquakes shook my poor house, +and the storm-fiend shook my soul with fear;--for skies in lightning +and thunder are to me as the panorama and hurly-burly of the Day of +Wrath, in all the stupid rushing to and fro and dazed stumbling of +Martin's great picture. I shall surely die by lightning; I have not +had that live shadow of a sky-reaching fear hanging over me, with its +black wings and awful mutterings, so long for nothing; in every flash +my eyes are scathed by the full blaze of hell. If I had been deaf and +blind, I might have lived in Valparaiso. As it was, I must go +somewhere where I need not sit all day and night stopping my ears and +with my face covered, fearing that the rocks would fall upon me too +soon. + +"So, with my wife and the child,--we have had no other, thank God!--I +got round Cape Horn--Heaven knows how! I dare not think of that +time--to the United States. We were making for Boston; but the ship, +strained by long stress of heavy weather, sprung a leak, and we put in +at Baltimore. I was pleased with the place; it is picturesque, and has +a kindly look; and as all places were alike to me then, save by the +choice of a whim, I let go my weary anchor there. + +"But the Baltimoreans only admired my pictures,--they did not buy +them; they only wondered at my polyglot accomplishment, and were +content with ringing silly-kind changes on an Encyclopaedic compliment +about the Admirable Crichton, and other well-educated personages, to +be found alphabetically embalmed in Conversations-Lexicons,--they did +not inquire into my system of teaching, or have quarterly knowledge of +my charges. So I fled from Baltimore, pretty speeches, and starvation, +to San Francisco, plain talk, and pure gold. And now--see here, +Sir!--I carry these always about with me, lest the pretty pickings of +this Tom Tiddler's ground should make my experience forget." + +He drew from his pocket an "illuminated" card, bearing a likeness of +Queen Victoria, and a creased and soiled bit of yellow paper. The one +was, by royal favor, a complimentary pass to a reserved place in +Westminster Abbey, on the occasion of the coronation of her Britannic +Majesty, "For the Senor Camillo Alvarez y Pintal, Chevalier of the +Noble Order of the Cid, Secretary to His Catholic Majesty's Legation +near the Court of St. James,"--the other, a Sydney pawnbroker's ticket +for books pledged by "Mr. Camilla Allverris i Pintal." He held these +contrasted certificates of Fortune,--her mocking visiting-cards, when +she called on him in palace and in cabin,--one in each hand for a +moment; and bitterly smiling, and shaking his head, turned from one to +the other. Then suddenly he let them fall to the ground, and, burying +his face in his hands, was roughly shaken through all his frame by a +great gust of agony. + +I laid my hand tenderly on his shoulder: "But, Pintal," I said,--"the +Lady Angelica,--tell me why she chose that course." + +In a moment the man was fiercely aroused. "Ah, true! I had forgotten +that delectable passage in my story. Why, man, Bermudez went to her, +told her that my aspirations and my prospects were so and so,--faring, +brilliant,--that she, only she, stood in the way, an impassable +stumbling-block to my glorious advancement,--told her, (devil!) that, +with all my fine passion for her, he was aware that I was not without +embarrassment on this score,--appealed to her disinterested love, to +her pride,--don't you see?--to her pride." + +"And where is she now, Pintal?" + +No anger now, no flush of excitement;--the man, all softened as by an +angel's touch, arose, and, with clasped hands and eyes upturned +devoutly, smiled through big tears, and without a word answered me. + +I, too, was silent. Whittier had not yet written,-- + + "Of all sad words of tongue or pen + The saddest are these: 'It might have been!' + + "Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies + Deeply buried from human eyes; + + "And, in the hereafter, angels may + Roll the stone from its grave away!" + +Then Pintal paced briskly to and fro a few turns across the narrow +floor of his tent, and presently stopping, said,--his first +cheerfulness, with its unwonted smile, returning,-- + +"But I must tell you why I should be happy today. I have a letter from +my brother Miguel, who is Secretary to the Legation at the Porte. He +has leave of absence, and is happy with his dearest friends in +Florence. He shared my disgrace until lately, but bore it patiently; +and now is reinstated in his office and his honors, a large portion of +his property restored, which had been temporarily confiscated, while +he was under suspicion as a Carlist. He is authorized to offer me +pardon, and all these pretty things, if I will return and take a new +oath of allegiance." + +"And you will accept, Pintal?" + +"Why, in God's name, what do you take me for?--Pardon! I forgot +myself, Sir. Your question is a natural one. But no, I shall surely +not accept. Zea-Bermudez is dead, but there is a part of me which can +never die; and I am happy today because I feel that I am not so poor +as I thought I was." + +Ferdy entered, alone. He went straight to his father and whispered +something in his ear,--about the mother, I suspected, for both +blushed, and Pintal said, with a vexed look,--"Ah, very well! never +mind that, my boy." + +Then Ferdy threw off his cap and cloak, and, seating himself on a pile +of books at his father's feet, quietly rested his head upon his knee. +I observed that his face was vividly flushed, and his eyes looked +weary. I felt his pulse,--it indicated high fever; and to our anxious +questions he answered, that his head ached terribly, and he was "every +minute hot or cold." I persuaded him to go to bed at once, and left +anxious instructions for his treatment, for I saw that he was going to +be seriously ill. + +In three days little Ferdy was with the Lady Angelica in heaven. He +died in my arms, of scarlet fever. In the delirium of his last moments +he saw _her_, and he departed with strange words on his lips: "I am +coming, Lady, I am coming!--my father will be ready presently!" + +Some strangers from the neighborhood helped me to bury him; we laid +him near the grave of the First Lady; but very soon his pretty bones +were scattered, and there's a busy street there now. + +Pintal, when I told him that the boy was dead, only bowed and smiled. +He did not go to the grave, he never again named the child, nor by the +least word or look confessed the change. But when, a little later, a +fire swept down Dupont Street and laid the poor tent in ashes, +spoiling the desolate house whose beautiful _lar_ had flitted,--when +his wife went moaning maudlinly among the yet warm ashes, and groping, +in mean misery, with a stick, for some charred nothing she would cheat +the Spoiler of, there was a dangerous quality in Pintal's look, as, +with folded arms and vacant eyes, he seemed to stare upon, yet not to +see, the shocking scene. Presently the woman, poking with the stick, +found something under the ashes. With her naked hands she greedily +dug it out;--it was a tin shaving-case. Another moment, and Pintal had +snatched it from her grasp, torn it open, and had a naked razor in his +hand. I wrested it from him, as he fairly foamed, and dragged him from +the place. + +A few days after that, I took leave of them on board a merchant ship +bound for England, and with a heavy-hearted prayer sped them on their +way. On the voyage, as Pintal stood once, trembling in a storm, near +the mainmast, a flash of lightning transfixed him.--That was well! He +had been distinguished by his sorrows, and was worthy of that special +messenger. + + * * * * * + +That picture,--it was the first and last he painted in California. I +kept it long, rejoicing in the admiration it excited, and only grieved +that the poor comfort of the praises I daily heard lavished upon it +could never reach him. + +Once, when I was ill in Sacramento, my San Francisco house was burned, +but not before its contents had been removed. In the hopeless +scattering of furniture and trunks, this picture disappeared,--no one +knew whither. I sought it everywhere, and advertised for it, but in +vain. About a year afterward, I sailed for Honolulu. I had letters of +introduction to some young American merchants there, one of whom +hospitably made me his guest for several weeks. On the second day of +my stay with him, he was showing me over his house, where, hanging +against the wall in a spare room, I found,--not the Pintal picture, +but a Chinese copy of it, faithful in its every detail. There were the +several alterations I had suggested, and there the rich, warm colors +that Pintal's taste had chosen. Of course, it was a copy. No doubt, my +picture had been stolen at the fire, or found its way by mistake among +the "traps" of other people. Then it had been sold at auction,--some +Chinaman had bought it,--it had been shipped to Canton or Hong +Kong,--some one of the thousand "artists" of China Street or the +Victoria Road had copied it for the American market. A ship-load of +Chinese goods--Canton crape shawls, camphor-boxes, carved toys, +curiosities, and pictures--had been sold in Honolulu,--and here it +was. + + * * * * * + + +THE HOUSE THAT WAS JUST LIKE ITS NEIGHBORS. + + Oh, the houses are all alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + You'll see a hat-stand in the hall, + Against the painted and polished wall; + And the threaded sunbeams softly fall + On the long stairs, winding up, away + Up to the garret, lone and gray: + And you can hear, if you wait awhile, + Odd little noises to make you smile; + And minutes will be as long as a mile;-- + Just as they would in the house below, + Were you in the entry waiting to go. + + Oh, the houses are all alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + And the world swings sadly to and fro,-- + Mayhap the shining, but sure the woe! + For in the sunlight the shadows grow + Over the new name on the door, + Over the face unseen before. + Yet who shall number, by any art, + The chasms that keep so wide apart + The dancing step and the weary heart? + Oh, who shall guess that the polished wall + Is a headstone over his neighbor's hall? + + Yet the houses are just alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + And solemn sounds are heard at night, + And solemn forms shut out the light, + And hideous thoughts the soul affright: + Death and despair, in solemn state, + In the silent, vaulted chambers wait; + And up the stairs as your children go, + Spectres follow them, to and fro,-- + Only a wall between them, oh! + And the darkest demons, grinning, see + The fairest angels that dwell with thee! + + For the houses are all alike, you know,-- + All the houses alike, in a row! + My chariot waited, gold and gay: + "I'll ride," I said, "to the woods to-day,-- + Out to the blithesome woods away,-- + Where the old trees, swaying thoughtfully, + Watch the breeze and the shadow's glee." + I smiled but once, with my joy elate, + For a chariot stood at my neighbor's gate,-- + A grim old chariot, dark as fate. + "Oh, where are you taking my neighbor?" I cried. + And the gray old driver thus replied:-- + + "Where the houses are all alike, you know,-- + Narrow houses, all in a row! + Unto a populous city," he saith: + "The road lies steep through the Vale of Death + Oh, it makes the old steeds gasp for breath! + There'll be a new name over the door, + In a place where _he's_ never been before,-- + Where the neighbors never visit, they say,-- + Where the streets are echoless, night and day, + And the children forget their childish play. + And if you should live next door, I doubt + If you'd ever hear what they were about + Who lived in the next house in the row,-- + Though the houses are all alike, you know!" + + + + +DAPHNAIDES: + + +OR THE ENGLISH LAUREL, FROM CHAUCER TO TENNYSON. + + +[Concluded.] + +Dorset was still Lord Chamberlain when the death of Shadwell placed +the laurel again at his disposal. Had he listened to Dryden, William +Congreve would have received it. Of all the throng of young gentlemen +who gathered about the chair of the old poet at Wills's, Congreve was +his prime favorite. That his advice was not heeded was long a matter +of pensive regret:-- + + "Oh that your brows my laurel had sustained! + Well had I been deposed, if you had reigned! + The father had descended for the son; + For only you are lineal to the throne. + Thus, when the state one Edward did depose, + A greater Edward in his room arose."[1] + +The choice fell upon Nahum Tate:-- + + "But now not I, but poetry is cursed; + For Tom the Second reigns like Tom the First." + +What particular quality recommended Tate we are not wholly able to +explain. Dryden alleges "charity" as the single impulse of the +appointment,--not the merit or aptitude of the candidate. But +throughout life Dorset continued to countenance Nahum, serving as +standing dedicatee of his works, and the prompter of several of them. +We have remarked the want of judgment which Lord Dorset exhibited in +his anxious patronage of the scholars and scribblers of his time,--a +trait which stood the Blackmores, Bradys, and Tates in good stead. + +But there was still another reason why Tate was preferred to Congreve. +Dorset was too practised a courtier not to study the tastes of his +master to good purpose. A liking for the stage, or a lively sense of +poetic excellence, was not among the preferences of King William. The +Laureate was sub-purveyor of amusement for the court; but there was no +longer a court to amuse, and the King himself never once in his reign +entered a theatre. The piety of Queen Mary rendered her a rare +attendant at the play-house. Plays were therefore no longer wanted. A +playwright could not amuse. Congreve was a dramatist who had never +exhibited even passable talent for other forms of poetical +composition. But Tate's limited gifts, displayed to Dorset's +satisfaction in various encomiastic verses addressed to himself, were +fully equal to the exigencies of the office under the new order of +things; he was by profession a eulogist, not a dramatist. He was a +Tory; and the King was out of humor with the Whigs. He was +pretentiously moral and exemplary of life and pen, and so suited the +Queen. The duties of the office were conformed, as far as practicable, +to the royal tastes. Their scene was transferred from the play-house +to the church. On the anniversaries of the birthdays of the two +sovereigns, and upon New Year's day, the Laureate was expected to have +ready congratulatory odes befitting the occasion, set to music by the +royal organist, and sung after service in the Chapel Royal of St. +James. Similar duties were required when great victories were to be +celebrated, or national calamities to be deplored. In short, from +writing dramas to amuse a merry monarch and his courtiers, an office +not without dignity, the Laureate sunk into a hired writer of +adulatory odes; a change in which originated that prevalent contempt +for the laurel which descended from the era of Tate to that of +Southey. + +And yet the odes were in no sense more thoroughly Pindaric than in the +circumstance of their flatteries being bought and paid for at a stated +market value. The triumphal lyrics of Pindar himself were very far +from being those spontaneous and enthusiastic tributes to the prowess +of his heroes, which the vulgar receive them for. Hear the painful +truth, as revealed by the Scholiast.[2] Pytheas of AEgina had +conquered in rough-and-tumble fight all antagonists in the Pancratium. +Casting about for the best means of perpetuating his fame, he found +the alternative to lie between a statuette to be erected in the temple +of the hero-god, or one of the odes of the learned Theban. Choosing +the latter, he proceeded to the poet's shop, cheapened the article, +and would have secured it without hesitation, had not the extortionate +bard demanded the sum of three drachmas,[3] nearly equal to half a +dollar, for the poem, and refused to bate a fraction. The disappointed +bargainer left, and was for some days decided in favor of the brazen +image, which could be had at half the price. But reflecting that what +Pindar would give for his money was a draft upon universal fame and +immortality, while the statue might presently be lost, or melted down, +or its identity destroyed, his final determination was in favor of the +ode,--a conclusion which time has justified. Nor was the Bard of the +Victors ashamed of his mercenary Muse. In the Second Isthmian Ode, we +find an elaborate justification of his practice of praising for +pay,--a practice, he admits, unknown to primitive poets, but rendered +inevitable, in his time, by the poverty of the craft, and the +degeneracy of the many, with whom, in the language of the Spartan +sage, "money made the man." With this Pindaric precedent, therefore, +for selling Pindaric verses, it is no wonder, if the children of the +Muse, in an age still more degenerate than that of their great +original, found ample excuse for dealing out their wares at the best +market. When such as Dryden and Pope lavished in preface and +dedication their encomiums upon wealth and power, and waited eagerly +for the golden guineas the bait might bring them, we have no right to +complain of the Tates and Eusdens for prostituting their neglected +Muses for a splendid sum certain _per annum_. Surely, if royalty, thus +periodically and mercenarily eulogized, were content, the poet might +well be so. And quite as certainly, the Laureate stipend never +extracted from poet panegyric more fulsome, ill-placed, and degrading, +than that which Laureate Dryden volunteered over the pall of Charles +II.[4] + +Tate had been known as a hanger-on at the court of Charles, and as a +feeble versifier and pamphleteer of the Tory school, before an +alliance with Dryden gave him a certain degree of importance. The +first part of "Absalom and Achitophel," in 1681, convulsed the town +and angered the city. Men talked for a time of nothing else. Tate, who +was in the secret of its authorship, talked of it to Dryden, and urged +an extension of the poem. Were there not enough of Shaftesbury's brisk +boys running at large who deserved to be gibbeted? Were there not +enough Hebrew names in the two books of Samuel to name each as +appropriately as those already nomenclatured? But Dryden was +indisposed to undertake a continuation which must fall short of what +had been executed in the exact proportion that the characters left for +it were of minor consequence. He recommended the task to Tate. Tate, +flattered and nothing loath, accordingly sent to the press the second +part of "Absalom and Achitophel," embodying a contribution from Dryden +of two hundred lines, which are as plainly distinguishable from the +rest as a patch of cloth of gold upon cloth of frieze. The credit of +this first alliance proved so grateful to Nahum, that he never after +ventured upon literary enterprise without the aid of a similar +coalition. His genius was inherently parasitic. In conjunction with +Tory and Jesuit, he coalesced in the celebration of Castlemaine's +gaudy reception at Rome. + +In conjunction with Nicholas Brady, he prepared that version of the +Psalms still appended to the English Book of Common Prayer. In +conjunction with Dryden and others, he translated Juvenal. In +conjunction with Lord Dorset, he edited a praiseworthy edition of the +poems of Sir John Davies, which might otherwise have been lost or +forgotten. In conjunction with Garth, he translated the +"Metamorphoses" of Ovid. And in conjunction with Dr. Blow, he prepared +those Pindaric flights which set King William asleep, and made +Godolphin ashamed that the deeds of Marlborough should be so +unworthily sung. + +So long as he continued to enjoy the patronage of his liberal +Maecenas, Tate, with his aid, and these labors, and the income of his +office, contrived to maintain the state of a gentleman. But Dorset +died in 1706; the Laureate's dull heroics found no vent; and ere the +death of Queen Anne,--an event which he bewailed in the least +contemptible of his odes,--his revenues were contracted to the +official stipend. The accession of the house of Hanover, in 1714, was +the downfall of Toryism; and Tate was a Tory. His ruin was complete. +The Elector spared not the house of Pindar. The Laureate was stripped +of the wreath; his only income confiscated; and after struggling +feebly with fate in the form of implacable creditors, he took refuge +in the Old Mint, the resort of thieves and debtors, where in 1715 he +died,--it is said, of starvation. Alas, that the common lot of Grub +Street should have precedent in the person of laurelled royalty +itself! + +The coronation of Laureate Rowe was simultaneous with that of George +I. His immediate claim to the honor dated back to the year 1702, when +his play of "Tamerlane" had caught the popular fancy, and proved of +vast service to the ministry at a critical moment in stimulating the +national antipathy to France. The effect was certainly not due to +artistic nicety or refinement. King William, as _Tamerlane_, was +invested with all virtues conceivable of a Tartar conqueror, united +with the graces of a primitive saint; while King Louis, as _Bajazet_, +fell little short of the perfections of Satan. These coarse daubs, +executed in the broadest style of the sign-post school of Art, so +gratified the mob, that for half a century their exhibition was called +for on the night of November the fifth. Rowe, moreover, belonged to +the straitest sect of Whiggery,--was so bigoted, indeed, as to decline +the acquaintance of a Tory, and in play and prologue missed no chance +of testifying devotion to liberal opinions.[5] His investiture with +the laurel was only another proof that at moments of revolution +extremists first rise to the surface. A man of affluent fortune, and +the recipient of redundant favors from the new ministry, Rowe enjoyed +the sunshine of life, while the dethroned Nahum starved in the Mint, +as the dethroned James starved at Rome. Had the dramatic tribute still +been exacted, there is little doubt that the author of the "Fair +Penitent," and of "Jane Shore," would have lent splendid lustre to his +office. His odes, however,--such, at least, as have been thought +worthy of preservation among his works,--are a prodigious improvement +upon the tenuity of his predecessor, and immeasurably superior in +poetical fire and elegance to those of any successor antecedent to +Warton. + +For, following Nicholas Rowe, there were dark ages of Laureate +dulness,--a period redeemed by nothing, unless by the ridicule and +controversy to which the wearers of the leaf gave occasion. Rowe died +in the last days of 1718. The contest for the vacant place is presumed +to have been unusually active. John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, +imitating Suckling's "Session of the Poets," brings all the +versifiers of the time into the canvas, and after humorously +dispatching one after another, not sparing himself, closes,-- + + "At last, in rushed Eusden, and cried, 'Who shall have it, + But I, the true Laureate, to whom the King gave it?' + Apollo begged pardon, and granted his claim, + But vowed, though, till then, he ne'er heard of his name."[6] + +This Laurence Eusden was a scribbling parson, whose model in Art was +Sir Richard Blackmore, and whose morality was of the Puritanical +stripe. He had assisted Garth in his Ovid, assuming, doubtless upon +high moral grounds, the rendering of the impurest fables. He had +written odes to great people upon occasions more or less great, +therein exhibiting some ingenuity in varying the ordinary staple of +adulation. He had addressed an epithalamium to the Duke of Newcastle +upon his marriage with the Lady Henrietta Godolphin,--a tribute so +gratifying to his Grace, then Lord Chamberlain, as to secure the poet +the place of Rowe. Eusden's was doubtless the least honorable name as +yet associated with the laurel. His contemporaries allude to him with +uniform disdain. Cooke, the translator of Hesiod, tells us,-- + + "Eusden, a laurelled bard, by fortune raised, + By very few was read, by fewer praised," + +Pope, as cavalierly, in the "Dunciad":-- + + "She saw old Prynne in restless Daniel shine, + And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line." + +Jacobs, in his "Lives of the Poets," speaks of him as a multifarious +writer of unreadable trash,--and names but few of his productions. The +truth was, Eusden, secluding himself at his rectory among the fens of +Lincolnshire, took no part in society, declined all association with +the polite circles of the metropolis, thus inviting attacks, from +which his talents were not respectable enough to screen him. That the +loftiest revelations of poetry were not required of the Laureate of +George I., who understood little or no English, there can be no +question. George II. was equally insensible to the Muses; and had the +annual lyrics been a mosaic of the merest gibberish, they would have +satisfied his earlier tastes as thoroughly as the odes of Collins or +Gray. A court, at which Pope and Swift, Young and Thomson were +strangers, had precisely that share of Augustan splendor which enabled +such as Eusden to shine lustrously.[7] + +And so Eusden shone and wrote, and in the fulness of time--September, +1730--died and was buried; and his laurel others desired.[8] The +leading claimants were Richard Savage and Colley Cibber. The touching +story of Savage had won the heart of the Queen, and she had extracted +from the King the promise of the Laureateship for its hero. But in the +Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Savage had an irreconcilable opponent. +The apprehension of exciting powerful enmities, if he elevated the +"Bastard" and his wrongs to so conspicuous a place, had, no doubt, an +influence with the shrewd statesman. Possibly, too, so keen and +practical a mind could not but entertain thorough contempt for the +man, who, with brains, thews, and sinews of his own, a fair education, +and as many golden opportunities of advancement as a reasonable being +could desire, should waste his days in profitless mendicancy at the +doors of great people, in whining endeavors to excite the sympathies +of the indifferent, in poem and petition, in beastly drunkenness, or, +if sober, in maudlin lamentations at the bitterness of his fortune. A +Falconbridge would have better suited the ministerial taste. At all +events, when his Majesty came to request the appointment of the +Queen's _protege_, he found that the patent had already been made out +in the name of Cibber: and Cibber had to be Laureate. The disappointed +one raved, got drunk, sober again, and finally wrote an ode to her +Majesty, announcing himself as her "Volunteer Laureate," who should +repeat his congratulations upon each recurrence of her birthday. The +Queen, in pity, sent him fifty pounds, with a promise of an equal +amount for each of his annual verses. And although Cibber protested, +and ridiculed the new title, as no more sensible than "Volunteer Duke, +Marquis, or Prime Minister," still Savage adhered to it and the +pension tenaciously, sharing the Queen's favor with Stephen Duck, the +marvellous "Thresher,"[9] whose effusions were still more to her +taste. That the yearly fifty pounds were expended in inexcusable riot, +almost as soon as received, was a matter of course. Upon the demise of +Queen Caroline, in 1738, Savage experienced another proof of Walpole's +dislike. The pensions found upon her Majesty's private list were all +continued out of the exchequer, one excepted. The pension of Savage +was the exception. Right feelingly, therefore, might he mourn his +royal mistress, and vituperate the insensible minister; and that he +did both with some degree of animation, the few who still read his +poems will freely admit. + +Colley Cibber had recommended himself to promotion by consistent +partisanship, and by two plays of fair merit and exceeding popularity. +"The Careless Husband" even Pope had praised; "The Nonjuror," an +adaptation of Moliere's "Tartuffe," was one of the most successful +comedies of the period. The King had been delighted with it,--a +circumstance doubtless considered by Sir Robert in selecting a rival +for Savage. Cibber had likewise been the manager, time out of mind, of +Drury-Lane Theatre; and if now and then he had failed to recognize the +exact direction of popular taste,--as in the instance of the "Beggar's +Opera," which he rejected, and which, being accepted by Manager Rich +of Covent Garden, made Rich gay and Gay rich,--he was generally a +sound stage-tactician and judicious caterer. His career, however, had +not been so profitable that an additional hundred pounds should be a +thing of indifference; in fact, the sum seemed to be just what was +needed to enable him to forsake active duty on the stage,--for the +patent was no sooner signed than the veteran retired upon his laurels. + +The annals of the Laureateship, during Cibber's reign, are without +incident.[10] The duties remained unchanged, and were performed, there +is no reason to doubt, to the contentment of the King and court.[11] +But the Laureate himself was peculiarly the object of sarcastic +satire. The standing causes were of course in operation: the envy of +rival poetasters, the dislike of political opponents, the enmities +originating in professional disputes and jealousies. Cibber's manners +had not been studied in the school of Chesterfield, although that +school was then open and flourishing. He was rude, presumptuous, +dogmatic. To superiors in rank he was grudgingly respectful; to equals +and inferiors, insupportably insolent. But when to these aggravating +traits he added the vanity of printing an autobiography, exposing a +thousand assailable points in his life and character, the temptation +was irresistible, and the whole population of Grub Street enlisted in +a crusade against him.[12] Fortunately, beneath the crust of insolence +and vanity, there was a substratum of genuine power in the Laureate's +make, which rendered him not only a match for these, but for even a +greater than these, the author of the "Dunciad." Pope's antipathy for +the truculent actor dated some distance back. + + Back to the 'Devil,' the last echoes roll, + And 'Coll!' each butcher roars at Hockley-hole. + +The latter accounts for it by telling, that at the first +representation of Gay's "Three Hours after Marriage," in 1717, where +one of the scenes was violently hissed, some angry words passed +between the irritated manager and Pope, who was behind the scenes, and +was erroneously supposed to have aided in the authorship. The odds of +a scolding match must have been all in favor of the blustering Cibber, +rather than of the nervous and timid Pope; but then the latter had a +faculty of hate, which his antagonist had not, and he exercised it +vigorously. The allusions to Cibber in his later poems are frequent. +Thus, in the "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot":-- + + "And has not Colley still his Lord and whore? + His butchers Henley? his freemasons Moore?" + +And again:-- + + "So humble he has knocked at Tibbald's door, + Has drunk with Colley, nay, has rhymed for Moore." + +And in the "Imitation of Horace," addressed to Lord Fortescue:-- + + "Better be Cibber, I maintain it still, + Than ridicule all taste, blaspheme, quadrille." + +"The Dunciad," as originally published in 1728, had Lewis Theobald for +its hero. There was neither sense nor justice in the selection. Pope +hated Theobald for presuming to edit the plays of Shakspeare with +greatly more ability and acuteness than himself had brought to the +task. His dislike had no better foundation. Neither the works, the +character, nor the associations of the man authorized his elevation to +the throne of dulness. The disproportion between the subject and the +satire instantly impresses the reader. After the first explosion of +his malice, it impressed Pope; and anxious to redeem his error, he +sought diligently for some plan of dethroning Tibbald, and raising +another to the vacant seat. Cibber, in the mean time, was elevated to +the laurel, and that by statesmen whom it was the fate of Pope to +detest in secret, and yet not dare to attack in print. The Fourth Book +of the "Dunciad" appeared in 1742, and its attacks were mainly +levelled at the Laureate. The Laureate replied in a pamphlet, +deprecating the poet's injustice, and declaring his unconsciousness of +any provocation for these reiterated assaults. At the same time he +announced his determination to carry on the war in prose as long as +the satirist should wage it in verse,--pamphlet for poem, world +without end. Hostilities were now fairly established. Pope issued a +fresh edition of his satire complete. The change he had long coveted +he now made. The name of Cibber was substituted throughout for that of +Theobald, the portraiture remaining the same. Johnson properly +ridicules the absurdity of leaving the heavy traits of Theobald on the +canvas, and simply affixing the name of his mercurial contemporary +beneath; and, indeed, there is much reason to doubt whether the mean +jealousy which inspired the first "Dunciad," or the blundering rage +which disfigured the second, is in the worse taste. Cibber kept his +engagement, replying in pamphlet. The immediate victory was +unquestionably his. Morbidly sensitive to ridicule, Pope suffered +acutely. Richardson, who found him once with the Cibberine leaves in +his hand, declared his persuasion, from the spectacle of rage, +vexation, and mortification he witnessed, that the poet's death +resulted from the strokes of the Laureate. If so, we must concede him +to have been the victor who laid his adversary at his feet on the +field. Posterity, however, which listens only to the satirist, has +judged differently and unjustly.[13] Theobald, though of no original +talent, was certainly, in his generation, the most successful +illustrator of Shakspeare, and the first, though Rowe and Pope had +preceded him in the effort, who had brought a sound verbal criticism +to bear on the text. It is to his credit, that many of the most +ingenious emendations suggested in Mr. Collier's famous folio were +anticipated by this "king of the dunces"; and it must be owned, that +his edition is as far superior to Warburton's and Hanmer's, which were +not long after brought out with a deafening flourish of trumpets, as +the editions of Steevens and Malone are to his. Yet, prompted by the +"Dunciad," it is the fashion of literature to regard Theobald with +compassion, as a block-head and empiric. Cibber escapes but little +better, and yet he was a man of respectable talent, and played no +second-rate part in the literary history of the time. + +As Laureate Cibber drew near the end of earthly things, a desire, +common to poetical as well as political potentates, possessed him,--a +desire to nominate a successor. In his case, indeed, the idea may have +been borrowed from "MacFlecknoe" or the "Dunciad." The Earl of +Chesterfield, during his administration in Ireland, had discovered a +rival to Ben Jonson in the person of a poetical bricklayer, one Henry +Jones, whom his Lordship carried with him to London, as a specimen of +the indigenous tribes of Erin. It was easier for this Jones to rhyme +in heroics than to handle a trowel or construct a chimney. He rhymed, +therefore, for the amusement and in honor of the polite circle of +which Stanhope was the centre; the fashionable world subscribed +magnificently for his volume of "Poems upon Several Occasions";[14] +his tragedy, "The Earl of Essex," in the composition of which his +patron is said to have shared, was universally applauded. Its +introduction to the stage was the work of Cibber; and Cibber, assisted +by Chesterfield, labored zealously to secure the author a reversion of +the laurel upon his own lamented demise. + +The effort was unsuccessful. Cibber's death occurred in December, +1757. The administration of the elder Pitt, which had been restored +six months before, was insensible to the merits of the prodigious +bricklayer. The wreath was tendered to Thomas Gray. It would, no +doubt, have proved a grateful relief to royalty, obliged for +twenty-seven years to listen twice yearly, if not oftener, to the +monotonous felicitations of Colley, to hear in his stead the author of +the "Bard," of the "Progress of Poetry," of the "Ode at Eton College." +But the relief was denied it. Gray, ambitious only of the historical +chair at Cambridge, declined the laurel. In the mean time, the claims +of William Whitehead were earnestly advocated with the Lord +Chamberlain, by Lord and Lady Jersey, and by the Earl Harcourt. A +large vote in the House of Commons might be affected by a refusal. +Pitt, who cared nothing for the laurel, but much for the votes, gave +his assent, and Whitehead was appointed. Whitehead was the son of a +baker, and, as an eleemosynary scholar at Winchester School, had won a +poetical prize offered to the students by Alexander Pope. Obtaining a +free scholarship at Cambridge, he became in due time a fellow of Clare +Hall, and subsequently tutor to the sons of Lord Jersey and Lord +Harcourt, with whom he made the tour of the Continent. Two of his +tragedies, "The Roman Father," and "Creuesa," met with more success +than they deserved. A volume of poems, not without merit, was given to +the press in 1756, and met with unusual favor through the exertions of +his two noble friends. That he was not a personal applicant for the +laurel, nor conscious of the movement in his behalf, he takes occasion +in one of his poems to state:-- + + "Howe'er unworthily I wear the crown, + unasked it came, and from a hand unknown."[15] + +From the warm championship of his friends, and the commendations of +Mason, the friend of Gray, we infer that Whitehead was not destitute +of fine social qualities. His verse, which is of the only type current +a century ago, is elegantly smooth, and wearisomely tame,--nowhere +rising into striking or original beauties. Among his merits as a poet +modesty was not. His "Charge to the Poets," published in 1762, drew +upon him the wrath and ridicule of his fellow-verse-wrights, and +perhaps deservedly. Assuming, with amusing vanity, what, if ever true, +was only so a century before or a half-century after, that the laurel +was the emblem of supremacy in the realm of letters, and that it had +been granted him as a token of his matchless merit,-- + + "Since my king and patron have thought fit + To place me on the throne of modern wit,--" + +he proceeds to read the subject throng a saucy lecture on their vices +and follies,-- + + "As bishops to their clergy give their charge." + +A good-natured dogmatism is the tone of the whole; but presumption and +dogmatism find no charity among the _genus irritabile_, and Whitehead +received no quarter. Small wits and great levelled their strokes at a +hide which self-conceit had happily rendered proof. The sturdiest +assailant was Charles Churchill. He never spares him,-- + + "Who in the Laureate chair-- + By grace, not merit, planted there-- + In awkward pomp is seen to sit, + And by his patent proves his wit; + For favors of the great, we know, + Can wit as well as rank bestow; + And they who, without one pretension, + Can get for fools a place or pension, + Must able be supposed, of course, + If reason is allowed due force, + To give such qualities and grace + As may equip them for the place. + + "But he who measures as he goes + A mongrel kind of tinkling prose, + And is too frugal to dispense + At once both poetry and sense,-- + Who, from amidst his slumbering guards, + Deals out a charge to subject bards, + Where couplets after couplets creep, + Propitious to the reign of sleep," etc. + +Again, in the "Prophecy of Famine,"-- + + "A form, by silken smile, and tone + Dull and unvaried, for the Laureate known, + Folly's chief friend, Decorum's eldest son, + In every party found, and yet of none, + This airy substance, this substantial shade." + +And elsewhere he begs for + + "Some such draught... + As makes a Whitehead's ode go down, + Or slakes the feverette of Brown." + +But satire disturbed not the calm equanimity of the pensioner and +placeman. + + "The laurel worn + By poets in old time, but destined now + In grief to wither on a Whitehead's brow," + +continued to fade there, until a whole generation of poets had passed +away. It was not until the middle of April, 1785, that Death made way +for a successor. + +The suddenness of Whitehead's decease came near leaving a royal +birthday unsung,--an omission scarcely pardonable with one of George +the Third's methodical habits. An impromptu appointment had to be +made. It was made before the Laureate was buried. Thomas Warton, the +Professor of Poetry at Oxford, received the patent on the 30th of +April, and his ode, married to fitting music, was duly forthcoming on +the 24th of May. The selection of Warton was faultless. His lyrical +verse was the best of a vicious school; his sonnets, according to that +exquisite sonneteer, Sir Egerton Brydges, were the finest in the +language; his "History of English Poetry," of which three volumes had +appeared, displayed an intimate acquaintance with the early English +writers. Nor should we pass unnoticed his criticisms and annotations +upon Milton and Spenser, manifesting as they did the acutest +sensitiveness to the finest beauties of poetry. If the laurel implied +the premiership of living poets, Warton certainly deserved it. He was +a head and shoulders taller than his actual contemporaries.[16] He +stood in the gap between the old school and the new, between the dead +and the coming. Goldsmith and Johnson were no more; Cowper did not +print his "Task" until the autumn of 1785; Burns made his _debut_ +about the same moment; Rogers published his "Ode to Superstition" the +next year; the famous "Fourteen Sonnets" of Bowles came two years +later; while Wordsworth and Landor made their first appearance in +1793. Fortunate thus in time, Warton was equally fortunate in +politics. He was an Oxford Tory, a firm believer in divine right and +passive obedience, and a warm supporter of the new ministers. To the +King, it may be added, no nomination could have given greater +satisfaction. The official odes of Warton evince all the elegant +traits which characterize his other writings. Their refined taste and +exquisite modulation are admirable; while the matter is far less +sycophantic than was to be expected from so devout a monarchist. The +tender of the laurel certainly gratified him:-- + + "Yet still one joy remains, that not obscure + Nor useless all my vacant days have flowed, + From youth's gay dawn to manhood's prime mature, + Nor with the Muse's laurel unbestowed."[17] + +And, like Southey, he was not indisposed to enhance the dignity of the +wreath by classing Chaucer and Spenser, as we have seen, among its +wearers. The genuine claims of Warton to respect probably saved him +from the customary attacks. Bating a few bungling thrusts amid the +doggerel of "Peter Pindar," he escaped scathless,--gaining, on the +other hand, a far more than ordinary proportion of poetical panegyric. + + "Affection and applause alike he shared; + All loved the man, all venerate the bard: + E'en Prejudice his fate afflicted hears, + And lettered Envy sheds reluctant tears. + Such worth the laurel could alone repay, + Profaned by Cibber, and contemned by Gray; + Yet hence its Breath shall new distinction claim, + And, though it gave not, take from Warton fame."[18] + +The last of Warton's odes was written in his last illness, and +performed three days after his death. Appositely enough, it was an +invocation to Health, meriting more than ordinary praise for eloquent +fervor. Warton died May 21st, 1790. The laurel was vacant for a month, +when Henry James Pye was gazetted. There was hardly a hungry placeman +in London who had not as just pretensions to the honor. What poetical +gifts he had displayed had been in school or college exercises. His +real claims consisted in having spent a fortune in electioneering for +ministers; and these claims being pressed with unusual urgency at the +moment of Warton's death, he was offered the Laureateship as +satisfaction in part.[19] He eagerly accepted it, and received the +balance two years later in the shape of a commission as Police +Magistrate of Middlesex. Thereafter, like Henry Fielding, or Gilbert +A'Beckett, he divided his days between penal law and polite +literature. His version of the "Poetics" of Aristotle, with +illustrations drawn liberally from recent authors, was perhaps +begotten of a natural wish to satisfy the public that qualifications +for the laurel were not wholly wanting. A barren devotion to the drama +was always his foible. It was freely indulged. With few exceptions, +his plays were affairs of partnership with Samuel James Arnold, a +writer of ephemeral popularity, whose tale of "The Haunted Island" was +wildly admired by readers of the intensely romantic school, but whose +tragedies, melodramas, comedies, farces, operas, are now forgotten. In +addition to these auxiliary labors, which ripened yearly, Pye tried +his hand at an epic,--the subject, King Alfred,--the plot and +treatment not greatly differing from those which Blackmore brought to +the same enterprise. The poem passed at once from the bookshop to the +trunk-maker,--not, however, before an American publisher was found +daring enough to reprint it. There are also to be mentioned +translations from Pindar, Horace, and other classics, for Sharpe's +edition of the British Poets, a collection to which he lent editorial +aid. "Poet Pye"[20] was fortunate in escaping contemporary wit and +satire. Gifford alluded to him, but Gifford's Toryism was security +that no Tory Court-Poet would be roughly handled. Byron passed him in +silence. The Smiths treated him as respectfully as they treated +anybody. Moore's wit at the expense of the Regent and his courtiers +had only found vent in the "Two-Penny Post-Bag" when Pye was gathered +to his predecessors. + +That calamity occurred in August, 1813. With it ended the era of +birthday songs and New-Year's verses. The King was mad; his nativity +was therefore hardly a rational topic of rejoicing. The Prince Regent +had no taste for the solemn inanity of stipulated ode, the performance +of which only served to render insufferably tedious the services of +the two occasions in the year when imperative custom demanded his +attendance at the Chapel. Consultation was had with John Wilson +Croker, Secretary of the Admiralty. Croker's sharp common-sense at +once suggested the abolition of the Laureate duties, but the retention +of the office as a sinecure. Walter Scott, to whom the place was +offered, as the most popular of living poets, seconded the counsel of +Croker, but declined the appointment, as beneath the dignity of the +intended founder of a long line of border knights. He recommended +Southey. He had already recommended Southey to the "Quarterly," and +through the "Quarterly" to Croker, then and still its most brilliant +contributor; and this second instance of disinterested kindness was +equally efficacious. Southey was appointed. The tierce of Canary +ceased to be a perquisite of the office, the Laureate disclaiming it; +and instead of annual odes upon set occasions, such effusions as the +poet might choose to offer at the suggestion of passing events were to +be accepted as the sum of official duty. These were to be said or +read, not sung,--a change that completed the radical revolution of the +office. + +However important the salary of a hundred pounds may have been to +Southey, it is very sure that the laurel seemed to infuse all its +noxious and poisonous juices into his literary character. His vanity, +like Whitehead's, led him to regard his chaplet as the reward of +unrivalled merit. His study-chair was glorified, and became a throne. +His supremacy in poetry was as indubitable as the king's supremacy in +matters ecclesiastical. He felt himself constrained to eliminate +utterly from his conscience whatever traces of early republicanism, +pantisocracy, and heresy still disfigured it; and to conform +unreservedly to the exactest requirements of high Toryism in politics +and high Churchism in religion. He was in the pay and formed a part of +the government; could he do else than toil mightily in his department +for the service of a master who had so sagaciously anticipated the +verdict of posterity, as to declare him, who was the least popular, +the greatest of living poets? He found it a duty to assume a rigid +censorship over as many of his Majesty's lieges as were addicted to +verse,--to enact the functions of minister of literary police,--to +reprehend the levity of Moore, the impiety of Byron, the democracy of +Leigh Hunt, the unhappy lapse of Hazlitt, the drunkenness of Lamb. +Assumptions so open to ridicule, and so disparaging to far abler men, +told as disadvantageously upon his fame as upon his character. He +became the butt of contemporary satire. Horace Smith, Moore, Shelley, +Byron, lampooned him savagely. The latter made him the hero of his +wicked "Vision of Judgment," and to him dedicated his "Don Juan." The +dedication was suppressed; but no chance offered in the body of that +profligate rhapsody to assail Bob Southey, that was not vigorously +employed. The self-content of the Laureate armed him, however, against +every thrust. Contempt he interpreted as envy of his sublime +elevation:-- + + "Grin, Envy, through thy ragged mask of scorn! + In honor it was given; with honor it is worn." + +Of course such matchless self-complacency defied assault. + +Southey's congratulatory odes appeared as often as public occasion +seemed to demand them. There were in rapid succession the "Ode to the +Regent," the "Carmen Triumphale," the "Pilgrimage to Waterloo," the +"Vision of Judgment," the "Carmen Nuptiale," the "Ode on the Death of +the Princess Charlotte." The "Quarterly" exalted them, one and all; +the "Edinburgh" poured upon them volleys of keen but ineffectual +ridicule. At last the Laureate desisted. The odes no longer appeared; +and during the long and dark closing years of his life, the only +production of the Laureate pen was the yearly signature to a receipt +for one hundred pounds sterling, official salary. + +Robert Southey died in March, 1843. Sir Robert Peel, who had obliged +Wordsworth the year before, by transferring the post in the excise, +which he had so long held, to the poet's son, and substituting a +pension for its salary, testified further his respect for the Bard of +Rydal by tendering him the laurel. It was not to be refused. Had the +office been hampered with any demands upon the occupant for popular +lyric, in celebration of notable events, Wordsworth was certainly the +last man to place in it. His frigid nature was incapable of that +prompt enthusiasm, without which, poetry, especially poetry responsive +to some strong emotion momentarily agitating the popular heart, is +lifeless and worthless. Fortunately, there were no such exactions. The +office had risen from its once low estate to be a dignified sinecure. +As such, Wordsworth filled it; and, dying, left it without one +poetical evidence of having worn the wreath. + +To him, in May, 1850, succeeded, who, as the most acceptable poet of +the day, could alone rightly succeed, Alfred Tennyson, the actual +Poet-Laureate. Not without opposition. There were those who endeavored +to extinguish the office, and hang up the laurel forever,--and to that +end brought pregnant argument to bear upon government. "The Times" was +more than usually decided in favor of the policy of extinguishment. +Give the salary, it was urged, as a pension to some deserving writer +of verse, whose necessities are exacting; but abolish a title degraded +by association with names and uses so unworthy, as to confer shame, +not honor, on the wearer. The laurel is presumed to be granted to the +ablest living English poet. What vocation have the Tite Barnacles, +red-tapists, vote-mongers, of Downing Street to discriminate and +determine this supreme poetical excellence, in regard to which the +nicest critics, or the most refined and appreciative reading public +may reasonably differ among themselves as widely as the stars? On the +other hand, it was argued, that the laurel had, from its last two +wearers, recovered its lost dignity. They had lent it honor, which it +could not fail to confer upon any survivor, however great his name. +If, then, the old odium had disappeared, why not retain the place for +the sake of the ancient worthies whom tradition had handed down as at +one time or another connected with it? There was rarely difficulty in +selecting from among contemporary poets one of preeminent talent, +whose elevation to the laurel would offend none of his fellows. There +was certainly no difficulty in the present case. There was palpable +evidence that Tennyson was by all admission the hierophant of his +order; and it would be time enough to dispense with the title when a +future occasion should be at a loss to decide among contending +candidates. The latter reasoning prevailed. Tennyson accepted the +laurel, and with it a self-imposed obligation to make occasional +acknowledgments for the gift. + +The first opportunity presented itself in the issue of a fresh edition +of his poems, in 1851. To these he prefixed some noble verses, +dedicating the volumes to the Queen, and referring with as much +delicacy as modesty to his place and his predecessor:-- + + "Victoria,--since your royal grace + To one of less desert allows + This laurel, greener from the brows + Of him that uttered nothing base."-- + +The next occasion was of a different order. The hero of Waterloo ended +his long life in 1852, and a nation was in mourning. Then, if ever, +poets, whether laurelled or leafless, were called to give eloquent +utterance to the popular grief; and Tennyson, of all the poets, was +looked to for its highest expression. The Threnode of the Laureate was +duly forthcoming. The public was, as it had no right to be, +disappointed. Tennyson's Muse was ever a wild and wilful creature, +defiant of rules, and daringly insubordinate to arbitrary forms. It +could not, with the witling in the play, cap verses with any man. The +moment its tasks were dictated and the form prescribed, that moment +there was ground to expect the self-willed jade to play a jade's +trick, and leave us with no decent results of inspiration. For odes +and sonnets, and other such Procrustean moulds into which poetic +thought is at times cast, Tennyson had neither gift nor liking. When, +therefore, with the Duke's death, came a sudden demand upon his Muse, +and that in shape so solemn as to forbid, as the poet conceived, any +fanciful license of invention, the Pindaric form seemed inevitable; +and that form rendered a fair exhibition of the poet's peculiar genius +out of the question. Strapped up in prescription, and impelled to move +by official impulse, his Pegasus was as awkward as a cart-horse. And +yet men did him the justice to say that his failure out-topped the +success of others. + +Far better--indeed, with the animating thrill of the war-trumpet--was +"The Charge of the Light Brigade," and simply because the topic +admitted of whatever novelty of treatment the bias of the bard might +devise. This is the Laureate's most successful attempt at strictly +popular composition. It proves him to possess the stuff of a Tyrtaeus +or a Koerner,--something vastly more stirring and stimulating than the +usual staple of + + "The dry-tongued laurel's pattering talk."[21] + +Howbeit, late may he have call for another war-song! + +With the name of Tennyson we reach the term of our Laureate calendar. +Long ages and much perilously dry research must he traverse who shall +enlarge these outlines to the worthier proportions of history. Yet +will the labor not be wholly barren. It will bring him in contact with +all the famous of letters and poetry; he will fight over again +numberless quarrels of authors; he will soar in boundless Pindaric +flights, or sink, sooth to say, in unfathomed deeps of bathos. With +one moral he will be profoundly impressed: Of all the more splendid +results of genius which adorn our language and literature,--for the +literature of the English language is ours,--not one owes its +existence to the laurel; not one can be directly or indirectly traced +to royal encouragement, or the stimulus of salary or stipend. The +laurel, though ever green, and throwing out blossoms now and then of +notable promise, has borne no fruit. We might strike from the language +all that is ascribable solely to the honor and emolument of this +office, without inflicting a serious loss upon letters. The masques of +Jonson would be regretted; a few lines of Tennyson would be missed. +For the rest, we might readily console ourselves. It may certainly be +urged, that the laurel was designed rather as a reward than as a +provocative of merit; but the allegation has become true only within +the last half-century. Antecedently to Southey, it was the +consideration for which return in poetry was demanded,--in the first +instance, a return in dramatic poetry, and then in the formal lyric. +It was put forth as the stimulus to works good in their several kinds, +and it may be justly complained of for never having provoked any good +works. To represent it as a reward commensurate with the merits of +Wordsworth and Tennyson, or even of Southey, is to rate three +first-class names in modern poetry on a level with the names of those +third-rate "poetillos" who, during the eighteenth century, obtained +the same reward for two intolerable effusions yearly. Upon the whole, +therefore, we incline to the opinion that the laurel can no longer +confer honor or profit upon literature. Sack is palatable, and a +hundred pounds are eminently useful; but the arbitrary judgments of +queens and courtiers upon poetical issues are neither useful nor +palatable. The world may, in fact, contrive to content itself, should +King Alfred prove the last of the Laureates. + +[Footnote 1: Schol. Vet. ad _Nem. Od._ 5.] + +[Footnote 2: Commentators agree, we believe, that there was an error +as to the sum. But we tell the story as we find it.] + +[Footnote 3: DRYDEN, _Epistle to Wm. Congreve_, 1693.] + +[Footnote 4: The _Threnodia Augustalis_, 1685, where the eulogy is +equitably distributed between the dead Charles and the living James.] + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Johnson tells the story of Rowe having applied to +Lord Oxford for promotion, and being asked whether he understood +Spanish. Elated with the prospect of an embassy to Madrid, Rowe +hurried home, shut himself up, and for months devoted himself to the +study of a language the possession of which was to make his fortune. +At length, he reappeared at the Minister's _levee_ and announced +himself a Spanish scholar. "Then," said Lord Oxford, shaking his hand +cordially, "let me congratulate you on your ability to enjoy _Don +Quixote_, in the original." Johnson seems to throw doubt on the story, +because Rowe would not even speak to a Tory, and certainly would not +apply to a Tory minister for advancement. But Oxford was once a Whig, +and was in office as such; and it was probably at that period the +incident occurred.] + +[Footnote 6: Battle of the Poets, 1725.] + +[Footnote 7: + + "Harmonious Cibber entertains + The court with annual birthday strains, + Whence Gay was banished in disgrace, + Where Pope will never show his face, + Where Young must torture his invention + To flatter knaves, or lose his pension." + + SWIFT, _Poetry, a Rhapsody,_ 1733.] + +[Footnote 8: + + "Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise; + He sleeps among the dull of ancient days; + Where wretched Withers, Ward, and Gildon rest, + And high-born Howard, more majestic sire, + With fool of quality completes the choir. + Thou, Cibber! thou his laurel shalt support; + Folly, my son, has still a friend at court." + + _Dunciad_, Bk. I. + +Warburton, by-the-by, exculpates Eusden from any worse fault, as a +writer, than being too prolix and too prolific.--See Note to +_Dunciad_, Bk. II. 291.] + +[Footnote 9: Duck stands at the head of the prodigious school in +English literature. All the poetical bricklayers, weavers, cobblers, +farmer's boys, shepherds, and basket-makers, who have since astonished +their day and generation, hail him as their general father.] + +[Footnote 10: The antiquary may be pleased to know that the "Devil" +tavern in Fleet Street, the old haunt of the dramatists, was the place +where the choir of the Chapel Royal gathered to rehearse the Laureate +odes. Hence Pope, at the close of _Dunciad I._, + + "Then swells the Chapel-Royal throat; + 'God save King Cibber!' mounts in every note. + Familiar White's 'God save King Colley!' cries; + 'God save King Colley!' Drury-Lane replies;"] + +[Footnote 11: + + "On his own works with laurel crowned, + Neatly and elegantly bound,-- + For this is one of many rules + With writing Lords and laureate fools, + And which forever must succeed + With other Lords who cannot read, + However destitute of wit, + To make their works for bookcase fit,-- + Acknowledged master of those seats, + Cibber his birthday odes repeats." + + CHURCHILL, _The Ghost_.] + +[Footnote 12: Swift charges Colley with having wronged Grub Street, by +appropriating to himself all the money Britain designed for its +poets:-- + + "Your portion, taking Britain round, + Was just one annual hundred pound; + Now not so much as in remainder, + Since Cibber brought in an attainder, + Forever fixed by right divine, + A monarch's right, on Grub-Street line." + + _Poetry, a Rhapsody_, 1733.] + +[Footnote 13: Whatever momentary benefit may result from satire, it is +clear that its influence in the long run is injurious to literature. +The satirist, like a malignant Archimago, creates a false medium, +through which posterity is obliged to look at his contemporaries,--a +medium which so refracts and distorts their images, that it is almost +out of the question to see them correctly. There is no rule, as in +astronomy, by which this refraction may be allowed for and corrected.] + +[Footnote 14: London, 1749, 8vo.] + +[Footnote 15: Charge to the Poets, 1762.] + +[Footnote 16: If the reader cares to hear the best that can be said of +Thomas Warton, let him read the Life of Milton, prefixed by Sir +Egerton Brydges to his edition of the poet. If he has any curiosity to +hear the other side, let him read all that Ritson ever wrote, and Dr. +Charles Symnions, in the Life of Milton, prefixed to the standard +edition of the Prose Works, 1806. Symnions denies to Warton the +possession of taste, learning, or sense. Certainly, to an American, +the character of Joseph Warton, the brother of Thomas, is far more +amiable. Joseph was as liberal as his brother was bigoted. While +Thomas omits no chance of condemning Milton's republicanism, in his +notes to the Minor Poems, Joseph is always disposed to sympathize with +the poet. The same generous temper characterizes his commentary upon +Dryden.] + +[Footnote 17: _Sonnet upon the River Lodon_.] + +[Footnote 18: Dr. Huddersford's _Salmagundi_.] + +[Footnote 19: One of the earlier poems of Alexander Wilson, the +ornithologist, was entitled, _The Laurel Disputed_, and was published +in 1791. We have not met with it; but we apprehend, from title and +date, that it is a _jeu d'esprit_, founded upon the recent +appointment. The poetry of Wilson was characterized by much original +humor.] + +[Footnote 20: + + "Come to our _fete_, and show again + That pea-green coat, thou pink of men! + Which charmed all eyes, that last surveyed it; + When Brummel's self inquired, 'Who made it?' + When Cits came wondering from the East, + And thought thee Poet Pye at least." + _Two-Penny Post-Bag_, 1812.] + +[Footnote 21: TENNYSON, _Maud_.] + + + + +WATER-LILIES. + +The inconstant April mornings drop showers or sunbeams over the +glistening lake, while far beneath its surface a murky mass disengages +itself from the muddy bottom, and rises slowly through the waves. The +tasselled alder-branches droop above it; the last year's blackbird's +nest swings over it in the grapevine; the newly-opened Hepaticas and +Epigaeas on the neighboring bank peer down modestly to look for it; +the water-skater (Gerris) pauses on the surface near it, casting on +the shallow bottom the odd shadow of his feet, like three pairs of +boxing-gloves; the Notonecta, or water-boatman, rows round and round +it, sometimes on his breast, sometimes on his back; queer caddis-worms +trail their self-made homesteads of leaves or twigs beside it; the +Dytiscus, dorbug of the water, blunders clumsily against it; the +tadpole wriggles his stupid way to it, and rests upon it, meditating +of future frogdom; the passing wild-duck dives and nibbles at it; the +mink and musk-rat brush it with their soft fur; the spotted turtle +slides over it; the slow larvae of gauzy dragon-flies cling sleepily +to its sides and await their change: all these fair or uncouth +creatures feel, through the dim waves, the blessed longing of spring; +and yet not one of them dreams that within that murky mass there lies +a treasure too white and beautiful to be yet intrusted to the waves, +and that for many a day that bud must yearn toward the surface, +before, aspiring above it, as mortals to heaven, it meets the sunshine +with the answering beauty of the Water-Lily. + +Days and weeks have passed away; the wild-duck has flown onward, to +dive for his luncheon in some remoter lake; the tadpoles have made +themselves legs, with which they have vanished; the caddis-worms have +sealed themselves up in their cylinders, and emerged again as winged +insects; the dragon-flies have crawled up the water-reeds, and, +clinging with heads upward, (not downward, as strangely described in a +late "North British Review,") have undergone the change which +symbolizes immortality; the world is transformed from spring to +summer; the lily-buds are opened into glossy leaf and radiant flower, +and we have come for the harvest. + +We lodged, last night, in the old English phrase, "at the sign of the +Oak and Star." Wishing, not, indeed, like the ancient magicians, to +gather magic berry and bud before sunrise, but at least to see these +treasures of the lake in their morning hour, we camped last night on a +little island, which one tall tree almost covers with its branches, +while a dense undergrowth of young chestnuts and birches fills all the +intervening space, touching the water all around the circular, +shelving shore. Yesterday was hot, but the night was cool, and we +kindled a gypsy fire of twigs, less for warmth than for society. The +first gleam made the dark lonely islet into a cheering home, turned +the protecting tree to a starlit roof, and the chestnut-sprays to +illuminated walls. Lying beneath their shelter, every fresh flickering +of the fire kindled the leaves into brightness and banished into dark +interstices the lake and sky; then the fire died into embers, the +leaves faded into solid darkness in their turn, and water and heavens +showed light and close and near, until fresh twigs caught fire and the +blaze came up again. Rising to look forth, at intervals, during the +night,--for it is the worst feature of a night out-doors, that +sleeping seems such a waste of time,--we watched the hilly and wooded +shores of the lake sink into gloom and glimmer into dawn again, amid +the low plash of waters and the noises of the night. + +Precisely at half-past three, a song-sparrow above our heads gave one +liquid trill, so inexpressibly sudden and delicious, that it seemed to +set to music every atom of freshness and fragrance that Nature held; +then the spell was broken, and the whole shore and lake were vocal +with song. Joining in this jubilee of morning, we were early in +motion; bathing and breakfast, though they seemed indisputably in +accordance with the instincts of the Universe, yet did not detain us +long, and we were promptly on our way to Lily Pond. Will the reader +join us? + +It is one of those summer days when a veil of mist gradually burns +away before the intense sunshine, and the sultry morning only plays at +coolness, and that with its earliest visitors alone. But we are before +the sunlight, though not before the sunrise, and can watch the pretty +game of alternating mist and shine. Stray gleams of glory lend their +trailing magnificence to the tops of chestnut-trees, floating vapors +raise the outlines of the hills and make mystery of the wooded +islands, and, as we glide through the placid water, we can sing, with +the Chorus in the "Ion" of Euripides, "O immense and brilliant air, +resound with our cries of joy!" + +Almost every town has its Lily Pond, dear to boys and maidens, and +partially equalizing, by its annual delights, the presence or absence +of other geographical advantages. Ours is accessible from the larger +lake only by taking the skiff over a narrow embankment, which protects +our fairyland by its presence, and eight distant factories by its dam. +Once beyond it, we are in a realm of dark Lethean water, utterly +unlike the sunny depths of the main lake. Hither the water-lilies have +retreated, to a domain of their own. Darker than these dark waves, +there stand in their bosom hundreds of submerged trees, and dismasted +roots still upright, spreading their vast, uncouth limbs like enormous +spiders beneath the surface. They are remnants of border wars with the +axe, vegetable Witheringtons, still fighting on their stumps, but +gradually sinking into the soft ooze, and ready, perhaps, when a score +of centuries has piled two more strata of similar remains in mud above +them, to furnish foundations for a newer New Orleans; that city having +been lately discovered to be thus supported. + +The present decline in business is clear revenue to the water-lilies, +and these waters are higher than usual because the idle factories do +not draw them off. But we may notice, in observing the shores, that +peculiar charm of water, that, whether its quantity be greater or +less, its grace is the same; it makes its own boundary in lake or +river, and where its edge is, there seems the natural and permanent +margin. And the same natural fitness, without reference to mere +quantity, extends to its children. Before us lie islands and +continents of lilies, acres of charms, whole, vast, unbroken surfaces +of stainless whiteness. And yet, as we approach them, every islanded +cup that floats in lonely dignity, apart from the multitude, appears +as perfect in itself, couched in white expanded perfection, its +reflection taking a faint glory of pink that is scarcely perceptible +in the flower. As we glide gently among them, the air grows fragrant, +and a stray breeze flaps the leaves, as if to welcome us. Each +floating flower becomes suddenly a ship at anchor, or rather seems +beating up against the summer wind, in a regatta of blossoms. + +Early as it is, the greater part of the flowers are already expanded. +Indeed, that experience of Thoreau's, of watching them open in the +first sunbeams, rank by rank, is not easily obtained, unless perhaps +in a narrow stream, where the beautiful slumberers are more regularly +marshalled. In our lake, at least, they open irregularly, though +rapidly. But, this morning, many linger as buds, while others peer up, +in half-expanded beauty, beneath the lifted leaves, frolicsome as +Pucks or baby-nymphs. As you raise the leaf, in such cases, it is +impossible not to imagine that a pair of tiny hands have upheld it, or +else that the pretty head will dip down again, and disappear. Others, +again, have expanded all but the inmost pair of white petals, and +these spring apart at the first touch of the finger on the stem. Some +spread vast vases of fragrance, six or seven inches in diameter, while +others are small and delicate, with petals like fine lace-work. +Smaller still, we sometimes pass a flotilla of infant leaves, an inch +in diameter. All these grow from the deep, dark water,--and the +blacker it is, the fairer their whiteness shows. But your eye follows +the stem often vainly into those sombre depths, and vainly seeks to +behold Sabrina fair, sitting with her twisted braids of lilies, +beneath the glassy, cool, but not translucent wave. Do not start, +when, in such an effort, only your own dreamy face looks back upon +you, beyond the gunwale of the reflected boat, and you find that you +float double, self and shadow. + +Let us rest our paddles, and look round us, while the idle motion +sways our light skiff onward, now half-embayed among the lily-pads, +now lazily gliding over intervening gulfs. There is a great deal going +on in these waters and their fringing woods and meadows. All the +summer long, the pond is bordered with successive walls of flowers. In +early spring emerge the yellow catkins of the swamp-willow, first; +then the long tassels of the graceful alders expand and droop, till +they weep their yellow dust upon the water; then come the +birch-blossoms, more tardily; then the downy leaves and white clusters +of the medlar or shadbush (_Amelanchier Canadensis_ of Gray); these +dropping, the roseate chalices of the mountain-laurel open; as they +fade into melancholy brown, the sweet Azalea uncloses; and before its +last honeyed blossom has trailed down, dying, from the stem, the more +fragrant Clethra starts out above, the button-bush thrusts forth its +merry face amid wild roses, and the Clematis waves its sprays of +beauty. Mingled with these grow, lower, the spiraeas, white and pink, +yellow touch-me-not, fresh white arrowhead, bright blue vervain and +skullcap, dull snakehead, gay monkey-flower, coarse eupatoriums, +milk-weeds, golden-rods, asters, thistles, and a host beside. Beneath, +the brilliant scarlet cardinal-flower begins to palisade the moist +shores; and after its superb reflection has passed away from the +waters, the grotesque witch-hazel flares out its narrow yellow petals +amidst the October leaves, and so ends the floral year. There is not a +week during all these months, when one cannot stand in the boat and +wreathe garlands of blossoms from the shores. + +These all crowd around the brink, and watch, day and night, the +opening and closing of the water-lilies. Meanwhile, upon the waters, +our queen keeps her chosen court, nor can one of these mere +land-loving blossoms touch the hem of her garment. In truth, she bears +no sister near her throne. There is but this one species among us, +_Nymphaea odorata_. The beautiful little rose-colored _Nymphaea +sanguinea_, which once adorned the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, was +merely an occasional variety of costume. She has, indeed, an English +half-sister, _Nymphaea alba_, less beautiful, less fragrant, but +keeping more fashionable hours,--not opening (according to Linnaeus) +till seven, nor closing till four. Her humble cousin, the yellow +Nuphar, keeps commonly aloof, as becomes a poor relation, though +created from the selfsame mud,--a fact which Hawthorne has beautifully +moralized. The prouder Nelumbium, a second-cousin, lineal descendant +of the sacred bean of Pythagoras, keeps aloof, through pride, not +humility, and dwells, like a sturdy democrat, in the Far West. + +But, undisturbed, the water-lily keeps her fragrant court, with +few attendants. The tall pickerel-weed (Pontederia) is her +gentleman-usher, gorgeous in blue and gold through July, somewhat +rusty in August. The water-shield (Hydropeltis) is chief +maid-of-honor; she is a highborn lady, not without royal blood indeed, +but with rather a bend sinister; not precisely beautiful, but very +fastidious; encased over her whole person with a gelatinous covering, +literally a starched duenna. Sometimes she is suspected of conspiring +to drive her mistress from the throne; for we have observed certain +slow watercourses where the leaves of the water-lily have been almost +wholly replaced by the similar, but smaller, leaves of the +water-shield. More rarely seen is the slender Utricularia, a dainty +maiden, whose light feet scarce touch the water,--with the still more +delicate floating white Water-Ranunculus, and the shy Villarsia, whose +submerged flowers merely peep one day above the surface and then close +again forever. Then there are many humbler attendants, Potamogetons or +pond-weeds. And here float little emissaries from the dominions of +land; for the fallen florets of the Viburnum drift among the +lily-pads, with mast-like stamens erect, sprinkling the water with a +strange beauty, and cheating us with the promise of a new aquatic +flower. + +These are the still life of this sequestered nook; but it is in fact a +crowded thoroughfare. No tropic jungle more swarms with busy existence +than these midsummer waters and their bushy banks. The warm and +humming air is filled with insect sounds, ranging from the murmur of +invisible gnats and midges, to the impetuous whirring of the great +Libellulae, large almost as swallows, and hawking high in air for +their food. Swift butterflies glance by, moths flutter, flies buzz, +grasshoppers and katydids pipe their shrill notes, sharp as the edges +of the sunbeams. Busy bees go humming past, straight as arrows, +express-freight-trains from one blossoming copse to another. Showy +wasps of many species fume uselessly about, in gallant uniforms, +wasting an immense deal of unnecessary anger on the sultry universe. +Graceful, stingless Sphexes and Ichneumon-flies emulate their bustle, +without their weapons. Delicate lady-birds come and go to the +milkweeds, spotted almost as regularly as if Nature had decided to +number the species, like policemen or hack-drivers, from one to +twenty. Elegant little Lepturae fly with them, so gay and airy, they +hardly seem like beetles. Phryganeae, (_nes_ caddisworms,) laceflies, +and long-tailed Ephemerae flutter more heavily by. On the large +alder-flowers clings the superb _Desmocerus palliatus_, beautiful as a +tropical insect, with his steel-blue armor and his golden cloak +(_pallium_) above his shoulders, grandest knight on this Field of the +Cloth of Gold. The countless fireflies which spangled the evening mist +now only crawl sleepily, daylight creatures, with the lustre buried in +their milky bodies. More wholly children of night, the soft, luxurious +Sphinxes (or hawk-moths) come not here; fine ladies of the insect +world, their home is among gardens and green-houses, late and languid +by day, but all night long upon the wing, dancing in the air with +unwearied muscles till long past midnight, and supping on honey at +last. They come not here; but the nobler butterflies soar above us, +stoop a moment to the water, and then with a few lazy wavings of their +sumptuous wings float far over the oak-trees to the woods they love. + +All these hover near the water-lily; but its special parasites are an +elegant beetle (_Donacia metallica_) which keeps house permanently in +the flower, and a few smaller ones which tenant the surface of the +leaves,--larva, pupa, and perfect insect, forty feeding like one, and +each leading its whole earthly career on this floating island of +perishable verdure. The "beautiful blue damsel-flies" alight also in +multitudes among them, so fearless that they perch with equal +readiness on our boat or paddle, and so various that two adjacent +ponds will sometimes be haunted by two distinct sets of species. In +the water, among the leaves, little shining whirlwigs wheel round and +round, fifty joining in the dance, till, at the slightest alarm, they +whirl away to some safer ballroom, and renew the merriment. On every +floating log, as we approach it, there is a convention of turtles, +sitting in calm debate, like mailed barons, till, as we approach, they +plump into the water, and paddle away for some subaqueous Runnymede. +Beneath, the shy and stately pickerel vanishes at a glance, shoals of +minnows glide, black and bearded pouts frisk aimlessly, soft +water-lizards hang poised without motion, and slender pickerel-frogs +cease occasionally their submerged croaking, and, darting to the +surface with swift vertical strokes, gulp a mouthful of fresh air, and +down again to renew the moist soliloquy. + +Time would fail us to tell of the feathered life around us,--the +blackbirds that build securely in these thickets, the stray swallows +that dip their wings in the quiet waters, and the kingfishers that +still bring, as the ancients fabled, halcyon days. Yonder stands, +against the shore, a bittern, motionless in that wreath of mist which +makes his long-legged person almost as dim as his far-off booming by +night. There poises a hawk, before sweeping down to some chosen bough +in the dense forest; and there fly a pair of blue-jays, screaming, +from tree to tree. As for wild quadrupeds, the race is almost passed +away. Far to the North, indeed, the great moose still browses on the +lily-pads, and the shy beaver nibbles them; but here the few lingering +four-footed creatures only haunt, but do not graze upon these floating +pastures. Eyes more favored than ours may yet chance to spy an otter +in this still place; there by the shore are the small footprints of a +mink; that dark thing disappearing in the waters, yonder, a soft mass +of drowned fur, is a "musquash." Later in the season, a mound of earth +will be his winter dwelling-place; and those myriad muscle-shells at +the water's edge are the remnant of his banquets,--once banquets for +the Indians, too. + +But we must return to our lilies. There is no sense of wealth like +floating in this archipelago of white and green. The emotions of +avarice become almost demoralizing. Every flower bears a fragrant +California in its bosom, and you feel impoverished at the thought of +leaving one behind. But after the first half-hour of eager grasping, +one becomes fastidious, rather scorns those on which the wasps and +flies have alighted, and seeks only the stainless. But handle them +tenderly, as if you loved them. Do not grasp at the open flower as if +it were a peony or a hollyhock, for then it will come off, stalkless, +in your hand, and you will cast it blighted upon the water; but coil +your thumb and second finger affectionately around it, press the +extended forefinger firmly to the stem below, and with one steady pull +you will secure a long and delicate stalk, fit to twine around the +graceful head of your beloved, as the Hindoo goddess of beauty +encircled with a Lotus the brow of Rama. + +Consider the lilies. All over our rural watercourses, at midsummer, +float these cups of snow. They are Nature's symbols of coolness. They +suggest to us the white garments of their Oriental worshippers. They +come with the white roses and prepare the way for the white lilies of +the garden. The white doe of Rylstone and Andrew Marvell's fawn might +fitly bathe amid their beauties. Yonder steep bank slopes down to the +lake-side, one solid mass of pale pink laurel, but, once upon the +water, a purer tint prevails. The pink fades into a lingering flush, +and the white creature floats peerless, set in green without and gold +within. That bright circle of stamens is the very ring with which +Doges once wedded the Adriatic, Venice has lost it, but it dropped +into the water-lily's bosom, and there it rests forever. So perfect in +form, so redundant in beauty, so delicate, so spotless, so +fragrant,--what presumptuous lover ever dared, in his most enamored +hour, to liken his mistress to a water-lily? No human Blanche or +Lilian was ever so fair as that. + +The water-lily comes of an ancient and sacred family of white-robed +priests. They assisted at the most momentous religious ceremonies, +from the beginning of recorded time. The Egyptian Lotus was a sacred +plant; it was dedicated to Harpocrates and to the god Nofr +Atmoo,--Nofr meaning _good_, whence the name of our yellow lily, +Nuphar. But the true Egyptian flower was _Nymphaea Lotus_, though +_Nymphaea caerulea_, Moore's "blue water-lilies," can be traced on the +sculptures also. It was cultivated in tanks in the gardens; it was the +chief material for festal wreaths; a single bud hung over the forehead +of many a queenly dame; and the sculptures represent the weary flowers +as dropping from the heated hands of belles, in the later hours of the +feast. Rock softly on the waters, fair lilies! your Eastern kindred +have rocked on the stormier bosom of Cleopatra. The Egyptian Lotus +was, moreover, the emblem of the sacred Nile,--as the Hindoo species, +of the sacred Ganges; and both the one and the other was held the +symbol of the creation of the world from the waters. The sacred bull +Apis was wreathed with its garlands; there were niches for water, to +place it among tombs; it was carved in the capitals of columns; it was +represented on plates and vases; the sculptures show it in many sacred +uses, even as a burnt-offering; Isis holds it; and the god Nilus still +binds a wreath of water-lilies around the throne of Memnon. + +From Egypt the Lotus was carried to Assyria, and Layard found it among +fir-cones and honeysuckles on the later sculptures of Nineveh. The +Greeks dedicated it to the nymphs, whence the name _Nymphaea_. Nor did +the Romans disregard it, though the Lotus to which Ovid's nymph Lotis +was changed, _servato nomine_, was a tree, and not a flower. Still +different a thing was the enchanted stem of the Lotus-eaters of +Herodotus, which prosaic botanists have reduced to the _Zizyphus +Lotus_ found by Mungo Park, translating also the yellow Lotus-dust +into a mere "farina, tasting like sweet gingerbread." + +But in the Lotus of Hindostan we find our flower again, and the +Oriental sacred books are cool with water-lilies. Open the Vishnu +Purana at any page, and it is a _Sortes Lilianae_. The orb of the +earth is Lotus-shaped, and is upborne by the tusks of Vesava, as if he +had been sporting in a lake where the leaves and blossoms float. +Brahma, first incarnation of Vishnu, creator of the world, was born +from a Lotus; so was Sri or Lakshmu, the Hindoo Venus, goddess of +beauty and prosperity, protectress of womanhood, whose worship guards +the house from all danger. "Seated on a full-blown Lotus, and holding +a Lotus in her hand, the goddess Sri, radiant with beauty, rose from +the waves." The Lotus is the chief ornament of the subterranean Eden, +Patala, and the holy mountain Meru is thought to be shaped like its +seed-vessel, larger at summit than at base. When the heavenly Urvasi +fled from her earthly spouse, Puruvavas, he found her sporting with +four nymphs of heaven, in a lake beautified with the Lotus. When the +virtuous Prahlada was burned at the stake, he cried to his cruel +father, "The fire burneth me not, and all around I behold the face of +the sky, cool and fragrant with beds of Lotus-flowers!" Above all, the +graceful history of the transformations of Krishna is everywhere hung +with these fresh chaplets. Every successive maiden whom the deity +wooes is Lotus-eyed, Lotus-mouthed, or Lotus-cheeked, and the youthful +hero wears always a Lotus-wreath. Also "the clear sky was bright with +the autumnal moon, and the air fragrant with the perfume of the wild +water-lily, in whose buds the clustering bees were murmuring their +song." + +Elsewhere we find fuller details. "In the primordial state of the +world, the rudimental universe, submerged in water, reposed on the +bosom of the Eternal. Brahma, the architect of the world, poised on a +Lotus-leaf, floated upon the waters, and all that he was able to +discern with his eight eyes was water and darkness. Amid scenes so +ungenial and dismal, the god sank into a profound reverie, when he +thus soliloquized: 'Who am I? Whence am I?' In this state of +abstraction Brahma continued during the period of a century and a half +of the gods, without apparent benefit or a solution of his inquiries, +a circumstance which caused him great uneasiness of mind." It is a +comfort, however, to know, that subsequently a voice came to him, on +which he rose, "seated himself upon the Lotus in an attitude of +contemplation, and reflected upon the Eternal, who soon appeared to +him in the form of a man with a thousand heads": a questionable +exchange for his Lotus-solitude. + +This is Brahminism; but the other great form of Oriental religion has +carried the same fair symbol with it. One of the Bibles of the +Buddhists is named "The White Lotus of the Good Laer." A pious +Nepaulese bowed in reverence before a vase of lilies which perfumed +the study of Sir William Jones. At sunset in Thibet, the French +missionaries tell us, every inhabitant of every village prostrates +himself in the public square, and the holy invocation, "Oh, the gem in +the Lotus!" goes murmuring over hill and valley, like the sound of +many bees. It is no unmeaning phrase, but an utterance of ardent +desire to be absorbed into that Brahma whose emblem is the sacred +flower. The mystic formula or "mani" is imprinted on the pavement of +the streets, it floats on flags from the temples, and the wealthy +Buddhists maintain sculptor-missionaries, Old Mortalities of the +water-lily, who, wandering to distant lands, carve the blessed words +upon cliff and stone. + +Having got thus far into Orientalism, we can hardly expect to get out +again without some slight entanglement in philology. Lily-pads. Whence +_pads_? No other leaf is identified with that singular monosyllable. +Has our floating Lotus-leaf any connection with padding, or with a +footpad? with the ambling pad of an abbot, or a paddle, or a paddock, +or a padlock? with many-domed Padua proud, or with St. Patrick? Is the +name derived from the Anglo-Saxon _paad_ or _petthian_, or the Greek +[Greek: pateo]? All the etymologists are silent; Tooke and Richardson +ignore the problem; and of the innumerable pamphlets in the Worcester +and Webster Controversy, loading the tables of school-committee-men, +not one ventures to grapple with the lily-pad. + +But was there ever a philological trouble for which the Sanscrit could +not afford at least a conjectural cure? A dictionary of that extremely +venerable tongue is an ostrich's stomach, which can crack the hardest +etymological nut. The Sanscrit name for the Lotus is simply _Padma_. +The learned Brahmins call the Egyptian deities Padma Devi, or +Lotus-Gods; the second of the eighteen Hindoo Puranas is styled the +Padma Purana, because it treats of the "epoch when the world was a +golden Lotus"; and the sacred incantation which goes murmuring through +Thibet is "Om mani padme houm." It would be singular, if upon these +delicate floating leaves a fragment of our earliest vernacular has +been borne down to us, so that here the schoolboy is more learned than +the _savans_. + +This lets us down easily to the more familiar uses of this plant +divine. By the Nile, in early days, the water-lily was good not merely +for devotion, but for diet. "From the seeds of the Lotus," said Pliny, +"the Egyptians make bread." The Hindoos still eat the seeds, roasted +in sand; also the stalks and roots. In South America, from the seeds +of the Victoria (_Nymphaea Victoria_, now _Victoria Regia_) a farina +is made, preferred to that of the finest wheat,--Bonpland even +suggesting to our reluctant imagination Victoria-pies. But the +European species are used, so far as we know, only in dyeing, and as +food (if the truth be told) of swine. Our own water-lily is rather +more powerful in its uses; the root contains tannin and gallic acid, +and a decoction of it "gives a black precipitate, with sulphate of +iron." It graciously consents to become an astringent, and a styptic, +and a poultice, and, banished from all other temples, still lingers in +those of AEsculapius. + +The botanist also finds his special satisfactions in our flower. It +has some strange peculiarities of structure. So loose is the internal +distribution of its tissues, that it was for some time held doubtful +to which of the two great vegetable divisions, exogenous or +endogenous, it belonged. Its petals, moreover, furnish the best +example of the gradual transition of petals into stamens, +--illustrating that wonderful law of identity which is the +great discovery of modern science. Every child knows this peculiarity +of the water-lily, but the extent of it seems to vary with season and +locality, and sometimes one finds a succession of flowers almost +entirely free from this confusion of organs. + +Our readers may not care to know that the order of Nymphaeaceae +"differs from Ranunculaceae in the consolidation of its carpels, from +Papaveraceae in the placentation not being parietal, and from +Nelumbiaceae in the want of a large truncated disc containing +monospermous achenia"; but they may like to know that the water-lily +has relations on land, in all gradations of society, from poppy to +magnolia, and yet does not conform its habits precisely to those of +any of them. Its great black roots, sometimes as large as a man's arm, +form a network at the bottom of the water. Its stem floats, an airy +four-celled tube, adapting itself to the depth, though never stiff in +shallows, like the stalk of the yellow lily: and it contracts and +curves when seed-time approaches, though not so ingeniously as the +spiral threads of the European Vallisneria, which uncoil to let the +flowers rise to the surface, and then cautiously retract, that the +seeds may ripen on the very bottom of the lake. The leaves show +beneath the magnifier beautiful adaptations of structure. They are +not, like those of land-plants, constructed with deep veins to receive +the rain and conduct it to the stem, but are smooth and glossy, and of +even surface. The leaves of land-vegetation have also thousands of +little breathing-pores, principally on the under side: the apple-leaf, +for instance, has twenty-four thousand to a square inch. But here they +are fewer; they are wholly on the upper side, and, whereas in other +cases they open or shut according to the moisture of the atmosphere, +here the greedy leaves, secure of moisture, scarcely deign to close +them. Nevertheless, even these give some recognition of hygrometric +necessities, and, though living on the water, and not merely +christened with dewdrops like other leaves, but baptized by immersion +all the time, they are yet known to suffer in drought and to take +pleasure in the rain. + +We have spoken of the various kindred of the water-lily; but we must +not leave our fragrant subject without due mention of its most +magnificent, most lovely relative, at first claimed even as its twin +sister, and classed as a Nymphaea. We once lived near neighbor to a +Victoria Regia. Nothing, in the world of vegetable existence, has such +a human interest. The charm is not in the mere size of the plant, +which disappoints everybody, as Niagara does, when tried by that sole +standard. The leaves of the Victoria, indeed, attain a diameter of six +feet; the largest flowers, of twenty-three inches,--less than four +times the size of the largest of our water-lilies. But it is not the +mere looks of the Victoria, it is its life which fascinates. It is not +a thing merely of dimensions, nor merely of beauty, but a creature of +vitality and motion. Those vast leaves expand and change almost +visibly. They have been known to grow half an inch an hour, eight +inches a day. Rising one day from the water, a mere clenched mass of +yellow prickles, a leaf is transformed the next day to a crimson +salver, gorgeously tinted on its upturned rim. Then it spreads into a +raft of green, armed with long thorns, and supported by a frame-work +of ribs and cross-pieces, an inch thick, and so substantial, that the +Brazil Indians, while gathering the seed-vessels, place their young +children on the leaves;--_yrupe_, or water-platter, they call the +accommodating plant. But even these expanding leaves are not the glory +of the Victoria; the glory is in the opening of the flower. + +We have sometimes looked in, for a passing moment, at the green-house, +its dwelling-place, during the period of flowering,--and then stayed +for more than an hour, unable to leave the fascinating scene. After +the strange flower-bud has reared its dark head from the placid tank, +moving it a little, uneasily, like some imprisoned water-creature, it +pauses for a moment in a sort of dumb despair. Then trembling again, +and collecting all its powers, it thrusts open, with an indignant +jerk, the rough calyx-leaves, and the beautiful disrobing begins. The +firm, white, central cone, first so closely infolded, quivers a +little, and swiftly, before your eyes, the first of the hundred petals +detaches its delicate edges, and springs back, opening towards the +water, while its white reflection opens to meet it from below. Many +moments of repose follow,--you watch,--another petal trembles, +detaches, springs open, and is still. Then another, and another, and +another. Each movement is so quiet, yet so decided, so living, so +human, that the radiant creature seems a Musidora of the water, and +you almost blush with a sense of guilt, in gazing on that peerless +privacy. As petal by petal slowly opens, there still stands the +central cone of snow, a glacier, an alp, a jungfrau, while each +avalanche of whiteness seems the last. Meanwhile, a strange rich odor +fills the air, and Nature seems to concentrate all fascinations and +claim all senses for this jubilee of her darling. + +So pass the enchanted moments of the evening, till the fair thing +pauses at last, and remains for hours unchanged. In the morning, one +by one, those white petals close again, shutting all their beauty in, +and you watch through the short sleep for the period of waking. Can +this bright transfigured creature appear again, in the same chaste +beauty? Your fancy can scarcely trust it, fearing some disastrous +change; and your fancy is too true a prophet. Come again, after the +second day's opening, and you start at the transformation which one +hour has secretly produced. Can this be the virgin Victoria,--this +thing of crimson passion, this pile of pink and yellow, relaxed, +expanded, voluptuous, lolling languidly upon the water, never to rise +again? In this short time every tint of every petal is transformed; it +is gorgeous in beauty, but it is "Hebe turned to Magdalen." + +But our rustic water-lily, our innocent Nymphaea, never claiming such +a hot-house glory, never drooping into such a blush, blooms on +placidly in the quiet waters, till she modestly folds her leaves for +the last time, and bows her head beneath the surface forever. Next +year she lives for us only in her children, fair and pure as herself. + +Nay, not alone in them, but also in memory. The fair vision will not +fade from us, though the paddle has dipped its last crystal drop from +the waves, and the boat is drawn upon the shore. We may yet visit many +lovely and lonely places,--meadows thick with violet, or the homes of +the shy Rhodora, or those sloping forest-haunts where the slight +Linnaea hangs its twin-born heads,--but no scene will linger on our +vision like this annual Feast of the Lilies. On scorching mountains, +amid raw prairie-winds, or upon the regal ocean, the white pageant +shall come back to us again, with all the luxury of summer heats, and +all the fragrant coolness that can relieve them. We shall fancy +ourselves again among these fleets of anchored lilies,--again, like +Urvasi, sporting amid the Lake of Lotuses. + +For that which is remembered is often more vivid than that which is +seen. The eye paints better in the presence, the heart in the absence, +of the object most dear. "He who longs after beautiful Nature can best +describe her," said Bettine; "he who is in the midst of her loveliness +can only lie down and enjoy." It enhances the truth of the poet's +verses, that he writes them in his study. Absence is the very air of +passion, and all the best description is _in memoriam_. As with our +human beloved, when the graceful presence is with us, we cannot +analyze or describe, but merely possess, and only after its departure +can it be portrayed by our yearning desires; so is it with Nature: +only in losing her do we gain the power to describe her, and we are +introduced to Art, as we are to Eternity, by the dropping away of our +companions. + + + + +FIFTY AND FIFTEEN. + + With gradual gleam the day was dawning, + Some lingering stars were seen, + When swung the garden-gate behind us,-- + He fifty, I fifteen. + + The high-topped chaise and old gray pony + Stood waiting in the lane: + Idly my father swayed the whip-lash, + Lightly he held the rein. + + The stars went softly back to heaven, + The night-fogs rolled away, + And rims of gold and crowns of crimson + Along the hill-tops lay. + + That morn, the fields, they surely never + So fair an aspect wore; + And never from the purple clover + Such perfume rose before. + + O'er hills and low romantic valleys + And flowery by-roads through, + I sang my simplest songs, familiar, + That he might sing them too. + + Our souls lay open to all pleasure,-- + No shadow came between; + Two children, busy with their leisure,-- + He fifty, I fifteen. + + * * * * * + + As on my couch in languor, lonely, + I weave beguiling rhyme, + Comes back with strangely sweet remembrance + That far-removed time. + + The slow-paced years have brought sad changes, + That morn and this between; + And now, on earth, my years are fifty, + And his, in heaven, fifteen. + + + + +ILLINOIS IN SPRING-TIME: WITH A LOOK AT CHICAGO. + +I remember very well, that, when I studied the "Arabian Nights," with +a devotion which I have since found it difficult to bestow on the +perusal of better books, the thing that most excited my imagination +was the enchanted locomotive carpet, granted by one of the amiable +genii to his favorite, to whom it gave the power of being in a moment +where nobody expected him, paying visits at the most unfashionable +hours, and making himself generally ubiquitous when interest or +curiosity prompted. The other wonders were none of them inexhaustible. +Donkeys that talked after their heads were cut off, just as well as +some donkeys do with them on,--old cats turned into beautiful +damsels,--birds that obligingly carried rings between parted +lovers,--one soon had enough of. Caves full of gold and silver, and +lighted by gems resplendent as the stars, were all very well, but soon +tired. After your imagination had selected a few rings and bracelets, +necklaces and tiaras, and carried off one or two chests full of gold, +what could it do with the rest,--especially as they might vanish or +turn to pebbles or hazel-nuts in your caskets? + +But flying carpets! They could never tire. You seated yourself just in +the middle, in the easiest possible attitude, and at a wish you were +off, (not off the carpet, but off this work-a-day world,) careering +through sunny fields of air with the splendid buoyancy of the eagle, +steering your intelligent vehicle by a mere thought, and descending, +gently as a snow-flake, to garden-bower or palace-window, moonlit +kiosk or silent mountain-peak, as whim suggested or affairs urged. +This was magic indeed, and worthy the genii of any age. + +The sense of reality with which I accepted this wonder of wonders has +furnished forth many a dream, sleeping and waking, since those days; +and it is no uncommon thing for me, even now, to be sailing through +the air, feeling its soft waves against my face, and the delicious +refreshment of the upper ether in my breast, only to wake as if I had +dropped into bed with a celerity that made the arrival upon earth +anything but pleasant. I am not sure but there is some reality in +these flights, after all. These aerial journeys may be foretastes of +those we shall make after we are freed from the incumbrance of +avoirdupois. I hope so, at least. + +Yet there are good things of the kind here below, too. After all, what +were a magic carpet that could carry a single lucky wight,--at best, +but a species of heavenly sulky,--compared with a railroad train that +speeds along hundreds of men, women, and children, over land and +water, with any amount of heavy baggage, as well as a boundless extent +of crinoline? And if this equipage, gift of genii of our age, seem to +lack some of the celerity and secrecy which attended the voyagers of +the flying carpet, suppose we add the power of whispering to a friend +a thousand miles off the inmost thoughts of the heart, the most +desperate plans, the most dangerous secrets! Do not the two powers +united leave the carpet immeasurably behind? + +Shakspeare is said, in those noted lines,-- + + "Dear as the ruddy drops + That visit this sad heart," + +to have anticipated the discovery of the circulation of the blood: did +not the writers of the Oriental stories foresee rail and telegraph, +and describe them in their own tropical style? + +It is often said, that, although medical science leaves us pretty much +as it found us with regard to the days of the years of our pilgrimage, +and has as yet, with all its discoveries, done little towards +prolonging "this pleasing, anxious being," yet the material +improvements of our day do in effect lengthen mortal life for us. And +truly, what must Indian life have been worth, when it took a month to +cut down a tree with a stone hatchet, and when the shaping of a canoe +was the work of a year? When two hundred miles of travel consumed a +week's time, every two hundred miles' journey was worth a week's life; +and if we accept the idea of a certain celebrated character, (not +"Quintus Curtius," but Geoffrey Crayon, I believe,) that the time we +spend in journeying is just so much subtracted from our little span of +days, what a fearful loss of life must have resulted from our old +modes of locomotion! And yet we inconsiderately grumble at an +occasional smash-up! So easily are we spoiled! + +There are grave doubts, however, in some minds, whether our present +celerity of travel be wholly a gain upon the old methods. It must +depend upon circumstances. If agreeable people virtually live longer +now, so do bores, cheats, slanderers, hypocrites, and people who eat +onions and chew tobacco; and the rail enables these to pursue their +victims with inevitable, fatal swiftness. + +Some hold that the pleasure of travelling is even impaired by this +increase of speed. There is such a thing as fatal facility. As well +eat a condensed dinner, or hear a concert in one comprehensive crash, +ear-splitting and soul-confounding, as see miles of landscape at a +glance. Willis says, travelling on an English railway is equivalent to +having so many miles of green damask unrolled before your weary eyes. +And one may certainly have too much of a good thing. + +But, instead of discussing railroads in general,--too grand a theme +for me,--let me say that nobody can persuade me it is not delightful +to fly over ground scarcely yet trodden by the foot of man; to +penetrate, with the most subtle resources of inventive art, the +recesses in which Nature has enshrined herself most privately,--her +dressing-room, as it were, where we find her in her freshness, before +man-milliners have marred her beauty by attempts at improvement. The +contrast between that miracle of art, a railroad-train at full speed, +and a wide, lonely prairie, or a dusky forest, leafless, chilly, and +silent,--save for the small tinkling of streams beginning to break +from their frosty limits,--is one of the most striking in all the wide +range of rural effects. It reminds me, though perhaps unaccountably to +some, of Browning's fine image,-- + + "And ever and anon some bright white shaft + Burnt through the pine-tree roof, here burnt + and there, + As if God's messenger through the close + wood-screen + Plunged and re-plunged his weapon at a venture." + +Even where fields have begun to be tilled and houses and barns to be +built, the scared flying of domestic animals at sound of the terrific +visitor,--the resistless chariot of civilization with scythed axles +mowing down ignorance and prejudice as it whirls along,--tells a whole +story of change and wonder. We can almost see the shadows of the past +escaping into the dim woods, or flitting over the boundless prairie, +shivering at the fearful whistle, and seeking shelter from the wind of +our darting. + +The season for this romantic pleasure of piercing primeval Nature on +the wings of subtilest Art is rapidly drawing to a close. How few +penetrable regions can we now find where the rail-car is a novelty! +The very cows and horses, in most places, know when to expect it, and +hardly vouchsafe a sidelong glance as they munch their green dinner. A +railroad to the Pacific may give excitement of this kind a somewhat +longer date, but those who would enjoy the sensation on routes already +in use must begin their explorings at once. There is no time to be +lost. If we much longer spend all our summers in beating the +changeless paths of the Old World, our chance for the fresh but +fleeting delight I have been speaking of will have passed by, never to +return. It were unwise to lose this, one of the few remaining avenues +to a new sensation. Europe will keep; but the prairies will not, the +woods will not, hardly the rivers. Already the flowery waving oceans +of Illinois begin to abound in ships, or what seem such,--houses +looming up from the horizon, like three-masters sometimes, sometimes +schooners, and again little tentative sloops. These are creeping +nearer and nearer together, filling and making commonplace those +lovely deserts where the imagination can still find wings, and +world-wearied thought a temporary repose. Where neighbors were once +out of beacon-sight, they are now within bell-sound; and however +pleasant this may be for the neighbors, it is not so good for the +traveller, especially the traveller who has seen Europe. Only think of +a virgin forest or prairie, after over-populated Belgium or finished +England! Europeans understand the thing, and invariably rush for the +prairies; but we Americans, however little we may have seen of either +world, care little for the wonders of our own. Yet, when we go abroad, +we cannot help blushing to acknowledge that we have not seen the most +striking features of our own country. I speak from experience. Scott, +describing the arid wastes of the Hebrides,-- + + "Placed far amid the melancholy main," + +and swept bare by wintry-cold sea-breezes, said,-- + + "Yes! 'twas sublime, but sad; the loneliness + Loaded thy heart, the desert tired thine eye." + +But how different the loneliness of a soft-waving prairie,--soft even +before the new grass springs; soft in outline, in coloring, in its +whispering silence! Nothing sad or harsh; no threat or repulsion; only +mild hope, and promise of ease and abundance. Whether the glad flames +sport amid the long dry grass of last year, or the plough turn up a +deep layer of the exhaustless soil, or flocks of prairie-chickens fly +up from every little valley, images of life, joy, and plenty belong to +the scene. The summer flowers are not more cheerful than the spring +blaze, the spring blackness of richness, or the spring whirr and +flutter. The sky is alive with the return of migratory birds, swinging +back and forth, as if hesitating where to choose, where all is good. +Frogs hold noisy jubilees, ("Anniversary Meetings," perhaps,)--very +hoarse, and no wonder, considering their damp lodging,--but singing, +in words more intelligible than those of the opera-choruses, "Winter's +gone! Spring's come! No, it isn't! Yes, it is!"--and the Ayes have it. +The woodpecker's hammer helps the field-music, wherever he can find a +tree. He seems to know the carpenter is coming, and he makes the most +of his brief season. All is life, movement, freedom, joy. Not on the +very Alps, where their black needles seem to dart into the blue +depths, or snow-fields to mingle with the clouds, is the immediate, +vital sympathy of Earth with Heaven more evident and striking. + +The comparative ease with which prairie regions are prepared for the +advent of the great steam-car is exactly typical of the facilities +which they offer to other particulars of civilization. As the +smoothing of the prairie path, preparatory to railway speed, is but +short work, compared with the labor required in grading and levelling +mountainous tracts for the same purpose, so the introduction of all +that makes life desirable goes on with unexampled rapidity where the +land requires no felling of heavy timber to make it ready for the +plough, and where the soil is rich to such a depth that no man fears +any need of new fertilizing in his life-time or his son's. We observe +this difference everywhere in prairiedom; and it is perhaps this +thought, this close interweaving of marked outward aspect with great +human interests, that gives the prairie country its air of peculiar +cheerfulness. To man the earth was given; for him its use and its +beauty were created; it is his idea which endows it with expression, +whether savage or kindly. Rocks and mountains suggest the force +required to conquer difficulties, and the power with which the lord of +creation is endowed to subdue them; and the chief charm and interest +of such regions is derived, consciously or unconsciously, from this +suggestion. Prairie images are more domestic, quiet, leisurely. No +severe, wasting labor is demanded before corn and milk for wife and +little ones are wrung from reluctant clods. No danger is there of sons +or daughters being obliged to quit their homes and roam over foreign +lands for a precarious and beggarly subsistence. No prairie-boy will +ever carry about a hand-organ and a monkey, or see his sister yoked to +the plough, by the side of horse or ox. Blessed be God that there are +still places where grinding poverty is unfelt and unfeared! "Riches +fineless" belong to these deep, soft fields, and they become +picturesque by the thought, as the sea becomes so by the passing of a +ship, and the burning desert by the foot-print of a traveller or the +ashes of his fire. + +It was in spring weather, neither cold nor warm, now and then shiny, +and again spattering with a heavy shower, or misty under a warm, slow +rain,--the snow still lying in little streaks under shady +ridges,--that I first saw the prairies of Illinois. Everybody--kind +everybody!--said, "Why didn't you come in June?" But I, not being a +bird of the air, who alone travels at full liberty, the world before +him where to choose and Providence his guide, cared not to answer this +friendly query, but promised to be interested in the spring aspect of +the prairies, after my fashion, as sincerely as more fastidious +travellers can be in the summer one. It is very well to be prepared +when company is expected, but friends may come at any time. "Brown +fields and pastures bare" have no terrors for me. Green is gayer, but +brown softer. Blue skies are not alone lovely; gray ones set them +off--Rain enhances shine. Mud, to be sure;--but then railroads are the +Napoleons of mud. Planks and platforms quench it completely. One may +travel through tenacious seas of it without smirching one's boot-heel. +There is even a feeling of triumph as we see it lying sulky and +impotent on either side, while we bowl along dry-shod. When Noah and +his family came out of the Ark, and found all "soft with the Deluge," +it was very different. The prospect must have been discouraging. I +thought of it as we went through, or rather over, the prairies. But if +there had been in those days an Ararat Central, with good "incline" +and stationary engine, they need not have sent out dove or raven, but +might have started for home as soon as the rails shone in the sun and +they could get the Ark on wheels. It would have been well to move +carefully, to be sure; and it is odd to think what a journey they +might have had, now and then stopping or switching-off because of a +dead Mastodon across the track, or a panting Leviathan lashing out, +thirstily, with impertinent tail,--to say nothing of sadder sights and +impediments. + +There were only pleasant reminiscences of the Great Deluge as we flew +along after a little one. Happy we! in a nicely-cushioned car, +berthed, curtained, and, better than all, furnished with the "best +society," _sans_ starch, _sans_ crinoline; the gentlemen sitting on +their hats as much as they pleased, and the ladies giving curls and +collars the go-by, all in tip-top humor to be pleased. I could imagine +but one improvement to our equipage,--that a steam-organ attached to +it should have played, very softly, Felicien David's lovely level +music of "The Desert," as we bowled along. There were long glittering +side-streams between us and the black or green prairie,--streams with +little ripples on their faces, as the breeze kissed them in passing, +and now and then a dimple, under the visit of a vagrant new-born +beetle. To call such shining waters mud or puddles did not accord with +the spirit of the hour; so we fancied them the "mirroring waters" of +the poet, and compared them to fertilizing Nile,--whose powers, +indeed, they share, to some extent. By their sides _ought_ to be +planted willows and poplars, and alders of half a dozen kinds, but are +not yet. All in good time. Thirsty trees would drink up superfluous +moisture, and in return save fuel by keeping off sweeping winds, and +money by diverting heavy snows, those Russian enemies to the Napoleon +rail, and by preserving embankments, to which nothing but interlacing +roots can give stability. Rows of trees bordering her railroads would +make Illinois look more like France, which in many respects she +already resembles. + +The haze or _mirage_ of the prairies is wonderfully fantastic and +deceptive. The effect which seamen call _looming_ is one of the +commonest of its forms. This brings real but distant objects into +view, and dignifies them in size and color, till we can take a +farm-house for a white marble palace, and leafless woods with sunset +clouds behind them for enchanted gardens hung with golden fruit. But +the most gorgeous effects are, as is usual with air-castles, created +out of nothing,--that is, nothing more substantial than air, mist, and +sun- or moon- or star-beams. Fine times the imagination has, riding on +purple and crimson rays, and building Islands of the Blest among +vapors that have just risen from the turbid waters of the Mississippi! +No Loudon or Downing is invoked for the contriving or beautifying of +these villa-residences and this landscape-gardening. Genius comes with +inspiration, as inspiration does with genius; and we are our own +architects and draughtsmen, rioting at liberty with Nature's splendid +palette at our command, and no thought of rule or stint. Why should we +not, in solider things, derive more aid, like the poor little +"Marchioness" of Dickens, from this blessed power of imagination? +Those who do so are always laughed at as unpractical; but are they not +most truly practical, if they find and use the secret of gilding over, +and so making beautiful or tolerable, things in themselves mean or +sad? + +Once upon a time, then, the great State of Illinois was all under +water;--at least, so say the learned and statistical. If you doubt it, +go count the distinctly-marked ridges in the so-called bluffs, and see +how many years or ages this modern deluge has been subsiding. Where +its remains once lay sweltering under the hot sun, and sucking miasms +from his beams, now spread great green expanses, wholesome and +fertile, making the best possible use of sunbeams, and offering, by +their aid, every earthly thing that men and animals need for their +bodily growth and sustenance, in almost fabulous abundance. + +The colored map of Illinois, as given in a nice, new book, called, +"Illinois as it is," looks like a beautiful piece of silk, brocaded in +green (prairies) on a brownish ground (woodland tracts),--the surface +showing a nearly equal proportion of the two; while the swampy lands, +designated by dark blue,--in allusion, probably, to the occasional +state of mind of those who live near them,--take up a scarce +appreciable part of the space. Long, straggling "bluffs," on the banks +of the rivers, occupy still less room; but they make, on land and +paper, an agreeable variety. People thus far go to them only for the +mineral wealth with which they abound. It will be many years, yet, +before they will be thought worth farming; not because they would not +yield well, but because there is so much land that yields better. + +Some parts of the State are hilly, and covered with the finest timber. +The scenery of these tracts is equal to any of the kind in the United +States; and much of it has been long under cultivation, having been +early chosen by Southern settlers, who have grown old upon the soil. +Here and there, on these beautiful highlands, we find ancient ladies, +bright-eyed and cheerful, who tell us they have occupied the selfsame +house--built, Kentucky-fashion, with chimney outside--for forty years +or so. The legends these good dames have to tell are, no doubt, quite +as interesting in their way as those which Sir Walter Scott used to +thread the wilds of Scotland to gather up; but we value them not. +By-and-by, posterity will anathematize us for letting our old national +stories die in blind contempt or sheer ignorance of their value. + +The only thing to be found fault with in the landscape is the want of +great fields full of stumps. It does not seem like travelling in a new +country to see all smooth and ready for the plough. Trees are not here +looked upon as natural enemies; and so, where they grow, there they +stand, and wave triumphant over the field like victors' banners. No +finer trees grow anywhere, and one loves to see them so prized. Yet we +miss the dear old stumps. My heart leaps up when I behold hundreds of +them so close together that you can hardly get a plough between. Long, +long years ago, I have seen a dozen men toiling in one little cleared +spot, jollily engaged in burning them with huge fires of brush-wood, +chopping at them with desperate axes, and tearing the less tenacious +out by the roots, with a rude machine made on the principle of that +instrument by the aid of which the dentist revenges you on an +offending tooth. The country looks tame, at first, without these +characteristic ornaments, so suggestive of human occupancy. The ground +is excellently fertile where stumps have been, and association makes +us rather distrustful of its goodness where nothing but grass has ever +grown. + +The prairies are not as flat in surface as one expects to find them. +Except in the scarcity of trees, their surface is very much like other +portions of what is considered the best farming land. There are great +tracts of what are called bushy prairies, covered with a thick growth +of hazel and sassafras, jessamine and honey-suckle, and abounding in +grape-vines. These tracts possess springs in abundance. The "islands" +so often alluded to by travellers are most picturesque and beautiful +features in the landscape. They must not be compared to oases, for +they are surrounded by anything but sterility; but they are the +evidence of springs, and generally of a slight rise in the ground, and +the timber upon them is of almost tropical luxuriance. Herds of deer +are feeding in their shade, the murmur of wild bees fills the air, and +the sweet vine-smell invites birds and insects of every brilliant +color. Prairie-chickens are in flocks everywhere, and the approach of +civilization scarcely ever disturbs them. No engine-driver in the +southern part of the State but has often seen deer startled by the +approach of his train, and many tell tales of more ferocious denizens +of the wilds. Buffalo have all long since disappeared; but what times +they must have had in this their paradise, before they went! On the +higher prairies the grass is of a superior quality, and its seed +almost like wheat. On those which are low and humid it grows rank and +tough, and sometimes so high that a man on horseback may pass through +it unobserved. The crowding of vegetation, owing to the over-fertility +of the soil, causes all to tend upward, so that most of the growth is +extra high, rather than spreading in breadth. In the very early +spring, the low grass is interspersed with quantities of violets, +strawberry-blossoms, and other delicate flowers. As the grass grows +taller, flowers of larger size and more brilliant hues diversify it, +till at length the whole is like a flowery forest, but destined to be +burnt over in the autumn, leaving their ashes to help forward the +splendid growth of their successors. + +One of the marvels of this marvellous prairiedom, at the present hour, +is the taste and skill displayed in houses and gardens. One fancies a +"settler" in the Western wilds so occupied with thoughts of shelter +and sustenance as hardly to remember that a house must be +perpendicular to be safe, and a garden fenced before it is worth +planting. But every mile of our prairie-flight reminds us, that, where +no time and labor are to be consumed in felling trees and "toting" +logs to mill,--planks and joists, and such like, walking in, by rail, +all ready for the framing,--there is leisure for reflection and choice +as to form; and also, that, where fertility is the inevitable +attendant upon the first incision of the plough, _what_ we shall plant +and _how_ we shall plant it become the only topics for consideration. +Setting aside the merely temporary residences of the poorer class of +farmers,--houses sure to be replaced by palaces of pine-boards, at +least, before a great while, provided the owner does not "move West," +or take to whiskey,--the cottages we catch glimpses of from +car-windows are pretty and well-planned, and some of them show even +better on the inside than on the out. I must forbear to enlarge on the +comfort and abundance of these dwellings, lest I trench upon private +matters; but I may mention, by way of illustrating my subject, and +somewhat as the painter introduces human figures into his picture to +give an idea of the height of a tower or the vastness of a cathedral, +that I have found an abundant and even elegant table, under frescoed +ceiling, in a cottage near the Illinois Central, and far south of the +mid-line of this wonderful State, so lately a seeming waste through +much of its extent. + +And thus throughout. At one moment a bare expanse, looking +man-despised, if not God-forgotten,--and at the next, a smiling +village, with tasteful dwelling, fine shrubbery, great hotels, spires +pointing heavenward, and trees that look down with the conscious +dignity of old settlers, as if they had stood just so since the time +of good Father Marquette, that stout old missionary, who first planted +the holy cross in their shade, and, "after offering to the Mightiest +thanks and supplications, fell asleep to wake no more." + +There are many interesting reminiscences or traditions of the early +European settlers of Illinois. After Father Marquette,--whom I always +seem to see in Hicks's sweet picture of a monk inscribing the name +JESU on the bark of a tree in the forest,--came La Salle, an emissary +of the great Colbert, under Louis XIV.; an explorer of many heroic +qualities, who has left in this whole region important traces of his +wanderings, and the memory of his bloody and cruel murder at the +impious hands of his own followers, who had not patience to endure to +the end. Counted as part of Florida, under Spanish rule, and part of +Louisiana, under that of the French,--falling into the hands of the +celebrated John Law, in the course of his bubble Mississippi scheme, +and afterwards ceded with Canada and Nova Scotia to the English, +Illinois was never Americanized until the peace of '83. The spongy +turf of her prairies bore the weight of many a fort, and drank the +blood of the slain in many a battle, when all around her was at peace. +The fertility of her soil and the comparative mildness of her climate +caused her to be eagerly contended for, as far back as 1673, when the +pioneers grew poetical under the inspiration of "a joy that could not +be expressed," as they passed her "broad plains, all garlanded with +majestic forests and checkered with illimitable prairies and island +groves." "We are Illinois," said the poor Indians to Father +Marquette,--meaning, in their language, "We are men." And the Jesuits +treated them as men; but by traders they soon began to be treated like +beasts; and of course--poor things!--they did their best to behave +accordingly. All the forts are ruins now; there is no longer occasion +for them. The Indians are nothing. There can scarcely be found the +slightest trace of their occupancy of these rich acres. Nations that +build nothing but uninscribed burial-places foreshadow their own +doom,--to return to the soil and be forgotten. But the mode of their +passing away is not, therefore, a matter of indifference. + +On the stronger and more intelligent rests the responsibility of such +changes; and in the case of our Indians, it is certain that a load of +guilt, individual and national, rests somewhere. Necessity is no +Christian plea, "It must needs be that offences come, but woe to him +by whom the offence cometh!" The Indian and the negro shall rise up in +judgment against our rich and happy land, and condemn it for +inhumanity and selfishness. Have they not already done so? Blood and +treasure, poured out like water, have been the beginnings of +retribution in one case; a deeper and more vital punishment, such as +belongs to bosom-sins, awaits us in the other. Shall no penitence, no +sacrifice, attempt to avert it? + +Illinois, level, fertile, joyous, took French rule very kindly. The +missionaries, who were physicians, schoolmasters, and artisans, as +well as preachers, lived among the people, instructed them in the arts +of life as well as in the ceremonies and spirit of the Catholic faith; +and natives and foreigners seem to have dwelt together in peace and +love. The French brought with them the regularity and neatness that +characterize their home-settlements, and the abundance in which they +lived enabled them to be public-spirited and to deal liberally even +with the Indians. They raised wheat in such plenty that Indian corn +was cultivated chiefly for provender, although they found the +_voyageurs_ glad to buy it as they passed back and forth on their +adventurous journeys. The remains of their houses show how +substantially they built; two or three modern sudden houses could be +made out of one old French picketed and porticoed cottage. + +The appearance of an Illinois settler in those days was rather +picturesque than elegant,--substance before show being the principle +upon which it was planned. While the Indian still wore his paint and +feathers when he came to trade, the rural swain appeared in a _capote_ +made of blanket, with a hood that served in cold weather instead of a +Leary, buck-skin overalls, moccasins of raw-hide, and, generally, only +a natural shock of Sampsonian locks between his head and the sun; +while his lady-love was satisfied with an outfit not very +different,--save that there is no tradition that she ever capped the +climax of ugliness by wearing Bloomers. There were gay colors for +holidays, no doubt; but not till 1830, we are told, did the genuine +Illinois settler adopt the commonplace dress of this imitative land. +What pity when people are in such haste to do away with everything +characteristic in costume! + +Both sexes worked hard, bore rough weather without flinching, and +attended carefully to their religious duties; but, withal, they were +gay and joyous, ready for dance and frolic, and never so anxious to +make money that they forgot to make fun. + +What must the ghosts of these primitive Christians think of their +successors, ploughing in broadcloth and beaver, wading through the mud +in patent-leather boots, and all the while wrinkled with anxiety, +gaunt with ambition, and grudging themselves three holidays a year! + +Immigrants in time changed the character of the population as well as +its dress, and for a while there seems to have been something of a +jumble of elements, new laws conflicting with old habits, hungry +politicians preying upon a simple people, who only desired to be let +alone, and who, when they discovered some gross imposition, were +philosophical enough to call it, jokingly, being "greased and +swallowed." This anarchical condition resulted, as usual, in habits of +personal violence; and, at one time, an adverse vote was considered +matter for stabbing or gouging, and juries often dismissed +indictments, fearing private vengeance in case of a discharge of their +duty. They made a wide distinction, in murder trials, between him who +committed the crime in a passion and those who did the thing quietly; +so that you had only to walk up to the person who had offended you, +and shoot him in the open street, to feel tolerably sure of impunity. +In short, there seems to have prevailed, at that time, north of Mason +and Dixon's line, very much the same state of things that still +prevails south of it; but there was other leaven at work, and the good +sense of the people gradually got the better of this short-sighted +folly of violence. + +It is reported as fact, by all writers on the earlier history of this +State, that the holding of courts was conducted very much in the style +reported of the back counties of Georgia and Alabama in our day. The +sheriff would go out into the court-yard and say to the people, "Come +in, boys,--the court is going to begin,"--or sometimes, "Our John is +going to open court now,"--the judge being just one of the "boys." + +Judges did not like to take upon themselves the _onus_ of deciding +cases, but shared it with the jury as far as possible. One story, well +authenticated, runs thus: A certain judge, having to pass sentence of +death upon one of his neighbors, did it in the following form: "Mr. +Green, the jury in their verdict say you are guilty of murder, and the +law in that case says you are to be hung. Now I want you and all your +friends down on Indian Creek to know that it is not me that condemns +you, but the jury and the law. What time would you like to be hung, +Sir?" The poor man replied, that it made no difference to him; he +would rather the court should appoint a time. "Well, then, Mr. Green," +says the judge, "the court will allow you four weeks' time to prepare +for death and settle up your business." It was here suggested by the +Attorney-General that it was usual in such cases for the court to +recapitulate the essential parts of the evidence, to set forth the +nature and enormity of the crime, and solemnly to exhort the prisoner +to repent and fit himself for the awful doom awaiting him. "Oh!" said +the judge, "Mr. Green understands all that as well as if I had +preached to him a month. Don't you, Mr. Green? You understand you're +to be hung this day four weeks?" "Yes, Sir," replied Mr. Green, and so +the matter ended. + +One legal brilliant blazes on the forehead of youthful Illinois, in +the shape of a summary remedy for duelling. One of those heroes who +think it safer to appeal to chance than to logic in vindication of +tarnished honor, and who imagine the blood of a dead friend the only +salve to be relied on for the cure of wounded feelings, killed his +opponent in a duel. The law of Illinois very coolly hanged the +survivor; and from that time to this, other remedies have been found +for spiritual hurts, real or imaginary. Nobody has fancied it +necessary to fight with a noose round his neck. If ever capital +punishment were lawful, (which I confess I do not think it ever can +be,) it would be as a desperate remedy against this horrid relic of +mediaeval superstition and impiety, no wiser or more Christian than +the ordeal by burning ploughshares or poisoned wine. The rope in +judicial hands is certainly as lawful as the pistol in rash ones; so +the duellist has no reason to complain. + +Some of the later days of Illinois, the days of Indian wars and Mormon +wars, pro-slavery wars and financial wars, are too red and black for +peaceful pages; and as they were incidental rather than +characteristic, they do not come within our narrow limits. There is +still too large an infusion of the cruel slavery spirit in the laws of +Illinois; but the immense tide of immigration will necessarily remedy +that, by overpowering the influence introduced over the southern +border. So nearly a Southern State was Illinois once considered to be, +that, in settling the northern boundary, it was deemed essential to +give her a portion of the lake-shore, that her interests might be at +least balanced. They have proved to be more than balanced by this wise +provision. + +The little excuse there is in this favored region for a sordid +devotion to toil, a journey through the State, even at flying pace, is +sufficient to show. The fertility of the soil is the despair of +scientific farming. Who cares for rules, when he has only to drop a +seed and tread on it, to be sure of a hundred-fold return? Who talks +of succession of crops, when twelve burdens of wheat, taken from the +same soil in as many years, leave the ground black and ready for +another yield of almost equal abundance? An alluvial tract of about +three hundred thousand acres, near the Mississippi, has been +cultivated in Indian corn a hundred and fifty years,--indeed, ever +since the French occupation of Illinois. What of under-draining? Some +forty or fifty rivers threading the State, besides smaller streams +innumerable, always will do that, as soon as the Nilic floods of +spring have accomplished their work by floating to the surface the +finest part of the soil. Irrigation? You may now grow rice on one farm +and grapes on another, without travelling far between. It is true, +there must be an end to this universality of power and advantage, some +day; but nobody can see far enough ahead to feel afraid, and it is not +in the spirit of our time to think much about the good of our +grandchildren. "What has posterity done for me?" is the instinctive +question of the busy Westerner, as he sits down under vine and +fig-tree which his own hands have planted, to enjoy peace and plenty, +after suffering the inevitable hardships of pioneer life. You may tell +him he is not wise to scorn good rules; but he will reply, that he did +not come so far West, and begin life anew, for the sake of being wise, +but of making money, and that as rapidly as possible. He has forgotten +the care and economy learned among the cold and stony hills of New +England, and wants to do everything on a large scale. He likes to hear +of patent reapers, Briarean threshing-machines, and anything that will +save him most of the time and trouble of gathering in his heavy +crops,--but that is all. The growth of those crops he has nothing to +do with. That is provided for by Nature in Illinois; if it were not, +he would move "out West." + +Stories of this boundless fertility are rife here. One pioneer told +us, that, when a fence is to be made and post-holes are wanted, it is +only necessary to drop beet-seed ten feet apart all around the field, +and, when the beet is ripe, you pull it up and your post-hole is +ready! To be sure, there was a twinkle in the corner of his eye as he +stated this novel and interesting fact; but, after all, the fertility +in question was not so extravagantly "poefied" by this _canard_ as +some may suppose. Our friend went on to state, that, in his district, +they had a kind of corn which produced from a single grain a dozen +stalks of twelve ears each; and not content with this, on _most_ of +the stalks you would find, somewhere near the top, a small calabash +full of shelled corn! To put the matter beyond doubt, he pulled a +handful of the corn from his pocket, which he invited us to plant, and +satisfy ourselves. + +The reader has probably concluded, by this time, that beets and corn +are not the only enormous things grown in Illinois. + +A friend told us, in perfectly good faith, that a tract of his, some +fourteen thousand acres, in the southern part of the State, contained +coal enough to warm the world, and more iron than that coal would +smelt,--salt enough for all time, and marble and rich metallic ores of +various kinds besides. In one region are found inexhaustible beds of +limestone, the smoke of whose burning fills the whole spring air, and +the crevices of whose formation make very pokerish-looking caves, +which young and adventurous ladies are fond of exploring; in another +we come to quantities of that snow-white porcelain clay of which some +people suppose themselves to have been originally formed, but which +has been, in a commercial point of view, hitherto a _desideratum_ in +these United States of ours. The people at Mound City (an aspiring +rival of Cairo, on the banks of the Ohio) are about building a factory +for the exploitation of this clay, not into ladies and gentlemen, +(unpopular articles here,) but into china-ware, the quality of which +will be indisputable. + +One soon ceases wondering at the tropicality of the Illinoisian +imagination. Ali Baba's eye-straining experiences were poor, compared +to these every-day realities. + +The "Open Sesame" in this case has been spoken through the +railroad-whistle. Railroads cannot make mines and quarries, and fat +soil and bounteous rivers; yet railroads have been the making of +Illinois. Nobody who has ever seen her spring roads, where there are +no rails, can ever question it. From the very fatness of her soil, the +greater part of the State must have been one Slough of Despond for +three quarters of the year, and her inhabitants strangers to each +other, if these iron arms had not drawn the people together and +bridged the gulfs for them. No roads but railroads could possibly have +threaded the State, a large and the best portion of whose surface is +absolutely devoid of timber, stone, gravel, or any other available +material. The prairies must have remained flowery deserts, visited as +a curiosity every year by strangers, but without dwellings for want of +wood. The vast quarries must, of course, have lain useless, for want +of transporting power,--our friend's coal and iron undisturbed, +waiting for an earthquake,--and the poetical pioneer's beets and +Indian corn unplanted, and therefore uncelebrated. Well may it be said +here, that iron is more valuable than gold. Population, agriculture, +the mechanic arts, literature, taste, civilization, in short, are all +magnetized by the beneficent rail, and follow wherever it leads. The +whole southern portion of Illinois has been nicknamed "Egypt," +--whether because at its utmost point, on a dampish delta, +reposes the far-famed city of Cairo,--or whether, as wicked satirists +pretend, its denizens have been found, in certain particulars, rather +behind our times in intellectual light. Whatever may have been the +original excuse for the _sobriquet_, the derogatory one exists no +more. Light has penetrated, and darkness can reign no longer. Every +day, a fiery visitant, bearing the collective intelligence of the +whole world's doings and sayings, dashes through Egypt into Cairo, +giving off scintillations at every hamlet on the way,--and every day +the brilliant marvel returns, bringing northward, not only the good +things of the Ohio and Mississippi, but tropic _on-dits_ and oranges, +only a few hours old, to the citizens of Chicago, far "in advance of +the (New York) mail." With the rail comes the telegraph; and whispers +of the rise and fall of fancies and potatoes, of speculations and +elections, of the sale of corner-lots and the evasion of +bank-officers, are darting about in every direction over our heads, as +we unconsciously admire the sunset, or sketch a knot of rosy children +as they come trooping from a quaint school-house on the prairie edge. +Fancy the rail gone, and we have neither telegraph, nor school-house, +nor anything of all this but the sunset,--and even that we could not +be there to see in spring-time, at least, unless we could transmigrate +for the time into the relinquished forms of some of these aboriginal +bull-frogs, which grow to the nice size of two feet in length, +destined, no doubt, to receive the souls of habitual croakers +hereafter. + +But if the railroads have been the making of the land, it is not to be +denied that the land has been the making of the railroads. Egyptian +minds they must have been, that grudged the tracts given by the United +States to the greatest of roads, the greatest road in the world. +Having bestowed a line of alternate sections on this immense +undertaking,--vital in importance, and impossible without such +aid,--the Government at once doubled the price of the intermediate +sections, _and sold them at the doubled price_, though they had been +years, and might have been ages, in market unsold, without means of +communication and building. Who, then, was the loser? Not the United +States; for they received for half the land just what they would +otherwise have received for the whole. Not the State; for it lays +hands on a good slice of the annual profits, not to speak of +incalculable benefits beside. Not the farmer, surely; for what would +his now high-priced land be worth, if the grand road were annihilated? +Not the bond-holder; for he receives a fair, full interest on his +money. Not the stock-holder; for he looks with eyes of faith toward a +great future. It was a sort of triangular or quadrangular or +pentangular bargain, in which all these parties were immensely +benefited. The traveller blesses such liberal policy, as he flies +along towards the land of oranges, or turns aside to measure mammoth +beets or weigh extra-supernal corn, to "bore" or to "prospect," to +pick at ooelite and shale or to "peep and botanize" through an +inexhaustible Flora. The present writer has certainly reason to be +grateful,--not, alas! with that gushing warmth of feeling which the +owners of shares or bonds naturally experience,--but as an "'umble +individual" who could not have found material for this valuable +article, if certain gentlemen who do own the said shares had not been +very enterprising. + +The man who may be said to have devised the land-basis for railroads +through unsettled tracts--a financier of unsurpassed sagacity, and +once the soul of commercial honor as well as intelligence--should not, +in his dishonored grave, and far beyond the reach of human scorn or +vengeance, be denied the credit of what he accomplished before the +fatal madness seized his soul and dragged him to perdition. Let it be +enough that his name has come to be an epithet of infamy in his land's +language. Let not the grandeur of his views, the intent with which he +set out, and the good he achieved, be lost in oblivion. Pride--"by +that sin fell the angels!"--cast him headlong down the irrecoverable +steep,-- + + "And when he fell, he fell like Lucifer,"-- + +aye! like Wolsey and Bacon,-- + + "Never to rise again!" + +It is no sin to hope that the All-seeing eye discerned in those noble +undertakings and beneficent results the germ of wings that shall one +day bear him back to light and mercy. Let us, who benefit by his good +deeds, not insist on remembering only the evil! + +Chicago, the Wondrous, sits amid her wealth, like a magnificent +sultana, half-reclining over a great oval mirror, supplied by that +lake of lakes, the fathomless Michigan. Perhaps the resemblance might +be unpoetically traced to particulars; for we are told by lotos-eating +travellers, that Oriental beauties, with all their splendor, are not +especially clean. Certain it is that our Occidental sultana dresses +her fair head with towers and spires, and hangs about her neck long +rows of gems in the shape of stately and elegant dwellings,--yet, +descending to her feet, we sink in mud and mire, or tumble unguardedly +into excavations set like traps for the unwary, or oust whole colonies +of rats from beneath plank walks where they have burrowed securely +ever since "improvements" began. At some seasons, indeed, there is no +mud; because the high winds from the lake or the prairies turn the mud +into dust, which blinds our eyes, fills our mouths, and makes us +Quakers in appearance and anything but saints in heart. +Chicago-walking resembles none but such as Christian encountered as he +fled from the City of Destruction; yet in this case the ills are those +of a City of _Con_struction.--sure to disappear as soon as the +builders find time to care for such trifles. Chicago people, it is +well known, walk with their heads in the clouds, and, naturally, do +not mind what happens to their feet. It is only strangers who exclaim, +and sometimes more than exclaim, at the dangers of the way. Cast-away +carriages lie along the road-side, like ships on Fire Island beach. +Nobody minds them. If you see a gentleman at a distance, progressing +slowly with a gliding or floundering pace, you conclude he has a horse +under him, and, perhaps, on nearer approach, you see bridle and +headstall. This is in early spring, while the frost is coming out of +the ground. As the season advances, the horse emerges, and you are +just getting a fair sight of him when the dust begins and he +disappears again. So say the scoffers, and those who would, but do +not, own any city-lots in that favored vicinity; and to the somewhat +heated mind of the traveller who encounters such things for the first +time, the story does not seem so very much exaggerated. Simple +wayfarers like myself, however, tell no such wicked tales of the +Garden City; but remember only her youth, her grandeur, her spirit, +her hospitality, her weight of cares, her immense achievements, and +her sure promise of future metropolitan splendors. + +The vicinity of Chicago is all dotted with beautiful villa-residences. +To drive among them is like turning over a book of architectural +drawings,--so great is their variety, and so marked the taste which +prevails. Many of them are of the fine light-colored stone found in +the neighborhood, and their substantial excellence inspires a feeling +that all this prosperity is of no ephemeral character. People do not +build such country-houses until they feel settled and secure. The +lake-shore is of course the line of attraction, for it is the only +natural beauty of the place. But what trees! Several of the streets of +Chicago may easily become as beautiful drives as the far-famed Cascine +at Florence, and will be so before her population doubles +again,--which is giving but a short interval for the improvement. No +parks as yet, however. Land on the lake-shore is too precious, and the +flats west of the town are quite despised. Yet city parks do not +demand very unequal surface, and it would not require a very potent +landscape-gardener or an unheard-of amount of dollars to make a fine +driving-and riding-ground, where the new carriages of the fortunate +might be aired, and the fine horses of the gay exercised, during a +good part of the year. + +To describe Chicago, one would need all the superlatives set in a row. +Grandest, flattest,--muddiest, dustiest,--hottest, coldest,--wettest, +driest,--farthest north, south, east, and west from other places, +consequently most central,--best harbor on Lake Michigan, worst harbor +and smallest river any great commercial city ever lived on,--most +elegant in architecture, meanest in hovel-propping,--wildest in +speculation, solidest in value,--proudest in self-esteem, loudest in +self-disparagement,--most lavish, most grasping,--most public-spirited +in some things, blindest and darkest on some points of highest +interest. + +And some poor souls would doubtless add,--most fascinating, or most +desolate,--according as one goes there, gay and hopeful, to find +troops of prosperous friends, or, lonely and poor, with the distant +hope of bettering broken fortunes by struggling among the driving +thousands already there on the same errand. There is, perhaps, no +place in the world where it is more necessary to take a bright and +hopeful view of life, and none where this is more difficult. There is +too much at stake. Those who have visited Baden-Baden and her Kursaal +sisters in the height of the season need not be told that no +"church-face" ever equalled in solemnity the countenances of those who +surround the fatal tables, waiting for the stony lips of the croupier +to announce "_Noir perd_" or "_Rouge gagne_." At Chicago are a wider +table, higher stakes, more desperate throws, and Fate herself +presiding, or what seems Fate, at once partial and inexorable. + +But, on this great scale, even success fails to bring smiles. The +winners sit "with hair on end at their own wonders," and half-fearing +that such golden showers have some illusion about them and may prove +fairy favors at last. Next to this fueling comes the thirst for more. +Enlarged means bring enlarged desires and ever-extending plans. The +repose and lightness of heart that were at first to be the reward of +success recede farther and farther into the dim distance, until at +last they are lost sight of entirely, confessed, with a sigh, to be +unattainable. How can people in this State wear cheerful countenances? +When one looks at the gay and social faces and habits of some little +German town, where are cultivated people, surrounded by the books and +pictures they love, with leisure enough for music and dancing and +tea-garden chat, for deep friendships and lofty musings, it would seem +as if our shrewd Yankee-land and its outcroppings at the West had not +yet found out everything worth knowing. Froissart's famous remark +about the English in France--"They take their pleasure sadly, after +their fashion"--may apply to the population of Chicago, and it will be +some time yet, I fancy, before they will take it very gayly. + +At a little country-town, the other day, not within a thousand miles +of Chicago, a family about leaving for a distant place advertised +their movables for sale at auction. There was such a stir throughout +the settlement as called forth an expression of wonder from a +stranger. "Ah!" said a good lady, "auctions are the only gayety we +have here!" + +Joking apart, there was a deep American truth in this seeming +_niaiserie_. + +Chicago has, as we have said, with all her wealth, no public park or +other provision for out-door recreation. She has no gallery of Art, or +the beginning of one,--no establishment of music, no public +library,--no social institution whatever, except the church. Without +that blessed bond, her people would be absolute units, as independent +of each other as the grains of sand on the seashore, swept hither and +thither by the ocean winds. + +But even before these words have found their way to the Garden City, +they will, perhaps, be inapplicable,--so rapid is progress at the +West. The people are like a great family moving into a new house. +There is so much sweeping and dusting to do, so much finding of places +for the furniture, so much time to spend in providing for breakfast, +dinner, and tea, lodging and washing, that nobody thinks of unpacking +the pictures, taking the books out of their boxes, or getting up +drives or riding-parties. All these come in good time, and will be the +better done for a little prudent delay. + +There is, to the stranger, an appearance of extreme hurry in Chicago, +and the streets are very peculiar in not having a lady walking in +them. Day after day I traversed them, meeting crowds of men, who +looked like the representatives of every nation and tongue and +people,--and every class of society, from the greenest rustic, or the +most undisguised sharper, to the man of most serious respectability, +or him of highest _ton_. Yet one lady walking in the streets I saw +not; and when I say not one lady, I mean that I did not meet a woman +who seemed to claim that title, or any title much above that of an +ordinary domestic. Perhaps this is only a spring symptom, which passes +off when the mud dries up a little,--but it certainly gave a rather +forlorn or funereal aspect to the streets for the time. + +There is, nevertheless, potent inspiration in the resolute and +occupied air of these crowds. Hardly any one stays long among them +without feeling a desire to share their excitement, and do something +towards the splendid future which is evidently beckoning them on. +Preparing the future! It is glorious business. No wonder it makes the +pulse quicken and the eye look as if it saw spirits. It may be said, +that in some sense we are all preparing the future; but in the West +there is a special meaning in the expression. In circumstances so new +and wondrous, first steps are all-important. Those who have been +providentially led to become early settlers have immense power for +good or evil. One can trace in many or most of our Western towns, and +even States, the spirit of their first influential citizens. Happy is +it for Chicago that she has been favored in this respect,--and to her +honor be it said, that she appreciates her benefactors. Of one +citizen, who has been for twenty years past doing the quiet and modest +work of a good genius in the city of his adoption, it is currently +said, that he has built a hundred miles of her streets,--and there is +no mark of respect and gratitude that she would not gladly show him. +Other citizens take the most faithful and disinterested care of her +schools; and to many she is indebted for an amount of liberality and +public spirit which is constantly increasing her enormous prosperity. +Happy the city which possesses such citizens! Happy the citizens who +have a city so nobly deserving of their best services! + + + + +AN EVENING WITH THE TELEGRAPH-WIRES. + +My cousin Moses has made the discovery that he is a powerful +magnetizer. + +Like many others who have newly come into possession of a small tract +in those mysterious, outlying, unexplored wildernesses of Nature, +which we call by so many names, but which as yet refuse to be defined +or classed, he has been naturally eager to commence operations, and +_exploit_ and farm it a little. He is making experiments on a narrow +border of his wild lands. He is a man of will and of strong +_physique_, with an inquiring and scientific turn of mind, which +inclines him chiefly to metaphysical studies. It is not to be wondered +at, that, having lately discovered that he possesses the mesmeric +gift, he should not sufficiently discriminate as to its application. +Later he will see that it is an agent not to be tampered with, and +never to be used on healthy subjects, but applied only to invalids. +To-day he is like a newly-armed knight-errant, bounding off on his +steed at sunrise, in search of adventures. + +One afternoon, not long since, he was telling me of his extraordinary +successes with somnambulists and _somnoparlists_,--of old ladies cured +of nervous headaches and face-twitches, and of young ones put to sleep +at a distance from the magnetizer, dropping into a trance suddenly as +a bird struck by a gun-shot, simply by an act of his volition,--of +water turned into wine, and wine into brandy, to the somnambulic +taste,--and so on, till we got wandering into crooked by-paths of +physics and metaphysics, that seemed to lead us nowhere in +particular,--when I said, "Come, Cousin Moses, suppose you try it on +me, by way of experiment. But I have my doubts if you'll ever put me +to sleep." + +My cousin yielded to my request with alacrity;--every subject for +mesmerism was for him legitimate;--and I relinquished myself to his +passes with the docility of a man about to be shaved. + +The passes from the head downward were kept up perseveringly for half +an hour, without my experiencing any change, or manifesting the least +symptom of drowsiness. At last the charm began to work. I began to be +conscious of a singular trickling or creeping sensation following the +motion of his passes down my arms. My respiration grew short. I +experienced, however, no tendency to sleep, and my mind was perfectly +calm and unexcited. My cousin was satisfied with his experiment so +far, but we both concluded it had better end here. So he made the +reverse passes, in order to undo the knot he was beginning to tie in +my nerves. He did not, however, entirely succeed in untying it. I was +a healthy subject, and the magnetism continued to affect my nerves, in +spite of the untangling passes. + +Soon after, I rose and took my leave. I was strangely excited, but it +was a purely physical, and not a mental excitement. Thinking that a +walk would quiet me, I went through street after street, until I +reached the outskirts of the city. It was a mild September evening. +The fine weather and the sight of the trees and fields tempted me to +continue my walk. It was near sunset, and I strolled on and on, +watching the purple gray and ruddy gold of the clouds, until I had got +fairly into the country. + +As I rambled on, I was suddenly seized with a fancy to climb a tree +which stood by the roadside, and rest myself in a convenient notch +which I observed between two of the limbs. I was soon seated in among +the branches, with a canopy of leaves around and over me,--feeling, in +my still nervous condition, as I leaned my back against the mossy +bark, like a magnified tree-toad in clothes. + +The air was balmy and fragrant, and against the amber of the western +sky rose and fell numberless little clouds of insects. The birds were +chirping and fluttering about me, and made their arrangements for +their night's lodging, in manifest dread of the clothed tree-toad who +had invaded their leafy premises. + +The peculiar nervousness which had taken possession of me was now +passing off, to be replaced by a species of mental exaltation. I was +becoming conscious of something approaching semi-clairvoyance, and yet +not in the ordinary form. Sensation, emotion, thought were +intensified. The landscape around me was dotted with farm-houses, +pillowed in soft, dark clumps of trees. One by one, the lights began +to appear at the windows,--soft rising stars of home-joys. The +glorious September sunset was fading, but still resplendent in the +west. The landscape was pervaded with a deeper repose, the glowing +clouds with a diviner splendor than that which filled the eye. Then +thronging memories awoke. My remembrances of all my past life in the +crowded cities of America and Europe rose vividly before me. In the +long strata of solid gray clouds, where the sun had gone down, leaving +only a few vapory gold-fishes swimming in the clear spaces above, I +could fancy I saw the lonely Roman Campagna and the wondrous dome of +St. Peter's, as when first beheld on the horizon ten years ago. Then, +as from the slopes of San Miniato at sunset, gray, red-tiled Florence, +with its Boboli gardens, full of nightingales, its old towers and +cathedrals, and its soaring Giotto Campanile. Then Genoa, with its +terraces and marble palaces, and that huge statue of Andre Doria. Then +Naples, gleaming white in the eye of day over her pellucid depths of +sea. The golden days of Italy floated by me. Then came the memories, +glad or sad, of days that had passed in my own native land,--in the +very city that lay behind me,--the intimate communings with dear +friends,--the musical and the merry nights,--the trials, anxieties, +sorrows---- + +But all this is very egotistical and unnecessary. I merely meant to +say that I was in a peculiar, almost abnormal state of mind, that +evening. The spirit had, as it were, been drawn outwards, and perhaps +slightly dislocated, by those mesmeric passes of my cousin, and I had +not succeeded as yet in adjusting it quite satisfactorily in its old +bodily grooves and sockets. The condition I was in was not as pleasant +as I could have wished; for I was as alive to painful remembrances and +imaginations, as to pleasant ones. I seemed to myself like a revolving +lantern of a light-house,--now dark, now glowing with a fiery +radiance. + +I asked myself, Is it that I have been blind and deaf and dull all my +life, and am just waking into real existence? or am I developing into +a _medium_,--Heaven forbid!--and the spirits pushing at some unguarded +portal of the nervous system, and striving to take possession? Shall I +hear raps and knockings when I return to my solitary chamber, and sit +a powerless beholder of damaged furniture, which the spirits will +never have the conscience to promise payment for, when my landlady's +bill comes in? (By the way, have the spirits _ever_ behaved like +gentlemen in this respect, and settled up fair and square for the +breakages they have indulged in by way of exemplifying the doctrine of +a future state?) + +As I soliloquized thus, I was attracted by a low vibrating note among +the leaves. Looking through them, I saw, for the first time, that two +or three telegraph-wires, which I had observed skirting the road, ran +directly through the tree in which I was seated. It was a strange sort +of sound, that came in hurried jerks, as it were, accompanied with a +corresponding jerk of the wire. + +A gigantic fancy flashed across me:--This State of New York is a great +guitar; yonder, at Albany, are the legislative pegs and screws; down +there in Manhattan Island is the great sounding-board; these iron +wires are the strings! The spirits are singing, perhaps, with their +heads up there in the sweet heavens and the rosy clouds,--and this +vibration of the wires is a sort of loose jangling accompaniment of +their unpractised hands on earth. The voice is always above the +strings.--This I thought in my semi-mesmeric condition, perhaps. I +soon laughed at my Brobdignagian nonsense, and said,--There is a +telegraphic despatch passing. Now if I could only find out what it +is!--that would be something new in science,--a discovery worth +knowing,--to be able to hear or feel the purport of a telegraphic +message, simply by touching the wire along which it runs! + +So, regardless of any electric shock I might receive, I thrust out my +hand through the leaves of the tree, and boldly grasped the wire. The +jerks instantly were experienced in my elbow, and it was not long +before certain short sentences were conveyed, magnetically, to my +brain. In my amazement at the discovery, I almost dropped out of the +tree. However, I kept firm hold of the wire, and my sensorium made me +aware of something passing like this:--"Market active. Fair demand for +exchange. Transactions from five to ten thousand shares. Aristides +railroad-stock scarce. Rates of freight to Liverpool firm. Yours +respectfully, Grabber and Holdham." + +Upon my word, said I, this is rather dry!--only a merchant! I expected +something better than this, to commence with. + +The wire being now quiet, I fell into a musing upon the singular +discovery I had made,--and whether I should get anything from the +public or the government for revealing it. And then my thoughts +wandered across the Atlantic, and I remembered those long rows of +telegraphic wires in France, ruled along the tops of high +barrier-walls, and looking against the sky like immense +music-lines,--and those queer inverted-coffee-cup-like supports for +the wires, on the tall posts. Then I thought of music and coffee at +the Jardin Mabille. Then my fancy wandered down the Champs Elysees to +those multitudinous spider-web wires that radiate from the palace of +the Tuileries, where the Imperial spider sits plotting and weaving his +meshes around the liberties of France. Then I thought, What a thing +this discovery of mine would be for political conspirators,--to +reverse the whispering-gallery of Dionysius, and, instead of the +tyrant hearing the secrets of the people, the people hearing the +secrets of the tyrant! Then I thought of Robespierre, and Marat, and +Charlotte Corday, and Marie Antoinette,--then of Delaroche's and +Mueller's pictures of the unfortunate Queen,--then of pictures in +general,--then of landscape-scenery,--till I almost fell into a doze, +when I was startled by a faint sound along the wire, as of a sigh, +like the first thrill of the AEolian harp in the evening wind. Another +message was passing. I reached my hand out to the iron thread. A +confused sadness began to oppress me. A mother's voice weeping over +her sick child pulsed along the wire. Her husband was far away. Her +little daughter lay very ill. "Come quick," said the voice. "I have +little hope; but if you were only here, I should be calmer. If she +must die, it would be such a comfort to have you here!" + +I drew my hand away. I saw the whole scene too vividly. Who this +mother was I knew not; but the news of the death of a child whom I +knew and loved could not have affected me more strangely and keenly +than this semi-articulate sob which quivered along the iron airtrack, +in the silence of the evening, from one unknown--to another unknown. + +I roused myself from my sadness, and thought I would descend the tree +and stroll home. The moon was up, and a pleasant walk before me, with +enough to meditate upon in the singular discovery I had made. I was +about to get down from my crotch in the tree, and was just reaching +out my dexter leg to feel if I could touch a bough below me, when a +low, wild shriek ran along the wire,--as when the wind-harp, above +referred to for illustration, is blown upon by some rude, sharp +northwester. In spite of myself, I touched the vibrating cord. The +message was brief and abrupt, like a sea-captain's command:--"Ship +Trinidad wrecked off Wildcat's Beach,--all hands lost,--no insurance!" + +Do you recollect, when sitting alone sometimes in your room, at +midnight, in the month of November, how, after a lull in the blast, +the bleak wind will all at once seem to clutch at the windows, with a +demoniac howl that makes the house rock? Do you remember the +half-whistles and half-groans through the key-holes and crevices,--the +cries and shrieks that rise and fall,--the roaring in the +chimney,--the slamming of distant doors and shutters? Well, all this +seemed to be suggested in the ringing of the iron cord. The very +leaves, green and dewy, and the delicate branches, seemed to quiver as +the dreary message passed. + +I thought,--This is a little too much! This old tree is getting to be +a very lugubrious spot. I don't want to hear any more such messages. I +almost wish I had never touched the wire. Strange! one reads such an +announcement in a newspaper very coolly;--why is it that I can't take +it coolly in a telegraphic despatch? We can read a thing with +indifference which we hear spoken with a shudder,--such prisoners are +we to our senses! I have had enough of this telegraphing. I sha'n't +close my eyes to-night, if I have any more of it. + +I had now fairly got my foot on the branch below, and was slipping +myself gradually down, when the wire began to ring like a horn, and in +the merriest of strains. I paused and listened. I could fancy the +joyful barking of dogs in accompaniment. Ah, surely, this is some +sportsman,--"the hunter's call, to faun and dryad known." This smacks +of the bright sunshine and the green woods and the yellow fields. I +will stop and hear it.--It was just what I expected,--a jolly citizen +telegraphing his country friend to meet him with his guns and dogs at +such a place. + +And immediately afterwards, in much the same key, came a musical note +and a message babbling of green fields, from a painter:--"I shall +leave town to-morrow. Meet me at Bullshornville at ten, A.M. Don't +forget to bring my field-easel, canvases, and the other traps." + +If there is more of this music, I said, I think I shall stay. I love +the sportsmen and the artists, and am glad they are going to have a +good time. The weather promises well for them. + +There was a little pause, and then a strain of perfect jubilation came +leaping along the wire, like the flying song of the bobolink over +tracts of blowing clover and apple-blossoms. I expected something very +rare,--a strain of poetry at least. It was only this:--"Mr. Grimkins, +Sir, we shall expect rooms for the bridal party at your hotel, on the +side overlooking the lake, if possible. Yours, P. Simpkins." + +Ah, I said, that's all Greek to me,--poor, lonely bachelor that I am! +I wonder, by the way, if they ever wrote their love-letters by +telegraph.--But what is this coming? I am clearly getting back to my +normal condition:--"Miss Polly Wogg wishes to say that she has been +unable to procure the silk for Mrs. Papillon for less than five +dollars a yard."--Nonsense! I'm not in the dry-goods, nor millinery, +nor young-lady department. + +And here was another:--"I have found an excellent school for Adolphus +in Birchville, near Mastersville Corners. Send him up without delay, +with all the school-books you can find." + +And another,--important, very:--"I find that 'One touch of Nature +makes the whole world kin' is in 'Troilus and Cressida.' Don't send +the MS. without this correction." + +But what's this, accompanied with a long, low whistle?--"The cars have +run off the track at Breakneck Hollow. Back your engine and wait for +further orders." + +We are getting into the minor key again, I thought. Listen!--"Mr. S. +died last night. You must be here to-morrow, if possible, at the +opening of the will." + +Well, said I, I have had plenty of despatches, and have expended +enough sympathy, for one night. I have been very mysteriously +affected,--how, I can't exactly tell. But who will ever believe my +evening's adventure? Who will not laugh at my pretended discovery? +Even my cousin Moses will be incredulous. I shall be at least looked +upon as a _medium_, and so settled. + +And here allow me to remark,--Have you not observed how easily things +apparently difficult and mysterious are arranged in the popular +understanding by the use of certain stereotyped names applied to them? +Only give a name to a wonder, or an unclassified phenomenon, or even +an unsound notion, and you instantly clear away all the fog of +mystery. Let an unprincipled fellow call his views Latitudinarianism +or Longitudinarianism, he may, with a little adroitness, go for a +respectable and consistent member of some sect. A filibuster may pass +current under some such label as Political or Territorial +Extensionist;--the name is a long, decent overcoat for his shabby +ideas. So when wonderful phenomena in the nervous system are +observed,--when tables are smashed by invisible hands,--when people +see ghosts through stone walls, and know what is passing in the heart +of Africa,--how easily you unlock your wardrobe of terms and clap on +the back of every eccentric fact your ready-made phrase-coat,--Animal +Magnetism, Biology, Odic Force, Optical Illusion, Second Sight, +Spirits, and what not! It is a wonderful labor-saving and faith-saving +process. People say, "Oh, is that all?" and pass on complacently. +There are such explanatory labels to be met with everywhere. They save +a deal of trouble. All the shops keep these overcoats,--shops +ecclesiastical, medical, juridical, professional, political, social. + +Now all I have to do is, not to go to the second-hand slop-shops for +the phrase-coat I need for my naked discovery, but look for some +unfamiliar robe,--some name more _recherche_, learned, and +transcendental than my neighbors sport,--and then I shall pass muster. +The classic togas seem to be the most imposing. The Germans, who weave +their names out of their indigenous Saxon roots, are much too _naive_. +I will get a Greek Lexicon and set about it this very night. + +After all, why should it be thought so improbable, in this age of +strange phenomena, that the ideas transmitted through the +electro-magnetic wire may be communicated to the brain,--especially +when there exist certain abnormal or semi-abnormal conditions of that +brain and its nerves? Is it not reasonable to suppose that all +magnetisms are one in essence? The singular experiences above related +seem to hint at the truth of such a view. If it be true that certain +delicately-organized persons have the power of telling the character +of others, who are entire strangers to them, simply by holding in +their hands letters written by those strangers, is it not full as much +within the scope of belief that there are those who, under certain +physical conditions, may detect the purport of an electro-magnetic +message,--that message being sent by vibrations of the wire through +the nerves to the brain? If all magnetisms are one in essence,--as I +am inclined to believe,--and if the nerves, the brain, and the mind +are so swayed by what we term animal magnetism, why not allow for the +strong probability of their being also, under certain conditions, +equally impressible by electro-magnetism? I put these questions to +scientific men; and I do not see why they should be answered by +silence or ridicule, merely because the whole subject is veiled in +mystery. + +It may be asked,--How can an electro-magnetic message be communicated +to the mind, without a knowledge of the alphabet used by the +telegraphers? This question may seem a poser to some minds. But I +don't see that it raises any grave difficulty. I answer the question +by asking another:--How can persons in the somnambulic state read with +the tops of their heads? + +Besides, I once had the telegraph alphabet explained to me by one of +the wire-operators,--though I have forgotten it,--and it is possible, +that, in my semi-mesmeric condition, the recollection revived, so that +I knew that such and such pulsations of the wire stood for such and +such letters. + +But is there not a certain spiritual significance, also, in these +singular experiences here related? + +We may safely lay down this doctrine,--a very old and much-thumbed +doctrine, but none the less true for all its dog-ears:--No man lives +for himself alone. He is related not only to the silent stars and the +singing-birds and the sunny landscape, but to every other human soul. +You say, This should not be stated so sermonically, but symbolically. +That is just what I have been doing in my narrative of the wires. + +It gives one a great idea of human communion,--this power of sending +these spark-messages thousands of miles in a second. Far more +poetical, too,--is it not?--as well as more practical, than tying +billets under the wings of carrier-pigeons. It is removing so much +time and space out of the way,--those absorbents of spirits,--and +bringing mind into close contact with mind. But when one can read +these messages without the aid of machinery, by merely touching the +wires, how much greater does the symbol become! + +All mankind are one. As some philosophers express it,--one great mind +includes us all. But then, as it would never do for all minds to be +literally one, any more than it would for all magnetisms to be +identical in their modes of manifestation, or for all the rivers, +creeks, and canals to flow together, so we have our natural barriers +and channels, our _propriums_, as the Swedish seer has it,--and so we +live and let live. We feel with others and think with others, but with +strict reservations. That evening among the wires, for instance, +brought me into wonderful intimate contact with a few of the joys and +sorrows of some of my fellow-beings; but an excess of such experiences +would interfere with our freedom and our happiness. It is our +self-hood, properly balanced, which constitutes our dignity, our +humanity. A certain degree, and a very considerable degree of +insulation is necessary, that individual life and mental equanimity +may go on. + +But there may be a degree of insulation which is unbecoming a member +of the human family. It may become brutish,--or it may amount to the +ridiculous. In Paris, there was an old lady, of uncertain age, who +lived in the apartment beneath mine. I think I never saw her but +twice. She manifested her existence sometimes by complaining of the +romping of the children overhead, who called her the "bonne femme." +Why they gave her the name I don't know; for she seemed to have no +human ties in the world, and wasted her affections on a private +menagerie of parrots, canaries, and poodle-dogs. A few shocks of the +electric telegraph might have raised her out of her desert island, and +given her some glimpses of the great continents of human love and +sympathy. + +A man who lives for himself alone sits on a sort of insulated glass +stool, with a _noli-me-tangere_ look at his fellow-men, and a +shivering dread of some electric shock from contact with them. He is a +non-conductor in relation to the great magnetic currents which run +pulsing along the invisible wires that connect one heart with another. +Preachers, philanthropists, and moralists are in the habit of saying +of such a person,--"How cold! how selfish! how unchristian!" I +sometimes fancy a citizen of the planet Venus, that social star of +evening and morning, might say,--"How absurd!" What a figure he cuts +there, sitting in solitary state upon his glass tripod,--in the middle +of a crowd of excited fellow-beings, hurried to and fro by their +passions and sympathies,--like an awkward country-bumpkin caught in +the midst of a gay crowd of polkers and waltzers at a ball,--or an +oyster bedded on a rock, with silver fishes playing rapid games of +hide and seek, love and hate, in the clear briny depths above and +beneath! If the angels ever look out of their sphere of intense +spiritual realities to indulge in a laugh, methinks such a lonely +tripod-sitter, cased over with his invulnerable, non-conducting cloak +and hood,--shrinking, dodging, or bracing himself up on the defensive, +as the crowd fans him with its rush or jostles up against him,--like +the man who fancied himself a teapot, and was forever warning people +not to come too near him,--might furnish a subject for a planetary +joke not unworthy of translation into the language of our dim earth. + +One need not be a lonely bachelor, nor a lonely spinster, in order to +live alone. The loneliest are those who mingle with men bodily and yet +have no contact with them spiritually. There is no desert solitude +equal to that of a crowded city where you have no sympathies. I might +here quote Paris again, in illustration,--or, indeed, any foreign +city. A friend of mine had an _atelier_ once in the top of a house in +the Rue St. Honore. He knew not a soul in the house nor in the +neighborhood. There was a German tailor below, who once made him a +pair of pantaloons,--so they were connected sartorically and +pecuniarily, and, when they met, recognized one another: and there was +the _concierge_ below, who knew when he came in and went out,--that +was all. All day long the deafened roar of carts and carriages, and +the muffled cry of the _marchands des legumes_, were faintly heard +from below. And in an adjoining room a female voice (my friend could +never tell whether child's or woman's, for he never saw any one) +overflowed in tones of endearment on some unresponding creature,--he +could never guess whether it was a baby, or a bird, or a cat, or a +dog, or a lizard, (the French have such pets sometimes,) or an +enchanted prince, like that poor half-marble fellow in the "Arabian +Nights." In that garret the painter experienced for six months the +perfection of Parisian solitude. Now I dare say he or I might have +found social sympathies, by hunting them up; but he didn't, and I dare +say he was to blame, as I should be in the same situation,--and I am +willing to place myself in the same category with the menagerie-loving +old lady, above referred to, omitting the feathered and canine pets. + +As to my mesmerico-telegraphic discovery, it may pass for what it is +worth. I shall submit it at least to my cousin Moses, as soon as he +returns from the South. People may believe it or not. People may say +it may be of practical use, or not. I shall overhaul my terminologies, +and, with the "metaphysical aid" of my cousin, fit it with a +scientific name which shall overtop all the _ologies_. + +Having dressed my new Fact in a respectable and scholarlike coat, I +shall let him take his chance with the judicious public,--and content +myself, for the present, with making him a sort of humble _colporteur_ +of the valuable tract on Human Brotherhood of which I have herewith +furnished a few dry specimens. + + + + +THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +EVERY MAN HIS OWN BOSWELL. + +The company looked a little flustered one morning when I came in,--so +much so, that I inquired of my neighbor, the divinity-student, what +had been going on. It appears that the young fellow whom they call +John had taken advantage of my being a little late (I having been +rather longer than usual dressing that morning) to circulate several +questions involving a quibble or play upon words,--in short, +containing that indignity to the human understanding, condemned in the +passages from the distinguished moralist of the last century and the +illustrious historian of the present, which I cited on a former +occasion, and known as a _pun_. After breakfast, one of the boarders +handed me a small roll of paper containing some of the questions and +their answers. I subjoin two or three of them, to show what a tendency +there is to frivolity and meaningless talk in young persons of a +certain sort, when not restrained by the presence of more reflective +natures.--It was asked, "Why tertian and quartan fevers were like +certain short-lived insects." Some interesting physiological relation +would be naturally suggested. The inquirer blushes to find that the +answer is in the paltry equivocation, that they _skip_ a day or +two.--"Why an Englishman must go to the Continent to weaken his grog +or punch." The answer proves to have no relation whatever to the +temperance-movement, as no better reason is given than that +island--(or, as it is absurdly written, _ile and_) water won't +mix.--But when I came to the next question and its answer, I felt that +patience ceased to be a virtue. "Why an onion is like a piano" is a +query that a person of sensibility would be slow to propose; but that +in an educated community an individual could be found to answer it in +these words,--"Because it smell odious," _quasi_, it's melodious,--is +not credible, but too true. I can show you the paper. + +Dear reader, I beg your pardon for repeating such things. I know most +conversations reported in books are altogether above such trivial +details, but folly will come up at every table as surely as purslain +and chickweed and sorrel will come up in gardens. This young fellow +ought to have talked philosophy, I know perfectly well; but he +didn't,--he made jokes. + +I am willing,--I said,--to exercise your ingenuity in a rational and +contemplative manner.--No, I do not proscribe certain forms of +philosophical speculation which involve an approach to the absurd or +the ludicrous, such as you may find, for example, in the folio of the +Reverend Father Thomas Sanchez, in his famous tractate, "De Sancto +Matrimonio." I will therefore turn this levity of yours to profit by +reading you a rhymed problem, wrought out by my friend the Professor. + + +THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE: OR THE WONDERFUL "ONE-HOSS-SHAY." + +A LOGICAL STORY. + + Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss-shay, + That was built in such a logical way + It ran a hundred years to a day, + And then, of a sudden, it----ah, but stay, + I'll tell you what happened without delay, + Scaring the parson into fits, + Frightening people out of their wits,-- + Have you ever heard of that, I say? + + Seventeen hundred and fifty-five. + _Georgius Secundus_ was then alive,-- + Snuffy old drone from the German hive! + That was the year when Lisbon-town + Saw the earth open and gulp her down, + And Braddock's army was done so brown, + Left without a scalp to its crown. + It was on the terrible Earthquake-day + That the Deacon finished the one-hoss-shay. + + Now in building of chaises, I tell you what, + There is always _somewhere_, a weakest spot,-- + In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill, + In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill, + In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,--lurking still + Find it somewhere you must and will,-- + Above or below, or within or without,-- + And that's the reason, beyond a doubt, + A chaise _breaks down_, but doesn't _wear out_, + + But the Deacon swore (as Deacons do, + With an "I dew vum," or an "I tell _yeou_,") + He would build one shay to beat the taown + 'n' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun'; + It should be so built that it _couldn'_ break daown: + --"Fur," said the Deacon, "'t's mighty plain + Thut the weakes' place mus' stan' the strain; + 'n' the way t' fix it, uz I maintain, + Is only jest + To make that place uz strong uz the rest." + + So the Deacon inquired of the village folk + Where he could find the strongest oak, + That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke,-- + That was for spokes and floor and sills; + He sent for lancewood to make the thills; + The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees; + The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese, + But lasts like iron for things like these; + The hubs of logs from the "Settler's ellum,"-- + Last of its timber,--they couldn't sell 'em,-- + Never an axe had seen their chips, + And the wedges flew from between their lips, + Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips; + Step and prop-iron, bolt and screw, + Spring, tire, axle, and linchpin too, + Steel of the finest, bright and blue; + Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide; + Boot, top, dasher, from tough old hide + Found in the pit when the tanner died. + That was the way he "put her through."-- + "There!" said the Deacon, "naow she'll dew!" + + Do! I tell you, I rather guess + She was a wonder, and nothing less! + Colts grew horses, beards turned gray, + Deacon and deaconess dropped away, + Children and grand-children--where were they? + But there stood the stout old one-hoss-shay + As fresh as on Lisbon-earthquake-day! + + EIGHTEEN HUNDRED;--it came and found + The Deacon's Masterpiece strong and sound. + Eighteen hundred increased by ten;-- + "Hahnsum kerridge" they called it then. + Eighteen hundred and twenty came;-- + Running as usual; much the same. + Thirty and forty at last arrive, + And then come fifty, and FIFTY-FIVE. + + Little of all we value here + Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year + Without both feeling and looking queer. + In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth, + So far as I know, but a tree and truth. + (This is a moral that runs at large; + Take it.--You're welcome--No extra charge.) + + FIRST OF NOVEMBER,--the Earthquake-day.-- + There are traces of age in the one-hoss-shay, + A general flavor of mild decay, + But nothing local, as one may say. + There couldn't be,--for the Deacon's art + Had made it so like in every part + That there wasn't a chance for one to start. + For the wheels were just as strong as the thills, + And the floor was just as strong as the sills, + And the panels just as strong as the floor, + And the whippletree neither less nor more, + And the back-crossbar as strong as the fore, + And spring and axle and hub _encore_. + And yet, _as a whole_, it is past a doubt + In another hour it will be _worn out_! + + First of November, 'Fifty-five! + This morning the parson takes a drive. + Now, small boys, get out of the way! + Here comes the wonderful one-hoss-shay, + Drawn by a rat-tailed, ewe-necked bay. + "Huddup!" said the parson.--Off went they. + + The parson was working his Sunday's text,-- + Had got to _fifthly_, and stopped perplexed + At what the--Moses--was coming next. + All at once the horse stood still, + Close by the meet'n'-house on the hill. + --First a shiver, and then a thrill, + Then something decidedly like a spill,-- + And the parson was sitting upon a rock, + At half-past nine by the meet'n'-house-clock,-- + Just the hour of the Earthquake-shock! + --What do you think the parson found, + When he got up and stared around? + The poor old chaise in a heap or mound, + As if it had been to the mill and ground! + You see, of course, if you're not a dunce, + How it went to pieces all at once,-- + All at once, and nothing first,-- + Just as bubbles do when they burst. + + End of the wonderful one-hoss-shay. + Logic is logic. That's all I say. + +--I think there is one habit,--I said to our company a day or two +afterwards,--worse than that of punning. It is the gradual +substitution of cant or flash terms for words which truly characterize +their objects. I have known several very genteel idiots whose whole +vocabulary had deliquesced into some half dozen expressions. All +things fell into one of two great categories,--_fast_ or _slow_. Man's +chief end was to be a _brick_. When the great calamities of life +overtook their friends, these last were spoken of as being _a good +deal cut up_. Nine-tenths of human existence were summed up in the +single word, _bore_. These expressions come to be the algebraic +symbols of minds which have grown too weak or indolent to +discriminate. They are the blank checks of intellectual +bankruptcy;--you may fill them up with what idea you like; it makes no +difference, for there are no funds in the treasury upon which they are +drawn. Colleges and good-for-nothing smoking-clubs are the places +where these conversational fungi spring up most luxuriantly. Don't +think I undervalue the proper use and application of a cant word or +phrase. It adds piquancy to conversation, as a mushroom does to a +sauce. But it is no better than a toadstool, odious to the sense and +poisonous to the intellect, when it spawns itself all over the talk of +men and youths capable of talking, as it sometimes does. As we hear +flash phraseology, it is commonly the dishwater from the washings of +English dandyism, school-boy or full-grown, wrung out of a +three-volume novel which had sopped it up, or decanted from the +pictured urn of Mr. Verdant Green, and diluted to suit the provincial +climate. + +----The young fellow called John spoke up sharply and said, it was +"rum" to hear me "pitchin' into fellers" for "goin' it in the slang +line," when I used all the flash words myself just when I pleased. + +----I replied with my usual forbearance.--Certainly, to give up the +algebraic symbol, because _a_ or _b_ is often a cover for ideal +nihility, would be unwise. I have heard a child laboring to express a +certain condition, involving a hitherto undescribed sensation, (as it +supposed,) all of which could have been sufficiently explained by +the participle--_bored_. I have seen a country-clergyman, with a +one-story intellect and a one-horse vocabulary, who has consumed his +valuable time (and mine) freely, in developing an opinion of a +brother-minister's discourse which would have been abundantly +characterized by a peach-down-lipped sophomore in the one +word--_slow_. Let us discriminate, and be shy of absolute +proscription. I am omniverbivorous by nature and training. Passing by +such words as are poisonous, I can swallow most others, and chew such +as I cannot swallow. + +Dandies are not good for much, but they are good for something. They +invent or keep in circulation those conversational blank checks or +counters just spoken of, which intellectual capitalists may sometimes +find it worth their while to borrow of them. They are useful, too, in +keeping up the standard of dress, which, but for them, would +deteriorate, and become, what some old fools would have it, a matter +of convenience, and not of taste and art. Yes, I like dandies well +enough,--on one condition. + +----What is that, Sir?--said the divinity-student. + +----That they have pluck. I find that lies at the bottom of all true +dandyism. A little boy dressed up very fine, who puts his finger in +his mouth and takes to crying, if other boys make fun of him, looks +very silly. But if he turns red in the face and knotty in the fists, +and makes an example of the biggest of his assailants, throwing off +his fine Leghorn and his thickly-buttoned jacket, if necessary, to +consummate the act of justice, his small toggery takes on the +splendors of the crested helmet that frightened Astyanax. You remember +that the Duke said his dandy officers were his best officers. The +"Sunday blood," the super-superb sartorial equestrian of our annual +Fast-day, is not imposing or dangerous. But such fellows as Brummel +and D'Orsay and Byron are not to be snubbed quite so easily. Look out +for "la main de fer sous le gant de velours" (which I printed in +English the other day without quotation-marks, thinking whether any +_scarabaeus criticus_ would add this to his globe and roll in glory +with it into the newspapers,--which he didn't do it, in the charming +pleonasm of the London language, and therefore I claim the sole merit +of exposing the same). A good many powerful and dangerous people have +had a decided dash of dandyism about them. There was Alcibiades, the +"curled son of Clinias," an accomplished young man, but what would be +called a "swell" in these days. There was Aristoteles, a very +distinguished writer, of whom you have heard,--a philosopher, in +short, whom it took centuries to learn, centuries to unlearn, and is +now going to take a generation or more to learn over again. Regular +dandy, he was. So was Marcus Antonius: and though he lost his game, he +played for big stakes, and it wasn't his dandyism that spoiled his +chance. Petrarca was not to be despised as a scholar or a poet, but he +was one of the same sort. So was Sir Humphrey Davy; so was Lord +Palmerston, formerly, if I am not forgetful. Yes,--a dandy is good for +something as such; and dandies such as I was just speaking of have +rocked this planet like a cradle,--aye, and left it swinging to this +day.--Still, if I were you, I wouldn't go to the tailor's, on the +strength of these remarks, and run up a long bill which will render +pockets a superfluity in your next suit. _Elegans "nascitur, non +fit._" A man is born a dandy, as he is born a poet. There are heads +that can't wear hats; there are necks that can't fit cravats; there +are jaws that can't fill out collars--(Willis touched this last point +in one of his earlier ambrotypes, if I remember rightly); there are +_tournures_ nothing can humanize, and movements nothing can subdue to +the gracious suavity or elegant languor or stately serenity which +belong to different styles of dandyism. + +We are forming an aristocracy, as you may observe, in this +country,--not a _gratia-Dei_, nor a _jure-divino_ one,--but a +_de-facto_ upper stratum of being, which floats over the turbid waves +of common life as the iridescent film you may have seen spreading over +the water about our wharves,--very splendid, though its origin may +have been tar, tallow, train-oil, or other such unctuous commodities. +I say, then, we are forming an aristocracy; and, transitory as its +individual life often is, it maintains itself tolerably, as a whole. +Of course, money is its corner-stone. But now observe this. Money kept +for two or three generations transforms a race,--I don't mean merely +in manners and hereditary culture, but in blood and bone. Money buys +air and sunshine, in which children grow up more kindly, of course, +than in close, back streets; it buys country-places to give them happy +and healthy summers, good nursing, good doctoring, and the best cuts +of beef and mutton. When the spring-chickens come to market----I beg +your pardon,--that is not what I was going to speak of. As the young +females of each successive season come on, the finest specimens among +them, other things being equal, are apt to attract those who can +afford the expensive luxury of beauty. The physical character of the +next generation rises in consequence. It is plain that certain +families have in this way acquired an elevated type of face and +figure, and that in a small circle of city-connections one may +sometimes find models of both sexes which one of the rural counties +would find it hard to match from all its townships put together. +Because there is a good deal of running down, of degeneration and +waste of life, among the richer classes, you must not overlook the +equally obvious fact I have just spoken of,--which in one or two +generations more will be, I think, much more patent than just now. + +The weak point in our chryso-aristocracy is the same I have alluded to +in connection with cheap dandyism. Its thorough manhood, its +high-caste gallantry, are not so manifest as the plate-glass of its +windows and the more or less legitimate heraldry of its coach-panels. +It is very curious to observe of how small account military folks are +held among our Northern people. Our young men must gild their spurs, +but they need not win them. The equal division of property keeps the +younger sons of rich people above the necessity of military service. +Thus the army loses an element of refinement, and the moneyed upper +class forgets what it is to count heroism among its virtues. Still I +don't believe in any aristocracy without pluck as its backbone. Ours +may show it when the time comes, if it ever does come. + +----These United States furnish the greatest market for intellectual +_green fruit_ of all the places in the world. I think so, at any rate. +The demand for intellectual labor is so enormous and the market so far +from nice, that young talent is apt to fare like unripe +gooseberries--get plucked to make a fool of. Think of a country which +buys eighty thousand copies of the "Proverbial Philosophy," while the +author's admiring countrymen have been buying twelve thousand! How can +one let his fruit hang in the sun until it gets fully ripe, while +there are eighty thousand such hungry mouths ready to swallow it and +proclaim its praises? Consequently, there never was such a collection +of crude pippins and half-grown windfalls as our native literature +displays among its fruits. There are literary green-groceries at every +corner, which will buy anything, from a button-pear to a pine-apple. +It takes a long apprenticeship to train a whole people to reading and +writing. The temptation of money and fame is too great for young +people. Do I not remember that glorious moment when the late Mr. ---- +we won't say who,--editor of the ---- we won't say what, offered me +the sum of fifty cents _per_ double-columned quarto page for shaking +my young boughs over his foolscap apron? Was it not an intoxicating +vision of gold and glory? I should doubtless have revelled in its +wealth and splendor, but for learning the fact that the _fifty cents_ +was to be considered a rhetorical embellishment, and by no means a +literal expression of past fact or present intention. + +----Beware of making your moral staple consist of the negative +virtues. It is good to abstain, and teach others to abstain, from all +that is sinful or hurtful. But making a business of it leads to +emaciation of character, unless one feeds largely also on the more +nutritious diet of active sympathetic benevolence. + +----I don't believe one word of what you are saying,--spoke up the +angular female in black bombazine. + +I am sorry you disbelieve it, Madam,--I said, and added softly to my +next neighbor,--but you prove it. + +The young fellow sitting near me winked; and the divinity-student +said, in an undertone,--_Optime dictum_. + +Your talking Latin,--said I,--reminds me of an odd trick of one of my +old tutors. He read so much of that language, that his English half +turned into it. He got caught in town, one hot summer, in pretty close +quarters, and wrote, or began to write, a series of city pastorals. +Eclogues he called them, and meant to have published them by +subscription. I remember some of his verses, if you want to hear +them.--You, Sir, (addressing myself to the divinity-student,) and all +such as have been through college, or, what is the same thing, +received an honorary degree, will understand them without a +dictionary. The old man had a great deal to say about "aestivation," +as he called it, in opposition, as one might say, to _hibernation_. +Intramural festivation, or town-life in summer, he would say, is a +peculiar form of suspended existence or semi-asphyxia. One wakes up +from it about the beginning of the last week in September. This is +what I remember of his poem:-- + +AESTIVATION. + +_An Unpublished Poem, by my late Latin Tutor._ + + In candent ire the solar splendor flames; + The foles, languescent, pend from arid rances; + His humid front the cive, anheling, wipes, + And dreams of erring on ventiferous ripes. + + How dulce to vive occult to mortal eyes, + Dorm on the herb with none to supervise, + Carp the suave berries from the crescent vine, + And bibe the flow from longicaudate kine! + + To me, alas! no verdurous visions come, + Save yon exigous pool's conferva-scum,-- + No concave vast repeats the tender hue + That laves my milk-jug with celestial blue! + + Me wretched! Let me curr to quercine shades! + Effund your albid hausts, lactiferous maids! + Oh, might I vole to some umbrageous clump,-- + Depart,--be off,--excede,--evade,--crump! + +--I have lived by the sea-shore and by the mountains.--No, I am not +going to say which is best. The one where your place is is the best +for you. But this difference there is: you can domesticate mountains, +but the sea is _ferae naturae_. You may have a hut, or know the owner +of one, on the mountain-side; you see a light half-way up its ascent +in the evening, and you know there is a home, and you might share it. +You have noted certain trees, perhaps; you know the particular zone +where the hemlocks look so black in October, when the maples and +beeches have faded. All its reliefs and intaglios have electrotyped +themselves in the medallions that hang round the walls of your +memory's chamber.--The sea remembers nothing. It is feline. It licks +your feet,--its huge flanks purr very pleasantly for you; but it will +crack your bones and eat you, for all that, and wipe the crimsoned +foam from its jaws as if nothing had happened. The mountains give +their lost children berries and water; the sea mocks their thirst and +lets them die. The mountains have a grand, stupid, lovable +tranquillity; the sea has a fascinating, treacherous intelligence. The +mountains lie about like huge ruminants, their broad backs awful to +look upon, but safe to handle. The sea smooths its silver scales until +you cannot see their joints,--but their shining is that of a snake's +belly, after all.--In deeper suggestiveness I find as great a +difference. The mountains dwarf mankind and foreshorten the procession +of its long generations. The sea drowns out humanity and time; it has +no sympathy with either; for it belongs to eternity, and of that it +sings its monotonous song forever and ever. + +Yet I should love to have a little box by the sea-shore. I should love +to gaze out on the wild feline element from a front window of my own, +just as I should love to look on a caged panther, and see it stretch +its shining length, and then curl over and lap its smooth sides, and +by-and-by begin to lash itself into rage and show its white teeth and +spring at its bars, and howl the cry of its mad, but, to me, harmless +fury.--And then,--to look at it with that inward eye,--who does not +love to shuffle off time and its concerns, at intervals,--to forget +who is President and who is Governor, what race he belongs to, what +language he speaks, which golden-headed nail of the firmament his +particular planetary system is hung upon, and listen to the great +liquid metronome as it beats its solemn measure, steadily swinging +when the solo or duet of human life began, and to swing just as +steadily after the human chorus has died out and man is a fossil on +its shores? + +--What should decide one, in choosing a summer +residence?--Constitution, first of all. How much snow could you melt +in an hour, if you were planted in a hogshead of it? Comfort is +essential to enjoyment. All sensitive people should remember that +persons in easy circumstances suffer much more from cold in +summer--that is, the warm half of the year--than in winter, or the +other half. You must cut your climate to your constitution, as much as +your clothing to your shape. After this, consult your taste and +convenience. But if you would be happy in Berkshire, you must carry +mountains in your brain; and if you would enjoy Nahant, you must have +an ocean in your soul. Nature plays at dominos with you; you must +match her piece, or she will never give it up to you. + +----The schoolmistress said, in rather a mischievous way, that she was +afraid some minds or souls would be a little crowded, if they took in +the Rocky Mountains or the Atlantic. + +Have you ever read the little book called "The Stars and the +Earth?"--said I.--Have you seen the Declaration of Independence +photographed in a surface that a fly's foot would cover? The forms or +conditions of Time and Space, as Kant will tell you, are nothing in +themselves,--only our way of looking at things. You are right, I +think, however, in recognizing the category of Space as being quite as +applicable to minds as to the outer world. Every man of reflection is +vaguely conscious of an imperfectly-defined circle which is drawn +about his intellect. He has a perfectly clear sense that the fragments +of his intellectual circle include the curves of many other minds of +which he is cognizant. He often recognizes those as manifestly +concentric with his own, but of less radius. On the other hand, when +we find a portion of an arc outside of our own, we say it _intersects_ +ours, but are very slow to confess or to see that it _circumscribes_ +it. Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or +sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions. After +looking at the Alps, I felt that my mind had been stretched beyond the +limits of its elasticity, and fitted so loosely on my old ideas of +space that I had to spread these to fit it. + +----If I thought I should ever see the Alps!--said the schoolmistress. + +Perhaps you will, some time or other,--I said. + +It is not very likely,--she answered.--I have had one or two +opportunities, but I had rather be anything than governess in a rich +family. + +Proud, too, you little soft-voiced woman! Well, I can't say I like you +any the worse for it. How long will schoolkeeping take to kill you? Is +it possible the poor thing works with her needle, too? I don't like +those marks on the side of her forefinger. + +_Tableau_. Chamouni. Mont Blanc in full view. Figures in the +foreground; two of them standing apart; one of them a gentleman +of----oh,--ah,--yes! the other a lady in a white cashmere, leaning on +his shoulder.--The ingenuous reader will understand that this was an +internal, private, personal, subjective diorama, seen for one instant +on the background of my own consciousness, and abolished into black +non-entity by the first question which recalled me to actual life, as +suddenly as if one of those iron shop-blinds (which I always pass at +dusk with a shiver, expecting to stumble over some poor but honest +shop-boy's head, just taken off by its sudden and unexpected descent, +and left outside upon the sidewalk) had come down "by the run." + +----Should you like to hear what moderate wishes life brings one to at +last? I used to be very ambitious,--wasteful, extravagant, and +luxurious in all my fancies. Head too much in the "Arabian Nights." +Must have the lamp,--couldn't do without the ring. Exercise every +morning on the brazen horse. Plump down into castles as full of little +milk-white princesses as a nest is of young sparrows. All love me +dearly at once.--Charming idea of life, but too high-colored for the +reality. I have outgrown all this; my tastes have become exceedingly +primitive,--almost, perhaps, ascetic. We carry happiness into our +condition, but must not hope to find it there. I think you will be +willing to hear some lines which embody the subdued and limited +desires of my maturity. + + +CONTENTMENT. + + "Man wants but little here below." + + Little I ask; my wants are few; + I only wish a hut of stone, + (A _very plain_ brown stone will do,) + That I may call my own:-- + And close at hand is such a one, + In yonder street that fronts the sun. + + Plain food is quite enough for me; + Three courses are as good as ten;-- + If Nature can subsist on three, + Thank Heaven for three. Amen! + I always thought cold victual nice;-- + My _choice_ would be vanilla-ice. + + I care not much for gold or land;-- + Give me a mortgage here and there,-- + Some good bank-stock,--some note of hand, + Or trifling railroad share;-- + I only ask that Fortune send + A _little_ more than I shall spend. + + Honors are silly toys, I know, + And titles are but empty names;-- + I would, _perhaps_, be Plenipo,-- + But only near St. James;-- + I'm very sure I should not care + To fill our Gubernator's chair. + + Jewels are baubles; 'tis a sin + To care for such unfruitful things;-- + One good-sized diamond in a pin,-- + Some, _not so large_, in rings,-- + A ruby, and a pearl, or so, + Will do for me;--I laugh at show. + + My dame should dress in cheap attire; + (Good, heavy silks are never dear;)-- + I own perhaps I _might_ desire + Some shawls of true cashmere,-- + Some marrowy crapes of China silk, + Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk. + + I would not have the horse I drive + So fast that folks must stop and stare; + An easy gait--two, forty-five-- + Suits me; I do not care;-- + Perhaps, for just a _single spurt_, + Some seconds less would do no hurt. + + Of pictures, I should like to own + Titians and Raphaels three or four,-- + I love so much their style and tone,-- + One Turner, and no more + (A landscape,--foreground golden dirt; + The sunshine painted with a squirt). + + Of books but few,--some fifty score + For daily use, and bound for wear; + The rest upon an upper floor;-- + Some _little_ luxury _there_ + Of red morocco's gilded gleam, + And vellum rich as country cream. + + Busts, cameos, gems,--such things as these, + Which others often show for pride, + _I_ value for their power to please, + And selfish churls deride;-- + _One_ Stradivarius, I confess, + _Two_ Meerschaums, I would fain possess. + + Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn, + Nor ape the glittering upstart fool;-- + Shall not carved tables serve my turn, + But _all_ must be of buhl? + Give grasping pomp its double share,-- + I ask but _one_ recumbent chair. + + Thus humble let me live and die, + Nor long for Midas' golden touch; + If Heaven more generous gifts deny, + I shall not miss them _much_.-- + Too grateful for the blessing lent + Of simple tastes and mind content! + + +MY LAST WALK WITH THE SCHOOLMISTRESS. + +(_A Parenthesis_.) + +I can't say just how many walks she and I had taken together before +this one. I found the effect of going out every morning was decidedly +favorable on her health. Two pleasing dimples, the places for which +were just marked when she came, played, shadowy, in her freshening +cheeks when she smiled and nodded good-morning to me from the +schoolhouse-steps. + +I am afraid I did the greater part of the talking. At any rate, if I +should try to report all that I said during the first half-dozen walks +we took together, I fear that I might receive a gentle hint from my +friends the publishers, that a separate volume, at my own risk and +expense, would be the proper method of bringing them before the +public. + +--I would have a woman as true as Death. At the first real lie which +works from the heart outward, she should be tenderly chloroformed into +a better world, where she can have an angel for a governess, and feed +on strange fruits which will make her all over again, even to her +bones and marrow.--Whether gifted with the accident of beauty or not, +she should have been moulded in the rose-red clay of Love, before the +breath of life made a moving mortal of her. Love-capacity is a +congenital endowment; and I think, after a while, one gets to know the +warm-hued natures it belongs to from the pretty pipe-clay counterfeits +of it.--Proud she may be, in the sense of respecting herself; but +pride, in the sense of contemning others less gifted than herself, +deserves the two lowest circles of a vulgar woman's Inferno, where the +punishments are Small-pox and Bankruptcy.--She who nips off the end of +a brittle courtesy, as one breaks the tip of an icicle, to bestow upon +those whom she ought cordially and kindly to recognize, proclaims the +fact that she comes not merely of low blood, but of bad blood. +Consciousness of unquestioned position makes people gracious in proper +measure to all; but if a woman puts on airs with her real equals, she +has something about herself or her family she is ashamed of, or ought +to be. Middle, and more than middle-aged people, who know family +histories, generally see through it. An official of standing was rude +to me once. Oh, that is the maternal grandfather,--said a wise old +friend to me,--he was a boor.--Better too few words, from the woman we +love, than too many: while she is silent, Nature is working for her; +while she talks, she is working for herself.--Love is sparingly +soluble in the words of men; therefore they speak much of it; but one +syllable of woman's speech can dissolve more of it than a man's heart +can hold. + +--Whether I said any or all of these things to the schoolmistress, or +not,--whether I stole them out of Lord Bacon,--whether I cribbed them +from Balzac,--whether I dipped them from the ocean of Tupperian +wisdom,--or whether I have just found them in my head, laid there by +that solemn fowl, Experience, (who, according to my observation, +cackles oftener than she drops real live eggs,) I cannot say. Wise men +have said more foolish things,--and foolish men, I don't doubt, have +said as wise things. Anyhow, the schoolmistress and I had pleasant +walks and long talks, all of which I do not feel bound to report. + +--You are a stranger to me, Ma'am.--I don't doubt you would like to +know all I said to the schoolmistress.--I sha'n't do it;--I had rather +get the publishers to return the money you have invested in this. +Besides, I have forgotten a good deal of it. I shall tell only what I +like of what I remember. + +--My idea was, in the first place, to search out the picturesque spots +which the city affords a sight of, to those who have eyes. I know a +good many, and it was a pleasure to look at them in company with my +young friend. There were the shrubs and flowers in the Franklin-Place +front-yards or borders; Commerce is just putting his granite foot upon +them. Then there are certain small seraglio-gardens, into which one +can get a peep through the crevices of high fences,--one in Myrtle +Street, or backing on it,--here and there one at the North and South +Ends. Then the great elms in Essex Street. Then the stately +horse-chestnuts in that vacant lot in Chambers Street, which hold +their outspread hands over your head, (as I said in my poem the other +day,) and look as if they were whispering, "May grace, mercy, and +peace be with you!"--and the rest of that benediction. Nay, there are +certain patches of ground, which, having lain neglected for a time, +Nature, who always has her pockets full of seeds, and holes in all her +pockets, has covered with hungry plebeian growths, which fight for +life with each other, until some of them get broad-leaved and +succulent, and you have a coarse vegetable tapestry which Raphael +would not have disdained to spread over the foreground of his +masterpiece. The Professor pretends that he found such a one in +Charles Street, which, in its dare-devil impudence of rough-and-tumble +vegetation, beat the pretty-behaved flower-beds of the Public Garden +as ignominiously as a group of young tatterdemalions playing +pitch-and-toss beats a row of Sunday-school-boys with their teacher at +their head. + +But then the Professor has one of his burrows in that region, and puts +everything in high colors relating to it. That is his way about +everything.--I hold any man cheap,--he said,--of whom nothing stronger +can be uttered than that all his geese are swans.----How is that, +Professor?--said I;--I should have set you down for one of that +sort.--Sir,--said he,--I am proud to say, that Nature has so far +enriched me, that I cannot own so much as a _duck_ without seeing in +it as pretty a swan as ever swam the basin in the garden of the +Luxembourg. And the Professor showed the whites of his eyes devoutly, +like one returning thanks after a dinner of many courses. + +I don't know anything sweeter than this leaking in of Nature through +all the cracks in the walls and floors of cities. You heap up a +million tons of hewn rocks on a square mile or two of earth which was +green once. The trees look down from the hill-sides and ask each +other, as they stand on tiptoe,--"What are these people about?" And +the small herbs at their feet look up and whisper back,--"We will go +and see." So the small herbs pack themselves up in the least possible +bundles, and wait until the wind steals to them at night and +whispers,--"Come with me." Then they go softly with it into the great +city,--one to a cleft in the pavement, one to a spout on the roof, one +to a seam in the marbles over a rich gentleman's bones, and one to the +grave without a stone where nothing but a man is buried,--and there +they grow, looking down on the generations of men from mouldy roofs, +looking up from between the less-trodden pavements, looking out +through iron cemetery-railings. Listen to them, when there is only a +light breath stirring, and you will hear them saying to each +other,--"Wait awhile!" The words run along the telegraph of those +narrow green lines that border the roads leading from the city, until +they reach the slope of the hills, and the trees repeat in low murmurs +to each other,--"Wait awhile!" By-and-by the flow of life in the +streets ebbs, and the old leafy inhabitants--the smaller tribes always +in front--saunter in, one by one, very careless seemingly, but very +tenacious, until they swarm so that the great stones gape from each +other with the crowding of their roots, and the feldspar begins to be +picked out of the granite to find them food. At last the trees take up +their solemn line of march, and never rest until they have encamped in +the market-place. Wait long enough and you will find an old doting oak +hugging a huge worn block in its yellow underground arms; that was the +corner-stone of the State-House. Oh, so patient she is, this +imperturbable Nature! + +--Let us cry!-- + +But all this has nothing to do with my walks and talks with the +schoolmistress. I did not say that I would not tell you something +about them. Let me alone, and I shall talk to you more than I ought +to, probably. We never tell our secrets to people that pump for them. + +Books we talked about, and education. It was her duty to know +something of these, and of course she did. Perhaps I was somewhat more +learned than she, but I found that the difference between her reading +and mine was like that of a man's and a woman's dusting a library. The +man flaps about with a bunch of feathers; the woman goes to work +softly with a cloth. She does not raise half the dust, nor fill her +own eyes and mouth with it,--but she goes into all the corners, and +attends to the leaves as much as the covers.--Books are the _negative_ +pictures of thought, and the more sensitive the mind that receives +their images, the more nicely the finest lines are reproduced. A +woman, (of the right kind,) reading after a man, follows him as Ruth +followed the reapers of Boaz, and her gleanings are often the finest +of the wheat. + +But it was in talking of Life that we came most nearly together. I +thought I knew something about that,--that I could speak or write +about it somewhat to the purpose. + +To take up this fluid earthly being of ours as a sponge sucks up +water,--to be steeped and soaked in its realities as a hide fills its +pores lying seven years in a tan-pit,--to have winnowed every wave of +it as a mill-wheel works up the stream that runs through the flume +upon its float-boards,--to have curled up in the keenest spasms and +flattened out in the laxest languors of this breathing-sickness, which +keeps certain parcels of matter uneasy for three or four score +years,--to have fought all the devils and clasped all the angels of +its delirium,--and then, just at the point when the white-hot passions +have cooled down to cherry-red, plunge our experience into the +ice-cold stream of some human language or other, one might think would +end in a rhapsody with something of spring and temper in it. All this +I thought my power and province. + +The schoolmistress had tried life, too. Once in a while one meets with +a single soul greater than all the living pageant that passes before +it. As the pale astronomer sits in his study with sunken eyes and thin +fingers, and weighs Uranus or Neptune as in a balance, so there are +meek, slight women who have weighed all that this planetary life can +offer, and hold it like a bauble in the palm of their slender hands. +This was one of them. Fortune had left her, sorrow had baptized her; +the routine of labor and the loneliness of almost friendless city-life +were before her. Yet, as I looked upon her tranquil face, gradually +regaining a cheerfulness that was often sprightly, as she became +interested in the various matters we talked about and places we +visited, I saw that eye and lip and every shifting lineament were made +for love,--unconscious of their sweet office as yet, and meeting the +cold aspect of Duty with the natural graces which were meant for the +reward of nothing less than the Great Passion. + +----I never spoke one word of love to the schoolmistress in the course +of these pleasant walks. It seemed to me that we talked of everything +but love on that particular morning. There was, perhaps, a little more +timidity and hesitancy on my part than I have commonly shown among our +people at the boarding-house. In fact, I considered myself the master +at the breakfast-table; but, somehow, I could not command myself just +then so well as usual. The truth is, I had secured a passage to +Liverpool in the steamer which was to leave at noon,--with the +condition, however, of being released in case circumstances occurred +to detain me. The schoolmistress knew nothing about all this, of +course, as yet. + +It was on the Common that we were walking. The _mall_, or boulevard of +our Common, you know, has various branches leading from it in +different directions. One of these runs downward from opposite Joy +Street southward across the whole length of the Common to Boylston +Street. We called it the long path, and were fond of it. + +I felt very weak indeed (though of a tolerably robust habit) as we +came opposite the head of this path on that morning. I think I tried +to speak twice without making myself distinctly audible. At last I got +out the question,----Will you take the long path with me?-- +Certainly,--said the schoolmistress,--with much pleasure.----Think,--I +said,--before you answer; if you take the long path with me now, I +shall interpret it that we are to part no more!----The schoolmistress +stepped back with a sudden movement, as if an arrow had struck her. +One of the long granite blocks used as seats was hard by,--the one you +may still see close by the Gingko-tree.----Pray, sit down,--I +said.----No, no,--she answered, softly,--I will walk the _long path_ +with you! + +----The old gentleman who sits opposite met us walking, arm in arm, +about the middle of the long path, and said, very charmingly,--"Good +morning, my dears!" + + + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + +_The Life of John Fitch, the Inventor of the Steamboat_. By THOMPSON +WESTCOTT. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. + +What would not honest Sancho have given for a good biography of the +man who invented sleep? And will not the adventurous pleasure-tourist, +who has been jarred, jammed, roasted, coddled, and suffocated in a +railroad-car for a whole night, with two days to sandwich it, on being +deposited in an airy stateroom for the last two hundred miles of his +journey, think the man who invented the steamboat deserving of a +"first-rate" life? We well remember the time when nobody suspected +that person, whoever he might be,--and nobody much cared who he +was,--of any relationship to the individual whose memory Sancho +blessed, so great was the churning in the palaces that then floated. +But in our present boats this unpalace-like operation has been so +localized and mollified as to escape the notice of all but the +greenest and most inquisitive passengers. And now that we find the +luxury of travelling by water actually superior to that of staying at +home on land, we begin to feel a budding veneration for the man who +first found out that steam could be substituted, with such marvellous +advantage, for helpless dependence on the wind and miserable tugging +at oars and setting-poles. Who was he? What circumstances conspired to +shape his life and project it with so notable an aim? How did he look, +act, think, on all matters of human concernment? Here comes a book, +assuming in its title that one John Fitch, of whom his generation +seems not to have thought enough to paint his portrait, was the +inventor of the steamboat. It professes to be "The Life of John +Fitch"; but we are sorry to say it is rather a documentary argument to +prove that he was "the inventor of the steamboat." As an argument, it +is both needless and needlessly strong. We already knew to a certainty +that nobody could present a better claim to that honor than John +Fitch. True, the _idea_ did not wait for him. The engine could not +have been working a hundred years in the world without giving birth to +that. But till Watt invented it anew in 1782, by admitting the steam +alternately at both ends of the cylinder, it was too awkward and +clumsy to become a practical navigator. Moreover, though it could pump +admirably, it had not been taught to turn a crank. The French assert, +that experiments in steam-propulsion were made on the Seine, by Count +Auxiron and Perrier, in 1774, and on the Saone, by De Jouffroy, in +1782; but we know they led to no practical results, and the knowledge +of them probably did not, for some years, travel beyond the limits of +the French language. There is no satisfactory evidence that a boat was +ever moved by steam, within the boundaries of Anglo-Saxondom, before +John Fitch did it, on the 27th of July, 1786. His successful and every +way brilliant experiment on that occasion led directly to practical +results,--to wit, the formation of a company, embracing some of the +foremost men of Philadelphia, which built a small steam-packet for the +conveyance of passengers, and ran it during three summers, ending with +that of 1790. The company then failed, and broke poor Fitch's heart, +simply because the investment had not thus far proved lucrative, and +they were unwilling to make the further advances requisite to carry +out his moderate and reasonable plans. The only person who ever +claimed, in English, to have made a steamboat experiment before Fitch, +was James Rumsey, of Virginia, who, in 1788, published some testimony +to show that he had done it as early as April, 1786, that he had +broached the idea, _confidentially_, two years earlier, and that Fitch +_might_ have received it from one who violated his confidence. Fitch +promptly annihilated these pretences by a pamphlet, a reprint of which +maybe found in the Patent-Office Report for 1850. This, and a +contribution to Sparks's "American Biography," by Col. Charles +Whittlesey, of Ohio, seem quite sufficient to establish the historical +fact that John Fitch was the father of steam-navigation, whoever may +have been its prophets. Though the infant, with the royal blood of +both Neptune and Pluto in its veins, and a brand-new empire waiting to +crown it, fell into a seventeen years' swoon, during which Fitch died, +and the public at large forgot all that he had ever said or done, its +life did not become extinct. It was not created, but revived, by +Fulton, aided by the refreshing effusion of Chancellor Livingston's +money. We did not need a new book to make us more certain of these +facts, but we did need a more thorough biography of John Fitch, and, +with great respect for the industry and faithfulness of Mr. Westcott, +it is our opinion that we do still. He has demonstrated that the +materials for such a work are abundant, and a glance at the mortal +career of Fitch will show him to be an uncommonly interesting subject. + +John Fitch was born in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1743. At the age of +five, while his father was absent from home, courting his stepmother, +he heroically extinguished a fire of blazing flax, which would +otherwise have consumed the house, and while he was smarting from his +burns was cruelly beaten by an elder brother, who misapprehended the +case of the little boy, very much as the world did that of the man he +became. The domestic discipline he encountered under the paternal roof +was of the severest New England pattern of those days, and between its +theology and its economy he grew out of shape, like a thrifty pumpkin +between two rocks. He loved to learn, but had few books and little +schooling. His taste tended to mechanism, and he was apprenticed to a +stingy clock-maker, who obliged him to work on his farm and kept him +ignorant of his trade. Getting his liberty at last, he set up +brass-founding, on a capital of twenty shillings, and made money at +it. Then he went into the manufacture of potash, in which he was less +successful. He married a wife who proved more caustic than the potash +and more than a match for his patience. He settled his affairs so as +to leave her all his little property in the most manageable shape, and +left her with two children, to seek a separate fortune in the wide +world. The war of the Revolution found him at Trenton, New Jersey, a +man of some substance, acquired as a silversmith and peddler of silver +and brass sleeve-buttons of his own manufacture. It made him an +officer and then an armorer in the Continental service. As a +fabricator of patriotic weapons, he incurred the displeasure of his +Methodist brethren by working on the Sabbath, and lost his orthodoxy +in his disgust at their rebukes. Towards the close of the Revolution, +getting poor in fact by getting rich in Continental money, he +endeavored to save himself by investing in Virginia land-warrants, +went to Kentucky as a surveyor, and became possessed of sixteen +hundred acres of that wilderness. On a second expedition down the +Ohio, early in 1782, he fell into the hands of the savages, in the +most melodramatic style, was led captive through the vast forests and +swamps to Detroit, had a very characteristic and remarkable +prison-experience under British authority at Prison Island, was +exchanged, and by a sea-voyage reached his home in Bucks County, +Pennsylvania, at the close of the same year. Immediately after the +establishment of peace, he formed a company to speculate in Ohio +lands, and made extensive surveys for the purpose of forestalling the +best locations. Mr. Westcott's book confuses this portion of his +chronology by misprinting two or three dates, on the 113th page. The +hopeful game was spoiled by unexpected measures of the Confederated +government; but Fitch's explorations had deeply impressed him with the +sublime character of the Western rivers, and when, in April, 1785, the +thought first struck him that steam could easily make them navigable +upwards as well as downwards, he cared no more for lands. He had +noticed the mechanical power of steam, but had never seen an engine, +and did not know that one existed out of his own brain. This is the +less wonderful, seeing there were only three then in America, and his +science extended only to arithmetic. When his minister showed him a +drawing of Newcomen's engine, in "Martin's Philosophy," he was +chagrined to find that his invention had been anticipated in regard to +the mode of producing the power, but he was confirmed in his belief of +its availability for navigation. With no better resources than a +blacksmith's shop could furnish, he set himself at work to make a +steam-engine to test his theory. His success is one of those wonders +of human ingenuity struggling with difficulties, moral, financial, and +physical combined, which deserve both a Homer and a Macaulay to +celebrate and record them. He was supposed by most people, and almost +by himself, to have gone crazy. If anything, at this day, is more +incredible than the feat which he accomplished, it is the derision +with which the public viewed his labors, decried his success, and +sneered at the rags which betokened the honesty of his poverty. To +every one who had brains capable of logic, he had demonstrated the +feasibility of his visions. But no amount of even physical +demonstration, then possible, could bring out the funds requisite to +pecuniary profit, against the head-wind of public scorn. It whistled +down his high hopes of fortune. At last, dropping the file and the +hammer, he took the pen, determined, that, if others must get rich by +his invention, he would at least save for himself the fame of it. The +result of his literary labors was an autobiography of great frankness +and detail, extending to several hundred pages, and embracing almost +every conceivable violation of standard English orthography, with +which he seems to have had very little acquaintance or sympathy. It +was placed under seal in the Philadelphia Library, not to be opened +for thirty years. At the expiration of that period, in 1823, the seal +was broken, and the quaint old manuscript, with the stamp of honest +truth on every word, stood ready to reveal what the world is but just +beginning to "want to know" about John Fitch. He afterwards went to +Europe to promote his steamboat interests,--to little purpose, +--wandered about a few years, settled in Bardstown, Kentucky, +made a model steamboat with a brass engine, drowned disappointment in +the drink of that country, and at last departed by his own will, two +years before the close of the last century. A life so full of truth +that is stranger than fiction ought not to be treated in the +Dry-as-dust style, quite so largely as Mr. Westcott has done it. + + * * * * * + +_Life Beneath the Waters; or, The Aquarium in America_. Illustrated by +Plates and Wood-Cuts drawn from Life. By ARTHUR M. EDWARDS. New York: +1858. + +This book has appeared since the notice in our July number of two +English works on the Aquarium. Like so many books by which our +literature is discredited, it is a work got up hastily to meet a +public demand, and is deficient in method, thoroughness, and accuracy. +There is much repetition in it, and the observations of its author +seem to have been limited to the waters around New York, and to have +extended over but a short period. In spite of these and other minor +defects, it may be recommended as containing much useful information +for those just beginning an aquarium and forming an acquaintance with +the sea. + +We trust that a misprint in our former notice has not brought +disappointment to any of our readers, by leading them to expose their +aquaria to too much sunshine; for the sunshine should be "_not_ +enough" (and not, as it was printed, "_hot_ enough") "to raise the +water to a temperature above that of the outer air." + + * * * * * + +_The Exiles of Florida: or the Crimes committed by our Government +against the Maroons, who fled from South Carolina and other Slave +States, seeking Protection under Spanish Laws_. By JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS. +Columbus, Ohio: Follett, Foster, & Co. 1858. + +A cruel story this, Mr. Giddings tells us. Too cruel, but too true. It +is full of pathetic and tragic interest, and melts and stirs the heart +at once with pity for the sufferers, and with anger, that sins not, at +their mean and ruthless oppressors. Every American citizen should read +it; for it is an indictment which recites crimes which have been +committed in his name, perpetrated by troops and officials in his +service, and all done at his expense. The whole nation is responsible +at the bar of the world and before the tribunal of posterity for these +atrocities, devised by members of its Cabinet and its Congress, +directed by its Presidents, and executed by its armies and its courts. +The cruelties of Alva in the Netherlands, which make the pen of Motley +glow as with fire as he tells them, the _dragonnades_ which scorched +over the fairest regions of France after the Revocation of the Edict +of Nantes, have a certain excuse, as being instigated by a sincere, +though misguided religious zeal. For Philip II. and Louis XIV. had, at +least, a fanatical belief that they were doing God service by those +holocausts of his children; while no motive inspired these massacres, +tortures, and banishments, but the most sordid rapacity and avarice, +the lowest and basest passions of the human breast. + +And so carefully has the truth of this story been covered up with +lies, that, probably, very few indeed of the people of the Free States +have any just idea of the origin, character, and purposes of the +Seminole Wars, or of the character of the race against which they were +waged. And yet there is no episode in American history more full of +romantic interest, of heroic struggles, and of moving griefs. We have +been taught to believe that these wars were provoked by incursions of +the savages of Florida on the frontier, and, if the truth could not be +concealed, that an incidental motive of our war of extermination +against them was to be found in the sanctuary which the fugitive +slaves of the neighboring States found in their fastnesses. The +general impression has been, that these were mainly runaways of recent +date, who had made their escape from contemporary masters. How many of +our readers know that for more than three quarters of a century before +the purchase of Florida there had been a nation of negroes established +there, enjoying the wild freedom they loved, mingling and gradually +becoming identified with the Indians, who had made it their city of +refuge from slavery also? For the slaveholders of Carolina had no +scruples against enslaving Indians any more than Africans, until it +was discovered that the untamable nature of the red man made him an +unprofitable and a dangerous servant. These Indian slaves fled into +the wilderness, which is now the State of Georgia, pushing their way +even to the peninsula of Florida, and were followed, in their flight +and to their asylum, by many of their black companions in bondage. For +near seventy-five years this little nation lived happy and contented, +till the State of Georgia commenced the series of piratical incursions +into their country, then a Spanish dependency, from which they were +never afterwards free; the nation at last taking up the slaveholders' +quarrel and prosecuting it to the bitter and bloody end. + +This whole story is told, and well told, by Mr. Giddings. And a most +touching picture it is. First, the original evasion of the slaves into +that peninsular wilderness, which they reclaimed as far as the supply +of their simple wants demanded. They planted, they hunted, they +multiplied their cattle, they intermarried with their Indian friends +and allies, their children and their children's children grew up +around them, knowing of slavery only by traditionary legend. The +original founders of the tribe passed away, and their sons and +grandsons possessed their corn-fields and their hunting-grounds in +peace. For many years no fears disturbed their security. Under the +Spanish rule they were safe and happy. Then comes the gradual +gathering of the cloud on the edges of their wilderness, its first +fitful and irregular flashes, till it closes over their heads and +bursts upon them in universal ruin and devastation. Their heroic +resistance to the invasion of the United States troops follows, +sublime from its very desperation. A more unequal contest was never +fought. On one side one of the mightiest powers on earth, with endless +stores of men and money at its beck,--and on the other a handful of +outcasts fighting for their homes, and the liberties, in no +metaphorical sense, of themselves, their wives, and their children, +and protracting the fight for as many years as the American Revolution +lasted. + +Then succeeded the victory of Slavery, and the reduction to hopeless +bondage of multitudes who had been for generations free, on claim of +pretended descendants of imaginary owners, by the decision of petty +government-officials, without trial or real examination. More than +five hundred persons, some of them recent fugitives, but mostly men +born free, were thus reduced to slavery at a cost to us all of forty +millions of dollars, or eighty thousand dollars for each recovered +slave! Then comes their removal to the Cherokee lands, west of +Arkansas, under the pledge of the faith of the nation, plighted by +General Jessup, its authorized agent, that they should be sent to the +West, and settled in a village separate from the Seminole Indians, and +that, in the mean time, they should be protected, should not be +separated, "nor any of them be sold to white men or others." This, +however, was not a legitimate issue of a war waged solely for the +reduction of these exiles to slavery; and so the doubts of President +Polk as to the construction of this treaty were solved by Mr. John Y. +Mason, of Virginia, who was sandwiched in between two Free-State +Attorney-Generals for this single piece of dirty work, (of which +transaction see a most curious account, pp. 328-9 of this book,) and +who enlightened the Presidential mind by the information, that, though +the exiles were entitled to their freedom, under the treaty, and had a +right to remain in the towns assigned to them, "the Executive _could +not in any manner interfere to protect them_!" + +The bordering Creeks, who by long slave-holding had sunk to the level +of the whites around them, longed to seize on these valuable +neighbors, and, indeed, they claimed rights of property in them as +fugitives in fact from themselves. The exiles were assured by the +President that they "_had the right to remain in their villages, free +from all interference or interruption from the Creeks_." Trusting to +the plighted word of the Head of the Nation, they built their huts and +planted their ground, and began again their little industries and +enjoyments. + +But the sight of so many able-bodied negroes, belonging only to +themselves, and setting an evil example to the slaves in the spectacle +of an independent colony of blacks, was too tempting and too +irritating to be resisted. A slave-dealer appeared amongst the Creeks +and offered to pay one hundred dollars for every Floridian exile they +would seize and deliver to him,--he taking the risk of the title. Two +hundred armed Creek warriors made a foray into the colony and seized +all they could secure. They were repulsed, but carried their prisoners +with them and delivered them to the tempter, receiving the stipulated +pieces of silver for their reward. The Seminole agent had the +prisoners brought before the nearest Arkansas judge by Habeas Corpus, +and the whole matter was reviewed by this infamous magistrate, who +overruled the opinion of the Attorney-General as to their right to +reside in their villages, overrode the decision of the President, +repealed the treaty-stipulations, pronounced the title of the Creek +Indians, and consequently that of their vendee, legal and perfect, and +directed the kidnapped captives to be delivered up to the claimant! We +regret that Mr. Giddings has omitted the name of this wretch, and we +hope that in a future edition he will tell the world how to catalogue +this choice specimen in its collection of judicial monsters. + +Then comes the last scene of this drama of exile. Finding that there +was no rest for the sole of their foot in the United States, these +peeled and hunted men resolved to turn their backs upon the country +that had thus cruelly entreated them, and to seek a new home within +the frontiers of Mexico. The sad procession began its march westward +by night, the warriors keeping themselves always in readiness for an +attack. The Creeks, finding that their prey had escaped them, went in +pursuit, but were bravely repulsed and fled, leaving their dead upon +the field,--the greatest disgrace that can befall, according to the +code of Indian honor. The exiles then pursued their march into Mexico +without further molestation. There, in a fertile and picturesque +region, they have established themselves and resumed the pursuits of +peaceful life. But they have not been permitted to live in peace even +there. At least one marauding party, in 1853, was organized in Texas, +and went in search of adventures towards the new settlement. Of the +particulars of the expedition we have no account. Only, it is known +that it returned without captives, and, as the Texan papers announcing +the fact admitted, "_with slightly diminished numbers_." How long they +will be permitted to dwell unmolested in their new homes no one can +say. Complaints are already abroad that the escape of slaves is +promoted by the existence of this colony, which receives and protects +them. And when the Government shall be ordered by its Slave-holding +Directory to add another portion of Mexico to the Area of Freedom, +these "outrages" will be sure to be found in the catalogue of +grievances to be redressed. Then they will have to dislodge again and +fly yet farther from before the face of their hereditary oppressors. + +Mr. Giddings has done his task admirably well. It is worthy to be the +crowning work of his long life of public service. His style is of that +best kind which is never remarked upon, but serves as a clear medium +through which the events he portrays are seen without distortion or +exaggeration. He has done his country one more service in entire +consistency with those that have filled up the whole course of his +honorable and beneficent life. We have said that this is fit to be the +crowning work of Mr. Giddings's life; but we trust that it is far from +being the last that he will do for his country. A winter such as +rounds his days is fuller of life and promise than a century of vulgar +summers. He has won for himself an honorable and enduring place in the +hearts and memories of men by the fidelity to principle and the +unfaltering courage of his public course. Of the ignoble hundreds who +have flitted through the Capitol, since he first took his place there, + + "Heads without name, no more remembered," + +his is one of the two or three that are household words on the lips of +the nation. And it will so remain and be familiar in the mouths of +posterity, with a fame as pure as it is noble. The ear that hath _not_ +heard him shall bless him, and the eye that hath _not_ seen him shall +give witness to him. + + * * * * * + + +OBITUARY. + +The conductors of "The Atlantic" have the painful duty of announcing +to their readers the death of CALVIN W. PHILLEO, author of "Akin by +Marriage," published in the earlier numbers of this magazine. The plot +of the story was sketched at length, and in the brain of the writer it +was complete; but no hand save his own could give it life and form: it +must remain an unfinished work. The mind of Mr. Philleo was singularly +clear, his observation of nature and character sharp and +discriminating, and his feeling for beauty, in its more placid forms, +was intense and pervading. His previous work, "Twice Married," and the +various sketches of New England life, with which the readers of +magazine literature are familiar, are sufficient to give him a high +place among novelists. He was warm in his friendships, pure in life, +and his early death will be lamented by a wide circle of friends. _In +pace!_ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 2, ISSUE +11, SEPTEMBER, 1858*** + + +******* This file should be named 10456.txt or 10456.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/4/5/10456 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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