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diff --git a/old/1085.txt b/old/1085.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e65b49 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1085.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8883 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of John Sterling, by Thomas Carlyle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of John Sterling + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Posting Date: August 5, 2008 [EBook #1085] +Release Date: October, 1997 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF JOHN STERLING *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Burkey + + + + + +LIFE OF JOHN STERLING + +By Thomas Carlyle + + +Transcriber's Note: Italics in the text are indicated by the use of an +underscore as delimiter, _thusly_. All footnotes have been collected at +the end of the text, and numbered sequentially in brackets, [thusly]. +One illustration has been omitted. The "pound" symbol has been replaced +by the word "pounds". Otherwise, all spelling, punctuation, etc., have +been left as in the printed text. + +Taken from volume 2 of Carlyle's Complete Works, which additionally +contains the Latter-Day Pamphlets, to be provided as a separate etext. + + + + +PART I. + + + +CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. + +Near seven years ago, a short while before his death in 1844, John +Sterling committed the care of his literary Character and printed +Writings to two friends, Archdeacon Hare and myself. His estimate of the +bequest was far from overweening; to few men could the small sum-total +of his activities in this world seem more inconsiderable than, in those +last solemn days, it did to him. He had burnt much; found much unworthy; +looking steadfastly into the silent continents of Death and Eternity, a +brave man's judgments about his own sorry work in the field of Time are +not apt to be too lenient. But, in fine, here was some portion of his +work which the world had already got hold of, and which he could not +burn. This too, since it was not to be abolished and annihilated, but +must still for some time live and act, he wished to be wisely settled, +as the rest had been. And so it was left in charge to us, the survivors, +to do for it what we judged fittest, if indeed doing nothing did not +seem the fittest to us. This message, communicated after his decease, +was naturally a sacred one to Mr. Hare and me. + +After some consultation on it, and survey of the difficulties and +delicate considerations involved in it, Archdeacon Hare and I agreed +that the whole task, of selecting what Writings were to be reprinted, +and of drawing up a Biography to introduce them, should be left to him +alone; and done without interference of mine:--as accordingly it was, [1] +in a manner surely far superior to the common, in every good quality of +editing; and visibly everywhere bearing testimony to the friendliness, +the piety, perspicacity and other gifts and virtues of that eminent and +amiable man. + +In one respect, however, if in one only, the arrangement had been +unfortunate. Archdeacon Hare, both by natural tendency and by his +position as a Churchman, had been led, in editing a Work not free from +ecclesiastical heresies, and especially in writing a Life very full of +such, to dwell with preponderating emphasis on that part of his subject; +by no means extenuating the fact, nor yet passing lightly over it (which +a layman could have done) as needing no extenuation; but carefully +searching into it, with the view of excusing and explaining it; dwelling +on it, presenting all the documents of it, and as it were spreading it +over the whole field of his delineation; as if religious heterodoxy had +been the grand fact of Sterling's life, which even to the Archdeacon's +mind it could by no means seem to be. _Hinc illae lachrymae_. For the +Religious Newspapers, and Periodical Heresy-hunters, getting very lively +in those years, were prompt to seize the cue; and have prosecuted +and perhaps still prosecute it, in their sad way, to all lengths and +breadths. John Sterling's character and writings, which had little +business to be spoken of in any Church-court, have hereby been carried +thither as if for an exclusive trial; and the mournfulest set of +pleadings, out of which nothing but a misjudgment _can_ be formed, +prevail there ever since. The noble Sterling, a radiant child of the +empyrean, clad in bright auroral hues in the memory of all that knew +him,--what is he doing here in inquisitorial _sanbenito_, with nothing +but ghastly spectralities prowling round him, and inarticulately +screeching and gibbering what they call their judgment on him! + +"The sin of Hare's Book," says one of my Correspondents in those years, +"is easily defined, and not very condemnable, but it is nevertheless +ruinous to his task as Biographer. He takes up Sterling as a clergyman +merely. Sterling, I find, was a curate for exactly eight months; during +eight months and no more had he any special relation to the Church. But +he was a man, and had relation to the Universe, for eight-and-thirty +years: and it is in this latter character, to which all the others were +but features and transitory hues, that we wish to know him. His battle +with hereditary Church formulas was severe; but it was by no means his +one battle with things inherited, nor indeed his chief battle; +neither, according to my observation of what it was, is it successfully +delineated or summed up in this Book. The truth is, nobody that had +known Sterling would recognize a feature of him here; you would never +dream that this Book treated of _him_ at all. A pale sickly shadow in +torn surplice is presented to us here; weltering bewildered amid +heaps of what you call 'Hebrew Old-clothes;' wrestling, with impotent +impetuosity, to free itself from the baleful imbroglio, as if that +had been its one function in life: who in this miserable figure would +recognize the brilliant, beautiful and cheerful John Sterling, with +his ever-flowing wealth of ideas, fancies, imaginations; with his frank +affections, inexhaustible hopes, audacities, activities, and general +radiant vivacity of heart and intelligence, which made the presence of +him an illumination and inspiration wherever he went? It is too bad. +Let a man be honestly forgotten when his life ends; but let him not be +misremembered in this way. To be hung up as an ecclesiastical scarecrow, +as a target for heterodox and orthodox to practice archery upon, is no +fate that can be due to the memory of Sterling. It was not as a ghastly +phantasm, choked in Thirty-nine-article controversies, or miserable +Semitic, Anti-Semitic street-riots,--in scepticisms, agonized +self-seekings, that this man appeared in life; nor as such, if the world +still wishes to look at him should you suffer the world's memory of him +now to be. Once for all, it is unjust; emphatically untrue as an image +of John Sterling: perhaps to few men that lived along with him could +such an interpretation of their existence be more inapplicable." + + +Whatever truth there might be in these rather passionate +representations, and to myself there wanted not a painful feeling of +their truth, it by no means appeared what help or remedy any friend of +Sterling's, and especially one so related to the matter as myself, could +attempt in the interim. Perhaps endure in patience till the dust +laid itself again, as all dust does if you leave it well alone? Much +obscuration would thus of its own accord fall away; and, in Mr. Hare's +narrative itself, apart from his commentary, many features of Sterling's +true character would become decipherable to such as sought them. +Censure, blame of this Work of Mr. Hare's was naturally far from my +thoughts. A work which distinguishes itself by human piety and candid +intelligence; which, in all details, is careful, lucid, exact; and which +offers, as we say, to the observant reader that will interpret facts, +many traits of Sterling besides his heterodoxy. Censure of it, from me +especially, is not the thing due; from me a far other thing is due!-- + +On the whole, my private thought was: First, How happy it comparatively +is, for a man of any earnestness of life, to have no Biography written +of him; but to return silently, with his small, sorely foiled bit of +work, to the Supreme Silences, who alone can judge of it or him; and not +to trouble the reviewers, and greater or lesser public, with attempting +to judge it! The idea of "fame," as they call it, posthumous or +other, does not inspire one with much ecstasy in these points of +view.--Secondly, That Sterling's performance and real or seeming +importance in this world was actually not of a kind to demand an express +Biography, even according to the world's usages. His character was not +supremely original; neither was his fate in the world wonderful. What +he did was inconsiderable enough; and as to what it lay in him to have +done, this was but a problem, now beyond possibility of settlement. Why +had a Biography been inflicted on this man; why had not No-biography, +and the privilege of all the weary, been his lot?--Thirdly, That such +lot, however, could now no longer be my good Sterling's; a tumult having +risen around his name, enough to impress some pretended likeness of him +(about as like as the Guy-Fauxes are, on Gunpowder-Day) upon the minds +of many men: so that he could not be forgotten, and could only be +misremembered, as matters now stood. + +Whereupon, as practical conclusion to the whole, arose by degrees this +final thought, That, at some calmer season, when the theological dust +had well fallen, and both the matter itself, and my feelings on it, were +in a suitabler condition, I ought to give my testimony about this friend +whom I had known so well, and record clearly what my knowledge of him +was. This has ever since seemed a kind of duty I had to do in the world +before leaving it. + + +And so, having on my hands some leisure at this time, and being bound to +it by evident considerations, one of which ought to be especially +sacred to me, I decide to fling down on paper some outline of what +my recollections and reflections contain in reference to this most +friendly, bright and beautiful human soul; who walked with me for a +season in this world, and remains to me very memorable while I continue +in it. Gradually, if facts simple enough in themselves can be narrated +as they came to pass, it will be seen what kind of man this was; to what +extent condemnable for imaginary heresy and other crimes, to what +extent laudable and lovable for noble manful _orthodoxy_ and other +virtues;--and whether the lesson his life had to teach us is not much +the reverse of what the Religious Newspapers hitherto educe from it. + +Certainly it was not as a "sceptic" that you could define him, whatever +his definition might be. Belief, not doubt, attended him at all points +of his progress; rather a tendency to too hasty and headlong belief. +Of all men he was the least prone to what you could call scepticism: +diseased self-listenings, self-questionings, impotently painful +dubitations, all this fatal nosology of spiritual maladies, so rife +in our day, was eminently foreign to him. Quite on the other side lay +Sterling's faults, such as they were. In fact, you could observe, in +spite of his sleepless intellectual vivacity, he was not properly a +thinker at all; his faculties were of the active, not of the passive or +contemplative sort. A brilliant _improvisatore_; rapid in thought, in +word and in act; everywhere the promptest and least hesitating of men. +I likened him often, in my banterings, to sheet-lightning; and +reproachfully prayed that he would concentrate himself into a bolt, and +rive the mountain-barriers for us, instead of merely playing on them and +irradiating them. + +True, he had his "religion" to seek, and painfully shape together for +himself, out of the abysses of conflicting disbelief and sham-belief and +bedlam delusion, now filling the world, as all men of reflection have; +and in this respect too,--more especially as his lot in the battle +appointed for us all was, if you can understand it, victory and not +defeat,--he is an expressive emblem of his time, and an instruction and +possession to his contemporaries. For, I say, it is by no means as a +vanquished _doubter_ that he figures in the memory of those who knew +him; but rather as a victorious _believer_, and under great difficulties +a victorious doer. An example to us all, not of lamed misery, helpless +spiritual bewilderment and sprawling despair, or any kind of _drownage_ +in the foul welter of our so-called religious or other controversies and +confusions; but of a swift and valiant vanquisher of all these; a noble +asserter of himself, as worker and speaker, in spite of all these. +Continually, so far as he went, he was a teacher, by act and word, of +hope, clearness, activity, veracity, and human courage and nobleness: +the preacher of a good gospel to all men, not of a bad to any man. The +man, whether in priest's cassock or other costume of men, who is the +enemy or hater of John Sterling, may assure himself that he does not yet +know him,--that miserable differences of mere costume and dialect still +divide him, whatsoever is worthy, catholic and perennial in him, from a +brother soul who, more than most in his day, was his brother and not his +adversary in regard to all that. + +Nor shall the irremediable drawback that Sterling was not current in the +Newspapers, that he achieved neither what the world calls greatness nor +what intrinsically is such, altogether discourage me. What his natural +size, and natural and accidental limits were, will gradually appear, if +my sketching be successful. And I have remarked that a true delineation +of the smallest man, and his scene of pilgrimage through life, is +capable of interesting the greatest man; that all men are to an +unspeakable degree brothers, each man's life a strange emblem of every +man's; and that Human Portraits, faithfully drawn, are of all pictures +the welcomest on human walls. Monitions and moralities enough may lie +in this small Work, if honestly written and honestly read;--and, in +particular, if any image of John Sterling and his Pilgrimage through +our poor Nineteenth Century be one day wanted by the world, and they can +find some shadow of a true image here, my swift scribbling (which shall +be very swift and immediate) may prove useful by and by. + + + +CHAPTER II. BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. + +John Sterling was born at Kaimes Castle, a kind of dilapidated baronial +residence to which a small farm was then attached, rented by his Father, +in the Isle of Bute,--on the 20th July, 1806. Both his parents were +Irish by birth, Scotch by extraction; and became, as he himself did, +essentially English by long residence and habit. Of John himself +Scotland has little or nothing to claim except the birth and genealogy, +for he left it almost before the years of memory; and in his mature days +regarded it, if with a little more recognition and intelligence, yet +without more participation in any of its accents outward or inward, +than others natives of Middlesex or Surrey, where the scene of his chief +education lay. + +The climate of Bute is rainy, soft of temperature; with skies of unusual +depth and brilliancy, while the weather is fair. In that soft rainy +climate, on that wild-wooded rocky coast, with its gnarled mountains and +green silent valleys, with its seething rain-storms and many-sounding +seas, was young Sterling ushered into his first schooling in this world. +I remember one little anecdote his Father told me of those first +years: One of the cows had calved; young John, still in petticoats, was +permitted to go, holding by his father's hand, and look at the newly +arrived calf; a mystery which he surveyed with open intent eyes, and the +silent exercise of all the scientific faculties he had;--very strange +mystery indeed, this new arrival, and fresh denizen of our Universe: +"Wull't eat a-body?" said John in his first practical Scotch, inquiring +into the tendencies this mystery might have to fall upon a little fellow +and consume him as provision: "Will it eat one, Father?"--Poor little +open-eyed John: the family long bantered him with this anecdote; and +we, in far other years, laughed heartily on hearing it.--Simple peasant +laborers, ploughers, house-servants, occasional fisher-people too; and +the sight of ships, and crops, and Nature's doings where Art has little +meddled with her: this was the kind of schooling our young friend had, +first of all; on this bench of the grand world-school did he sit, for +the first four years of his life. + +Edward Sterling his Father, a man who subsequently came to considerable +notice in the world, was originally of Waterford in Munster; son of the +Episcopalian Clergyman there; and chief representative of a family of +some standing in those parts. Family founded, it appears, by a +Colonel Robert Sterling, called also Sir Robert Sterling; a Scottish +Gustavus-Adolphus soldier, whom the breaking out of the Civil War had +recalled from his German campaignings, and had before long, though not +till after some waverings on his part, attached firmly to the Duke +of Ormond and to the King's Party in that quarrel. A little bit of +genealogy, since it lies ready to my hand, gathered long ago out of +wider studies, and pleasantly connects things individual and present +with the dim universal crowd of things past,--may as well be inserted +here as thrown away. + +This Colonel Robert designates himself Sterling "of Glorat;" I believe, +a younger branch of the well-known Stirlings of Keir in Stirlingshire. +It appears he prospered in his soldiering and other business, in +those bad Ormond times; being a man of energy, ardor and +intelligence,--probably prompt enough both with his word and with his +stroke. There survives yet, in the Commons Journals, [2] dim notice of +his controversies and adventures; especially of one controversy he had +got into with certain victorious Parliamentary official parties, +while his own party lay vanquished, during what was called the Ormond +Cessation, or Temporary Peace made by Ormond with the Parliament in +1646:--in which controversy Colonel Robert, after repeated applications, +journeyings to London, attendances upon committees, and such like, finds +himself worsted, declared to be in the wrong; and so vanishes from the +Commons Journals. + +What became of him when Cromwell got to Ireland, and to Munster, I +have not heard: his knighthood, dating from the very year of Cromwell's +Invasion (1649), indicates a man expected to do his best on the +occasion:--as in all probability he did; had not Tredah Storm proved +ruinous, and the neck of this Irish War been broken at once. Doubtless +the Colonel Sir Robert followed or attended his Duke of Ormond into +foreign parts, and gave up his management of Munster, while it was yet +time: for after the Restoration we find him again, safe, and as was +natural, flourishing with new splendor; gifted, recompensed with +lands;--settled, in short, on fair revenues in those Munster regions. +He appears to have had no children; but to have left his property to +William, a younger brother who had followed him into Ireland. From this +William descends the family which, in the years we treat of, had Edward +Sterling, Father of our John, for its representative. And now enough of +genealogy. + + +Of Edward Sterling, Captain Edward Sterling as his title was, who in the +latter period of his life became well known in London political society, +whom indeed all England, with a curious mixture of mockery and respect +and even fear, knew well as "the Thunderer of the Times Newspaper," +there were much to be said, did the present task and its limits permit. +As perhaps it might, on certain terms? What is indispensable let us not +omit to say. The history of a man's childhood is the description of his +parents and environment: this is his inarticulate but highly important +history, in those first times, while of articulate he has yet none. + +Edward Sterling had now just entered on his thirty-fourth year; and was +already a man experienced in fortunes and changes. A native of Waterford +in Munster, as already mentioned; born in the "Deanery House of +Waterford, 27th February, 1773," say the registers. For his Father, as +we learn, resided in the Deanery House, though he was not himself Dean, +but only "Curate of the Cathedral" (whatever that may mean); he was +withal rector of two other livings, and the Dean's friend,--friend +indeed of the Dean's kinsmen the Beresfords generally; whose grand house +of Curraghmore, near by Waterford, was a familiar haunt of his and his +children's. This reverend gentleman, along with his three livings and +high acquaintanceships, had inherited political connections;--inherited +especially a Government Pension, with survivorship for still one life +beyond his own; his father having been Clerk of the Irish House of +Commons at the time of the Union, of which office the lost salary was +compensated in this way. The Pension was of two hundred pounds; and only +expired with the life of Edward, John's Father, in 1847. There were, +and still are, daughters of the family; but Edward was the only +son;--descended, too, from the Scottish hero Wallace, as the old +gentleman would sometimes admonish him; his own wife, Edward's mother, +being of that name, and boasting herself, as most Scotch Wallaces do, to +have that blood in her veins. + +This Edward had picked up, at Waterford, and among the young Beresfords +of Curraghmore and elsewhere, a thoroughly Irish form of character: fire +and fervor, vitality of all kinds, in genial abundance; but in a much +more loquacious, ostentatious, much _louder_ style than is freely +patronized on this side of the Channel. Of Irish accent in speech he had +entirely divested himself, so as not to be traced by any vestige in that +respect; but his Irish accent of character, in all manner of other more +important respects, was very recognizable. An impetuous man, full +of real energy, and immensely conscious of the same; who transacted +everything not with the minimum of fuss and noise, but with the maximum: +a very Captain Whirlwind, as one was tempted to call him. + +In youth, he had studied at Trinity College, Dublin; visited the Inns +of Court here, and trained himself for the Irish Bar. To the Bar he +had been duly called, and was waiting for the results,--when, in his +twenty-fifth year, the Irish Rebellion broke out; whereupon the Irish +Barristers decided to raise a corps of loyal Volunteers, and a complete +change introduced itself into Edward Sterling's way of life. For, +naturally, he had joined the array of Volunteers;--fought, I have +heard, "in three actions with the rebels" (Vinegar Hill, for one); and +doubtless fought well: but in the mess-rooms, among the young military +and civil officials, with all of whom he was a favorite, he had acquired +a taste for soldier life, and perhaps high hopes of succeeding in it: at +all events, having a commission in the Lancashire Militia offered +him, he accepted that; altogether quitted the Bar, and became Captain +Sterling thenceforth. From the Militia, it appears, he had volunteered +with his Company into the Line; and, under some disappointments, and +official delays of expected promotion, was continuing to serve as +Captain there, "Captain of the Eighth Battalion of Reserve," say the +Military Almanacs of 1803,--in which year the quarters happened to be +Derry, where new events awaited him. At a ball in Derry he met with Miss +Hester Coningham, the queen of the scene, and of the fair world in Derry +at that time. The acquaintance, in spite of some Opposition, grew with +vigor, and rapidly ripened: and "at Fehan Church, Diocese of Derry," +where the Bride's father had a country-house, "on Thursday 5th April, +1804, Hester Coningham, only daughter of John Coningham, Esquire, +Merchant in Derry, and of Elizabeth Campbell his wife," was wedded to +Captain Sterling; she happiest to him happiest,--as by Nature's kind law +it is arranged. + +Mrs. Sterling, even in her later days, had still traces of the old +beauty: then and always she was a woman of delicate, pious, affectionate +character; exemplary as a wife, a mother and a friend. A refined female +nature; something tremulous in it, timid, and with a certain rural +freshness still unweakened by long converse with the world. The tall +slim figure, always of a kind of quaker neatness; the innocent anxious +face, anxious bright hazel eyes; the timid, yet gracefully cordial +ways, the natural intelligence, instinctive sense and worth, were very +characteristic. Her voice too; with its something of soft querulousness, +easily adapting itself to a light thin-flowing style of mirth on +occasion, was characteristic: she had retained her Ulster intonations, +and was withal somewhat copious in speech. A fine tremulously sensitive +nature, strong chiefly on the side of the affections, and the graceful +insights and activities that depend on these:--truly a beautiful, +much-suffering, much-loving house-mother. From her chiefly, as one could +discern, John Sterling had derived the delicate _aroma_ of his nature, +its piety, clearness, sincerity; as from his Father, the ready practical +gifts, the impetuosities and the audacities, were also (though in +strange new form) visibly inherited. A man was lucky to have such a +Mother; to have such Parents as both his were. + +Meanwhile the new Wife appears to have had, for the present, no +marriage-portion; neither was Edward Sterling rich,--according to +his own ideas and aims, far from it. Of course he soon found that +the fluctuating barrack-life, especially with no outlooks of speedy +promotion, was little suited to his new circumstances: but how change +it? His father was now dead; from whom he had inherited the Speaker +Pension of two hundred pounds; but of available probably little or +nothing more. The rents of the small family estate, I suppose, and other +property, had gone to portion sisters. Two hundred pounds, and the pay +of a marching captain: within the limits of that revenue all plans of +his had to restrict themselves at present. + +He continued for some time longer in the Army; his wife undivided from +him by the hardships, of that way of life. Their first son Anthony +(Captain Anthony Sterling, the only child who now survives) was born +to them in this position, while lying at Dundalk, in January, 1805. Two +months later, some eleven months after their marriage, the regiment was +broken; and Captain Sterling, declining to serve elsewhere on the +terms offered, and willingly accepting such decision of his doubts, was +reduced to half-pay. This was the end of his soldiering: some five +or six years in all; from which he had derived for life, among other +things, a decided military bearing, whereof he was rather proud; an +incapacity for practicing law;--and considerable uncertainty as to what +his next course of life was now to be. + +For the present, his views lay towards farming: to establish himself, +if not as country gentleman, which was an unattainable ambition, then +at least as some kind of gentleman-farmer which had a flattering +resemblance to that. Kaimes Castle with a reasonable extent of land, +which, in his inquiries after farms, had turned up, was his first place +of settlement in this new capacity; and here, for some few months, he +had established himself when John his second child was born. This was +Captain Sterling's first attempt towards a fixed course of life; not +a very wise one, I have understood:--yet on the whole, who, then and +there, could have pointed out to him a wiser? + +A fixed course of life and activity he could never attain, or not till +very late; and this doubtless was among the important points of his +destiny, and acted both on his own character and that of those who had +to attend him on his wayfarings. + + + +CHAPTER III. SCHOOLS: LLANBLETHIAN; PARIS; LONDON. + +Edward Sterling never shone in farming; indeed I believe he never took +heartily to it, or tried it except in fits. His Bute farm was, at +best, a kind of apology for some far different ideal of a country +establishment which could not be realized; practically a temporary +landing-place from which he could make sallies and excursions in search +of some more generous field of enterprise. Stormy brief efforts at +energetic husbandry, at agricultural improvement and rapid field-labor, +alternated with sudden flights to Dublin, to London, whithersoever any +flush of bright outlook which he could denominate practical, or any +gleam of hope which his impatient ennui could represent as such, +allured him. This latter was often enough the case. In wet hay-times and +harvest-times, the dripping outdoor world, and lounging indoor one, in +the absence of the master, offered far from a satisfactory appearance! +Here was, in fact, a man much imprisoned; haunted, I doubt not, by +demons enough; though ever brisk and brave withal,--iracund, but +cheerfully vigorous, opulent in wise or unwise hope. A fiery energetic +soul consciously and unconsciously storming for deliverance into better +arenas; and this in a restless, rapid, impetuous, rather than in a +strong, silent and deliberate way. + +In rainy Bute and the dilapidated Kaimes Castle, it was evident, there +lay no Goshen for such a man. The lease, originally but for some three +years and a half, drawing now to a close, he resolved to quit Bute; had +heard, I know not where, of an eligible cottage without farm attached, +in the pleasant little village of Llanblethian close by Cowbridge in +Glamorganshire; of this he took a lease, and thither with his family he +moved in search of new fortunes. Glamorganshire was at least a better +climate than Bute; no groups of idle or of busy reapers could here stand +waiting on the guidance of a master, for there was no farm here;--and +among its other and probably its chief though secret advantages, +Llanblethian was much more convenient both for Dublin and London than +Kaimes Castle had been. + +The removal thither took place in the autumn of 1809. Chief part of the +journey (perhaps from Greenock to Swansea or Bristol) was by sea: John, +just turned of three years, could in after-times remember nothing of +this voyage; Anthony, some eighteen months older, has still a vivid +recollection of the gray splashing tumult, and dim sorrow, uncertainty, +regret and distress he underwent: to him a "dissolving-view" which not +only left its effect on the _plate_ (as all views and dissolving-views +doubtless do on that kind of "plate"), but remained consciously present +there. John, in the close of his twenty-first year, professes not +to remember anything whatever of Bute; his whole existence, in that +earliest scene of it, had faded away from him: Bute also, with its +shaggy mountains, moaning woods, and summer and winter seas, had been +wholly a dissolving-view for him, and had left no conscious impression, +but only, like this voyage, an effect. + +Llanblethian hangs pleasantly, with its white cottages, and orchard and +other trees, on the western slope of a green hill looking far and wide +over green meadows and little or bigger hills, in the pleasant plain of +Glamorgan; a short mile to the south of Cowbridge, to which smart little +town it is properly a kind of suburb. Plain of Glamorgan, some ten +miles wide and thirty or forty long, which they call the Vale of +Glamorgan;--though properly it is not quite a Vale, there being only one +range of mountains to it, if even one: certainly the central Mountains +of Wales do gradually rise, in a miscellaneous manner, on the north +side of it; but on the south are no mountains, not even land, only +the Bristol Channel, and far off, the Hills of Devonshire, for +boundary,--the "English Hills," as the natives call them, visible from +every eminence in those parts. On such wide terms is it called Vale of +Glamorgan. But called by whatever name, it is a most pleasant fruitful +region: kind to the native, interesting to the visitor. A waving grassy +region; cut with innumerable ragged lanes; dotted with sleepy unswept +human hamlets, old ruinous castles with their ivy and their daws, gray +sleepy churches with their ditto ditto: for ivy everywhere abounds; and +generally a rank fragrant vegetation clothes all things; hanging, in +rude many-colored festoons and fringed odoriferous tapestries, on your +right and on your left, in every lane. A country kinder to the sluggard +husbandman than any I have ever seen. For it lies all on limestone, +needs no draining; the soil, everywhere of handsome depth and finest +quality, will grow good crops for you with the most imperfect tilling. +At a safe distance of a day's riding lie the tartarean copper-forges of +Swansea, the tartarean iron-forges of Merthyr; their sooty battle far +away, and not, at such safe distance, a defilement to the face of +the earth and sky, but rather an encouragement to the earth at least; +encouraging the husbandman to plough better, if he only would. + +The peasantry seem indolent and stagnant, but peaceable and +well-provided; much given to Methodism when they have any +character;--for the rest, an innocent good-humored people, who all drink +home-brewed beer, and have brown loaves of the most excellent home-baked +bread. The native peasant village is not generally beautiful, though +it might be, were it swept and trimmed; it gives one rather the idea +of sluttish stagnancy,--an interesting peep into the Welsh Paradise of +Sleepy Hollow. Stones, old kettles, naves of wheels, all kinds of broken +litter, with live pigs and etceteras, lie about the street: for, as +a rule, no rubbish is removed, but waits patiently the action of mere +natural chemistry and accident; if even a house is burnt or falls, you +will find it there after half a century, only cloaked by the ever-ready +ivy. Sluggish man seems never to have struck a pick into it; his new hut +is built close by on ground not encumbered, and the old stones are still +left lying. + +This is the ordinary Welsh village; but there are exceptions, +where people of more cultivated tastes have been led to settle, and +Llanblethian is one of the more signal of these. A decidedly cheerful +group of human homes, the greater part of them indeed belonging to +persons of refined habits; trimness, shady shelter, whitewash, neither +conveniency nor decoration has been neglected here. Its effect from +the distance on the eastward is very pretty: you see it like a little +sleeping cataract of white houses, with trees overshadowing and fringing +it; and there the cataract hangs, and does not rush away from you. + +John Sterling spent his next five years in this locality. He did not +again see it for a quarter of a century; but retained, all his life, a +lively remembrance of it; and, just in the end of his twenty-first year, +among his earliest printed pieces, we find an elaborate and diffuse +description of it and its relations to him,--part of which piece, in +spite of its otherwise insignificant quality, may find place here:-- + +"The fields on which I first looked, and the sands which were marked by +my earliest footsteps, are completely lost to my memory; and of those +ancient walls among which I began to breathe, I retain no recollection +more clear than the outlines of a cloud in a moonless sky. But of L----, +the village where I afterwards lived, I persuade myself that every line +and hue is more deeply and accurately fixed than those of any spot +I have since beheld, even though borne in upon the heart by the +association of the strongest feelings. + +"My home was built upon the slope of a hill, with a little orchard +stretching down before it, and a garden rising behind. At a considerable +distance beyond and beneath the orchard, a rivulet flowed through +meadows and turned a mill; while, above the garden, the summit of +the hill was crowned by a few gray rocks, from which a yew-tree grew, +solitary and bare. Extending at each side of the orchard, toward +the brook, two scattered patches of cottages lay nestled among their +gardens; and beyond this streamlet and the little mill and bridge, +another slight eminence arose, divided into green fields, tufted and +bordered with copsewood, and crested by a ruined castle, contemporary, +as was said, with the Conquest. I know not whether these things in truth +made up a prospect of much beauty. Since I was eight years old, I have +never seen them; but I well know that no landscape I have since beheld, +no picture of Claude or Salvator, gave me half the impression of living, +heartfelt, perfect beauty which fills my mind when I think of that green +valley, that sparkling rivulet, that broken fortress of dark antiquity, +and that hill with its aged yew and breezy summit, from which I have +so often looked over the broad stretch of verdure beneath it, and the +country-town, and church-tower, silent and white beyond. + +"In that little town there was, and I believe is, a school where the +elements of human knowledge were communicated to me, for some hours of +every day, during a considerable time. The path to it lay across the +rivulet and past the mill; from which point we could either journey +through the fields below the old castle, and the wood which surrounded +it, or along a road at the other side of the ruin, close to the gateway +of which it passed. The former track led through two or three beautiful +fields, the sylvan domain of the keep on one hand, and the brook on the +other; while an oak or two, like giant warders advanced from the wood, +broke the sunshine of the green with a soft and graceful shadow. How +often, on my way to school, have I stopped beneath the tree to collect +the fallen acorns; how often run down to the stream to pluck a branch of +the hawthorn which hung over the water! The road which passed the castle +joined, beyond these fields, the path which traversed them. It took, I +well remember, a certain solemn and mysterious interest from the ruin. +The shadow of the archway, the discolorizations of time on all the +walls, the dimness of the little thicket which encircled it, the +traditions of its immeasurable age, made St. Quentin's Castle a +wonderful and awful fabric in the imagination of a child; and long after +I last saw its mouldering roughness, I never read of fortresses, or +heights, or spectres, or banditti, without connecting them with the one +ruin of my childhood. + +"It was close to this spot that one of the few adventures occurred +which marked, in my mind, my boyish days with importance. When loitering +beyond the castle, on the way to school, with a brother somewhat older +than myself, who was uniformly my champion and protector, we espied a +round sloe high up in the hedge-row. We determined to obtain it; and +I do not remember whether both of us, or only my brother, climbed the +tree. However, when the prize was all but reached,--and no alchemist +ever looked more eagerly for the moment of projection which was to give +him immortality and omnipotence,--a gruff voice startled us with an +oath, and an order to desist; and I well recollect looking back, for +long after, with terror to the vision of an old and ill-tempered +farmer, armed with a bill-hook, and vowing our decapitation; nor did I +subsequently remember without triumph the eloquence whereby alone, in my +firm belief, my brother and myself had been rescued from instant death. + +"At the entrance of the little town stood an old gateway, with a pointed +arch and decaying battlements. It gave admittance to the street which +contained the church, and which terminated in another street, the +principal one in the town of C----. In this was situated the school to +which I daily wended. I cannot now recall to mind the face of its good +conductor, nor of any of his scholars; but I have before me a strong +general image of the interior of his establishment. I remember the +reverence with which I was wont to carry to his seat a well-thumbed +duodecimo, the _History of Greece_ by Oliver Goldsmith. I remember the +mental agonies I endured in attempting to master the art and mystery of +penmanship; a craft in which, alas, I remained too short a time under +Mr. R---- to become as great a proficient as he made his other scholars, +and which my awkwardness has prevented me from attaining in any +considerable perfection under my various subsequent pedagogues. But that +which has left behind it a brilliant trait of light was the exhibition +of what are called 'Christmas pieces;' things unknown in aristocratic +seminaries, but constantly used at the comparatively humble academy +which supplied the best knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic to +be attained in that remote neighborhood. + +"The long desks covered from end to end with those painted masterpieces, +the Life of Robinson Crusoe, the Hunting of Chevy-Chase, the History +of Jack the Giant-Killer, and all the little eager faces and trembling +hands bent over these, and filling them up with some choice quotation, +sacred or profane;--no, the galleries of art, the theatrical +exhibitions, the reviews and processions,--which are only not childish +because they are practiced and admired by men instead of children,--all +the pomps and vanities of great cities, have shown me no revelation of +glory such as did that crowded school-room the week before the Christmas +holidays. But these were the splendors of life. The truest and the +strongest feelings do not connect themselves with any scenes of gorgeous +and gaudy magnificence; they are bound up in the remembrances of home. + +"The narrow orchard, with its grove of old apple-trees against one of +which I used to lean, and while I brandished a beanstalk, roar out with +Fitzjames,-- + + 'Come one, come all; this rock shall fly + From its firm base as soon as I!'-- + +while I was ready to squall at the sight of a cur, and run valorously +away from a casually approaching cow; the field close beside it, where +I rolled about in summer among the hay; the brook in which, despite +of maid and mother, I waded by the hour; the garden where I sowed +flower-seeds, and then turned up the ground again and planted potatoes, +and then rooted out the potatoes to insert acorns and apple-pips, and +at last, as may be supposed, reaped neither roses, nor potatoes, nor +oak-trees, nor apples; the grass-plots on which I played among those +with whom I never can play nor work again: all these are places and +employments,--and, alas, playmates,--such as, if it were worth while to +weep at all, it would be worth weeping that I enjoy no longer. + +"I remember the house where I first grew familiar with peacocks; and the +mill-stream into which I once fell; and the religious awe wherewith I +heard, in the warm twilight, the psalm-singing around the house of the +Methodist miller; and the door-post against which I discharged my brazen +artillery; I remember the window by which I sat while my mother taught +me French; and the patch of garden which I dug for-- But her name is +best left blank; it was indeed writ in water. These recollections are +to me like the wealth of a departed friend, a mournful treasure. But the +public has heard enough of them; to it they are worthless: they are +a coin which only circulates at its true value between the different +periods of an individual's existence, and good for nothing but to keep +up a commerce between boyhood and manhood. I have for years looked +forward to the possibility of visiting L----; but I am told that it is +a changed village; and not only has man been at work, but the old yew on +the hill has fallen, and scarcely a low stump remains of the tree which +I delighted in childhood to think might have furnished bows for the +Norman archers." [3] + +In Cowbridge is some kind of free school, or grammar-school, of a +certain distinction; and this to Captain Sterling was probably a motive +for settling in the neighborhood of it with his children. Of this +however, as it turned out, there was no use made: the Sterling family, +during its continuance in those parts, did not need more than a primary +school. The worthy master who presided over these Christmas galas, and +had the honor to teach John Sterling his reading and writing, was an +elderly Mr. Reece of Cowbridge, who still (in 1851) survives, or lately +did; and is still remembered by his old pupils as a worthy, ingenious +and kindly man, "who wore drab breeches and white stockings." Beyond the +Reece sphere of tuition John Sterling did not go in this locality. + +In fact the Sterling household was still fluctuating; the problem of a +task for Edward Sterling's powers, and of anchorage for his affairs in +any sense, was restlessly struggling to solve itself, but was still a +good way from being solved. Anthony, in revisiting these scenes with +John in 1839, mentions going to the spot "where we used to stand with +our Father, looking out for the arrival of the London mail:" a little +chink through which is disclosed to us a big restless section of a human +life. The Hill of Welsh Llanblethian, then, is like the mythic Caucasus +in its degree (as indeed all hills and habitations where men sojourn +are); and here too, on a small scale, is a Prometheus Chained! Edward +Sterling, I can well understand, was a man to tug at the chains that +held him idle in those the prime of his years; and to ask restlessly, +yet not in anger and remorse, so much as in hope, locomotive +speculation, and ever-new adventure and attempt, Is there no task nearer +my own natural size, then? So he looks out from the Hill-side "for +the arrival of the London mail;" thence hurries into Cowbridge to the +Post-office; and has a wide web, of threads and gossamers, upon his +loom, and many shuttles flying, in this world. + +By the Marquis of Bute's appointment he had, very shortly after his +arrival in that region, become Adjutant of the Glamorganshire Militia, +"Local Militia," I suppose; and was, in this way, turning his military +capabilities to some use. The office involved pretty frequent absences, +in Cardiff and elsewhere. This doubtless was a welcome outlet, though +a small one. He had also begun to try writing, especially on public +subjects; a much more copious outlet,--which indeed, gradually widening +itself, became the final solution for him. Of the year 1811 we have a +Pamphlet of his, entitled _Military Reform_; this is the second edition, +"dedicated to the Duke of Kent;" the first appears to have come out the +year before, and had thus attained a certain notice, which of course was +encouraging. He now furthermore opened a correspondence with the _Times_ +Newspaper; wrote to it, in 1812, a series of Letters under the signature +_Vetus_: voluntary Letters I suppose, without payment or pre-engagement, +one successful Letter calling out another; till _Vetus_ and his +doctrines came to be a distinguishable entity, and the business amounted +to something. Out of my own earliest Newspaper reading, I can remember +the name _Vetus_, as a kind of editorial hacklog on which able-editors +were wont to chop straw now and then. Nay the Letters were collected and +reprinted; both this first series, of 1812, and then a second of next +year: two very thin, very dim-colored cheap octavos; stray copies of +which still exist, and may one day become distillable into a drop of +History (should such be wanted of our poor "Scavenger Age" in +time coming), though the reading of them has long ceased in this +generation.[4] The first series, we perceive, had even gone to a second +edition. The tone, wherever one timidly glances into this extinct +cockpit, is trenchant and emphatic: the name of _Vetus_, strenuously +fighting there, had become considerable in the talking political world; +and, no doubt, was especially of mark, as that of a writer who might +otherwise be important, with the proprietors of the _Times_. The +connection continued: widened and deepened itself,--in a slow tentative +manner; passing naturally from voluntary into remunerated: and indeed +proving more and more to be the true ultimate arena, and battle-field +and seed-field, for the exuberant impetuosities and faculties of this +man. + +What the _Letters of Vetus_ treated of I do not know; doubtless they ran +upon Napoleon, Catholic Emancipation, true methods of national defence, +of effective foreign Anti-gallicism, and of domestic ditto; which +formed the staple of editorial speculation at that time. I have heard +in general that Captain Sterling, then and afterwards, advocated "the +Marquis of Wellesley's policy;" but that also, what it was, I have +forgotten, and the world has been willing to forget. Enough, the heads +of the _Times_ establishment, perhaps already the Marquis of Wellesley +and other important persons, had their eye on this writer; and it began +to be surmised by him that here at last was the career he had been +seeking. + + +Accordingly, in 1814, when victorious Peace unexpectedly arrived; and +the gates of the Continent after five-and-twenty years of fierce closure +were suddenly thrown open; and the hearts of all English and European +men awoke staggering as if from a nightmare suddenly removed, and ran +hither and thither,--Edward Sterling also determined on a new adventure, +that of crossing to Paris, and trying what might lie in store for him. +For curiosity, in its idler sense, there was evidently pabulum enough. +But he had hopes moreover of learning much that might perhaps avail him +afterwards;--hopes withal, I have understood, of getting to be Foreign +Correspondent of the _Times_ Newspaper, and so adding to his income in +the mean while. He left Llanblethian in May; dates from Dieppe the 27th +of that month. He lived in occasional contact with Parisian notabilities +(all of them except Madame de Stael forgotten now), all summer, +diligently surveying his ground;--returned for his family, who were +still in Wales but ready to move, in the beginning of August; took them +immediately across with him; a house in the neighborhood of Paris, in +the pleasant village of Passy at once town and country, being now ready; +and so, under foreign skies, again set up his household there. + +Here was a strange new "school" for our friend John now in his eighth +year! Out of which the little Anthony and he drank doubtless at all +pores, vigorously as they had done in no school before. A change total +and immediate. Somniferous green Llanblethian has suddenly been blotted +out; presto, here are wakeful Passy and the noises of paved Paris +instead. Innocent ingenious Mr. Reece in drab breeches and white +stockings, he with his mild Christmas galas and peaceable rules of +Dilworth and Butterworth, has given place to such a saturnalia of +panoramic, symbolic and other teachers and monitors, addressing all the +five senses at once. Who John's express tutors were, at Passy, I never +heard; nor indeed, especially in his case, was it much worth inquiring. +To him and to all of us, the expressly appointed schoolmasters and +schoolings we get are as nothing, compared with the unappointed +incidental and continual ones, whose school-hours are all the days and +nights of our existence, and whose lessons, noticed or unnoticed, stream +in upon us with every breath we draw. Anthony says they attended a +French school, though only for about three months; and he well remembers +the last scene of it, "the boys shouting _Vive l'Empereur_ when Napoleon +came back." + +Of John Sterling's express schooling, perhaps the most important +feature, and by no means a favorable one to him, was the excessive +fluctuation that prevailed in it. Change of scene, change of teacher, +_both_ express and implied, was incessant with him; and gave his +young life a nomadic character,--which surely, of all the adventitious +tendencies that could have been impressed upon him, so volatile, +swift and airy a being as him, was the one he needed least. His gentle +pious-hearted Mother, ever watching over him in all outward changes, and +assiduously keeping human pieties and good affections alive in him, was +probably the best counteracting element in his lot. And on the whole, +have we not all to run our chance in that respect; and take, the most +victoriously we can, such schooling as pleases to be attainable in +our year and place? Not very victoriously, the most of us! A wise +well-calculated breeding of a young genial soul in this world, or +alas of any young soul in it, lies fatally over the horizon in these +epochs!--This French scene of things, a grand school of its sort, and +also a perpetual banquet for the young soul, naturally captivated John +Sterling; he said afterwards, "New things and experiences here were +poured upon his mind and sense, not in streams, but in a Niagara +cataract." This too, however, was but a scene; lasted only some six or +seven months; and in the spring of the next year terminated as abruptly +as any of the rest could do. + +For in the spring of the next year, Napoleon abruptly emerged from +Elba; and set all the populations of the world in motion, in a strange +manner;--set the Sterling household afloat, in particular; the big +European tide rushing into all smallest creeks, at Passy and elsewhere. +In brief, on the 20th of March, 1815, the family had to shift, almost +to fly, towards home and the sea-coast; and for a day or two were under +apprehension of being detained and not reaching home. Mrs. Sterling, +with her children and effects, all in one big carriage with two horses, +made the journey to Dieppe; in perfect safety, though in continual +tremor: here they were joined by Captain Sterling, who had stayed behind +at Paris to see the actual advent of Napoleon, and to report what +the aspect of affairs was, "Downcast looks of citizens, with fierce +saturnalian acclaim of soldiery:" after which they proceeded together to +London without farther apprehension;--there to witness, in due time, the +tar-barrels of Waterloo, and other phenomena that followed. + + +Captain Sterling never quitted London as a residence any more; and +indeed was never absent from it, except on autumnal or other excursions +of a few weeks, till the end of his life. Nevertheless his course there +was as yet by no means clear; nor had his relations with the heads of +the _Times_, or with other high heads, assumed a form which could be +called definite, but were hanging as a cloudy maze of possibilities, +firm substance not yet divided from shadow. It continued so for some +years. The Sterling household shifted twice or thrice to new streets +or localities,--Russell Square or Queen Square, Blackfriars Road, +and longest at the Grove, Blackheath,--before the vapors of Wellesley +promotions and such like slowly sank as useless precipitate, and +the firm rock, which was definite employment, ending in lucrative +co-proprietorship and more and more important connection with the +_Times_ Newspaper, slowly disclosed itself. + +These changes of place naturally brought changes in John Sterling's +schoolmasters: nor were domestic tragedies wanting, still more important +to him. New brothers and sisters had been born; two little brothers +more, three little sisters he had in all; some of whom came to their +eleventh year beside him, some passed away in their second or fourth: +but from his ninth to his sixteenth year they all died; and in 1821 only +Anthony and John were left. [5] How many tears, and passionate pangs, +and soft infinite regrets; such as are appointed to all mortals! In one +year, I find, indeed in one half-year, he lost three little playmates, +two of them within one month. His own age was not yet quite twelve. For +one of these three, for little Edward, his next younger, who died now +at the age of nine, Mr. Hare records that John copied out, in large +school-hand, a _History of Valentine and Orson_, to beguile the poor +child's sickness, which ended in death soon, leaving a sad cloud on +John. + + +Of his grammar and other schools, which, as I said, are hardly worth +enumerating in comparison, the most important seems to have been a Dr. +Burney's at Greenwich; a large day-school and boarding-school, where +Anthony and John gave their attendance for a year or two (1818-19) from +Blackheath. "John frequently did themes for the boys," says Anthony, +"and for myself when I was aground." His progress in all school learning +was certain to be rapid, if he even moderately took to it. A lean, +tallish, loose-made boy of twelve; strange alacrity, rapidity and joyous +eagerness looking out of his eyes, and of all his ways and movements. +I have a Picture of him at this stage; a little portrait, which carries +its verification with it. In manhood too, the chief expression of his +eyes and physiognomy was what I might call alacrity, cheerful rapidity. +You could see, here looked forth a soul which was winged; which dwelt +in hope and action, not in hesitation or fear. Anthony says, he was "an +affectionate and gallant kind of boy, adventurous and generous, daring +to a singular degree." Apt enough withal to be "petulant now and then;" +on the whole, "very self-willed;" doubtless not a little discursive in +his thoughts and ways, and "difficult to manage." + +I rather think Anthony, as the steadier, more substantial boy, was +the Mother's favorite; and that John, though the quicker and cleverer, +perhaps cost her many anxieties. Among the Papers given me, is an old +browned half-sheet in stiff school hand, unpunctuated, occasionally ill +spelt,--John Sterling's earliest remaining Letter,--which gives record +of a crowning escapade of his, the first and the last of its kind; and +so may be inserted here. A very headlong adventure on the boy's part; so +hasty and so futile, at once audacious and impracticable; emblematic of +much that befell in the history of the man! + + "_To Mrs. Sterling, Blackheath_. + "21st September, 1818. + +"DEAR MAMMA,--I am now at Dover, where I arrived this morning about +seven o'clock. When you thought I was going to church, I went down the +Kent Road, and walked on till I came to Gravesend, which is upwards of +twenty miles from Blackheath; at about seven o'clock in the evening, +without having eat anything the whole time. I applied to an inkeeper +(_sic_) there, pretending that I had served a haberdasher in London, who +left of (_sic_) business, and turned me away. He believed me; and got +me a passage in the coach here, for I said that I had an Uncle here, and +that my Father and Mother were dead;--when I wandered about the quays +for some time, till I met Captain Keys, whom I asked to give me a +passage to Boulogne; which he promised to do, and took me home to +breakfast with him: but Mrs. Keys questioned me a good deal; when I not +being able to make my story good, I was obliged to confess to her that +I had run away from you. Captain Keys says that he will keep me at his +house till you answer my letter. + + "J. STERLING." + +Anthony remembers the business well; but can assign no origin to +it,--some penalty, indignity or cross put suddenly on John, which the +hasty John considered unbearable. His Mother's inconsolable weeping, and +then his own astonishment at such a culprit's being forgiven, are all +that remain with Anthony. The steady historical style of the young +runaway of twelve, narrating merely, not in the least apologizing, is +also noticeable. + +This was some six months after his little brother Edward's death; three +months after that of Hester, his little sister next in the family series +to him: troubled days for the poor Mother in that small household on +Blackheath, as there are for mothers in so many households in this +world! I have heard that Mrs. Sterling passed much of her time alone, at +this period. Her husband's pursuits, with his Wellesleys and the like, +often carrying him into Town and detaining him late there, she would +sit among her sleeping children, such of them as death had still spared, +perhaps thriftily plying her needle, full of mournful affectionate +night-thoughts,--apprehensive too, in her tremulous heart, that the head +of the house might have fallen among robbers in his way homeward. + + + +CHAPTER IV. UNIVERSITIES: GLASGOW; CAMBRIDGE. + +At a later stage, John had some instruction from a Dr. Waite at +Blackheath; and lastly, the family having now removed into Town, to +Seymour Street in the fashionable region there, he "read for a while +with Dr. Trollope, Master of Christ's Hospital;" which ended his school +history. + +In this his ever-changing course, from Reece at Cowbridge to Trollope +in Christ's, which was passed so nomadically, under ferulas of various +color, the boy had, on the whole, snatched successfully a fair share +of what was going. Competent skill in construing Latin, I think also an +elementary knowledge of Greek; add ciphering to a small extent, Euclid +perhaps in a rather imaginary condition; a swift but not very legible or +handsome penmanship, and the copious prompt habit of employing it in all +manner of unconscious English prose composition, or even occasionally +in verse itself: this, or something like this, he had gained from his +grammar-schools: this is the most of what they offer to the poor young +soul in general, in these indigent times. The express schoolmaster is +not equal to much at present,--while the _un_express, for good or +for evil, is so busy with a poor little fellow! Other departments of +schooling had been infinitely more productive, for our young friend, +than the gerund-grinding one. A voracious reader I believe he all along +was,--had "read the whole Edinburgh Review" in these boyish years, and +out of the circulating libraries one knows not what cartloads; wading +like Ulysses towards his palace "through infinite dung." A voracious +observer and participator in all things he likewise all along was; and +had had his sights, and reflections, and sorrows and adventures, from +Kaimes Castle onward,--and had gone at least to Dover on his own score. +_Puer bonae spei_, as the school-albums say; a boy of whom much may be +hoped? Surely, in many senses, yes. A frank veracity is in him, truth +and courage, as the basis of all; and of wild gifts and graces there is +abundance. I figure him a brilliant, swift, voluble, affectionate and +pleasant creature; out of whom, if it were not that symptoms of delicate +health already show themselves, great things might be made. Promotions +at least, especially in this country and epoch of parliaments and +eloquent palavers, are surely very possible for such a one! + + +Being now turned of sixteen, and the family economics getting yearly +more propitious and flourishing, he, as his brother had already +been, was sent to Glasgow University, in which city their Mother had +connections. His brother and he were now all that remained of the +young family; much attached to one another in their College years as +afterwards. Glasgow, however, was not properly their College scene: +here, except that they had some tuition from Mr. Jacobson, then a senior +fellow-student, now (1851) the learned editor of St. Basil, and Regius +Professor of Divinity in Oxford, who continued ever afterwards a valued +intimate of John's, I find nothing special recorded of them. The Glasgow +curriculum, for John especially, lasted but one year; who, after some +farther tutorage from Mr. Jacobson or Dr. Trollope, was appointed for a +more ambitious sphere of education. + +In the beginning of his nineteenth year, "in the autumn of 1824," he +went to Trinity College, Cambridge. His brother Anthony, who had already +been there a year, had just quitted this Establishment, and entered on +a military life under good omens; I think, at Dublin under the Lord +Lieutenant's patronage, to whose service he was, in some capacity, +attached. The two brothers, ever in company hitherto, parted roads +at this point; and, except on holiday visits and by frequent +correspondence, did not again live together; but they continued in a +true fraternal attachment while life lasted, and I believe never had +any even temporary estrangement, or on either side a cause for such. The +family, as I said, was now, for the last three years, reduced to these +two; the rest of the young ones, with their laughter and their +sorrows, all gone. The parents otherwise were prosperous in outward +circumstances; the Father's position more and more developing itself +into affluent security, an agreeable circle of acquaintance, and a +certain real influence, though of a peculiar sort, according to his +gifts for work in this world. + + +Sterling's Tutor at Trinity College was Julius Hare, now the +distinguished Archdeacon of Lewes:--who soon conceived a great esteem +for him, and continued ever afterwards, in looser or closer connection, +his loved and loving friend. As the Biographical and Editorial work +above alluded to abundantly evinces. Mr. Hare celebrates the wonderful +and beautiful gifts, the sparkling ingenuity, ready logic, eloquent +utterance, and noble generosities and pieties of his pupil;--records +in particular how once, on a sudden alarm of fire in some neighboring +College edifice while his lecture was proceeding, all hands rushed out +to help; how the undergraduates instantly formed themselves in lines +from the fire to the river, and in swift continuance kept passing +buckets as was needful, till the enemy was visibly fast yielding,--when +Mr. Hare, going along the line, was astonished to find Sterling, at the +river-end of it, standing up to his waist in water, deftly dealing with +the buckets as they came and went. You in the river, Sterling; you with +your coughs, and dangerous tendencies of health!--"Somebody must be +in it," answered Sterling; "why not I, as well as another?" Sterling's +friends may remember many traits of that kind. The swiftest in all +things, he was apt to be found at the head of the column, whithersoever +the march might be; if towards any brunt of danger, there was he surest +to be at the head; and of himself and his peculiar risks or impediments +he was negligent at all times, even to an excessive and plainly +unreasonable degree. + +Mr. Hare justly refuses him the character of an exact scholar, or +technical proficient at any time in either of the ancient literatures. +But he freely read in Greek and Latin, as in various modern languages; +and in all fields, in the classical as well, his lively faculty of +recognition and assimilation had given him large booty in proportion to +his labor. One cannot under any circumstances conceive of Sterling as +a steady dictionary philologue, historian, or archaeologist; nor did he +here, nor could he well, attempt that course. At the same time, Greek +and the Greeks being here before him, he could not fail to gather +somewhat from it, to take some hue and shape from it. Accordingly there +is, to a singular extent, especially in his early writings, a +certain tinge of Grecism and Heathen classicality traceable in +him;--Classicality, indeed, which does not satisfy one's sense as real +or truly living, but which glitters with a certain genial, if perhaps +almost meretricious half-_japannish_ splendor,--greatly distinguishable +from mere gerund-grinding, and death in longs and shorts. If +Classicality mean the practical conception, or attempt to conceive, what +human life was in the epoch called classical,--perhaps few or none of +Sterling's contemporaries in that Cambridge establishment carried away +more of available Classicality than even he. + +But here, as in his former schools, his studies and inquiries, +diligently prosecuted I believe, were of the most discursive +wide-flowing character; not steadily advancing along beaten roads +towards College honors, but pulsing out with impetuous irregularity +now on this tract, now on that, towards whatever spiritual Delphi might +promise to unfold the mystery of this world, and announce to him +what was, in our new day, the authentic message of the gods. His +speculations, readings, inferences, glances and conclusions were +doubtless sufficiently encyclopedic; his grand tutors the multifarious +set of Books he devoured. And perhaps,--as is the singular case in most +schools and educational establishments of this unexampled epoch,--it +was not the express set of arrangements in this or any extant University +that could essentially forward him, but only the implied and silent +ones; less in the prescribed "course of study," which seems to tend +no-whither, than--if you will consider it--in the generous (not +ungenerous) rebellion against said prescribed course, and the voluntary +spirit of endeavor and adventure excited thereby, does help lie for +a brave youth in such places. Curious to consider. The fagging, the +illicit boating, and the things _forbidden_ by the schoolmaster,--these, +I often notice in my Eton acquaintances, are the things that have done +them good; these, and not their inconsiderable or considerable knowledge +of the Greek accidence almost at all! What is Greek accidence, compared +to Spartan discipline, if it can be had? That latter is a real and grand +attainment. Certainly, if rebellion is unfortunately needful, and you +can rebel in a generous manner, several things may be acquired in that +operation,--rigorous mutual fidelity, reticence, steadfastness, mild +stoicism, and other virtues far transcending your Greek accidence. +Nor can the unwisest "prescribed course of study" be considered quite +useless, if it have incited you to try nobly on all sides for a course +of your own. A singular condition of Schools and High-schools, which +have come down, in their strange old clothes and "courses of study," +from the monkish ages into this highly unmonkish one;--tragical +condition, at which the intelligent observer makes deep pause! + +One benefit, not to be dissevered from the most obsolete University +still frequented by young ingenuous living souls, is that of manifold +collision and communication with the said young souls; which, to every +one of these coevals, is undoubtedly the most important branch of +breeding for him. In this point, as the learned Huber has insisted, [6] +the two English Universities,--their studies otherwise being granted to +be nearly useless, and even ill done of their kind,--far excel all other +Universities: so valuable are the rules of human behavior which from of +old have tacitly established themselves there; so manful, with all its +sad drawbacks, is the style of English character, "frank, simple, +rugged and yet courteous," which has tacitly but imperatively got itself +sanctioned and prescribed there. Such, in full sight of Continental and +other Universities, is Huber's opinion. Alas, the question of University +Reform goes deep at present; deep as the world;--and the real University +of these new epochs is yet a great way from us! Another judge in whom +I have confidence declares further, That of these two Universities, +Cambridge is decidedly the more catholic (not Roman catholic, but Human +catholic) in its tendencies and habitudes; and that in fact, of all the +miserable Schools and High-schools in the England of these years, he, +if reduced to choose from them, would choose Cambridge as a place +of culture for the young idea. So that, in these bad circumstances, +Sterling had perhaps rather made a hit than otherwise? + + +Sterling at Cambridge had undoubtedly a wide and rather genial circle of +comrades; and could not fail to be regarded and beloved by many of them. +Their life seems to have been an ardently speculating and talking one; +by no means excessively restrained within limits; and, in the more +adventurous heads like Sterling's, decidedly tending towards the +latitudinarian in most things. They had among them a Debating Society +called The Union; where on stated evenings was much logic, and other +spiritual fencing and ingenuous collision,--probably of a really +superior quality in that kind; for not a few of the then disputants have +since proved themselves men of parts, and attained distinction in the +intellectual walks of life. Frederic Maurice, Richard Trench, John +Kemble, Spedding, Venables, Charles Buller, Richard Milnes and +others:--I have heard that in speaking and arguing, Sterling was the +acknowledged chief in this Union Club; and that "none even came near +him, except the late Charles Buller," whose distinction in this and +higher respects was also already notable. + +The questions agitated seem occasionally to have touched on the +political department, and even on the ecclesiastical. I have heard one +trait of Sterling's eloquence, which survived on the wings of grinning +rumor, and had evidently borne upon Church Conservatism in some form: +"Have they not,"--or perhaps it was, Has she (the Church) not,--"a +black dragoon in every parish, on good pay and rations, horse-meat and +man's-meat, to patrol and battle for these things?" The "black dragoon," +which naturally at the moment ruffled the general young imagination +into stormy laughter, points towards important conclusions in respect +to Sterling at this time. I conclude he had, with his usual alacrity and +impetuous daring, frankly adopted the anti-superstitious side of things; +and stood scornfully prepared to repel all aggressions or pretensions +from the opposite quarter. In short, that he was already, what +afterwards there is no doubt about his being, at all points a Radical, +as the name or nickname then went. In other words, a young ardent soul +looking with hope and joy into a world which was infinitely beautiful to +him, though overhung with falsities and foul cobwebs as world never was +before; overloaded, overclouded, to the zenith and the nadir of it, +by incredible uncredited traditions, solemnly sordid hypocrisies, and +beggarly deliriums old and new; which latter class of objects it was +clearly the part of every noble heart to expend all its lightnings and +energies in burning up without delay, and sweeping into their native +Chaos out of such a Cosmos as this. Which process, it did not then seem +to him could be very difficult; or attended with much other than heroic +joy, and enthusiasm of victory or of battle, to the gallant operator, in +his part of it. This was, with modifications such as might be, the +humor and creed of College Radicalism five-and-twenty years ago. Rather +horrible at that time; seen to be not so horrible now, at least to have +grown very universal, and to need no concealment now. The natural +humor and attitude, we may well regret to say,--and honorable not +dishonorable, for a brave young soul such as Sterling's, in those years +in those localities! + +I do not find that Sterling had, at that stage, adopted the then +prevalent Utilitarian theory of human things. But neither, apparently, +had he rejected it; still less did he yet at all denounce it with the +damnatory vehemence we were used to in him at a later period. Probably +he, so much occupied with the negative side of things, had not yet +thought seriously of any positive basis for his world; or asked himself, +too earnestly, What, then, is the noble rule of living for a man? +In this world so eclipsed and scandalously overhung with fable and +hypocrisy, what is the eternal fact, on which a man may front the +Destinies and the Immensities? The day for such questions, sure enough +to come in his case, was still but coming. Sufficient for this day +be the work thereof; that of blasting into merited annihilation the +innumerable and immeasurable recognized deliriums, and extirpating or +coercing to the due pitch those legions of "black dragoons," of all +varieties and purposes, who patrol, with horse-meat and man's-meat, this +afflicted earth, so hugely to the detriment of it. + + +Sterling, it appears, after above a year of Trinity College, followed +his friend Maurice into Trinity Hall, with the intention of taking +a degree in Law; which intention, like many others with him, came to +nothing; and in 1827 he left Trinity Hall and Cambridge altogether; here +ending, after two years, his brief University life. + + + +CHAPTER V. A PROFESSION. + +Here, then, is a young soul, brought to the years of legal majority, +furnished from his training-schools with such and such shining +capabilities, and ushered on the scene of things to inquire practically, +What he will do there? Piety is in the man, noble human valor, bright +intelligence, ardent proud veracity; light and fire, in none of their +many senses, wanting for him, but abundantly bestowed: a kingly kind of +man;--whose "kingdom," however, in this bewildered place and epoch of +the world will probably be difficult to find and conquer! + +For, alas, the world, as we said, already stands convicted to this young +soul of being an untrue, unblessed world; its high dignitaries many +of them phantasms and players'-masks; its worthships and worships +unworshipful: from Dan to Beersheba, a mad world, my masters. And surely +we may say, and none will now gainsay, this his idea of the world at +that epoch was nearer to the fact than at most other epochs it has been. +Truly, in all times and places, the young ardent soul that enters on +this world with heroic purpose, with veracious insight, and the +yet unclouded "inspiration of the Almighty" which has given us our +intelligence, will find this world a very mad one: why else is he, with +his little outfit of heroisms and inspirations, come hither into it, +except to make it diligently a little saner? Of him there would have +been no need, had it been quite sane. This is true; this will, in all +centuries and countries, be true. + +And yet perhaps of no time or country, for the last two thousand years, +was it _so_ true as here in this waste-weltering epoch of Sterling's and +ours. A world all rocking and plunging, like that old Roman one when the +measure of its iniquities was full; the abysses, and subterranean and +supernal deluges, plainly broken loose; in the wild dim-lighted chaos +all stars of Heaven gone out. No star of Heaven visible, hardly now to +any man; the pestiferous fogs, and foul exhalations grown continual, +have, except on the highest mountaintops, blotted out all stars: +will-o'-wisps, of various course and color, take the place of stars. +Over the wild-surging chaos, in the leaden air, are only sudden glares +of revolutionary lightning; then mere darkness, with philanthropistic +phosphorescences, empty meteoric lights; here and there an +ecclesiastical luminary still hovering, hanging on to its old quaking +fixtures, pretending still to be a Moon or Sun,--though visibly it is +but a Chinese lantern made of _paper_ mainly, with candle-end foully +dying in the heart of it. Surely as mad a world as you could wish! + +If you want to make sudden fortunes in it, and achieve the temporary +hallelujah of flunkies for yourself, renouncing the perennial esteem +of wise men; if you can believe that the chief end of man is to collect +about him a bigger heap of gold than ever before, in a shorter time than +ever before, you will find it a most handy and every way furthersome, +blessed and felicitous world. But for any other human aim, I think you +will find it not furthersome. If you in any way ask practically, How a +noble life is to be led in it? you will be luckier than Sterling or I if +you get any credible answer, or find any made road whatever. Alas, it is +even so. Your heart's question, if it be of that sort, most things and +persons will answer with a "Nonsense! Noble life is in Drury Lane, +and wears yellow boots. You fool, compose yourself to your +pudding!"--Surely, in these times, if ever in any, the young heroic soul +entering on life, so opulent, full of sunny hope, of noble valor and +divine intention, is tragical as well as beautiful to us. + +Of the three learned Professions none offered any likelihood for +Sterling. From the Church his notions of the "black dragoon," had there +been no other obstacle, were sufficient to exclude him. Law he had just +renounced, his own Radical philosophies disheartening him, in face of +the ponderous impediments, continual up-hill struggles and formidable +toils inherent in such a pursuit: with Medicine he had never been in +any contiguity, that he should dream of it as a course for him. Clearly +enough the professions were unsuitable; they to him, he to them. +Professions, built so largely on speciosity instead of performance; +clogged, in this bad epoch, and defaced under such suspicions of fatal +imposture, were hateful not lovable to the young radical soul, scornful +of gross profit, and intent on ideals and human noblenesses. Again, the +professions, were they never so perfect and veracious, will require slow +steady pulling, to which this individual young radical, with his swift, +far-darting brilliancies, and nomadic desultory ways, is of all men the +most averse and unfitted. No profession could, in any case, have well +gained the early love of Sterling. And perhaps withal the most tragic +element of his life is even this, That there now was none to which +he could fitly, by those wiser than himself, have been bound and +constrained, that he might learn to love it. So swift, light-limbed and +fiery an Arab courser ought, for all manner of reasons, to have +been trained to saddle and harness. Roaming at full gallop over the +heaths,--especially when your heath was London, and English and +European life, in the nineteenth century,--he suffered much, and did +comparatively little. I have known few creatures whom it was more +wasteful to send forth with the bridle thrown up, and to set to +steeple-hunting instead of running on highways! But it is the lot of +many such, in this dislocated time,--Heaven mend it! In a better time +there will be other "professions" than those three extremely cramp, +confused and indeed almost obsolete ones: professions, if possible, +that are true, and do _not_ require you at the threshold to constitute +yourself an impostor. Human association,--which will mean discipline, +vigorous wise subordination and co-ordination,--is so unspeakably +important. Professions, "regimented human pursuits," how many of +honorable and manful might be possible for men; and which should _not_, +in their results to society, need to stumble along, in such an unwieldy +futile manner, with legs swollen into such enormous elephantiasis and no +go at all in them! Men will one day think of the force they squander in +every generation, and the fatal damage they encounter, by this neglect. + + +The career likeliest for Sterling, in his and the world's circumstances, +would have been what is called public life: some secretarial, diplomatic +or other official training, to issue if possible in Parliament as the +true field for him. And here, beyond question, had the gross material +conditions been allowed, his spiritual capabilities were first-rate. +In any arena where eloquence and argument was the point, this man +was calculated to have borne the bell from all competitors. In lucid +ingenious talk and logic, in all manner of brilliant utterance and +tongue-fence, I have hardly known his fellow. So ready lay his store of +knowledge round him, so perfect was his ready utterance of the same,--in +coruscating wit, in jocund drollery, in compact articulated clearness +or high poignant emphasis, as the case required,--he was a match for any +man in argument before a crowd of men. One of the most supple-wristed, +dexterous, graceful and successful fencers in that kind. A man, as Mr. +Hare has said, "able to argue with four or five at once;" could do the +parrying all round, in a succession swift as light, and plant his hits +wherever a chance offered. In Parliament, such a soul put into a body of +the due toughness might have carried it far. If ours is to be called, as +I hear some call it, the Talking Era, Sterling of all men had the talent +to excel in it. + +Probably it was with some vague view towards chances in this direction +that Sterling's first engagement was entered upon; a brief connection as +Secretary to some Club or Association into which certain public men, of +the reforming sort, Mr. Crawford (the Oriental Diplomatist and Writer), +Mr. Kirkman Finlay (then Member for Glasgow), and other political +notabilities had now formed themselves,--with what specific objects I do +not know, nor with what result if any. I have heard vaguely, it was "to +open the trade to India." Of course they intended to stir up the public +mind into co-operation, whatever their goal or object was: Mr. Crawford, +an intimate in the Sterling household, recognized the fine literary +gift of John; and might think it a lucky hit that he had caught such a +Secretary for three hundred pounds a year. That was the salary agreed +upon; and for some months actually worked for and paid; Sterling +becoming for the time an intimate and almost an inmate in Mr. Crawford's +circle, doubtless not without results to himself beyond the secretarial +work and pounds sterling: so much is certain. But neither the +Secretaryship nor the Association itself had any continuance; nor can +I now learn accurately more of it than what is here stated;--in which +vague state it must vanish from Sterling's history again, as it in great +measure did from his life. From himself in after-years I never heard +mention of it; nor were his pursuits connected afterwards with those of +Mr. Crawford, though the mutual good-will continued unbroken. + +In fact, however splendid and indubitable Sterling's qualifications for +a parliamentary life, there was that in him withal which flatly put +a negative on any such project. He had not the slow steady-pulling +diligence which is indispensable in that, as in all important pursuits +and strenuous human competitions whatsoever. In every sense, his +momentum depended on velocity of stroke, rather than on weight of metal; +"beautifulest sheet-lightning," as I often said, "not to be condensed +into thunder-bolts." Add to this,--what indeed is perhaps but the same +phenomenon in another form,--his bodily frame was thin, excitable, +already manifesting pulmonary symptoms; a body which the tear and wear +of Parliament would infallibly in few months have wrecked and ended. +By this path there was clearly no mounting. The far-darting, restlessly +coruscating soul, equips beyond all others to shine in the Talking +Era, and lead National Palavers with their _spolia opima_ captive, is +imprisoned in a fragile hectic body which quite forbids the adventure. +"_Es ist dafur gesorgt_," says Goethe, "Provision has been made that the +trees do not grow into the sky;"--means are always there to stop them +short of the sky. + + + +CHAPTER VI. LITERATURE: THE ATHENAEUM. + +Of all forms of public life, in the Talking Era, it was clear that only +one completely suited Sterling,--the anarchic, nomadic, entirely aerial +and unconditional one, called Literature. To this all his tendencies, +and fine gifts positive and negative, were evidently pointing; and here, +after such brief attempting or thoughts to attempt at other posts, he +already in this same year arrives. As many do, and ever more must do, +in these our years and times. This is the chaotic haven of so many +frustrate activities; where all manner of good gifts go up in far-seen +smoke or conflagration; and whole fleets, that might have been +war-fleets to conquer kingdoms, are _consumed_ (too truly, often), amid +"fame" enough, and the admiring shouts of the vulgar, which is always +fond to see fire going on. The true Canaan and Mount Zion of a +Talking Era must ever be Literature: the extraneous, miscellaneous, +self-elected, indescribable _Parliamentum_, or Talking Apparatus, which +talks by books and printed papers. + +A literary Newspaper called _The Athenaeum_, the same which still +subsists, had been founded in those years by Mr. Buckingham; James Silk +Buckingham, who has since continued notable under various figures. +Mr. Buckingham's _Athenaeum_ had not as yet got into a flourishing +condition; and he was willing to sell the copyright of it for a +consideration. Perhaps Sterling and old Cambridge friends of his had +been already writing for it. At all events, Sterling, who had already +privately begun writing a Novel, and was clearly looking towards +Literature, perceived that his gifted Cambridge friend, Frederic +Maurice, was now also at large in a somewhat similar situation; and that +here was an opening for both of them, and for other gifted friends. The +copyright was purchased for I know not what sum, nor with whose money, +but guess it may have been Sterling's, and no great sum;--and so, under +free auspices, themselves their own captains, Maurice and he spread sail +for this new voyage of adventure into all the world. It was about the +end of 1828 that readers of periodical literature, and quidnuncs in +those departments, began to report the appearance, in a Paper called the +_Athenaeum, of_ writings showing a superior brilliancy, and height +of aim; one or perhaps two slight specimens of which came into my own +hands, in my remote corner, about that time, and were duly recognized by +me, while the authors were still far off and hidden behind deep veils. + +Some of Sterling's best Papers from the _Athenaeum_ have been published +by Archdeacon Hare: first-fruits by a young man of twenty-two; crude, +imperfect, yet singularly beautiful and attractive; which will still +testify what high literary promise lay in him. The ruddiest glow of +young enthusiasm, of noble incipient spiritual manhood reigns over them; +once more a divine Universe unveiling itself in gloom and splendor, in +auroral firelight and many-tinted shadow, full of hope and full of awe, +to a young melodious pious heart just arrived upon it. Often enough the +delineation has a certain flowing completeness, not to be expected from +so young an artist; here and there is a decided felicity of insight; +everywhere the point of view adopted is a high and noble one, and the +result worked out a result to be sympathized with, and accepted so far +as it will go. Good reading still, those Papers, for the less-furnished +mind,--thrice-excellent reading compared with what is usually going. +For the rest, a grand melancholy is the prevailing impression they +leave;--partly as if, while the surface was so blooming and opulent, +the heart of them was still vacant, sad and cold. Here is a beautiful +mirage, in the dry wilderness; but you cannot quench your thirst there! +The writer's heart is indeed still too vacant, except of beautiful +shadows and reflexes and resonances; and is far from joyful, though it +wears commonly a smile. + +In some of the Greek delineations (_The Lycian Painter_, for example), +we have already noticed a strange opulence of splendor, characterizable +as half-legitimate, half-meretricious,--a splendor hovering between the +raffaelesque and the japannish. What other things Sterling wrote there, +I never knew; nor would he in any mood, in those later days, have told +you, had you asked. This period of his life he always rather accounted, +as the Arabs do the idolatrous times before Mahomet's advent, the +"period of darkness." + + + +CHAPTER VII. REGENT STREET. + +On the commercial side the _Athenaeum_ still lacked success; nor was +like to find it under the highly uncommercial management it had now got +into. This, by and by, began to be a serious consideration. For money +is the sinews of Periodical Literature almost as much as of war itself; +without money, and under a constant drain of loss, Periodical Literature +is one of the things that cannot be carried on. In no long time Sterling +began to be practically sensible of this truth, and that an unpleasant +resolution in accordance with it would be necessary. By him also, after +a while, the _Athenaeum_ was transferred to other hands, better fitted +in that respect; and under these it did take vigorous root, and still +bears fruit according to its kind. + +For the present, it brought him into the thick of London Literature, +especially of young London Literature and speculation; in which turbid +exciting element he swam and revelled, nothing loath, for certain months +longer,--a period short of two years in all. He had lodgings in +Regent Street: his Father's house, now a flourishing and stirring +establishment, in South Place, Knightsbridge, where, under the warmth of +increasing revenue and success, miscellaneous cheerful socialities and +abundant speculations, chiefly political (and not John's kind, but +that of the _Times_ Newspaper and the Clubs), were rife, he could visit +daily, and yet be master of his own studies and pursuits. Maurice, +Trench, John Mill, Charles Buller: these, and some few others, among +a wide circle of a transitory phantasmal character, whom he speedily +forgot and cared not to remember, were much about him; with these he in +all ways employed and disported himself: a first favorite with them all. + +No pleasanter companion, I suppose, had any of them. So frank, open, +guileless, fearless, a brother to all worthy souls whatsoever. Come when +you might, here is he open-hearted, rich in cheerful fancies, in grave +logic, in all kinds of bright activity. If perceptibly or imperceptibly +there is a touch of ostentation in him, blame it not; it is so innocent, +so good and childlike. He is still fonder of jingling publicly, and +spreading on the table, your big purse of opulences than his own. Abrupt +too he is, cares little for big-wigs and garnitures; perhaps laughs +more than the real fun he has would order; but of arrogance there is +no vestige, of insincerity or of ill-nature none. These must have been +pleasant evenings in Regent Street, when the circle chanced to be well +adjusted there. At other times, Philistines would enter, what we call +bores, dullards, Children of Darkness; and then,--except in a hunt of +dullards, and a _bore-baiting_, which might be permissible,--the evening +was dark. Sterling, of course, had innumerable cares withal; and was +toiling like a slave; his very recreations almost a kind of work. An +enormous activity was in the man;--sufficient, in a body that could +have held it without breaking, to have gone far, even under the unstable +guidance it was like to have! + +Thus, too, an extensive, very variegated circle of connections was +forming round him. Besides his _Athenaeum_ work, and evenings in Regent +Street and elsewhere, he makes visits to country-houses, the Bullers' +and others; converses with established gentlemen, with honorable women +not a few; is gay and welcome with the young of his own age; knows also +religious, witty, and other distinguished ladies, and is admiringly +known by them. On the whole, he is already locomotive; visits hither +and thither in a very rapid flying manner. Thus I find he had made one +flying visit to the Cumberland Lake-region in 1828, and got sight of +Wordsworth; and in the same year another flying one to Paris, and seen +with no undue enthusiasm the Saint-Simonian Portent just beginning +to preach for itself, and France in general simmering under a scum of +impieties, levities, Saint-Simonisms, and frothy fantasticalities of all +kinds, towards the boiling-over which soon made the Three Days of July +famous. But by far the most important foreign home he visited was that +of Coleridge on the Hill of Highgate,--if it were not rather a foreign +shrine and Dodona-Oracle, as he then reckoned,--to which (onwards from +1828, as would appear) he was already an assiduous pilgrim. Concerning +whom, and Sterling's all-important connection with him, there will be +much to say anon. + +Here, from this period, is a Letter of Sterling's, which the glimpses +it affords of bright scenes and figures now sunk, so many of them, +sorrowfully to the realm of shadows, will render interesting to some of +my readers. To me on the mere Letter, not on its contents alone, there +is accidentally a kind of fateful stamp. A few months after Charles +Buller's death, while his loss was mourned by many hearts, and to his +poor Mother all light except what hung upon his memory had gone out in +the world, a certain delicate and friendly hand, hoping to give the poor +bereaved lady a good moment, sought out this Letter of Sterling's, one +morning, and called, with intent to read it to her:--alas, the poor lady +had herself fallen suddenly into the languors of death, help of another +grander sort now close at hand; and to her this Letter was never read! + +On "Fanny Kemble," it appears, there is an Essay by Sterling in the +_Athenaeum_ of this year: "16th December, 1829." Very laudatory, I +conclude. He much admired her genius, nay was thought at one time to +be vaguely on the edge of still more chivalrous feelings. As the Letter +itself may perhaps indicate. + + "_To Anthony Sterling, Esq., 24th Regiment, Dublin_. + "KNIGHTSBRIDGE, 10th Nov., 1829. + +"MY DEAR ANTHONY,--Here in the Capital of England and of Europe, +there is less, so far as I hear, of movement and variety than in your +provincial Dublin, or among the Wicklow Mountains. We have the old +prospect of bricks and smoke, the old crowd of busy stupid faces, the +old occupations, the old sleepy amusements; and the latest news that +reaches us daily has an air of tiresome, doting antiquity. The world has +nothing for it but to exclaim with Faust, "Give me my youth again." And +as for me, my month of Cornish amusement is over; and I must tie myself +to my old employments. I have not much to tell you about these; but +perhaps you may like to hear of my expedition to the West. + +"I wrote to Polvellan (Mr. Buller's) to announce the day on which I +intended to be there, so shortly before setting out, that there was +no time to receive an answer; and when I reached Devonport, which is +fifteen or sixteen miles from my place of destination, I found a letter +from Mrs. Buller, saying that she was coming in two days to a Ball at +Plymouth, and if I chose to stay in the mean while and look about me, +she would take me back with her. She added an introduction to a relation +of her husband's, a certain Captain Buller of the Rifles, who was with +the Depot there,--a pleasant person, who I believe had been +acquainted with Charlotte, [7] or at least had seen her. Under his +superintendence--... + +"On leaving Devonport with Mrs. Buller, I went some of the way by water, +up the harbor and river; and the prospects are certainly very beautiful; +to say nothing of the large ships, which I admire almost as much as you, +though without knowing so much about them. There is a great deal of +fine scenery all along the road to Looe; and the House itself, a very +unpretending Gothic cottage, stands beautifully among trees, hills and +water, with the sea at the distance of a quarter of a mile. + +"And here, among pleasant, good-natured, well-informed and clever +people, I spent an idle month. I dined at one or two Corporation +dinners; spent a few days at the old Mansion of Mr. Buller of Morval, +the patron of West Looe; and during the rest of the time, read, wrote, +played chess, lounged, and ate red mullet (he who has not done this +has not begun to live); talked of cookery to the philosophers, and of +metaphysics to Mrs. Buller; and altogether cultivated indolence, +and developed the faculty of nonsense with considerable pleasure and +unexampled success. Charles Buller you know: he has just come to town, +but I have not yet seen him. Arthur, his younger brother, I take to +be one of the handsomest men in England; and he too has considerable +talent. Mr. Buller the father is rather a clever man of sense, and +particularly good-natured and gentlemanly; and his wife, who was a +renowned beauty and queen of Calcutta, has still many striking and +delicate traces of what she was. Her conversation is more brilliant and +pleasant than that of any one I know; and, at all events, I am bound to +admire her for the kindness with which she patronizes me. I hope that, +some day or other, you may be acquainted with her. + +"I believe I have seen no one in London about whom you would care to +hear,--unless the fame of Fanny Kemble has passed the Channel, and +astonished the Irish Barbarians in the midst of their bloody-minded +politics. Young Kemble, whom you have seen, is in Germany: but I have +the happiness of being also acquainted with his sister, the divine +Fanny; and I have seen her twice on the stage, and three or four times +in private, since my return from Cornwall. I had seen some beautiful +verses of hers, long before she was an actress; and her conversation +is full of spirit and talent. She never was taught to act at all; and +though there are many faults in her performance of Juliet, there is more +power than in any female playing I ever saw, except Pasta's Medea. She +is not handsome, rather short, and by no means delicately formed; +but her face is marked, and the eyes are brilliant, dark, and full of +character. She has far more ability than she ever can display on the +stage; but I have no doubt that, by practice and self-culture, she will +be a far finer actress at least than any one since Mrs. Siddons. I was +at Charles Kemble's a few evenings ago, when a drawing of Miss Kemble, +by Sir Thomas Lawrence, was brought in; and I have no doubt that you +will shortly see, even in Dublin, an engraving of her from it, very +unlike the caricatures that have hitherto appeared. I hate the stage; +and but for her, should very likely never have gone to a theatre again. +Even as it is, the annoyance is much more than the pleasure; but I +suppose I must go to see her in every character in which she acts. If +Charlotte cares for plays, let me know, and I will write in more detail +about this new Melpomene. I fear there are very few subjects on which I +can say anything that will in the least interest her. + + "Ever affectionately yours, + "J. STERLING." + +Sterling and his circle, as their ardent speculation and activity +fermented along, were in all things clear for progress, liberalism; +their politics, and view of the Universe, decisively of the Radical +sort. As indeed that of England then was, more than ever; the crust of +old hide-bound Toryism being now openly cracking towards some incurable +disruption, which accordingly ensued as the Reform Bill before long. +The Reform Bill already hung in the wind. Old hide-bound Toryism, long +recognized by all the world, and now at last obliged to recognize its +very self, for an overgrown Imposture, supporting itself not by human +reason, but by flunky blustering and brazen lying, superadded to mere +brute force, could be no creed for young Sterling and his friends. In +all things he and they were liberals, and, as was natural at this +stage, democrats; contemplating root-and-branch innovation by aid of the +hustings and ballot-box. Hustings and ballot-box had speedily to +vanish out of Sterling's thoughts: but the character of root-and-branch +innovator, essentially of "Radical Reformer," was indelible with him, +and under all forms could be traced as his character through life. + +For the present, his and those young people's aim was: By democracy, +or what means there are, be all impostures put down. Speedy end to +Superstition,--a gentle one if you can contrive it, but an end. What can +it profit any mortal to adopt locutions and imaginations which do not +correspond to fact; which no sane mortal can deliberately adopt in his +soul as true; which the most orthodox of mortals can only, and this +after infinite essentially _impious_ effort to put out the eyes of his +mind, persuade himself to "believe that he believes"? Away with it; in +the name of God, come out of it, all true men! + +Piety of heart, a certain reality of religious faith, was always +Sterling's, the gift of nature to him which he would not and could +not throw away; but I find at this time his religion is as good as +altogether Ethnic, Greekish, what Goethe calls the Heathen form of +religion. The Church, with her articles, is without relation to him. +And along with obsolete spiritualisms, he sees all manner of obsolete +thrones and big-wigged temporalities; and for them also can prophesy, +and wish, only a speedy doom. Doom inevitable, registered in Heaven's +Chancery from the beginning of days, doom unalterable as the pillars of +the world; the gods are angry, and all nature groans, till this doom of +eternal justice be fulfilled. + +With gay audacity, with enthusiasm tempered by mockery, as is the manner +of young gifted men, this faith, grounded for the present on democracy +and hustings operations, and giving to all life the aspect of a +chivalrous battle-field, or almost of a gay though perilous tournament, +and bout of "A hundred knights against all comers,"--was maintained +by Sterling and his friends. And in fine, after whatever loud +remonstrances, and solemn considerations, and such shaking of our wigs +as is undoubtedly natural in the case, let us be just to it and him. We +shall have to admit, nay it will behoove us to see and practically know, +for ourselves and him and others, that the essence of this creed, in +times like ours, was right and not wrong. That, however the ground and +form of it might change, essentially it was the monition of his natal +genius to this as it is to every brave man; the behest of all his clear +insight into this Universe, the message of Heaven through him, which +he could not suppress, but was inspired and compelled to utter in +this world by such methods as he had. There for him lay the first +commandment; _this_ is what it would have been the unforgivable sin to +swerve from and desert: the treason of treasons for him, it were there; +compared with which all other sins are venial! + +The message did not cease at all, as we shall see; the message was +ardently, if fitfully, continued to the end: but the methods, the tone +and dialect and all outer conditions of uttering it, underwent most +important modifications! + + + +CHAPTER VIII. COLERIDGE. + +Coleridge sat on the brow of Highgate Hill, in those years, looking down +on London and its smoke-tumult, like a sage escaped from the inanity of +life's battle; attracting towards him the thoughts of innumerable +brave souls still engaged there. His express contributions to +poetry, philosophy, or any specific province of human literature or +enlightenment, had been small and sadly intermittent; but he had, +especially among young inquiring men, a higher than literary, a kind +of prophetic or magician character. He was thought to hold, he alone +in England, the key of German and other Transcendentalisms; knew the +sublime secret of believing by "the reason" what "the understanding" had +been obliged to fling out as incredible; and could still, after Hume +and Voltaire had done their best and worst with him, profess himself an +orthodox Christian, and say and print to the Church of England, with its +singular old rubrics and surplices at Allhallowtide, _Esto perpetua_. +A sublime man; who, alone in those dark days, had saved his crown +of spiritual manhood; escaping from the black materialisms, and +revolutionary deluges, with "God, Freedom, Immortality" still his: a +king of men. The practical intellects of the world did not much heed +him, or carelessly reckoned him a metaphysical dreamer: but to the +rising spirits of the young generation he had this dusky sublime +character; and sat there as a kind of _Magus_, girt in mystery and +enigma; his Dodona oak-grove (Mr. Gilman's house at Highgate) whispering +strange things, uncertain whether oracles or jargon. + +The Gilmans did not encourage much company, or excitation of any sort, +round their sage; nevertheless access to him, if a youth did reverently +wish it, was not difficult. He would stroll about the pleasant garden +with you, sit in the pleasant rooms of the place,--perhaps take you +to his own peculiar room, high up, with a rearward view, which was the +chief view of all. A really charming outlook, in fine weather. Close +at hand, wide sweep of flowery leafy gardens, their few houses mostly +hidden, the very chimney-pots veiled under blossomy umbrage, flowed +gloriously down hill; gloriously issuing in wide-tufted undulating +plain-country, rich in all charms of field and town. Waving blooming +country of the brightest green; dotted all over with handsome villas, +handsome groves; crossed by roads and human traffic, here inaudible or +heard only as a musical hum: and behind all swam, under olive-tinted +haze, the illimitable limitary ocean of London, with its domes and +steeples definite in the sun, big Paul's and the many memories attached +to it hanging high over all. Nowhere, of its kind, could you see a +grander prospect on a bright summer day, with the set of the air going +southward,--southward, and so draping with the city-smoke not you +but the city. Here for hours would Coleridge talk, concerning all +conceivable or inconceivable things; and liked nothing better than to +have an intelligent, or failing that, even a silent and patient human +listener. He distinguished himself to all that ever heard him as at +least the most surprising talker extant in this world,--and to some +small minority, by no means to all, as the most excellent. + +The good man, he was now getting old, towards sixty perhaps; and +gave you the idea of a life that had been full of sufferings; a life +heavy-laden, half-vanquished, still swimming painfully in seas of +manifold physical and other bewilderment. Brow and head were round, +and of massive weight, but the face was flabby and irresolute. The +deep eyes, of a light hazel, were as full of sorrow as of inspiration; +confused pain looked mildly from them, as in a kind of mild +astonishment. The whole figure and air, good and amiable otherwise, +might be called flabby and irresolute; expressive of weakness under +possibility of strength. He hung loosely on his limbs, with knees bent, +and stooping attitude; in walking, he rather shuffled than decisively +steps; and a lady once remarked, he never could fix which side of the +garden walk would suit him best, but continually shifted, in corkscrew +fashion, and kept trying both. A heavy-laden, high-aspiring and surely +much-suffering man. His voice, naturally soft and good, had contracted +itself into a plaintive snuffle and singsong; he spoke as if +preaching,--you would have said, preaching earnestly and also hopelessly +the weightiest things. I still recollect his "object" and "subject," +terms of continual recurrence in the Kantean province; and how he sang +and snuffled them into "om-m-mject" and "sum-m-mject," with a kind of +solemn shake or quaver, as he rolled along. No talk, in his century or +in any other, could be more surprising. + +Sterling, who assiduously attended him, with profound reverence, and +was often with him by himself, for a good many months, gives a record +of their first colloquy. [8] Their colloquies were numerous, and he +had taken note of many; but they are all gone to the fire, except this +first, which Mr. Hare has printed,--unluckily without date. It contains +a number of ingenious, true and half-true observations, and is of +course a faithful epitome of the things said; but it gives small idea +of Coleridge's way of talking;--this one feature is perhaps the most +recognizable, "Our interview lasted for three hours, during which he +talked two hours and three quarters." Nothing could be more copious than +his talk; and furthermore it was always, virtually or literally, of +the nature of a monologue; suffering no interruption, however reverent; +hastily putting aside all foreign additions, annotations, or most +ingenuous desires for elucidation, as well-meant superfluities which +would never do. Besides, it was talk not flowing any-whither like +a river, but spreading every-whither in inextricable currents and +regurgitations like a lake or sea; terribly deficient in definite goal +or aim, nay often in logical intelligibility; _what_ you were to believe +or do, on any earthly or heavenly thing, obstinately refusing to appear +from it. So that, most times, you felt logically lost; swamped near to +drowning in this tide of ingenious vocables, spreading out boundless as +if to submerge the world. + +To sit as a passive bucket and be pumped into, whether you consent or +not, can in the long-run be exhilarating to no creature; how eloquent +soever the flood of utterance that is descending. But if it be withal a +confused unintelligible flood of utterance, threatening to submerge all +known landmarks of thought, and drown the world and you!--I have heard +Coleridge talk, with eager musical energy, two stricken hours, his +face radiant and moist, and communicate no meaning whatsoever to any +individual of his hearers,--certain of whom, I for one, still kept +eagerly listening in hope; the most had long before given up, and formed +(if the room were large enough) secondary humming groups of their own. +He began anywhere: you put some question to him, made some suggestive +observation: instead of answering this, or decidedly setting out +towards answer of it, he would accumulate formidable apparatus, logical +swim-bladders, transcendental life-preservers and other precautionary +and vehiculatory gear, for setting out; perhaps did at last get under +way,--but was swiftly solicited, turned aside by the glance of some +radiant new game on this hand or that, into new courses; and ever into +new; and before long into all the Universe, where it was uncertain what +game you would catch, or whether any. + +His talk, alas, was distinguished, like himself, by irresolution: +it disliked to be troubled with conditions, abstinences, definite +fulfilments;--loved to wander at its own sweet will, and make its +auditor and his claims and humble wishes a mere passive bucket for +itself! He had knowledge about many things and topics, much curious +reading; but generally all topics led him, after a pass or two, into +the high seas of theosophic philosophy, the hazy infinitude of Kantean +transcendentalism, with its "sum-m-mjects" and "om-m-mjects." Sad +enough; for with such indolent impatience of the claims and ignorances +of others, he had not the least talent for explaining this or anything +unknown to them; and you swam and fluttered in the mistiest wide +unintelligible deluge of things, for most part in a rather profitless +uncomfortable manner. + +Glorious islets, too, I have seen rise out of the haze; but they were +few, and soon swallowed in the general element again. Balmy sunny +islets, islets of the blest and the intelligible:--on which occasions +those secondary humming groups would all cease humming, and hang +breathless upon the eloquent words; till once your islet got wrapt in +the mist again, and they could recommence humming. Eloquent artistically +expressive words you always had; piercing radiances of a most subtle +insight came at intervals; tones of noble pious sympathy, recognizable +as pious though strangely colored, were never wanting long: but in +general you could not call this aimless, cloud-capt, cloud-based, +lawlessly meandering human discourse of reason by the name of "excellent +talk," but only of "surprising;" and were reminded bitterly of Hazlitt's +account of it: "Excellent talker, very,--if you let him start from no +premises and come to no conclusion." Coleridge was not without what +talkers call wit, and there were touches of prickly sarcasm in him, +contemptuous enough of the world and its idols and popular dignitaries; +he had traits even of poetic humor: but in general he seemed deficient +in laughter; or indeed in sympathy for concrete human things either on +the sunny or on the stormy side. One right peal of concrete laughter at +some convicted flesh-and-blood absurdity, one burst of noble indignation +at some injustice or depravity, rubbing elbows with us on this solid +Earth, how strange would it have been in that Kantean haze-world, and +how infinitely cheering amid its vacant air-castles and dim-melting +ghosts and shadows! None such ever came. His life had been an abstract +thinking and dreaming, idealistic, passed amid the ghosts of +defunct bodies and of unborn ones. The moaning singsong of that +theosophico-metaphysical monotony left on you, at last, a very dreary +feeling. + +In close colloquy, flowing within narrower banks, I suppose he was more +definite and apprehensible; Sterling in after-times did not complain of +his unintelligibility, or imputed it only to the abtruse high nature of +the topics handled. Let us hope so, let us try to believe so! There +is no doubt but Coleridge could speak plain words on things plain: his +observations and responses on the trivial matters that occurred were as +simple as the commonest man's, or were even distinguished by superior +simplicity as well as pertinency. "Ah, your tea is too cold, Mr. +Coleridge!" mourned the good Mrs. Gilman once, in her kind, reverential +and yet protective manner, handing him a very tolerable though belated +cup.--"It's better than I deserve!" snuffled he, in a low hoarse murmur, +partly courteous, chiefly pious, the tone of which still abides with me: +"It's better than I deserve!" + +But indeed, to the young ardent mind, instinct with pious nobleness, yet +driven to the grim deserts of Radicalism for a faith, his speculations +had a charm much more than literary, a charm almost religious and +prophetic. The constant gist of his discourse was lamentation over +the sunk condition of the world; which he recognized to be given up to +Atheism and Materialism, full of mere sordid misbeliefs, mispursuits and +misresults. All Science had become mechanical; the science not of men, +but of a kind of human beavers. Churches themselves had died away into a +godless mechanical condition; and stood there as mere Cases of Articles, +mere Forms of Churches; like the dried carcasses of once swift +camels, which you find left withering in the thirst of the universal +desert,--ghastly portents for the present, beneficent ships of the +desert no more. Men's souls were blinded, hebetated; and sunk under the +influence of Atheism and Materialism, and Hume and Voltaire: the world +for the present was as an extinct world, deserted of God, and incapable +of well-doing till it changed its heart and spirit. This, expressed +I think with less of indignation and with more of long-drawn +querulousness, was always recognizable as the ground-tone:--in which +truly a pious young heart, driven into Radicalism and the opposition +party, could not but recognize a too sorrowful truth; and ask of the +Oracle, with all earnestness, What remedy, then? + +The remedy, though Coleridge himself professed to see it as in sunbeams, +could not, except by processes unspeakably difficult, be described to +you at all. On the whole, those dead Churches, this dead English Church +especially, must be brought to life again. Why not? It was not dead; +the soul of it, in this parched-up body, was tragically asleep only. +Atheistic Philosophy was true on its side, and Hume and Voltaire could +on their own ground speak irrefragably for themselves against any +Church: but lift the Church and them into a higher sphere. Of argument, +_they_ died into inanition, the Church revivified itself into pristine +florid vigor,--became once more a living ship of the desert, and +invincibly bore you over stock and stone. But how, but how! By attending +to the "reason" of man, said Coleridge, and duly chaining up the +"understanding" of man: the _Vernunft_ (Reason) and _Verstand_ +(Understanding) of the Germans, it all turned upon these, if you could +well understand them,--which you couldn't. For the rest, Mr. Coleridge +had on the anvil various Books, especially was about to write one grand +Book _On the Logos_, which would help to bridge the chasm for us. +So much appeared, however: Churches, though proved false (as you had +imagined), were still true (as you were to imagine): here was an Artist +who could burn you up an old Church, root and branch; and then as the +Alchemists professed to do with organic substances in general, distil +you an "Astral Spirit" from the ashes, which was the very image of the +old burnt article, its air-drawn counterpart,--this you still had, or +might get, and draw uses from, if you could. Wait till the Book on the +Logos were done;--alas, till your own terrene eyes, blind with conceit +and the dust of logic, were purged, subtilized and spiritualized +into the sharpness of vision requisite for discerning such an +"om-m-mject."--The ingenuous young English head, of those days, stood +strangely puzzled by such revelations; uncertain whether it were getting +inspired, or getting infatuated into flat imbecility; and strange +effulgence, of new day or else of deeper meteoric night, colored the +horizon of the future for it. + +Let me not be unjust to this memorable man. Surely there was here, +in his pious, ever-laboring, subtle mind, a precious truth, or +prefigurement of truth; and yet a fatal delusion withal. Prefigurement +that, in spite of beaver sciences and temporary spiritual hebetude and +cecity, man and his Universe were eternally divine; and that no past +nobleness, or revelation of the divine, could or would ever be lost to +him. Most true, surely, and worthy of all acceptance. Good also to do +what you can with old Churches and practical Symbols of the Noble: nay +quit not the burnt ruins of them while you find there is still gold +to be dug there. But, on the whole, do not think you can, by logical +alchemy, distil astral spirits from them; or if you could, that said +astral spirits, or defunct logical phantasms, could serve you in +anything. What the light of your mind, which is the direct inspiration +of the Almighty, pronounces incredible,--that, in God's name, leave +uncredited; at your peril do not try believing that. No subtlest +hocus-pocus of "reason" versus "understanding" will avail for that +feat;--and it is terribly perilous to try it in these provinces! + +The truth is, I now see, Coleridge's talk and speculation was the emblem +of himself: in it as in him, a ray of heavenly inspiration struggled, in +a tragically ineffectual degree, with the weakness of flesh and blood. +He says once, he "had skirted the howling deserts of Infidelity;" this +was evident enough: but he had not had the courage, in defiance of pain +and terror, to press resolutely across said deserts to the new firm +lands of Faith beyond; he preferred to create logical fata-morganas for +himself on this hither side, and laboriously solace himself with these. + +To the man himself Nature had given, in high measure, the seeds of +a noble endowment; and to unfold it had been forbidden him. A subtle +lynx-eyed intellect, tremulous pious sensibility to all good and all +beautiful; truly a ray of empyrean light;--but embedded in such weak +laxity of character, in such indolences and esuriences as had made +strange work with it. Once more, the tragic story of a high endowment +with an insufficient will. An eye to discern the divineness of the +Heaven's spendors and lightnings, the insatiable wish to revel in their +godlike radiances and brilliances; but no heart to front the scathing +terrors of them, which is the first condition of your conquering an +abiding place there. The courage necessary for him, above all things, +had been denied this man. His life, with such ray of the empyrean in it, +was great and terrible to him; and he had not valiantly grappled with +it, he had fled from it; sought refuge in vague daydreams, hollow +compromises, in opium, in theosophic metaphysics. Harsh pain, danger, +necessity, slavish harnessed toil, were of all things abhorrent to him. +And so the empyrean element, lying smothered under the terrene, and +yet inextinguishable there, made sad writhings. For pain, danger, +difficulty, steady slaving toil, and other highly disagreeable behests +of destiny, shall in nowise be shirked by any brightest mortal that will +approve himself loyal to his mission in this world; nay precisely +the higher he is, the deeper will be the disagreeableness, and the +detestability to flesh and blood, of the tasks laid on him; and the +heavier too, and more tragic, his penalties if he neglect them. + +For the old Eternal Powers do live forever; nor do their laws know any +change, however we in our poor wigs and church-tippets may attempt +to read their laws. To _steal_ into Heaven,--by the modern method, of +sticking ostrich-like your head into fallacies on Earth, equally as +by the ancient and by all conceivable methods,--is forever forbidden. +High-treason is the name of that attempt; and it continues to be +punished as such. Strange enough: here once more was a kind of +Heaven-scaling Ixion; and to him, as to the old one, the just gods were +very stern! The ever-revolving, never-advancing Wheel (of a kind) was +his, through life; and from his Cloud-Juno did not he too procreate +strange Centaurs, spectral Puseyisms, monstrous illusory Hybrids, and +ecclesiastical Chimeras,--which now roam the earth in a very lamentable +manner! + + + +CHAPTER IX. SPANISH EXILES. + +This magical ingredient thrown into the wild caldron of such a mind, +which we have seen occupied hitherto with mere Ethnicism, Radicalism and +revolutionary tumult, but hungering all along for something higher and +better, was sure to be eagerly welcomed and imbibed, and could not fail +to produce important fermentations there. Fermentations; important new +directions, and withal important new perversions, in the spiritual life +of this man, as it has since done in the lives of so many. Here then +is the new celestial manna we were all in quest of? This thrice-refined +pabulum of transcendental moonshine? Whoso eateth thereof,--yes, what, +on the whole, will _he_ probably grow to? + +Sterling never spoke much to me of his intercourse with Coleridge; and +when we did compare notes about him, it was usually rather in the way +of controversial discussion than of narrative. So that, from my own +resources, I can give no details of the business, nor specify anything +in it, except the general fact of an ardent attendance at Highgate +continued for many months, which was impressively known to all +Sterling's friends; and am unable to assign even the limitary dates, +Sterling's own papers on the subject having all been destroyed by +him. Inferences point to the end of 1828 as the beginning of this +intercourse; perhaps in 1829 it was at the highest point; and already in +1830, when the intercourse itself was about to terminate, we have proof +of the influences it was producing,--in the Novel of _Arthur Coningsby_, +then on hand, the first and only Book that Sterling ever wrote. His +writings hitherto had been sketches, criticisms, brief essays; he was +now trying it on a wider scale; but not yet with satisfactory results, +and it proved to be his only trial in that form. + +He had already, as was intimated, given up his brief proprietorship of +the _Athenaeum_; the commercial indications, and state of sales and of +costs, peremptorily ordering him to do so; the copyright went by sale or +gift, I know not at what precise date, into other fitter hands; and with +the copyright all connection on the part of Sterling. To _Athenaeum_ +Sketches had now (in 1829-30) succeeded _Arthur Coningsby_, a Novel +in three volumes; indicating (when it came to light, a year or +two afterwards) equally hasty and much more ambitious aims in +Literature;--giving strong evidence, too, of internal spiritual +revulsions going painfully forward, and in particular of the impression +Coleridge was producing on him. Without and within, it was a wild tide +of things this ardent light young soul was afloat upon, at present; +and his outlooks into the future, whether for his spiritual or economic +fortunes, were confused enough. + +Among his familiars in this period, I might have mentioned one Charles +Barton, formerly his fellow-student at Cambridge, now an amiable, +cheerful, rather idle young fellow about Town; who led the way into +certain new experiences, and lighter fields, for Sterling. His Father, +Lieutenant-General Barton of the Life-guards, an Irish landlord, I think +in Fermanagh County, and a man of connections about Court, lived in +a certain figure here in Town; had a wife of fashionable habits, with +other sons, and also daughters, bred in this sphere. These, all of +them, were amiable, elegant and pleasant people;--such was especially +an eldest daughter, Susannah Barton, a stately blooming black-eyed young +woman, attractive enough in form and character; full of gay softness, of +indolent sense and enthusiasm; about Sterling's own age, if not a little +older. In this house, which opened to him, more decisively than +his Father's, a new stratum of society, and where his reception for +Charles's sake and his own was of the kindest, he liked very well to be; +and spent, I suppose, many of his vacant half-hours, lightly chatting +with the elders or the youngsters,--doubtless with the young lady too, +though as yet without particular intentions on either side. + +Nor, with all the Coleridge fermentation, was democratic Radicalism +by any means given up;--though how it was to live if the Coleridgean +moonshine took effect, might have been an abtruse question. Hitherto, +while said moonshine was but taking effect, and coloring the outer +surface of things without quite penetrating into the heart, democratic +Liberalism, revolt against superstition and oppression, and help to +whosoever would revolt, was still the grand element in Sterling's creed; +and practically he stood, not ready only, but full of alacrity to fulfil +all its behests. We heard long since of the "black dragoons,"--whom +doubtless the new moonshine had considerably silvered-over into new +hues, by this time;--but here now, while Radicalism is tottering for him +and threatening to crumble, comes suddenly the grand consummation and +explosion of Radicalism in his life; whereby, all at once, Radicalism +exhausted and ended itself, and appeared no more there. + + +In those years a visible section of the London population, and +conspicuous out of all proportion to its size or value, was a small +knot of Spaniards, who had sought shelter here as Political Refugees. +"Political Refugees:" a tragic succession of that class is one of the +possessions of England in our time. Six-and-twenty years ago, when I +first saw London, I remember those unfortunate Spaniards among the new +phenomena. Daily in the cold spring air, under skies so unlike their +own, you could see a group of fifty or a hundred stately tragic figures, +in proud threadbare cloaks; perambulating, mostly with closed lips, the +broad pavements of Euston Square and the regions about St. Pancras new +Church. Their lodging was chiefly in Somers Town, as I understood: and +those open pavements about St. Pancras Church were the general place of +rendezvous. They spoke little or no English; knew nobody, could employ +themselves on nothing, in this new scene. Old steel-gray heads, many +of them; the shaggy, thick, blue-black hair of others struck you; their +brown complexion, dusky look of suppressed fire, in general their tragic +condition as of caged Numidian lions. + +That particular Flight of Unfortunates has long since fled again, and +vanished; and new have come and fled. In this convulsed revolutionary +epoch, which already lasts above sixty years, what tragic flights of +such have we not seen arrive on the one safe coast which is open to +them, as they get successively vanquished, and chased into exile to +avoid worse! Swarm after swarm, of ever-new complexion, from Spain as +from other countries, is thrown off, in those ever-recurring paroxysms; +and will continue to be thrown off. As there could be (suggests +Linnaeus) a "flower-clock," measuring the hours of the day, and the +months of the year, by the kinds of flowers that go to sleep and awaken, +that blow into beauty and fade into dust: so in the great Revolutionary +Horologe, one might mark the years and epochs by the successive kinds of +exiles that walk London streets, and, in grim silent manner, demand +pity from us and reflections from us.--This then extant group of Spanish +Exiles was the Trocadero swarm, thrown off in 1823, in the Riego and +Quirogas quarrel. These were they whom Charles Tenth had, by sheer +force, driven from their constitutionalisms and their Trocadero +fortresses,--Charles Tenth, who himself was soon driven out, manifoldly +by sheer force; and had to head his own swarm of fugitives; and has now +himself quite vanished, and given place to others. For there is no end +of them; propelling and propelled!-- + +Of these poor Spanish Exiles, now vegetating about Somers Town, and +painfully beating the pavement in Euston Square, the acknowledged chief +was General Torrijos, a man of high qualities and fortunes, still in +the vigor of his years, and in these desperate circumstances refusing to +despair; with whom Sterling had, at this time, become intimate. + + + +CHAPTER X. TORRIJOS. + +Torrijos, who had now in 1829 been here some four or five years, having +come over in 1824, had from the first enjoyed a superior reception +in England. Possessing not only a language to speak, which few of the +others did, but manifold experiences courtly, military, diplomatic, +with fine natural faculties, and high Spanish manners tempered into +cosmopolitan, he had been welcomed in various circles of society; +and found, perhaps he alone of those Spaniards, a certain human +companionship among persons of some standing in this country. With the +elder Sterlings, among others, he had made acquaintance; became familiar +in the social circle at South Place, and was much esteemed there. With +Madam Torrijos, who also was a person of amiable and distinguished +qualities, an affectionate friendship grew up on the part of Mrs. +Sterling, which ended only with the death of these two ladies. John +Sterling, on arriving in London from his University work, naturally +inherited what he liked to take up of this relation: and in the lodgings +in Regent Street, and the democratico-literary element there, Torrijos +became a very prominent, and at length almost the central object. + +The man himself, it is well known, was a valiant, gallant man; of +lively intellect, of noble chivalrous character: fine talents, fine +accomplishments, all grounding themselves on a certain rugged veracity, +recommended him to the discerning. He had begun youth in the Court of +Ferdinand; had gone on in Wellington and other arduous, victorious +and unvictorious, soldierings; familiar in camps and council-rooms, +in presence-chambers and in prisons. He knew romantic Spain;--he was +himself, standing withal in the vanguard of Freedom's fight, a kind of +living romance. Infinitely interesting to John Sterling, for one. + +It was to Torrijos that the poor Spaniards of Somers Town looked mainly, +in their helplessness, for every species of help. Torrijos, it was +hoped, would yet lead them into Spain and glorious victory there; +meanwhile here in England, under defeat, he was their captain and +sovereign in another painfully inverse sense. To whom, in extremity, +everybody might apply. When all present resources failed, and the +exchequer was quite out, there still remained Torrijos. Torrijos has to +find new resources for his destitute patriots, find loans, find Spanish +lessons for them among his English friends: in all which charitable +operations, it need not be said, John Sterling was his foremost man; +zealous to empty his own purse for the object; impetuous in rushing +hither or thither to enlist the aid of others, and find lessons or +something that would do. His friends, of course, had to assist; the +Bartons, among others, were wont to assist;--and I have heard that the +fair Susan, stirring up her indolent enthusiasm into practicality, was +very successful in finding Spanish lessons, and the like, for these +distressed men. Sterling and his friends were yet new in this business; +but Torrijos and the others were getting old in it?--and doubtless weary +and almost desperate of it. They had now been seven years in it, many of +them; and were asking, When will the end be? + +Torrijos is described as a man of excellent discernment: who knows how +long he had repressed the unreasonable schemes of his followers, and +turned a deaf ear to the temptings of fallacious hope? But there comes +at length a sum-total of oppressive burdens which is intolerable, which +tempts the wisest towards fallacies for relief. These weary groups, +pacing the Euston-Square pavements, had often said in their despair, +"Were not death in battle better? Here are we slowly mouldering into +nothingness; there we might reach it rapidly, in flaming splendor. +Flame, either of victory to Spain and us, or of a patriot death, the +sure harbinger of victory to Spain. Flame fit to kindle a fire which no +Ferdinand, with all his Inquisitions and Charles Tenths, could put +out." Enough, in the end of 1829, Torrijos himself had yielded to this +pressure; and hoping against hope, persuaded himself that if he could +but land in the South of Spain with a small patriot band well armed +and well resolved, a band carrying fire in its heart,--then Spain, all +inflammable as touchwood, and groaning indignantly under its brutal +tyrant, might blaze wholly into flame round him, and incalculable +victory be won. Such was his conclusion; not sudden, yet surely not +deliberate either,--desperate rather, and forced on by circumstances. +He thought with himself that, considering Somers Town and considering +Spain, the terrible chance was worth trying; that this big game of Fate, +go how it might, was one which the omens credibly declared he and these +poor Spaniards ought to play. + +His whole industries and energies were thereupon bent towards starting +the said game; and his thought and continual speech and song now was, +That if he had a few thousand pounds to buy arms, to freight a ship and +make the other preparations, he and these poor gentlemen, and Spain and +the world, were made men and a saved Spain and world. What talks and +consultations in the apartment in Regent Street, during those winter +days of 1829-30; setting into open conflagration the young democracy +that was wont to assemble there! Of which there is now left next to +no remembrance. For Sterling never spoke a word of this affair in +after-days, nor was any of the actors much tempted to speak. We can +understand too well that here were young fervid hearts in an explosive +condition; young rash heads, sanctioned by a man's experienced head. +Here at last shall enthusiasm and theory become practice and fact; fiery +dreams are at last permitted to realize themselves; and now is the time +or never!--How the Coleridge moonshine comported itself amid these hot +telluric flames, or whether it had not yet begun to play there (which I +rather doubt), must be left to conjecture. + +Mr. Hare speaks of Sterling "sailing over to St. Valery in an open +boat along with others," upon one occasion, in this enterprise;--in +the _final_ English scene of it, I suppose. Which is very possible. +Unquestionably there was adventure enough of other kinds for it, and +running to and fro with all his speed on behalf of it, during these +months of his history! Money was subscribed, collected: the young +Cambridge democrats were all ablaze to assist Torrijos; nay certain of +them decided to go with him,--and went. Only, as yet, the funds were +rather incomplete. And here, as I learn from a good hand, is the secret +history of their becoming complete. Which, as we are upon the subject, +I had better give. But for the following circumstance, they had perhaps +never been completed; nor had the rash enterprise, or its catastrophe, +so influential on the rest of Sterling's life, taken place at all. + +A certain Lieutenant Robert Boyd, of the Indian Army, an Ulster +Irishman, a cousin of Sterling's, had received some affront, or +otherwise taken some disgust in that service; had thrown up his +commission in consequence; and returned home, about this time, with +intent to seek another course of life. Having only, for outfit, these +impatient ardors, some experience in Indian drill exercise, and five +thousand pounds of inheritance, he found the enterprise attended with +difficulties; and was somewhat at a loss how to dispose of himself. Some +young Ulster comrade, in a partly similar situation, had pointed out to +him that there lay in a certain neighboring creek of the Irish coast, a +worn-out royal gun-brig condemned to sale, to be had dog-cheap: this he +proposed that they two, or in fact Boyd with his five thousand pounds, +should buy; that they should refit and arm and man it;--and sail +a-privateering "to the Eastern Archipelago," Philippine Isles, or I know +not where; and _so_ conquer the golden fleece. + +Boyd naturally paused a little at this great proposal; did not quite +reject it; came across, with it and other fine projects and impatiences +fermenting in his head, to London, there to see and consider. It was in +the months when the Torrijos enterprise was in the birth-throes; crying +wildly for capital, of all things. Boyd naturally spoke of his projects +to Sterling,--of his gun-brig lying in the Irish creek, among others. +Sterling naturally said, "If you want an adventure of the Sea-king sort, +and propose to lay your money and your life into such a game, here is +Torrijos and Spain at his back; here is a golden fleece to conquer, +worth twenty Eastern Archipelagoes."--Boyd and Torrijos quickly met; +quickly bargained. Boyd's money was to go in purchasing, and storing +with a certain stock of arms and etceteras, a small ship in the Thames, +which should carry Boyd with Torrijos and the adventurers to the south +coast of Spain; and there, the game once played and won, Boyd was to +have promotion enough,--"the colonelcy of a Spanish cavalry regiment," +for one express thing. What exact share Sterling had in this +negotiation, or whether he did not even take the prudent side and +caution Boyd to be wary I know not; but it was he that brought the +parties together; and all his friends knew, in silence, that to the end +of his life he painfully remembered that fact. + +And so a ship was hired, or purchased, in the Thames; due furnishings +began to be executed in it; arms and stores were gradually got on board; +Torrijos with his Fifty picked Spaniards, in the mean while, getting +ready. This was in the spring of 1830. Boyd's 5000 pounds was the grand +nucleus of finance; but vigorous subscription was carried on likewise +in Sterling's young democratic circle, or wherever a member of it could +find access; not without considerable result, and with a zeal that may +be imagined. Nay, as above hinted, certain of these young men decided, +not to give their money only, but themselves along with it, as +democratic volunteers and soldiers of progress; among whom, it need not +be said, Sterling intended to be foremost. Busy weeks with him, those +spring ones of the year 1830! Through this small Note, accidentally +preserved to us, addressed to his friend Barton, we obtain a curious +glance into the subterranean workshop:-- + + "_To Charles Barton, Esq., Dorset Sq., Regent's Park_. + [No date; apparently March or February, 1830.] + +"MY DEAR CHARLES,--I have wanted to see you to talk to you about my +Foreign affairs. If you are going to be in London for a few days, I +believe you can be very useful to me, at a considerable expense and +trouble to yourself, in the way of buying accoutrements; _inter alia_, a +sword and a saddle,--not, you will understand, for my own use. + +"Things are going on very well, but are very, even frightfully near; +only be quiet! Pray would you, in case of necessity, take a free passage +to Holland, next week or the week after; stay two or three days, and +come back, all expenses paid? If you write to B---- at Cambridge, tell +him above all things to hold his tongue. If you are near Palace Yard +to-morrow before two, pray come to see me. Do not come on purpose; +especially as I may perhaps be away, and at all events shall not be +there until eleven, nor perhaps till rather later. + +"I fear I shall have alarmed your Mother by my irruption. Forgive me +for that and all my exactions from you. If the next month were over, I +should not have to trouble any one. + + "Yours affectionately, + "J. STERLING." + +Busy weeks indeed; and a glowing smithy-light coming through the +chinks!--The romance of _Arthur Coningsby_ lay written, or half-written, +in his desk; and here, in his heart and among his hands, was an acted +romance and unknown catastrophes keeping pace with that. + +Doubts from the doctors, for his health was getting ominous, threw some +shade over the adventure. Reproachful reminiscences of Coleridge and +Theosophy were natural too; then fond regrets for Literature and its +glories: if you act your romance, how can you also write it? Regrets, +and reproachful reminiscences, from Art and Theosophy; perhaps some +tenderer regrets withal. A crisis in life had come; when, of innumerable +possibilities one possibility was to be elected king, and to swallow all +the rest, the rest of course made noise enough, and swelled themselves +to their biggest. + + +Meanwhile the ship was fast getting ready: on a certain day, it was +to drop quietly down the Thames; then touch at Deal, and take on board +Torrijos and his adventurers, who were to be in waiting and on the +outlook for them there. Let every man lay in his accoutrements, then; +let every man make his packages, his arrangements and farewells. +Sterling went to take leave of Miss Barton. "You are going, then; to +Spain? To rough it amid the storms of war and perilous insurrection; and +with that weak health of yours; and--we shall never see you more, then!" +Miss Barton, all her gayety gone, the dimpling softness become liquid +sorrow, and the musical ringing voice one wail of woe, "burst into +tears,"--so I have it on authority:--here was one possibility about to +be strangled that made unexpected noise! Sterling's interview ended in +the offer of his hand, and the acceptance of it;--any sacrifice to get +rid of this horrid Spanish business, and save the health and life of a +gifted young man so precious to the world and to another! + +"Ill-health," as often afterwards in Sterling's life, when the excuse +was real enough but not the chief excuse; "ill-health, and insuperable +obstacles and engagements," had to bear the chief brunt in apologizing: +and, as Sterling's actual presence, or that of any Englishman except +Boyd and his money, was not in the least vital to the adventure, his +excuse was at once accepted. The English connections and subscriptions +are a given fact, to be presided over by what English volunteers there +are: and as for Englishmen, the fewer Englishmen that go, the larger +will be the share of influence for each. The other adventurers, Torrijos +among them in due readiness, moved silently one by one down to Deal; +Sterling, superintending the naval hands, on board their ship in +the Thames, was to see the last finish given to everything in that +department; then, on the set evening, to drop down quietly to Deal, and +there say _Andad con Dios_, and return. + +Behold! Just before the set evening came, the Spanish Envoy at this +Court has got notice of what is going on; the Spanish Envoy, and of +course the British Foreign Secretary, and of course also the Thames +Police. Armed men spring suddenly on board, one day, while Sterling is +there; declare the ship seized and embargoed in the King's name; nobody +on board to stir till he has given some account of himself in due time +and place! Huge consternation, naturally, from stem to stern. Sterling, +whose presence of mind seldom forsook him, casts his eye over the River +and its craft; sees a wherry, privately signals it, drops rapidly on +board of it: "Stop!" fiercely interjects the marine policeman from the +ship's deck.--"Why stop? What use have you for me, or I for you?" and +the oars begin playing.--"Stop, or I'll shoot you!" cries the marine +policeman, drawing a pistol.--"No, you won't."--"I will!"--"If you do +you'll be hanged at the next Maidstone assizes, then; that's all,"--and +Sterling's wherry shot rapidly ashore; and out of this perilous +adventure. + +That same night he posted down to Deal; disclosed to the Torrijos party +what catastrophe had come. No passage Spainward from the Thames; well +if arrestment do not suddenly come from the Thames! It was on this +occasion, I suppose, that the passage in the open boat to St. Valery +occurred;--speedy flight in what boat or boats, open or shut, could +be got at Deal on the sudden. Sterling himself, according to Hare's +authority, actually went with them so far. Enough, they got shipping, +as private passengers in one craft or the other; and, by degrees or at +once, arrived all at Gibraltar,--Boyd, one or two young democrats of +Regent Street, the fifty picked Spaniards, and Torrijos,--safe, though +without arms; still in the early part of the year. + + + +CHAPTER XI. MARRIAGE: ILL-HEALTH; WEST-INDIES. + +Sterling's outlooks and occupations, now that his Spanish friends were +gone, must have been of a rather miscellaneous confused description. +He had the enterprise of a married life close before him; and as yet +no profession, no fixed pursuit whatever. His health was already very +threatening; often such as to disable him from present activity, +and occasion the gravest apprehensions; practically blocking up all +important courses whatsoever, and rendering the future, if even +life were lengthened and he had any future, an insolubility for him. +Parliament was shut, public life was shut: Literature,--if, alas, any +solid fruit could lie in literature! + +Or perhaps one's health would mend, after all; and many things be better +than was hoped! Sterling was not of a despondent temper, or given in +any measure to lie down and indolently moan: I fancy he walked briskly +enough into this tempestuous-looking future; not heeding too much its +thunderous aspects; doing swiftly, for the day, what his hand found to +do. _Arthur Coningsby_, I suppose, lay on the anvil at present; visits +to Coleridge were now again more possible; grand news from Torrijos +might be looked for, though only small yet came:--nay here, in the hot +July, is France, at least, all thrown into volcano again! Here are the +miraculous Three Days; heralding, in thunder, great things to Torrijos +and others; filling with babblement and vaticination the mouths and +hearts of all democratic men. + +So rolled along, in tumult of chaotic remembrance and uncertain hope, +in manifold emotion, and the confused struggle (for Sterling as for +the world) to extricate the New from the falling ruins of the Old, the +summer and autumn of 1830. From Gibraltar and Torrijos the tidings were +vague, unimportant and discouraging: attempt on Cadiz, attempt on the +lines of St. Roch, those attempts, or rather resolutions to attempt, +had died in the birth, or almost before it. Men blamed Torrijos, little +knowing his impediments. Boyd was still patient at his post: others of +the young English (on the strength of the subscribed moneys) were said +to be thinking of tours,--perhaps in the Sierra Morena and neighboring +Quixote regions. From that Torrijos enterprise it did not seem that +anything considerable would come. + + +On the edge of winter, here at home, Sterling was married: "at +Christchurch, Marylebone, 2d November, 1830," say the records. His +blooming, kindly and true-hearted Wife had not much money, nor had he as +yet any: but friends on both sides were bountiful and hopeful; had +made up, for the young couple, the foundations of a modestly effective +household; and in the future there lay more substantial prospects. On +the finance side Sterling never had anything to suffer. His Wife, though +somewhat languid, and of indolent humor, was a graceful, pious-minded, +honorable and affectionate woman; she could not much support him in the +ever-shifting struggles of his life, but she faithfully attended him in +them, and loyally marched by his side through the changes and nomadic +pilgrimings, of which many were appointed him in his short course. + +Unhappily a few weeks after his marriage, and before any household was +yet set up, he fell dangerously ill; worse in health than he had ever +yet been: so many agitations crowded into the last few months had been +too much for him. He fell into dangerous pulmonary illness, sank ever +deeper; lay for many weeks in his Father's house utterly prostrate, +his young Wife and his Mother watching over him; friends, sparingly +admitted, long despairing of his life. All prospects in this world were +now apparently shut upon him. + +After a while, came hope again, and kindlier symptoms: but the doctors +intimated that there lay consumption in the question, and that perfect +recovery was not to be looked for. For weeks he had been confined to +bed; it was several months before he could leave his sick-room, +where the visits of a few friends had much cheered him. And now when +delivered, readmitted to the air of day again,--weak as he was, and with +such a liability still lurking in him,--what his young partner and he +were to do, or whitherward to turn for a good course of life, was by no +means too apparent. + + +One of his Mother Mrs. Edward Sterling's Uncles, a Coningham from Derry, +had, in the course of his industrious and adventurous life, realized +large property in the West Indies,--a valuable Sugar-estate, with its +equipments, in the Island of St. Vincent;--from which Mrs. Sterling +and her family were now, and had been for some years before her Uncle's +decease, deriving important benefits. I have heard, it was then worth +some ten thousand pounds a year to the parties interested. Anthony +Sterling, John, and another a cousin of theirs were ultimately to be +heirs, in equal proportions. The old gentleman, always kind to his +kindred, and a brave and solid man though somewhat abrupt in his ways, +had lately died; leaving a settlement to this effect, not without some +intricacies, and almost caprices, in the conditions attached. + +This property, which is still a valuable one, was Sterling's chief +pecuniary outlook for the distant future. Of course it well deserved +taking care of; and if the eye of the master were upon it, of course +too (according to the adage) the cattle would fatten better. As the +warm climate was favorable to pulmonary complaints, and Sterling's +occupations were so shattered to pieces and his outlooks here so waste +and vague, why should not he undertake this duty for himself and others? + +It was fixed upon as the eligiblest course. A visit to St. Vincent, +perhaps a permanent residence there: he went into the project with his +customary impetuosity; his young Wife cheerfully consenting, and all +manner of new hopes clustering round it. There are the rich tropical +sceneries, the romance of the torrid zone with its new skies and +seas and lands; there are Blacks, and the Slavery question to be +investigated: there are the bronzed Whites and Yellows, and their +strange new way of life: by all means let us go and try!--Arrangements +being completed, so soon as his strength had sufficiently recovered, and +the harsh spring winds had sufficiently abated, Sterling with his small +household set sail for St. Vincent; and arrived without accident. His +first child, a son Edward, now living and grown to manhood, was born +there, "at Brighton in the Island of St. Vincent," in the fall of that +year 1831. + + + +CHAPTER XII. ISLAND OF ST. VINCENT. + +Sterling found a pleasant residence, with all its adjuncts, ready +for him, at Colonarie, in this "volcanic Isle" under the hot sun. An +interesting Isle: a place of rugged chasms, precipitous gnarled +heights, and the most fruitful hollows; shaggy everywhere with luxuriant +vegetation; set under magnificent skies, in the mirror of the summer +seas; offering everywhere the grandest sudden outlooks and contrasts. +His Letters represent a placidly cheerful riding life: a pensive humor, +but the thunder-clouds all sleeping in the distance. Good relations +with a few neighboring planters; indifference to the noisy political +and other agitations of the rest: friendly, by no means romantic +appreciation of the Blacks; quiet prosperity economic and domestic: on +the whole a healthy and recommendable way of life, with Literature very +much in abeyance in it. + +He writes to Mr. Hare (date not given): "The landscapes around me here +are noble and lovely as any that can be conceived on Earth. How indeed +could it be otherwise, in a small Island of volcanic mountains, +far within the Tropics, and perpetually covered with the richest +vegetation?" The moral aspect of things is by no means so good; but +neither is that without its fair features. "So far as I see, the Slaves +here are cunning, deceitful and idle; without any great aptitude for +ferocious crimes, and with very little scruple at committing others. But +I have seen them much only in very favorable circumstances. They are, +as a body, decidedly unfit for freedom; and if left, as at present, +completely in the hands of their masters, will never become so, unless +through the agency of the Methodists." [9] + +In the Autumn came an immense hurricane; with new and indeed quite +perilous experiences of West-Indian life. This hasty Letter, addressed +to his Mother, is not intrinsically his remarkablest from St. Vincent: +but the body of fact delineated in it being so much the greatest, we +will quote it in preference. A West-Indian tornado, as John Sterling +witnesses it, and with vivid authenticity describes it, may be +considered worth looking at. + + "_To Mrs. Sterling, South Place, Knightsbridge, London_. + "BRIGHTON, ST. VINCENT, 28th August, 1831. + +"MY DEAR MOTHER,--The packet came in yesterday; bringing me some +Newspapers, a Letter from my Father, and one from Anthony, with a few +lines from you. I wrote, some days ago, a hasty Note to my Father, +on the chance of its reaching you through Grenada sooner than any +communication by the packet; and in it I spoke of the great misfortune +which had befallen this Island and Barbadoes, but from which all those +you take an interest in have happily escaped unhurt. + +"From the day of our arrival in the West Indies until Thursday the 11th +instant, which will long be a memorable day with us, I had been doing my +best to get ourselves established comfortably; and I had at last bought +the materials for making some additions to the house. But on the morning +I have mentioned, all that I had exerted myself to do, nearly all the +property both of Susan and myself, and the very house we lived in, were +suddenly destroyed by a visitation of Providence far more terrible than +any I have ever witnessed. + +"When Susan came from her room, to breakfast, at eight o'clock, I +pointed out to her the extraordinary height and violence of the surf, +and the singular appearance of the clouds of heavy rain sweeping down +the valleys before us. At this time I had so little apprehension of what +was coming, that I talked of riding down to the shore when the storm +should abate, as I had never seen so fierce a sea. In about a quarter of +an hour the House-Negroes came in, to close the outside shutters of the +windows. They knew that the plantain-trees about the Negro houses had +been blown down in the night; and had told the maid-servant Tyrrell, but +I had heard nothing of it. A very few minutes after the closing of the +windows, I found that the shutters of Tyrrell's room, at the south and +commonly the most sheltered end of the House, were giving way. I tried +to tie them; but the silk handkerchief which I used soon gave way; +and as I had neither hammer, boards nor nails in the house, I could do +nothing more to keep out the tempest. I found, in pushing at the leaf of +the shutter, that the wind resisted, more as if it had been a stone wall +or a mass of iron, than a mere current of air. There were one or two +people outside trying to fasten the windows, and I went out to help; but +we had no tools at hand: one man was blown down the hill in front of the +house, before my face; and the other and myself had great difficulty in +getting back again inside the door. The rain on my face and hands felt +like so much small shot from a gun. There was great exertion necessary +to shut the door of the house. + +"The windows at the end of the large room were now giving way; and I +suppose it was about nine o'clock, when the hurricane burst them in, as +if it had been a discharge from a battery of heavy cannon. The shutters +were first forced open, and the wind fastened them back to the wall; +and then the panes of glass were smashed by the mere force of the gale, +without anything having touched them. Even now I was not at all sure the +house would go. My books, I saw, were lost; for the rain poured past the +bookcases, as if it had been the Colonarie River. But we carried a good +deal of furniture into the passage at the entrance; we set Susan there +on a sofa, and the Black Housekeeper was even attempting to get her some +breakfast. The house, however, began to shake so violently, and the rain +was so searching, that she could not stay there long. She went into her +own room and I stayed to see what could be done. + +"Under the forepart of the house, there are cellars built of stone, +but not arched. To these, however, there was no access except on the +outside; and I knew from my own experience that Susan could not have +gone a step beyond the door, without being carried away by the storm, +and probably killed on the spot. The only chance seemed to be that of +breaking through the floor. But when the old Cook and myself resolved on +this, we found that we had no instrument with which it would be possible +to do it. It was now clear that we had only God to trust in. The front +windows were giving way with successive crashes, and the floor shook +as you may have seen a carpet on a gusty day in London. I went into +our bedroom; where I found Susan, Tyrrell, and a little Colored girl of +seven or eight years old; and told them that we should probably not +be alive in half an hour. I could have escaped, if I had chosen to go +alone, by crawling on the ground either into the kitchen, a separate +stone building at no great distance, or into the open fields away from +trees or houses; but Susan could not have gone a yard. She became quite +calm when she knew the worst; and she sat on my knee in what seemed the +safest corner of the room, while every blast was bringing nearer and +nearer the moment of our seemingly certain destruction.-- + +"The house was under two parallel roofs; and the one next the sea, +which sheltered the other, and us who were under the other, went off, I +suppose about ten o'clock. After my old plan, I will give you a sketch, +from which you may perceive how we were situated:-- + + [In print, a figure representing a floor-plan appears here] + +The _a_, _a_ are the windows that were first destroyed: _b_ went next; +my books were between the windows _b_, and on the wall opposite to them. +The lines _c_ and _d_ mark the directions of the two roofs; _e_ is the +room in which we were, and 2 is a plan of it on a larger scale. Look +now at 2: _a_ is the bed; _c_, _c_ the two wardrobes; _b_ the corner +in which we were. I was sitting in an arm-chair, holding my Wife; and +Tyrrell and the little Black child were close to us. We had given up all +notion of surviving; and only waited for the fall of the roof to perish +together. + +"Before long the roof went. Most of the materials, however, were carried +clear away: one of the large couples was caught on the bedpost marked +_d_, and held fast by the iron spike; while the end of it hung over our +heads: had the beam fallen an inch on either side of the bedpost, it +must necessarily have crushed us. The walls did not go with the roof; +and we remained for half an hour, alternately praying to God, and +watching them as they bent, creaked, and shivered before the storm. + +"Tyrrell and the child, when the roof was off, made their way through +the remains of the partition, to the outer door; and with the help of +the people who were looking for us, got into the kitchen. A good while +after they were gone, and before we knew anything of their fate, a Negro +suddenly came upon us; and the sight of him gave us a hope of safety. +When the people learned that we were in danger, and while their own huts +were flying about their ears, they crowded to help us; and the old +Cook urged them on to our rescue. He made five attempts, after saving +Tyrrell, to get to us; and four times he was blown down. The fifth time +he, and the Negro we first saw, reached the house. The space they had +to traverse was not above twenty yards of level ground, if so much. In +another minute or two, the Overseers and a crowd of Negroes, most of +whom had come on their hands and knees, were surrounding us; and with +their help Susan was carried round to the end of the house; where they +broke open the cellar window, and placed her in comparative safety. The +force of the hurricane was, by this time, a good deal diminished, or it +would have been impossible to stand before it. + +"But the wind was still terrific; and the rain poured into the cellars +through the floor above. Susan, Tyrrell, and a crowd of Negroes remained +under it, for more than two hours: and I was long afraid that the wet +and cold would kill her, if she did not perish more violently. Happily +we had wine and spirits at hand, and she was much nerved by a tumbler +of claret. As soon as I saw her in comparative security, I went off with +one of the Overseers down to the Works, where the greater number of the +Negroes were collected, that we might see what could be done for them. +They were wretched enough, but no one was hurt; and I ordered them a +dram apiece, which seemed to give them a good deal of consolation. + +"Before I could make my way back, the hurricane became as bad as at +first; and I was obliged to take shelter for half an hour in a ruined +Negro house. This, however, was the last of its extreme violence. By +one o'clock, even the rain had in a great degree ceased; and as only +one room of the house, the one marked _f_; was standing, and that +rickety,--I had Susan carried in a chair down the hill, to the Hospital; +where, in a small paved unlighted room, she spent the next twenty-four +hours. She was far less injured than might have been expected from such +a catastrophe. + +"Next day, I had the passage at the entrance of the house repaired and +roofed; and we returned to the ruins of our habitation, still encumbered +as they were with the wreck of almost all we were possessed of. The +walls of the part of the house next the sea were carried away, in less I +think than half an hour after we reached the cellar: when I had leisure +to examine the remains of the house, I found the floor strewn with +fragments of the building, and with broken furniture; and our books all +soaked as completely as if they had been for several hours in the sea. + +"In the course of a few days I had the other room, _g_, which is under +the same roof as the one saved, rebuilt; and Susan stayed in this +temporary abode for a week,--when we left Colonarie, and came to +Brighton. Mr. Munro's kindness exceeds all precedent. We shall certainly +remain here till my Wife is recovered from her confinement. In the +mean while we shall have a new house built, in which we hope to be well +settled before Christmas. + +"The roof was half blown off the kitchen, but I have had it mended +already; the other offices were all swept away. The gig is much injured; +and my horse received a wound in the fall of the stable, from which he +will not be recovered for some weeks: in the mean time I have no choice +but to buy another, as I must go at least once or twice a week to +Colonarie, besides business in Town. As to our own comforts, we can +scarcely expect ever to recover from the blow that has now stricken +us. No money would repay me for the loss of my books, of which a large +proportion had been in my hands for so many years that they were +like old and faithful friends, and of which many had been given me at +different times by the persons in the world whom I most value. + +"But against all this I have to set the preservation of our lives, in +a way the most awfully providential; and the safety of every one on the +Estate. And I have also the great satisfaction of reflecting that all +the Negroes from whom any assistance could reasonably be expected, +behaved like so many Heroes of Antiquity; risking their lives and limbs +for us and our property, while their own poor houses were flying like +chaff before the hurricane. There are few White people here who can +say as much for their Black dependents; and the force and value of the +relation between Master and Slave has been tried by the late calamity on +a large scale. + +"Great part of both sides of this Island has been laid completely +waste. The beautiful wide and fertile Plain called the Charib Country, +extending for many miles to the north of Colonarie, and formerly +containing the finest sets of works and best dwelling-houses in the +Island, is, I am told, completely desolate: on several estates not a +roof even of a Negro hut standing. In the embarrassed circumstances of +many of the proprietors, the ruin is, I fear, irreparable.--At Colonarie +the damage is serious, but by no means desperate. The crop is perhaps +injured ten or fifteen per cent. The roofs of several large buildings +are destroyed, but these we are already supplying; and the injuries done +to the cottages of the Negroes are, by this time, nearly if not quite +remedied. + +"Indeed, all that has been suffered in St. Vincent appears nothing +when compared with the appalling loss of property and of human lives at +Barbadoes. There the Town is little but a heap of ruins, and the corpses +are reckoned by thousands; while throughout the Island there are not, I +believe, ten estates on which the buildings are standing. The Elliotts, +from whom we have heard, are living with all their family in a tent; and +may think themselves wonderfully saved, when whole families round them +were crushed at once beneath their houses. Hugh Barton, the only officer +of the Garrison hurt, has broken his arm, and we know nothing of his +prospects of recovery. The more horrible misfortune of Barbadoes is +partly to be accounted for by the fact of the hurricane having begun +there during the night. The flatness of the surface in that Island +presented no obstacle to the wind, which must, however, I think have +been in itself more furious than with us. No other island has suffered +considerably. + +"I have told both my Uncle and Anthony that I have given you the details +of our recent history;--which are not so pleasant that I should wish to +write them again. Perhaps you will be good enough to let them see this, +as soon as you and my Father can spare it.... I am ever, dearest Mother, + + "Your grateful and affectionate + "JOHN STERLING." + +This Letter, I observe, is dated 28th August, 1831; which is otherwise a +day of mark to the world and me,--the Poet Goethe's last birthday. While +Sterling sat in the Tropical solitudes, penning this history, little +European Weimar had its carriages and state-carriages busy on the +streets, and was astir with compliments and visiting-cards, doing its +best, as heretofore, on behalf of a remarkable day; and was not, for +centuries or tens of centuries, to see the like of it again!-- + + +At Brighton, the hospitable home of those Munros, our friends continued +for above two months. Their first child, Edward, as above noticed, was +born here, "14th October, 1831;"--and now the poor lady, safe from all +her various perils, could return to Colonarie under good auspices. + +It was in this year that I first heard definitely of Sterling as a +contemporary existence; and laid up some note and outline of him in my +memory, as of one whom I might yet hope to know. John Mill, Mrs. Austin +and perhaps other friends, spoke of him with great affection and much +pitying admiration; and hoped to see him home again, under better omens, +from over the seas. As a gifted amiable being, of a certain radiant +tenuity and velocity, too thin and rapid and diffusive, in danger of +dissipating himself into the vague, or alas into death itself: it was +so that, like a spot of bright colors, rather than a portrait with +features, he hung occasionally visible in my imagination. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. A CATASTROPHE. + +The ruin of his house had hardly been repaired, when there arrived out +of Europe tidings which smote as with a still more fatal hurricane on +the four corners of his inner world, and awoke all the old thunders that +lay asleep on his horizon there. Tidings, at last of a decisive nature, +from Gibraltar and the Spanish democrat adventure. This is what the +Newspapers had to report--the catastrophe at once, the details by +degrees--from Spain concerning that affair, in the beginning of the new +year 1832. + +Torrijos, as we have seen, had hitherto accomplished as good as nothing, +except disappointment to his impatient followers, and sorrow and regret +to himself. Poor Torrijos, on arriving at Gibraltar with his wild band, +and coming into contact with the rough fact, had found painfully how +much his imagination had deceived him. The fact lay round him haggard +and iron-bound; flatly refusing to be handled according to his scheme +of it. No Spanish soldiery nor citizenry showed the least disposition to +join him; on the contrary the official Spaniards of that coast seemed +to have the watchfulest eye on all his movements, nay it was conjectured +they had spies in Gibraltar who gathered his very intentions and +betrayed them. This small project of attack, and then that other, +proved futile, or was abandoned before the attempt. Torrijos had to lie +painfully within the lines of Gibraltar,--his poor followers reduced to +extremity of impatience and distress; the British Governor too, though +not unfriendly to him, obliged to frown. As for the young Cantabs, they, +as was said, had wandered a little over the South border of romantic +Spain; had perhaps seen Seville, Cadiz, with picturesque views, since +not with belligerent ones; and their money being done, had now returned +home. So had it lasted for eighteen months. + +The French Three Days breaking out had armed the Guerrillero Mina, armed +all manner of democratic guerrieros and guerrilleros; and considerable +clouds of Invasion, from Spanish exiles, hung minatory over the North +and North-East of Spain, supported by the new-born French Democracy, +so far as privately possible. These Torrijos had to look upon with +inexpressible feelings, and take no hand in supporting from the South; +these also he had to see brushed away, successively abolished by +official generalship; and to sit within his lines, in the painfulest +manner, unable to do anything. The fated, gallant-minded, but too +headlong man. At length the British Governor himself was obliged, in +official decency and as is thought on repeated remonstrance from his +Spanish official neighbors, to signify how indecorous, improper +and impossible it was to harbor within one's lines such explosive +preparations, once they were discovered, against allies in full peace +with us,--the necessity, in fact, there was for the matter ending. It +is said, he offered Torrijos and his people passports, and British +protection, to any country of the world except Spain: Torrijos did not +accept the passports; spoke of going peaceably to this place or to that; +promised at least, what he saw and felt to be clearly necessary, that he +would soon leave Gibraltar. And he did soon leave it; he and his, Boyd +alone of the Englishmen being now with him. + +It was on the last night of November, 1831, that they all set forth; +Torrijos with Fifty-five companions; and in two small vessels committed +themselves to their nigh-desperate fortune. No sentry or official person +had noticed them; it was from the Spanish Consul, next morning, that the +British Governor first heard they were gone. The British Governor knew +nothing of them; but apparently the Spanish officials were much better +informed. Spanish guardships, instantly awake, gave chase to the two +small vessels, which were making all sail towards Malaga; and, on shore, +all manner of troops and detached parties were in motion, to render a +retreat to Gibraltar by land impossible. + +Crowd all sail for Malaga, then; there perhaps a regiment will join us; +there,--or if not, we are but lost! Fancy need not paint a more tragic +situation than that of Torrijos, the unfortunate gallant man, in the +gray of this morning, first of December, 1831,--his last free morning. +Noble game is afoot, afoot at last; and all the hunters have him in +their toils.--The guardships gain upon Torrijos; he cannot even reach +Malaga; has to run ashore at a place called Fuengirola, not far from +that city;--the guardships seizing his vessels, so soon as he +is disembarked. The country is all up; troops scouring the coast +everywhere: no possibility of getting into Malaga with a party of +Fifty-five. He takes possession of a farmstead (Ingles, the place is +called); barricades himself there, but is speedily beleaguered with +forces hopelessly superior. He demands to treat; is refused all treaty; +is granted six hours to consider, shall then either surrender at +discretion, or be forced to do it. Of course he _does_ it, having no +alternative; and enters Malaga a prisoner, all his followers prisoners. +Here had the Torrijos Enterprise, and all that was embarked upon it, +finally arrived. + +Express is sent to Madrid; express instantly returns; "Military +execution on the instant; give them shriving if they want it; that +done, fusillade them all." So poor Torrijos and his followers, the whole +Fifty-six of them, Robert Boyd included, meet swift death in Malaga. +In such manner rushes down the curtain on them and their affair; they +vanish thus on a sudden; rapt away as in black clouds of fate. Poor +Boyd, Sterling's cousin, pleaded his British citizenship; to no purpose: +it availed only to his dead body, this was delivered to the British +Consul for interment, and only this. Poor Madam Torrijos, hearing, +at Paris where she now was, of her husband's capture, hurries towards +Madrid to solicit mercy; whither also messengers from Lafayette and the +French Government were hurrying, on the like errand: at Bayonne, news +met the poor lady that it was already all over, that she was now a +widow, and her husband hidden from her forever.--Such was the handsel of +the new year 1832 for Sterling in his West-Indian solitudes. + + +Sterling's friends never heard of these affairs; indeed we were all +secretly warned not to mention the name of Torrijos in his hearing, +which accordingly remained strictly a forbidden subject. His misery over +this catastrophe was known, in his own family, to have been immense. He +wrote to his Brother Anthony: "I hear the sound of that musketry; it is +as if the bullets were tearing my own brain." To figure in one's sick +and excited imagination such a scene of fatal man-hunting, lost valor +hopelessly captured and massacred; and to add to it, that the victims +are not men merely, that they are noble and dear forms known lately +as individual friends: what a Dance of the Furies and wild-pealing +Dead-march is this, for the mind of a loving, generous and vivid man! +Torrijos getting ashore at Fuengirola; Robert Boyd and others ranked +to die on the esplanade at Malaga--Nay had not Sterling, too, been the +innocent yet heedless means of Boyd's embarking in this enterprise? By +his own kinsman poor Boyd had been witlessly guided into the pitfalls. +"I hear the sound of that musketry; it is as if the bullets were tearing +my own brain!" + + + +CHAPTER XIV. PAUSE. + +These thoughts dwelt long with Sterling; and for a good while, I fancy, +kept possession of the proscenium of his mind; madly parading there, to +the exclusion of all else,--coloring all else with their own black hues. +He was young, rich in the power to be miserable or otherwise; and this +was his first grand sorrow which had now fallen upon him. + +An important spiritual crisis, coming at any rate in some form, had +hereby suddenly in a very sad form come. No doubt, as youth was passing +into manhood in these Tropical seclusions, and higher wants were +awakening in his mind, and years and reflection were adding new insight +and admonition, much in his young way of thought and action lay already +under ban with him, and repentances enough over many things were not +wanting. But here on a sudden had all repentances, as it were, dashed +themselves together into one grand whirlwind of repentance; and his +past life was fallen wholly as into a state of reprobation. A great +remorseful misery had come upon him. Suddenly, as with a sudden +lightning-stroke, it had kindled into conflagration all the ruined +structure of his past life; such ruin had to blaze and flame round +him, in the painfulest manner, till it went out in black ashes. His +democratic philosophies, and mutinous radicalisms, already falling +doomed in his thoughts, had reached their consummation and final +condemnation here. It was all so rash, imprudent, arrogant, all +that; false, or but half true; inapplicable wholly as a rule of noble +conduct;--and it has ended _thus_. Woe on it! Another guidance must be +found in life, or life is impossible!-- + +It is evident, Sterling's thoughts had already, since the old days of +the "black dragoon," much modified themselves. We perceive that, by mere +increase of experience and length of time, the opposite and much deeper +side of the question, which also has its adamantine basis of truth, was +in turn coming into play; and in fine that a Philosophy of Denial, and +world illuminated merely by the flames of Destruction, could never have +permanently been the resting-place of such a man. Those pilgrimings to +Coleridge, years ago, indicate deeper wants beginning to be felt, and +important ulterior resolutions becoming inevitable for him. If in your +own soul there is any tone of the "Eternal Melodies," you cannot live +forever in those poor outer, transitory grindings and discords; you will +have to struggle inwards and upwards, in search of some diviner home +for yourself!--Coleridge's prophetic moonshine, Torrijos's sad tragedy: +those were important occurrences in Sterling's life. But, on the whole, +there was a big Ocean for him, with impetuous Gulf-streams, and a doomed +voyage in quest of the Atlantis, _before_ either of those arose as +lights on the horizon. As important beacon-lights let us count them +nevertheless;--signal-dates they form to us, at lowest. We may +reckon this Torrijos tragedy the crisis of Sterling's history; the +turning-point, which modified, in the most important and by no means +wholly in the most favorable manner, all the subsequent stages of it. + + +Old Radicalism and mutinous audacious Ethnicism having thus fallen +to wreck, and a mere black world of misery and remorse now disclosing +itself, whatsoever of natural piety to God and man, whatsoever of pity +and reverence, of awe and devout hope was in Sterling's heart now awoke +into new activity; and strove for some due utterance and predominance. +His Letters, in these months, speak of earnest religious studies and +efforts;--of attempts by prayer and longing endeavor of all kinds, to +struggle his way into the temple, if temple there were, and there find +sanctuary. [10] The realities were grown so haggard; life a field of +black ashes, if there rose no temple anywhere on it! Why, like a fated +Orestes, is man so whipt by the Furies, and driven madly hither and +thither, if it is not even that he may seek some shrine, and there make +expiation and find deliverance? + +In these circumstances, what a scope for Coleridge's philosophy, above +all! "If the bottled moonshine _be_ actually substance? Ah, could one +but believe in a Church while finding it incredible! What is faith; what +is conviction, credibility, insight? Can a thing be at once known for +true, and known for false? 'Reason,' 'Understanding:' is there, then, +such an internecine war between these two? It was so Coleridge +imagined it, the wisest of existing men!"--No, it is not an easy matter +(according to Sir Kenelm Digby), this of getting up your "astral spirit" +of a thing, and setting it in action, when the thing itself is well +burnt to ashes. Poor Sterling; poor sons of Adam in general, in this sad +age of cobwebs, worn-out symbolisms, reminiscences and simulacra! Who +can tell the struggles of poor Sterling, and his pathless wanderings +through these things! Long afterwards, in speech with his Brother, +he compared his case in this time to that of "a young lady who has +tragically lost her lover, and is willing to be half-hoodwinked into a +convent, or in any noble or quasi-noble way to escape from a world which +has become intolerable." + + +During the summer of 1832, I find traces of attempts towards +Anti-Slavery Philanthropy; shadows of extensive schemes in that +direction. Half-desperate outlooks, it is likely, towards the refuge of +Philanthropism, as a new chivalry of life. These took no serious hold +of so clear an intellect; but they hovered now and afterwards as +day-dreams, when life otherwise was shorn of aim;--mirages in the +desert, which are found not to be lakes when you put your bucket into +them. One thing was clear, the sojourn in St. Vincent was not to last +much longer. + +Perhaps one might get some scheme raised into life, in Downing Street, +for universal Education to the Blacks, preparatory to emancipating +them? There were a noble work for a man! Then again poor Mrs. Sterling's +health, contrary to his own, did not agree with warm moist climates. +And again, &c. &c. These were the outer surfaces of the measure; the +unconscious pretexts under which it showed itself to Sterling and +was shown by him: but the inner heart and determining cause of it (as +frequently in Sterling's life, and in all our lives) was not these. In +brief, he had had enough of St. Vincent. The strangling oppressions of +his soul were too heavy for him there. Solution lay in Europe, or might +lie; not in these remote solitudes of the sea,--where no shrine or +saint's well is to be looked for, no communing of pious pilgrims +journeying together towards a shrine. + + + +CHAPTER XV. BONN; HERSTMONCEUX. + +After a residence of perhaps fifteen months Sterling quitted St. +Vincent, and never returned. He reappeared at his Father's house, to the +joy of English friends, in August, 1832; well improved in health, and +eager for English news; but, beyond vague schemes and possibilities, +considerably uncertain what was next to be done. + +After no long stay in this scene,--finding Downing Street dead as stone +to the Slave-Education and to all other schemes,--he went across, with +his wife and child, to Germany; purposing to make not so much a tour +as some loose ramble, or desultory residence in that country, in the +Rhineland first of all. Here was to be hoped the picturesque in scenery, +which he much affected; here the new and true in speculation, which +he inwardly longed for and wanted greatly more; at all events, here as +readily as elsewhere might a temporary household be struck up, under +interesting circumstances.--I conclude he went across in the Spring +of 1833; perhaps directly after _Arthur Coningsby_ had got through the +press. This Novel, which, as we have said, was begun two or three years +ago, probably on his cessation from the _Athenaeum_, and was mainly +finished, I think, before the removal to St. Vincent, had by this time +fallen as good as obsolete to his own mind; and its destination now, +whether to the press or to the fire, was in some sort a matter at once +of difficulty and of insignificance to him. At length deciding for the +milder alternative, he had thrown in some completing touches here +and there,--especially, as I conjecture, a proportion of Coleridgean +moonshine at the end; and so sent it forth. + +It was in the sunny days, perhaps in May or June of this year, that +_Arthur Coningsby_ reached my own hand, far off amid the heathy +wildernesses; sent by John Mill: and I can still recollect the pleasant +little episode it made in my solitude there. The general impression it +left on me, which has never since been renewed by a second reading in +whole or in part, was the certain prefigurement to myself, more or +less distinct, of an opulent, genial and sunny mind, but misdirected, +disappointed, experienced in misery;--nay crude and hasty; mistaking for +a solid outcome from its woes what was only to me a gilded vacuity. The +hero an ardent youth, representing Sterling himself, plunges into +life such as we now have it in these anarchic times, with the radical, +utilitarian, or mutinous heathen theory, which is the readiest for +inquiring souls; finds, by various courses of adventure, utter shipwreck +in this; lies broken, very wretched: that is the tragic nodus, or +apogee of his life-course. In this mood of mind, he clutches desperately +towards some new method (recognizable as Coleridge's) of laying hand +again on the old Church, which has hitherto been extraneous and as +if non-extant to his way of thought; makes out, by some Coleridgean +legedermain, that there actually is still a Church for him; that this +extant Church, which he long took for an extinct shadow, is not such, +but a substance; upon which he can anchor himself amid the storms of +fate;--and he does so, even taking orders in it, I think. Such could +by no means seem to me the true or tenable solution. Here clearly, +struggling amid the tumults, was a lovable young fellow-soul; who had +by no means yet got to land; but of whom much might be hoped, if he ever +did. Some of the delineations are highly pictorial, flooded with a +deep ruddy effulgence; betokening much wealth, in the crude or the ripe +state. The hope of perhaps, one day, knowing Sterling, was welcome +and interesting to me. _Arthur Coningsby_, struggling imperfectly in a +sphere high above circulating-library novels, gained no notice whatever +in that quarter; gained, I suppose in a few scattered heads, some such +recognition as the above; and there rested. Sterling never mentioned the +name of it in my hearing, or would hear it mentioned. + + +In those very days while _Arthur Coningsby_ was getting read amid the +Scottish moors, "in June, 1833," Sterling, at Bonn in the Rhine-country, +fell in with his old tutor and friend, the Reverend Julius Hare; one +with whom he always delighted to communicate, especially on such topics +as then altogether occupied him. A man of cheerful serious character, of +much approved accomplishment, of perfect courtesy; surely of much piety, +in all senses of that word. Mr. Hare had quitted his scholastic labors +and distinctions, some time ago; the call or opportunity for taking +orders having come; and as Rector of Herstmonceux in Sussex, a place +patrimonially and otherwise endeared to him, was about entering, under +the best omens, on a new course of life. He was now on his return from +Rome, and a visit of some length to Italy. Such a meeting could not +but be welcome and important to Sterling in such a mood. They had +much earnest conversation, freely communing on the highest matters; +especially of Sterling's purpose to undertake the clerical profession, +in which course his reverend friend could not but bid him good speed. + +It appears, Sterling already intimated his intention to become a +clergyman: He would study theology, biblicalities, perfect himself in +the knowledge seemly or essential for his new course;--read diligently +"for a year or two in some good German University," then seek to obtain +orders: that was his plan. To which Mr. Hare gave his hearty _Euge_; +adding that if his own curacy happened then to be vacant, he should be +well pleased to have Sterling in that office. So they parted. + +"A year or two" of serious reflection "in some good German University," +or anywhere in the world, might have thrown much elucidation upon these +confused strugglings and purposings of Sterling's, and probably have +spared him some confusion in his subsequent life. But the talent of +waiting was, of all others, the one he wanted most. Impetuous velocity, +all-hoping headlong alacrity, what we must call rashness and impatience, +characterized him in most of his important and unimportant procedures; +from the purpose to the execution there was usually but one big leap +with him. A few months after Mr. Hare was gone, Sterling wrote that his +purposes were a little changed by the late meeting at Bonn; that he now +longed to enter the Church straightway: that if the Herstmonceux Curacy +was still vacant, and the Rector's kind thought towards him still held, +he would instantly endeavor to qualify himself for that office. + +Answer being in the affirmative on both heads, Sterling returned to +England; took orders,--"ordained deacon at Chichester on Trinity Sunday +in 1834" (he never became technically priest):--and so, having fitted +himself and family with a reasonable house, in one of those leafy lanes +in quiet Herstmonceux, on the edge of Pevensey Level, he commenced the +duties of his Curacy. + + +The bereaved young lady has _taken_ the veil, then! Even so. "Life is +growing all so dark and brutal; must be redeemed into human, if it will +continue life. Some pious heroism, to give a human color to life again, +on any terms,"--even on impossible ones! + +To such length can transcendental moonshine, cast by some morbidly +radiating Coleridge into the chaos of a fermenting life, act magically +there, and produce divulsions and convulsions and diseased developments. +So dark and abstruse, without lamp or authentic finger-post, is the +course of pious genius towards the Eternal Kingdoms grown. No fixed +highway more; the old spiritual highways and recognized paths to the +Eternal, now all torn up and flung in heaps, submerged in unutterable +boiling mud-oceans of Hypocrisy and Unbelievability, of brutal living +Atheism and damnable dead putrescent Cant: surely a tragic pilgrimage +for all mortals; Darkness, and the mere shadow of Death, enveloping all +things from pole to pole; and in the raging gulf-currents, offering us +will-o'-wisps for loadstars,--intimating that there are no stars, nor +ever were, except certain Old-Jew ones which have now gone out. Once +more, a tragic pilgrimage for all mortals; and for the young pious soul, +winged with genius, and passionately seeking land, and passionately +abhorrent of floating carrion withal, more tragical than for any!--A +pilgrimage we must all undertake nevertheless, and make the best of +with our respective means. Some arrive; a glorious few: many must be +lost,--go down upon the floating wreck which they took for land. Nay, +courage! These also, so far as there was any heroism in them, have +bequeathed their life as a contribution to us, have valiantly laid their +bodies in the chasm for us: of these also there is no ray of heroism +_lost_,--and, on the whole, what else of them could or should be "saved" +at any time? Courage, and ever Forward! + +Concerning this attempt of Sterling's to find sanctuary in the old +Church, and desperately grasp the hem of her garment in such manner, +there will at present be many opinions: and mine must be recorded here +in flat reproval of it, in mere pitying condemnation of it, as a rash, +false, unwise and unpermitted step. Nay, among the evil lessons of his +Time to poor Sterling, I cannot but account this the worst; properly +indeed, as we may say, the apotheosis, the solemn apology and +consecration, of all the evil lessons that were in it to him. Alas, if +we did remember the divine and awful nature of God's Truth, and had not +so forgotten it as poor doomed creatures never did before,--should we, +durst we in our most audacious moments, think of wedding _it_ to the +World's Untruth, which is also, like all untruths, the Devil's? Only in +the world's last lethargy can such things be done, and accounted safe +and pious! Fools! "Do you think the Living God is a buzzard idol," +sternly asks Milton, that you dare address Him in this manner?--Such +darkness, thick sluggish clouds of cowardice and oblivious baseness, +have accumulated on us: thickening as if towards the eternal sleep! +It is not now known, what never needed proof or statement before, that +Religion is not a doubt; that it is a certainty,--or else a mockery and +horror. That none or all of the many things we are in doubt about, and +need to have demonstrated and rendered probable, can by any alchemy be +made a "Religion" for us; but are and must continue a baleful, quiet or +unquiet, Hypocrisy for us; and bring--_salvation_, do we fancy? I think, +it is another thing they will bring, and are, on all hands, visibly +bringing this good while!-- + + +The time, then, with its deliriums, has done its worst for poor +Sterling. Into deeper aberration it cannot lead him; this is the +crowning error. Happily, as beseems the superlative of errors, it was +a very brief, almost a momentary one. In June, 1834, Sterling dates as +installed at Herstmonceux; and is flinging, as usual, his whole soul +into the business; successfully so far as outward results could show: +but already in September, he begins to have misgivings; and in February +following, quits it altogether,--the rest of his life being, in great +part, a laborious effort of detail to pick the fragments of it off him, +and be free of it in soul as well as in title. + +At this the extreme point of spiritual deflexion and depression, when +the world's madness, unusually impressive on such a man, has done its +very worst with him, and in all future errors whatsoever he will be a +little less mistaken, we may close the First Part of Sterling's Life. + + + + +PART II. + + + + +CHAPTER I. CURATE. + +By Mr. Hare's account, no priest of any Church could more fervently +address himself to his functions than Sterling now did. He went about +among the poor, the ignorant, and those that had need of help; zealously +forwarded schools and beneficences; strove, with his whole might, to +instruct and aid whosoever suffered consciously in body, or still worse +unconsciously in mind. He had charged himself to make the Apostle Paul +his model; the perils and voyagings and ultimate martyrdom of Christian +Paul, in those old ages, on the great scale, were to be translated into +detail, and become the practical emblem of Christian Sterling on the +coast of Sussex in this new age. "It would be no longer from Jerusalem +to Damascus," writes Sterling, "to Arabia, to Derbe, Lystra, Ephesus, +that he would travel: but each house of his appointed Parish would be +to him what each of those great cities was,--a place where he would bend +his whole being, and spend his heart for the conversion, purification, +elevation of those under his influence. The whole man would be +forever at work for this purpose; head, heart, knowledge, time, body, +possessions, all would be directed to this end." A high enough model +set before one:--how to be realized!--Sterling hoped to realize it, to +struggle towards realizing it, in some small degree. This is Mr. Hare's +report of him:-- + +"He was continually devising some fresh scheme for improving the +condition of the Parish. His aim was to awaken the minds of the +people, to arouse their conscience, to call forth their sense of moral +responsibility, to make them feel their own sinfulness, their need of +redemption, and thus lead them to a recognition of the Divine Love by +which that redemption is offered to us. In visiting them he was diligent +in all weathers, to the risk of his own health, which was greatly +impaired thereby; and his gentleness and considerate care for the sick +won their affection; so that, though his stay was very short, his name +is still, after a dozen years, cherished by many." + +How beautiful would Sterling be in all this; rushing forward like a host +towards victory; playing and pulsing like sunshine or soft lightning; +busy at all hours to perform his part in abundant and superabundant +measure! "Of that which it was to me personally," continues Mr. Hare, +"to have such a fellow-laborer, to live constantly in the freest +communion with such a friend, I cannot speak. He came to me at a time of +heavy affliction, just after I had heard that the Brother, who had +been the sharer of all my thoughts and feelings from childhood, had bid +farewell to his earthly life at Rome; and thus he seemed given to me to +make up in some sort for him whom I had lost. Almost daily did I look +out for his usual hour of coming to me, and watch his tall slender +form walking rapidly across the hill in front of my window; with the +assurance that he was coming to cheer and brighten, to rouse and stir +me, to call me up to some height of feeling, or down to some depth of +thought. His lively spirit, responding instantaneously to every impulse +of Nature and Art; his generous ardor in behalf of whatever is noble and +true; his scorn of all meanness, of all false pretences and conventional +beliefs, softened as it was by compassion for the victims of those +besetting sins of a cultivated age; his never-flagging impetuosity in +pushing onward to some unattained point of duty or of knowledge: all +this, along with his gentle, almost reverential affectionateness towards +his former tutor, rendered my intercourse with him an unspeakable +blessing; and time after time has it seemed to me that his visit had +been like a shower of rain, bringing down freshness and brightness on +a dusty roadside hedge. By him too the recollection of these our daily +meetings was cherished till the last." [11] + +There are many poor people still at Herstmonceux who affectionately +remember him: Mr. Hare especially makes mention of one good man there, +in his young days "a poor cobbler," and now advanced to a much +better position, who gratefully ascribes this outward and the other +improvements in his life to Sterling's generous encouragement and +charitable care for him. Such was the curate life at Herstmonceux. So, +in those actual leafy lanes, on the edge of Pevensey Level, in this new +age, did our poor New Paul (on hest of certain oracles) diligently +study to comport himself,--and struggle with all his might _not_ to be a +moonshine shadow of the First Paul. + + +It was in this summer of 1834,--month of May, shortly after arriving in +London,--that I first saw Sterling's Father. A stout broad gentleman +of sixty, perpendicular in attitude, rather showily dressed, and of +gracious, ingenious and slightly elaborate manners. It was at Mrs. +Austin's in Bayswater; he was just taking leave as I entered, so our +interview lasted only a moment: but the figure of the man, as Sterling's +father, had already an interest for me, and I remember the time well. +Captain Edward Sterling, as we formerly called him, had now quite dropt +the military title, nobody even of his friends now remembering it; and +was known, according to his wish, in political and other circles, as Mr. +Sterling, a private gentleman of some figure. Over whom hung, moreover, +a kind of mysterious nimbus as the principal or one of the principal +writers in the _Times_, which gave an interesting chiaroscuro to his +character in society. A potent, profitable, but somewhat questionable +position; of which, though he affected, and sometimes with anger, +altogether to disown it, and rigorously insisted on the rights of +anonymity, he was not unwilling to take the honors too: the private +pecuniary advantages were very undeniable; and his reception in the +Clubs, and occasionally in higher quarters, was a good deal modelled on +the universal belief in it. + + +John Sterling at Herstmonceux that afternoon, and his Father here in +London, would have offered strange contrasts to an eye that had +seen them both. Contrasts, and yet concordances. They were two very +different-looking men, and were following two very different modes of +activity that afternoon. And yet with a strange family likeness, too, +both in the men and their activities; the central impulse in each, the +faculties applied to fulfil said impulse, not at all dissimilar,--as +grew visible to me on farther knowledge. + + + +CHAPTER II. NOT CURATE. + +Thus it went on for some months at Herstmonceux; but thus it could +not last. We said there were already misgivings as to health, &c. in +September: [12] that was but the fourth month, for it had begun only in +June. The like clouds of misgiving, flights of dark vapor, chequering +more and more the bright sky of this promised land, rose heavier and +rifer month after month; till in February following, that is in the +eighth month from starting, the sky had grown quite overshaded; and poor +Sterling had to think practically of departure from his promised land +again, finding that the goal of his pilgrimage was _not_ there. Not +there, wherever it may be! March again, therefore; the abiding city, +and post at which we can live and die, is still ahead of us, it would +appear! + +"Ill-health" was the external cause; and, to all parties concerned, +to Sterling himself I have no doubt as completely as to any, the one +determining cause. Nor was the ill-health wanting; it was there in too +sad reality. And yet properly it was not there as the burden; it was +there as the last ounce which broke the camel's back. I take it, in this +as in other cases known to me, ill-health was not the primary cause +but rather the ultimate one, the summing-up of innumerable far deeper +conscious and unconscious causes,--the cause which could boldly show +itself on the surface, and give the casting vote. Such was often +Sterling's way, as one could observe in such cases: though the most +guileless, undeceptive and transparent of men, he had a noticeable, +almost childlike faculty of self-deception, and usually substituted +for the primary determining motive and set of motives, some ultimate +ostensible one, and gave that out to himself and others as the ruling +impulse for important changes in life. As is the way with much more +ponderous and deliberate men;--as is the way, in a degree, with all men! + +Enough, in February, 1835, Sterling came up to London, to consult with +his physicians,--and in fact in all ways to consider with himself and +friends,--what was to be done in regard to this Herstmonceux business. +The oracle of the physicians, like that of Delphi, was not exceedingly +determinate: but it did bear, what was a sufficiently undeniable fact, +that Sterling's constitution, with a tendency to pulmonary ailments, +was ill-suited for the office of a preacher; that total abstinence from +preaching for a year or two would clearly be the safer course. To which +effect he writes to Mr. Hare with a tone of sorrowful agitation; gives +up his clerical duties at Herstmonceux;--and never resumed them there +or elsewhere. He had been in the Church eight months in all: a brief +section of his life, but an important one, which colored several of his +subsequent years, and now strangely colors all his years in the memory +of some. + +This we may account the second grand crisis of his History. Radicalism, +not long since, had come to its consummation, and vanished from him in +a tragic manner. "Not by Radicalism is the path to Human Nobleness for +me!" And here now had English Priesthood risen like a sun, over the +waste ruins and extinct volcanoes of his dead Radical world, with +promise of new blessedness and healing under its Wings; and this too has +soon found itself an illusion: "Not by Priesthood either lies the way, +then. Once more, where does the way lie!"--To follow illusions till they +burst and vanish is the lot of all new souls who, luckily or lucklessly, +are left to their own choice in starting on this Earth. The roads are +many; the authentic finger-posts are few,--never fewer than in this era, +when in so many senses the waters are out. Sterling of all men had the +quickest sense for nobleness, heroism and the human _summum bonum_; the +liveliest headlong spirit of adventure and audacity; few gifted living +men less stubbornness of perseverance. Illusions, in his chase of the +_summum bonum_, were not likely to be wanting; aberrations, and wasteful +changes of course, were likely to be many! It is in the history of +such vehement, trenchant, far-shining and yet intrinsically light and +volatile souls, missioned into this epoch to seek their way there, that +we best see what a confused epoch it is. + +This clerical aberration,--for such it undoubtedly was in Sterling,--we +have ascribed to Coleridge; and do clearly think that had there been +no Coleridge, neither had this been,--nor had English Puseyism or some +other strange enough universal portents been. Nevertheless, let us say +farther that it lay partly in the general bearing of the world for +such a man. This battle, universal in our sad epoch of "all old things +passing away" against "all things becoming new," has its summary and +animating heart in that of Radicalism against Church; there, as in its +flaming core, and point of focal splendor, does the heroic worth that +lies in each side of the quarrel most clearly disclose itself; and +Sterling was the man, above many, to recognize such worth on both sides. +Natural enough, in such a one, that the light of Radicalism having gone +out in darkness for him, the opposite splendor should next rise as the +chief, and invite his loyalty till it also failed. In one form or the +other, such an aberration was not unlikely for him. But an aberration, +especially in this form, we may certainly call it. No man of Sterling's +veracity, had he clearly consulted his own heart, or had his own heart +been capable of clearly responding, and not been dazzled and bewildered +by transient fantasies and theosophic moonshine, could have undertaken +this function. His heart would have answered: "No, thou canst not. What +is incredible to thee, thou shalt not, at thy soul's peril, attempt to +believe!--Elsewhither for a refuge, or die here. Go to Perdition if thou +must,--but not with a lie in thy mouth; by the Eternal Maker, no!" + +Alas, once more! How are poor mortals whirled hither and thither in the +tumultuous chaos of our era; and, under the thick smoke-canopy which +has eclipsed all stars, how do they fly now after this poor meteor, now +after that!--Sterling abandoned his clerical office in February, 1835; +having held it, and ardently followed it, so long as we say,--eight +calendar months in all. + + +It was on this his February expedition to London that I first saw +Sterling,--at the India House incidentally, one afternoon, where I +found him in company with John Mill, whom I happened like himself to be +visiting for a few minutes. The sight of one whose fine qualities I had +often heard of lately, was interesting enough; and, on the whole, proved +not disappointing, though it was the translation of dream into fact, +that is of poetry into prose, and showed its unrhymed side withal. A +loose, careless-looking, thin figure, in careless dim costume, sat, in +a lounging posture, carelessly and copiously talking. I was struck with +the kindly but restless swift-glancing eyes, which looked as if the +spirits were all out coursing like a pack of merry eager beagles, +beating every bush. The brow, rather sloping in form, was not of +imposing character, though again the head was longish, which is always +the best sign of intellect; the physiognomy in general indicated +animation rather than strength. + +We talked rapidly of various unmemorable things: I remember coming on +the Negroes, and noticing that Sterling's notion on the Slavery Question +had not advanced into the stage of mine. In reference to the question +whether an "engagement for life," on just terms, between parties who +are fixed in the character of master and servant, as the Whites and the +Negroes are, is not really better than one from day to day,--he said +with a kindly jeer, "I would have the Negroes themselves consulted as to +that!"--and would not in the least believe that the Negroes were by +no means final or perfect judges of it.--His address, I perceived, was +abrupt, unceremonious; probably not at all disinclined to logic, and +capable of dashing in upon you like a charge of Cossacks, on occasion: +but it was also eminently ingenious, social, guileless. We did all very +well together: and Sterling and I walked westward in company, choosing +whatever lanes or quietest streets there were, as far as Knightsbridge +where our roads parted; talking on moralities, theological philosophies; +arguing copiously, but _except_ in opinion not disagreeing + +In his notions on such subjects, the expected Coleridge cast of thought +was very visible; and he seemed to express it even with exaggeration, +and in a fearless dogmatic manner. Identity of sentiment, difference of +opinion: these are the known elements of a pleasant dialogue. We parted +with the mutual wish to meet again;--which accordingly, at his Father's +house and at mine, we soon repeatedly did; and already, in the few days +before his return to Herstmonceux, had laid the foundations of a frank +intercourse, pointing towards pleasant intimacies both with himself +and with his circle, which in the future were abundantly fulfilled. +His Mother, essentially and even professedly "Scotch," took to my Wife +gradually with a most kind maternal relation; his Father, a gallant +showy stirring gentleman, the Magus of the _Times_, had talk and +argument ever ready, was an interesting figure, and more and more took +interest in us. We had unconsciously made an acquisition, which grew +richer and wholesomer with every new year; and ranks now, seen in +the pale moonlight of memory, and must ever rank, among the precious +possessions of life. + +Sterling's bright ingenuity, and also his audacity, velocity and +alacrity, struck me more and more. It was, I think, on the occasion of a +party given one of these evenings at his Father's, where I remember John +Mill, John Crawford, Mrs. Crawford, and a number of young and elderly +figures of distinction,--that a group having formed on the younger side +of the room, and transcendentalisms and theologies forming the topic, a +number of deep things were said in abrupt conversational style, Sterling +in the thick of it. For example, one sceptical figure praised the +Church of England, in Hume's phrase, "as a Church tending to keep down +fanaticism," and recommendable for its very indifferency; whereupon a +transcendental figure urges him: "You are afraid of the horse's kicking: +but will you sacrifice all qualities to being safe from that? Then get +a dead horse. None comparable to that for not kicking in your stable!" +Upon which, a laugh; with new laughs on other the like occasions;--and +at last, in the fire of some discussion, Sterling, who was unusually +eloquent and animated, broke out with this wild phrase, "I could plunge +into the bottom of Hell, if I were sure of finding the Devil there and +getting him strangled!" Which produced the loudest laugh of all; and had +to be repeated, on Mrs. Crawford's inquiry, to the house at large; and, +creating among the elders a kind of silent shudder,--though we +urged that the feat would really be a good investment of human +industry,--checked or stopt these theologic thunders for the evening. +I still remember Sterling as in one of his most animated moods that +evening. He probably returned to Herstmonceux next day, where he +proposed yet to reside for some indefinite time. + +Arrived at Herstmonceux, he had not forgotten us. One of his Letters +written there soon after was the following, which much entertained +me, in various ways. It turns on a poor Book of mine, called _Sartor +Resartus_; which was not then even a Book, but was still hanging +desolately under bibliopolic difficulties, now in its fourth or fifth +year, on the wrong side of the river, as a mere aggregate of Magazine +Articles; having at last been slit into that form, and lately completed +_so_, and put together into legibility. I suppose Sterling had borrowed +it of me. The adventurous hunter spirit which had started such a bemired +_Auerochs_, or Urus of the German woods, and decided on chasing that as +game, struck me not a little;--and the poor Wood-Ox, so bemired in the +forests, took it as a compliment rather:-- + + "_To Thomas Carlyle, Esq., Chelsea, London_. + "HERSTMONCEUX near BATTLE, 29th May, 1835. + +"MY DEAR CARLYLE,--I have now read twice, with care, the wondrous +account of Teufelsdrockh and his Opinions; and I need not say that it +has given me much to think of. It falls in with the feelings and tastes +which were, for years, the ruling ones of my life; but which you will +not be angry with me when I say that I am infinitely and hourly thankful +for having escaped from. Not that I think of this state of mind as one +with which I have no longer any concern. The sense of a oneness of life +and power in all existence; and of a boundless exuberance of beauty +around us, to which most men are well-nigh dead, is a possession which +no one that has ever enjoyed it would wish to lose. When to this we add +the deep feeling of the difference between the actual and the ideal +in Nature, and still more in Man; and bring in, to explain this, the +principle of duty, as that which connects us with a possible Higher +State, and sets us in progress towards it,--we have a cycle of thoughts +which was the whole spiritual empire of the wisest Pagans, and which +might well supply food for the wide speculations and richly creative +fancy of Teufelsdrockh, or his prototype Jean Paul. + +"How then comes it, we cannot but ask, that these ideas, displayed +assuredly with no want of eloquence, vivacity or earnestness, have +found, unless I am much mistaken, so little acceptance among the best +and most energetic minds in this country? In a country where millions +read the Bible, and thousands Shakspeare; where Wordsworth circulates +through book-clubs and drawing-rooms; where there are innumerable +admirers of your favorite Burns; and where Coleridge, by sending from +his solitude the voice of earnest spiritual instruction, came to be +beloved, studied and mourned for, by no small or careless school of +disciples?--To answer this question would, of course, require more +thought and knowledge than I can pretend to bring to it. But there are +some points on which I will venture to say a few words. + +"In the first place, as to the form of composition,--which may be +called, I think, the Rhapsodico-Reflective. In this the _Sartor +Resartus_ resembles some of the master-works of human invention, which +have been acknowledged as such by many generations; and especially the +works of Rabelais, Montaigne, Sterne and Swift. There is nothing I +know of in Antiquity like it. That which comes nearest is perhaps the +Platonic Dialogue. But of this, although there is something of the +playful and fanciful on the surface, there is in reality neither in the +language (which is austerely determined to its end), nor in the method +and progression of the work, any of that headlong self-asserting +capriciousness, which, if not discernible in the plan of Teufelsdrockh's +Memoirs, is yet plainly to be seen in the structure of the sentences, +the lawless oddity, and strange heterogeneous combination and allusion. +The principle of this difference, observable often elsewhere in modern +literature (for the same thing is to be found, more or less, in many of +our most genial works of imagination,--_Don Quixote_, for instance, and +the writings of Jeremy Taylor), seems to be that well-known one of the +predominant objectivity of the Pagan mind; while among us the subjective +has risen into superiority, and brought with it in each individual +a multitude of peculiar associations and relations. These, as not +explicable from any one _external_ principle assumed as a premise by +the ancient philosopher, were rejected from the sphere of his aesthetic +creation: but to us they all have a value and meaning; being connected +by the bond of our own personality and all alike existing in that +infinity which is its arena. + +"But however this may be, and comparing the Teufelsdrockhean Epopee +only with those other modern works,--it is noticeable that Rabelais, +Montaigne and Sterne have trusted for the currency of their writings, in +a great degree, to the use of obscene and sensual stimulants. Rabelais, +besides, was full of contemporary and personal satire; and seems to +have been a champion in the great cause of his time,--as was Montaigne +also,--that of the right of thought in all competent minds, unrestrained +by any outward authority. Montaigne, moreover, contains more pleasant +and lively gossip, and more distinct good-humored painting of his own +character and daily habits, than any other writer I know. Sterne is +never obscure, and never moral; and the costume of his subjects is drawn +from the familiar experience of his own time and country: and Swift, +again, has the same merit of the clearest perspicuity, joined to that +of the most homely, unaffected, forcible English. These points of +difference seem to me the chief ones which bear against the success of +the _Sartor_. On the other hand, there is in Teufelsdrockh a depth and +fervor of feeling, and a power of serious eloquence, far beyond that of +any of these four writers; and to which indeed there is nothing at +all comparable in any of them, except perhaps now and then, and very +imperfectly, in Montaigne. + +"Of the other points of comparison there are two which I would +chiefly dwell on: and first as to the language. A good deal of this +is positively barbarous. 'Environment,' 'vestural,' 'stertorous,' +'visualized,' 'complected,' and others to be found I think in the first +twenty pages,--are words, so far as I know, without any authority; +some of them contrary to analogy: and none repaying by their value +the disadvantage of novelty. To these must be added new and erroneous +locutions; 'whole other tissues' for _all the other_, and similar +uses of the word _whole_; 'orients' for _pearls_; 'lucid' and 'lucent' +employed as if they were different in meaning; 'hulls' perpetually for +_coverings_, it being a word hardly used, and then only for the husk +of a nut; 'to insure a man of misapprehension;' 'talented,' a mere +newspaper and hustings word, invented, I believe, by O'Connell. + +"I must also mention the constant recurrence of some words in a quaint +and queer connection, which gives a grotesque and somewhat repulsive +mannerism to many sentences. Of these the commonest offender is 'quite;' +which appears in almost every page, and gives at first a droll kind of +emphasis; but soon becomes wearisome. 'Nay,' 'manifold,' 'cunning enough +significance,' 'faculty' (meaning a man's rational or moral _power_), +'special,' 'not without,' haunt the reader as if in some uneasy dream +which does not rise to the dignity of nightmare. Some of these strange +mannerisms fall under the general head of a singularity peculiar, so far +as I know, to Teufelsdrockh. For instance, that of the incessant use of +a sort of odd superfluous qualification of his assertions; which seems +to give the character of deliberateness and caution to the style, but +in time sounds like mere trick or involuntary habit. 'Almost' does more +than yeoman's, _almost_ slave's service in this way. Something similar +may be remarked of the use of the double negative by way of affirmation. + +"Under this head, of language, may be mentioned, though not with strict +grammatical accuracy, two standing characteristics of the Professor's +style,--at least as rendered into English: _First_, the composition +of words, such as 'snow-and-rosebloom maiden:' an attractive damsel +doubtless in Germany, but, with all her charms, somewhat uncouth here. +'Life-vision' is another example; and many more might be found. To +say nothing of the innumerable cases in which the words are only +intelligible as a compound term, though not distinguished by hyphens. Of +course the composition of words is sometimes allowable even in English: +but the habit of dealing with German seems to have produced, in the +pages before us, a prodigious superabundance of this form of expression; +which gives harshness and strangeness, where the matter would at all +events have been surprising enough. _Secondly_, I object, with the +same qualification, to the frequent use of _inversion_; which generally +appears as a transposition of the two members of a clause, in a way +which would not have been practiced in conversation. It certainly gives +emphasis and force, and often serves to point the meaning. But a style +may be fatiguing and faulty precisely by being too emphatic, forcible +and pointed; and so straining the attention to find its meaning, or the +admiration to appreciate its beauty. + +"Another class of considerations connects itself with the heightened +and plethoric fulness of the style: its accumulation and contrast of +imagery; its occasional jerking and almost spasmodic violence;--and +above all, the painful subjective excitement, which seems the element +and groundwork even of every description of Nature; often taking the +shape of sarcasm or broad jest, but never subsiding into calm. There is +also a point which I should think worth attending to, were I planning +any similar book: I mean the importance, in a work of imagination, of +not too much disturbing in the reader's mind the balance of the New +and Old. The former addresses itself to his active, the latter to his +passive faculty; and these are mutually dependent, and must coexist in +certain proportion, if you wish to combine his sympathy and progressive +exertion with willingness and ease of attention. This should be taken +into account in forming a style; for of course it cannot be consciously +thought of in composing each sentence. + +"But chiefly it seems important in determining the plan of a work. If +the tone of feeling, the line of speculation are out of the common way, +and sure to present some difficulty to the average reader, then it would +probably be desirable to select, for the circumstances, drapery +and accessories of all kinds, those most familiar, or at least most +attractive. A fable of the homeliest purport, and commonest every-day +application, derives an interest and charm from its turning on the +characters and acts of gods and genii, lions and foxes, Arabs and +Affghauns. On the contrary, for philosophic inquiry and truths of awful +preciousness, I would select as my personages and interlocutors beings +with whose language and 'whereabouts' my readers would be familiar. Thus +did Plato in his Dialogues, Christ in his Parables. Therefore it seems +doubtful whether it was judicious to make a German Professor the hero +of _Sartor_. Berkeley began his _Siris_ with tar-water; but what can +English readers be expected to make of _Gukguk_ by way of prelibation to +your nectar and tokay? The circumstances and details do not flash with +living reality on the minds of your readers, but, on the contrary, +themselves require some of that attention and minute speculation, the +whole original stock of which, in the minds of most of them, would not +be too much to enable them to follow your views of Man and Nature. In +short, there is not a sufficient basis of the common to justify +the amount of peculiarity in the work. In a book of science, these +considerations would of course be inapplicable; but then the whole shape +and coloring of the book must be altered to make it such; and a man +who wishes merely to get at the philosophical result, or summary of the +whole, will regard the details and illustrations as so much unprofitable +surplusage. + +"The sense of strangeness is also awakened by the marvellous +combinations, in which the work abounds to a degree that the common +reader must find perfectly bewildering. This can hardly, however, be +treated as a consequence of the _style_; for the style in this respect +coheres with, and springs from, the whole turn and tendency of thought. +The noblest images are objects of a humorous smile, in a mind which +sees itself above all Nature and throned in the arms of an Almighty +Necessity; while the meanest have a dignity, inasmuch as they are +trivial symbols of the same one life to which the great whole +belongs. And hence, as I divine, the startling whirl of incongruous +juxtaposition, which of a truth must to many readers seem as amazing as +if the Pythia on the tripod should have struck up a drinking-song, or +Thersites had caught the prophetic strain of Cassandra. + +"All this, of course, appears to me true and relevant; but I cannot help +feeling that it is, after all, but a poor piece of quackery to comment +on a multitude of phenomena without adverting to the principle which +lies at the root, and gives the true meaning to them all. Now this +principle I seem to myself to find in the state of mind which is +attributed to Teufelsdrockh; in his state of mind, I say, not in his +opinions, though these are, in him as in all men, most important,--being +one of the best indices to his state of mind. Now what distinguishes +him, not merely from the greatest and best men who have been on earth +for eighteen hundred years, but from the whole body of those who have +been working forwards towards the good, and have been the salt and light +of the world, is this: That he does not believe in a God. Do not be +indignant, I am blaming no one;--but if I write my thoughts, I must +write them honestly. + +"Teufelsdrockh does not belong to the herd of sensual and thoughtless +men; because he does perceive in all Existence a unity of power; because +he does believe that this is a real power external to him and dominant +to a certain extent over him, and does not think that he is himself a +shadow in a world of shadows. He had a deep feeling of the beautiful, +the good and the true; and a faith in their final victory. + +"At the same time, how evident is the strong inward unrest, the Titanic +heaving of mountain on mountain; the storm-like rushing over land and +sea in search of peace. He writhes and roars under his consciousness +of the difference in himself between the possible and the actual, the +hoped-for and the existent. He feels that duty is the highest law of +his own being; and knowing how it bids the waves be stilled into an +icy fixedness and grandeur, he trusts (but with a boundless inward +misgiving) that there is a principle of order which will reduce all +confusion to shape and clearness. But wanting peace himself, his fierce +dissatisfaction fixes on all that is weak, corrupt and imperfect around +him; and instead of a calm and steady co-operation with all those who +are endeavoring to apply the highest ideas as remedies for the worst +evils, he holds himself aloof in savage isolation; and cherishes (though +he dare not own) a stern joy at the prospect of that Catastrophe which +is to turn loose again the elements of man's social life, and give for +a time the victory to evil;--in hopes that each new convulsion of the +world must bring us nearer to the ultimate restoration of all things; +fancying that each may be the last. Wanting the calm and cheerful +reliance, which would be the spring of active exertion, he flatters his +own distemper by persuading himself that his own age and generation +are peculiarly feeble and decayed; and would even perhaps be willing +to exchange the restless immaturity of our self-consciousness, and +the promise of its long throe-pangs, for the unawakened undoubting +simplicity of the world's childhood; of the times in which there was all +the evil and horror of our day, only with the difference that conscience +had not arisen to try and condemn it. In these longings, if they are +Teufelsdrockh's, he seems to forget that, could we go back five thousand +years, we should only have the prospect of travelling them again, and +arriving at last at the same point at which we stand now. + +"Something of this state of mind I may say that I understand; for I have +myself experienced it. And the root of the matter appears to me: A want +of sympathy with the great body of those who are now endeavoring to +guide and help onward their fellow-men. And in what is this alienation +grounded? It is, as I believe, simply in the difference on that point: +viz. the clear, deep, habitual recognition of a one Living _Personal_ +God, essentially good, wise, true and holy, the Author of all that +exists; and a reunion with whom is the only end of all rational beings. +This belief... [_There follow now several pages on "Personal God," and +other abstruse or indeed properly unspeakable matters; these, and a +general Postscript of qualifying purport, I will suppress; extracting +only the following fractions, as luminous or slightly significant to +us:_] + +"Now see the difference of Teufelsdrockh's feelings. At the end of book +iii. chap. 8, I find these words: 'But whence? O Heaven, whither? Sense +knows not; Faith knows not; only that it is through mystery to mystery, +from God to God. + + 'We _are such stuff_ + As dreams are made of, and our little life + Is rounded with a sleep.' + +And this tallies with the whole strain of his character. What we find +everywhere, with an abundant use of the name of God, is the conception +of a formless Infinite whether in time or space; of a high inscrutable +Necessity, which it is the chief wisdom and virtue to submit to, which +is the mysterious impersonal base of all Existence,--shows itself in the +laws of every separate being's nature; and for man in the shape of duty. +On the other hand, I affirm, we do know whence we come and whither we +go!-- + +... "And in this state of mind, as there is no true sympathy with +others, just as little is there any true peace for ourselves. There is +indeed possible the unsympathizing factitious calm of Art, which we +find in Goethe. But at what expense is it bought? Simply, by abandoning +altogether the idea of duty, which is the great witness of our +personality. And he attains his inhuman ghastly calmness by reducing the +Universe to a heap of material for the idea of beauty to work on!-- + +... "The sum of all I have been writing as to the connection of our +faith in God with our feeling towards men and our mode of action, may of +course be quite erroneous: but granting its truth, it would supply the +one principle which I have been seeking for, in order to explain +the peculiarities of style in your account of Teufelsdrockh and his +writings.... The life and works of Luther are the best comment I know of +on this doctrine of mine. + +"Reading over what I have written, I find I have not nearly done justice +to my own sense of the genius and moral energy of the book; but this +is what you will best excuse.--Believe me most sincerely and faithfully +yours, + + "JOHN STERLING." + +Here are sufficient points of "discrepancy with agreement," here is +material for talk and argument enough; and an expanse of free discussion +open, which requires rather to be speedily restricted for convenience' +sake, than allowed to widen itself into the boundless, as it tends to +do!-- + +In all Sterling's Letters to myself and others, a large collection of +which now lies before me, duly copied and indexed, there is, to one that +knew his speech as well, a perhaps unusual likeness between the speech +and the Letters; and yet, for most part, with a great inferiority on +the part of these. These, thrown off, one and all of them, without +premeditation, and with most rapid-flowing pen, are naturally as like +his speech as writing can well be; this is their grand merit to us: +but on the other hand, the want of the living tones, swift looks and +motions, and manifold dramatic accompaniments, tells heavily, more +heavily than common. What can be done with champagne itself, much more +with soda-water, when the gaseous spirit is fled! The reader, in any +specimens he may see, must bear this in mind. + +Meanwhile these Letters do excel in honesty, in candor and transparency; +their very carelessness secures their excellence in this respect. And in +another much deeper and more essential respect I must likewise call them +excellent,--in their childlike goodness, in the purity of heart, the +noble affection and fidelity they everywhere manifest in the writer. +This often touchingly strikes a familiar friend in reading them; and +will awaken reminiscences (when you have the commentary in your own +memory) which are sad and beautiful, and not without reproach to you on +occasion. To all friends, and all good causes, this man is true; behind +their back as before their face, the same man!--Such traits of the +autobiographic sort, from these Letters, as can serve to paint him +or his life, and promise not to weary the reader, I must endeavor to +select, in the sequel. + + + +CHAPTER III. BAYSWATER + +Sterling continued to reside at Herstmonceux through the spring and +summer; holding by the peaceable retired house he still had there, till +the vague future might more definitely shape itself, and better point +out what place of abode would suit him in his new circumstances. He +made frequent brief visits to London; in which I, among other friends, +frequently saw him, our acquaintance at each visit improving in all +ways. Like a swift dashing meteor he came into our circle; coruscated +among us, for a day or two, with sudden pleasant illumination; then +again suddenly withdrew,--we hoped, not for long. + +I suppose, he was full of uncertainties; but undoubtedly was gravitating +towards London. Yet, on the whole, on the surface of him, you saw no +uncertainties; far from that: it seemed always rather with peremptory +resolutions, and swift express businesses, that he was charged. Sickly +in body, the testimony said: but here always was a mind that gave you +the impression of peremptory alertness, cheery swift decision,--of a +_health_ which you might have called exuberant. I remember dialogues +with him, of that year; one pleasant dialogue under the trees of the +Park (where now, in 1851, is the thing called "Crystal Palace"), with +the June sunset flinging long shadows for us; the last of the Quality +just vanishing for dinner, and the great night beginning to prophesy of +itself. Our talk (like that of the foregoing Letter) was of the faults +of my style, of my way of thinking, of my &c. &c.; all which +admonitions and remonstrances, so friendly and innocent, from this young +junior-senior, I was willing to listen to, though unable, as usual, to +get almost any practical hold of them. As usual, the garments do not fit +you, you are lost in the garments, or you cannot get into them at all; +this is not your suit of clothes, it must be another's:--alas, these are +not your dimensions, these are only the optical angles you subtend; on +the whole, you will never get measured in that way!-- + +Another time, of date probably very contiguous, I remember hearing +Sterling preach. It was in some new college-chapel in Somerset-house (I +suppose, what is now called King's College); a very quiet small place, +the audience student-looking youths, with a few elder people, perhaps +mostly friends of the preacher's. The discourse, delivered with a +grave sonorous composure, and far surpassing in talent the usual run of +sermons, had withal an air of human veracity as I still recollect, and +bespoke dignity and piety of mind: but gave me the impression rather +of artistic excellence than of unction or inspiration in that kind. +Sterling returned with us to Chelsea that day;--and in the afternoon we +went on the Thames Putney-ward together, we two with my Wife; under +the sunny skies, on the quiet water, and with copious cheery talk, the +remembrance of which is still present enough to me. + +This was properly my only specimen of Sterling's preaching. Another +time, late in the same autumn, I did indeed attend him one evening to +some Church in the City,--a big Church behind Cheapside, "built by Wren" +as he carefully informed me;--but there, in my wearied mood, the chief +subject of reflection was the almost total vacancy of the place, and how +an eloquent soul was preaching to mere lamps and prayer-books; and of +the sermon I retain no image. It came up in the way of banter, if he +ever urged the duty of "Church extension," which already he very seldom +did and at length never, what a specimen we once had of bright lamps, +gilt prayer-books, baize-lined pews, Wren-built architecture; and how, +in almost all directions, you might have fired a musket through the +church, and hit no Christian life. A terrible outlook indeed for the +Apostolic laborer in the brick-and-mortar line!-- + + +In the Autumn of this same 1835, he removed permanently to London, +whither all summer he had been evidently tending; took a house in +Bayswater, an airy suburb, half town, half country, near his Father's, +and within fair distance of his other friends and objects; and decided +to await there what the ultimate developments of his course might be. +His house was in Orme Square, close by the corner of that little place +(which has only _three_ sides of houses); its windows looking to the +east: the Number was, and I believe still is, No. 5. A sufficiently +commodious, by no means sumptuous, small mansion; where, with the means +sure to him, he could calculate on finding adequate shelter for his +family, his books and himself, and live in a decent manner, in no terror +of debt, for one thing. His income, I suppose, was not large; but he +lived generally a safe distance within it; and showed himself always as +a man bountiful in money matters, and taking no thought that way. + +His study-room in this house was perhaps mainly the drawing-room; +looking out safe, over the little dingy grassplot in front, and the +quiet little row of houses opposite, with the huge dust-whirl of +Oxford Street and London far enough ahead of you as background,--as +back-curtain, blotting out only _half_ your blue hemisphere with dust +and smoke. On the right, you had the continuous growl of the Uxbridge +Road and its wheels, coming as lullaby not interruption. Leftward and +rearward, after some thin belt of houses, lay mere country; bright +sweeping green expanses, crowned by pleasant Hampstead, pleasant Harrow, +with their rustic steeples rising against the sky. Here on winter +evenings, the bustle of removal being all well ended, and family and +books got planted in their new places, friends could find Sterling, as +they often did, who was delighted to be found by them, and would give +and take, vividly as few others, an hour's good talk at any time. + +His outlooks, it must be admitted, were sufficiently vague and +overshadowed; neither the past nor the future of a too joyful kind. +Public life, in any professional form, is quite forbidden; to work +with his fellows anywhere appears to be forbidden: nor can the humblest +solitary endeavor to work worthily as yet find an arena. How unfold +one's little bit of talent; and live, and not lie sleeping, while it +is called To-day? As Radical, as Reforming Politician in any public or +private form,--not only has this, in Sterling's case, received tragical +sentence and execution; but the opposite extreme, the Church whither he +had fled, likewise proves abortive: the Church also is not the haven for +him at all. What is to be done? Something must be done, and soon,--under +penalties. Whoever has received, on him there is an inexorable behest to +give. "_Fais ton fait_, Do thy little stroke of work:" this is Nature's +voice, and the sum of all the commandments, to each man! + +A shepherd of the people, some small Agamemnon after his sort, doing +what little sovereignty and guidance he can in his day and generation: +such every gifted soul longs, and should long, to be. But how, in any +measure, is the small kingdom necessary for Sterling to be attained? Not +through newspapers and parliaments, not by rubrics and reading-desks: +none of the sceptres offered in the world's market-place, nor none of +the crosiers there, it seems, can be the shepherd's-crook for this man. +A most cheerful, hoping man; and full of swift faculty, though much +lamed,--considerably bewildered too; and tending rather towards the +wastes and solitary places for a home; the paved world not being +friendly to him hitherto! The paved world, in fact, both on its +practical and spiritual side, slams to its doors against him; indicates +that he cannot enter, and even must not,--that it will prove a +choke-vault, deadly to soul and to body, if he enter. Sceptre, crosier, +sheep-crook is none there for him. + +There remains one other implement, the resource of all Adam's posterity +that are otherwise foiled,--the Pen. It was evident from this point that +Sterling, however otherwise beaten about, and set fluctuating, would +gravitate steadily with all his real weight towards Literature. That he +would gradually try with consciousness to get into Literature; and, on +the whole, never quit Literature, which was now all the world for him. +Such is accordingly the sum of his history henceforth: such small sum, +so terribly obstructed and diminished by circumstances, is all we have +realized from him. + + +Sterling had by no means as yet consciously quitted the clerical +profession, far less the Church as a creed. We have seen, he +occasionally officiated still in these months, when a friend requested +or an opportunity invited. Nay it turned out afterwards, he had, unknown +even to his own family, during a good many weeks in the coldest period +of next spring, when it was really dangerous for his health and did +prove hurtful to it,--been constantly performing the morning service +in some Chapel in Bayswater for a young clerical neighbor, a slight +acquaintance of his, who was sickly at the time. So far as I know, this +of the Bayswater Chapel in the spring of 1836, a feat severely rebuked +by his Doctor withal, was his last actual service as a churchman. But +the conscious life ecclesiastical still hung visibly about his inner +unconscious and real life, for years to come; and not till by slow +degrees he had unwinded from him the wrappages of it, could he become +clear about himself, and so much as try heartily what his now sole +course was. Alas, and he had to live all the rest of his days, as in +continual flight for his very existence; "ducking under like a poor +unfledged partridge-bird," as one described it, "before the mower; +darting continually from nook to nook, and there crouching, to escape +the scythe of Death." For Literature Proper there was but little left +in such a life. Only the smallest broken fractions of his last and +heaviest-laden years can poor Sterling be said to have completely lived. +His purpose had risen before him slowly in noble clearness; clear at +last,--and even then the inevitable hour was at hand. + +In those first London months, as always afterwards while it remained +physically possible, I saw much of him; loved him, as was natural, +more and more; found in him, many ways, a beautiful acquisition to my +existence here. He was full of bright speech and argument; radiant with +arrowy vitalities, vivacities and ingenuities. Less than any man he gave +you the idea of ill-health. Hopeful, sanguine; nay he did not even seem +to need definite hope, or much to form any; projecting himself in aerial +pulses like an aurora borealis, like a summer dawn, and filling all the +world with present brightness for himself and others. Ill-health? Nay +you found at last, it was the very excess of _life_ in him that brought +on disease. This restless play of being, fit to conquer the world, could +it have been held and guided, could not be held. It had worn _holes_ in +the outer case of it, and there found vent for itself,--there, since not +otherwise. + +In our many promenades and colloquies, which were of the freest, most +copious and pleasant nature, religion often formed a topic, and perhaps +towards the beginning of our intercourse was the prevailing topic. +Sterling seemed much engrossed in matters theological, and led the +conversation towards such; talked often about Church, Christianity +Anglican and other, how essential the belief in it to man; then, on +the other side, about Pantheism and such like;--all in the Coleridge +dialect, and with eloquence and volubility to all lengths. I remember +his insisting often and with emphasis on what he called a "personal +God," and other high topics, of which it was not always pleasant to give +account in the argumentative form, in a loud hurried voice, walking and +arguing through the fields or streets. Though of warm quick feelings, +very positive in his opinions, and vehemently eager to convince and +conquer in such discussions, I seldom or never saw the least anger in +him against me or any friend. When the blows of contradiction came too +thick, he could with consummate dexterity whisk aside out of their way; +prick into his adversary on some new quarter; or gracefully flourishing +his weapon, end the duel in some handsome manner. One angry glance I +remember in him, and it was but a glance, and gone in a moment. "Flat +Pantheism!" urged he once (which he would often enough do about this +time), as if triumphantly, of something or other, in the fire of a +debate, in my hearing: "It is mere Pantheism, that!"--"And suppose it +were Pot-theism?" cried the other: "If the thing is true!"--Sterling did +look hurt at such flippant heterodoxy, for a moment. The soul of his own +creed, in those days, was far other than this indifference to Pot or Pan +in such departments of inquiry. + +To me his sentiments for most part were lovable and admirable, though in +the logical outcome there was everywhere room for opposition. I admired +the temper, the longing towards antique heroism, in this young man of +the nineteenth century; but saw not how, except in some German-English +empire of the air, he was ever to realize it on those terms. In fact, +it became clear to me more and more that here was nobleness of heart +striving towards all nobleness; here was ardent recognition of the worth +of Christianity, for one thing; but no belief in it at all, in my sense +of the word belief,--no belief but one definable as mere theoretic +moonshine, which would never stand the wind and weather of fact. Nay it +struck me farther that Sterling's was not intrinsically, nor had ever +been in the highest or chief degree, a devotional mind. Of course all +excellence in man, and worship as the supreme excellence, was part +of the inheritance of this gifted man: but if called to define him, +I should say, Artist not Saint was the real bent of his being. He had +endless admiration, but intrinsically rather a deficiency of reverence +in comparison. Fear, with its corollaries, on the religious side, he +appeared to have none, nor ever to have had any. + +In short, it was a strange enough symptom to me of the bewildered +condition of the world, to behold a man of this temper, and of this +veracity and nobleness, self-consecrated here, by free volition and +deliberate selection, to be a Christian Priest; and zealously struggling +to fancy himself such in very truth. Undoubtedly a singular present +fact;--from which, as from their point of intersection, great +perplexities and aberrations in the past, and considerable confusions in +the future might be seen ominously radiating. Happily our friend, as I +said, needed little hope. To-day with its activities was always bright +and rich to him. His unmanageable, dislocated, devastated world, +spiritual or economical, lay all illuminated in living sunshine, making +it almost beautiful to his eyes, and gave him no hypochondria. A richer +soul, in the way of natural outfit for felicity, for joyful activity in +this world, so far as his strength would go, was nowhere to be met with. + + +The Letters which Mr. Hare has printed, Letters addressed, I imagine, +mostly to himself, in this and the following year or two, give record +of abundant changeful plannings and laborings, on the part of Sterling; +still chiefly in the theological department. Translation from Tholuck, +from Schleiermacher; treatise on this thing, then on that, are on the +anvil: it is a life of abstruse vague speculations, singularly cheerful +and hopeful withal, about Will, Morals, Jonathan Edwards, Jewhood, +Manhood, and of Books to be written on these topics. Part of which +adventurous vague plans, as the Translation from Tholuck, he actually +performed; other greater part, merging always into wider undertakings, +remained plan merely. I remember he talked often about Tholuck, +Schleiermacher, and others of that stamp; and looked disappointed, +though full of good nature, at my obstinate indifference to them and +their affairs. + +His knowledge of German Literature, very slight at this time, +limited itself altogether to writers on Church matters,--Evidences, +Counter-Evidences, Theologies and Rumors of Theologies; by the Tholucks, +Schleiermachers, Neanders, and I know not whom. Of the true sovereign +souls of that Literature, the Goethes, Richters, Schillers, Lessings, +he had as good as no knowledge; and of Goethe in particular an obstinate +misconception, with proper abhorrence appended,--which did not abate for +several years, nor quite abolish itself till a very late period. Till, +in a word, he got Goethe's works fairly read and studied for himself! +This was often enough the course with Sterling in such cases. He had a +most swift glance of recognition for the worthy and for the unworthy; +and was prone, in his ardent decisive way, to put much faith in it. +"Such a one is a worthless idol; not excellent, only sham-excellent:" +here, on this negative side especially, you often had to admire how +right he was;--often, but not quite always. And he would maintain, with +endless ingenuity, confidence and persistence, his fallacious spectrum +to be a real image. However, it was sure to come all right in the end. +Whatever real excellence he might misknow, you had but to let it stand +before him, soliciting new examination from him: none surer than he to +recognize it at last, and to pay it all his dues, with the arrears +and interest on them. Goethe, who figures as some absurd high-stalking +hollow play-actor, or empty ornamental clock-case of an "Artist" +so-called, in the Tale of the _Onyx Ring_, was in the throne of +Sterling's intellectual world before all was done; and the theory +of "Goethe's want of feeling," want of &c. &c. appeared to him also +abundantly contemptible and forgettable. + +Sterling's days, during this time as always, were full of occupation, +cheerfully interesting to himself and others; though, the wrecks of +theology so encumbering him, little fruit on the positive side could +come of these labors. On the negative side they were productive; and +there also, so much of encumbrance requiring removal, before fruit could +grow, there was plenty of labor needed. He looked happy as well as +busy; roamed extensively among his friends, and loved to have them about +him,--chiefly old Cambridge comrades now settling into occupations in +the world;--and was felt by all friends, by myself as by few, to be a +welcome illumination in the dim whirl of things. A man of altogether +social and human ways; his address everywhere pleasant and enlivening. +A certain smile of thin but genuine laughter, we might say, hung +gracefully over all he said and did;--expressing gracefully, according +to the model of this epoch, the stoical pococurantism which is required +of the cultivated Englishman. Such laughter in him was not deep, but +neither was it false (as lamentably happens often); and the cheerfulness +it went to symbolize was hearty and beautiful,--visible in the silent +unsymbolized state in a still gracefuler fashion. + +Of wit, so far as rapid lively intellect produces wit, he had plenty, +and did not abuse his endowment that way, being always fundamentally +serious in the purport of his speech: of what we call humor, he had +some, though little; nay of real sense for the ludicrous, in any form, +he had not much for a man of his vivacity; and you remarked that his +laugh was limited in compass, and of a clear but not rich quality. To +the like effect shone something, a kind of childlike half-embarrassed +shimmer of expression, on his fine vivid countenance; curiously mingling +with its ardors and audacities. A beautiful childlike soul! He was +naturally a favorite in conversation, especially with all who had +any funds for conversing: frank and direct, yet polite and delicate +withal,--though at times too he could crackle with his dexterous +petulancies, making the air all like needles round you; and there was +no end to his logic when you excited it; no end, unless in some form of +silence on your part. Elderly men of reputation I have sometimes known +offended by him: for he took a frank way in the matter of talk; spoke +freely out of him, freely listening to what others spoke, with a kind of +"hail fellow well met" feeling; and carelessly measured a men much less +by his reputed account in the bank of wit, or in any other bank, than by +what the man had to show for himself in the shape of real spiritual cash +on the occasion. But withal there was ever a fine element of natural +courtesy in Sterling; his deliberate demeanor to acknowledged superiors +was fine and graceful; his apologies and the like, when in a fit of +repentance he felt commanded to apologize, were full of naivete, and +very pretty and ingenuous. + +His circle of friends was wide enough; chiefly men of his own standing, +old College friends many of them; some of whom have now become +universally known. Among whom the most important to him was Frederic +Maurice, who had not long before removed to the Chaplaincy of Guy's +Hospital here, and was still, as he had long been, his intimate and +counsellor. Their views and articulate opinions, I suppose, were now +fast beginning to diverge; and these went on diverging far enough: but +in their kindly union, in their perfect trustful familiarity, precious +to both parties, there never was the least break, but a steady, equable +and duly increasing current to the end. One of Sterling's commonest +expeditions, in this time, was a sally to the other side of London +Bridge: "Going to Guy's to-day." Maurice, in a year or two, became +Sterling's brother-in-law; wedded Mrs. Sterling's younger sister,--a +gentle excellent female soul; by whom the relation was, in many ways, +strengthened and beautified for Sterling and all friends of the parties. +With the Literary notabilities I think he had no acquaintance; his +thoughts indeed still tended rather towards a certain class of the +Clerical; but neither had he much to do with these; for he was at +no time the least of a tuft-hunter, but rather had a marked natural +indifference to _tufts_. + +The Rev. Mr. Dunn, a venerable and amiable Irish gentleman, +"distinguished," we were told, "by having refused a bishopric:" and +who was now living, in an opulent enough retirement, amid his books +and philosophies and friends, in London,--is memorable to me among this +clerical class: one of the mildest, beautifulest old men I have ever +seen,--"like Fenelon," Sterling said: his very face, with its kind true +smile, with its look of suffering cheerfulness and pious wisdom, was a +sort of benediction. It is of him that Sterling writes, in the Extract +which Mr. Hare, modestly reducing the name to an initial "Mr. D.," has +given us: [13] "Mr. Dunn, for instance; the defect of whose Theology, +compounded as it is of the doctrine of the Greek Fathers, of the Mystics +and of Ethical Philosophers, consists,--if I may hint a fault in one +whose holiness, meekness and fervor would have made him the beloved +disciple of him whom Jesus loved,--in an insufficient apprehension of +the reality and depth of Sin." A characteristic "defect" of this fine +gentle soul. On Mr. Dunn's death, which occurred two or three +years later, Stirling gave, in some veiled yet transparent form, in +_Blackwood's Magazine_, an affectionate and eloquent notice of him; +which, stript of the veil, was excerpted into the Newspapers also. [14] + +Of Coleridge there was little said. Coleridge was now dead, not long +since; nor was his name henceforth much heard in Sterling's circle; +though on occasion, for a year or two to come, he would still assert his +transcendent admiration, especially if Maurice were by to help. But he +was getting into German, into various inquiries and sources of knowledge +new to him, and his admirations and notions on many things were silently +and rapidly modifying themselves. + +So, amid interesting human realities, and wide cloud-canopies of +uncertain speculation, which also had their interests and their +rainbow-colors to him, and could not fail in his life just now, did +Sterling pass his year and half at Bayswater. Such vaporous speculations +were inevitable for him at present; but it was to be hoped they would +subside by and by, and leave the sky clear. All this was but the +preliminary to whatever work might lie in him:--and, alas, much other +interruption lay between him and that. + + +CHAPTER V. TO MADEIRA. + +Sterling's dubieties as to continuing at Bordeaux were quickly decided. +The cholera in France, the cholera in Nice, the-- In fact his moorings +were now loose; and having been fairly at sea, he never could anchor +himself here again. Very shortly after this Letter, he left Belsito +again (for good, as it proved); and returned to England with his +household, there to consider what should next be done. + +On my return from Scotland, that year, perhaps late in September, I +remember finding him lodged straitly but cheerfully, and in happy humor, +in a little cottage on Blackheath; whither his Father one day persuaded +me to drive out with him for dinner. Our welcome, I can still recollect, +was conspicuously cordial; the place of dinner a kind of upper room, +half garret and full of books, which seemed to be John's place of study. +From a shelf, I remember also, the good soul took down a book modestly +enough bound in three volumes, lettered on the back Carlyle's _French +Revolution_, which had been published lately; this he with friendly +banter bade me look at as a first symptom, small but significant, that +the book was not to die all at once. "One copy of it at least might hope +to last the date of sheep-leather," I admitted,--and in my then mood +the little fact was welcome. Our dinner, frank and happy on the part +of Sterling, was peppered with abundant jolly satire from his Father: +before tea, I took myself away; towards Woolwich, I remember, where +probably there was another call to make, and passage homeward by +steamer: Sterling strode along with me a good bit of road in the bright +sunny evening, full of lively friendly talk, and altogether kind and +amiable; and beautifully sympathetic with the loads he thought he saw on +_me_, forgetful of his own. We shook hands on the road near the foot of +Shooter's Hill:--at which point dim oblivious clouds rush down; and of +small or great I remember nothing more in my history or his for some +time. + +Besides running much about among friends, and holding counsels for the +management of the coming winter, Sterling was now considerably occupied +with Literature again; and indeed may be said to have already +definitely taken it up as the one practical pursuit left for him. Some +correspondence with _Blackwood's Magazine_ was opening itself, under +promising omens: now, and more and more henceforth, he began to look +on Literature as his real employment, after all; and was prosecuting it +with his accustomed loyalty and ardor. And he continued ever afterwards, +in spite of such fitful circumstances and uncertain outward fluctuations +as his were sure of being, to prosecute it steadily with all the +strength he had. + +One evening about this time, he came down to us, to Chelsea, most likely +by appointment and with stipulation for privacy; and read, for our +opinion, his Poem of the _Sexton's Daughter_, which we now first +heard of. The judgment in this house was friendly, but not the most +encouraging. We found the piece monotonous, cast in the mould of +Wordsworth, deficient in real human fervor or depth of melody, dallying +on the borders of the infantile and "goody-good;"--in fact, involved +still in the shadows of the surplice, and inculcating (on hearsay +mainly) a weak morality, which he would one day find not to be moral at +all, but in good part maudlin-hypocritical and immoral. As indeed was +to be said still of most of his performances, especially the poetical; +a sickly _shadow_ of the parish-church still hanging over them, which +he could by no means recognize for sickly. _Imprimatur_ nevertheless +was the concluding word,--with these grave abatements, and rhadamanthine +admonitions. To all which Sterling listened seriously and in the mildest +humor. His reading, it might have been added, had much hurt the effect +of the piece: a dreary pulpit or even conventicle manner; that flattest +moaning hoo-hoo of predetermined pathos, with a kind of rocking canter +introduced by way of intonation, each stanza the exact fellow Of the +other, and the dull swing of the rocking-horse duly in each;--no reading +could be more unfavorable to Sterling's poetry than his own. Such a mode +of reading, and indeed generally in a man of such vivacity the total +absence of all gifts for play-acting or artistic mimicry in any kind, +was a noticeable point. + + +After much consultation, it was settled at last that Sterling should go +to Madeira for the winter. One gray dull autumn afternoon, towards +the middle of October, I remember walking with him to the eastern Dock +region, to see his ship, and how the final preparations in his own +little cabin were proceeding there. A dingy little ship, the deck +crowded with packages, and bustling sailors within eight-and-forty hours +of lifting anchor; a dingy chill smoky day, as I have said withal, and +a chaotic element and outlook, enough to make a friend's heart sad. I +admired the cheerful careless humor and brisk activity of Sterling, who +took the matter all on the sunny side, as he was wont in such cases. We +came home together in manifold talk: he accepted with the due smile +my last contribution to his sea-equipment, a sixpenny box of German +lucifers purchased on the sudden in St. James's Street, fit to be +offered with laughter or with tears or with both; he was to leave for +Portsmouth almost immediately, and there go on board. Our next news +was of his safe arrival in the temperate Isle. Mrs. Sterling and the +children were left at Knightsbridge; to pass this winter with his Father +and Mother. + + +At Madeira Sterling did well: improved in health; was busy with much +Literature; and fell in with society which he could reckon pleasant. +He was much delighted with the scenery of the place; found the climate +wholesome to him in a marked degree; and, with good news from home, +and kindly interests here abroad, passed no disagreeable winter in that +exile. There was talking, there was writing, there was hope of better +health; he rode almost daily, in cheerful busy humor, along those +fringed shore-roads:--beautiful leafy roads and horse-paths; with here +and there a wild cataract and bridge to look at; and always with the +soft sky overhead, the dead volcanic mountain on one hand, and broad +illimitable sea spread out on the other. Here are two Letters which give +reasonably good account of him:-- + + "_To Thomas Carlyle, Esq., Chelsea, London_. + "FUNCHAL, MADEIRA, 16th November, 1837. + +"MY DEAR CARLYLE,--I have been writing a good many letters all in a +batch, to go by the same opportunity; and I am thoroughly weary of +writing the same things over and over again to different people. My +letter to you therefore, I fear, must have much of the character of +remainder-biscuit. But you will receive it as a proof that I do not wish +you to forget me, though it may be useless for any other purpose. + +"I reached this on the 2d, after a tolerably prosperous voyage, deformed +by some days of sea-sickness, but otherwise not to be complained of. I +liked my twenty fellow-passengers far better than I expected;--three or +four of them I like much, and continue to see frequently. The Island +too is better than I expected: so that my Barataria at least does not +disappoint me. The bold rough mountains, with mist about their summits, +verdure below, and a bright sun over all, please me much; and I +ride daily on the steep and narrow paved roads, which no wheels ever +journeyed on. The Town is clean, and there its merits end: but I am +comfortably lodged; with a large and pleasant sitting-room to myself. I +have met with much kindness; and see all the society I want,--though it +is not quite equal to that of London, even excluding Chelsea. + +"I have got about me what Books I brought out; and have read a little, +and done some writing for _Blackwood_,--all, I have the pleasure to +inform you, prose, nay extremely prose. I shall now be more at leisure; +and hope to get more steadily to work; though I do not know what I shall +begin upon. As to reading, I have been looking at _Goethe_, especially +the _Life_,--much as a shying horse looks at a post. In truth, I am +afraid of him. I enjoy and admire him so much, and feel I could so +easily be tempted to go along with him. And yet I have a deeply rooted +and old persuasion that he was the most splendid of anachronisms. A +thoroughly, nay intensely Pagan Life, in an age when it is men's duty +to be Christian. I therefore never take him up without a kind of inward +check, as if I were trying some forbidden spell; while, on the other +hand, there is so infinitely much to be learnt from him, and it is +so needful to understand the world we live in, and our own age, and +especially its greatest minds, that I cannot bring myself to burn my +books as the converted Magicians did, or sink them as did Prospero. +There must, as I think, have been some prodigious defect in his mind, to +let him hold such views as his about women and some other things; and +in another respect, I find so much coldness and hollowness as to the +highest truths, and feel so strongly that the Heaven he looks up to is +but a vault of ice,--that these two indications, leading to the same +conclusion, go far to convince me he was a profoundly immoral and +irreligious spirit, with as rare faculties of intelligence as ever +belonged to any one. All this may be mere _goody_ weakness and twaddle, +on my part: but it is a persuasion that I cannot escape from; though I +should feel the doing so to be a deliverance from a most painful load. +If you could help me, I heartily wish you would. I never take him up +without high admiration, or lay him down without real sorrow for what he +chose to be. + +"I have been reading nothing else that you would much care for. +Southey's _Amadis_ has amused me; and Lyell's _Geology_ interested me. +The latter gives one the same sort of bewildering view of the abysmal +extent of Time that Astronomy does of Space. I do not think I shall take +your advice as to learning Portuguese. It is said to be very ill spoken +here; and assuredly it is the most direful series of nasal twangs I ever +heard. One gets on quite well with English. + +"The people here are, I believe, in a very low condition; but they do +not appear miserable. I am told that the influence of the priests makes +the peasantry all Miguelites; but it is said that nobody wants any more +revolutions. There is no appearance of riot or crime; and they are all +extremely civil. I was much interested by learning that Columbus once +lived here, before he found America and fame. I have been to see a +deserted _quinta_ (country-house), where there is a great deal of +curious old sculpture, in relief, upon the masonry; many of the figures, +which are nearly as large as life, representing soldiers clad and armed +much as I should suppose those of Cortez were. There are no buildings +about the Town, of the smallest pretensions to beauty or charm of any +kind. On the whole, if Madeira were one's world, life would certainly +rather tend to stagnate; but as a temporary refuge, a niche in an old +ruin where one is sheltered from the shower, it has great merit. I am +more comfortable and contented than I expected to be, so far from home +and from everybody I am closely connected with: but, of course, it is at +best a tolerable exile. + +"Tell Mrs. Carlyle that I have written, since I have been here, and +am going to send to _Blackwood_, a humble imitation of her _Watch and +Canary-Bird_, entitled _The Suit of Armor and the Skeleton_. [15] I am +conscious that I am far from having reached the depth and fulness of +despair and mockery which distinguish the original! But in truth there +is a lightness of tone about her style, which I hold to be invaluable: +where she makes hairstrokes, I make blotches. I have a vehement +suspicion that my Dialogue is an entire failure; but I cannot be plagued +with it any longer. Tell her I will not send her messages, but will +write to her soon.--Meanwhile I am affectionately hers and yours, + + "JOHN STERLING." + +The next is to his Brother-in-law; and in a still hopefuler tone:-- + + "_To Charles Barton, Esq._ [16] + FUNCHAL, MADEIRA, 3d March, 1838. + +"MY DEAR CHARLES,--I have often been thinking of you and your +whereabouts in Germany, and wishing I knew more about you; and at last +it occurred to me that you might perhaps have the same wish about me, +and that therefore I should do well to write to you. + +"I have been here exactly four months, having arrived on the 2d of +November,--my wedding-day; and though you perhaps may not think it a +compliment to Susan, I have seldom passed four months more cheerfully +and agreeably. I have of course felt my absence from my family, and +missed the society of my friends; for there is not a person here whom +I knew before I left England. But, on the whole, I have been in good +health, and actively employed. I have a good many agreeable and valuable +acquaintances, one or two of whom I hope I may hereafter reckon as +friends. The weather has generally been fine, and never cold; and the +scenery of the Island is of a beauty which you unhappy Northern people +can have little conception of. + +"It consists of a great mass of volcanic mountains, covered in their +lower parts with cottages, vines and patches of vegetables. When you +pass through, or over the central ridge, and get towards the North, +there are woods of trees, of the laurel kind, covering the wild steep +slopes, and forming some of the strangest and most beautiful prospects I +have ever seen. Towards the interior, the forms of the hills become +more abrupt, and loftier; and give the notion of very recent volcanic +disturbances, though in fact there has been nothing of the kind since +the discovery of the Island by Europeans. Among these mountains, the +dark deep precipices, and narrow ravines with small streams at the +bottom; the basaltic knobs and ridges on the summits; and the perpetual +play of mist and cloud around them, under this bright sun and clear +sky,--form landscapes which you would thoroughly enjoy, and which I +much wish I could give you a notion of. The Town is on the south, and +of course the sheltered side of the Island; perfectly protected from the +North and East; although we have seen sometimes patches of bright snow +on the dark peaks in the distance. It is a neat cheerful place; all +built of gray stone, but having many of the houses colored white or red. +There is not a really handsome building in it, but there is a general +aspect of comfort and solidity. The shops are very poor. The English do +not mix at all with the Portuguese. The Bay is a very bad anchorage; but +is wide, bright and cheerful; and there are some picturesque points--one +a small black island--scattered about it. + +"I lived till a fortnight ago in lodgings, having two rooms, one a +very good one; and paying for everything fifty-six dollars a month, the +dollar being four shillings and twopence. This you will see is dear; but +I could make no better arrangement, for there is an unusual affluence +of strangers this year. I have now come to live with a friend, a Dr. +Calvert, in a small house of our own, where I am much more comfortable, +and live greatly cheaper. He is a friend of Mrs. Percival's; about my +age, an Oriel man, and a very superior person. I think the chances are, +we shall go home together.... I cannot tell you of all the other people +I have become familiar with; and shall only mention in addition Bingham +Baring, eldest son of Lord Ashburton, who was here for some weeks on +account of a dying brother, and whom I saw a great deal of. He is a +pleasant, very good-natured and rather clever man; Conservative Member +for North Staffordshire. + +"During the first two months I was here, I rode a great deal about the +Island, having a horse regularly; and was much in agreeable company, +seeing a great deal of beautiful scenery. Since then, the weather has +been much more unsettled, though not cold; and I have gone about less, +as I cannot risk the being wet. But I have spent my time pleasantly, +reading and writing. I have written a good many things for _Blackwood_; +one of which, the _Armor and the Skeleton_, I see is printed in the +February Number. I have just sent them a long Tale, called the _Onyx +Ring_, which cost me a good deal of trouble; and the extravagance +of which, I think, would amuse you; but its length may prevent its +appearance in _Blackwood_. If so, I think I should make a volume of it. +I have also written some poems, and shall probably publish the _Sexton's +Daughter_ when I return. + +"My health goes on most favorably. I have had no attack of the chest +this spring; which has not happened to me since the spring before we +went to Bonn; and I am told, if I take care, I may roll along for years. +But I have little hope of being allowed to spend the four first months +of any year in England; and the question will be, Whether to go at +once to Italy, by way of Germany and Switzerland, with my family, or to +settle with them in England, perhaps at Hastings, and go abroad myself +when it may be necessary. I cannot decide till I return; but I think the +latter the most probable. + +"To my dear Charles I do not like to use the ordinary forms of ending +a letter, for they are very inadequate to express my sense of your long +and most unvarying kindness; but be assured no one living could say with +more sincerity that he is ever affectionately yours, + + "JOHN STERLING." + +Other Letters give occasionally views of the shadier side of things: +dark broken weather, in the sky and in the mind; ugly clouds covering +one's poor fitful transitory prospect, for a time, as they might well do +in Sterling's case. Meanwhile we perceive his literary business is fast +developing itself; amid all his confusions, he is never idle long. +Some of his best Pieces--the Onyx _Ring_, for one, as we perceive--were +written here this winter. Out of the turbid whirlpool of the days he +strives assiduously to snatch what he can. + +Sterling's communications with _Blackwood's Magazine_ had now issued +in some open sanction of him by Professor Wilson, the distinguished +presiding spirit of that Periodical; a fact naturally of high importance +to him under the literary point of view. For Wilson, with his clear +flashing eye and great genial heart, had at once recognized Sterling; +and lavished stormily, in his wild generous way, torrents of praise +on him in the editorial comments: which undoubtedly was one of the +gratefulest literary baptisms, by fire or by water, that could befall a +soul like Sterling's. He bore it very gently, being indeed past the +age to have his head turned by anybody's praises: nor do I think the +exaggeration that was in these eulogies did him any ill whatever; while +surely their generous encouragement did him much good, in his solitary +struggle towards new activity under such impediments as his. _Laudari a +laudato_; to be called noble by one whom you and the world recognize as +noble: this great satisfaction, never perhaps in such a degree before +or after had now been vouchsafed to Sterling; and was, as I compute, an +important fact for him. He proceeded on his pilgrimage with new energy, +and felt more and more as if authentically consecrated to the same. + +The _Onyx Ring_, a curious Tale, with wild improbable basis, but with +a noble glow of coloring and with other high merits in it, a Tale still +worth reading, in which, among the imaginary characters, various friends +of Sterling's are shadowed forth, not always in the truest manner, came +out in _Blackwood_ in the winter of this year. Surely a very high talent +for painting, both of scenery and persons, is visible in this Fiction; +the promise of a Novel such as we have few. But there wants maturing, +wants purifying of clear from unclear;--properly there want patience +and steady depth. The basis, as we said, is wild and loose; and in the +details, lucent often with fine color, and dipt in beautiful sunshine, +there are several things mis_seen_, untrue, which is the worst species +of mispainting. Witness, as Sterling himself would have by and by +admitted, the "empty clockcase" (so we called it) which he has labelled +Goethe,--which puts all other untruths in the Piece to silence. + + +One of the great alleviations of his exile at Madeira he has already +celebrated to us: the pleasant circle of society he fell into there. +Great luck, thinks Sterling in this voyage; as indeed there was: but +he himself, moreover, was readier than most men to fall into pleasant +circles everywhere, being singularly prompt to make the most of any +circle. Some of his Madeira acquaintanceships were really good; and one +of them, if not more, ripened into comradeship and friendship for him. +He says, as we saw, "The chances are, Calvert and I will come home +together." + +Among the English in pursuit of health, or in flight from fatal disease, +that winter, was this Dr. Calvert; an excellent ingenious cheery +Cumberland gentleman, about Sterling's age, and in a deeper stage of +ailment, this not being his first visit to Madeira: he, warmly joining +himself to Sterling, as we have seen, was warmly received by him; so +that there soon grew a close and free intimacy between them; which for +the next three years, till poor Calvert ended his course, was a leading +element in the history of both. Companionship in incurable malady, +a touching bond of union, was by no means purely or chiefly a +companionship in misery in their case. The sunniest inextinguishable +cheerfulness shone, through all manner of clouds, in both. Calvert had +been travelling physician in some family of rank, who had rewarded him +with a pension, shielding his own ill-health from one sad evil. Being +hopelessly gone in pulmonary disorder, he now moved about among friendly +climates and places, seeking what alleviation there might be; often +spending his summers in the house of a sister in the environs of London; +an insatiable rider on his little brown pony; always, wherever you might +meet him, one of the cheeriest of men. He had plenty of speculation too, +clear glances of all kinds into religious, social, moral concerns; and +pleasantly incited Sterling's outpourings on such subjects. He could +report of fashionable persons and manners, in a fine human Cumberland +manner; loved art, a great collector of drawings; he had endless help +and ingenuity; and was in short every way a very human, lovable, good +and nimble man,--the laughing blue eyes of him, the clear cheery soul +of him, still redolent of the fresh Northern breezes and transparent +Mountain streams. With this Calvert, Sterling formed a natural intimacy; +and they were to each other a great possession, mutually enlivening many +a dark day during the next three years. They did come home together +this spring; and subsequently made several of these health-journeys in +partnership. + + + +CHAPTER VI. LITERATURE: THE STERLING CLUB. + +In spite of these wanderings, Sterling's course in life, so far as his +poor life could have any course or aim beyond that of screening itself +from swift death, was getting more and more clear to him; and he pursued +it diligently, in the only way permitted him, by hasty snatches, in +the intervals of continual fluctuation, change of place and other +interruption. + +Such, once for all, were the conditions appointed him. And it must be +owned he had, with a most kindly temper, adjusted himself to these; nay +you would have said, he loved them; it was almost as if he would have +chosen them as the suitablest. Such an adaptation was there in him +of volition to necessity:--for indeed they both, if well seen into, +proceeded from one source. Sterling's bodily disease was the expression, +under physical conditions, of the too vehement life which, under the +moral, the intellectual and other aspects, incessantly struggled within +him. Too vehement;--which would have required a frame of oak and iron +to contain it: in a thin though most wiry body of flesh and bone, it +incessantly "wore holes," and so found outlet for itself. He could take +no rest, he had never learned that art; he was, as we often reproached +him, fatally incapable of sitting still. Rapidity, as of pulsing +auroras, as of dancing lightnings: rapidity in all forms characterized +him. This, which was his bane, in many senses, being the real origin of +his disorder, and of such continual necessity to move and change,--was +also his antidote, so far as antidote there might be; enabling him to +love change, and to snatch, as few others could have done, from the +waste chaotic years, all tumbled into ruin by incessant change, what +hours and minutes of available turned up. He had an incredible facility +of labor. He flashed with most piercing glance into a subject; gathered +it up into organic utterability, with truly wonderful despatch, +considering the success and truth attained; and threw it on paper with a +swift felicity, ingenuity, brilliancy and general excellence, of which, +under such conditions of swiftness, I have never seen a parallel. +Essentially an _improviser_ genius; as his Father too was, and of +admirable completeness he too, though under a very different form. + +If Sterling has done little in Literature, we may ask, What other man +than he, in such circumstances, could have done anything? In virtue of +these rapid faculties, which otherwise cost him so dear, he has built +together, out of those wavering boiling quicksands of his few later +years, a result which may justly surprise us. There is actually some +result in those poor Two Volumes gathered from him, such as they are; he +that reads there will not wholly lose his time, nor rise with a +malison instead of a blessing on the writer. Here actually is a real +seer-glance, of some compass, into the world of our day; blessed glance, +once more, of an eye that is human; truer than one of a thousand, +and beautifully capable of making others see with it. I have known +considerable temporary reputations gained, considerable piles of +temporary guineas, with loud reviewing and the like to match, on a far +less basis than lies in those two volumes. Those also, I expect, will +be held in memory by the world, one way or other, till the world +has extracted all its benefit from them. Graceful, ingenious and +illuminative reading, of their sort, for all manner of inquiring souls. +A little verdant flowery island of poetic intellect, of melodious +human verity; sunlit island founded on the rocks;--which the enormous +circumambient continents of mown reed-grass and floating lumber, with +_their_ mountain-ranges of ejected stable-litter however alpine, cannot +by any means or chance submerge: nay, I expect, they will not even quite +hide it, this modest little island, from the well-discerning; but will +float past it towards the place appointed for them, and leave said +island standing. _Allah kereem_, say the Arabs! And of the English +also some still know that there is a, difference in the material of +mountains!-- + +As it is this last little result, the amount of his poor and +ever-interrupted literary labor, that henceforth forms the essential +history of Sterling, we need not dwell at too much length on the foreign +journeys, disanchorings, and nomadic vicissitudes of household, which +occupy his few remaining years, and which are only the disastrous and +accidental arena of this. He had now, excluding his early and more +deliberate residence in the West Indies, made two flights abroad, once +with his family, once without, in search of health. He had two more, in +rapid succession, to make, and many more to meditate; and in the whole +from Bayswater to the end, his family made no fewer than five complete +changes of abode, for his sake. But these cannot be accepted as in any +sense epochs in his life: the one last epoch of his life was that of his +internal change towards Literature as his work in the world; and we need +not linger much on these, which are the mere outer accidents of that, +and had no distinguished influence in modifying that. + +Friends still hoped the unrest of that brilliant too rapid soul would +abate with years. Nay the doctors sometimes promised, on the physical +side, a like result; prophesying that, at forty-five or some mature age, +the stress of disease might quit the lungs, and direct itself to other +quarters of the system. But no such result was appointed for us; neither +forty-five itself, nor the ameliorations promised then, were ever to +be reached. Four voyages abroad, three of them without his family, +in flight from death; and at home, for a like reason, five complete +shiftings of abode: in such wandering manner, and not otherwise, had +Sterling to continue his pilgrimage till it ended. + +Once more I must say, his cheerfulness throughout was wonderful. A +certain grimmer shade, coming gradually over him, might perhaps be +noticed in the concluding years; not impatience properly, yet the +consciousness how much he needed patience; something more caustic in his +tone of wit, more trenchant and indignant occasionally in his tone of +speech: but at no moment was his activity bewildered or abated, nor did +his composure ever give way. No; both his activity and his composure +he bore with him, through all weathers, to the final close; and on the +whole, right manfully he walked his wild stern way towards the goal, and +like a Roman wrapt his mantle round him when he fell.--Let us glance, +with brevity, at what he saw and suffered in his remaining pilgrimings +and chargings; and count up what fractions of spiritual fruit he +realized to us from them. + + +Calvert and he returned from Madeira in the spring of 1838. Mrs. +Sterling and the family had lived in Knightsbridge with his Father's +people through the winter: they now changed to Blackheath, or ultimately +Hastings, and he with them, coming up to London pretty often; uncertain +what was to be done for next winter. Literature went on briskly here: +_Blackwood_ had from him, besides the _Onyx Ring_ which soon came out +with due honor, assiduous almost monthly contributions in prose and +verse. The series called _Hymns of a Hermit_ was now going on; eloquent +melodies, tainted to me with something of the same disease as the +_Sexton's Daughter_, though perhaps in a less degree, considering +that the strain was in a so much higher pitch. Still better, in clear +eloquent prose, the series of detached thoughts, entitled _Crystals from +a Cavern_; of which the set of fragments, generally a little larger in +compass, called _Thoughts and Images_, and again those called _Sayings +and Essayings_, [17] are properly continuations. Add to which, his friend +John Mill had now charge of a Review, _The London and Westminster_ +its name; wherein Sterling's assistance, ardently desired, was freely +afforded, with satisfaction to both parties, in this and the following +years. An Essay on _Montaigne_, with the notes and reminiscences +already spoken of, was Sterling's first contribution here; then one on +_Simonides_: [18] both of the present season. + +On these and other businesses, slight or important, he was often running +up to London; and gave us almost the feeling of his being resident among +us. In order to meet the most or a good many of his friends at once +on such occasions, he now furthermore contrived the scheme of a little +Club, where monthly over a frugal dinner some reunion might take place; +that is, where friends of his, and withal such friends of theirs as +suited,--and in fine, where a small select company definable as +persons to whom it was pleasant to talk together,--might have a +little opportunity of talking. The scheme was approved by the persons +concerned: I have a copy of the Original Regulations, probably drawn up +by Sterling, a very solid lucid piece of economics; and the List of the +proposed Members, signed "James Spedding, Secretary," and dated "8th +August, 1838." [19] The Club grew; was at first called the _Anonymous +Club_; then, after some months of success, in compliment to the founder +who had now left us again, the _Sterling Club_;--under which latter +name, it once lately, for a time, owing to the Religious Newspapers, +became rather famous in the world! In which strange circumstances +the name was again altered, to suit weak brethren; and the Club still +subsists, in a sufficiently flourishing though happily once more a +private condition. That is the origin and genesis of poor Sterling's +Club; which, having honestly paid the shot for itself at Will's +Coffee-house or elsewhere, rashly fancied its bits of affairs were quite +settled; and once little thought of getting into Books of History with +them!-- + + +But now, Autumn approaching, Sterling had to quit Clubs, for matters +of sadder consideration. A new removal, what we call "his third +peregrinity," had to be decided on; and it was resolved that Rome should +be the goal of it, the journey to be done in company with Calvert, whom +also the Italian climate might be made to serve instead of Madeira. One +of the liveliest recollections I have, connected with the _Anonymous +Club_, is that of once escorting Sterling, after a certain meeting +there, which I had seen only towards the end, and now remember nothing +of,--except that, on breaking up, he proved to be encumbered with a +carpet-bag, and could not at once find a cab for Knightsbridge. Some +small bantering hereupon, during the instants of embargo. But we carried +his carpet-bag, slinging it on my stick, two or three of us alternately, +through dusty vacant streets, under the gaslights and the stars, towards +the surest cab-stand; still jesting, or pretending to jest, he and we, +not in the mirthfulest manner; and had (I suppose) our own feelings +about the poor Pilgrim, who was to go on the morrow, and had hurried to +meet us in this way, as the last thing before leaving England. + + + +CHAPTER VII. ITALY. + +The journey to Italy was undertaken by advice of Sir James Clark, +reckoned the chief authority in pulmonary therapeutics; who prophesied +important improvements from it, and perhaps even the possibility +henceforth of living all the year in some English home. Mrs. Sterling +and the children continued in a house avowedly temporary, a furnished +house at Hastings, through the winter. The two friends had set off +for Belgium, while the due warmth was still in the air. They traversed +Belgium, looking well at pictures and such objects; ascended the Rhine; +rapidly traversed Switzerland and the Alps; issuing upon Italy and +Milan, with immense appetite for pictures, and time still to gratify +themselves in that pursuit, and be deliberate in their approach to Rome. +We will take this free-flowing sketch of their passage over the Alps; +written amid "the rocks of Arona,"--Santo Borromeo's country, and poor +little Mignon's! The "elder Perdonnets" are opulent Lausanne people, to +whose late son Sterling had been very kind in Madeira the year before:-- + + "_To Mrs. Sterling, Knightsbridge, London_. + "ARONA on the LAGO MAGGIORE, 8th Oct., 1838. + +"MY DEAR MOTHER,--I bring down the story of my proceedings to the +present time since the 29th of September. I think it must have been +after that day that I was at a great breakfast at the elder Perdonnets', +with whom I had declined to dine, not choosing to go out at night.... +I was taken by my hostess to see several pretty pleasure-grounds and +points of view in the neighborhood; and latterly Calvert was better, and +able to go with us. He was in force again, and our passports were all +settled so as to enable us to start on the morning of the 2d, after +taking leave of our kind entertainer with thanks for her infinite +kindness. + +"We reached St. Maurice early that evening; having had the Dent du +Midi close to us for several hours; glittering like the top of a silver +teapot, far up in the sky. Our course lay along the Valley of the Rhone; +which is considered one of the least beautiful parts of Switzerland, +and perhaps for this reason pleased us, as we had not been prepared +to expect much. We saw, before reaching the foot of the Alpine pass at +Brieg, two rather celebrated Waterfalls; the one the Pissevache, which +has no more beauty than any waterfall one hundred or two hundred feet +high must necessarily have: the other, near Tourtemagne, is much more +pleasing, having foliage round it, and being in a secluded dell. If you +buy a Swiss Waterfall, choose this one. + +"Our second day took us through Martigny to Sion, celebrated for its +picturesque towers upon detached hills, for its strong Romanism and its +population of _cretins_,--that is, maimed idiots having the _goitre_. It +looked to us a more thriving place than we expected. They are building +a great deal; among other things, a new Bishop's Palace and a new +Nunnery,--to inhabit either of which _ex officio_ I feel myself very +unsuitable. From Sion we came to Brieg; a little village in a nook, +close under an enormous mountain and glacier, where it lies like a +molehill, or something smaller, at the foot of a haystack. Here also we +slept; and the next day our voiturier, who had brought us from Lausanne, +started with us up the Simplon Pass; helped on by two extra horses. + +"The beginning of the road was rather cheerful; having a good deal of +green pasturage, and some mountain villages; but it soon becomes dreary +and savage in aspect, and but for our bright sky and warm air, would +have been truly dismal. However, we gained gradually a distinct and +near view of several large glaciers; and reached at last the high +and melancholy valleys of the Upper Alps; where even the pines become +scanty, and no sound is heard but the wheels of one's carriage, except +when there happens to be a storm or an avalanche, neither of which +entertained us. There is, here and there, a small stream of water +pouring from the snow; but this is rather a monotonous accompaniment to +the general desolation than an interruption of it. The road itself is +certainly very good, and impresses one with a strong notion of human +power. But the common descriptions are much exaggerated; and many of +what the Guide-Books call 'galleries' are merely parts of the road +supported by a wall built against the rock, and have nothing like a +roof above them. The 'stupendous bridges,' as they are called, might be +packed, a dozen together, into one arch of London Bridge; and they +are seldom even very striking from the depth below. The roadway is +excellent, and kept in the best order. On the whole, I am very glad +to have travelled the most famous road in Europe, and to have had +delightful weather for doing so, as indeed we have had ever since we +left Lausanne. The Italian descent is greatly more remarkable than the +other side. + +"We slept near the top, at the Village of Simplon, in a very fair and +well-warmed inn, close to a mountain stream, which is one of the great +ornaments of this side of the road. We have here passed into a region of +granite, from that of limestone, and what is called gneiss. The valleys +are sharper and closer,--like cracks in a hard and solid mass;--and +there is much more of the startling contrast of light and shade, as +well as more angular boldness of outline; to all which the more abundant +waters add a fresh and vivacious interest. Looking back through one +of these abysmal gorges, one sees two torrents dashing together, the +precipice and ridge on one side, pitch-black with shade; and that on the +other all flaming gold; while behind rises, in a huge cone, one of the +glacier summits of the chain. The stream at one's feet rushes at a leap +some two hundred feet down, and is bordered with pines and beeches, +struggling through a ruined world of clefts and boulders. I never saw +anything so much resembling some of the _Circles_ described by Dante. +From Simplon we made for Duomo d'Ossola; having broken out, as through +the mouth of a mine, into green and fertile valleys full of vines and +chestnuts, and white villages,--in short, into sunshine and Italy. + +"At this place we dismissed our Swiss voiturier, and took an Italian +one; who conveyed us to Omegna on the Lake of Orta; a place little +visited by English travellers, but which fully repaid us the trouble of +going there. We were lodged in a simple and even rude Italian inn; where +they cannot speak a word of French; where we occupied a barn-like room, +with a huge chimney fit to lodge a hundred ghosts, whom we expelled by +dint of a hot woodfire. There were two beds, and as it happened good +ones, in this strange old apartment; which was adorned by pictures of +Architecture, and by Heads of Saints, better than many at the Royal +Academy Exhibition, and which one paid nothing for looking at. The +thorough Italian character of the whole scene amused us, much more than +Meurice's at Paris would have done; for we had voluble, commonplace +good-humor, with the aspect and accessories of a den of banditti. + +"To-day we have seen the Lake of Orta, have walked for some miles among +its vineyards and chestnuts; and thence have come, by Baveno, to this +place;--having seen by the way, I believe, the most beautiful part +of the Lago Maggiore, and certainly the most cheerful, complete and +extended example of fine scenery I have ever fallen in with. Here we +are, much to my wonder,--for it seems too good to be true,--fairly in +Italy; and as yet my journey has been a pleasanter and more instructive, +and in point of health a more successful one, than I at all imagined +possible. Calvert and I go on as well as can be. I let him have his way +about natural science, and he only laughs benignly when he thinks +me absurd in my moral speculations. My only regrets are caused by my +separation from my family and friends, and by the hurry I have been +living in, which has prevented me doing any work,--and compelled me to +write to you at a good deal faster rate than the _vapore_ moves on the +Lago Maggiore. It will take me to-morrow to Sesto Calende, whence we go +to Varese. We shall not be at Milan for some days. Write thither, if you +are kind enough to write at all, till I give you another address. Love +to my Father. + + "Your affectionate son, + "JOHN STERLING." + +Omitting Milan, Florence nearly all, and much about "Art," Michael +Angelo, and other aerial matters, here are some select terrestrial +glimpses, the fittest I can find, of his progress towards Rome:-- + + _To his Mother_. + +"_Lucca, Nov. 27th_, 1838.--I had dreams, like other people, before I +came here, of what the Lombard Lakes must be; and the week I spent among +them has left me an image, not only more distinct, but far more warm, +shining and various, and more deeply attractive in innumerable respects, +than all I had before conceived of them. And so also it has been with +Florence; where I spent three weeks: enough for the first hazy radiant +dawn of sympathy to pass away; yet constantly adding an increase of +knowledge and of love, while I examined, and tried to understand, the +wonderful minds that have left behind them there such abundant traces of +their presence.... On Sunday, the day before I left Florence, I went to +the highest part of the Grand Duke's Garden of Boboli, which commands a +view of most of the City, and of the vale of the Arno to the westward; +where, as we had been visited by several rainy days, and now at last had +a very fine one, the whole prospect was in its highest beauty. The mass +of buildings, chiefly on the other side of the River, is sufficient +to fill the eye, without perplexing the mind by vastness like that of +London; and its name and history, its outline and large and picturesque +buildings, give it grandeur of a higher order than that of mere +multitudinous extent. The Hills that border the Valley of the Arno are +also very pleasing and striking to look upon; and the view of the rich +Plain, glimmering away into blue distance, covered with an endless web +of villages and country-houses, is one of the most delightful images of +human well-being I have ever seen.... + +"Very shortly before leaving Florence, I went through the house of +Michael Angelo; which is still possessed by persons of the same family, +descendants, I believe, of his Nephew. There is in it his 'first work in +marble,' as it is called; and a few drawings,--all with the stamp of +his enginery upon them, which was more powerful than all the steam in +London.... On the whole, though I have done no work in Florence that can +be of any use or pleasure to others, except my Letters to my Wife,--I +leave it with the certainty of much valuable knowledge gained there, and +with a most pleasant remembrance of the busy and thoughtful days I owe +to it. + + +"We left Florence before seven yesterday morning [26th November] for +this place; travelling on the northern side of the Arno, by Prato, +Pistoia, Pescia. We tried to see some old frescos in a Church at Prato; +but found the Priests all about, saying mass; and of course did not +venture to put our hands into a hive where the bees were buzzing and on +the wing. Pistoia we only coasted. A little on one side of it, there is +a Hill, the first on the road from Florence; which we walked up, and +had a very lively and brilliant prospect over the road we had just +travelled, and the town of Pistoia. Thence to this place the whole land +is beautiful, and in the highest degree prosperous,--in short, to speak +metaphorically, all dotted with Leghorn bonnets, and streaming with +olive-oil. The girls here are said to employ themselves chiefly in +platting straw, which is a profitable employment; and the slightness and +quiet of the work are said to be much more favorable to beauty than the +coarser kinds of labor performed by the country-women elsewhere. Certain +it is that I saw more pretty women in Pescia, in the hour I spent there, +than I ever before met with among the same numbers of the 'phare sect.' +Wherefore, as a memorial of them, I bought there several Legends of +Female Saints and Martyrs, and of other Ladies quite the reverse, and +held up as warnings; all of which are written in _ottava rima_, and sold +for three halfpence apiece. But unhappily I have not yet had time to +read them. This Town has 30,000 inhabitants, and is surrounded by +Walls, laid out as walks, and evidently not at present intended to be +besieged,--for which reason, this morning, I merely walked on them round +the Town, and did not besiege them.... + +"The Cathedral [of Lucca] contains some Relics; which have undoubtedly +worked miracles on the imagination of the people hereabouts. The +Grandfather of all Relics (as the Arabs would say) in the place is the +_Volto Santo_, which is a Face of the Saviour appertaining to a wooden +Crucifix. Now you must know that, after the ascension of Christ, +Nicodemus was ordered by an Angel to carve an image of him; and went +accordingly with a hatchet, and cut down a cedar for that purpose. He +then proceeded to carve the figure; and being tired, fell asleep before +he had done the face; which however, on awaking, he found completed by +celestial aid. This image was brought to Lucca, from Leghorn, I think, +where it had arrived in a ship, 'more than a thousand years ago,' +and has ever since been kept, in purple and fine linen and gold and +diamonds, quietly working miracles. I saw the gilt Shrine of it; and +also a Hatchet which refused to cut off the head of an innocent man, +who had been condemned to death, and who prayed to the _Volto Santo_. +I suppose it is by way of economy (they being a frugal people) that +the Italians have their Book of Common Prayer and their Arabian Nights' +Entertainments condensed into one." + + _To the Same_. + +"_Pisa, December 2d_, 1838.--Pisa is very unfairly treated in all the +Books I have read. It seems to me a quiet, but very agreeable place; +with wide clean streets, and a look of stability and comfort; and I +admire the Cathedral and its appendages more, the more I see them. The +leaning of the Tower is to my eye decidedly unpleasant; but it is a +beautiful building nevertheless, and the view from the top is, under a +bright sky, remarkably lively and satisfactory. The Lucchese Hills form +a fine mass, and the sea must in clear weather be very distinct. There +was some haze over it when I was up, though the land was all clear. I +could just see the Leghorn Light-house. Leghorn itself I shall not be +able to visit.... + +"The quiet gracefulness of Italian life, and the mental maturity and +vigor of Germany, have a great charm when compared with the restless +whirl of England, and the chorus of mingled yells and groans sent up by +our parties and sects, and by the suffering and bewildered crowds of the +laboring people. Our politics make my heart ache, whenever I think +of them. The base selfish frenzies of factions seem to me, at this +distance, half diabolic; and I am out of the way of knowing anything +that may be quietly a-doing to elevate the standard of wise and +temperate manhood in the country, and to diffuse the means of physical +and moral well-being among all the people.... I will write to my +Father as soon as I can after reaching the capital of his friend the +Pope,--who, if he had happened to be born an English gentleman, would no +doubt by this time be a respectable old-gentlemanly gouty member of the +Carlton. I have often amused myself by thinking what a mere accident +it is that Phillpotts is not Archbishop of Tuam, and M'Hale Bishop of +Exeter; and how slight a change of dress, and of a few catchwords, +would even now enable them to fill those respective posts with all the +propriety and discretion they display in their present positions." + + +At Rome he found the Crawfords, known to him long since; and at +different dates other English friends old and new; and was altogether in +the liveliest humor, no end to his activities and speculations. Of +all which, during the next four months, the Letters now before me give +abundant record,--far too abundant for our objects here. His grand +pursuit, as natural at Rome, was Art; into which metaphysical domain we +shall not follow him; preferring to pick out, here and there, something +of concrete and human. Of his interests, researches, speculations +and descriptions on this subject of Art, there is always rather a +superabundance, especially in the Italian Tour. Unfortunately, in +the hard weather, poor Calvert fell ill; and Sterling, along with his +Art-studies, distinguished himself as a sick-nurse till his poor comrade +got afoot again. His general impressions of the scene and what it held +for him may be read in the following excerpts. The Letters are all dated +_Rome_, and addressed to his Father or Mother:-- + +"_December 21st_, 1838.--Of Rome itself, as a whole, there are infinite +things to be said, well worth saying; but I shall confine myself to +two remarks: first, that while the Monuments and works of Art gain in +wondrousness and significance by familiarity with them, the actual life +of Rome, the Papacy and its pride, lose; and though one gets accustomed +to Cardinals and Friars and Swiss Guards, and ragged beggars and the +finery of London and Paris, all rolling on together, and sees how it is +that they subsist in a sort of spurious unity, one loses all tendency to +idealize the Metropolis and System of the Hierarchy into anything +higher than a piece of showy stage-declamation, at bottom, in our day, +thoroughly mean and prosaic. My other remark is, that Rome, seen from +the tower of the Capitol, from the Pincian or the Janiculum, is at this +day one of the most beautiful spectacles which eyes ever beheld. The +company of great domes rising from a mass of large and solid buildings, +with a few stone-pines and scattered edifices on the outskirts; the +broken bare Campagna all around; the Alban Hills not far, and the purple +range of Sabine Mountains in the distance with a cope of snow;--this +seen in the clear air, and the whole spiritualized by endless +recollections, and a sense of the grave and lofty reality of human +existence which has had this place for a main theatre, fills at once the +eyes and heart more forcibly, and to me delightfully, than I can find +words to say." + +"_January 22d_, 1839.--The Modern Rome, Pope and all inclusive, are +a shabby attempt at something adequate to fill the place of the old +Commonwealth. It is easy enough to live among them, and there is much +to amuse and even interest a spectator; but the native existence of the +place is now thin and hollow, and there is a stamp of littleness, and +childish poverty of taste, upon all the great Christian buildings I have +seen here,--not excepting St. Peter's; which is crammed with bits of +colored marble and gilding, and Gog-and-Magog colossal statues of saints +(looking prodigiously small), and mosaics from the worst pictures in +Rome; and has altogether, with most imposing size and lavish splendor, +a tang of Guildhall finery about it that contrasts oddly with the +melancholy vastness and simplicity of the Ancient Monuments, though +these have not the Athenian elegance. I recur perpetually to the +galleries of Sculpture in the Vatican, and to the Frescos of Raffael +and Michael Angelo, of inexhaustible beauty and greatness, and to +the general aspect of the City and the Country round it, as the most +impressive scene on earth. But the Modern City, with its churches, +palaces, priests and beggars, is far from sublime." + +Of about the same date, here is another paragraph worth inserting: +"Gladstone has three little agate crosses which he will give you for my +little girls. Calvert bought them, as a present, for 'the bodies,' +at Martigny in Switzerland, and I have had no earlier opportunity +of sending them. Will you despatch them to Hastings when you have an +opportunity? I have not yet seen Gladstone's _Church and State_; but as +there is a copy in Rome, I hope soon to lay hands on it. I saw yesterday +in the _Times_ a furious, and I am sorry to say, most absurd attack on +him and it, and the new Oxonian school." + +"_February 28th, 1839_.--There is among the people plenty of squalid +misery; though not nearly so much as, they say, exists in Ireland; and +here there is a certain freedom and freshness of manners, a dash of +Southern enjoyment in the condition of the meanest and most miserable. +There is, I suppose, as little as well can be of conscience or +artificial cultivation of any kind; but there is not the affectation of +a virtue which they do not possess, nor any feeling of being despised +for the want of it; and where life generally is so inert, except as to +its passions and material wants, there is not the bitter consciousness +of having been beaten by the more prosperous, in a race which the +greater number have never thought of running. Among the laboring poor of +Rome, a bribe will buy a crime; but if common work procures enough for +a day's food or idleness, ten times the sum will not induce them to toil +on, as an English workman would, for the sake of rising in the world. +Sixpence any day will put any of them at the top of the only tree they +care for,--that on which grows the fruit of idleness. It is striking to +see the way in which, in magnificent churches, the most ragged beggars +kneel on the pavement before some favorite altar in the midst of +well-dressed women and of gazing foreigners. Or sometimes you will see +one with a child come in from the street where she has been begging, +put herself in a corner, say a prayer (probably for the success of her +petitions), and then return to beg again. There is wonderfully little of +any moral strength connected with this devotion; but still it is better +than nothing, and more than is often found among the men of the upper +classes in Rome. I believe the Clergy to be generally profligate, and +the state of domestic morals as bad as it has ever been represented."-- + +Or, in sudden contrast, take this other glance homeward; a Letter to his +eldest child; in which kind of Letters, more than in any other, Sterling +seems to me to excel. Readers recollect the hurricane in St. Vincent; +the hasty removal to a neighbor's house, and the birth of a son there, +soon after. The boy has grown to some articulation, during these +seven years; and his Father, from the new foreign scene of Priests and +Dilettanti, thus addresses him:-- + + "_To Master Edward C. Sterling, Hastings_. + "ROME, 21st January, 1839. + +"MY DEAR EDWARD,--I was very glad to receive your Letter, which showed +me that you have learned something since I left home. If you knew how +much pleasure it gave me to see your handwriting, I am sure you would +take pains to be able to write well, that you might often send me +letters, and tell me a great many things which I should like to know +about Mamma and your Sisters as well as yourself. + +"If I go to Vesuvius, I will try to carry away a bit of the lava, which +you wish for. There has lately been a great eruption, as it is called, +of that Mountain; which means a great breaking-out of hot ashes and +fire, and of melted stones which is called lava. + +"Miss Clark is very kind to take so much pains with you; and I trust you +will show that you are obliged to her, by paying attention to all she +tells you. When you see how much more grown people know than you, you +ought to be anxious to learn all you can from those who teach you; and +as there are so many wise and good things written in Books, you ought +to try to read early and carefully; that you may learn something of what +God has made you able to know. There are Libraries containing very many +thousands of Volumes; and all that is written in these is,--accounts of +some part or other of the World which God has made, or of the Thoughts +which he has enabled men to have in their minds. Some Books are +descriptions of the earth itself, with its rocks and ground and water, +and of the air and clouds, and the stars and moon and sun, which shine +so beautifully in the sky. Some tell you about the things that grow upon +the ground; the many millions of plants, from little mosses and threads +of grass up to great trees and forests. Some also contain accounts of +living things: flies, worms, fishes, birds and four-legged beasts. And +some, which are the most, are about men and their thoughts and doings. +These are the most important of all; for men are the best and most +wonderful creatures of God in the world; being the only ones able to +know him and love him, and to try of their own accord to do his will. + +"These Books about men are also the most important to us, because we +ourselves are human beings, and may learn from such Books what we ought +to think and to do and to try to be. Some of them describe what sort of +people have lived in old times and in other countries. By reading them, +we know what is the difference between ourselves in England now, and the +famous nations which lived in former days. Such were the Egyptians who +built the Pyramids, which are the greatest heaps of stone upon the face +of the earth: and the Babylonians, who had a city with huge walls, built +of bricks, having writing on them that no one in our time has been able +to make out. There were also the Jews, who were the only ancient people +that knew how wonderful and how good God is: and the Greeks, who were +the wisest of all in thinking about men's lives and hearts, and who knew +best how to make fine statues and buildings, and to write wise books. By +Books also we may learn what sort of people the old Romans were, whose +chief city was Rome, where I am now; and how brave and skilful they were +in war; and how well they could govern and teach many nations which they +had conquered. It is from Books, too, that you must learn what kind of +men were our Ancestors in the Northern part of Europe, who belonged +to the tribes that did the most towards pulling down the power of the +Romans: and you will see in the same way how Christianity was sent among +them by God, to make them wiser and more peaceful, and more noble +in their minds; and how all the nations that now are in Europe, and +especially the Italians and the Germans, and the French and the English, +came to be what they now are.--It is well worth knowing (and it can be +known only by reading) how the Germans found out the Printing of Books, +and what great changes this has made in the world. And everybody in +England ought to try to understand how the English came to have their +Parliaments and Laws; and to have fleets that sail over all seas of the +world. + +"Besides learning all these things, and a great many more about +different times and countries, you may learn from Books, what is the +truth of God's will, and what are the best and wisest thoughts, and the +most beautiful words; and how men are able to lead very right lives, and +to do a great deal to better the world. I have spent a great part of my +life in reading; and I hope you will come to like it as much as I do, +and to learn in this way all that I know. + +"But it is a still more serious matter that you should try to be +obedient and gentle; and to command your temper; and to think of other +people's pleasure rather than your own, and of what you _ought_ to do +rather than what you _like_. If you try to be better for all you read, +as well as wiser, you will find Books a great help towards goodness as +well as knowledge, and above all other Books, the Bible; which tells us +of the will of God, and of the love of Jesus Christ towards God and men. + +"I had a Letter from Mamma to-day, which left Hastings on the 10th of +this month. I was very glad to find in it that you were all well +and happy; but I know Mamma is not well, and is likely to be more +uncomfortable every day for some time. So I hope you will all take care +to give her as little trouble as possible. After sending you so much +advice, I shall write a little Story to divert you.--I am, my dear Boy, + + "Your affectionate Father, + "JOHN STERLING." + +The "Story" is lost, destroyed, as are many such which Sterling wrote, +with great felicity, I am told, and much to the satisfaction of the +young folk, when the humor took him. + +Besides these plentiful communications still left, I remember long +Letters, not now extant, principally addressed to his Wife, of which we +and the circle at Knightsbridge had due perusal, treating with animated +copiousness about all manner of picture-galleries, pictures, statues and +objects of Art at Rome, and on the road to Rome and from it, wheresoever +his course led him into neighborhood of such objects. That was +Sterling's habit. It is expected in this Nineteenth Century that a man +of culture shall understand and worship Art: among the windy gospels +addressed to our poor Century there are few louder than this of +Art;--and if the Century expects that every man shall do his duty, +surely Sterling was not the man to balk it! Various extracts from these +picture-surveys are given in Hare; the others, I suppose, Sterling +himself subsequently destroyed, not valuing them much. + +Certainly no stranger could address himself more eagerly to reap what +artistic harvest Rome offers, which is reckoned the peculiar produce +of Rome among cities under the sun; to all galleries, churches, sistine +chapels, ruins, coliseums, and artistic or dilettante shrines he +zealously pilgrimed; and had much to say then and afterwards, and with +real technical and historical knowledge I believe, about the objects of +devotion there. But it often struck me as a question, Whether all this +even to himself was not, more or less, a nebulous kind of element; +prescribed not by Nature and her verities, but by the Century expecting +every man to do his duty? Whether not perhaps, in good part, temporary +dilettante cloudland of our poor Century;--or can it be the real diviner +Pisgah height, and everlasting mount of vision, for man's soul in +any Century? And I think Sterling himself bent towards a negative +conclusion, in the course of years. Certainly, of all subjects this +was the one I cared least to hear even Sterling talk of: indeed it is a +subject on which earnest men, abhorrent of hypocrisy and speech that has +no meaning, are admonished to silence in this sad time, and had better, +in such a Babel as we have got into for the present, "perambulate their +picture-gallery with little or no speech." + +Here is another and to me much more earnest kind of "Art," which +renders Rome unique among the cities of the world; of this we will, in +preference; take a glance through Sterling's eyes:-- + +"January 22d, 1839.--On Friday last there was a great Festival at St. +Peter's; the only one I have seen. The Church was decorated with crimson +hangings, and the choir fitted up with seats and galleries, and a throne +for the Pope. There were perhaps a couple of hundred guards of different +kinds; and three or four hundred English ladies, and not so many foreign +male spectators; so that the place looked empty. The Cardinals in +scarlet, and Monsignori in purple, were there; and a body of officiating +Clergy. The Pope was carried in in his chair on men's shoulders, wearing +the Triple Crown; which I have thus actually seen: it is something +like a gigantic Egg, and of the same color, with three little bands of +gold,--very large Egg-shell with three streaks of the yolk smeared round +it. He was dressed in white silk robes, with gold trimmings. + +"It was a fine piece of state-show; though, as there are three or four +such Festivals yearly, of course there is none of the eager interest +which breaks out at coronations and similar rare events; no explosion +of unwonted velvets, jewels, carriages and footmen, such as London and +Milan have lately enjoyed. I guessed all the people in St. Peter's, +including performers and spectators, at 2,000; where 20,000 would hardly +have been a crushing crowd. Mass was performed, and a stupid but short +Latin sermon delivered by a lad, in honor of St. Peter, who would have +been much astonished if he could have heard it. The genuflections, and +train-bearings, and folding up the tails of silk petticoats while the +Pontiff knelt, and the train of Cardinals going up to kiss his Ring, and +so forth,--made on me the impression of something immeasurably old and +sepulchral, such as might suit the Grand Lama's court, or the inside of +an Egyptian Pyramid; or as if the Hieroglyphics on one of the Obelisks +here should begin to pace and gesticulate, and nod their bestial heads +upon the granite tablets. The careless bystanders, the London ladies +with their eye-glasses and look of an Opera-box, the yawning young +gentlemen of the _Guarda Nobile_, and the laugh of one of the file of +vermilion Priests round the steps of the altar at the whispered good +thing of his neighbor, brought one back to nothing indeed of a very +lofty kind, but still to the Nineteenth Century."-- + +"At the great Benediction of the City and the World on Easter Sunday by +the Pope," he writes afterwards, "there was a large crowd both native +and foreign, hundreds of carriages, and thousands of the lower orders of +people from the country; but even of the poor hardly one in twenty took +off his hat, and a still smaller number knelt down. A few years ago, +not a head was covered, nor was there a knee which did not bow."--A very +decadent "Holiness of our Lord the Pope," it would appear!-- + +Sterling's view of the Pope, as seen in these his gala days, doing his +big play-actorism under God's earnest sky, was much more substantial +to me than his studies in the picture-galleries. To Mr. Hare also he +writes: "I have seen the Pope in all his pomp at St. Peter's; and he +looked to me a mere lie in livery. The Romish Controversy is doubtless a +much more difficult one than the managers of the Religious-Tract Society +fancy, because it is a theoretical dispute; and in dealing with notions +and authorities, I can quite understand how a mere student in a library, +with no eye for facts, should take either one side or other. But how any +man with clear head and honest heart, and capable of seeing realities, +and distinguishing them from scenic falsehoods, should, after living in +a Romanist country, and especially at Rome, be inclined to side with Leo +against Luther, I cannot understand." [20] + +It is fit surely to recognize with admiring joy any glimpse of the +Beautiful and the Eternal that is hung out for us, in color, in form or +tone, in canvas, stone, or atmospheric air, and made accessible by any +sense, in this world: but it is greatly fitter still (little as we are +used that way) to shudder in pity and abhorrence over the scandalous +tragedy, transcendent nadir of human ugliness and contemptibility, which +under the daring title of religious worship, and practical recognition +of the Highest God, daily and hourly everywhere transacts itself there. +And, alas, not there only, but elsewhere, everywhere more or less; +whereby our sense is so blunted to it;--whence, in all provinces of +human life, these tears!-- + +But let us take a glance at the Carnival, since we are here. The +Letters, as before, are addressed to Knightsbridge; the date _Rome_:-- + +"_February 5th_, 1839.--The Carnival began yesterday. It is a curious +example of the trifling things which will heartily amuse tens of +thousands of grown people, precisely because they are trifling, and +therefore a relief from serious business, cares and labors. The Corso +is a street about a mile long, and about as broad as Jermyn Street; but +bordered by much loftier houses, with many palaces and churches, and +has two or three small squares opening into it. Carriages, mostly open, +drove up and down it for two or three hours; and the contents were shot +at with handfuls of comfits from the windows,--in the hope of making +them as non-content as possible,--while they returned the fire to the +best of their inferior ability. The populace, among whom was I, walked +about; perhaps one in fifty were masked in character; but there was +little in the masquerade either of splendor of costume or liveliness of +mimicry. However, the whole scene was very gay; there were a good many +troops about, and some of them heavy dragoons, who flourished +their swords with the magnanimity of our Life-Guards, to repel the +encroachments of too ambitious little boys. Most of the windows +and balconies were hung with colored drapery; and there were flags, +trumpets, nosegays and flirtations of all shapes and sizes. The best of +all was, that there was laughter enough to have frightened Cassius out +of his thin carcass, could the lean old homicide have been present, +otherwise than as a fleshless ghost;--in which capacity I thought I had +a glimpse of him looking over the shoulder of a particolored clown, in +a carriage full of London Cockneys driving towards the Capitol. This +good-humored foolery will go on for several days to come, ending always +with the celebrated Horse-race, of horses without riders. The long +street is cleared in the centre by troops, and half a dozen quadrupeds, +ornamented like Grimaldi in a London pantomime, scamper away, with the +mob closing and roaring at their heels." + +"_February_ 9th, 1839.--The usual state of Rome is quiet and sober. One +could almost fancy the actual generation held their breath, and stole by +on tiptoe, in presence of so memorable a past. But during the Carnival +all mankind, womankind and childkind think it unbecoming not to play +the fool. The modern donkey pokes its head out of the lion's skin of old +Rome, and brays out the absurdest of asinine roundelays. Conceive twenty +thousand grown people in a long street, at the windows, on the footways, +and in carriages, amused day after day for several hours in pelting and +being pelted with handfuls of mock or real sugar-plums; and this no name +or presence, but real downright showers of plaster comfits, from which +people guard their eyes with meshes of wire. As sure as a carriage +passes under a window or balcony where are acquaintances of theirs, down +comes a shower of hail, ineffectually returned from below. The parties +in two crossing carriages similarly assault each other; and there are +long balconies hung the whole way with a deep canvas pocket full of this +mortal shot. One Russian Grand Duke goes with a troop of youngsters in a +wagon, all dressed in brown linen frocks and masked, and pelts among the +most furious, also being pelted. The children are of course preeminently +vigorous, and there is a considerable circulation of real sugar-plums, +which supply consolation for all disappointments." + +The whole to conclude, as is proper, with a display, with two displays, +of fireworks; in which art, as in some others, Rome is unrivalled:-- + +"_February 9th_, 1839.--It seems to be the ambition of all the lower +classes to wear a mask and showy grotesque disguise of some kind; and I +believe many of the upper ranks do the same. They even put St. Peter's +into masquerade; and make it a Cathedral of Lamplight instead of a stone +one. Two evenings ago this feat was performed; and I was able to see it +from the rooms of a friend near this, which command an excellent view of +it. I never saw so beautiful an effect of artificial light. The evening +was perfectly serene and clear; the principal lines of the building, the +columns, architrave and pediment of the front, the two inferior cupolas, +the curves of the dome from which the dome rises, the ribs of the dome +itself, the small oriel windows between them, and the lantern and ball +and cross,--all were delineated in the clear vault of air by lines of +pale yellow fire. The dome of another great Church, much nearer to +the eye, stood up as a great black mass,--a funereal contrast to the +luminous tabernacle. + +"While I was looking at this latter, a red blaze burst from the summit, +and at the same moment seemed to flash over the whole building, filling +up the pale outline with a simultaneous burst of fire. This is a +celebrated display; and is done, I believe, by the employment of a very +great number of men to light, at the same instant, the torches which are +fixed for the purpose all over the building. After the first glare of +fire, I did not think the second aspect of the building so beautiful +as the first; it wanted both softness and distinctness. The two most +animated days of the Carnival are still to come." + +"_April 4th_, 1839.--We have just come to the termination of all the +Easter spectacles here. On Sunday evening St. Peter's was a second time +illuminated; I was in the Piazza, and admired the sight from a nearer +point than when I had seen it before at the time of the Carnival. + +"On Monday evening the celebrated fire-works were let off from the +Castle of St. Angelo; they were said to be, in some respects more +brilliant than usual. I certainly never saw any fireworks comparable +to them for beauty. The Girandola is a discharge of many thousands of +rockets at once, which of course fall back, like the leaves of a lily, +and form for a minute a very beautiful picture. There was also in +silvery light a very long Facade of a Palace, which looked a residence +for Oberon and Titania, and beat Aladdin's into darkness. Afterwards a +series of cascades of red fire poured down the faces of the Castle and +of the scaffoldings round it, and seemed a burning Niagara. Of course +there were abundance of serpents, wheels and cannon-shot; there was also +a display of dazzling white light, which made a strange appearance on +the houses, the river, the bridge, and the faces of the multitude. The +whole ended with a second and a more splendid Girandola." + +Take finally, to people the scene a little for us, if our imagination +be at all lively, these three small entries, of different dates, and so +wind up:-- + +"_December 30th_, 1838.--I received on Christmas-day a packet from +Dr. Carlyle, containing Letters from the Maurices; which were a very +pleasant arrival. The Dr. wrote a few lines with them, mentioning that +he was only at Civita Vecchia while the steamer baited on its way to +Naples. I have written to thank him for his despatches." + +"_March 16th_, 1839.--I have seen a good deal of John Mill, whose +society I like much. He enters heartily into the interest of the things +which I most care for here, and I have seldom had more pleasure than +in taking him to see Raffael's Loggie, where are the Frescos called his +Bible, and to the Sixtine Chapel, which I admire and love more and +more. He is in very weak health, but as fresh and clear in mind as +possible.... English politics seem in a queer state, the Conservatives +creeping on, the Whigs losing ground; like combatants on the top of a +breach, while there is a social mine below which will probably blow both +parties into the air." + +"_April 4th_, 1839.--I walked out on Tuesday on the Ancona Road, and +about noon met a travelling carriage, which from a distance looked very +suspicious, and on nearer approach was found really to contain Captain +Sterling and an Albanian manservant on the front, and behind under the +hood Mrs. A. Sterling and the she portion of the tail. They seemed very +well; and, having turned the Albanian back to the rear of the whole +machine, I sat by Anthony, and entered Rome in triumph."--Here is indeed +a conquest! Captain A. Sterling, now on his return from service in +Corfu, meets his Brother in this manner; and the remaining Roman days +are of a brighter complexion. As these suddenly ended, I believe he +turned southward, and found at Naples the Dr. Carlyle above mentioned +(an extremely intimate acquaintance of mine), who was still there. For +we are a most travelling people, we of this Island in this time; and, +as the Prophet threatened, see ourselves, in so many senses, made "like +unto a wheel!"-- + +Sterling returned from Italy filled with much cheerful imagery and +reminiscence, and great store of artistic, serious, dilettante and other +speculation for the time; improved in health, too; but probably +little enriched in real culture or spiritual strength; and indeed not +permanently altered by his tour in any respect to a sensible extent, +that one could notice. He returned rather in haste, and before the +expected time; summoned, about the middle of April, by his Wife's +domestic situation at Hastings; who, poor lady, had been brought to bed +before her calculation, and had in few days lost her infant; and now saw +a household round her much needing the master's presence. He hurried off +to Malta, dreading the Alps at that season; and came home, by steamer, +with all speed, early in May, 1839. + + + + +PART III. + + + + +CHAPTER I. CLIFTON. + +Matters once readjusted at Hastings, it was thought Sterling's health +had so improved, and his activities towards Literature so developed +themselves into congruity, that a permanent English place of abode +might now again be selected,--on the Southwest coast somewhere,--and the +family once more have the blessing of a home, and see its _lares_ +and _penates_ and household furniture unlocked from the Pantechnicon +repositories, where they had so long been lying. + +Clifton, by Bristol, with its soft Southern winds and high cheerful +situation, recommended too by the presence of one or more valuable +acquaintances there, was found to be the eligible place; and thither in +this summer of 1839, having found a tolerable lodging, with the prospect +by and by of an agreeable house, he and his removed. This was the end of +what I call his "third peregrinity;"--or reckoning the West Indies one, +his fourth. This also is, since Bayswater, the fourth time his family +has had to shift on his account. Bayswater; then to Bordeaux, to +Blackheath and Knightsbridge (during the Madeira time), to Hastings +(Roman time); and now to Clifton, not to stay there either: a sadly +nomadic life to be prescribed to a civilized man! + + +At Clifton his habitation was speedily enough set up; household +conveniences, methods of work, daily promenades on foot or horseback, +and before long even a circle of friends, or of kindly neighborhoods +ripening into intimacy, were established round him. In all this no man +could be more expert or expeditious, in such cases. It was with singular +facility, in a loving, hoping manner, that he threw himself open to +the new interests and capabilities of the new place; snatched out of +it whatsoever of human or material would suit him; and in brief, in +all senses had pitched his tent-habitation, and grew to look on it as a +house. It was beautiful too, as well as pathetic. This man saw himself +reduced to be a dweller in tents, his house is but a stone tent; and he +can so kindly accommodate himself to that arrangement;--healthy faculty +and diseased necessity, nature and habit, and all manner of things +primary and secondary, original and incidental, conspiring now to make +it easy for him. With the evils of nomadism, he participated to the full +in whatever benefits lie in it for a man. + +He had friends enough, old and new, at Clifton, whose intercourse made +the place human for him. Perhaps among the most valued of the former +sort may be mentioned Mrs. Edward Strachey, Widow of the late Indian +Judge, who now resided here; a cultivated, graceful, most devout and +high-minded lady; whom he had known in old years, first probably as +Charles Buller's Aunt, and whose esteem was constant for him, and always +precious to him. She was some ten or twelve years older than he; she +survived him some years, but is now also gone from us. Of new friends +acquired here, besides a skilful and ingenious Dr. Symonds, physician +as well as friend, the principal was Francis Newman, then and still an +ardently inquiring soul, of fine University and other attainments, of +sharp-cutting, restlessly advancing intellect, and the mildest pious +enthusiasm; whose worth, since better known to all the world, Sterling +highly estimated;--and indeed practically testified the same; having by +will appointed him, some years hence, guardian to his eldest Son; which +pious function Mr. Newman now successfully discharges. + + +Sterling was not long in certainty as to his abode at Clifton: alas, +where could he long be so? Hardly six months were gone when his old +enemy again overtook him; again admonished him how frail his hopes of +permanency were. Each winter, it turned out, he had to fly; and after +the second of these, he quitted the place altogether. Here, meanwhile, +in a Letter to myself, and in Excerpts from others, are some glimpses of +his advent and first summer there:-- + + _To his Mother_. + +"_Clifton, June 11th_, 1839.--As yet I am personally very uncomfortable +from the general confusion of this house, which deprives me of my room +to sit and read and write in; all being more or less lumbered by boxes, +and invaded by servile domesticities aproned, handled, bristled, and of +nondescript varieties. We have very fine warm weather, with occasional +showers; and the verdure of the woods and fields is very beautiful. +Bristol seems as busy as need be; and the shops and all kinds of +practical conveniences are excellent; but those of Clifton have the +usual sentimental, not to say meretricious fraudulence of commercial +establishments in Watering-places. + +"The bag which Hannah forgot reached us safely at Bath on Friday +morning; but I cannot quite unriddle the mystery of the change of +padlocks, for I left the right one in care of the Head Steam-engine at +Paddington, which seemed a very decent person with a good black coat on, +and a pen behind its ear. I have been meditating much on the story of +Palarea's 'box of papers;' which does not appear to be in my possession, +and I have a strong impression that I gave it to young Florez Calderon. +I will write to say so to Madam Torrijos speedily." Palarea, Dr. +Palarea, I understand, was "an old guerilla leader whom they called +_El Medico_." Of him and of the vanished shadows, now gone to Paris, to +Madrid, or out of the world, let us say nothing! + + _To Mr. Carlyle_. + +"_June 15th_, 1839.--We have a room now occupied by Robert Barton [a +brother-in-law]; to which Anthony may perhaps succeed; but which after +him, or in lieu of him, would expand itself to receive you. Is there no +hope of your coming? I would undertake to ride with you at all possible +paces, and in all existing directions. + +"As yet my books are lying as ghost books, in a limbo on the banks of +a certain Bristolian Styx, humanly speaking, a _Canal_; but the other +apparatus of life is gathered about me, and performs its diurnal +functions. The place pleases me better than I expected: a far lookout on +all sides, over green country; a sufficient old City lying in the hollow +near; and civilization, in no tumultuous state, rather indeed stagnant, +visible in the Rows of Houses and Gardens which call themselves Clifton. +I hope soon to take a lease of a house, where I may arrange myself more +methodically; keep myself equably boiling in my own kitchen; and spread +myself over a series of book-shelves.... I have just been interrupted +by a visit from Mrs. Strachey; with whom I dined yesterday. She seems a +very good and thoroughly kind-hearted woman; and it is pleasant to have +her for a neighbor.... I have read Emerson's Pamphlets. I should find it +more difficult than ever to write to him." + + _To his Father_. + +"_June 30th_, 1839.--Of Books I shall have no lack, though no plethora; +and the Reading-room supplies all one can want in the way of Papers +and Reviews. I go there three or four times a week, and inquire how the +human race goes on. I suppose this Turco-Egyptian War will throw several +diplomatists into a state of great excitement, and massacre a good many +thousands of Africans and Asiatics?--For the present, it appears, the +English Education Question is settled. I wish the Government had said +that, in their inspection and superintendence, they would look only to +secular matters, and leave religious ones to the persons who set up the +schools, whoever these might be. It seems to me monstrous that the State +should be prevented taking any efficient measures for teaching Roman +Catholic children to read, write and cipher, merely because they believe +in the Pope, and the Pope is an impostor,--which I candidly confess he +is! There is no question which I can so ill endure to see made a party +one as that of Education."--The following is of the same day:-- + + "_To Thomas Carlyle, Esq., Chelsea, London_. + "MANOR HOUSE, CLIFTON PLACE, CLIFTON, + "30th June, 1839. + +"MY DEAR CARLYLE,--I have heard, this morning, from my Father, that you +are to set out on Tuesday for Scotland: so I have determined to fillip +away some spurt of ink in your direction, which may reach you before you +move towards Thule. + +"Writing to you, in fact, is considerably easier than writing about +you; which has been my employment of late, at leisure moments,--that +is, moments of leisure from idleness, not work. As you partly guessed, +I took in hand a Review of _Teufelsdrockh_--for want of a better +Heuschrecke to do the work; and when I have been well enough, and alert +enough, during the last fortnight, have tried to set down some notions +about Tobacco, Radicalism, Christianity, Assafoetida and so forth. But a +few abortive pages are all the result as yet. If my speculations should +ever see daylight, they may chance to get you into scrapes, but +will certainly get me into worse.... But one must work; _sic itur ad +astra_,--and the _astra_ are always there to befriend one, at least as +asterisks, filling up the gaps which yawn in vain for words. + +"Except my unsuccessful efforts to discuss you and your offences, I have +done nothing that leaves a trace behind;--unless the endeavor to teach +my little boy the Latin declensions shall be found, at some time short +of the Last Day, to have done so. I have--rather I think from dyspepsia +than dyspneumony--been often and for days disabled from doing anything +but read. In this way I have gone through a good deal of Strauss's Book; +which is exceedingly clever and clearheaded; with more of insight, and +less of destructive rage than I expected. It will work deep and far, +in such a time as ours. When so many minds are distracted about the +history, or rather genesis of the Gospel, it is a great thing for +partisans on the one side to have, what the other never have wanted, +a Book of which they can say, This is our Creed and Code,--or rather +Anti-creed and Anti-code. And Strauss seems perfectly secure against the +sort of answer to which Voltaire's critical and historical shallowness +perpetually exposed him. I mean to read the Book through. It seems +admitted that the orthodox theologians have failed to give any +sufficient answer.--I have also looked through Michelet's _Luther_, with +great delight; and have read the fourth volume of Coleridge's _Literary +Remains_, in which there are things that would interest you. He has a +great hankering after Cromwell, and explicitly defends the execution of +Charles. + +"Of Mrs. Strachey we have seen a great deal; and might have seen more, +had I had time and spirits for it. She is a warm-hearted, enthusiastic +creature, whom one cannot but like. She seems always excited by the wish +for more excitement than her life affords. And such a person is always +in danger of doing something less wise than his best knowledge and +aspirations; because he must do something, and circumstances do not +allow him to do what he desires. Thence, after the first glow of +novelty, endless self-tormenting comes from the contrast between aims +and acts. She sets out, with her daughter and two boys, for a Tour in +Wales to-morrow morning. Her talk of you is always most affectionate; +and few, I guess, will read _Sartor_ with more interest than she. + +"I am still in a very extempore condition as to house, books, &c. One +which I have hired for three years will be given up to me in the middle +of August; and then I may hope to have something like a house,--so far +as that is possible for any one to whom Time itself is often but a worse +or a better kind of cave in the desert. We have had rainy and cheerless +weather almost since the day of our arrival. But the sun now shines +more lovingly, and the skies seem less disdainful of man and his +perplexities. The earth is green, abundant and beautiful. But human +life, so far as I can learn, is mean and meagre enough in its purposes, +however striking to the speculative or sentimental bystander. Pray be +assured that whatever you may say of the 'landlord at Clifton,' [21] the +more I know of him, the less I shall like him. Well with me if I can +put up with him for the present, and make use of him, till at last I can +joyfully turn him off forever! + +"Love to you Wife and self. My little Charlotte desires me to tell you +that she has new shoes for her Doll, which she will show you when you +come. + + "Yours, + "JOHN STERLING." + +The visit to Clifton never took effect; nor to any of Sterling's +subsequent homes; which now is matter of regret to me. Concerning +the "Review of _Teufelsdrockh_" there will be more to say anon. As to +"little Charlotte and her Doll," I remember well enough and was more +than once reminded, this bright little creature, on one of my first +visits to Bayswater, had earnestly applied to me to put her Doll's shoes +on for her; which feat was performed.--The next fragment indicates a +household settled, fallen into wholesome routine again; and may close +the series here:-- + + _To his Mother_. + +"_July 22d_, 1839.--A few evenings ago we went to Mr. Griffin's, and +met there Dr. Prichard, the author of a well-known Book on the _Races of +Mankind_, to which it stands in the same relation among English books +as the Racing Calendar does to those of Horsekind. He is a very +intelligent, accomplished person. We had also there the Dean; a certain +Dr. ---- of Corpus College, Cambridge (a booby); and a clever fellow, +a Mr. Fisher, one of the Tutors of Trinity in my days. We had a very +pleasant evening."-- + +At London we were in the habit of expecting Sterling pretty often; his +presence, in this house as in others, was looked for, once in the month +or two, and came always as sunshine in the gray weather to me and mine. +My daily walks with him had long since been cut short without renewal; +that walk to Eltham and Edgeworth's perhaps the last of the kind he and +I had: but our intimacy, deepening and widening year after year, knew no +interruption or abatement of increase; an honest, frank and truly human +mutual relation, valuable or even invaluable to both parties, and a +lasting loss, hardly to be replaced in this world, to the survivor of +the two. + +His visits, which were usually of two or three days, were always full of +business, rapid in movement as all his life was. To me, if possible, he +would come in the evening; a whole cornucopia of talk and speculation +was to be discharged. If the evening would not do, and my affairs +otherwise permitted, I had to mount into cabs with him; fly far and +wide, shuttling athwart the big Babel, wherever his calls and pauses had +to be. This was his way to husband time! Our talk, in such straitened +circumstances, was loud or low as the circumambient groaning rage +of wheels and sound prescribed,--very loud it had to be in such +thoroughfares as London Bridge and Cheapside; but except while he +was absent, off for minutes into some banker's office, lawyer's, +stationer's, haberdasher's or what office there might be, it never +paused. In this way extensive strange dialogues were carried on: to me +also very strange,--private friendly colloquies, on all manner of rich +subjects, held thus amid the chaotic roar of things. Sterling was full +of speculations, observations and bright sallies; vividly awake to what +was passing in the world; glanced pertinently with victorious clearness, +without spleen, though often enough with a dash of mockery, into its +Puseyisms, Liberalisms, literary Lionisms, or what else the mad hour +might be producing,--always prompt to recognize what grain of sanity +might be in the same. He was opulent in talk, and the rapid movement and +vicissitude on such occasions seemed to give him new excitement. + +Once, I still remember,--it was some years before, probably in May, on +his return from Madeira,--he undertook a day's riding with me; once and +never again. We coursed extensively, over the Hampstead and Highgate +regions, and the country beyond, sauntering or galloping through many +leafy lanes and pleasant places, in ever-flowing, ever-changing talk; +and returned down Regent Street at nightfall: one of the cheerfulest +days I ever had;--not to be repeated, said the Fates. Sterling was +charming on such occasions: at once a child and a gifted man. A serious +fund of thought he always had, a serious drift you never missed in him: +nor indeed had he much depth of real laughter or sense of the ludicrous, +as I have elsewhere said; but what he had was genuine, free and +continual: his sparkling sallies bubbled up as from aerated natural +fountains; a mild dash of gayety was native to the man, and had moulded +his physiognomy in a very graceful way. We got once into a cab, about +Charing Cross; I know not now whence or well whitherward, nor that our +haste was at all special; however, the cabman, sensible that his pace +was slowish, took to whipping, with a steady, passionless, businesslike +assiduity which, though the horse seemed lazy rather than weak, became +afflictive; and I urged remonstrance with the savage fellow: "Let him +alone," answered Sterling; "he is kindling the enthusiasm of his horse, +you perceive; that is the first thing, then we shall do very well!"--as +accordingly we did. + + +At Clifton, though his thoughts began to turn more on poetic forms +of composition, he was diligent in prose elaborations too,--doing +Criticism, for one thing, as we incidentally observed. He wrote there, +and sent forth in this autumn of 1839, his most important contribution +to John Mill's Review, the article on _Carlyle_, which stands also in +Mr. Hare's collection. [22] What its effect on the public was I knew +not, and know not; but remember well, and may here be permitted to +acknowledge, the deep silent joy, not of a weak or ignoble nature, which +it gave to myself in my then mood and situation; as it well might. The +first generous human recognition, expressed with heroic emphasis, and +clear conviction visible amid its fiery exaggeration, that one's poor +battle in this world is not quite a mad and futile, that it is perhaps a +worthy and manful one, which will come to something yet: this fact is +a memorable one in every history; and for me Sterling, often enough the +stiff gainsayer in our private communings, was the doer of this. The +thought burnt in me like a lamp, for several days; lighting up into +a kind of heroic splendor the sad volcanic wrecks, abysses, and +convulsions of said poor battle, and secretly I was very grateful to my +daring friend, and am still, and ought to be. What the public might be +thinking about him and his audacities, and me in consequence, or whether +it thought at all, I never learned, or much heeded to learn. + +Sterling's gainsaying had given way on many points; but on others it +continued stiff as ever, as may be seen in that article; indeed he +fought Parthian-like in such cases, holding out his last position as +doggedly as the first: and to some of my notions he seemed to grow in +stubbornness of opposition, with the growing inevitability, and +never would surrender. Especially that doctrine of the "greatness and +fruitfulness of Silence," remained afflictive and incomprehensible: +"Silence?" he would say: "Yes, truly; if they give you leave to proclaim +silence by cannon-salvos! My Harpocrates-Stentor!" In like manner, +"Intellect and Virtue," how they are proportional, or are indeed one +gift in us, the same great summary of gifts; and again, "Might and +Right," the identity of these two, if a man will understand this +God's-Universe, and that only he who conforms to the law of it can +in the long-run have any "might:" all this, at the first blush, often +awakened Sterling's musketry upon me, and many volleys I have had +to stand,--the thing not being decidable by that kind of weapon or +strategy. + +In such cases your one method was to leave our friend in peace. By +small-arms practice no mortal could dislodge him: but if you were in the +right, the silent hours would work continually for you; and Sterling, +more certainly than any man, would and must at length swear fealty to +the right, and passionately adopt it, burying all hostilities under +foot. A more candid soul, once let the stormful velocities of it expend +themselves, was nowhere to be met with. A son of light, if I have ever +seen one; recognizing the truth, if truth there were; hurling overboard +his vanities, petulances, big and small interests, in ready loyalty to +truth: very beautiful; at once a loyal child, as I said, and a gifted +man!--Here is a very pertinent passage from one of his Letters, which, +though the name continues blank, I will insert:-- + + _To his Father_. + +"_October 15th_, 1839.--As to my 'over-estimate of ----,' your +expressions rather puzzle me. I suppose there may be, at the outside, a +hundred persons in England whose opinions on such a matter are worth +as much as mine. If by 'the public' you and my Mother mean the other +ninety-nine, I submit. I have no doubt that, on any matter not relating +peculiarly to myself, the judgment of the ninety-nine most philosophical +heads in the country, if unanimous, would be right, and mine, if opposed +to them, wrong. But then I am at a loss to make out, How the decision of +the very few really competent persons has been ascertained to be thus in +contradiction to me? And on the other hand, I conceive myself, from my +opportunities, knowledge and attention to the subject, to be alone quite +entitled to outvote tens of thousands of gentlemen, however much my +superiors as men of business, men of the world, or men of merely dry or +merely frivolous literature. + +"I do not remember ever before to have heard the saying, whether of +Talleyrand or of any one else, That _all_ the world is a wiser man +than any man in the world. Had it been said even by the Devil, it would +nevertheless be false. I have often indeed heard the saying, _On peut +etre plus FIN qu'un autre, mais pas plus FIN que tous les autres_. But +observe that '_fin_' means _cunning_, not _wise_. The difference between +this assertion and the one you refer to is curious and worth examining. +It is quite certain, there is always some one man in the world wiser +than all the rest; as Socrates was declared by the oracle to be; and as, +I suppose, Bacon was in his day, and perhaps Burke in his. There is also +some one, whose opinion would be probably true, if opposed to that of +all around him; and it is always indubitable that the wise men are the +scores, and the unwise the millions. The millions indeed come round, in +the course of a generation or two, to the opinions of the wise; but +by that time a new race of wise men have again shot ahead of their +contemporaries: so it has always been, and so, in the nature of things, +it always must be. But with cunning, the matter is quite different. +Cunning is not _dishonest wisdom_, which would be a contradiction +in terms; it is _dishonest prudence_, acuteness in practice, not in +thought: and though there must always be some one the most cunning in +the world, as well as some one the most wise, these two superlatives +will fare very differently in the world. In the case of cunning, the +shrewdness of a whole people, of a whole generation, may doubtless be +combined against that of the one, and so triumph over it; which was +pretty much the case with Napoleon. But although a man of the greatest +cunning can hardly conceal his designs and true character from millions +of unfriendly eyes, it is quite impossible thus to club the eyes of +the mind, and to constitute by the union of ten thousand follies an +equivalent for a single wisdom. A hundred school-boys can easily unite +and thrash their one master; but a hundred thousand school-boys would +not be nearer than a score to knowing as much Greek among them as +Bentley or Scaliger. To all which, I believe, you will assent as readily +as I;--and I have written it down only because I have nothing more +important to say."-- + + +Besides his prose labors, Sterling had by this time written, publishing +chiefly in _Blackwood_, a large assortment of verses, _Sexton's +Daughter_, _Hymns of a Hermit_, and I know not what other extensive +stock of pieces; concerning which he was now somewhat at a loss as to +his true course. He could write verses with astonishing facility, in any +given form of metre; and to various readers they seemed excellent, +and high judges had freely called them so, but he himself had grave +misgivings on that latter essential point. In fact here once more was +a parting of the ways, "Write in Poetry; write in Prose?" upon which, +before all else, it much concerned him to come to a settlement. + +My own advice was, as it had always been, steady against Poetry; and we +had colloquies upon it, which must have tried his patience, for in him +there was a strong leaning the other way. But, as I remarked and urged: +Had he not already gained superior excellence in delivering, by way of +_speech_ or prose, what thoughts were in him, which is the grand and +only intrinsic function of a writing man, call him by what title you +will? Cultivate that superior excellence till it become a perfect and +superlative one. Why _sing_ your bits of thoughts, if you _can_ contrive +to speak them? By your thought, not by your mode of delivering it, +you must live or die.--Besides I had to observe there was in Sterling +intrinsically no depth of _tune_; which surely is the real test of a +Poet or Singer, as distinguished from a Speaker? In music proper he +had not the slightest ear; all music was mere impertinent noise to him, +nothing in it perceptible but the mere march or time. Nor in his way +of conception and utterance, in the verses he wrote, was there any +contradiction, but a constant confirmation to me, of that fatal +prognostic;--as indeed the whole man, in ear and heart and tongue, is +one; and he whose soul does not sing, need not try to do it with his +throat. Sterling's verses had a monotonous rub-a-dub, instead of tune; +no trace of music deeper than that of a well-beaten drum; to which +limited range of excellence the substance also corresponded; being +intrinsically always a rhymed and slightly rhythmical _speech_, not a +_song_. + +In short, all seemed to me to say, in his case: "You can speak with +supreme excellence; sing with considerable excellence you never can. And +the Age itself, does it not, beyond most ages, demand and require clear +speech; an Age incapable of being sung to, in any but a trivial manner, +till these convulsive agonies and wild revolutionary overturnings +readjust themselves? Intelligible word of command, not musical psalmody +and fiddling, is possible in this fell storm of battle. Beyond all ages, +our Age admonishes whatsoever thinking or writing man it has: Oh, speak +to me some wise intelligible speech; your wise meaning in the shortest +and clearest way; behold I am dying for want of wise meaning, and +insight into the devouring fact: speak, if you have any wisdom! As to +song so called, and your fiddling talent,--even if you have one, much +more if you have none,--we will talk of that a couple of centuries +hence, when things are calmer again. Homer shall be thrice welcome; but +only when Troy is _taken_: alas, while the siege lasts, and battle's +fury rages everywhere, what can I do with the Homer? I want Achilleus +and Odysseus, and am enraged to see them trying to be Homers!"-- + +Sterling, who respected my sincerity, and always was amenable enough to +counsel, was doubtless much confused by such contradictory diagnosis of +his case. The question, Poetry or Prose? became more and more pressing, +more and more insoluble. He decided, at last, to appeal to the public +upon it;--got ready, in the late autumn, a small select Volume of his +verses; and was now busy pushing it through the press. Unfortunately, +in the mean while, a grave illness, of the old pulmonary sort, overtook +him, which at one time threatened to be dangerous. This is a glance +again into his interior household in these circumstances:-- + + _To his Mother_. + +"_December 21st_, 1839.--The Tin box came quite safe, with all its +miscellaneous contents. I suppose we are to thank you for the _Comic +Almanac_, which, as usual, is very amusing; and for the Book on _Watt_, +which disappointed me. The scientific part is no doubt very good, and +particularly clear and simple; but there is nothing remarkable in +the account of Watt's character; and it is an absurd piece of French +impertinence in Arago to say, that England has not yet learnt to +appreciate men like Watt, because he was not made a peer; which, were +our peerage an institution like that of France, would have been very +proper. + +"I have now finished correcting the proofs of my little Volume of +Poems. It has been a great plague to me, and one that I would not have +incurred, had I expected to be laid up as I have been; but the +matter was begun before I had any notion of being disabled by such an +illness,--the severest I have suffered since I went to the West Indies. +The Book will, after all, be a botched business in many respects; and I +much doubt whether it will pay its expenses: but I try to consider it +as out of my hands, and not to fret myself about it. I shall be very +curious to see Carlyle's Tractate on _Chartism_; which"--But we need not +enter upon that. + +Sterling's little Book was printed at his own expense; [23] published by +Moxon in the very end of this year. It carries an appropriate and pretty +Epigraph:-- + + "Feeling, Thought, and Fancy be + Gentle sister Graces three: + If these prove averse to me, + They will punish,--pardon Ye!" + +He had dedicated the little Volume to Mr. Hare;--and he submitted very +patiently to the discouraging neglect with which it was received by the +world; for indeed the "Ye" said nothing audible, in the way of pardon +or other doom; so that whether the "sister Graces" were averse or not, +remained as doubtful as ever. + + + +CHAPTER II. TWO WINTERS. + +As we said above, it had been hoped by Sterling's friends, not very +confidently by himself, that in the gentler air of Clifton his health +might so far recover as to enable him to dispense with autumnal voyages, +and to spend the year all round in a house of his own. These hopes, +favorable while the warm season lasted, broke down when winter came. In +November of this same year, while his little Volume was passing through +the press, bad and worse symptoms, spitting of blood to crown the sad +list, reappeared; and Sterling had to equip himself again, at this late +season, for a new flight to Madeira; wherein the good Calvert, himself +suffering, and ready on all grounds for such an adventure, offered to +accompany him. Sterling went by land to Falmouth, meaning there to wait +for Calvert, who was to come by the Madeira Packet, and there take him +on board. + +Calvert and the Packet did arrive, in stormy January weather; which +continued wildly blowing for weeks; forbidding all egress Westward, +especially for invalids. These elemental tumults, and blustering wars +of sea and sky, with nothing but the misty solitude of Madeira in the +distance, formed a very discouraging outlook. In the mean while Falmouth +itself had offered so many resources, and seemed so tolerable in climate +and otherwise, while this wintry ocean looked so inhospitable for +invalids, it was resolved our voyagers should stay where they were till +spring returned. Which accordingly was done; with good effect for that +season, and also with results for the coming seasons. Here again, from +Letters to Knightsbridge, are some glimpses of his winter-life:-- + +"_Falmouth, February 5th_, 1840.--I have been to-day to see a new +tin-mine, two or three miles off, which is expected to turn into a +copper-mine by and by, so they will have the two constituents of bronze +close together. This, by the way, was the 'brass' of Homer and the +Ancients generally, who do not seem to have known our brass made of +copper and zinc. Achilles in his armor must have looked like a bronze +statue.--I took Sheridan's advice, and did not go down the mine." + +"_February 15th_.--To some iron-works the other day; where I saw half +the beam of a great steam-engine, a piece of iron forty feet long +and seven broad, cast in about five minutes. It was a very striking +spectacle. I hope to go to Penzance before I leave this country, and +will not fail to tell you about it." He did make trial of Penzance, +among other places, next year; but only of Falmouth this. + +"_February 20th_.--I am going on _asy_ here, in spite of a great change +of weather. The East-winds are come at last, bringing with them snow, +which has been driving about for the last twenty-four hours; not falling +heavily, nor lying long when fallen. Neither is it as yet very cold, but +I suppose there will be some six weeks of unpleasant temperature. +The marine climate of this part of England will, no doubt, modify and +mollify the air into a happier sort of substance than that you breathe +in London. + +"The large vessels that had been lying here for weeks, waiting for a +wind, have now sailed; two of them for the East Indies, and having three +hundred soldiers on board. It is a curious thing that the long-continued +westerly winds had so prevented the coasters arriving, that the Town was +almost on the point of a famine as to bread. The change has brought in +abundance of flour.--The people in general seem extremely comfortable; +their houses are excellent, almost all of stone. Their habits are very +little agricultural, but mining and fishing seem to prosper with +them. There are hardly any gentry here; I have not seen more than two +gentlemen's carriages in the Town; indeed I think the nearest one comes +from five miles off.... + +"I have been obliged to try to occupy myself with Natural Science, in +order to give some interest to my walks; and have begun to feel my way +in Geology. I have now learnt to recognize three or four of the common +kinds of stone about here, when I see them; but I find it stupid work +compared with Poetry and Philosophy. In the mornings, however, for an +hour or so before I get up, I generally light my candle, and try to +write some verses; and since I have been here, I have put together short +poems, almost enough for another small volume. In the evenings I have +gone on translating some of Goethe. But six or seven hours spent on my +legs, in the open air, do not leave my brain much energy for thinking. +Thus my life is a dull and unprofitable one, but still better than it +would have been in Madeira or on board ship. I hear from Susan every +day, and write to her by return of post." + +At Falmouth Sterling had been warmly welcomed by the well-known +Quaker family of the Foxes, principal people in that place, persons of +cultivated opulent habits, and joining to the fine purities and pieties +of their sect a reverence for human intelligence in all kinds; to whom +such a visitor as Sterling was naturally a welcome windfall. The family +had grave elders, bright cheery younger branches, men and women; truly +amiable all, after their sort: they made a pleasant image of home for +Sterling in his winter exile. "Most worthy, respectable and highly +cultivated people, with a great deal of money among them," writes +Sterling in the end of February; "who make the place pleasant to me. +They are connected with all the large Quaker circle, the Gurneys, Frys, +&c., and also with Buxton the Abolitionist. It is droll to hear them +talking of all the common topics of science, literature, and life, and +in the midst of it: 'Does thou know Wordsworth?' or, 'Did thou see the +Coronation?' or 'Will thou take some refreshment?' They are very kind +and pleasant people to know." + +"Calvert," continues our Diarist, "is better than he lately was, though +he has not been at all laid up. He shoots little birds, and dissects +and stuffs them; while I carry a hammer, and break flints and slates, +to look for diamonds and rubies inside; and admire my success in the +evening, when I empty my great-coat pocket of its specimens. On the +whole, I doubt whether my physical proceedings will set the Thames +on fire. Give my love to Anthony's Charlotte; also remember me +affectionately to the Carlyles."-- + +At this time, too, John Mill, probably encouraged by Sterling, arrived +in Falmouth, seeking refuge of climate for a sickly younger Brother, to +whom also, while he continued there, and to his poor patient, the doors +and hearts of this kind family were thrown wide open. Falmouth, during +these winter weeks, especially while Mill continued, was an unexpectedly +engaging place to Sterling; and he left it in spring, for Clifton, with +a very kindly image of it in his thoughts. So ended, better than it +might have done, his first year's flight from the Clifton winter. + +In April, 1840, he was at his own hearth again; cheerily pursuing his +old labors,--struggling to redeem, as he did with a gallant constancy, +the available months and days, out of the wreck of so many that were +unavailable, for the business allotted him in this world. His swift, +decisive energy of character; the valiant rally he made again and ever +again, starting up fresh from amid the wounded, and cheerily storming in +anew, was admirable, and showed a noble fund of natural health amid such +an element of disease. Somehow one could never rightly fancy that he +was diseased; that those fatal ever-recurring downbreaks were not almost +rather the penalties paid for exuberance of health, and of faculty +for living and working; criminal forfeitures, incurred by excess of +self-exertion and such irrepressible over-rapidity of movement: and the +vague hope was habitual with us, that increase of years, as it deadened +this over-energy, would first make the man secure of life, and a sober +prosperous worker among his fellows. It was always as if with a kind +of blame that one heard of his being ill again! Poor Sterling;--no man +knows another's burden: these things were not, and were not to be, in +the way we had fancied them! + +Summer went along in its usual quiet tenor at Clifton; health good, as +usual while the warm weather lasted, and activity abundant; the scene +as still as the busiest could wish. "You metropolitan signors," writes +Sterling to his Father, "cannot conceive the dulness and scantiness of +our provincial chronicle." Here is a little excursion to the seaside; +the lady of the family being again,--for good reasons,--in a weakly +state:-- + + "_To Edward Sterling, Esq., Knightsbridge, London_. + "PORTSHEAD, BRISTOL, 1st Sept., 1840. + +"MY DEAR FATHER,--This place is a southern headland at the mouth of the +Avon. Susan, and the Children too, were all suffering from languor; and +as she is quite unfit to travel in a carriage, we were obliged to move, +if at all, to some place accessible by water; and this is the nearest +where we could get the fresher air of the Bristol Channel. We sent to +take a house, for a week; and came down here in a steamer yesterday +morning. It seems likely to do every one good. We have a comfortable +house, with eight rather small bedrooms, for which we pay four guineas +and a half for the week. We have brought three of our own maids, and +leave one to take care of the house at Clifton. + +"A week ago my horse fell with me, but did not hurt seriously either +himself or me: it was, however, rather hard that, as there were six legs +to be damaged, the one that did scratch itself should belong to the part +of the machine possessing only two, instead of the quadrupedal portion. +I grazed about the size of a halfpenny on my left knee; and for a couple +of days walked about as if nothing had happened. I found, however, +that the skin was not returning correctly; and so sent for a doctor: he +treated the thing as quite insignificant, but said I must keep my leg +quiet for a few days. It is still not quite healed; and I lie all day +on a sofa, much to my discomposure; but the thing is now rapidly +disappearing; and I hope, in a day or two more, I shall be free again. I +find I can do no work, while thus crippled in my leg. The man in Horace +who made verses _stans pede in uno_ had the advantage of me. + +"The Great Western came in last night about eleven, and has just been +making a flourish past our windows; looking very grand, with four +streamers of bunting, and one of smoke. Of course I do not yet know +whether I have Letters by her, as if so they will have gone to Clifton +first. This place is quiet, green and pleasant; and will suit us very +well, if we have good weather, of which there seems every appearance. + +"Milnes spent last Sunday with me at Clifton; and was very amusing +and cordial. It is impossible for those who know him well not to like +him.--I send this to Knightsbridge, not knowing where else to hit you. +Love to my Mother. + + "Your affectionate, + "JOHN STERLING." + +The expected "Letters by the Great Western" are from Anthony, now in +Canada, doing military duties there. The "Milnes" is our excellent +Richard, whom all men know, and truly whom none can know well without +even doing as Sterling says.--In a week the family had returned to +Clifton; and Sterling was at his poetizings and equitations again. His +grand business was now Poetry; all effort, outlook and aim exclusively +directed thither, this good while. + +Of the published Volume Moxon gave the worst tidings; no man had +hailed it with welcome; unsold it lay, under the leaden seal of general +neglect; the public when asked what it thought, had answered hitherto by +a lazy stare. It shall answer otherwise, thought Sterling; by no means +taking that as the final response. It was in this same September that he +announced to me and other friends, under seal of secrecy as usual, the +completion, or complete first-draught, of "a new Poem reaching to two +thousand verses." By working "three hours every morning" he had brought +it so far. This Piece, entitled _The Election_, of which in due time we +obtained perusal, and had to give some judgment, proved to be in a new +vein,--what might be called the mock-heroic, or sentimental Hudibrastic, +reminding one a little, too, of Wieland's _Oberon_;--it had touches of +true drollery combined not ill with grave clear insight; showed spirit +everywhere, and a plainly improved power of execution. Our stingy +verdict was to the effect, "Better, but still not good enough:--why +follow that sad 'metrical' course, climbing the loose sandhills, when +you have a firm path along the plain?" To Sterling himself it remained +dubious whether so slight a strain, new though it were, would suffice to +awaken the sleeping public; and the Piece was thrown away and taken up +again, at intervals; and the question, Publish or not publish? lay many +months undecided. + +Meanwhile his own feeling was now set more and more towards Poetry; +and in spite of symptoms and dissuasions, and perverse prognostics of +outward wind and weather, he was rallying all his force for a downright +struggle with it; resolute to see which _was_ the stronger. It must be +owned, he takes his failures in the kindliest manner; and goes along, +bating no jot of heart or hope. Perhaps I should have more admired this +than I did! My dissuasions, in that case, might have been fainter. But +then my sincerity, which was all the use of my poor counsel in assent +or dissent, would have been less. He was now furthermore busy with a +_Tragedy of Strafford_, the theme of many failures in Tragedy; planning +it industriously in his head; eagerly reading in _Whitlocke, Rushworth_ +and the Puritan Books, to attain a vesture and local habitation for it. +Faithful assiduous studies I do believe;--of which, knowing my stubborn +realism, and savage humor towards singing by the Thespian or other +methods, he told me little, during his visits that summer. + + +The advance of the dark weather sent him adrift again; to Torquay, +for this winter: there, in his old Falmouth climate, he hoped to do +well;--and did, so far as well-doing was readily possible, in that sad +wandering way of life. However, be where he may, he tries to work "two +or three hours in the morning," were it even "with a lamp," in bed, +before the fires are lit; and so makes something of it. From abundant +Letters of his now before me, I glean these two or three small glimpses; +sufficient for our purpose at present. The general date is "Tor, near +Torquay:"-- + + _To Mrs. Charles Fox, Falmouth_. + +_Tor, November 30th_, 1840.--I reached this place on Thursday; having, +after much hesitation, resolved to come here, at least for the next +three weeks,--with some obscure purpose of embarking, at the New Year, +from Falmouth for Malta, and so reaching Naples, which I have not seen. +There was also a doubt whether I should not, after Christmas, bring my +family here for the first four months of the year. All this, however, +is still doubtful. But for certain inhabitants of Falmouth and its +neighborhood, this place would be far more attractive than it. But I +have here also friends, whose kindness, like much that I met with last +winter, perpetually makes me wonder at the stock of benignity in human +nature. A brother of my friend Julius Hare, Marcus by name, a Naval man, +and though not a man of letters, full of sense and knowledge, lives +here in a beautiful place, with a most agreeable and excellent wife, a +daughter of Lord Stanley of Alderley. I had hardly seen them before; +but they are fraternizing with me, in a much better than the Jacobin +fashion; and one only feels ashamed at the enormity of some people's +good-nature. I am in a little rural sort of lodging; and as comfortable +as a solitary oyster can expect to be."-- + + _To C. Barton_. + +"_December 5th_.--This place is extremely small, much more so than +Falmouth even; but pretty, cheerful, and very mild in climate. There are +a great many villas in and about the little Town, having three or +four reception-rooms, eight or ten bedrooms; and costing about fifteen +hundred or two thousand pounds each, and occupied by persons spending +a thousand or more pounds a year. If the Country would acknowledge my +merits by the gift of one of these, I could prevail on myself to come +and live here; which would be the best move for my health I could +make in England; but, in the absence of any such expression of public +feeling, it would come rather dear."-- + + _To Mrs. Fox again_. + +"_December 22d_.--By the way, did you ever read a Novel? If you ever +mean to do so hereafter, let it be Miss Martineau's _Deerbrook_. It is +really very striking; and parts of it are very true and very beautiful. +It is not so true, or so thoroughly clear and harmonious, among +delineations of English middle-class gentility, as Miss Austen's books, +especially as _Pride and Prejudice_, which I think exquisite; but it +is worth reading. _The hour and the Man_ is eloquent, but an absurd +exaggeration.--I hold out so valorously against this Scandinavian +weather, that I deserve to be ranked with Odin and Thor; and fancy I may +go to live at Clifton or Drontheim. Have you had the same icy desolation +as prevails here?" + + _To W. Coningham, Esq_. + +"_December 28th_.--Looking back to him [a deceased Uncle, father of his +correspondent], as I now very often do, I feel strongly, what the loss +of other friends has also impressed on me, how much Death deepens our +affection; and sharpens our regret for whatever has been even slightly +amiss in our conduct towards those who are gone. What trifles then +swell into painful importance; how we believe that, could the past be +recalled, life would present no worthier, happier task, than that of so +bearing ourselves towards those we love, that we might ever after find +nothing but melodious tranquillity breathing about their graves! Yet, +too often, I feel the difficulty of always practicing such mild wisdom +towards those who are still left me.--You will wonder less at my +rambling off in this way, when I tell you that my little lodging is +close to a picturesque old Church and Churchyard, where, every day, I +brush past a tombstone, recording that an Italian, of Manferrato, has +buried there a girl of sixteen, his only daughter: _'L' unica speranza +di mia vita_.'--No doubt, as you say, our Mechanical Age is necessary as +a passage to something better; but, at least, do not let us go back."-- + +At the New-year time, feeling unusually well, he returns to Clifton. His +plans, of course, were ever fluctuating; his movements were swift and +uncertain. Alas, his whole life, especially his winter-life, had to be +built as if on wavering drift-sand; nothing certain in it, except if +possible the "two or three hours of work" snatched from the general +whirlpool of the dubious four-and-twenty! + + _To Dr. Carlyle_. + +"_Clifton, January 10th_, 1841.--I stood the sharp frost at Torquay +with such entire impunity, that at last I took courage, and resolved to +return home. I have been here a week, in extreme cold; and have suffered +not at all; so that I hope, with care I may prosper in spite of medical +prognostics,--if you permit such profane language. I am even able to +work a good deal; and write for some hours every morning, by dint +of getting up early, which an Arnott stove in my study enables me to +do."--But at Clifton he cannot continue. Again, before long, the rude +weather has driven him Southward; the spring finds him in his former +haunts; doubtful as ever what to decide upon for the future; but tending +evidently towards a new change of residence for household and self:-- + + _To W. Coningham, Esq_. + +"_Penzance, April 19th_, 1841.--My little Boy and I have been wandering +about between Torquay and this place; and latterly have had my Father +for a few days with us,--he left us yesterday. In all probability I +shall endeavor to settle either at Torquay, at Falmouth, or here; as it +is pretty clear that I cannot stand the sharp air of Clifton, and +still less the London east-winds. Penzance is, on the whole, a +pleasant-looking, cheerful place; with a delightful mildness of air, and +a great appearance of comfort among the people: the view of Mount's Bay +is certainly a very noble one. Torquay would suit the health of my +Wife and Children better; or else I should be glad to live here always, +London and its neighborhood being impracticable."--Such was his second +wandering winter; enough to render the prospect of a third at Clifton +very uninviting. + + +With the Falmouth friends, young and old, his intercourse had meanwhile +continued cordial and frequent. The omens were pointing towards that +region at his next place of abode. Accordingly, in few weeks hence, in +the June of this Summer, 1841, his dubitations and inquirings are again +ended for a time; he has fixed upon a house in Falmouth, and removed +thither; bidding Clifton, and the regretful Clifton friends, a kind +farewell. This was the _fifth_ change of place for his family since +Bayswater; the fifth, and to one chief member of it the last. Mrs. +Sterling had brought him a new child in October last; and went hopefully +to Falmouth, dreading _other_ than what befell there. + + + +CHAPTER III. FALMOUTH: POEMS. + +At Falmouth, as usual, he was soon at home in his new environment; +resumed his labors; had his new small circle of acquaintance, the ready +and constant centre of which was the Fox family, with whom he lived on +an altogether intimate, honored and beloved footing; realizing his best +anticipations in that respect, which doubtless were among his first +inducements to settle in this new place. Open cheery heights, rather +bare of wood: fresh southwestern breezes; a brisk laughing sea, swept by +industrious sails, and the nets of a most stalwart, wholesome, frank +and interesting population: the clean little fishing, trading and packet +Town; hanging on its slope towards the Eastern sun, close on the waters +of its basin and intricate bay,--with the miniature Pendennis Castle +seaward on the right, the miniature St. Mawes landward to left, and the +mining world and the farming world open boundlessly to the rear:--all +this made a pleasant outlook and environment. And in all this, as in the +other new elements of his position, Sterling, open beyond most men to +the worth of things about him, took his frank share. From the first, +he had liked the general aspect of the population, and their healthy, +lively ways; not to speak of the special friendships he had formed +there, which shed a charm over them all. "Men of strong character, clear +heads and genuine goodness," writes he, "are by no means wanting." And +long after: "The common people here dress better than in most parts of +England; and on Sundays, if the weather be at all fine, their appearance +is very pleasant. One sees them all round the Town, especially towards +Pendennis Castle, streaming in a succession of little groups, and +seeming for the most part really and quietly happy." On the whole he +reckoned himself lucky; and, so far as locality went, found this a +handsome shelter for the next two years of his life. Two years, and not +without an interruption; that was all. Here we have no continuing city; +he less than any of us! One other flight for shelter; and then it is +ended, and he has found an inexpugnable refuge. Let us trace his remote +footsteps, as we have opportunity:-- + + _To Dr. Symonds, Clifton_. + +"_Falmouth, June 28th_, 1841.--Newman writes to me that he is gone to +the Rhine. I wish I were! And yet the only 'wish' at the bottom of my +heart, is to be able to work vigorously in my own way anywhere, were it +in some Circle of Dante's Inferno. This, however, is the secret of my +soul, which I disclose only to a few." + + _To his Mother_. + +"_Falmouth, July 6th_, 1841.--I have at last my own study made +comfortable; the carpet being now laid down, and most of my +appurtenances in tolerable order. By and by I shall, unless stopped by +illness, get myself together, and begin living an orderly life and +doing my daily task. I have swung a cot in my dressing-room; partly as +a convenience for myself, partly as a sort of memorial of my poor Uncle, +in whose cot in his dressing-room at Lisworney I remember to have slept +when a child. I have put a good large bookcase in my drawing-room, and +all the rest of my books fit very well into the study." + + _To Mr. Carlyle_. + +"_July 6th_.--No books have come in my way but Emerson's, which I value +full as much as you, though as yet I have read only some corners of +it. We have had an Election here, of the usual stamp; to me a droll +'realized Ideal,' after my late metrical adventures in that line. But +the oddest sign of the Times I know, is a cheap Translation of Strauss's +_Leben Jesu_, now publishing in numbers, and said to be circulating far +and wide. What does--or rather, what does not--this portend?"-- + + +With the Poem called _The Election_, here alluded to, which had been +more than once revised and reconsidered, he was still under some +hesitations; but at last had well-nigh resolved, as from the first it +was clear he would do, on publishing it. This occupied some occasional +portion of his thoughts. But his grand private affair, I believe, was +now _Strafford_; to which, or to its adjuncts, all working hours were +devoted. Sterling's notions of Tragedy are high enough. This is what he +writes once, in reference to his own task in these weeks: "Few, I fancy, +know how much harder it is to write a Tragedy than to realize or be one. +Every man has in his heart and lot, if he pleases, and too many whether +they please or no, all the woes of OEdipus and Antigone. But it takes +the One, the Sophocles of a thousand years, to utter these in the +full depth and harmony of creative song. Curious, by the way, how that +Dramatic Form of the old Greek, with only some superficial changes, +remains a law not only for the stage, but for the thoughts of all Poets; +and what a charm it has even for the reader who never saw a theatre. The +Greek Plays and Shakspeare have interested a hundred as books, for one +who has seen their writings acted. How lightly does the mere clown, the +idle school-girl, build a private theatre in the fancy, and laugh or +weep with Falstaff and Macbeth: with how entire an oblivion of the +artificial nature of the whole contrivance, which thus compels them +to be their own architects, machinists, scene-painters, and actors! In +fact, the artifice succeeds,--becomes grounded in the substance of the +soul: and every one loves to feel how he is thus brought face to face +with the brave, the fair, the woful and the great of all past ages; +looks into their eyes, and feels the beatings of their hearts; and +reads, over the shoulder, the secret written tablets of the busiest +and the largest brains; while the Juggler, by whose cunning the whole +strange beautiful absurdity is set in motion, keeps himself hidden; +sings loud with a mouth unmoving as that of a statue, and makes the +human race cheat itself unanimously and delightfully by the illusion +that he preordains; while as an obscure Fate, he sits invisible, and +hardly lets his being be divined by those who cannot flee him. The Lyric +Art is childish, and the Epic barbarous, compared to this. But of the +true and perfect Drama it may be said, as of even higher mysteries, +Who is sufficient for these things?"--On this _Tragedy of Strafford_, +writing it and again writing it, studying for it, and bending himself +with his whole strength to do his best on it, he expended many strenuous +months,--"above a year of his life," he computes, in all. + +For the rest, what Falmouth has to give him he is willing to take, and +mingles freely in it. In Hare's Collection there is given a _Lecture_ +which he read in Autumn, 1841 (Mr. Hare says "1842," by mistake), to a +certain Public Institution in the place,--of which more anon;--a piece +interesting in this, if not much in any other respect. Doubtless his +friends the Foxes were at the heart of that lecturing enterprise, and +had urged and solicited him. Something like proficiency in certain +branches of science, as I have understood, characterized one or more of +this estimable family; love of knowledge, taste for art, wish to consort +with wisdom and wise men, were the tendencies of all; to opulent means +superadd the Quaker beneficence, Quaker purity and reverence, there is a +circle in which wise men also may love to be. Sterling made acquaintance +here with whatever of notable in worthy persons or things might be +afoot in those parts; and was led thereby, now and then, into pleasant +reunions, in new circles of activity, which might otherwise have +continued foreign to him. The good Calvert, too, was now here; and +intended to remain;--which he mostly did henceforth, lodging in +Sterling's neighborhood, so long as lodging in this world was permitted +him. Still good and clear and cheerful; still a lively comrade, within +doors or without,--a diligent rider always,--though now wearing visibly +weaker, and less able to exert himself. + +Among those accidental Falmouth reunions, perhaps the notablest for +Sterling occurred in this his first season. There is in Falmouth an +Association called the _Cornwall Polytechnic Society_, established about +twenty years ago, and supported by the wealthy people of the Town and +neighborhood, for the encouragement of the arts in that region; it has +its Library, its Museum, some kind of Annual Exhibition withal; gives +prizes, publishes reports: the main patrons, I believe, are Sir Charles +Lemon, a well-known country gentleman of those parts, and the Messrs. +Fox. To this, so far as he liked to go in it, Sterling was sure to be +introduced and solicited. The Polytechnic meeting of 1841 was unusually +distinguished; and Sterling's part in it formed one of the pleasant +occurrences for him in Falmouth. It was here that, among other +profitable as well as pleasant things, he made acquaintance with +Professor Owen (an event of which I too had my benefit in due time, and +still have): the bigger assemblage called _British Association_, which +met at Plymouth this year, having now just finished its affairs there, +Owen and other distinguished persons had taken Falmouth in their route +from it. Sterling's account of this Polytechnic gala still remains,--in +three Letters to his Father, which, omitting the extraneous portions, +I will give in one,--as a piece worth reading among those still-life +pictures:-- + + "To Edward Sterling, Esq., Knightsbridge, London. + "FALMOUTH, 10th August, 1841. + +"MY DEAR FATHER,--I was not well for a day or two after you went; and +since, I have been busy about an annual show of the Polytechnic Society +here, in which my friends take much interest, and for which I have been +acting as one of the judges in the department of the Fine Arts, and have +written a little Report for them. As I have not said that Falmouth is as +eminent as Athens or Florence, perhaps the Committee will not adopt my +statement. But if they do, it will be of some use; for I have hinted, as +delicately as possible, that people should not paint historical pictures +before they have the power of drawing a decent outline of a pig or a +cabbage. I saw Sir Charles Lemon yesterday, who was kind as well as +civil in his manner; and promises to be a pleasant neighbor. There are +several of the British Association heroes here; but not Whewell, or any +one whom I know." + +"_August 17th_.--At the Polytechnic Meeting here we had several very +eminent men; among others, Professor Owen, said to be the first of +comparative anatomists, and Conybeare the geologist. Both of these +gave evening Lectures; and after Conybeare's, at which I happened to be +present, I said I would, if they chose, make some remarks on the +Busts which happened to be standing there, intended for prizes in the +department of the Fine Arts. They agreed gladly. The heads were Homer, +Pericles, Augustus, Dante and Michael Angelo. I got into the box-like +platform, with these on a shelf before me; and began a talk which +must have lasted some three quarters of an hour; describing partly the +characters and circumstances of the men, illustrated by anecdotes and +compared with their physiognomies, and partly the several styles of +sculpture exhibited in the Casts, referring these to what I considered +the true principles of the Art. The subject was one that interests +me, and I got on in famous style; and had both pit and galleries all +applauding, in a way that had had no precedent during any other part +of the meeting. Conybeare paid me high compliments; Owen looked much +pleased,--an honor well purchased by a year's hard work;--and everybody, +in short, seemed delighted. Susan was not there, and I had nothing to +make me nervous; so that I worked away freely, and got vigorously over +the ground. After so many years' disuse of rhetoric, it was a pleasant +surprise to myself to find that I could still handle the old weapons +without awkwardness. More by good luck than good guidance, it has done +my health no harm. I have been at Sir Charles Lemon's, though only to +pay a morning visit, having declined to stay there or dine, the hours +not suiting me. They were very civil. The person I saw most of was +his sister, Lady Dunstanville; a pleasant, well-informed and well-bred +woman. He seems a most amiable, kindly man, of fair good sense and +cultivated tastes.--I had a letter to-day from my Mother [in Scotland]; +who says she sent you one which you were to forward me; which I hope +soon to have." + +"_August 29th_.--I returned yesterday from Carclew, Sir C. Lemon's fine +place about five miles off; where I had been staying a couple of days, +with apparently the heartiest welcome. Susan was asked; but wanting a +Governess, could not leave home. + +"Sir Charles is a widower (his Wife was sister to Lord Ilchester) +without children; but had a niece staying with him, and his sister +Lady Dunstanville, a pleasant and very civil woman. There were also Mr. +Bunbury, eldest son of Sir Henry Bunbury, a man of much cultivation and +strong talents; Mr. Fox Talbot, son, I think, of another Ilchester +lady, and brother of _the_ Talbot of Wales, but himself a man of +large fortune, and known for photogenic and other scientific plans of +extracting sunbeams from cucumbers. He also is a man of known ability, +but chiefly employed in that peculiar department. _Item_ Professors +Lloyd and Owen: the former, of Dublin, son of the late Provost, I +had seen before and knew; a great mathematician and optician, and a +discoverer in those matters; with a clever little Wife, who has a great +deal of knowledge, quite free from pretension. Owen is a first-rate +comparative anatomist, they say the greatest since Cuvier; lives in +London, and lectures there. On the whole, he interested me more than any +of them,--by an apparent force and downrightness of mind, combined with +much simplicity and frankness. + +"Nothing could be pleasanter and easier than the habits of life, with +what to me was a very unusual degree of luxury, though probably nothing +but what is common among people of large fortune. The library and +pictures are nothing extraordinary. The general tone of good nature, +good sense and quiet freedom, was what struck me most; and I think +besides this there was a disposition to be cordially courteous towards +me.... + +"I took Edward a ride of two hours yesterday on Calvert's pony, and he +is improving fast in horsemanship. The school appears to answer very +well. We shall have the Governess in a day or two, which will be a great +satisfaction. Will you send my Mother this scribble with my love; and +believe me, + + "Your affectionate son, + "JOHN STERLING." + +One other little event dwells with me, out of those Falmouth times, +exact date now forgotten; a pleasant little matter, in which Sterling, +and principally the Misses Fox, bright cheery young creatures, were +concerned; which, for the sake of its human interest, is worth mention. +In a certain Cornish mine, said the Newspapers duly specifying it, +two miners deep down in the shaft were engaged putting in a shot for +blasting: they had completed their affair, and were about to give the +signal for being hoisted up,--one at a time was all their coadjutor at +the top could manage, and the second was to kindle the match, and then +mount with all speed. Now it chanced while they were both still below, +one of them thought the match too long; tried to break it shorter, took +a couple of stones, a flat and a sharp, to cut it shorter; did cut it +of the due length, but, horrible to relate, kindled it at the same time, +and both were still below! Both shouted vehemently to the coadjutor at +the windlass, both sprang at the basket; the windlass man could not move +it with them both. Here was a moment for poor miner Jack and miner Will! +Instant horrible death hangs over both,--when Will generously resigns +himself: "Go aloft, Jack," and sits down; "away; in one minute I shall +be in Heaven!" Jack bounds aloft, the explosion instantly follows, +bruises his face as he looks over; he is safe above ground: and poor +Will? Descending eagerly they find Will too, as if by miracle, buried +under rocks which had arched themselves over him, and little injured: he +too is brought up safe, and all ends joyfully, say the Newspapers. + +Such a piece of manful promptitude, and salutary human heroism, was +worth investigating. It was investigated; found to be accurate to the +letter,--with this addition and explanation, that Will, an honest, +ignorant good man, entirely given up to Methodism, had been perfect in +the "faith of assurance," certain that _he_ should get to Heaven if +he died, certain that Jack would not, which had been the ground of his +decision in that great moment;--for the rest, that he much wished +to learn reading and writing, and find some way of life above ground +instead of below. By aid of the Misses Fox and the rest of that family, +a subscription (modest _Anti_-Hudson testimonial) was raised to this +Methodist hero: he emerged into daylight with fifty pounds in his +pocket; did strenuously try, for certain months, to learn reading and +writing; found he could not learn those arts or either of them; took his +money and bought cows with it, wedding at the same time some religious +likely milkmaid; and is, last time I heard of him, a prosperous modest +dairyman, thankful for the upper light and safety from the wrath to +come. Sterling had some hand in this affair: but, as I said, it was the +two young ladies of the family that mainly did it. + +In the end of 1841, after many hesitations and revisals, _The Election_ +came out; a tiny Duodecimo without name attached; [24] again inquiring of +the public what its suffrage was; again to little purpose. My vote had +never been loud for this step, but neither was it quite adverse; and +now, in reading the poor little Poem over again, after ten years' +space, I find it, with a touching mixture of pleasure and repentance, +considerably better than it then seemed to me. My encouragement, if not +to print this poem, yet to proceed with Poetry, since there was such a +resolution for it, might have been a little more decided! + +This is a small Piece, but aims at containing great things; a _multum +in parvo_ after its sort; and is executed here and there with undeniable +success. The style is free and flowing, the rhyme dances along with a +certain joyful triumph; everything of due brevity withal. That mixture +of mockery on the surface, which finely relieves the real earnestness +within, and flavors even what is not very earnest and might even be +insipid otherwise, is not ill managed: an amalgam difficult to effect +well in writing; nay, impossible in writing,--unless it stand already +done and effected, as a general fact, in the writer's mind and +character; which will betoken a certain ripeness there. + +As I said, great things are intended in this little Piece; the motto +itself foreshadowing them:-- + + "_Fluellen_. Ancient Pistol, I do partly understand your + meaning. + _Pistol_. Why, then, rejoice therefor." + +A stupid commonplace English Borough has lost its Member suddenly, by +apoplexy or otherwise; resolves, in the usual explosive temper of mind, +to replace him by one of two others; whereupon strange stirring-up of +rival-attorney and other human interests and catastrophes. "Frank Vane" +(Sterling himself), and "Peter Mogg," the pattern English blockhead of +elections: these are the candidates. There are, of course, fierce rival +attorneys; electors of all creeds and complexions to be canvassed: a +poor stupid Borough thrown all into red or white heat; into blazing +paroxysms of activity and enthusiasm, which render the inner life of it +(and of England and the world through it) luminously transparent, so to +speak;--of which opportunity our friend and his "Muse" take dexterous +advantage, to delineate the same. His pictures are uncommonly good; +brief, joyous, sometimes conclusively true: in rigorously compressed +shape; all is merry freshness and exuberance: we have leafy summer +embowering red bricks and small human interests, presented as in glowing +miniature; a mock-heroic action fitly interwoven;--and many a clear +glance is carelessly given into the deepest things by the way. Very +happy also is the little love-episode; and the absorption of all the +interest into that, on the part of Frank Vane and of us, when once this +gallant Frank,--having fairly from his barrel-head stated his own (and +John Sterling's) views on the aspects of the world, and of course having +quite broken down with his attorney and his public,--handsomely, by +stratagem, gallops off with the fair Anne; and leaves free field to +Mogg, free field to the Hippopotamus if it like. This portrait of Mogg +may be considered to have merit:-- + + "Though short of days, how large the mind of man; + A godlike force enclosed within a span! + To climb the skies we spurn our nature's clog, + And toil as Titans to elect a Mogg. + + "And who was Mogg? O Muse! the man declare, + How excellent his worth, his parts how rare. + A younger son, he learnt in Oxford's halls + The spheral harmonies of billiard-balls, + Drank, hunted, drove, and hid from Virtue's frown + His venial follies in Decorum's gown. + Too wise to doubt on insufficient cause, + He signed old Cranmer's lore without a pause; + And knew that logic's cunning rules are taught + To guard our creed, and not invigorate thought,-- + As those bronze steeds at Venice, kept for pride, + Adorn a Town where not one man can ride. + + "From Isis sent with all her loud acclaims, + The Laws he studied on the banks of Thames. + Park, race and play, in his capacious plan, + Combined with Coke to form the finished man, + Until the wig's ambrosial influence shed + Its last full glories on the lawyer's head. + + "But vain are mortal schemes. The eldest son + At Harrier Hall had scarce his stud begun, + When Death's pale courser took the Squire away + To lands where never dawns a hunting day: + And so, while Thomas vanished 'mid the fog, + Bright rose the morning-star of Peter Mogg." [25] + +And this little picture, in a quite opposite way:-- + + "Now, in her chamber all alone, the maid + Her polished limbs and shoulders disarrayed; + One little taper gave the only light, + One little mirror caught so dear a sight; + 'Mid hangings dusk and shadows wide she stood, + Like some pale Nymph in dark-leafed solitude + Of rocks and gloomy waters all alone, + Where sunshine scarcely breaks on stump or stone + To scare the dreamy vision. Thus did she, + A star in deepest night, intent but free, + Gleam through the eyeless darkness, heeding not + Her beauty's praise, but musing o'er her lot. + + "Her garments one by one she laid aside, + And then her knotted hair's long locks untied + With careless hand, and down her cheeks they fell, + And o'er her maiden bosom's blue-veined swell. + The right-hand fingers played amidst her hair, + And with her reverie wandered here and there: + The other hand sustained the only dress + That now but half concealed her loveliness; + And pausing, aimlessly she stood and thought, + In virgin beauty by no fear distraught." + +Manifold, and beautiful of their sort, are Anne's musings, in this +interesting attitude, in the summer midnight, in the crisis of her +destiny now near;--at last:-- + + "But Anne, at last her mute devotions o'er, + Perceived the feet she had forgot before + Of her too shocking nudity; and shame + Flushed from her heart o'er all the snowy frame: + And, struck from top to toe with burning dread, + She blew the light out, and escaped to bed." [26] + +--which also is a very pretty movement. + +It must be owned withal, the Piece is crude in parts, and far enough +from perfect. Our good painter has yet several things to learn, and +to unlearn. His brush is not always of the finest; and dashes about, +sometimes, in a recognizably sprawling way: but it hits many a feature +with decisive accuracy and felicity; and on the palette, as usual, lie +the richest colors. A grand merit, too, is the brevity of everything; by +no means a spontaneous, or quite common merit with Sterling. + +This new poetic Duodecimo, as the last had done and as the next also +did, met with little or no recognition from the world: which was not +very inexcusable on the world's part; though many a poem with far less +proof of merit than this offers, has run, when the accidents favored it, +through its tens of editions, and raised the writer to the demigods for +a year or two, if not longer. Such as it is, we may take it as marking, +in its small way, in a noticed or unnoticed manner, a new height arrived +at by Sterling in his Poetic course; and almost as vindicating the +determination he had formed to keep climbing by that method. Poor Poem, +or rather Promise of a Poem! In Sterling's brave struggle, this little +_Election_ is the highest point he fairly lived to see attained, and +openly demonstrated in print. His next public adventure in this kind +was of inferior worth; and a third, which had perhaps intrinsically gone +much higher than any of its antecessors, was cut off as a fragment, and +has not hitherto been published. Steady courage is needed on the Poetic +course, as on all courses!-- + +Shortly after this Publication, in the beginning of 1842, poor Calvert, +long a hopeless sufferer, was delivered by death: Sterling's faithful +fellow-pilgrim could no more attend him in his wayfarings through this +world. The weary and heavy-laden man had borne his burden well. Sterling +says of him to Hare: "Since I wrote last, I have lost Calvert; the +man with whom, of all others, I have been during late years the most +intimate. Simplicity, benevolence, practical good sense and moral +earnestness were his great unfailing characteristics; and no man, I +believe, ever possessed them more entirely. His illness had latterly +so prostrated him, both in mind and body, that those who most loved him +were most anxious for his departure." There was something touching in +this exit; in the quenching of so kind and bright a little life under +the dark billows of death. To me he left a curious old Print of James +Nayler the Quaker, which I still affectionately preserve. + + +Sterling, from this greater distance, came perhaps rather seldomer to +London; but we saw him still at moderate intervals; and, through his +family here and other direct and indirect channels, were kept in lively +communication with him. Literature was still his constant pursuit; and, +with encouragement or without, Poetic composition his chosen department +therein. On the ill success of _The Election_, or any ill success with +the world, nobody ever heard him utter the least murmur; condolence upon +that or any such subject might have been a questionable operation, by no +means called for! Nay, my own approval, higher than this of the world, +had been languid, by no means enthusiastic. But our valiant friend took +all quietly; and was not to be repulsed from his Poetics either by the +world's coldness or by mine; he labored at his _Strafford_;--determined +to labor, in all ways, till he felt the end of his tether in this +direction. + +He sometimes spoke, with a certain zeal, of my starting a Periodical: +Why not lift up some kind of war-flag against the obese platitudes, and +sickly superstitious aperies and impostures of the time? But I had to +answer, "Who will join it, my friend?" He seemed to say, "I, for one;" +and there was occasionally a transient temptation in the thought, but +transient only. No fighting regiment, with the smallest attempt towards +drill, co-operation, commissariat, or the like unspeakable advantages, +could be raised in Sterling's time or mine; which truly, to honest +fighters, is a rather grievous want. A grievous, but not quite a fatal +one. For, failing this, failing all things and all men, there remains +the solitary battle (and were it by the poorest weapon, the tongue only, +or were it even by wise abstinence and silence and without any weapon), +such as each man for himself can wage while he has life: an indubitable +and infinitely comfortable fact for every man! Said battle shaped itself +for Sterling, as we have long since seen, chiefly in the poetic form, in +the singing or hymning rather than the speaking form; and in that he was +cheerfully assiduous according to his light. The unfortunate _Strafford_ +is far on towards completion; a _Coeur-de-Lion_, of which we shall hear +farther, "_Coeur-de-Lion_, greatly the best of all his Poems," unluckily +not completed, and still unpublished, already hangs in the wind. + +His Letters to friends continue copious; and he has, as always, a +loyally interested eye on whatsoever of notable is passing in the world. +Especially on whatsoever indicates to him the spiritual condition of the +world. Of "Strauss," in English or in German, we now hear nothing more; +of Church matters, and that only to special correspondents, less and +less. Strauss, whom he used to mention, had interested him only as a +sign of the times; in which sense alone do we find, for a year or two +back, any notice of the Church, or its affairs by Sterling; and at last +even this as good as ceases: "Adieu, O Church; thy road is that way, +mine is this: in God's name, adieu!" "What we are going _to_," says he +once, "is abundantly obscure; but what all men are going _from_, is very +plain."--Sifted out of many pages, not of sufficient interest, here are +one or two miscellaneous sentences, about the date we are now arrived +at:-- + + _To Dr. Symonds_. + +"_Falmouth, 3d November_, 1841.--Yesterday was my Wedding-day: eleven +years of marriage; and on the whole my verdict is clear for matrimony. +I solemnized the day by reading _John Gilpin_ to the children, who +with their Mother are all pretty well.... There is a trick of sham +Elizabethan writing now prevalent, that looks plausible, but in most +cases means nothing at all. Darley has real (lyrical) genius; Taylor, +wonderful sense, clearness and weight of purpose; Tennyson, a rich and +exquisite fancy. All the other men of our tiny generation that I know +of are, in Poetry, either feeble or fraudulent. I know nothing of the +Reviewer you ask about." + + _To his Mother_ + +"_December 11th_.--I have seen no new books; but am reading your last. +I got hold of the two first Numbers of the _Hoggarty Diamond_; and +read them with extreme delight. What is there better in Fielding or +Goldsmith? The man is a true genius; and, with quiet and comfort, might +produce masterpieces that would last as long as any we have, and delight +millions of unborn readers. There is more truth and nature in one of +these papers than in all ----'s Novels together."--Thackeray, always +a close friend of the Sterling house, will observe that this is dated +1841, not 1851, and have his own reflections on the matter! + + _To the Same_. + +"_December 17th_.--I am not much surprised at Lady ----'s views of +Coleridge's little Book on _Inspiration_.--Great part of the obscurity +of the Letters arises from his anxiety to avoid the difficulties and +absurdities of the common views, and his panic terror of saying anything +that bishops and good people would disapprove. He paid a heavy price, +viz. all his own candor and simplicity, in hope of gaining the favor of +persons like Lady ----; and you see what his reward is! A good lesson +for us all." + + _To the Same_. + +"_February 1st_, 1842.--English Toryism has, even in my eyes, about as +much to say for itself as any other form of doctrine; but Irish Toryism +is the downright proclamation of brutal injustice, and all in the name +of God and the Bible! It is almost enough to make one turn Mahometan, +but for the fear of the four wives." + + _To his Father_. + +"_March 12th_, 1842.--... Important to me as these matters are, it +almost seems as if there were something unfeeling in writing of them, +under the pressure of such news as ours from India. If the Cabool Troops +have perished, England has not received such a blow from an enemy, nor +anything approaching it, since Buckingham's Expedition to the Isle +of Rhe. Walcheren destroyed us by climate; and Corunna, with all its +losses, had much of glory. But here we are dismally injured by mere +Barbarians, in a War on our part shamefully unjust as well as foolish: +a combination of disgrace and calamity that would have shocked Augustus +even more than the defeat of Varus. One of the four officers with +Macnaghten was George Lawrence, a brother-in-law of Nat Barton; a +distinguished man, and the father of five totally unprovided children. +He is a prisoner, if not since murdered. Macnaghten I do not pity; he +was the prime author of the whole mad War. But Burnes; and the women; +and our regiments! India, however, I feel sure, is safe." + + +So roll the months at Falmouth; such is the ticking of the great +World-Horologe as heard there by a good ear. "I willingly add," so ends +he, once, "that I lately found somewhere this fragment of an Arab's +love-song: 'O Ghalia! If my father were a jackass, I would sell him to +purchase Ghalia!' A beautiful parallel to the French _'Avec cette sauce +on mangerait son pere_.'" + + + +CHAPTER IV. NAPLES: POEMS. + +In the bleak weather of this spring, 1842, he was again abroad for a +little while; partly from necessity, or at least utility; and partly, as +I guess, because these circumstances favored, and he could with a good +countenance indulge a little wish he had long had. In the Italian Tour, +which ended suddenly by Mrs. Sterling's illness recalling him, he had +missed Naples; a loss which he always thought to be considerable; +and which, from time to time, he had formed little projects, failures +hitherto, for supplying. The rigors of spring were always dangerous to +him in England, and it was always of advantage to get out of them: and +then the sight of Naples, too; this, always a thing to be done some day, +was now possible. Enough, with the real or imaginary hope of bettering +himself in health, and the certain one of seeing Naples, and catching a +glance of Italy again, he now made a run thither. It was not long after +Calvert's death. The Tragedy of _Strafford_ lay finished in his desk. +Several things, sad and bright, were finished. A little intermezzo of +ramble was not unadvisable. + +His tour by water and by land was brief and rapid enough; hardly above +two months in all. Of which the following Letters will, with some +abridgment, give us what details are needful:-- + + "_To Charles Barton, Esq., Leamington_. + "FALMOUTH, 25th March, 1842. + +"MY DEAR CHARLES,--My attempts to shoot you flying with my paper pellets +turned out very ill. I hope young ladies succeed better when they happen +to make appointments with you. Even now, I hardly know whether you +have received a Letter I wrote on Sunday last, and addressed to The +Cavendish. I sent it thither by Susan's advice. + +"In this missive,--happily for us both, it did not contain a +hundred-pound note or any trifle of that kind,--I informed you that I +was compelled to plan an expedition towards the South Pole; stopping, +however, in the Mediterranean; and that I designed leaving this on +Monday next for Cadiz or Gibraltar, and then going on to Malta, whence +Italy and Sicily would be accessible. Of course your company would be +a great pleasure, if it were possible for you to join me. The delay in +hearing from you, through no fault of yours, has naturally put me out a +little; but, on the whole, my plan still holds, and I shall leave this +on Monday for Gibraltar, where the _Great Liverpool_ will catch me, and +carry me to Malta. The _Great Liverpool_ leaves Southampton on the 1st +of April, and Falmouth on the 2d; and will reach Gibraltar in from four +to five days. + +"Now, if you _should_ be able and disposed to join me, you have only to +embark in that sumptuous tea-kettle, and pick me up under the guns of +the Rock. We could then cruise on to Malta, Sicily, Naples, Rome, &c., +_a discretion_. It is just _possible_, though extremely improbable, +that my steamer of Monday (most likely the _Montrose_) may not reach +Gibraltar so soon as the _Liverpool_. If so, and if you should actually +be on board, you must stop at Gibraltar. But there are ninety-nine +chances to one against this. Write at all events to Susan, to let her +know what you propose. + +"I do not wait till the _Great Liverpool_ goes, because the object for +me is to get into a warm climate as soon as possible. I am decidedly +better. + + "Your affectionate Brother, + "JOHN STERLING." + +Barton did not go with him, none went; but he arrives safe, and not +_hurt_ in health, which is something. + + "_To Mrs. Sterling, Knightsbridge, London_. + "MALTA, 14th April, 1842. + +"DEAREST MOTHER,--I am writing to Susan through France, by to-morrow's +mail; and will also send you a line, instead of waiting for the longer +English conveyance. + +"We reached this the day before yesterday, in the evening; having had +a strong breeze against us for a day or two before; which made me +extremely uncomfortable,--and indeed my headache is hardly gone yet. +From about the 4th to the 9th of the month, we had beautiful weather, +and I was happy enough. You will see by the map that the straightest +line from Gibraltar to this place goes close along the African coast; +which accordingly we saw with the utmost clearness; and found it +generally a line of mountains, the higher peaks and ridges covered with +snow. We went close in to Algiers; which looks strong, but entirely from +art. The town lies on the slope of a straight coast; and is not at all +embayed, though there is some little shelter for shipping within the +mole. It is a square patch of white buildings huddled together; fringed +with batteries; and commanded by large forts on the ridge above: a most +uncomfortable-looking place; though, no doubt, there are _cafes_ and +billiard-rooms and a theatre within,--for the French like to have their +Houris, &c., on _this_ side of Paradise, if possible. + +"Our party of fifty people (we had taken some on board at Gibraltar) +broke up, on reaching this; never, of course, to meet again. The greater +part do not proceed to Alexandria. Considering that there was a bundle +of midshipmen, ensigns, &c., we had as much reason among us as could +perhaps be looked for; and from several I gained bits of information and +traits of character, though nothing very remarkable.... + +"I have established myself in an inn, rather than go to Lady +Louis's; [27] I not feeling quite equal to company, except in moderate +doses. I have, however, seen her a good deal; and dine there to-day, +very privately, for Sir John is not quite well, and they will have no +guests. The place, however, is full of official banqueting, for various +unimportant reasons. When here before, I was in much distress and +anxiety, on my way from Rome; and I suppose this it was that prevented +its making the same impression on me as now, when it seems really the +stateliest town I have ever seen. The architecture is generally of a +corrupt Roman kind; with something of the varied and picturesque look, +though much more massive, of our Elizabethan buildings. We have the +finest English summer and a pellucid sky.... Your affectionate + + "JOHN STERLING." + +At Naples next, for three weeks, was due admiration of the sceneries +and antiquities, Bay and Mountain, by no means forgetting Art and +the Museum: "to Pozzuoli, to Baiae, round the Promontory of +Sorrento;"--above all, "twice to Pompeii," where the elegance and +classic simplicity of Ancient Housekeeping strikes us much; and again to +Paestum, where "the Temple of Neptune is far the noblest building I +have ever seen; and makes both Greek and Revived Roman seem quite +barbaric.... Lord Ponsonby lodges in the same house with me;--but, of +course, I do not countenance an adherent of a beaten Party!" [28]--Or let +us take this more compendious account, which has much more of human in +it, from an onward stage, ten days later:-- + + "_To Thomas Carlyle, Esq., Chelsea, London_. + "ROME, 13th May, 1842, + +"MY DEAR CARLYLE,--I hope I wrote to you before leaving England, to tell +you of the necessity for my doing so. Though coming to Italy, there +was little comfort in the prospect of being divided from my family, and +pursuits which grew on me every day. However, I tried to make the best +of it, and have gained both health and pleasure. + +"In spite of scanty communications from England (owing to the +uncertainty of my position), a word or two concerning you and your dear +Wife have reached me. Lately it has often occurred to me, that the sight +of the Bay of Naples, of the beautiful coast from that to this place, +and of Rome itself, all bathed in summer sunshine, and green with spring +foliage, would be some consolation to her. [29] Pray give her my love. + +"I have been two days here; and almost the first thing I did was to +visit the Protestant burial-ground, and the graves of those I knew when +here before. But much as being now alone here, I feel the difference, +there is no scene where Death seems so little dreadful and miserable as +in the lonelier neighborhoods of this old place. All one's impressions, +however, as to that and everything else, appear to me, on reflection, +more affected than I had for a long time any notion of, by one's own +isolation. All the feelings and activities which family, friends and +occupation commonly engage, are turned, here in one's solitude, with +strange force into the channels of mere observation and contemplation; +and the objects one is conversant with seem to gain a tenfold +significance from the abundance of spare interest one now has to bestow +on them. This explains to me a good deal of the peculiar effect that +Italy has always had on me: and something of that artistic enthusiasm +which I remember you used to think so singular in Goethe's _Travels_. +Darley, who is as much a brooding hermit in England as here, felt +nothing but disappointment from a country which fills me with childish +wonder and delight. + +"Of you I have received some slight notice from Mrs. Strachey; who is +on her way hither; and will (she writes) be at Florence on the 15th, and +here before the end of the month. She notices having received a Letter +of yours which had pleased her much. She now proposes spending the +summer at Sorrento, or thereabouts; and if mere delight of landscape and +climate were enough, Adam and Eve, had their courier taken them to that +region, might have done well enough without Paradise,--and not been +tempted, either, by any Tree of Knowledge; a kind that does not flourish +in the Two Sicilies. + +"The ignorance of the Neapolitans, from the highest to the lowest, is +very eminent; and excites the admiration of all the rest of Italy. In +the great building containing all the Works of Art, and a Library +of 150,000 volumes, I asked for the best existing Book (a German one +published ten years ago) on the Statues in that very Collection; and, +after a rabble of clerks and custodes, got up to a dirty priest, who +bowing to the ground regretted 'they did not possess it,' but at last +remembered that 'they _had_ entered into negotiations on the subject, +which as yet had been unsuccessful.'--The favorite device on the walls +at Naples is a vermilion Picture of a Male and Female Soul respectively +up to the waist (the waist of a _soul_) in fire, and an Angel above +each, watering the sufferers from a watering-pot. This is intended +to gain alms for Masses. The same populace sit for hours on the Mole, +listening to rhapsodists who recite Ariosto. I have seen I think five of +them all within a hundred yards of each other, and some sets of fiddlers +to boot. Yet there are few parts of the world where I have seen less +laughter than there. The Miracle of Januarius's Blood is, on the whole, +my most curious experience. The furious entreaties, shrieks and sobs, of +a set of old women, yelling till the Miracle was successfully performed, +are things never to be forgotten. + +"I spent three weeks in this most glittering of countries, and saw most +of the usual wonders,--the Paestan Temples being to me much the most +valuable. But Pompeii and all that it has yielded, especially the Fresco +Paintings, have also an infinite interest. When one considers that this +prodigious series of beautiful designs supplied the place of our common +room-papers,--the wealth of poetic imagery among the Ancients, and the +corresponding traditional variety and elegance of pictorial treatment, +seem equally remarkable. The Greek and Latin Books do not give one quite +so fully this sort of impression; because they afford no direct measure +of the extent of their own diffusion. But these are ornaments from the +smaller class of decent houses in a little Country Town; and the greater +number of them, by the slightness of the execution, show very clearly +that they were adapted to ordinary taste, and done by mere artisans. +In general clearness, symmetry and simplicity of feeling, I cannot say +that, on the whole, the works of Raffaelle equal them; though of course +he has endless beauties such as we could not find unless in the great +original works from which these sketches at Pompeii were taken. Yet with +all my much increased reverence for the Greeks, it seems more plain than +ever that they had hardly anything of the peculiar devotional feeling of +Christianity. + +"Rome, which I loved before above all the earth, now delights me more +than ever;--though at this moment there is rain falling that would not +discredit Oxford Street. The depth, sincerity and splendor that there +once was in the semi-paganism of the old Catholics comes out in St. +Peter's and its dependencies, almost as grandly as does Greek and Roman +Art in the Forum and the Vatican Galleries. I wish you were here: but, +at all events, hope to see you and your Wife once more during this +summer. + + "Yours, + "JOHN STERLING." + +At Paris, where he stopped a day and night, and generally through his +whole journey from Marseilles to Havre, one thing attended him: the +prevailing epidemic of the place and year; now gone, and nigh forgotten, +as other influenzas are. He writes to his Father: "I have not yet met a +single Frenchman, who could give me any rational explanation _why_ +they were all in such a confounded rage against us. Definite causes of +quarrel a statesman may know how to deal with, inasmuch as the removal +of them may help to settle the dispute. But it must be a puzzling task +to negotiate about instincts; to which class, as it seems to me, we +must have recourse for an understanding of the present abhorrence which +everybody on the other side of the Channel not only feels, but makes a +point to boast of, against the name of Britain. France is slowly arming, +especially with Steam, _en attendant_ a more than possible contest, in +which they reckon confidently on the eager co-operation of the Yankees; +as, _vice versa_, an American told me that his countrymen do on that of +France. One person at Paris (M. ---- whom you know) provoked me to +tell him that 'England did not want another battle of Trafalgar; but if +France did, she might compel England to gratify her.'"--After a couple +of pleasant and profitable months, he was safe home again in the first +days of June; and saw Falmouth not under gray iron skies, and whirls of +March dust, but bright with summer opulence and the roses coming out. + +It was what I call his "_fifth_ peregrinity;" his fifth and last. He +soon afterwards came up to London; spent a couple of weeks, with all his +old vivacity, among us here. The AEsculapian oracles, it would appear, +gave altogether cheerful prophecy; the highest medical authority +"expresses the most decided opinion that I have gradually mended for +some years; and in truth I have not, for six or seven, been so free +from serious symptoms of illness as at present." So uncertain are all +oracles, AEsculapian and other! + +During this visit, he made one new acquaintance which he much +valued; drawn thither, as I guess, by the wish to take counsel about +_Strafford_. He writes to his Clifton friend, under date, 1st July 1842: +"Lockhart, of the _Quarterly Review_, I made my first oral acquaintance +with; and found him as neat, clear and cutting a brain as you would +expect; but with an amount of knowledge, good nature and liberal +anti-bigotry, that would much surprise many. The tone of his children +towards him seemed to me decisive of his real kindness. He quite +agreed with me as to the threatening seriousness of our present social +perplexities, and the necessity and difficulty of doing something +effectual for so satisfying the manual multitude as not to overthrow all +legal security.... + +"Of other persons whom I saw in London," continues he, "there are +several that would much interest you,--though I missed Tennyson, by +a mere chance.... John Mill has completely finished, and sent to the +bookseller, his great work on Logic; the labor of many years of a +singularly subtle, patient and comprehensive mind. It will be our chief +speculative monument of this age. Mill and I could not meet above two +or three times; but it was with the openness and freshness of school-boy +friends, though our friendship only dates from the manhood of both." + +He himself was busier than ever; occupied continually with all manner of +Poetic interests. _Coeur-de-Lion_, a new and more elaborate attempt in +the mock-heroic or comico-didactic vein, had been on hand for some time, +the scope of it greatly deepening and expanding itself since it first +took hold of him; and now, soon after the Naples journey, it rose into +shape on the wider plan; shaken up probably by this new excitement, and +indebted to Calabria, Palermo and the Mediterranean scenes for much of +the vesture it had. With this, which opened higher hopes for him than +any of his previous efforts, he was now employing all his time and +strength;--and continued to do so, this being the last effort granted +him among us. + +Already, for some months, _Strafford_ lay complete: but how to get it +from the stocks; in what method to launch it? The step was questionable. +Before going to Italy he had sent me the Manuscript; still loyal and +friendly; and willing to hear the worst that could be said of his poetic +enterprise. I had to afflict him again, the good brave soul, with the +deliberate report that I could _not_ accept this Drama as his Picture +of the Life of Strafford, or as any _Picture_ of that strange Fact. To +which he answered, with an honest manfulness, in a tone which is now +pathetic enough to me, that he was much grieved yet much obliged, and +uncertain how to decide. On the other hand, Mr. Hare wrote, warmly +eulogizing. Lockhart too spoke kindly, though taking some exceptions. +It was a questionable case. On the whole, _Strafford_ remained, for the +present, unlaunched; and _Coeur de-Lion_ was getting its first timbers +diligently laid down. So passed, in peaceable seclusion, in wholesome +employment and endeavor, the autumn and winter of 1842-43. On +Christmas-day, he reports to his Mother:-- + +"I wished to write to you yesterday; but was prevented by the important +business of preparing a Tree, in the German fashion, for the children. +This project answered perfectly, as it did last year; and gave them the +greatest pleasure. I wish you and my Father could have been here to see +their merry faces. Johnny was in the thick of the fun, and much happier +than Lord Anson on capturing the galleon. We are all going on well and +quietly, but with nothing very new among us.... The last book I have +lighted on is Moffat's _Missionary Labors in South Africa_; which is +worth reading. There is the best collection of lion stories in it that I +have ever seen. But the man is, also, really a very good fellow; and fit +for something much better than most lions are. He is very ignorant, +and mistaken in some things; but has strong sense and heart; and his +Narrative adds another to the many proofs of the enormous power of +Christianity on rude minds. Nothing can be more chaotic, that is human +at all, than the notions of these poor Blacks, even after what is called +their conversion; but the effect is produced. They do adopt pantaloons, +and abandon polygamy; and I suppose will soon have newspapers and +literary soirees." + + + +CHAPTER V. DISASTER ON DISASTER. + +DURING all these years of struggle and wayfaring, his Father's household +at Knightsbridge had stood healthful, happy, increasing in wealth, free +diligence, solidity and honest prosperity: a fixed sunny islet, towards +which, in all his voyagings and overclouded roamings, he could look with +satisfaction, as to an ever-open port of refuge. + +The elder Sterling, after many battles, had reached his field of +conquest in these years; and was to be regarded as a victorious man. +Wealth sufficient, increasing not diminishing, had rewarded his labors +in the _Times_, which were now in their full flower; he had influence +of a sort; went busily among busy public men; and enjoyed, in the +questionable form attached to journalism and anonymity, a social +consideration and position which were abundantly gratifying to him. A +singular figure of the epoch; and when you came to know him, which it +was easy to fail of doing if you had not eyes and candid insight, a +gallant, truly gifted, and manful figure, of his kind. We saw much of +him in this house; much of all his family; and had grown to love them +all right well,--him too, though that was the difficult part of the +feat. For in his Irish way he played the conjurer very much,--"three +hundred and sixty-five opinions in the year upon every subject," as a +wag once said. In fact his talk, ever ingenious, emphatic and spirited +in detail, was much defective in earnestness, at least in clear +earnestness, of purport and outcome; but went tumbling as if in mere +welters of explosive unreason; a volcano heaving under vague deluges of +scoriae, ashes and imponderous pumice-stones, you could not say in what +direction, nor well whether in any. Not till after good study did you +see the deep molten lava-flood, which simmered steadily enough, and +showed very well by and by whither it was bound. For I must say +of Edward Sterling, after all his daily explosive sophistries, and +fallacies of talk, he had a stubborn instinctive sense of what was +manful, strong and worthy; recognized, with quick feeling, the charlatan +under his solemnest wig; knew as clearly as any man a pusillanimous +tailor in buckram, an ass under the lion's skin, and did with his whole +heart despise the same. + +The sudden changes of doctrine in the _Times_, which failed not to +excite loud censure and indignant amazement in those days, were first +intelligible to you when you came to interpret them as his changes. +These sudden whirls from east to west on his part, and total changes of +party and articulate opinion at a day's warning, lay in the nature of +the man, and could not be helped; products of his fiery impatience, +of the combined impetuosity and limitation of an intellect, which did +nevertheless continually gravitate towards what was loyal, true and +right on all manner of subjects. These, as I define them, were the mere +scoriae and pumice wreck of a steady central lava-flood, which truly was +volcanic and explosive to a strange degree, but did rest as few others +on the grand fire-depths of the world. Thus, if he stormed along, ten +thousand strong, in the time of the Reform Bill, indignantly denouncing +Toryism and its obsolete insane pretensions; and then if, after some +experience of Whig management, he discerned that Wellington and Peel, +by whatever name entitled, were the men to be depended on by +England,--there lay in all this, visible enough, a deeper consistency +far more important than the superficial one, so much clamored after by +the vulgar. Which is the lion's-skin; which is the real lion? Let a man, +if he is prudent, ascertain that before speaking;--but above and beyond +all things, _let_ him ascertain it, and stand valiantly to it when +ascertained! In the latter essential part of the operation Edward +Sterling was honorably successful to a really marked degree; in the +former, or prudential part, very much the reverse, as his history in the +Journalistic department at least, was continually teaching him. + +An amazingly impetuous, hasty, explosive man, this "Captain Whirlwind," +as I used to call him! Great sensibility lay in him, too; a real +sympathy, and affectionate pity and softness, which he had an +over-tendency to express even by tears,--a singular sight in so leonine +a man. Enemies called them maudlin and hypocritical, these tears; but +that was nowise the complete account of them. On the whole, there did +conspicuously lie a dash of ostentation, a self-consciousness apt to +become loud and braggart, over all he said and did and felt: this was +the alloy of the man, and you had to be thankful for the abundant gold +along with it. + +Quizzing enough he got among us for all this, and for the singular +_chiaroscuro_ manner of procedure, like that of an Archimagus +Cagliostro, or Kaiser Joseph Incognito, which his anonymous +known-unknown thunderings in the _Times_ necessitated in him; and much +we laughed,--not without explosive counter-banterings on his part;--but, +in fine, one could not do without him; one knew him at heart for a right +brave man. "By Jove, sir!" thus he would swear to you, with radiant +face; sometimes, not often, by a deeper oath. With persons of dignity, +especially with women, to whom he was always very gallant, he had +courtly delicate manners, verging towards the wire-drawn and elaborate; +on common occasions, he bloomed out at once into jolly familiarity of +the gracefully boisterous kind, reminding you of mess-rooms and old +Dublin days. His off-hand mode of speech was always precise, emphatic, +ingenious: his laugh, which was frequent rather than otherwise, had a +sincerity of banter, but no real depth of sense for the ludicrous; and +soon ended, if it grew too loud, in a mere dissonant scream. He was +broad, well-built, stout of stature; had a long lowish head, sharp gray +eyes, with large strong aquiline face to match; and walked, or sat, in +an erect decisive manner. A remarkable man; and playing, especially in +those years 1830-40, a remarkable part in the world. + +For it may be said, the emphatic, big-voiced, always influential and +often strongly unreasonable _Times_ Newspaper was the express emblem of +Edward Sterling; he, more than any other man or circumstance, _was_ +the _Times_ Newspaper, and thundered through it to the shaking of the +spheres. And let us assert withal that his and its influence, in those +days, was not ill grounded but rather well; that the loud manifold +unreason, often enough vituperated and groaned over, was of the surface +mostly; that his conclusions, unreasonable, partial, hasty as they might +at first be, gravitated irresistibly towards the right: in virtue of +which grand quality indeed, the root of all good insight in man, his +_Times_ oratory found acceptance and influential audience, amid the loud +whirl of an England itself logically very stupid, and wise chiefly by +instinct. + +England listened to this voice, as all might observe; and to one who +knew England and it, the result was not quite a strange one, and was +honorable rather than otherwise to both parties. A good judge of men's +talents has been heard to say of Edward Sterling: "There is not a +_faculty of improvising_ equal to this in all my circle. Sterling rushes +out into the clubs, into London society, rolls about all day, copiously +talking modish nonsense or sense, and listening to the like, with the +multifarious miscellany of men; comes home at night; redacts it into a +_Times_ Leader,--and is found to have hit the essential purport of the +world's immeasurable babblement that day, with an accuracy beyond all +other men. This is what the multifarious Babel sound did mean to say in +clear words; this, more nearly than anything else. Let the most gifted +intellect, capable of writing epics, try to write such a Leader for the +Morning Newspapers! No intellect but Edward Sterling's can do it. +An improvising faculty without parallel in my experience."--In this +"improvising faculty," much more nobly developed, as well as in other +faculties and qualities with unexpectedly new and improved figure, John +Sterling, to the accurate observer, showed himself very much the son of +Edward. + +Connected with this matter, a remarkable Note has come into my hands; +honorable to the man I am writing of, and in some sort to another higher +man; which, as it may now (unhappily for us all) be published without +scruple, I will not withhold here. The support, by Edward Sterling +and the _Times_, of Sir Robert Peel's first Ministry, and generally of +Peel's statesmanship, was a conspicuous fact in its day; but the return +it met with from the person chiefly interested may be considered well +worth recording. The following Letter, after meandering through I know +not what intricate conduits, and consultations of the Mysterious +Entity whose address it bore, came to Edward Sterling as the real +flesh-and-blood proprietor, and has been found among his papers. It is +marked _Private_:-- + + "(Private) _To the Editor of the Times_. + "WHITEHALL, 18th April, 1835. + +"SIR,--Having this day delivered into the hands of the King the Seals +of Office, I can, without any imputation of an interested motive, or any +impediment from scrupulous feelings of delicacy, express my deep sense +of the powerful support which that Government over which I had the honor +to preside received from the _Times_ Newspaper. + +"If I do not offer the expressions of personal gratitude, it is because +I feel that such expressions would do injustice to the character of a +support which was given exclusively on the highest and most independent +grounds of public principle. I can say this with perfect truth, as I +am addressing one whose person even is unknown to me, and who during my +tenure of power studiously avoided every species of intercourse which +could throw a suspicion upon the motives by which he was actuated. I +should, however, be doing injustice to my own feelings, if I were to +retire from Office without one word of acknowledgment; without at +least assuring you of the admiration with which I witnessed, during the +arduous contest in which I was engaged, the daily exhibition of that +extraordinary ability to which I was indebted for a support, the more +valuable because it was an impartial and discriminating support.--I have +the honor to be, Sir, + + "Ever your most obedient and faithful servant, + "ROBERT PEEL." + +To which, with due loftiness and diplomatic gravity and brevity, +there is Answer, Draught of Answer in Edward Sterling's hand, from the +Mysterious Entity so honored, in the following terms:-- + + "_To the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., &c. &c. &c_. + +"SIR,--It gives me sincere satisfaction to learn from the Letter with +which you have honored me, bearing yesterday's date, that you estimate +so highly the efforts which have been made during the last five months +by the _Times_ Newspaper to support the cause of rational and wholesome +Government which his Majesty had intrusted to your guidance; and that +you appreciate fairly the disinterested motive, of regard to the public +welfare, and to that alone, through which this Journal has been prompted +to pursue a policy in accordance with that of your Administration. It +is, permit me to say, by such motives only, that the _Times_, ever +since I have known it, has been influenced, whether in defence of the +Government of the day, or in constitutional resistance to it: and indeed +there exist no other motives of action for a Journalist, compatible +either with the safety of the press, or with the political morality of +the great bulk of its readers.--With much respect, I have the honor to +be, Sir, &c. &c. &c. + + "THE EDITOR OF THE 'TIMES.'" + +Of this Note I do not think there was the least whisper during Edward +Sterling's lifetime; which fact also one likes to remember of him, +so ostentatious and little-reticent a man. For the rest, his loyal +admiration of Sir Robert Peel,--sanctioned, and as it were almost +consecrated to his mind, by the great example of the Duke of +Wellington, whom he reverenced always with true hero-worship,--was not +a journalistic one, but a most intimate authentic feeling, sufficiently +apparent in the very heart of his mind. Among the many opinions "liable +to three hundred and sixty-five changes in the course of the year," this +in reference to Peel and Wellington was one which ever changed, but was +the same all days and hours. To which, equally genuine, and coming still +oftener to light in those times, there might one other be added, one and +hardly more: fixed contempt, not unmingled with detestation, for Daniel +O'Connell. This latter feeling, we used often laughingly to say, was +his grand political principle, the one firm centre where all else went +revolving. But internally the other also was deep and constant; and +indeed these were properly his _two_ centres,--poles of the same axis, +negative and positive, the one presupposing the other. + +O'Connell he had known in young Dublin days;--and surely no man could +well venerate another less! It was his deliberate, unalterable opinion +of the then Great O, that good would never come of him; that only +mischief, and this in huge measure, would come. That however showy, and +adroit in rhetoric and management, he was a man of incurably commonplace +intellect, and of no character but a hollow, blustery, pusillanimous +and unsound one; great only in maudlin patriotisms, in speciosities, +astucities,--in the miserable gifts for becoming Chief _Demagogos_, +Leader of a deep-sunk Populace towards _its_ Lands of Promise; which +trade, in any age or country, and especially in the Ireland of this age, +our indignant friend regarded (and with reason) as an extremely ugly one +for a man. He had himself zealously advocated Catholic Emancipation, +and was not without his Irish patriotism, very different from the Orange +sort; but the "Liberator" was not admirable to him, and grew daily less +so to an extreme degree. Truly, his scorn of the said Liberator, now +riding in supreme dominion on the wings of _blarney_, devil-ward of a +surety, with the Liberated all following and huzzaing; his fierce gusts +of wrath and abhorrence over him,--rose occasionally almost to the +sublime. We laughed often at these vehemences:--and they were not wholly +laughable; there was something very serious, and very true, in them! +This creed of Edward Sterling's would not now, in either pole of its +axis, look so strange as it then did in many quarters. + + +During those ten years which might be defined as the culminating period +of Edward Sterling's life, his house at South Place, Knights bridge, had +worn a gay and solid aspect, as if built at last on the high table-land +of sunshine and success, the region of storms and dark weather now +all victoriously traversed and lying safe below. Health, work, wages, +whatever is needful to a man, he had, in rich measure; and a frank stout +heart to guide the same: he lived in such style as pleased him; drove +his own chariot up and down (himself often acting as Jehu, and reminding +you a little of _Times_ thunder even in driving); consorted, after +a fashion, with the powerful of the world; saw in due vicissitude a +miscellany of social faces round him,--pleasant parties, which he liked +well enough to garnish by a lord; "Irish lord, if no better might be," +as the banter went. For the rest, he loved men of worth and intellect, +and recognized them well, whatever their title: this was his own patent +of worth which Nature had given him; a central light in the man, +which illuminated into a kind of beauty, serious or humorous, all the +artificialities he had accumulated on the surface of him. So rolled his +days, not quietly, yet prosperously, in manifold commerce with men. +At one in the morning, when all had vanished into sleep, his lamp +was kindled in his library; and there, twice or thrice a week, for a +three-hours' space, he launched his bolts, which next morning were to +shake the high places of the world. + +John's relation to his Father, when one saw John here, was altogether +frank, joyful and amiable: he ignored the _Times_ thunder for most part, +coldly taking the Anonymous for non-extant; spoke of it floutingly, if +he spoke at all: indeed a pleasant half-bantering dialect was the +common one between Father and Son; and they, especially with the gentle, +simple-hearted, just-minded Mother for treble-voice between them, made a +very pretty glee-harmony together. + +So had it lasted, ever since poor John's voyagings began; his Father's +house standing always as a fixed sunny islet with safe harbor for him. +So it could not always last. This sunny islet was now also to break and +go down: so many firm islets, fixed pillars in his fluctuating world, +pillar after pillar, were to break and go down; till swiftly all, so +to speak, were sunk in the dark waters, and he with them! Our little +History is now hastening to a close. + + +In the beginning of 1843 news reached us that Sterling had, in his too +reckless way, encountered a dangerous accident: maids, in the room where +he was, were lifting a heavy table; he, seeing them in difficulty, had +snatched at the burden; heaved it away,--but had broken a blood-vessel +by the business; and was now, after extensive hemorrhage, lying +dangerously ill. The doctors hoped the worst was over; but the case was +evidently serious. In the same days, too, his Mother had been seized +here by some painful disease, which from its continuance grew alarming. +Sad omens for Edward Sterling, who by this time had as good as ceased +writing or working in the _Times_, having comfortably winded up his +affairs there; and was looking forward to a freer idle life befitting +his advanced years henceforth. Fatal eclipse had fallen over that +household of his; never to be lifted off again till all darkened into +night. + +By dint of watchful nursing, John Sterling got on foot once more: but +his Mother did not recover, quite the contrary. Her case too grew very +questionable. Disease of the heart, said the medical men at last; not +immediately, not perhaps for a length of years, dangerous to life, said +they; but without hope of cure. The poor lady suffered much; and, though +affecting hope always, grew weaker and weaker. John ran up to Town in +March; I saw him, on the morrow or next day after, in his own room at +Knightsbridge: he had caught fresh cold overnight, the servant having +left his window up, but I was charged to say nothing of it, not to +flutter the already troubled house: he was going home again that very +day, and nothing ill would come of it. We understood the family at +Falmouth, his Wife being now near her confinement again, could at any +rate comport with no long absence. He was cheerful, even rudely merry; +himself pale and ill, his poor Mother's cough audible occasionally +through the wall. Very kind, too, and gracefully affectionate; but I +observed a certain grimness in his mood of mind, and under his light +laughter lay something unusual, something stern, as if already dimmed +in the coming shadows of Fate. "Yes, yes, you are a good man: but I +understand they mean to appoint you to Rhadamanthus's post, which has +been vacant for some time; and you will see how you like that!" This +was one of the things he said; a strange effulgence of wild drollery +flashing through the ice of earnest pain and sorrow. He looked paler +than usual: almost for the first time, I had myself a twinge of +misgiving as to his own health; for hitherto I had been used to blame +as much as pity his fits of dangerous illness, and would often angrily +remonstrate with him that he might have excellent health, would he but +take reasonable care of himself, and learn the art of sitting still. +Alas, as if he _could_ learn it; as if Nature had not laid her ban on +him even there, and said in smiles and frowns manifoldly, "No, that thou +shalt not learn!" + +He went that day; he never saw his good true Mother more. Very shortly +afterwards, in spite of doctors' prophecies, and affectionate illusions, +she grew alarmingly and soon hopelessly worse. Here are his last two +Letters to her:-- + + "_To Mrs. Sterling, Knightsbridge, London_. + "FALMOUTH 8th April, 1843. + +"DEAREST MOTHER,--I could do you no good, but it would be the greatest +comfort to me if I could be near you. Nothing would detain me but +Susan's condition. I feel that until her confinement is over, I ought to +remain here,--unless you wished me to go to you; in which case she would +be the first to send me off. Happily she is doing as well as possible, +and seems even to gain strength every day. She sends her love to you. + +"The children are all doing well. I rode with Edward to-day through some +of the pleasant lanes in the neighborhood; and was delighted, as I have +often been at the same season, to see the primroses under every hedge. +It is pleasant to think that the Maker of them can make other flowers +for the gardens of his other mansions. We have here a softness in the +air, a smoothness of the clouds, and a mild sunshine, that combine in +lovely peace with the first green of spring and the mellow whiteness of +the sails upon the quiet sea. The whole aspect of the world is full of +a quiet harmony, that influences even one's bodily frame, and seems to +make one's very limbs aware of something living, good and immortal in +all around us. Knowing how you suffer, and how weak you are, anything is +a blessing to me that helps me to rise out of confusion and grief into +the sense of God and joy. I could not indeed but feel how much happier I +should have been, this morning, had you been with me, and delighting as +you would have done in all the little as well as the large beauty of the +world. But it was still a satisfaction to feel how much I owe to you of +the power of perceiving meaning, reality and sweetness in all healthful +life. And thus I could fancy that you were still near me; and that I +could see you, as I have so often seen you, looking with earnest eyes at +wayside flowers. + +"I would rather not have written what must recall your thoughts to your +present sufferings: but, dear Mother, I wrote only what I felt; and +perhaps you would rather have it so, than that I should try to find +other topics. I still hope to be with you before long. Meanwhile and +always, God bless you, is the prayer of + + "Your affectionate son, + "JOHN STERLING." + + _To the same_. + "FALMOUTH, 12th April, 1843. + +"DEAREST MOTHER,--I have just received my Father's Letter; which gives +me at least the comfort of believing that you do not suffer very much +pain. That your mind has remained so clear and strong, is an infinite +blessing. + +"I do not know anything in the world that would make up to me at all for +wanting the recollection of the days I spent with you lately, when I was +amazed at the freshness and life of all your thoughts. It brought back +far-distant years, in the strangest, most peaceful way. I felt myself +walking with you in Greenwich Park, and on the seashore at Sandgate; +almost even I seemed a baby, with you bending over me. Dear Mother, +there is surely something uniting us that cannot perish. I seem so sure +of a love which shall last and reunite us, that even the remembrance, +painful as that is, of all my own follies and ill tempers, cannot shake +this faith. When I think of you, and know how you feel towards me, and +have felt for every moment of almost forty years, it would be too dark +to believe that we shall never meet again. It was from you that I first +learnt to think, to feel, to imagine, to believe; and these powers, +which cannot be extinguished, will one day enter anew into communion +with you. I have bought it very dear by the prospect of losing you in +this world,--but since you have been so ill, everything has seemed to me +holier, loftier and more lasting, more full of hope and final joy. + +"It would be a very great happiness to see you once more even here; but +I do not know if that will be granted to me. But for Susan's state, I +should not hesitate an instant; as it is, my duty seems to be to remain, +and I have no right to repine. There is no sacrifice that she would not +make for me, and it would be too cruel to endanger her by mere anxiety +on my account. Nothing can exceed her sympathy with my sorrow. But she +cannot know, no one can, the recollections of all you have been and +done for me; which now are the most sacred and deepest, as well as +most beautiful, thoughts that abide with me. May God bless you, dearest +Mother. It is much to believe that He feels for you all that you have +ever felt for your children. + + "JOHN STERLING." + +A day or two after this, "on Good Friday, 1843," his Wife got happily +through her confinement, bringing him, he writes, "a stout little girl, +who and the Mother are doing as well as possible." The little girl still +lives and does well; but for the Mother there was another lot. Till the +Monday following she too did altogether well, he affectionately watching +her; but in the course of that day, some change for the worse was +noticed, though nothing to alarm either the doctors or him; he watched +by her bedside all night, still without alarm; but sent again in the +morning, Tuesday morning, for the doctors,--Who did not seem able +to make much of the symptoms. She appeared weak and low, but made no +particular complaint. The London post meanwhile was announced; Sterling +went into another room to learn what tidings of his Mother it brought +him. Returning speedily with a face which in vain strove to be calm, +his Wife asked, How at Knightsbridge? "My Mother is dead," answered +Sterling; "died on Sunday: She is gone." "Poor old man!" murmured the +other, thinking of old Edward Sterling now left alone in the world; and +these were her own last words: in two hours more she too was dead. In +two hours Mother and Wife were suddenly both snatched away from him. + +"It came with awful suddenness!" writes he to his Clifton friend. "Still +for a short time I had my Susan: but I soon saw that the medical +men were in terror; and almost within half an hour of that fatal +Knightsbridge news, I began to suspect our own pressing danger. I +received her last breath upon my lips. Her mind was much sunk, and +her perceptions slow; but a few minutes before the last, she must have +caught the idea of dissolution; and signed that I should kiss her. She +faltered painfully, 'Yes! yes!'--returned with fervency the pressure of +my lips; and in a few moments her eyes began to fix, her pulse to cease. +She too is gone from me!" It was Tuesday morning, April 18th, 1843. His +Mother had died on the Sunday before. + + +He had loved his excellent kind Mother, as he ought and well might: in +that good heart, in all the wanderings of his own, there had ever been +a shrine of warm pity, of mother's love and blessed soft affections +for him; and now it was closed in the Eternities forevermore. His poor +Life-partner too, his other self, who had faithfully attended him so +long in all his pilgrimings, cheerily footing the heavy tortuous ways +along with him, can follow him no farther; sinks now at his side: "The +rest of your pilgrimings alone, O Friend,--adieu, adieu!" She too +is forever hidden from his eyes; and he stands, on the sudden, very +solitary amid the tumult of fallen and falling things. "My little baby +girl is doing well; poor little wreck cast upon the sea-beach of life. +My children require me tenfold now. What I shall do, is all confusion +and darkness." + +The younger Mrs. Sterling was a true good woman; loyal-hearted, willing +to do well, and struggling wonderfully to do it amid her languors and +infirmities; rescuing, in many ways, with beautiful female heroism and +adroitness, what of fertility their uncertain, wandering, unfertile +way of life still left possible, and cheerily making the most of it. A +genial, pious and harmonious fund of character was in her; and withal an +indolent, half-unconscious force of intellect, and justness and delicacy +of perception, which the casual acquaintance scarcely gave her credit +for. Sterling much respected her decision in matters literary; often +altering and modifying where her feeling clearly went against him; and +in verses especially trusting to her ear, which was excellent, while he +knew his own to be worth little. I remember her melodious rich plaintive +tone of voice; and an exceedingly bright smile which she sometimes had, +effulgent with sunny gayety and true humor, among other fine qualities. + +Sterling has lost much in these two hours; how much that has long been +can never again be for him! Twice in one morning, so to speak, has a +mighty wind smitten the corners of his house; and much lies in dismal +ruins round him. + + + +CHAPTER VI. VENTNOR: DEATH. + +In this sudden avalanche of sorrows Sterling, weak and worn as we have +seen, bore up manfully, and with pious valor fronted what had come upon +him. He was not a man to yield to vain wailings, or make repinings at +the unalterable: here was enough to be long mourned over; but here, +for the moment, was very much imperatively requiring to be done. That +evening, he called his children round him; spoke words of religious +admonition and affection to them; said, "He must now be a Mother as well +as Father to them." On the evening of the funeral, writes Mr. Hare, he +bade them good-night, adding these words, "If I am taken from you, God +will take care of you." He had six children left to his charge, two of +them infants; and a dark outlook ahead of them and him. The good Mrs. +Maurice, the children's young Aunt, present at this time and often +afterwards till all ended, was a great consolation. + + +Falmouth, it may be supposed, had grown a sorrowful place to him, +peopled with haggard memories in his weak state; and now again, as had +been usual with him, change of place suggested itself as a desirable +alleviation;--and indeed, in some sort, as a necessity. He has "friends +here," he admits to himself, "whose kindness is beyond all price, all +description;" but his little children, if anything befell him, have no +relative within two hundred miles. He is now sole watcher over them; and +his very life is so precarious; nay, at any rate, it would appear, he +has to leave Falmouth every spring, or run the hazard of worse. Once +more, what is to be done? Once more,--and now, as it turned out, for the +last time. + +A still gentler climate, greater proximity to London, where his Brother +Anthony now was and most of his friends and interests were: these +considerations recommended Ventnor, in the beautiful Southeastern corner +of the Isle of Wight; where on inquiry an eligible house was found for +sale. The house and its surrounding piece of ground, improvable both, +were purchased; he removed thither in June of this year 1843; and set +about improvements and adjustments on a frank scale. By the decease of +his Mother, he had become rich in money; his share of the West-India +properties having now fallen to him, which, added to his former +incomings, made a revenue he could consider ample and abundant. Falmouth +friends looked lovingly towards him, promising occasional visits; old +Herstmonceux, which he often spoke of revisiting but never did, was not +far off; and London, with all its resources and remembrances, was now +again accessible. He resumed his work; and had hopes of again achieving +something. + +The Poem of _Coeur-de-Lion_ has been already mentioned, and the wider +form and aim it had got since he first took it in hand. It was above a +year before the date of these tragedies and changes, that he had sent +me a Canto, or couple of Cantos, of _Coeur-de-Lion_; loyally again +demanding my opinion, harsh as it had often been on that side. This +time I felt right glad to answer in another tone: "That here was real +felicity and ingenuity, on the prescribed conditions; a decisively +rhythmic quality in this composition; thought and phraseology actually +_dancing_, after a sort. What the plan and scope of the Work might be, +he had not said, and I could not judge; but here was a light opulence of +airy fancy, picturesque conception, vigorous delineation, all marching +on as with cheerful drum and fife, if without more rich and complicated +forms of melody: if a man _would_ write in metre, this sure enough +was the way to try doing it." For such encouragement from that stinted +quarter, Sterling, I doubt not, was very thankful; and of course it +might co-operate with the inspirations from his Naples Tour to further +him a little in this his now chief task in the way of Poetry; a thought +which, among my many almost pathetic remembrances of contradictions to +his Poetic tendency, is pleasant for me. + +But, on the whole, it was no matter. With or without encouragement, he +was resolute to persevere in Poetry, and did persevere. When I think now +of his modest, quiet steadfastness in this business of Poetry; how, in +spite of friend and foe, he silently persisted, without wavering, in +the form of utterance he had chosen for himself; and to what length he +carried it, and vindicated himself against us all;--his character comes +out in a new light to me, with more of a certain central inflexibility +and noble silent resolution than I had elsewhere noticed in it. This +summer, moved by natural feelings, which were sanctioned, too, and in a +sort sanctified to him, by the remembered counsel of his late Wife, +he printed the _Tragedy of Strafford_. But there was in the public no +contradiction to the hard vote I had given about it: the little +Book fell dead-born; and Sterling had again to take his +disappointment;--which it must be owned he cheerfully did; and, resolute +to try it again and ever again, went along with his _Coeur-de-Lion_, +as if the public had been all with him. An honorable capacity to stand +single against the whole world; such as all men need, from time to time! +After all, who knows whether, in his overclouded, broken, flighty way +of life, incapable of long hard drudgery, and so shut out from the solid +forms of Prose, this Poetic Form, which he could well learn as he could +all forms, was not the suitablest for him? + +This work of _Coeur-de-Lion_ he prosecuted steadfastly in his new home; +and indeed employed on it henceforth all the available days that were +left him in this world. As was already said, he did not live to complete +it; but some eight Cantos, three or four of which I know to possess high +worth, were finished, before Death intervened, and there he had to leave +it. Perhaps it will yet be given to the public; and in that case be +better received than the others were, by men of judgment; and serve to +put Sterling's Poetic pretensions on a much truer footing. I can say, +that to readers who do prefer a poetic diet, this ought to be welcome: +if you can contrive to love the thing which is still called "poetry" in +these days, here is a decidedly superior article in that kind,--richer +than one of a hundred that you smilingly consume. + +In this same month of June, 1843, while the house at Ventnor was +getting ready, Sterling was again in London for a few days. Of course +at Knightsbridge, now fallen under such sad change, many private matters +needed to be settled by his Father and Brother and him. Captain Anthony, +now minded to remove with his family to London and quit the military +way of life, had agreed to purchase the big family house, which he still +occupies; the old man, now rid of that encumbrance, retired to a smaller +establishment of his own; came ultimately to be Anthony's guest, and +spent his last days so. He was much lamed and broken, the half of his +old life suddenly torn away;--and other losses, which he yet knew not +of, lay close ahead of him. In a year or two, the rugged old man, borne +down by these pressures, quite gave way; sank into paralytic and +other infirmities; and was released from life's sorrows, under his son +Anthony's roof, in the fall of 1847.--The house in Knightsbridge was, +at the time we now speak of, empty except of servants; Anthony having +returned to Dublin, I suppose to conclude his affairs there, prior to +removal. John lodged in a Hotel. + +We had our fair share of his company in this visit, as in all the past +ones; but the intercourse, I recollect, was dim and broken, a disastrous +shadow hanging over it, not to be cleared away by effort. Two American +gentlemen, acquaintances also of mine, had been recommended to him, by +Emerson most likely: one morning Sterling appeared here with a strenuous +proposal that we should come to Knightsbridge, and dine with him and +them. Objections, general dissuasions were not wanting: The empty dark +house, such needless trouble, and the like;--but he answered in his +quizzing way, "Nature herself prompts you, when a stranger comes, to +give him a dinner. There are servants yonder; it is all easy; come; both +of you are bound to come." And accordingly we went. I remember it as +one of the saddest dinners; though Sterling talked copiously, and our +friends, Theodore Parker one of them, were pleasant and distinguished +men. All was so haggard in one's memory, and half consciously in one's +anticipations; sad, as if one had been dining in a will, in the crypt of +a mausoleum. Our conversation was waste and logical, I forget quite on +what, not joyful and harmoniously effusive: Sterling's silent sadness +was painfully apparent through the bright mask he had bound himself +to wear. Withal one could notice now, as on his last visit, a certain +sternness of mood, unknown in better days; as if strange gorgon-faces +of earnest Destiny were more and more rising round him, and the time for +sport were past. He looked always hurried, abrupt, even beyond wont; and +indeed was, I suppose, overwhelmed in details of business. + +One evening, I remember, he came down hither, designing to have a +freer talk with us. We were all sad enough; and strove rather to avoid +speaking of what might make us sadder. Before any true talk had been +got into, an interruption occurred, some unwelcome arrival; Sterling +abruptly rose; gave me the signal to rise; and we unpolitely walked +away, adjourning to his Hotel, which I recollect was in the Strand, near +Hungerford Market; some ancient comfortable quaint-looking place, off +the street; where, in a good warm queer old room, the remainder of our +colloquy was duly finished. We spoke of Cromwell, among other things +which I have now forgotten; on which subject Sterling was trenchant, +positive, and in some essential points wrong,--as I said I would +convince him some day. "Well, well!" answered he, with a shake of +the head.--We parted before long; bedtime for invalids being come: +he escorted me down certain carpeted backstairs, and would not be +forbidden: we took leave under the dim skies;--and alas, little as I +then dreamt of it, this, so far as I can calculate, must have been the +last time I ever saw him in the world. Softly as a common evening, the +last of the evenings had passed away, and no other would come for me +forevermore. + +Through the summer he was occupied with fitting up his new residence, +selecting governesses, servants; earnestly endeavoring to set his house +in order, on the new footing it had now assumed. Extensive improvements +in his garden and grounds, in which he took due interest to the +last, were also going on. His Brother, and Mr. Maurice his +brother-in-law,--especially Mrs. Maurice the kind sister, faithfully +endeavoring to be as a mother to her poor little nieces,--were +occasionally with him. All hours available for labor on his literary +tasks, he employed, almost exclusively I believe, on _Coeur-de-Lion_; +with what energy, the progress he had made in that Work, and in the art +of Poetic composition generally, amid so many sore impediments, best +testifies. I perceive, his life in general lay heavier on him than it +had done before; his mood of mind is grown more sombre;--indeed the very +solitude of this Ventnor as a place, not to speak of other solitudes, +must have been new and depressing. But he admits no hypochondria, now or +ever; occasionally, though rarely, even flashes of a kind of wild gayety +break through. He works steadily at his task, with all the strength left +him; endures the past as he may, and makes gallant front against the +world. "I am going on quietly here, rather than happily," writes he to +his friend Newman; "sometimes quite helpless, not from distinct illness, +but from sad thoughts and a ghastly dreaminess. The heart is gone out of +my life. My children, however, are doing well; and the place is cheerful +and mild." + +From Letters of this period I might select some melancholy enough; but +will prefer to give the following one (nearly the last I can give), as +indicative of a less usual temper:-- + + "_To Thomas Carlyle, Esq., Chelsea, London_. + "VENTNOR, 7th December, 1843. + +"MY DEAR CARLYLE,--My Irish Newspaper was _not_ meant as a hint that +I wanted a Letter. It contained an absurd long Advertisement,--some +project for regenerating human knowledge, &c. &c.; to which I prefixed +my private mark (a blot), thinking that you might be pleased to know of +a fellow-laborer somewhere in Tipperary. + +"Your Letter, like the Scriptural oil,--(they had no patent lamps then, +and used the best oil, 7s. per gallon),--has made my face to shine. +There is but one person in the world, I shall not tell you who, from +whom a Letter would give me so much pleasure. It would be nearly as good +at Pekin, in the centre of the most enlightened Mandarins; but here at +Ventnor, where there are few Mandarins and no enlightenment,--fountains +in the wilderness, even were they miraculous, are nothing compared with +your handwriting. Yet it is sad that you should be so melancholy. I +often think that though Mercury was the pleasanter fellow, and probably +the happier, Saturn was the greater god;--rather cannibal or so, but one +excuses it in him, as in some other heroes one knows of. + +"It is, as you say, your destiny to write about Cromwell: and you +will make a book of him, at which the ears of our grandchildren will +tingle;--and as one may hope that the ears of human nature will be +growing longer and longer, the tingling will be proportionately greater +than we are accustomed to. Do what you can, I fear there will be little +gain from the Royalists. There is something very small about the biggest +of them that I have ever fallen in with, unless you count old Hobbes a +Royalist. + +"Curious to see that you have them exactly preserved in the Country +Gentlemen of our day; while of the Puritans not a trace remains except +in History. Squirism had already, in that day, become the _caput +mortuum_ that it is now; and has therefore, like other mummies, been +able to last. What was opposed to it was the Life of Puritanism,--then +on the point of disappearing; and it too has left its mummy at Exeter +Hall on the platform and elsewhere. One must go back to the Middle +Ages to see Squirism as rampant and vivacious as Biblicism was in the +Seventeenth Century: and I suppose our modern Country Gentlemen are +about as near to what the old Knights and Barons were who fought the +Crusades, as our modern Evangelicals to the fellows who sought the Lord +by the light of their own pistol-shots. + +"Those same Crusades are now pleasant matter for me. You remember, or +perhaps you do not, a thing I once sent you about Coeur-de-Lion. Long +since, I settled to make the Cantos you saw part of a larger Book; and +worked at it, last autumn and winter, till I had a bad illness. I am +now at work on it again; and go full sail, like _my_ hero. There are six +Cantos done, roughly, besides what you saw. I have struck out most +of the absurdest couplets, and given the whole a higher though still +sportive tone. It is becoming a kind of _Odyssey_, with a laughing and +Christian Achilles for hero. One may manage to wrap, in that chivalrous +brocade, many things belonging to our Time, and capable of interesting +it. The thing is not bad; but will require great labor. Only it is labor +that I thoroughly like; and which keeps the maggots out of one's brain, +until their time. + +"I have never spoken to you, never been able to speak to you, of the +change in my life,--almost as great, one fancies, as one's own death. +Even now, although it seems as if I had so much to say, I cannot. If +one could imagine--... But it is no use; I cannot write wisely on +this matter. I suppose no human being was ever devoted to another more +entirely than she; and that makes the change not less but more bearable. +It seems as if she could not be gone quite; and that indeed is my faith. + +"Mr. James, your New-England friend, was here only for a few days; I saw +him several times, and liked him. They went, on the 24th of last month, +back to London,--or so purposed,--because there is no pavement here for +him to walk on. I want to know where he is, and thought I should be able +to learn from you. I gave him a Note for Mill, who perhaps may have seen +him. I think this is all at present from, + + "Yours, + "JOHN STERLING." + +Of his health, all this while, we had heard little definite; and +understood that he was very quiet and careful; in virtue of which grand +improvement we vaguely considered all others would follow. Once let him +learn well to be _slow_ as the common run of men are, would not all be +safe and well? Nor through the winter, or the cold spring months, did +bad news reach us; perhaps less news of any kind than had been usual, +which seemed to indicate a still and wholesome way of life and work. Not +till "April 4th, 1844," did the new alarm occur: again on some slight +accident, the breaking of a blood-vessel; again prostration under +dangerous sickness, from which this time he never rose. + +There had been so many sudden failings and happy risings again in our +poor Sterling's late course of health, we had grown so accustomed to +mingle blame of his impetuosity with pity for his sad overthrows, we did +not for many weeks quite realize to ourselves the stern fact that here +at length had the peculiar fall come upon us,--the last of all +these falls! This brittle life, which had so often held together and +victoriously rallied under pressures and collisions, could not rally +always, and must one time be shivered. It was not till the summer came +and no improvement; and not even then without lingering glimmers of hope +against hope, that I fairly had to own what had now come, what was now +day by day sternly advancing with the steadiness of Time. + +From the first, the doctors spoke despondently; and Sterling himself +felt well that there was no longer any chance of life. He had often said +so, in his former illnesses, and thought so, yet always till now with +some tacit grain of counter-hope; he had never clearly felt so as now: +Here _is_ the end; the great change is now here!--Seeing how it was, +then, he earnestly gathered all his strength to do this last act of +his tragedy, as he had striven to do the others, in a pious and manful +manner. As I believe we can say he did; few men in any time _more_ +piously or manfully. For about six months he sat looking steadfastly, at +all moments, into the eyes of Death; he too who had eyes to _see_ Death +and the Terrors and Eternities; and surely it was with perfect courage +and piety, and valiant simplicity of heart, that he bore himself, and +did and thought and suffered, in this trying predicament, more terrible +than the usual death of men. All strength left to him he still employed +in working: day by day the end came nearer, but day by day also some new +portion of his adjustments was completed, by some small stage his +task was nearer done. His domestic and other affairs, of all sorts, he +settled to the last item. Of his own Papers he saved a few, giving brief +pertinent directions about them; great quantities, among which a certain +Autobiography begun some years ago at Clifton, he ruthlessly burnt, +judging that the best. To his friends he left messages, memorials of +books: I have a _Gough's Camden_, and other relics, which came to me in +that way, and are among my sacred possessions. The very Letters of his +friends he sorted and returned; had each friend's Letters made into a +packet, sealed with black, and duly addressed for delivery when the time +should come. + +At an early period of his illness, all visitors had of course been +excluded, except his most intimate ones: before long, so soon as the end +became apparent, he took leave even of his Father, to avoid excitements +and intolerable emotions; and except his Brother and the Maurices, who +were generally about him coming and going, none were admitted. This +latter form of life, I think, continued for above three months. Men were +still working about his grounds, of whom he took some charge; needful +works, great and small, let them not pause on account of him. He still +rose from bed; had still some portion of his day which he could spend +in his Library. Besides business there, he read a good deal,--earnest +books; the Bible, most earnest of books, his chief favorite. He still +even wrote a good deal. To his eldest Boy, now Mr. Newman's ward, who +had been removed to the Maurices' since the beginning of this illness, +he addressed, every day or two, sometimes daily, for eight or +nine weeks, a Letter, of general paternal advice and exhortation; +interspersing sparingly, now and then, such notices of his own feelings +and condition as could be addressed to a boy. These Letters, I have +lately read: they give, beyond any he has written, a noble image of the +intrinsic Sterling;--the same face we had long known; but painted now +as on the azure of Eternity, serene, victorious, divinely sad; the dusts +and extraneous disfigurements imprinted on it by the world, now +washed away. One little Excerpt, not the best, but the fittest for its +neighborhood here, will be welcome to the reader:-- + + "_To Master Edward C. Sterling, London_. + "HILLSIDE, VENTNOR, 29th June, 1844. + +"MY DEAR BOY,--We have been going on here as quietly as possible, with +no event that I know of. There is nothing except books to occupy me. +But you may suppose that my thoughts often move towards you, and that +I fancy what you may be doing in the great City,--the greatest on the +Earth,--where I spent so many years of my life. I first saw London when +I was between eight and nine years old, and then lived in or near it for +the whole of the next ten, and more there than anywhere else for seven +years longer. Since then I have hardly ever been a year without seeing +the place, and have often lived in it for a considerable time. There +I grew from childhood to be a man. My little Brothers and Sisters, and +since, my Mother, died and are buried there. There I first saw your +Mamma, and was there married. It seems as if, in some strange way, +London were a part of Me or I of London. I think of it often, not as +full of noise and dust and confusion, but as something silent, grand and +everlasting. + +"When I fancy how you are walking in the same streets, and moving along +the same river, that I used to watch so intently, as if in a dream, when +younger than you are,--I could gladly burst into tears, not of +grief, but with a feeling that there is no name for. Everything is so +wonderful, great and holy, so sad and yet not bitter, so full of Death +and so bordering on Heaven. Can you understand anything of this? If +you can, you will begin to know what a serious matter our Life is; +how unworthy and stupid it is to trifle it away without heed; what a +wretched, insignificant, worthless creature any one comes to be, who +does not as soon as possible bend his whole strength, as in stringing a +stiff bow, to doing whatever task lies first before him.... + +"We have a mist here to-day from the sea. It reminds me of that which I +used to see from my house in St, Vincent, rolling over the great volcano +and the mountains round it. I used to look at it from our windows with +your Mamma, and you a little baby in her arms. + +"This Letter is not so well written as I could wish, but I hope you will +be able to read it. + + "Your affectionate Papa, + "JOHN STERLING." + +These Letters go from June 9th to August 2d, at which latter date +vacation-time arrived, and the Boy returned to him. The Letters are +preserved; and surely well worth preserving. + +In this manner he wore the slow doomed months away. Day after day his +little period of Library went on waning, shrinking into less and less; +but I think it never altogether ended till the general end came.--For +courage, for active audacity we had all known Sterling; but such a fund +of mild stoicism, of devout patience and heroic composure, we did +not hitherto know in him. His sufferings, his sorrows, all his +unutterabilities in this slow agony, he held right manfully down; +marched loyally, as at the bidding of the Eternal, into the dread +Kingdoms, and no voice of weakness was heard from him. Poor noble +Sterling, he had struggled so high and gained so little here! But this +also he did gain, to be a brave man; and it was much. + +Summer passed into Autumn: Sterling's earthly businesses, to the last +detail of them, were now all as good as done: his strength too was +wearing to its end, his daily turn in the Library shrunk now to a span. +He had to hold himself as if in readiness for the great voyage at any +moment. One other Letter I must give; not quite the last message I had +from Sterling, but the last that can be inserted here: a brief Letter, +fit to be forever memorable to the receiver of it:-- + + "_To Thomas Carlyle, Esq., Chelsea, London_. + "HILLSIDE, VENTNOR, 10th August, 1844. + +MY DEAR CARLYLE,--For the first time for many months it seems possible +to send you a few words; merely, however, for Remembrance and Farewell. +On higher matters there is nothing to say. I tread the common road into +the great darkness, without any thought of fear, and with very much of +hope. Certainty indeed I have none. With regard to You and Me I cannot +begin to write; having nothing for it but to keep shut the lid of those +secrets with all the iron weights that are in my power. Towards me it is +still more true than towards England that no man has been and done like +you. Heaven bless you! If I can lend a hand when THERE, that will not be +wanting. It is all very strange, but not one hundredth part so sad as it +seems to the standers-by. + +"Your Wife knows my mind towards her, and will believe it without +asseverations. + + "Yours to the last, + "JOHN STERLING." + +It was a bright Sunday morning when this letter came to me: if in the +great Cathedral of Immensity I did no worship that day, the fault surely +was my own. Sterling affectionately refused to see me; which also was +kind and wise. And four days before his death, there are some stanzas of +verse for me, written as if in star-fire and immortal tears; which are +among my sacred possessions, to be kept for myself alone. + +His business with the world was done; the one business now to await +silently what may lie in other grander worlds. "God is great," he was +wont to say: "God is great." The Maurices were now constantly near him; +Mrs. Maurice assiduously watching over him. On the evening of Wednesday +the 18th of September, his Brother, as he did every two or three days, +came down; found him in the old temper, weak in strength but not very +sensibly weaker; they talked calmly together for an hour; then Anthony +left his bedside, and retired for the night, not expecting any change. +But suddenly, about eleven o'clock, there came a summons and alarm: +hurrying to his Brother's room, he found his Brother dying; and in +a short while more the faint last struggle was ended, and all those +struggles and strenuous often-foiled endeavors of eight-and-thirty years +lay hushed in death. + + + +CHAPTER VII. CONCLUSION. + +Sterling was of rather slim but well-boned wiry figure, perhaps an inch +or two from six feet in height; of blonde complexion, without color, yet +not pale or sickly; dark-blonde hair, copious enough, which he usually +wore short. The general aspect of him indicated freedom, perfect +spontaneity, with a certain careless natural grace. In his apparel, you +could notice, he affected dim colors, easy shapes; cleanly always, yet +even in this not fastidious or conspicuous: he sat or stood, oftenest, +in loose sloping postures; walked with long strides, body carelessly +bent, head flung eagerly forward, right hand perhaps grasping a +cane, and rather by the middle to swing it, than by the end to use it +otherwise. An attitude of frank, cheerful impetuosity, of hopeful speed +and alacrity; which indeed his physiognomy, on all sides of it, offered +as the chief expression. Alacrity, velocity, joyous ardor, dwelt in the +eyes too, which were of brownish gray, full of bright kindly life, +rapid and frank rather than deep or strong. A smile, half of kindly +impatience, half of real mirth, often sat on his face. The head was +long; high over the vertex; in the brow, of fair breadth, but not high +for such a man. + +In the voice, which was of good tenor sort, rapid and strikingly +distinct, powerful too, and except in some of the higher notes +harmonious, there was a clear-ringing _metallic_ tone,--which I often +thought was wonderfully physiognomic. A certain splendor, beautiful, +but not the deepest or the softest, which I could call a splendor as +of burnished metal,--fiery valor of heart, swift decisive insight and +utterance, then a turn for brilliant elegance, also for ostentation, +rashness, &c. &c.,--in short, a flash as of clear-glancing sharp-cutting +steel, lay in the whole nature of the man, in his heart and in his +intellect, marking alike the excellence and the limits of them both. +His laugh, which on light occasions was ready and frequent, had in it no +great depth of gayety, or sense for the ludicrous in men or things; you +might call it rather a good smile become vocal than a deep real laugh: +with his whole man I never saw him laugh. A clear sense of the humorous +he had, as of most other things; but in himself little or no true +humor;--nor did he attempt that side of things. To call him deficient +in sympathy would seem strange, him whose radiances and resonances went +thrilling over all the world, and kept him in brotherly contact with +all: but I may say his sympathies dwelt rather with the high and sublime +than with the low or ludicrous; and were, in any field, rather light, +wide and lively, than deep, abiding or great. + +There is no Portrait of him which tolerably resembles. The miniature +Medallion, of which Mr. Hare has given an Engraving, offers us, with +no great truth in physical details, one, and not the best, superficial +expression of his face, as if that with vacuity had been what the face +contained; and even that Mr. Hare's engraver has disfigured into the +nearly or the utterly irrecognizable. Two Pencil-sketches, which no +artist could approve of, hasty sketches done in some social hour, one +by his friend Spedding, one by Banim the Novelist, whom he slightly +knew and had been kind to, tell a much truer story so far as they go: +of these his Brother has engravings; but these also I must suppress as +inadequate for strangers. + + +Nor in the way of Spiritual Portraiture does there, after so much +writing and excerpting, anything of importance remain for me to say. +John Sterling and his Life in this world were--such as has been already +said. In purity of character, in the so-called moralities, in all manner +of proprieties of conduct, so as tea-tables and other human tribunals +rule them, he might be defined as perfect, according to the world's +pattern: in these outward tangible respects the world's criticism of him +must have been praise and that only. An honorable man, and good citizen; +discharging, with unblamable correctness, all functions and duties +laid on him by the customs (_mores_) of the society he lived in,--with +correctness and something more. In all these particulars, a man +perfectly _moral_, or of approved virtue according to the rules. + +Nay in the far more essential tacit virtues, which are not marked on +stone tables, or so apt to be insisted on by human creatures over tea +or elsewhere,--in clear and perfect fidelity to Truth wherever found, +in childlike and soldier-like, pious and valiant loyalty to the Highest, +and what of good and evil that might send him,--he excelled among good +men. The joys and the sorrows of his lot he took with true simplicity +and acquiescence. Like a true son, not like a miserable mutinous rebel, +he comported himself in this Universe. Extremity of distress--and surely +his fervid temper had enough of contradiction in this world--could not +tempt him into impatience at any time. By no chance did you ever hear +from him a whisper of those mean repinings, miserable arraignings and +questionings of the Eternal Power, such as weak souls even well disposed +will sometimes give way to in the pressure of their despair; to the like +of this he never yielded, or showed the least tendency to yield;--which +surely was well on his part. For the Eternal Power, I still remark, +will not answer the like of this, but silently and terribly accounts it +impious, blasphemous and damnable, and now as heretofore will visit it +as such. Not a rebel but a son, I said; willing to suffer when +Heaven said, Thou shalt;--and withal, what is perhaps rarer in such a +combination, willing to rejoice also, and right cheerily taking the good +that was sent, whensoever or in whatever form it came. + +A pious soul we may justly call him; devoutly submissive to the will +of the Supreme in all things: the highest and sole essential form which +Religion can assume in man, and without which all forms of religion are +a mockery and a delusion in man. Doubtless, in so clear and filial a +heart there must have dwelt the perennial feeling of silent worship; +which silent feeling, as we have seen, he was eager enough to express by +all good ways of utterance; zealously adopting such appointed forms and +creeds as the dignitaries of the World had fixed upon and solemnly named +recommendable; prostrating his heart in such Church, by such accredited +rituals and seemingly fit or half-fit methods, as his poor time and +country had to offer him,--not rejecting the said methods till they +stood convicted of palpable unfitness and then doing it right gently +withal, rather letting them drop as pitiably dead for him, than angrily +hurling them out of doors as needing to be killed. By few Englishmen +of his epoch had the thing called Church of England been more loyally +appealed to as a spiritual mother. + +And yet, as I said before, it may be questioned whether piety, what we +call devotion or worship, was the principle deepest in him. In spite of +his Coleridge discipleship, and his once headlong operations following +thereon, I used to judge that his piety was prompt and pure rather than +great or intense; that, on the whole, religious devotion was not the +deepest element of him. His reverence was ardent and just, ever ready +for the thing or man that deserved revering, or seemed to deserve it: +but he was of too joyful, light and hoping a nature to go to the depths +of that feeling, much more to dwell perennially in it. He had no fear +in his composition; terror and awe did not blend with his respect of +anything. In no scene or epoch could he have been a Church Saint, a +fanatic enthusiast, or have worn out his life in passive martyrdom, +sitting patient in his grim coal-mine, looking at the "three ells" of +Heaven high overhead there. In sorrow he would not dwell; all sorrow +he swiftly subdued, and shook away from him. How could you have made an +Indian Fakir of the Greek Apollo, "whose bright eye lends brightness, +and never yet saw a shadow"?--I should say, not religious reverence, +rather artistic admiration was the essential character of him: a fact +connected with all other facts in the physiognomy of his life and self, +and giving a tragic enough character to much of the history he had among +us. + +Poor Sterling, he was by nature appointed for a Poet, then,--a Poet +after his sort, or recognizer and delineator of the Beautiful; and not +for a Priest at all? Striving towards the sunny heights, out of such +a level and through such an element as ours in these days is, he had +strange aberrations appointed him, and painful wanderings amid +the miserable gaslights, bog-fires, dancing meteors and putrid +phosphorescences which form the guidance of a young human soul at +present! Not till after trying all manner of sublimely illuminated +places, and finding that the basis of them was putridity, artificial gas +and quaking bog, did he, when his strength was all done, discover his +true sacred hill, and passionately climb thither while life was fast +ebbing!--A tragic history, as all histories are; yet a gallant, brave +and noble one, as not many are. It is what, to a radiant son of the +Muses, and bright messenger of the harmonious Wisdoms, this poor +world--if he himself have not strength enough, and _inertia_ enough, and +amid his harmonious eloquences silence enough--has provided at present. +Many a high-striving, too hasty soul, seeking guidance towards eternal +excellence from the official Black-artists, and successful Professors +of political, ecclesiastical, philosophical, commercial, general and +particular Legerdemain, will recognize his own history in this image of +a fellow-pilgrim's. + +Over-haste was Sterling's continual fault; over-haste, and want of the +due strength,--alas, mere want of the due _inertia_ chiefly; which is +so common a gift for most part; and proves so inexorably needful withal! +But he was good and generous and true; joyful where there was +joy, patient and silent where endurance was required of him; shook +innumerable sorrows, and thick-crowding forms of pain, gallantly away +from him; fared frankly forward, and with scrupulous care to tread on no +one's toes. True, above all, one may call him; a man of perfect veracity +in thought, word and deed. Integrity towards all men,--nay integrity +had ripened with him into chivalrous generosity; there was no guile or +baseness anywhere found in him. Transparent as crystal; he could not +hide anything sinister, if such there had been to hide. A more perfectly +transparent soul I have never known. It was beautiful, to read all those +interior movements; the little shades of affectations, ostentations; +transient spurts of anger, which never grew to the length of settled +spleen: all so naive, so childlike, the very faults grew beautiful to +you. + +And so he played his part among us, and has now ended it: in this first +half of the Nineteenth Century, such was the shape of human destinies +the world and he made out between them. He sleeps now, in the little +burying-ground of Bonchurch; bright, ever-young in the memory of others +that must grow old; and was honorably released from his toils before the +hottest of the day. + + +All that remains, in palpable shape, of John Sterling's activities in +this world are those Two poor Volumes; scattered fragments gathered from +the general waste of forgotten ephemera by the piety of a friend: an +inconsiderable memorial; not pretending to have achieved greatness; +only disclosing, mournfully, to the more observant, that a promise of +greatness was there. Like other such lives, like all lives, this is a +tragedy; high hopes, noble efforts; under thickening difficulties and +impediments, ever-new nobleness of valiant effort;--and the result +death, with conquests by no means corresponding. A life which cannot +challenge the world's attention; yet which does modestly solicit it, and +perhaps on clear study will be found to reward it. + +On good evidence let the world understand that here was a remarkable +soul born into it; who, more than others, sensible to its influences, +took intensely into him such tint and shape of feature as the world had +to offer there and then; fashioning himself eagerly by whatsoever of +noble presented itself; participating ardently in the world's battle, +and suffering deeply in its bewilderments;--whose Life-pilgrimage +accordingly is an emblem, unusually significant, of the world's own +during those years of his. A man of infinite susceptivity; who caught +everywhere, more than others, the color of the element he lived in, the +infection of all that was or appeared honorable, beautiful and manful in +the tendencies of his Time;--whose history therefore is, beyond others, +emblematic of that of his Time. + +In Sterling's Writings and Actions, were they capable of being well +read, we consider that there is for all true hearts, and especially for +young noble seekers, and strivers towards what is highest, a mirror in +which some shadow of themselves and of their immeasurably complex +arena will profitably present itself. Here also is one encompassed and +struggling even as they now are. This man also had said to himself, not +in mere Catechism-words, but with all his instincts, and the question +thrilled in every nerve of him, and pulsed in every drop of his blood: +"What is the chief end of man? Behold, I too would live and work as +beseems a denizen of this Universe, a child of the Highest God. By what +means is a noble life still possible for me here? Ye Heavens and +thou Earth, oh, how?"--The history of this long-continued prayer and +endeavor, lasting in various figures for near forty years, may now and +for some time coming have something to say to men! + + +Nay, what of men or of the world? Here, visible to myself, for some +while, was a brilliant human presence, distinguishable, honorable +and lovable amid the dim common populations; among the million little +beautiful, once more a beautiful human soul: whom I, among others, +recognized and lovingly walked with, while the years and the hours were. +Sitting now by his tomb in thoughtful mood, the new times bring a +new duty for me. "Why write the Life of Sterling?" I imagine I had a +commission higher than the world's, the dictate of Nature herself, to do +what is now done. _Sic prosit_. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[Footnote 1: _John Sterling's Essays and Tales, with Life_ by Archdeacon Hare. +Parker; London, 1848.] + +[Footnote 2: _Commons Journals_, iv. 15 (l0th January, 1644-5); and again v. 307 +&c., 498 (18th September, 1647-15th March, 1647-8).] + +[Footnote 3: _Literary Chronicle_, New Series; London, Saturday, 21 June, 1828, +Art. II.] + +[Footnote 4: "The Letters of Vetus from March 10th to May 10th, 1812" (second +edition, London, 1812): Ditto, "Part III., with a Preface and Notes" +(ibid. 1814).] + +[Footnote 5: Here, in a Note, is the tragic little Register, with what +indications for us may lie in it:-- + + (l.) Robert Sterling died, 4th June, 1815, at Queen Square, in + his fourth year (John being now nine). + (2.) Elizabeth died, 12th March, 1818, at Blackfriars Road, in + her second year. + (3.) Edward, 30th March, 1818 (same place, same month and year), + in his ninth. + (4.) Hester, 21st July, 1818 (three months later), at Blackheath, + in her eleventh. + (5.) Catherine Hester Elizabeth, 16th January, 1821, in Seymour + Street.] + +[Footnote 6: _History of the English Universities_. (Translated from the German.)] + +[Footnote 7: Mrs. Anthony Sterling, very lately Miss Charlotte Baird.] + +[Footnote 8: _Biography_, by Hare, pp. xvi-xxvi.] + +[Footnote 9: _Biography_, by Mr. Hare, p. xli.] + +[Footnote 10: Hare, pp. xliii-xlvi.] + +[Footnote 11: Hare, xlviii, liv, lv.] + +[Footnote 12: Hare, p. lvi.] + +[Footnote 13: P. lxxviii.] + +[Footnote 14: Given in Hare (ii. 188-193).] + +[Footnote 15: Came out, as will soon appear, in _Blackwood_ (February, 1838).] + +[Footnote 16: "_Hotel de l'Europe, Berlin_," added in Mrs. Sterling's hand.] + +[Footnote 17: Hare, ii. 96-167.] + +[Footnote 18: Ib. i. 129, 188.] + +[Footnote 19: Here in a Note they are, if they can be important to anybody. The +marks of interrogation, attached to some Names as not yet consulted or +otherwise questionable, are in the Secretary's hand:-- + + J. D. Acland, Esq. H. Malden, Esq. + Hon. W. B. Baring. J. S. Mill, Esq. + Rev. J. W. Blakesley. R. M. Milnes, Esq. + W. Boxall, Esq. R. Monteith, Esq. + T. Carlyle, Esq. S. A. O'Brien, Esq. + Hon. R. Cavendish (?) Sir F. Palgrave (?) + H. N. Coleridge, Esq. (?) W. F. Pollok, Esq. + J. W. Colville, Esq. Philip Pusey, Esq. + Allan Cunningham, Esq. (?) A. Rio, Esq. + Rev. H. Donn. C. Romilly, Esq. + F. H. Doyle, Esq. James Spedding, Esq. + C. L. Eastlake, Esq. Rev. John Sterling. + Alex. Ellice, Esq. Alfred Tennyson, Esq. + J. F. Elliott, Esq. Rev. Connop Thirlwall. + Copley Fielding, Esq. Rev. W. Hepworth Thompson. + Rev. J. C. Hare. Edward Twisleton, Esq. + Sir Edmund Head (?) G. S. Venables, Esq. + D. D. Heath, Esq. Samuel Wood, Esq. + G. C. Lewis, Esq. Rev. T. Worsley. + H. L. Lushington, Esq. + The Lord Lyttleton. James Spedding, _Secretary_. + C. Macarthy, Esq. 8th August, 1838.] + +[Footnote 20: Hare, p. cxviii.] + +[Footnote 21: Of Sterling himself, I suppose.] + +[Footnote 22: Hare, ii. p. 252.] + +[Footnote 23: _Poems by John Sterling_. London (Moxon), 1839.] + +[Footnote 24: _The Election: a Poem, in Seven Books_. London, Murray, 1841.] + +[Footnote 25: Pp. 7, 8.] + +[Footnote 26: Pp. 89-93.] + +[Footnote 27: Sister of Mrs. Strachey and Mrs. Buller: Sir John Louis was now in +a high Naval post at Malta.] + +[Footnote 28: Long Letter to his Father: Naples, 3d May, 1842.] + +[Footnote 29: Death of her Mother, four mouths before. (_Note of_ 1870.)] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Life of John Sterling, by Thomas Carlyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF JOHN STERLING *** + +***** This file should be named 1085.txt or 1085.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/8/1085/ + +Produced by Ron Burkey + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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