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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:05 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:05 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11134-0.txt b/11134-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ffbcf5 --- /dev/null +++ b/11134-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8663 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11134 *** + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VII.--MARCH, 1861.--NO. XLI. + + + + + + + +GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. + + +THE PROFESSORS. + + +"Which of the German universities would be the best adapted to my +purpose?" is the question of many an American student, who, having gone +through the usual course in the United States, looks abroad for the +completion of his scientific or liberal studies. Of Göttingen and +Heidelberg he will often have read and heard; the reputation of the +comparatively new university of Berlin will not be unfamiliar to him; +but of Tübingen, Würzburg, Erlangen, Halle, or Bonn, even, he will +perhaps know little more than the name. In the majority of the +last-named places, foreigners, especially his own countrymen, are rare; +none of his friends have studied there; they have followed the current, +since the last century, and spent their time in Göttingen or Heidelberg, +perhaps a winter in Berlin. They have found these institutions good, and +affording every facility for study; but would not Munich, or Leipzig, or +Jena, or any other one of the twenty-six universities of Germany, better +answer the purpose of many a student? + +During the last winter, in many conversations with a retired professor +in Berlin, who manifested a special interest in American institutions, +mainly in the American educational system, he was very particular in +inquiring as to what we meant by our term _College_. He had read the +work of the historian Raumer on America, and declared that from this he +could get no notion whatever as to what the term meant with us. The very +same thing occurs daily in the United States in regard to foreign, or, +more properly, the Continental universities. Accustomed as we are to the +prevalence of the tutorial system, the use of text-books,--in many parts +of the Union not defining clearly the difference between the terms +University, College, Institute, and Academy, giving the first name often +to institutions having but one faculty, and that at times incomplete, +with no theological, and often no law or medical department, forgetting +that the University should, from its very name, be as universal as +possible in its teachings, comprehending in its list of studies the +combined scientific and literary pursuits of the age,--we are apt to +look upon foreign schools of learning as similar in nature and purpose +to our own, differing not in the quality or specific character of the +teaching, but rather in the scope and extent of the branches taught. Yet +nothing is farther from the truth. The result is, that many a one starts +for Europe full of hope, to seek what he would have found better at +home,--or, when prepared and mature for European travel, is left to +chance or one-sided advice in the choice of a locality in which to +prosecute further studies. Often with only book-knowledge of the +language of the country, accident will lead him to the very university +the least adequate to his purpose. + +Having now spent some time in four of the leading German universities, +and contemplating a longer stay for the purpose of visiting others, the +writer has thought that some general remarks might call attention to +points often disregarded, and serve to give some insight into the nature +of the institutions of learning of the country,--rather aiming to +characterize the system of higher education as it now exists than to +give detailed historical notices, including something of student-life, +and the professors,--in fine, such observations as would not be likely +to be made by a general tourist, and such as native writers deem it +unnecessary to make, presupposing a knowledge of the facts in their own +readers. + +The German universities are the culminating point of German culture. +They concentrate within themselves the intellectual pith of the country. +Dating their foundation as far back as the fourteenth century, as +Prague, Vienna, and Heidelberg,--or established but of late years in +the nineteenth, as Berlin, Bonn, and Munich,--they attract to themselves +the mental strength of the land, forming a focus from which radiates, +whether in Theology, Science, Literature, or Art, the new world of +thought, which finds its way to remotest regions, often filtered +and unacknowledged. They number among their professors the most +distinguished men of the century, whether poets, philosophers, or +divines. All who lay claim to authorship find in the lecture-room a +firm stand and rank in society, as Government is ever ready to insure a +life-position to distinguished scholars. To mention only a few +examples of men who would scarcely be thought of in a professorial +career,--Schiller was Professor of History in Jena, Rückert Professor in +Berlin, Uhland in Tübingen. + +In nothing can Germany manifest a better-grounded feeling of national +pride than in this, its university system. Politically inert, divided +into petty states, powerless, the ever-ready prey of more active or +ambitious neighbors, it has played a pitiful _rôle_ in the world's +history, with annals made up of petty feuds and jealousies and +tyrannical meannesses, never working as one people, save when driven to +extremity. With countless differences of dialect, manners, customs, it +is one and national in nothing save in its literature, and feels that, +through the high culture of its scholars, through the new paths its +men of science have opened, through the profound investigations of +the learned in every sphere, it holds its place at the head of every +intellectual movement of the age. It feels that its universities are the +laboratories whence issue the thoughts whose significance the world is +ever more and more ready to acknowledge. France even, selfish and proud +of its past supremacy in all things, has within the last quarter of a +century laid aside much of its exclusiveness, and a Germanic infusion is +perceptible through all the mannerism of the latest and best productions +of the French school. Comparatively of late years is it, that the +English mind has fairly come in contact with this German culture. Its +first loud manifestation may be heard in the prose of Carlyle and his +school; yet even now its influence has permeated our whole literature so +much, that, when reading some of our latest poetry, tones and melodies +will come like distant echoes from the groves on the hillsides where +warble the nightingales of Germany. + +A most unpractical people, however, the Germans, who have been so active +in almost every possible field of speculation, have produced nothing +which could give one unacquainted with their university system a true +notion of its workings and actual state. Much has been written on +Pedagogy, its history general and special, the common schools and +gymnasia; but until 1854 there was not even a general work on the +history of the universities. To Karl von Raumer, former Minister of +Public Worship in Prussia, we owe the first _Beitrag_, as he modestly +calls it, the fourth volume of his "History of Pedagogy" being devoted +exclusively to these. Partly made up of historical sketches, partly +narrations of the writer's personal experience as student from 1801, as +professor in various places from 1811, it does not aim and is but little +calculated to give a clear idea of the system itself. Special works, as +the one of Tomek on Prague, and of Klüpfel on Tübingen, do exist, +but otherwise nothing but personal observation can be made use of. +Statistics, every information, in fine, concerning the present +intellectual wealth of the nation, must be acquired either orally, or +from the catalogues, programmes, and hundreds of local pamphlets that +are issued yearly. The work of the Rev. Dr. Schaff, "Germany, its +Universities, Theology, and Religion," (Philadelphia, 1857,) rather aims +to characterize the nature and tendency of German theology, the latter +part being taken up with interesting and well-written sketches of the +leading divines. + +Before proceeding to these high-schools themselves, let us glance at the +general system of German education. In spite of political differences, +there exists much uniformity in this throughout the Confederation. The +German States are exceedingly _paternal_ in the care they take of their +subjects. They extend their parental supervision even to the family +interior, every relation of life regulated by fixed laws, and even +after death the inhumation must be conducted the forms and with the +precautions prescribed. The new-born child _must_ be baptized within +six weeks after birth. If the parents neglect it, Government sees to +it,--unless they claim the privileges of Israelites, in which case the +rites of their religion must be followed. Between his sixth and +seventh year the child _must_ enter some school or receive elementary +instruction at home. So far is education compulsory; beyond, it is +optional. When duly prepared, he enters, if the parents desire it, the +Government Gymnasium or Lyceum, answering pretty much to our College; it +fits the youth for entering the University. It confers no degrees; only, +at the conclusion of the studies, an _Examen Maturitatis_ takes place. +The youth is then declared ripe for matriculation. Without having +undergone this examination, he can never become a regular student. Even +should he have attended regularly any of the many private academies, or +the _Realschule_, where thorough instruction is given, but with less +special, though no slight attention to Latin and Greek, and more to +mathematics and practical branches, even then he must acquire from +one of the gymnasia the exemption-and-maturity-right. In the slang of +student-life, the gymnasiast is styled a _Frog_, the school itself +a _Pond_; between the time of his declaration of maturity and his +reception as student, he is called a _Mule_. + +The course is no light one the candidate has gone through,--nine or ten +years of classical training, Latin the whole time, Greek the last six or +seven years, Hebrew the last four, generally optional, though in many +cases required at future examinations. The modern languages have not +been neglected: French he has pursued seven years, English or Italian +the last three or four. Beside all these, the elements of Philosophy, +Moral and Natural, History, Mathematics, etc. In fine, the certificate +of maturity would in most cases equal, in many surpass, what our +colleges is styled the degree of A.M. Of course, the parallel must not +be understood as existing with respect to many of the older institutions +in the United States, which presuppose, in the entering freshman, a +preparatory course of several years. + +The classical training so strictly required of natives who enter +these high-schools is not so rigidly inquired into in the case of +foreigners,--though in this respect the regulations differ in various +states. In Prussia and generally, the passport is all-sufficient; but +in Würtemberg, a diploma or some certificate of former studies must be +exhibited before admission. The officers of some of the universities, as +Tübingen, for instance, are very particular in enforcing all the rules, +inquiring of the applicant, whatever be his age or nationality, whether +he has a written permission from his parents to study abroad and in +their university, whether he has the money necessary to pay the debts he +may contract, and such other minute questions as will strike an American +especially as particularly impertinent. The precaution is carried +so far, that, when no positive information is given as to means of +subsistence, the letter of credit must be delivered into the hands +of the beadle as security. Yet such little incidents are but slight +annoyances at most, which a little good-humor and desire to conform to +the habits and ways of doing of the country will remove. He who goes +abroad always ready to bristle up against what does not exactly conform +to his preconceived ideas of propriety, measuring and weighing all +things with his own national weights and measures, will be continually +making himself disagreeable and unhappy, and in the end profit little by +his absence from home. + +The conclusion of the training-system in the gymnasia usually occurs +before the nineteenth or twentieth year. With the reception of the +certificate of maturity the youth may be said to have donned the virile +toga. He enjoys during his university years a degree of liberty such as +he never enjoyed before, never will enjoy again when his student-days +are over. Having taken out his matriculation-papers, and given the +_Handschlag_ (taken the oath) to obey the laws of the land and the +statutes of the university, he has become a student,--a _Fox_, as the +freshman is styled,--he chooses his own career, his own professors, +hears the lectures he pleases, attends or omits as he pleases, leads the +life of a god for a triennium or a quadrennium, fights his duels, drinks +his beer, sings his club-and-corps songs.--But of student-life more in +due time.--There is no check, no constraint whatever, during the whole +time the studies last. At the expiration of three or four, sometimes +even five years, an examination takes place before the degree of Doctor +can be conferred,--not a severe one by any means, confined as it is to +the special branch to which the candidate wishes to devote himself. +In the Medical and Law Departments it is more serious than in the +Philosophical. This examination is followed by a public discussion in +presence of the dean and professors of the faculty, held in Latin, on +some thesis that has been treated and printed in the same language by +the candidate. His former fellow-students, and any one present that +wishes, stand as opponents. This disputation, whatever may have been its +merits in former days, has degenerated in the present into a mere piece +of acted mummery, where the partakers not only stutter and stammer over +bad Latin, but even help themselves, when their memory fails utterly, +with the previously written notes of their extempore objections and +answers. The principal requisite for the attainment of the Doctor's +degree, when the necessary amount of time has been given, in the +Philosophical Faculty at least, is the fees, which often mount quite +high. + +From the ranks of such as have attained this _title_, for so it should +be called, every office of any importance in the State is filled. +Through every ramification of the complicated system of government, +recommendations and testimonials play the greatest _rôle_,--the first +necessary step for advancement being the completion of the university +studies--And by public functionaries must not be understood merely those +holding high civil or military grades. Every minister of the Church, +every physician, chemist, pharmaceutist, law-practitioner of any +grade, every professor and teacher, all, in fact, save those devoting +themselves to the merely mechanical arts or to commercial pursuits, and +even these, though with other regulations, receive their appointment or +permission to exercise their profession from the State. It is one huge +clock-work, every wheel working into the next with the utmost precision. +To him who has gone so far, and received the Doctorate, several +privileges are granted. He has claims on the State, claims for a +position that will give him a means of subsistence, if only a scanty +one. With talent and industry and much enduring toil, he may reach the +highest places. He belongs to the aristocracy of learning,--a poor, +penniless aristocracy, it may be, yet one which in Germany yields in +point of pride to none. + +We proceed to the Professors. It is within the power of all to attain +the position of Lecturer in a university. The diploma once obtained, the +farewell-dinner, the _comilat_, and general leave-taking over, the man's +career has commenced in earnest. If he turn his attention to education, +he may find employment in some of the many schools of the State. Does he +look more directly to the University, he undergoes, when duly prepared +on the branches to which he wishes to devote himself, the _Examen +Rygorosum_, delivers a trial-lecture in presence of his future +colleagues, and is entitled to lecture in the capacity of a +_Privat-Docent_. As such be receives no remuneration whatever from +Government; his income depends upon what he receives from his hearers, +two to six dollars the term from each. All who aspire to the dignity of +Professor must have passed through this stage; rarely are men called +directly from other ranks of life,--though eminent scholars, +physicians, or jurists have been sometimes raised immediately to an +academical seat. After a few years, five or more, the _Privat-Docent_ +who has met with a reasonable degree of success may hope for a +professorship,--though many able men have remained in this inferior +position for long years, some even for life. If their hearers are but +few, they resort to private lessons, to book-making, anything that +will aid them in maintaining their position, always with the hope that +"something must turn up." + +The _Privat-Docent_ system, though condemned by some, has been much +extolled by many German writers. It is, say the latter, a warranty for +the freedom of teaching, no slight point In a country where all is +subservient to the political rulers, forming men for the professorship, +and giving them a confidence in their own powers, as they must rely +exclusively for their support on the income they receive from their +hearers. From among their number are chosen those constituting the +regular faculties; and thus there are ever at hand men ready to fill the +highest places upon any vacancy, men not new or inexperienced, but whose +whole life has been one training for the position they may be called to +occupy. + +The _Privat-Docent_ may be raised directly to a seat in the faculty, but +more generally he passes through the intermediate stage of _Professor +Extraordinarius_. The Professors Extraordinary receive no, or at most a +very small, income from the State; they are merely titled lecturers, +and nothing more; yet in their ranks, as well as among the more modest +_Privatim-Docentes_, are often found men of the greatest learning, whose +names are known abroad, whose contributions to science are universally +acknowledged, whose lecture-rooms are thronged with students, while the +halls of some of the regular professors may be left empty. No vacancy +may have occurred in their department,--or, as is unfortunately +oftener the case, some political reasons may be the occasion of their +non-advancement. + +We come to the regular faculty of the university, the _Professores +Ordinarii_. They enjoy the fullest privileges, are appointed for life, +and receive beside the tuition-fees regular incomes. They may be elected +to the Academic Senate and to the Rectorship, the Rector or Chancellor +not being appointed for life, but changing yearly,--the various +faculties being represented in turn. He is styled _Rector Magnificus_. + +The faculties are usually four in number. In several universities, +of late, a fifth has been created,--the _Staatswissenschaftliche_, +Cameralistic; so that in institutions where both Catholic and Protestant +Theology are represented, there are in fact six faculties. The +Philosophical Department stretches over so wide a field, that, were it +separated into its real divisions, as Philosophy proper, Philology, +History, the Mathematical and Natural Sciences, the faculties would +extend far beyond the present number. In France, it is divided into +a _Faculté des Lettres and a Faculté des Sciences._ The present +comprehensive use of the term is but an extension of the Middle-Age +division of the liberal arts into the Trivium,--Grammar, Rhetoric, +Dialectics,--and the Quadrivium,--Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and +Astronomy,--as expressed in the verse,-- + + "Lingus, tropus, ratio, numerus, tenor, + angulus, astra." + +The term _Magister Artium Liberalium,_ so often met with, refers to +these. Those pursuing these studies were denominated _Artisti._ As the +number of studies increased, the name was changed, and the department +now includes all branches not ranged under one of the heads of Theology, +Law, or Medicine; so that every student, whatever his pursuits may be, +if he does not confine himself exclusively to them, will wish to hear +one or more courses of lectures in this faculty. + +The Professors Ordinary and Extraordinary, together with the +_Privat-Docents_, form the active force of the German university. In +Tübingen are _Repetenten_, who lecture or comment on classical and +Biblical writers and form classes in the ancient or modern languages. +Those teaching the modern languages exclusively are styled _Lectors_. +The title, _Professor Honorarius_, as of Gervinus in Heidelberg, is +conferred merely as a mark of honor, the bearer lecturing only when he +pleases. To complete this enumeration, it may not be unnecessary to +state, connected with each university are masters for riding, fencing, +swimming, gymnastics, and dancing, regular places appointed for these +exercises, beside access to museums, the university library, scientific +collections, etc. + +The number of professors--and under this name we include the three +divisions of lecturers--varies from forty to one hundred and seventy and +upwards, according to the size and importance of the institution. In +Berlin, last winter, there were one hundred and sixty-nine; in Erlangen, +but forty-four; in Munich, one hundred and eleven. The University +of Kiel, with not one hundred and thirty students, numbers fifty +professors. These each deliver at least one course of lectures; most +deliver more,--some as many as four or five. In Prussia, each is +required by law to read one course, at least, gratis (_publice_); +otherwise the lectures are _privatim_, a fee being paid by the +hearer,--say four or five dollars on the average for the term. The +_privatissime_ are private lessons or lectures, the when and where to be +settled with the lecturer himself. + +The year is divided into two terms, varying somewhat in different +places. The summer session is the shorter of the two, lasting from near +the middle of April till August, when the long vacation takes place. The +winter semester usually commences in October and lasts till the latter +part of March. + +As to the scope and variety of the lectures, it is unlimited, and varies +yearly. In Berlin, during the winter semester of 1859-60, there were +no less than three hundred and forty-six courses in all, besides the +clinics, demonstrative and practical courses, philological exercises, +and the like. These were divided as follows:-- + + In Theology . . . . . . 38 + " Law. . . . . . . . 56 + " Medicine . . . . . . 78 + " Philosophy . . . . . 174 + +In the latter department there were,-- + + In Philosophy proper . . . 18 + " Mathematical Sciences . . 19 + " Natural " . . 45 + " Political Economy, etc. . 10 + " History and Geography . . 12 + " Aesthetics . . . . 19 + " Philology . . . . . 51 + +But Berlin is by far the most complete university in Germany, however +much it may be surpassed in many points by others. Lesser institutions +do not exhibit half this number of courses, though there are always +enough to satisfy the student who does not devote himself to a narrow +speciality. Private tuition can always be resorted to. + +Beside the lectures, there are also occasionally _Seminaren_, mostly +conducted in Latin, where classical or Biblical authors are explained +and read by the students, or where discussions take place, in presence +of a professor, on philosophical, historical, or philological +subjects,--resembling, however, in nothing our debating-societies. + +It is only since the middle of the last century that instruction in +the higher branches has been usually carried on in German. Latin was +formerly in general use; it is now seldom made a medium. There is +occasionally a course delivered in English, Italian, or French,--in +Berlin often in one of the Sclavonic languages. Modern Literature and +Philology are by no means extensively cultivated. Lectures on the +Provençal, the Langue d'Oïl, the Old-German, the Cyrillic, are not +uncommon, though but poorly attended. The study of the modern languages +themselves must be pursued with private teachers. A knowledge of these, +as well as a thorough preparatory training in Latin and Greek, is +presupposed. Modern History, on the contrary, has of late years become +an important branch of study. The "Period of Revolutions" is fully +treated every semester, and always draws crowds of students. The spirit +that animates them is the unity of the Fatherland. Classical studies, +though not holding the same undisputed ascendency as in former times, +are yet very actively pursued, embracing Greek and Roman history and +antiquities, comments on classical authors, lectures, critical and +minute in the extreme, where every line is made the subject of +microscopic investigation, and different readings are weighed and +compared, with often an unlimited amount of abuse of editors who have +differed in opinion from the lecturer. The German philologers are not +remarkable for mildness when speaking of each other; and many a one, +as Haupt in Berlin, will enrich his vocabulary with ever-varying, +new-coined epithets to characterize the ridiculousness, tameness, and +stupidity of emendations proposed, and that, too, when speaking of such +men as Orelli and Kirchner, his own colleagues in the profession. A +laugh raised at the expense of a brother is enough to justify the +severest slash. Comparative Philology, which owes its existence +and progress to the labors of German scholars, and whose first +representative, Bopp, is still living and teaching in Berlin, is more +and more pursued of late. Sanscrit is now taught universally; and +lectures are delivered on the affinities of the Indo-Germanic languages +with each other and with the mother-tongue of all. A perceptible +movement is being felt to introduce this study into the preparatory +departments. Such a change would result in a complete revolution of the +methods formerly employed in elementary classical tuition. The higher +laws of affinity, as applied to the Romanic languages, are also daily +more a matter of investigation. Diez and Delius, in Bonn, are at the +head of this movement. In Philosophy, properly so called, the list +of studies is often very full, comprising lectures on Logic, the +Encyclopedia of Science, Metaphysics, Anthropology and Psychology, +Ethics, the Philosophy of Nature, of Law, of History, of Religion, the +History of Philosophy, general and special, and the Philosophy of Art, +or Aesthetics,--the latter general, or branching into specialities, as +Music, Painting, Sculpture, Ancient and Modern Art. Special points are +also treated,--as the Philosophy of Aristotle, of Kant, of Hegel, etc. +Mathematics and the Natural Sciences are not always cultivated to the +same extent as the above-named branches. They are made the subject of +particular attention, however, in the numerous Polytechnic Schools, the +most celebrated being those of Hanover and Carlsruhe. They have risen in +reputation and attendance of late to such a degree, that in the Grand +Duchy of Baden, for instance, a perceptible diminution is felt in +university attendance, while new appropriations have been made for the +enlargement of the Carlsruhe school. + +The Theological Faculty ranks the highest, and comprises a wide range of +study. We quote from Dr. Schaff:-- + +"In modern times the field has been greatly enlarged by the addition +of Oriental Philology, Biblical Criticism, Hermeneutics, Antiquities, +Church-History and Doctrine-History, Homiletics, Catechetics, Liturgies, +Pastoral Theology, and Theory of Church-Government. No theological +faculty is considered complete now which has not separate teachers +for the exegetical, historical, systematic, and practical branches of +divinity. The German professors, however, are not confined to their +respective departments, as is the case in our American seminaries, +but may deliver lectures on any other branch, as far as it does not +interfere with their immediate duties. Schleiermacher, for instance, +taught, at different times, almost every branch of theology and +philosophy." + +The Law Department, to which the celebrated school of Bologna served as +a first model, extends over a far wider field than similar institutions +elsewhere. Starting from the Roman Law, it embraces lectures on the +History of Jurisprudence, the Pandects, Civil, Criminal, and Common Law, +and Natural Rights, besides History and Philosophy, as applied to legal +studies,--branching into specialities for German Law and Practice, local +and general. To Americans, of course, only the first part of these +studies would be at all desirable. Moreover, the advantages are not all +of a practical nature. + +The Medical Faculty embraces all the studies pursued in our medical +colleges, more specialities being treated,--the time required being +scarcely ever less than five years for the course, often more. +Examinations are severe. The faculties of Berlin, Munich, and Würzburg +are in especial repute,--Vienna also affording many advantages. In some +of the smaller university towns the means of study are limited for +the advanced student, extensive collections and large hospitals being +wanting. Medical studies are attended with more expense than any other. + +The _Cameralistische Facultät_ is devoted to those preparing themselves +for practical statesmanship. It is new, and established only of late +years in a few of the universities. In others, the branches taught +are still comprehended under the philosophical. Munich is in especial +repute. It comprises lectures on Political Economy in all its branches, +Mining, Engineering,--in fact, whatever is necessary to fit one for +service in the State. + +Let no one, from the above comprehensive list of studies, form the idea, +that the outward incarnation of the German intellect, in speech or deed, +corresponds to its inner worth and solidity. The name _Dryasdust_ +must cling to many a learned professor more firmly than to the most +chronological of the old historians. Germany is not the land of outward +form. To one accustomed to public speaking, the lecturers will often +appear far below the standard of mediocrity in their manner. Though such +men as Lasaulx in Munich, Häusser in Heidelberg, Droyson and Werder +in Berlin deliver their lectures in a style that would grace the +lecture-room of any country, yet the great majority are far, very far, +from any eloquence in their delivery. Timid and bashful often to an +extreme, they ascend their rostrum with a shuffling, ambling gait, the +very opposite of manly grace and bearing, and, prefacing their +discourse with the short address, _"Meine Herren"_ keep on in one long, +never-varying, monotonous strain, from beginning to end,--reading wholly +or in part, often so slowly that the hearer can write down _every_ word, +often only the heads and substance of paragraphs, definitions and the +like,--and that so indistinctly, so carelessly of all but the very words +themselves, that it is not only unpleasant, at first, but even repulsive +to many. This dictating of every word, a relic of the times when +printing was yet unknown, is fast dying away. Many, both students and +professors, are loud against it, yet the tedious method is still pursued +in many places. The introductory remark of a celebrated lecturer is +characteristic. Seeing all his hearers, on the first day of the course, +ready with pen and paper, he began,--"Gentlemen, I will not dictate: if +that were necessary, I should send my maid-servant with my manuscript, +and you yours with pen and paper; my servant would dictate, yours would +write, and we in the mean while could enjoy a pleasant walk." This +is, however, not the only point that will be likely to produce an +unfavorable impression. To see a man whose name you have met in your +reading as the highest authority, whose works you have so often admired, +his style energetic, fiery, and impressive,--to see him ascend his +rostrum with every mark of negligence, uncouth and awkward in his +appearance, with every possible mannerism, talking through his nose, +indistinctly and unsteadily mumbling over his sentences, careless of all +outward form and polish, awakens anything but pleasant feelings, as the +preconceived ideal must give way to the living reality. And yet so it is +with many! + +It may have contributed not a little to the reputation of Göttingen and +Heidelberg with foreigners, that a good and clear German is spoken in +both places by the professors. In Tübingen, on the contrary, even in +Munich, to a great extent, the local dialect prevails to such a degree, +that students from Northern Germany, many of whom frequent these cities +in the summer session, find it difficult, nay, almost impossible, to +understand at first, especially the broad Suabian of Tübingen. Here, +however, as the system of dictation prevails, the slowness of utterance +compensates in a measure for its indistinctness and incorrectness. + +In some places, where academic freedom, as the students style it, exists +to a high degree, a general scraping of the feet admonishes the lecturer +to repeat his words or be more distinct and clear in his enunciation. +This pedal language, though often disregarded, still does not fail in +the end in producing the desired effect. + +With such characteristics, it cannot be a matter of wonder, if some +time be required to be spent in hearing lectures daily before the full +benefit can be fairly appreciated. Many will appear slow in the extreme; +and the constant recourse to notes, and the tedious manner, will create +a feeling of weariness hard to overcome. However, these peculiarities +are soon forgotten in the excellence of the matter, and their +disagreeableness is scarcely noticed after a few weeks, except in +extreme cases. The mannerism fades away, and the hearer learns to follow +from thought to thought under the guidance of an experienced leader, +whose living words he hears, whose thought he feels as it is +communicated directly to him. + +Not so much from the actual things heard, the actual facts mastered, is +the lecture-system valuable to the student, as for the method of +study which he derives from it. He is no longer like an automaton, a +school-boy guided by his teacher and text-book, but is spoken to as an +independent thinker. Authorities are quoted, which he may consult at his +leisure. No subject is exhausted,--it is only touched upon. He learns to +teach himself. + +Far different is the mental training thus acquired from that gained in +the same amount of time spent in mere reading. Thought is stimulated to +a far greater degree. The lecture-room becomes a laboratory, where the +mind of the hearer, in immediate contact with that of a man mature in +the ways of study, of one whose whole life seems to have prepared him +for the present hour, assimilates to itself more than knowledge. The +lecturer gives what no books can give, his own force to impel his own +words. His mind is ever active while he speaks. The hearer feels its +workings, and his own is stirred into action by the contact. It is +not given to all to enjoy the conversation and intercourse of the +master-minds of the age: in the lecture-room they speak to us +immediately; we feel the current of their life-blood; it pulsates +through all they say. + +That seeming exceptions may occur, as in the case of professors who year +after year deliver the same written course, can have no weight against +the system. The tone and gesture, the very look, must animate the +whole;--and these very written lectures, read and delivered so often, +are no dead stalk, but a living stem, which puts forth new leaves and +blossoms every spring. + +Nor is the hearer himself without his corresponding influence. His +attention and eager desire for knowledge stimulate new thought in the +speaker day by day, hour by hour; and many a German scholar must have +felt with Friedrich August Wolf, when he says,--"I am one who has been +long accustomed to the gentle charm which lies in the momentaneous +unfolding of thought in the presence of attentive hearers, to that +living reaction softly felt by the teacher, whereby a perennial mental +harmony is awakened in his soul, which far surpasses the labors in the +study, before blank walls and the feelingless paper." + + +THE STUDIES. + + +The first entrance into a German auditorium or _Hörsaal_, as the +lecture-rooms in the universities are called, will show much that is +characteristic. But little care is bestowed on the decoration of the +apartment. Whatever aesthetic culture the nation may have, it finds +little manifestation in the things of daily life, and elegance seems +little less than banished from the precincts of the learned world. The +academic halls present to the view nothing but dingy walls, rough floors +coated with the dust and mud of days or weeks, and, winter and summer, +the huge porcelain stove in one corner,--that immovable article of +cheerless German furniture, where wood is put in by the pound, and no +bright glow ever discloses the presence of that warmest friend of man, +a good fire. For the students there are coarse, long wooden desks and +benches, with places all numbered, cut up and disfigured to an extent +which will soon convince one that whittling is not a trait of American +destructiveness exclusively. Here are carved names and intertwined +lettering, arabesque masterpieces of penknife-ingenuity, with a general +preponderance of feminine appellatives, bold incisures, at times, of +some worthy professor in profile,--the whole besmutched with ink, and +dotted with countless punctures, the result of the sharp spike with +which every student's ink-horn is armed, that he may steady it upon the +slanting board. The preceding lecture ended when the university-clock +struck the hour; the next should begin within ten or fifteen minutes. +One by one the students drop in and take their places,--high and low, +rich and poor, all on the same straight-backed pine benches. The days +fire over, even in title-loving Germany, though not long since, when +the young counts and barons sat foremost, on a privileged, raised, and +cushioned seat, and were addressed by their title. + +As the hearers thus assemble, they present a motley appearance,--being, +in the larger cities especially, from all lands, all ranks of society, +and of every age. Side by side with the young freshman in his first +semester, the _Fat Fox_, as he is called, who has just made a leap from +the strict discipline of the gymnasium to the unbounded freedom of the +university, will be a gray-haired man, to whom the academic title of +_Juvenis Studiosus_ will no longer apply. Here sits, with his gaudy +watch-guard, the colors of his corps, one of those students by +profession who have been inscribed year after year so long that they +have acquired the name of _Bemossed Heads_. Were his scientific +attainments measured by his capacities for beer-drinking and +sword-slashing, he would long ago have been dubbed a Doctor in all the +faculties. He hears a lecture now and then for form's sake, though it is +rather an unusual thing for him. By his side, but retiring and earnest, +may be one of the younger professors, who the hour before stood as a +teacher, and now sits among some of his former hearers to profit by the +experience of his older professional brother. Where the court resides +and many officers are garrisoned, the hall presents a spangled +appearance of bright epaulettes and glittering uniforms. It is no +unusual thing for young men during their years of service to attend the +courses regularly. The uncomfortable sword is laid on the knee, where it +may not dangle and clink with every motion of the wearer,--no easy +task in the very narrow space left between desk and desk. In the last +century, it was a universal custom for all students to wear the sword; +but this academic privilege, as it was considered, leading to numerous +abuses, laws were enacted against it, as well as other eccentricities in +dress. + +The regular students are provided with portfolios, or rather, soft +leathern pouches, which they can fold and pocket, containing the _heft_ +or quire of paper on which the lecture is transcribed by them wholly or +in part. These _hefts_ are often the object of much care and labor. Each +plants his ink-horn firmly in front of him. As the time approaches, +and all are in readiness with pen in hand, there is a universal buzz +throughout the room. Though, when the auditory is large, many nations +are represented, as well as the various provinces of the Confederation, +still the language heard is predominantly that of the country. Though +Poles and Greeks, English and Russians, may be in abundance, still they +rarely congregate in nationalities,--save the Poles, who speak their own +language at all times and places, and cling the more fondly to their own +idiom since they have been robbed of everything else. After some fifteen +minutes of expectation the professor enters. All is still in an instant. +He advances with hasty strides and bent-down head to his rostrum, an +elevated platform, on which stands a plain, high, pine desk. He unfolds +his notes, looks over the rim of his spectacles at the attentive +hearers, who sit ready to write down the words of wisdom he is about to +utter, and begins with the short address, "_Meine Herren._" There is +then an uninterrupted gliding of pens for three-quarters of an hour, +until, above the monotony, rarely the eloquence, of the speaker, the +great clock in the centre of the building gives the significant sound of +relief to busy fingers and rest to ear and brain unaccustomed to such +slow, entangled, lisping, laborious, in rare instances manly delivery. +The lecture is at an end, and each prepares to enter another auditorium, +or wends his way home, to study out the notes taken, consult the +authorities quoted, complete or even copy his work anew. In the study of +these _hefts_ consists the main preparation for future examinations, as +text-books are rarely used, save in Austria, and the examiners are the +professors themselves, who will not ask the candidate much beyond what +they have embraced in their own lesson. + +With a remarkable degree of skill, the practised German student can take +down, even when the delivery is by no means slow, the pith and essence +of a whole lecture. Yet there is much abuse in this; and it has called +forth, ever since the invention of printing has made the multiplication +of books by transcription unnecessary, much just, though at times unjust +criticism. A German writer has said, that the man of genius takes his +notes on a slip of paper, he of good abilities on a half-page, while the +dunce must fill a whole sheet. Now the reverse would be quite as true +in many cases. For though thoughtless writing may be little more than +wasted labor, yet there is nothing that can fix more steadily thoughts +and facts in the mind than the precision and constant attention required +in following a lecture with the pen, especially when the words of the +professor are not taken down with slavish exactitude, but when, as is +most generally the case, merely the thoughts are noted in the hearer's +own language. The ideas thus gained have been assimilated and become the +listener's own property. There is thus generated a steady transfusion, +the surest remedy against flagging mental activity. Many a foreigner +writes down the lecture in his own tongue, and values highly this +training of constant translation, though, before many months, the mere +transposition from one language into the other must become purely +mechanical. It is amusing to see the puzzled expression of countenance +of some Swiss student who takes his notes in French, when one of those +long German compounds, involving some bold figure of speech, is uttered. +What circumlocutions must he not use, if he wish to give the full force +of the idea! + +A real abuse, however, is the perpetual dictation-system still used by +some. For these, the three worthies in profile on the title-page of old +Elzevir editions are as if they had never existed; they teach as they +have been taught, perpetuating the methods in use in the days of +Abelard, when books were dearer than time. All that has been said and +written against the custom will do less towards abolishing it than the +recent introduction of lessons in phonography, or stenography rather, +which is now taught in several universities. The question is agitated +of introducing this study into the preparatory schools. The system is +different from the English or American, being based on the etymological +nature of the language. It is fast coming into use, though as yet not +general. The old slow delivery seems little better than spelling +to those that have mastered it. The students have usually special +abbreviations of their own, and so find no difficulty in taking down all +the important points, even when the utterance is rapid. + +Not all, by any means, go through this labor of transcription. Many of +the wealthier and high-titled attend but irregularly, and when they do, +are impatient listeners. In Berlin may be seen many a youth who, from +the exquisite fit and finish of his dress, if he be not an American just +from Paris, must at least be a German count The young _Graf_ plays +with his lips on the ivory head of his bamboo, as he holds it with his +kid-gloved hand, sitting carefully the while, lest the elbow of his +French coat should be soiled by contact with a desk ignorant of duster +for many a month. He is condemned, however, to hear, day by day, over +and over, many a truth that will scarcely flatter his noble ears. The +_heft_ and the toil of writing down a lecture are unknown to him. He +pays a reasonable sum to some poor scholar who sits behind and copies +it all afterwards, while he takes his afternoon-ride towards +Charlottenburg, or saunters along Unter-den-Linden, ogling the pretty +English girls, and spying every chance of saluting, whenever a royal +equipage, preceded by a monkey-looking lackey, rolls by. These are, of +course, exceptions, rarer in the present than formerly. In Padua, in the +sixteenth century, it became notorious that the richer students never +attended in person, but always sent one of their servants who wrote a +good hand. Laws were enacted to prevent the evil, yet long after this +there were still many promotions of these paper-doctors. + +Many, in taking their notes, abandon the German script as too illegible, +and make use of the Latin letters. A word or two on this subject, as +connected with general education. The German script, which any one may +learn in a few hours, is a constant source of vexation to a foreigner. +To write, and write fast, too, is easy enough; but then to read one's +own handwriting, not to mention the crumpled notices of the professors +tacked on the blackboard in the _Aula_, is almost impossible without +much practice. Why the Germans should have kept their Gothic lettering +and peculiar script, when all other European nations, save the Russian, +have adopted the Roman, it is difficult to say, unless it be with them +a matter of national pride. And they have been unnational in so many +things! That the Russians should have their own alphabet is natural +enough; they have sounds and letters and combinations--which neither the +Germanic nor the Romanic group of languages possess. And yet both in +Polish and Zechish, where the same sounds exist to a great extent, the +deficiencies are made up by accented and dotted letters. So, though +we have a universal standard of spelling for names and places on the +Continent, we find in our most popular histories and geographies a +divergence in the lesser known Russian names, not far removed from that +we daily meet in the nomenclature of the gods of Hindoo mythology. + +The like plea of necessity cannot be urged in regard to the Teutonic or +Scandinavian languages. Within the last quarter of a century, the chief +scientific works issued in Northern Germany, and many even in Southern, +have been printed in the Roman character. Were there no other argument +in favor of its universal adoption, it has been found less trying to the +eyes. It can be read by all nations; and the other is at best but an +additional difficulty for the learner, even in the case of native +children, who are plagued with two alphabets and two diametrically +opposite systems of penmanship in their earliest years. The result is +evident: a good hand is a rare thing In Germany. It is a good sign, that +of late years public acts and records, works of learning, all the higher +literature, in fact, not purely national, as poetry and romance, are all +printed in the Roman character. Nor will any look upon this as a servile +imitation. Some of the most national of German writers and scholars, as +the brothers Grimm, have pronounced themselves loudly in favor of the +change. The tendency of the age is towards universality. It will occur +to none to talk of French imitation because chemists make use of the +excellent and universally applicable system of the decimal French +weights and measures. + +What has been said above is not altogether irrelevant as characterizing +the tendency of the higher institutions of learning. Every movement in +Germany, even the least, since the Reformation, whose chief +propagators were professors in the universities,--Luther, Reuchlin, +Melancthon,--every permanent and pervading conquest of the new and good +over the old and worn-out, has issued from the lecture-room. Whatever +sticklers for old forms and crab-like progress may be found, there is +always an overbalancing power. The unity of Germany as one nation has +never stood a better chance of being realized than now, when the very +men who were students and flocked as volunteers when the iron hand of +Napoleon I. weighed heavily on their Fatherland stand as lecturers in +the days of Napoleon III., warning of the past, and preaching louder +than Schiller or Körner or Arndt for the brotherhood of Prussian and +Bavarian, of those that dwell on the Rhine and those that inhabit the +regions of the Danube. + +Thanks, not to her statesmen, not to her nobility, not to her princes +even, that Germany has at last fairly shaken off the self-imposed yoke +of servile French imitation, but thanks to her scholars who centre in +her twenty-six universities! There was a time, and that not a century +ago, when the German language was considered to be of too limited +circulation for works of general scientific interest. Lectures were +all delivered in Latin, until Thomasius broke open a new path, and now +lessons otherwise than in the vernacular tongue are exceptions. French +was long the universal medium. Even Humboldt wrote most of his works +in that language; and it is not two years since one of the most +distinguished Egyptian scholars of Prussia published his History of +Egypt in French. The last representatives of this tendency are dying +off. The days are over, when every petty German prince must create in +his domains a servile imitation of the stiff parks of Versailles,--the +days of powdered wigs and long cues,--when French ballet-dancers gave +the tone, and French actors strutted on every stage,--when Boileau was +the great canon of criticism, and Racine and Molière perpetuated in +tragedy and comedy a pseudo-classicism. They are far, those times when +Frederick the Great wrote French at which Voltaire laughed, and could +find no better occupation for his leisure hours at Sans-Souci than the +discussion of the materialistic philosophy of the Encyclopedists, while +he affected to despise his own tongue, rejecting every effort towards +the popularization of a national literature. Well is it for Germany that +other ideas now prevail,--well, that Goethe in his old age overcame the +Gallomania, which for a while possessed him, of translating all his +works, and thenceforth writing only in French. The iron hand of Goetz of +Berlichingen would burst the seams of a Paris kid-glove. The bold lyric +and dramatic poesy of a language whose figures well up in each word +with primitive freshness can ill be contained in an idiom _blasé_ by +conventionality and frozen into crystal rigidity by the academy of the +illustrious forty,--in an idiom in which an unfortunate pun or allusion +can destroy the effect of a whole piece. We need but call to mind that +Shakspeare's "Othello" was laughed off the stage of the Odéon, owing to +the ridiculous ideas the word "napkin" or "handkerchief" called up in +the auditory. + +Nor is the influence of the university in Germany exerted in matters +of great national interest only. It pervades the social, literary, +and political organization of the people. The least part of what +characterizes an individual nation ever comes into its books. Here it +finds its way from mouth to mouth to the remotest corners of the land. +When Luther, the Professor of Wittenberg, spoke against indulgences, it +was more than priest or monk that was heard. The voice of the monk would +not have echoed beyond his cell, and the influence of the priest would +have been arrested and checked before it could have been exerted beyond +the limits of his parish or town. But the Professor Luther addressed +himself to a more influential audience. His words were carried before +many years into every part of the Empire. + +Setting aside the Austrian universities, which are no longer what they +were formerly, the teaching in these higher schools, whatever the State +restrictions may be, is eminently free,--freer than in France,--freer +than in England,--in many respects even, however it may sound, freer +than in the United States. As a result, the land is a hot-bed of the +boldest philosophical systems and the wildest theological aberrations. +There is no branch of speculation that does not find its representative. +In law, in medicine, in philology, in history, the old methods of study +and research have been revolutionized. But the State stands before the +innovators, firm and conservative in its practice. And in the end it has +been found, that, whatever wild theories may spring up in theology and +in philosophy, the corrective is nigh at hand, and truth will make its +way when the field is open to all. + +It must be remembered that the German university is no preparatory +school; those who enter it have gone through studies and a mental +training that have made them capable of judging for themselves. They +hear whom they please. Their chief study, whatever they acquire in the +lecture-room, is done when alone. They attend on an average for three +or four hours a day, spending as much time in the libraries, from which +they have the privilege of taking out books. As a completion to their +lectures, the professors generally have _Seminaren_ once or twice a +week, or _Exercitationes_ in history, philology, etc., in which the +Socratic method of teaching in dialogue is made use of. Museums and +scientific collections are richly provided in the larger institutions. +In some of these lectures are held: thus, Lepsius explains Egyptian +archaeology in the Egyptian halls in Berlin. The libraries provided by +the State, and to which all have access, are often considerable: thus, +Göttingen has 350,000 volumes; Berlin, 600,000; Munich, 800,000. + +As for the expenses of study, they are inconsiderable; thirty or +thirty-five dollars the term will cover them, as there are generally +several courses public. The students often attend for months as guests, +_hospitanten_. As they say,--"The _Fox_ pays for more than he hears, and +the _Bursch_ hears more than he pays for." The lecturers take no notice +of those present; and, provided the matriculation-papers have been taken +out, the beadle has nothing to say. There is the fullest liberty of +wandering from room to room, and hearing, if only once or twice, any one +of the professors. As for the expenses of living, they vary. To one who +would be satisfied with German student-fare and comforts, four hundred +dollars a year will answer every purpose, even in the dearest cities: +many do with much less. In Southern Germany, life is simpler and cheaper +than in Northern, and the saying is true in Munich, that a _Gulden_ +there will go as far as a _Thaler_ in Prussia. There are poorer +students, who are exempted from college-fees, and support themselves by +_Stipendia,_ whose outlay never exceeds a hundred dollars a year. + +When several hundred or thousand young men are thus thrown together, +with their time all their own, and none to whom they are responsible +for their actions, it may easily be supposed that many abuses and +irregularities will occur. Yet the great mass are better than they have +been represented; though regular attendance upon lectures is true +only of those who _ox_ it at home, as the phrase goes, and who by the +rioting, beer-drinking _Burschen_ are styled _Philistines_ or _Camels_. +These same quiet individuals, whom the Samsons affect to despise, will +be found to be by far in preponderance, when the statistics of _Corps, +Landmannschaften_, and all such clubs, are looked into; though the +characteristic of the latter, always to be seen at public places of +amusement with their colored caps, gaudy watch-guards, or cannon-boots, +would lead one to suppose that German student-life was one round of +beer-drinking, sword-slashing, and jolly existence, as represented, or +rather, misrepresented, by William Howitt, in the halo of poetry he +throws around it. No,--the fantastically dressed fellows whom the +tourist may notice at Jena, and the groups of starers who stop every +narrow passageway in front of the confectionery-shops of Heidelberg, or +amuse themselves of summer-afternoons with their trained dogs, diverting +the attention of the temporary guest of "Prince Carl" from the +contemplation of the old ruined castle of the Counts-Palatine,--these +are but a fraction of the German students. From, among them may be +chosen those tight-laced officers who make the court-residences of +Europe look like camps; or, as they are often the sons of noblemen or +rich parents, they may reach some of the sinecures in the State. They +make their student-years but a pretext for a life of rough debauchery, +from which they issue with a bought diploma; and, in many cases, +satiated and disgusted with their own lives, they dwindle down into +the timeserving reactionaries, the worst enemies of free development, +because they themselves have abused in youth the little liberty they +enjoyed. + +If the numbers be counted of those who lead the life so much extolled +by William Howitt,--who, by the way, has left out some of its roughest +traits,--they will be found, even where most numerous, as in the smaller +towns, never to exceed one-fourth of those inscribed as students. +The linguists and philosophers of Germany, her historians and men of +letters, her professors and _savans_, have come from the ranks of that +stiller and more numerous class whom the stranger will never notice: +for their triennium is spent mostly in the lecture-room or at home; and +their conviviality--for there are neither disciples nor apostles of +temperance in this beer-drinking land--is of a nature not to divert them +from their earnest pursuits. + +Truth and earnestness are the distinguishing traits of the German +character; and these qualities show no less strongly in the youth who +frequent the universities than in the professors themselves. The latter, +conscientious to a nicety in exposing the fullest fruits of their +laborious researches, are ever faithful to the trust reposed in them. +Placed by the State in a position beyond ordinary ambition and above +pecuniary cares, they can devote themselves exclusively to their +calling, concentrating their powers in one channel,--to raise, to +ennoble, to educate. It contributes not a little to their success, that +their hearers are permeated, whatever wild and unbridled freaks they may +fall into at times, with the fullest sense of honor and manly worth, +with an ardent love for knowledge and science for their own sake, not +for future utility. Their sympathies are awake for the good everywhere, +their minds receptive of the highest teachings. Their loves and likes +are great and strong,--as it behooves, when the first bubblings of +mental and physical activity are manifested in action. They abandon +themselves, body and soul, to the occupation of the moment, be it study, +be it pleasure. Their gatherings and feasts and excursions are ennobled +by vocal music from the rich store of healthy, vigorous German song,-- +from which they learn, in the words of one of their most popular +melodies, to honor "woman's love, man's strength, the free word, the +bold deed, and the FATHERLAND!" + + * * * * * + + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE SECRET IS WHISPERED. + + +The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather's congregation was not large, but +select. The lines of social cleavage run through religious creeds as +if they were of a piece with position and fortune. It is expected of +persons of a certain breeding, in some parts of New England, that they +shall be either Episcopalians or Unitarians. The mansion-house gentry of +Rockland were pretty fairly divided between the little chapel with the +stained window and the trained rector, and the meeting-house where the +Reverend Mr. Fairweather officiated. + +It was in the latter that Dudley Venner worshipped, when he attended +service anywhere,--which depended very much on the caprice of Elsie. He +saw plainly enough that a generous and liberally cultivated nature might +find a refuge and congenial souls in either of these two persuasions, +but he objected to some points of the formal creed of the older church, +and especially to the mechanism which renders it hard to get free +from its outworn and offensive formulae,--remembering how Archbishop +Tillotson wished in vain that it could be "well rid of" the Athanasian +Creed. This, and the fact that the meeting-house was nearer than the +chapel, determined him, when the new, rector, who was not quite up to +his mark in education, was appointed, to take a pew in the "liberal" +worshippers' edifice. + +Elsie was very uncertain in her feeling about going to church. In +summer, she loved rather to stroll over The Mountain on Sundays. There +was even a story, that she had one of the caves before mentioned fitted +up as an oratory, and that she had her own wild way of worshipping the +God whom she sought in the dark chasms of the dreaded cliffs. Mere +fables, doubtless; but they showed the common belief, that Elsie, with +all her strange and dangerous elements of character, had yet strong +religions feeling mingled with them. The hymn-book which Dick had found, +in his midnight invasion of her chamber, opened to favorite hymns, +especially some of the Methodist and Quietist character. Many had +noticed, that certain tunes, as sung by the choir, seemed to impress her +deeply; and some said, that at such times her whole expression would +change, and her stormy look would soften so as to remind them of her +poor, sweet mother. + +On the Sunday morning after the talk recorded in the last chapter, Elsie +made herself ready to go to meeting. She was dressed much as usual, +excepting that she wore a thick veil, turned aside, but ready to conceal +her features. It was natural enough that she should not wish to be +looked in the face by curious persons who would be staring to see what +effect the occurrence of the past week had had on her spirits. Her +father attended her willingly; and they took their seats in the pew, +somewhat to the surprise of many, who had hardly expected to see them, +after so humiliating a family development as the attempted crime of +their kinsman had just been furnishing for the astonishment of the +public. + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was now in his coldest mood. He had passed +through the period of feverish excitement which marks a change of +religious opinion. At first, when he had begun to doubt his own +theological positions, he had defended them against himself with more +ingenuity and interest, perhaps, than he could have done against +another; because men rarely take the trouble to understand anybody's +difficulties in a question but their own. After this, as he began +to draw off from different points of his old belief, the cautious +disentangling of himself from one mesh after another gave sharpness to +his intellect, and the tremulous eagerness with which he seized upon the +doctrine which, piece by piece, under various pretexts and with various +disguises, he was appropriating, gave interest and something like +passion to his words. But when he had gradually accustomed his people +to his new phraseology, and was really adjusting his sermons and his +service to disguise his thoughts, he lost at once all his intellectual +acuteness and all his spiritual fervor. + +Elsie sat quietly through the first part of the service, which was +conducted in the cold, mechanical way to be expected. Her face was +bidden by her veil; but her father knew her state of feeling, as well by +her movements and attitudes as by the expression of her features. The +hymn had been sung, the short prayer offered, the Bible read, and the +long prayer was about to begin. This was the time at which the "notes" +of any who were in affliction from loss of friends, the sick who +were doubtful of recovery, those who had cause to be grateful for +preservation of life or other signal blessing, were wont to be read. + +Just then it was that Dudley Venner noticed that his daughter was +trembling,--a thing so rare, so unaccountable, indeed, under the +circumstances, that he watched her closely, and began to fear that some +nervous paroxysm, or other malady, might have just begun to show itself +in this way upon her. + +The minister had in his pocket two notes. One, in the handwriting of +Deacon Soper, was from a member of this congregation, returning thanks +for his preservation through a season of great peril,--supposed to +be the exposure which he had shared with others, when standing in the +circle around Dick Venner. The other was the anonymous one, in a female +hand, which he had received the evening before. He forgot them both. His +thoughts were altogether too much taken up with more important matters. +He prayed through all the frozen petitions of his expurgated form of +supplication, and not a single heart was soothed or lifted, or reminded +that its sorrows were struggling their way up to heaven, borne on the +breath from a human soul that was warm with love. + +The people sat down as if relieved when the dreary prayer was finished. +Elsie alone remained standing until her father touched her. Then she sat +down, lifted her veil, and looked at him with a blank, sad look, as if +she had suffered some pain or wrong, but could not give any name or +expression to her vague trouble. She did not tremble any longer, but +remained ominously still, as if she had been frozen where she sat. + +--Can a man love his own soul too well? Who, on the whole, constitute +the nobler class of human beings? those who have lived mainly to make +sure of their own personal welfare in another and future condition of +existence, or they who have worked with all their might for their race, +for their country, for the advancement of the kingdom of God, and left +all personal arrangements concerning themselves to the sole charge of +Him who made them and is responsible to Himself for their safe-keeping? +Is an anchorite, who has worn the stone floor of his cell into basins +with his knees bent in prayer, more acceptable than the soldier who +gives his life for the maintenance of any sacred right or truth, without +thinking what will specially become of him in a world where there are +two or three million colonists a month, from this one planet, to be +cared for? These are grave questions, which must suggest themselves to +those who know that there are many profoundly selfish persons who are +sincerely devout and perpetually occupied with their own future, while +there are others who are perfectly ready to sacrifice themselves for any +worthy object in this world, but are really too little occupied with +their exclusive personality to think so much as many do about what is to +become of them in another. + +The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather did not, most certainly, belong to this +latter class. There are several kinds of believers, whose history we +find among the early converts to Christianity. + +There was the magistrate, whose social position was such that he +preferred private interview in the evening with the Teacher to following +him with the street-crowd. He had seen extraordinary facts which had +satisfied him that the young Galilean had a divine commission. But still +he cross-questioned the Teacher himself. He was not ready to accept +statements without explanation. That was the right kind of man. See how +he stood up for the legal rights of his Master, when the people were for +laying hands on him! + +And again, there was the government official, intrusted with public +money, which, in those days, implied that he was supposed to be honest. +A single look of that heavenly countenance, and two words of gentle +command, were enough for him. Neither of these men, the early disciple +nor the evangelist, seems to have been thinking primarily about his own +personal safety. + +But now look at the poor, miserable turnkey, whose occupation shows +what he was like to be, and who had just been thrusting two respectable +strangers, taken from the hands of a mob, covered with stripes and +stripped of clothing, into the inner prison, and making their feet fast +in the stocks. His thought, in the moment of terror, is for himself: +first, suicide; then, what he shall do,--not to save his household,--not +to fulfil his duty to his office,--not to repair the outrage he has been +committing,--but to secure his own personal safety. Truly, character +shows itself as much in a man's way of becoming a Christian as in any +other! + +----Elsie sat, statue-like, through the sermon. It would not be fair to +the reader to give an abstract of that. When a man who has been bred to +free thought and free speech suddenly finds himself stepping about, like +a dancer amidst his eggs, among the old addled majority-votes which he +must not tread upon, he is a spectacle for men and angels. Submission to +intellectual precedent and authority does very well for those who have +been bred to it; we know that the under-ground courses of their minds +are laid in the Roman cement of tradition, and that stately and splendid +structures may be reared on such a foundation. But to see one laying a +platform over heretical quicksands, thirty or forty or fifty years deep, +and then beginning to build upon it, is a sorry sight. A new convert +from the reformed to the ancient faith may be very strong in the arms, +but he will always have weak legs and shaky knees. He may use his hands +well, and hit hard with his fists, but he will never stand on his legs +in the way the man does who inherits his belief. + +The services were over at last, and Dudley Venner and his daughter +walked home together in silence. He always respected her moods, and saw +clearly enough that some inward trouble was weighing upon her. There +was nothing to be said in such cases, for Elsie could never talk of her +griefs. An hour, or a day, or a week of brooding, with perhaps a sudden +flash of violence: this was the way in which the impressions which make +other women weep, and tell their griefs by word or letter, showed their +effects in her mind and acts. + +She wandered off up into the remoter parts of The Mountain, that day, +after their return. No one saw just where she went,--indeed, no one +knew its forest-recesses and rocky fastnesses as she did. She was gone +until late at night; and when Old Sophy, who had watched for her, bound +up her long hair for her sleep, it was damp with the cold dews. + +The old black woman looked at her without speaking, but questioning her +with every feature as to the sorrow that was weighing on her. + +Suddenly she turned to Old Sophy. + +"You want to know what there is troubling me," she said. "Nobody loves +me. I cannot love anybody. What is love, Sophy?" + +"It's what poor ol' Sophy's got for her Elsie," the old woman answered. +"Tell me, darlin',--don' you love somebody?--don' you love----? you +know,--oh, tell me, darlin', don' you love to see the gen'l'man +that keeps up at the school where you go? They say he's the pootiest +gen'l'man that was ever in the town here. Don' be 'fraid of poor Ol' +Sophy, darlin',--she loved a man once,--see here! Oh, I've showed you +this often enough!" + +She took from her pocket a half of one of the old Spanish silver coins, +such as were current in the earlier part of this century. The other half +of it had been lying in the deep sea-sand for more than fifty years. + +Elsie looked her in the face, but did not answer in words. What strange +intelligence was that which passed between them through the diamond +eyes and the little beady black ones?--what subtile intercommunication, +penetrating so much deeper than articulate speech? This was the nearest +approach to sympathetic relations that Elsie ever had: a kind of dumb +intercourse of feeling, such as one sees in the eyes of brute mothers +looking on their young. But, subtile as it was, it was narrow and +individual; whereas an emotion which can shape itself in language opens +the gate for itself into the great community of human affections; for +every word we speak is the medal of a dead thought or feeling, struck in +the die of some human experience, worn smooth by innumerable contacts, +and always transferred warm from one to another. By words we share the +common consciousness of the race, which has shaped itself in these +symbols. By music we reach those special states of consciousness +which, being without _form_, cannot be shaped with the mosaics of the +vocabulary. The language of the eyes runs deeper into the personal +nature, but it is purely individual, and perishes in the expression. If +we consider them all as growing out of the consciousness as their root, +language is the leaf, music is the flower; but when the eyes meet and +search each other, it is the uncovering of the blanched stem through +which the whole life runs, but which has never taken color or form from +the sunlight. + +For three days Elsie did not return to the school. Much of the time she +was among the woods and rocks. The season was now beginning to wane, and +the forest to put on its autumnal glory. The dreamy haze was beginning +to soften the landscape, and the most delicious days of the year were +lending their attraction to the scenery of The Mountain. It was not very +singular that Elsie should be lingering in her old haunts, from which +the change of season must soon drive her. But Old Sophy saw clearly +enough that some internal conflict was going on, and knew very well that +it must have its own way and work itself out as it best could. As much +as looks could tell Elsie had told her. She had said in words, to be +sure, that she could not love. Something warped and thwarted the emotion +which would have been love in another, no doubt; but that such an +emotion was striving with her against all malign influences which +interfered with it the old woman had a perfect certainty in her own +mind. + +Everybody who has observed the working of emotions in persons of various +temperaments knows well enough that they have periods of _incubation_, +which differ with the individual, and with the particular cause and +degree of excitement, yet evidently go through a strictly self-limited +series of evolutions, at the end of which, their result--an act of +violence, a paroxysm of tears, a gradual subsidence into repose, or +whatever it may be--declares itself, like the last stage of an attack of +fever and ague. No one can observe children without noticing that there +is a _personal equation_, to use the astronomer's language, in their +tempers, so that one sulks an hour over an offence which makes another a +fury for five minutes, and leaves him or her an angel when it is over. + +At the end of three days, Elsie braided her long, glossy, black hair, +and shot a golden arrow through it. She dressed herself with more than +usual care, and came down in the morning superb in her stormy beauty. +The brooding paroxysm was over, or at least her passion had changed its +phase. Her father saw it with great relief; he had always many fears for +her in her hours and days of gloom, but, for reasons before assigned, +had felt that she must be trusted to herself, without appealing to +actual restraint, or any other supervision than such as Old Sophy could +exercise without offence. + +She went off at the accustomed hour to the school. All the girls had +their eyes on her. None so keen as these young misses to know an inward +movement by an outward sign of adornment: if they have not as many +signals as the ships that sail the great seas, there is not an end of +ribbon or a turn of a ringlet which is not a hieroglyphic with a hidden +meaning to these little cruisers over the ocean of sentiment. + +The girls all looked at Elsie with a new thought; for she was more +sumptuously arrayed than perhaps ever before at the school; and they +said to themselves that she had come meaning to draw the young master's +eyes upon her. That was it; what else could it be? The beautiful, cold +girl with the diamond eyes meant to dazzle the handsome young gentleman. +He would be afraid to love her; it couldn't be true, that which some +people had said in the village; she wasn't the kind of young lady to +make Mr. Langdon happy. Those dark people are never safe: so one of the +young blondes said to herself. Elsie was not literary enough for such +a scholar: so thought Miss Charlotte Ann Wood, the young poetess. She +couldn't have a good temper, with those scowling eyebrows: this was the +opinion of several broad-faced, smiling girls, who thought, each in her +own snug little mental _sanctum_, that, if, etc., etc. she could make +him _so_ happy! + +Elsie had none of the still, wicked light in her eyes, that morning. +She looked gentle, but dreamy; played with her books; did not trouble +herself with any of the exercises,--which in itself was not very +remarkable, as she was always allowed, under some pretext or other, to +have her own way. + +The school-hours were over at length. The girls went out, but she +lingered to the last. She then came up to Mr. Bernard, with a book in +her hand, as if to ask a question. + +"Will you walk towards my home with me to-day?" she said, in a very low +voice, little more than a whisper. + +Mr. Bernard was startled by the request, put in such a way. He had a +presentiment of some painful scene or other. But there was nothing to be +done but to assure her that it would give him great pleasure. + +So they walked along together on their way toward the Dudley mansion. + +"I have no friend," Elsie said, all at once. "Nothing loves me but one +old woman. I cannot love anybody. They tell me there is something in my +eyes that draws people to me and makes them faint. Look into them, will +you?" + +She turned her face toward him. It was very pale, and the diamond eyes +were glittering with a film, such as beneath other lids would have +rounded into a tear. + +"Beautiful eyes, Elsie," he said,--"sometimes very piercing,--but soft +now, and looking as if there were something beneath them that friendship +might draw out. I am your friend, Elsie. Tell me what I can do to render +your life happier." + +"_Love me!_" said Elsie Venner. + +What shall a man do, when a woman makes such a demand, involving such +an avowal? It was the tenderest, cruellest, humblest moment of Mr. +Bernard's life. He turned pale, he trembled almost, as if he had been a +woman listening to her lover's declaration. + +"Elsie," he said, presently, "I so long to be of some use to you, to +have your confidence and sympathy, that I must not let you say or do +anything to put us in false relations. I do love you, Elsie, as a +suffering sister with sorrows of her own,--as one whom I would save at +the risk of my happiness and life,--as one who needs a true friend more +than any of all the young girls I have known. More than this you would +not ask me to say. You have been through excitement and trouble lately, +and it has made you feel such a need more than ever. Give me your hand, +dear Elsie, and trust me that I will be as true a friend to you as if we +were children of the same mother." + +Elsie gave him her hand mechanically. It seemed to him that a cold +_aura_ shot from it along his arm and chilled the blood running through +his heart. He pressed it gently, looked at her with a face full of grave +kindness and sad interest, then softly relinquished it. + +It was all over with poor Elsie. They walked almost in silence the rest +of the way. Mr. Bernard left her at the gate of the mansion-house, and +returned with sad forebodings. Elsie went at once to her own room, and +did not come from it at the usual hours. At last Old Sophy began to +be alarmed about her, went to her apartment, and, finding the door +unlocked, entered cautiously. She found Elsie lying on her bed, her +brows strongly contracted, her eyes dull, her whole look that of great +suffering. Her first thought was that she had been doing herself a harm +by some deadly means or other. But Elsie saw her fear, and reassured +her. + +"No," she said, "there is nothing wrong, such as you are thinking of; I +am not dying. You may send for the Doctor; perhaps he can take the pain +from my head. That is all I want him to do. There is no use in the pain, +that I know of; if he can stop it, let him." + +So they sent for the old Doctor. It was not long before the solid trot +of Caustic, the old bay horse, and the crashing of the gravel under the +wheels, gave notice that the physician was driving up the avenue. + +The old Doctor was a model for visiting practitioners. He always +came into the sick-room with a quiet, cheerful look, as if he had a +consciousness that he was bringing some sure relief with him. The way a +patient snatches his first look at his doctor's face, to see whether +he is doomed, whether he is reprieved, whether he is unconditionally +pardoned, has really something terrible about it. It is only to be +met by an imperturbable mask of serenity, proof against anything and +everything in a patient's aspect. The physician whose face reflects his +patient's condition like a mirror may do well enough to examine people +for a life-insurance office, but does not belong to the sick-room. The +old Doctor did not keep people waiting in dread suspense, while he +stayed talking about the case,--the patient all the time thinking that +he and the friends are discussing some alarming symptom or formidable +operation which he himself is by-and-by to hear of. + +He was in Elsie's room almost before she knew he was in the house. He +came to her bedside in such a natural, quiet way, that it seemed as if +he were only a friend who had dropped in for a moment to say a pleasant +word. Yet he was very uneasy about Elsie until he had seen her; he never +knew what might happen to her or those about her, and came prepared for +the worst. + +"Sick, my child?" he said, in a very soft, low voice. + +Elsie nodded, without speaking. + +The Doctor took her hand,--whether with professional views, or only in a +friendly way, it would have been hard to tell. So he sat a few minutes, +looking at her all the time with a kind of fatherly interest, but with +it all noting how she lay, how she breathed, her color, her expression, +all that teaches the practised eye so much without a single question +being asked. He saw she was in suffering, and said presently,-- + +"You have pain somewhere; where is it?" + +She put her hand to her head. + +As she was not disposed to talk, he watched her for a while, questioned +Old Sophy shrewdly a few minutes, and so made up his mind as to the +probable cause of disturbance and the proper means to be used. + +Some very silly people thought the old Doctor did not believe in +medicine, because he gave less than certain poor half-taught creatures +in the smaller neighboring towns, who took advantage of people's +sickness to disgust and disturb them with all manner of ill-smelling +and ill-behaving drugs. To tell the truth, he hated to give any thing +noxious or loathsome to those who were uncomfortable enough already, +unless he was very sure it would do good,--in which case, he never +played with drugs, but gave good, honest, efficient doses. Sometimes he +lost a family of the more boorish sort, because they did not think they +got their money's worth out of him, unless they had something more than +a taste of everything he carried in his saddle-bags. + +He ordered some remedies which he thought would relieve Elsie, and left +her, saying he would call the next day, hoping to find her better. +But the next day came, and the next, and still Elsie was on her +bed,--feverish, restless, wakeful, silent. At night she tossed about +and wandered, and it became at length apparent that there was a settled +attack, something like what they called formerly a "nervous fever." + +On the fourth day she was more restless than common. One of the women +of the house came in to help to take care of her; but she showed an +aversion to her presence. + +"Send me Helen Darley," she said at last. + +The old Doctor told them, that, if possible, they must indulge this +fancy of hers. The caprices of sick people were never to be despised, +least of all of such persons as Elsie, when rendered irritable and +exacting by pain and weakness. + +So a message was sent to Mr. Silas Peckham, at the Apollinean Institute, +to know if he could not spare Miss Helen Darley for a few days, if +required to give her attention to a young lady who attended his school +and who was now lying ill,--no other person than the daughter of Dudley +Venner. + +A mean man never agrees to anything without deliberately turning it +over, so that he may see its dirty side, and, if he can, sweating the +coin he pays for it. If an archangel should offer to save his soul for +sixpence, he would try to find a sixpence with a hole in it. A gentleman +says yes to a great many things without stopping to think: a shabby +fellow is known by his caution in answering questions, for fear of +compromising his pocket or himself. + +Mr. Silas Peckham looked very grave at the request. The dooties of Miss +Darley at the Institoot were important, very important. He paid her +large sums of money for her time,--more than she could expect to get in +any other institootion for the education of female youth. A deduction +from her salary would be necessary, in case she should retire from the +sphere of her dooties for a season. He should be put to extra expense, +and have to perform additional labors himself. He would consider of the +matter. If any arrangement could be made, he would send word to Squire +Venner's folks. + +"Miss Darley," said Silas Peckham, "the' 's a message from Squire +Venner's that his daughter wants you down at the mansion-house to see +her. She's got a fever, so they inform me. If it's any kind of ketchin' +fever, of course you won't think of goin' near the mansion-house. If +Doctor Kittredge says it's safe, perfec'ly safe, I can't objec' to your +goin', on sech conditions as seem to be fair to all concerned. You will +give up your pay for the whole time you are absent,--portions of days to +be caounted as whole days. You will be charged with board the same as +if you eat your victuals with the household. The victuals are of no use +after they're cooked but to be eat, and your bein' away is no savin' to +our folks. I shall charge you a reasonable compensation for the demage +to the school by the absence of a teacher. If Miss Crabs undertakes any +dooties belongin' to your department of instruction, she will look to +you for sech pecooniary considerations as you may agree upon between +you. On these conditions I am willin' to give my consent to your +temporary absence from the post of dooty. I will step down to Doctor +Kittredge's, myself, and make inquiries as to the nature of the +complaint." + +Mr. Peckham took up a rusty and very narrow-brimmed hat, which he cocked +upon one side of his head, with an air peculiar to the rural gentry. It +was the hour when the Doctor expected to be in his office, unless he had +some special call which kept him from home. + +He found the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather just taking leave of the +Doctor. His hand was on the pit of his stomach, and his countenance +expressive of inward uneasiness. + +"Shake it before using," said the Doctor; "and the sooner you make up +your mind to speak right out, the better it will be for your digestion." + +"Oh, Mr. Peckham! Walk in, Mr. Peckham! Nobody sick up at the school, I +hope?" + +"The haalth of the school is fust-rate," replied Mr. Peckham. "The +sitooation is uncommonly favorable to saloobrity." (These last words +were from the Annual Report of the past year.) "Providence has spared +our female youth in a remarkable measure, I've come with reference to +another consideration. Dr. Kittredge. is there any ketchin' complaint +goin' about in the village?" + +"Well, yes," said the Doctor, "I should say there was something of that +sort. Measles. Mumps. And Sin,--that's always catching." + +The old Doctor's eye twinkled; once in a while he had his little touch +of humor. Silas Peckham slanted his eye up suspiciously at the Doctor, +as if he was getting some kind of advantage over him. That is the way +people of his constitution are apt to take a bit of pleasantry. + +"I don't mean sech things, Doctor; I mean fevers. Is there any ketchin' +fevers--bilious, or nervous, or typus, or whatever you call 'em--now +goin' round this village? That's what I want to ascertain, if there's no +impropriety." + +The old Doctor looked at Silas through his spectacles. + +"Hard and sour as a green cider-apple," he thought to himself. "No," he +said,--"I don't know any such cases." + +"What's the matter with Elsie Venner?" asked Silas, sharply, as if he +expected to have him this time. + +"A mild feverish attack, I should call it in anybody else; but she has +a peculiar constitution, and I never feel so safe about her as I should +about most people." + +"Anything ketchin' about it?" Silas asked, cunningly. + +"No, indeed!" said the Doctor,--"catching?--no,--what put that into +your head, Mr. Peckham?" + +"Well, Doctor," the conscientious Principal answered, "I naterally +feel a graat responsibility, a very graiiiit responsibility, for the +noomerous and lovely young ladies committed to my charge. It has been a +question, whether one of my assistants should go, accordin' to request, +to stop with Miss Venner for a season. Nothin' restrains my givin' my +full and free consent to her goin' but the fear lest contagious maladies +should be introdooced among those lovely female youth. I shall abide by +your opinion,--I understan' you to say distinc'ly, her complaint is +not ketchin'?--and urge upon Miss Darley to fulfil her dooties to a +sufferin' fellow-creature at any cost to myself and my establishment. We +shall miss her very much; but it is a good cause, and she shall go,--and +I shall trust that Providence will enable us to spare her without +permanent demage to the interests of the Institootion." + +Saying this, the excellent Principal departed, with his rusty +narrow-brimmed hat leaning over, as if it had a six-knot breeze abeam, +and its gunwale (so to speak) was dipping into his coat-collar. He +announced the result of his inquiries to Helen, who had received a brief +note in the mean time from a poor relation of Elsie's mother, then at +the mansion-house, informing her of the critical situation of Elsie +and of her urgent desire that Helen should be with her. She could not +hesitate. She blushed as she thought of the comments that might be made; +but what were such considerations in a matter of life and death? She +could not stop to make terms with Silas Peckham. She must go. He might +fleece her, if he would; she would not complain,--not even to Bernard, +who, she knew, would bring the Principal to terms, if she gave him the +least hint of his intended extortions. + +So Helen made up her bundle of clothes to be sent after her, took a book +or two with her to help her pass the time, and departed for the Dudley +mansion. It was with a great inward effort that she undertook the +sisterly task which was thus forced upon her. She had a kind of terror +of Elsie; and the thought of having charge of her, of being alone with +her, of coming under the full influence of those diamond eyes,--if, +indeed, their light were not dimmed by suffering and weariness,--was one +she shrank from. But what could she do? It might be a turning-point in +the life of the poor girl; and she must overcome all her fears, all her +repugnance, and go to her rescue. + +"Is Helen come?" said Elsie, when she heard, with her fine sense +quickened by the irritability of sickness, a light footfall on the +stair, with a cadence unlike that of any inmate of the house. + +"It's a strange woman's step," said Old Sophy, who, with her exclusive +love for Elsie, was naturally disposed to jealousy of a new-comer. "Lot +Ol' Sophy set at th' foot o' th' bed, if th' young missis sets by th' +piller,--won' y', darlin'? The' 's nobody that's white can love y' as +th' ol' black woman does;--don' sen' her away, now, there's a dear +soul!" + +Elsie motioned her to sit in the place she had pointed to, and Helen at +that moment entered the room. Dudley Venner followed her. + +"She is your patient," he said, "except while the Doctor is here. She +has been longing to have you with her, and we shall expect you to make +her well in a few days." + +So Helen Darley found herself established in the most unexpected manner +as an inmate of the Dudley mansion. She sat with Elsie most of the +time, by day and by night, soothing her, and trying to enter into her +confidence and affections, if it should prove that this strange creature +was really capable of truly sympathetic emotions. + +What was this unexplained something which came between her soul and +that of every other human being with whom she was in relations? Helen +perceived, or rather felt, that she had, folded up in the depths of +her being, a true womanly nature. Through the cloud that darkened her +aspect, now and then a ray would steal forth, which, like the smile of +stern and solemn people, was all the more impressive from its contrast +with the expression she wore habitually. It might well be that pain and +fatigue had changed her aspect; but, at any rate, Helen looked into +her eyes without that nervous agitation which their cold glitter had +produced on her when they were full of their natural light. She felt +sure that her mother must have been a lovely, gentle woman. There were +gleams of a beautiful nature shining through some ill-defined medium +which disturbed and made them flicker and waver, as distant images do +when seen through the rippling upward currents of heated air. She loved, +in her own way, the old black woman, and seemed to keep up a kind of +silent communication with her, as if they did not require the use of +speech. She appeared to be tranquillized by the presence of Helen, and +loved to have her seated at the bedside. Yet something, whatever it was, +prevented her from opening her heart to her kind companion; and even now +there were times when she would lie looking at her, with such a still, +watchful, almost dangerous expression, that Helen would sigh, and change +her place, as persons do whose breath some cunning orator has been +sucking out of them with his spongy eloquence, so that, when he stops, +they must get some air and stir about, or they feel as if they should be +half-smothered and palsied. + +It was too much to keep guessing what was the meaning of all this. Helen +determined to ask Old Sophy some questions which might probably throw +light upon her doubts. She took the opportunity one evening when Elsie +was lying asleep and they were both sitting at some distance from her +bed. + +"Tell me, Sophy," she said, "was Elsie always as shy as she seems to be +now, in talking with those to whom she is friendly?" + +"Alway jes' so, Miss Darlin', ever sence she was little chil'. When she +was five, six year old, she lisp some,--call me _Thophy_; that make her +kin' o' 'shamed, perhaps: after she grow up, she never lisp, but she +kin' o' got the way o' not talkin' much. Fac' is, she don' like talkin' +as common gals do, 'xcep' jes' once in a while with some partic'lar +folks,--'n' then not much." + +"How old is Elsie?" + +"Eighteen year this las' September." + +"How long ago did her mother die?" Helen asked, with a little trembling +in her voice. + +"Eighteen year ago this October," said Old Sophy. + +Helen was silent for a moment. Then she whispered, almost +inaudibly,--for her voice appeared to fail her,-- + +"What did her mother die of, Sophy?" + +The old woman's small eyes dilated until a ring of white showed round +their beady centres. She caught Helen by the hand and clung to it, as if +in fear. She looked round at Elsie, who lay sleeping, as if she might be +listening. Then she drew Helen towards her and led her softly out of the +room. + +"'Sh!--'sh!" she said, as soon as they were outside the door. "Don' +never speak in this house 'bout what Elsie's mother died of!" she said. +"Nobody never says nothin' 'bout it. Oh, God has made Ugly Things wi' +death in their mouths, Miss Darlin', an' He knows what they're for; but +my poor Elsie!--to have her blood changed in her before--It was in July +Mistress got her death, but she liv' till three week after my poor Elsie +was born." + +She could speak no more. She had said enough. Helen remembered the +stories she had heard on coming to the village, and among them one +referred to in an early chapter of this narrative. All the unaccountable +looks and tastes and ways of Elsie came back to her in the light of an +ante-natal impression which had mingled an alien element in her nature. +She knew the secret of the fascination which looked out of her cold, +glittering eyes. She knew the significance of the strange repulsion +which--she felt in her own intimate consciousness underlying the +inexplicable attraction which drew her towards the young girl in +spite of this repugnance. She began to look with new feelings on the +contradictions in her moral nature,--the longing for sympathy, as shown +by her wishing for Helen's company, and the impossibility of passing +beyond the cold circle of isolation within which she had her being. +The fearful truth of that instinctive feeling of hers, that there was +something not human looking out of Elsie's eyes, came upon her with +a sudden flash of penetrating conviction. There were two warring +principles in that superb organization and proud soul. One made her a +woman, with all a woman's powers and longings. The other chilled all the +currents of outlet for her emotions. It made her tearless and mute, when +another woman would have wept and pleaded. And it infused into her soul +something--it was cruel now to call it malice--which was still and +watchful and dangerous,--which waited its opportunity, and then shot +like an arrow from its bow out of the coil of brooding premeditation. +Even those who had never seen the white scars on Dick Venner's wrist, +or heard the half-told story of her supposed attempt to do a graver +mischief, knew well enough by looking at her that she was one of the +creatures not to be tampered with,--silent in anger and swift in +vengeance. + +Helen could not return to the bedside at once after this communication. +It was with altered eyes that she must look on the poor girl, the victim +of such an unheard-of fatality. All was explained to her now. But it +opened such depths of solemn thought in her awakened consciousness, that +it seemed as if the whole mystery of human life were coming up again +before her for trial and judgment. "Oh," she thought, "if, while the +will lies sealed in its fountain, it may be poisoned at its very source, +so that it shall flow dark and deadly through its whole course, who are +we that we should judge our fellow-creatures by ourselves?" Then came +the terrible question, how far the elements themselves are capable of +perverting the moral nature: if valor, and justice, and truth, the +strength of man and the virtue of woman, may not be poisoned out of a +race by the food of the Australian in his forest,--by the foul air and +darkness of the Christians cooped up in the "tenement-houses close by +those who live in the palaces of the great cities?" + +She walked out into the garden, lost in thought upon these dark and deep +matters. Presently she heard a step behind her, and Elsie's father came +up and joined her. Since his introduction to Helen at the distinguished +tea-party given by the Widow Rowens, and before her coming to sit with +Elsie, Mr. Dudley Venner had in the most accidental way in the world met +her on several occasions: once after church, when she happened to be +caught in a slight shower and he insisted on holding his umbrella +over her on her way home;--once at a small party at one of the +mansion-houses, where the quick-eyed lady of the house had a wonderful +knack of bringing people together who liked to see each other;--perhaps +at other times and places; but of this there is no certain evidence. + +They naturally spoke of Elsie, her illness, and the aspect it had taken. +But Helen noticed in all that Dudley Venner said about his daughter a +morbid sensitiveness, as it seemed to her, an aversion to saying much +about her physical condition or her peculiarities,--a wish to feel +and speak as a parent should, and yet a shrinking, as if there were +something about Elsie which he could not bear to dwell upon. She thought +she saw through all this, and she could interpret it all charitably. +There were circumstances about his daughter which recalled the great +sorrow of his life; it was not strange that this perpetual reminder +should in some degree have modified his feelings as a father. But what +a life he must have been leading for so many years, with this perpetual +source of distress which he could not name! Helen knew well enough, now, +the meaning of the sadness which had left such traces in his features +and tones, and it made her feel very kindly and compassionate towards +him. + +So they walked over the crackling leaves in the garden, between the +lines of box breathing its fragrance of eternity;--for this is one of +the odors which carry us out of time into the abysses of the unbeginning +past; if we ever lived on another ball of stone than this, it must be +that there was box growing on it. So they walked, finding their way +softly to each other's sorrows and sympathies, each meeting some +counterpart to the other's experience of life, and startled to see how +the different, yet parallel, lessons they had been taught by suffering +had led them step by step to the same serene acquiescence in the +orderings of that Supreme Wisdom which they both devoutly recognized. + +Old Sophy was at the window and saw them walking up and down the +garden-alleys. She watched them as her grandfather the savage watched +the figures that moved among the trees when a hostile tribe was lurking +about his mountain. + +"There'll be a weddin' in the ol' house," she said, "before there's +roses on them bushes ag'in. But it won' be my poor Elsie's weddin', 'n' +Ol' Sophy won' be there." + +When Helen prayed in the silence of her soul that evening, it was not +that Elsie's life might be spared. She dared not ask that as a favor of +Heaven. What could life be to her but a perpetual anguish, and to those +about her an ever-present terror? Might she but be so influenced by +divine grace, that what in her was most truly human, most purely +woman-like, should overcome the dark, cold, unmentionable instinct which +had pervaded her being like a subtile poison: that was all she could +ask, and the rest she left to a higher wisdom and tenderer love than her +own. + + * * * * * + + +GYMNASTICS. + + +So your zeal for physical training begins to wane a little, my friend? I +thought it would, in your particular case, because it began too ardently +and was concentrated too exclusively on your one hobby of pedestrianism. +Just now you are literally under the weather. It is the equinoctial +storm. No matter, you say; did not Olmsted foot it over England under +an umbrella? did not Wordsworth regularly walk every guest round +Windermere, the day after arrival, rain or shine? So, the day before +yesterday, you did your four miles out, on the Northern turnpike, and +returned splashed to the waist; and yesterday you walked three miles +out, on the Southern turnpike, and came back soaked to the knees. To-day +the storm is slightly increasing, but you are dry thus far, and wish to +remain so; exercise is a humbug; you will give it all up, and go to the +Chess-Club. Don't go to the Chess-Club; come with me to the Gymnasium. + +Chess may be all very well to tax with tough problems a brain otherwise +inert, to vary a monotonous day with small events, to keep one awake +during a sleepy evening, and to arouse a whole family next morning +for the adjustment over the breakfast-table of that momentous +state-question, whether the red king should have castled at the fiftieth +move or not till the fifty-first. But for an average American man, who +leaves his place of business at nightfall with his head a mere furnace +of red-hot brains and his body a pile of burnt-out cinders, utterly +exhausted in the daily effort to put ten dollars more of distance +between his posterity and the poor-house,--for such a one to kindle up +afresh after office-hours for a complicated chess-problem seems much as +if a wood-sawyer, worn out with his week's work, should decide to order +in his saw-horse on Saturday evening, and saw for fun. Surely we have +little enough recreation at any rate, and, pray, let us make that little +un-intellectual. True, something can be said in favor of chess--for +instance, that no money can be made out of it, and that it is so far +profitable to us overworked Americans: but even this is not enough. For +this once, lock your brains into your safe, at nightfall, with your +other valuables; don't go to the Chess-Club; come with me to the +Gymnasium. + +Ten leaps up a steep, worn-out stairway, through a blind entry to +another stairway, and yet another, and we emerge suddenly upon the floor +of a large lighted room, a mere human machine-shop of busy motion, where +Indian clubs are whirling, dumb-bells pounding, swings vibrating, and +arms and legs flying in all manner of unexpected directions. Henderson +sits with his big proportions quietly rested against the weight-boxes, +pulling with monotonous vigor at the fifty-pound weights,--"the +Stationary Engine" the boys call him. For a contrast, Draper is floating +up and down between the parallel bars with such an airy lightness, that +you think he must have hung up his body in the dressing-room, and is +exercising only in his arms and clothes. Parsons is swinging in the +rings, rising to the ceiling before and behind; up and down he goes, +whirling over and over, converting himself into a mere tumbler-pigeon, +yet still bound by the long, steady vibration of the human pendulum. +Another is running a race with him, if sitting in the swing be running; +and still another is accompanying their motion, clinging to the +_trapèze_. Hayes, meanwhile, is spinning on the horizontal bar, now +backward, now forward, twenty times without stopping, pinioned through +his bent arms, like a Fakir on his iron. See how many different ways +of ascending a vertical pole these boys are devising!--one climbs with +hands and legs, another with hands only, another is crawling up on +all-fours in Feegee fashion, while another is pegging his way up by +inserting pegs in holes a foot apart,--you will see him sway and +tremble a bit, before he reaches the ceiling. Others are at work with a +spring-board and leaping-cord; higher and higher the cord is moved, one +by one the competitors step aside defeated, till the field is left to a +single champion, who, like an India-rubber ball, goes on rebounding till +he seems likely to disappear through the chimney, like a Ravel. Some +sturdy young visitors, farmers by their looks, are trying their +strength, with various success, at the sixty-pound dumb-bell, when some +quiet fellow, a clerk or a tailor, walks modestly to the hundred-pound +weight, and up it goes as steadily as if the laws of gravitation had +suddenly shifted their course, and worked upward instead of down. Lest, +however, they should suddenly resume their original bias, let us cross +to the dressing-room, and, while you are assuming flannel shirt or +complete gymnastic suit, as you may prefer, let us consider the merits +of the Gymnasium. + +Do not say that the public is growing tired of hearing about physical +training. You might as well speak of being surfeited with the sight of +apple-blossoms, or bored with roses,--for these athletic exercises are, +to a healthy person, just as good and refreshing. Of course, any one +becomes insupportable who talks all the time of this subject, or of any +other; but it is the man who fatigues you, not the theme. Any person +becomes morbid and tedious whose whole existence is absorbed in any +one thing, be it playing or praying. Queen Elizabeth, after admiring a +gentleman's dancing, refused to look at the dancing-master, who did it +better. "Nay," quoth her bluff Majesty,--"'tis his business,--I'll none +of him." Professionals grow tiresome. Books are good,--so is a boat; +but a librarian and a ferryman, though useful to take you where you +wish to go, are not necessarily enlivening as companions. The annals +of "Boxiana" and "Pedestriana" and "The Cricket-Field" are as pathetic +records of monomania as the bibliographical works of Mr. Thomas Dibdin. +Margaret Fuller said truly, that we all delight in gossip, and differ +only in the department of gossip we individually prefer; but a monotony +of gossip soon grows tedious, be the theme horses or octavos. + +Not one-tenth part of the requisite amount has yet been said of athletic +exercises as a prescription for this community. There was a time when +they were not even practised generally among American boys, if we may +trust the foreign travellers of a half-century ago, and they are but +just being raised into respectability among American men. Motley says +of one of his Flemish heroes, that "he would as soon have foregone his +daily tennis as his religious exercises,"--as if ball-playing were then +the necessary pivot of a great man's day. Some such pivot of physical +enjoyment we must have, for no other race in the world needs it so +much. Through the immense inventive capacity of our people, mechanical +avocations are becoming almost as sedentary and intellectual as the +professions. Among Americans, all hand-work is constantly being +transmuted into brain-work; the intellect gains, but the body suffers, +and needs some other form of physical activity to restore the +equilibrium. As machinery becomes perfected, all the coarser tasks are +constantly being handed over to the German or Irish immigrant,--not +because the American cannot do the particular thing required, but +because he is promoted to something more intellectual. Thus transformed +to a mental laborer, he must somehow supply the bodily deficiency. If +this is true of this class, it is of course true of the student, the +statesman, and the professional man. The general statement recently made +by Lewes, in England, certainly holds not less in America:--"It is rare +to meet with good digestion among the artisans of the brain, no matter +how careful they may be in food and general habits." The great majority +of our literary and professional men could echo the testimony of +Washington Irving, if they would only indorse his wise conclusion:--"My +own case is a proof how one really loses by over-writing one's self +and keeping too intent upon a sedentary occupation. I attribute all my +present indisposition, which is losing me time, spirits, everything, to +two fits of close application and neglect of all exercise while I was at +Paris. I am convinced that he who devotes two hours each day to vigorous +exercise will eventually gain those two and a couple more into the +bargain." + +Indeed, there is something involved in the matter far beyond any merely +physical necessity. All our natures need something more than mere bodily +exertion; they need bodily enjoyment. There is, or ought to be, in all +of us a touch of untamed gypsy nature, which should be trained, not +crushed. We need, in the very midst of civilization, something which +gives a little of the zest of savage life; and athletic exercises +furnish the means. The young man who is caught down the bay in a sudden +storm, alone in his boat, with wind and tide against him, has all the +sensations of a Norway sea-king,--sensations thoroughly uncomfortable, +if you please, but for the thrill and glow they bring. Swim out after a +storm at Dove Harbor, topping the low crests, diving through the high +ones, and you feel yourself as veritable a South-Sea Islander as if you +were to dine that day on missionary instead of mutton. Tramp, for a +whole day, across hill, marsh, and pasture, with gun, rod, or whatever +the excuse may be, and camp where you find yourself at evening, and +you are as essentially an Indian on the Blue Hills as among the Rocky +Mountains. Less depends upon circumstances than we fancy, and more upon +our personal temperament and will. All the enjoyments of Browning's +"Saul," those "wild joys of living" which make us happy with their +freshness as we read of them, are within the reach of all, and make us +happier still when enacted. Every one, in proportion as he develops his +own physical resources, puts himself in harmony with the universe, and +contributes something to it; even as Mr. Pecksniff, exulting in his +digestive machinery, felt a pious delight after dinner in the thought +that this wonderful apparatus was wound up and going. + +A young person can no more have too much love of adventure than a mill +can have too much water-power; only it needs to be worked, not wasted. +Physical exercises give to energy and daring a legitimate channel, +supply the place of war, gambling, licentiousness, highway-robbery, and +office-seeking. De Quincey, in like manner, says that Wordsworth made +pedestrianism a substitute for wine and spirits; and Emerson thinks the +force of rude periods "can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, +except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war." +The animal energy cannot and ought not to be suppressed; if debarred +from its natural channel, it will force for itself unnatural ones. A +vigorous life of the senses not only does not tend to sensuality in the +objectionable sense, but it helps to avert it. Health finds joy in mere +existence; daily breath and daily bread suffice. This innocent enjoyment +lost, the normal desires seek abnormal satisfactions. The most brutal +prize-fighter is compelled to recognize the connection between purity +and vigor, and becomes virtuous when he goes into training, as the +heroes of old observed chastity, in hopes of conquering at the Olympic +Games. The very word _ascetic_ comes from a Greek word signifying the +preparatory exercises of an athlete. There are spiritual diseases which +coil poisonously among distorted instincts and disordered nerves, and +one would be generally safer in standing sponsor for the soul of the +gymnast than of the dyspeptic. + +Of course, the demand of our nature is not always for continuous +exertion. One does not always seek that "rough exercise" which Sir John +Sinclair asserts to be "the darling idol of the English." There are +delicious languors, Neapolitan reposes, Creole siestas, "long days and +solid banks of flowers." But it is the birthright of the man of the +temperate zones to alternate these voluptuous delights with more heroic +ones, and sweeten the reverie by the toil. So far as they go, the +enjoyments of the healthy body are as innocent and as ardent as those of +the soul. As there is no ground of comparison, so there is no ground of +antagonism. How compare a sonata and a sea-bath or measure the Sistine +Madonna against a gallop across country? The best thanksgiving for each +is to enjoy the other also, and educate the mind to ampler nobleness. +After all, the best verdict on athletic exercises was that of the great +Sully, when he said, "I was always of the same opinion with Henry +IV. concerning them: he often asserted that they were the most solid +foundation, not only of discipline and other military virtues, but also +of those noble sentiments and that elevation of mind which give one +nature superiority over another." + +We are now ready, perhaps, to come to the question, How are these +athletic enjoyments to be obtained? The first and easiest answer is, By +taking a long walk every day. If people would actually do this, instead +of forever talking about doing it, the object might be gained. To be +sure, there are various defects in this form of exercise. It is not a +play, to begin with, and therefore does not withdraw the mind from its +daily cares; the anxious man recurs to his problems on the way; and each +mile, in that case, brings fresh weariness to brain as well as body. +Moreover, there are, according to Dr. Grau, "three distinct groups +of muscles which are almost totally neglected where walking alone is +resorted to, and which consequently exist only in a crippled state, +although they are of the utmost importance, and each stands in close +_rapport_ with a number of other functions of the greatest necessity to +health and life." These he afterwards classifies as the muscles of the +shoulders and chest, having a bearing on the lungs,--the abdominal +muscles, bearing on the corresponding organs,--and the spinal muscles, +which are closely connected with the whole nervous system. + +But the greatest practical difficulty is, that walking, being the least +concentrated form of exercise, requires a larger appropriation of +time than most persons are willing to give. Taken liberally, and in +connection with exercises which are more concentrated and have more play +about them, it is of great value, and, indeed, indispensable. But so +far as I have seen, instead of these other pursuits taking the place of +pedestrianism, they commonly create a taste for it; so that, when the +sweet spring-days come round, you will see our afternoon gymnastic class +begin to scatter literally to the four winds; or they look in for a +moment, on their way home from the woods, their hands filled and scented +with long wreaths of the trailing arbutus. + +But the gymnasium is the normal type of all muscular exercise,--the only +form of it which is impartial and comprehensive, which has something for +everybody, which is available at all seasons, through all weathers, +in all latitudes. All other provisions are limited: you cannot row +in winter nor skate in summer, spite of parlor-skates and ice-boats; +ball-playing requires comrades; riding takes money; everything needs +daylight: but the gymnasium is always accessible. Then it is the only +thing which trains the whole body. Military drill makes one prompt, +patient, erect, accurate, still, strong. Rowing takes one set of muscles +and stretches them through and through, till you feel yourself turning +into one long spiral spring from finger-tips to toes. In cricket or +base-ball, a player runs, strikes, watches, catches, throws, must learn +endurance also. Yet, no matter which of these may be your special hobby, +you must, if you wish to use all the days and all the muscles, seek the +gymnasium at last,--the only thorough panacea. + +The history of modern gymnastic exercises is easily written: it is +proper to say modern,--for, so far as apparatus goes, the ancient +gymnasiums seem to have had scarcely anything in common with our own. +The first institution on the modern plan was founded at Schnepfenthal, +near Gotha, in Germany, in 1785, by Salzmann, a clergyman and the +principal of a boys' school. After eight years of experience, his +assistant, Gutsmuths, wrote a book upon the subject, which was +translated into English, and published at London in 1799 and at +Philadelphia in 1800, under the name of "Salzmann's Gymnastics." No +similar institution seems to have existed in either country, however, +till those established by Voelckers, in London, in 1824, and by Dr. +Follen, at Cambridge, Mass., in 1826. Both were largely patronized +at first, and died out at last. The best account of Voelckers's +establishment will be found in Hone's "Every-Day Book"; its plan seems +to have been unexceptionable. But Dr. James Johnson, writing his +"Economy of Health" ten years after, declared that these German +exercises had proved "better adapted to the Spartan youth than to the +pallid sons of pampered cits, the dandies of the desk, and the squalid +tenants of attics and factories," and also adds the epitaph, "This +ultra-gymnastic enthusiast did much injury to an important branch of +hygiene by carrying it to excess, and consequently by causing its +desuetude." And Dr. Jarvis, in his "Practical Physiology," declares the +unquestionable result of the American experiment to have been "general +failure." + +Accordingly, the English, who are reputed kings in all physical +exercises, have undoubtedly been far surpassed by the Germans, and +even by the French, in gymnastics. The writer of the excellent little +"Handbook for Gymnastics," George Forrest, M.A., testifies strongly to +this deficiency. "It is curious that we English, who possess perhaps +the finest and strongest figures of all European nations, should leave +ourselves so undeveloped bodily. There is not one man in a hundred who +can even raise his toes to a level with his hands, when suspended by the +later members; and yet to do so is at the very beginning of gymnastic +exercises. We, as a rule, are strong in the arms and legs, but weak +across the loins and back, and are apparently devoid of that beautiful +set of muscles that run round the entire waist, and show to such +advantage in the ancient statues. Indeed, at a bathing-place, I can pick +out every gymnast merely by the development of those muscles." + +It is the Germans and the military portion of the French nation, +chiefly, who have developed gymnastic exercises to their present +elaboration, while the working out of their curative applications was +chiefly due to Ling, a Swede. In the German manuals, such, for instance, +as Eiselen's "Turnübungen," are to be found nearly all the stock +exercises of our institutions. Until within a few years, American skill +has added nothing to these, except through the medium of the circus; but +the present revival of athletic exercises is rapidly placing American +gymnasts in advance of the _Turners_, both in the feats performed and +in the style of doing them. Never yet have I succeeded in seeing a +thoroughly light and graceful German gymnast, while again and again I +have seen Americans who carried into their severest exercise such +an airy, floating elegance of motion, that all the beauty of Greek +sculpture appeared to return again, and it seemed as if plastic art +might once more make its studio in the gymnasium. + +The apparatus is not costly. Any handful of young men in the smallest +country-village, with a very few dollars and a little mechanical skill, +can put up in any old shed or shoe-shop a few simple articles of +machinery, which will, through many a winter evening, vary the monotony +of the cigar and the grocery-bench by an endless variety of manly +competitions. Fifteen cents will bring by mail from the publishers of +the "Atlantic" Forrest's little sixpenny "Handbook," which gives a +sufficient number of exercises to form an introduction to all others; +and a gymnasium is thus easily established. This is just the method of +the simple and sensible Germans, who never wait for elegant upholstery. +A pair of plain parallel bars, a movable vaulting-bar, a wooden horse, +a spring-board, an old mattress to break the fall, a few settees where +sweethearts and wives may sit with their knitting as spectators, and +there is a _Turnhalle_ complete,--to be henceforward filled, two or +three nights in every week, with cheery German faces, jokes, laughs, +gutturals, and gambols. + +But this suggests that you are being kept too long in the anteroom. Let +me act as cicerone through this modest gymnastic hall of ours. You will +better appreciate all this oddly shaped apparatus, if I tell you in +advance, as a connoisseur does in his picture-gallery, precisely what +you are expected to think of each particular article. + +You will notice, however, that a part of the gymnastic class are +exercising without apparatus, in a series of rather grotesque movements +which supple and prepare the body for more muscular feats: these are +calisthenic exercises. Such are being at last introduced, thanks to Dr. +Lewis and others, into our common schools. At the word of command, as +swiftly as a conjuror twists his puzzle-paper, these living forms are +shifted from one odd resemblance to another, at which it is quite lawful +to laugh, especially if those laugh who win. A series of windmills,--a +group of inflated balloons,--a flock of geese all asleep on one leg,--a +circle of ballet-dancers, just poised to begin,--a band of patriots +just kneeling to take an oath upon their country's altar,--a senate of +tailors,--a file of soldiers,--a whole parish of Shaker worshippers,--a +Japanese embassy performing _Ko-tow_: these all in turn come like +shadows,--so depart. This complicated attitudinizing forms the +preliminary to the gymnastic hour. But now come and look at some of the +apparatus. + +Here is a row of Indian clubs, or sceptres, as they are sometimes +called,--tapering down from giants of fifteen pounds to dwarfs of four. +Help yourself to a pair of dwarfs, at first; grasp one in each hand, +by the handle; swing one of them round your head quietly, dropping the +point behind as far as possible,--then the other,--and so swing them +alternately some twenty times. Now do the same back-handed, bending the +wrist outward, and carrying the club behind the head first. Now +swing them both together, crossing them in front, and then the same +back-handed; then the same without crossing, and this again backward, +which you will find much harder. Place them on the ground gently after +each set of processes. Now can you hold them out horizontally at arm's +length, forward and then sideways? Your arms quiver and quiver, and down +come the clubs thumping at last. Take them presently in a different and +more difficult manner, holding each club with the point erect instead of +hanging down; it tries your wrists, you will find, to manipulate them +so, yet all the most graceful exercises have this for a basis. Soon you +will gain the mastery of heavier implements than you begin with, and +will understand how yonder slight youth has learned to handle his two +heavy clubs in complex curves that seem to you inexplicable, tracing +in the air a device as swift and tangled as that woven by a swarm of +gossamer flies above a brook, in the sultry stillness of the summer +noon. + +This row of masses of iron, laid regularly in order of size, so as to +resemble something between a musical instrument and a gridiron, consists +of dumb-bells weighing from four pounds to a hundred. These playthings, +suited to a variety of capacities, have experienced a revival of favor +within a few years, and the range of exercises with them has been +greatly increased. The use of very heavy ones is, so far as I can find, +a peculiarly American hobby, though not originating with Dr. Windship. +Even he, at the beginning of his exhibitions, used those weighing only +ninety-eight pounds; and it was considered an astonishing feat, when, +a little earlier, Mr. Richard Montgomery used to "put up" a dumb-bell +weighing one hundred and one pounds. A good many persons, in different +parts of the country, now handle one hundred and twenty-five, and Dr. +Windship has got much farther on. There is, of course, a knack in +using these little articles, as in every other feat, yet it takes good +extensor muscles to get beyond the fifties. The easiest way of elevating +the weight is to swing it up from between the knees; or it may be thrown +up from the shoulder, with a simultaneous jerk of the whole body; but +the only way of doing it handsomely is to put it up from the shoulder +with the arm alone, without bending the knee, though you may bend the +body as much as you please. Dr. Windship now puts up one hundred and +forty-one pounds in this manner, and by the aid of a jerk can elevate +one hundred and eighty with one arm. This particular movement with +dumb-bells is most practised, as affording a test of strength; but there +are many other ways of using them, all exceedingly invigorating, and all +safe enough, unless the weight employed be too great, which it is very +apt to be. Indeed, there is so much danger of this, that at Cambridge it +has been deemed best to exclude all beyond seventy pounds. Nevertheless, +the dumb-bell remains the one available form of home or office exercise: +it is a whole athletic apparatus packed up in the smallest space; it is +gymnastic pemmican. With one fifty-pound dumb-bell, or a pair of half +that size--or more or less, according to his strength and habits,--a +man may exercise nearly every muscle in his body in half an hour, if he +has sufficient ingenuity in positions. If it were one's fortune to be +sent to prison,--and the access to such retirement is growing more and +more facile in many regions of our common country,--one would certainly +wish to carry a dumb-bell with him, precisely as Dr. Johnson carried an +arithmetic in his pocket on his tour to the Hebrides, as containing the +greatest amount of nutriment in the compactest form. + +Apparatus for lifting is not yet introduced into most gymnasiums, in +spite of the recommendations of the Roxbury Hercules: beside the fear +of straining, there is the cumbrous weight and cost of iron apparatus, +while, for some reason or other, no cheap and accurate dynamometer has +yet come into the market. Running and jumping, also, have as yet been +too much neglected in our institutions, or practised spasmodically +rather than systematically. It is singular how little pains have been +taken to ascertain definitely what a man can do with his body,--far +less, as Quetelet has observed, than in regard to any animal which man +has tamed, or any machine which he has invented. It is stated, for +instance, in Walker's "Manly Exercises," that six feet is the maximum +of a high leap, with a run,--and certainly one never finds in the +newspapers a record of anything higher; yet it is the English tradition, +that Ireland, of Yorkshire, could clear a string raised fourteen feet, +and that he once kicked a bladder at sixteen. No spring-board would +explain a difference so astounding. In the same way, Walker fixes the +limit of a long leap without a run at fourteen feet, and with a run at +twenty-two,--both being large estimates; and Thackeray makes his young +Virginian jump twenty-one feet and three inches, crediting George +Washington with a foot more. Yet the ancient epitaph of Phayllus the +Crotonian claimed for him nothing less than fifty-five feet, on an +inclined plane. Certainly the story must have taken a leap also. + +These ladders, aspiring indefinitely into the air, like Piranesi's +stairways, are called technically peak-ladders; and dear banished +T.S.K., who always was puzzled to know why Mount Washington kept up such +a pique against the sky, would have found his joke fit these ladders +with great precision, so frequent the disappointment they create. But +try them, and see what trivial appendages one's legs may become,--since +the feet are not intended to touch these polished rounds. Walk up +backward on the under side, hand over hand, then forward; then go up +again, omitting every other round; then aspire to the third round, if +you will. Next grasp a round with both hands, give a slight swing of +the body, let go, and grasp the round above, and so on upward; then the +same, omitting one round, or more, if you can, and come down in the +same way. Can you walk up on _one_ hand? It is not an easy thing, but a +first-class gymnast will do it,--and Dr. Windship does it, taking only +every third round. Fancy a one-armed and legless hodman ascending the +under side of a ladder to the roof, and reflect on the conveniences of +gymnastic habits. + +Here is a wooden horse; on this noble animal the Germans say that not +less than three hundred distinct feats can be performed. Bring yonder +spring-board, and we will try a few. Grasp these low pommels and vault +over the horse, first to the right, then again to the left; then with +one hand each way. Now spring to the top and stand; now spring between +the hands forward, now backward; now take a good impetus, spread your +feet far apart, and leap over it, letting go the hands. Grasp the +pommels again and throw a somerset over it,--coming down on your feet, +if the Fates permit. Now vault up and sit upon the horse, at one end, +knees the same side; now grasp the pommels and whirl yourself round +till you sit at the other end, facing the other way. Now spring up and +bestride it, whirl round till you bestride it the other way, at the +other end; do it once again, and, letting go your hand, seat yourself in +the saddle. Now push away the spring-board and repeat every feat without +its aid. Next, take a run and spring upon the end of the horse astride; +then walk over, supporting yourself on your hands alone, the legs not +touching; then backward, the same. It will be hard to balance yourself +at first, and you will careen uneasily one way or the other; no matter, +you will get over it somehow. Lastly, mount once more, kneel in the +saddle, and leap to the ground. It appears at first ridiculously +impracticable, the knees seem glued to their position, and it looks +as if one would fall inevitably on his face; but falling is hardly +possible. Any novice can do it, if he will only have faith. You shall +learn to do it from the horizontal bar presently, where it looks much +more formidable. + +But first you must learn some simpler exercises on this horizontal bar: +you observe that it is made movable, and may be placed as low as your +knee, or higher than your hand can reach. This bar is only five inches +in circumference; but it is remarkably strong and springy, and therefore +we hope secure, though for some exercises our boys prefer to substitute +a larger one. Try and vault it, first to the right, then to the left, as +you did with the horse; try first with one hand, then see how high +you can vault with both. Now vault it between your hands, forward and +backward: the latter will baffle you, unless you have brought an unusual +stock of India-rubber in your frame, to begin with. Raise it higher +and higher, till you can vault it no longer. Now spring up on the bar, +resting on your palms, and vault over from that position with a swing of +your body, without touching the ground; when you have once managed this, +you can vault as high as you can reach: double-vaulting this is called. +Now put the bar higher than your head; grasp it with your hands, and +draw yourself up till you look over it; repeat this a good many times: +capital practice this, as is usually said of things particularly +tiresome. Take hold of the bar again, and with a good spring from the +ground try to curl your body over it, feet foremost. At first, in all +probability, your legs will go angling in the air convulsively, and come +down with nothing caught; but ere long we shall see you dispense with +the spring from the ground and go whirling over and over, as if the bar +were the axle of a wheel and your legs the spokes. Now spring upon the +bar, supporting yourself on your palms, as before; put your hands a +little farther apart, with the thumbs forward, then suddenly bring up +your knees on the bar and let your whole body go over forward: you will +not fall, if your hands have a good grasp. Try it again with your feet +outside your hands, instead of between them; then once again flinging +your body off from the bar and describing a long curve with it, arms +stiff: this is called the Giant's Swing. Now hang to the bar by the +knees,--by both knees; do not try it yet with one; then seize the bar +with your hands and thrust the legs still farther and farther forward, +pulling with your arms at the same time, till you find yourself sitting +unaccountably on the bar itself. This our boys cheerfully denominate +"skinning the cat," because the sensations it suggests, on a first +experiment, are supposed to resemble those of pussy with her skin drawn +over her head; but, after a few experiments, it seems like stroking the +fur in the right direction, and grows rather pleasant. + +Try now the parallel bars, the most invigorating apparatus of the +gymnasium, and in its beginnings "accessible to the meanest capacity," +since there are scarcely any who cannot support themselves by the hands +on the bars, and not very many who cannot walk a few steps upon the +palms, at the first trial. Soon you will learn to swing along these bars +in long surges of motion, forward and backward; to go through them, in +a series of springs from the hand only, without a jerk of the knees; to +turn round and round between them, going forward or backward all the +while; to vault over them and under them in complicated ways; to turn +somersets in them and across them; to roll over and over on them as +a porpoise seems to roll in the sea. Then come the "low-standing" +exercises, the grasshopper style of business; supporting yourself now +with arms not straight, but bent at the elbow, you shall learn to raise +and lower your body and to hold or swing yourself as lightly in that +position as if you had not felt pinioned and paralyzed hopelessly at the +first trial; and whole new systems of muscles shall seem to shoot out +from your shoulder-blades to enable you to do what you could not have +dreamed of doing before. These bars are magical,--they are conduits of +power; you cannot touch them, you cannot rest your weight on them in the +slightest degree, without causing strength to flow into your body as +naturally and irresistibly as water into the aqueduct-pipe when you turn +it on. Do you but give the opportunity, and every pulsation of blood +from your heart is pledged for the rest. + +These exercises, and such as these, are among the elementary lessons of +gymnastic training. Practise these thoroughly and patiently, and you +will in time attain evolutions more complicated, and, if you wish, more +perilous. Neglect these, to grasp at random after everything which you +see others doing, and you will fail like a bookkeeper who is weak in +the multiplication-table. The older you begin, the more gradual the +preparation must be. A respectable middle-aged citizen, bent on +improving his _physique_, goes into a gymnasium, and sees slight, +smooth-faced boys going gayly through a series of exercises which show +their bodies to be a triumph, not a drag, and he is assured that the +same might be the case with him. Off goes the coat of our enthusiast and +in he plunges; he gripes a heavy dumb-bell and strains one shoulder, +hauls at a weight-box and strains the other, vaults the bar and bruises +his knee, swings in the rings once or twice till his hand slips and he +falls to the floor. No matter, he thinks the cause demands sacrifices; +but he subsides, for the next fifteen minutes, into more moderate +exercises, which he still makes immoderate by his awkward way of doing +them. Nevertheless, he goes home, cheerful under difficulties, and will +try again to-morrow. To-morrow finds him stiff, lame, and wretched; he +cannot lift his arm to his face to shave, nor lower it sufficiently to +pull his boots on; his little daughter must help him with his shoes, +and the indignant wife of his bosom must put on his hat, with that +ineffectual one-sidedness to which alone the best-regulated female mind +can attain, in this difficult part of costuming. His sorrows increase +as the day passes; the gymnasium alone can relieve them, but his soul +shudders at the remedy; and he can conceive of nothing so absurd as a +first gymnastic lesson, except a second one. But had he been wise enough +to place himself under an experienced adviser at the very beginning, he +would have been put through a few simple movements which would have sent +him home glowing and refreshed and fancying himself half-way back to +boyhood again; the slight ache and weariness of next day would have +been cured by next day's exercise; and after six months' patience, by a +progress almost imperceptible, he would have found himself, in respect +to strength and activity, a transformed man. + +Most of these discomforts, of course, are spared to boys; their frames +are more elastic and less liable to ache and strain. They learn +gymnastics, as they learn everything else, more readily than their +elders. Begin with a boy early enough, and if he be of a suitable +temperament, he can learn in the gymnasium all the feats usually seen in +the circus-ring, and could even acquire more difficult ones, if it were +worth his while to try them. This is true even of the air-somersets and +hand-springs which are not so commonly cultivated by gymnasts; but it is +especially true of all exercises with apparatus. It is astonishing how +readily our classes pick up any novelty brought into town by a strolling +company,--holding the body out horizontally from an upright pole, or +hanging by the back of the head, or touching the head to the heels, +though this last is oftener tried than accomplished. They may be seen +practising these antics, at all spare moments, for weeks, until some +later hobby drives them away. From Blondin downwards, the public feats +derive a large part of their wonder from the imposing height in the air +at which they are done. Many a young man who can swing himself more +than his own length on the horizontal ladder at the gymnasium has yet +shuddered at _l'échelle périlleuse_ of the Hanlons; and I noticed that +even the simplest of their performances, such as holding by one hand, or +hanging by the knees, seemed perfectly terrific when done at a height +of twenty or thirty feet in the air, even to those who had done them a +hundred times at a lower level. It was the nerve that was astounding, +not the strength or skill; but the eye found it hard to draw the +distinction. So when a gymnastic friend of mine, crossing the +ocean lately, amused himself with hanging by one leg to the +mizzen-topmast-stay, the boldest sailors shuddered, though the feat +itself was nothing, save to the imagination. + +Indeed, it is almost impossible for an inexperienced spectator to form +the slightest opinion as to the comparative difficulty or danger of +different exercises, since it is the test of merit to make the hardest +things look easy. Moreover, there may be a distinction between two +feats almost imperceptible to the eye,--a change, for instance, in the +position of the hands on a bar,--which may at once transform the thing +from a trifle to a wonder. An unpractised eye can no more appreciate +the difficulty of a gymnastic exercise by seeing it executed, than an +inexperienced ear, of the perplexities of a piece of music by hearing it +played. + +The first effect of gymnastic exercise is almost always to increase the +size of the arms and the chest; and new-comers may commonly be known by +their frequent recourse to the tape-measure. The average increase among +the students of Harvard University during the first three months of the +gymnasium was nearly two inches in the chest, more than one inch in the +upper arm, and more than half an inch in the fore-arm. This was far +beyond what the unassisted growth of their age would account for; and +the increase is always very marked for a time, especially with thin +persons. In those of fuller habit the loss of flesh may counterbalance +the gain in muscle, so that size and weight remain the same; and in all +cases the increase stops after a time, and the subsequent change is +rather in texture than in volume. Mere size is no index of strength: Dr. +Windship is scarcely larger or heavier now than when he had not half his +present powers. + +In the vigor gained by exercise there is nothing false or morbid; it +is as reliable as hereditary strength, except that it is more easily +relaxed by indolent habits. No doubt it is aggravating to see some +robust, lazy giant come into the gymnasium for the first time, and by +hereditary muscle shoulder a dumb-bell which all your training has +not taught you to handle. No matter; it is by comparing yourself with +yourself that the estimate is to be made. As the writing-master exhibits +with triumph to each departing pupil the uncouth copy which he wrote +on entering, so it will be enough to you, if you can appreciate your +present powers with your original inabilities. When you first joined the +gymnastic class, you could not climb yonder smooth mast, even with all +your limbs brought into service; now you can do it with your hands +alone. When you came, you could not possibly, when hanging by your hands +to the horizontal bar, raise your feet as high as your head,--nor could +you, with any amount of spring from the ground, curl your body over the +bar itself; now you can hang at arm's length and fling yourself over it +a dozen times in succession. At first, if you lowered yourself with bent +elbows between the parallel bars, you could not by any manoeuvre get up +again, but sank to the ground a hopeless wreck; now you can raise and +lower yourself an indefinite number of times. As for the weights and +clubs and dumb-bells, you feel as if there must be some jugglery about +them,--they have grown so much lighter than they used to be. It is you +who have gained a double set of muscles to every limb; that is all. +Strike out from the shoulder with your clenched hand; once your arm was +loose-jointed and shaky; now it is firm and tense, and begins to feel +like a natural arm. Moreover, strength and suppleness have grown +together; you have not stiffened by becoming stronger, but find yourself +more flexible. When you first came here, you could not touch your +fingers to the ground without bending the knees, and now you can place +your knuckles on the floor; then you could scarcely bend yourself +backward, and now you can lay the back of your head in a chair, or walk, +without crouching forward, under a bar less than three feet from +the ground. You have found, indeed, that almost every feat is done +originally by sheer strength, and then by agility, requiring very little +expenditure of force after the precise motion is hit upon; at first +labor, puffing, and a red face,--afterwards ease and the graces. + +To a person who begins after the age of thirty or thereabouts, the +increase of strength and suppleness, of course, comes more slowly; yet +it comes as surely, and perhaps it is a more permanent acquisition, less +easily lost again, than in the softer frame of early youth. There is no +doubt that men of sixty have experienced a decided gain in strength and +health by beginning gymnastic exercises even at that age, as Socrates +learned to dance at seventy; and if they have practised similar +exercises all their lives, so much is added to their chance of +preserving physical youthfulness to the last. Jerome and Gabriel Ravel +are reported to have spent near three-score years on the planet which +their winged feet have so lightly trod; and who will dare to say how +many winters have passed over the head of the still young and graceful +Papanti? + +Dr. Windship's most important experience is, that strength is to a +certain extent identical with health, so that every increase in muscular +development is an actual protection against disease. Americans, who are +ashamed to confess to doing the most innocent thing for the sake of mere +enjoyment, must be cajoled into every form of exercise under the plea of +health. Joining, the other day, in a children's dance, I was amused by a +solemn parent who turned to me, in the midst of a Virginia reel, still +conscientious, though breathless, and asked if I did not consider +dancing to be, on the whole, a _healthy_ exercise? Well, the gymnasium +is healthy; but the less you dwell on that fact, the better, after you +have once entered it. If it does you good, you will enjoy it; and if +you enjoy it, it will do you good. With body, as with soul, the highest +experience merges duty in pleasure. The better one's condition is, the +less one has to think about growing better, and the more unconsciously +one's natural instincts guide the right way. + +When ill, we eat to support life; when well, we eat because the food +tastes good. It is a merit of the gymnasium, that, when properly taken, +it makes one forget to think about health or anything else that is +troublesome; "a man remembereth neither sorrow nor debt"; cares must be +left outside, be they physical or metaphysical, like canes at the door +of a museum. + +No doubt, to some it grows tedious. It shares this objection with all +means of exercise. To be an American is to hunger for novelty; and all +instruments and appliances, especially, require constant modification: +we are dissatisfied with last winter's skates, with the old boat, and +with the family pony. So the zealot finds the gymnasium insufficient +long before he has learned half the moves. To some temperaments it +becomes a treadmill, and that, strangely enough, to diametrically +opposite temperaments. A lethargic youth, requiring great effort to keep +himself awake between the exercises, thinks the gymnasium slow, because +he is; while an eager, impetuous young fellow, exasperated because +he cannot in a fortnight draw himself up by one hand, finds the same +trouble there as elsewhere, that the laws of Nature are not fast enough +for his inclinations. No one without energy, no one without patience, +can find permanent interest in a gymnasium; but with these qualities, +and a modest willingness to live and learn, I do not see why one should +ever grow tired of the moderate use of its apparatus. For one, I really +never enter it without exhilaration, or leave it without a momentary +regret: there are always certain special new things on the docket for +trial; and when those are settled, there will be something more. It is +amazing what a variety of interest can be extracted from those few bits +of wood and rope and iron. There is always somebody in advance, some +"man on horseback" on a wooden horse, some India-rubber hero, some +slight and powerful fellow who does with ease what you fail to do with +toil, some terrible Dr. Windship with an ever-waxing dumb-bell. The +interest becomes semi-professional. A good gymnast enjoys going into +a new and well-appointed establishment, precisely as a sailor enjoys +a well-rigged ship; every rope and spar is scanned with intelligent +interest; "we know the forest round us as seamen know the sea." The +pupils talk gymnasium as some men talk horse. A particularly smooth +and flexible horizontal pole, a desirable pair of parallel bars, a +remarkably elastic spring-board,--these are matters of personal pride, +and described from city to city with loving enthusiasm. The gymnastic +apostle rises to eloquence in proportion to the height of the +handswings, and points his climax to match the peak-ladders. + +An objection frequently made to the gymnasium, and especially by anxious +parents, is the supposed danger of accident. But this peril is obviously +inseparable from all physical activity. If a man never leaves his house, +the chances undoubtedly are, that he will never break his leg, unless +upon the stairway; but if he is always to stay in the house, he might +as well have no legs at all. Certainly we incur danger every time we go +outside the front-door; but to remain always on the inside would prove +the greatest danger of the whole. When a man slips in the street and +dislocates his arm, we do not warn him against walking, but against +carelessness. When a man is thrown from his horse and gratifies the +surgeons by a beautiful case of compound fracture, we do not advise him +to avoid a riding-school, but to go to one. Trivial accidents are not +uncommon in the gymnasium, severe ones are rare, fatal ones almost +unheard-of,--which is far more than can be said of riding, driving, +hunting, boating, skating, or even "coasting" on a sled. Learning +gymnastics is like learning to swim,--you incur a small temporary risk +for the sake of acquiring powers that will lessen your risks in the end. +Your increased strength and agility will carry you past many unseen +perils hereafter, and the invigorated tone of your system will make +accidents less important, if they happen. Some trifling sprain causes +lameness for life, some slight blow brings on wasting disease, to +a person whose health is merely negative, not positive,--while a +well-trained frame throws it off in twenty-four hours. It is almost +proverbial of the gymnasium, that it cures its own wounds. + +A minor objection is, that these exercises are not performed in the +open air. In summer, however, they may be, and in winter and in stormy +weather it is better that they should not be. Extreme cold is not +favorable to them; it braces, but stiffens; and the bars and ropes +become slippery and even dangerous. In Germany it is common to have a +double set of apparatus, out-doors and in-doors; and this would always +be desirable, but for the increased expense. Moreover, the gymnasium +should be taken in addition to out-door exercise, giving, for instance, +an hour a day to each, one for training, the other for oxygen. I know +promising gymnasts whose pallid complexions show that their blood is not +worthy of their muscle, and they will break down. But these cases are +rare, for the reason already hinted,--that nothing gives so good an +appetite for out-door life as this indoor activity. It alternates +admirably with skating, and seduces irresistibly into walking or rowing +when spring arrives. + +My young friend Silverspoon, indeed, thinks that a good trot on a fast +horse is worth all the gymnastics in the world. But I learn, on inquiry, +that my young friend's mother is constantly imploring him to ride in +order to air her horses. It is a beautiful parental trait; but for those +born horseless, what an economical substitute is the wooden quadruped of +the gymnasium! Our Autocrat has well said, that the livery-stable horse +is "a profligate animal"; and I do not wonder that the Centaurs of old +should be suspected of having originated spurious coin. Undoubtedly it +was to pay for the hire of their own hoofs. + +For young men in cities, too, the facilities for exercise are limited +not only by money, but by time. They must commonly take it after dark. +It is every way a blessing, when the gymnasium divides their evenings +with the concert, the book, or the public meeting. Then there is no +time left, and small temptation, for pleasures less pure. It gives an +innocent answer to that first demand for evening excitement which perils +the soul of the homeless boy in the seductive city. The companions whom +he meets at the gymnasium are not the ones whose pursuits of later +nocturnal hours entice him to sin. The honest fatigue of his exercises +calls for honest rest. It is the nervous exhaustion of a sedentary, +frivolous, or joyless life which madly tries to restore itself by the +other nervous exhaustion of debauchery. It is an old prescription,-- + + "Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit, + _Abstinuit venere et vino_." + +There is another class of critics whose cant is simply can't, and who, +being unable or unwilling to surrender themselves to these simple +sources of enjoyment, are grandiloquent upon the dignity of manhood, +and the absurdity of full-grown men in playing monkey-tricks with their +bodies. Full-grown men? There is not a person in the world who can +afford to be a "full-grown man" through all the twenty-four hours. There +is not one who does not need, more than he needs his dinner, to have +habitually one hour in the day when he throws himself with boyish +eagerness into interests as simple as those of boys. No church or state, +no science or art, can feed us all the time; some morsels there must be +of simpler diet, some moments of unadulterated play. But dignity? Alas +for that poor soul whose dignity must be "preserved,"--preserved in +the right culinary sense, as fruits which are growing dubious in their +natural state are sealed up in jars to make their acidity presentable! +"There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned," and degradation in +the dignity that has to be preserved. Simplicity is the only dignity. If +one has not the genuine article, no affluence of starch, no snow-drift +of white-linen decency, will furnish any substitute. If one has it, he +will retain it, whether he stand on his head or his heels. Nothing +is really undignified but affectation or conceit; and for the total +extinction and annihilation of every vestige of these, there are few +things so effectual as athletic exercises. + +Still another objection is that of the medical men, that the gymnasium, +as commonly used, is not a specific prescription for the special disease +of the patient. But setting aside the claims of the system of applied +gymnastics, which Ling and his followers have so elaborated, it is +enough to answer, that the one great fundamental disorder of all +Americans is simply nervous exhaustion, and that for this the gymnasium +can never be misdirected, though it may be used to excess. Of course one +can no more cure over-work of brain by over-work of body than one +can restore a wasted candle by lighting it at the other end. But by +subtracting an hour a day from the present amount of purely intellectual +fatigue, and inserting that quantum of bodily fatigue in its place, you +begin an immediate change in your conditions of life. Moreover, the +great object is not merely to get well, but to keep well. The exhaustion +of over-work can almost always be cured by a water-cure, or by a voyage, +which is a salt-water cure; but the problem is, how to make the whole +voyage of life perpetually self-curative. Without this, there is +perpetual dissatisfaction and chronic failure. Emerson well says, "Each +class fixes its eye on the advantages it has not,--the refined on rude +strength, the democrat on birth and breeding." This is the aim of the +gymnasium, to give to the refined this rude strength, or its better +substitute, refined strength. It is something to secure to the student +or the clerk the strong muscles, hearty appetite, and sound sleep of the +sailor and the ploughman,--to enable him, if need be, to out-row the +fisherman, and out-run the mountaineer, and lift more than his porter, +and to remember head-ache and dyspepsia only as he recalls the primeval +whooping-cough of his childhood. I am one of those who think that the +Autocrat rides his hobby of the pavements a little too far; but it is +useless to deny, that, within the last few years of gymnasiums and +boat-clubs, the city has been gaining on the country, in physical +development. Here in our town we had all the city- and college-boys +assembled in July to see the regattas, and all the country-boys in +September to see the thousand-dollar base-ball match; and it was +impossible to deny, whatever one's theories, that the physical +superiority lay for the time being with the former. + +The secret is, that, though the country offers to farmers more oxygen +than to anybody in the city, yet not all dwellers in the country are +farmers, and even those who are such are suffering from other causes, +being usually the very last to receive those lessons of food and +clothing and bathing and ventilation which have their origin in cities. +Physical training is not a mechanical, but a vital process: no bricks +without straw; no good _physique_ without good materials and conditions. +The farmer knows, that, to rear a premium colt or calf, he must oversee +every morsel that it eats, every motion it makes, every breath it +draws,--must guard against over-work and under-work, cold and heat, wet +and dry. He remembers it for the quadrupeds, but he forgets it for his +children, his wife, and himself: so his cattle deserve a premium, and +his family does not. + +Neglect is the danger of the country; the peril of the city is in living +too fast. All mental excitement acts as a stimulant, and, like all +stimulants, debilitates when taken in excess. This explains the +unnatural strength and agility of the insane, always followed by +prostration; and even moderate cerebral excitement produces similar +results, so far as it goes. Quetelet discovered that sometimes after +lecturing, or other special intellectual action, he could perform +gymnastic feats impossible to him at other times. The fact is +unquestionable; and it is also certain that an extreme in this direction +has precisely the contrary effect, and is fatal to the physical +condition. One may spring up from a task of moderate mental labor with a +sense of freedom like a bow let loose; but after an immoderate task +one feels like the same bow too long bent, flaccid, nerveless, all the +elasticity gone. Such fatigue is far more overwhelming than any mere +physical exhaustion. I have lounged into the gymnasium, after an +afternoon's skating, supposing myself quite tired, and have found myself +in excellent condition; and I have gone in after an hour or two of some +specially concentrated anxiety or thought, without being aware that +the body was at all fatigued, and found it good for nothing. Such +experiences are invaluable; all the libraries cannot so illustrate the +supremacy of immaterial forces. Thought, passion, purpose, expectation, +absorbed attention even, all feed upon the body's powers; let them +act one atom too intensely or one moment too long, and this wondrous +physical organization finds itself drained of its forces to support +them. It does not seem strange that strong men should have died by a +single ecstasy of emotion too convulsive, when we bear within us this +tremendous engine whose slightest pulsation so throbs in every fibre of +our frame. + +The relation between mental culture and physical powers is a subject of +the greatest interest, as yet but little touched, because so few of our +physiologists have been practical gymnasts. Nothing is more striking +than the tendency of all athletic exercises, when brought to perfection, +to eliminate mere brute bulk from the competition, and give the palm +to more subtile qualities, agility, quickness, a good eye, a ready +hand,--in short, superior fineness of organization. Any clown can learn +the military manual exercise; but it needs brain-power to drill with +the Zouaves. Even a prize-fight tests strength less than activity and +"science." The game of base-ball, as played in our boyhood, was a +simple, robust, straightforward contest, where the hardest hitter +was the best man; but it is every year becoming perfected into a +sleight-of-hand, like cricket; mere strength is now almost valueless +in playing it, and it calls rather for the qualities of the +billiard-player. In the last champion-match at Worcester, nearly the +whole time was consumed in skilful feints and parryings, and it took +five days to make fifty runs. And these same characteristics mark +gymnastic exercises above all; men of great natural strength are very +apt to be too slow and clumsy for them, and the most difficult feats +are usually done by persons of comparatively delicate _physique_ and a +certain artistic organization. It is this predominance of the nervous +temperament which is yet destined to make American gymnasts the foremost +in the world. + +Indeed, the gymnasium is as good a place for the study of human nature +as any. The perpetual analogy of mind and body can be appreciated only +where both are trained with equal system. In both departments the great +prizes are not won by the most astounding special powers, but by a +certain harmonious adaptation. There is a physical tact, as there is +a mental tact. Every process is accomplished by using just the right +stress at just the right moment; but no two persons are alike in the +length of time required for these little discoveries. Gymnastic genius +lies in gaining at the first trial what will cost weeks of perseverance +to those less happily gifted. And as the close elastic costume which is +worn by the gymnast, or should be worn, allows no merit or defect of +figure to be concealed, so the close contact of emulation exhibits all +the varieties of temperament. One is made indolent by success, and +another is made ardent; one is discouraged by failure, and another +aroused by it; one does everything best the first time and slackens ever +after, while another always begins at the bottom and always climbs to +the top. + +One of the most enjoyable things in these mimic emulations is this +absolute genuineness in their gradations of success. In the great world +outside, there is no immediate and absolute test for merit. There are +cliques and puffings and jealousies, quarrels of authors, tricks of +trade, caucusing in politics, hypocrisy among the deacons. We distrust +the value of others' successes, they distrust ours, and we all sometimes +distrust our own. There are those who believe in Shakspeare, and those +who believe in Tupper. All merit is measured by sliding scales, and each +has his own theory of the sliding. In a dozen centuries it will all come +right, no doubt. In the mean time there is vanity in one half the world +and vexation of spirit in the other half, and each man joins each half +in turn. But once enter the charmed gate of the gymnasium, and you leave +shams behind. Though you be saint or sage, no matter, the inexorable +laws of gravitation are around you. If you flinch, you fail; if you +slip, you fall. That bar, that rope, that weight shall test you +absolutely. Can you handle it, it is well; but if not, stand aside for +him who can. You may have every other gift and grace, it counts for +nothing; he, not you, is the man for the hour. The code of Spanish +aristocracy is slight and flexible compared with this rigid precedence. +It is Emerson's Astraea. Each registers himself, and there is no appeal. +No use to kick and struggle, no use to apologize. Do not say that +to-night you are tired, last night you felt ill. These excuses may serve +for a day, but no longer. A slight margin is allowed for moods and +variations, but it is not great after all. One revels in this Palace +of Truth. Defeat itself is a satisfaction, before a tribunal of such +absolute justice. + +This contributes to that healthful ardor with which, in these exercises, +a man forgets the things which are behind and presses forward to fresh +achievements. This perpetually saves from vanity; for everything seems +a trifle, when you have once attained to it. The aim which yesterday +filled your whole gymnastic horizon you overtake and pass as a boat +passes a buoy: until passed, it was a goal; when passed, a mere speck in +the horizon. Yesterday you could swing yourself three rounds upon the +horizontal ladder; to-day, after weeks of effort, you have suddenly +attained to the fourth, and instantly all that long laborious effort +vanishes, to be formed again between you and the fifth round: five, five +is the only goal for heroic labor to-day; and when five is attained, +there will be six, and so on while the Arabic numerals hold out. A +childish aim, no doubt; but is not this what we all recognize as the +privilege of childhood, to obtain exaggerated enjoyment from little +things? When you have come to the really difficult feats of the +gymnasium,--when you have conquered the "barber's curl" and the +"peg-pole,"--when you can draw yourself up by one arm, and perform the +"giant's swing" over and over, without changing hands, and vault the +horizontal bar as high as you can reach it,--when you can vault across +the high parallel bars between your hands backward, or walk through them +on your palms with your feet in the vicinity of the ceiling,--then you +will reap the reward of your past labors, and may begin to call yourself +a gymnast. + +It is pleasant to think, that, so great is the variety of exercises in +the gymnasium, even physical deficiencies and deformities do not wholly +exclude from its benefits. I have seen an invalid girl, so lame from +childhood that she could not stand without support, whose general health +had been restored, and her bust and arms made a study for a sculptor, by +means of gymnastics. Nay, there are odd compensations of Nature by which +even exceptional formations may turn to account in athletic exercises. A +squinting eye is a treasure to a boxer, a left-handed batter is a prize +in a cricketing eleven, and one of the best gymnasts in Chicago is an +individual with a wooden leg, which he takes off at the commencement +of affairs, thus economizing weight and stowage, and performing +achievements impossible except to unipeds. + +In the enthusiasm created by this emulation, there is necessarily some +danger of excess. Dr. Windship approves of exercising only every other +day in the gymnasium; but as most persons take their work in a more +diluted form than his, they can afford to repeat it daily, unless warned +by headache or languor that they are exceeding their allowance. There +is no good in excess; our constitutions cannot be hurried. The law is +universal, that exercise strengthens as long as nutrition balances it, +but afterwards wastes the very forces it should increase. We cannot make +bricks faster than Nature supplies us with straw. + +It is one good evidence of the increasing interest in these exercises, +that the American gymnasiums built during the past year or two have far +surpassed all their predecessors in size and completeness, and have +probably no superiors in the world. The Seventh Regiment Gymnasium in +New York, just opened by Mr. Abner S. Brady, is one hundred and eighty +feet by fifty-two, in its main hall, and thirty-five feet in height, +with nearly a thousand pupils. The beautiful hall of the Metropolitan +Gymnasium, in Chicago, measures one hundred and eight feet by eighty, +and is twenty feet high at the sides, with a dome in the centre, forty +feet high, and the same in diameter. Next to these probably rank the +new gymnasium at Cincinnati, the Tremont Gymnasium at Boston, and the +Bunker-Hill Gymnasium at Charlestown, all recently opened. Of college +institutions the most complete are probably those at Cambridge and New +Haven,--the former being eighty-five feet by fifty, and the latter one +hundred feet by fifty, in external dimensions. The arrangements for +instruction are rather more systematic at Harvard, but Yale has several +valuable articles of apparatus--as the rack-bars and the series +of rings--which have hardly made their appearance, as yet, in +Massachusetts, though considered indispensable in New York. + +Gymnastic exercises are as yet but very sparingly introduced into our +seminaries, primary or professional, though a great change is already +beginning. Frederick the Great complained of the whole Prussian +school-system of his day, because it assumed that men were originally +created for students and clerks, whereas his Majesty argued that the +very shape of the human body rather proved them to be meant by Nature +for postilions. Until lately all our educational plans have assumed man +to be a merely sedentary being; we have employed teachers of music and +drawing to go from school to school to teach those elegant arts, but +have had none to teach the art of health. Accordingly, the pupils have +exhibited more complex curves in their spines than they could possibly +portray on the blackboard, and acquired such discords in their nervous +systems as would have utterly disgraced their singing. It is something +to have got beyond the period when active sports were actually +prohibited. I remember when there was but one boat owned by a Cambridge +student,--the owner was the first of his class, by the way, to get his +name into capitals in the "Triennial Catalogue" afterwards,--and that +boat was soon reported to have been suppressed by the Faculty, on the +plea that there was a college law against a student's keeping domestic +animals, and a boat was a domestic animal within the meaning of the +statute. Manual labor was thought less reprehensible; but schools on +this basis have never yet proved satisfactory, because either the hands +or the brains have always come off second-best from the effort to +combine: it is a law of Nature, that after a hard day's work one does +not need more work, but play. But in many of the German common-schools +one or two hours are given daily to gymnastic exercises with apparatus, +with sometimes the addition of Wednesday or Saturday afternoon; and this +was the result, as appears from Gutsmuth's book, of precisely the same +popular reaction against a purely intellectual system which is visible +in our community now. In the French military school at Joinville, the +degree of Bachelor of Agility is formally conferred; but Horace Mann's +remark still holds good, that it is seldom thought necessary to train +men's bodies for any purpose except to destroy those of other men. +However, in view of the present wise policy of our leading colleges, +we shall have to stop croaking before long, especially as enthusiastic +alumni already begin to fancy a visible improvement in the _physique_ of +graduating classes on Commencement Day. + +It would be unpardonable, in this connection, not to speak a good word +for the hobby of the day,--Dr. Lewis, and his system of gymnastics, or, +more properly, of calisthenics. Aside from a few amusing games, there is +nothing very novel in the "system," except the man himself. Dr. Windship +had done all that was needed in apostleship of severe exercises, and +there was wanting some man with a milder hobby, perfectly safe for a +lady to drive. The Fates provided that man, also, in Dr. Lewis,--so +hale and hearty, so profoundly confident in the omnipotence of his own +methods and the uselessness of all others, with such a ready invention, +and such an inundation of animal spirits that he could flood any +company, no matter how starched or listless, with an unbounded appetite +for ball-games and bean-games. How long it will last in the hands of +others than the projector remains to be seen, especially as some of his +feats are more exhausting than average gymnastics; but, in the mean +time, it is just what is wanted for multitudes of persons who find or +fancy the real gymnasium to be unsuited to them. It will especially +render service to female pupils, so far as they practise it; for the +accustomed gymnastic exercises seem never yet to have been rendered +attractive to them, on any large scale, and with any permanency. Girls, +no doubt, learn as readily as boys to row, to skate, and to swim,--any +muscular inferiority being perhaps counterbalanced in swimming by +their greater physical buoyancy, in skating by their dancing-school +experience, and in rowing by their music-lessons enabling them more +promptly to fall into regular time,--though these suggestions may all be +fancies rather than facts. The same points help them, perhaps, in the +lighter calisthenic exercises; but when they come to the apparatus, one +seldom sees a girl who takes hold like a boy: it, perhaps, requires a +certain ready capital of muscle, at the outset, which they have not at +command, and which it is tedious to acquire afterwards. Yet there seem +to be some cases, as with the classes of Mrs. Molineaux at Cambridge, +where a good deal of gymnastic enthusiasm is created among female +pupils, and it may be, after all, that the deficiency lies thus far in +the teachers. + +Experience is already showing that the advantages of school-gymnasiums +go deeper than was at first supposed. It is not to be the whole object +of American education to create scholars or idealists, but to produce +persons of a solid strength,--persons who, to use the most expressive +Western phrase that ever was coined into five monosyllables, "will do to +tie to"; whereas to most of us it would be absurd to tie anything but +the Scriptural millstone. In the military school of Brienne, the only +report appended to the name of the little Napoleon Bonaparte was "Very +healthy"; and it is precisely this class of boys for whom there is least +place in a purely intellectual institution. A child of immense animal +activity and unlimited observing faculties, personally acquainted with +every man, child, horse, dog, in the township,--intimate in the families +of oriole and grasshopper, pickerel and turtle,--quick of hand and +eye,--in short, born for practical leadership and victory,--such a boy +finds no provision for him in most of our seminaries, and must, by his +constitution, be either truant or torment. The theory of the institution +ignores such aptitudes as his, and recognizes no merits save those of +some small sedentary linguist or mathematician,--a blessing to his +teacher, but an object of watchful anxiety to the family physician, and +whose career was endangering not only his health, but his humility. +Introduce now some athletic exercises as a regular part of the +school-drill, instantly the rogue finds his legitimate sphere, and leads +the class; he is no longer an outcast, no longer has to look beyond the +school for companions and appreciation; while, on the other hand, the +youthful pedant, no longer monopolizing superiority, is brought down to +a proper level. Presently comes along some finer fellow than either, who +cultivates all his faculties, and is equally good at spring-board and +black-board; and straightway, since every child wishes to be a Crichton, +the whole school tries for the combination of merits, and the grade of +the juvenile community is perceptibly raised. + +What is true of childhood is true of manhood also. What a shame it is +that even Kingsley should fall into the cant of deploring maturity as a +misfortune, and declaring that our freshest pleasures come "before +the age of fourteen"! Health is perpetual youth,--that is, a state of +positive health. Merely negative health, the mere keeping out of the +hospital for a series of years, is not health. Health is to feel the +body a luxury, as every vigorous child does,--as the bird does when it +shoots and quivers through the air, not flying for the sake of the goal, +but for the sake of the flight,--as the dog does when he scours madly +across the meadow, or plunges into the muddy blissfulness of the +stream. But neither dog nor bird nor child enjoys his cup of physical +happiness--let the dull or the worldly say what they will--with a +felicity so cordial as the educated palate of conscious manhood. To +"feel one's life in every limb," this is the secret bliss of which all +forms of athletic exercise are merely varying disguises; and it is +absurd to say that we cannot possess this when character is mature, but +only when it is half-developed. As the flower is better than the bud, so +should the fruit be better than the flower. + +We need more examples of a mode of living which shall not alone be a +success in view of some ulterior object, but which shall be, in its +nobleness and healthfulness, successful every moment as it passes on. +Navigating a wholly new temperament through history, this American race +must of course form its own methods and take nothing at second-hand; but +the same triumphant combination of bodily and mental training which made +human life beautiful in Greece, strong in Rome, simple and joyous in +Germany, truthful and brave in England, must yet be moulded to a higher +quality amid this varying climate and on these low shores. The regions +of the world most garlanded with glory and romance, Attica, Provence, +Scotland, were originally more barren than Massachusetts; and there is +yet possible for us such an harmonious mingling of refinement and vigor, +that we may more than fulfil the world's expectation, and may become +classic to ourselves. + + * * * * * + + +LAND-LOCKED. + + + Black lie the hills, swiftly doth daylight flee, + And, catching gleams of sunset's dying smile, + Through the dusk land for many a changing mile + The river runneth softly to the sea. + + O happy river, could I follow thee! + O yearning heart, that never can be still! + O wistful eyes, that watch the steadfast hill, + Longing for level line of solemn sea! + + Have patience; here are flowers and songs of birds, + Beauty and fragrance, wealth of sound and sight, + All summer's glory thine from morn till night, + And life too full of joy for uttered words. + + Neither am I ungrateful. But I dream + Deliciously, how twilight falls to-night + Over the glimmering water, how the light + Dies blissfully away, until I seem + + To feel the wind sea-scented on my cheek, + To catch the sound of dusky flapping sail, + And dip of oars, and voices on the gale, + Afar off, calling softly, low and sweet. + + O Earth, thy summer-song of joy may soar + Ringing to heaven in triumph! I but crave + The sad, caressing murmur of the wave + That breaks in tender music on the shore. + + + + +TWO OR THREE TROUBLES. + + +If there are only two or three, I am pretty sure of a sympathetic +hearing. If there were two-and-twenty, I should be much more doubtful: +for only last night, on being introduced to a tall lady in deep +mourning, and assured that she had been "a terrible sufferer," that her +life, indeed, had been "one long tragedy," I may as well confess, that, +so far from being interested in this tall long tragedy, merely as such, +I stepped a little aside on the instant, on some frivolous pretence, and +took an early opportunity to get out of the way. Why this was I leave to +persons who understand the wrong side of human nature. I am ashamed +of it; but there it is,--neither worse nor better. And I can't expect +others to be more compassionate than I am myself. + +One of my troubles grew out of a pleasure, but was not less a trouble +for the time. The other was not an excrescence, but ingrained with the +material: not necessarily, indeed,--far from it; but, from the nature of +the case, hopelessly so. + +The penny-postman had brought me a letter from my Aunt Allen, from +Albany. This letter contained, in three lines, a desire that her +dear niece would buy something with the inclosed, and accept it as a +wedding-gift, with the tenderest wishes for her life-long happiness, +from the undersigned. + +"The inclosed" fell on the floor, and Laura picked it up. + +"Fifty dollars!--hum!--Metropolitan Bank." + +"Oh, now, that is charming! Good old soul she is!" + +"Yes. Very well. I'm glad she sent it in money." + +"So am I. 'T isn't a butter-knife, anyhow." + +"How do you mean?" inquired Laura. + +"Why, Mr. Lang was telling last night about his clerk. He said he bought +a pair of butter-knives for his clerk Hillman, hearing that he was to be +married, and got them marked. A good substantial present he thought it +was,--cost only seven dollars for a good article, and couldn't fail to +be useful to Hillman. He took them himself, so as to be doubly gracious, +and met his clerk at the store-door. + +"'Good morning!--good morning! Wish you joy, Hillman! I've got a pair of +butter-knives for your wife.--Hey? got any?' + +"'Eleven, Sir.' + +"Eleven butter-knives! and all marked _Marcia Ann Hillman, from A.B., +from C.D._, and so on!" + +Laura laughed, and said she hoped my friends would all be as considerate +as Aunt Allen, or else consult her. Suppose eleven tea-pots, for +instance, or eleven silver salvers, all in a row! Ridiculous! + +"Now, Del, I will tell you what it is," said Laura, gravely. + +Laura was the sensible one, like Laura in Miss Edgeworth's "Moral +Tales," and never made any mistake. I was like the naughty horse that +is always rearing and jumping, but kept on the track by the good steady +one. Of course, I was far more interesting, and was to be married in +three weeks. + +"Now, Del, I'll tell you what it is. Are you going to have all your +presents paraded on the study-table, for everybody to pull over and +compare values,--and have one mortified, and another elated, and all +uncomfortable?" + +"Why, what can I do?" + +"I know what I wouldn't do." + +"You wouldn't do it, Laura?" said I, looking steadily at the +fifty-dollar note. + +"Never, Del! I told Mrs. Harris so, when we were coming home from Ellis +Hall's wedding. It looked absolutely vulgar." + +We all swore by Mrs. Harris in that part of Boynton, and it was +something to know that Mrs. Harris had received the shock of such a +heterodox opinion. + +"And what did Mrs. Harris say, Laura?" + +"She said she agreed with me entirely." + +"Did she really?" said I, drawing a good long breath. + +"Yes,--and she said she would as soon, and sooner, go to a silversmith's +and pull over all the things on the counter. There were knives and +forks, tea-spoons and table-spoons, fish-knives and pie-knives, +strawberry-shovels and ice-shovels, large silver salvers and small +silver salvers and medium silver salvers. Everything useful, and nothing +you want to look at. There wasn't a thing that was in good taste to +show, but just a good photograph of the minister that married them,--and +a beautiful little wreath of sea-weed, that one of her Sunday-school +scholars made for her. As to everything else, I would, as far as good +taste goes, have just as soon had a collection of all Waterman's +kitchen-furniture." + +Laura stopped at last, indignant, and out of breath. + +"There was a tremendous display of silver, I allow," said I; "the piano +and sideboard were covered with it." + +"Yes, and thoroughly vulgar, for that reason. A wedding-gift should be +something appropriate,--not merely useful. As soon as it is only that, +it sinks at once. It should speak of the bride, or to the bride, or +of and from the friend,--intimately associating the gift with past +impressions, with personal tastes, and future hopes felt by both. +The gift should always be a dear reminder of the giver; a +picture,--Evangeline or Beatrice; something you have both of you loved +to look at, or would love to. But think of the delight of cutting your +meat with Edward's present! forking ditto with Mary's! a crumb-scraper +reminding you of this one, table-bell of that one; large salver, +Uncle,--rich; small salver, Uncle,--mean; gold thimble, Cousin,--meanest +of all. Table cleared, ditto mind and memory, of the whole of them--till +next meal, _perhaps!_" + +Laura ceased talking, but rocked herself swiftly to and fro in her +chair. It is not necessary to say we were in our chambers,--as, since +our British cousins have ridiculed our rocking-chairs, they are all +banished from the parlor. Consequently we remain in our chambers to rock +and be useful, and come into the parlor to be useless and uncomfortable +in _fauteuils_, made, as the chair-makers tell us, "after the line of +beauty." Laura and I both detest them, and Polly says, "Nothing can be +worse for the spine of a person's back." To be + + "Stretched on the rack of a too-easy chair," + +let anybody try a modern drawing-room. So Laura and I have cane +sewing-chairs, which, it is needless to add, rock,--rock eloquently, +too. They wave, as the boat waves with the impetus of the sea, gently, +calmly, slowly,--or, as conversation grows animated, as disputes arise, +as good stories are told, one after another, so do the sympathizing and +eloquent rocking-chairs keep pace with our conversation, stimulating or +soothing, as it chances. + +And now I come to my first trouble,--first, and, as it happened, of long +standing now; insomuch that, when Laura asked me once, gravely, why I +had not made it a vital objection, in the first place, I had not a word +to reply, but just--rocked. + +She, Laura, was stitching on some shirts for "him." They were intended +as a wedding-gift from herself, and were beautifully made. Laura +despised a Wheeler-and-Wilson, and all its kindred,--and the shirts +looked like shirts, consequently. + +I linger a little, shivering on the brink. Somehow I always say +"_him_,"--nowadays, of course, Mr. Sampson,--but then I always said "he" +and "him." I know why country-folk say so, now. Though sentimentalists +say, it is because there is only one "he" for "her," I don't believe it. +It is because their names are Jotham, or Adoniram, or Jehiel, or Asher, +or some of those names, and so they say "he," for short. But there +was no short for me. So I may as well come to it. "His" name was +America,--America Sampson. It is four years and a half since I knew this +for a fact, yet my surprise is not lessened. Epithets are weak trash for +such an occasion, or I should vituperate even now the odious practice +of saddling children with one's own folly or prejudice in the shape of +names. + +There was no help for it. There was no hope. My lover had not received +his name from any rich uncle, with the condition of a handsome fortune; +so he had no chance of indignantly asserting his choice to be Herbert +barefoot rather than Hog's-flesh with gold shoes. His father and mother +had given his name,--not at the baptismal font, for they were Baptists, +and didn't baptize so,--but they had given it to him. They were both +alive and well, and so were seventeen uncles and aunts who would all +know,--in good health, and bad taste, all of them. + +"He" had four brothers to keep him in countenance, all with worse names +than his: Washington, Philip Massasoit, Scipio, and Hiram Yaw Byron! +There was the excuse, in this last name, of its being a family one, +as far as Yaw went; but----However, as I said, language is wholly +inadequate and weak for some purposes. There was a lower deep than +America,--that was some comfort. + +Hiram Yaw wasn't sent to college, but to Ashtabula, wherever that is, +and I never wish to see him. But to college was America sent,--to be +"hazed," and taunted, and called "E Plury," and his beak and claws +inquired after, through the freshman year. I never knew how he went +through,--I mean, with what feelings. Of course, he was the first +scholar. But that, even, must have been but a small consolation. + +The worst of all was, he was sensitive about his name,--whether because +it had been used to torment him, and so, like poor worn-out Nessus, +he wrapped more closely his poisoned scarf, (I like scarf better than +shirt,)--or whether he had, in the course of his law-studies and +men-studies, come to think it really mattered very little what a man's +name was in the beginning; at all events, he had no notion of dismissing +his own. + +My own secret hope had been, that, by an Act of the Legislature, which +that very season had changed Pontifex Parker to Charles Alfred Parker, +Mr. Sampson might be accommodated with a name less unspeakably national. +Dear me! Alfred, Arthur, Albert,--if he must begin with A. + + "A was an Archer, and shot at a frog." + +I should even prefer Archer. It needn't be Insatiate Archer. So I kept +turning over and over the painful subject, one evening,--I mean, of +course, in my mind, for I had not really broached this matter of +legislative action. Luckily, "he" had brought in the new edition of +George Herbert's Works. We were reading aloud, and "he" read the chapter +of "The Parson in Sacraments." At the foot was an extract from "The +Parish Register" of Crabbe, which he read, unconscious of the way in +which I mentally applied it. Indeed, I think he scarcely thought of his +own name at that time. But I did, twenty-four times in every day. This +was the note:-- + + "Pride lives with all; strange names our rustics give + To helpless infants, that their own may live; + Pleased to be known, they'll some attention claim, + And find some by-way to the house of fame. + 'Why Lonicera wilt thou name thy child?' + I asked the gardener's wife, in accents mild. + 'We have a right,' replied the sturdy dame; + And Lonicera was the infant's name." + +He stopped reading just here, to look at the evening paper, which had +been brought in. I read something in it, and then we all went to sit on +the piazza, with the street-lamp shining through the bitter-sweet vine, +as good as the moon, and the conversation naturally and easily turned +on odd names. I told what I had read in the paper: that our country +rivalled Dickens's in queer names, and that it wasn't for a land that +had Boggs and Bigger and Bragg for governors, and Stubbs, Snoggles, +Scroggs, and Pugh among its respectable citizens, to accuse Dickens +of caricature. I turned, a little tremulously, I confess, to "him," +saying,-- + +"If you had been so unfortunate as to have for a name Darius Snoggles, +now, for instance, wouldn't you have it changed by the Legislature?" + +I shivered with anxiety. + +"Certainly not," he replied, with perfect unconsciousness. "Whatever my +name might be, I would endeavor to make it a respectable one while I +bore it." + +Laura sat the other side of me, and softly touched me. So I only +asked, if that great star up there was Lyra; but all the time Anodyne, +Ambergris, Abner, Albion, Alpheus, and all the names that begin with A, +rolled through my memory monotonously and continually. + +After we went up-stairs that night, and while I was trying in vain to do +up my hair so as to make a natural wave in front, (sometimes everything +goes wrong,) Laura said,-- + +"Delphine!" + +My mother mixed romance with good practical sense, and very properly +said that girls with good names and tolerable faces might get on in the +world, but it took fortune to make your Sallies and Mollies go down. She +had good taste, too, and didn't name either of us Louisa Prudence, like +an unfortunate I once saw; and we were left, with our nice cottage +covered with its vine of bitter-sweet and climbing rose, fifteen hundred +dollars each, and our names, Delphine and Laura. Not a bad heritage, +with economy, good looks, and hearts to take life cheerily. Still it +is plain enough that a fifty-dollar note for the bride was not to be +despised nor overlooked. In fact, with the exception of Polly's present +of a brown earthen bowl and a pudding-stick, it was the first approach +to a wedding-gift that I had yet received. And this note was trouble the +second. But of that, by-and-by. + +"Delphine!" said Laura, softly. + +Some people's voices excoriate you, Laura's was soft and soothing. + +"Well!" + +"Don't say any more to--to Mr. Sampson about names." + +"Oh, dear! hateful!" + +"Delphine, be thankful it's no worse!" + +"How could it be worse,--unless it were Hog-and-Hominy? I never knew +anything so utterly ridiculous! America! Columbia! Yankee-Doodle! I'd +rather it had been Abraham!" + +All this I almost shouted in a passion of vexation, and Laura hastily +closed the window. + +"Let me loosen your braids for you, Del," said she, quietly, taking up +my hair in her gentle way, which always had a good effect on my prancing +nerves; "let me bathe your forehead with this, dear;--now, let me tell +you something you will like." + +"Oh, my heart! Laura, I wish you could! for I declare to you, that, if +it wasn't for--if it didn't----Oh, dear, dear! how I do hate that name!" + +"It is not so very good a name,--that must be owned, Del. All is, you +will have to call him 'Mr. Sampson,' or 'My dear,' or 'You'; or, stay, +you might abbreviate it into Ame, Ami. Ami and Delphine!--it sounds like +a French story for youth. If I were you, I wouldn't meddle with it or +think any more about it." + +"Such a name! so ridiculous!" I muttered. + +"You have considered it so much and so closely, Del, that it is most +disproportionately prominent in your mind. You can put out Bunker-Hill +Monument with your little finger, if you hold it close enough to your +eye. Don't you remember what Mr. Sampson said to-night about somebody +whose mind had no perspective in it? that his shoe-ribbon was as +prominent and important as his soul? Don't go and be a goosey, Del, and +have no perspective, will you?" And Laura leaned over and kissed my +forehead, all corrugated with my pet grief. + +"Well, Laura, what can be worse? I declare--almost I think, Laura, I +would rather he should have some great defect." + +"Moral or physical? Gambling? one leg? one eye? lying? six fingers? How +do you mean, Del?" + +"Oh, patience! no, indeed!--six fingers! I only meant"---- + +And here, of course, I stopped. + +"Which virtue could you spare in Mr. Sampson?" said Laura, coolly, +fastening my hair neatly in its net, and sitting down in _her_ +rocking-chair. + +When it came to that, of course there were none to be spared. We +undressed, silently,--Laura rolling all her ribbons carefully, and +I throwing mine about; Laura, consistent, conservative, allopathic, +High-Church,--I, homoeopathic, hydropathic, careless, and given to +Parkerism. It did not matter, as to harmony. Two bracelets, but no +need to be alike. We clasped arms and hearts all the same. By-and-by I +remembered,-- + +"Oh! what's your good news, Laura?" + +"Ariana Cooper and Geraldine Parker are both married,--both on the same +day, at Grace Church, New York." + +"Is it possible? Who told you? How do you know?" + +"I read it in the 'Evening Post,' just before I came up-stairs. Now +guess,--guess a month, Del, and you won't guess whom they have married." + +"No use to guess. They've found somebody in New York at their aunt's, +I suppose. Both so pretty and rich, they were likely to find good +_partis_." + +"Merchants both, I think. Now do guess!" + +"How can I? Herbert Clark, maybe,--or Captain Ellington? No, of course +not. A merchant? Julius Winthrop. I know Ariana was a great admirer of +a military man. She used to say she would have loved Sidney for his +chivalry, and Raleigh for his graceful foppery; and Pembroke Dunkin she +admired for both. It isn't Pembroke?" + +And here I sighed over and over, like a foolish virgin. + +"Now, then, listen. Here it is in the paper," said Laura. + +"'Married, at Grace Church, by the Rev. So-and-So, assisted, etc., etc., +Ossian Smutt, Esq., of the firm of S. Hamilton & Company, to Ariana, +eldest daughter of the late George S. Cooper. At the same place, and +day, Hon. Unity Smith, M.C., to Geraldine Miranda, daughter of the late +Russell Parker of Pine Lodge. The happy quartette have left in the +Persia for a tour in Europe. We wish them joy.'" + +"Ugh! Laura! goodness! well, that outdoes me," I screamed, with a sudden +sense of relief, that set me laughing as passionately as I had been +crying. For, though I have not before owned it, I had been crying +heartily. + +The Balm of a Thousand Flowers descended on my lacerated heart. To say +the truth, I had dreaded more Ariana's little shrug, and Geraldine +Parker's upraised eyebrows, on reading my marriage, than a whole life of +_that_ name, on my own account merely. But now, thank Heaven, so much +trouble was out of my way. Mrs. Unity Smith, and Mrs. Orlando--no, +Ossian Smutt, could by no possibility laugh at me. Mrs. A. Sampson +wasn't bad on a card. It would not smut one, anyhow. I laughed grimly, +and composed myself to sleep. + +The next morning had come the pleasant letter from my Albany aunt, with +the fifty-dollar note. Laura continued rocking, fifty strokes a minute, +and stitching at the rate of sixty. I held the note idly, rubbing up +my imagination for things new and old. Laura, being industrious, was +virtuously employing her thoughts. As idleness brings mischief, and +riches anxiety, I did not rock long without evil consequences. Eve +herself was not contented in Eden. She had to do all the cooking, for +one thing,--and angels always happening in to dinner! For my part, the +name of Adam would have been enough to spoil my pleasure. Here Laura +interrupted my thoughts, which were running headlong into everything +wicked. + +"What do you say?" + +"What do you?" I answered; for, like other bad people, I had the +greatest respect for good people's opinions. + +"I think--a small--silver salver!" + +"Do you think so, really?" + +"Yes, Del. That will be good; silver, you know, is always good to have; +and it will be handsome and useful always." + +"What! for us?" + +"Yes,--pretty to hand a cup of tea on, or a glass of wine,--pretty to +set in the middle of a long table with a vase of flowers on it, when you +have the Court and High-Sheriff to dine,--as you will, of course, every +year,--or with your spoon-goblet. Oh, there are plenty of ways to make a +small silver salver useful. Mrs. Harris says she doesn't see how any one +can keep house without a silver salver." + +The last sentence she said with a laugh, for she knew I thought so much +of what Mrs. Harris said. + +"We've kept house all our lives without one, Laura." + +"Yes,--but I often wish we had one, for all that. As Mrs. Harris says, +'It gives such an air!'" + +What a dreadful utilitarian Laura was, I thought. Now, the whole world +and Boston were full of beautiful things,--full of things that had no +special usefulness, but were absolutely and of themselves beautiful. And +such a thing I wanted,--such a presence before me,--"a thing of beauty +and of joy forever,"--something that would not speak directly or +indirectly of labor, of something to be wrought out with toil, or +associated with common, every-day objects. When that life should come to +which I secretly looked forward,--when my soul should bound into a more +radiant atmosphere, where the clouds, if any were, should be all +gold- and silver-tinted, and where my sorrows, love-colored, were to be +sweeter than other people's joys,--in that life, there would be moments +of sweet abandonment to the simple sense of happiness. Then I should +want something on which my mind might linger, my eye rest,--as the bird +rests for an instant, to turn her plumage in the sun, and take another +and loftier flight. Not a word of all this, which common minds called +farrago, but which had its truth to me, did I utter to Laura. Of course, +none of these things bear transplanting or expressing. + +"Laura, do you like that statue of Mercury in Mrs. Gore's library?" + +"Very much. But I am sure I should be tired of seeing it every day, +standing on one toe. I should be tired, if he wasn't." + +"Mrs. Gore says she never tires of it. I asked her. She says it is a +delight to her to lie on the sofa and trace the beautiful undulations +of his figure. How airy! It looks as if it would fly again without the +least effort,--as if it had just 'new-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill'! +Don't you think it perfect, Laura?" + +"Well--yes,--I suppose so. I am not so enthusiastic as you are about +it." + +"Why don't you like it?" + +I would not let Laura see how disappointed I was. + +"One thing,--I don't like statuary in any attitude which, if continued, +would seem to be painful. I know artists admire what gives an impression +of motion; and I like to look at Mercury once; as you say, it gives an +idea of flight, of motion,--and it is beautiful for two minutes. But +then comes a sense of its being painful. So that statue of Hebe, or +Aurora,--which is it?--looks as if swiftly coming towards you; but only +for a minute. It does not satisfy you longer, because the unfitness +comes then, and the fatigue, and your imagination is harassed and +fretted. I think statuary should be in repose,--that is, if we want it +in the house as a constant object of sight. Eve at the fountain, or Echo +listening, or Sabrina fair sitting + + "'Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, + With twisted braids of lilies knitting + The loose train of her amber-dropping hair.' + +"No matter, if she is represented employed. The motion may go so far." + +I suppose I looked blank. + +"Oh, don't think I am not glad to admire it. I thought you were thinking +of it for Aunt Allen's gift," continued Laura. + +"And so I was. It costs just fifty dollars. But I think you are right +about it. And, besides, do you like bronze, Laura?" + +"I like marble a great, great deal best. There is a bronze statue of +Fortune, and a Venus, at Harris & Stanwood's, that are called 'so +beautiful!'--and I wouldn't have them in my house." + +Here was an extinguisher. Laura didn't like bronze. And Laura was to be +in my house, whether bronzes--were or not. + + * * * * * + +The sun shone brightly through the bitter-sweet that ran half over the +window, and lighted on the corner of an old mahogany chest. + +"That reminds me!" said I, suddenly. "Yesterday, I was looking at +crockery, and there was the most delightful cabinet!--real Japan work, +such as we read of; full of little drawers, and with carved silver +handles, and a secret drawer that shoots out when you touch a spring at +the back. Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing to stand in the parlor, +Laura?" + +"For what, Del? Could you keep silver in it? How large is it?" + +"Why, no,--it wouldn't be large enough to hold silver. And, besides, I +don't know that I want it for any such purpose. It would hold jewelry." + +"If you had any, Del." + +"There's the secret drawer,--that would be capital for anything I wanted +to keep perfectly secret." + +"Such as what'?" + +"Oh, I don't know what, now; but I might possibly have." + +"I can't think of anything you would want to shut up in that drawer," +said Laura, laughing at my mysterious face, which she said looked about +as secret as a hen-coop with the chickens all flying out between the +slats. "In the first place, you haven't any secrets, and are not likely +to have; and next, you will show us (Mr. Sampson and me) the drawer and +spring the first thing you do. And I shall look there every week, to see +if there's anything hid there!" + +"Oh, bah!" said I to myself; "Sumner told me that cabinet was just fifty +dollars." + +Something--I know not what, and probably never shall know--made me rise +from my rocking-chair, and walk to the chamber-window. At that moment, a +man with a green bag in his hand walked swiftly by, touched his hat as +he passed, and smiled as he turned the corner out of sight. A little +spasm, half painful in its pleasure, contracted my chest, and then +set out at a thrilling pace to the end of my fingers. Then a sense of +triumphant fulness, in my heart, on my lip, in my eyes. Not the name, +but the nature passed,--strong to wrestle, determined to win. Not the +body, but the soul of a man, passed across my field of vision, armed for +earth-strife, gallantly breasting life. What mattered the shape or the +name,--whether handsome or with a fine fortune? How these accidents fell +off from the soul, as it beamed in the loving eye and firm lip! + + "The moment that his face I see, + I know the man that must" lead "me." + +And gently as the fawn follows the forest-keeper does my heart follow +his, to the green pastures and still waters where he loves to lead. I +did not think whether he had a name. + +"Are you considering what to put into the secret drawer, Del?" + +"Yes,--rather." + +Again Laura and I sat and rocked,--this time silently, for my head was +full, and I was holding a stopper on it to keep it from running over; +while Laura was really puzzled about the way to make a dog's eyes with +Berlin wool. As I rocked, from association probably, I thought again of +Eve,--who never seems at all like a grandmother to me, nor even like +"the mother of all living," but like a sweet, capricious, tender, +naughty girl. Like Eve, I had only to stretch forth my hand (with the +fifty-dollar note in it) and grasp "as much beauty as could live" within +that space. Yet, as fifty dollars would buy not only this, but that, +and also the other, it presently became the representative of tens +of fifties, hundreds of fifties, thousands of fifties, and so +on,--different fifties all, but all assuming shapes of beauty and value; +finally, alternately clustering and separating, gathering as if in all +sorts of beautiful heads,--angel heads, winged children,--then shooting +off in a thousand different directions, leaving behind landscapes of +exquisite sunsets, of Norwegian scenery, of processions of pines, of +moonlight seen through arched bridges, of Palmyrene deserts, of +pilgrims in the morning praying. Then came hurdy-gurdy boys and little +flower-girls again, mingling with the landscapes, and thrusting their +curly heads forward, as if to bid me not forget them. Then they all ran +away and left me standing in a long, endless hall with endless columns, +and white figures all about,--in the niches, on the floor, on the +walls,--each Olympian in beauty, in grandeur, in power to lift the +entranced soul to the high region where itself was created, and to which +it always pointed. The white figures melted and warmed into masses and +alcoves, and innumerable volumes looked affectionately at me. They knew +me of old, and had told me their delightful secrets. "They had slept +in my bosom, and whispered kind things to me in the dark night." Some +pressed forward, declaring that here was the new wine of thought, +sparkling and foaming as it had never done before, from the depths of +human sympathy; and others murmured, "The old is better," and smiled at +the surface-thoughts in blue and gold. Volumes and authors grew angry +and vituperative. There was so much to be said on all sides, that I was +deafened, and, with a shake of my head, shook everything into chaos, as +I had done a hundred times before. + +"What are you thinking of, Del?" said Laura, pointing the dog's eye with +scarlet wool, to make him look fierce. "You have been looking straight +at me for half a minute." + +"Half a minute! have I?" + +That wasn't long, however, considering what I had seen in the time. + +"At Cotton's, yesterday, I saw, Laura, a beautiful engraving of Arria +and Paetus. She is drawing the dagger from her side, and saying, so +calmly, so heroically,--'My Paetus! it is not hard to die!'" + +I had inquired the price of this engraving, and the man said it was +fifty dollars without the frame. + +"Those pictures are so painful to look at! don't you think so, Del? And +the better they are, the worse they are! Don't you remember that day we +passed with Sarah, how we wondered she could have her walls covered with +such pictures?" + +"Merrill brought them home from Italy, or she wouldn't, perhaps. But I +do remember,--they ware very disagreeable. That flaying of Marsyas! and +Christ crowned with thorns! and that sad Ecce Homo!" + +"Yes,--and the Laocoön on that centre bracket! enough to make you scream +to look at it! I desire never to have such bloody reminders about me; +and for a parlor or sitting-room I would infinitely prefer a dead wall +to such a picture, if it were by the oldest of the old masters. Who +wants Ugolino in the house, if it is ever so well painted? Supping on +horrors indeed!" + +We rocked again,--and Laura talked about plants and shirts and such +healthy subjects. But, of course, my mind was in such a condition, +nothing but fifty-dollar subjects would stay in it; and, most of all, I +must not let Laura guess what I was thinking of. + +"Do you like enamelled watches, Laura,--those pretty little ones made in +Geneva, I mean, worth from forty to sixty dollars?" + +"How do you mean? Do I like the small timepieces? or is it the picture +on the back?" said Laura. + +"Oh, either. I was thinking of a beauty I saw at Crosby's yesterday, +with the Madonna della Seggiola on the back. Now it is a good thing to +have such a picture about one, any way. I looked at this through the +microscope. It was surprisingly well done; and I suppose the watches are +as good as most." + +"Better than yours and mine, Del?" said Laura, demurely. + +"Why, no,--I suppose not so good. But I was thinking more of the +picture." + +"Oh!" said Laura. + +I was on the point of asking what she thought of Knight's Shakspeare, +when the bell rang and Polly brought up Miss Russell's card. + +Miss Russell was good and pretty, with a peach-bloom complexion, soft +blue eyes, and curling auburn hair. Still those were articles that could +not well be appraised, as I thought the first minute after we were +seated in the parlor. But she had over her shoulders a cashmere scarf, +which Mr. Russell had brought from India himself, which was therefore a +genuine article, and which, to crown all, cost him only fifty dollars. +It would readily bring thrice that sum in Boston, Miss Russell said. But +such chances were always occurring. Then she described how the shawls +were all thrown in a mess together in a room, and how the captains of +vessels bought them at hap-hazard, without knowing anything about their +value or their relative fineness, and how you could often, if you knew +about the goods, get great bargains. It was a good way to send out fifty +or a hundred dollars by some captain you could trust for taste, or the +captain's wife. But it was generally a mere chance. Sometimes there +would be bought a great old shawl that had been wound round the naked +waist and shoulders of some Indian till it was all soiled and worn. That +would have to be cut up into little neck-scarfs. But sometimes, too, you +got them quite new. Papa knew about dry goods, luckily, and selected a +nice one. + +Part of this was repulsive,--but, again, part of it attractive. We don't +expect to be the cheated ones ourselves. + +The bell rang again, and this time Lieutenant Clarence Herbert entered +on tiptoe: not of expectation particularly, but he had a way of +tiptoeing which had been the fashion before he went to sea the last +time, and which he resumed on his return, without noticing that in the +mean time the fashion had gone by, and everybody stood straight and +square on his feet. The effect, like all just-gone-by fashions, was to +make him look ridiculous; and it required some self-control on our part +to do him the justice of remembering that he could be quite brilliant +when he pleased, was musical and sentimental. He had a good name, as I +sighed in recalling. + +We talked on, and on, instinctively keeping near the ground, and hopping +from bough to bough of daily facts. + +When they were both gone, we rejoiced, and went up-stairs again to our +work and our rocking. Laura hummed,-- + + "'The visit paid, with ecstasy we come, + As from a seven-years' transportation, home, + And there resume the unembarrassed brow, + Recovering what we lost, we know not how,'-- + +"What is it?-- + + "'Expression,--and the privilege of thought.'" + +"What an idea Louisa Russell always gives one of clothes!" said Laura. +"I never remember the least thing she says. I would almost as soon have +in the house one of those wire-women they keep in the shops to hang +shawls on, for anything she has to say." + +"I know it," I answered. "But, to tell the truth, Laura, there was +something very interesting about her clothes to me to-day. That scarf! +Don't you think, Laura, that an India scarf is always handsome?" + +"Always handsome? What! all colors and qualities?" + +"Of course not. I mean a handsome one,--like Louisa Russell's." + +"Why, yes, Del. A handsome scarf is always handsome,--that is, until it +is defaced or worn out. What a literal mood you are in just now!" + +"Well, Laura,"--I hesitated, and then added slowly, "don't you think +that an India scarf has become almost a matter of necessity? I mean, +that everybody has one?" + +"In Boston, you mean. I understand the New York traders say they sell +ten cashmere shawls to Boston people where they do one to a New-Yorker." + +"Mrs. Harris told me, Laura, that she _could not_ do without one. She +says she considers them a real necessary of life. She has lost four of +those little neck-scarfs, and, she says, she just goes and buys another. +Her neck is always cold just there." + +"Is it, really?" said Laura, dryly. "I suppose nothing short of cashmere +could possibly warm it!" + +"Well, it is a pretty thing for a present, any way," said I, rather +impatiently; for I had settled on a scarf as unexceptionable in most +respects. There was the bargain, to begin with. Then it was always a +good thing to hand down to one's heirs. The Gores had a long one that +belonged to their grandmamma, and they could draw it through a gold +ring. It was good to wear, and good to leave. Indicated blood, +too,--and--and----In short, a great deal of nonsense was on the end of +my tongue, waiting my leave to slip off, when Laura said,-- + +"Didn't Lieutenant Herbert say he would bring you Darley's 'Margaret'?" + +"Yes,--he is to bring it to-morrow. What a pretty name Clarence Herbert +is! Lieutenant Clarence Herbert,--there's a good name for you! How many +pretty names there are!" + +"You wouldn't be at a loss to name boys," said Laura, laughing,--"like +Mr. Stickney, who named his boys One, Two, and Three. Think of going by +the name of One Stickney!" + +"That isn't so bad as to be named 'The Fifteenth of March.' And that was +a real name, given to a girl who was born at sea--I wonder what _she_ +was called 'for short.'" + +"Sweet fifteen, perhaps." + +"That would do. Yes,--Herbert, Robert," said I, musingly, "and Philip, +and Arthur, and Algernon, Alfred, Sidney, Howard, Rupert"---- + +"Oh, don't, Del! You are foolish, now." + +"How, Laura?" said I, consciously. + +"Why don't you say America?" + +"Oh, what a fall!" + +"Enough better than your fine Lieutenant, Del, with his taste, and his +sentiments, and his fine bows, and 'his infinite deal of nothing.'" + +I sighed and said nothing. The name-fancies had gone by in long +procession. America had buried them all, and stamped sternly on their +graves. + +"What made you ask about Darley's 'Margaret,' Laura?" + +"Oh,--only I wanted to see it." + +"Don't you think," said I, suddenly reviving with a new idea, "that a +portfolio of engravings is a handsome thing to have in one's parlor +or library? Add to it, you know, from time to time; but begin with +'Margaret,' perhaps, and Retzsch's 'Hamlet' or 'Faust,'--or a collection +of fine wood engravings, such as Mrs. Harris has,--and perhaps one of +Albert Dürer's ugly things to show off with. What do you think of it, +Laura?" + +"Do you ever look at Mrs. Harris's nowadays, Del?" + +"Why, no,--I can't say I do, now. But I have looked at them when people +were there. How she would shrug and shiver when they _would_ put their +fingers on her nice engravings, and soil, or bend and break them at +the corners! Somebody asked her once, all the time breaking up a fine +Bridgewater Madonna she had just given forty dollars for, 'What is +this engraving worth, now?' She answered, coldly,--'Five minutes ago I +thought it worth forty dollars: now I would take forty cents for it.'" + +"Not very polite, I should say," said Laura. "And rather cruel too, +on the whole; since the offence was doubtless the result of ignorance +only." + +"I know. But Mrs. Harris said she was so vexed she could not restrain +herself; and besides, she would infinitely prefer that he should be +mortally offended, at least to the point of losing his acquaintance, to +having her best pictures spoiled. She said he cost too much altogether." + +"She should have the corners covered somehow. To be sure, it would be +better for people to learn how to treat nice engravings,--but they +won't; and every day somebody comes to see you, and talks excellent +sense, all the while either rolling up your last 'Art Journal,' or +breaking the face of Bryant's portrait in, or some equal mischief. I +don't think engravings pay, to keep,--on the whole; do you, Del?" And +Laura smiled while she rocked. + +"Well, perhaps not. I am sure I shouldn't be amiable enough to have mine +thumbed and ruined; and certainly, if they are only to be kept in a +portfolio, it seems hardly worth while." + +"So I think," said Laura. + +This vexatious consideration--for so it had become--of how I should +spend my aunt's money, came at length almost to outweigh the pleasure of +having it to spend. It was perhaps a little annoyance, at first, but by +repetition became of course great. The prick of a pin is nothing; but if +it prick three weeks, sleeping and waking, "there is differences, look +you!" + +"What shall I do with it?" became a serious matter. Suppose I left the +regions of art and beauty particularly, and came back and down to what +would be suitable on the whole, and agreeable to my aunt, whose taste +was evidently beyond what Albany could afford, or she would not have +sent me to the Modern Athens to buy the right thing. Nothing that would +break; else, Sèvres china would be nice: I might get a small plate, or +a dish, for the money. Clothes wear out. Furniture,--you don't want to +say, "This chair, or this bureau or looking-glass, is my Aunt Allen's +gift." No, indeed! It must be something uncommon, _recherché_, tasteful, +durable, and, if possible, something that will show well and sound well +always. If it were only to spend the money, of course I could buy a +carpet or fire-set with it. And off went my bewildered head again on a +tour of observation. + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +HARBORS OF THE GREAT LAKES. + + +In a recent article upon "The Great Lakes,"[A] we remarked, that, +from the conformation of their shores, natural harbors are of rare +occurrence. Consequently, for the protection and convenience of +commerce, a system of artificial harbors has been adopted by the Federal +Government, and appropriations have been made from time to time by +Congress for this purpose; and officers of the United States Engineer +Corps have been appointed to carry on the work. It is to some extent a +new and peculiar kind of engineering, caused by the peculiar conditions +of the case. + +[Footnote A: See _Atlantic Monthly_ for February.] + +Most of the lake-towns are built upon rivers which empty into the lakes, +and these rivers are usually obstructed at their mouths by bars of sand +and clay. The formation of these bars is due to several causes. The +principal one is this:--The shores of the lakes being usually composed +of sand, this is carried along by the shore-currents of the lake and +deposited at the river-mouths. Another cause of these obstructions may +be found in the fact, that the currents of the rivers are constantly +bringing down with them an amount of soil, which is deposited at the +point where the current meets the still waters of the lake. A third +cause, as we are told by Col. Graham, in his Report for 1855, is the +following:-- + +"Although the great depth of Lake Michigan prevents the surface from +freezing, yet the ice accumulates in large bodies in the shallow water +near the shores, and is driven by the wind into the mouths of the +rivers. A barrier being thus formed to the force of the lake-waves, the +sudden check of velocity causes them to deposit a portion of the silt +they hold in suspension upon the upper surface of this stratum of ice. +By repeated accumulations in this way, the weight becomes sufficient to +sink the whole mass to the bottom. There it rests, together with other +strata, which are sunk in the same way, until the channel is obstructed +by the combined masses of ice and silt. In the spring, when the ice +melts, the silt is dropped to the bottom, which, combined with that +constantly deposited by the lakeshore currents, causes a greater +accumulation in winter than at any other season." + +These bars at the natural river-mouths have frequently not more than two +or three feet of water; and some of them have entirely closed up the +entrance, although at a short distance inside there may be a depth of +from twelve to fifteen or even twenty feet of water. + +The channels of these rivers have also a tendency to be deflected from +their courses, on entering the lake, by the shore-currents, which, +driven before the prevailing winds, bend the channel off at right +angles, and, carrying it parallel with the lake-shore, form a long spit +of sand between the river and the lake. + +Thus, in constructing an artificial harbor at one of these river-mouths, +the first object to be aimed at is to prevent the further formation of a +bar; and the second, to deepen and improve the river-channel. The former +is attained by running out piers into the lake from the mouth of the +river; and the latter, by the use of a dredge-boat, to cut through the +obstructions. + +These piers are formed of a line of cribs, built of timber, and loaded +with stone to keep them in place, and enable them to resist the action +of the waves. They are usually built about twenty or twenty-five feet +wide, and from thirty to forty feet long. They are strengthened by +cross-ties of timber, uniting together the outward walls of the crib. +Piles are usually driven down into the clay, inside of these cribs, and +they are covered with a deck or flooring of plank. As the action of the +currents is constantly tending to remove the bed on which the cribs +rest, and thus cause them to tilt over, their bottoms are constructed +in a sort of open lattice-work, with openings large enough to allow the +stones with which they are loaded to drop through and supply the place +of the earth which is washed away. + +The effect of these piers is to concentrate and deepen the +river-channel, and to retard the formation of bars, though they do not +wholly prevent it. In the spring it is often necessary to employ the +services of a steam-dredge-boat to cut through the bar, before vessels +can pass out. + +The portion of these cribs above water is found not to last more than +ten or fifteen years; so that it is now recommended to replace them with +piers of stone masonry, wherever the material is easy of access. + +As to the cause of the shore-currents which produce this mischief, Col. +Graham says, in one of his Reports,-- + +"The great power which operates to produce the littoral or shore +currents of the lake is the prevailing winds; just as the great ocean +current called the Gulf Stream is produced by the trade-winds. The +first-mentioned phenomenon is but a miniature demonstration of the same +principle which is more boldly shown in the other. The wind, acting +in its most prevalent lakeward direction, combined with this littoral +current, produces the great power which is constantly forming sand-bars +and shoals at all the harbor-entrances on our extensive lake-coasts. To +counteract the effect of this great power, upon a given point, is what +we have chiefly to contend for in planning the harbor-piers for all the +lake-ports intended to be improved. The point which an engineer first +aims at, in undertaking to plan any of these harbor-works, is to +ascertain as nearly as possible the direction and force of the +prevailing winds." + +The length of the Chicago piers is as follows:--North pier, 3900 feet +long, 24 feet wide; south pier, 1800 feet long, 24 feet wide; and they +are placed 200 feet apart. + +Harbors of this kind have been constructed at Chicago, Waukegan, +Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Manitoowoc, Michigan City, and +St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan; at Clinton River, on Lake St. Clair; at +Monroe, Sandusky, Huron, Vermilion, Black River, Cleveland, Grand River, +Ashtabula, Conneaut, Erie, Dunkirk, and Buffalo, on Lake Erie; at Oak +Orchard, Genesee River, Sodus Bay, Oswego, and Ogdensburg, on Lake +Ontario. + +For Lakes Huron and Superior it is believed that no appropriations have +been made, the scanty population of their shores not seeming as yet +to demand it, and those two lakes having in their numerous groups of +islands more natural shelter for vessels than Michigan or Erie. + +Besides these river-harbors, Col. Graham recommends to Government the +construction at certain points on the lakes of sheltered roadsteads, or +harbors of refuge, to which vessels may run for shelter in bad weather, +when it may be difficult or dangerous to enter the river-mouths. These +are proposed to be made by building breakwaters of crib-work, loaded +with stone, and extending along the shore in a sufficient depth of water +to admit vessels riding easily at anchor under their lee. Many lives +and much property would undoubtedly be saved every year by such +constructions; for it is a difficult matter for a vessel to enter these +narrow rivers in a heavy gale of wind, and if she misses the entrance, +she is very likely to go ashore. + +Another very important work to the navigation of the lakes is the +deepening of the channel in Lake St. Clair. + +Between Lakes Huron and Erie lies Lake St. Clair, a shallow sheet of +water, some twenty miles in length, through which all the trade of the +Upper Lakes is obliged to pass. At the mouth of the river which connects +this lake with Huron, there is a delta of mud flats, with numerous +channels, which in their deepest parts have not more than ten feet of +water, and would be utterly impassable, were not the bottom of a soft +and yielding mud, which permits the passage of vessels through it, under +the impulse of steam or a strong wind. + +Mr. James L. Barton, a gentleman long connected with the lake-commerce, +thus wrote some years ago upon this subject to the Hon. Robert +McClelland, then chairman of the House Committee on Commerce:-- + +"These difficulties are vastly increased from the almost impassable +condition of the flats in Lake St. Clair. Here steamboats and vessels +are daily compelled in all weather to lie fast aground, and shift their +cargoes, passengers, and luggage into lighters, exposing life, health, +and property to great hazard, and then by extraordinary heaving and +hauling are enabled to get over. Indeed, so bad has this passage become, +that one of the largest steamboats, after lying two or three days on +these flats, everything taken from her into lighters, was unable, with +the powerful aid of steam and everything else she could bring into +service, to pass over; she was obliged to give her freight and +passengers to a smaller boat, abandon the trip, and return to Buffalo. +Other vessels have been compelled not only to take out all their +cargoes, but even their chains and anchors have been stripped from them, +before they could get over. To meet this difficulty as far as possible, +the commercial men around these lakes have imposed a tax upon their +shipping, to dredge out and deepen the channel through these flats." + +Col. Graham, in one of his Reports to the Department, writes as follows +upon the importance of this improvement in a military point of view:-- + +"Since the opening of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal, the only obstacle to +the co-operation of armed fleets, which in time of war would be placed +upon Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, with that which would be on +Lake Erie, is at St. Clair flats. That obstacle removed, and a depth +of channel of twelve feet obtained there, which might be increased to +sixteen or eighteen feet by dredging, war-steamers of the largest +class which would probably be placed on these lakes would have a free +navigation from Buffalo at the foot of Lake Erie to Fond du Lac of Lake +Superior. + +"It would be very important that these fleets should have the power of +concentration, either wholly or in part, at certain important points now +rendered impracticable by these intervening flats. It would no doubt +often be important as a measure of naval tactics alone. It would as +often, again, be equally necessary in coöperating with our land-forces. +It might even become necessary to depend on the navy to transport our +land-forces rapidly from one point to another on different sides of the +flats. + +"When a work like this subserves the double purpose of military defence +in times of war, and of promoting the interests of commerce between +several of the States of the Union in time of peace, it would seem to +have an increased claim to the attention of the General Government. If +any work of improvement can be considered national in its character, +the improvement of St. Clair flats, in the manner proposed, may, it is +submitted, justly claim to be placed in that category." + +The plan proposed by the United States Engineers for this improvement is +to construct two parallel piers of about four thousand feet long, as a +permanent protection to the channel-way, and to dredge out a channel +between these piers, six hundred feet wide and twelve feet deep. The +cost of this work is estimated at about $533,000. This may seem a large +sum of money; but when it is considered that the value of the commerce +which passed over these flats in the year 1855 was ascertained by +Col. Graham to be over two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, or +considerably more than the whole exports of the Southern States for the +year 1860, more than a million of dollars per day during the period of +navigation, and that the increased charge on freights by reason of this +obstruction is more than two millions of dollars per annum, which of +course has to be paid by the producer, the investment of one quarter of +that annual charge in a work which would do away with the tax might seem +to be a measure of economy. + +To show the importance of these lake-harbors, and the vast amount of +commerce which depends upon them, and which has grown up within the last +twenty years, we will give an extract from another of Col. Graham's very +interesting Reports, upon the Chicago harbor. + +"The present vast extent and rapidly increasing growth of the commerce +of Chicago render it a matter of absolute necessity, in which not +only Illinois, but also a number of her neighboring States are deeply +interested, that her harbor should be kept in the best and most secure +state of improvement, so as always to afford, during the season of +navigation, a safe and easy entrance and departure for vessels drawing +at least twelve feet water. + +"The States which are thus directly interested in the port of Chicago +are New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, +Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The shores of all these are washed either by +Lake Michigan or the other Great Lakes, with which Chicago has a direct +and very extensive commerce through the St. Clair flats. The other +States and Territories, which do not reach to the Great Lakes, but which +are nevertheless greatly interested in the preservation of Chicago +harbor, are Iowa and Missouri, and Nebraska and Kansas. A very large +portion of the wheat and other grain produced in those last-mentioned +States and Territories will be brought by railroads to the port of +Chicago, to be shipped thence to the Eastern Atlantic markets. + +"The average amount of duties received annually at the Chicago +custom-house for three years, 1853, '54, and '55, was $377,797.86. The +imports at Chicago for 1855 were,-- + + By lake shipment, $100,752,304.41 + " Illinois and Michigan Canal, 7,426,262.35 + " Railroads, 68,481,497.90 + + Total imports in 1855, $196,660,064.66 + +_Exports_. + + By lake shipment, $34,817,716.32 + " Canal, 79,614,042.70 + " Railroads, 98,521,262.86 + ---------------- + Total value of exports in 1855, $212,953,021.88 + +"Aggregate value of imports and exports at Chicago in the year 1855, +$409,613,086.54.[B] + +[Footnote B: This is more than half of the value of all the exports and +imports of the Union in the year 1860, King Cotton included.] + +"These statistics have been obtained by much labor and perseverance, +with a view to the strictest accuracy. The result has amply justified +the labor; for the published statistics of this commerce, which have +gone forth to the country through the newspaper-press of the city, fall +far short of its actual extent. On discovering this fact, I felt it to +be a matter of duty to obtain the information directly from the only +authentic sources, namely, the custom-house, mercantile, and warehouse +records. + +"Such are the claims which, in a civil point of view, are presented in +behalf of the preservation of this harbor. + +"There is still another, of not less magnitude, which is exclusively +national. It is the influence it would have on the military defence of +this part of our frontier, and the success of our arms in time of war. A +single glance at the general map of the United States will be sufficient +to show the importance of Chicago as a military position in conducting +our operations in defence of our northwestern frontier in time of war. + +"The great depth to which Lake Michigan here penetrates into a populous +and fertile country totally devoid of fortifications would constitute an +irresistible inducement to an enemy to aim with all his strength at this +point, should he find it divested of any of the chief means of defence +which are by all nations accorded to maritime ports of chief importance, +He would find Chicago very much in such a state of weakness, if the +harborworks here are allowed to fall into a dilapidated condition; for +then our naval force would not itself be secure in hovering about this +port, or in cruising in its immediate vicinity for purposes of military +defence. There is scarcely a week in the year that a fleet might not +have occasion to take refuge from the lake-gales in a safe harbor. +Deprived of this advantage, the only resort would be to take the open +sea, and there buffet out the storms. On their subsiding, this defensive +fleet, on attempting to resume its proper position, might find it +occupied by an enemy, with all the advantages, in a combat, which ought +to be secured to our side. + +"An enemy, once possessing this harbor, could by a powerful fleet cover +the landing of an army in pursuit of the conquest of territory, or +designing to lay heavy pecuniary contributions upon the inhabitants. +Peace is the proper time to prepare against such a catastrophe, and the +protection of the harbor is the first element in the military defence +that should be attended to. With the harbor secured permanently in good +condition, the port of Chicago, through the enterprise of the people +of Illinois and the surrounding States, will possess the elements of +military strength in perhaps a greater degree than any other seaport in +the Union. + +"The immense reticulation of railroads, amounting to an aggregate length +of 2720 miles, which are tributary to this port, now daily brings into +Chicago the vast amount of agricultural produce exhibited in our tables. +These are their peace-offerings to other nations. In the emergency of +war, however, these railroads could in a single day concentrate at +Chicago troops enough for any military campaign, even if designed to +cover our whole northwestern lake-frontier. Besides this, they would be +the means of bringing here, daily, the munitions of war, and, above all, +the necessary articles of subsistence and forage, to sustain an army of +any magnitude, and to keep it in activity throughout any period that +the war might last. In other words, Chicago would be in time of war the +chief _point d'appui_ of military operations in the Northwest." + +In regard to the military importance of the command of the Great Lakes, +history ought to teach us a lesson. At the breaking out of the War of +1812, this matter had been entirely neglected by our Government, in +spite of the earnest appeals of the officer in command in this quarter. +The consequence was the utter failure of the campaign against Canada, +and the capture of the principal posts in the Northwest by the British, +who had provided a naval force here, small, indeed, but sufficient where +there was no opponent. It was not until the naval force organized by +Commodore Perry swept the British from Lake Erie that General Harrison +was able to recover the lost territory. From these considerations, the +importance of strong fortifications in the Straits of Mackinac, to +command the entrance of our Mediterranean, would seem to be evident. + +The early advocates in Congress of these lake-improvements had to +encounter a very violent opposition from various quarters. + +First, the abstractionists of the Virginia school--men who "would cavil +for the ninth part of a hair"--affirmed in general terms, that this +Government was established with the view of regulating our external +affairs, leaving all internal matters to be regulated by the States; and +then, descending to particulars, declared, that, while Congress had the +power to make improvements on salt water, it could do nothing on fresh. +Furthermore, they argued, that, to give the power of spending money, the +water must ebb and flow, and that the improvement must be below a port +of entry, and not above. Another refinement of the Richmond sophists +was this:--If a river be already navigable, Congress has the power to +improve it, because it can "regulate" commerce; but if a sand-bar at +its mouth prevents vessels from passing in or out, Congress cannot +interfere, because that would be "creating," and not "regulating." +Other Southern orators and their Northern followers denounced these +appropriations as a system of plunder and an attack upon Southern +rights, forgetting the fact, that, in these harbor and coast +appropriations, the South, with a much smaller commerce than the North, +had always claimed the larger share of expenditure. Thus, from 1825 to +1831, + + New England received $ 327,563.21 + The Middle States, including + the Lakes, 982,145.20 + The South and Southwest 2,233,813.18 + +Others joined in this opposition, from ignorance of the great commerce +growing up on the lakes; and frequently, where bills have been passed by +Congress, Southern influence has caused the Executive to veto them. In +spite of all these obstacles, however, this great interest forced itself +upon the attention of the country; and in July, 1847, a Convention, +composed of delegates from eighteen States, met in Chicago, to concert +measures for obtaining from Government the necessary improvements for +Western rivers and harbors. This body sent an able memorial to Congress, +and the result has been that larger appropriations have since been made. +Still, however, much remains to be done, and it appears by the last +Report of Colonel Graham, that his estimates for necessary work on lake +harbors and roadsteads amount to nearly three millions of dollars, to +which half a million should be added for the improvement of St. Clair +flats, making an aggregate of three and a half millions of dollars, +which is much needed at this time, for the safe navigation of the lakes. + +It may be remarked, in tins connection, that the lakes, with their +tributary streams, are furnished with nearly a hundred light-houses, +four or five of which are revolving, and the remainder fixed +lights,--Lake Ontario having eight, Lake Erie twenty-three, Lake St. +Clair two, Lake Huron nine, Lake Michigan thirty-two, and Lake Superior +fourteen. + +When we say that Chicago exports thirty millions of bushels of grain, +and is the largest market in the world, many persons doubtless believe +that these are merely Western figures of speech, and not figures of +arithmetic. Let us, then, compare the exports of those European cities +winch have confessedly the largest corn-trade with those of Chicago. + + 1854. Bushels of Grain. + Odessa, on the Black Sea, 7,040,000 + Galatz and Bruilow, do., 8,320,000 + Dantzic, on the Baltic, 4,408,000 + Riga, do., 4,000,000 + St. Petersburg, Gulf of Finland, 7,200,000 + Archangel, on the White Sea, 9,528,000 + ---------- + 40,496,000 + + Chicago, 1860, 30,000,000 + +or three-quarters of the amount of grain shipped by the seven largest +corn-markets in Europe; and if we add to the shipments from Chicago the +amount from other lake-ports last year, the aggregate will be found to +exceed the shipments of those European cities by ten to twenty millions +of bushels. Will any one doubt that the granary of the world is in the +Mississippi Valley? + +The internal commerce of the country, as it exists on the lakes, +rivers, canals, and railroads, is not generally appreciated. It goes on +noiselessly, and makes little show in comparison with the foreign trade; +but its superiority may be seen by a few comparisons taken from a speech +of the Hon. J.A. Rockwell, in Congress, in 1846. + + In the year 1844, the value of + goods transported on the New + York Canals was..... $92,750,874 + + The whole exports of the country + in 1844......... 99,716,179 + + The imports and exports of Cleveland + the same year amounted + to the sum of...... $11,195,703 + + The whole Mediterranean and + South American trade, in 1844, + amounted to....... 11,202,548 + +And if, as we have shown, the trade of one of these lake-ports, in 1855, +amounted to over four hundred millions, we may safely claim that the +whole lake-commerce in 1860 exceeds the entire foreign trade of the +United States. + +A few statistics of the lake-steamboats may not he uninteresting. They +are taken from Mr. Barton's letter, above referred to. + +"The 'New York Mercantile Advertiser,' of May--, 1819, contained the +following notice:-- + +"'The swift steamboat Walk-in-the-Water is intended to make a voyage +early in the summer from Buffalo, on Lake Erie, to Michilimackinac, +on Lake Huron, for the conveyance of company. The trip has so near a +resemblance to the famous Argonautic expedition in the heroic ages of +Greece, that expectation is quite alive on the subject. Many of our most +distinguished citizens are said to have already engaged their passage +for this splendid adventure.' + +"Her speed may be judged from the fact that it took her ten days to make +the trip from Buffalo to Detroit and back, and the charge was eighteen +dollars. + +"In 1826 or '27, the majestic waters of Lake Michigan were first +ploughed by steam,--a boat having that year made an excursion with a +pleasure-party to Green Bay. These pleasure-excursions were annually +made by two or three boats, till the year 1832. This year, the +necessities of the Government requiring the transportation of troops and +supplies for the Indian war then existing, steamboats were chartered by +the Government, and made their first appearance at Chicago, then an open +roadstead, in which they were exposed to the full sweep of northerly +storms the whole length of Lake Michigan. + +"In 1833, eleven steamboats were employed on the lakes, which carried in +that year 61,485 passengers, and only two trips were made to Chicago. +Time of the round trip, twenty-five days. + +"In 1834, eighteen boats were upon the lakes, and three trips were made +to Chicago. The lake-business now increased so much, that in 1839 a +regular line of eight boats was formed to run from Buffalo to Chicago. + +"In 1840, the number of steamboats on the lakes was forty-eight. +Cabin-passage from Buffalo to Chicago, twenty dollars." + +About 1850 was the height of steamboat-prosperity on the lakes. There +was at that time a line of sixteen first-class steamers from Buffalo to +Chicago, leaving each port twice a day. The boats were elegantly fitted +up, usually carried a band of music, and the table was equal to that +of most American hotels. They usually made the voyage from Buffalo to +Chicago in three or four days, and the charge was about ten dollars. +They went crowded with passengers, four or five hundred not being an +uncommon number, and their profits must have been large. The building of +railroads from East to West, such as the Michigan Central and Southern +lines, and the Lake Shore and Great Western, soon took away the +passenger-business, and the propellers could carry freight at lower +rates than those expensive side-wheel boats could pretend to do. So they +have gradually disappeared from these waters, until at present their +number is very small, compared with what it was ten years ago, while +the number of screw-propellers is increasing yearly, as well as that of +sail-vessels. + +Great as is this lake-commerce now, it is still but in its infancy. The +productive capacities of most of the States which border upon these +waters are only beginning to be developed. If in twenty-five years the +trade has grown to its present proportions, what may be expected from it +in twenty-five years more? + +The secession of the Gulf States from the Union, and the closing of the +Mississippi to the products of the Northwest, could we suppose such a +state of things to be possible, would still more clearly show the value +of the lake-route to the ocean. + +Run the line of 36° 30' across the continent from sea to sea, and build +a wall upon it, if you will, higher than the old wall of China, and the +Northern Confederacy will contain within itself every element of wealth +and prosperity. Commerce and agriculture, manufactures and mines, +forests and fisheries,--all are there. + + + + +THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS YOUNG. + + +At Munich, last summer, I made the acquaintance of M---y, the famous +painter. I had heard much of him during my stay there, and of his +eccentricities. Just then it was quite the mode to circulate stories +about him, and I listened to so many which were incredible that I was +seized with an irresistible desire to meet him. I took, certainly, a +roundabout way to accomplish this. M---y had a horror of forming new +acquaintances,--so it was said. He fled from letters of introduction +coming in the ordinary way, as from the plague. Neither prince nor +noble could win his intimacy or tempt him out of the pale of his daily +routine. We are most eager in the pursuit of what is forbidden. I became +the more determined to make M---y's acquaintance, the more difficult it +seemed. After revolving the matter carefully, I wrote to America to my +intimate friend R., who I knew had subdued "the savage," as M---y was +sometimes called, and begged him to put me in the way of getting hold +of the strange fellow. In four or five weeks I received an answer. +R. simply inclosed me his own card with the painter's name in pencil +written on it,--advising me to go to the artist's house, deliver the +card in person, and trust the result to fortune. Now I had heard, as +before intimated, all sorts of stories about M---y. He was a bachelor, +at least fifty years old. He lived by himself, as was reported,--in +a superb house in an attractive part of the town. Gossip circulated +various tales about its interior. Sometimes he reigned a Sardanapalus; +at other times, a solitary queen graced but a temporary throne. He was +addicted to various vices. He played high, lost generally large sums, +and was in perpetual fear of the bailiffs. It was even reported that a +royal decree had been issued to exempt so extraordinary a genius from +ordinary arrest. In short, scarcely anything extravagant in the category +of human occurrences was omitted in the daily changing detail of the +scandal-loving society of Magnificent Munich. Only, no one ever imputed +a mean or dishonorable thing to M---y; but for the rest, there was +nothing he did not do or permit to be done. He painted when he liked and +what he liked. His compositions, whether of landscape or history, were +eagerly snatched up at extravagant prices,--for M---y was always +exorbitant in his demands. Besides, when he chose, M---y painted +portraits,--never on application, nor for the aristocracy or the +rich,--but as the mood seized him, of some subject that attracted him +while on his various excursions, or of some of his friends. Yet who +_were_ his friends? Could any one tell? I could not find a person who +claimed to know him intimately. Everybody had something to praise him +for: "But it was such a pity that"--and here would follow one of the +thousand bits of gossip which were floating about and had been floating +for years, I had seen M---y often,--for he was no recluse, and could be +met daily in the streets. His general appearance so fascinated me that +the desire to know the man led me to adopt the course I have just +mentioned. So much by way of explanation. + +And now, furnished with the card and the advice contained in my friend +R.'s letter, I proceeded one afternoon to the ---- Strasse, and sought +admittance. A decent-looking servant-woman opened the door, and to my +inquiry replied that Herr M---y was certainly at home, but whether +engaged or not she could not answer. She ushered me into a small +apartment on my right, which seemed intended for a reception-room. I was +about sending some kind of message to the master of the house, for I did +not like to trust the magic card out of my possession, when I heard a +door open and shut at the end of the hall, and the quick, nervous step +of a along the passage. Seeing the servant standing by the door, M---y, +for it was he, walked toward it and presented himself bodily before me. +He wore a cap and dressing-gown, and looked vexed, but not ill-natured, +on seeing me. I was much embarrassed, and, forgetting what I had +proposed to say to him, I put R.'s card into his hand without a word. +His eye lighted up instantly. + +"You are from America?--You are welcome!--How is my friend?" were words +rapidly enunciated. "Come with me,--leave your hat there,--so!"--and +we mounted a flight of stairs, passed what I perceived to be a fine +_salon_, then through a charming, domestic-looking apartment into one +still smaller, around the walls of which hung three portraits. Portraits +did I say? I can employ no other name,--but so life-like and so human, +my first impression was that I was entering a room where were three +living people. + +"Never you mind these," exclaimed M---y, pleasantly, "but sit down +there," pointing to a large _fauteuil_, "and tell me when you reached +Munich, and if you will stay some time: then I can judge better how to +do for you." + +My face flushed, for I felt guilty at the little fraud I seemed to have +practised on him. I hesitated only an instant, and then frankly told him +the truth: how it was eighteen months since I left America; how I had +been three months in Munich already; how, hearing so much about him +and observing him frequently in the streets, I became anxious for his +acquaintance, and had written to R. accordingly. + +The man has the face of a child: cloud and sunshine pass rapidly over +it. Pleasure and chagrin, sometimes anger, oftener joy, flit across +it, swiftly as the flashing of a meteor. While I was making this +explanation, he looked at me with a searching scrutiny,--at first +angrily, then sadly, as if he were going to cry; but when I finished, he +took my hand in both of his, and said, very seriously,-- + +"You are welcome just the same." + +Soon he commenced laughing: the oddity of the affair was just beginning +to strike him. After conversing awhile, he said,-- + +"Ah, we shall like each other,--shall we not? Where do you stay? You +shall come and live with me. But will that content you? Have you seen +enough of the outside of Munich?" + +I really knew not what to make of so unexpected a demonstration. Should +I accept his invitation, so entirely a stranger as I was? Why not? M---y +was in earnest; he meant what he said; yet I hesitated. + +"You need feel no embarrassment," he said, kindly. "I really want you to +come,--unless, indeed, it is not agreeable to you." + +"A thousand thanks!" I exclaimed,--"I will come." + +"Not a single one," said M---y. "Go and arrange affairs at your hotel, +and make haste back for dinner: it will be served in an hour." + +The next day I was domesticated in M---y's house. + +I have not the present design to give any account of him. Should the +reader find anything in what is written to interest or attract, it is +possible that in a future number a chapter may be devoted to the great +artist of Munich. Now, however, I remark simply, that the gossip and +strange stories and incidents and other _et ceteras_ told of him proved +to be ridiculous creations, with scarcely a shadow to rest on, having +their inception in M---y's peculiarities,--peculiarities which +originated from an entire and absolute independence of thought and +manner and conduct. A grown-up man in intellect, experience, and +sagacity,--a child in simplicity and feeling, and in the effect produced +by the forms and ceremonies and conventionalities of life: these seemed +always to astonish him, and he never, as he said, could understand why +people should live with masks over their faces, when they would breathe +so much freer and be so much more at their ease by taking them off. This +was the man who invited me to come to his house,--and who would not have +given the invitation, had he not wanted me to accept it. + +I have spoken of three paintings which excited my attention the day I +paid my first visit. These were masterpieces,--three portraits, not +life-like, but life itself. They did not attract by the perpetual +stare of the eyes following one, whichever way one turned, as in many +pictures; in these the eyes were not thrown on the spectator. One +portrait was that of a man of at least fifty: an intellectual head; +eyes, I know not what they were,--fierce, defiant, hardly human, but +earthly, devilish; a mouth repulsive to behold, in its eager, absorbing, +selfish expression. Another,--the same person evidently: the same clear +breadth and development of brain, but a subdued and almost heavenly +expression of the eyes, while the mouth was quite a secondary feature, +scarcely disagreeable. The third was the likeness of a young girl, +beautiful, even to perfection. What character, what firmness, what power +to love could be read in those features! What hate, what revulsion, what +undying energy for the true and the right were there! A fair, young +creation,--so fair and so young, it seemed impossible that her destiny +should be an unhappy one: yet her destiny was unhappy. The shadow on the +brow, the melancholy which softened the clear hazel eye, the slightest +possible compression of the mouth, said,--"_Destined to misfortune!_" +Were these actual portraits of living persons, or at least of persons +who had lived? Was there any connection between the man with two faces +and two lives and the maiden with an unhappy destiny? After I became +better acquainted with M---y, I asked him the question, and in reply he +told me the following story, which I now give as nearly as possible in +his own words. + + * * * * * + +Many years ago, in one of my excursions, I came to Baden-Baden. It was a +favorite resort for me, because I found there so many varieties of the +human countenance, and I liked to study them. One evening I was in the +Conversation-Haus, looking at the players at _rouge-et-noir_. At one end +of the table I saw seated a man apparently past fifty; around him were +three or four young fellows of twenty or twenty-five. It is nothing +unusual to see old men at the gaming-table,--quite the contrary. But +this person's head and forehead gave the lie to his countenance, and +I stopped to regard him. While I was doing so, his eyes met mine. +I suppose my gaze was earnest; for his eyes instantly fell, but, +recovering, he returned my look with a stare so impudently defiant that +I directed my attention at once elsewhere. Ever and anon, however, I +would steal a glance at this person,--for there was something in his +looks which fascinated me. He entered with gusto into the game, won +and lost with a good-natured air, yet so premeditated, so, in fact, +_youthfully-old_, I felt a chill pass over me while I was looking at +him. Later in the evening I encountered him again. It was in the public +room of my own hotel, at supper. He was drinking Rhine-wine with the +same young men who were with him at _rouge-et-noir_. The tone of the +whole company was boisterous, and became more so as each fresh bottle +was emptied. The young fellows were very noisy, but impulsively so. The +man also was turbulent and inclined to be merry in the extreme; but as +I watched his eye, I shuddered, for there enthroned was a permanent +expression indicating _a consciousness in every act which he committed_. +Once again our eyes met, and I turned away and left the apartment. +During my walk half an hour afterwards, I encountered the same party, +still more excited and hilarious, in company with some women, whose +character it was not easy to mistake. As I passed, the Unknown brushed +close by me, and again his glance met my own. He seemed half-maddened +by my curious look, which he could not but perceive, and, as I thought, +made use of some insulting expression. I took no notice of it, but +passed on my way, and saw him no more during my stay in the place. + +From Baden I made an excursion into Switzerland. I was stopping at a +pleasant village in the romantic neighborhood of the Bernese Alps. One +afternoon I took a walk of several miles in a new direction. I left the +road and pursued a path used only by pedestrians, which shortened the +distance to another village not far off. A little way from this path was +erected a small chapel, and in a niche stood an image of Christ, well +executed in fine white marble. The work was so superior to the rude +designs we find throughout the country that I stopped to examine it. +I was amply repaid. In place of the painful-looking Christ on the +Cross,--too often a mere caricature,--the image was that of the Youthful +Saviour,--mild, benignant, forgiving. In his left palm, which was not +extended, but held near his person, rested a globe, which he seemed to +regard with a heavenly love and compassion, and the effect on me was so +impressive that the words came impulsively to my lips,--"_I am the light +of the world_." + +For several minutes I stood regarding with intense admiration this +beautiful exhibition of the Saviour of Sinners. Presently, I saw the +door of the chapel was open. Should I look in? I did so. What did +I behold? The individual I had seen at Baden,--the gamester, the +bacchanal, the debauchee! Now, how changed! He was kneeling at a +tomb,--the only one in the chapel. The setting sun fell directly on his +features. His fine brow seemed fairer and more intellectual than before. +His eyes were soft and subdued, and destitute of anything which could +partake of an earthly element. Even the mouth, which had so disgusted +me, was no longer disagreeable. Contrition, humility, an earnest, +sincere repentance, were tokens clearly to be read in every line of his +face. I took very quietly some steps backward, so as to quit the spot +unobserved, if possible. In doing so, I stumbled and fell over some +loose stones. The noise startled the stranger, who was, I think, about +to leave the chapel. He came forward just as I was recovering myself. We +stood close together, facing each other. A flush passed over the man's +face. He seized my arm and exclaimed fiercely,-- + +"What are you doing here?" + +Without appearing to recognize him, I hastened to explain that my +presence there was quite accidental, and it was in attempting to retreat +quietly, after discovering I was likely to prove an intruder, that my +falling over some stones had attracted his notice. Thus saying, and +bowing, I was about to proceed homeward, when the stranger suddenly +exclaimed,-- + +"Stop!" + +He came up close to me. Every trace of angry excitement had vanished. +Calm and self-possessed, but very mournfully, he said,-- + +"Are you willing I should put my arm in yours, and walk back with you +to the inn? I am alone,--and God above knows," he added, after a pause, +"how utterly so." + +I could only bow an assent, for this sudden exhibition of weakness was +annoying to me. My new acquaintance took my arm, much in the manner a +child would do, and we walked along together. + +"I am staying at the same house with you," he said, as we proceeded. +"Did you know it?" + +"No, I did not." + +"Yes," he continued,--"I saw you when you dismounted, and I knew you at +once. Don't you recognize me?" he inquired, sadly. + +"I do," was all I replied. + +"So much the better!" he went on. "I like your countenance,--nay, I love +to look at your face. You are a good man; do you know it? I suppose not: +the good are never conscious, and I should not tell you. Excuse my rude +approach just now: the Devil had for a moment dominion over me. Will you +remain here awhile? Shall we sit and be together? And will you--say, +will you talk with me?" + +I promised I would. My feelings, despite his miserable weakness, were +becoming interested, and in this manner we reached the inn. Then I +persuaded this strange person to sit down in my room, where I ordered +something comfortable provided for supper. In fact, I thought it the +best thing I could do for him. Very soon I gained his entire confidence. +After two or three days he exhibited to me a small portrait, exquisitely +painted, of a most lovely young girl, and permitted me to copy it. It is +one of the three which you see on the wall there. The others, I need not +add, are portraits of the man himself in the two moods I have described. +For his history, it teaches its lesson, and I shall tell it to you. He +narrated it to me the evening before he left the inn, where we spent two +weeks or more, and I have neither seen nor heard from him since. Seated +near me, in my room, he gave the following account of himself. + + * * * * * + +I was born in Frankfort. My parents had several children, all of whom +died in infancy except me. I was the youngest, and I lived through the +periods which had proved so fatal to the rest. The extraordinary care +of my mother, who watched me with a melancholy tenderness, no doubt +contributed to save a life which in boyhood, and indeed to a mature age, +was at the best a precarious one. My parents were respectable people, in +easy circumstances. I grew up selfish and effeminate, in consequence of +being so much indulged. I exhibited early a studious disposition, and it +was decided to give me an accomplished education, with reference to +my occupying, could I attain it at a future day, a chair in some +university. My mother was a very religious woman. From the first, she +had a morbid sense of the responsibility of bringing up a boy. She +believed my way to manhood was beset by innumerable temptations, almost +impossible to escape, difficult to be resisted, and absolutely ruinous +to my soul, if yielded to. She preached to me incessantly. She kept +me from the society of boys of my own age, for fear I should be +contaminated,--and from the approach of any of the other sex, lest my +mind should be diverted from serious matters and led into wantonness +and folly. She would have made a priest of me, had it not been for +my father;--he objected. His brother, for whom I was named, was a +distinguished professor, to whom I bore, as he thought, a close +resemblance, and he desired I should imitate him in my pursuits. I had +good abilities, and was neither inefficient nor wanting in resolution or +industry. At first I longed for natural life and society; but by degrees +habit helped me to endure, and finally to conquer. In fact, I was taught +that I was doing God service in cultivating an ascetic life. My studies +were pursued with success. I rapidly mastered what was placed before +me, and my relations were proud of my progress. At the usual period the +ordinary craving for female society became strong in me. My mother took +great pains to impress on me that here commenced my first struggle with +Satan, and, if I yielded, I should certainly and beyond all peradventure +become a child of the Devil. I was in a degree conscientious. I was +ambitious to attain to a holy life. I believed what my mother had from +my infancy labored so hard to inculcate, and I trod out with an iron +step every fresh rising emotion of my heart, every genuine passion of +my nature. But I suffered much. The imagination could not always be +subdued, and there were periods when. I felt that the "strong man armed" +had possession of me. Nevertheless his time was not come, and at length +the struggle was over. It was not that I had gained a laudable control +of myself; but, having crucified every rebellious thought, there was +nothing left for control. I had marked my victory by extermination. +To live was no joy; neither was it specially the reverse: a long, +monotonous, changeless platitude; yet no desire to quit the terrible +uniformity. + +I was forty years old. I had obtained my purpose. I was a learned +professor. As I gained in acquirements and reputation, I became more and +more laborious. My health, which had become quite firm, began to yield +under incessant application. I was advised, indeed commanded, by my +physician to take repose and recreation. I came here among the Alps. I +stopped at this very house. The season was fine, the inns were filled +with tourists, and great glee and hilarity prevailed. It was not without +its effect on me. By slow degrees, with returning health, the pulses +of life beat with what seemed an unnatural excitement. The world, as I +opened my eyes on it from the window of the inn, was for the first time +not without its attractions. I quieted myself with the idea, that, once +back with my books, my thoughts would flow in the regular channel; and I +called to mind something the physician had said about the necessity of +my being amused, and so forth, to quiet my conscience, which began to +reproach me for enjoying the small ray of sunlight which shone in on my +spirit. + +One day, in a little excursion with two or three gentlemen, I was +attracted by the beauty of a spot away from the travelled road. Leaving +my acquaintances resting under some trees to await my return, I strolled +by a narrow path, across the small valley, till I reached the wished-for +place. You know it already. It is where you beheld erected the Christ +and the Tomb. I was looking around with much admiration, when from the +opposite direction came some strolling Savoyards, with a species +of puppet, or _marionnette_, called by these people _Mademoiselle +Catherina._ Without waiting for my assent, the man stopped, and with +the aid of his wife arranged the machine and set _Catherina_ in motion, +accompanying the dance with a song of his own:-- + + "Ma commère, quand ja danse, + Mon cotillon, va-t-il bien? + Il va d'ici, il va de là , + Ha, ha, ha! + Ma commère, quand je danse," etc. + +I stopped and looked, and was amused. The music was rude, but wild, and +carried with it an _abandon_ of feeling. I avow to you, it stole upon +me, penetrating soul and body. How I wished I could, on the spot, throw +off the coil which surrounded me and wander away with these children of +the road! + +While I stood preoccupied and abstracted, I was roused by a low voice +pronouncing something,--I did not hear what,--and, coming to myself, I +saw standing before me, with her tambourine outstretched, a young girl, +fourteen or fifteen years old. She spoke again,--_"S'il vous plait, +Monsieur."_ Large, lustrous, beaming eyes were turned on me,--not +boldly, not with assurance, neither altogether bashfully,--but honestly +regarding me full in the face, questioning if, after being so attentive +a spectator, I were willing to bestow something. It was strange I had +not noticed this girl before. I had hardly perceived there were three +in the company. Now that I did observe her, I kept looking so earnestly +that I forgot to respond to her request. She was faultless in form and +physical development,--absolutely and unequivocally faultless. Her face, +though browned by constant exposure, was classically beautiful; the foot +and hand very small and delicate. Heavens! how every fibre in my frame +thrilled with an ecstatic emotion, as, for the first time in my life, I +was brought under the influence of female charms! My head swam, my eyes +grew dim,--I staggered. I think I should have fallen, had not the young +girl herself seized my arm and supported me. This brought me to myself. +I bestowed nothing on the strollers, but asked if they were coming to +the village. They answered in the affirmative; and telling them to come +and play at the inn where I was lodging, I hastily quitted the scene. + +Do not think I am in the least exaggerating in this narrative. God +knows, what I have to recount is sufficiently extraordinary. I hastened +homeward, my soul in a tumult. On a sudden, the labor of a lifetime was +destroyed, the opinions and convictions of a lifetime stultified and set +at nought. And how?--by what? By a strolling, vagrant Savoyard. Rather +by an exquisite specimen of God's handiwork in flesh and blood! And if +God's handiwork, why might I _not_ be roused and touched and thrilled +and entranced? Something within boldly, in fact audaciously, put that +question to me. + +I slept none that night. I was haunted by that form and face. I essayed +to be calm, and to compose myself to slumber. Impossible! For the moment +was swept away my past, with its dreary, lifeless forms, its ghostly +ceremonies, its masked shapes, its soulless, rayless, emotionless +existence. To awake and find life has been one grand error,--to awake +and know that youth and early manhood are gone, and that you have been +cheated of your honest and legitimate enjoyments,--to feel that Pleasure +might have wooed you gracefully when young, and when it would become +you to sacrifice at her shrine,--gods and fiends! I gnashed my teeth in +impotent rage,--I blasphemed,--I was mad! + +The morning brought to me composure. While I was dressing, I heard the +music of my Savoyards under the window. I did not trust myself to look +out; but, after breakfasting, I went into the street to search for them. + +I was not long unsuccessful, and was immediately recognized with a +profusion of nods and grimaces by the man and a coarse smile by the +woman, who prepared to set _Mademoiselle Catherina_ instantly at work. +The young girl took scarcely any notice of me. I bestowed some money +on the couple, and bade them go to the nearest wine-shop and procure +whatever they desired. They started off, quite willing, I thought, to +leave me alone with the girl. I lost no time. Going close to her, I +said,-- + +"You are not the child of these people?" + +"Alas, no, Monsieur!--I have neither father nor mother." + +"And no relations?" + +"No relations, Monsieur." + +"How long have you lived in this way?" + +"Almost always, I suppose. But I remember something many years ago--very +strange. I was all the time in one place,--such a beautiful spot, it +makes it hurt here," (putting her hand on her heart) "when I think of +that. Afterwards it was dark a long time. I do not remember any more." + +"And do you like to wander about in this way?" + +"Oh, no, Monsieur!--no, indeed!" + +"Would you be pleased to go to a nice home, and stay, as you say, all +the time in one place, and learn to read and write, and have friends to +love you and take care of you?" + +"Yes! oh, yes!" + +"Would you be afraid to go with me?" + +The young girl regarded me with a look of penetration which was +surprising, and replied calmly, but with some timidity,-- + +"No." + +"Then it shall be so," I said. + +I bade the child sit down and wait for my return, I took the direction +which the man and his wife had pursued, and found them already busily +engaged in the wine-shop, where they had purchased what for them was a +sumptuous entertainment. + +"You have stolen that girl," I exclaimed, with severity; "and I shall +have the matter investigated before the Syndic." + +They were not so frightened as I expected to see them, although a good +deal decomposed. + +"Monsieur mistakes," said the man. "It was we who saved the poor thing's +life, when the father and mother were put to death far away from here +in Hungary, and not a soul to take compassion on her. She was only four +years old; the prison-door was opened and her parents led to execution, +and she left to wander about until she should starve." + +I asked if they knew who her parents were. They did not, but were sure +they were people of distinction, condemned for political offences. This +was all I could learn. The child, they said, was in possession of no +relic which betrayed her name or origin. She only wore a small gold +medallion on which was engraved a youthful Christ,--the same in +design as you see erected near the tomb in yonder valley. It has been +faithfully copied. + +It was difficult to induce the couple to part with Eudora,--that was her +name. She was now useful to them, and her marvellous beauty began to +attract and brought additional coin to their collections, after the +performances of the _marionnette_. But I was resolved. I offered to the +strollers so large a sum in gold that they could not resist. It was +arranged on the spot. With very little ceremony they said "Good-bye" to +Eudora, and, taking the path over the mountain, in a few minutes were +out of sight. + +What a new, what a strange attitude for me! Could I believe in my own +existence? There I stood, a grave professor of the University of ----, +educated and trained in the discipline I have already explained to you. +There stood Eudora, just as perfect in form and feature as imagination +of poet ever pictured. + +My plan was formed on the spot, instantly. It was praiseworthy; but I +deserved no praise for it. A deep, engrossing selfishness, pervading +alike sense and spirit, actuated me. I had already brought under control +the fever of the previous day. I could reason calmly; but my conclusions +had reference only to my own gratification and my own happiness. I +regarded Eudora as mine,--my property,--literally belonging to me. I was +forty,--she not fifteen. Yet what was I to do with her? Recommend her +to the care of my mother, who was still alive? Certainly not; she would +then be lost to me. I had a cousin, a lady of high respectability, well +married, who resided in the same town in which I lived. She had no child +of her own; she had often spoken of adopting one. I frequently visited +her house; and when there, she never ceased to criticize me for leading +such an ascetic life. Here was an excellent opportunity for my new +charge. My cousin would be delighted to have the guardianship of such a +lovely creature. She would be as devoted to her as to an own child. She +would sympathize in my plans, and would be careful to train Eudora _for +me_. + +Such was the programme. It flashed on me and was definitely settled +before I had time to bid her follow me to the inn. She came +unhesitatingly, and as if she had confidence in my kind intentions. I +did not converse much with her, but, making hasty preparations, we left +the place and proceeded rapidly homeward. + +I was not disappointed. My cousin entered readily into my plans. She was +a really good person, seeing all things which she undertook through +the complacent medium of duty. This was, she thought, such a fortunate +incident! It gave her what she had long desired, and it would serve to +distract me from the wretched life I had always led. Thereupon Eudora +was installed in her new home, where she found father and mother in my +cousin and her husband, where her education was commenced and got on +fast. She had a quick intellect, instinctively seizing what was most +important and rapidly forming conclusions. How, day by day, I witnessed +the development of her mind! How I watched every new play of the +emotions! How I saw with a beating heart, as she advanced toward +womanhood, fresh charms displayed and additional beauty manifested! I +shall not tire you with a prolonged narrative of how I enjoyed, month +after month, for more than two years, the society of Eudora, +during which time she made satisfactory advances in education and +accomplishment and attained in grace and loveliness the absolute +perfection of womanhood. + +And what, during this period, were my relations with Eudora?--what were +her feelings toward me? I approach the subject with pain. I look back +now on those feelings and on my conduct with an abhorrence and disgust +which I cannot describe. From the first she trusted to me with implicit +confidence. Discriminating in an extraordinary degree, her gratitude +prevented her perceiving my real character. She gave me credit for +absolute, unqualified, disinterested benevolence in rescuing her from +the wretched and precarious condition of a vagrant. Thus she set about +in her own mind to adorn me with every virtue. I was magnanimous, noble, +unselfish, truthful, brave, the soul of honor, incapable of anything +mean or petty. How often has she told me this, holding my hand in hers, +looking full in my face, her own beaming with honest enthusiasm! How my +soul literally shrank within me! How like a guilty wretch I felt to +hear these words! How I wished I could be all Eudora pictured me! How +I essayed to act the part! How careful I was lest ever my real nature +should disclose itself! Even when, despite my efforts, something did +transpire to excite an instant's question, she put it aside at once by +giving an interpretation to it worthy of me. Now, what was I to do? +Eudora had reached a marriageable age. She had seen but little of +society, though by no means living a recluse. My cousin had watched +carefully over her, and was to her, indeed, all a mother could be. I had +remained perfectly tranquil, secure, as I supposed, in her affections. I +thought I had but to wait till the proper period should arrive and then +take her to myself. + +My cousin, as I have intimated, understood my views. It was therefore +with no sort of perturbation, that, one day, I heard her ask me to +step into her little sitting-room in order to converse about Eudora. +I supposed she was going to tell me that it was time we were +married,--indeed, I thought so myself. I was therefore very much +astonished when she commenced by saying that I ought now to begin to +treat Eudora as a young lady, especially if I expected ever to win her +hand. I turned deadly pale, and asked her what she meant. + +"I mean," she replied, "that you ought to act toward Eudora as men +generally act who wish to win a fair lady. Do not deceive yourself with +the idea that she loves you. She would tell you she did in a moment, if +you asked her,--and wonder, besides, why you thought it necessary to put +the question. But she knows nothing about it. The thought of becoming +your wife never enters her head, and you would frighten her, if you +spoke to her on such a subject. No, my cousin; it is time you behaved +as other men behave. Eudora is grateful to you beyond expression. She +believes you to be perfect; and you seem content to sit and let her tell +you so, when you ought to be a manly wooer." + +I will not detail the remarks of my cousin. She talked with me at least +two hours. I was perfectly confounded by what she said. I began to hate +her for the ridiculous advice she gave me. I put it down to a curious, +meddlesome nature. I grew vexed, too, with Eudora, because my cousin +said she did not love me. I did not reflect that I had done nothing +to excite love. I had drawn perpetually on a heart overflowing and +grateful,--selfish caitiff that I was! This, however, I did not then +understand,--so completely were my eyes blinded! + +I left my cousin in a petulant spirit, and sought Eudora. She saw I +was troubled, and asked me the cause. I told her. A shadow, a dark, +portentous shadow, suddenly clouded her face;--as suddenly it passed +away, giving place to a look of sharp, painful agony, which was +succeeded by a return of something like her natural expression. Then she +scrutinized my face calmly, critically. All this did not occupy half a +minute. Ere one could say it had been, Eudora was apparently the same as +ever. God alone knows all which in that half-minute rose in that young +girl's heart. She took my hand; she reproached me for my apparent +distrust of her; she said she was mine to love and to honor me forever. +She would go at once to her mother--so she called my cousin--and tell +her so. Thus saying, she left me. And I--I did not then understand +the struggle and the victory of the poor girl over herself. I did not +reflect that no maidenly blush, no charming confusion, announced my +happy destiny,--no kiss, no caress, no sign that the heart's citadel had +surrendered; but, instead, a calmness, a composure, and a hastening from +my presence. No, I thought nothing of this; I only considered that now +the time was at hand when Eudora would be mine! + +_I married her._ It was but three weeks after this conversation. I was +in haste, and Eudora herself seemed desirous that the day should be an +early one. My cousin was amazed. I enjoyed her discomfiture; for she did +not relish the thought that I should thus set at nought her advice and +overturn her theory. She shook her head,--she attempted a protest,--and +then began zealously the preparations for the wedding. + +I wish I could give you some clear idea of the wife I had gained, +some slight notion of the happiness and delight and bliss in which I +revelled,--that is, if a man purely and unutterably selfish has a right +to call that happiness--which he enjoys. Eudora lived only for me. She +rose, she sat, she came, she went only to pleasure me. She had +one thought, one idea: it was for me. And what was my return? +Nothing,--absolutely and literally nothing. I accepted every service, +every sweet, loving token, every delicate act of devotion, as something +to which I was entitled,--as my right. Forty-four years old, a life with +one idea, a narrow, selfish, overbearing nature, ministered to by such a +creature, noble, lovely, true, with eighteen years of life! + +Three years thus passed,--three years which ate slowly into Eudora's +heart,--teaching her she _had_ a heart, and bringing forth such fruit as +such experiences would produce. Yet she had not lost faith in me. She +might have felt that perfection did not belong to man, and therefore I +was not perfect; but she cheated herself as to all the rest. If she were +not perfectly happy with a husband who took no pains to sympathize with +her, who repressed instead of encouraging the natural vivacity of her +nature, who never went abroad with her to places where every one was +accustomed to go, still she did not lay the cause at my door. + +I had another cousin: this cousin was a man, twenty-four years old when +he first came, by a mere chance, to the town where we lived. He was, +like you, a painter,--not one of those poor romantic vagabonds who +multiply pictures of themselves in every new composition, and who +starve on their own sighs. This man was in the enjoyment of a handsome +competence, and made painting his profession because he loved the art. +My cousin who resided in the place knew this man-cousin of mine. He paid +her a visit; and while he was in her house, my wife happened to go in. +Thus the acquaintance began. The next day he came to see me. I received +him cordially, and invited him to visit us often. At length he became +perfectly at home in our house. I was pleased with this,--for I began +to feel that Eudora drew heavily on my time, insisting too much on my +society; and I was only glad to escape by leaving her to the society of +my relative,--blind fool that I was! But I must do him justice. He was a +noble specimen of a fresh-hearted young man,--loyal and honorable. Yet +how could he escape the fascination of Eudora's presence?--how tear +himself away from it, when he had no thought that it was dangerous? At +my request, my wife sat to him for a small portrait: this is it which I +have permitted you to copy. By-and-by, and really to keep Eudora from +engrossing too much of my time, I allowed her to go out with our +artist-cousin; and in company they examined paintings, and viewed +scenery, and talked, and walked, and sometimes read together. + +One evening, while seated in my library, deeply abstracted, the door +opened and Eudora entered. I looked up, saw who it was, and relapsed +into study. + +"My husband," exclaimed she, in a soft, sweet tone, "put down your book; +sit upon this sofa; I want to speak with you." + +I rose, a little petulantly, and did as she desired. She threw her arms +around my neck, and kissed me tenderly. + +"I have something to ask of you," she said,--"something to request." + +"What is it?" I exclaimed,--almost sharply. + +"It is that you would not invite Alphonse to come here any more,--that +you would never speak of my going out with him again, but encourage his +leaving here,--and that you would give me more of your society." + +"Pray, what does all this mean, Eudora?" I demanded. "Alphonse and you +have been quarrelling, I suppose." + +"No, my husband." + +"Then, what do you mean by such nonsense?" I asked, in an irritated +tone. + +"I scarcely have courage to tell you," she cried,--"for I fear it will +make us both forever miserable." + +Thoroughly aroused by this astounding avowal, I repeated, in a stern +tone and without one touch of sympathy, my demand for an explanation. +She knelt lovingly at my feet,--not in a posture submissive or +humiliating, but as if thus she could get nearer my heart,--and began, +calmly:-- + +"Sometimes, my husband, I have thought my feelings for you were such as +I ought to entertain for my father or an elder brother. I venerate and +admire your character; I would die for you,--oh, how willingly!--but +sometimes I fear it is not _love_ I feel for you." + +She paused, and looked at me earnestly. + +"How long have you felt as you now do?" I asked, with an icy calmness. + +"I do not know. I cannot tell. But I have not thought of it seriously +till Alphonse came here,--and I want you to send him away." + +"And do you love Alphonse?" I asked, slowly. + +"Oh, God! I do not know. I cannot tell what is the matter with me. +Perhaps it is mere infatuation. Alas! I cannot tell." + +"And why do you come with this to me?" I said sneeringly, devil that I +was. + +"Because you are my husband,--because you are wise and strong and good, +and the only one who can advise me,--because I am in danger, and you can +save me," she cried, looking imploringly on my frigid features. + +"And for that purpose you come to _me?_" + +"I do, I do!" she exclaimed. At the same time she threw her arms around +me passionately, buried her face in my bosom, and wept. + +There was a struggle within me,--not violent nor desperate, but calm and +cold,--while the face of that fair young creature was pressed close to +my heart by her own arms thrown clingingly around me. I did not move +the while; I did not respond to her sad embrace even by the slightest +pressure of my hand. Yet I was all the time conscious that a pure and +noble being was supplicating me for help,--a being who had devoted her +life to me,--whose soul was stainless, while mine was spotted with the +leprosy of a selfish nature. Like one under the influence of nightmare, +who knows he does but dream and makes an effort fruitless as imaginary +to lift himself out of it, I did try to follow what my heart said I +should do,--fold my dear wife in my arms, and reassure her in all +things. But I did no such thing. The other spirit--I should say seven +others more hateful and detestable than any which had before possession +of me--conquered. I raised Eudora from her kneeling posture. I placed +her on the sofa beside me. I began to hate her,--to hate her for her +goodness, her gentleness, her truthfulness, her fidelity,--to hate her +because she dared make such an avowal, and because it was true. What +right had she to permit her feelings to be influenced by another,--she, +my lawfully wedded wife? I would not admit the truth to myself that _I_ +was the sole, miserable, detestable cause. Oh, no! + +"Eudora," I said at length, "I have never seen you manifest so much +nervous excitement. Do you not see how ridiculous is your request? You +want me to bring ridicule, not to say disgrace, on myself, by suddenly +forbidding Alphonse my house. What will he suppose, what will the world +think, except that there has been some extraordinary cause for such a +procedure? And all out of a silly, romantic, imaginary notion which has +got into your head. Now, listen: if you would do your duty and honor me, +let Alphonse come and go as usual; let him perceive no difference in +your manner or in your treatment of him: in this way only I shall escape +mortification and chagrin." + +She rose as I finished,--slowly rose,--with a countenance disheartened +and despairing. She uttered no word, and turned slowly to leave the +room. She had reached the door, when, not content with the merciless +outrage on her heart already inflicted, under the instigation of the +demon working within me, I prepared another stab. + +"Eudora," I said, "one word more." + +She came immediately back, doubtless with a slight hope that I would +show some sympathy for her. + +"Eudora," I continued, rising and laying my hand on her shoulder, _"have +you permitted any improper familiarities from Alphonse?"_ + +Quick as lightning was my hand struck from its resting-place; swift as +thought her face changed to an expression so terrible that instinctively +I stepped back to avoid her. It was but an instant. Then came a last +awful look of _recognition_, whereby I knew I was found out, my soul was +stripped of all hypocritical coverings, and she saw and understood me. +What a scene! To discover in the one she had revered and worshipped so +long her moral assassin! To stand face to face and have the dreadful +truth suddenly revealed! The darkness of despair gathered around her +brow; an agony, like that which finds no comforter, was stamped on her +face; and with these a hate, a horror, a contempt, mingled triumphantly. +The door opened,--it was closed,--and my wife was lost to me forever. I +essayed to call her back. "Eudora" came faintly to my lips. It was too +late. Then a contemptible, jealous hatred took possession of me. Ere I +left my apartment, I said, "She shall pay dear for this! she shall soon +come submissive to my feet! she cannot live away from me; and before I +forgive, she must be humiliated!" How little did I know her! + +From that period Eudora simply treated me with the courtesy of a lady. +She never looked in my face,--her eyes never met mine. On my part, to +carry out a plan I had adopted, I encouraged more and more the visits +of Alphonse. He had expected to leave that week; but I persuaded him to +remain another month, and pressed him to stay at my house. I told him +that this would be agreeable to my wife, who could have his society when +I was not able to be with her, and I should insist on his accepting my +invitation. This was after I saw how rebellious, as I termed it, Eudora +was becoming; and I was determined to torture her all I could. +Alphonse was now an inmate of our house, which greatly increased +the opportunities for his being with Eudora. She appeared to enjoy +intercourse with him just as usual; I think, in fact, she did enjoy +it more than usual; and it made me hate her to see that she was not +repentant and miserable. Three weeks passed in this way;--I becoming +more hateful and severe by every petty, petulant, despicable device of +which my nature was capable; she continuing with little change of manner +or conduct; and Alphonse unconsciously growing more devoted. + +It was a cold, stormy afternoon: the rain had increased since morning. +Eudora had gone out immediately after breakfast. She did not come back +to dinner, and Alphonse, who had remained in all day, said she spoke of +going to my cousin's. I took it for granted the storm detained her; but +when it was evening and she did not appear, I began to be disturbed +and asked Alphonse to go for her. In a short time he returned with the +information that Eudora had not been at my cousin's that day. I was +alarmed; I could see the shadow of my Nemesis close by me. It had fallen +suddenly, and with no warning. For a moment I suspected Alphonse; but +the distress he manifested was too genuine to be counterfeited, and I +dismissed the thought. In the midst of this confusion and dismay,--now +late in the evening,--a letter was put into my hands, just left by a +messenger at my door. The address was in my wife's hand. I tore open the +envelope, and read,-- + +"Man! I can endure no longer." + +This was the end of the chapter beginning with my introduction to the +strolling Savoyards, the dance of the _marionnette_, the transfer of +Eudora! I attempted no search for her; too well I knew it would be +useless; indeed, I felt a strange sense of freedom. My professor's life +disgusted me: I threw it off. I resigned my chair, and sold my house, my +furniture, my books,--everything. My nature clamored for indulgence, my +senses for enjoyment. I quitted the place. I threw off all restraint. +Literally I let myself loose on the world. I sought the company of the +young. I drank, I gamed, I was as debauched as the worst. But although +_with_ them, I was not _of_ them. _They_--only from the effervescence +of strong animal spirits did they do into excesses. What they did was +without reflection, impulsive, unpremeditated. _Me_ a calm consciousness +pervaded always. Go where I would, do what I would, amidst every +criminal indulgence, every noisy debauch or riotous dissipation, it +always rode the storm and was present in the fury of the tempest;--that +fearful, awful conscious _Egomet_! How I wished I could commit one +impulsive sin! + +After three years, I was passing with a gay company through the Swiss +town of ----. In that place is the convent of the Sisterhood of Our +Mother of Pity. The night I stayed there, one of the number died. I +heard of it in the morning, as we were preparing to leave. From what was +said in connection with the circumstance, I knew it was Eudora. I left +my companions to go on by themselves. I made my way to the convent and +begged permission to look on the dead face of my wife. It was granted. +She was already arrayed for the grave. I came and threw myself on the +lifeless form, and cried as children dry. The fountains of my heart gave +way, the sympathies of my nature were upheaved, and for two hours I wept +on unrestrained. Even consciousness fled for once and left me to the +luxury of grief. At length the worthy people came to me and took me +from the room. I asked many questions, to which they could give me but +unsatisfactory replies. They knew little of Eudora's history. She had +come directly from my house to this place, and had been remarkable for +her acts of untiring benevolence in ministering to the sick and the +destitute. She lost her life from too great exposure in watching at +the bedside of a miserable woman whom all the world seemed to have +abandoned, and who died of some malignant fever. I will not attempt to +describe what I passed through. I became sincerely repentant. I saw my +character in its true light. I prayed that my sins might be forgiven. + +The place where Eudora died was not far from the spot where we first +met. I begged the good priest who acted as her confessor to consecrate +a little chapel which I should build there, and permit me to place my +wife's remains in it. He consented. I caused the image of the Christ +which she always wore to be carefully copied in marble and placed before +the chapel, and I spent several weeks there, deploring my sins and +seeking for light from above. + +It was not to be that I should thus easily settle the error of a +lifetime. After a while I felt the desperate gnawing of the senses +inexpressible and irresistible. Satan had come again, and I was called +for. And I went! There was no escape,--there _is_ no escape! Once more +I plunged into riotous folly and excess, giving full license to my +unbridled appetites,--but conscious always. When the fever subsided, +I was once more repentant and sorrowful, and I came here,--only to be +carried off again to renew the same wretched scenes. I know not how long +this will last. I know not if Heaven or Hell will triumph. Yet, strange +as you may think it, I believe I am not so bad a man as when I was a +professor in ----, slowly destroying my lovely wife. From each paroxysm +I fancy I escape somewhat stronger, somewhat more manly than before. I +think, too, my periods of excess are shorter, and of repentance longer; +and I sometimes entertain a hope that folly and madness will in me, as +in the young, become exhausted, and that beyond still lies the goal of +peace and wisdom. + +Such as it is, strange as it may seem, you have from me a truthful +history. Would that the world might hear it and be wiser! Mark me! Let +not those who undertake to train the young attempt to destroy what +Nature has implanted. Let them direct and modify, but not extinguish. +The impulsive freedom of youth is generally the result of an exuberant +and overflowing spirit, and should be treated accordingly,--else, later +in life, it may burst forth fierce and unconquerable, or, what is worse, +be indulged in secret and make of us hypocrites and dissemblers. + +WOE TO THE MAN WHO HAS HAD NO YOUTH! + + * * * * * + + +THE MEN OF SCHWYZ. + + +As you go from Lucerne in a decorous little steamboat down the pleasant +Vierwaldstättersee, or Lake of the Four Forest Cantons, with the sloping +hills on either side, and the green meadow-patches and occasional house +among the trees, you come to a sudden turn where the scenery changes +swiftly, and pass between steep and shaggy rocks rising perpendicularly +out of the blue water, which seems to get bluer there, into the frowning +Bay of Uri, guarded, as if it were the last home of freedom, by great +granite hills, lying like sleepy giants with outstretched arms, while +the heavy clouds rest black and broken on their summits, and the white +vapors float below. Just where the lake makes this turn is the hamlet of +Brunnen, which you will not hurry by, if you are wise, but tarry with +the kind little hostess of the Golden Eagle by the pleasant shore, and +learn, if you will, as nowhere else, what the spirit of the Swiss was in +the ancient time, as in this. + +As you walk across the little valley which stretches down from the hills +to the lake where Brunnen is, you remember that it is the town of Schwyz +you come to, where dwelt once the hardy, valorous little colony +which gave its name to Switzerland,--famous in the annals of this +stout-hearted mountain-land for the "peculiar fire" with which they have +always fought for their ancient freedom,--worthy to leave their name, in +lasting token of the service they did to their fellows and to mankind. + +Schwyz lies at the foot of the Hacken Mountain, which rises with double +peaks known as the Mythen, (Murray and the tourists, with dubious +etymological right, translate _Mitres_,)--with the dark forests above it +on the slopes, and the green openings sparkling in the sunlight, +where men and their herds of cattle breathe a purer air. Behind these +everlasting walls the spirit of freedom has found a resting-place +through the turbulent centuries, during which, on rough Northern soil, +the new civilization was taking root, hereafter to overshadow the earth. + +Touching the origin of these men of Schwyz, there is a tradition, handed +down from father to son, which runs in this wise. + +"Toward the North; in the land of the Swedes and Frisians, there was +an ancient kingdom, and hunger came upon the people, and they gathered +together, and it was resolved that every tenth man should depart. And +so they went forth from among their friends, in three bands under three +leaders, six thousand fighting men, great like unto giants, with their +wives and children and all their worldly goods. And they swore never +to desert one another, and smote with victorious arm Graf Peter of the +Franks, who would obstruct their progress. They besought of God a land +like that of their ancestors, where they might pasture their cattle in +peace; and God led them into the country of Brochenburg, and they built +there Schwyz; and the people increased, and there was no more room for +them in the valley. Some went forth, therefore, into the country round +about, even as far as the Weissland; and it is still in the memory of +old men how the people went from mountain to mountain, from valley to +valley, to Frutigen, Obersibenthal, Sanen, Afflentsch, and Jaun;--and +beyond Jaun dwell other races." + +The time and circumstance of this wandering are unknown, and we may +make what we will of it; but to the men of Schwyz the tradition is an +affirmation of their original primal independence. And of old time, +also, the Emperors have admitted that these people of their own free +will sought and obtained the protection of the Empire,--a privilege by +no means extended to all the dwellers of the Waldstätte, (or Forest +Cantons,) but confined to the men of Schwyz. + +As the Emperors were often absent, engaged in great wars, and the times +were very troublous, and there was need of some commanding character +among them, for the administration of the criminal law touching the +shedding of blood, they often made the Count of Lenzburg Bailiff. But no +matter of any moment could be acted upon without the sense of the people +being taken, of the serf as well as the freeman: for these two classes +existed not less among these primitive people than elsewhere, in the +feudal times; and this community of counsel of freeman and serf is +related to have worked harmoniously, "for equality existed of itself, by +nature, there." They chose a _Landammann_, or chief magistrate,--a man +free by birth, of an honorable name and some substance; and for judges +also they were careful to select men of substance, "for he careth most +for freedom and order who hath most to lose"; and for the greater peace +of the land there was a Street-Council, consisting of seven reputable +men, who went through the streets administering justice in small causes +here and there, as in the East the judges sat at the city-gate or at the +door of the palace. + +As the people increased, the valleys of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden +were separated and grew to be independent in their own domestic matters, +while united with respect to external affairs, as in the league made in +1251 between Zurich, Schwyz, and Uri;--they were like the Five Nations +of Canada, says the historian, but more human through Christianity. +Their religious belief was simple and fervent; the Goths, as Arians, had +rejected the supremacy of the Pope; and now there came secretly teachers +from the East, through Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Hungary, even into Rhaetia, +and thence to these fastnesses of the Alps. The mind of men, thus left +free, developed itself according to the different character of the +races. The people of Schwyz were strengthened in their adherence to the +authentic Word of God, as it was with the Apostles, without the use of +pictures or the bones of saints; this Word they learned by heart, and +made little of the additions of men; hence they got to be heretics, and +were called Manicheans; but Catholicism conquered them at last. + +Thus simple and unknown lived this ancient people,--destined to restore +in the end the Confederacy of Helvetia, lost since the days of Caesar's +victory, thirteen hundred years before,--till Gerhard, Abbot of +Einsiedeln, complained of them to the Emperor Henry V. for pasturing +their cattle upon the slopes which belonged to the convent: for, +forgetful of the people who dwelt in these parts, whose existence, +indeed, was concealed from him by the monks, the Emperor Henry II., in +1018, had bestowed upon the convent the neighboring _desert_; and the +Abbot, of course, did not fail to make the most of the gift. Thus there +occurred a collision. The Abbot pursued these poor peasants with the +spiritual power, which was not light in those days, and summoned them +before the Diet of Nobles of Swabia; but they rejected that tribunal, +for they acknowledged only the authority of the Emperor. Whereupon the +Abbot laid his complaint before Henry V. at Basel, where Graf Rudolph of +Lenzburg, Bailiff of Schwyz, spoke for them. A simple people, innocent +of human learning, they could urge against the patent of the Emperor +only the tradition of their fathers, and judgment went against them +touching the matter, and no question was made in it as to the validity +of the Emperor's patent. It was an unexpected blow to the Schwyzers. +Tradition among people living solitary grows into a religious right, +which they fight for readily. For eleven years their turbulence went +unpunished; for Henry V. had other matters on his hands, and his two +successors conferred other privileges upon the convent. Thirty years +afterwards, however, in 1142 or thereabouts, at the solicitation of the +monks, obedience was commanded by the Emperor Conrad III., then on the +point of departing with his Crusaders to Palestine. But the people +answered,--"If the Emperor, to our injury, contemning the traditions of +our fathers, will give our land to unrighteous priests, the protection +of the Empire is worthless to us." Thereupon the Emperor waxed wroth; +the ban was laid upon them by Hermann, Bishop of Constance; but they +withdrew, nevertheless, from the protection of the Empire, and Uri and +Unterwalden with them,--fearing neither the Emperor nor the ban, for +they could not conceive how it was a sin to maintain the right, and so +they pastured their cattle without fear. + +When Friedrich I. came to the throne and wanted soldiers, he sent Graf +Ulrich of Lenzburg, Bailiff of the Waldstätte, into the valleys to speak +to the men of Schwyz. "The heart of the people is in the hands of noble +heroes," says the historian;--gladly did the youths, six hundred strong, +seize their arms and go forth under Graf Ulrich, whom they loved, to +fight for the Emperor his friend, beyond the mountains, in Italy. And +now it came the Emperor's turn for the ban; the whole Imperial House of +Hohenstaufen fell into spiritual disgrace; Friedrich II. was cursed at +Lyons as a blasphemer; but these things did not turn away the hearts of +the men of Schwyz from his House. + +Long after the time of this Ulrich, the last reigning Graf of Lenzburg, +shortly after the Swiss Union had been renewed, at the instance of +Walther of Attinghausen, in 1206, Unterwalden chose Rudolph, Count of +Hapsburg, for Bailiff. He endeavored to extend his authority over the +other two Cantons, in which he was aided by the Emperor Otho IV., of the +House of Brunswick, who had been raised to the throne in opposition to +the House of Swabia, and who, for the purpose of conciliating him, made +him Imperial Bailiff of the Waldstätte. An active, vigorous man this +Rudolph, grandfather of the Rudolph who was afterwards called to be King +of the Germans, whom the Swiss, scattered in their hamlets, were little +prepared to make head against, and therefore recognized him with what +grace they might, after an assurance that their freedom and rights +should be maintained; and he smoothed for them their old controversy +with the monks of Einsiedeln, and got a comfortable division of the +property made in 1217. But he was hateful to them, nevertheless; and +although we know nothing of the way in which he administered his office, +we conjecture that it was partly because the Emperor who appointed him +was not of the House of Hohenstaufen, to which they were attached, and +partly because he claimed that the office of Bailiff was hereditary in +his family, whereas the men of Schwyz preferred to offer it of their own +free will to whom they would. They made it a condition of assistance to +the Emperor Friedrich in 1231, when he went down into Italy to fight the +Guelphs, that he should deprive this Rudolph of the office of Imperial +Bailiff; and then they went forth, six hundred strong, and did famous +work against the Guelphs, with such fire in them that the Emperor not +only knighted Struthan von Winkelried of Unterwalden, but gave that +valley a patent of freedom, according to which the Schwyzers voluntarily +chose the protection of the Empire. + +And now Rudolph, Count of Hapsburg, founder of the Austrian monarchy, +strides into the history of the men of Schwyz. A tall, slender man this +Rudolph, bald and pale; with much seriousness in his features, but +winning confidence the moment one spoke with him by his friendliness, +loving simplicity; a restless, stirring man, with more wisdom in him +than his companions had, equal or superior to him in birth or power, +working his way by device when he could, by the strong arm when that was +needed. He took the part of the peasants against the nobles, and used +the one to put down the other. In the midst of the turmoils in which he +got involved with Sanct Gallen and Basel, and while encamped before the +walls of the latter city, he was wakened in his tent at midnight by +Friedrich of Hohenzollern, Burgrave of Nürnberg; for there had come from +Frankfort on the Main Heinrich von Pappenheim, Hereditary Marshal of +the Empire, with the news, that, "in the name of the Electors, with +unanimous consent, in consideration of his great virtue and wisdom, +Lewis Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria had named Count +Rudolph of Hapsburg King of the Roman Empire of the Germans": at which +Rudolph was more astonished than those who knew him, it is recorded. Not +because of his genealogy, nor his marriage with Gertrude Anne, daughter +of Burcard, Count of Hohenburg and Hagenlock, did he win this great +fortune, but, as the Elector Engelbrecht of Cologne said, "because he +was just and wise and loved of God and men." And now the world learned +what was in him; and how for eighteen years he kept the throne, which +no king for three-and-twenty years before him had been able to hold, +history will relate to the curious. + +Switzerland was divided at this period into small sovereignties and +baronial fiefs; and there were, besides, also the Imperial cities of +Bern and Basel and Zürich. The nobles were warlike and restless. Rudolph +checked their depredations and composed their dissensions. Upon that +seething age of violence and rapine he laid, as it were, the forming +hand, as if in the darkness the coming time was dimly visible to him;--a +man to be remembered, in the vexed and disheartening history of Austria, +as one of her few heroes. The people of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, +notwithstanding the dislike they had shown to his ancestor, voluntarily +appointed him their protector; and he gave them, in 1274, the firm +assurance that he would treat them as worthy sons of the Empire in +inalienable independence; and to that assurance he remained true till +his death, which happened in 1291, in the seventy-fourth year of his +age. + +It is related in the Rhymed Chronicle of Ottocar, how he had been kept +alive for a whole year by the skill of his physicians, but that they +told him at last, as he sat playing at draughts, that death was upon +him, and that he could live but five days. "Well, then," he said, "on +to Spires!" that he might lay him in the Imperial vault in the great +Cathedral there,--where many Emperors slept their long sleep, till, in +the Orléans Succession War in the time of Louis XIV., as afterwards in +1794, under the revolutionary commander Custine, French soldiers rudely +disturbed it, with every circumstance of outrage which Frenchmen only +could devise. Rudolph went forth thither, but fell by the way, and died +at Germersheim, a dirty little village which he had founded. And in the +Cathedral at Spires, where he rested from his activities, you may see +this day a monumental statue of him, executed by that great artist, the +late Ludwig Schwanthaler of Munich, for his art-loving patron, Ludwig +I., King of Bavaria. + +Rudolph was succeeded by his son Albrecht, then forty-three years old, +likewise a vigorous man, whose restless spirit of aggrandizement gave +the Swiss much uneasiness. His purpose seems to have been to acquire the +sovereignty of the ecclesiastical and baronial fiefs, and, having thus +encompassed the free cities and the Three Cantons, to compel submission +to his authority. In the seventh week after Rudolph's death, they +met together to renew the ancient bond with the people of Uri and +Unterwalden; and they swore, in or out of their valleys, to stand by one +another, if harm should be done to any of them. "In this we are as one +man," ran their oath, among other things, "in that we will receive no +judge who is not a countryman and an inhabitant, or who has bought his +office." + +After several years of troubles and frights among them, the Emperor sent +to the Forest Cantons to say, that it would be well for them and their +posterity, if they submitted to the protection of the Royal House, as +all neighboring cities and counties had done; he wished them to be his +dear children; he was the descendant of their Bailiff of Lenzburg, son +of their Emperor Rudolph; if he offered them the protection of his +glorious line, it was not that he lusted after their flocks or would +make merchandise of their poverty, but because he knew from his father +and from history what brave men they were, whom he would lead to victory +and knighthood and plunder. + +Then spake the nobles and the freemen of the Forest Cantons: "They know +very well, and will ever remember, how his father of blessed memory was +a good leader and Bailiff to them; but they love the condition of their +ancestors, and will abide by it. If the King would but confirm it!" + +And thereupon they sent Werner, Baron of Attinghausen, Landammann of +Uri, like his fathers before him and his posterity after him, to the +Imperial Court. But the King was quarrelling with his Electors, and was +in bad humor, and sent to Uri to forbid them from assessing land-rates +on a convent there. Whereupon the men of Schwyz, being without +protection, made a league for ten years with Werner, Count of Honburg; +and that their submission to the Austrian power might not be construed +into a duty, they sent to the King for an Imperial Bailiff. Albrecht +appointed Hermann Gessler of Brunek, and Beringer of Landenberg, whose +cousin Hermann was in much favor with him. Beringer's manners were rough +even at the Court; and to get rid of him, they sent him to tame the +Waldstätte. He appointed Bailiffs whose poverty and avarice were the +cause of much oppression, emboldened as they were by the ill-feeling of +the King towards the men of Schwyz, whose freedom the King had refused +to confirm, and waited only for opportunity to annihilate their ancient +rights, after the example he had already set in Vienna and Styria. + +The Imperial Bailiffs resolved to take up their abode in the Forest +Cantons,--Landenberg in Unterwalden, near Sarnen, in a castle of the +King's, while Gessler built a prison-castle by Altorf in Uri; for within +the memory of men no lord had dwelt in Schwyz. They used their power +wantonly;--unjust and weary imprisonments for slightest faults; haughty +manners, and all the stings of insolent authority;--and no redress to +be had at the King's hands. The peace and happy security of the men of +Schwyz were gone, and they looked in one another's faces for the thing +that was to be done. The honored families of their race were despised +and called peasant-nobles;--there was Werner Stauffacher, a well-to-do +and well-meaning man; and the Lord of Attinghausen above all, of an +ancient house, in years, with much experience, and true to his country; +there was Rudolph Redings of Biberek, whose descendants live to this +day in Schwyz, supporting still the honor of their name; and the +Winkelrieds, mindful of the spirit of their ancestor who slew the +dragon. In such persons the people _believed_; they knew them and their +fathers before them; and when they were made light of, there was hatred +between the people and the Bailiffs. As Gessler passed Stauffacher's +house in Steinen, one day, where the little chapel now stands, and saw +how the house was well built, with many windows, and painted over with +mottoes, after the manner of rich farmers' houses, he cried to his face, +"Can one endure that these peasants should live in such houses?" + +It came at last to insulting their wives and daughters; and the first +man that attempted this, one Wolfenschiess, was struck dead by an angry +husband; and when the brave wife of Stauffacher reflected how her turn +might come next, she persuaded her husband to anticipate the danger. +Werner Stauffacher at once crossed the lake to Uri, to consult with his +friend Walther, Prince of Attinghausen, with whom he found concealed a +young man of courage and understanding. "He is an Unterwaldner from the +Melchthal," said Walther; "his name is Erni an der Halden, and he is +a relation of mine; for a trifling matter Landenberg has fined him +a couple of oxen; his father Henry complained bitterly of the loss, +whereupon a servant of the Bailiff said, 'If the peasants want to eat +bread, they can draw their own plough'; at which Erni took fire, and +broke one of the fellow's fingers with his stick, and then took refuge +here; meanwhile the Bailiff has caused his father's eyes to be put out." +And then the two friends took counsel together; and Walther bore witness +how the venerable Lord of Attinghausen had said that these Bailiffs were +no longer to be endured. What desolating wrath resistance would bring +upon the Waldstätte they knew and measured, and swore that death was +better than an unrighteous yoke. And they parted, each to sound his +friends,--appointing as a place of conference the Rütli. It is a little +patch of meadow, which the precipices seem to recede expressly to form, +on the Bay of Uri, sloping down to the water's edge,--so called from the +trees being rooted out (_ausgereutet_) there,--not far from the boundary +between Unterwalden and Uri, where the Mytenstein rises solitary like an +obelisk out of the water. There, in the stillness of night, they often +met together for council touching the work which was to be done; thither +by lonely paths came Fürst and Melchthal, Stauffacher in his boat, +and from Unterwalden his sister's son, Edelknecht of Rudenz. The more +dangerous the deed, the more solemn the bond which bound them. + +On the night of Wednesday before Martinmas, on the 10th of November, +1307, Fürst, Melchthal, and Stauffacher brought each from his own Canton +ten upright men to the Rütli, to deliberate honestly together. And when +they came there and remembered their inherited freedom, and the eternal +brotherly bond between them, consecrated by the danger of the times, +they feared neither Albrecht nor the power of Austria; and they took +each other by the hand, and said, that "in these matters no one was +to act after his own fancy; no one was to desert another; that in +friendship they would live and die; each was so to strive to preserve +the ancient rights of the people that the Swiss through all time might +taste of this friendship; neither should the property or the rights of +the Count of Hapsburg be molested, nor the Bailiffs or their servants +lose one drop of blood; but the freedom which their fathers gave them +they would bequeath to their children": and then, when remembering that +upon what they did now the fate of their posterity depended, each looked +upon his friend, consoled. And Walther Fürst, Werner Stauffacher, and +Arnold an der Halden of Melchthal lifted their hands to heaven, and, in +the name of God, who created emperor and peasant with the inalienable +rights of man, swore to maintain their freedom; and when the thirty +heard this, each one raised his hand and swore the same by God and the +Saints;--and then each went his way to his hut, and was silent, and +wintered his cattle. + +In the mean while it happened that the Bailiff Hermann Gessler was +shot dead by Wilhelm Tell, who was of Bürglen, at the entrance of the +Schächenthal, a half-hour from Altorf, in Uri,--son-in-law of Walther +Fürst, and a man of some substance, for he had the steward-ship in +fee in Bürglen of the Frauenmüster Abbey in Zürich,--one of the +conspirators. Out of wanton tyranny, or suspicious of the breaking out +of disturbances, Gessler determined to discover who bore the joke most +impatiently; and, after the symbolical way of the times and the people, +set up a hat, (it was on the 18th of November,) to represent the dignity +of the Duke Albrecht of Austria, and commanded all to do it homage. The +story of Tell's refusal, and of the apple placed on the head of his son +to be shot at, the world knows far and wide. Convinced by his success +that God was with him, Tell confessed, that, if the matter had gone +wrong, he would have had his revenge upon the Bailiff. Gessler did +not dare to detain him in Uri, on account of Tell's many friends and +relations, but took him up the lake, contrary to the traditions of the +people, which forbade foreign imprisonment. They had not got far beyond +the Rütli, when the föhn-wind, breaking loose from the gulfs of the +Gothard, threw the waves into a rage, and the rocks echoed with its +angry cries. In this moment of deadly danger, Gessler commanded them to +unbind Tell, who, he knew, was an excellent boatman; and as they passed +by the foot of the Axen Mountain, to the right as you come out of the +Bay of Uri, Tell grasped his bow and leaped upon a flat rock there, +climbed up the mountain while the boat tossed to and fro against the +rocks, and fled through the land of the men of Schwyz. But the Bailiff +escaped the storm also, and landed by Küssnacht, where he fell with +Tell's arrow through him. + +It should be remembered that this was Tell's deed alone: the hour which +the people had agreed upon for their deliverance had not come; they had +no part in the death of Gessler. Carlyle has remarked this as appearing +also in Schiller's drama, in the construction of which, he says, "there +is no connection, or a very slight one, between the enterprise of Tell +and that of the men of Rütli." It was not a deed conformable to law +or the highest ethics, yet it was one which mankind is ever ready to +forgive and applaud; and the echo of it through the ages will die away +only when hatred of tyranny and wrathful impatience under hopeless +oppression die away also from the hearts of men. Tell was an outlaw, and +he took an outlaw's vengeance: it was life against life. And yet it is a +curious fact, that the historian of Switzerland (that wonderful genius, +Johannes Müller, who is reported to have read more books than any man in +Europe, in proof of which they point you to his fifty folio volumes of +excerpts in the Town Library at Schaffhausen) suggests as a reason why +there were only one hundred and fourteen persons, who had known Tell, +to gather together in 1388, not much more than thirty years after his +death, at the erection of a chapel dedicated to his memory on the rock +where he leaped ashore, that Tell did not often leave Bürglen, where he +dwelt, and that, according to the ethics of that period, the deed was +not one likely to attract inquisitive wonderers to him. + +There is hardly an event or character in history which is not to +somebody a myth or a phantom; and so Tell has not escaped the skepticism +of men. But those who doubt his existence have little experience of +history, says Müller. Grasser was the first to remark the resemblance +between the adventures of Tell and those of a certain Tocco, or Toke, or +Palnatoke, of Denmark, which are related by Saxo Grammaticus, a learned +historian who flourished in Denmark in the twelfth century, of which +kingdom and its dependencies he compiled an elaborate history, first +printed at Paris in 1486; but the Danish Tocco, who is supposed to have +existed in the latter half of the tenth century, was wholly unknown +to the Swiss, who, if ever, came to the Alps before that time. The +Icelanders, also, have a similar story about another hero, which appears +in the "Vilkinasaga" of the fourteenth century. It is more likely that +the Danes and other Northern people got their tradition from the Swiss, +by way of the Hanse Towns perhaps, if we are to be permitted to believe +in but one original tradition, which is not less arbitrary than +unphilosophic. + +Moreover, for what did these one hundred and fourteen people dedicate a +chapel to him thirty years and a little more after his death? And there +is the Chronicle of Klingenberg, which covers the end of the fourteenth +century, which tells his story; and Melchior Russ, of Lucerne, who, in +compiling his book, about the year 1480, had before him a Tell-song, and +the Chronicle of Eglof Etterlins, Town-Clerk of Lucerne in the first +half of the fifteenth century; and since 1387, too, there has been +solemn service by the people of Uri to commemorate him. So that the +"Fable Danoise" of Uriel Freudenberger of Bern (1760) becomes a mere +absurdity, and the indignant Canton of Uri had no less right to burn it +(although to burn was not to answer it, suggests the critic,) than to +honor the "Defence" by Balthasar with two medals of gold. And what +has been written to establish him may be read in Zurlauben, (whose +approbation is almost proof, says Müller, reverentially,) and elsewhere +as undernoted.[A] + +[Footnote A: In Balthasar, _Déf. de Guill. Tell_ (Lucerne, 1760); Gottl. +Eman. von Haller, _Vorlesung über Wilh. Tell_, etc. (Bern, 1772); +Hisely, _Guill. Tell et la Révolution de_ 1307 (Delft, 1826); Ideler, +_Die Sage vom Schüsse des Tell_ (Berlin, 1836); Häusser, _Die Sage vom +Tell_ (Heidelberg, 1840); Schoenhuth, _Wilh. Tell, Geschichte aus der +Vorzeit_ (Reutlingen, 1836); Henning, _Wilh. Tell_ (Nürnberg, 1836); and +_Histoire de Guill. Tell, Libérateur de la Suisse_ (Paris, 1843).] + +Tell's posterity in the male line is reported to have died out with +Johann Martin, in 1684; the female, with Verena, in 1720. Yet it is +certainly a little surprising that the elder Swiss chroniclers, John of +Winterthur, and Justinger of Bern, for instance, who were almost Tell's +contemporaries, make no mention of him in relating the Revolution in the +Waldstätte, and that it should be left to Tschudi and others, almost two +hundred years afterwards, in the sixteenth century, to give his story +that dramatic importance upon which Schiller has set the seal forever. +It can be explained, perhaps, on the ground that it did not at the time +possess that importance which we have been taught to give it; though +roughly, thus, we do away with the poetry of it, to be sure. Let +Voltaire, whose function it was to deny, enjoy his feeble sneer, that +"the difficulty of pronouncing those respectable names"--to wit, +_Melchtad_, and _Stauffager_, and _Valtherfurst_, to say nothing of +_Grisler_--"injures their celebrity." Neither are we to conceal the +fact, that it is doubted, if not denied, that there ever was any Gessler +in Uri to perform all the wicked things ascribed to him, and to get that +arrow through him in such dramatic and effective manner in the Hollow +Way; for has not Kopp published, with edifying explanation, "Documents +for the History of the Confederation," (Lucerne, 1835,) in which, in the +list of Bailiffs (_Landvoigte_) at Küssnacht, we do not find the name of +Gessler? Perhaps there was a mistake in the name, the critic suggests. + +The Revolution thus begun at the Rütli, and by Tell, went forward +swiftly in January, 1308; and, true to their oath, it was consummated +by the men of Schwyz without harm to the property of the Bailiffs, also +without the spilling of a single drop of blood. The prison at Uri was +captured, and Landenberg also, as he descended to hear mass, by twenty +men from Unterwalden; but, escaping, he fled across the meadows from +Sarnen to Alpnach, where he was overtaken and made to swear that he +would never set foot again in the Waldstätte, and then suffered to +depart safely to the King. And the peasants breathed again; and +Stauffacher's wife opened her house to all who had been at the Rütli; +and there was joy in the land. + +And how in that same year Duke Albrecht met with a bloody end, such as +befell no King or Emperor of the Germans before or after him, at the +hands of Duke John, his nephew, whose inheritance he had kept back, and +other conspirators; and what vengeance overtook the murderers; and how +Duke John, escaping in the habit of a monk into Italy, was no more heard +of, but became a shadow forever, like the rest of them;--and how, eight +years afterwards, came the expedition of Duke Leopold of Austria against +the Waldstätte, and the fight at Morgarten, where the Swiss, thirteen +hundred mountaineers in all, Wilhelm Tell among them, routed twenty +thousand of the well-armed chivalry of Austria,--dating from that heroic +Thermopylae of theirs the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy, as, +larger and perhaps not less resolute, we see it to-day, ready to +defy, if need be, single-handed, the greatest military nation of the +earth;--and how, thirty years afterwards, the men of Schwyz and Uri go +forth, nine hundred strong,--among them Tell, and Werner Stauffacher, +now bent with years,--to the aid of Bern, threatened by the nobles +roundabout;--and how, in 1332, was formed the league with Lucerne, +whereby the beautiful lake gets its name as the Lake of the _Four_ +Forest Cantons;--and how, one sultry July day in 1386, the men of Schwyz +and Uri and Unterwalden, together with other Swiss,--some of them armed +with the very halberds with which their fathers defended the pass at +Morgarten,--fought again their hereditary enemy, Austria, by the clear +waters of the little Lake of Sempach; how, when they saw the enemy, they +fell upon their knees, according to their ancient custom, and prayed to +God, and then with loud war-cry dashed at full run upon the Austrian +host, whose shields were like a dazzling wall, and their spears like a +forest, and the Mayor of Lucerne with sixty of his followers went down +in the shock, but not a single one of the Austrians recoiled; and how at +that critical, dreadful moment,--for the flanks of the enemy's phalanx +were advancing to encompass them,--there suddenly strode forth the +Knight Arnold Strutthan von Winkelried, crying, "I will make a path +for you! care for my wife and children!" and, rushing forward, grasped +several spears and buried them in his breast,--a large, strong man, he +bore the soldiers down with him as he fell, and his companions pushed +forward over his dead body into the midst of the host, and the victory +was won, and another book was added to the epic story of the men of +Schwyz and Uri and Unterwalden;--and how Duke Leopold fell fighting +bravely, as became his house, and six hundred and fifty nobles with him, +so that there was mourning at the Court of Austria for many a year, and +men said it was a judgment upon the reckless spirit of the nobles; and +how Martin Malterer, standard-bearer, of Freyburg in the Breisgau, +happening to come upon Leopold as he was dying, was as one petrified, +and the banner fell from his hands, and he threw himself across the body +of Leopold to save it from further outrage, waiting for and finding his +own death there;--and how this ruinous contest between Switzerland and +Austria was not finally closed till the time of Maximilian, in 1499, +when first the right of private war was abolished in Germany;--and how, +through the various fortunes of the succeeding centuries, the character +of the Swiss has remained for the most part the same as in the earlier +time:--these things one may read at large elsewhere; but we hasten to +the conclusion. + +The story of Tell has been the subject of several dramas. Lemierre, a +popular French dramatist of his day, (though J. J. Rousseau affects to +call him a _scribe_ whom the French Academy once crowned,) produced +a play founded upon it, in Paris, in 1766; but the language of Swiss +freemen on a French stage was little to the taste of those days, and +it was a failure. Voltaire, when asked what he thought of it, +replied,--"_Il n'y a rien à dire; il est écrit en langue du pays._" But +twenty years afterwards it was revived with prodigious success; for the +truth which was in it flashed out then, forerunner of the storm which +was soon to break over France. Again, when Florian, whom we are to +remember always for his "Fables," banished in 1793 by the decree which +forbade nobles to remain in Paris, taking refuge at Sceaux, was arrested +and thrown into prison, he consoled his captivity by composing his drama +of "Guillaume Tell,"--the worst of his productions, it is recorded. +Lastly, it has been consecrated for all time by the genius of Friedrich +Schiller. The legend was first brought to Schiller's notice, doubtless, +by Goethe, who writes to him concerning it from Switzerland in 1797. +Goethe himself thought of founding an epic on it. It was not, however, +till 1801, before his journey to Dresden, that Schiller's attention was +permanently directed to it. Completed on the 18th of February, it +was brought out at Weimar on the 17th of March, 1804, with the most +extraordinary success: the fifth act, however, was suppressed, in +deference to the intended court alliance with the daughter of a murdered +Russian emperor; it not being considered good taste to represent the +assassination of an autocrat upon such an occasion. + +Schiller's drama has been translated into French by Merle d'Aubigné and +others, and many times into English,--among us by the Rev. C. T. Brooks. +It follows the tradition substantially. Carlyle declares, indeed, that +"the incidents of the Swiss Revolution, as detailed in Tschudi or +Müller, are here faithfully preserved, even to their minutest branches." +We tarried once for several days at Brunnen, and read the play upon the +spot in sight of the Rütli, in the little balcony of the _pension_ of +the Golden Eagle, with the deep, calm, blue lake at our feet, and the +Hacken and Axen mountains and the Selisberg shutting out the world for +a time; and as we look at the play now, it recalls with the utmost +minuteness the scenery and the coloring of it all: yet Schiller never +was there. It was the last startling effulgence of his comet-like +genius; for when the spring-flowers came again, he was gone from our +earth. + +In the last act of the great drama, as Tell sits at his cottage-door +in Bürglen in Uri, surrounded by his wife and children, after the +consummation of the deed, there approaches a monk begging alms;--it is +the parricide Duke John, flying the sight and presence of men. In the +contrast of the feelings of these two persons, then and there, one reads +Schiller's justification of his hero. As if to complete by contrast the +moral of the drama of "Tell," it is related also in the tradition, that +in 1354, when the stream of the Schächen was swollen, Tell, then bowing +under the snowy years, seeing a child fall into it, as he passed that +way, plunged in, and lost his life. Uhland has indicated this in his +"Death of Tell," as only Uhland could:-- + + "Die Kraft derselben Liebe, + Die du dem Knaben trugst, + Ward einst in dir zum Triebe, + Dass du den Zwingherrn schlugst." + +Some liken life to a book to be read in. To us it is rather an unwritten +poem which each age repeats to the next,--melodious sometimes, as when +the blind old mythic bard of Chios sang it under the olive-trees, by the +blue Aegean, to the listening Greeks, thirsty for beauty, drinking it +ever with their eyes, and with their lips lisping it,--or rough and +more full of meaning, as when, with the men of Schwyz and Uri and +Unterwalden, the great idea of freedom, majestic as their mountains, +utters itself, composed and stern, in deeds which for all time make +Switzerland honored and free. + +On the 10th of November, 1859, the heart of Germany beat with gladness, +if touched also with a certain sorrow, as in every hamlet, on every +hill-side, from the German Ocean to the Tyrolese Alps, from the Vosges +to the Carpathians and the Slavic border, the people met to celebrate +with simple rites the hundredth birthday of its great poet Schiller, +in whom they recognize not more what he did than what he sought after, +whose striving is their striving, from highest to lowest,--the ideal +man, burning to gather them together, and fold them as one flock under +one shepherd, that, no longer divided, they may face the world and the +future with one heart, with one great trembling hope, to lead the new +civilization to its lasting triumphs. + +Schiller had sung of Wilhelm Tell; and the men of Schwyz remembered +him on that occasion, too, on the Rütli, with their confederates from +Oberwalden and Niederwalden. On the afternoon of the 11th of November, +they met at Brunnen,--on the lake, as we have said,--the men of Schwyz +embarking in one great boat, amidst peals of music, while numberless +little canoes received the others. The wind, blowing strong from the +north, filled the sail, and, as they floated down the Bay of Uri, they +remembered Stauffacher and his friends, who had glided over the same +dark waters at dead of night, past the Mytenstein to the Rütli, and +the old time lived again; and the little chapel on the spot where Tell +sprang ashore, erected by the Canton Uri, where once a year, since 1388, +mass is said, and a sermon preached to the people, who go up in solemn +procession of little boats, looked friendly over to them; and the +countrymen of Schiller, present for the first time from Stuttgart and +Munich, wondered at the solemn beauty of the snowpeaks reflected in the +waters below. A chorus of many voices broke upon the mountain-stillness, +as the little fleet approached the Rütli; the men of Uri, already there, +"the first on the spot," and with them the men of Gersau, a valiant +band, answered in a song of welcome; and they shook each other by the +hand, and made a little circle, three hundred in all, upon the Rütli; +and Lusser of Uri thanked the men of Schwyz for the invitation to +remember their fathers here on the five hundred and fifty-second +anniversary of the deeds which Schiller has so gloriously sung. We best +remember the poet by repeating and upholding his words:-- + + "Wir wollen seyn ein einzig Volk von Brüdern, + In keiner Noth uns trennen und Gefahr. + Wir wollen frey seyn, wie die Väter waren, + Eher den Tod als in der Knechtschaft leben. + Wir wollen trauen auf den höchsten Gott, + Und uns nicht fürchten vor der Macht der + Menschen." + + "One people will we be,--a band of brothers; + No danger, no distress shall sunder us. + We will be freemen as our fathers were, + And sooner welcome death than live as slaves. + We will rely on God's almighty arm, + And never quail before the power of man." [B] + +[Footnote B: Rev. C. T. Brooks's translation, p. 53.] + +Then they read the scene of the Rütli Oath from Schiller's play, and +sing the Swiss national song, "Callest thou, my Fatherland?" And the +pastor Tschümperlin admonishes them that they best cultivate the spirit +of Schiller and Tell by worthy training of their children. As they are +about to break up at last, the Landammann Styger of Schwyz suggests a +beautiful thing to them:--"As we came from Brunnen, and looked up at the +Mytenstein as we passed it,--the great pyramid rising up there out of +the water as if meant by Nature for a monument,--it seemed to us that a +memorial tablet should be placed there, simple like the column itself, +with words like these: 'To Him who wrote "Tell," on his One Hundredth +Birthday, the Original Cantons.'" And the proposition was received +with unanimous shout of assent. "This was the worthy ending of the +Schiller-Festival on the Rütli," says the contemporary chronicle. + +On the 10th day of November, 1859, also, there was put into the hands +of the Central Committee of the Society of the Swiss Union the deed of +purchase of the Rütli. It is in the handwriting of Franz Lusser of Uri, +Clerk of the Court, and dated the 10th of November, the birthday of +Schiller. Thus Switzerland owns its sacred places, and the title-deeds +long laid up in its heart are written out at last. + +On the 21st of October of last year, on a brilliant afternoon, the +men of Schwyz and Uri went forth again from Brunnen, with the chief +magistracy of the land. From Treib came the Unterwaldners, all in richly +decorated boats, and the inhabitants of Lucerne in two steamboats with +much music, meeting in front of the Mytenstein, which lifts its colossal +front eighty feet above the water there. The top of it was covered with +a large boat-sail, with the arms of the original Cantons and Swiss +mottoes on it; in a wreath of evergreen, the arms of the other Cantons; +in the middle of it, in token of the twenty-two Cantons, a white cross +upon red ground; above all, the flag of the Confederacy spread to the +Föhn. At the foot was a little stand made of twigs for the speaker, +about which the little fleet was grouped, under the charge of the +Landammann Aufdermauer of Brunnen, a gallant gentleman, host of the +Golden Eagle, with his kind little sister, of whom we spoke at the +beginning. + +When all was still, Uri opens the musical trilogy,--the words by P. +Gall. Morell, monk of Einsiedeln, the music by Baumgartner of Zürich; +Unterwalden takes up the burden; then Schwyz; then all three in +chorus;--and the echo of the fresh voices among the rocks there was as +in a cathedral. Then Landammann Styger climbs to the stand, and makes a +little speech, and reads a letter from Schiller's daughter, (of which +presently,) while the curious shepherd-boys stretch out their necks over +the craggy tops of the Selisberg to look down upon the lively scene +below. + +At the end of his speech, Styger lets fall the sail amid the beating of +the drums and the shouts of the multitude; and on the flat sides of the +rock appear the gilded metal letters, a foot high,--"To the Singer of +Tell, Fr. Schiller, the Original Cantons, 1859." And there were other +little speeches,--one by Lusser, who exclaims with much truth, "The +rocks of our mountains can be broken, but not _bent_"; and then followed +the Swiss psalm by Zwysig. And afterwards, in the evening, a feast in +the Golden Eagle in Brunnen, at which, with the ancient sobriety, they +remember the dangers of the present, and affirm their neutrality, which +should not hang upon the caprice of a neighbor, but be grounded in their +own will, for there is no Lord in Christendom for them except Him who is +above all. + +Thus wrote Schiller's daughter:-- + +_"Gentlemen of the Committee of the Schiller Memorial on the +Mytenstein:_-- + +"Your friendly words have truly delighted and deeply moved my heart;-- +not less the engraving of the Mytenstein, which shall stand as the very +worthy and noble memorial of the Singer of Wilhelm Tell in the land of +the Swiss for all time forever,--a token of recognition of the genius +which, struggling for the highest good of mankind, has found its home in +the hearts of all noble men and women. With infinite joy I greeted the +beautiful idea, so wholly worthy of the land as of the poet,--there, +where magnificent Nature, grown friendly, offers its hand on the very +ground where one of the noblest, most finished creations of Schiller +takes root, to consecrate to him a memorial which, defying time and +storms, shall illumine afar off every heart which turns to it. + +"In memory also of my beloved mother, Charlotte, Schiller's earthly +angel, I rejoice in this memorial. She it was who, with deepest love +for Switzerland, which she calls the land of her affections, where she +passed happy youthful days from 1783 to 1784, led Schiller to it, and by +her fresh, lively descriptions made him partake of it; and so prepared +the way for the genius which could embrace and penetrate all things for +the masterly representation of the country, which, unfortunately, his +feet never trod. If, unhappily, I am not able to be present at the +festival on the 21st of October, I am not the less thankful for your +kind invitation; and in that sacred hour I will be with you in spirit, +deeply sympathizing with all that the noble _idea_ brought into life. + +"A little memorial of the 10th of November, 1859, representing Schiller +and Charlotte, I pray you, Gentlemen, to accept of me, and, when you +recall the parents, to remember also the daughter. + +"Respectfully yours, + +"EMILIE v. GLEICHEN-RUSSWURM, geb. v. SCHILLER. + +"_Greiffenstein ob Bonnland. 12 October, 1860._" + +In the churchyard of Cleversulzbach lies buried, since the 2d of May, +1802, the mother of Schiller. Prof. Dr. E. Mörika, when he was preacher +there, erected a simple stone cross over the grave, and with his own +hands engraved upon it the words, "Schiller's Mother." On the famous +10th of November, 1859, woman's hand decorated the grave with flowers, +and put a laurel wreath upon the cross; and in the hour when great +cities with festal processions and banquets and oratory and jubilant +song offered their homage to the son, a few persons gathered around the +grave of the mother, and in the silence there planted a linden-tree; +for in stillness thus, while she lived, had his mother done her part, +lovingly and with faith, to unfold and consecrate the genius of +Friedrich Schiller. + + * * * * * + + +A NOOK OF THE NORTH. + + +Adventurous travellers, who penetrated into Canada during the late visit +of the Sovereign-Apparent of that colony, have furnished the public, +through the daily press, with minute and more or less faithful +descriptions of places upon the grand routes, Quebec and Montreal have +been done by them to a hair; Kingston and another wicked place made +notorious for bad manners; Toronto, Hamilton, and London of the West +photographed with a camera of maximum dimensions. Upon the two great +railroad-lines by which Canada is now traversed,--the Grand Trunk +and the Great Western,--there is hardly a station which has not been +mentioned by the reporters, either for the loyal manner in which it +was decorated to do honor to the youthful Prince, or for the rather +inhospitable display of certain objectionable symbols by the people +around. + +But neither in Canada nor elsewhere is it upon the grand routes that +glimpses can be had of interior life and character. Primitive simplicity +is altogether incompatible with railroads. The boy who resides near a +station is quite an old man, compared with any average boy taken from +the sequestered clearings ten miles back: he may be a worse kind of boy, +or he may be a better, but he isn't the same kind, at any rate. Of +girls it is more difficult to speak with confidence in the present +era,--hooped skirts having pretty nearly assimilated them everywhere; +but I have noticed that they are less ingenuous along railroads than in +secluded districts, and their parents more suspicious,--a fact which +makes railroad-vicinities inferior places to dwell in, compared to those +that are rural and remote from the demoralizing influences of up and +down trains. + +I do not aver that the railroad is devoid of a kind of poetry of its +own,--the same kind of sentiment, nearly, that resides about anvils +and smelting-furnaces in the Hartz Mountains and in the great +coal-districts: an infernal kind of sentiment, for the most part, being +inseparable from burning fiery furnaces and grime; as in "Fridolin," and +in the "Song of the Bell," and in the "Forging of the Anchor." Once, +particularly, in travelling by rail, did I experience the mysterious +glamour that seems to hang round iron more than about any other metal. +It was past midnight; and on waking up after a sleep of some hours, I +found myself alone in the long car, which had come to a stand-still +while I slept. The stillness of the night was broken at intervals by a +short, loud boom, as of an iron bell ringing up some terrible domestic +from the incomprehensible unseen. On looking out of the window, I saw by +some dim lamp-light that we were alone in an immense iron hall; _we_, I +say, for there was a ponderous, grimy being darkly visible to me, whose +gigantic shadow made terrible gestures upon the walls and among the +great iron girders of the roof, as he moved slowly along the train, +striking the wheels with a heavy sledge-hammer as he went. Of course +there was nothing unusual in such a proceeding, the object of which was, +probably, to ascertain something connected with the condition of the +rolling stock; but there was a kind of awful poetry in the toll of the +iron bell, which ran, and reverberated, and tingled among the iron ribs +in the building, making them all sing as if they were things of flesh +and blood, with plenty of iron in the latter, which is reckoned to be +conducive to robust health. + +But the romance of rolling stock has yet to be disengaged, and the +inspired conductor or bardic baggage-master destined to do that is yet +in the shell. May he long remain there! + +Off the track some ten or twenty miles, though, almost anywhere, some of +the materials, at least, for good, regular poetry of the old-fashioned +kind are to be found. A mill, for instance, with a wooden wheel,--no +demoralizing iron about it, in fact, except what cannot well be +dispensed with, in view of wear and tear. A white cottage, where +the miller dwells serene; mossy roof, red brick chimney, and no +lightning-rod or any other iron, being the principal features of the +serene miller's abode. Cherries, in that tranquil person's garden, that +are nearly ripe, and roses of a delicate red,--but none so ripe or so +red as the lips and cheeks of the serene miller's daughter, who trips +across the little wooden foot-bridge over the mill-stream, singing a +birdy kind of song as she goes. She is clad in a black velvet bodice +and russet skirt, and has no iron about her of any description, unless, +indeed, it is in her blood,--where it ought to be. The breath of kine +waiting to be relieved of their honest milk, which is a good, solid kind +of fluid in such places, and meanders about the land with great freedom +in company with honey. All these things will be very scarce in the world +by-and-by, on which account it seems to be a judicious thing to go off +the track a little, now and then, if only to "say that we have seen +them." + +In following the graphic narratives of the Prince of Wales's tour, the +mind naturally wandered away to places _not_ visited by him, although +within easy distance of his fore-ordered course. It is well that there +are places left to talk about! Let us conjure up a few old reminiscences +of one,--a silent, primitive little nook of the North, within an hour's +ride of Quebec, but too insignificant a spot for the coveted distinction +of a royal visit. Crowned heads, then, will have the goodness to +transfer their attention, and skip to the next article. + +The nook to which I refer is Lorette, in Lower or French Canada, where +it is commonly called _Jeune Lorette_, to distinguish it from _Ancienne +Lorette_,--a less interesting place, distant from it about four miles. + +Jeune Lorette is situated about eight miles north-west of Quebec, upon +the beautiful, romantic stream called the St. Charles, which rushes down +many a picturesque gorge, and winds through many pleasant meadows, in +its course of some twenty miles from Lake St. Charles away up in the +hills to the St. Roch suburb of Quebec. Here it assumes the character of +a deep, tortuous dock, incumbered with the _débris_ of many ship-yards, +and reflecting the skeleton shapes of big-ribbed merchantmen on the +stocks. Here, too, it is generally called the Little River; probably to +distinguish it from the great River St. Lawrence, into which it oozes at +this point. + +But higher up, as I have said, the St. Charles is romantic and rushes +on its fate. At Lorette, it divides the village in twain: a western +section, for the most part peopled by French-Canadian _habitans_; an +eastern one, inhabited by half-breed Indians, a remnant of the once +powerful Hurons of old. + +These Canadian Hurons are not, in their present condition, corroborative +of the Cooper specifications of Indian life: rather the contrary, in +fact. There is a wing of them--a wing without feathers, indeed--settled +down at Amherstburgh, on the far western marge of Lake Erie, in Canada, +quite six hundred miles away from their brethren of Lorette. When +shooting woodcock once in that district, I entered the comfortable log +farm-house of the chief of the settlement, whose name was Martin. He +was a fat, rather Dutch-looking Indian, but still active and +industrious,--for a man who is an Indian and fat. I asked Mr. Martin if +he hunted much; to which he replied, No, he did not,--adding, that he +never was far into the woods but once in his life, and that was on +his own lot of a hundred acres of bush, in which he was lost, on that +occasion, for two days. + +Among the Hurons of Lorette there are a few young men who hunt moose and +caribou in the proper season; but the men, generally speaking, as +well as the women, are engaged in the manufacture of snow-shoes and +moccasons,--articles for which there is a great demand in Lower Canada. +Philippe Vincent, a chieftain and shoemaker of the tribe, told me that +he had disposed of twelve hundred dollars' worth of these articles, on +a trip to Montreal, from which he had just returned. Many articles of +Indian fancy-work are also manufactured by them: beaded pouches for +tobacco, bark-work knick-knacks, and curious racks made of the hoofs of +the moose, and hung upon the wall to stick small articles into. + +On the profits of this work many of them live in comfort,--nay, in +luxury. Paul Vincent, a cousin of Philippe mentioned above, and, like +him, a chief of the tribe and a renowned builder of snow-shoes, paid two +hundred and seventy-five dollars for a piano for his daughter, when I +was at Quebec, five or six years ago. Whenever I visited Philippe, that +stately man of the Hurons would usher me into a little parlor with a +sofa in it and a carpet on the floor; he would produce brandy in a cut +decanter, and cake upon a good porcelain plate, and would be merry in +French and expansive on the subject of trade. + +Most of these hybrid Hurons are quite as white as their Canadian +neighbors; but they generally have the horse-tail hair, and black, beady +eye of the aborigines. The ordinary dress of the men, in winter, is a +blue blanket-coat, made with a _capuchon_, or hood, which latter is +generally trimmed with bright-colored ribbon and ornamented with beads. +Epaulettes, fashioned out of pieces of red and blue cloth, somewhat +after the pattern of a pen-wiper, impart a distinguished appearance +to the shoulders of these garments, which are rendered still more +picturesque by being tucked round the body with heavy woollen sashes, +variegated in red, blue, and yellow. Some of these sashes are heavily +beaded, and worth from five to ten dollars each; and they, as well +as the Indian blanket-coats, are to be had at the furriers' shops in +Quebec, where there is a considerable demand for them by members of +snow-shoe clubs, and others whose occupations or amusements render that +style of costume appropriate for their wear. The older women dress +in the ordinary squaw costume, with short, narrow petticoats, and +embroidered _metasses_, or leggings. When going out, they fold a blue +blanket over all, and put on a regular, unpicturesque, stove-pipe hat, +with a band of tin-foil around it,--which makes them look like one of +those mulatto coachmen one sees now and then on the box of a _bonton_ +barouche, with his silver-mounted hat and double-caped blue box-coat. +The young girls are disposed to innovations upon the petticoats, and +modifications of the _metasses_. Once I saw one standing on a great gray +crag at the foot of the fall. She looked extremely picturesque at a +little distance, giving a nice bit of local color to the scene with her +scarlet legs; but on a nearer approach, much of the value of the color +disappeared before the unromantic facts of a pale-face petticoat and +patent-leather gaiter-boots. I have noticed several of the younger +people here with brown hair and blue or gray eyes, significant that the +aboriginal blood is being gradually diluted. In another generation or +two, there will be little of it left among them. But the correspondents +of the press, who described some of these Indians seen by them at +Quebec, are mistaken in attributing to them an admixture of Irish blood. +Until within eight years past, there were few, if any, Irish to be found +in the neighborhood of Lorette. Since that time, the construction of the +Quebec water-works, which are supplied from Lake St. Charles, has given +employment to hundreds of the Hibernian stock in that neighborhood; +and I know not whether their influence as regards race may not be now +discernible in the features of many pugnacious Huronites of tender +years: but the white element traceable in the lineaments of the present +and passing generations of the settlement is distinctly attributable to +the proximity of the French-Canadian, whose language has been transfused +into them with the blood. + +Few, if any, of the older people of Lorette speak English,--Huron and +French being the only languages at their command. Since the building of +the great reservoir, however, many of the rising generation are picking +up the English tongue in its roundest Irish form. Previously, matters +were the reverse. I once noticed a handsome, brown-faced boy there, who +used to come about with a bow and arrows, soliciting coppers, which were +placed one by one in a split stick, shot at, and pocketed by the archer, +if hit,--as they almost always were. He spoke Indian and French, and I +took him for an olive-branch of the tribe; but, on questioning him, he +told me that his name was Bill Coogan, and that he first saw the light, +I think, in Cork, Ireland. + +There is one charming feature at Lorette,--a winding, dashing cascade, +which boils and creams down with splendid fury through a deep gorge +fenced with pied and tumbled rocks, and overhung by gnarly-boughed +cedars, pines, and birches. There is, or at least there was, a crumbling +old saw-mill on a ledge of rock nearly half-way up the torrent. It was +in keeping with the scene, and I hope it is there still; but it was very +shaky when I last saw it, and has probably made an _éboulement_ down to +the foot of the fall before now. Some short distance above the head of +the fall, near the bridge by which the two villages are connected, +the scene is pictorially damaged by a stark, staring paper-mill, the +dominant colors of which are Solferino-red and pea-green. This, a +comparatively new feature in the landscape, is not visible from below, +however, and it is from there that the fall is seen to best advantage. + +To the eye of the experienced fisherman, it is obvious that the St. +Charles, with its sparkling rapids, and the deep, swirling pools formed +by its numerous "elbows," must erstwhile have been a chosen, retreat of +the noble salmon. Even now, notwithstanding the obstructions caused by +the immense deposits of ship-yard refuse at its mouth, a few of these +fine fish are caught every season by one or two persevering anglers +from Quebec,--men who thrive on disappointment,--whose fish-hooks are +miniature anchors of Hope. Lake St. Charles, from which the river +derives its existence and its name, is a wild, beautiful tarn, about +five miles above Lorette, embosomed in hills and woods. There are good +bass in that lake, by whose shores there dwells--or dwelt--an ancient +fisherman called Gabriel, who supplied anglers with canoes, and paddled +them about the waters. + +Lorette, although undistinguished by a glance from the mild blue eyes of +the Premier Prince of England, was flashed upon, years ago, by the awful +light that gleamed from the dark, fierce ones of Hamlet, Prince of +Denmark. This is how I came to know it. + +Fifteen years ago,--it was on the seventeenth of August, 1845,--I made +my first pilgrimage to Lorette, in company with a friend. We wandered at +large through the village, talking _patois_ to the swarthy damsels, and +picking up Indian knick-knacks, as we went. At last, fired with the +ambition of doing a distinguished thing, we proposed calling upon the +head chief of the village, whose name, I think, was Simon, but might +possibly have been Peter,--for I regret to say that my memory is rather +misty upon that important point. That personage was absent from home; +but we were hospitably received by his father, who also appeared to be +his butler, as he was engaged in bottling off some root-beer into stone +blacking-jars, when we entered. I suppose the chief's father must once +have been a chief himself, and that his menial position arose from the +fact of his appearance being rather disreputable. He was a decrepit and +very dirty old man, in a tight blue frock-coat, and swathed as to his +spindle shanks with scarlet leggings. Sitting by a small window at the +farther end of the large, bare room, was the prettiest little Huronite +damsel I ever saw, rather fair than dark, and very neatly attired in a +costume partly Indian. This little girl--a granddaughter of the dirty +old man, as that person informed us--was occupied in tying up some small +bundles of what the Canadians call _racine_--a sweet-smelling kind of +rush-grass, sold by them in the Quebec market, and used like _sachets_, +for imparting a pleasant odor to linen garments. After some conversation +of a general character, the old man requested us to write our names in +his visitors' book, which was a long, dirty volume, similar in form to +those usually seen upon bar-counters. In this book we were delighted to +find the autographs of many dear friends, of whom we little expected +to meet with traces in this nook of the North. Mark Tapley and Oliver +Twist, for instance, had visited the place in company some two years +before. There could be no mistake about it; for there were the two +names, in characteristic, but different manuscript, bound together +by the mystic circumflex that indicated them to be friends and +travelling-companions. The record covered a period of ten years; but +was that sufficient to account for the appearance of Shakspeare on its +pages? And yet there he was; and in merry mood he must have been, when +he came to Lorette,--for he wrote himself down "Bill," and dashed off +a little picture of himself after the signature, in a bold, if not +artistic manner. Our friend Titmouse was there, too, represented by +his famous declaration commencing, "Tittlebat Titmouse is my name." He +seemed to have taken particularly fast hold of the memory of the old +Huron, who described him as a tremendous-looking, big person, with +large black whiskers, and remembered having enjoyed a long pull at a +brandy-flask carried by him. Of course there can be no doubt about that +man being the real Tittlebat of our affections. Of the other signatures +in the Huronite album, I chiefly remember that of M.F. Tupper, which I +looked upon at the time as a base forgery, and do aver my belief now +that it was nothing else: for the aged sagamore described the writer of +that signature as a young, cheerful, and communicative man, who smoked a +short, black pipe, and had spaniels with him. Could my friend, could I, +venture to inscribe our humble names among this galaxy of the good and +great? Not so: and yet, to pacify the Huronite patriarch's thirst for +autographs, we wrote signatures in his brown old book; and if that +curious volume is still in existence, the names of Don Caesar de Bazan +and Sir Lucius O'Trigger, Bart., will be found closely linked together +on a particular page with the circumflex of friendship. + +And now the old man, delighted with the addition to his autographs, +proposed to treat us to an exhibition of several medals gained by him +for deeds of valor when he was a warrior, and previously to his having +entered upon the career of a bottler of root-beverages. He had silver +disks presented to him by at least two of Thackeray's Georges, a couple +from William IV., and I think one from her present Majesty, Queen +Victoria. All of these he touched with reverence, and not until he had +purified his hands upon a dirty towel. After we had duly admired these +decorations, and listened with patience to the old man's garrulous talk +about them, he told us that he had yet another to show,--one presented +to him many years ago by a great man of that day,--a man embalmed +for all posterity on account of his unrivalled performances upon the +tight-rope,--a man of whom he reduced all description to mendicancy in +designating him as _un danseur très-renommé sur la corde tendue_. The +medal was a small silver one, and it bore the following inscription:-- + +FROM EDMUND KEAN, THE BRITISH ACTOR, + +TO TOUSSAHISSA, CHIEF OF THE HURON INDIANS. 1826. + +And such is fame! It appears that Kean, always fond of excitement, had +organized a tremendous _pow-wow_ among these poor specimens of the red +man, on his visit to Quebec. They adopted him,--constituted him a chief +of their tribe. It would be interesting to have a full account of the +great passionist's demeanor upon that solemn occasion. Did he harrow +up his hearers with a burst from "Othello" or a deep-sea groan from +"Hamlet," and then create a revulsion of feeling by somersaulting over +the centre-fire of the circle and standing on his head before it, +grinning diabolically at the incensed pot? Or did he, foreshadowing the +coming Blondin, then unplanned, stretch his tight-rope across the small +Niagara that flashes down into the chasm of the St. Charles, and, +kicking his boots off, carry some "mute, inglorious" Colcord over in an +Indian bark basket? If he did such things, the old Huronite was foggy +upon the subject and reserved, limiting his assertions to the statement, +that "the British actor" was a _farceur_, and likewise _un danseur +très-renommé sur la corde tendue_. + +Long afterwards, when I resided at Quebec, my visits to Lorette were +very frequent. Once, as I passed along the street, or road, between the +straggling log-houses, I was accosted, in good English, by a fat and +very jovial old squaw, who was attired in a green silk dress, sported +a turban, and appeared to be altogether a superior kind of person. On +inquiry, I learned from her that she was the widow of a former chief of +the tribe, and came originally from Upper Canada, where she learned to +speak English. Her husband had been presented with many medals, she +said;--would I like to see them? I followed the old lady into her +dwelling, where she showed me several silver medals, which I thought I +recognized as the same exhibited by the aged Huronite with the red legs. +But the Kean medal was not among them; nor could I, by any system of +description in my power, recall the features of the relic to the memory +of the old squaw. + +Subsequently, I tried many times to trace it, but without success. Many +strangers visit Lorette during the summer season, and it is possible +that some virtuoso, struck by the associative value of the relic, may +have prevailed on its owner to part with it for a consideration. There +are people who would have possessed themselves of it without the +exchange of a consideration. Should this meet the eye of its present +possessor, and if so be that the medal came into his hands on the +consideration principle, so that he need not be ashamed of it, he will +confer a favor by giving the correct reading of the Indian name. For +"Toussahissa," as I have rendered it, is not exact, but only as near +as I can make it out from my pencil-memoranda, which, written in a +note-book that did occasional duty as a fly-book, have been partially +obliterated in that spot by the contact of a large and remarkably gaudy +salmon-fly, whose repose between the leaves is disturbed, perhaps, by +aquatic nightmares of salmon gaping at him from whirling eddies. + +Between Lorette and the unexplored wilderness that stretches away to +polar desolation there is but a narrow selvage of civilization. Looking +toward it from my windows at Quebec, I could see the blue, serrated +ridge of highlands beyond which the surveyor has never yet run his +lines,--beyond which the surveyor's lines would be superfluous, indeed, +and futile; for the soil is of the barren, rocky kind, and the timber of +the scrubby. Not quite so savage is this frontier, indeed, as the wild +precincts described by the Nebraska editor, whose meditations for a +leader used to be cut short, occasionally, by the bellowing of the +shaggy bison at his window, or the incursion of the redoubtable +"grizzly" into his wood-shed where the elk-meat hung. But, in the clear, +cold nights that precede the punctual and distinct winter of these +regions, the black bears often come down from their fastnesses amid the +wild ridges, and astonish the drowsy _habitant_ and his household by +their pranks among his pigs and calves: also in the spring. + +In a small settlement of this wild tract, a few miles to the north-east +of Lorette, there dwelt, some six or seven years ago, a poor farmer +named Cantin, who added to the meagre fare afforded by his sterile acres +such stray birds and hares as he could get within range of his old +musket, without risking himself very far away from the isolated +clearing. One night in the early part of May, when the snow had +disappeared from the open grounds, but lingered yet in the ravines and +rocky thickets, a dreadful tumult among the cattle of the settlement +indicated the presence of bear. Cantin had the old firelock ready, but +the night was dark and unfavorable for active measures. At gray morning, +traces of the nocturnal intruder were visible, and that close by the +_cabane_ in which Cantin lived, in the little inclosure near which a +struggle had evidently taken place, resulting in the discomfiture of a +yearling calf, portions of which were discovered in the thickets a short +distance from the clearing. Here the patches of snow gave ample evidence +of the passage of a very large bear. When the sun was well up, +Cantin sallied forth alone, with his gun and a small supply of +ammunition,--unluckily for him, a very small supply. He did not return +to dinner. Shots were heard in the course of the day, at a considerable +distance in the hills; and when the afternoon was far advanced, and +Cantin had not made his appearance, several of his neighbors--all the +men of the settlement, indeed, and they made but a small party--set out +in search of him. The snow-patches facilitated their search; and, having +tracked him a good way, they suddenly saw him kneeling by a tree at the +end of an open glade, with his hands clasped in an attitude of prayer. +He was a frightful spectacle when they raised his _bonnet-bleu_, which +had fallen down over his face. The entire facial mask had been torn +clean from the skull by a fearful sweep of the bear's paw, and hung from +his collar-bone by a strip of skin. He must have been dead for some +hours. Fifty yards from where he knelt, the bear was found lying under +some bushes, quite dead, and with two bullet-holes through its carcass. +Cantin, it appeared, had expended all his ammunition, and the wounded +beast had executed a terrible vengeance on him while the life-blood +was welling through the last bullet-hole. I saw this bear brought into +Quebec, in a cart, on the following day; and it is to be seen yet, I +believe, or at least the taxidermal presentment of it is, in the shop of +a furrier in John Street of that city. An enterprising druggist bought +up the little fat left in the animal after its long winter's fast; and +such was the demand among sensational people for gallipots of "grease of +the bear that killed Cantin," that it seemed as if fashion had ordained +the wearing of hair "on end." + +Of the other wild beasts of this hill-district, the commonest is that +known to the inhabitants as the _loup-cervier_,--a name oddly enough +misconstructed by a writer on Canadian sports into "Lucifer." This is +the true lynx,--a huge cat with long and remarkably thick legs, paws in +which dangerous claws are sheathed, and short tail. Its principal prey +is the common or Northern hare, which abounds in these regions: but at +times the _loup-cervier_ will invade the poultry-yards; and he is even +held to account, now and then, for the murder of innocent lambs, and the +disappearance of tender piglings whose mothers were so negligent as to +let them stray alone into the brushwood. These fierce cats have been +killed, occasionally, quite close to Quebec. When thus driven to +approach populous districts, it must be from scarcity of their +accustomed food; for they are usually very savage and ravenous, when +found in such places. I know an instance, myself, in which a gentleman +of Quebec, riding a little way from the town, was suddenly pounced upon +and attacked by a _loup-cervier_, near the Plains of Abraham. He struck +the animal with his whip several times, but it persisted in following +him, and he got rid of it only by putting spurs to his horse and beating +it in speed. The animal was killed soon afterwards, near the same place. + +I had heard of another variety of wildcat, seen at rare intervals in the +same districts. The _habitant_ is rather foggy on the subject of zoology +in general, and my attempts to obtain a satisfactory description of this +animal were futile. Some of the definitions of this rare _chat-sauvage,_ +indeed, might have answered for specifications of a griffin, or of a +vampire-bat. At last, one day, when walking about in the market-place +at Quebec, I saw a crowd assembled round a gray-clad countryman, who +presided over a small box on which the words _Chat-Sauvage_ were +painted. Now was my time to set the question at rest. I invested +sixpence in the show. When a good number of sixpences had been paid in, +the proprietor opened his box, out from which crawled a fat, familiar +raccoon, apparently as much at home in the market-place as he could have +been in the middle of his native swamp. And this was the mysterious +"wild-cat" about which I had asked so many questions and heard so many +stories! + +It is noticeable that thunder-storms, travelling from the westward +toward Quebec, usually diverge across the valley of the St. Charles in +the direction of Lorette, and coast along the ridge of ground on which +that place is situated to Charlesbourg, a small village lying about four +miles to the east of it, upon the ridge. There the storms appear to +culminate, pouring out the full vials of their wrath upon the devoted +_habitans_ of white-cotted Charlesbourg. The wayfarer who wends through +this rustical district will hardly fail to observe the prevailing taste +for lightning-rods. The smallest cottage has at least two of these +fire-irons, one upon each gable; houses of more pretensions are provided +with an indefinite number; and the big white church has its purple roof +so bristled with them, that the pause which a flash of lightning must +necessarily make before deciding by which of them to come down must +enable any tolerably active person to get out of the way in good time. +And yet, with all these defenders of the faithful, I remember how the +steeple was taken clean off the big white church, in splinters, one wild +night after I had watched a long array of cloud-chariots rolling heavily +away eastward along the ridge: also, how a farmer's handsome daughter, +the belle of the village, sat upright and dead upon a sofa when people +came again to their eyesight after a blinding flash. So much for +lightning-rods!--so much for the mystic iron! + +When the day of the _Fête Dieu_ comes round, Quebec and its neighboring +villages are all alive for the celebration of the _fête_, which takes +place on the following Sunday. Then the great suburb of St. Roch is +a sight to see. Every street of it is converted into a green alley, +embowered with young pine-trees, and flaunting with banners temporarily +constructed out of all available pieces of dry-goods, lent by the +devoted shop-keepers of the olden Church. Most extraordinary lithographs +of holy personages are hung out upon the door-posts and walls of every +house. Bowers shading curious little shrines meet the eye everywhere. +The white tables of the little shrines are loaded with gilt and +tinselled offerings in immense variety. Curious bosses, like +lace-pillows got up for church, swing pendent from the verdant +pine-branches. The vast parish-church, of sombre gray masonry, flashing +carnival-fires from the tin-plated pepper-boxes and slopes of its acre +of roof, is receiving or disgorging a variegated multitude of good +Catholics. Within, it is a mass of foliage, a wilderness of shrines, a +cloud-land of incense. Long processions of maidens all in white, and +others of maidens all in pale watchet-blue, are threading the principal +streets. They are not _all_ very religious maidens, I am afraid; +because, as sure as fate, one very young one of those robed in pure +white "made eyes" at me as she passed. Now all this display in Quebec +and its suburbs is set forth on a great scale and with bewildering +turmoil; but if you want to see it in miniature presentment, you must +pass down through St. Roch, and take the road to Lorette. Arrived among +the _sauvages_,--for so the Canadian _habitant_ invariably calls +his Indian brother, who is often as like him as one pea is like +another,--you will there see the little old Huron church decked out in +humble imitation of its younger, but bigger brothers in the city. The +lanes between the log-houses are embowered in a modest way, and the +drapery is eked out by many a yellow flannel petticoat and pair of +scarlet leggings that dally riotously with each other in the breeze. The +shrines are certainly less magnificent than those fairy bowers of +the elf-land St. Roch, but there is a good deal of beaded peltry and +bark-work about them, giving them, in a small way, the character of +aboriginal bazaars. The Hurons are _bons Catholiques_, and everything +connected with the _fête_ is conducted with a solemnity becoming the +character of the Christian red man. So decorous, indeed, are the little +_sauvagesses_ forming the miniature processions, that I do not remember +ever detecting the eyes of any of them wandering and wantoning around, +like those of the naughty little processional in white about whose +conduct I just now complained. + +The instinct of the French-Canadian for Indian trading has led one of +that race to establish a general store close by the Huron village, +though on the _habitant_ side of the stream. The gay printed cottons +indispensable to the _belle sauvagesse_ are here to be found, as well as +the blue blankets and the white, of so much account in the wardrobe of +the women as well as of the men. Here, too, are to be had the assorted +beads and silks and worsteds used in the embroidery of moccasons, +epaulettes, and such articles; nor is the quality of the Cognac kept on +hand by Joe for his customers to be characterized as despicable. Indeed, +it would be hazardous to aver that anything is _not_ to be had, for the +proper compensation, in Joe's establishment,--that is, anything +that could possibly be required by the most exacting _sauvage_ +or _sauvagesse_, from a strap of sleigh-bells to a red-framed +looking-glass. Out of that store, too, comes a deal of the vivid drapery +displayed upon the _Fête Dieu_, and much of the art-union resource +combined in the attractive cheap lithograph element so edifying to the +connoisseur. + +I think it was one of those _fêtes_--if not, another bright summer +holiday--that I once saw darkly disturbed in this quiet little hamlet. +Standing upon the table-rock that juts out at the foot of the fall so +as to half-bridge over the lower-most eddy, I saw a small object topple +over the summit of the cascade. It was nothing but a common pail or +stable-bucket, as I perceived, when it glided past, almost within arm's +length of me, and disappeared down the winding gorge. When I went up +again to the road, I saw a crowd of holiday people standing near the +little inn. They were solemn and speechless, and, on approaching, I saw +that they were gazing upon the body of a man, dead and sadly crushed +and mutilated. He was a _calèche_-driver from Quebec, well known to the +small community; and although it does not seem any great height from the +roadway near the inn to the tumbled rocks by the river's edge just +above the fall, yet it was a drop to mash and kill the poor fellow dead +enough, when his foot slipped, as he descended the unsafe path to get +water for his horse. A dweller in great cities--say, for instance, one +who lives within decent distance of such a charming locality as that +called the Five Points in New York--could hardly realize the amount of +awe that an event so trifling as a sudden and violent death will spread +over a primitive village community. This happened in the French division +of the place, which, of course, was decorated to the utmost ability of +the people in honor of the _fête_: and so palpable was the gloom cast +over all by the circumstance, that the bright flannels flaunting from +the _cordons_ stretched across the way seemed to darken into palls, and +the gay red streamers must have appeared to the subdued carnival spirits +as warning crape-knots on the door-handle of death. + +I believe it is a maxim with the Italian connoisseur of art, that no +landscape is perfect without one red spot to give value to its varieties +of green. On this principle, let me break the monotony of this little +rural sketch with the one touch of genuine American character that +belonged to it at the time of which I speak. Let William Button be the +one red spot that predominated vastly over the green influences by which +he was surrounded. The little inn at Lorette was then kept by a worthy +host bearing the above-mentioned name, which was dingily lettered out +upon a swinging sign, dingily representing a trotting horse,--emblem +as dear to the slow Canadian as to the fast American mind. William +Button--known as Billy Button to hosts of familiar friends--was, I +think, a Kentuckian by birth; a fact which might honestly account for +his having come by the loss of an eye through some operation by which +marks of violence had been left upon the surrounding tracts of his +rugged countenance. He was a short, thick-set man, with bow-legs like +those of a bull-terrier, and walked with a heavy lurch in his gait. +William's head was of immense size in proportion to his stature. Indeed, +that important joint of his person must have been a division by about +two of what artists term heroic proportions, or eight heads to a +height,--a standard by which Button was barred from being a hero, for +his head could hardly have been much less than a fourth of his entire +length. The expression of his face was remarkably typical of American +humor and shrewdness, an effect much aided by the chronic wink afforded +by his closed eye. How Button found his way to this remote spot would +have been a puzzle to any person unfamiliar with American character. How +he managed to live among and deal with and very considerably master a +community speaking no language with which he was acquainted was more +unaccountable still. The inn could not have been a very profitable +speculation, in itself; but there was one room in it fitted out with a +display of Indian manufactures,--some of the articles reposing in +glass cases to protect them from hands and dust, others arranged with +negligent regularity upon the walls. Out of these the landlord made a +good penny, as he charged an extensive percentage upon the original +cost,--that is, to strangers; but if you were in Button's confidence, +then was there no better fellow to intrust with a negotiation for a +pair of snow-shoes, or moose-horns, or anything else in that line +of business. In the winter season he was a great instigator of +moose- and caribou-expeditions to the districts where these animals +abound, assembling for this purpose the best Indian hunters to be found +in the neighborhood, and accompanying the party himself. Out of the spoils +of these expeditions he sometimes made a handsome profit: a good pair of +moose-horns, for instance, used to fetch from six to ten dollars; and +there is always a demand for the venison in the Quebec market. The skins +were manufactured into moccason-leather by Indian adepts whom Button had +in his pay, and who worked for a very low rate of remuneration,--quite +disproportioned, indeed, to the fancy prices always paid by strangers +for the articles turned out by their hands. + +The name "Billy Button" carries with it an association oddly +corroborated by a story narrated of himself by the man of whom I am +speaking. Of all the reminiscences connected with the illegitimate drama +that have dwelt with me from my early childhood until now, not one is +more vividly impressed upon my memory than that standard old comedy +on horseback performed by circus-riders long since gone to rest, and +entitled "Billy Button's Journey to Brentford." The hero of this +pleasant horse-play was a tailor,--men following that useful trade being +considered capable of affording more amusement in connection with horses +than any others, excepting, perhaps, jolly mariners on a spree. The plot +of the drama used to strike my young mind as being a "crib" from "John +Gilpin"; but I forgave that, in consideration of the skilful manner in +which the story was wrought out. With what withering contempt used +I, brought up among horses and their riders, to jeer at the wretched +attempts of the tailor to remain permanently upon any central point of +the horse's spinal ridge! How cheerful my feelings, when that man +of shreds and patches fell prostrate in the sawdust, where he lay +grovelling until the next revolution of his noble steed, when the animal +caught him up by the baggiest portion of the trousers and carried him +round the arena as a terrier might a rat! But, oh, what mingled joy and +admiration, when out from the worried mass of coats leaped the nimble +rider, now no longer a miserable tailor, but a roseate young man in +tights and spangles, featly posturing over all the available area of his +steed, and "witching the world with noble horsemanship"! + +All these memories crowded upon me with a tremendous shock the very +first time I saw the name of William Button upon the dingy swinging +sign. Afterwards, when I became intimate with that curious person, I +discovered that he was a capital "whip,"--first-rate, indeed, as a +driver of the fast trotting horse, as well as a good judge of that +superior article. With respect to his experiences as a rider he was more +reserved; and it was not until after I had known him a long time that he +confided to me the particulars of a ride once taken by him, which bore, +in its principal features, a singular resemblance to the one performed +by his great name-sake of the sawdust-ring. + +There is a pack of fox-hounds kept at Montreal, maintained chiefly by +officers of the garrison, as a shadowy reminiscence, perhaps, of the +real thing, which is essentially of insular Britain and of nowhere else. +Button happened to go to Montreal, on one occasion, for the purpose of +picking up a race-horse, I think, for the Quebec market. Somebody who +used to ride with the hounds had a horse which he wanted to get rid +of, on account of headstrong tendencies in general and inability to +appreciate the advantages of a bit. I remember the animal well. He was +a fiery chestnut, with white about the legs, and very good across a +country so long as he was wanted to go; but no common power could stop +him when once he began to do that. On this animal--"The Buffer," he was +called--Button was persuaded to mount, "just to try him a little," +his owner said; and by way of doing that with perfect freedom from +restraint, they rode out to where the hounds were to throw off, a couple +of miles from the city. Button used to say that the term "throw off," +which was new to him in that application, haunted him all the way out, +like a bad dream. It was a bag-fox day, I believe: that is, the hunt was +provided with a trapped animal, brought upon the ground in a sack and +let out when the proper time came,--a process known in sporting parlance +as "shaking a fox." The usual amount of "law" having been conceded, the +hounds were laid on, and went away, as Button said, like a fire-flake +over a prairie. No sooner did "The Buffer" hear the cry of the pack, +than he started forward with a suddenness and force by which his +wretched rider was jerked back at least a foot behind the saddle, +into which place of rest he never once again fell during his many +vicissitudes of position in that ride. I have said that Button was +bow-legged; and to that providential fact did he attribute the power by +which he clung on to various parts of the steed during his wild career +of perhaps a mile, but which seemed to the troubled senses of the rider +not much less than fifty. It was providential for him, too, that the +country was but sparsely intersected by fences, and those not of a very +formidable character: nevertheless, at each of these the too confiding +Button experienced a change of position, being, as he used to express +it, "interjuiced forrard o' the saddle or back'ard o' the saddle, +accordin' to the kind o' thing the hoss flew over, and one time +booleyvusted right under the hoss, whar he hung on by the girth ontil +another buck-jump sent him right side on ag'in; but never, on no +account, did he touch leather ag'in in all that ride." And thus Billy +Button might have ridden farther and fared worse, had he not seen a +terrible fate staring him imminently in the face. The hounds had just +entered a little grove of young pine-trees, which stood very close +together, and bristled with sharp, jagged branches nearly to the root, +after the manner of these children of the wood. At this place of torture +"The Buffer" was rushing with all his might, Button being then situated +upon his neck, in a position most convenient for being "skinned alive" +by the trees, as he said, when a plunge made by the animal over a plashy +pool transferred the rider to his tail, from which he "collapsed right +down in a kind o' swoon, and when he come to, found himself settin' up +to his elbows in muddy water, very solitary-like, and with a terrible +stillness all around."--What became of "The Buffer" I forget, and also +how Button got home; but he certainly did not ride. And he always wound +up the narrative of his first and last fox-hunt by invoking terrible +ends to himself, if ever he "threw leg over dog-hoss ag'in, to see a +throw-off." + +Button left Lorette about two years after I first became acquainted with +him, and I next heard of him down at the rock-walled Saguenay, where he +had gone into a speculation for supplying the Boston market with salmon. +But horse-flesh seemed to be more palatable to him than fish; for, later +still, I met him at Toronto, in Upper Canada, mounted upon a powerful +dark brown stallion, and leading another, its exact counterpart. + +"Hollo, Button!" said I, in response to his cheery, "How de dew?"--"On +horseback again, I see; have you forgotten the Buffer-business, then?" + +"Forgot the yaller cuss!" replied he. "No, Sir-ree! He hangs round me +yet, like fever 'n' agur upon a ma'sh. But the critter I'm onto a'n't no +dog-hoss, you may believe; he don't 'throw off' nor nothin', _he_ don't. +Him and his mate here a'n't easy matched. I fetched 'em up from below on +spec, and you can hev the span for a cool thousand on ice." + +And this was the last I saw of Button, who was one of the strangest +combinations of hotel-keeper, horse-jockey, Indian-trader, fish-monger, +and alligator, I ever met. + +Tradition still retains a hold upon the Hurons of Lorette, little as +remains to them of the character and lineaments of the red man. A +pitiable procession of their diluted "braves" may sometimes be seen in +the streets of Quebec, on such distinguished occasions as the Prince's +visit. But it is with a manifest consciousness of the ludicrous that +these industrials now do their little drama of the war-dance and the +oration and the council-smoke. That drama has degenerated into a very +feeble farce now, and the actors in it would be quite outdone in their +travesty by any average corps of "supes" at one of our theatres. +By-and-by all this will have died out, and the "Indian side" of the +stream at Lorette will be assimilated in all its features to the other. +The moccason is already typifying the decadence of aboriginal things +there. That article is now fitted with India-rubber soles for the Quebec +demand,--a continuation of the sole running in a low strip round the +edge of the foot. With the gradual widening of that strip, until the +moccason of the red man has been clean obliterated from things that are +by the India-rubber of the white, will the remnant of the Hurons have +passed away with things that were. Verdict on the "poor Indian":--"Wiped +out with an India-rubber shoe." + +And then, in future generations, the tradition of Indian blood among +Canadian families of dark complexion, along these ridges, will be about +as vague as that of Spanish descent in the case of certain tribes of +fishermen on the western coast of Ireland. From the assimilation already +going on, however, it may be argued that the physical character of the +Indian will be gradually merged and lost in that of the French colonist. +The Hurons are described as having formerly been a people of large +stature, while those of the present day in Lower Canada are usually +rather undersized than otherwise, like their _habitant_ neighbors. As +a race, the latter are below the middle stature, although generally of +great bodily strength and endurance. + +Physical size and grand proportions are looked upon by the +French-Canadian with great respect. In all the cases of popular +_émeutes_ that have from time to time broken out in Lower Canada, the +fighting leaders of the people were exceptional men, standing head +and shoulders over their confiding followers. Where gangs of raftsmen +congregate, their "captains" may be known by superior stature. The +doings of their "big men" are treasured by the French-Canadians in +traditionary lore. One famous fellow of this governing class is known +by his deeds and words to every lumberer and stevedore and timber-tower +about Montreal and Quebec. This man, whose name was Joe Monfaron, was +the bully of the Ottawa raftsmen. He was about six feet six inches high +and proportionably broad and deep; and I remember how people would turn +round to look after him, as he came pounding along Notre-Dame Street, in +Montreal, in his red shirt and tan-colored _shupac_ boots, all dripping +wet after mooring an acre or two of raft, and now bent for his +ashore-haunts in the Ste.-Marie suburb, to indemnify himself with +bacchanalian and other consolations for long-endured hardship. Among +other feats of strength attributed to him, I remember the following, +which has an old, familiar taste, but was related to me as a fact. + +There was a fighting stevedore or timber-tower, I forget which, at +Quebec, who never had seen Joe Monfaron, as the latter seldom came +farther down the river than Montreal. This fighting character, however, +made a custom of laughing to scorn all the rumors that came down on +rafts, every now and then, about terrible chastisements inflicted by Joe +upon several hostile persons at once. He, the fighting timber-tower, +hadn't found his match yet about the lumber-coves at Quebec, and he only +wanted to see Joe Monfaron once, when he would settle the question as to +the championship of the rafts on sight. One day, a giant in a red shirt +stood suddenly before him, saying,-- + +"You're Dick Dempsey, eh?" + +"That's me," replied the timber-tower; "and who are you?" + +"Joe Monfaron. I heard you wanted me,--here I am," was the Caesarean +response of the great captain of rafts. + +"Ah! you're Joe Monfaron!" said the bully, a little staggered at the +sort of customer he saw before him. "I said I'd like to see you, for +sure; but how am I to know you're the right man?" + +"Shake hands, first," replied Joe, "and then you'll find out, may be." + +They shook hands,--rather warmly, perhaps, for the timber-tower, whose +features wore an uncertain expression during the operation, and who at +last broke out into a yell of pain, as Joe cast him off with a defiant +laugh. Nor did the bully wait for any further explanations; for, whether +the man who had just brought the blood spouting out at the tips of his +fingers was Joe Monfaron or not, he was clearly an ugly customer and had +better be left alone. + +There are several roads from Quebec to Lorette, all of them good for +carriages except one, which, from its extreme destitution of every +condition essential to easy locomotion on wheels, is called, in the +expressive language of the French colonists, _La Misère_. And yet this +is the only road which, from touching various points of the River St. +Charles, affords the traveller compensating glimpses of the picturesque +windings of that stream. The pedestrian, however, is the only kind of +explorer who really sees a country and its people; and for him who is +not too proud to walk, _La Misère_ is not so hard to bear as its name +might imply. + +If iron takes the romance out of things, in a general way, as I +mentioned at the beginning of this article my impression that it +rather does, I know not whether primitive Lorette has not become sadly +vulcanized into prosaic progress by the grand system of water-works +established there for the benefit of Quebec. Connected as it is, now, +with the latter place, by seven miles of iron pipes, I would not +undertake to say that it retains aught of the rustic simplicity of its +greener days. Had the pipes been of wood, indeed, the place might +yet have had a chance. To understand this, one should hear the +French-Canadian expatiate upon the superiority of the wooden to the +metal bridge. Five years ago, the road-trustees of Quebec undertook to +span the Montmorency River, just above the great fall, with an iron +suspension-bridge. This would shorten the road, they said, by some two +or three hundred yards of divergence from the old wooden bridge higher +up. They built their bridge, which looked like a spider's web spanning +the verge of the stupendous cataract, when seen from the St. Lawrence +below. It was opened to the public in April, 1856, but was little used +for some days, as the conservative _habitans_, who had gone the crooked +road over the wooden bridge all their lives, declined to see what +advantage could be gained by taking to a straight one pontificed with +iron. It had not been open a week, however, when, as two or three +hurrying peasants were venturing it with their carts, it fell with a +crash, and all were washed headlong in an instant over the precipice +and into the boiling abyss below, from which not one vestige of their +remains was ever returned for a sign to their awe-stricken friends. +Supposing this bridge to be rebuilt,--which is not likely,--I do not +believe that a _habitant_ of all that region could be got to cross it, +even under the malediction, with bell, book, and candle, of his priest. +And so the old wooden bridge flourishes, and the crooked road is +travelled by gray-coated _cultivateurs_, whose forefathers went crooked +in the same direction for several generations, mounted upon persevering +ponies which wouldn't upon any account be persuaded into going straight. + +A gleam of hope for Lorette flashes upon me since the above was written. +On looking over a provincial paper, I find astounding rumors of ghosts +appearing upon the track of a western railroad. Things clothed in the +traditional white appear before the impartial cow-catcher, which divides +them for the passage of the train, in the wake of which they immediately +reappear in a full state of repair and posture of contempt. If this +sort of thing goes on, what a splendid new field will be opened for the +writer of romance! + +Certainly, I do not yet see what antidote there is for the primitive and +pastoral against seven miles of iron pipe; but it is cheerful to know +that ghosts are beginning to come about railroads, and all may yet be +well with Lorette. + + + + +BEHIND THE MASK. + + + It was an old, distorted face,-- + An uncouth visage, rough and wild; + Yet from behind, with laughing grace, + Peeped the fresh beauty of a child. + + And so contrasting, fair and bright, + It made me of my fancy ask + If half earth's wrinkled grimness might + Be but the baby in the mask. + + Behind gray hairs and furrowed brow + And withered look that life puts on, + Each, as he wears it, comes to know + How the child hides, and is not gone. + + For, while the inexorable years + To saddened features fit their mould, + Beneath the work of time and tears + Waits something that will not grow old! + + And pain and petulance and care + And wasted hope and sinful stain + Shape the strange guise the soul doth wear, + Till her young life look forth again. + + The beauty of his boyhood's smile,-- + What human faith could find it now + In yonder man of grief and guile,-- + A very Cain, with branded brow? + + Yet, overlaid and hidden, still + It lingers,--of his life a part; + As the scathed pine upon the hill + Holds the young fibres at its heart. + + And, haply, round the Eternal Throne, + Heaven's pitying angels shall not ask + For that last look the world hath known, + But for the face behind the mask! + + + + +DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. + + +We were lately lounging away a Roman morning among the gems in +Castellani's sparkling rooms in the Via Poli. One of the treasures +handed out for rapturous examination was a diamond necklace, just +finished for a Russian princess, at the cost of sixty thousand dollars, +and a set of pearls for an English lady, who must pay, before she bears +her prize homeward, the sum of ten thousand dollars. Castellani junior, +a fine, patriotic young fellow, who has since been banished for his +liberal ideas of government, smiled as he read astonishment in our eyes, +and proceeded forthwith to dazzle us still further with more gems of +rarest beauty, till then hidden away in his strong iron boxes. + +Castellani, father and son, are princes among jewellers, and deserve to +be ranked as artists of a superior order. Do not fail to visit their +charming apartments, as among the most attractive lesser glories, when +you go to Rome. They have a grand way of doing things, right good to +look upon; and we once saw a countrywoman of ours, who has written +immortal words in the cause of freedom, made the recipient of a gem at +their hands, which she cannot but prize as among the chief tributes so +numerously bestowed in all parts of the Christian world where her feet +have wandered. + +Castellani's jeweller's shop has existed in Rome since the year 1814. +At that time all the efforts of this artist (Castellani the elder) were +directed to the imitation of the newest English and French fashions, and +particularly to the setting of diamonds. This he continued till 1823. +From 1823 to 1827 he sought aid for his art in the study of Technology. +And not in vain; for in 1826 he read before the _Accademia dei Lincei_ +of Rome, (founded by Federico Cesi,) a paper on the chemical process of +coloring _a giallone_ (yellow) in the manufacture of gold, in which he +announced some facts in the action of electricity, long before Delarive +and other chemists, as noticed in the "Quarterly Journal of Science," +Dec., 1828, No. 6, and the "Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève," 1829, +Tom. xi. p. 84. + +At this period Etruria began to lay open the treasures of her art. +All were struck by the beauty of the jewels found in the tombs; but +Castellani was the first who thought of reproducing some of them; and he +did it to the great admiration of the amateurs, foremost among whom may +be mentioned the Duke Don Michelangelo Caetani, a man of great artistic +feeling, who aided by his counsels and his designs the _renaissance_ of +Roman jewelry. + +The discovery of the celebrated tomb Regulini-Galassi at Cervetri was +an event in jewelry. The articles of gold found in it (all now in the +Vatican) were diligently studied by Castellani, when called upon to +appraise them. Comprehending the methods and the character of the work, +he boldly followed tradition. + +The discoveries of Campanari of Toscanella, and of the Marquis Campana +of Rome, gave valuable aid to this new branch of art. + +Thus it went on improving; and Castellani produced very expert pupils, +all of them Italians. Fashion, if not public feeling, came to aid the +_renaissance_, and others, in Rome and elsewhere, undertook similar work +after the models of Castellani. It may be asserted that the triumph of +the classic jewelry is now complete. Castellani renounced the modern +methods of chasing and engraving, and adhered only to the antique +fashion of overlaying with cords, grains, and finest threads of +gold. From the Etruscan style he passed to the Greek, the Roman, the +Christian. In this last he introduced the rough mosaics, such as were +used by the Byzantines with much effect and variety of tint and of +design. + +The work of Castellani is dear; but that results from his method of +execution, and from the perfect finish of all the details. He does not +seek for cheapness, but for the perfection of art: this is the only +thing he has in view. As he is a man of genius, we have devoted +considerable space to his admirable productions. + +The Talmud informs us that Noah had no other light in the ark than that +which came from precious stones. Why do not our modern jewellers take a +hint from the ancient safety-boat, and light up accordingly? We dare +say old Tavernier, that knowing French gem-trader of the seventeenth +century, had the art of illuminating his château at Aubonne in a way +wondrous to the beholder. Among all the jewellers, ancient or modern, +Jean Baptiste Tavernier seems to us the most interesting character. His +great knowledge of precious stones, his acute observation and unfailing +judgment, stamp him as one of the remarkable men of his day. Forty years +of his life he passed in travelling through Turkey, Persia, and the +East Indies, trading in gems of the richest and rarest lustre. A great +fortune was amassed, and a barony in the Canton of Berne, on the Lake of +Geneva, was purchased as no bad harbor for the rest of his days. There +he hoped to enjoy the vast wealth he had so industriously acquired. But, +alas! stupid nephews abound everywhere; and one of his, to whom he had +intrusted a freight worth two hundred and twenty thousand livres, caused +him so great a loss, that, at the age of eighty-four, he felt obliged to +sail again for the East in order to retrieve his fortune, or at least +repair the ill-luck arising from his unfortunate speculation. He forgot, +poor old man! that youth and strength are necessary to fight against +reverses; and he died at Moscow, on his way, in 1689. When you visit the +great Library in Paris, you will find his "Travels," in three volumes, +published in 1677-79, on a shelf among the quartos. Take them down, and +spend a pleasant hour in looking through the pages of the enthusiastic +old merchant-jeweller. His adventures in search of diamonds and other +precious commodities are well told; and although he makes the mistakes +incident to many other early travellers, he never wilfully romances. +He supposed he was the first European that had explored the mines of +Golconda; but an Englishman of the name of Methold visited them as early +as 1622, and found thirty thousand laborers working away for the rich +Marcandar, who paid three hundred thousand pagodas annually to the king +for the privilege of digging in a single mine. The first mine visited by +Tavernier was that of Raolconda, a five-days' journey from Golconda. The +manner of trading there he thus describes:-- + +"A very pretty sight is that presented every morning by the children of +the master-miners and of other inhabitants of the district. The boys, +the eldest of which is not over sixteen or the youngest under ten, +assemble and sit under a large tree in the public square of the village. +Each has his diamond weight in a bag hung on one side of his girdle, and +on the other a purse containing sometimes as much as five or six hundred +pagodas. Here they wait for such persons as have diamonds to sell, +either from the vicinity or from any other mine. When a diamond is +brought to them, it is immediately handed to the eldest boy, who is +tacitly acknowledged as the head of this little band. By him it is +carefully examined, and then passed to his neighbor, who, having also +inspected it, transmits it to the next boy. The stone is thus passed +from hand to hand, amid unbroken silence, until it returns to that of +the eldest, who then asks the price and makes the bargain. If the little +man is thought by his comrades to have given too high a price, he must +keep the stone on his own account. In the evening the children take +account of stock, examine their purchases, and class them according to +their water, size, and purity, putting on each stone the price they +expect to get for it; they then carry the stones to the masters, who +have always assortments to complete, and the profits are divided among +the young traders, with this difference in favor of the head of the +firm, that he receives one-fourth per cent. more than the others. These +children are so perfectly acquainted with the value of all sorts of +gems, that, if one of them, after buying a stone, is willing to lose +one-half per cent. on it, a companion is always ready to take it." + +Master Tavernier discourses at some length on the ingenious methods +adopted by the laborers to conceal diamonds which they have found, +sometimes swallowing them,--and he tells of one miner who hid in the +corner of his eye a stone of two carats! Altogether, his work is one +worthy to be turned over, even in that vast collection, the Imperial +Library, for its graphic pictures of gem-hunting two hundred years ago. + +Professor Tennant says, "One of the common marks of opulence and taste +in all countries is the selection, preservation, and ornamental use of +gems and precious stones." Diamonds, from the time Alexander ordered +pieces of flesh to be thrown into the inaccessible valley of Zulmeah, +that the vultures might bring up with them the precious stones which +attached themselves, have everywhere ranked among the luxuries of a +refined cultivation. It is the most brilliant of stones, and the hardest +known body. Pliny says it is so hard a substance, that, if one should +be laid on an anvil and struck with a hammer, look out for the hammer! +[_Mem_. If the reader have a particularly fine diamond, never mind +Pliny's story: the risk is something, and Pliny cannot be reached for an +explanation, should his experiment fail.] By its own dust only can +the diamond be cut and polished; and its great lustre challenges +the admiration of the world. Ordinary individuals, with nothing to +distinguish them from the common herd, have "got diamonds," and +straightway became ever afterwards famous. An uncommon-sized brilliant, +stuck into the front linen of a foolish fellow, will set him up as +a marked man, and point him out as something worth looking at. The +announcement in the papers of the day, that "Mademoiselle Mars would +wear all her diamonds," never failed to stimulate the sale of tickets +on all such occasions. As it may interest our readers to know what +treasures an actress of 1828 possessed, we copy from the catalogue of +her effects a few items. + +"Two rows of brilliants set _en chatons_, one row composed of forty-six +brilliants, the other of forty-four; eight sprigs of wheat in +brilliants, composed of about five hundred brilliants, weighing +fifty-seven carats; a garland of brilliants that may be taken to pieces +and worn as three distinct ornaments, three large brilliants forming the +centre of the principal flowers, the whole comprising seven hundred and +nine brilliants, weighing eighty-five carats three-quarters; a Sévigné +mounted in colored gold, in the centre of which is a burnt topaz +surrounded by diamonds weighing about three grains each, the drops +consisting of three opals similarly surrounded by diamonds; one of +the three opals is of very large size, in shape oblong, with rounded +corners; the whole set in gold studded with rubies and pearls. + +"A _parure_ of opals, consisting of a necklace and Sévigné, two +bracelets, ear-rings the studs of which are emeralds, comb, belt-plate +set with an opal in the shape of a triangle; the whole mounted in +wrought gold, studded with small emeralds. + +"A Gothic bracelet of enamelled gold, in the centre a burnt topaz +surrounded by three large brilliants; in each link composing the +bracelet is a square emerald; at each extremity of the topaz forming +the centre ornament are two balls of burnished gold, and two of wrought +gold. + +"A pair of girandole ear-rings of brilliants, each consisting of a large +stud brilliant and of three pear-shaped brilliants united by four small +ones; another pair of ear-rings composed of fourteen small brilliants +forming a clustre of grapes, each stud of a single brilliant. + +"A diamond cross composed of eleven brilliants, the ring being also of +brilliants. + +"A bracelet with a gold chain, the centre-piece of which is a fine opal +surrounded with brilliants; the opal is oblong and mounted in the Gothic +style; the clasp is an opal. + +"A gold bracelet, with a _grecque_ surrounded by six angel heads graven +on turkoises, and a head of Augustus. + +"A serpent bracelet _à la Cléopatre_, enamelled black, with a turkois on +its head. + +"A bracelet with wrought links burnished on a dead ground; the clasp a +heart of burnished gold with a turkois in the centre, graven with Hebrew +characters. + +"A bracelet with a row of Mexican chain, and a gold ring set with a +turkois and fastened to the bracelet by a Venetian chain. + +"A ring, the hoop encircled with small diamonds. + +"A ring, _à la chevalière_, set with a square emerald between two +pearls. + +"A gold _chevalière_ ring, on which is engraved a small head of +Napoleon. + +"Two belt-buckles, Gothic style, one of burnished gold, the other set +with emeralds, opals, and pearls. + +"A necklace of two rows coral; a small bracelet of engraved carnelians. + +"A comb of rose diamonds, form D 5, surmounted by a large rose +surrounded by smaller ones, and a cinque-foil in roses, the _chatons_ +alternated, below a band of roses." + +The weight of the diamond, as every one knows, is estimated in _carats_ +all over the world. And what is a carat, pray? and whence its name? It +is of Indian origin, a _kirat_ being a small seed that was used in India +to weigh diamonds with. Four grains are equal to one carat, and six +carats make one pennyweight. But there is no standard weight fixed for +the finest diamonds. Competition alone among purchasers must arrange +their price. The commercial value of gems is rarely affected, and +among all articles of commerce the diamond is the least liable to +depreciation. Panics that shake empires and topple trade into the dust +seldom lower the cost of this king of precious stones; and there is no +personal property that is so apt to remain unchanged in money-value. + +Diamond anecdotes abound, the world over; but we have lately met with +two brief ones that ought to be preserved. + +"Carlier, a bookseller in the reign of Louis XIV., left, at his death, +to each of his children,--one a girl of fifteen, the other a captain in +the guards,--a sum of five hundred thousand francs, then an enormous +fortune. Mademoiselle Carlier, young, handsome, and wealthy, had +numerous suitors. One of these, a M. Tiquet, a Councillor of the +Parliament, sent her on her fête-day a bouquet, in which the calices of +the roses were of large diamonds. The magnificence of this gift gave so +good an opinion of the wealth, taste, and liberality of the donor, that +the lady gave him the preference over all his competitors. But sad was +the disappointment that followed the bridal! The husband was rather poor +than rich; and the bouquet, that had cost forty-five thousand francs, +(nine thousand dollars,) had been bought on credit, and was paid out of +the bride's fortune." + +"The gallants of the Court of Louis XV. carried extravagance as far +as the famous Egyptian queen. She melted a pearl,--they pulverized +diamonds, to prove their insane magnificence. A lady having expressed a +desire to have the portrait of her canary in a ring, the last Prince de +Conti requested she would allow him to give it to her; she accepted, on +condition that no precious gems should be set in it. When the ring was +brought to her, however, a diamond covered the painting. The lady had +the brilliant taken out of the setting, and sent it back to the giver. +The Prince, determined not to be gainsaid, caused the stone to be ground +to dust, which he used to dry the ink of the letter he wrote to her on +the subject." + +Let us mention some of the most noted diamonds in the world. The largest +one known, that of the Rajah of Matan, in Borneo, weighs three hundred +and sixty-seven carats. It is egg-shaped and is of the finest water. +Two large war-vessels, with all their guns, powder, and shot, and one +hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money, were once refused for it. +And yet its weight is only about three ounces! + +The second in size is the _Orloff_, or _Grand Russian_, sometimes called +the _Moon of the Mountain_, of one hundred and ninety-three carats. +The Great Mogul once owned it. Then it passed by conquest into the +possession of Nadir the Shah of Persia. In 1747 he was assassinated, and +all the crown-jewels slipped out of the dead man's fingers,--a common +incident to mortality. What became of the great diamond no one at that +time knew, till one day a chief of the Anganians walked, mole-footed, +into the presence of a rich Armenian gentleman in Balsora, and proposed +to sell him (no lisping,--not a word to betray him) a large emerald, a +splendid ruby, and the great Orloff diamond. Mr. Shafrass counted out +fifty thousand piastres for the lot; and the chief folded up his robes +and silently departed. Ten years afterwards the people of Amsterdam were +apprised that a great treasure had arrived in their city, and could +be bought, too. Nobody there felt rich enough to buy the great Orloff +sparkler. So the English and Russian governments sent bidders to compete +for the gem. The Empress Catharine offered the highest sum; and her +agent, the Count Orloff, paid for it in her name four hundred and fifty +thousand roubles, cash down, and a grant of Russian nobility! The size +of this diamond is that of a pigeon's egg, and its lustre and water are +of the finest: its shape is not perfect. + +The _Grand Tuscan_ is next in order,--for many years held by the Medici +family. It is now owned by the Austrian Emperor, and is the pride of +the Imperial Court. It is cut as a rose, nine-sided, and is of a yellow +tint, lessening somewhat its value. Its weight is one hundred and +thirty-nine and a half carats; and its value is estimated at one hundred +and fifty-five thousand, six hundred and eighty-eight pounds. + +The most perfect, though not the largest, diamond in Europe is the +_Regent_, which belongs to the Imperial diadem of France. Napoleon the +First used to wear it in the hilt of his state-sword. Its original +weight was four hundred and ten carats; but after it was cut as a +brilliant, (a labor of two years, at a cost of three thousand pounds +sterling,) it was reduced to one hundred and thirty-seven carats. It +came from the mines of Golconda; and the thief who stole it therefrom +sold it to the grandfather of the Earl of Chatham, when he was governor +of a fort in the East Indies. Lucky Mr. Pitt pocketed one hundred and +thirty-five thousand pounds for his treasure, the purchaser being Louis +XV. This amount, it is said, is only half its real value. However, as it +cost the Governor, according to his own statement, some years after +the sale, only twenty thousand pounds, his speculation was "something +handsome." Pope had a fling at Pitt, in his poetical way, intimating a +wrong with regard to the possession of the diamond; but we believe the +transaction was an honest one. In the inventory of the crown-jewels, the +Regent diamond is set down at twelve million francs! + +The _Star of the South_ comes next in point of celebrity. It is the +largest diamond yet obtained from Brazil; and it is owned by the King of +Portugal. It weighed originally two hundred and fifty-four carats, but +was trimmed down to one hundred and twenty-five. The grandfather of +the present king had a hole bored in it, and liked to strut about on +gala-days with the gem suspended around his neck. This magnificent jewel +was found by three banished miners, who were seeking for gold during +their exile. A great drought had laid dry the bed of a river, and there +they discovered this lustrous wonder. Of course, on promulgating their +great luck, their sentence was revoked immediately. + +The world-renowned _Koh-i-noor_ next claims our attention. + +A Venetian diamond-cutter (wretched, bungling Hortensio Borgis!) +reduced the great _Koh-i-noor_ from its primitive weight--nine hundred +carats--to two hundred and eighty. Tavernier saw this celebrated jewel +two hundred years ago, not long after its discovery. It came into the +possession of Queen Victoria in 1849, _three thousand years_, say the +Eastern sages, after it belonged to Karna, the King of Anga! On the 16th +of July, 1852, the Duke of Wellington superintended the commencement +of the re-cutting of the famous gem, and for thirty-eight days the +operation went on. Eight thousand pounds were expended in the cutting +and polishing. When it was finished and ready to be restored to the +royal keeping, the person (a celebrated jeweller) to whom the whole +care of the work had been intrusted, allowed a friend to take it in his +fingers for examination. While he was feasting his eyes over it, and +turning it to the light in order to get the full force of its marvellous +beauty, down it slipped from his grasp and fell upon the ground. The +jeweller nearly fainted with alarm, and poor "Butterfingers" was +completely jellified with fear. Had the stone struck the ground at a +particular angle, it would have split in two, and been ruined forever. + +Innumerable anecdotes cluster about this fine diamond. Having passed +through the hands of various Indian princes, violence and fraud are +copiously mingled up with its history. We quote one of Madame de +Barrera's stories concerning it:---- + +"The King of Lahore having heard that the King of Cabul possessed a +diamond that had belonged to the Great Mogul, the largest and purest +known, he invited the fortunate owner to his court, and there, having +him in his power, demanded his diamond. The guest, however, had provided +himself against such a contingency with a perfect imitation of the +coveted jewel. After some show of resistance, he reluctantly acceded to +the wishes of his powerful host. The delight of Runjeet was extreme, but +of short duration,--the lapidary to whom he gave orders to mount his +new acquisition pronouncing it to be merely a bit of crystal. The +mortification and rage of the despot were unbounded. He immediately +caused the palace of the King of Cabul to be invested, and ransacked +from top to bottom. But for a long while all search was vain; at last a +slave betrayed the secret;--the diamond was found concealed beneath +a heap of ashes. Runjeet Singh had it set in an armlet, between two +diamonds, each the size of a sparrow's egg." + +The _Shah of Persia_, presented to the Emperor Nicholas by the Persian +monarch, is a very beautiful stone, irregularly shaped. Its weight is +eighty-six carats, and its water and lustre are superb. + +The various stories attached to the _Sancy_ diamond, the next in point +of value, would occupy many pages. During four centuries it has been +accumulating romantic circumstances, until it is now very difficult to +give its true narrative. If Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy, +ever wore it suspended round his neck, he sported a magnificent jewel. +If the Curate of Montagny bought it for a crown of a soldier who picked +it up after the defeat of Granson, not knowing its value, the soldier +was unconsciously cheated by the Curate. If a citizen of Berne got it +out of the Curate's fingers for three crowns, he was a shrewd knave. De +Barante says, that in 1492 (Columbus was then about making land in this +hemisphere) this diamond was sold in Lucerne for five thousand ducats. +After that, all sorts of incidents are related to have befallen it. Here +is one of them.--Henry IV. was once in a strait for money. The Sieur +de Sancy (who gave his name to the gem) wished to send the monarch his +diamond, that he might raise funds upon it from the Jews of Metz. A +trusty servant sets off with it, to brave the perils of travel, by no +means slight in those rough days, and is told, in case of danger from +brigands, to swallow the precious trust. The messenger is found dead on +the road, and is buried by peasants. De Sancy, impatient that his man +does not arrive, seeks for his body, takes it from the ground where it +is buried, opens it, and recovers his gem! In some way not now known, +Louis XV. got the diamond into his possession, and wore it at his +coronation. In 1789, it disappeared from the crown-treasures, and no +trace of it was discovered till 1830, when it was offered for sale by a +merchant in Paris. Count Demidoff had a lawsuit over it in 1832; and as +it is valued at a million of francs, it was worth quarrelling about. + +The _Nassuck Diamond_, valued at thirty thousand pounds, is a +magnificent jewel, nearly as large as a common walnut. Pure as a drop of +dew, it ranked among the richest treasures in the British conquest of +India. + +What has become of the great triangular _Blue Diamond_, weighing +sixty-seven carats, stolen from the French Court at the time of the +great robbery of the crown-jewels? Alas! it has never been heard from. +Three millions of francs represented its value; and no one, to this day, +knows its hiding-place. What a pleasant morning's work it would be to +unearth this gem from its dark corner, where it has lain _perdu_ so many +years! The bells of Notre Dame should proclaim such good-fortune to all +Paris. + +But enough of these individual magnificos. Their beauty and rarity have +attracted sufficient attention in their day. Yet we should like to +handle a few of those Spanish splendors which Queen Isabel II. wore at +the reception of the ambassadors from Morocco. That day she shone in +diamonds alone to the amount of two million dollars! We once saw a +monarch's sword, of which + + "The jewelled hilt, + Whose diamonds lit the passage of his blade," + +was valued at one hundred thousand dollars! But one of the pleasantest +of our personal remembrances, connected with diamonds, is the picking up +of a fine, lustrous gem which fell from O.B.'s violin-bow, (the gift of +the Duke of Devonshire,) one night, after he had been playing his magic +instrument for the special delight of a few friends. The tall Norwegian +wrapped it in a bit of newspaper, when it was restored to him, and +thrust it into his cigar-box! [O.B. sometimes carried his treasures in +strange places. One day he was lamenting the loss of a large sum of +money which he had received as the proceeds of a concert in New York. A +week afterwards he found his missing nine hundred dollars stuffed away +in a dark corner of one of his violin-cases.] + +There is a very pretty diamond-story current in connection with the good +Empress Eugénie. Madame de Barrera relates it in this wise. + +"When the sovereign of France marries, by virtue of an ancient custom +kept up to the present day, the bride is presented by the city of Paris +with a valuable gift. Another is also offered at the birth of the +first-born. + +"In 1853, when the choice of His Majesty Napoleon III. raised the +Empress Eugénie to the throne, the city of Paris, represented by the +Municipal Commission, voted the sum of six hundred thousand francs for +the purchase of a diamond necklace to be presented to Her Majesty. + +"The news caused quite a sensation among the jewellers. Each was eager +to contribute his finest gems to form the Empress's necklace,--a +necklace which was to make its appearance under auspices as favorable as +those of the famous _Queen's Necklace_ had been unpropitious. But on the +28th of January, two days after the vote of the Municipal Commission, +all this zeal was disappointed; the young Empress having expressed +a wish that the six hundred thousand francs should be used for the +foundation of an educational institution for poor young girls of the +Faubourg St. Antoine. + +"The wish has been realized, and, thanks to the beneficent fairy in +whose compassionate heart it had its origin, the diamond necklace has +been metamorphosed into an elegant edifice, with charming gardens. Here +a hundred and fifty young girls, at first, but now as many as four +hundred, have been placed, and receive, under the management of those +angels of charity called the _Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul_, an +excellent education proportioned to their station, and fitting them to +be useful members of society. + +"The solemn opening of the Maison-Eugénie-Napoleon took place on the +1st of January, 1857. + +"M. Veron, the _journaliste_, now deputy of the Seine, has given, in the +'Moniteur,' a very circumstantial account of this establishment. From it +we borrow the following:-- + +"'The girls admitted are usually wretchedly clad; on their entrance, +they receive a full suit of clothes. Almost all are pale, thin, weak +children, to whom melancholy and suffering have imparted an old and +careworn expression. But, thanks to cleanliness, to wholesome and +sufficient food, to a calm and well-regulated life, to the pure, healthy +air they breathe, the natural hues and the joyousness of youth soon +reanimate the little faces; and with lithe, invigorated limbs, and happy +hearts, these young creatures join merrily in the games of their new +companions. They have entered the institution old; they will leave it +young.' + +"The Empress Eugénie delights in visiting the institution of the +Faubourg St. Antoine. This is natural. Her Majesty cannot but feel +pleasure in the contemplation of all she has accomplished by sacrificing +a magnificent, but idle ornament to the welfare of so many beings +rescued from misery and ignorance. These four hundred young girls will +be so many animated, happy, and grateful jewels, constituting for Her +Majesty in the present, and for her memory in the future, an ever new +set of jewels, an immortal ornament, a truly celestial talisman. + +"A fresco painting represents, in a hemicycle, the Empress in her bridal +dress, offering to the Virgin a diamond necklace; young girls are +kneeling around her in prayer; admiration and fervent faith are depicted +on their brows." + +A very large amount of the world's capital is represented in precious +stones, and ninety per cent of that capital so invested is in diamonds. +This was not always the case. Ancient millionnaires held their +enormous jewelry-riches more in colored stones than is the custom now. +Crystallized carbon has risen in the estimation of capitalists, and +crystallized clay has gone down in the scale of value. If the diamond be +the hardest known substance in the world's jewel-box, the pearl is by no +means its near relation in that particular. The daughters of Stilicho +slept undisturbed eleven hundred and eighteen years, with all their +riches in sound condition, except the pearls that were found with their +splendid ornaments. The other decorations sparkled in the light as +brilliantly as ever; but the pearls crumbled into dust, as their owners +had done centuries before. Eight hundred years before these ladies lived +and wore pearls, a queen with "swarthy cheeks and bold black eyes" tried +a beverage which cost, exclusive of the vinegar which partly composed +it, the handsome little sum of something over eighty thousand pounds. +Diamond and vinegar would not have mixed so prettily. + +Pearls are perishable beauties, exquisite in their perfect state, but +liable to accident from the nature of their delicate composition. Remote +antiquity chronicles their existence, and immemorial potentates eagerly +sought for them to adorn their persons. Pearl-fisheries in the Persian +Gulf are older than the reign of Alexander; and the Indian Ocean, the +Red Sea, and the Coast of Coromandel yielded their white wonders ages +ago. Under the Ptolemies, in the time of the Caliphs, the pearl-merchant +flourished, grew rich, and went to Paradise. To-day the pearl-diver is +grubbing under the waves that are lapping the Sooloo Islands, the coast +of Coromandel, and the shores of Algiers. In Ceylon he is busiest, and +you may find him from the first of February to the middle of April +risking his life in the perilous seas. His boat is from eight to ten +tons burden, and without a deck. At ten o'clock at night, when the +cannon fires, it is his signal to put off for the bank opposite +Condatchy, which he will reach by daylight, if the weather be fair. +Unless it is calm, he cannot follow his trade. As soon as light dawns, +he prepares to descend. His diving-stone, to keep him at the bottom, +is got ready, and, after offering up his devotions, he leaps into the +water. Two minutes are considered a long time to be submerged, but +some divers can hold out four or five minutes. When his strength is +exhausted, he gives a signal by pulling the rope, and is drawn up with +his bag of oysters. Appalling dangers compass him about. Sharks watch +for him as he dives, and not infrequently he comes up maimed for life. +It is recorded of a pearl-diver, that he died from over-exertion +immediately after he reached land, having brought up with him a shell +that contained a pearl of great size and beauty. Barry Cornwall has +remembered the poor follow in song so full of humanity, that we quote +his pearl-strung lyric entire. + + "Within the midnight of her hair, + Half hidden in its deepest deeps, + A single, peerless, priceless pearl + (All filmy-eyed) forever sleeps. + Without the diamond's sparkling eyes, + The ruby's blushes, there it lies, + Modest as the tender dawn, + When her purple veil's withdrawn,-- + The flower of gems, a lily cold and pale! + Yet what doth all avail,-- + All its beauty, all its grace, + All the honors of its place? + He who plucked it from its bed, + In the far blue Indian ocean, + Lieth, without life or motion, + In his earthy dwelling,--dead! + And his children, one by one, + When they look upon the sun, + Curse the toil by which he drew + The treasure from its bed of blue. + + "Gentle Bride, no longer wear, + In thy night-black, odorous hair, + Such a spoil! It is not fit + That a tender soul should sit + Under such accursed gem! + What need'st _thou_ a diadem,-- + Thou, within whose Eastern eyes + Thought (a starry Genius) lies,-- + Thou, whom Beauty has arrayed,-- + Thou, whom Love and Truth have made + Beautiful,--in whom we trace + Woman's softness, angel's grace, + All we hope for, all that streams + Upon us in our haunted dreams? + + "O sweet Lady! cast aside, + With a gentle, noble pride, + All to sin or pain allied! + Let the wild-eyed conqueror wear + The bloody laurel in his hair! + Let the black and snaky vine + Round the drinker's temples twine! + Let the slave-begotten gold + Weigh on bosoms hard and cold! + But be THOU forever known + By thy natural light alone!" + +One of the best judges of pearls that ever lived, out of the regular +trade, was no less a person than Caesar. He was a great connoisseur, and +could tell at once, when he took a pearl in his hand, its weight and +value. He gave one away worth a quarter of a million dollars. Servilia, +the mother of Brutus, was the lady to whom he made the regal present. + +Caligula, not satisfied with building ships of cedar with sterns inlaid +with gems, had a pearl-collar made for a favorite horse! Pliny grows +indignant as he chronicles the luxury of this Emperor. + +"I have seen," says he, "Lollia Paulina, who was the wife of the +Emperor Caligula,--and this not on the occasion of a solemn festival or +ceremony, but merely at a supper of ordinary betrothals,--I have seen +Lollia Paulina covered with emeralds and pearls, arranged alternately, +so as to give each other additional brilliancy, on her head, neck, arms, +hands, and girdle, to the amount of forty thousand sesterces, [£336,000 +sterling,] the which value she was prepared to prove on the instant by +producing the receipts. And these pearls came, not from the prodigal +generosity of an imperial husband, but from treasures which had been the +spoils of provinces. Marcus Lollius, her grandfather, was dishonored +in all the East on account of the gifts he had extorted from kings, +disgraced by Tiberius, and obliged to poison himself, that his +grand-daughter might exhibit herself by the light of the _lucernae_ +blazing with jewels." + +Nero offered to Jupiter Capitolinus the first trimmings of his beard in +a magnificent vase enriched with the costliest pearls. + +Catherine de Medicis and Diane de Poitiers almost floated in pearls, +their dresses being literally covered with them. The wedding-robe of +Anne of Cleves was a rich cloth-of-gold, thickly embroidered with +great flowers of large Orient pearls. Poor Mary, Queen of Scots, had a +wonderful lot of pearls among her jewels; and the sneaking manner in +which Elizabeth got possession of them we will leave Miss Strickland, +the biographer of Queens, to relate. + +"If anything farther than the letters of Drury and Throgmorton be +required to prove the confederacy between the English Government and the +Earl of Moray, it will only be necessary to expose the disgraceful +fact of the traffic of Queen Mary's costly _parure_ of pearls, her own +personal property, which she had brought with her from France. A few +days before she effected her escape from Lochleven Castle, the righteous +Regent sent these, with a choice collection of her jewels, very secretly +to London, by his trusty agent, Sir Nicholas Elphinstone, who undertook +to negotiate their sale, with the assistance of Throgmorton, to whom he +was directed for that purpose. As these pearls were considered the most +magnificent in Europe, Queen Elizabeth was complimented with the first +offer of them. 'She saw them yesterday, May 2nd,' writes Bodutel La +Forrest, the French ambassador at the Court of England, 'in the presence +of the Earls of Pembroke and Leicester, and pronounced them to be of +unparalleled beauty.' He thus describes them: 'There are six cordons +of large pearls, strung as paternosters; but there are five-and-twenty +separate from the rest, much finer and larger than those which are +strung; these are for the most part like black _muscades_. They had not +been here more than three days, when they were appraised by various +merchants; this Queen wishing to have them at the sum named by the +jeweller, who could have made his profit by selling them again. They +were at first shown to three or four working jewellers and lapidaries, +by whom they were estimated at three thousand pounds sterling, (about +ten thousand crowns,) and who offered to give that sum for them. Several +Italian merchants came after them, who valued them at twelve thousand +crowns, which is the price, as I am told, this Queen Elizabeth will take +them at. There is a Genoese who saw them after the others, and said they +were worth sixteen thousand crowns; but I think they will allow her to +have them for twelve thousand.' 'In the mean time,' continues he, in his +letter to Catherine of Medicis, 'I have not delayed giving your Majesty +timely notice of what was going on, though I doubt she will not allow +them to escape her. The rest of the jewels are not near so valuable as +the pearls. The only thing I have heard particularly described is +a piece of unicorn richly carved and decorated.' Mary's royal +mother-in-law of France, no whit more scrupulous than her good cousin of +England, was eager to compete with the latter for the purchase of the +pearls, knowing that they were worth nearly double the sum at which they +had been valued in London. Some of them she had herself presented to +Mary, and especially wished to recover; but the ambassador wrote to her +in reply, that 'he had found it impossible to accomplish her desire of +obtaining the Queen of Scots' pearls, for, as he had told her from the +first, they were intended for the gratification of the Queen of England, +who had been allowed to purchase them at her own price, and they were +now in her hands.' + +"Inadequate though the sum for which her pearls were sold was to their +real value, it assisted to turn the scale against their real owner. + +"In one of her letters to Elizabeth, supplicating her to procure some +amelioration of the rigorous confinement of her captive friends, Mary +alludes to her stolen jewels:--'I beg also,' says she, 'that you will +prohibit the sale of the rest of my jewels, which the rebels have +ordered in their Parliament, for you have promised that nothing should +be done in it to my prejudice. I should be very glad, if they were in +safer custody, for they are not meat proper for traitors. Between you +and me it would make little difference, and I should be rejoiced, if any +of them happened to be to your taste, that you would accept them from me +as offerings of my good-will.' + +"From this frank offer it is apparent that Mary was not aware of the +base part Elizabeth had acted, in purchasing her magnificent _parure_ of +pearls of Moray, for a third part of their value." + +One of the most famous pearls yet discovered (there may be shells down +below that hide a finer specimen) is the beautiful _Peregrina_. It was +fished up by a little negro boy in 1560, who obtained his liberty by +opening an oyster. The modest bivalve was so small that the boy in +disgust was about to pitch it back into the sea. But he thought better +of his rash determination, pulled the shells asunder, and, lo, the +rarest of priceless pearls! [_Moral._ Don't despise little oysters.] La +Peregrina is shaped like a pear, and is of the size of a pigeon's egg. +It was presented to Philip II. by the finder's master, and is still in +Spain. No sum has ever determined its value. The King's jeweller named +five hundred thousand dollars, but that paltry amount was scouted as +ridiculously small. + +There is a Rabbinical story which aptly shows the high estimate of +pearls in early ages, only one object in Nature being held worthy to be +placed above them:-- + +"On approaching Egypt, Abraham locked Sarah in a chest, that none might +behold her dangerous beauty. But when he was come to the place of paying +custom, the collectors said, 'Pay us the custom': and he said, 'I will +pay the custom.' They said to him, 'Thou carriest clothes': and he said, +'I will pay for clothes.' Then they said to him, 'Thou carriest gold': +and he answered them, 'I will pay for my gold.' On this they further +said to him, 'Surely thou bearest the finest silk': he replied, 'I will +pay custom for the finest silk.' Then said they, 'Surely it must be +pearls that thou takest with thee': and he only answered, 'I will pay +for pearls.' Seeing that they could name nothing of value for which the +patriarch was not willing to pay custom, they said, 'It cannot be but +thou open the box, and let us see what is within.' So they opened the +box, and the whole land of Egypt was illumined by the lustre of Sarah's +beauty,--far exceeding even that of pearls." + +Shakspeare, who loved all things beautiful, and embalmed them so that +their lustre could lose nothing at his hands, was never tired of +introducing the diamond and the pearl. They were his favorite ornaments; +and we intended to point out some of the splendid passages in which he +has used them. But we have room now for only one of those priceless +sentences in which he has set the diamond and the pearl as they were +never set before. No kingly diadem can boast such jewels as glow along +these lines from "Lear":-- + + "You have seen + Sunshine and rain at one: her smiles and tears + Were like a better day: Those happy smiles + That played on her ripe lip seemed not to know + What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence, + _As pearls from diamonds dropp'd._" + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +1. _Lis Oubreto_ de ROUMANILLE. Avignon. 1860. 12mo. + +2. T. AUBANEL. _La Miougrano Entreduberto._ Avec Traduction littérale en +regard. Avignon: J. Roumanille. 1860. 12mo. + +3. _Mirèio._ Pouèmo Prouvençau de FREDERI MISTRAL. Avec la Traduction +littérale en regard. Avignon: J. Roumanille. 1859. 8vo. + +4. _Las Papillôtos_ de JACQUES JASMIN, de l'Académie d'Agen, Maître ès +Jeux-Floraux, Grand Prix de l'Académie Française. Édition populaire, +avec le Français en regard, et ornée d'un Portrait. De 1822 à 1858. +Paris: Firmin Didot, Frères & Cie. 1860. 12mo. + +5. _Lés Piaoulats d'un Reïpetit._ Recueil de Poésies Patoises. Par J.B. +Veyre, Instituteur à Saint-Simon (Cantal). Aurillac: Imprimerie de L. +Bonnet-Picut. 1860. 8vo. + +Few persons, when they consider the present greatness and prosperity of +the French Empire, bear in mind the heterogeneous elements of which it +is composed. For us, Paris is France, and the literature of the realm +is comprised in the words, "Paris publications." We think not of the +millions of Frenchmen to whom the language of the capital is a sealed +letter,--of the Germans of Alsatia, the Flemings of the extreme +North-East, the Bretons of the peninsula of Finisterre, the Basques, the +Catalans of the mountains of Roussillon, and, more numerous than all +these, the fourteen millions of the thirty-seven departments south of +the Loire. These speak, to this day, with fewer modifications than have +taken place in any other of the European languages during the same lapse +of time, the very tongue in which wrote Bertran de Born and Pierre +Vidal, the idiom in which Dante and Petrarca found some of their +happiest inspirations, and which, we are told, Tasso envied for its +poetic capabilities. + +True, the Provinces of Gascony, Provence, Auvergne may be traversed by +the stranger almost without his suspecting that other than the French, +more or less badly spoken, is in common use. In hotels and shops he will +hear nothing else. + +The larger towns in direct communication with the capital, and all that +is purely exterior in the people, are becoming more and more French +every day. But in the family interior, far from the noise of affairs, +the bustle of towns, in hamlets, among the vine-growers and tenders of +the silk-worm, in the mountains and retired valleys, the home-tongue is +again at ease. Simple, ingenuous, amber-like in its sunny tints, it is a +reflection of that ardent poetical imagination which made the courts of +the Counts of Toulouse the nurseries of modern poesy, when the rest of +Europe was little else than one wrangling battle-field. Neither the +exterminating crusade against the Albigenses, after which the idiom +of Provence was wellnigh stigmatized as heretical, nor the civil and +religious wars of the seventeenth century, nor even the _dragonnades_ of +Louis XIV., have been able to outroot it. The levelling edicts of the +first French Revolution were powerless against it. The Provençal, or +Langue d'Oc, if you will, the Gascon, the Auvergnat, are spoken to this +day in their respective provinces, universally spoken by the people, who +in many instances do not understand French at all. They must be preached +to in their own dialect. They have their songs, their theatre even. + +Nor must this be understood as referring only to the lower strata +of society. The better classes, even, retain a fondness for their +mother-tongue which years of residence in Paris will not obliterate. In +their very French, they still retain the inflections, the tones of the +South,--a measured cadence in the phrase, which the Parisian uniformly +styles _gasconner_. They feel ill at ease in what they call the +cold-mannered speech of the _Franchiman_. In the words of one of their +poets, Mistral, who has proved that he was no less a master of the +academic forms and rules than of the riches and power of his own +Avignonais:--"Those who have not lived at the South, and especially +in the midst of our rural population, can have no idea of the +incompatibility, the insufficiency, the poverty of the language of the +North in regard to our manners, our needs, our organization. The French +language, transplanted to Provence, seems like the cast-off clothes of a +Parisian dandy adapted to the robust shoulders of a harvester bronzed by +the Southern sun." + +The Provençal, in its two principal divisions, the Gascon and Langue +d'Oc, is the current idiom south of the Loire. The South-West Provinces +had, in the seventeenth century, no mean poet in Godelin; and in our +own day, Jasmin has found a host of followers. The inhabitants of the +South-East, however, the more immediate retainers of the language of +the Troubadours, save in a few drinking-songs and Christmas carols, had +forgotten the strains that once resounded beyond the limits of Provence +and had first awaked the poetic emulation of Spain and Italy. The +princess of song, stung by the envious spirit of persecution in the +Albigensian wars, had slept for centuries, and the thick hedge of +forgetfulness had grown rank about the language and its treasures. What +Raynouard, Diez, Mahn, Fauriel, and others have done to bring to light +again the unedited texts was little better than an autopsy. A living, +breathing poet was wanting to reanimate by his touch the poesy that had +slept so long. That poet was Roumanille. + +The Minnesingers have found heirs and continuators in the modern writers +of Germany. Side by side with the increasing tendency to unity in all +national literature is working the force of races confounded under one +political banner, to assert their existence as such. Congresses have +shaped new kingdoms; but they have not reached or removed the limits +of nationalities that have each their expression in song, whether in +Moldavia or among the Czechs of Bohemia. The regeneration of local +idioms, which is fast working its way from the Bosphorus to the +Atlantic, was first undertaken in Provence, at the instigation of +Roumanille. The son of a gardener of St. Remy, he was first struck with +the insufficiency of French literature for his immediate countrymen, +when, on his return from college, seeking to recite some of his earlier +poems in the language of Racine to his aged mother, she failed to +understand them. For her he translated, and found that his own Provençal +was richer, more copious and melodious than the French itself, and, if +less finical and restrained by grammatical forms, more pliant for the +poet, and better answering the exigencies of primitive, spontaneous +expression of feeling. From that moment his efforts were unceasingly +directed towards the reintegration of his mother-tongue, which had so +long played but the part of a Cinderella among the Romanic nations. + +His poems, collected in 1847, under the title of "Margarideto," +(Daisies,) were hailed by his countrymen with their habitual national +enthusiasm. Nor did he remain inactive during the Revolution of 1848, +addressing the people in home-phrase in several small volumes of prose. +In 1852, he sent forth a call to his brother-writers, the _felibre_, who +had joined with him in his efforts. The result was the publication of +"Li Prouvençalo," a charming selection from those modern Troubadours +who in all ranks of society sing, because sing they must, in bright and +sunny Provence, and who in very deed find poetry + + "In the forge's dust and ashes, in the tissues + of the loom." + +The call of Roumanille was the signal for a revival. Since that time, he +himself, now a publisher in Avignon, has steadily watched and +fostered the movement. The new literature has rapidly gone beyond its +home-limits. Within the present year, Paris has republished several of +the most noted works. + +The volume which has called forth these remarks, "Lis Oubreto," +comprises the poems of M. Roumanille,--"Li Margarideto," "Li Nouvè," +"Li Sounjarello," "La Part de Dieu," "Li Flour de Sauvi." They are +characterized by an elevation in the thoughts and a religious purity +of sentiment, qualities which, it has been urged, and justly too, were +lacking in many of the former productions in various dialects of France. +We call the poetry of Roumanille elevated, yet it always addresses +itself to the people of Provence, and borrows its images from the +many-colored life of those to whom it speaks; religious, but simple and +ingenuous, with a tinge of mysticism,--not the mysticism that seeks the +good in dreamy inaction, as in some of the Spanish authors, nor has it +the obscure tinge of the transcendental English school. The religion +of Roumanille is active, not dogmatic; he incites to _do_, rather than +discuss or dream the good. There is a health, a vigor, an earnestness, +in this spontaneous poesy of an idiom which six centuries ago was the +language of courts, and now sings the song of toil. Side by side with +the over-cultured language of the Parisian, it seems so free and frank! +Where the one is hampered for fear of sinning, the other, buoyant and +elastic, treads freely and fears not to be too ingenuous. + +Roumanille's poems have not been translated; it is hardly likely they +ever will be,--at least, the greater number. They were not made for +Paris. They are not at ease in a French garb,--nor, for that matter, +in any other than their own diaphanous, sun-tinted, vowelly Provençal, +unless they could find their expression in some _folk-speech_, as the +Germans say, that could utter things of daily life without euphuistic +windings, without fear of ridicule for things of home expressed in +home-words. + +As characterizing the nature and tendency of the new poetry, we subjoin +a translation of "Li Crecho," (The Infant Asylums,) of which M. +Sainte-Beuve, of the French Academy, one whose judgment as literary +critic could be little biased in favor of the _naïve_ graces of the +original, said,--"The piece is worthy of the ancient Troubadours. The +angel of the asylums and of little children in his celestial sadness +could not be disavowed by the angels of Klopstock, nor by that of Alfred +de Vigny." + +"Li Crecho" was recited by the author at the inauguration of the Infant +Asylum of Avignon, the 20th of November, 1851, and forms part of the +sheaf of poems entitled "Li Flour de Sauvi." + +I. + +"Among the choirs of Seraphim, whom God has created to sing eternally, +transported with love, 'Glory, glory to the Father!'--among the joys of +Paradise, one oftentimes, far from the happy singers, went thoughtful +away. + +"And his snow-white forehead inclined towards our world, as droops a +flower that has no moisture in summer. Day by day he grew more dreamy. +If sadness, when in God's glory, could torment the heart, I should say +that this fair angel was pining with sorrow. + +"Of what did he dream thus, and in secret? Why was he not of the feast? +Why, alone among angels, as one that had sinned, did he bow the head?" + +II. + +"Lo! he has just knelt at the feet of God. What will he say? What will +he do? To see and hear him, his brethren interrupt their song of praise." + +III. + +"'When Jesus, thy child, wept,--when he shivered with cold in the +manger of Bethlehem,--it was my smile that consoled him, my wings that +sheltered him, with my warm breath did I comfort him. + +"'And since then, O God, when a child weeps, in my pitying heart his +voice resounds. Therefore forever now am I sick at heart,--therefore, O +Lord, am I ever thoughtful. + +"'On earth, O God, I have something to do. Let me descend there. There +are so many babes, poor milk-lambs, who, shivering with cold, weep and +wail far from the breasts, far from the kisses of their mothers! In warm +rooms will I shelter them,--will cover and tend them,--will nurse and +caress them,--will lull them to rest. Instead of one mother, they shall +each have twenty that shall give them suck and soothe them to sleep.'" + +IV. + +"And with heart and hand did the angels applaud,--a tremor of joy shot +through the stars of heaven,--and, unfolding his pinions, with the +rapidity of lightning the angel descended. The road-side smiled with +flowers, as he passed,--and mothers trembled for joy; for infant-asylums +arose wherever the child-angel trod." + +One of the first to respond to the call of Roumanille for the +composition of the selection "Li Prouvençalo" was Th. Aubanel, also of +Avignon. The "Segaire" (Mowers) and "Lou 9 Thermidor" made it plain, +that, of the thirty names, that of the young printer would soon take a +prominent place among the revivers of Southern letters. And now, eight +years later, the promise of M. René Taillandier, in his introduction to +the selection, has become reality. + +"La Miougrano Entreduberto" (The Opened Pomegranate) is printed with an +accompanying French translation. Mistral, the brother-poet and friend of +the author, thus announces the poems:-- + +"The pomegranate is of its nature wilder than other trees. It loves to +grow in pebbly elevations (_clapeirolo_) in the full sun-rays, far from +man and nearer to God. There alone, in the scorching summer-beams, it +expands in secret its blood-red flowers. Love and the sun fecundate +its bloom. In the crimson chalices thousands of coral-grains germ +spontaneously, like a thousand fair sisters all under the same roof. + +"The swollen pomegranate holds imprisoned as long as it can the roseate +seeds, the thousand blushing sisters. But the birds of the moor speak to +the solitary tree, saying,--'What wilt thou do with the seeds? Even now +comes the autumn, even now comes the winter, that chases us beyond the +hills, beyond the seas.....And shall it be said, O wild pomegranate, +that we have left Provence without seeing thy beautiful coral-grains, +without having a glimpse of thy thousand virgin daughters?' + +"Then, to satisfy the envious birdlings of the moor, the pomegranate +slowly half-opens its fruit; the thousand vermeil seeds glitter in the +sun; the thousand timorous sisters with rosy cheeks peep through the +arched window: and the roguish birds come in flocks and feast at ease on +the beautiful coral-grains; the roguish lovers devour with kisses the +fair blushing sisters. + +"Aubanel--and you will say as I do, when you have read his book--is a +wild pomegranate-tree. The Provençal public, whom his first poems had +pleased so much, was beginning to say,--'But what is our Aubanel doing, +that we no longer hear him sing?'" + +Then follows an exposition of the hopeless passion of the poet,--how he +took for motto, + + "Quau canto, + Soun mau encanto." + +Hence the three books of poems now before us,--"The Book of Love," +"Twilight," and "The Book of Death." "The Book of Love," "a thing +excessively rare," as we are told in the Preface, "but this one written +in good faith," opens with a couplet that is a key to the whole +volume:-- + + "I am sick at heart, + And _will_ not be cured." + +We subjoin a literal translation of the eleventh song, line for line:-- + + De-la-man-d'eilà de la mar, + Dins mis ouro de pantaiage, + Souvènti-fes iéu fau un viage, + Iéu fau souvènt un viage amar, + De-la-man-d'eilà , de la mar." + etc., etc. + + "Far away, beyond the seas, + In my hours of reverie, + Oftentimes I make a voyage, + I often make a bitter voyage, + Far away, beyond the seas. + + "Yonder far, towards the Dardanelles, + With the ships I glide away, + Whose long masts pierce the sky; + Towards my loved one do I go, + Yonder far, towards the Dardanelles. + + "With the great white clouds sailing on, + Driven by the wind, their master-shepherd, + The great clouds which before the stars + Pass onwards like white flocks, + With the clouds I go sailing on. + + "With the swallows I take my flight, + The swallows returning to the sun; + Towards fair days do they go, quick, quick; + And I, quick, quick, towards my love, + With the swallows take my flight. + + "Oh, I am very sick for home, + Sick for the home that my love haunts! + Far from that foreign country, + As the bird far from its nest, + I am very sick for home. + + "From wave to wave, o'er the bitter waters, + Like a corse thrown to the seas, + In dreams am I borne onward + To the feet of her that's dear, + From wave to wave, o'er the bitter waters. + + "On the shores I am there, dead! + My love in her arms supports me; + Speechless she gazes and weeps, + Lays her hand upon my heart, + And suddenly I live again! + + "Then I clasp her, then I fold her + In my arms: 'I have suffered enough! + Stay, stay! I _will_ not die!' + And as a drowning one I seize her, + And fold her in my arms. + + "Far away, beyond the seas, + In my hours of reverie, + Oftentimes I make a voyage, + I often make a bitter voyage, + Far away, beyond the seas." + +As may easily be seen, Aubanel writes not, like Roumanille, for his +own people alone. His Muse is more ambitious, and seeks to interest by +appealing to the sentiments in a language polished with all the art +of its sister, the French. There are innumerable exquisite passages +scattered through the work, which make us ready to believe in the +figurative comparison of the prefacer, when he tells us that "the +coral-grains of the 'Opened Pomegranate' will become in Provence the +chaplet of lovers." + +If Roumanille and Aubanel contented themselves with the publication of +poems of no very ambitious length, the author of "Mirèio" aimed directly +at enriching his language at the outset with an epic. He has given us in +twelve cantos the song of Provence. He makes us see and feel the life of +Languedoc,--traverse the Crau, that Arabia Petrasa of France,--see +the Rhone, and the fair daughters of Arles, in their picturesque +costumes,--see the wild bulls of the Camargo, the Pampas of the +Mediterranean. We are among the growers of the silk-worm; we hear the +home-songs and talks of the Mas, listen to the people's legends and +tales of witchery, and can study the Middle-Age spirit that still in +these regions endows every shrine with miracles, as we follow the +pilgrimage to the chapel of the Three Marys. + +"Mirèio" is all Provence living and breathing before us in a poem. No +wonder, then, that, in the present dearth of poetry in France, this epic +or idyl, call it as you will, was received with acclamations. M. René +Taillandier has consecrated to it one of his most masterly articles +in the "Revue des Deux Mondes." Lamartine has devoted to it a whole +_entretien_ in his "Cours de Littérature." It was discussed, quoted, +translated in all the journals of the capital. We may revert to it at +greater length in a future number of the "Atlantic." + +The name of Jasmin, the harbor-poet of Agen, is already familiar to the +English public. Professor Longfellow has translated his "Blind Girl of +Castel-Cuillé." His name is known in Paris as well, perhaps, as that of +any other living French poet, if we except Lamartine and Victor Hugo. +Accompanied with a French translation, his principal poems, "Mous +Soubenis," "L'Abuglo de Castel-Cuillé," "Francouneto," "Maltro +l'Innoucento," "Lous Dus Frays Bessous," "La Semmâno d'un Fil," have +been read as much north of the Loire as south. + +"The Curl-Papers"--for thus he styles his works--having been translated +into German and English, the reputation of the author may be called +European. The forty maintainers of the Floral Games of Clémence Isaure +at Toulouse awarded him the title of _Maître ès Jeux-Floraux_. His +progress through the South was marked by ovations, and every town, from +Marseilles to Bordeaux, hastened to recognize the modern Troubadour. +Happier than most of his predecessors, Jasmin receives his laurels in +season, and can wear the crowns that are presented him. The "Papillôtos" +were formerly scattered in three costly volumes; they have now been +collected in one handsome duodecimo, with an accompanying French +translation of the principal pieces,--a translation which called from +Ampère the remark,--_"A défaut des vers de Jasmin, on ferait cent lieues +pour entendre cette prose-là !"_ + +"Lés Piaoulats d'un Reïpetit" is one of the rare productions of the +written literature of Auvergne, so rich in antique legends and original +popular songs. The author, at the Archaeological Concourse of Béziers, +in 1838, obtained deserved encomium for his "Ode to Riquet," the +creator of the great Southern French Canal, linking the Atlantic and +Mediterranean. He has written in the Romanic dialect in use in Auvergne, +which, if it lacks the finish and polish of the Provençal, is not +wanting in grace and ingenuousness. It is characterized by a rude +energy, a sombre harmony, that tallies well with the wild and rural +character of the country. + +At first sight, the dialect seems to have a marked affinity with that +made use of by Jasmin in his "Papillôtos." It is, however, easily +distinguishable by the frequent use of peculiar gutturals, the almost +constant change of _a_ into _o_, and a greater number of radicals of +Celtic origin. In a recent work on Auvergne, it is argued that these +Celtic words form the basis of the language. The history of the region +itself would tend to corroborate this theory. + +Sheltered by rocky mountain-ranges, the Dômes, the Dores, and Cantal, +(_Mons Celtorum_) the Arverni obstinately repulsed every attempt towards +the naturalization of the Roman tongue, and battled for six centuries +with the same energy displayed by them, when, under Vercingetorix, +they fought for their nationality and the independence of Gaul against +Caesar. The Latin could exercise, therefore, but slight influence on +the idiom of these regions, which has preserved since then in its +vocabulary, and even in syntactical forms, a marked relationship with +the Celtic, which, according to Sidonius Apollinaris, was still spoken +there in the sixth century. + +The actual dialect of Auvergne is peculiarly adapted to recitals of a +legendary nature, owing to its vivacity of articulation, coupled with +a kind of gloom in the quality of the sounds. _Naïf_ and touching in +popular song and Christmas carol, it is not divested of a certain +grandeur for subjects deserving of a higher style. + +The works of M. Veyre comprise the various styles of shorter poems. His +"Ode to Riquet," and that in honor of Gerbert, (Pope Silvester II., a +native of Auvergne,) show what the language can do in the hands of a +master. In the latter he describes the career of that predestined child +whom legend accompanied from his cradle to the grave. + +"La Fiëro de St. Urbo," curious picture of the manners of the country, +is written in that ironical and gay vein of which the older French +writers possessed the secret; but that is now fast dying away. +"Répopiado" and "Lou Boun Sens del Payson" show that the language of +Auvergne is no less adapted to moral teachings than to the touching +inspirations and free jovial songs of the country Muse. + +The work of M. Veyre is the first tending to give his native province +a share in the literary revival of the Romanic idioms, which is so +universally felt in Southern France, and has of late produced so much. + +_History of the United Netherlands, from the Death of William the Silent +to the Synod of Dort._ With a Full View of the English--Dutch Struggle +against Spain; and of the Origin and Destruction of the Spanish Armada. +By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D., D.C.L. New York: Harper & Brothers. Vols. +I. and II. 8vo. + +These volumes bear the unmistakable mark, not merely of historical +accuracy and research, but of historical genius; and the genius is not +that of Thierry or Guizot, of Gibbon or Macaulay, but has a palpable +individuality of its own. They evince throughout a patient, persistent +industry in investigating original documents, from the mere labor of +which an Irish hod-carrier would shrink aghast, and thank the Virgin +that, though born a drudge, he was not born to drudge in the bogs and +morasses of unexplored domains of History; yet the genius and enthusiasm +of the historian are so strong that he converts the drudgery into +delight, and lives joyful, though "laborious days." There is not a page +in these volumes which does not sparkle with evidences of an enjoyment +far beyond any that the rich and pleasure-seeking idler can ever know; +and while the materials are those of the barest and bleakest fact, the +style of the narrative is that of the gayest, most genial, and most +elastic spirit of romance. We have read all the best fictions which +have been published during the interval which has elapsed between the +publication of the "History of the Dutch Republic" and that of the +"History of the United Netherlands," but we have read none which +fairly exceeds, in what is called, in the slang of fifth-rate critics, +"breathless interest," this novel, but authentic memorial of a past +heroic age. + +The first requirement of an historian in the present century is original +research,--not merely research into rare printed books and pamphlets, +but into unpublished and almost unknown manuscripts. No sobriety of +judgment, no sagacity of insight, no brilliancy of imagination can +compensate for defective information. The finest genius is degraded to +the rank of a compiler, unless he sheds new light upon his subject by +contributing new facts. The severest requirements of the Baconian method +of induction--requirements which have been notoriously disregarded +by men of science in the investigation of Nature--remain in force as +regards the students of history. The powers of analysis, generalization, +statement, and narrative in Macaulay's historical essays were fully +equal to any powers he displayed in the "History of England from the +Reign of James II." No candid critic can deny that there is little in +his "History" which, as far as regards essential facts and principles, +had not been previously stated in a more sententious form in his Essays. +But we recollect the time when the same dignified scholars who are now +insensible to his defects were blind to his merits, and with majestic +dulness classed him among the inglorious company of superficial, +untrustworthy, brilliant declaimers. The moment, however, he published +in octavo volumes a solid history, and appended to the bottom of each +page the obscure authorities on which his narrative was founded, and +which plainly exhibited the capacity of the brilliant declaimer +to perform all the austerest duties of the drudge, his reputation +marvellously increased among the most frigid and most exacting +dispensers of praise. To come nearer home, we remember the time when +Bancroft's rhetoric entirely shut out from the eyes of antiquaries and +men of taste Bancroft's industry and scholarship. It was not until he +plainly showed his power to "toil terribly," not until he palpably +_added_ to our knowledge of American history, that men who had sneered +at his occasional rhapsodies of patriotism admitted his claims to be +considered the historian of the United States. They resisted Bancroft as +long as Bancroft gave them the slightest reason to believe that he was +interposing his own mind between them and facts which they know its well +as he; but when, by independent and indefatigable research, at home and +abroad, he indisputably widened the sphere of their information, they +pardoned the faults of the rhetorician in their gratitude to the toiling +investigator who had added to their knowledge. + +It is the felicity of Mr. Motley, that, like Prescott, he is not placed +under the necessity of overcoming prejudices. There is nobody on either +side of the Atlantic (whether we use the word as indicating its limited +sense as an ocean, or its larger and more liberal moaning as a magazine) +who would not rejoice in his success, and be grieved by his failure. And +this good feeling on the part of the public he owes, in a great degree, +to the individuality he has impressed upon his work. That individuality +is not the individuality of a partisan or of a theorist, but the +individuality of a broad-minded, high-minded, chivalrous gentleman. With +a soul open to the finest sentiments and ideas of the age in which he +lives, tolerant of frailty, but intolerant of meanness, falsehood, and +malignity, and writing with the frankness with which a cultivated man of +decided opinions might speak to a company of chosen associates, the +most obstinate bigot can hardly fail to feel the charm of his free +and cordial manner of expression. Hume, Gibbon, Hallam, and Macaulay, +Sismondi, Guizot, and Michelet, all have in their characters something +which invites and provokes opposition. But the spirit which underlies +Mr. Motley's large scholarship is so thoroughly genial and generous, +and is so purified from the pedantry of knowledge and the pedantry of +opinion, that it is impossible for him to rouse in other minds any of +the antipathy which is often felt for powerful individualities whose +powers of mind and extent of erudition still enforce respect and extort +admiration. The instinctive sympathy he thus creates is due to no lack +of intrepidity in expressing his love for what is right and his hatred +for what is wrong. No historian is more decisive in his judgments, or +more scornful of the arts and hypocrisies by which the champions of +opposite opinions are flattered and propitiated. But his spirit is that +of the knight "without reproach," as well as the knight "without fear"; +and even his adversaries cannot but delight in the singleness and +simplicity of purpose with which he strives after the truth. Nothing in +his position or in his character gives them the slightest pretence for +supposing that his bold advocacy of liberal views is connected with any +ulterior designs or any "fatted calf" of theory or office. While he +is thus healthily free from the taint of the partisan, he is also +independent of the austere insensibility of the judicial Pharisee, whose +boast is that he decides questions relating to human nature without any +admixture of human instinct and human feeling. Mr. Motley, throughout +his History, writes from his heart as well as from his head; and we have +been unable to discover that he has swerved from the truth of things by +allowing his narrative to be vitiated by an undue prominence of either. + +If we pass from the historian's individuality to his materials, we find, +that, in a great degree, his facts are discoveries, and that, if his +book possessed no literary value whatever, it would still be an' +important addition to the history of Europe during the latter part of +the sixteenth century. He has, of course, studied all the prominent +contemporary chronicles and pamphlets of Holland, Flanders, Spain, +France, Germany, and England; and if his materials had been confined to +published sources of information, he would still be in possession of +facts not generally known or carefully analyzed and combined; but the +peculiar value of his History is due to its exhaustive examination, of +unpublished private letters and political documents. The archives of +Holland, England, and Spain have been opened to his investigations, +and he has been particularly fortunate in being able to road the whole +correspondence between Philip II., his ministers, and governors, +relating to the affairs of the Netherlands, from 1584 to the death of +that monarch. Placed thus at the centre from which events radiated, and +understanding perfectly the real designs which Spain concealed under a +cover of the most diabolical dissimulation, and which are now for the +first time completely elucidated, he was able to judge of the mistakes +of the other cabinets of Europe, also laid bare to his unwearied +research. The study of the manuscripts in the English State-Paper +Office, and in the collections of the British Museum, has given him a +perfect insight into the characters and policy of the statesmen of the +England of Elizabeth; and the exact relations which England bore to +Holland and Spain he has for the first time clearly indicated. As +a contribution to the history of England, these two volumes are of +inestimable value. They will disturb, and in some cases revolutionize, +the fixed opinions which the most intelligent Englishmen of the present +day have formed of almost every public man of the Elizabethan era; +and we cannot but wonder that this work should have been left for an +American scholar to accomplish. + +The present volumes of Mr. Motley's History begin with the murder of +William of Orange, in 1584, and extend only to the assassination of +Henry HI. of France, in 1589. These five years, however, are crowded +with individuals and events of special importance, and the historian +has shed new light on every topic he has touched. The determination of +Philip II. to put down the revolt of the Netherlands was part of an +extensive scheme, which involved the conquest of England and France, +the extermination of Protestantism, and the subjection of Europe to +the despotic sway of Spain and Rome. The interest of the history is +therefore European. To grasp it requires a knowledge of the minutest +threads of a tangled web of intrigue which spread from the Escorial to +the North Sea. This knowledge Mr. Motley has obtained. The cabinets of +Spain, England, and France have yielded up their inmost secrets to his +indefatigable research. He peeps over the shoulder of Philip, and reads +the despatch by which he intends to outwit Walsingham,--and in a second +of time is peeping over the shoulder of Walsingham, to see what the +latter is doing to outwit Philip. There is something inexpressibly +stimulating to curiosity in watching the movements of the nimble +historian as he speeds from one cabinet to another, and, the invisible +spy in the councils of all, detects the misconceptions and blunders +of each. In this complicated game of craft, policy, and passion, our +historian is the first writer who has arrived at the knowledge of the +cards which each player held in his hand at the time the game was +played. + +In 1584, the subjugation of the Netherlands seemed to be but a question +of time; and the disparity between the power of Spain and that of her +revolted provinces is thus strikingly stated:-- + +"The contest between those seven meagre provinces upon the sand-banks +of the North Sea and the great Spanish Empire seemed at the moment with +which we are now occupied a sufficiently desperate one. Throw a +glance upon the map of Europe. Look at the broad, magnificent Spanish +Peninsula, stretching across eight degrees of latitude and ten of +longitude, commanding the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with a genial +climate, warmed in winter by the vast furnace of Africa, and protected +from the scorching heats of summer by shady mountain and forest and +temperate breezes from either ocean. A generous southern territory, +flowing with wine and oil and all the richest gifts of a bountiful +Nature,--splendid cities,--the new and daily expanding Madrid, rich in +the trophies of the most artistic period of the modern world,--Cadiz, as +populous at that day as London, seated by the straits where the ancient +and modern systems of traffic were blending like the mingling of the two +oceans,--Granada, the ancient wealthy seat of the fallen Moors,--Toledo, +Valladolid, and Lisbon, chief city of the recently conquered kingdom of +Portugal, counting, with its suburbs, a larger population than any city, +excepting Paris, in Europe, the mother of distant colonies, and the +capital of the rapidly developing traffic with both the Indies: these +were some of the treasures of Spain herself. But she possessed Sicily +also, the better portion of Italy, and important dependencies in Africa, +while the famous maritime discoveries of the age had all inured to her +aggrandizement. + +"The world seemed suddenly to have expanded its wings from East to West +only to bear the fortunate Spanish Empire to the most dizzy heights of +wealth and power. The most accomplished generals, the most disciplined +and daring infantry the world has ever known, the best-equipped and most +extensive navy, royal and mercantile, of the age, were at the absolute +command of the sovereign. Such was Spain. + +"Turn now to the north-western corner of Europe. A morsel of territory, +attached by a slight sand-hook to the continent, and half-submerged by +the stormy waters of the German Ocean: this was Holland. A rude climate, +with long, dark, rigorous winters and brief summers,--a territory, the +mere wash of three great rivers, which had fertilized happier portions +of Europe only to desolate and overwhelm this less-favored land,--a soil +so ungrateful, that, if the whole of its four hundred thousand acres of +arable land had been sowed with grain, it could not feed the laborers +alone,--and a population largely estimated at one million of souls: +these were the characteristics of the province which already had +begun to give its name to the new commonwealth. The isles of +Zealand--entangled in the coils of deep, slow-moving rivers, or +combating the ocean without--and the ancient episcopate of Utrecht, +formed the only other provinces that had quite shaken off the foreign +yoke. In Friesland, the important city of Groningen was still held for +the King; while Bois-le-Duc, Zutphen, besides other places in Gelderland +and North Brabant, also in possession of the royalists, made the +position of those provinces precarious." + +The safety of the Netherlands appeared to depend so entirely on their +success in gaining the assistance of foreign powers, that it is not +surprising that the Estates eagerly offered the sovereignty of the +country, first to France and then to England. The details of the +negotiations with these powers Mr. Motley recounts at great length. +When England, at last, adopted the side of the Netherlands, and caught +glimpses of the fact that the struggle of the latter against Spain +was her cause no less than the cause of the Dutch, the parsimony and +indecision of Elizabeth, and the hesitating counsels of her favorite +minister, Burleigh, prevented the English-Dutch alliance from being +efficient against the common enemy. An incompetent general, the Earl of +Leicester, was sent over to Holland with the English troops; yet even +his incompetency might not have stood in the way of success, had he +not been hampered with instructions which paralyzed what vigor and +intelligence he possessed, and had not his soldiers been left to starve +by the government they served. Elizabeth was trying to secure a peace +with Spain, while Philip and Farnese were busy in contriving the means +of an invasion of England; and up to the time the Spanish Armada +appeared in the British seas, she and her government were thoroughly +cajoled by Spanish craft. Mr. Motley remorselessly exposes, not only the +duplicity of Philip, but the credulity of Elizabeth; he demonstrates +the superiority of Spain in all the arts which were then supposed to +constitute statesmanship; and shows that it was to no sagacity and +vigor on the part of the English government, but to the instinctive +intelligence and intrepidity of the English people, that the nation was +saved from overthrow. Walsingham is almost the only English statesman +who comes out from the historian's pitiless analysis with any credit; +and, in respect to sagacity, Burleigh is degraded below Leicester: for +Leicester at least understood that the enmity of Philip of Spain to +England was unappeasable, and therefore justly considered his perfidious +negotiations for peace as a mere blind to cover designs of conquest. + +But we have no space, in this hurried notice of Mr. Motley's work, to +linger on the fertile topics which his luminous narrative suggests. In a +future article we hope to do some justice to the facts, principles, and +judgments he has established. At present, after indicating his diligence +in exploring original authorities, and the importance of the conclusions +at which he arrives, we can only venture a few remarks on his historical +genius and method. + +As regards his historical genius, it is sufficient to say that he +exhibits both sympathy and imagination. He has so completely assimilated +his materials that his narrative of events is that of an eye-witness +rather than that of a chronicler. Reproducing the passions, without +participating in the errors of the age about which he writes, he +intensely realizes everything he recounts. The siege of Antwerp and +the defeat of the Spanish Armada are the two prominent and obvious +illustrations of his power of pictorial description: in these he has +presented facts with a vividness and coherence worthy of the great +masters of poetry and romance; and his capacity of thus giving +unmistakable reality to events is not merely exercised in harmony +with the literal truth of things, but makes that truth more clearly +appreciated. Desirous as he is to impress the imagination, he never +sacrifices accuracy to effect. + +The same picturesque truthfulness characterizes his descriptions of +individuals. In the present volumes he has analyzed and represented a +wide variety of human character, separated not only by personal, but +national traits. Philip II., Farnese, and Mendoza,--Olden-Barneveld, +Paul Buys, St. Aldegonde, Hohenlo, Martin Schenk, and Maurice of +Nassau,--Henry III., Henry of Navarre, and the Duke of Guise,--Queen +Elizabeth, Burleigh, Walsingham, Buckhurst, Leicester, Davison, Raleigh, +Sidney, Howard, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and Norris,--all, as +delineated by him, have vital reality, all palpably live and move before +the eye of his mind. + +The method which Mr. Motley has adopted is admirably calculated to +insure accuracy as well as reality to his representation of events and +persons. His plan is always to allow the statesmen and soldiers who +appear in his work to express themselves in their own way, and convey +their opinions and purposes in their own words. This mode is opposed to +compression, but favorable to truth. Macaulay's method is to re-state +everything in his own language, and according to his own logical forms. +He never allows the Whigs and Tories, whose opinions and policy he +exhibits, to say anything for themselves. He detests quotation-marks. +His summaries are so clear and compact that, we are tempted to forget +that they leave out the modifications which opinions receive from +individual character. The reason that his statements are so often +questioned is due to the fact that he insists on his readers viewing +everything through the medium of his own mind. Mr. Motley is more +objective in his representations; and his readers can dispute his +summaries of character and expositions of policy by the abundant +materials for differing judgment which the historian himself supplies. + + +_Life of Andrew Jackson_. By JAMES PARTON, Author of the "Life of Aaron +Burr," etc., etc. 3 vols. 8vo. New York: Mason Brothers. 1860. + +We criticized Mr. Parton's "Life of Aaron Burr" with considerable +severity at the time of its appearance; and we are the more glad to meet +with a book of his which we can as sincerely and heartily commend. The +same quality of sympathy with his subject, which led him in his former +work to palliate the moral obliquity and overlook the baseness of his +hero, in consideration of brilliant gifts of intellect and person, gives +vigor and spirit to his delineation of a character in most respects so +different as that of Jackson. This man, who filled so large a place +in our history, and left perhaps a stronger impress of himself on our +politics than any other of our public men except Jefferson, was well +worthy to be made a subject of careful study and elucidation. Mr. Parton +has given us the means of understanding a character hitherto a puzzle, +and deserves our hearty thanks for the manner in which he has done it. + +We think the book remarkably fair in its tone, though perhaps Mr. Parton +is now and then led to exaggerate the positive greatness of Jackson, +who, as it appears to us, was rather eminent by comparison and contrast +with the men around him. But there were many strong, if not great +qualities in his composition, and so much that was picturesque and +strange in the incidents of his career and the state of society which +formed his character, that we have found this biography one of the most +instructive and entertaining we ever read. If Mr. Parton sometimes +exaggerates his hero's merits, he is also outspoken in regard to his +faults. If here and there a little Carlylish, his style has the merit of +great liveliness, and his pictures of frontier-life are full of interest +and vivacity. + +Mr. Parton begins his book with a new kind of genealogy, and one suited +to our Western hemisphere, where men are valued more for what they +themselves are than for what their grandfathers were,--for making than +for wearing an illustrious name. He shows that Jackson came of a good +stock,--pious, tenacious of opinion and purpose, and brave,--the +Scotch-Irish. He then tells us how young Jackson imbibed his fierce +patriotism, riding as a boy-trooper, and wellnigh dying a prisoner, +during the last years of the Revolutionary War. He lets us see his hero +cock-fighting, horse-racing, bad-whiskey-drinking, studying law, and +fighting by turns, leaving behind him somewhat dubious but on the +whole favorable memories, yet somehow getting on, till he is appointed +District-Attorney among the wolves, wildcats, and redskins of Tennessee. +The story of his emigration thither and his early life there is +wonderfully picturesque, and told by Mr. Parton with the spirit which +only sympathy can give. + +A great part of the material is wholly new, and we are at last enabled +to get at the real Jackson, and to gain something like an adequate and +consistent conception, of him. We are particularly glad to learn +the truth about Mrs. Jackson, after so many years of slander and +misunderstanding, and to find something really touching and noble, +instead of ludicrous, in the grim General's devotion to his first and +only love. We get also for the first time an understandable account of +the Battle of New Orleans, made up with praiseworthy impartiality from +the accounts of both sides. Nor is it only here that the author gives us +new light. He enables us to judge fairly of the sad story of Arbuthnot +and Ambrister, and throws a great deal of light on many points of our +political history which much needed honest illumination. The book is of +especial interest at the present time, as it contains the best narrative +we have ever seen of the Nullification troubles of 1832. Mr. Parton not +only shows a decided talent for biography, but his work is characterized +by a thoroughness of research and honesty of purpose that make it, on +the whole, the best life yet written of any of our public men. + + +_Poems_. By ROSE TERRY. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1861. pp. 231. + +We forget who it was that once charitably christened one of his volumes +"Prose by a Poet," in order that the public might be put on their guard +as to the difference between it and the others,--inexperienced critics +are so apt to make mistakes! The example seems to us worth following, +and, were this dangerous frankness made a point of honor in title-pages, +we should be able at a glance to distinguish the books that must be +bought from those that may be read. We should then see advertised "The +Ten-Inch Bore, or Sermons by Rev. Canon So-and-so,"--"Essays to do Good, +by a Victim of Original Sin,"--"Poems by a Proser,"--"Political Economy, +by a Bankrupt," and the like. We should know, at least, what we had to +expect. + +We do not mean to apply this to Miss Terry; but her volume reminded us, +by the association of opposites, of the title to which we have referred. +We had long known her as a writer of picturesque and vigorous prose, as +one of the most successful sketchers of New England character, abounding +in humor and pathos; but we had never conceived her as a writer of +verse. The readers of the "Atlantic" remember too well her "Maya, the +Princess," "Metempsychosis," and "The Sphinx's Children," to need +reminding that she has qualities of fancy as remarkable as her faculty +for observing real life. Miss Terry seems in this volume to have sought +refuge from the real in the ideal, from the jar and bustle of the +outward world in the silent and shadowy interior of thought and being. +Her poems have the fault of nearly all modern poetry, inasmuch as they +are over-informed with thought and sadness. By far the greater number of +her themes are abstract and melancholy. It appears to us that her mind +moves more naturally and finds readier expression in the picturesque +than in the metaphysical; and in saying this we mean to say that she is +really a poet, and not a rhymer of thoughts. "Midnight" is a poem full +of originality and vigor, with that suggestion of deepest meaning which +is so much more effective than definite statement. "December XXXI." +gives us a new and delightful treatment of a subject which the poets +have made us rather shy of by their iteration. We would signalize also, +as an especial favorite of ours, "The Two Villages," and still more the +very striking poem "At Last." But, after all, we are not sure that the +Ballads are not the best pieces in the volume. The "Frontier Ballads," +in particular, quiver with strength and spirit, and have the true +game-flavor of the border. + + +_Harrington_. By the Author of "What Cheer?" Boston: Thayer & Eldridge. + +One of the most impossible books that man ever wrote. A book which one +could almost prove never could be written, and which, as an illogical +conclusion, but a stubborn fact, has been written, nevertheless. +"Harrington" is an Abolition novel, the scene of which is laid in +Boston, with a few introductory chapters of plantation-slavery in +Louisiana. Its principal merit is its burning earnestness of feeling and +purpose; and earnestness is sacred from criticism. Whenever the warm, +pulse of an author's heart can be felt through the texture of his story, +criticism is mere flippancy. But, at the risk of making our author's lip +curl with disdain of the sordid insensibility that refuses to join +in his enthusiasm throughout, we shall venture to remind him that +enthusiasm is no proof of truth, whether in argument or conclusion. + +The introductory chapters, containing the flight of the slave Antony +through the Louisiana swamp, are almost unequalled for unfaltering +power, for gorgeous wealth of color. Many of the glowing sentences +belong rather to passionate poetry than to tamer prose. The agonized +resolution that turns the panting fugitive's blood and body to +fire,--the fear, so vividly portrayed that the reader's nerves thrill +with the shock that brings the hunted negro's heart almost to his mouth +with one wild throb,--the matchless picture of the forest and marsh, +lengthening and widening with dizzy swell to the weary eye and failing +brain,--all are the work of a master of language. + +When the scene shifts to Boston, the language, which was in perfect +keeping with the tropical madness of Antony's flight and the tropical +splendor of the Southern forest, is extravagant to actual absurdity, +when used with reference to ordinary scenes and ordinary events. All the +force of contrast is lost; and contrast is the great secret of effect. +The lavish richness of our author's words is as little suited to the +things they describe as a mantle of gold brocade would be to the +shoulders of a beggar. Even the loveliest of young women is more likely +to enter a room by the ordinary mysterious mode of locomotion than to +"flash" into it like a salamander. That it was possible for Muriel +Eastman, in gratifying her "vaulting ambition" by a very creditable +spring over the parallel bars, to "toss the air into perfume," we are +not prepared to deny, having no very clear notion of the meaning of +those remarkable words; but when, we are told that Mrs. Eastman was +"ineffably surprised, yet more ineffably amused," we must be allowed to +enter an energetic protest. Harrington himself is perhaps a trifle too +"regnant" to be altogether satisfactory; and there are many similar +extravagances and inaccuracies. + +The social intercourse of the ladies and gentlemen in this book is +particularly bad. It seems as if the author were ignorant of the usages +of good society, and, impatient of the vulgar ceremony of inferior +people, had seen no way to assert the superiority of his two fair ladies +and their unimaginable lovers, except making them dispense with all +such observances whatever. His uncertainty how people in their position +really do act has hampered his powers; and he is not that rarity, an +original writer, but that very common person, one who tries to be +original. Real ladies and gentlemen are not reduced to the alternative +of either being embarrassed by the ordinary social rules or disregarding +them altogether; they take advantage of them. It is a false originality +that is singular about ordinary forms; it is only the tyro in chess who +is "original" in his first move; Paul Morphy, the most inventive of +players, always begins with the customary advance of the king's pawn. + +There is the usual partiality--one-sidedness--common to the writings +and orations of our author's political school. It may well be doubted +whether in reality all the virtues have been monopolized by the +Antislavery men, all the vices by their opponents. Our author only hurts +his own cause, when he invests with a halo of light every brawler +who echoes the words of the really eminent leaders. Because one +Abolitionist, who has sacrificed power and position to his creed, is +entitled to praise, is another, who perhaps, by advocating the same +doctrines, gains a higher position, a wider influence, perhaps an easier +support, than he could in any other way, to share the credit of having +made a sacrifice? One would not disparage martyrs; but Saint Lawrence on +a cold gridiron, and the pilgrim who boiled his peas, are entitled to +more credit for their shrewdness than their suffering. Our author, +however, makes no distinction; and a natural result will be that many of +his readers, knowing that in one case his praises are undeserved, will +be slow to believe them just in any case. And not only are all of +this particular school disinterested, but they are all among the +master-intellects of the age, apparently by definition. Mr. Harrington +himself is the commanding intellect of the story, perhaps because of his +belief in the greatest number of heresies,--being somewhat peculiar +in his religious views, believing in woman's rights, considering the +marriage ceremony a silly concession to popular prejudice, giving +credence to omens, active as an Abolitionist, and--to crown all--holding +that Lord Bacon wrote Shakspeare's Plays! We sympathize entirely with +the author's indignant protest against thinking a theory necessarily +inaccurate because it contravenes the opinion of the majority. +Certainly, a new thing is not necessarily wrong; but neither is a new +thing necessarily right; and we are heartless enough to pronounce the +"Baconian theory" rather weak than otherwise for a hero. + +We cannot close our notice of this book without commending the old +French fencing-master as particularly good. He talks very simply and +well on matters that he understands, and is silent on those that he does +not understand,--affording in both respects an excellent example to the +more important characters. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The North American Review. No. CXC. January, 1861. Boston. Crosby, +Nichols, Lee, & Co. 8vo, paper, pp. 296. $1.25. + +Marion Graham; or, Higher than Happiness. By Meta Lander. Boston. +Crosby, Nichols, Lee, & Co. 12mo. pp. 506. $1.25. + +Harry Coverdale's Courtship and Marriage. By Frank E. Smedley. +Illustrated. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 357. +$1.25. + +Life in the Old World; or, Two Years in Switzerland and Italy. By +Frederika Bremer. Translated by Mary Howitt. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson +& Brothers. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 488, 474. $2.50. + +One of Them. By Charles Lever. New York. Harper & Brothers. 8vo. paper, +pp. 187. 50 cts. + +Human Destiny: a Critique on Universalism. By C.F. Hudson. Boston. James +Munroe & Co. 12mo. pp. 147. 50 cts. + +Negroes and Negro-Slavery: the First, an Inferior Race; the Latter, +their Normal Condition. By J.H. Van Evrie, M.D. New York. Van Evrie, +Horton, & Co. 12mo. pp. 339. $1.00. + +The Works of Francis Bacon. Vol. XIV. Being Vol. IV. of the Literary and +Professional Works. Boston. Brown & Taggard. 12mo. pp. 432. $1.50. + +The History of Latin Christianity. By Henry Hart Milman. Vol. IV. New +York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. 555. $1.50. + +The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus; to which are added those +of his Companions. By Washington Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New +York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 494. $1.50. + +The Westminster Review, for January, 1861. New York. Leonard Scott & Co. +8vo. paper, pp. 160. 50 cts. + +Elsie Venner. A Romance of Destiny. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston. +Ticknor & Fields. 2 vols. 16mo. pp. 288, 312. $1.75. + +The Deerslayer. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Darley's Illustrated Edition. New +York. W.A. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 598. $1.50. + +American Slavery, distinguished from the Slavery of English Theorists, +and justified by the Law of Nature. By Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D. New +York. Mason Brothers. 12mo. pp. 319. $1.25. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11134 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5442e8f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11134 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11134) diff --git a/old/11134-8.txt b/old/11134-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0102cf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11134-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9091 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 41, March, +1861, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 41, March, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 17, 2004 [eBook #11134] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 7, ISSUE +41, MARCH, 1861*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VII.--MARCH, 1861.--NO. XLI. + + + + + + + +GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. + + +THE PROFESSORS. + + +"Which of the German universities would be the best adapted to my +purpose?" is the question of many an American student, who, having gone +through the usual course in the United States, looks abroad for the +completion of his scientific or liberal studies. Of Göttingen and +Heidelberg he will often have read and heard; the reputation of the +comparatively new university of Berlin will not be unfamiliar to him; +but of Tübingen, Würzburg, Erlangen, Halle, or Bonn, even, he will +perhaps know little more than the name. In the majority of the +last-named places, foreigners, especially his own countrymen, are rare; +none of his friends have studied there; they have followed the current, +since the last century, and spent their time in Göttingen or Heidelberg, +perhaps a winter in Berlin. They have found these institutions good, and +affording every facility for study; but would not Munich, or Leipzig, or +Jena, or any other one of the twenty-six universities of Germany, better +answer the purpose of many a student? + +During the last winter, in many conversations with a retired professor +in Berlin, who manifested a special interest in American institutions, +mainly in the American educational system, he was very particular in +inquiring as to what we meant by our term _College_. He had read the +work of the historian Raumer on America, and declared that from this he +could get no notion whatever as to what the term meant with us. The very +same thing occurs daily in the United States in regard to foreign, or, +more properly, the Continental universities. Accustomed as we are to the +prevalence of the tutorial system, the use of text-books,--in many parts +of the Union not defining clearly the difference between the terms +University, College, Institute, and Academy, giving the first name often +to institutions having but one faculty, and that at times incomplete, +with no theological, and often no law or medical department, forgetting +that the University should, from its very name, be as universal as +possible in its teachings, comprehending in its list of studies the +combined scientific and literary pursuits of the age,--we are apt to +look upon foreign schools of learning as similar in nature and purpose +to our own, differing not in the quality or specific character of the +teaching, but rather in the scope and extent of the branches taught. Yet +nothing is farther from the truth. The result is, that many a one starts +for Europe full of hope, to seek what he would have found better at +home,--or, when prepared and mature for European travel, is left to +chance or one-sided advice in the choice of a locality in which to +prosecute further studies. Often with only book-knowledge of the +language of the country, accident will lead him to the very university +the least adequate to his purpose. + +Having now spent some time in four of the leading German universities, +and contemplating a longer stay for the purpose of visiting others, the +writer has thought that some general remarks might call attention to +points often disregarded, and serve to give some insight into the nature +of the institutions of learning of the country,--rather aiming to +characterize the system of higher education as it now exists than to +give detailed historical notices, including something of student-life, +and the professors,--in fine, such observations as would not be likely +to be made by a general tourist, and such as native writers deem it +unnecessary to make, presupposing a knowledge of the facts in their own +readers. + +The German universities are the culminating point of German culture. +They concentrate within themselves the intellectual pith of the country. +Dating their foundation as far back as the fourteenth century, as +Prague, Vienna, and Heidelberg,--or established but of late years in +the nineteenth, as Berlin, Bonn, and Munich,--they attract to themselves +the mental strength of the land, forming a focus from which radiates, +whether in Theology, Science, Literature, or Art, the new world of +thought, which finds its way to remotest regions, often filtered +and unacknowledged. They number among their professors the most +distinguished men of the century, whether poets, philosophers, or +divines. All who lay claim to authorship find in the lecture-room a +firm stand and rank in society, as Government is ever ready to insure a +life-position to distinguished scholars. To mention only a few +examples of men who would scarcely be thought of in a professorial +career,--Schiller was Professor of History in Jena, Rückert Professor in +Berlin, Uhland in Tübingen. + +In nothing can Germany manifest a better-grounded feeling of national +pride than in this, its university system. Politically inert, divided +into petty states, powerless, the ever-ready prey of more active or +ambitious neighbors, it has played a pitiful _rôle_ in the world's +history, with annals made up of petty feuds and jealousies and +tyrannical meannesses, never working as one people, save when driven to +extremity. With countless differences of dialect, manners, customs, it +is one and national in nothing save in its literature, and feels that, +through the high culture of its scholars, through the new paths its +men of science have opened, through the profound investigations of +the learned in every sphere, it holds its place at the head of every +intellectual movement of the age. It feels that its universities are the +laboratories whence issue the thoughts whose significance the world is +ever more and more ready to acknowledge. France even, selfish and proud +of its past supremacy in all things, has within the last quarter of a +century laid aside much of its exclusiveness, and a Germanic infusion is +perceptible through all the mannerism of the latest and best productions +of the French school. Comparatively of late years is it, that the +English mind has fairly come in contact with this German culture. Its +first loud manifestation may be heard in the prose of Carlyle and his +school; yet even now its influence has permeated our whole literature so +much, that, when reading some of our latest poetry, tones and melodies +will come like distant echoes from the groves on the hillsides where +warble the nightingales of Germany. + +A most unpractical people, however, the Germans, who have been so active +in almost every possible field of speculation, have produced nothing +which could give one unacquainted with their university system a true +notion of its workings and actual state. Much has been written on +Pedagogy, its history general and special, the common schools and +gymnasia; but until 1854 there was not even a general work on the +history of the universities. To Karl von Raumer, former Minister of +Public Worship in Prussia, we owe the first _Beitrag_, as he modestly +calls it, the fourth volume of his "History of Pedagogy" being devoted +exclusively to these. Partly made up of historical sketches, partly +narrations of the writer's personal experience as student from 1801, as +professor in various places from 1811, it does not aim and is but little +calculated to give a clear idea of the system itself. Special works, as +the one of Tomek on Prague, and of Klüpfel on Tübingen, do exist, +but otherwise nothing but personal observation can be made use of. +Statistics, every information, in fine, concerning the present +intellectual wealth of the nation, must be acquired either orally, or +from the catalogues, programmes, and hundreds of local pamphlets that +are issued yearly. The work of the Rev. Dr. Schaff, "Germany, its +Universities, Theology, and Religion," (Philadelphia, 1857,) rather aims +to characterize the nature and tendency of German theology, the latter +part being taken up with interesting and well-written sketches of the +leading divines. + +Before proceeding to these high-schools themselves, let us glance at the +general system of German education. In spite of political differences, +there exists much uniformity in this throughout the Confederation. The +German States are exceedingly _paternal_ in the care they take of their +subjects. They extend their parental supervision even to the family +interior, every relation of life regulated by fixed laws, and even +after death the inhumation must be conducted the forms and with the +precautions prescribed. The new-born child _must_ be baptized within +six weeks after birth. If the parents neglect it, Government sees to +it,--unless they claim the privileges of Israelites, in which case the +rites of their religion must be followed. Between his sixth and +seventh year the child _must_ enter some school or receive elementary +instruction at home. So far is education compulsory; beyond, it is +optional. When duly prepared, he enters, if the parents desire it, the +Government Gymnasium or Lyceum, answering pretty much to our College; it +fits the youth for entering the University. It confers no degrees; only, +at the conclusion of the studies, an _Examen Maturitatis_ takes place. +The youth is then declared ripe for matriculation. Without having +undergone this examination, he can never become a regular student. Even +should he have attended regularly any of the many private academies, or +the _Realschule_, where thorough instruction is given, but with less +special, though no slight attention to Latin and Greek, and more to +mathematics and practical branches, even then he must acquire from +one of the gymnasia the exemption-and-maturity-right. In the slang of +student-life, the gymnasiast is styled a _Frog_, the school itself +a _Pond_; between the time of his declaration of maturity and his +reception as student, he is called a _Mule_. + +The course is no light one the candidate has gone through,--nine or ten +years of classical training, Latin the whole time, Greek the last six or +seven years, Hebrew the last four, generally optional, though in many +cases required at future examinations. The modern languages have not +been neglected: French he has pursued seven years, English or Italian +the last three or four. Beside all these, the elements of Philosophy, +Moral and Natural, History, Mathematics, etc. In fine, the certificate +of maturity would in most cases equal, in many surpass, what our +colleges is styled the degree of A.M. Of course, the parallel must not +be understood as existing with respect to many of the older institutions +in the United States, which presuppose, in the entering freshman, a +preparatory course of several years. + +The classical training so strictly required of natives who enter +these high-schools is not so rigidly inquired into in the case of +foreigners,--though in this respect the regulations differ in various +states. In Prussia and generally, the passport is all-sufficient; but +in Würtemberg, a diploma or some certificate of former studies must be +exhibited before admission. The officers of some of the universities, as +Tübingen, for instance, are very particular in enforcing all the rules, +inquiring of the applicant, whatever be his age or nationality, whether +he has a written permission from his parents to study abroad and in +their university, whether he has the money necessary to pay the debts he +may contract, and such other minute questions as will strike an American +especially as particularly impertinent. The precaution is carried +so far, that, when no positive information is given as to means of +subsistence, the letter of credit must be delivered into the hands +of the beadle as security. Yet such little incidents are but slight +annoyances at most, which a little good-humor and desire to conform to +the habits and ways of doing of the country will remove. He who goes +abroad always ready to bristle up against what does not exactly conform +to his preconceived ideas of propriety, measuring and weighing all +things with his own national weights and measures, will be continually +making himself disagreeable and unhappy, and in the end profit little by +his absence from home. + +The conclusion of the training-system in the gymnasia usually occurs +before the nineteenth or twentieth year. With the reception of the +certificate of maturity the youth may be said to have donned the virile +toga. He enjoys during his university years a degree of liberty such as +he never enjoyed before, never will enjoy again when his student-days +are over. Having taken out his matriculation-papers, and given the +_Handschlag_ (taken the oath) to obey the laws of the land and the +statutes of the university, he has become a student,--a _Fox_, as the +freshman is styled,--he chooses his own career, his own professors, +hears the lectures he pleases, attends or omits as he pleases, leads the +life of a god for a triennium or a quadrennium, fights his duels, drinks +his beer, sings his club-and-corps songs.--But of student-life more in +due time.--There is no check, no constraint whatever, during the whole +time the studies last. At the expiration of three or four, sometimes +even five years, an examination takes place before the degree of Doctor +can be conferred,--not a severe one by any means, confined as it is to +the special branch to which the candidate wishes to devote himself. +In the Medical and Law Departments it is more serious than in the +Philosophical. This examination is followed by a public discussion in +presence of the dean and professors of the faculty, held in Latin, on +some thesis that has been treated and printed in the same language by +the candidate. His former fellow-students, and any one present that +wishes, stand as opponents. This disputation, whatever may have been its +merits in former days, has degenerated in the present into a mere piece +of acted mummery, where the partakers not only stutter and stammer over +bad Latin, but even help themselves, when their memory fails utterly, +with the previously written notes of their extempore objections and +answers. The principal requisite for the attainment of the Doctor's +degree, when the necessary amount of time has been given, in the +Philosophical Faculty at least, is the fees, which often mount quite +high. + +From the ranks of such as have attained this _title_, for so it should +be called, every office of any importance in the State is filled. +Through every ramification of the complicated system of government, +recommendations and testimonials play the greatest _rôle_,--the first +necessary step for advancement being the completion of the university +studies--And by public functionaries must not be understood merely those +holding high civil or military grades. Every minister of the Church, +every physician, chemist, pharmaceutist, law-practitioner of any +grade, every professor and teacher, all, in fact, save those devoting +themselves to the merely mechanical arts or to commercial pursuits, and +even these, though with other regulations, receive their appointment or +permission to exercise their profession from the State. It is one huge +clock-work, every wheel working into the next with the utmost precision. +To him who has gone so far, and received the Doctorate, several +privileges are granted. He has claims on the State, claims for a +position that will give him a means of subsistence, if only a scanty +one. With talent and industry and much enduring toil, he may reach the +highest places. He belongs to the aristocracy of learning,--a poor, +penniless aristocracy, it may be, yet one which in Germany yields in +point of pride to none. + +We proceed to the Professors. It is within the power of all to attain +the position of Lecturer in a university. The diploma once obtained, the +farewell-dinner, the _comilat_, and general leave-taking over, the man's +career has commenced in earnest. If he turn his attention to education, +he may find employment in some of the many schools of the State. Does he +look more directly to the University, he undergoes, when duly prepared +on the branches to which he wishes to devote himself, the _Examen +Rygorosum_, delivers a trial-lecture in presence of his future +colleagues, and is entitled to lecture in the capacity of a +_Privat-Docent_. As such be receives no remuneration whatever from +Government; his income depends upon what he receives from his hearers, +two to six dollars the term from each. All who aspire to the dignity of +Professor must have passed through this stage; rarely are men called +directly from other ranks of life,--though eminent scholars, +physicians, or jurists have been sometimes raised immediately to an +academical seat. After a few years, five or more, the _Privat-Docent_ +who has met with a reasonable degree of success may hope for a +professorship,--though many able men have remained in this inferior +position for long years, some even for life. If their hearers are but +few, they resort to private lessons, to book-making, anything that +will aid them in maintaining their position, always with the hope that +"something must turn up." + +The _Privat-Docent_ system, though condemned by some, has been much +extolled by many German writers. It is, say the latter, a warranty for +the freedom of teaching, no slight point In a country where all is +subservient to the political rulers, forming men for the professorship, +and giving them a confidence in their own powers, as they must rely +exclusively for their support on the income they receive from their +hearers. From among their number are chosen those constituting the +regular faculties; and thus there are ever at hand men ready to fill the +highest places upon any vacancy, men not new or inexperienced, but whose +whole life has been one training for the position they may be called to +occupy. + +The _Privat-Docent_ may be raised directly to a seat in the faculty, but +more generally he passes through the intermediate stage of _Professor +Extraordinarius_. The Professors Extraordinary receive no, or at most a +very small, income from the State; they are merely titled lecturers, +and nothing more; yet in their ranks, as well as among the more modest +_Privatim-Docentes_, are often found men of the greatest learning, whose +names are known abroad, whose contributions to science are universally +acknowledged, whose lecture-rooms are thronged with students, while the +halls of some of the regular professors may be left empty. No vacancy +may have occurred in their department,--or, as is unfortunately +oftener the case, some political reasons may be the occasion of their +non-advancement. + +We come to the regular faculty of the university, the _Professores +Ordinarii_. They enjoy the fullest privileges, are appointed for life, +and receive beside the tuition-fees regular incomes. They may be elected +to the Academic Senate and to the Rectorship, the Rector or Chancellor +not being appointed for life, but changing yearly,--the various +faculties being represented in turn. He is styled _Rector Magnificus_. + +The faculties are usually four in number. In several universities, +of late, a fifth has been created,--the _Staatswissenschaftliche_, +Cameralistic; so that in institutions where both Catholic and Protestant +Theology are represented, there are in fact six faculties. The +Philosophical Department stretches over so wide a field, that, were it +separated into its real divisions, as Philosophy proper, Philology, +History, the Mathematical and Natural Sciences, the faculties would +extend far beyond the present number. In France, it is divided into +a _Faculté des Lettres and a Faculté des Sciences._ The present +comprehensive use of the term is but an extension of the Middle-Age +division of the liberal arts into the Trivium,--Grammar, Rhetoric, +Dialectics,--and the Quadrivium,--Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and +Astronomy,--as expressed in the verse,-- + + "Lingus, tropus, ratio, numerus, tenor, + angulus, astra." + +The term _Magister Artium Liberalium,_ so often met with, refers to +these. Those pursuing these studies were denominated _Artisti._ As the +number of studies increased, the name was changed, and the department +now includes all branches not ranged under one of the heads of Theology, +Law, or Medicine; so that every student, whatever his pursuits may be, +if he does not confine himself exclusively to them, will wish to hear +one or more courses of lectures in this faculty. + +The Professors Ordinary and Extraordinary, together with the +_Privat-Docents_, form the active force of the German university. In +Tübingen are _Repetenten_, who lecture or comment on classical and +Biblical writers and form classes in the ancient or modern languages. +Those teaching the modern languages exclusively are styled _Lectors_. +The title, _Professor Honorarius_, as of Gervinus in Heidelberg, is +conferred merely as a mark of honor, the bearer lecturing only when he +pleases. To complete this enumeration, it may not be unnecessary to +state, connected with each university are masters for riding, fencing, +swimming, gymnastics, and dancing, regular places appointed for these +exercises, beside access to museums, the university library, scientific +collections, etc. + +The number of professors--and under this name we include the three +divisions of lecturers--varies from forty to one hundred and seventy and +upwards, according to the size and importance of the institution. In +Berlin, last winter, there were one hundred and sixty-nine; in Erlangen, +but forty-four; in Munich, one hundred and eleven. The University +of Kiel, with not one hundred and thirty students, numbers fifty +professors. These each deliver at least one course of lectures; most +deliver more,--some as many as four or five. In Prussia, each is +required by law to read one course, at least, gratis (_publice_); +otherwise the lectures are _privatim_, a fee being paid by the +hearer,--say four or five dollars on the average for the term. The +_privatissime_ are private lessons or lectures, the when and where to be +settled with the lecturer himself. + +The year is divided into two terms, varying somewhat in different +places. The summer session is the shorter of the two, lasting from near +the middle of April till August, when the long vacation takes place. The +winter semester usually commences in October and lasts till the latter +part of March. + +As to the scope and variety of the lectures, it is unlimited, and varies +yearly. In Berlin, during the winter semester of 1859-60, there were +no less than three hundred and forty-six courses in all, besides the +clinics, demonstrative and practical courses, philological exercises, +and the like. These were divided as follows:-- + + In Theology . . . . . . 38 + " Law. . . . . . . . 56 + " Medicine . . . . . . 78 + " Philosophy . . . . . 174 + +In the latter department there were,-- + + In Philosophy proper . . . 18 + " Mathematical Sciences . . 19 + " Natural " . . 45 + " Political Economy, etc. . 10 + " History and Geography . . 12 + " Aesthetics . . . . 19 + " Philology . . . . . 51 + +But Berlin is by far the most complete university in Germany, however +much it may be surpassed in many points by others. Lesser institutions +do not exhibit half this number of courses, though there are always +enough to satisfy the student who does not devote himself to a narrow +speciality. Private tuition can always be resorted to. + +Beside the lectures, there are also occasionally _Seminaren_, mostly +conducted in Latin, where classical or Biblical authors are explained +and read by the students, or where discussions take place, in presence +of a professor, on philosophical, historical, or philological +subjects,--resembling, however, in nothing our debating-societies. + +It is only since the middle of the last century that instruction in +the higher branches has been usually carried on in German. Latin was +formerly in general use; it is now seldom made a medium. There is +occasionally a course delivered in English, Italian, or French,--in +Berlin often in one of the Sclavonic languages. Modern Literature and +Philology are by no means extensively cultivated. Lectures on the +Provençal, the Langue d'Oïl, the Old-German, the Cyrillic, are not +uncommon, though but poorly attended. The study of the modern languages +themselves must be pursued with private teachers. A knowledge of these, +as well as a thorough preparatory training in Latin and Greek, is +presupposed. Modern History, on the contrary, has of late years become +an important branch of study. The "Period of Revolutions" is fully +treated every semester, and always draws crowds of students. The spirit +that animates them is the unity of the Fatherland. Classical studies, +though not holding the same undisputed ascendency as in former times, +are yet very actively pursued, embracing Greek and Roman history and +antiquities, comments on classical authors, lectures, critical and +minute in the extreme, where every line is made the subject of +microscopic investigation, and different readings are weighed and +compared, with often an unlimited amount of abuse of editors who have +differed in opinion from the lecturer. The German philologers are not +remarkable for mildness when speaking of each other; and many a one, +as Haupt in Berlin, will enrich his vocabulary with ever-varying, +new-coined epithets to characterize the ridiculousness, tameness, and +stupidity of emendations proposed, and that, too, when speaking of such +men as Orelli and Kirchner, his own colleagues in the profession. A +laugh raised at the expense of a brother is enough to justify the +severest slash. Comparative Philology, which owes its existence +and progress to the labors of German scholars, and whose first +representative, Bopp, is still living and teaching in Berlin, is more +and more pursued of late. Sanscrit is now taught universally; and +lectures are delivered on the affinities of the Indo-Germanic languages +with each other and with the mother-tongue of all. A perceptible +movement is being felt to introduce this study into the preparatory +departments. Such a change would result in a complete revolution of the +methods formerly employed in elementary classical tuition. The higher +laws of affinity, as applied to the Romanic languages, are also daily +more a matter of investigation. Diez and Delius, in Bonn, are at the +head of this movement. In Philosophy, properly so called, the list +of studies is often very full, comprising lectures on Logic, the +Encyclopedia of Science, Metaphysics, Anthropology and Psychology, +Ethics, the Philosophy of Nature, of Law, of History, of Religion, the +History of Philosophy, general and special, and the Philosophy of Art, +or Aesthetics,--the latter general, or branching into specialities, as +Music, Painting, Sculpture, Ancient and Modern Art. Special points are +also treated,--as the Philosophy of Aristotle, of Kant, of Hegel, etc. +Mathematics and the Natural Sciences are not always cultivated to the +same extent as the above-named branches. They are made the subject of +particular attention, however, in the numerous Polytechnic Schools, the +most celebrated being those of Hanover and Carlsruhe. They have risen in +reputation and attendance of late to such a degree, that in the Grand +Duchy of Baden, for instance, a perceptible diminution is felt in +university attendance, while new appropriations have been made for the +enlargement of the Carlsruhe school. + +The Theological Faculty ranks the highest, and comprises a wide range of +study. We quote from Dr. Schaff:-- + +"In modern times the field has been greatly enlarged by the addition +of Oriental Philology, Biblical Criticism, Hermeneutics, Antiquities, +Church-History and Doctrine-History, Homiletics, Catechetics, Liturgies, +Pastoral Theology, and Theory of Church-Government. No theological +faculty is considered complete now which has not separate teachers +for the exegetical, historical, systematic, and practical branches of +divinity. The German professors, however, are not confined to their +respective departments, as is the case in our American seminaries, +but may deliver lectures on any other branch, as far as it does not +interfere with their immediate duties. Schleiermacher, for instance, +taught, at different times, almost every branch of theology and +philosophy." + +The Law Department, to which the celebrated school of Bologna served as +a first model, extends over a far wider field than similar institutions +elsewhere. Starting from the Roman Law, it embraces lectures on the +History of Jurisprudence, the Pandects, Civil, Criminal, and Common Law, +and Natural Rights, besides History and Philosophy, as applied to legal +studies,--branching into specialities for German Law and Practice, local +and general. To Americans, of course, only the first part of these +studies would be at all desirable. Moreover, the advantages are not all +of a practical nature. + +The Medical Faculty embraces all the studies pursued in our medical +colleges, more specialities being treated,--the time required being +scarcely ever less than five years for the course, often more. +Examinations are severe. The faculties of Berlin, Munich, and Würzburg +are in especial repute,--Vienna also affording many advantages. In some +of the smaller university towns the means of study are limited for +the advanced student, extensive collections and large hospitals being +wanting. Medical studies are attended with more expense than any other. + +The _Cameralistische Facultät_ is devoted to those preparing themselves +for practical statesmanship. It is new, and established only of late +years in a few of the universities. In others, the branches taught +are still comprehended under the philosophical. Munich is in especial +repute. It comprises lectures on Political Economy in all its branches, +Mining, Engineering,--in fact, whatever is necessary to fit one for +service in the State. + +Let no one, from the above comprehensive list of studies, form the idea, +that the outward incarnation of the German intellect, in speech or deed, +corresponds to its inner worth and solidity. The name _Dryasdust_ +must cling to many a learned professor more firmly than to the most +chronological of the old historians. Germany is not the land of outward +form. To one accustomed to public speaking, the lecturers will often +appear far below the standard of mediocrity in their manner. Though such +men as Lasaulx in Munich, Häusser in Heidelberg, Droyson and Werder +in Berlin deliver their lectures in a style that would grace the +lecture-room of any country, yet the great majority are far, very far, +from any eloquence in their delivery. Timid and bashful often to an +extreme, they ascend their rostrum with a shuffling, ambling gait, the +very opposite of manly grace and bearing, and, prefacing their +discourse with the short address, _"Meine Herren"_ keep on in one long, +never-varying, monotonous strain, from beginning to end,--reading wholly +or in part, often so slowly that the hearer can write down _every_ word, +often only the heads and substance of paragraphs, definitions and the +like,--and that so indistinctly, so carelessly of all but the very words +themselves, that it is not only unpleasant, at first, but even repulsive +to many. This dictating of every word, a relic of the times when +printing was yet unknown, is fast dying away. Many, both students and +professors, are loud against it, yet the tedious method is still pursued +in many places. The introductory remark of a celebrated lecturer is +characteristic. Seeing all his hearers, on the first day of the course, +ready with pen and paper, he began,--"Gentlemen, I will not dictate: if +that were necessary, I should send my maid-servant with my manuscript, +and you yours with pen and paper; my servant would dictate, yours would +write, and we in the mean while could enjoy a pleasant walk." This +is, however, not the only point that will be likely to produce an +unfavorable impression. To see a man whose name you have met in your +reading as the highest authority, whose works you have so often admired, +his style energetic, fiery, and impressive,--to see him ascend his +rostrum with every mark of negligence, uncouth and awkward in his +appearance, with every possible mannerism, talking through his nose, +indistinctly and unsteadily mumbling over his sentences, careless of all +outward form and polish, awakens anything but pleasant feelings, as the +preconceived ideal must give way to the living reality. And yet so it is +with many! + +It may have contributed not a little to the reputation of Göttingen and +Heidelberg with foreigners, that a good and clear German is spoken in +both places by the professors. In Tübingen, on the contrary, even in +Munich, to a great extent, the local dialect prevails to such a degree, +that students from Northern Germany, many of whom frequent these cities +in the summer session, find it difficult, nay, almost impossible, to +understand at first, especially the broad Suabian of Tübingen. Here, +however, as the system of dictation prevails, the slowness of utterance +compensates in a measure for its indistinctness and incorrectness. + +In some places, where academic freedom, as the students style it, exists +to a high degree, a general scraping of the feet admonishes the lecturer +to repeat his words or be more distinct and clear in his enunciation. +This pedal language, though often disregarded, still does not fail in +the end in producing the desired effect. + +With such characteristics, it cannot be a matter of wonder, if some +time be required to be spent in hearing lectures daily before the full +benefit can be fairly appreciated. Many will appear slow in the extreme; +and the constant recourse to notes, and the tedious manner, will create +a feeling of weariness hard to overcome. However, these peculiarities +are soon forgotten in the excellence of the matter, and their +disagreeableness is scarcely noticed after a few weeks, except in +extreme cases. The mannerism fades away, and the hearer learns to follow +from thought to thought under the guidance of an experienced leader, +whose living words he hears, whose thought he feels as it is +communicated directly to him. + +Not so much from the actual things heard, the actual facts mastered, is +the lecture-system valuable to the student, as for the method of +study which he derives from it. He is no longer like an automaton, a +school-boy guided by his teacher and text-book, but is spoken to as an +independent thinker. Authorities are quoted, which he may consult at his +leisure. No subject is exhausted,--it is only touched upon. He learns to +teach himself. + +Far different is the mental training thus acquired from that gained in +the same amount of time spent in mere reading. Thought is stimulated to +a far greater degree. The lecture-room becomes a laboratory, where the +mind of the hearer, in immediate contact with that of a man mature in +the ways of study, of one whose whole life seems to have prepared him +for the present hour, assimilates to itself more than knowledge. The +lecturer gives what no books can give, his own force to impel his own +words. His mind is ever active while he speaks. The hearer feels its +workings, and his own is stirred into action by the contact. It is +not given to all to enjoy the conversation and intercourse of the +master-minds of the age: in the lecture-room they speak to us +immediately; we feel the current of their life-blood; it pulsates +through all they say. + +That seeming exceptions may occur, as in the case of professors who year +after year deliver the same written course, can have no weight against +the system. The tone and gesture, the very look, must animate the +whole;--and these very written lectures, read and delivered so often, +are no dead stalk, but a living stem, which puts forth new leaves and +blossoms every spring. + +Nor is the hearer himself without his corresponding influence. His +attention and eager desire for knowledge stimulate new thought in the +speaker day by day, hour by hour; and many a German scholar must have +felt with Friedrich August Wolf, when he says,--"I am one who has been +long accustomed to the gentle charm which lies in the momentaneous +unfolding of thought in the presence of attentive hearers, to that +living reaction softly felt by the teacher, whereby a perennial mental +harmony is awakened in his soul, which far surpasses the labors in the +study, before blank walls and the feelingless paper." + + +THE STUDIES. + + +The first entrance into a German auditorium or _Hörsaal_, as the +lecture-rooms in the universities are called, will show much that is +characteristic. But little care is bestowed on the decoration of the +apartment. Whatever aesthetic culture the nation may have, it finds +little manifestation in the things of daily life, and elegance seems +little less than banished from the precincts of the learned world. The +academic halls present to the view nothing but dingy walls, rough floors +coated with the dust and mud of days or weeks, and, winter and summer, +the huge porcelain stove in one corner,--that immovable article of +cheerless German furniture, where wood is put in by the pound, and no +bright glow ever discloses the presence of that warmest friend of man, +a good fire. For the students there are coarse, long wooden desks and +benches, with places all numbered, cut up and disfigured to an extent +which will soon convince one that whittling is not a trait of American +destructiveness exclusively. Here are carved names and intertwined +lettering, arabesque masterpieces of penknife-ingenuity, with a general +preponderance of feminine appellatives, bold incisures, at times, of +some worthy professor in profile,--the whole besmutched with ink, and +dotted with countless punctures, the result of the sharp spike with +which every student's ink-horn is armed, that he may steady it upon the +slanting board. The preceding lecture ended when the university-clock +struck the hour; the next should begin within ten or fifteen minutes. +One by one the students drop in and take their places,--high and low, +rich and poor, all on the same straight-backed pine benches. The days +fire over, even in title-loving Germany, though not long since, when +the young counts and barons sat foremost, on a privileged, raised, and +cushioned seat, and were addressed by their title. + +As the hearers thus assemble, they present a motley appearance,--being, +in the larger cities especially, from all lands, all ranks of society, +and of every age. Side by side with the young freshman in his first +semester, the _Fat Fox_, as he is called, who has just made a leap from +the strict discipline of the gymnasium to the unbounded freedom of the +university, will be a gray-haired man, to whom the academic title of +_Juvenis Studiosus_ will no longer apply. Here sits, with his gaudy +watch-guard, the colors of his corps, one of those students by +profession who have been inscribed year after year so long that they +have acquired the name of _Bemossed Heads_. Were his scientific +attainments measured by his capacities for beer-drinking and +sword-slashing, he would long ago have been dubbed a Doctor in all the +faculties. He hears a lecture now and then for form's sake, though it is +rather an unusual thing for him. By his side, but retiring and earnest, +may be one of the younger professors, who the hour before stood as a +teacher, and now sits among some of his former hearers to profit by the +experience of his older professional brother. Where the court resides +and many officers are garrisoned, the hall presents a spangled +appearance of bright epaulettes and glittering uniforms. It is no +unusual thing for young men during their years of service to attend the +courses regularly. The uncomfortable sword is laid on the knee, where it +may not dangle and clink with every motion of the wearer,--no easy +task in the very narrow space left between desk and desk. In the last +century, it was a universal custom for all students to wear the sword; +but this academic privilege, as it was considered, leading to numerous +abuses, laws were enacted against it, as well as other eccentricities in +dress. + +The regular students are provided with portfolios, or rather, soft +leathern pouches, which they can fold and pocket, containing the _heft_ +or quire of paper on which the lecture is transcribed by them wholly or +in part. These _hefts_ are often the object of much care and labor. Each +plants his ink-horn firmly in front of him. As the time approaches, +and all are in readiness with pen in hand, there is a universal buzz +throughout the room. Though, when the auditory is large, many nations +are represented, as well as the various provinces of the Confederation, +still the language heard is predominantly that of the country. Though +Poles and Greeks, English and Russians, may be in abundance, still they +rarely congregate in nationalities,--save the Poles, who speak their own +language at all times and places, and cling the more fondly to their own +idiom since they have been robbed of everything else. After some fifteen +minutes of expectation the professor enters. All is still in an instant. +He advances with hasty strides and bent-down head to his rostrum, an +elevated platform, on which stands a plain, high, pine desk. He unfolds +his notes, looks over the rim of his spectacles at the attentive +hearers, who sit ready to write down the words of wisdom he is about to +utter, and begins with the short address, "_Meine Herren._" There is +then an uninterrupted gliding of pens for three-quarters of an hour, +until, above the monotony, rarely the eloquence, of the speaker, the +great clock in the centre of the building gives the significant sound of +relief to busy fingers and rest to ear and brain unaccustomed to such +slow, entangled, lisping, laborious, in rare instances manly delivery. +The lecture is at an end, and each prepares to enter another auditorium, +or wends his way home, to study out the notes taken, consult the +authorities quoted, complete or even copy his work anew. In the study of +these _hefts_ consists the main preparation for future examinations, as +text-books are rarely used, save in Austria, and the examiners are the +professors themselves, who will not ask the candidate much beyond what +they have embraced in their own lesson. + +With a remarkable degree of skill, the practised German student can take +down, even when the delivery is by no means slow, the pith and essence +of a whole lecture. Yet there is much abuse in this; and it has called +forth, ever since the invention of printing has made the multiplication +of books by transcription unnecessary, much just, though at times unjust +criticism. A German writer has said, that the man of genius takes his +notes on a slip of paper, he of good abilities on a half-page, while the +dunce must fill a whole sheet. Now the reverse would be quite as true +in many cases. For though thoughtless writing may be little more than +wasted labor, yet there is nothing that can fix more steadily thoughts +and facts in the mind than the precision and constant attention required +in following a lecture with the pen, especially when the words of the +professor are not taken down with slavish exactitude, but when, as is +most generally the case, merely the thoughts are noted in the hearer's +own language. The ideas thus gained have been assimilated and become the +listener's own property. There is thus generated a steady transfusion, +the surest remedy against flagging mental activity. Many a foreigner +writes down the lecture in his own tongue, and values highly this +training of constant translation, though, before many months, the mere +transposition from one language into the other must become purely +mechanical. It is amusing to see the puzzled expression of countenance +of some Swiss student who takes his notes in French, when one of those +long German compounds, involving some bold figure of speech, is uttered. +What circumlocutions must he not use, if he wish to give the full force +of the idea! + +A real abuse, however, is the perpetual dictation-system still used by +some. For these, the three worthies in profile on the title-page of old +Elzevir editions are as if they had never existed; they teach as they +have been taught, perpetuating the methods in use in the days of +Abelard, when books were dearer than time. All that has been said and +written against the custom will do less towards abolishing it than the +recent introduction of lessons in phonography, or stenography rather, +which is now taught in several universities. The question is agitated +of introducing this study into the preparatory schools. The system is +different from the English or American, being based on the etymological +nature of the language. It is fast coming into use, though as yet not +general. The old slow delivery seems little better than spelling +to those that have mastered it. The students have usually special +abbreviations of their own, and so find no difficulty in taking down all +the important points, even when the utterance is rapid. + +Not all, by any means, go through this labor of transcription. Many of +the wealthier and high-titled attend but irregularly, and when they do, +are impatient listeners. In Berlin may be seen many a youth who, from +the exquisite fit and finish of his dress, if he be not an American just +from Paris, must at least be a German count The young _Graf_ plays +with his lips on the ivory head of his bamboo, as he holds it with his +kid-gloved hand, sitting carefully the while, lest the elbow of his +French coat should be soiled by contact with a desk ignorant of duster +for many a month. He is condemned, however, to hear, day by day, over +and over, many a truth that will scarcely flatter his noble ears. The +_heft_ and the toil of writing down a lecture are unknown to him. He +pays a reasonable sum to some poor scholar who sits behind and copies +it all afterwards, while he takes his afternoon-ride towards +Charlottenburg, or saunters along Unter-den-Linden, ogling the pretty +English girls, and spying every chance of saluting, whenever a royal +equipage, preceded by a monkey-looking lackey, rolls by. These are, of +course, exceptions, rarer in the present than formerly. In Padua, in the +sixteenth century, it became notorious that the richer students never +attended in person, but always sent one of their servants who wrote a +good hand. Laws were enacted to prevent the evil, yet long after this +there were still many promotions of these paper-doctors. + +Many, in taking their notes, abandon the German script as too illegible, +and make use of the Latin letters. A word or two on this subject, as +connected with general education. The German script, which any one may +learn in a few hours, is a constant source of vexation to a foreigner. +To write, and write fast, too, is easy enough; but then to read one's +own handwriting, not to mention the crumpled notices of the professors +tacked on the blackboard in the _Aula_, is almost impossible without +much practice. Why the Germans should have kept their Gothic lettering +and peculiar script, when all other European nations, save the Russian, +have adopted the Roman, it is difficult to say, unless it be with them +a matter of national pride. And they have been unnational in so many +things! That the Russians should have their own alphabet is natural +enough; they have sounds and letters and combinations--which neither the +Germanic nor the Romanic group of languages possess. And yet both in +Polish and Zechish, where the same sounds exist to a great extent, the +deficiencies are made up by accented and dotted letters. So, though +we have a universal standard of spelling for names and places on the +Continent, we find in our most popular histories and geographies a +divergence in the lesser known Russian names, not far removed from that +we daily meet in the nomenclature of the gods of Hindoo mythology. + +The like plea of necessity cannot be urged in regard to the Teutonic or +Scandinavian languages. Within the last quarter of a century, the chief +scientific works issued in Northern Germany, and many even in Southern, +have been printed in the Roman character. Were there no other argument +in favor of its universal adoption, it has been found less trying to the +eyes. It can be read by all nations; and the other is at best but an +additional difficulty for the learner, even in the case of native +children, who are plagued with two alphabets and two diametrically +opposite systems of penmanship in their earliest years. The result is +evident: a good hand is a rare thing In Germany. It is a good sign, that +of late years public acts and records, works of learning, all the higher +literature, in fact, not purely national, as poetry and romance, are all +printed in the Roman character. Nor will any look upon this as a servile +imitation. Some of the most national of German writers and scholars, as +the brothers Grimm, have pronounced themselves loudly in favor of the +change. The tendency of the age is towards universality. It will occur +to none to talk of French imitation because chemists make use of the +excellent and universally applicable system of the decimal French +weights and measures. + +What has been said above is not altogether irrelevant as characterizing +the tendency of the higher institutions of learning. Every movement in +Germany, even the least, since the Reformation, whose chief +propagators were professors in the universities,--Luther, Reuchlin, +Melancthon,--every permanent and pervading conquest of the new and good +over the old and worn-out, has issued from the lecture-room. Whatever +sticklers for old forms and crab-like progress may be found, there is +always an overbalancing power. The unity of Germany as one nation has +never stood a better chance of being realized than now, when the very +men who were students and flocked as volunteers when the iron hand of +Napoleon I. weighed heavily on their Fatherland stand as lecturers in +the days of Napoleon III., warning of the past, and preaching louder +than Schiller or Körner or Arndt for the brotherhood of Prussian and +Bavarian, of those that dwell on the Rhine and those that inhabit the +regions of the Danube. + +Thanks, not to her statesmen, not to her nobility, not to her princes +even, that Germany has at last fairly shaken off the self-imposed yoke +of servile French imitation, but thanks to her scholars who centre in +her twenty-six universities! There was a time, and that not a century +ago, when the German language was considered to be of too limited +circulation for works of general scientific interest. Lectures were +all delivered in Latin, until Thomasius broke open a new path, and now +lessons otherwise than in the vernacular tongue are exceptions. French +was long the universal medium. Even Humboldt wrote most of his works +in that language; and it is not two years since one of the most +distinguished Egyptian scholars of Prussia published his History of +Egypt in French. The last representatives of this tendency are dying +off. The days are over, when every petty German prince must create in +his domains a servile imitation of the stiff parks of Versailles,--the +days of powdered wigs and long cues,--when French ballet-dancers gave +the tone, and French actors strutted on every stage,--when Boileau was +the great canon of criticism, and Racine and Molière perpetuated in +tragedy and comedy a pseudo-classicism. They are far, those times when +Frederick the Great wrote French at which Voltaire laughed, and could +find no better occupation for his leisure hours at Sans-Souci than the +discussion of the materialistic philosophy of the Encyclopedists, while +he affected to despise his own tongue, rejecting every effort towards +the popularization of a national literature. Well is it for Germany that +other ideas now prevail,--well, that Goethe in his old age overcame the +Gallomania, which for a while possessed him, of translating all his +works, and thenceforth writing only in French. The iron hand of Goetz of +Berlichingen would burst the seams of a Paris kid-glove. The bold lyric +and dramatic poesy of a language whose figures well up in each word +with primitive freshness can ill be contained in an idiom _blasé_ by +conventionality and frozen into crystal rigidity by the academy of the +illustrious forty,--in an idiom in which an unfortunate pun or allusion +can destroy the effect of a whole piece. We need but call to mind that +Shakspeare's "Othello" was laughed off the stage of the Odéon, owing to +the ridiculous ideas the word "napkin" or "handkerchief" called up in +the auditory. + +Nor is the influence of the university in Germany exerted in matters +of great national interest only. It pervades the social, literary, +and political organization of the people. The least part of what +characterizes an individual nation ever comes into its books. Here it +finds its way from mouth to mouth to the remotest corners of the land. +When Luther, the Professor of Wittenberg, spoke against indulgences, it +was more than priest or monk that was heard. The voice of the monk would +not have echoed beyond his cell, and the influence of the priest would +have been arrested and checked before it could have been exerted beyond +the limits of his parish or town. But the Professor Luther addressed +himself to a more influential audience. His words were carried before +many years into every part of the Empire. + +Setting aside the Austrian universities, which are no longer what they +were formerly, the teaching in these higher schools, whatever the State +restrictions may be, is eminently free,--freer than in France,--freer +than in England,--in many respects even, however it may sound, freer +than in the United States. As a result, the land is a hot-bed of the +boldest philosophical systems and the wildest theological aberrations. +There is no branch of speculation that does not find its representative. +In law, in medicine, in philology, in history, the old methods of study +and research have been revolutionized. But the State stands before the +innovators, firm and conservative in its practice. And in the end it has +been found, that, whatever wild theories may spring up in theology and +in philosophy, the corrective is nigh at hand, and truth will make its +way when the field is open to all. + +It must be remembered that the German university is no preparatory +school; those who enter it have gone through studies and a mental +training that have made them capable of judging for themselves. They +hear whom they please. Their chief study, whatever they acquire in the +lecture-room, is done when alone. They attend on an average for three +or four hours a day, spending as much time in the libraries, from which +they have the privilege of taking out books. As a completion to their +lectures, the professors generally have _Seminaren_ once or twice a +week, or _Exercitationes_ in history, philology, etc., in which the +Socratic method of teaching in dialogue is made use of. Museums and +scientific collections are richly provided in the larger institutions. +In some of these lectures are held: thus, Lepsius explains Egyptian +archaeology in the Egyptian halls in Berlin. The libraries provided by +the State, and to which all have access, are often considerable: thus, +Göttingen has 350,000 volumes; Berlin, 600,000; Munich, 800,000. + +As for the expenses of study, they are inconsiderable; thirty or +thirty-five dollars the term will cover them, as there are generally +several courses public. The students often attend for months as guests, +_hospitanten_. As they say,--"The _Fox_ pays for more than he hears, and +the _Bursch_ hears more than he pays for." The lecturers take no notice +of those present; and, provided the matriculation-papers have been taken +out, the beadle has nothing to say. There is the fullest liberty of +wandering from room to room, and hearing, if only once or twice, any one +of the professors. As for the expenses of living, they vary. To one who +would be satisfied with German student-fare and comforts, four hundred +dollars a year will answer every purpose, even in the dearest cities: +many do with much less. In Southern Germany, life is simpler and cheaper +than in Northern, and the saying is true in Munich, that a _Gulden_ +there will go as far as a _Thaler_ in Prussia. There are poorer +students, who are exempted from college-fees, and support themselves by +_Stipendia,_ whose outlay never exceeds a hundred dollars a year. + +When several hundred or thousand young men are thus thrown together, +with their time all their own, and none to whom they are responsible +for their actions, it may easily be supposed that many abuses and +irregularities will occur. Yet the great mass are better than they have +been represented; though regular attendance upon lectures is true +only of those who _ox_ it at home, as the phrase goes, and who by the +rioting, beer-drinking _Burschen_ are styled _Philistines_ or _Camels_. +These same quiet individuals, whom the Samsons affect to despise, will +be found to be by far in preponderance, when the statistics of _Corps, +Landmannschaften_, and all such clubs, are looked into; though the +characteristic of the latter, always to be seen at public places of +amusement with their colored caps, gaudy watch-guards, or cannon-boots, +would lead one to suppose that German student-life was one round of +beer-drinking, sword-slashing, and jolly existence, as represented, or +rather, misrepresented, by William Howitt, in the halo of poetry he +throws around it. No,--the fantastically dressed fellows whom the +tourist may notice at Jena, and the groups of starers who stop every +narrow passageway in front of the confectionery-shops of Heidelberg, or +amuse themselves of summer-afternoons with their trained dogs, diverting +the attention of the temporary guest of "Prince Carl" from the +contemplation of the old ruined castle of the Counts-Palatine,--these +are but a fraction of the German students. From, among them may be +chosen those tight-laced officers who make the court-residences of +Europe look like camps; or, as they are often the sons of noblemen or +rich parents, they may reach some of the sinecures in the State. They +make their student-years but a pretext for a life of rough debauchery, +from which they issue with a bought diploma; and, in many cases, +satiated and disgusted with their own lives, they dwindle down into +the timeserving reactionaries, the worst enemies of free development, +because they themselves have abused in youth the little liberty they +enjoyed. + +If the numbers be counted of those who lead the life so much extolled +by William Howitt,--who, by the way, has left out some of its roughest +traits,--they will be found, even where most numerous, as in the smaller +towns, never to exceed one-fourth of those inscribed as students. +The linguists and philosophers of Germany, her historians and men of +letters, her professors and _savans_, have come from the ranks of that +stiller and more numerous class whom the stranger will never notice: +for their triennium is spent mostly in the lecture-room or at home; and +their conviviality--for there are neither disciples nor apostles of +temperance in this beer-drinking land--is of a nature not to divert them +from their earnest pursuits. + +Truth and earnestness are the distinguishing traits of the German +character; and these qualities show no less strongly in the youth who +frequent the universities than in the professors themselves. The latter, +conscientious to a nicety in exposing the fullest fruits of their +laborious researches, are ever faithful to the trust reposed in them. +Placed by the State in a position beyond ordinary ambition and above +pecuniary cares, they can devote themselves exclusively to their +calling, concentrating their powers in one channel,--to raise, to +ennoble, to educate. It contributes not a little to their success, that +their hearers are permeated, whatever wild and unbridled freaks they may +fall into at times, with the fullest sense of honor and manly worth, +with an ardent love for knowledge and science for their own sake, not +for future utility. Their sympathies are awake for the good everywhere, +their minds receptive of the highest teachings. Their loves and likes +are great and strong,--as it behooves, when the first bubblings of +mental and physical activity are manifested in action. They abandon +themselves, body and soul, to the occupation of the moment, be it study, +be it pleasure. Their gatherings and feasts and excursions are ennobled +by vocal music from the rich store of healthy, vigorous German song,-- +from which they learn, in the words of one of their most popular +melodies, to honor "woman's love, man's strength, the free word, the +bold deed, and the FATHERLAND!" + + * * * * * + + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE SECRET IS WHISPERED. + + +The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather's congregation was not large, but +select. The lines of social cleavage run through religious creeds as +if they were of a piece with position and fortune. It is expected of +persons of a certain breeding, in some parts of New England, that they +shall be either Episcopalians or Unitarians. The mansion-house gentry of +Rockland were pretty fairly divided between the little chapel with the +stained window and the trained rector, and the meeting-house where the +Reverend Mr. Fairweather officiated. + +It was in the latter that Dudley Venner worshipped, when he attended +service anywhere,--which depended very much on the caprice of Elsie. He +saw plainly enough that a generous and liberally cultivated nature might +find a refuge and congenial souls in either of these two persuasions, +but he objected to some points of the formal creed of the older church, +and especially to the mechanism which renders it hard to get free +from its outworn and offensive formulae,--remembering how Archbishop +Tillotson wished in vain that it could be "well rid of" the Athanasian +Creed. This, and the fact that the meeting-house was nearer than the +chapel, determined him, when the new, rector, who was not quite up to +his mark in education, was appointed, to take a pew in the "liberal" +worshippers' edifice. + +Elsie was very uncertain in her feeling about going to church. In +summer, she loved rather to stroll over The Mountain on Sundays. There +was even a story, that she had one of the caves before mentioned fitted +up as an oratory, and that she had her own wild way of worshipping the +God whom she sought in the dark chasms of the dreaded cliffs. Mere +fables, doubtless; but they showed the common belief, that Elsie, with +all her strange and dangerous elements of character, had yet strong +religions feeling mingled with them. The hymn-book which Dick had found, +in his midnight invasion of her chamber, opened to favorite hymns, +especially some of the Methodist and Quietist character. Many had +noticed, that certain tunes, as sung by the choir, seemed to impress her +deeply; and some said, that at such times her whole expression would +change, and her stormy look would soften so as to remind them of her +poor, sweet mother. + +On the Sunday morning after the talk recorded in the last chapter, Elsie +made herself ready to go to meeting. She was dressed much as usual, +excepting that she wore a thick veil, turned aside, but ready to conceal +her features. It was natural enough that she should not wish to be +looked in the face by curious persons who would be staring to see what +effect the occurrence of the past week had had on her spirits. Her +father attended her willingly; and they took their seats in the pew, +somewhat to the surprise of many, who had hardly expected to see them, +after so humiliating a family development as the attempted crime of +their kinsman had just been furnishing for the astonishment of the +public. + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was now in his coldest mood. He had passed +through the period of feverish excitement which marks a change of +religious opinion. At first, when he had begun to doubt his own +theological positions, he had defended them against himself with more +ingenuity and interest, perhaps, than he could have done against +another; because men rarely take the trouble to understand anybody's +difficulties in a question but their own. After this, as he began +to draw off from different points of his old belief, the cautious +disentangling of himself from one mesh after another gave sharpness to +his intellect, and the tremulous eagerness with which he seized upon the +doctrine which, piece by piece, under various pretexts and with various +disguises, he was appropriating, gave interest and something like +passion to his words. But when he had gradually accustomed his people +to his new phraseology, and was really adjusting his sermons and his +service to disguise his thoughts, he lost at once all his intellectual +acuteness and all his spiritual fervor. + +Elsie sat quietly through the first part of the service, which was +conducted in the cold, mechanical way to be expected. Her face was +bidden by her veil; but her father knew her state of feeling, as well by +her movements and attitudes as by the expression of her features. The +hymn had been sung, the short prayer offered, the Bible read, and the +long prayer was about to begin. This was the time at which the "notes" +of any who were in affliction from loss of friends, the sick who +were doubtful of recovery, those who had cause to be grateful for +preservation of life or other signal blessing, were wont to be read. + +Just then it was that Dudley Venner noticed that his daughter was +trembling,--a thing so rare, so unaccountable, indeed, under the +circumstances, that he watched her closely, and began to fear that some +nervous paroxysm, or other malady, might have just begun to show itself +in this way upon her. + +The minister had in his pocket two notes. One, in the handwriting of +Deacon Soper, was from a member of this congregation, returning thanks +for his preservation through a season of great peril,--supposed to +be the exposure which he had shared with others, when standing in the +circle around Dick Venner. The other was the anonymous one, in a female +hand, which he had received the evening before. He forgot them both. His +thoughts were altogether too much taken up with more important matters. +He prayed through all the frozen petitions of his expurgated form of +supplication, and not a single heart was soothed or lifted, or reminded +that its sorrows were struggling their way up to heaven, borne on the +breath from a human soul that was warm with love. + +The people sat down as if relieved when the dreary prayer was finished. +Elsie alone remained standing until her father touched her. Then she sat +down, lifted her veil, and looked at him with a blank, sad look, as if +she had suffered some pain or wrong, but could not give any name or +expression to her vague trouble. She did not tremble any longer, but +remained ominously still, as if she had been frozen where she sat. + +--Can a man love his own soul too well? Who, on the whole, constitute +the nobler class of human beings? those who have lived mainly to make +sure of their own personal welfare in another and future condition of +existence, or they who have worked with all their might for their race, +for their country, for the advancement of the kingdom of God, and left +all personal arrangements concerning themselves to the sole charge of +Him who made them and is responsible to Himself for their safe-keeping? +Is an anchorite, who has worn the stone floor of his cell into basins +with his knees bent in prayer, more acceptable than the soldier who +gives his life for the maintenance of any sacred right or truth, without +thinking what will specially become of him in a world where there are +two or three million colonists a month, from this one planet, to be +cared for? These are grave questions, which must suggest themselves to +those who know that there are many profoundly selfish persons who are +sincerely devout and perpetually occupied with their own future, while +there are others who are perfectly ready to sacrifice themselves for any +worthy object in this world, but are really too little occupied with +their exclusive personality to think so much as many do about what is to +become of them in another. + +The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather did not, most certainly, belong to this +latter class. There are several kinds of believers, whose history we +find among the early converts to Christianity. + +There was the magistrate, whose social position was such that he +preferred private interview in the evening with the Teacher to following +him with the street-crowd. He had seen extraordinary facts which had +satisfied him that the young Galilean had a divine commission. But still +he cross-questioned the Teacher himself. He was not ready to accept +statements without explanation. That was the right kind of man. See how +he stood up for the legal rights of his Master, when the people were for +laying hands on him! + +And again, there was the government official, intrusted with public +money, which, in those days, implied that he was supposed to be honest. +A single look of that heavenly countenance, and two words of gentle +command, were enough for him. Neither of these men, the early disciple +nor the evangelist, seems to have been thinking primarily about his own +personal safety. + +But now look at the poor, miserable turnkey, whose occupation shows +what he was like to be, and who had just been thrusting two respectable +strangers, taken from the hands of a mob, covered with stripes and +stripped of clothing, into the inner prison, and making their feet fast +in the stocks. His thought, in the moment of terror, is for himself: +first, suicide; then, what he shall do,--not to save his household,--not +to fulfil his duty to his office,--not to repair the outrage he has been +committing,--but to secure his own personal safety. Truly, character +shows itself as much in a man's way of becoming a Christian as in any +other! + +----Elsie sat, statue-like, through the sermon. It would not be fair to +the reader to give an abstract of that. When a man who has been bred to +free thought and free speech suddenly finds himself stepping about, like +a dancer amidst his eggs, among the old addled majority-votes which he +must not tread upon, he is a spectacle for men and angels. Submission to +intellectual precedent and authority does very well for those who have +been bred to it; we know that the under-ground courses of their minds +are laid in the Roman cement of tradition, and that stately and splendid +structures may be reared on such a foundation. But to see one laying a +platform over heretical quicksands, thirty or forty or fifty years deep, +and then beginning to build upon it, is a sorry sight. A new convert +from the reformed to the ancient faith may be very strong in the arms, +but he will always have weak legs and shaky knees. He may use his hands +well, and hit hard with his fists, but he will never stand on his legs +in the way the man does who inherits his belief. + +The services were over at last, and Dudley Venner and his daughter +walked home together in silence. He always respected her moods, and saw +clearly enough that some inward trouble was weighing upon her. There +was nothing to be said in such cases, for Elsie could never talk of her +griefs. An hour, or a day, or a week of brooding, with perhaps a sudden +flash of violence: this was the way in which the impressions which make +other women weep, and tell their griefs by word or letter, showed their +effects in her mind and acts. + +She wandered off up into the remoter parts of The Mountain, that day, +after their return. No one saw just where she went,--indeed, no one +knew its forest-recesses and rocky fastnesses as she did. She was gone +until late at night; and when Old Sophy, who had watched for her, bound +up her long hair for her sleep, it was damp with the cold dews. + +The old black woman looked at her without speaking, but questioning her +with every feature as to the sorrow that was weighing on her. + +Suddenly she turned to Old Sophy. + +"You want to know what there is troubling me," she said. "Nobody loves +me. I cannot love anybody. What is love, Sophy?" + +"It's what poor ol' Sophy's got for her Elsie," the old woman answered. +"Tell me, darlin',--don' you love somebody?--don' you love----? you +know,--oh, tell me, darlin', don' you love to see the gen'l'man +that keeps up at the school where you go? They say he's the pootiest +gen'l'man that was ever in the town here. Don' be 'fraid of poor Ol' +Sophy, darlin',--she loved a man once,--see here! Oh, I've showed you +this often enough!" + +She took from her pocket a half of one of the old Spanish silver coins, +such as were current in the earlier part of this century. The other half +of it had been lying in the deep sea-sand for more than fifty years. + +Elsie looked her in the face, but did not answer in words. What strange +intelligence was that which passed between them through the diamond +eyes and the little beady black ones?--what subtile intercommunication, +penetrating so much deeper than articulate speech? This was the nearest +approach to sympathetic relations that Elsie ever had: a kind of dumb +intercourse of feeling, such as one sees in the eyes of brute mothers +looking on their young. But, subtile as it was, it was narrow and +individual; whereas an emotion which can shape itself in language opens +the gate for itself into the great community of human affections; for +every word we speak is the medal of a dead thought or feeling, struck in +the die of some human experience, worn smooth by innumerable contacts, +and always transferred warm from one to another. By words we share the +common consciousness of the race, which has shaped itself in these +symbols. By music we reach those special states of consciousness +which, being without _form_, cannot be shaped with the mosaics of the +vocabulary. The language of the eyes runs deeper into the personal +nature, but it is purely individual, and perishes in the expression. If +we consider them all as growing out of the consciousness as their root, +language is the leaf, music is the flower; but when the eyes meet and +search each other, it is the uncovering of the blanched stem through +which the whole life runs, but which has never taken color or form from +the sunlight. + +For three days Elsie did not return to the school. Much of the time she +was among the woods and rocks. The season was now beginning to wane, and +the forest to put on its autumnal glory. The dreamy haze was beginning +to soften the landscape, and the most delicious days of the year were +lending their attraction to the scenery of The Mountain. It was not very +singular that Elsie should be lingering in her old haunts, from which +the change of season must soon drive her. But Old Sophy saw clearly +enough that some internal conflict was going on, and knew very well that +it must have its own way and work itself out as it best could. As much +as looks could tell Elsie had told her. She had said in words, to be +sure, that she could not love. Something warped and thwarted the emotion +which would have been love in another, no doubt; but that such an +emotion was striving with her against all malign influences which +interfered with it the old woman had a perfect certainty in her own +mind. + +Everybody who has observed the working of emotions in persons of various +temperaments knows well enough that they have periods of _incubation_, +which differ with the individual, and with the particular cause and +degree of excitement, yet evidently go through a strictly self-limited +series of evolutions, at the end of which, their result--an act of +violence, a paroxysm of tears, a gradual subsidence into repose, or +whatever it may be--declares itself, like the last stage of an attack of +fever and ague. No one can observe children without noticing that there +is a _personal equation_, to use the astronomer's language, in their +tempers, so that one sulks an hour over an offence which makes another a +fury for five minutes, and leaves him or her an angel when it is over. + +At the end of three days, Elsie braided her long, glossy, black hair, +and shot a golden arrow through it. She dressed herself with more than +usual care, and came down in the morning superb in her stormy beauty. +The brooding paroxysm was over, or at least her passion had changed its +phase. Her father saw it with great relief; he had always many fears for +her in her hours and days of gloom, but, for reasons before assigned, +had felt that she must be trusted to herself, without appealing to +actual restraint, or any other supervision than such as Old Sophy could +exercise without offence. + +She went off at the accustomed hour to the school. All the girls had +their eyes on her. None so keen as these young misses to know an inward +movement by an outward sign of adornment: if they have not as many +signals as the ships that sail the great seas, there is not an end of +ribbon or a turn of a ringlet which is not a hieroglyphic with a hidden +meaning to these little cruisers over the ocean of sentiment. + +The girls all looked at Elsie with a new thought; for she was more +sumptuously arrayed than perhaps ever before at the school; and they +said to themselves that she had come meaning to draw the young master's +eyes upon her. That was it; what else could it be? The beautiful, cold +girl with the diamond eyes meant to dazzle the handsome young gentleman. +He would be afraid to love her; it couldn't be true, that which some +people had said in the village; she wasn't the kind of young lady to +make Mr. Langdon happy. Those dark people are never safe: so one of the +young blondes said to herself. Elsie was not literary enough for such +a scholar: so thought Miss Charlotte Ann Wood, the young poetess. She +couldn't have a good temper, with those scowling eyebrows: this was the +opinion of several broad-faced, smiling girls, who thought, each in her +own snug little mental _sanctum_, that, if, etc., etc. she could make +him _so_ happy! + +Elsie had none of the still, wicked light in her eyes, that morning. +She looked gentle, but dreamy; played with her books; did not trouble +herself with any of the exercises,--which in itself was not very +remarkable, as she was always allowed, under some pretext or other, to +have her own way. + +The school-hours were over at length. The girls went out, but she +lingered to the last. She then came up to Mr. Bernard, with a book in +her hand, as if to ask a question. + +"Will you walk towards my home with me to-day?" she said, in a very low +voice, little more than a whisper. + +Mr. Bernard was startled by the request, put in such a way. He had a +presentiment of some painful scene or other. But there was nothing to be +done but to assure her that it would give him great pleasure. + +So they walked along together on their way toward the Dudley mansion. + +"I have no friend," Elsie said, all at once. "Nothing loves me but one +old woman. I cannot love anybody. They tell me there is something in my +eyes that draws people to me and makes them faint. Look into them, will +you?" + +She turned her face toward him. It was very pale, and the diamond eyes +were glittering with a film, such as beneath other lids would have +rounded into a tear. + +"Beautiful eyes, Elsie," he said,--"sometimes very piercing,--but soft +now, and looking as if there were something beneath them that friendship +might draw out. I am your friend, Elsie. Tell me what I can do to render +your life happier." + +"_Love me!_" said Elsie Venner. + +What shall a man do, when a woman makes such a demand, involving such +an avowal? It was the tenderest, cruellest, humblest moment of Mr. +Bernard's life. He turned pale, he trembled almost, as if he had been a +woman listening to her lover's declaration. + +"Elsie," he said, presently, "I so long to be of some use to you, to +have your confidence and sympathy, that I must not let you say or do +anything to put us in false relations. I do love you, Elsie, as a +suffering sister with sorrows of her own,--as one whom I would save at +the risk of my happiness and life,--as one who needs a true friend more +than any of all the young girls I have known. More than this you would +not ask me to say. You have been through excitement and trouble lately, +and it has made you feel such a need more than ever. Give me your hand, +dear Elsie, and trust me that I will be as true a friend to you as if we +were children of the same mother." + +Elsie gave him her hand mechanically. It seemed to him that a cold +_aura_ shot from it along his arm and chilled the blood running through +his heart. He pressed it gently, looked at her with a face full of grave +kindness and sad interest, then softly relinquished it. + +It was all over with poor Elsie. They walked almost in silence the rest +of the way. Mr. Bernard left her at the gate of the mansion-house, and +returned with sad forebodings. Elsie went at once to her own room, and +did not come from it at the usual hours. At last Old Sophy began to +be alarmed about her, went to her apartment, and, finding the door +unlocked, entered cautiously. She found Elsie lying on her bed, her +brows strongly contracted, her eyes dull, her whole look that of great +suffering. Her first thought was that she had been doing herself a harm +by some deadly means or other. But Elsie saw her fear, and reassured +her. + +"No," she said, "there is nothing wrong, such as you are thinking of; I +am not dying. You may send for the Doctor; perhaps he can take the pain +from my head. That is all I want him to do. There is no use in the pain, +that I know of; if he can stop it, let him." + +So they sent for the old Doctor. It was not long before the solid trot +of Caustic, the old bay horse, and the crashing of the gravel under the +wheels, gave notice that the physician was driving up the avenue. + +The old Doctor was a model for visiting practitioners. He always +came into the sick-room with a quiet, cheerful look, as if he had a +consciousness that he was bringing some sure relief with him. The way a +patient snatches his first look at his doctor's face, to see whether +he is doomed, whether he is reprieved, whether he is unconditionally +pardoned, has really something terrible about it. It is only to be +met by an imperturbable mask of serenity, proof against anything and +everything in a patient's aspect. The physician whose face reflects his +patient's condition like a mirror may do well enough to examine people +for a life-insurance office, but does not belong to the sick-room. The +old Doctor did not keep people waiting in dread suspense, while he +stayed talking about the case,--the patient all the time thinking that +he and the friends are discussing some alarming symptom or formidable +operation which he himself is by-and-by to hear of. + +He was in Elsie's room almost before she knew he was in the house. He +came to her bedside in such a natural, quiet way, that it seemed as if +he were only a friend who had dropped in for a moment to say a pleasant +word. Yet he was very uneasy about Elsie until he had seen her; he never +knew what might happen to her or those about her, and came prepared for +the worst. + +"Sick, my child?" he said, in a very soft, low voice. + +Elsie nodded, without speaking. + +The Doctor took her hand,--whether with professional views, or only in a +friendly way, it would have been hard to tell. So he sat a few minutes, +looking at her all the time with a kind of fatherly interest, but with +it all noting how she lay, how she breathed, her color, her expression, +all that teaches the practised eye so much without a single question +being asked. He saw she was in suffering, and said presently,-- + +"You have pain somewhere; where is it?" + +She put her hand to her head. + +As she was not disposed to talk, he watched her for a while, questioned +Old Sophy shrewdly a few minutes, and so made up his mind as to the +probable cause of disturbance and the proper means to be used. + +Some very silly people thought the old Doctor did not believe in +medicine, because he gave less than certain poor half-taught creatures +in the smaller neighboring towns, who took advantage of people's +sickness to disgust and disturb them with all manner of ill-smelling +and ill-behaving drugs. To tell the truth, he hated to give any thing +noxious or loathsome to those who were uncomfortable enough already, +unless he was very sure it would do good,--in which case, he never +played with drugs, but gave good, honest, efficient doses. Sometimes he +lost a family of the more boorish sort, because they did not think they +got their money's worth out of him, unless they had something more than +a taste of everything he carried in his saddle-bags. + +He ordered some remedies which he thought would relieve Elsie, and left +her, saying he would call the next day, hoping to find her better. +But the next day came, and the next, and still Elsie was on her +bed,--feverish, restless, wakeful, silent. At night she tossed about +and wandered, and it became at length apparent that there was a settled +attack, something like what they called formerly a "nervous fever." + +On the fourth day she was more restless than common. One of the women +of the house came in to help to take care of her; but she showed an +aversion to her presence. + +"Send me Helen Darley," she said at last. + +The old Doctor told them, that, if possible, they must indulge this +fancy of hers. The caprices of sick people were never to be despised, +least of all of such persons as Elsie, when rendered irritable and +exacting by pain and weakness. + +So a message was sent to Mr. Silas Peckham, at the Apollinean Institute, +to know if he could not spare Miss Helen Darley for a few days, if +required to give her attention to a young lady who attended his school +and who was now lying ill,--no other person than the daughter of Dudley +Venner. + +A mean man never agrees to anything without deliberately turning it +over, so that he may see its dirty side, and, if he can, sweating the +coin he pays for it. If an archangel should offer to save his soul for +sixpence, he would try to find a sixpence with a hole in it. A gentleman +says yes to a great many things without stopping to think: a shabby +fellow is known by his caution in answering questions, for fear of +compromising his pocket or himself. + +Mr. Silas Peckham looked very grave at the request. The dooties of Miss +Darley at the Institoot were important, very important. He paid her +large sums of money for her time,--more than she could expect to get in +any other institootion for the education of female youth. A deduction +from her salary would be necessary, in case she should retire from the +sphere of her dooties for a season. He should be put to extra expense, +and have to perform additional labors himself. He would consider of the +matter. If any arrangement could be made, he would send word to Squire +Venner's folks. + +"Miss Darley," said Silas Peckham, "the' 's a message from Squire +Venner's that his daughter wants you down at the mansion-house to see +her. She's got a fever, so they inform me. If it's any kind of ketchin' +fever, of course you won't think of goin' near the mansion-house. If +Doctor Kittredge says it's safe, perfec'ly safe, I can't objec' to your +goin', on sech conditions as seem to be fair to all concerned. You will +give up your pay for the whole time you are absent,--portions of days to +be caounted as whole days. You will be charged with board the same as +if you eat your victuals with the household. The victuals are of no use +after they're cooked but to be eat, and your bein' away is no savin' to +our folks. I shall charge you a reasonable compensation for the demage +to the school by the absence of a teacher. If Miss Crabs undertakes any +dooties belongin' to your department of instruction, she will look to +you for sech pecooniary considerations as you may agree upon between +you. On these conditions I am willin' to give my consent to your +temporary absence from the post of dooty. I will step down to Doctor +Kittredge's, myself, and make inquiries as to the nature of the +complaint." + +Mr. Peckham took up a rusty and very narrow-brimmed hat, which he cocked +upon one side of his head, with an air peculiar to the rural gentry. It +was the hour when the Doctor expected to be in his office, unless he had +some special call which kept him from home. + +He found the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather just taking leave of the +Doctor. His hand was on the pit of his stomach, and his countenance +expressive of inward uneasiness. + +"Shake it before using," said the Doctor; "and the sooner you make up +your mind to speak right out, the better it will be for your digestion." + +"Oh, Mr. Peckham! Walk in, Mr. Peckham! Nobody sick up at the school, I +hope?" + +"The haalth of the school is fust-rate," replied Mr. Peckham. "The +sitooation is uncommonly favorable to saloobrity." (These last words +were from the Annual Report of the past year.) "Providence has spared +our female youth in a remarkable measure, I've come with reference to +another consideration. Dr. Kittredge. is there any ketchin' complaint +goin' about in the village?" + +"Well, yes," said the Doctor, "I should say there was something of that +sort. Measles. Mumps. And Sin,--that's always catching." + +The old Doctor's eye twinkled; once in a while he had his little touch +of humor. Silas Peckham slanted his eye up suspiciously at the Doctor, +as if he was getting some kind of advantage over him. That is the way +people of his constitution are apt to take a bit of pleasantry. + +"I don't mean sech things, Doctor; I mean fevers. Is there any ketchin' +fevers--bilious, or nervous, or typus, or whatever you call 'em--now +goin' round this village? That's what I want to ascertain, if there's no +impropriety." + +The old Doctor looked at Silas through his spectacles. + +"Hard and sour as a green cider-apple," he thought to himself. "No," he +said,--"I don't know any such cases." + +"What's the matter with Elsie Venner?" asked Silas, sharply, as if he +expected to have him this time. + +"A mild feverish attack, I should call it in anybody else; but she has +a peculiar constitution, and I never feel so safe about her as I should +about most people." + +"Anything ketchin' about it?" Silas asked, cunningly. + +"No, indeed!" said the Doctor,--"catching?--no,--what put that into +your head, Mr. Peckham?" + +"Well, Doctor," the conscientious Principal answered, "I naterally +feel a graat responsibility, a very graiiiit responsibility, for the +noomerous and lovely young ladies committed to my charge. It has been a +question, whether one of my assistants should go, accordin' to request, +to stop with Miss Venner for a season. Nothin' restrains my givin' my +full and free consent to her goin' but the fear lest contagious maladies +should be introdooced among those lovely female youth. I shall abide by +your opinion,--I understan' you to say distinc'ly, her complaint is +not ketchin'?--and urge upon Miss Darley to fulfil her dooties to a +sufferin' fellow-creature at any cost to myself and my establishment. We +shall miss her very much; but it is a good cause, and she shall go,--and +I shall trust that Providence will enable us to spare her without +permanent demage to the interests of the Institootion." + +Saying this, the excellent Principal departed, with his rusty +narrow-brimmed hat leaning over, as if it had a six-knot breeze abeam, +and its gunwale (so to speak) was dipping into his coat-collar. He +announced the result of his inquiries to Helen, who had received a brief +note in the mean time from a poor relation of Elsie's mother, then at +the mansion-house, informing her of the critical situation of Elsie +and of her urgent desire that Helen should be with her. She could not +hesitate. She blushed as she thought of the comments that might be made; +but what were such considerations in a matter of life and death? She +could not stop to make terms with Silas Peckham. She must go. He might +fleece her, if he would; she would not complain,--not even to Bernard, +who, she knew, would bring the Principal to terms, if she gave him the +least hint of his intended extortions. + +So Helen made up her bundle of clothes to be sent after her, took a book +or two with her to help her pass the time, and departed for the Dudley +mansion. It was with a great inward effort that she undertook the +sisterly task which was thus forced upon her. She had a kind of terror +of Elsie; and the thought of having charge of her, of being alone with +her, of coming under the full influence of those diamond eyes,--if, +indeed, their light were not dimmed by suffering and weariness,--was one +she shrank from. But what could she do? It might be a turning-point in +the life of the poor girl; and she must overcome all her fears, all her +repugnance, and go to her rescue. + +"Is Helen come?" said Elsie, when she heard, with her fine sense +quickened by the irritability of sickness, a light footfall on the +stair, with a cadence unlike that of any inmate of the house. + +"It's a strange woman's step," said Old Sophy, who, with her exclusive +love for Elsie, was naturally disposed to jealousy of a new-comer. "Lot +Ol' Sophy set at th' foot o' th' bed, if th' young missis sets by th' +piller,--won' y', darlin'? The' 's nobody that's white can love y' as +th' ol' black woman does;--don' sen' her away, now, there's a dear +soul!" + +Elsie motioned her to sit in the place she had pointed to, and Helen at +that moment entered the room. Dudley Venner followed her. + +"She is your patient," he said, "except while the Doctor is here. She +has been longing to have you with her, and we shall expect you to make +her well in a few days." + +So Helen Darley found herself established in the most unexpected manner +as an inmate of the Dudley mansion. She sat with Elsie most of the +time, by day and by night, soothing her, and trying to enter into her +confidence and affections, if it should prove that this strange creature +was really capable of truly sympathetic emotions. + +What was this unexplained something which came between her soul and +that of every other human being with whom she was in relations? Helen +perceived, or rather felt, that she had, folded up in the depths of +her being, a true womanly nature. Through the cloud that darkened her +aspect, now and then a ray would steal forth, which, like the smile of +stern and solemn people, was all the more impressive from its contrast +with the expression she wore habitually. It might well be that pain and +fatigue had changed her aspect; but, at any rate, Helen looked into +her eyes without that nervous agitation which their cold glitter had +produced on her when they were full of their natural light. She felt +sure that her mother must have been a lovely, gentle woman. There were +gleams of a beautiful nature shining through some ill-defined medium +which disturbed and made them flicker and waver, as distant images do +when seen through the rippling upward currents of heated air. She loved, +in her own way, the old black woman, and seemed to keep up a kind of +silent communication with her, as if they did not require the use of +speech. She appeared to be tranquillized by the presence of Helen, and +loved to have her seated at the bedside. Yet something, whatever it was, +prevented her from opening her heart to her kind companion; and even now +there were times when she would lie looking at her, with such a still, +watchful, almost dangerous expression, that Helen would sigh, and change +her place, as persons do whose breath some cunning orator has been +sucking out of them with his spongy eloquence, so that, when he stops, +they must get some air and stir about, or they feel as if they should be +half-smothered and palsied. + +It was too much to keep guessing what was the meaning of all this. Helen +determined to ask Old Sophy some questions which might probably throw +light upon her doubts. She took the opportunity one evening when Elsie +was lying asleep and they were both sitting at some distance from her +bed. + +"Tell me, Sophy," she said, "was Elsie always as shy as she seems to be +now, in talking with those to whom she is friendly?" + +"Alway jes' so, Miss Darlin', ever sence she was little chil'. When she +was five, six year old, she lisp some,--call me _Thophy_; that make her +kin' o' 'shamed, perhaps: after she grow up, she never lisp, but she +kin' o' got the way o' not talkin' much. Fac' is, she don' like talkin' +as common gals do, 'xcep' jes' once in a while with some partic'lar +folks,--'n' then not much." + +"How old is Elsie?" + +"Eighteen year this las' September." + +"How long ago did her mother die?" Helen asked, with a little trembling +in her voice. + +"Eighteen year ago this October," said Old Sophy. + +Helen was silent for a moment. Then she whispered, almost +inaudibly,--for her voice appeared to fail her,-- + +"What did her mother die of, Sophy?" + +The old woman's small eyes dilated until a ring of white showed round +their beady centres. She caught Helen by the hand and clung to it, as if +in fear. She looked round at Elsie, who lay sleeping, as if she might be +listening. Then she drew Helen towards her and led her softly out of the +room. + +"'Sh!--'sh!" she said, as soon as they were outside the door. "Don' +never speak in this house 'bout what Elsie's mother died of!" she said. +"Nobody never says nothin' 'bout it. Oh, God has made Ugly Things wi' +death in their mouths, Miss Darlin', an' He knows what they're for; but +my poor Elsie!--to have her blood changed in her before--It was in July +Mistress got her death, but she liv' till three week after my poor Elsie +was born." + +She could speak no more. She had said enough. Helen remembered the +stories she had heard on coming to the village, and among them one +referred to in an early chapter of this narrative. All the unaccountable +looks and tastes and ways of Elsie came back to her in the light of an +ante-natal impression which had mingled an alien element in her nature. +She knew the secret of the fascination which looked out of her cold, +glittering eyes. She knew the significance of the strange repulsion +which--she felt in her own intimate consciousness underlying the +inexplicable attraction which drew her towards the young girl in +spite of this repugnance. She began to look with new feelings on the +contradictions in her moral nature,--the longing for sympathy, as shown +by her wishing for Helen's company, and the impossibility of passing +beyond the cold circle of isolation within which she had her being. +The fearful truth of that instinctive feeling of hers, that there was +something not human looking out of Elsie's eyes, came upon her with +a sudden flash of penetrating conviction. There were two warring +principles in that superb organization and proud soul. One made her a +woman, with all a woman's powers and longings. The other chilled all the +currents of outlet for her emotions. It made her tearless and mute, when +another woman would have wept and pleaded. And it infused into her soul +something--it was cruel now to call it malice--which was still and +watchful and dangerous,--which waited its opportunity, and then shot +like an arrow from its bow out of the coil of brooding premeditation. +Even those who had never seen the white scars on Dick Venner's wrist, +or heard the half-told story of her supposed attempt to do a graver +mischief, knew well enough by looking at her that she was one of the +creatures not to be tampered with,--silent in anger and swift in +vengeance. + +Helen could not return to the bedside at once after this communication. +It was with altered eyes that she must look on the poor girl, the victim +of such an unheard-of fatality. All was explained to her now. But it +opened such depths of solemn thought in her awakened consciousness, that +it seemed as if the whole mystery of human life were coming up again +before her for trial and judgment. "Oh," she thought, "if, while the +will lies sealed in its fountain, it may be poisoned at its very source, +so that it shall flow dark and deadly through its whole course, who are +we that we should judge our fellow-creatures by ourselves?" Then came +the terrible question, how far the elements themselves are capable of +perverting the moral nature: if valor, and justice, and truth, the +strength of man and the virtue of woman, may not be poisoned out of a +race by the food of the Australian in his forest,--by the foul air and +darkness of the Christians cooped up in the "tenement-houses close by +those who live in the palaces of the great cities?" + +She walked out into the garden, lost in thought upon these dark and deep +matters. Presently she heard a step behind her, and Elsie's father came +up and joined her. Since his introduction to Helen at the distinguished +tea-party given by the Widow Rowens, and before her coming to sit with +Elsie, Mr. Dudley Venner had in the most accidental way in the world met +her on several occasions: once after church, when she happened to be +caught in a slight shower and he insisted on holding his umbrella +over her on her way home;--once at a small party at one of the +mansion-houses, where the quick-eyed lady of the house had a wonderful +knack of bringing people together who liked to see each other;--perhaps +at other times and places; but of this there is no certain evidence. + +They naturally spoke of Elsie, her illness, and the aspect it had taken. +But Helen noticed in all that Dudley Venner said about his daughter a +morbid sensitiveness, as it seemed to her, an aversion to saying much +about her physical condition or her peculiarities,--a wish to feel +and speak as a parent should, and yet a shrinking, as if there were +something about Elsie which he could not bear to dwell upon. She thought +she saw through all this, and she could interpret it all charitably. +There were circumstances about his daughter which recalled the great +sorrow of his life; it was not strange that this perpetual reminder +should in some degree have modified his feelings as a father. But what +a life he must have been leading for so many years, with this perpetual +source of distress which he could not name! Helen knew well enough, now, +the meaning of the sadness which had left such traces in his features +and tones, and it made her feel very kindly and compassionate towards +him. + +So they walked over the crackling leaves in the garden, between the +lines of box breathing its fragrance of eternity;--for this is one of +the odors which carry us out of time into the abysses of the unbeginning +past; if we ever lived on another ball of stone than this, it must be +that there was box growing on it. So they walked, finding their way +softly to each other's sorrows and sympathies, each meeting some +counterpart to the other's experience of life, and startled to see how +the different, yet parallel, lessons they had been taught by suffering +had led them step by step to the same serene acquiescence in the +orderings of that Supreme Wisdom which they both devoutly recognized. + +Old Sophy was at the window and saw them walking up and down the +garden-alleys. She watched them as her grandfather the savage watched +the figures that moved among the trees when a hostile tribe was lurking +about his mountain. + +"There'll be a weddin' in the ol' house," she said, "before there's +roses on them bushes ag'in. But it won' be my poor Elsie's weddin', 'n' +Ol' Sophy won' be there." + +When Helen prayed in the silence of her soul that evening, it was not +that Elsie's life might be spared. She dared not ask that as a favor of +Heaven. What could life be to her but a perpetual anguish, and to those +about her an ever-present terror? Might she but be so influenced by +divine grace, that what in her was most truly human, most purely +woman-like, should overcome the dark, cold, unmentionable instinct which +had pervaded her being like a subtile poison: that was all she could +ask, and the rest she left to a higher wisdom and tenderer love than her +own. + + * * * * * + + +GYMNASTICS. + + +So your zeal for physical training begins to wane a little, my friend? I +thought it would, in your particular case, because it began too ardently +and was concentrated too exclusively on your one hobby of pedestrianism. +Just now you are literally under the weather. It is the equinoctial +storm. No matter, you say; did not Olmsted foot it over England under +an umbrella? did not Wordsworth regularly walk every guest round +Windermere, the day after arrival, rain or shine? So, the day before +yesterday, you did your four miles out, on the Northern turnpike, and +returned splashed to the waist; and yesterday you walked three miles +out, on the Southern turnpike, and came back soaked to the knees. To-day +the storm is slightly increasing, but you are dry thus far, and wish to +remain so; exercise is a humbug; you will give it all up, and go to the +Chess-Club. Don't go to the Chess-Club; come with me to the Gymnasium. + +Chess may be all very well to tax with tough problems a brain otherwise +inert, to vary a monotonous day with small events, to keep one awake +during a sleepy evening, and to arouse a whole family next morning +for the adjustment over the breakfast-table of that momentous +state-question, whether the red king should have castled at the fiftieth +move or not till the fifty-first. But for an average American man, who +leaves his place of business at nightfall with his head a mere furnace +of red-hot brains and his body a pile of burnt-out cinders, utterly +exhausted in the daily effort to put ten dollars more of distance +between his posterity and the poor-house,--for such a one to kindle up +afresh after office-hours for a complicated chess-problem seems much as +if a wood-sawyer, worn out with his week's work, should decide to order +in his saw-horse on Saturday evening, and saw for fun. Surely we have +little enough recreation at any rate, and, pray, let us make that little +un-intellectual. True, something can be said in favor of chess--for +instance, that no money can be made out of it, and that it is so far +profitable to us overworked Americans: but even this is not enough. For +this once, lock your brains into your safe, at nightfall, with your +other valuables; don't go to the Chess-Club; come with me to the +Gymnasium. + +Ten leaps up a steep, worn-out stairway, through a blind entry to +another stairway, and yet another, and we emerge suddenly upon the floor +of a large lighted room, a mere human machine-shop of busy motion, where +Indian clubs are whirling, dumb-bells pounding, swings vibrating, and +arms and legs flying in all manner of unexpected directions. Henderson +sits with his big proportions quietly rested against the weight-boxes, +pulling with monotonous vigor at the fifty-pound weights,--"the +Stationary Engine" the boys call him. For a contrast, Draper is floating +up and down between the parallel bars with such an airy lightness, that +you think he must have hung up his body in the dressing-room, and is +exercising only in his arms and clothes. Parsons is swinging in the +rings, rising to the ceiling before and behind; up and down he goes, +whirling over and over, converting himself into a mere tumbler-pigeon, +yet still bound by the long, steady vibration of the human pendulum. +Another is running a race with him, if sitting in the swing be running; +and still another is accompanying their motion, clinging to the +_trapèze_. Hayes, meanwhile, is spinning on the horizontal bar, now +backward, now forward, twenty times without stopping, pinioned through +his bent arms, like a Fakir on his iron. See how many different ways +of ascending a vertical pole these boys are devising!--one climbs with +hands and legs, another with hands only, another is crawling up on +all-fours in Feegee fashion, while another is pegging his way up by +inserting pegs in holes a foot apart,--you will see him sway and +tremble a bit, before he reaches the ceiling. Others are at work with a +spring-board and leaping-cord; higher and higher the cord is moved, one +by one the competitors step aside defeated, till the field is left to a +single champion, who, like an India-rubber ball, goes on rebounding till +he seems likely to disappear through the chimney, like a Ravel. Some +sturdy young visitors, farmers by their looks, are trying their +strength, with various success, at the sixty-pound dumb-bell, when some +quiet fellow, a clerk or a tailor, walks modestly to the hundred-pound +weight, and up it goes as steadily as if the laws of gravitation had +suddenly shifted their course, and worked upward instead of down. Lest, +however, they should suddenly resume their original bias, let us cross +to the dressing-room, and, while you are assuming flannel shirt or +complete gymnastic suit, as you may prefer, let us consider the merits +of the Gymnasium. + +Do not say that the public is growing tired of hearing about physical +training. You might as well speak of being surfeited with the sight of +apple-blossoms, or bored with roses,--for these athletic exercises are, +to a healthy person, just as good and refreshing. Of course, any one +becomes insupportable who talks all the time of this subject, or of any +other; but it is the man who fatigues you, not the theme. Any person +becomes morbid and tedious whose whole existence is absorbed in any +one thing, be it playing or praying. Queen Elizabeth, after admiring a +gentleman's dancing, refused to look at the dancing-master, who did it +better. "Nay," quoth her bluff Majesty,--"'tis his business,--I'll none +of him." Professionals grow tiresome. Books are good,--so is a boat; +but a librarian and a ferryman, though useful to take you where you +wish to go, are not necessarily enlivening as companions. The annals +of "Boxiana" and "Pedestriana" and "The Cricket-Field" are as pathetic +records of monomania as the bibliographical works of Mr. Thomas Dibdin. +Margaret Fuller said truly, that we all delight in gossip, and differ +only in the department of gossip we individually prefer; but a monotony +of gossip soon grows tedious, be the theme horses or octavos. + +Not one-tenth part of the requisite amount has yet been said of athletic +exercises as a prescription for this community. There was a time when +they were not even practised generally among American boys, if we may +trust the foreign travellers of a half-century ago, and they are but +just being raised into respectability among American men. Motley says +of one of his Flemish heroes, that "he would as soon have foregone his +daily tennis as his religious exercises,"--as if ball-playing were then +the necessary pivot of a great man's day. Some such pivot of physical +enjoyment we must have, for no other race in the world needs it so +much. Through the immense inventive capacity of our people, mechanical +avocations are becoming almost as sedentary and intellectual as the +professions. Among Americans, all hand-work is constantly being +transmuted into brain-work; the intellect gains, but the body suffers, +and needs some other form of physical activity to restore the +equilibrium. As machinery becomes perfected, all the coarser tasks are +constantly being handed over to the German or Irish immigrant,--not +because the American cannot do the particular thing required, but +because he is promoted to something more intellectual. Thus transformed +to a mental laborer, he must somehow supply the bodily deficiency. If +this is true of this class, it is of course true of the student, the +statesman, and the professional man. The general statement recently made +by Lewes, in England, certainly holds not less in America:--"It is rare +to meet with good digestion among the artisans of the brain, no matter +how careful they may be in food and general habits." The great majority +of our literary and professional men could echo the testimony of +Washington Irving, if they would only indorse his wise conclusion:--"My +own case is a proof how one really loses by over-writing one's self +and keeping too intent upon a sedentary occupation. I attribute all my +present indisposition, which is losing me time, spirits, everything, to +two fits of close application and neglect of all exercise while I was at +Paris. I am convinced that he who devotes two hours each day to vigorous +exercise will eventually gain those two and a couple more into the +bargain." + +Indeed, there is something involved in the matter far beyond any merely +physical necessity. All our natures need something more than mere bodily +exertion; they need bodily enjoyment. There is, or ought to be, in all +of us a touch of untamed gypsy nature, which should be trained, not +crushed. We need, in the very midst of civilization, something which +gives a little of the zest of savage life; and athletic exercises +furnish the means. The young man who is caught down the bay in a sudden +storm, alone in his boat, with wind and tide against him, has all the +sensations of a Norway sea-king,--sensations thoroughly uncomfortable, +if you please, but for the thrill and glow they bring. Swim out after a +storm at Dove Harbor, topping the low crests, diving through the high +ones, and you feel yourself as veritable a South-Sea Islander as if you +were to dine that day on missionary instead of mutton. Tramp, for a +whole day, across hill, marsh, and pasture, with gun, rod, or whatever +the excuse may be, and camp where you find yourself at evening, and +you are as essentially an Indian on the Blue Hills as among the Rocky +Mountains. Less depends upon circumstances than we fancy, and more upon +our personal temperament and will. All the enjoyments of Browning's +"Saul," those "wild joys of living" which make us happy with their +freshness as we read of them, are within the reach of all, and make us +happier still when enacted. Every one, in proportion as he develops his +own physical resources, puts himself in harmony with the universe, and +contributes something to it; even as Mr. Pecksniff, exulting in his +digestive machinery, felt a pious delight after dinner in the thought +that this wonderful apparatus was wound up and going. + +A young person can no more have too much love of adventure than a mill +can have too much water-power; only it needs to be worked, not wasted. +Physical exercises give to energy and daring a legitimate channel, +supply the place of war, gambling, licentiousness, highway-robbery, and +office-seeking. De Quincey, in like manner, says that Wordsworth made +pedestrianism a substitute for wine and spirits; and Emerson thinks the +force of rude periods "can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, +except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war." +The animal energy cannot and ought not to be suppressed; if debarred +from its natural channel, it will force for itself unnatural ones. A +vigorous life of the senses not only does not tend to sensuality in the +objectionable sense, but it helps to avert it. Health finds joy in mere +existence; daily breath and daily bread suffice. This innocent enjoyment +lost, the normal desires seek abnormal satisfactions. The most brutal +prize-fighter is compelled to recognize the connection between purity +and vigor, and becomes virtuous when he goes into training, as the +heroes of old observed chastity, in hopes of conquering at the Olympic +Games. The very word _ascetic_ comes from a Greek word signifying the +preparatory exercises of an athlete. There are spiritual diseases which +coil poisonously among distorted instincts and disordered nerves, and +one would be generally safer in standing sponsor for the soul of the +gymnast than of the dyspeptic. + +Of course, the demand of our nature is not always for continuous +exertion. One does not always seek that "rough exercise" which Sir John +Sinclair asserts to be "the darling idol of the English." There are +delicious languors, Neapolitan reposes, Creole siestas, "long days and +solid banks of flowers." But it is the birthright of the man of the +temperate zones to alternate these voluptuous delights with more heroic +ones, and sweeten the reverie by the toil. So far as they go, the +enjoyments of the healthy body are as innocent and as ardent as those of +the soul. As there is no ground of comparison, so there is no ground of +antagonism. How compare a sonata and a sea-bath or measure the Sistine +Madonna against a gallop across country? The best thanksgiving for each +is to enjoy the other also, and educate the mind to ampler nobleness. +After all, the best verdict on athletic exercises was that of the great +Sully, when he said, "I was always of the same opinion with Henry +IV. concerning them: he often asserted that they were the most solid +foundation, not only of discipline and other military virtues, but also +of those noble sentiments and that elevation of mind which give one +nature superiority over another." + +We are now ready, perhaps, to come to the question, How are these +athletic enjoyments to be obtained? The first and easiest answer is, By +taking a long walk every day. If people would actually do this, instead +of forever talking about doing it, the object might be gained. To be +sure, there are various defects in this form of exercise. It is not a +play, to begin with, and therefore does not withdraw the mind from its +daily cares; the anxious man recurs to his problems on the way; and each +mile, in that case, brings fresh weariness to brain as well as body. +Moreover, there are, according to Dr. Grau, "three distinct groups +of muscles which are almost totally neglected where walking alone is +resorted to, and which consequently exist only in a crippled state, +although they are of the utmost importance, and each stands in close +_rapport_ with a number of other functions of the greatest necessity to +health and life." These he afterwards classifies as the muscles of the +shoulders and chest, having a bearing on the lungs,--the abdominal +muscles, bearing on the corresponding organs,--and the spinal muscles, +which are closely connected with the whole nervous system. + +But the greatest practical difficulty is, that walking, being the least +concentrated form of exercise, requires a larger appropriation of +time than most persons are willing to give. Taken liberally, and in +connection with exercises which are more concentrated and have more play +about them, it is of great value, and, indeed, indispensable. But so +far as I have seen, instead of these other pursuits taking the place of +pedestrianism, they commonly create a taste for it; so that, when the +sweet spring-days come round, you will see our afternoon gymnastic class +begin to scatter literally to the four winds; or they look in for a +moment, on their way home from the woods, their hands filled and scented +with long wreaths of the trailing arbutus. + +But the gymnasium is the normal type of all muscular exercise,--the only +form of it which is impartial and comprehensive, which has something for +everybody, which is available at all seasons, through all weathers, +in all latitudes. All other provisions are limited: you cannot row +in winter nor skate in summer, spite of parlor-skates and ice-boats; +ball-playing requires comrades; riding takes money; everything needs +daylight: but the gymnasium is always accessible. Then it is the only +thing which trains the whole body. Military drill makes one prompt, +patient, erect, accurate, still, strong. Rowing takes one set of muscles +and stretches them through and through, till you feel yourself turning +into one long spiral spring from finger-tips to toes. In cricket or +base-ball, a player runs, strikes, watches, catches, throws, must learn +endurance also. Yet, no matter which of these may be your special hobby, +you must, if you wish to use all the days and all the muscles, seek the +gymnasium at last,--the only thorough panacea. + +The history of modern gymnastic exercises is easily written: it is +proper to say modern,--for, so far as apparatus goes, the ancient +gymnasiums seem to have had scarcely anything in common with our own. +The first institution on the modern plan was founded at Schnepfenthal, +near Gotha, in Germany, in 1785, by Salzmann, a clergyman and the +principal of a boys' school. After eight years of experience, his +assistant, Gutsmuths, wrote a book upon the subject, which was +translated into English, and published at London in 1799 and at +Philadelphia in 1800, under the name of "Salzmann's Gymnastics." No +similar institution seems to have existed in either country, however, +till those established by Voelckers, in London, in 1824, and by Dr. +Follen, at Cambridge, Mass., in 1826. Both were largely patronized +at first, and died out at last. The best account of Voelckers's +establishment will be found in Hone's "Every-Day Book"; its plan seems +to have been unexceptionable. But Dr. James Johnson, writing his +"Economy of Health" ten years after, declared that these German +exercises had proved "better adapted to the Spartan youth than to the +pallid sons of pampered cits, the dandies of the desk, and the squalid +tenants of attics and factories," and also adds the epitaph, "This +ultra-gymnastic enthusiast did much injury to an important branch of +hygiene by carrying it to excess, and consequently by causing its +desuetude." And Dr. Jarvis, in his "Practical Physiology," declares the +unquestionable result of the American experiment to have been "general +failure." + +Accordingly, the English, who are reputed kings in all physical +exercises, have undoubtedly been far surpassed by the Germans, and +even by the French, in gymnastics. The writer of the excellent little +"Handbook for Gymnastics," George Forrest, M.A., testifies strongly to +this deficiency. "It is curious that we English, who possess perhaps +the finest and strongest figures of all European nations, should leave +ourselves so undeveloped bodily. There is not one man in a hundred who +can even raise his toes to a level with his hands, when suspended by the +later members; and yet to do so is at the very beginning of gymnastic +exercises. We, as a rule, are strong in the arms and legs, but weak +across the loins and back, and are apparently devoid of that beautiful +set of muscles that run round the entire waist, and show to such +advantage in the ancient statues. Indeed, at a bathing-place, I can pick +out every gymnast merely by the development of those muscles." + +It is the Germans and the military portion of the French nation, +chiefly, who have developed gymnastic exercises to their present +elaboration, while the working out of their curative applications was +chiefly due to Ling, a Swede. In the German manuals, such, for instance, +as Eiselen's "Turnübungen," are to be found nearly all the stock +exercises of our institutions. Until within a few years, American skill +has added nothing to these, except through the medium of the circus; but +the present revival of athletic exercises is rapidly placing American +gymnasts in advance of the _Turners_, both in the feats performed and +in the style of doing them. Never yet have I succeeded in seeing a +thoroughly light and graceful German gymnast, while again and again I +have seen Americans who carried into their severest exercise such +an airy, floating elegance of motion, that all the beauty of Greek +sculpture appeared to return again, and it seemed as if plastic art +might once more make its studio in the gymnasium. + +The apparatus is not costly. Any handful of young men in the smallest +country-village, with a very few dollars and a little mechanical skill, +can put up in any old shed or shoe-shop a few simple articles of +machinery, which will, through many a winter evening, vary the monotony +of the cigar and the grocery-bench by an endless variety of manly +competitions. Fifteen cents will bring by mail from the publishers of +the "Atlantic" Forrest's little sixpenny "Handbook," which gives a +sufficient number of exercises to form an introduction to all others; +and a gymnasium is thus easily established. This is just the method of +the simple and sensible Germans, who never wait for elegant upholstery. +A pair of plain parallel bars, a movable vaulting-bar, a wooden horse, +a spring-board, an old mattress to break the fall, a few settees where +sweethearts and wives may sit with their knitting as spectators, and +there is a _Turnhalle_ complete,--to be henceforward filled, two or +three nights in every week, with cheery German faces, jokes, laughs, +gutturals, and gambols. + +But this suggests that you are being kept too long in the anteroom. Let +me act as cicerone through this modest gymnastic hall of ours. You will +better appreciate all this oddly shaped apparatus, if I tell you in +advance, as a connoisseur does in his picture-gallery, precisely what +you are expected to think of each particular article. + +You will notice, however, that a part of the gymnastic class are +exercising without apparatus, in a series of rather grotesque movements +which supple and prepare the body for more muscular feats: these are +calisthenic exercises. Such are being at last introduced, thanks to Dr. +Lewis and others, into our common schools. At the word of command, as +swiftly as a conjuror twists his puzzle-paper, these living forms are +shifted from one odd resemblance to another, at which it is quite lawful +to laugh, especially if those laugh who win. A series of windmills,--a +group of inflated balloons,--a flock of geese all asleep on one leg,--a +circle of ballet-dancers, just poised to begin,--a band of patriots +just kneeling to take an oath upon their country's altar,--a senate of +tailors,--a file of soldiers,--a whole parish of Shaker worshippers,--a +Japanese embassy performing _Ko-tow_: these all in turn come like +shadows,--so depart. This complicated attitudinizing forms the +preliminary to the gymnastic hour. But now come and look at some of the +apparatus. + +Here is a row of Indian clubs, or sceptres, as they are sometimes +called,--tapering down from giants of fifteen pounds to dwarfs of four. +Help yourself to a pair of dwarfs, at first; grasp one in each hand, +by the handle; swing one of them round your head quietly, dropping the +point behind as far as possible,--then the other,--and so swing them +alternately some twenty times. Now do the same back-handed, bending the +wrist outward, and carrying the club behind the head first. Now +swing them both together, crossing them in front, and then the same +back-handed; then the same without crossing, and this again backward, +which you will find much harder. Place them on the ground gently after +each set of processes. Now can you hold them out horizontally at arm's +length, forward and then sideways? Your arms quiver and quiver, and down +come the clubs thumping at last. Take them presently in a different and +more difficult manner, holding each club with the point erect instead of +hanging down; it tries your wrists, you will find, to manipulate them +so, yet all the most graceful exercises have this for a basis. Soon you +will gain the mastery of heavier implements than you begin with, and +will understand how yonder slight youth has learned to handle his two +heavy clubs in complex curves that seem to you inexplicable, tracing +in the air a device as swift and tangled as that woven by a swarm of +gossamer flies above a brook, in the sultry stillness of the summer +noon. + +This row of masses of iron, laid regularly in order of size, so as to +resemble something between a musical instrument and a gridiron, consists +of dumb-bells weighing from four pounds to a hundred. These playthings, +suited to a variety of capacities, have experienced a revival of favor +within a few years, and the range of exercises with them has been +greatly increased. The use of very heavy ones is, so far as I can find, +a peculiarly American hobby, though not originating with Dr. Windship. +Even he, at the beginning of his exhibitions, used those weighing only +ninety-eight pounds; and it was considered an astonishing feat, when, +a little earlier, Mr. Richard Montgomery used to "put up" a dumb-bell +weighing one hundred and one pounds. A good many persons, in different +parts of the country, now handle one hundred and twenty-five, and Dr. +Windship has got much farther on. There is, of course, a knack in +using these little articles, as in every other feat, yet it takes good +extensor muscles to get beyond the fifties. The easiest way of elevating +the weight is to swing it up from between the knees; or it may be thrown +up from the shoulder, with a simultaneous jerk of the whole body; but +the only way of doing it handsomely is to put it up from the shoulder +with the arm alone, without bending the knee, though you may bend the +body as much as you please. Dr. Windship now puts up one hundred and +forty-one pounds in this manner, and by the aid of a jerk can elevate +one hundred and eighty with one arm. This particular movement with +dumb-bells is most practised, as affording a test of strength; but there +are many other ways of using them, all exceedingly invigorating, and all +safe enough, unless the weight employed be too great, which it is very +apt to be. Indeed, there is so much danger of this, that at Cambridge it +has been deemed best to exclude all beyond seventy pounds. Nevertheless, +the dumb-bell remains the one available form of home or office exercise: +it is a whole athletic apparatus packed up in the smallest space; it is +gymnastic pemmican. With one fifty-pound dumb-bell, or a pair of half +that size--or more or less, according to his strength and habits,--a +man may exercise nearly every muscle in his body in half an hour, if he +has sufficient ingenuity in positions. If it were one's fortune to be +sent to prison,--and the access to such retirement is growing more and +more facile in many regions of our common country,--one would certainly +wish to carry a dumb-bell with him, precisely as Dr. Johnson carried an +arithmetic in his pocket on his tour to the Hebrides, as containing the +greatest amount of nutriment in the compactest form. + +Apparatus for lifting is not yet introduced into most gymnasiums, in +spite of the recommendations of the Roxbury Hercules: beside the fear +of straining, there is the cumbrous weight and cost of iron apparatus, +while, for some reason or other, no cheap and accurate dynamometer has +yet come into the market. Running and jumping, also, have as yet been +too much neglected in our institutions, or practised spasmodically +rather than systematically. It is singular how little pains have been +taken to ascertain definitely what a man can do with his body,--far +less, as Quetelet has observed, than in regard to any animal which man +has tamed, or any machine which he has invented. It is stated, for +instance, in Walker's "Manly Exercises," that six feet is the maximum +of a high leap, with a run,--and certainly one never finds in the +newspapers a record of anything higher; yet it is the English tradition, +that Ireland, of Yorkshire, could clear a string raised fourteen feet, +and that he once kicked a bladder at sixteen. No spring-board would +explain a difference so astounding. In the same way, Walker fixes the +limit of a long leap without a run at fourteen feet, and with a run at +twenty-two,--both being large estimates; and Thackeray makes his young +Virginian jump twenty-one feet and three inches, crediting George +Washington with a foot more. Yet the ancient epitaph of Phayllus the +Crotonian claimed for him nothing less than fifty-five feet, on an +inclined plane. Certainly the story must have taken a leap also. + +These ladders, aspiring indefinitely into the air, like Piranesi's +stairways, are called technically peak-ladders; and dear banished +T.S.K., who always was puzzled to know why Mount Washington kept up such +a pique against the sky, would have found his joke fit these ladders +with great precision, so frequent the disappointment they create. But +try them, and see what trivial appendages one's legs may become,--since +the feet are not intended to touch these polished rounds. Walk up +backward on the under side, hand over hand, then forward; then go up +again, omitting every other round; then aspire to the third round, if +you will. Next grasp a round with both hands, give a slight swing of +the body, let go, and grasp the round above, and so on upward; then the +same, omitting one round, or more, if you can, and come down in the +same way. Can you walk up on _one_ hand? It is not an easy thing, but a +first-class gymnast will do it,--and Dr. Windship does it, taking only +every third round. Fancy a one-armed and legless hodman ascending the +under side of a ladder to the roof, and reflect on the conveniences of +gymnastic habits. + +Here is a wooden horse; on this noble animal the Germans say that not +less than three hundred distinct feats can be performed. Bring yonder +spring-board, and we will try a few. Grasp these low pommels and vault +over the horse, first to the right, then again to the left; then with +one hand each way. Now spring to the top and stand; now spring between +the hands forward, now backward; now take a good impetus, spread your +feet far apart, and leap over it, letting go the hands. Grasp the +pommels again and throw a somerset over it,--coming down on your feet, +if the Fates permit. Now vault up and sit upon the horse, at one end, +knees the same side; now grasp the pommels and whirl yourself round +till you sit at the other end, facing the other way. Now spring up and +bestride it, whirl round till you bestride it the other way, at the +other end; do it once again, and, letting go your hand, seat yourself in +the saddle. Now push away the spring-board and repeat every feat without +its aid. Next, take a run and spring upon the end of the horse astride; +then walk over, supporting yourself on your hands alone, the legs not +touching; then backward, the same. It will be hard to balance yourself +at first, and you will careen uneasily one way or the other; no matter, +you will get over it somehow. Lastly, mount once more, kneel in the +saddle, and leap to the ground. It appears at first ridiculously +impracticable, the knees seem glued to their position, and it looks +as if one would fall inevitably on his face; but falling is hardly +possible. Any novice can do it, if he will only have faith. You shall +learn to do it from the horizontal bar presently, where it looks much +more formidable. + +But first you must learn some simpler exercises on this horizontal bar: +you observe that it is made movable, and may be placed as low as your +knee, or higher than your hand can reach. This bar is only five inches +in circumference; but it is remarkably strong and springy, and therefore +we hope secure, though for some exercises our boys prefer to substitute +a larger one. Try and vault it, first to the right, then to the left, as +you did with the horse; try first with one hand, then see how high +you can vault with both. Now vault it between your hands, forward and +backward: the latter will baffle you, unless you have brought an unusual +stock of India-rubber in your frame, to begin with. Raise it higher +and higher, till you can vault it no longer. Now spring up on the bar, +resting on your palms, and vault over from that position with a swing of +your body, without touching the ground; when you have once managed this, +you can vault as high as you can reach: double-vaulting this is called. +Now put the bar higher than your head; grasp it with your hands, and +draw yourself up till you look over it; repeat this a good many times: +capital practice this, as is usually said of things particularly +tiresome. Take hold of the bar again, and with a good spring from the +ground try to curl your body over it, feet foremost. At first, in all +probability, your legs will go angling in the air convulsively, and come +down with nothing caught; but ere long we shall see you dispense with +the spring from the ground and go whirling over and over, as if the bar +were the axle of a wheel and your legs the spokes. Now spring upon the +bar, supporting yourself on your palms, as before; put your hands a +little farther apart, with the thumbs forward, then suddenly bring up +your knees on the bar and let your whole body go over forward: you will +not fall, if your hands have a good grasp. Try it again with your feet +outside your hands, instead of between them; then once again flinging +your body off from the bar and describing a long curve with it, arms +stiff: this is called the Giant's Swing. Now hang to the bar by the +knees,--by both knees; do not try it yet with one; then seize the bar +with your hands and thrust the legs still farther and farther forward, +pulling with your arms at the same time, till you find yourself sitting +unaccountably on the bar itself. This our boys cheerfully denominate +"skinning the cat," because the sensations it suggests, on a first +experiment, are supposed to resemble those of pussy with her skin drawn +over her head; but, after a few experiments, it seems like stroking the +fur in the right direction, and grows rather pleasant. + +Try now the parallel bars, the most invigorating apparatus of the +gymnasium, and in its beginnings "accessible to the meanest capacity," +since there are scarcely any who cannot support themselves by the hands +on the bars, and not very many who cannot walk a few steps upon the +palms, at the first trial. Soon you will learn to swing along these bars +in long surges of motion, forward and backward; to go through them, in +a series of springs from the hand only, without a jerk of the knees; to +turn round and round between them, going forward or backward all the +while; to vault over them and under them in complicated ways; to turn +somersets in them and across them; to roll over and over on them as +a porpoise seems to roll in the sea. Then come the "low-standing" +exercises, the grasshopper style of business; supporting yourself now +with arms not straight, but bent at the elbow, you shall learn to raise +and lower your body and to hold or swing yourself as lightly in that +position as if you had not felt pinioned and paralyzed hopelessly at the +first trial; and whole new systems of muscles shall seem to shoot out +from your shoulder-blades to enable you to do what you could not have +dreamed of doing before. These bars are magical,--they are conduits of +power; you cannot touch them, you cannot rest your weight on them in the +slightest degree, without causing strength to flow into your body as +naturally and irresistibly as water into the aqueduct-pipe when you turn +it on. Do you but give the opportunity, and every pulsation of blood +from your heart is pledged for the rest. + +These exercises, and such as these, are among the elementary lessons of +gymnastic training. Practise these thoroughly and patiently, and you +will in time attain evolutions more complicated, and, if you wish, more +perilous. Neglect these, to grasp at random after everything which you +see others doing, and you will fail like a bookkeeper who is weak in +the multiplication-table. The older you begin, the more gradual the +preparation must be. A respectable middle-aged citizen, bent on +improving his _physique_, goes into a gymnasium, and sees slight, +smooth-faced boys going gayly through a series of exercises which show +their bodies to be a triumph, not a drag, and he is assured that the +same might be the case with him. Off goes the coat of our enthusiast and +in he plunges; he gripes a heavy dumb-bell and strains one shoulder, +hauls at a weight-box and strains the other, vaults the bar and bruises +his knee, swings in the rings once or twice till his hand slips and he +falls to the floor. No matter, he thinks the cause demands sacrifices; +but he subsides, for the next fifteen minutes, into more moderate +exercises, which he still makes immoderate by his awkward way of doing +them. Nevertheless, he goes home, cheerful under difficulties, and will +try again to-morrow. To-morrow finds him stiff, lame, and wretched; he +cannot lift his arm to his face to shave, nor lower it sufficiently to +pull his boots on; his little daughter must help him with his shoes, +and the indignant wife of his bosom must put on his hat, with that +ineffectual one-sidedness to which alone the best-regulated female mind +can attain, in this difficult part of costuming. His sorrows increase +as the day passes; the gymnasium alone can relieve them, but his soul +shudders at the remedy; and he can conceive of nothing so absurd as a +first gymnastic lesson, except a second one. But had he been wise enough +to place himself under an experienced adviser at the very beginning, he +would have been put through a few simple movements which would have sent +him home glowing and refreshed and fancying himself half-way back to +boyhood again; the slight ache and weariness of next day would have +been cured by next day's exercise; and after six months' patience, by a +progress almost imperceptible, he would have found himself, in respect +to strength and activity, a transformed man. + +Most of these discomforts, of course, are spared to boys; their frames +are more elastic and less liable to ache and strain. They learn +gymnastics, as they learn everything else, more readily than their +elders. Begin with a boy early enough, and if he be of a suitable +temperament, he can learn in the gymnasium all the feats usually seen in +the circus-ring, and could even acquire more difficult ones, if it were +worth his while to try them. This is true even of the air-somersets and +hand-springs which are not so commonly cultivated by gymnasts; but it is +especially true of all exercises with apparatus. It is astonishing how +readily our classes pick up any novelty brought into town by a strolling +company,--holding the body out horizontally from an upright pole, or +hanging by the back of the head, or touching the head to the heels, +though this last is oftener tried than accomplished. They may be seen +practising these antics, at all spare moments, for weeks, until some +later hobby drives them away. From Blondin downwards, the public feats +derive a large part of their wonder from the imposing height in the air +at which they are done. Many a young man who can swing himself more +than his own length on the horizontal ladder at the gymnasium has yet +shuddered at _l'échelle périlleuse_ of the Hanlons; and I noticed that +even the simplest of their performances, such as holding by one hand, or +hanging by the knees, seemed perfectly terrific when done at a height +of twenty or thirty feet in the air, even to those who had done them a +hundred times at a lower level. It was the nerve that was astounding, +not the strength or skill; but the eye found it hard to draw the +distinction. So when a gymnastic friend of mine, crossing the +ocean lately, amused himself with hanging by one leg to the +mizzen-topmast-stay, the boldest sailors shuddered, though the feat +itself was nothing, save to the imagination. + +Indeed, it is almost impossible for an inexperienced spectator to form +the slightest opinion as to the comparative difficulty or danger of +different exercises, since it is the test of merit to make the hardest +things look easy. Moreover, there may be a distinction between two +feats almost imperceptible to the eye,--a change, for instance, in the +position of the hands on a bar,--which may at once transform the thing +from a trifle to a wonder. An unpractised eye can no more appreciate +the difficulty of a gymnastic exercise by seeing it executed, than an +inexperienced ear, of the perplexities of a piece of music by hearing it +played. + +The first effect of gymnastic exercise is almost always to increase the +size of the arms and the chest; and new-comers may commonly be known by +their frequent recourse to the tape-measure. The average increase among +the students of Harvard University during the first three months of the +gymnasium was nearly two inches in the chest, more than one inch in the +upper arm, and more than half an inch in the fore-arm. This was far +beyond what the unassisted growth of their age would account for; and +the increase is always very marked for a time, especially with thin +persons. In those of fuller habit the loss of flesh may counterbalance +the gain in muscle, so that size and weight remain the same; and in all +cases the increase stops after a time, and the subsequent change is +rather in texture than in volume. Mere size is no index of strength: Dr. +Windship is scarcely larger or heavier now than when he had not half his +present powers. + +In the vigor gained by exercise there is nothing false or morbid; it +is as reliable as hereditary strength, except that it is more easily +relaxed by indolent habits. No doubt it is aggravating to see some +robust, lazy giant come into the gymnasium for the first time, and by +hereditary muscle shoulder a dumb-bell which all your training has +not taught you to handle. No matter; it is by comparing yourself with +yourself that the estimate is to be made. As the writing-master exhibits +with triumph to each departing pupil the uncouth copy which he wrote +on entering, so it will be enough to you, if you can appreciate your +present powers with your original inabilities. When you first joined the +gymnastic class, you could not climb yonder smooth mast, even with all +your limbs brought into service; now you can do it with your hands +alone. When you came, you could not possibly, when hanging by your hands +to the horizontal bar, raise your feet as high as your head,--nor could +you, with any amount of spring from the ground, curl your body over the +bar itself; now you can hang at arm's length and fling yourself over it +a dozen times in succession. At first, if you lowered yourself with bent +elbows between the parallel bars, you could not by any manoeuvre get up +again, but sank to the ground a hopeless wreck; now you can raise and +lower yourself an indefinite number of times. As for the weights and +clubs and dumb-bells, you feel as if there must be some jugglery about +them,--they have grown so much lighter than they used to be. It is you +who have gained a double set of muscles to every limb; that is all. +Strike out from the shoulder with your clenched hand; once your arm was +loose-jointed and shaky; now it is firm and tense, and begins to feel +like a natural arm. Moreover, strength and suppleness have grown +together; you have not stiffened by becoming stronger, but find yourself +more flexible. When you first came here, you could not touch your +fingers to the ground without bending the knees, and now you can place +your knuckles on the floor; then you could scarcely bend yourself +backward, and now you can lay the back of your head in a chair, or walk, +without crouching forward, under a bar less than three feet from +the ground. You have found, indeed, that almost every feat is done +originally by sheer strength, and then by agility, requiring very little +expenditure of force after the precise motion is hit upon; at first +labor, puffing, and a red face,--afterwards ease and the graces. + +To a person who begins after the age of thirty or thereabouts, the +increase of strength and suppleness, of course, comes more slowly; yet +it comes as surely, and perhaps it is a more permanent acquisition, less +easily lost again, than in the softer frame of early youth. There is no +doubt that men of sixty have experienced a decided gain in strength and +health by beginning gymnastic exercises even at that age, as Socrates +learned to dance at seventy; and if they have practised similar +exercises all their lives, so much is added to their chance of +preserving physical youthfulness to the last. Jerome and Gabriel Ravel +are reported to have spent near three-score years on the planet which +their winged feet have so lightly trod; and who will dare to say how +many winters have passed over the head of the still young and graceful +Papanti? + +Dr. Windship's most important experience is, that strength is to a +certain extent identical with health, so that every increase in muscular +development is an actual protection against disease. Americans, who are +ashamed to confess to doing the most innocent thing for the sake of mere +enjoyment, must be cajoled into every form of exercise under the plea of +health. Joining, the other day, in a children's dance, I was amused by a +solemn parent who turned to me, in the midst of a Virginia reel, still +conscientious, though breathless, and asked if I did not consider +dancing to be, on the whole, a _healthy_ exercise? Well, the gymnasium +is healthy; but the less you dwell on that fact, the better, after you +have once entered it. If it does you good, you will enjoy it; and if +you enjoy it, it will do you good. With body, as with soul, the highest +experience merges duty in pleasure. The better one's condition is, the +less one has to think about growing better, and the more unconsciously +one's natural instincts guide the right way. + +When ill, we eat to support life; when well, we eat because the food +tastes good. It is a merit of the gymnasium, that, when properly taken, +it makes one forget to think about health or anything else that is +troublesome; "a man remembereth neither sorrow nor debt"; cares must be +left outside, be they physical or metaphysical, like canes at the door +of a museum. + +No doubt, to some it grows tedious. It shares this objection with all +means of exercise. To be an American is to hunger for novelty; and all +instruments and appliances, especially, require constant modification: +we are dissatisfied with last winter's skates, with the old boat, and +with the family pony. So the zealot finds the gymnasium insufficient +long before he has learned half the moves. To some temperaments it +becomes a treadmill, and that, strangely enough, to diametrically +opposite temperaments. A lethargic youth, requiring great effort to keep +himself awake between the exercises, thinks the gymnasium slow, because +he is; while an eager, impetuous young fellow, exasperated because +he cannot in a fortnight draw himself up by one hand, finds the same +trouble there as elsewhere, that the laws of Nature are not fast enough +for his inclinations. No one without energy, no one without patience, +can find permanent interest in a gymnasium; but with these qualities, +and a modest willingness to live and learn, I do not see why one should +ever grow tired of the moderate use of its apparatus. For one, I really +never enter it without exhilaration, or leave it without a momentary +regret: there are always certain special new things on the docket for +trial; and when those are settled, there will be something more. It is +amazing what a variety of interest can be extracted from those few bits +of wood and rope and iron. There is always somebody in advance, some +"man on horseback" on a wooden horse, some India-rubber hero, some +slight and powerful fellow who does with ease what you fail to do with +toil, some terrible Dr. Windship with an ever-waxing dumb-bell. The +interest becomes semi-professional. A good gymnast enjoys going into +a new and well-appointed establishment, precisely as a sailor enjoys +a well-rigged ship; every rope and spar is scanned with intelligent +interest; "we know the forest round us as seamen know the sea." The +pupils talk gymnasium as some men talk horse. A particularly smooth +and flexible horizontal pole, a desirable pair of parallel bars, a +remarkably elastic spring-board,--these are matters of personal pride, +and described from city to city with loving enthusiasm. The gymnastic +apostle rises to eloquence in proportion to the height of the +handswings, and points his climax to match the peak-ladders. + +An objection frequently made to the gymnasium, and especially by anxious +parents, is the supposed danger of accident. But this peril is obviously +inseparable from all physical activity. If a man never leaves his house, +the chances undoubtedly are, that he will never break his leg, unless +upon the stairway; but if he is always to stay in the house, he might +as well have no legs at all. Certainly we incur danger every time we go +outside the front-door; but to remain always on the inside would prove +the greatest danger of the whole. When a man slips in the street and +dislocates his arm, we do not warn him against walking, but against +carelessness. When a man is thrown from his horse and gratifies the +surgeons by a beautiful case of compound fracture, we do not advise him +to avoid a riding-school, but to go to one. Trivial accidents are not +uncommon in the gymnasium, severe ones are rare, fatal ones almost +unheard-of,--which is far more than can be said of riding, driving, +hunting, boating, skating, or even "coasting" on a sled. Learning +gymnastics is like learning to swim,--you incur a small temporary risk +for the sake of acquiring powers that will lessen your risks in the end. +Your increased strength and agility will carry you past many unseen +perils hereafter, and the invigorated tone of your system will make +accidents less important, if they happen. Some trifling sprain causes +lameness for life, some slight blow brings on wasting disease, to +a person whose health is merely negative, not positive,--while a +well-trained frame throws it off in twenty-four hours. It is almost +proverbial of the gymnasium, that it cures its own wounds. + +A minor objection is, that these exercises are not performed in the +open air. In summer, however, they may be, and in winter and in stormy +weather it is better that they should not be. Extreme cold is not +favorable to them; it braces, but stiffens; and the bars and ropes +become slippery and even dangerous. In Germany it is common to have a +double set of apparatus, out-doors and in-doors; and this would always +be desirable, but for the increased expense. Moreover, the gymnasium +should be taken in addition to out-door exercise, giving, for instance, +an hour a day to each, one for training, the other for oxygen. I know +promising gymnasts whose pallid complexions show that their blood is not +worthy of their muscle, and they will break down. But these cases are +rare, for the reason already hinted,--that nothing gives so good an +appetite for out-door life as this indoor activity. It alternates +admirably with skating, and seduces irresistibly into walking or rowing +when spring arrives. + +My young friend Silverspoon, indeed, thinks that a good trot on a fast +horse is worth all the gymnastics in the world. But I learn, on inquiry, +that my young friend's mother is constantly imploring him to ride in +order to air her horses. It is a beautiful parental trait; but for those +born horseless, what an economical substitute is the wooden quadruped of +the gymnasium! Our Autocrat has well said, that the livery-stable horse +is "a profligate animal"; and I do not wonder that the Centaurs of old +should be suspected of having originated spurious coin. Undoubtedly it +was to pay for the hire of their own hoofs. + +For young men in cities, too, the facilities for exercise are limited +not only by money, but by time. They must commonly take it after dark. +It is every way a blessing, when the gymnasium divides their evenings +with the concert, the book, or the public meeting. Then there is no +time left, and small temptation, for pleasures less pure. It gives an +innocent answer to that first demand for evening excitement which perils +the soul of the homeless boy in the seductive city. The companions whom +he meets at the gymnasium are not the ones whose pursuits of later +nocturnal hours entice him to sin. The honest fatigue of his exercises +calls for honest rest. It is the nervous exhaustion of a sedentary, +frivolous, or joyless life which madly tries to restore itself by the +other nervous exhaustion of debauchery. It is an old prescription,-- + + "Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit, + _Abstinuit venere et vino_." + +There is another class of critics whose cant is simply can't, and who, +being unable or unwilling to surrender themselves to these simple +sources of enjoyment, are grandiloquent upon the dignity of manhood, +and the absurdity of full-grown men in playing monkey-tricks with their +bodies. Full-grown men? There is not a person in the world who can +afford to be a "full-grown man" through all the twenty-four hours. There +is not one who does not need, more than he needs his dinner, to have +habitually one hour in the day when he throws himself with boyish +eagerness into interests as simple as those of boys. No church or state, +no science or art, can feed us all the time; some morsels there must be +of simpler diet, some moments of unadulterated play. But dignity? Alas +for that poor soul whose dignity must be "preserved,"--preserved in +the right culinary sense, as fruits which are growing dubious in their +natural state are sealed up in jars to make their acidity presentable! +"There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned," and degradation in +the dignity that has to be preserved. Simplicity is the only dignity. If +one has not the genuine article, no affluence of starch, no snow-drift +of white-linen decency, will furnish any substitute. If one has it, he +will retain it, whether he stand on his head or his heels. Nothing +is really undignified but affectation or conceit; and for the total +extinction and annihilation of every vestige of these, there are few +things so effectual as athletic exercises. + +Still another objection is that of the medical men, that the gymnasium, +as commonly used, is not a specific prescription for the special disease +of the patient. But setting aside the claims of the system of applied +gymnastics, which Ling and his followers have so elaborated, it is +enough to answer, that the one great fundamental disorder of all +Americans is simply nervous exhaustion, and that for this the gymnasium +can never be misdirected, though it may be used to excess. Of course one +can no more cure over-work of brain by over-work of body than one +can restore a wasted candle by lighting it at the other end. But by +subtracting an hour a day from the present amount of purely intellectual +fatigue, and inserting that quantum of bodily fatigue in its place, you +begin an immediate change in your conditions of life. Moreover, the +great object is not merely to get well, but to keep well. The exhaustion +of over-work can almost always be cured by a water-cure, or by a voyage, +which is a salt-water cure; but the problem is, how to make the whole +voyage of life perpetually self-curative. Without this, there is +perpetual dissatisfaction and chronic failure. Emerson well says, "Each +class fixes its eye on the advantages it has not,--the refined on rude +strength, the democrat on birth and breeding." This is the aim of the +gymnasium, to give to the refined this rude strength, or its better +substitute, refined strength. It is something to secure to the student +or the clerk the strong muscles, hearty appetite, and sound sleep of the +sailor and the ploughman,--to enable him, if need be, to out-row the +fisherman, and out-run the mountaineer, and lift more than his porter, +and to remember head-ache and dyspepsia only as he recalls the primeval +whooping-cough of his childhood. I am one of those who think that the +Autocrat rides his hobby of the pavements a little too far; but it is +useless to deny, that, within the last few years of gymnasiums and +boat-clubs, the city has been gaining on the country, in physical +development. Here in our town we had all the city- and college-boys +assembled in July to see the regattas, and all the country-boys in +September to see the thousand-dollar base-ball match; and it was +impossible to deny, whatever one's theories, that the physical +superiority lay for the time being with the former. + +The secret is, that, though the country offers to farmers more oxygen +than to anybody in the city, yet not all dwellers in the country are +farmers, and even those who are such are suffering from other causes, +being usually the very last to receive those lessons of food and +clothing and bathing and ventilation which have their origin in cities. +Physical training is not a mechanical, but a vital process: no bricks +without straw; no good _physique_ without good materials and conditions. +The farmer knows, that, to rear a premium colt or calf, he must oversee +every morsel that it eats, every motion it makes, every breath it +draws,--must guard against over-work and under-work, cold and heat, wet +and dry. He remembers it for the quadrupeds, but he forgets it for his +children, his wife, and himself: so his cattle deserve a premium, and +his family does not. + +Neglect is the danger of the country; the peril of the city is in living +too fast. All mental excitement acts as a stimulant, and, like all +stimulants, debilitates when taken in excess. This explains the +unnatural strength and agility of the insane, always followed by +prostration; and even moderate cerebral excitement produces similar +results, so far as it goes. Quetelet discovered that sometimes after +lecturing, or other special intellectual action, he could perform +gymnastic feats impossible to him at other times. The fact is +unquestionable; and it is also certain that an extreme in this direction +has precisely the contrary effect, and is fatal to the physical +condition. One may spring up from a task of moderate mental labor with a +sense of freedom like a bow let loose; but after an immoderate task +one feels like the same bow too long bent, flaccid, nerveless, all the +elasticity gone. Such fatigue is far more overwhelming than any mere +physical exhaustion. I have lounged into the gymnasium, after an +afternoon's skating, supposing myself quite tired, and have found myself +in excellent condition; and I have gone in after an hour or two of some +specially concentrated anxiety or thought, without being aware that +the body was at all fatigued, and found it good for nothing. Such +experiences are invaluable; all the libraries cannot so illustrate the +supremacy of immaterial forces. Thought, passion, purpose, expectation, +absorbed attention even, all feed upon the body's powers; let them +act one atom too intensely or one moment too long, and this wondrous +physical organization finds itself drained of its forces to support +them. It does not seem strange that strong men should have died by a +single ecstasy of emotion too convulsive, when we bear within us this +tremendous engine whose slightest pulsation so throbs in every fibre of +our frame. + +The relation between mental culture and physical powers is a subject of +the greatest interest, as yet but little touched, because so few of our +physiologists have been practical gymnasts. Nothing is more striking +than the tendency of all athletic exercises, when brought to perfection, +to eliminate mere brute bulk from the competition, and give the palm +to more subtile qualities, agility, quickness, a good eye, a ready +hand,--in short, superior fineness of organization. Any clown can learn +the military manual exercise; but it needs brain-power to drill with +the Zouaves. Even a prize-fight tests strength less than activity and +"science." The game of base-ball, as played in our boyhood, was a +simple, robust, straightforward contest, where the hardest hitter +was the best man; but it is every year becoming perfected into a +sleight-of-hand, like cricket; mere strength is now almost valueless +in playing it, and it calls rather for the qualities of the +billiard-player. In the last champion-match at Worcester, nearly the +whole time was consumed in skilful feints and parryings, and it took +five days to make fifty runs. And these same characteristics mark +gymnastic exercises above all; men of great natural strength are very +apt to be too slow and clumsy for them, and the most difficult feats +are usually done by persons of comparatively delicate _physique_ and a +certain artistic organization. It is this predominance of the nervous +temperament which is yet destined to make American gymnasts the foremost +in the world. + +Indeed, the gymnasium is as good a place for the study of human nature +as any. The perpetual analogy of mind and body can be appreciated only +where both are trained with equal system. In both departments the great +prizes are not won by the most astounding special powers, but by a +certain harmonious adaptation. There is a physical tact, as there is +a mental tact. Every process is accomplished by using just the right +stress at just the right moment; but no two persons are alike in the +length of time required for these little discoveries. Gymnastic genius +lies in gaining at the first trial what will cost weeks of perseverance +to those less happily gifted. And as the close elastic costume which is +worn by the gymnast, or should be worn, allows no merit or defect of +figure to be concealed, so the close contact of emulation exhibits all +the varieties of temperament. One is made indolent by success, and +another is made ardent; one is discouraged by failure, and another +aroused by it; one does everything best the first time and slackens ever +after, while another always begins at the bottom and always climbs to +the top. + +One of the most enjoyable things in these mimic emulations is this +absolute genuineness in their gradations of success. In the great world +outside, there is no immediate and absolute test for merit. There are +cliques and puffings and jealousies, quarrels of authors, tricks of +trade, caucusing in politics, hypocrisy among the deacons. We distrust +the value of others' successes, they distrust ours, and we all sometimes +distrust our own. There are those who believe in Shakspeare, and those +who believe in Tupper. All merit is measured by sliding scales, and each +has his own theory of the sliding. In a dozen centuries it will all come +right, no doubt. In the mean time there is vanity in one half the world +and vexation of spirit in the other half, and each man joins each half +in turn. But once enter the charmed gate of the gymnasium, and you leave +shams behind. Though you be saint or sage, no matter, the inexorable +laws of gravitation are around you. If you flinch, you fail; if you +slip, you fall. That bar, that rope, that weight shall test you +absolutely. Can you handle it, it is well; but if not, stand aside for +him who can. You may have every other gift and grace, it counts for +nothing; he, not you, is the man for the hour. The code of Spanish +aristocracy is slight and flexible compared with this rigid precedence. +It is Emerson's Astraea. Each registers himself, and there is no appeal. +No use to kick and struggle, no use to apologize. Do not say that +to-night you are tired, last night you felt ill. These excuses may serve +for a day, but no longer. A slight margin is allowed for moods and +variations, but it is not great after all. One revels in this Palace +of Truth. Defeat itself is a satisfaction, before a tribunal of such +absolute justice. + +This contributes to that healthful ardor with which, in these exercises, +a man forgets the things which are behind and presses forward to fresh +achievements. This perpetually saves from vanity; for everything seems +a trifle, when you have once attained to it. The aim which yesterday +filled your whole gymnastic horizon you overtake and pass as a boat +passes a buoy: until passed, it was a goal; when passed, a mere speck in +the horizon. Yesterday you could swing yourself three rounds upon the +horizontal ladder; to-day, after weeks of effort, you have suddenly +attained to the fourth, and instantly all that long laborious effort +vanishes, to be formed again between you and the fifth round: five, five +is the only goal for heroic labor to-day; and when five is attained, +there will be six, and so on while the Arabic numerals hold out. A +childish aim, no doubt; but is not this what we all recognize as the +privilege of childhood, to obtain exaggerated enjoyment from little +things? When you have come to the really difficult feats of the +gymnasium,--when you have conquered the "barber's curl" and the +"peg-pole,"--when you can draw yourself up by one arm, and perform the +"giant's swing" over and over, without changing hands, and vault the +horizontal bar as high as you can reach it,--when you can vault across +the high parallel bars between your hands backward, or walk through them +on your palms with your feet in the vicinity of the ceiling,--then you +will reap the reward of your past labors, and may begin to call yourself +a gymnast. + +It is pleasant to think, that, so great is the variety of exercises in +the gymnasium, even physical deficiencies and deformities do not wholly +exclude from its benefits. I have seen an invalid girl, so lame from +childhood that she could not stand without support, whose general health +had been restored, and her bust and arms made a study for a sculptor, by +means of gymnastics. Nay, there are odd compensations of Nature by which +even exceptional formations may turn to account in athletic exercises. A +squinting eye is a treasure to a boxer, a left-handed batter is a prize +in a cricketing eleven, and one of the best gymnasts in Chicago is an +individual with a wooden leg, which he takes off at the commencement +of affairs, thus economizing weight and stowage, and performing +achievements impossible except to unipeds. + +In the enthusiasm created by this emulation, there is necessarily some +danger of excess. Dr. Windship approves of exercising only every other +day in the gymnasium; but as most persons take their work in a more +diluted form than his, they can afford to repeat it daily, unless warned +by headache or languor that they are exceeding their allowance. There +is no good in excess; our constitutions cannot be hurried. The law is +universal, that exercise strengthens as long as nutrition balances it, +but afterwards wastes the very forces it should increase. We cannot make +bricks faster than Nature supplies us with straw. + +It is one good evidence of the increasing interest in these exercises, +that the American gymnasiums built during the past year or two have far +surpassed all their predecessors in size and completeness, and have +probably no superiors in the world. The Seventh Regiment Gymnasium in +New York, just opened by Mr. Abner S. Brady, is one hundred and eighty +feet by fifty-two, in its main hall, and thirty-five feet in height, +with nearly a thousand pupils. The beautiful hall of the Metropolitan +Gymnasium, in Chicago, measures one hundred and eight feet by eighty, +and is twenty feet high at the sides, with a dome in the centre, forty +feet high, and the same in diameter. Next to these probably rank the +new gymnasium at Cincinnati, the Tremont Gymnasium at Boston, and the +Bunker-Hill Gymnasium at Charlestown, all recently opened. Of college +institutions the most complete are probably those at Cambridge and New +Haven,--the former being eighty-five feet by fifty, and the latter one +hundred feet by fifty, in external dimensions. The arrangements for +instruction are rather more systematic at Harvard, but Yale has several +valuable articles of apparatus--as the rack-bars and the series +of rings--which have hardly made their appearance, as yet, in +Massachusetts, though considered indispensable in New York. + +Gymnastic exercises are as yet but very sparingly introduced into our +seminaries, primary or professional, though a great change is already +beginning. Frederick the Great complained of the whole Prussian +school-system of his day, because it assumed that men were originally +created for students and clerks, whereas his Majesty argued that the +very shape of the human body rather proved them to be meant by Nature +for postilions. Until lately all our educational plans have assumed man +to be a merely sedentary being; we have employed teachers of music and +drawing to go from school to school to teach those elegant arts, but +have had none to teach the art of health. Accordingly, the pupils have +exhibited more complex curves in their spines than they could possibly +portray on the blackboard, and acquired such discords in their nervous +systems as would have utterly disgraced their singing. It is something +to have got beyond the period when active sports were actually +prohibited. I remember when there was but one boat owned by a Cambridge +student,--the owner was the first of his class, by the way, to get his +name into capitals in the "Triennial Catalogue" afterwards,--and that +boat was soon reported to have been suppressed by the Faculty, on the +plea that there was a college law against a student's keeping domestic +animals, and a boat was a domestic animal within the meaning of the +statute. Manual labor was thought less reprehensible; but schools on +this basis have never yet proved satisfactory, because either the hands +or the brains have always come off second-best from the effort to +combine: it is a law of Nature, that after a hard day's work one does +not need more work, but play. But in many of the German common-schools +one or two hours are given daily to gymnastic exercises with apparatus, +with sometimes the addition of Wednesday or Saturday afternoon; and this +was the result, as appears from Gutsmuth's book, of precisely the same +popular reaction against a purely intellectual system which is visible +in our community now. In the French military school at Joinville, the +degree of Bachelor of Agility is formally conferred; but Horace Mann's +remark still holds good, that it is seldom thought necessary to train +men's bodies for any purpose except to destroy those of other men. +However, in view of the present wise policy of our leading colleges, +we shall have to stop croaking before long, especially as enthusiastic +alumni already begin to fancy a visible improvement in the _physique_ of +graduating classes on Commencement Day. + +It would be unpardonable, in this connection, not to speak a good word +for the hobby of the day,--Dr. Lewis, and his system of gymnastics, or, +more properly, of calisthenics. Aside from a few amusing games, there is +nothing very novel in the "system," except the man himself. Dr. Windship +had done all that was needed in apostleship of severe exercises, and +there was wanting some man with a milder hobby, perfectly safe for a +lady to drive. The Fates provided that man, also, in Dr. Lewis,--so +hale and hearty, so profoundly confident in the omnipotence of his own +methods and the uselessness of all others, with such a ready invention, +and such an inundation of animal spirits that he could flood any +company, no matter how starched or listless, with an unbounded appetite +for ball-games and bean-games. How long it will last in the hands of +others than the projector remains to be seen, especially as some of his +feats are more exhausting than average gymnastics; but, in the mean +time, it is just what is wanted for multitudes of persons who find or +fancy the real gymnasium to be unsuited to them. It will especially +render service to female pupils, so far as they practise it; for the +accustomed gymnastic exercises seem never yet to have been rendered +attractive to them, on any large scale, and with any permanency. Girls, +no doubt, learn as readily as boys to row, to skate, and to swim,--any +muscular inferiority being perhaps counterbalanced in swimming by +their greater physical buoyancy, in skating by their dancing-school +experience, and in rowing by their music-lessons enabling them more +promptly to fall into regular time,--though these suggestions may all be +fancies rather than facts. The same points help them, perhaps, in the +lighter calisthenic exercises; but when they come to the apparatus, one +seldom sees a girl who takes hold like a boy: it, perhaps, requires a +certain ready capital of muscle, at the outset, which they have not at +command, and which it is tedious to acquire afterwards. Yet there seem +to be some cases, as with the classes of Mrs. Molineaux at Cambridge, +where a good deal of gymnastic enthusiasm is created among female +pupils, and it may be, after all, that the deficiency lies thus far in +the teachers. + +Experience is already showing that the advantages of school-gymnasiums +go deeper than was at first supposed. It is not to be the whole object +of American education to create scholars or idealists, but to produce +persons of a solid strength,--persons who, to use the most expressive +Western phrase that ever was coined into five monosyllables, "will do to +tie to"; whereas to most of us it would be absurd to tie anything but +the Scriptural millstone. In the military school of Brienne, the only +report appended to the name of the little Napoleon Bonaparte was "Very +healthy"; and it is precisely this class of boys for whom there is least +place in a purely intellectual institution. A child of immense animal +activity and unlimited observing faculties, personally acquainted with +every man, child, horse, dog, in the township,--intimate in the families +of oriole and grasshopper, pickerel and turtle,--quick of hand and +eye,--in short, born for practical leadership and victory,--such a boy +finds no provision for him in most of our seminaries, and must, by his +constitution, be either truant or torment. The theory of the institution +ignores such aptitudes as his, and recognizes no merits save those of +some small sedentary linguist or mathematician,--a blessing to his +teacher, but an object of watchful anxiety to the family physician, and +whose career was endangering not only his health, but his humility. +Introduce now some athletic exercises as a regular part of the +school-drill, instantly the rogue finds his legitimate sphere, and leads +the class; he is no longer an outcast, no longer has to look beyond the +school for companions and appreciation; while, on the other hand, the +youthful pedant, no longer monopolizing superiority, is brought down to +a proper level. Presently comes along some finer fellow than either, who +cultivates all his faculties, and is equally good at spring-board and +black-board; and straightway, since every child wishes to be a Crichton, +the whole school tries for the combination of merits, and the grade of +the juvenile community is perceptibly raised. + +What is true of childhood is true of manhood also. What a shame it is +that even Kingsley should fall into the cant of deploring maturity as a +misfortune, and declaring that our freshest pleasures come "before +the age of fourteen"! Health is perpetual youth,--that is, a state of +positive health. Merely negative health, the mere keeping out of the +hospital for a series of years, is not health. Health is to feel the +body a luxury, as every vigorous child does,--as the bird does when it +shoots and quivers through the air, not flying for the sake of the goal, +but for the sake of the flight,--as the dog does when he scours madly +across the meadow, or plunges into the muddy blissfulness of the +stream. But neither dog nor bird nor child enjoys his cup of physical +happiness--let the dull or the worldly say what they will--with a +felicity so cordial as the educated palate of conscious manhood. To +"feel one's life in every limb," this is the secret bliss of which all +forms of athletic exercise are merely varying disguises; and it is +absurd to say that we cannot possess this when character is mature, but +only when it is half-developed. As the flower is better than the bud, so +should the fruit be better than the flower. + +We need more examples of a mode of living which shall not alone be a +success in view of some ulterior object, but which shall be, in its +nobleness and healthfulness, successful every moment as it passes on. +Navigating a wholly new temperament through history, this American race +must of course form its own methods and take nothing at second-hand; but +the same triumphant combination of bodily and mental training which made +human life beautiful in Greece, strong in Rome, simple and joyous in +Germany, truthful and brave in England, must yet be moulded to a higher +quality amid this varying climate and on these low shores. The regions +of the world most garlanded with glory and romance, Attica, Provence, +Scotland, were originally more barren than Massachusetts; and there is +yet possible for us such an harmonious mingling of refinement and vigor, +that we may more than fulfil the world's expectation, and may become +classic to ourselves. + + * * * * * + + +LAND-LOCKED. + + + Black lie the hills, swiftly doth daylight flee, + And, catching gleams of sunset's dying smile, + Through the dusk land for many a changing mile + The river runneth softly to the sea. + + O happy river, could I follow thee! + O yearning heart, that never can be still! + O wistful eyes, that watch the steadfast hill, + Longing for level line of solemn sea! + + Have patience; here are flowers and songs of birds, + Beauty and fragrance, wealth of sound and sight, + All summer's glory thine from morn till night, + And life too full of joy for uttered words. + + Neither am I ungrateful. But I dream + Deliciously, how twilight falls to-night + Over the glimmering water, how the light + Dies blissfully away, until I seem + + To feel the wind sea-scented on my cheek, + To catch the sound of dusky flapping sail, + And dip of oars, and voices on the gale, + Afar off, calling softly, low and sweet. + + O Earth, thy summer-song of joy may soar + Ringing to heaven in triumph! I but crave + The sad, caressing murmur of the wave + That breaks in tender music on the shore. + + + + +TWO OR THREE TROUBLES. + + +If there are only two or three, I am pretty sure of a sympathetic +hearing. If there were two-and-twenty, I should be much more doubtful: +for only last night, on being introduced to a tall lady in deep +mourning, and assured that she had been "a terrible sufferer," that her +life, indeed, had been "one long tragedy," I may as well confess, that, +so far from being interested in this tall long tragedy, merely as such, +I stepped a little aside on the instant, on some frivolous pretence, and +took an early opportunity to get out of the way. Why this was I leave to +persons who understand the wrong side of human nature. I am ashamed +of it; but there it is,--neither worse nor better. And I can't expect +others to be more compassionate than I am myself. + +One of my troubles grew out of a pleasure, but was not less a trouble +for the time. The other was not an excrescence, but ingrained with the +material: not necessarily, indeed,--far from it; but, from the nature of +the case, hopelessly so. + +The penny-postman had brought me a letter from my Aunt Allen, from +Albany. This letter contained, in three lines, a desire that her +dear niece would buy something with the inclosed, and accept it as a +wedding-gift, with the tenderest wishes for her life-long happiness, +from the undersigned. + +"The inclosed" fell on the floor, and Laura picked it up. + +"Fifty dollars!--hum!--Metropolitan Bank." + +"Oh, now, that is charming! Good old soul she is!" + +"Yes. Very well. I'm glad she sent it in money." + +"So am I. 'T isn't a butter-knife, anyhow." + +"How do you mean?" inquired Laura. + +"Why, Mr. Lang was telling last night about his clerk. He said he bought +a pair of butter-knives for his clerk Hillman, hearing that he was to be +married, and got them marked. A good substantial present he thought it +was,--cost only seven dollars for a good article, and couldn't fail to +be useful to Hillman. He took them himself, so as to be doubly gracious, +and met his clerk at the store-door. + +"'Good morning!--good morning! Wish you joy, Hillman! I've got a pair of +butter-knives for your wife.--Hey? got any?' + +"'Eleven, Sir.' + +"Eleven butter-knives! and all marked _Marcia Ann Hillman, from A.B., +from C.D._, and so on!" + +Laura laughed, and said she hoped my friends would all be as considerate +as Aunt Allen, or else consult her. Suppose eleven tea-pots, for +instance, or eleven silver salvers, all in a row! Ridiculous! + +"Now, Del, I will tell you what it is," said Laura, gravely. + +Laura was the sensible one, like Laura in Miss Edgeworth's "Moral +Tales," and never made any mistake. I was like the naughty horse that +is always rearing and jumping, but kept on the track by the good steady +one. Of course, I was far more interesting, and was to be married in +three weeks. + +"Now, Del, I'll tell you what it is. Are you going to have all your +presents paraded on the study-table, for everybody to pull over and +compare values,--and have one mortified, and another elated, and all +uncomfortable?" + +"Why, what can I do?" + +"I know what I wouldn't do." + +"You wouldn't do it, Laura?" said I, looking steadily at the +fifty-dollar note. + +"Never, Del! I told Mrs. Harris so, when we were coming home from Ellis +Hall's wedding. It looked absolutely vulgar." + +We all swore by Mrs. Harris in that part of Boynton, and it was +something to know that Mrs. Harris had received the shock of such a +heterodox opinion. + +"And what did Mrs. Harris say, Laura?" + +"She said she agreed with me entirely." + +"Did she really?" said I, drawing a good long breath. + +"Yes,--and she said she would as soon, and sooner, go to a silversmith's +and pull over all the things on the counter. There were knives and +forks, tea-spoons and table-spoons, fish-knives and pie-knives, +strawberry-shovels and ice-shovels, large silver salvers and small +silver salvers and medium silver salvers. Everything useful, and nothing +you want to look at. There wasn't a thing that was in good taste to +show, but just a good photograph of the minister that married them,--and +a beautiful little wreath of sea-weed, that one of her Sunday-school +scholars made for her. As to everything else, I would, as far as good +taste goes, have just as soon had a collection of all Waterman's +kitchen-furniture." + +Laura stopped at last, indignant, and out of breath. + +"There was a tremendous display of silver, I allow," said I; "the piano +and sideboard were covered with it." + +"Yes, and thoroughly vulgar, for that reason. A wedding-gift should be +something appropriate,--not merely useful. As soon as it is only that, +it sinks at once. It should speak of the bride, or to the bride, or +of and from the friend,--intimately associating the gift with past +impressions, with personal tastes, and future hopes felt by both. +The gift should always be a dear reminder of the giver; a +picture,--Evangeline or Beatrice; something you have both of you loved +to look at, or would love to. But think of the delight of cutting your +meat with Edward's present! forking ditto with Mary's! a crumb-scraper +reminding you of this one, table-bell of that one; large salver, +Uncle,--rich; small salver, Uncle,--mean; gold thimble, Cousin,--meanest +of all. Table cleared, ditto mind and memory, of the whole of them--till +next meal, _perhaps!_" + +Laura ceased talking, but rocked herself swiftly to and fro in her +chair. It is not necessary to say we were in our chambers,--as, since +our British cousins have ridiculed our rocking-chairs, they are all +banished from the parlor. Consequently we remain in our chambers to rock +and be useful, and come into the parlor to be useless and uncomfortable +in _fauteuils_, made, as the chair-makers tell us, "after the line of +beauty." Laura and I both detest them, and Polly says, "Nothing can be +worse for the spine of a person's back." To be + + "Stretched on the rack of a too-easy chair," + +let anybody try a modern drawing-room. So Laura and I have cane +sewing-chairs, which, it is needless to add, rock,--rock eloquently, +too. They wave, as the boat waves with the impetus of the sea, gently, +calmly, slowly,--or, as conversation grows animated, as disputes arise, +as good stories are told, one after another, so do the sympathizing and +eloquent rocking-chairs keep pace with our conversation, stimulating or +soothing, as it chances. + +And now I come to my first trouble,--first, and, as it happened, of long +standing now; insomuch that, when Laura asked me once, gravely, why I +had not made it a vital objection, in the first place, I had not a word +to reply, but just--rocked. + +She, Laura, was stitching on some shirts for "him." They were intended +as a wedding-gift from herself, and were beautifully made. Laura +despised a Wheeler-and-Wilson, and all its kindred,--and the shirts +looked like shirts, consequently. + +I linger a little, shivering on the brink. Somehow I always say +"_him_,"--nowadays, of course, Mr. Sampson,--but then I always said "he" +and "him." I know why country-folk say so, now. Though sentimentalists +say, it is because there is only one "he" for "her," I don't believe it. +It is because their names are Jotham, or Adoniram, or Jehiel, or Asher, +or some of those names, and so they say "he," for short. But there +was no short for me. So I may as well come to it. "His" name was +America,--America Sampson. It is four years and a half since I knew this +for a fact, yet my surprise is not lessened. Epithets are weak trash for +such an occasion, or I should vituperate even now the odious practice +of saddling children with one's own folly or prejudice in the shape of +names. + +There was no help for it. There was no hope. My lover had not received +his name from any rich uncle, with the condition of a handsome fortune; +so he had no chance of indignantly asserting his choice to be Herbert +barefoot rather than Hog's-flesh with gold shoes. His father and mother +had given his name,--not at the baptismal font, for they were Baptists, +and didn't baptize so,--but they had given it to him. They were both +alive and well, and so were seventeen uncles and aunts who would all +know,--in good health, and bad taste, all of them. + +"He" had four brothers to keep him in countenance, all with worse names +than his: Washington, Philip Massasoit, Scipio, and Hiram Yaw Byron! +There was the excuse, in this last name, of its being a family one, +as far as Yaw went; but----However, as I said, language is wholly +inadequate and weak for some purposes. There was a lower deep than +America,--that was some comfort. + +Hiram Yaw wasn't sent to college, but to Ashtabula, wherever that is, +and I never wish to see him. But to college was America sent,--to be +"hazed," and taunted, and called "E Plury," and his beak and claws +inquired after, through the freshman year. I never knew how he went +through,--I mean, with what feelings. Of course, he was the first +scholar. But that, even, must have been but a small consolation. + +The worst of all was, he was sensitive about his name,--whether because +it had been used to torment him, and so, like poor worn-out Nessus, +he wrapped more closely his poisoned scarf, (I like scarf better than +shirt,)--or whether he had, in the course of his law-studies and +men-studies, come to think it really mattered very little what a man's +name was in the beginning; at all events, he had no notion of dismissing +his own. + +My own secret hope had been, that, by an Act of the Legislature, which +that very season had changed Pontifex Parker to Charles Alfred Parker, +Mr. Sampson might be accommodated with a name less unspeakably national. +Dear me! Alfred, Arthur, Albert,--if he must begin with A. + + "A was an Archer, and shot at a frog." + +I should even prefer Archer. It needn't be Insatiate Archer. So I kept +turning over and over the painful subject, one evening,--I mean, of +course, in my mind, for I had not really broached this matter of +legislative action. Luckily, "he" had brought in the new edition of +George Herbert's Works. We were reading aloud, and "he" read the chapter +of "The Parson in Sacraments." At the foot was an extract from "The +Parish Register" of Crabbe, which he read, unconscious of the way in +which I mentally applied it. Indeed, I think he scarcely thought of his +own name at that time. But I did, twenty-four times in every day. This +was the note:-- + + "Pride lives with all; strange names our rustics give + To helpless infants, that their own may live; + Pleased to be known, they'll some attention claim, + And find some by-way to the house of fame. + 'Why Lonicera wilt thou name thy child?' + I asked the gardener's wife, in accents mild. + 'We have a right,' replied the sturdy dame; + And Lonicera was the infant's name." + +He stopped reading just here, to look at the evening paper, which had +been brought in. I read something in it, and then we all went to sit on +the piazza, with the street-lamp shining through the bitter-sweet vine, +as good as the moon, and the conversation naturally and easily turned +on odd names. I told what I had read in the paper: that our country +rivalled Dickens's in queer names, and that it wasn't for a land that +had Boggs and Bigger and Bragg for governors, and Stubbs, Snoggles, +Scroggs, and Pugh among its respectable citizens, to accuse Dickens +of caricature. I turned, a little tremulously, I confess, to "him," +saying,-- + +"If you had been so unfortunate as to have for a name Darius Snoggles, +now, for instance, wouldn't you have it changed by the Legislature?" + +I shivered with anxiety. + +"Certainly not," he replied, with perfect unconsciousness. "Whatever my +name might be, I would endeavor to make it a respectable one while I +bore it." + +Laura sat the other side of me, and softly touched me. So I only +asked, if that great star up there was Lyra; but all the time Anodyne, +Ambergris, Abner, Albion, Alpheus, and all the names that begin with A, +rolled through my memory monotonously and continually. + +After we went up-stairs that night, and while I was trying in vain to do +up my hair so as to make a natural wave in front, (sometimes everything +goes wrong,) Laura said,-- + +"Delphine!" + +My mother mixed romance with good practical sense, and very properly +said that girls with good names and tolerable faces might get on in the +world, but it took fortune to make your Sallies and Mollies go down. She +had good taste, too, and didn't name either of us Louisa Prudence, like +an unfortunate I once saw; and we were left, with our nice cottage +covered with its vine of bitter-sweet and climbing rose, fifteen hundred +dollars each, and our names, Delphine and Laura. Not a bad heritage, +with economy, good looks, and hearts to take life cheerily. Still it +is plain enough that a fifty-dollar note for the bride was not to be +despised nor overlooked. In fact, with the exception of Polly's present +of a brown earthen bowl and a pudding-stick, it was the first approach +to a wedding-gift that I had yet received. And this note was trouble the +second. But of that, by-and-by. + +"Delphine!" said Laura, softly. + +Some people's voices excoriate you, Laura's was soft and soothing. + +"Well!" + +"Don't say any more to--to Mr. Sampson about names." + +"Oh, dear! hateful!" + +"Delphine, be thankful it's no worse!" + +"How could it be worse,--unless it were Hog-and-Hominy? I never knew +anything so utterly ridiculous! America! Columbia! Yankee-Doodle! I'd +rather it had been Abraham!" + +All this I almost shouted in a passion of vexation, and Laura hastily +closed the window. + +"Let me loosen your braids for you, Del," said she, quietly, taking up +my hair in her gentle way, which always had a good effect on my prancing +nerves; "let me bathe your forehead with this, dear;--now, let me tell +you something you will like." + +"Oh, my heart! Laura, I wish you could! for I declare to you, that, if +it wasn't for--if it didn't----Oh, dear, dear! how I do hate that name!" + +"It is not so very good a name,--that must be owned, Del. All is, you +will have to call him 'Mr. Sampson,' or 'My dear,' or 'You'; or, stay, +you might abbreviate it into Ame, Ami. Ami and Delphine!--it sounds like +a French story for youth. If I were you, I wouldn't meddle with it or +think any more about it." + +"Such a name! so ridiculous!" I muttered. + +"You have considered it so much and so closely, Del, that it is most +disproportionately prominent in your mind. You can put out Bunker-Hill +Monument with your little finger, if you hold it close enough to your +eye. Don't you remember what Mr. Sampson said to-night about somebody +whose mind had no perspective in it? that his shoe-ribbon was as +prominent and important as his soul? Don't go and be a goosey, Del, and +have no perspective, will you?" And Laura leaned over and kissed my +forehead, all corrugated with my pet grief. + +"Well, Laura, what can be worse? I declare--almost I think, Laura, I +would rather he should have some great defect." + +"Moral or physical? Gambling? one leg? one eye? lying? six fingers? How +do you mean, Del?" + +"Oh, patience! no, indeed!--six fingers! I only meant"---- + +And here, of course, I stopped. + +"Which virtue could you spare in Mr. Sampson?" said Laura, coolly, +fastening my hair neatly in its net, and sitting down in _her_ +rocking-chair. + +When it came to that, of course there were none to be spared. We +undressed, silently,--Laura rolling all her ribbons carefully, and +I throwing mine about; Laura, consistent, conservative, allopathic, +High-Church,--I, homoeopathic, hydropathic, careless, and given to +Parkerism. It did not matter, as to harmony. Two bracelets, but no +need to be alike. We clasped arms and hearts all the same. By-and-by I +remembered,-- + +"Oh! what's your good news, Laura?" + +"Ariana Cooper and Geraldine Parker are both married,--both on the same +day, at Grace Church, New York." + +"Is it possible? Who told you? How do you know?" + +"I read it in the 'Evening Post,' just before I came up-stairs. Now +guess,--guess a month, Del, and you won't guess whom they have married." + +"No use to guess. They've found somebody in New York at their aunt's, +I suppose. Both so pretty and rich, they were likely to find good +_partis_." + +"Merchants both, I think. Now do guess!" + +"How can I? Herbert Clark, maybe,--or Captain Ellington? No, of course +not. A merchant? Julius Winthrop. I know Ariana was a great admirer of +a military man. She used to say she would have loved Sidney for his +chivalry, and Raleigh for his graceful foppery; and Pembroke Dunkin she +admired for both. It isn't Pembroke?" + +And here I sighed over and over, like a foolish virgin. + +"Now, then, listen. Here it is in the paper," said Laura. + +"'Married, at Grace Church, by the Rev. So-and-So, assisted, etc., etc., +Ossian Smutt, Esq., of the firm of S. Hamilton & Company, to Ariana, +eldest daughter of the late George S. Cooper. At the same place, and +day, Hon. Unity Smith, M.C., to Geraldine Miranda, daughter of the late +Russell Parker of Pine Lodge. The happy quartette have left in the +Persia for a tour in Europe. We wish them joy.'" + +"Ugh! Laura! goodness! well, that outdoes me," I screamed, with a sudden +sense of relief, that set me laughing as passionately as I had been +crying. For, though I have not before owned it, I had been crying +heartily. + +The Balm of a Thousand Flowers descended on my lacerated heart. To say +the truth, I had dreaded more Ariana's little shrug, and Geraldine +Parker's upraised eyebrows, on reading my marriage, than a whole life of +_that_ name, on my own account merely. But now, thank Heaven, so much +trouble was out of my way. Mrs. Unity Smith, and Mrs. Orlando--no, +Ossian Smutt, could by no possibility laugh at me. Mrs. A. Sampson +wasn't bad on a card. It would not smut one, anyhow. I laughed grimly, +and composed myself to sleep. + +The next morning had come the pleasant letter from my Albany aunt, with +the fifty-dollar note. Laura continued rocking, fifty strokes a minute, +and stitching at the rate of sixty. I held the note idly, rubbing up +my imagination for things new and old. Laura, being industrious, was +virtuously employing her thoughts. As idleness brings mischief, and +riches anxiety, I did not rock long without evil consequences. Eve +herself was not contented in Eden. She had to do all the cooking, for +one thing,--and angels always happening in to dinner! For my part, the +name of Adam would have been enough to spoil my pleasure. Here Laura +interrupted my thoughts, which were running headlong into everything +wicked. + +"What do you say?" + +"What do you?" I answered; for, like other bad people, I had the +greatest respect for good people's opinions. + +"I think--a small--silver salver!" + +"Do you think so, really?" + +"Yes, Del. That will be good; silver, you know, is always good to have; +and it will be handsome and useful always." + +"What! for us?" + +"Yes,--pretty to hand a cup of tea on, or a glass of wine,--pretty to +set in the middle of a long table with a vase of flowers on it, when you +have the Court and High-Sheriff to dine,--as you will, of course, every +year,--or with your spoon-goblet. Oh, there are plenty of ways to make a +small silver salver useful. Mrs. Harris says she doesn't see how any one +can keep house without a silver salver." + +The last sentence she said with a laugh, for she knew I thought so much +of what Mrs. Harris said. + +"We've kept house all our lives without one, Laura." + +"Yes,--but I often wish we had one, for all that. As Mrs. Harris says, +'It gives such an air!'" + +What a dreadful utilitarian Laura was, I thought. Now, the whole world +and Boston were full of beautiful things,--full of things that had no +special usefulness, but were absolutely and of themselves beautiful. And +such a thing I wanted,--such a presence before me,--"a thing of beauty +and of joy forever,"--something that would not speak directly or +indirectly of labor, of something to be wrought out with toil, or +associated with common, every-day objects. When that life should come to +which I secretly looked forward,--when my soul should bound into a more +radiant atmosphere, where the clouds, if any were, should be all +gold- and silver-tinted, and where my sorrows, love-colored, were to be +sweeter than other people's joys,--in that life, there would be moments +of sweet abandonment to the simple sense of happiness. Then I should +want something on which my mind might linger, my eye rest,--as the bird +rests for an instant, to turn her plumage in the sun, and take another +and loftier flight. Not a word of all this, which common minds called +farrago, but which had its truth to me, did I utter to Laura. Of course, +none of these things bear transplanting or expressing. + +"Laura, do you like that statue of Mercury in Mrs. Gore's library?" + +"Very much. But I am sure I should be tired of seeing it every day, +standing on one toe. I should be tired, if he wasn't." + +"Mrs. Gore says she never tires of it. I asked her. She says it is a +delight to her to lie on the sofa and trace the beautiful undulations +of his figure. How airy! It looks as if it would fly again without the +least effort,--as if it had just 'new-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill'! +Don't you think it perfect, Laura?" + +"Well--yes,--I suppose so. I am not so enthusiastic as you are about +it." + +"Why don't you like it?" + +I would not let Laura see how disappointed I was. + +"One thing,--I don't like statuary in any attitude which, if continued, +would seem to be painful. I know artists admire what gives an impression +of motion; and I like to look at Mercury once; as you say, it gives an +idea of flight, of motion,--and it is beautiful for two minutes. But +then comes a sense of its being painful. So that statue of Hebe, or +Aurora,--which is it?--looks as if swiftly coming towards you; but only +for a minute. It does not satisfy you longer, because the unfitness +comes then, and the fatigue, and your imagination is harassed and +fretted. I think statuary should be in repose,--that is, if we want it +in the house as a constant object of sight. Eve at the fountain, or Echo +listening, or Sabrina fair sitting + + "'Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, + With twisted braids of lilies knitting + The loose train of her amber-dropping hair.' + +"No matter, if she is represented employed. The motion may go so far." + +I suppose I looked blank. + +"Oh, don't think I am not glad to admire it. I thought you were thinking +of it for Aunt Allen's gift," continued Laura. + +"And so I was. It costs just fifty dollars. But I think you are right +about it. And, besides, do you like bronze, Laura?" + +"I like marble a great, great deal best. There is a bronze statue of +Fortune, and a Venus, at Harris & Stanwood's, that are called 'so +beautiful!'--and I wouldn't have them in my house." + +Here was an extinguisher. Laura didn't like bronze. And Laura was to be +in my house, whether bronzes--were or not. + + * * * * * + +The sun shone brightly through the bitter-sweet that ran half over the +window, and lighted on the corner of an old mahogany chest. + +"That reminds me!" said I, suddenly. "Yesterday, I was looking at +crockery, and there was the most delightful cabinet!--real Japan work, +such as we read of; full of little drawers, and with carved silver +handles, and a secret drawer that shoots out when you touch a spring at +the back. Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing to stand in the parlor, +Laura?" + +"For what, Del? Could you keep silver in it? How large is it?" + +"Why, no,--it wouldn't be large enough to hold silver. And, besides, I +don't know that I want it for any such purpose. It would hold jewelry." + +"If you had any, Del." + +"There's the secret drawer,--that would be capital for anything I wanted +to keep perfectly secret." + +"Such as what'?" + +"Oh, I don't know what, now; but I might possibly have." + +"I can't think of anything you would want to shut up in that drawer," +said Laura, laughing at my mysterious face, which she said looked about +as secret as a hen-coop with the chickens all flying out between the +slats. "In the first place, you haven't any secrets, and are not likely +to have; and next, you will show us (Mr. Sampson and me) the drawer and +spring the first thing you do. And I shall look there every week, to see +if there's anything hid there!" + +"Oh, bah!" said I to myself; "Sumner told me that cabinet was just fifty +dollars." + +Something--I know not what, and probably never shall know--made me rise +from my rocking-chair, and walk to the chamber-window. At that moment, a +man with a green bag in his hand walked swiftly by, touched his hat as +he passed, and smiled as he turned the corner out of sight. A little +spasm, half painful in its pleasure, contracted my chest, and then +set out at a thrilling pace to the end of my fingers. Then a sense of +triumphant fulness, in my heart, on my lip, in my eyes. Not the name, +but the nature passed,--strong to wrestle, determined to win. Not the +body, but the soul of a man, passed across my field of vision, armed for +earth-strife, gallantly breasting life. What mattered the shape or the +name,--whether handsome or with a fine fortune? How these accidents fell +off from the soul, as it beamed in the loving eye and firm lip! + + "The moment that his face I see, + I know the man that must" lead "me." + +And gently as the fawn follows the forest-keeper does my heart follow +his, to the green pastures and still waters where he loves to lead. I +did not think whether he had a name. + +"Are you considering what to put into the secret drawer, Del?" + +"Yes,--rather." + +Again Laura and I sat and rocked,--this time silently, for my head was +full, and I was holding a stopper on it to keep it from running over; +while Laura was really puzzled about the way to make a dog's eyes with +Berlin wool. As I rocked, from association probably, I thought again of +Eve,--who never seems at all like a grandmother to me, nor even like +"the mother of all living," but like a sweet, capricious, tender, +naughty girl. Like Eve, I had only to stretch forth my hand (with the +fifty-dollar note in it) and grasp "as much beauty as could live" within +that space. Yet, as fifty dollars would buy not only this, but that, +and also the other, it presently became the representative of tens +of fifties, hundreds of fifties, thousands of fifties, and so +on,--different fifties all, but all assuming shapes of beauty and value; +finally, alternately clustering and separating, gathering as if in all +sorts of beautiful heads,--angel heads, winged children,--then shooting +off in a thousand different directions, leaving behind landscapes of +exquisite sunsets, of Norwegian scenery, of processions of pines, of +moonlight seen through arched bridges, of Palmyrene deserts, of +pilgrims in the morning praying. Then came hurdy-gurdy boys and little +flower-girls again, mingling with the landscapes, and thrusting their +curly heads forward, as if to bid me not forget them. Then they all ran +away and left me standing in a long, endless hall with endless columns, +and white figures all about,--in the niches, on the floor, on the +walls,--each Olympian in beauty, in grandeur, in power to lift the +entranced soul to the high region where itself was created, and to which +it always pointed. The white figures melted and warmed into masses and +alcoves, and innumerable volumes looked affectionately at me. They knew +me of old, and had told me their delightful secrets. "They had slept +in my bosom, and whispered kind things to me in the dark night." Some +pressed forward, declaring that here was the new wine of thought, +sparkling and foaming as it had never done before, from the depths of +human sympathy; and others murmured, "The old is better," and smiled at +the surface-thoughts in blue and gold. Volumes and authors grew angry +and vituperative. There was so much to be said on all sides, that I was +deafened, and, with a shake of my head, shook everything into chaos, as +I had done a hundred times before. + +"What are you thinking of, Del?" said Laura, pointing the dog's eye with +scarlet wool, to make him look fierce. "You have been looking straight +at me for half a minute." + +"Half a minute! have I?" + +That wasn't long, however, considering what I had seen in the time. + +"At Cotton's, yesterday, I saw, Laura, a beautiful engraving of Arria +and Paetus. She is drawing the dagger from her side, and saying, so +calmly, so heroically,--'My Paetus! it is not hard to die!'" + +I had inquired the price of this engraving, and the man said it was +fifty dollars without the frame. + +"Those pictures are so painful to look at! don't you think so, Del? And +the better they are, the worse they are! Don't you remember that day we +passed with Sarah, how we wondered she could have her walls covered with +such pictures?" + +"Merrill brought them home from Italy, or she wouldn't, perhaps. But I +do remember,--they ware very disagreeable. That flaying of Marsyas! and +Christ crowned with thorns! and that sad Ecce Homo!" + +"Yes,--and the Laocoön on that centre bracket! enough to make you scream +to look at it! I desire never to have such bloody reminders about me; +and for a parlor or sitting-room I would infinitely prefer a dead wall +to such a picture, if it were by the oldest of the old masters. Who +wants Ugolino in the house, if it is ever so well painted? Supping on +horrors indeed!" + +We rocked again,--and Laura talked about plants and shirts and such +healthy subjects. But, of course, my mind was in such a condition, +nothing but fifty-dollar subjects would stay in it; and, most of all, I +must not let Laura guess what I was thinking of. + +"Do you like enamelled watches, Laura,--those pretty little ones made in +Geneva, I mean, worth from forty to sixty dollars?" + +"How do you mean? Do I like the small timepieces? or is it the picture +on the back?" said Laura. + +"Oh, either. I was thinking of a beauty I saw at Crosby's yesterday, +with the Madonna della Seggiola on the back. Now it is a good thing to +have such a picture about one, any way. I looked at this through the +microscope. It was surprisingly well done; and I suppose the watches are +as good as most." + +"Better than yours and mine, Del?" said Laura, demurely. + +"Why, no,--I suppose not so good. But I was thinking more of the +picture." + +"Oh!" said Laura. + +I was on the point of asking what she thought of Knight's Shakspeare, +when the bell rang and Polly brought up Miss Russell's card. + +Miss Russell was good and pretty, with a peach-bloom complexion, soft +blue eyes, and curling auburn hair. Still those were articles that could +not well be appraised, as I thought the first minute after we were +seated in the parlor. But she had over her shoulders a cashmere scarf, +which Mr. Russell had brought from India himself, which was therefore a +genuine article, and which, to crown all, cost him only fifty dollars. +It would readily bring thrice that sum in Boston, Miss Russell said. But +such chances were always occurring. Then she described how the shawls +were all thrown in a mess together in a room, and how the captains of +vessels bought them at hap-hazard, without knowing anything about their +value or their relative fineness, and how you could often, if you knew +about the goods, get great bargains. It was a good way to send out fifty +or a hundred dollars by some captain you could trust for taste, or the +captain's wife. But it was generally a mere chance. Sometimes there +would be bought a great old shawl that had been wound round the naked +waist and shoulders of some Indian till it was all soiled and worn. That +would have to be cut up into little neck-scarfs. But sometimes, too, you +got them quite new. Papa knew about dry goods, luckily, and selected a +nice one. + +Part of this was repulsive,--but, again, part of it attractive. We don't +expect to be the cheated ones ourselves. + +The bell rang again, and this time Lieutenant Clarence Herbert entered +on tiptoe: not of expectation particularly, but he had a way of +tiptoeing which had been the fashion before he went to sea the last +time, and which he resumed on his return, without noticing that in the +mean time the fashion had gone by, and everybody stood straight and +square on his feet. The effect, like all just-gone-by fashions, was to +make him look ridiculous; and it required some self-control on our part +to do him the justice of remembering that he could be quite brilliant +when he pleased, was musical and sentimental. He had a good name, as I +sighed in recalling. + +We talked on, and on, instinctively keeping near the ground, and hopping +from bough to bough of daily facts. + +When they were both gone, we rejoiced, and went up-stairs again to our +work and our rocking. Laura hummed,-- + + "'The visit paid, with ecstasy we come, + As from a seven-years' transportation, home, + And there resume the unembarrassed brow, + Recovering what we lost, we know not how,'-- + +"What is it?-- + + "'Expression,--and the privilege of thought.'" + +"What an idea Louisa Russell always gives one of clothes!" said Laura. +"I never remember the least thing she says. I would almost as soon have +in the house one of those wire-women they keep in the shops to hang +shawls on, for anything she has to say." + +"I know it," I answered. "But, to tell the truth, Laura, there was +something very interesting about her clothes to me to-day. That scarf! +Don't you think, Laura, that an India scarf is always handsome?" + +"Always handsome? What! all colors and qualities?" + +"Of course not. I mean a handsome one,--like Louisa Russell's." + +"Why, yes, Del. A handsome scarf is always handsome,--that is, until it +is defaced or worn out. What a literal mood you are in just now!" + +"Well, Laura,"--I hesitated, and then added slowly, "don't you think +that an India scarf has become almost a matter of necessity? I mean, +that everybody has one?" + +"In Boston, you mean. I understand the New York traders say they sell +ten cashmere shawls to Boston people where they do one to a New-Yorker." + +"Mrs. Harris told me, Laura, that she _could not_ do without one. She +says she considers them a real necessary of life. She has lost four of +those little neck-scarfs, and, she says, she just goes and buys another. +Her neck is always cold just there." + +"Is it, really?" said Laura, dryly. "I suppose nothing short of cashmere +could possibly warm it!" + +"Well, it is a pretty thing for a present, any way," said I, rather +impatiently; for I had settled on a scarf as unexceptionable in most +respects. There was the bargain, to begin with. Then it was always a +good thing to hand down to one's heirs. The Gores had a long one that +belonged to their grandmamma, and they could draw it through a gold +ring. It was good to wear, and good to leave. Indicated blood, +too,--and--and----In short, a great deal of nonsense was on the end of +my tongue, waiting my leave to slip off, when Laura said,-- + +"Didn't Lieutenant Herbert say he would bring you Darley's 'Margaret'?" + +"Yes,--he is to bring it to-morrow. What a pretty name Clarence Herbert +is! Lieutenant Clarence Herbert,--there's a good name for you! How many +pretty names there are!" + +"You wouldn't be at a loss to name boys," said Laura, laughing,--"like +Mr. Stickney, who named his boys One, Two, and Three. Think of going by +the name of One Stickney!" + +"That isn't so bad as to be named 'The Fifteenth of March.' And that was +a real name, given to a girl who was born at sea--I wonder what _she_ +was called 'for short.'" + +"Sweet fifteen, perhaps." + +"That would do. Yes,--Herbert, Robert," said I, musingly, "and Philip, +and Arthur, and Algernon, Alfred, Sidney, Howard, Rupert"---- + +"Oh, don't, Del! You are foolish, now." + +"How, Laura?" said I, consciously. + +"Why don't you say America?" + +"Oh, what a fall!" + +"Enough better than your fine Lieutenant, Del, with his taste, and his +sentiments, and his fine bows, and 'his infinite deal of nothing.'" + +I sighed and said nothing. The name-fancies had gone by in long +procession. America had buried them all, and stamped sternly on their +graves. + +"What made you ask about Darley's 'Margaret,' Laura?" + +"Oh,--only I wanted to see it." + +"Don't you think," said I, suddenly reviving with a new idea, "that a +portfolio of engravings is a handsome thing to have in one's parlor +or library? Add to it, you know, from time to time; but begin with +'Margaret,' perhaps, and Retzsch's 'Hamlet' or 'Faust,'--or a collection +of fine wood engravings, such as Mrs. Harris has,--and perhaps one of +Albert Dürer's ugly things to show off with. What do you think of it, +Laura?" + +"Do you ever look at Mrs. Harris's nowadays, Del?" + +"Why, no,--I can't say I do, now. But I have looked at them when people +were there. How she would shrug and shiver when they _would_ put their +fingers on her nice engravings, and soil, or bend and break them at +the corners! Somebody asked her once, all the time breaking up a fine +Bridgewater Madonna she had just given forty dollars for, 'What is +this engraving worth, now?' She answered, coldly,--'Five minutes ago I +thought it worth forty dollars: now I would take forty cents for it.'" + +"Not very polite, I should say," said Laura. "And rather cruel too, +on the whole; since the offence was doubtless the result of ignorance +only." + +"I know. But Mrs. Harris said she was so vexed she could not restrain +herself; and besides, she would infinitely prefer that he should be +mortally offended, at least to the point of losing his acquaintance, to +having her best pictures spoiled. She said he cost too much altogether." + +"She should have the corners covered somehow. To be sure, it would be +better for people to learn how to treat nice engravings,--but they +won't; and every day somebody comes to see you, and talks excellent +sense, all the while either rolling up your last 'Art Journal,' or +breaking the face of Bryant's portrait in, or some equal mischief. I +don't think engravings pay, to keep,--on the whole; do you, Del?" And +Laura smiled while she rocked. + +"Well, perhaps not. I am sure I shouldn't be amiable enough to have mine +thumbed and ruined; and certainly, if they are only to be kept in a +portfolio, it seems hardly worth while." + +"So I think," said Laura. + +This vexatious consideration--for so it had become--of how I should +spend my aunt's money, came at length almost to outweigh the pleasure of +having it to spend. It was perhaps a little annoyance, at first, but by +repetition became of course great. The prick of a pin is nothing; but if +it prick three weeks, sleeping and waking, "there is differences, look +you!" + +"What shall I do with it?" became a serious matter. Suppose I left the +regions of art and beauty particularly, and came back and down to what +would be suitable on the whole, and agreeable to my aunt, whose taste +was evidently beyond what Albany could afford, or she would not have +sent me to the Modern Athens to buy the right thing. Nothing that would +break; else, Sèvres china would be nice: I might get a small plate, or +a dish, for the money. Clothes wear out. Furniture,--you don't want to +say, "This chair, or this bureau or looking-glass, is my Aunt Allen's +gift." No, indeed! It must be something uncommon, _recherché_, tasteful, +durable, and, if possible, something that will show well and sound well +always. If it were only to spend the money, of course I could buy a +carpet or fire-set with it. And off went my bewildered head again on a +tour of observation. + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +HARBORS OF THE GREAT LAKES. + + +In a recent article upon "The Great Lakes,"[A] we remarked, that, +from the conformation of their shores, natural harbors are of rare +occurrence. Consequently, for the protection and convenience of +commerce, a system of artificial harbors has been adopted by the Federal +Government, and appropriations have been made from time to time by +Congress for this purpose; and officers of the United States Engineer +Corps have been appointed to carry on the work. It is to some extent a +new and peculiar kind of engineering, caused by the peculiar conditions +of the case. + +[Footnote A: See _Atlantic Monthly_ for February.] + +Most of the lake-towns are built upon rivers which empty into the lakes, +and these rivers are usually obstructed at their mouths by bars of sand +and clay. The formation of these bars is due to several causes. The +principal one is this:--The shores of the lakes being usually composed +of sand, this is carried along by the shore-currents of the lake and +deposited at the river-mouths. Another cause of these obstructions may +be found in the fact, that the currents of the rivers are constantly +bringing down with them an amount of soil, which is deposited at the +point where the current meets the still waters of the lake. A third +cause, as we are told by Col. Graham, in his Report for 1855, is the +following:-- + +"Although the great depth of Lake Michigan prevents the surface from +freezing, yet the ice accumulates in large bodies in the shallow water +near the shores, and is driven by the wind into the mouths of the +rivers. A barrier being thus formed to the force of the lake-waves, the +sudden check of velocity causes them to deposit a portion of the silt +they hold in suspension upon the upper surface of this stratum of ice. +By repeated accumulations in this way, the weight becomes sufficient to +sink the whole mass to the bottom. There it rests, together with other +strata, which are sunk in the same way, until the channel is obstructed +by the combined masses of ice and silt. In the spring, when the ice +melts, the silt is dropped to the bottom, which, combined with that +constantly deposited by the lakeshore currents, causes a greater +accumulation in winter than at any other season." + +These bars at the natural river-mouths have frequently not more than two +or three feet of water; and some of them have entirely closed up the +entrance, although at a short distance inside there may be a depth of +from twelve to fifteen or even twenty feet of water. + +The channels of these rivers have also a tendency to be deflected from +their courses, on entering the lake, by the shore-currents, which, +driven before the prevailing winds, bend the channel off at right +angles, and, carrying it parallel with the lake-shore, form a long spit +of sand between the river and the lake. + +Thus, in constructing an artificial harbor at one of these river-mouths, +the first object to be aimed at is to prevent the further formation of a +bar; and the second, to deepen and improve the river-channel. The former +is attained by running out piers into the lake from the mouth of the +river; and the latter, by the use of a dredge-boat, to cut through the +obstructions. + +These piers are formed of a line of cribs, built of timber, and loaded +with stone to keep them in place, and enable them to resist the action +of the waves. They are usually built about twenty or twenty-five feet +wide, and from thirty to forty feet long. They are strengthened by +cross-ties of timber, uniting together the outward walls of the crib. +Piles are usually driven down into the clay, inside of these cribs, and +they are covered with a deck or flooring of plank. As the action of the +currents is constantly tending to remove the bed on which the cribs +rest, and thus cause them to tilt over, their bottoms are constructed +in a sort of open lattice-work, with openings large enough to allow the +stones with which they are loaded to drop through and supply the place +of the earth which is washed away. + +The effect of these piers is to concentrate and deepen the +river-channel, and to retard the formation of bars, though they do not +wholly prevent it. In the spring it is often necessary to employ the +services of a steam-dredge-boat to cut through the bar, before vessels +can pass out. + +The portion of these cribs above water is found not to last more than +ten or fifteen years; so that it is now recommended to replace them with +piers of stone masonry, wherever the material is easy of access. + +As to the cause of the shore-currents which produce this mischief, Col. +Graham says, in one of his Reports,-- + +"The great power which operates to produce the littoral or shore +currents of the lake is the prevailing winds; just as the great ocean +current called the Gulf Stream is produced by the trade-winds. The +first-mentioned phenomenon is but a miniature demonstration of the same +principle which is more boldly shown in the other. The wind, acting +in its most prevalent lakeward direction, combined with this littoral +current, produces the great power which is constantly forming sand-bars +and shoals at all the harbor-entrances on our extensive lake-coasts. To +counteract the effect of this great power, upon a given point, is what +we have chiefly to contend for in planning the harbor-piers for all the +lake-ports intended to be improved. The point which an engineer first +aims at, in undertaking to plan any of these harbor-works, is to +ascertain as nearly as possible the direction and force of the +prevailing winds." + +The length of the Chicago piers is as follows:--North pier, 3900 feet +long, 24 feet wide; south pier, 1800 feet long, 24 feet wide; and they +are placed 200 feet apart. + +Harbors of this kind have been constructed at Chicago, Waukegan, +Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Manitoowoc, Michigan City, and +St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan; at Clinton River, on Lake St. Clair; at +Monroe, Sandusky, Huron, Vermilion, Black River, Cleveland, Grand River, +Ashtabula, Conneaut, Erie, Dunkirk, and Buffalo, on Lake Erie; at Oak +Orchard, Genesee River, Sodus Bay, Oswego, and Ogdensburg, on Lake +Ontario. + +For Lakes Huron and Superior it is believed that no appropriations have +been made, the scanty population of their shores not seeming as yet +to demand it, and those two lakes having in their numerous groups of +islands more natural shelter for vessels than Michigan or Erie. + +Besides these river-harbors, Col. Graham recommends to Government the +construction at certain points on the lakes of sheltered roadsteads, or +harbors of refuge, to which vessels may run for shelter in bad weather, +when it may be difficult or dangerous to enter the river-mouths. These +are proposed to be made by building breakwaters of crib-work, loaded +with stone, and extending along the shore in a sufficient depth of water +to admit vessels riding easily at anchor under their lee. Many lives +and much property would undoubtedly be saved every year by such +constructions; for it is a difficult matter for a vessel to enter these +narrow rivers in a heavy gale of wind, and if she misses the entrance, +she is very likely to go ashore. + +Another very important work to the navigation of the lakes is the +deepening of the channel in Lake St. Clair. + +Between Lakes Huron and Erie lies Lake St. Clair, a shallow sheet of +water, some twenty miles in length, through which all the trade of the +Upper Lakes is obliged to pass. At the mouth of the river which connects +this lake with Huron, there is a delta of mud flats, with numerous +channels, which in their deepest parts have not more than ten feet of +water, and would be utterly impassable, were not the bottom of a soft +and yielding mud, which permits the passage of vessels through it, under +the impulse of steam or a strong wind. + +Mr. James L. Barton, a gentleman long connected with the lake-commerce, +thus wrote some years ago upon this subject to the Hon. Robert +McClelland, then chairman of the House Committee on Commerce:-- + +"These difficulties are vastly increased from the almost impassable +condition of the flats in Lake St. Clair. Here steamboats and vessels +are daily compelled in all weather to lie fast aground, and shift their +cargoes, passengers, and luggage into lighters, exposing life, health, +and property to great hazard, and then by extraordinary heaving and +hauling are enabled to get over. Indeed, so bad has this passage become, +that one of the largest steamboats, after lying two or three days on +these flats, everything taken from her into lighters, was unable, with +the powerful aid of steam and everything else she could bring into +service, to pass over; she was obliged to give her freight and +passengers to a smaller boat, abandon the trip, and return to Buffalo. +Other vessels have been compelled not only to take out all their +cargoes, but even their chains and anchors have been stripped from them, +before they could get over. To meet this difficulty as far as possible, +the commercial men around these lakes have imposed a tax upon their +shipping, to dredge out and deepen the channel through these flats." + +Col. Graham, in one of his Reports to the Department, writes as follows +upon the importance of this improvement in a military point of view:-- + +"Since the opening of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal, the only obstacle to +the co-operation of armed fleets, which in time of war would be placed +upon Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, with that which would be on +Lake Erie, is at St. Clair flats. That obstacle removed, and a depth +of channel of twelve feet obtained there, which might be increased to +sixteen or eighteen feet by dredging, war-steamers of the largest +class which would probably be placed on these lakes would have a free +navigation from Buffalo at the foot of Lake Erie to Fond du Lac of Lake +Superior. + +"It would be very important that these fleets should have the power of +concentration, either wholly or in part, at certain important points now +rendered impracticable by these intervening flats. It would no doubt +often be important as a measure of naval tactics alone. It would as +often, again, be equally necessary in coöperating with our land-forces. +It might even become necessary to depend on the navy to transport our +land-forces rapidly from one point to another on different sides of the +flats. + +"When a work like this subserves the double purpose of military defence +in times of war, and of promoting the interests of commerce between +several of the States of the Union in time of peace, it would seem to +have an increased claim to the attention of the General Government. If +any work of improvement can be considered national in its character, +the improvement of St. Clair flats, in the manner proposed, may, it is +submitted, justly claim to be placed in that category." + +The plan proposed by the United States Engineers for this improvement is +to construct two parallel piers of about four thousand feet long, as a +permanent protection to the channel-way, and to dredge out a channel +between these piers, six hundred feet wide and twelve feet deep. The +cost of this work is estimated at about $533,000. This may seem a large +sum of money; but when it is considered that the value of the commerce +which passed over these flats in the year 1855 was ascertained by +Col. Graham to be over two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, or +considerably more than the whole exports of the Southern States for the +year 1860, more than a million of dollars per day during the period of +navigation, and that the increased charge on freights by reason of this +obstruction is more than two millions of dollars per annum, which of +course has to be paid by the producer, the investment of one quarter of +that annual charge in a work which would do away with the tax might seem +to be a measure of economy. + +To show the importance of these lake-harbors, and the vast amount of +commerce which depends upon them, and which has grown up within the last +twenty years, we will give an extract from another of Col. Graham's very +interesting Reports, upon the Chicago harbor. + +"The present vast extent and rapidly increasing growth of the commerce +of Chicago render it a matter of absolute necessity, in which not +only Illinois, but also a number of her neighboring States are deeply +interested, that her harbor should be kept in the best and most secure +state of improvement, so as always to afford, during the season of +navigation, a safe and easy entrance and departure for vessels drawing +at least twelve feet water. + +"The States which are thus directly interested in the port of Chicago +are New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, +Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The shores of all these are washed either by +Lake Michigan or the other Great Lakes, with which Chicago has a direct +and very extensive commerce through the St. Clair flats. The other +States and Territories, which do not reach to the Great Lakes, but which +are nevertheless greatly interested in the preservation of Chicago +harbor, are Iowa and Missouri, and Nebraska and Kansas. A very large +portion of the wheat and other grain produced in those last-mentioned +States and Territories will be brought by railroads to the port of +Chicago, to be shipped thence to the Eastern Atlantic markets. + +"The average amount of duties received annually at the Chicago +custom-house for three years, 1853, '54, and '55, was $377,797.86. The +imports at Chicago for 1855 were,-- + + By lake shipment, $100,752,304.41 + " Illinois and Michigan Canal, 7,426,262.35 + " Railroads, 68,481,497.90 + + Total imports in 1855, $196,660,064.66 + +_Exports_. + + By lake shipment, $34,817,716.32 + " Canal, 79,614,042.70 + " Railroads, 98,521,262.86 + ---------------- + Total value of exports in 1855, $212,953,021.88 + +"Aggregate value of imports and exports at Chicago in the year 1855, +$409,613,086.54.[B] + +[Footnote B: This is more than half of the value of all the exports and +imports of the Union in the year 1860, King Cotton included.] + +"These statistics have been obtained by much labor and perseverance, +with a view to the strictest accuracy. The result has amply justified +the labor; for the published statistics of this commerce, which have +gone forth to the country through the newspaper-press of the city, fall +far short of its actual extent. On discovering this fact, I felt it to +be a matter of duty to obtain the information directly from the only +authentic sources, namely, the custom-house, mercantile, and warehouse +records. + +"Such are the claims which, in a civil point of view, are presented in +behalf of the preservation of this harbor. + +"There is still another, of not less magnitude, which is exclusively +national. It is the influence it would have on the military defence of +this part of our frontier, and the success of our arms in time of war. A +single glance at the general map of the United States will be sufficient +to show the importance of Chicago as a military position in conducting +our operations in defence of our northwestern frontier in time of war. + +"The great depth to which Lake Michigan here penetrates into a populous +and fertile country totally devoid of fortifications would constitute an +irresistible inducement to an enemy to aim with all his strength at this +point, should he find it divested of any of the chief means of defence +which are by all nations accorded to maritime ports of chief importance, +He would find Chicago very much in such a state of weakness, if the +harborworks here are allowed to fall into a dilapidated condition; for +then our naval force would not itself be secure in hovering about this +port, or in cruising in its immediate vicinity for purposes of military +defence. There is scarcely a week in the year that a fleet might not +have occasion to take refuge from the lake-gales in a safe harbor. +Deprived of this advantage, the only resort would be to take the open +sea, and there buffet out the storms. On their subsiding, this defensive +fleet, on attempting to resume its proper position, might find it +occupied by an enemy, with all the advantages, in a combat, which ought +to be secured to our side. + +"An enemy, once possessing this harbor, could by a powerful fleet cover +the landing of an army in pursuit of the conquest of territory, or +designing to lay heavy pecuniary contributions upon the inhabitants. +Peace is the proper time to prepare against such a catastrophe, and the +protection of the harbor is the first element in the military defence +that should be attended to. With the harbor secured permanently in good +condition, the port of Chicago, through the enterprise of the people +of Illinois and the surrounding States, will possess the elements of +military strength in perhaps a greater degree than any other seaport in +the Union. + +"The immense reticulation of railroads, amounting to an aggregate length +of 2720 miles, which are tributary to this port, now daily brings into +Chicago the vast amount of agricultural produce exhibited in our tables. +These are their peace-offerings to other nations. In the emergency of +war, however, these railroads could in a single day concentrate at +Chicago troops enough for any military campaign, even if designed to +cover our whole northwestern lake-frontier. Besides this, they would be +the means of bringing here, daily, the munitions of war, and, above all, +the necessary articles of subsistence and forage, to sustain an army of +any magnitude, and to keep it in activity throughout any period that +the war might last. In other words, Chicago would be in time of war the +chief _point d'appui_ of military operations in the Northwest." + +In regard to the military importance of the command of the Great Lakes, +history ought to teach us a lesson. At the breaking out of the War of +1812, this matter had been entirely neglected by our Government, in +spite of the earnest appeals of the officer in command in this quarter. +The consequence was the utter failure of the campaign against Canada, +and the capture of the principal posts in the Northwest by the British, +who had provided a naval force here, small, indeed, but sufficient where +there was no opponent. It was not until the naval force organized by +Commodore Perry swept the British from Lake Erie that General Harrison +was able to recover the lost territory. From these considerations, the +importance of strong fortifications in the Straits of Mackinac, to +command the entrance of our Mediterranean, would seem to be evident. + +The early advocates in Congress of these lake-improvements had to +encounter a very violent opposition from various quarters. + +First, the abstractionists of the Virginia school--men who "would cavil +for the ninth part of a hair"--affirmed in general terms, that this +Government was established with the view of regulating our external +affairs, leaving all internal matters to be regulated by the States; and +then, descending to particulars, declared, that, while Congress had the +power to make improvements on salt water, it could do nothing on fresh. +Furthermore, they argued, that, to give the power of spending money, the +water must ebb and flow, and that the improvement must be below a port +of entry, and not above. Another refinement of the Richmond sophists +was this:--If a river be already navigable, Congress has the power to +improve it, because it can "regulate" commerce; but if a sand-bar at +its mouth prevents vessels from passing in or out, Congress cannot +interfere, because that would be "creating," and not "regulating." +Other Southern orators and their Northern followers denounced these +appropriations as a system of plunder and an attack upon Southern +rights, forgetting the fact, that, in these harbor and coast +appropriations, the South, with a much smaller commerce than the North, +had always claimed the larger share of expenditure. Thus, from 1825 to +1831, + + New England received $ 327,563.21 + The Middle States, including + the Lakes, 982,145.20 + The South and Southwest 2,233,813.18 + +Others joined in this opposition, from ignorance of the great commerce +growing up on the lakes; and frequently, where bills have been passed by +Congress, Southern influence has caused the Executive to veto them. In +spite of all these obstacles, however, this great interest forced itself +upon the attention of the country; and in July, 1847, a Convention, +composed of delegates from eighteen States, met in Chicago, to concert +measures for obtaining from Government the necessary improvements for +Western rivers and harbors. This body sent an able memorial to Congress, +and the result has been that larger appropriations have since been made. +Still, however, much remains to be done, and it appears by the last +Report of Colonel Graham, that his estimates for necessary work on lake +harbors and roadsteads amount to nearly three millions of dollars, to +which half a million should be added for the improvement of St. Clair +flats, making an aggregate of three and a half millions of dollars, +which is much needed at this time, for the safe navigation of the lakes. + +It may be remarked, in tins connection, that the lakes, with their +tributary streams, are furnished with nearly a hundred light-houses, +four or five of which are revolving, and the remainder fixed +lights,--Lake Ontario having eight, Lake Erie twenty-three, Lake St. +Clair two, Lake Huron nine, Lake Michigan thirty-two, and Lake Superior +fourteen. + +When we say that Chicago exports thirty millions of bushels of grain, +and is the largest market in the world, many persons doubtless believe +that these are merely Western figures of speech, and not figures of +arithmetic. Let us, then, compare the exports of those European cities +winch have confessedly the largest corn-trade with those of Chicago. + + 1854. Bushels of Grain. + Odessa, on the Black Sea, 7,040,000 + Galatz and Bruilow, do., 8,320,000 + Dantzic, on the Baltic, 4,408,000 + Riga, do., 4,000,000 + St. Petersburg, Gulf of Finland, 7,200,000 + Archangel, on the White Sea, 9,528,000 + ---------- + 40,496,000 + + Chicago, 1860, 30,000,000 + +or three-quarters of the amount of grain shipped by the seven largest +corn-markets in Europe; and if we add to the shipments from Chicago the +amount from other lake-ports last year, the aggregate will be found to +exceed the shipments of those European cities by ten to twenty millions +of bushels. Will any one doubt that the granary of the world is in the +Mississippi Valley? + +The internal commerce of the country, as it exists on the lakes, +rivers, canals, and railroads, is not generally appreciated. It goes on +noiselessly, and makes little show in comparison with the foreign trade; +but its superiority may be seen by a few comparisons taken from a speech +of the Hon. J.A. Rockwell, in Congress, in 1846. + + In the year 1844, the value of + goods transported on the New + York Canals was..... $92,750,874 + + The whole exports of the country + in 1844......... 99,716,179 + + The imports and exports of Cleveland + the same year amounted + to the sum of...... $11,195,703 + + The whole Mediterranean and + South American trade, in 1844, + amounted to....... 11,202,548 + +And if, as we have shown, the trade of one of these lake-ports, in 1855, +amounted to over four hundred millions, we may safely claim that the +whole lake-commerce in 1860 exceeds the entire foreign trade of the +United States. + +A few statistics of the lake-steamboats may not he uninteresting. They +are taken from Mr. Barton's letter, above referred to. + +"The 'New York Mercantile Advertiser,' of May--, 1819, contained the +following notice:-- + +"'The swift steamboat Walk-in-the-Water is intended to make a voyage +early in the summer from Buffalo, on Lake Erie, to Michilimackinac, +on Lake Huron, for the conveyance of company. The trip has so near a +resemblance to the famous Argonautic expedition in the heroic ages of +Greece, that expectation is quite alive on the subject. Many of our most +distinguished citizens are said to have already engaged their passage +for this splendid adventure.' + +"Her speed may be judged from the fact that it took her ten days to make +the trip from Buffalo to Detroit and back, and the charge was eighteen +dollars. + +"In 1826 or '27, the majestic waters of Lake Michigan were first +ploughed by steam,--a boat having that year made an excursion with a +pleasure-party to Green Bay. These pleasure-excursions were annually +made by two or three boats, till the year 1832. This year, the +necessities of the Government requiring the transportation of troops and +supplies for the Indian war then existing, steamboats were chartered by +the Government, and made their first appearance at Chicago, then an open +roadstead, in which they were exposed to the full sweep of northerly +storms the whole length of Lake Michigan. + +"In 1833, eleven steamboats were employed on the lakes, which carried in +that year 61,485 passengers, and only two trips were made to Chicago. +Time of the round trip, twenty-five days. + +"In 1834, eighteen boats were upon the lakes, and three trips were made +to Chicago. The lake-business now increased so much, that in 1839 a +regular line of eight boats was formed to run from Buffalo to Chicago. + +"In 1840, the number of steamboats on the lakes was forty-eight. +Cabin-passage from Buffalo to Chicago, twenty dollars." + +About 1850 was the height of steamboat-prosperity on the lakes. There +was at that time a line of sixteen first-class steamers from Buffalo to +Chicago, leaving each port twice a day. The boats were elegantly fitted +up, usually carried a band of music, and the table was equal to that +of most American hotels. They usually made the voyage from Buffalo to +Chicago in three or four days, and the charge was about ten dollars. +They went crowded with passengers, four or five hundred not being an +uncommon number, and their profits must have been large. The building of +railroads from East to West, such as the Michigan Central and Southern +lines, and the Lake Shore and Great Western, soon took away the +passenger-business, and the propellers could carry freight at lower +rates than those expensive side-wheel boats could pretend to do. So they +have gradually disappeared from these waters, until at present their +number is very small, compared with what it was ten years ago, while +the number of screw-propellers is increasing yearly, as well as that of +sail-vessels. + +Great as is this lake-commerce now, it is still but in its infancy. The +productive capacities of most of the States which border upon these +waters are only beginning to be developed. If in twenty-five years the +trade has grown to its present proportions, what may be expected from it +in twenty-five years more? + +The secession of the Gulf States from the Union, and the closing of the +Mississippi to the products of the Northwest, could we suppose such a +state of things to be possible, would still more clearly show the value +of the lake-route to the ocean. + +Run the line of 36° 30' across the continent from sea to sea, and build +a wall upon it, if you will, higher than the old wall of China, and the +Northern Confederacy will contain within itself every element of wealth +and prosperity. Commerce and agriculture, manufactures and mines, +forests and fisheries,--all are there. + + + + +THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS YOUNG. + + +At Munich, last summer, I made the acquaintance of M---y, the famous +painter. I had heard much of him during my stay there, and of his +eccentricities. Just then it was quite the mode to circulate stories +about him, and I listened to so many which were incredible that I was +seized with an irresistible desire to meet him. I took, certainly, a +roundabout way to accomplish this. M---y had a horror of forming new +acquaintances,--so it was said. He fled from letters of introduction +coming in the ordinary way, as from the plague. Neither prince nor +noble could win his intimacy or tempt him out of the pale of his daily +routine. We are most eager in the pursuit of what is forbidden. I became +the more determined to make M---y's acquaintance, the more difficult it +seemed. After revolving the matter carefully, I wrote to America to my +intimate friend R., who I knew had subdued "the savage," as M---y was +sometimes called, and begged him to put me in the way of getting hold +of the strange fellow. In four or five weeks I received an answer. +R. simply inclosed me his own card with the painter's name in pencil +written on it,--advising me to go to the artist's house, deliver the +card in person, and trust the result to fortune. Now I had heard, as +before intimated, all sorts of stories about M---y. He was a bachelor, +at least fifty years old. He lived by himself, as was reported,--in +a superb house in an attractive part of the town. Gossip circulated +various tales about its interior. Sometimes he reigned a Sardanapalus; +at other times, a solitary queen graced but a temporary throne. He was +addicted to various vices. He played high, lost generally large sums, +and was in perpetual fear of the bailiffs. It was even reported that a +royal decree had been issued to exempt so extraordinary a genius from +ordinary arrest. In short, scarcely anything extravagant in the category +of human occurrences was omitted in the daily changing detail of the +scandal-loving society of Magnificent Munich. Only, no one ever imputed +a mean or dishonorable thing to M---y; but for the rest, there was +nothing he did not do or permit to be done. He painted when he liked and +what he liked. His compositions, whether of landscape or history, were +eagerly snatched up at extravagant prices,--for M---y was always +exorbitant in his demands. Besides, when he chose, M---y painted +portraits,--never on application, nor for the aristocracy or the +rich,--but as the mood seized him, of some subject that attracted him +while on his various excursions, or of some of his friends. Yet who +_were_ his friends? Could any one tell? I could not find a person who +claimed to know him intimately. Everybody had something to praise him +for: "But it was such a pity that"--and here would follow one of the +thousand bits of gossip which were floating about and had been floating +for years, I had seen M---y often,--for he was no recluse, and could be +met daily in the streets. His general appearance so fascinated me that +the desire to know the man led me to adopt the course I have just +mentioned. So much by way of explanation. + +And now, furnished with the card and the advice contained in my friend +R.'s letter, I proceeded one afternoon to the ---- Strasse, and sought +admittance. A decent-looking servant-woman opened the door, and to my +inquiry replied that Herr M---y was certainly at home, but whether +engaged or not she could not answer. She ushered me into a small +apartment on my right, which seemed intended for a reception-room. I was +about sending some kind of message to the master of the house, for I did +not like to trust the magic card out of my possession, when I heard a +door open and shut at the end of the hall, and the quick, nervous step +of a along the passage. Seeing the servant standing by the door, M---y, +for it was he, walked toward it and presented himself bodily before me. +He wore a cap and dressing-gown, and looked vexed, but not ill-natured, +on seeing me. I was much embarrassed, and, forgetting what I had +proposed to say to him, I put R.'s card into his hand without a word. +His eye lighted up instantly. + +"You are from America?--You are welcome!--How is my friend?" were words +rapidly enunciated. "Come with me,--leave your hat there,--so!"--and +we mounted a flight of stairs, passed what I perceived to be a fine +_salon_, then through a charming, domestic-looking apartment into one +still smaller, around the walls of which hung three portraits. Portraits +did I say? I can employ no other name,--but so life-like and so human, +my first impression was that I was entering a room where were three +living people. + +"Never you mind these," exclaimed M---y, pleasantly, "but sit down +there," pointing to a large _fauteuil_, "and tell me when you reached +Munich, and if you will stay some time: then I can judge better how to +do for you." + +My face flushed, for I felt guilty at the little fraud I seemed to have +practised on him. I hesitated only an instant, and then frankly told him +the truth: how it was eighteen months since I left America; how I had +been three months in Munich already; how, hearing so much about him +and observing him frequently in the streets, I became anxious for his +acquaintance, and had written to R. accordingly. + +The man has the face of a child: cloud and sunshine pass rapidly over +it. Pleasure and chagrin, sometimes anger, oftener joy, flit across +it, swiftly as the flashing of a meteor. While I was making this +explanation, he looked at me with a searching scrutiny,--at first +angrily, then sadly, as if he were going to cry; but when I finished, he +took my hand in both of his, and said, very seriously,-- + +"You are welcome just the same." + +Soon he commenced laughing: the oddity of the affair was just beginning +to strike him. After conversing awhile, he said,-- + +"Ah, we shall like each other,--shall we not? Where do you stay? You +shall come and live with me. But will that content you? Have you seen +enough of the outside of Munich?" + +I really knew not what to make of so unexpected a demonstration. Should +I accept his invitation, so entirely a stranger as I was? Why not? M---y +was in earnest; he meant what he said; yet I hesitated. + +"You need feel no embarrassment," he said, kindly. "I really want you to +come,--unless, indeed, it is not agreeable to you." + +"A thousand thanks!" I exclaimed,--"I will come." + +"Not a single one," said M---y. "Go and arrange affairs at your hotel, +and make haste back for dinner: it will be served in an hour." + +The next day I was domesticated in M---y's house. + +I have not the present design to give any account of him. Should the +reader find anything in what is written to interest or attract, it is +possible that in a future number a chapter may be devoted to the great +artist of Munich. Now, however, I remark simply, that the gossip and +strange stories and incidents and other _et ceteras_ told of him proved +to be ridiculous creations, with scarcely a shadow to rest on, having +their inception in M---y's peculiarities,--peculiarities which +originated from an entire and absolute independence of thought and +manner and conduct. A grown-up man in intellect, experience, and +sagacity,--a child in simplicity and feeling, and in the effect produced +by the forms and ceremonies and conventionalities of life: these seemed +always to astonish him, and he never, as he said, could understand why +people should live with masks over their faces, when they would breathe +so much freer and be so much more at their ease by taking them off. This +was the man who invited me to come to his house,--and who would not have +given the invitation, had he not wanted me to accept it. + +I have spoken of three paintings which excited my attention the day I +paid my first visit. These were masterpieces,--three portraits, not +life-like, but life itself. They did not attract by the perpetual +stare of the eyes following one, whichever way one turned, as in many +pictures; in these the eyes were not thrown on the spectator. One +portrait was that of a man of at least fifty: an intellectual head; +eyes, I know not what they were,--fierce, defiant, hardly human, but +earthly, devilish; a mouth repulsive to behold, in its eager, absorbing, +selfish expression. Another,--the same person evidently: the same clear +breadth and development of brain, but a subdued and almost heavenly +expression of the eyes, while the mouth was quite a secondary feature, +scarcely disagreeable. The third was the likeness of a young girl, +beautiful, even to perfection. What character, what firmness, what power +to love could be read in those features! What hate, what revulsion, what +undying energy for the true and the right were there! A fair, young +creation,--so fair and so young, it seemed impossible that her destiny +should be an unhappy one: yet her destiny was unhappy. The shadow on the +brow, the melancholy which softened the clear hazel eye, the slightest +possible compression of the mouth, said,--"_Destined to misfortune!_" +Were these actual portraits of living persons, or at least of persons +who had lived? Was there any connection between the man with two faces +and two lives and the maiden with an unhappy destiny? After I became +better acquainted with M---y, I asked him the question, and in reply he +told me the following story, which I now give as nearly as possible in +his own words. + + * * * * * + +Many years ago, in one of my excursions, I came to Baden-Baden. It was a +favorite resort for me, because I found there so many varieties of the +human countenance, and I liked to study them. One evening I was in the +Conversation-Haus, looking at the players at _rouge-et-noir_. At one end +of the table I saw seated a man apparently past fifty; around him were +three or four young fellows of twenty or twenty-five. It is nothing +unusual to see old men at the gaming-table,--quite the contrary. But +this person's head and forehead gave the lie to his countenance, and +I stopped to regard him. While I was doing so, his eyes met mine. +I suppose my gaze was earnest; for his eyes instantly fell, but, +recovering, he returned my look with a stare so impudently defiant that +I directed my attention at once elsewhere. Ever and anon, however, I +would steal a glance at this person,--for there was something in his +looks which fascinated me. He entered with gusto into the game, won +and lost with a good-natured air, yet so premeditated, so, in fact, +_youthfully-old_, I felt a chill pass over me while I was looking at +him. Later in the evening I encountered him again. It was in the public +room of my own hotel, at supper. He was drinking Rhine-wine with the +same young men who were with him at _rouge-et-noir_. The tone of the +whole company was boisterous, and became more so as each fresh bottle +was emptied. The young fellows were very noisy, but impulsively so. The +man also was turbulent and inclined to be merry in the extreme; but as +I watched his eye, I shuddered, for there enthroned was a permanent +expression indicating _a consciousness in every act which he committed_. +Once again our eyes met, and I turned away and left the apartment. +During my walk half an hour afterwards, I encountered the same party, +still more excited and hilarious, in company with some women, whose +character it was not easy to mistake. As I passed, the Unknown brushed +close by me, and again his glance met my own. He seemed half-maddened +by my curious look, which he could not but perceive, and, as I thought, +made use of some insulting expression. I took no notice of it, but +passed on my way, and saw him no more during my stay in the place. + +From Baden I made an excursion into Switzerland. I was stopping at a +pleasant village in the romantic neighborhood of the Bernese Alps. One +afternoon I took a walk of several miles in a new direction. I left the +road and pursued a path used only by pedestrians, which shortened the +distance to another village not far off. A little way from this path was +erected a small chapel, and in a niche stood an image of Christ, well +executed in fine white marble. The work was so superior to the rude +designs we find throughout the country that I stopped to examine it. +I was amply repaid. In place of the painful-looking Christ on the +Cross,--too often a mere caricature,--the image was that of the Youthful +Saviour,--mild, benignant, forgiving. In his left palm, which was not +extended, but held near his person, rested a globe, which he seemed to +regard with a heavenly love and compassion, and the effect on me was so +impressive that the words came impulsively to my lips,--"_I am the light +of the world_." + +For several minutes I stood regarding with intense admiration this +beautiful exhibition of the Saviour of Sinners. Presently, I saw the +door of the chapel was open. Should I look in? I did so. What did +I behold? The individual I had seen at Baden,--the gamester, the +bacchanal, the debauchee! Now, how changed! He was kneeling at a +tomb,--the only one in the chapel. The setting sun fell directly on his +features. His fine brow seemed fairer and more intellectual than before. +His eyes were soft and subdued, and destitute of anything which could +partake of an earthly element. Even the mouth, which had so disgusted +me, was no longer disagreeable. Contrition, humility, an earnest, +sincere repentance, were tokens clearly to be read in every line of his +face. I took very quietly some steps backward, so as to quit the spot +unobserved, if possible. In doing so, I stumbled and fell over some +loose stones. The noise startled the stranger, who was, I think, about +to leave the chapel. He came forward just as I was recovering myself. We +stood close together, facing each other. A flush passed over the man's +face. He seized my arm and exclaimed fiercely,-- + +"What are you doing here?" + +Without appearing to recognize him, I hastened to explain that my +presence there was quite accidental, and it was in attempting to retreat +quietly, after discovering I was likely to prove an intruder, that my +falling over some stones had attracted his notice. Thus saying, and +bowing, I was about to proceed homeward, when the stranger suddenly +exclaimed,-- + +"Stop!" + +He came up close to me. Every trace of angry excitement had vanished. +Calm and self-possessed, but very mournfully, he said,-- + +"Are you willing I should put my arm in yours, and walk back with you +to the inn? I am alone,--and God above knows," he added, after a pause, +"how utterly so." + +I could only bow an assent, for this sudden exhibition of weakness was +annoying to me. My new acquaintance took my arm, much in the manner a +child would do, and we walked along together. + +"I am staying at the same house with you," he said, as we proceeded. +"Did you know it?" + +"No, I did not." + +"Yes," he continued,--"I saw you when you dismounted, and I knew you at +once. Don't you recognize me?" he inquired, sadly. + +"I do," was all I replied. + +"So much the better!" he went on. "I like your countenance,--nay, I love +to look at your face. You are a good man; do you know it? I suppose not: +the good are never conscious, and I should not tell you. Excuse my rude +approach just now: the Devil had for a moment dominion over me. Will you +remain here awhile? Shall we sit and be together? And will you--say, +will you talk with me?" + +I promised I would. My feelings, despite his miserable weakness, were +becoming interested, and in this manner we reached the inn. Then I +persuaded this strange person to sit down in my room, where I ordered +something comfortable provided for supper. In fact, I thought it the +best thing I could do for him. Very soon I gained his entire confidence. +After two or three days he exhibited to me a small portrait, exquisitely +painted, of a most lovely young girl, and permitted me to copy it. It is +one of the three which you see on the wall there. The others, I need not +add, are portraits of the man himself in the two moods I have described. +For his history, it teaches its lesson, and I shall tell it to you. He +narrated it to me the evening before he left the inn, where we spent two +weeks or more, and I have neither seen nor heard from him since. Seated +near me, in my room, he gave the following account of himself. + + * * * * * + +I was born in Frankfort. My parents had several children, all of whom +died in infancy except me. I was the youngest, and I lived through the +periods which had proved so fatal to the rest. The extraordinary care +of my mother, who watched me with a melancholy tenderness, no doubt +contributed to save a life which in boyhood, and indeed to a mature age, +was at the best a precarious one. My parents were respectable people, in +easy circumstances. I grew up selfish and effeminate, in consequence of +being so much indulged. I exhibited early a studious disposition, and it +was decided to give me an accomplished education, with reference to +my occupying, could I attain it at a future day, a chair in some +university. My mother was a very religious woman. From the first, she +had a morbid sense of the responsibility of bringing up a boy. She +believed my way to manhood was beset by innumerable temptations, almost +impossible to escape, difficult to be resisted, and absolutely ruinous +to my soul, if yielded to. She preached to me incessantly. She kept +me from the society of boys of my own age, for fear I should be +contaminated,--and from the approach of any of the other sex, lest my +mind should be diverted from serious matters and led into wantonness +and folly. She would have made a priest of me, had it not been for +my father;--he objected. His brother, for whom I was named, was a +distinguished professor, to whom I bore, as he thought, a close +resemblance, and he desired I should imitate him in my pursuits. I had +good abilities, and was neither inefficient nor wanting in resolution or +industry. At first I longed for natural life and society; but by degrees +habit helped me to endure, and finally to conquer. In fact, I was taught +that I was doing God service in cultivating an ascetic life. My studies +were pursued with success. I rapidly mastered what was placed before +me, and my relations were proud of my progress. At the usual period the +ordinary craving for female society became strong in me. My mother took +great pains to impress on me that here commenced my first struggle with +Satan, and, if I yielded, I should certainly and beyond all peradventure +become a child of the Devil. I was in a degree conscientious. I was +ambitious to attain to a holy life. I believed what my mother had from +my infancy labored so hard to inculcate, and I trod out with an iron +step every fresh rising emotion of my heart, every genuine passion of +my nature. But I suffered much. The imagination could not always be +subdued, and there were periods when. I felt that the "strong man armed" +had possession of me. Nevertheless his time was not come, and at length +the struggle was over. It was not that I had gained a laudable control +of myself; but, having crucified every rebellious thought, there was +nothing left for control. I had marked my victory by extermination. +To live was no joy; neither was it specially the reverse: a long, +monotonous, changeless platitude; yet no desire to quit the terrible +uniformity. + +I was forty years old. I had obtained my purpose. I was a learned +professor. As I gained in acquirements and reputation, I became more and +more laborious. My health, which had become quite firm, began to yield +under incessant application. I was advised, indeed commanded, by my +physician to take repose and recreation. I came here among the Alps. I +stopped at this very house. The season was fine, the inns were filled +with tourists, and great glee and hilarity prevailed. It was not without +its effect on me. By slow degrees, with returning health, the pulses +of life beat with what seemed an unnatural excitement. The world, as I +opened my eyes on it from the window of the inn, was for the first time +not without its attractions. I quieted myself with the idea, that, once +back with my books, my thoughts would flow in the regular channel; and I +called to mind something the physician had said about the necessity of +my being amused, and so forth, to quiet my conscience, which began to +reproach me for enjoying the small ray of sunlight which shone in on my +spirit. + +One day, in a little excursion with two or three gentlemen, I was +attracted by the beauty of a spot away from the travelled road. Leaving +my acquaintances resting under some trees to await my return, I strolled +by a narrow path, across the small valley, till I reached the wished-for +place. You know it already. It is where you beheld erected the Christ +and the Tomb. I was looking around with much admiration, when from the +opposite direction came some strolling Savoyards, with a species +of puppet, or _marionnette_, called by these people _Mademoiselle +Catherina._ Without waiting for my assent, the man stopped, and with +the aid of his wife arranged the machine and set _Catherina_ in motion, +accompanying the dance with a song of his own:-- + + "Ma commère, quand ja danse, + Mon cotillon, va-t-il bien? + Il va d'ici, il va de là, + Ha, ha, ha! + Ma commère, quand je danse," etc. + +I stopped and looked, and was amused. The music was rude, but wild, and +carried with it an _abandon_ of feeling. I avow to you, it stole upon +me, penetrating soul and body. How I wished I could, on the spot, throw +off the coil which surrounded me and wander away with these children of +the road! + +While I stood preoccupied and abstracted, I was roused by a low voice +pronouncing something,--I did not hear what,--and, coming to myself, I +saw standing before me, with her tambourine outstretched, a young girl, +fourteen or fifteen years old. She spoke again,--_"S'il vous plait, +Monsieur."_ Large, lustrous, beaming eyes were turned on me,--not +boldly, not with assurance, neither altogether bashfully,--but honestly +regarding me full in the face, questioning if, after being so attentive +a spectator, I were willing to bestow something. It was strange I had +not noticed this girl before. I had hardly perceived there were three +in the company. Now that I did observe her, I kept looking so earnestly +that I forgot to respond to her request. She was faultless in form and +physical development,--absolutely and unequivocally faultless. Her face, +though browned by constant exposure, was classically beautiful; the foot +and hand very small and delicate. Heavens! how every fibre in my frame +thrilled with an ecstatic emotion, as, for the first time in my life, I +was brought under the influence of female charms! My head swam, my eyes +grew dim,--I staggered. I think I should have fallen, had not the young +girl herself seized my arm and supported me. This brought me to myself. +I bestowed nothing on the strollers, but asked if they were coming to +the village. They answered in the affirmative; and telling them to come +and play at the inn where I was lodging, I hastily quitted the scene. + +Do not think I am in the least exaggerating in this narrative. God +knows, what I have to recount is sufficiently extraordinary. I hastened +homeward, my soul in a tumult. On a sudden, the labor of a lifetime was +destroyed, the opinions and convictions of a lifetime stultified and set +at nought. And how?--by what? By a strolling, vagrant Savoyard. Rather +by an exquisite specimen of God's handiwork in flesh and blood! And if +God's handiwork, why might I _not_ be roused and touched and thrilled +and entranced? Something within boldly, in fact audaciously, put that +question to me. + +I slept none that night. I was haunted by that form and face. I essayed +to be calm, and to compose myself to slumber. Impossible! For the moment +was swept away my past, with its dreary, lifeless forms, its ghostly +ceremonies, its masked shapes, its soulless, rayless, emotionless +existence. To awake and find life has been one grand error,--to awake +and know that youth and early manhood are gone, and that you have been +cheated of your honest and legitimate enjoyments,--to feel that Pleasure +might have wooed you gracefully when young, and when it would become +you to sacrifice at her shrine,--gods and fiends! I gnashed my teeth in +impotent rage,--I blasphemed,--I was mad! + +The morning brought to me composure. While I was dressing, I heard the +music of my Savoyards under the window. I did not trust myself to look +out; but, after breakfasting, I went into the street to search for them. + +I was not long unsuccessful, and was immediately recognized with a +profusion of nods and grimaces by the man and a coarse smile by the +woman, who prepared to set _Mademoiselle Catherina_ instantly at work. +The young girl took scarcely any notice of me. I bestowed some money +on the couple, and bade them go to the nearest wine-shop and procure +whatever they desired. They started off, quite willing, I thought, to +leave me alone with the girl. I lost no time. Going close to her, I +said,-- + +"You are not the child of these people?" + +"Alas, no, Monsieur!--I have neither father nor mother." + +"And no relations?" + +"No relations, Monsieur." + +"How long have you lived in this way?" + +"Almost always, I suppose. But I remember something many years ago--very +strange. I was all the time in one place,--such a beautiful spot, it +makes it hurt here," (putting her hand on her heart) "when I think of +that. Afterwards it was dark a long time. I do not remember any more." + +"And do you like to wander about in this way?" + +"Oh, no, Monsieur!--no, indeed!" + +"Would you be pleased to go to a nice home, and stay, as you say, all +the time in one place, and learn to read and write, and have friends to +love you and take care of you?" + +"Yes! oh, yes!" + +"Would you be afraid to go with me?" + +The young girl regarded me with a look of penetration which was +surprising, and replied calmly, but with some timidity,-- + +"No." + +"Then it shall be so," I said. + +I bade the child sit down and wait for my return, I took the direction +which the man and his wife had pursued, and found them already busily +engaged in the wine-shop, where they had purchased what for them was a +sumptuous entertainment. + +"You have stolen that girl," I exclaimed, with severity; "and I shall +have the matter investigated before the Syndic." + +They were not so frightened as I expected to see them, although a good +deal decomposed. + +"Monsieur mistakes," said the man. "It was we who saved the poor thing's +life, when the father and mother were put to death far away from here +in Hungary, and not a soul to take compassion on her. She was only four +years old; the prison-door was opened and her parents led to execution, +and she left to wander about until she should starve." + +I asked if they knew who her parents were. They did not, but were sure +they were people of distinction, condemned for political offences. This +was all I could learn. The child, they said, was in possession of no +relic which betrayed her name or origin. She only wore a small gold +medallion on which was engraved a youthful Christ,--the same in +design as you see erected near the tomb in yonder valley. It has been +faithfully copied. + +It was difficult to induce the couple to part with Eudora,--that was her +name. She was now useful to them, and her marvellous beauty began to +attract and brought additional coin to their collections, after the +performances of the _marionnette_. But I was resolved. I offered to the +strollers so large a sum in gold that they could not resist. It was +arranged on the spot. With very little ceremony they said "Good-bye" to +Eudora, and, taking the path over the mountain, in a few minutes were +out of sight. + +What a new, what a strange attitude for me! Could I believe in my own +existence? There I stood, a grave professor of the University of ----, +educated and trained in the discipline I have already explained to you. +There stood Eudora, just as perfect in form and feature as imagination +of poet ever pictured. + +My plan was formed on the spot, instantly. It was praiseworthy; but I +deserved no praise for it. A deep, engrossing selfishness, pervading +alike sense and spirit, actuated me. I had already brought under control +the fever of the previous day. I could reason calmly; but my conclusions +had reference only to my own gratification and my own happiness. I +regarded Eudora as mine,--my property,--literally belonging to me. I was +forty,--she not fifteen. Yet what was I to do with her? Recommend her +to the care of my mother, who was still alive? Certainly not; she would +then be lost to me. I had a cousin, a lady of high respectability, well +married, who resided in the same town in which I lived. She had no child +of her own; she had often spoken of adopting one. I frequently visited +her house; and when there, she never ceased to criticize me for leading +such an ascetic life. Here was an excellent opportunity for my new +charge. My cousin would be delighted to have the guardianship of such a +lovely creature. She would be as devoted to her as to an own child. She +would sympathize in my plans, and would be careful to train Eudora _for +me_. + +Such was the programme. It flashed on me and was definitely settled +before I had time to bid her follow me to the inn. She came +unhesitatingly, and as if she had confidence in my kind intentions. I +did not converse much with her, but, making hasty preparations, we left +the place and proceeded rapidly homeward. + +I was not disappointed. My cousin entered readily into my plans. She was +a really good person, seeing all things which she undertook through +the complacent medium of duty. This was, she thought, such a fortunate +incident! It gave her what she had long desired, and it would serve to +distract me from the wretched life I had always led. Thereupon Eudora +was installed in her new home, where she found father and mother in my +cousin and her husband, where her education was commenced and got on +fast. She had a quick intellect, instinctively seizing what was most +important and rapidly forming conclusions. How, day by day, I witnessed +the development of her mind! How I watched every new play of the +emotions! How I saw with a beating heart, as she advanced toward +womanhood, fresh charms displayed and additional beauty manifested! I +shall not tire you with a prolonged narrative of how I enjoyed, month +after month, for more than two years, the society of Eudora, +during which time she made satisfactory advances in education and +accomplishment and attained in grace and loveliness the absolute +perfection of womanhood. + +And what, during this period, were my relations with Eudora?--what were +her feelings toward me? I approach the subject with pain. I look back +now on those feelings and on my conduct with an abhorrence and disgust +which I cannot describe. From the first she trusted to me with implicit +confidence. Discriminating in an extraordinary degree, her gratitude +prevented her perceiving my real character. She gave me credit for +absolute, unqualified, disinterested benevolence in rescuing her from +the wretched and precarious condition of a vagrant. Thus she set about +in her own mind to adorn me with every virtue. I was magnanimous, noble, +unselfish, truthful, brave, the soul of honor, incapable of anything +mean or petty. How often has she told me this, holding my hand in hers, +looking full in my face, her own beaming with honest enthusiasm! How my +soul literally shrank within me! How like a guilty wretch I felt to +hear these words! How I wished I could be all Eudora pictured me! How +I essayed to act the part! How careful I was lest ever my real nature +should disclose itself! Even when, despite my efforts, something did +transpire to excite an instant's question, she put it aside at once by +giving an interpretation to it worthy of me. Now, what was I to do? +Eudora had reached a marriageable age. She had seen but little of +society, though by no means living a recluse. My cousin had watched +carefully over her, and was to her, indeed, all a mother could be. I had +remained perfectly tranquil, secure, as I supposed, in her affections. I +thought I had but to wait till the proper period should arrive and then +take her to myself. + +My cousin, as I have intimated, understood my views. It was therefore +with no sort of perturbation, that, one day, I heard her ask me to +step into her little sitting-room in order to converse about Eudora. +I supposed she was going to tell me that it was time we were +married,--indeed, I thought so myself. I was therefore very much +astonished when she commenced by saying that I ought now to begin to +treat Eudora as a young lady, especially if I expected ever to win her +hand. I turned deadly pale, and asked her what she meant. + +"I mean," she replied, "that you ought to act toward Eudora as men +generally act who wish to win a fair lady. Do not deceive yourself with +the idea that she loves you. She would tell you she did in a moment, if +you asked her,--and wonder, besides, why you thought it necessary to put +the question. But she knows nothing about it. The thought of becoming +your wife never enters her head, and you would frighten her, if you +spoke to her on such a subject. No, my cousin; it is time you behaved +as other men behave. Eudora is grateful to you beyond expression. She +believes you to be perfect; and you seem content to sit and let her tell +you so, when you ought to be a manly wooer." + +I will not detail the remarks of my cousin. She talked with me at least +two hours. I was perfectly confounded by what she said. I began to hate +her for the ridiculous advice she gave me. I put it down to a curious, +meddlesome nature. I grew vexed, too, with Eudora, because my cousin +said she did not love me. I did not reflect that I had done nothing +to excite love. I had drawn perpetually on a heart overflowing and +grateful,--selfish caitiff that I was! This, however, I did not then +understand,--so completely were my eyes blinded! + +I left my cousin in a petulant spirit, and sought Eudora. She saw I +was troubled, and asked me the cause. I told her. A shadow, a dark, +portentous shadow, suddenly clouded her face;--as suddenly it passed +away, giving place to a look of sharp, painful agony, which was +succeeded by a return of something like her natural expression. Then she +scrutinized my face calmly, critically. All this did not occupy half a +minute. Ere one could say it had been, Eudora was apparently the same as +ever. God alone knows all which in that half-minute rose in that young +girl's heart. She took my hand; she reproached me for my apparent +distrust of her; she said she was mine to love and to honor me forever. +She would go at once to her mother--so she called my cousin--and tell +her so. Thus saying, she left me. And I--I did not then understand +the struggle and the victory of the poor girl over herself. I did not +reflect that no maidenly blush, no charming confusion, announced my +happy destiny,--no kiss, no caress, no sign that the heart's citadel had +surrendered; but, instead, a calmness, a composure, and a hastening from +my presence. No, I thought nothing of this; I only considered that now +the time was at hand when Eudora would be mine! + +_I married her._ It was but three weeks after this conversation. I was +in haste, and Eudora herself seemed desirous that the day should be an +early one. My cousin was amazed. I enjoyed her discomfiture; for she did +not relish the thought that I should thus set at nought her advice and +overturn her theory. She shook her head,--she attempted a protest,--and +then began zealously the preparations for the wedding. + +I wish I could give you some clear idea of the wife I had gained, +some slight notion of the happiness and delight and bliss in which I +revelled,--that is, if a man purely and unutterably selfish has a right +to call that happiness--which he enjoys. Eudora lived only for me. She +rose, she sat, she came, she went only to pleasure me. She had +one thought, one idea: it was for me. And what was my return? +Nothing,--absolutely and literally nothing. I accepted every service, +every sweet, loving token, every delicate act of devotion, as something +to which I was entitled,--as my right. Forty-four years old, a life with +one idea, a narrow, selfish, overbearing nature, ministered to by such a +creature, noble, lovely, true, with eighteen years of life! + +Three years thus passed,--three years which ate slowly into Eudora's +heart,--teaching her she _had_ a heart, and bringing forth such fruit as +such experiences would produce. Yet she had not lost faith in me. She +might have felt that perfection did not belong to man, and therefore I +was not perfect; but she cheated herself as to all the rest. If she were +not perfectly happy with a husband who took no pains to sympathize with +her, who repressed instead of encouraging the natural vivacity of her +nature, who never went abroad with her to places where every one was +accustomed to go, still she did not lay the cause at my door. + +I had another cousin: this cousin was a man, twenty-four years old when +he first came, by a mere chance, to the town where we lived. He was, +like you, a painter,--not one of those poor romantic vagabonds who +multiply pictures of themselves in every new composition, and who +starve on their own sighs. This man was in the enjoyment of a handsome +competence, and made painting his profession because he loved the art. +My cousin who resided in the place knew this man-cousin of mine. He paid +her a visit; and while he was in her house, my wife happened to go in. +Thus the acquaintance began. The next day he came to see me. I received +him cordially, and invited him to visit us often. At length he became +perfectly at home in our house. I was pleased with this,--for I began +to feel that Eudora drew heavily on my time, insisting too much on my +society; and I was only glad to escape by leaving her to the society of +my relative,--blind fool that I was! But I must do him justice. He was a +noble specimen of a fresh-hearted young man,--loyal and honorable. Yet +how could he escape the fascination of Eudora's presence?--how tear +himself away from it, when he had no thought that it was dangerous? At +my request, my wife sat to him for a small portrait: this is it which I +have permitted you to copy. By-and-by, and really to keep Eudora from +engrossing too much of my time, I allowed her to go out with our +artist-cousin; and in company they examined paintings, and viewed +scenery, and talked, and walked, and sometimes read together. + +One evening, while seated in my library, deeply abstracted, the door +opened and Eudora entered. I looked up, saw who it was, and relapsed +into study. + +"My husband," exclaimed she, in a soft, sweet tone, "put down your book; +sit upon this sofa; I want to speak with you." + +I rose, a little petulantly, and did as she desired. She threw her arms +around my neck, and kissed me tenderly. + +"I have something to ask of you," she said,--"something to request." + +"What is it?" I exclaimed,--almost sharply. + +"It is that you would not invite Alphonse to come here any more,--that +you would never speak of my going out with him again, but encourage his +leaving here,--and that you would give me more of your society." + +"Pray, what does all this mean, Eudora?" I demanded. "Alphonse and you +have been quarrelling, I suppose." + +"No, my husband." + +"Then, what do you mean by such nonsense?" I asked, in an irritated +tone. + +"I scarcely have courage to tell you," she cried,--"for I fear it will +make us both forever miserable." + +Thoroughly aroused by this astounding avowal, I repeated, in a stern +tone and without one touch of sympathy, my demand for an explanation. +She knelt lovingly at my feet,--not in a posture submissive or +humiliating, but as if thus she could get nearer my heart,--and began, +calmly:-- + +"Sometimes, my husband, I have thought my feelings for you were such as +I ought to entertain for my father or an elder brother. I venerate and +admire your character; I would die for you,--oh, how willingly!--but +sometimes I fear it is not _love_ I feel for you." + +She paused, and looked at me earnestly. + +"How long have you felt as you now do?" I asked, with an icy calmness. + +"I do not know. I cannot tell. But I have not thought of it seriously +till Alphonse came here,--and I want you to send him away." + +"And do you love Alphonse?" I asked, slowly. + +"Oh, God! I do not know. I cannot tell what is the matter with me. +Perhaps it is mere infatuation. Alas! I cannot tell." + +"And why do you come with this to me?" I said sneeringly, devil that I +was. + +"Because you are my husband,--because you are wise and strong and good, +and the only one who can advise me,--because I am in danger, and you can +save me," she cried, looking imploringly on my frigid features. + +"And for that purpose you come to _me?_" + +"I do, I do!" she exclaimed. At the same time she threw her arms around +me passionately, buried her face in my bosom, and wept. + +There was a struggle within me,--not violent nor desperate, but calm and +cold,--while the face of that fair young creature was pressed close to +my heart by her own arms thrown clingingly around me. I did not move +the while; I did not respond to her sad embrace even by the slightest +pressure of my hand. Yet I was all the time conscious that a pure and +noble being was supplicating me for help,--a being who had devoted her +life to me,--whose soul was stainless, while mine was spotted with the +leprosy of a selfish nature. Like one under the influence of nightmare, +who knows he does but dream and makes an effort fruitless as imaginary +to lift himself out of it, I did try to follow what my heart said I +should do,--fold my dear wife in my arms, and reassure her in all +things. But I did no such thing. The other spirit--I should say seven +others more hateful and detestable than any which had before possession +of me--conquered. I raised Eudora from her kneeling posture. I placed +her on the sofa beside me. I began to hate her,--to hate her for her +goodness, her gentleness, her truthfulness, her fidelity,--to hate her +because she dared make such an avowal, and because it was true. What +right had she to permit her feelings to be influenced by another,--she, +my lawfully wedded wife? I would not admit the truth to myself that _I_ +was the sole, miserable, detestable cause. Oh, no! + +"Eudora," I said at length, "I have never seen you manifest so much +nervous excitement. Do you not see how ridiculous is your request? You +want me to bring ridicule, not to say disgrace, on myself, by suddenly +forbidding Alphonse my house. What will he suppose, what will the world +think, except that there has been some extraordinary cause for such a +procedure? And all out of a silly, romantic, imaginary notion which has +got into your head. Now, listen: if you would do your duty and honor me, +let Alphonse come and go as usual; let him perceive no difference in +your manner or in your treatment of him: in this way only I shall escape +mortification and chagrin." + +She rose as I finished,--slowly rose,--with a countenance disheartened +and despairing. She uttered no word, and turned slowly to leave the +room. She had reached the door, when, not content with the merciless +outrage on her heart already inflicted, under the instigation of the +demon working within me, I prepared another stab. + +"Eudora," I said, "one word more." + +She came immediately back, doubtless with a slight hope that I would +show some sympathy for her. + +"Eudora," I continued, rising and laying my hand on her shoulder, _"have +you permitted any improper familiarities from Alphonse?"_ + +Quick as lightning was my hand struck from its resting-place; swift as +thought her face changed to an expression so terrible that instinctively +I stepped back to avoid her. It was but an instant. Then came a last +awful look of _recognition_, whereby I knew I was found out, my soul was +stripped of all hypocritical coverings, and she saw and understood me. +What a scene! To discover in the one she had revered and worshipped so +long her moral assassin! To stand face to face and have the dreadful +truth suddenly revealed! The darkness of despair gathered around her +brow; an agony, like that which finds no comforter, was stamped on her +face; and with these a hate, a horror, a contempt, mingled triumphantly. +The door opened,--it was closed,--and my wife was lost to me forever. I +essayed to call her back. "Eudora" came faintly to my lips. It was too +late. Then a contemptible, jealous hatred took possession of me. Ere I +left my apartment, I said, "She shall pay dear for this! she shall soon +come submissive to my feet! she cannot live away from me; and before I +forgive, she must be humiliated!" How little did I know her! + +From that period Eudora simply treated me with the courtesy of a lady. +She never looked in my face,--her eyes never met mine. On my part, to +carry out a plan I had adopted, I encouraged more and more the visits +of Alphonse. He had expected to leave that week; but I persuaded him to +remain another month, and pressed him to stay at my house. I told him +that this would be agreeable to my wife, who could have his society when +I was not able to be with her, and I should insist on his accepting my +invitation. This was after I saw how rebellious, as I termed it, Eudora +was becoming; and I was determined to torture her all I could. +Alphonse was now an inmate of our house, which greatly increased +the opportunities for his being with Eudora. She appeared to enjoy +intercourse with him just as usual; I think, in fact, she did enjoy +it more than usual; and it made me hate her to see that she was not +repentant and miserable. Three weeks passed in this way;--I becoming +more hateful and severe by every petty, petulant, despicable device of +which my nature was capable; she continuing with little change of manner +or conduct; and Alphonse unconsciously growing more devoted. + +It was a cold, stormy afternoon: the rain had increased since morning. +Eudora had gone out immediately after breakfast. She did not come back +to dinner, and Alphonse, who had remained in all day, said she spoke of +going to my cousin's. I took it for granted the storm detained her; but +when it was evening and she did not appear, I began to be disturbed +and asked Alphonse to go for her. In a short time he returned with the +information that Eudora had not been at my cousin's that day. I was +alarmed; I could see the shadow of my Nemesis close by me. It had fallen +suddenly, and with no warning. For a moment I suspected Alphonse; but +the distress he manifested was too genuine to be counterfeited, and I +dismissed the thought. In the midst of this confusion and dismay,--now +late in the evening,--a letter was put into my hands, just left by a +messenger at my door. The address was in my wife's hand. I tore open the +envelope, and read,-- + +"Man! I can endure no longer." + +This was the end of the chapter beginning with my introduction to the +strolling Savoyards, the dance of the _marionnette_, the transfer of +Eudora! I attempted no search for her; too well I knew it would be +useless; indeed, I felt a strange sense of freedom. My professor's life +disgusted me: I threw it off. I resigned my chair, and sold my house, my +furniture, my books,--everything. My nature clamored for indulgence, my +senses for enjoyment. I quitted the place. I threw off all restraint. +Literally I let myself loose on the world. I sought the company of the +young. I drank, I gamed, I was as debauched as the worst. But although +_with_ them, I was not _of_ them. _They_--only from the effervescence +of strong animal spirits did they do into excesses. What they did was +without reflection, impulsive, unpremeditated. _Me_ a calm consciousness +pervaded always. Go where I would, do what I would, amidst every +criminal indulgence, every noisy debauch or riotous dissipation, it +always rode the storm and was present in the fury of the tempest;--that +fearful, awful conscious _Egomet_! How I wished I could commit one +impulsive sin! + +After three years, I was passing with a gay company through the Swiss +town of ----. In that place is the convent of the Sisterhood of Our +Mother of Pity. The night I stayed there, one of the number died. I +heard of it in the morning, as we were preparing to leave. From what was +said in connection with the circumstance, I knew it was Eudora. I left +my companions to go on by themselves. I made my way to the convent and +begged permission to look on the dead face of my wife. It was granted. +She was already arrayed for the grave. I came and threw myself on the +lifeless form, and cried as children dry. The fountains of my heart gave +way, the sympathies of my nature were upheaved, and for two hours I wept +on unrestrained. Even consciousness fled for once and left me to the +luxury of grief. At length the worthy people came to me and took me +from the room. I asked many questions, to which they could give me but +unsatisfactory replies. They knew little of Eudora's history. She had +come directly from my house to this place, and had been remarkable for +her acts of untiring benevolence in ministering to the sick and the +destitute. She lost her life from too great exposure in watching at +the bedside of a miserable woman whom all the world seemed to have +abandoned, and who died of some malignant fever. I will not attempt to +describe what I passed through. I became sincerely repentant. I saw my +character in its true light. I prayed that my sins might be forgiven. + +The place where Eudora died was not far from the spot where we first +met. I begged the good priest who acted as her confessor to consecrate +a little chapel which I should build there, and permit me to place my +wife's remains in it. He consented. I caused the image of the Christ +which she always wore to be carefully copied in marble and placed before +the chapel, and I spent several weeks there, deploring my sins and +seeking for light from above. + +It was not to be that I should thus easily settle the error of a +lifetime. After a while I felt the desperate gnawing of the senses +inexpressible and irresistible. Satan had come again, and I was called +for. And I went! There was no escape,--there _is_ no escape! Once more +I plunged into riotous folly and excess, giving full license to my +unbridled appetites,--but conscious always. When the fever subsided, +I was once more repentant and sorrowful, and I came here,--only to be +carried off again to renew the same wretched scenes. I know not how long +this will last. I know not if Heaven or Hell will triumph. Yet, strange +as you may think it, I believe I am not so bad a man as when I was a +professor in ----, slowly destroying my lovely wife. From each paroxysm +I fancy I escape somewhat stronger, somewhat more manly than before. I +think, too, my periods of excess are shorter, and of repentance longer; +and I sometimes entertain a hope that folly and madness will in me, as +in the young, become exhausted, and that beyond still lies the goal of +peace and wisdom. + +Such as it is, strange as it may seem, you have from me a truthful +history. Would that the world might hear it and be wiser! Mark me! Let +not those who undertake to train the young attempt to destroy what +Nature has implanted. Let them direct and modify, but not extinguish. +The impulsive freedom of youth is generally the result of an exuberant +and overflowing spirit, and should be treated accordingly,--else, later +in life, it may burst forth fierce and unconquerable, or, what is worse, +be indulged in secret and make of us hypocrites and dissemblers. + +WOE TO THE MAN WHO HAS HAD NO YOUTH! + + * * * * * + + +THE MEN OF SCHWYZ. + + +As you go from Lucerne in a decorous little steamboat down the pleasant +Vierwaldstättersee, or Lake of the Four Forest Cantons, with the sloping +hills on either side, and the green meadow-patches and occasional house +among the trees, you come to a sudden turn where the scenery changes +swiftly, and pass between steep and shaggy rocks rising perpendicularly +out of the blue water, which seems to get bluer there, into the frowning +Bay of Uri, guarded, as if it were the last home of freedom, by great +granite hills, lying like sleepy giants with outstretched arms, while +the heavy clouds rest black and broken on their summits, and the white +vapors float below. Just where the lake makes this turn is the hamlet of +Brunnen, which you will not hurry by, if you are wise, but tarry with +the kind little hostess of the Golden Eagle by the pleasant shore, and +learn, if you will, as nowhere else, what the spirit of the Swiss was in +the ancient time, as in this. + +As you walk across the little valley which stretches down from the hills +to the lake where Brunnen is, you remember that it is the town of Schwyz +you come to, where dwelt once the hardy, valorous little colony +which gave its name to Switzerland,--famous in the annals of this +stout-hearted mountain-land for the "peculiar fire" with which they have +always fought for their ancient freedom,--worthy to leave their name, in +lasting token of the service they did to their fellows and to mankind. + +Schwyz lies at the foot of the Hacken Mountain, which rises with double +peaks known as the Mythen, (Murray and the tourists, with dubious +etymological right, translate _Mitres_,)--with the dark forests above it +on the slopes, and the green openings sparkling in the sunlight, +where men and their herds of cattle breathe a purer air. Behind these +everlasting walls the spirit of freedom has found a resting-place +through the turbulent centuries, during which, on rough Northern soil, +the new civilization was taking root, hereafter to overshadow the earth. + +Touching the origin of these men of Schwyz, there is a tradition, handed +down from father to son, which runs in this wise. + +"Toward the North; in the land of the Swedes and Frisians, there was +an ancient kingdom, and hunger came upon the people, and they gathered +together, and it was resolved that every tenth man should depart. And +so they went forth from among their friends, in three bands under three +leaders, six thousand fighting men, great like unto giants, with their +wives and children and all their worldly goods. And they swore never +to desert one another, and smote with victorious arm Graf Peter of the +Franks, who would obstruct their progress. They besought of God a land +like that of their ancestors, where they might pasture their cattle in +peace; and God led them into the country of Brochenburg, and they built +there Schwyz; and the people increased, and there was no more room for +them in the valley. Some went forth, therefore, into the country round +about, even as far as the Weissland; and it is still in the memory of +old men how the people went from mountain to mountain, from valley to +valley, to Frutigen, Obersibenthal, Sanen, Afflentsch, and Jaun;--and +beyond Jaun dwell other races." + +The time and circumstance of this wandering are unknown, and we may +make what we will of it; but to the men of Schwyz the tradition is an +affirmation of their original primal independence. And of old time, +also, the Emperors have admitted that these people of their own free +will sought and obtained the protection of the Empire,--a privilege by +no means extended to all the dwellers of the Waldstätte, (or Forest +Cantons,) but confined to the men of Schwyz. + +As the Emperors were often absent, engaged in great wars, and the times +were very troublous, and there was need of some commanding character +among them, for the administration of the criminal law touching the +shedding of blood, they often made the Count of Lenzburg Bailiff. But no +matter of any moment could be acted upon without the sense of the people +being taken, of the serf as well as the freeman: for these two classes +existed not less among these primitive people than elsewhere, in the +feudal times; and this community of counsel of freeman and serf is +related to have worked harmoniously, "for equality existed of itself, by +nature, there." They chose a _Landammann_, or chief magistrate,--a man +free by birth, of an honorable name and some substance; and for judges +also they were careful to select men of substance, "for he careth most +for freedom and order who hath most to lose"; and for the greater peace +of the land there was a Street-Council, consisting of seven reputable +men, who went through the streets administering justice in small causes +here and there, as in the East the judges sat at the city-gate or at the +door of the palace. + +As the people increased, the valleys of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden +were separated and grew to be independent in their own domestic matters, +while united with respect to external affairs, as in the league made in +1251 between Zurich, Schwyz, and Uri;--they were like the Five Nations +of Canada, says the historian, but more human through Christianity. +Their religious belief was simple and fervent; the Goths, as Arians, had +rejected the supremacy of the Pope; and now there came secretly teachers +from the East, through Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Hungary, even into Rhaetia, +and thence to these fastnesses of the Alps. The mind of men, thus left +free, developed itself according to the different character of the +races. The people of Schwyz were strengthened in their adherence to the +authentic Word of God, as it was with the Apostles, without the use of +pictures or the bones of saints; this Word they learned by heart, and +made little of the additions of men; hence they got to be heretics, and +were called Manicheans; but Catholicism conquered them at last. + +Thus simple and unknown lived this ancient people,--destined to restore +in the end the Confederacy of Helvetia, lost since the days of Caesar's +victory, thirteen hundred years before,--till Gerhard, Abbot of +Einsiedeln, complained of them to the Emperor Henry V. for pasturing +their cattle upon the slopes which belonged to the convent: for, +forgetful of the people who dwelt in these parts, whose existence, +indeed, was concealed from him by the monks, the Emperor Henry II., in +1018, had bestowed upon the convent the neighboring _desert_; and the +Abbot, of course, did not fail to make the most of the gift. Thus there +occurred a collision. The Abbot pursued these poor peasants with the +spiritual power, which was not light in those days, and summoned them +before the Diet of Nobles of Swabia; but they rejected that tribunal, +for they acknowledged only the authority of the Emperor. Whereupon the +Abbot laid his complaint before Henry V. at Basel, where Graf Rudolph of +Lenzburg, Bailiff of Schwyz, spoke for them. A simple people, innocent +of human learning, they could urge against the patent of the Emperor +only the tradition of their fathers, and judgment went against them +touching the matter, and no question was made in it as to the validity +of the Emperor's patent. It was an unexpected blow to the Schwyzers. +Tradition among people living solitary grows into a religious right, +which they fight for readily. For eleven years their turbulence went +unpunished; for Henry V. had other matters on his hands, and his two +successors conferred other privileges upon the convent. Thirty years +afterwards, however, in 1142 or thereabouts, at the solicitation of the +monks, obedience was commanded by the Emperor Conrad III., then on the +point of departing with his Crusaders to Palestine. But the people +answered,--"If the Emperor, to our injury, contemning the traditions of +our fathers, will give our land to unrighteous priests, the protection +of the Empire is worthless to us." Thereupon the Emperor waxed wroth; +the ban was laid upon them by Hermann, Bishop of Constance; but they +withdrew, nevertheless, from the protection of the Empire, and Uri and +Unterwalden with them,--fearing neither the Emperor nor the ban, for +they could not conceive how it was a sin to maintain the right, and so +they pastured their cattle without fear. + +When Friedrich I. came to the throne and wanted soldiers, he sent Graf +Ulrich of Lenzburg, Bailiff of the Waldstätte, into the valleys to speak +to the men of Schwyz. "The heart of the people is in the hands of noble +heroes," says the historian;--gladly did the youths, six hundred strong, +seize their arms and go forth under Graf Ulrich, whom they loved, to +fight for the Emperor his friend, beyond the mountains, in Italy. And +now it came the Emperor's turn for the ban; the whole Imperial House of +Hohenstaufen fell into spiritual disgrace; Friedrich II. was cursed at +Lyons as a blasphemer; but these things did not turn away the hearts of +the men of Schwyz from his House. + +Long after the time of this Ulrich, the last reigning Graf of Lenzburg, +shortly after the Swiss Union had been renewed, at the instance of +Walther of Attinghausen, in 1206, Unterwalden chose Rudolph, Count of +Hapsburg, for Bailiff. He endeavored to extend his authority over the +other two Cantons, in which he was aided by the Emperor Otho IV., of the +House of Brunswick, who had been raised to the throne in opposition to +the House of Swabia, and who, for the purpose of conciliating him, made +him Imperial Bailiff of the Waldstätte. An active, vigorous man this +Rudolph, grandfather of the Rudolph who was afterwards called to be King +of the Germans, whom the Swiss, scattered in their hamlets, were little +prepared to make head against, and therefore recognized him with what +grace they might, after an assurance that their freedom and rights +should be maintained; and he smoothed for them their old controversy +with the monks of Einsiedeln, and got a comfortable division of the +property made in 1217. But he was hateful to them, nevertheless; and +although we know nothing of the way in which he administered his office, +we conjecture that it was partly because the Emperor who appointed him +was not of the House of Hohenstaufen, to which they were attached, and +partly because he claimed that the office of Bailiff was hereditary in +his family, whereas the men of Schwyz preferred to offer it of their own +free will to whom they would. They made it a condition of assistance to +the Emperor Friedrich in 1231, when he went down into Italy to fight the +Guelphs, that he should deprive this Rudolph of the office of Imperial +Bailiff; and then they went forth, six hundred strong, and did famous +work against the Guelphs, with such fire in them that the Emperor not +only knighted Struthan von Winkelried of Unterwalden, but gave that +valley a patent of freedom, according to which the Schwyzers voluntarily +chose the protection of the Empire. + +And now Rudolph, Count of Hapsburg, founder of the Austrian monarchy, +strides into the history of the men of Schwyz. A tall, slender man this +Rudolph, bald and pale; with much seriousness in his features, but +winning confidence the moment one spoke with him by his friendliness, +loving simplicity; a restless, stirring man, with more wisdom in him +than his companions had, equal or superior to him in birth or power, +working his way by device when he could, by the strong arm when that was +needed. He took the part of the peasants against the nobles, and used +the one to put down the other. In the midst of the turmoils in which he +got involved with Sanct Gallen and Basel, and while encamped before the +walls of the latter city, he was wakened in his tent at midnight by +Friedrich of Hohenzollern, Burgrave of Nürnberg; for there had come from +Frankfort on the Main Heinrich von Pappenheim, Hereditary Marshal of +the Empire, with the news, that, "in the name of the Electors, with +unanimous consent, in consideration of his great virtue and wisdom, +Lewis Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria had named Count +Rudolph of Hapsburg King of the Roman Empire of the Germans": at which +Rudolph was more astonished than those who knew him, it is recorded. Not +because of his genealogy, nor his marriage with Gertrude Anne, daughter +of Burcard, Count of Hohenburg and Hagenlock, did he win this great +fortune, but, as the Elector Engelbrecht of Cologne said, "because he +was just and wise and loved of God and men." And now the world learned +what was in him; and how for eighteen years he kept the throne, which +no king for three-and-twenty years before him had been able to hold, +history will relate to the curious. + +Switzerland was divided at this period into small sovereignties and +baronial fiefs; and there were, besides, also the Imperial cities of +Bern and Basel and Zürich. The nobles were warlike and restless. Rudolph +checked their depredations and composed their dissensions. Upon that +seething age of violence and rapine he laid, as it were, the forming +hand, as if in the darkness the coming time was dimly visible to him;--a +man to be remembered, in the vexed and disheartening history of Austria, +as one of her few heroes. The people of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, +notwithstanding the dislike they had shown to his ancestor, voluntarily +appointed him their protector; and he gave them, in 1274, the firm +assurance that he would treat them as worthy sons of the Empire in +inalienable independence; and to that assurance he remained true till +his death, which happened in 1291, in the seventy-fourth year of his +age. + +It is related in the Rhymed Chronicle of Ottocar, how he had been kept +alive for a whole year by the skill of his physicians, but that they +told him at last, as he sat playing at draughts, that death was upon +him, and that he could live but five days. "Well, then," he said, "on +to Spires!" that he might lay him in the Imperial vault in the great +Cathedral there,--where many Emperors slept their long sleep, till, in +the Orléans Succession War in the time of Louis XIV., as afterwards in +1794, under the revolutionary commander Custine, French soldiers rudely +disturbed it, with every circumstance of outrage which Frenchmen only +could devise. Rudolph went forth thither, but fell by the way, and died +at Germersheim, a dirty little village which he had founded. And in the +Cathedral at Spires, where he rested from his activities, you may see +this day a monumental statue of him, executed by that great artist, the +late Ludwig Schwanthaler of Munich, for his art-loving patron, Ludwig +I., King of Bavaria. + +Rudolph was succeeded by his son Albrecht, then forty-three years old, +likewise a vigorous man, whose restless spirit of aggrandizement gave +the Swiss much uneasiness. His purpose seems to have been to acquire the +sovereignty of the ecclesiastical and baronial fiefs, and, having thus +encompassed the free cities and the Three Cantons, to compel submission +to his authority. In the seventh week after Rudolph's death, they +met together to renew the ancient bond with the people of Uri and +Unterwalden; and they swore, in or out of their valleys, to stand by one +another, if harm should be done to any of them. "In this we are as one +man," ran their oath, among other things, "in that we will receive no +judge who is not a countryman and an inhabitant, or who has bought his +office." + +After several years of troubles and frights among them, the Emperor sent +to the Forest Cantons to say, that it would be well for them and their +posterity, if they submitted to the protection of the Royal House, as +all neighboring cities and counties had done; he wished them to be his +dear children; he was the descendant of their Bailiff of Lenzburg, son +of their Emperor Rudolph; if he offered them the protection of his +glorious line, it was not that he lusted after their flocks or would +make merchandise of their poverty, but because he knew from his father +and from history what brave men they were, whom he would lead to victory +and knighthood and plunder. + +Then spake the nobles and the freemen of the Forest Cantons: "They know +very well, and will ever remember, how his father of blessed memory was +a good leader and Bailiff to them; but they love the condition of their +ancestors, and will abide by it. If the King would but confirm it!" + +And thereupon they sent Werner, Baron of Attinghausen, Landammann of +Uri, like his fathers before him and his posterity after him, to the +Imperial Court. But the King was quarrelling with his Electors, and was +in bad humor, and sent to Uri to forbid them from assessing land-rates +on a convent there. Whereupon the men of Schwyz, being without +protection, made a league for ten years with Werner, Count of Honburg; +and that their submission to the Austrian power might not be construed +into a duty, they sent to the King for an Imperial Bailiff. Albrecht +appointed Hermann Gessler of Brunek, and Beringer of Landenberg, whose +cousin Hermann was in much favor with him. Beringer's manners were rough +even at the Court; and to get rid of him, they sent him to tame the +Waldstätte. He appointed Bailiffs whose poverty and avarice were the +cause of much oppression, emboldened as they were by the ill-feeling of +the King towards the men of Schwyz, whose freedom the King had refused +to confirm, and waited only for opportunity to annihilate their ancient +rights, after the example he had already set in Vienna and Styria. + +The Imperial Bailiffs resolved to take up their abode in the Forest +Cantons,--Landenberg in Unterwalden, near Sarnen, in a castle of the +King's, while Gessler built a prison-castle by Altorf in Uri; for within +the memory of men no lord had dwelt in Schwyz. They used their power +wantonly;--unjust and weary imprisonments for slightest faults; haughty +manners, and all the stings of insolent authority;--and no redress to +be had at the King's hands. The peace and happy security of the men of +Schwyz were gone, and they looked in one another's faces for the thing +that was to be done. The honored families of their race were despised +and called peasant-nobles;--there was Werner Stauffacher, a well-to-do +and well-meaning man; and the Lord of Attinghausen above all, of an +ancient house, in years, with much experience, and true to his country; +there was Rudolph Redings of Biberek, whose descendants live to this +day in Schwyz, supporting still the honor of their name; and the +Winkelrieds, mindful of the spirit of their ancestor who slew the +dragon. In such persons the people _believed_; they knew them and their +fathers before them; and when they were made light of, there was hatred +between the people and the Bailiffs. As Gessler passed Stauffacher's +house in Steinen, one day, where the little chapel now stands, and saw +how the house was well built, with many windows, and painted over with +mottoes, after the manner of rich farmers' houses, he cried to his face, +"Can one endure that these peasants should live in such houses?" + +It came at last to insulting their wives and daughters; and the first +man that attempted this, one Wolfenschiess, was struck dead by an angry +husband; and when the brave wife of Stauffacher reflected how her turn +might come next, she persuaded her husband to anticipate the danger. +Werner Stauffacher at once crossed the lake to Uri, to consult with his +friend Walther, Prince of Attinghausen, with whom he found concealed a +young man of courage and understanding. "He is an Unterwaldner from the +Melchthal," said Walther; "his name is Erni an der Halden, and he is +a relation of mine; for a trifling matter Landenberg has fined him +a couple of oxen; his father Henry complained bitterly of the loss, +whereupon a servant of the Bailiff said, 'If the peasants want to eat +bread, they can draw their own plough'; at which Erni took fire, and +broke one of the fellow's fingers with his stick, and then took refuge +here; meanwhile the Bailiff has caused his father's eyes to be put out." +And then the two friends took counsel together; and Walther bore witness +how the venerable Lord of Attinghausen had said that these Bailiffs were +no longer to be endured. What desolating wrath resistance would bring +upon the Waldstätte they knew and measured, and swore that death was +better than an unrighteous yoke. And they parted, each to sound his +friends,--appointing as a place of conference the Rütli. It is a little +patch of meadow, which the precipices seem to recede expressly to form, +on the Bay of Uri, sloping down to the water's edge,--so called from the +trees being rooted out (_ausgereutet_) there,--not far from the boundary +between Unterwalden and Uri, where the Mytenstein rises solitary like an +obelisk out of the water. There, in the stillness of night, they often +met together for council touching the work which was to be done; thither +by lonely paths came Fürst and Melchthal, Stauffacher in his boat, +and from Unterwalden his sister's son, Edelknecht of Rudenz. The more +dangerous the deed, the more solemn the bond which bound them. + +On the night of Wednesday before Martinmas, on the 10th of November, +1307, Fürst, Melchthal, and Stauffacher brought each from his own Canton +ten upright men to the Rütli, to deliberate honestly together. And when +they came there and remembered their inherited freedom, and the eternal +brotherly bond between them, consecrated by the danger of the times, +they feared neither Albrecht nor the power of Austria; and they took +each other by the hand, and said, that "in these matters no one was +to act after his own fancy; no one was to desert another; that in +friendship they would live and die; each was so to strive to preserve +the ancient rights of the people that the Swiss through all time might +taste of this friendship; neither should the property or the rights of +the Count of Hapsburg be molested, nor the Bailiffs or their servants +lose one drop of blood; but the freedom which their fathers gave them +they would bequeath to their children": and then, when remembering that +upon what they did now the fate of their posterity depended, each looked +upon his friend, consoled. And Walther Fürst, Werner Stauffacher, and +Arnold an der Halden of Melchthal lifted their hands to heaven, and, in +the name of God, who created emperor and peasant with the inalienable +rights of man, swore to maintain their freedom; and when the thirty +heard this, each one raised his hand and swore the same by God and the +Saints;--and then each went his way to his hut, and was silent, and +wintered his cattle. + +In the mean while it happened that the Bailiff Hermann Gessler was +shot dead by Wilhelm Tell, who was of Bürglen, at the entrance of the +Schächenthal, a half-hour from Altorf, in Uri,--son-in-law of Walther +Fürst, and a man of some substance, for he had the steward-ship in +fee in Bürglen of the Frauenmüster Abbey in Zürich,--one of the +conspirators. Out of wanton tyranny, or suspicious of the breaking out +of disturbances, Gessler determined to discover who bore the joke most +impatiently; and, after the symbolical way of the times and the people, +set up a hat, (it was on the 18th of November,) to represent the dignity +of the Duke Albrecht of Austria, and commanded all to do it homage. The +story of Tell's refusal, and of the apple placed on the head of his son +to be shot at, the world knows far and wide. Convinced by his success +that God was with him, Tell confessed, that, if the matter had gone +wrong, he would have had his revenge upon the Bailiff. Gessler did +not dare to detain him in Uri, on account of Tell's many friends and +relations, but took him up the lake, contrary to the traditions of the +people, which forbade foreign imprisonment. They had not got far beyond +the Rütli, when the föhn-wind, breaking loose from the gulfs of the +Gothard, threw the waves into a rage, and the rocks echoed with its +angry cries. In this moment of deadly danger, Gessler commanded them to +unbind Tell, who, he knew, was an excellent boatman; and as they passed +by the foot of the Axen Mountain, to the right as you come out of the +Bay of Uri, Tell grasped his bow and leaped upon a flat rock there, +climbed up the mountain while the boat tossed to and fro against the +rocks, and fled through the land of the men of Schwyz. But the Bailiff +escaped the storm also, and landed by Küssnacht, where he fell with +Tell's arrow through him. + +It should be remembered that this was Tell's deed alone: the hour which +the people had agreed upon for their deliverance had not come; they had +no part in the death of Gessler. Carlyle has remarked this as appearing +also in Schiller's drama, in the construction of which, he says, "there +is no connection, or a very slight one, between the enterprise of Tell +and that of the men of Rütli." It was not a deed conformable to law +or the highest ethics, yet it was one which mankind is ever ready to +forgive and applaud; and the echo of it through the ages will die away +only when hatred of tyranny and wrathful impatience under hopeless +oppression die away also from the hearts of men. Tell was an outlaw, and +he took an outlaw's vengeance: it was life against life. And yet it is a +curious fact, that the historian of Switzerland (that wonderful genius, +Johannes Müller, who is reported to have read more books than any man in +Europe, in proof of which they point you to his fifty folio volumes of +excerpts in the Town Library at Schaffhausen) suggests as a reason why +there were only one hundred and fourteen persons, who had known Tell, +to gather together in 1388, not much more than thirty years after his +death, at the erection of a chapel dedicated to his memory on the rock +where he leaped ashore, that Tell did not often leave Bürglen, where he +dwelt, and that, according to the ethics of that period, the deed was +not one likely to attract inquisitive wonderers to him. + +There is hardly an event or character in history which is not to +somebody a myth or a phantom; and so Tell has not escaped the skepticism +of men. But those who doubt his existence have little experience of +history, says Müller. Grasser was the first to remark the resemblance +between the adventures of Tell and those of a certain Tocco, or Toke, or +Palnatoke, of Denmark, which are related by Saxo Grammaticus, a learned +historian who flourished in Denmark in the twelfth century, of which +kingdom and its dependencies he compiled an elaborate history, first +printed at Paris in 1486; but the Danish Tocco, who is supposed to have +existed in the latter half of the tenth century, was wholly unknown +to the Swiss, who, if ever, came to the Alps before that time. The +Icelanders, also, have a similar story about another hero, which appears +in the "Vilkinasaga" of the fourteenth century. It is more likely that +the Danes and other Northern people got their tradition from the Swiss, +by way of the Hanse Towns perhaps, if we are to be permitted to believe +in but one original tradition, which is not less arbitrary than +unphilosophic. + +Moreover, for what did these one hundred and fourteen people dedicate a +chapel to him thirty years and a little more after his death? And there +is the Chronicle of Klingenberg, which covers the end of the fourteenth +century, which tells his story; and Melchior Russ, of Lucerne, who, in +compiling his book, about the year 1480, had before him a Tell-song, and +the Chronicle of Eglof Etterlins, Town-Clerk of Lucerne in the first +half of the fifteenth century; and since 1387, too, there has been +solemn service by the people of Uri to commemorate him. So that the +"Fable Danoise" of Uriel Freudenberger of Bern (1760) becomes a mere +absurdity, and the indignant Canton of Uri had no less right to burn it +(although to burn was not to answer it, suggests the critic,) than to +honor the "Defence" by Balthasar with two medals of gold. And what +has been written to establish him may be read in Zurlauben, (whose +approbation is almost proof, says Müller, reverentially,) and elsewhere +as undernoted.[A] + +[Footnote A: In Balthasar, _Déf. de Guill. Tell_ (Lucerne, 1760); Gottl. +Eman. von Haller, _Vorlesung über Wilh. Tell_, etc. (Bern, 1772); +Hisely, _Guill. Tell et la Révolution de_ 1307 (Delft, 1826); Ideler, +_Die Sage vom Schüsse des Tell_ (Berlin, 1836); Häusser, _Die Sage vom +Tell_ (Heidelberg, 1840); Schoenhuth, _Wilh. Tell, Geschichte aus der +Vorzeit_ (Reutlingen, 1836); Henning, _Wilh. Tell_ (Nürnberg, 1836); and +_Histoire de Guill. Tell, Libérateur de la Suisse_ (Paris, 1843).] + +Tell's posterity in the male line is reported to have died out with +Johann Martin, in 1684; the female, with Verena, in 1720. Yet it is +certainly a little surprising that the elder Swiss chroniclers, John of +Winterthur, and Justinger of Bern, for instance, who were almost Tell's +contemporaries, make no mention of him in relating the Revolution in the +Waldstätte, and that it should be left to Tschudi and others, almost two +hundred years afterwards, in the sixteenth century, to give his story +that dramatic importance upon which Schiller has set the seal forever. +It can be explained, perhaps, on the ground that it did not at the time +possess that importance which we have been taught to give it; though +roughly, thus, we do away with the poetry of it, to be sure. Let +Voltaire, whose function it was to deny, enjoy his feeble sneer, that +"the difficulty of pronouncing those respectable names"--to wit, +_Melchtad_, and _Stauffager_, and _Valtherfurst_, to say nothing of +_Grisler_--"injures their celebrity." Neither are we to conceal the +fact, that it is doubted, if not denied, that there ever was any Gessler +in Uri to perform all the wicked things ascribed to him, and to get that +arrow through him in such dramatic and effective manner in the Hollow +Way; for has not Kopp published, with edifying explanation, "Documents +for the History of the Confederation," (Lucerne, 1835,) in which, in the +list of Bailiffs (_Landvoigte_) at Küssnacht, we do not find the name of +Gessler? Perhaps there was a mistake in the name, the critic suggests. + +The Revolution thus begun at the Rütli, and by Tell, went forward +swiftly in January, 1308; and, true to their oath, it was consummated +by the men of Schwyz without harm to the property of the Bailiffs, also +without the spilling of a single drop of blood. The prison at Uri was +captured, and Landenberg also, as he descended to hear mass, by twenty +men from Unterwalden; but, escaping, he fled across the meadows from +Sarnen to Alpnach, where he was overtaken and made to swear that he +would never set foot again in the Waldstätte, and then suffered to +depart safely to the King. And the peasants breathed again; and +Stauffacher's wife opened her house to all who had been at the Rütli; +and there was joy in the land. + +And how in that same year Duke Albrecht met with a bloody end, such as +befell no King or Emperor of the Germans before or after him, at the +hands of Duke John, his nephew, whose inheritance he had kept back, and +other conspirators; and what vengeance overtook the murderers; and how +Duke John, escaping in the habit of a monk into Italy, was no more heard +of, but became a shadow forever, like the rest of them;--and how, eight +years afterwards, came the expedition of Duke Leopold of Austria against +the Waldstätte, and the fight at Morgarten, where the Swiss, thirteen +hundred mountaineers in all, Wilhelm Tell among them, routed twenty +thousand of the well-armed chivalry of Austria,--dating from that heroic +Thermopylae of theirs the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy, as, +larger and perhaps not less resolute, we see it to-day, ready to +defy, if need be, single-handed, the greatest military nation of the +earth;--and how, thirty years afterwards, the men of Schwyz and Uri go +forth, nine hundred strong,--among them Tell, and Werner Stauffacher, +now bent with years,--to the aid of Bern, threatened by the nobles +roundabout;--and how, in 1332, was formed the league with Lucerne, +whereby the beautiful lake gets its name as the Lake of the _Four_ +Forest Cantons;--and how, one sultry July day in 1386, the men of Schwyz +and Uri and Unterwalden, together with other Swiss,--some of them armed +with the very halberds with which their fathers defended the pass at +Morgarten,--fought again their hereditary enemy, Austria, by the clear +waters of the little Lake of Sempach; how, when they saw the enemy, they +fell upon their knees, according to their ancient custom, and prayed to +God, and then with loud war-cry dashed at full run upon the Austrian +host, whose shields were like a dazzling wall, and their spears like a +forest, and the Mayor of Lucerne with sixty of his followers went down +in the shock, but not a single one of the Austrians recoiled; and how at +that critical, dreadful moment,--for the flanks of the enemy's phalanx +were advancing to encompass them,--there suddenly strode forth the +Knight Arnold Strutthan von Winkelried, crying, "I will make a path +for you! care for my wife and children!" and, rushing forward, grasped +several spears and buried them in his breast,--a large, strong man, he +bore the soldiers down with him as he fell, and his companions pushed +forward over his dead body into the midst of the host, and the victory +was won, and another book was added to the epic story of the men of +Schwyz and Uri and Unterwalden;--and how Duke Leopold fell fighting +bravely, as became his house, and six hundred and fifty nobles with him, +so that there was mourning at the Court of Austria for many a year, and +men said it was a judgment upon the reckless spirit of the nobles; and +how Martin Malterer, standard-bearer, of Freyburg in the Breisgau, +happening to come upon Leopold as he was dying, was as one petrified, +and the banner fell from his hands, and he threw himself across the body +of Leopold to save it from further outrage, waiting for and finding his +own death there;--and how this ruinous contest between Switzerland and +Austria was not finally closed till the time of Maximilian, in 1499, +when first the right of private war was abolished in Germany;--and how, +through the various fortunes of the succeeding centuries, the character +of the Swiss has remained for the most part the same as in the earlier +time:--these things one may read at large elsewhere; but we hasten to +the conclusion. + +The story of Tell has been the subject of several dramas. Lemierre, a +popular French dramatist of his day, (though J. J. Rousseau affects to +call him a _scribe_ whom the French Academy once crowned,) produced +a play founded upon it, in Paris, in 1766; but the language of Swiss +freemen on a French stage was little to the taste of those days, and +it was a failure. Voltaire, when asked what he thought of it, +replied,--"_Il n'y a rien à dire; il est écrit en langue du pays._" But +twenty years afterwards it was revived with prodigious success; for the +truth which was in it flashed out then, forerunner of the storm which +was soon to break over France. Again, when Florian, whom we are to +remember always for his "Fables," banished in 1793 by the decree which +forbade nobles to remain in Paris, taking refuge at Sceaux, was arrested +and thrown into prison, he consoled his captivity by composing his drama +of "Guillaume Tell,"--the worst of his productions, it is recorded. +Lastly, it has been consecrated for all time by the genius of Friedrich +Schiller. The legend was first brought to Schiller's notice, doubtless, +by Goethe, who writes to him concerning it from Switzerland in 1797. +Goethe himself thought of founding an epic on it. It was not, however, +till 1801, before his journey to Dresden, that Schiller's attention was +permanently directed to it. Completed on the 18th of February, it +was brought out at Weimar on the 17th of March, 1804, with the most +extraordinary success: the fifth act, however, was suppressed, in +deference to the intended court alliance with the daughter of a murdered +Russian emperor; it not being considered good taste to represent the +assassination of an autocrat upon such an occasion. + +Schiller's drama has been translated into French by Merle d'Aubigné and +others, and many times into English,--among us by the Rev. C. T. Brooks. +It follows the tradition substantially. Carlyle declares, indeed, that +"the incidents of the Swiss Revolution, as detailed in Tschudi or +Müller, are here faithfully preserved, even to their minutest branches." +We tarried once for several days at Brunnen, and read the play upon the +spot in sight of the Rütli, in the little balcony of the _pension_ of +the Golden Eagle, with the deep, calm, blue lake at our feet, and the +Hacken and Axen mountains and the Selisberg shutting out the world for +a time; and as we look at the play now, it recalls with the utmost +minuteness the scenery and the coloring of it all: yet Schiller never +was there. It was the last startling effulgence of his comet-like +genius; for when the spring-flowers came again, he was gone from our +earth. + +In the last act of the great drama, as Tell sits at his cottage-door +in Bürglen in Uri, surrounded by his wife and children, after the +consummation of the deed, there approaches a monk begging alms;--it is +the parricide Duke John, flying the sight and presence of men. In the +contrast of the feelings of these two persons, then and there, one reads +Schiller's justification of his hero. As if to complete by contrast the +moral of the drama of "Tell," it is related also in the tradition, that +in 1354, when the stream of the Schächen was swollen, Tell, then bowing +under the snowy years, seeing a child fall into it, as he passed that +way, plunged in, and lost his life. Uhland has indicated this in his +"Death of Tell," as only Uhland could:-- + + "Die Kraft derselben Liebe, + Die du dem Knaben trugst, + Ward einst in dir zum Triebe, + Dass du den Zwingherrn schlugst." + +Some liken life to a book to be read in. To us it is rather an unwritten +poem which each age repeats to the next,--melodious sometimes, as when +the blind old mythic bard of Chios sang it under the olive-trees, by the +blue Aegean, to the listening Greeks, thirsty for beauty, drinking it +ever with their eyes, and with their lips lisping it,--or rough and +more full of meaning, as when, with the men of Schwyz and Uri and +Unterwalden, the great idea of freedom, majestic as their mountains, +utters itself, composed and stern, in deeds which for all time make +Switzerland honored and free. + +On the 10th of November, 1859, the heart of Germany beat with gladness, +if touched also with a certain sorrow, as in every hamlet, on every +hill-side, from the German Ocean to the Tyrolese Alps, from the Vosges +to the Carpathians and the Slavic border, the people met to celebrate +with simple rites the hundredth birthday of its great poet Schiller, +in whom they recognize not more what he did than what he sought after, +whose striving is their striving, from highest to lowest,--the ideal +man, burning to gather them together, and fold them as one flock under +one shepherd, that, no longer divided, they may face the world and the +future with one heart, with one great trembling hope, to lead the new +civilization to its lasting triumphs. + +Schiller had sung of Wilhelm Tell; and the men of Schwyz remembered +him on that occasion, too, on the Rütli, with their confederates from +Oberwalden and Niederwalden. On the afternoon of the 11th of November, +they met at Brunnen,--on the lake, as we have said,--the men of Schwyz +embarking in one great boat, amidst peals of music, while numberless +little canoes received the others. The wind, blowing strong from the +north, filled the sail, and, as they floated down the Bay of Uri, they +remembered Stauffacher and his friends, who had glided over the same +dark waters at dead of night, past the Mytenstein to the Rütli, and +the old time lived again; and the little chapel on the spot where Tell +sprang ashore, erected by the Canton Uri, where once a year, since 1388, +mass is said, and a sermon preached to the people, who go up in solemn +procession of little boats, looked friendly over to them; and the +countrymen of Schiller, present for the first time from Stuttgart and +Munich, wondered at the solemn beauty of the snowpeaks reflected in the +waters below. A chorus of many voices broke upon the mountain-stillness, +as the little fleet approached the Rütli; the men of Uri, already there, +"the first on the spot," and with them the men of Gersau, a valiant +band, answered in a song of welcome; and they shook each other by the +hand, and made a little circle, three hundred in all, upon the Rütli; +and Lusser of Uri thanked the men of Schwyz for the invitation to +remember their fathers here on the five hundred and fifty-second +anniversary of the deeds which Schiller has so gloriously sung. We best +remember the poet by repeating and upholding his words:-- + + "Wir wollen seyn ein einzig Volk von Brüdern, + In keiner Noth uns trennen und Gefahr. + Wir wollen frey seyn, wie die Väter waren, + Eher den Tod als in der Knechtschaft leben. + Wir wollen trauen auf den höchsten Gott, + Und uns nicht fürchten vor der Macht der + Menschen." + + "One people will we be,--a band of brothers; + No danger, no distress shall sunder us. + We will be freemen as our fathers were, + And sooner welcome death than live as slaves. + We will rely on God's almighty arm, + And never quail before the power of man." [B] + +[Footnote B: Rev. C. T. Brooks's translation, p. 53.] + +Then they read the scene of the Rütli Oath from Schiller's play, and +sing the Swiss national song, "Callest thou, my Fatherland?" And the +pastor Tschümperlin admonishes them that they best cultivate the spirit +of Schiller and Tell by worthy training of their children. As they are +about to break up at last, the Landammann Styger of Schwyz suggests a +beautiful thing to them:--"As we came from Brunnen, and looked up at the +Mytenstein as we passed it,--the great pyramid rising up there out of +the water as if meant by Nature for a monument,--it seemed to us that a +memorial tablet should be placed there, simple like the column itself, +with words like these: 'To Him who wrote "Tell," on his One Hundredth +Birthday, the Original Cantons.'" And the proposition was received +with unanimous shout of assent. "This was the worthy ending of the +Schiller-Festival on the Rütli," says the contemporary chronicle. + +On the 10th day of November, 1859, also, there was put into the hands +of the Central Committee of the Society of the Swiss Union the deed of +purchase of the Rütli. It is in the handwriting of Franz Lusser of Uri, +Clerk of the Court, and dated the 10th of November, the birthday of +Schiller. Thus Switzerland owns its sacred places, and the title-deeds +long laid up in its heart are written out at last. + +On the 21st of October of last year, on a brilliant afternoon, the +men of Schwyz and Uri went forth again from Brunnen, with the chief +magistracy of the land. From Treib came the Unterwaldners, all in richly +decorated boats, and the inhabitants of Lucerne in two steamboats with +much music, meeting in front of the Mytenstein, which lifts its colossal +front eighty feet above the water there. The top of it was covered with +a large boat-sail, with the arms of the original Cantons and Swiss +mottoes on it; in a wreath of evergreen, the arms of the other Cantons; +in the middle of it, in token of the twenty-two Cantons, a white cross +upon red ground; above all, the flag of the Confederacy spread to the +Föhn. At the foot was a little stand made of twigs for the speaker, +about which the little fleet was grouped, under the charge of the +Landammann Aufdermauer of Brunnen, a gallant gentleman, host of the +Golden Eagle, with his kind little sister, of whom we spoke at the +beginning. + +When all was still, Uri opens the musical trilogy,--the words by P. +Gall. Morell, monk of Einsiedeln, the music by Baumgartner of Zürich; +Unterwalden takes up the burden; then Schwyz; then all three in +chorus;--and the echo of the fresh voices among the rocks there was as +in a cathedral. Then Landammann Styger climbs to the stand, and makes a +little speech, and reads a letter from Schiller's daughter, (of which +presently,) while the curious shepherd-boys stretch out their necks over +the craggy tops of the Selisberg to look down upon the lively scene +below. + +At the end of his speech, Styger lets fall the sail amid the beating of +the drums and the shouts of the multitude; and on the flat sides of the +rock appear the gilded metal letters, a foot high,--"To the Singer of +Tell, Fr. Schiller, the Original Cantons, 1859." And there were other +little speeches,--one by Lusser, who exclaims with much truth, "The +rocks of our mountains can be broken, but not _bent_"; and then followed +the Swiss psalm by Zwysig. And afterwards, in the evening, a feast in +the Golden Eagle in Brunnen, at which, with the ancient sobriety, they +remember the dangers of the present, and affirm their neutrality, which +should not hang upon the caprice of a neighbor, but be grounded in their +own will, for there is no Lord in Christendom for them except Him who is +above all. + +Thus wrote Schiller's daughter:-- + +_"Gentlemen of the Committee of the Schiller Memorial on the +Mytenstein:_-- + +"Your friendly words have truly delighted and deeply moved my heart;-- +not less the engraving of the Mytenstein, which shall stand as the very +worthy and noble memorial of the Singer of Wilhelm Tell in the land of +the Swiss for all time forever,--a token of recognition of the genius +which, struggling for the highest good of mankind, has found its home in +the hearts of all noble men and women. With infinite joy I greeted the +beautiful idea, so wholly worthy of the land as of the poet,--there, +where magnificent Nature, grown friendly, offers its hand on the very +ground where one of the noblest, most finished creations of Schiller +takes root, to consecrate to him a memorial which, defying time and +storms, shall illumine afar off every heart which turns to it. + +"In memory also of my beloved mother, Charlotte, Schiller's earthly +angel, I rejoice in this memorial. She it was who, with deepest love +for Switzerland, which she calls the land of her affections, where she +passed happy youthful days from 1783 to 1784, led Schiller to it, and by +her fresh, lively descriptions made him partake of it; and so prepared +the way for the genius which could embrace and penetrate all things for +the masterly representation of the country, which, unfortunately, his +feet never trod. If, unhappily, I am not able to be present at the +festival on the 21st of October, I am not the less thankful for your +kind invitation; and in that sacred hour I will be with you in spirit, +deeply sympathizing with all that the noble _idea_ brought into life. + +"A little memorial of the 10th of November, 1859, representing Schiller +and Charlotte, I pray you, Gentlemen, to accept of me, and, when you +recall the parents, to remember also the daughter. + +"Respectfully yours, + +"EMILIE v. GLEICHEN-RUSSWURM, geb. v. SCHILLER. + +"_Greiffenstein ob Bonnland. 12 October, 1860._" + +In the churchyard of Cleversulzbach lies buried, since the 2d of May, +1802, the mother of Schiller. Prof. Dr. E. Mörika, when he was preacher +there, erected a simple stone cross over the grave, and with his own +hands engraved upon it the words, "Schiller's Mother." On the famous +10th of November, 1859, woman's hand decorated the grave with flowers, +and put a laurel wreath upon the cross; and in the hour when great +cities with festal processions and banquets and oratory and jubilant +song offered their homage to the son, a few persons gathered around the +grave of the mother, and in the silence there planted a linden-tree; +for in stillness thus, while she lived, had his mother done her part, +lovingly and with faith, to unfold and consecrate the genius of +Friedrich Schiller. + + * * * * * + + +A NOOK OF THE NORTH. + + +Adventurous travellers, who penetrated into Canada during the late visit +of the Sovereign-Apparent of that colony, have furnished the public, +through the daily press, with minute and more or less faithful +descriptions of places upon the grand routes, Quebec and Montreal have +been done by them to a hair; Kingston and another wicked place made +notorious for bad manners; Toronto, Hamilton, and London of the West +photographed with a camera of maximum dimensions. Upon the two great +railroad-lines by which Canada is now traversed,--the Grand Trunk +and the Great Western,--there is hardly a station which has not been +mentioned by the reporters, either for the loyal manner in which it +was decorated to do honor to the youthful Prince, or for the rather +inhospitable display of certain objectionable symbols by the people +around. + +But neither in Canada nor elsewhere is it upon the grand routes that +glimpses can be had of interior life and character. Primitive simplicity +is altogether incompatible with railroads. The boy who resides near a +station is quite an old man, compared with any average boy taken from +the sequestered clearings ten miles back: he may be a worse kind of boy, +or he may be a better, but he isn't the same kind, at any rate. Of +girls it is more difficult to speak with confidence in the present +era,--hooped skirts having pretty nearly assimilated them everywhere; +but I have noticed that they are less ingenuous along railroads than in +secluded districts, and their parents more suspicious,--a fact which +makes railroad-vicinities inferior places to dwell in, compared to those +that are rural and remote from the demoralizing influences of up and +down trains. + +I do not aver that the railroad is devoid of a kind of poetry of its +own,--the same kind of sentiment, nearly, that resides about anvils +and smelting-furnaces in the Hartz Mountains and in the great +coal-districts: an infernal kind of sentiment, for the most part, being +inseparable from burning fiery furnaces and grime; as in "Fridolin," and +in the "Song of the Bell," and in the "Forging of the Anchor." Once, +particularly, in travelling by rail, did I experience the mysterious +glamour that seems to hang round iron more than about any other metal. +It was past midnight; and on waking up after a sleep of some hours, I +found myself alone in the long car, which had come to a stand-still +while I slept. The stillness of the night was broken at intervals by a +short, loud boom, as of an iron bell ringing up some terrible domestic +from the incomprehensible unseen. On looking out of the window, I saw by +some dim lamp-light that we were alone in an immense iron hall; _we_, I +say, for there was a ponderous, grimy being darkly visible to me, whose +gigantic shadow made terrible gestures upon the walls and among the +great iron girders of the roof, as he moved slowly along the train, +striking the wheels with a heavy sledge-hammer as he went. Of course +there was nothing unusual in such a proceeding, the object of which was, +probably, to ascertain something connected with the condition of the +rolling stock; but there was a kind of awful poetry in the toll of the +iron bell, which ran, and reverberated, and tingled among the iron ribs +in the building, making them all sing as if they were things of flesh +and blood, with plenty of iron in the latter, which is reckoned to be +conducive to robust health. + +But the romance of rolling stock has yet to be disengaged, and the +inspired conductor or bardic baggage-master destined to do that is yet +in the shell. May he long remain there! + +Off the track some ten or twenty miles, though, almost anywhere, some of +the materials, at least, for good, regular poetry of the old-fashioned +kind are to be found. A mill, for instance, with a wooden wheel,--no +demoralizing iron about it, in fact, except what cannot well be +dispensed with, in view of wear and tear. A white cottage, where +the miller dwells serene; mossy roof, red brick chimney, and no +lightning-rod or any other iron, being the principal features of the +serene miller's abode. Cherries, in that tranquil person's garden, that +are nearly ripe, and roses of a delicate red,--but none so ripe or so +red as the lips and cheeks of the serene miller's daughter, who trips +across the little wooden foot-bridge over the mill-stream, singing a +birdy kind of song as she goes. She is clad in a black velvet bodice +and russet skirt, and has no iron about her of any description, unless, +indeed, it is in her blood,--where it ought to be. The breath of kine +waiting to be relieved of their honest milk, which is a good, solid kind +of fluid in such places, and meanders about the land with great freedom +in company with honey. All these things will be very scarce in the world +by-and-by, on which account it seems to be a judicious thing to go off +the track a little, now and then, if only to "say that we have seen +them." + +In following the graphic narratives of the Prince of Wales's tour, the +mind naturally wandered away to places _not_ visited by him, although +within easy distance of his fore-ordered course. It is well that there +are places left to talk about! Let us conjure up a few old reminiscences +of one,--a silent, primitive little nook of the North, within an hour's +ride of Quebec, but too insignificant a spot for the coveted distinction +of a royal visit. Crowned heads, then, will have the goodness to +transfer their attention, and skip to the next article. + +The nook to which I refer is Lorette, in Lower or French Canada, where +it is commonly called _Jeune Lorette_, to distinguish it from _Ancienne +Lorette_,--a less interesting place, distant from it about four miles. + +Jeune Lorette is situated about eight miles north-west of Quebec, upon +the beautiful, romantic stream called the St. Charles, which rushes down +many a picturesque gorge, and winds through many pleasant meadows, in +its course of some twenty miles from Lake St. Charles away up in the +hills to the St. Roch suburb of Quebec. Here it assumes the character of +a deep, tortuous dock, incumbered with the _débris_ of many ship-yards, +and reflecting the skeleton shapes of big-ribbed merchantmen on the +stocks. Here, too, it is generally called the Little River; probably to +distinguish it from the great River St. Lawrence, into which it oozes at +this point. + +But higher up, as I have said, the St. Charles is romantic and rushes +on its fate. At Lorette, it divides the village in twain: a western +section, for the most part peopled by French-Canadian _habitans_; an +eastern one, inhabited by half-breed Indians, a remnant of the once +powerful Hurons of old. + +These Canadian Hurons are not, in their present condition, corroborative +of the Cooper specifications of Indian life: rather the contrary, in +fact. There is a wing of them--a wing without feathers, indeed--settled +down at Amherstburgh, on the far western marge of Lake Erie, in Canada, +quite six hundred miles away from their brethren of Lorette. When +shooting woodcock once in that district, I entered the comfortable log +farm-house of the chief of the settlement, whose name was Martin. He +was a fat, rather Dutch-looking Indian, but still active and +industrious,--for a man who is an Indian and fat. I asked Mr. Martin if +he hunted much; to which he replied, No, he did not,--adding, that he +never was far into the woods but once in his life, and that was on +his own lot of a hundred acres of bush, in which he was lost, on that +occasion, for two days. + +Among the Hurons of Lorette there are a few young men who hunt moose and +caribou in the proper season; but the men, generally speaking, as +well as the women, are engaged in the manufacture of snow-shoes and +moccasons,--articles for which there is a great demand in Lower Canada. +Philippe Vincent, a chieftain and shoemaker of the tribe, told me that +he had disposed of twelve hundred dollars' worth of these articles, on +a trip to Montreal, from which he had just returned. Many articles of +Indian fancy-work are also manufactured by them: beaded pouches for +tobacco, bark-work knick-knacks, and curious racks made of the hoofs of +the moose, and hung upon the wall to stick small articles into. + +On the profits of this work many of them live in comfort,--nay, in +luxury. Paul Vincent, a cousin of Philippe mentioned above, and, like +him, a chief of the tribe and a renowned builder of snow-shoes, paid two +hundred and seventy-five dollars for a piano for his daughter, when I +was at Quebec, five or six years ago. Whenever I visited Philippe, that +stately man of the Hurons would usher me into a little parlor with a +sofa in it and a carpet on the floor; he would produce brandy in a cut +decanter, and cake upon a good porcelain plate, and would be merry in +French and expansive on the subject of trade. + +Most of these hybrid Hurons are quite as white as their Canadian +neighbors; but they generally have the horse-tail hair, and black, beady +eye of the aborigines. The ordinary dress of the men, in winter, is a +blue blanket-coat, made with a _capuchon_, or hood, which latter is +generally trimmed with bright-colored ribbon and ornamented with beads. +Epaulettes, fashioned out of pieces of red and blue cloth, somewhat +after the pattern of a pen-wiper, impart a distinguished appearance +to the shoulders of these garments, which are rendered still more +picturesque by being tucked round the body with heavy woollen sashes, +variegated in red, blue, and yellow. Some of these sashes are heavily +beaded, and worth from five to ten dollars each; and they, as well +as the Indian blanket-coats, are to be had at the furriers' shops in +Quebec, where there is a considerable demand for them by members of +snow-shoe clubs, and others whose occupations or amusements render that +style of costume appropriate for their wear. The older women dress +in the ordinary squaw costume, with short, narrow petticoats, and +embroidered _metasses_, or leggings. When going out, they fold a blue +blanket over all, and put on a regular, unpicturesque, stove-pipe hat, +with a band of tin-foil around it,--which makes them look like one of +those mulatto coachmen one sees now and then on the box of a _bonton_ +barouche, with his silver-mounted hat and double-caped blue box-coat. +The young girls are disposed to innovations upon the petticoats, and +modifications of the _metasses_. Once I saw one standing on a great gray +crag at the foot of the fall. She looked extremely picturesque at a +little distance, giving a nice bit of local color to the scene with her +scarlet legs; but on a nearer approach, much of the value of the color +disappeared before the unromantic facts of a pale-face petticoat and +patent-leather gaiter-boots. I have noticed several of the younger +people here with brown hair and blue or gray eyes, significant that the +aboriginal blood is being gradually diluted. In another generation or +two, there will be little of it left among them. But the correspondents +of the press, who described some of these Indians seen by them at +Quebec, are mistaken in attributing to them an admixture of Irish blood. +Until within eight years past, there were few, if any, Irish to be found +in the neighborhood of Lorette. Since that time, the construction of the +Quebec water-works, which are supplied from Lake St. Charles, has given +employment to hundreds of the Hibernian stock in that neighborhood; +and I know not whether their influence as regards race may not be now +discernible in the features of many pugnacious Huronites of tender +years: but the white element traceable in the lineaments of the present +and passing generations of the settlement is distinctly attributable to +the proximity of the French-Canadian, whose language has been transfused +into them with the blood. + +Few, if any, of the older people of Lorette speak English,--Huron and +French being the only languages at their command. Since the building of +the great reservoir, however, many of the rising generation are picking +up the English tongue in its roundest Irish form. Previously, matters +were the reverse. I once noticed a handsome, brown-faced boy there, who +used to come about with a bow and arrows, soliciting coppers, which were +placed one by one in a split stick, shot at, and pocketed by the archer, +if hit,--as they almost always were. He spoke Indian and French, and I +took him for an olive-branch of the tribe; but, on questioning him, he +told me that his name was Bill Coogan, and that he first saw the light, +I think, in Cork, Ireland. + +There is one charming feature at Lorette,--a winding, dashing cascade, +which boils and creams down with splendid fury through a deep gorge +fenced with pied and tumbled rocks, and overhung by gnarly-boughed +cedars, pines, and birches. There is, or at least there was, a crumbling +old saw-mill on a ledge of rock nearly half-way up the torrent. It was +in keeping with the scene, and I hope it is there still; but it was very +shaky when I last saw it, and has probably made an _éboulement_ down to +the foot of the fall before now. Some short distance above the head of +the fall, near the bridge by which the two villages are connected, +the scene is pictorially damaged by a stark, staring paper-mill, the +dominant colors of which are Solferino-red and pea-green. This, a +comparatively new feature in the landscape, is not visible from below, +however, and it is from there that the fall is seen to best advantage. + +To the eye of the experienced fisherman, it is obvious that the St. +Charles, with its sparkling rapids, and the deep, swirling pools formed +by its numerous "elbows," must erstwhile have been a chosen, retreat of +the noble salmon. Even now, notwithstanding the obstructions caused by +the immense deposits of ship-yard refuse at its mouth, a few of these +fine fish are caught every season by one or two persevering anglers +from Quebec,--men who thrive on disappointment,--whose fish-hooks are +miniature anchors of Hope. Lake St. Charles, from which the river +derives its existence and its name, is a wild, beautiful tarn, about +five miles above Lorette, embosomed in hills and woods. There are good +bass in that lake, by whose shores there dwells--or dwelt--an ancient +fisherman called Gabriel, who supplied anglers with canoes, and paddled +them about the waters. + +Lorette, although undistinguished by a glance from the mild blue eyes of +the Premier Prince of England, was flashed upon, years ago, by the awful +light that gleamed from the dark, fierce ones of Hamlet, Prince of +Denmark. This is how I came to know it. + +Fifteen years ago,--it was on the seventeenth of August, 1845,--I made +my first pilgrimage to Lorette, in company with a friend. We wandered at +large through the village, talking _patois_ to the swarthy damsels, and +picking up Indian knick-knacks, as we went. At last, fired with the +ambition of doing a distinguished thing, we proposed calling upon the +head chief of the village, whose name, I think, was Simon, but might +possibly have been Peter,--for I regret to say that my memory is rather +misty upon that important point. That personage was absent from home; +but we were hospitably received by his father, who also appeared to be +his butler, as he was engaged in bottling off some root-beer into stone +blacking-jars, when we entered. I suppose the chief's father must once +have been a chief himself, and that his menial position arose from the +fact of his appearance being rather disreputable. He was a decrepit and +very dirty old man, in a tight blue frock-coat, and swathed as to his +spindle shanks with scarlet leggings. Sitting by a small window at the +farther end of the large, bare room, was the prettiest little Huronite +damsel I ever saw, rather fair than dark, and very neatly attired in a +costume partly Indian. This little girl--a granddaughter of the dirty +old man, as that person informed us--was occupied in tying up some small +bundles of what the Canadians call _racine_--a sweet-smelling kind of +rush-grass, sold by them in the Quebec market, and used like _sachets_, +for imparting a pleasant odor to linen garments. After some conversation +of a general character, the old man requested us to write our names in +his visitors' book, which was a long, dirty volume, similar in form to +those usually seen upon bar-counters. In this book we were delighted to +find the autographs of many dear friends, of whom we little expected +to meet with traces in this nook of the North. Mark Tapley and Oliver +Twist, for instance, had visited the place in company some two years +before. There could be no mistake about it; for there were the two +names, in characteristic, but different manuscript, bound together +by the mystic circumflex that indicated them to be friends and +travelling-companions. The record covered a period of ten years; but +was that sufficient to account for the appearance of Shakspeare on its +pages? And yet there he was; and in merry mood he must have been, when +he came to Lorette,--for he wrote himself down "Bill," and dashed off +a little picture of himself after the signature, in a bold, if not +artistic manner. Our friend Titmouse was there, too, represented by +his famous declaration commencing, "Tittlebat Titmouse is my name." He +seemed to have taken particularly fast hold of the memory of the old +Huron, who described him as a tremendous-looking, big person, with +large black whiskers, and remembered having enjoyed a long pull at a +brandy-flask carried by him. Of course there can be no doubt about that +man being the real Tittlebat of our affections. Of the other signatures +in the Huronite album, I chiefly remember that of M.F. Tupper, which I +looked upon at the time as a base forgery, and do aver my belief now +that it was nothing else: for the aged sagamore described the writer of +that signature as a young, cheerful, and communicative man, who smoked a +short, black pipe, and had spaniels with him. Could my friend, could I, +venture to inscribe our humble names among this galaxy of the good and +great? Not so: and yet, to pacify the Huronite patriarch's thirst for +autographs, we wrote signatures in his brown old book; and if that +curious volume is still in existence, the names of Don Caesar de Bazan +and Sir Lucius O'Trigger, Bart., will be found closely linked together +on a particular page with the circumflex of friendship. + +And now the old man, delighted with the addition to his autographs, +proposed to treat us to an exhibition of several medals gained by him +for deeds of valor when he was a warrior, and previously to his having +entered upon the career of a bottler of root-beverages. He had silver +disks presented to him by at least two of Thackeray's Georges, a couple +from William IV., and I think one from her present Majesty, Queen +Victoria. All of these he touched with reverence, and not until he had +purified his hands upon a dirty towel. After we had duly admired these +decorations, and listened with patience to the old man's garrulous talk +about them, he told us that he had yet another to show,--one presented +to him many years ago by a great man of that day,--a man embalmed +for all posterity on account of his unrivalled performances upon the +tight-rope,--a man of whom he reduced all description to mendicancy in +designating him as _un danseur très-renommé sur la corde tendue_. The +medal was a small silver one, and it bore the following inscription:-- + +FROM EDMUND KEAN, THE BRITISH ACTOR, + +TO TOUSSAHISSA, CHIEF OF THE HURON INDIANS. 1826. + +And such is fame! It appears that Kean, always fond of excitement, had +organized a tremendous _pow-wow_ among these poor specimens of the red +man, on his visit to Quebec. They adopted him,--constituted him a chief +of their tribe. It would be interesting to have a full account of the +great passionist's demeanor upon that solemn occasion. Did he harrow +up his hearers with a burst from "Othello" or a deep-sea groan from +"Hamlet," and then create a revulsion of feeling by somersaulting over +the centre-fire of the circle and standing on his head before it, +grinning diabolically at the incensed pot? Or did he, foreshadowing the +coming Blondin, then unplanned, stretch his tight-rope across the small +Niagara that flashes down into the chasm of the St. Charles, and, +kicking his boots off, carry some "mute, inglorious" Colcord over in an +Indian bark basket? If he did such things, the old Huronite was foggy +upon the subject and reserved, limiting his assertions to the statement, +that "the British actor" was a _farceur_, and likewise _un danseur +très-renommé sur la corde tendue_. + +Long afterwards, when I resided at Quebec, my visits to Lorette were +very frequent. Once, as I passed along the street, or road, between the +straggling log-houses, I was accosted, in good English, by a fat and +very jovial old squaw, who was attired in a green silk dress, sported +a turban, and appeared to be altogether a superior kind of person. On +inquiry, I learned from her that she was the widow of a former chief of +the tribe, and came originally from Upper Canada, where she learned to +speak English. Her husband had been presented with many medals, she +said;--would I like to see them? I followed the old lady into her +dwelling, where she showed me several silver medals, which I thought I +recognized as the same exhibited by the aged Huronite with the red legs. +But the Kean medal was not among them; nor could I, by any system of +description in my power, recall the features of the relic to the memory +of the old squaw. + +Subsequently, I tried many times to trace it, but without success. Many +strangers visit Lorette during the summer season, and it is possible +that some virtuoso, struck by the associative value of the relic, may +have prevailed on its owner to part with it for a consideration. There +are people who would have possessed themselves of it without the +exchange of a consideration. Should this meet the eye of its present +possessor, and if so be that the medal came into his hands on the +consideration principle, so that he need not be ashamed of it, he will +confer a favor by giving the correct reading of the Indian name. For +"Toussahissa," as I have rendered it, is not exact, but only as near +as I can make it out from my pencil-memoranda, which, written in a +note-book that did occasional duty as a fly-book, have been partially +obliterated in that spot by the contact of a large and remarkably gaudy +salmon-fly, whose repose between the leaves is disturbed, perhaps, by +aquatic nightmares of salmon gaping at him from whirling eddies. + +Between Lorette and the unexplored wilderness that stretches away to +polar desolation there is but a narrow selvage of civilization. Looking +toward it from my windows at Quebec, I could see the blue, serrated +ridge of highlands beyond which the surveyor has never yet run his +lines,--beyond which the surveyor's lines would be superfluous, indeed, +and futile; for the soil is of the barren, rocky kind, and the timber of +the scrubby. Not quite so savage is this frontier, indeed, as the wild +precincts described by the Nebraska editor, whose meditations for a +leader used to be cut short, occasionally, by the bellowing of the +shaggy bison at his window, or the incursion of the redoubtable +"grizzly" into his wood-shed where the elk-meat hung. But, in the clear, +cold nights that precede the punctual and distinct winter of these +regions, the black bears often come down from their fastnesses amid the +wild ridges, and astonish the drowsy _habitant_ and his household by +their pranks among his pigs and calves: also in the spring. + +In a small settlement of this wild tract, a few miles to the north-east +of Lorette, there dwelt, some six or seven years ago, a poor farmer +named Cantin, who added to the meagre fare afforded by his sterile acres +such stray birds and hares as he could get within range of his old +musket, without risking himself very far away from the isolated +clearing. One night in the early part of May, when the snow had +disappeared from the open grounds, but lingered yet in the ravines and +rocky thickets, a dreadful tumult among the cattle of the settlement +indicated the presence of bear. Cantin had the old firelock ready, but +the night was dark and unfavorable for active measures. At gray morning, +traces of the nocturnal intruder were visible, and that close by the +_cabane_ in which Cantin lived, in the little inclosure near which a +struggle had evidently taken place, resulting in the discomfiture of a +yearling calf, portions of which were discovered in the thickets a short +distance from the clearing. Here the patches of snow gave ample evidence +of the passage of a very large bear. When the sun was well up, +Cantin sallied forth alone, with his gun and a small supply of +ammunition,--unluckily for him, a very small supply. He did not return +to dinner. Shots were heard in the course of the day, at a considerable +distance in the hills; and when the afternoon was far advanced, and +Cantin had not made his appearance, several of his neighbors--all the +men of the settlement, indeed, and they made but a small party--set out +in search of him. The snow-patches facilitated their search; and, having +tracked him a good way, they suddenly saw him kneeling by a tree at the +end of an open glade, with his hands clasped in an attitude of prayer. +He was a frightful spectacle when they raised his _bonnet-bleu_, which +had fallen down over his face. The entire facial mask had been torn +clean from the skull by a fearful sweep of the bear's paw, and hung from +his collar-bone by a strip of skin. He must have been dead for some +hours. Fifty yards from where he knelt, the bear was found lying under +some bushes, quite dead, and with two bullet-holes through its carcass. +Cantin, it appeared, had expended all his ammunition, and the wounded +beast had executed a terrible vengeance on him while the life-blood +was welling through the last bullet-hole. I saw this bear brought into +Quebec, in a cart, on the following day; and it is to be seen yet, I +believe, or at least the taxidermal presentment of it is, in the shop of +a furrier in John Street of that city. An enterprising druggist bought +up the little fat left in the animal after its long winter's fast; and +such was the demand among sensational people for gallipots of "grease of +the bear that killed Cantin," that it seemed as if fashion had ordained +the wearing of hair "on end." + +Of the other wild beasts of this hill-district, the commonest is that +known to the inhabitants as the _loup-cervier_,--a name oddly enough +misconstructed by a writer on Canadian sports into "Lucifer." This is +the true lynx,--a huge cat with long and remarkably thick legs, paws in +which dangerous claws are sheathed, and short tail. Its principal prey +is the common or Northern hare, which abounds in these regions: but at +times the _loup-cervier_ will invade the poultry-yards; and he is even +held to account, now and then, for the murder of innocent lambs, and the +disappearance of tender piglings whose mothers were so negligent as to +let them stray alone into the brushwood. These fierce cats have been +killed, occasionally, quite close to Quebec. When thus driven to +approach populous districts, it must be from scarcity of their +accustomed food; for they are usually very savage and ravenous, when +found in such places. I know an instance, myself, in which a gentleman +of Quebec, riding a little way from the town, was suddenly pounced upon +and attacked by a _loup-cervier_, near the Plains of Abraham. He struck +the animal with his whip several times, but it persisted in following +him, and he got rid of it only by putting spurs to his horse and beating +it in speed. The animal was killed soon afterwards, near the same place. + +I had heard of another variety of wildcat, seen at rare intervals in the +same districts. The _habitant_ is rather foggy on the subject of zoology +in general, and my attempts to obtain a satisfactory description of this +animal were futile. Some of the definitions of this rare _chat-sauvage,_ +indeed, might have answered for specifications of a griffin, or of a +vampire-bat. At last, one day, when walking about in the market-place +at Quebec, I saw a crowd assembled round a gray-clad countryman, who +presided over a small box on which the words _Chat-Sauvage_ were +painted. Now was my time to set the question at rest. I invested +sixpence in the show. When a good number of sixpences had been paid in, +the proprietor opened his box, out from which crawled a fat, familiar +raccoon, apparently as much at home in the market-place as he could have +been in the middle of his native swamp. And this was the mysterious +"wild-cat" about which I had asked so many questions and heard so many +stories! + +It is noticeable that thunder-storms, travelling from the westward +toward Quebec, usually diverge across the valley of the St. Charles in +the direction of Lorette, and coast along the ridge of ground on which +that place is situated to Charlesbourg, a small village lying about four +miles to the east of it, upon the ridge. There the storms appear to +culminate, pouring out the full vials of their wrath upon the devoted +_habitans_ of white-cotted Charlesbourg. The wayfarer who wends through +this rustical district will hardly fail to observe the prevailing taste +for lightning-rods. The smallest cottage has at least two of these +fire-irons, one upon each gable; houses of more pretensions are provided +with an indefinite number; and the big white church has its purple roof +so bristled with them, that the pause which a flash of lightning must +necessarily make before deciding by which of them to come down must +enable any tolerably active person to get out of the way in good time. +And yet, with all these defenders of the faithful, I remember how the +steeple was taken clean off the big white church, in splinters, one wild +night after I had watched a long array of cloud-chariots rolling heavily +away eastward along the ridge: also, how a farmer's handsome daughter, +the belle of the village, sat upright and dead upon a sofa when people +came again to their eyesight after a blinding flash. So much for +lightning-rods!--so much for the mystic iron! + +When the day of the _Fête Dieu_ comes round, Quebec and its neighboring +villages are all alive for the celebration of the _fête_, which takes +place on the following Sunday. Then the great suburb of St. Roch is +a sight to see. Every street of it is converted into a green alley, +embowered with young pine-trees, and flaunting with banners temporarily +constructed out of all available pieces of dry-goods, lent by the +devoted shop-keepers of the olden Church. Most extraordinary lithographs +of holy personages are hung out upon the door-posts and walls of every +house. Bowers shading curious little shrines meet the eye everywhere. +The white tables of the little shrines are loaded with gilt and +tinselled offerings in immense variety. Curious bosses, like +lace-pillows got up for church, swing pendent from the verdant +pine-branches. The vast parish-church, of sombre gray masonry, flashing +carnival-fires from the tin-plated pepper-boxes and slopes of its acre +of roof, is receiving or disgorging a variegated multitude of good +Catholics. Within, it is a mass of foliage, a wilderness of shrines, a +cloud-land of incense. Long processions of maidens all in white, and +others of maidens all in pale watchet-blue, are threading the principal +streets. They are not _all_ very religious maidens, I am afraid; +because, as sure as fate, one very young one of those robed in pure +white "made eyes" at me as she passed. Now all this display in Quebec +and its suburbs is set forth on a great scale and with bewildering +turmoil; but if you want to see it in miniature presentment, you must +pass down through St. Roch, and take the road to Lorette. Arrived among +the _sauvages_,--for so the Canadian _habitant_ invariably calls +his Indian brother, who is often as like him as one pea is like +another,--you will there see the little old Huron church decked out in +humble imitation of its younger, but bigger brothers in the city. The +lanes between the log-houses are embowered in a modest way, and the +drapery is eked out by many a yellow flannel petticoat and pair of +scarlet leggings that dally riotously with each other in the breeze. The +shrines are certainly less magnificent than those fairy bowers of +the elf-land St. Roch, but there is a good deal of beaded peltry and +bark-work about them, giving them, in a small way, the character of +aboriginal bazaars. The Hurons are _bons Catholiques_, and everything +connected with the _fête_ is conducted with a solemnity becoming the +character of the Christian red man. So decorous, indeed, are the little +_sauvagesses_ forming the miniature processions, that I do not remember +ever detecting the eyes of any of them wandering and wantoning around, +like those of the naughty little processional in white about whose +conduct I just now complained. + +The instinct of the French-Canadian for Indian trading has led one of +that race to establish a general store close by the Huron village, +though on the _habitant_ side of the stream. The gay printed cottons +indispensable to the _belle sauvagesse_ are here to be found, as well as +the blue blankets and the white, of so much account in the wardrobe of +the women as well as of the men. Here, too, are to be had the assorted +beads and silks and worsteds used in the embroidery of moccasons, +epaulettes, and such articles; nor is the quality of the Cognac kept on +hand by Joe for his customers to be characterized as despicable. Indeed, +it would be hazardous to aver that anything is _not_ to be had, for the +proper compensation, in Joe's establishment,--that is, anything +that could possibly be required by the most exacting _sauvage_ +or _sauvagesse_, from a strap of sleigh-bells to a red-framed +looking-glass. Out of that store, too, comes a deal of the vivid drapery +displayed upon the _Fête Dieu_, and much of the art-union resource +combined in the attractive cheap lithograph element so edifying to the +connoisseur. + +I think it was one of those _fêtes_--if not, another bright summer +holiday--that I once saw darkly disturbed in this quiet little hamlet. +Standing upon the table-rock that juts out at the foot of the fall so +as to half-bridge over the lower-most eddy, I saw a small object topple +over the summit of the cascade. It was nothing but a common pail or +stable-bucket, as I perceived, when it glided past, almost within arm's +length of me, and disappeared down the winding gorge. When I went up +again to the road, I saw a crowd of holiday people standing near the +little inn. They were solemn and speechless, and, on approaching, I saw +that they were gazing upon the body of a man, dead and sadly crushed +and mutilated. He was a _calèche_-driver from Quebec, well known to the +small community; and although it does not seem any great height from the +roadway near the inn to the tumbled rocks by the river's edge just +above the fall, yet it was a drop to mash and kill the poor fellow dead +enough, when his foot slipped, as he descended the unsafe path to get +water for his horse. A dweller in great cities--say, for instance, one +who lives within decent distance of such a charming locality as that +called the Five Points in New York--could hardly realize the amount of +awe that an event so trifling as a sudden and violent death will spread +over a primitive village community. This happened in the French division +of the place, which, of course, was decorated to the utmost ability of +the people in honor of the _fête_: and so palpable was the gloom cast +over all by the circumstance, that the bright flannels flaunting from +the _cordons_ stretched across the way seemed to darken into palls, and +the gay red streamers must have appeared to the subdued carnival spirits +as warning crape-knots on the door-handle of death. + +I believe it is a maxim with the Italian connoisseur of art, that no +landscape is perfect without one red spot to give value to its varieties +of green. On this principle, let me break the monotony of this little +rural sketch with the one touch of genuine American character that +belonged to it at the time of which I speak. Let William Button be the +one red spot that predominated vastly over the green influences by which +he was surrounded. The little inn at Lorette was then kept by a worthy +host bearing the above-mentioned name, which was dingily lettered out +upon a swinging sign, dingily representing a trotting horse,--emblem +as dear to the slow Canadian as to the fast American mind. William +Button--known as Billy Button to hosts of familiar friends--was, I +think, a Kentuckian by birth; a fact which might honestly account for +his having come by the loss of an eye through some operation by which +marks of violence had been left upon the surrounding tracts of his +rugged countenance. He was a short, thick-set man, with bow-legs like +those of a bull-terrier, and walked with a heavy lurch in his gait. +William's head was of immense size in proportion to his stature. Indeed, +that important joint of his person must have been a division by about +two of what artists term heroic proportions, or eight heads to a +height,--a standard by which Button was barred from being a hero, for +his head could hardly have been much less than a fourth of his entire +length. The expression of his face was remarkably typical of American +humor and shrewdness, an effect much aided by the chronic wink afforded +by his closed eye. How Button found his way to this remote spot would +have been a puzzle to any person unfamiliar with American character. How +he managed to live among and deal with and very considerably master a +community speaking no language with which he was acquainted was more +unaccountable still. The inn could not have been a very profitable +speculation, in itself; but there was one room in it fitted out with a +display of Indian manufactures,--some of the articles reposing in +glass cases to protect them from hands and dust, others arranged with +negligent regularity upon the walls. Out of these the landlord made a +good penny, as he charged an extensive percentage upon the original +cost,--that is, to strangers; but if you were in Button's confidence, +then was there no better fellow to intrust with a negotiation for a +pair of snow-shoes, or moose-horns, or anything else in that line +of business. In the winter season he was a great instigator of +moose- and caribou-expeditions to the districts where these animals +abound, assembling for this purpose the best Indian hunters to be found +in the neighborhood, and accompanying the party himself. Out of the spoils +of these expeditions he sometimes made a handsome profit: a good pair of +moose-horns, for instance, used to fetch from six to ten dollars; and +there is always a demand for the venison in the Quebec market. The skins +were manufactured into moccason-leather by Indian adepts whom Button had +in his pay, and who worked for a very low rate of remuneration,--quite +disproportioned, indeed, to the fancy prices always paid by strangers +for the articles turned out by their hands. + +The name "Billy Button" carries with it an association oddly +corroborated by a story narrated of himself by the man of whom I am +speaking. Of all the reminiscences connected with the illegitimate drama +that have dwelt with me from my early childhood until now, not one is +more vividly impressed upon my memory than that standard old comedy +on horseback performed by circus-riders long since gone to rest, and +entitled "Billy Button's Journey to Brentford." The hero of this +pleasant horse-play was a tailor,--men following that useful trade being +considered capable of affording more amusement in connection with horses +than any others, excepting, perhaps, jolly mariners on a spree. The plot +of the drama used to strike my young mind as being a "crib" from "John +Gilpin"; but I forgave that, in consideration of the skilful manner in +which the story was wrought out. With what withering contempt used +I, brought up among horses and their riders, to jeer at the wretched +attempts of the tailor to remain permanently upon any central point of +the horse's spinal ridge! How cheerful my feelings, when that man +of shreds and patches fell prostrate in the sawdust, where he lay +grovelling until the next revolution of his noble steed, when the animal +caught him up by the baggiest portion of the trousers and carried him +round the arena as a terrier might a rat! But, oh, what mingled joy and +admiration, when out from the worried mass of coats leaped the nimble +rider, now no longer a miserable tailor, but a roseate young man in +tights and spangles, featly posturing over all the available area of his +steed, and "witching the world with noble horsemanship"! + +All these memories crowded upon me with a tremendous shock the very +first time I saw the name of William Button upon the dingy swinging +sign. Afterwards, when I became intimate with that curious person, I +discovered that he was a capital "whip,"--first-rate, indeed, as a +driver of the fast trotting horse, as well as a good judge of that +superior article. With respect to his experiences as a rider he was more +reserved; and it was not until after I had known him a long time that he +confided to me the particulars of a ride once taken by him, which bore, +in its principal features, a singular resemblance to the one performed +by his great name-sake of the sawdust-ring. + +There is a pack of fox-hounds kept at Montreal, maintained chiefly by +officers of the garrison, as a shadowy reminiscence, perhaps, of the +real thing, which is essentially of insular Britain and of nowhere else. +Button happened to go to Montreal, on one occasion, for the purpose of +picking up a race-horse, I think, for the Quebec market. Somebody who +used to ride with the hounds had a horse which he wanted to get rid +of, on account of headstrong tendencies in general and inability to +appreciate the advantages of a bit. I remember the animal well. He was +a fiery chestnut, with white about the legs, and very good across a +country so long as he was wanted to go; but no common power could stop +him when once he began to do that. On this animal--"The Buffer," he was +called--Button was persuaded to mount, "just to try him a little," +his owner said; and by way of doing that with perfect freedom from +restraint, they rode out to where the hounds were to throw off, a couple +of miles from the city. Button used to say that the term "throw off," +which was new to him in that application, haunted him all the way out, +like a bad dream. It was a bag-fox day, I believe: that is, the hunt was +provided with a trapped animal, brought upon the ground in a sack and +let out when the proper time came,--a process known in sporting parlance +as "shaking a fox." The usual amount of "law" having been conceded, the +hounds were laid on, and went away, as Button said, like a fire-flake +over a prairie. No sooner did "The Buffer" hear the cry of the pack, +than he started forward with a suddenness and force by which his +wretched rider was jerked back at least a foot behind the saddle, +into which place of rest he never once again fell during his many +vicissitudes of position in that ride. I have said that Button was +bow-legged; and to that providential fact did he attribute the power by +which he clung on to various parts of the steed during his wild career +of perhaps a mile, but which seemed to the troubled senses of the rider +not much less than fifty. It was providential for him, too, that the +country was but sparsely intersected by fences, and those not of a very +formidable character: nevertheless, at each of these the too confiding +Button experienced a change of position, being, as he used to express +it, "interjuiced forrard o' the saddle or back'ard o' the saddle, +accordin' to the kind o' thing the hoss flew over, and one time +booleyvusted right under the hoss, whar he hung on by the girth ontil +another buck-jump sent him right side on ag'in; but never, on no +account, did he touch leather ag'in in all that ride." And thus Billy +Button might have ridden farther and fared worse, had he not seen a +terrible fate staring him imminently in the face. The hounds had just +entered a little grove of young pine-trees, which stood very close +together, and bristled with sharp, jagged branches nearly to the root, +after the manner of these children of the wood. At this place of torture +"The Buffer" was rushing with all his might, Button being then situated +upon his neck, in a position most convenient for being "skinned alive" +by the trees, as he said, when a plunge made by the animal over a plashy +pool transferred the rider to his tail, from which he "collapsed right +down in a kind o' swoon, and when he come to, found himself settin' up +to his elbows in muddy water, very solitary-like, and with a terrible +stillness all around."--What became of "The Buffer" I forget, and also +how Button got home; but he certainly did not ride. And he always wound +up the narrative of his first and last fox-hunt by invoking terrible +ends to himself, if ever he "threw leg over dog-hoss ag'in, to see a +throw-off." + +Button left Lorette about two years after I first became acquainted with +him, and I next heard of him down at the rock-walled Saguenay, where he +had gone into a speculation for supplying the Boston market with salmon. +But horse-flesh seemed to be more palatable to him than fish; for, later +still, I met him at Toronto, in Upper Canada, mounted upon a powerful +dark brown stallion, and leading another, its exact counterpart. + +"Hollo, Button!" said I, in response to his cheery, "How de dew?"--"On +horseback again, I see; have you forgotten the Buffer-business, then?" + +"Forgot the yaller cuss!" replied he. "No, Sir-ree! He hangs round me +yet, like fever 'n' agur upon a ma'sh. But the critter I'm onto a'n't no +dog-hoss, you may believe; he don't 'throw off' nor nothin', _he_ don't. +Him and his mate here a'n't easy matched. I fetched 'em up from below on +spec, and you can hev the span for a cool thousand on ice." + +And this was the last I saw of Button, who was one of the strangest +combinations of hotel-keeper, horse-jockey, Indian-trader, fish-monger, +and alligator, I ever met. + +Tradition still retains a hold upon the Hurons of Lorette, little as +remains to them of the character and lineaments of the red man. A +pitiable procession of their diluted "braves" may sometimes be seen in +the streets of Quebec, on such distinguished occasions as the Prince's +visit. But it is with a manifest consciousness of the ludicrous that +these industrials now do their little drama of the war-dance and the +oration and the council-smoke. That drama has degenerated into a very +feeble farce now, and the actors in it would be quite outdone in their +travesty by any average corps of "supes" at one of our theatres. +By-and-by all this will have died out, and the "Indian side" of the +stream at Lorette will be assimilated in all its features to the other. +The moccason is already typifying the decadence of aboriginal things +there. That article is now fitted with India-rubber soles for the Quebec +demand,--a continuation of the sole running in a low strip round the +edge of the foot. With the gradual widening of that strip, until the +moccason of the red man has been clean obliterated from things that are +by the India-rubber of the white, will the remnant of the Hurons have +passed away with things that were. Verdict on the "poor Indian":--"Wiped +out with an India-rubber shoe." + +And then, in future generations, the tradition of Indian blood among +Canadian families of dark complexion, along these ridges, will be about +as vague as that of Spanish descent in the case of certain tribes of +fishermen on the western coast of Ireland. From the assimilation already +going on, however, it may be argued that the physical character of the +Indian will be gradually merged and lost in that of the French colonist. +The Hurons are described as having formerly been a people of large +stature, while those of the present day in Lower Canada are usually +rather undersized than otherwise, like their _habitant_ neighbors. As +a race, the latter are below the middle stature, although generally of +great bodily strength and endurance. + +Physical size and grand proportions are looked upon by the +French-Canadian with great respect. In all the cases of popular +_émeutes_ that have from time to time broken out in Lower Canada, the +fighting leaders of the people were exceptional men, standing head +and shoulders over their confiding followers. Where gangs of raftsmen +congregate, their "captains" may be known by superior stature. The +doings of their "big men" are treasured by the French-Canadians in +traditionary lore. One famous fellow of this governing class is known +by his deeds and words to every lumberer and stevedore and timber-tower +about Montreal and Quebec. This man, whose name was Joe Monfaron, was +the bully of the Ottawa raftsmen. He was about six feet six inches high +and proportionably broad and deep; and I remember how people would turn +round to look after him, as he came pounding along Notre-Dame Street, in +Montreal, in his red shirt and tan-colored _shupac_ boots, all dripping +wet after mooring an acre or two of raft, and now bent for his +ashore-haunts in the Ste.-Marie suburb, to indemnify himself with +bacchanalian and other consolations for long-endured hardship. Among +other feats of strength attributed to him, I remember the following, +which has an old, familiar taste, but was related to me as a fact. + +There was a fighting stevedore or timber-tower, I forget which, at +Quebec, who never had seen Joe Monfaron, as the latter seldom came +farther down the river than Montreal. This fighting character, however, +made a custom of laughing to scorn all the rumors that came down on +rafts, every now and then, about terrible chastisements inflicted by Joe +upon several hostile persons at once. He, the fighting timber-tower, +hadn't found his match yet about the lumber-coves at Quebec, and he only +wanted to see Joe Monfaron once, when he would settle the question as to +the championship of the rafts on sight. One day, a giant in a red shirt +stood suddenly before him, saying,-- + +"You're Dick Dempsey, eh?" + +"That's me," replied the timber-tower; "and who are you?" + +"Joe Monfaron. I heard you wanted me,--here I am," was the Caesarean +response of the great captain of rafts. + +"Ah! you're Joe Monfaron!" said the bully, a little staggered at the +sort of customer he saw before him. "I said I'd like to see you, for +sure; but how am I to know you're the right man?" + +"Shake hands, first," replied Joe, "and then you'll find out, may be." + +They shook hands,--rather warmly, perhaps, for the timber-tower, whose +features wore an uncertain expression during the operation, and who at +last broke out into a yell of pain, as Joe cast him off with a defiant +laugh. Nor did the bully wait for any further explanations; for, whether +the man who had just brought the blood spouting out at the tips of his +fingers was Joe Monfaron or not, he was clearly an ugly customer and had +better be left alone. + +There are several roads from Quebec to Lorette, all of them good for +carriages except one, which, from its extreme destitution of every +condition essential to easy locomotion on wheels, is called, in the +expressive language of the French colonists, _La Misère_. And yet this +is the only road which, from touching various points of the River St. +Charles, affords the traveller compensating glimpses of the picturesque +windings of that stream. The pedestrian, however, is the only kind of +explorer who really sees a country and its people; and for him who is +not too proud to walk, _La Misère_ is not so hard to bear as its name +might imply. + +If iron takes the romance out of things, in a general way, as I +mentioned at the beginning of this article my impression that it +rather does, I know not whether primitive Lorette has not become sadly +vulcanized into prosaic progress by the grand system of water-works +established there for the benefit of Quebec. Connected as it is, now, +with the latter place, by seven miles of iron pipes, I would not +undertake to say that it retains aught of the rustic simplicity of its +greener days. Had the pipes been of wood, indeed, the place might +yet have had a chance. To understand this, one should hear the +French-Canadian expatiate upon the superiority of the wooden to the +metal bridge. Five years ago, the road-trustees of Quebec undertook to +span the Montmorency River, just above the great fall, with an iron +suspension-bridge. This would shorten the road, they said, by some two +or three hundred yards of divergence from the old wooden bridge higher +up. They built their bridge, which looked like a spider's web spanning +the verge of the stupendous cataract, when seen from the St. Lawrence +below. It was opened to the public in April, 1856, but was little used +for some days, as the conservative _habitans_, who had gone the crooked +road over the wooden bridge all their lives, declined to see what +advantage could be gained by taking to a straight one pontificed with +iron. It had not been open a week, however, when, as two or three +hurrying peasants were venturing it with their carts, it fell with a +crash, and all were washed headlong in an instant over the precipice +and into the boiling abyss below, from which not one vestige of their +remains was ever returned for a sign to their awe-stricken friends. +Supposing this bridge to be rebuilt,--which is not likely,--I do not +believe that a _habitant_ of all that region could be got to cross it, +even under the malediction, with bell, book, and candle, of his priest. +And so the old wooden bridge flourishes, and the crooked road is +travelled by gray-coated _cultivateurs_, whose forefathers went crooked +in the same direction for several generations, mounted upon persevering +ponies which wouldn't upon any account be persuaded into going straight. + +A gleam of hope for Lorette flashes upon me since the above was written. +On looking over a provincial paper, I find astounding rumors of ghosts +appearing upon the track of a western railroad. Things clothed in the +traditional white appear before the impartial cow-catcher, which divides +them for the passage of the train, in the wake of which they immediately +reappear in a full state of repair and posture of contempt. If this +sort of thing goes on, what a splendid new field will be opened for the +writer of romance! + +Certainly, I do not yet see what antidote there is for the primitive and +pastoral against seven miles of iron pipe; but it is cheerful to know +that ghosts are beginning to come about railroads, and all may yet be +well with Lorette. + + + + +BEHIND THE MASK. + + + It was an old, distorted face,-- + An uncouth visage, rough and wild; + Yet from behind, with laughing grace, + Peeped the fresh beauty of a child. + + And so contrasting, fair and bright, + It made me of my fancy ask + If half earth's wrinkled grimness might + Be but the baby in the mask. + + Behind gray hairs and furrowed brow + And withered look that life puts on, + Each, as he wears it, comes to know + How the child hides, and is not gone. + + For, while the inexorable years + To saddened features fit their mould, + Beneath the work of time and tears + Waits something that will not grow old! + + And pain and petulance and care + And wasted hope and sinful stain + Shape the strange guise the soul doth wear, + Till her young life look forth again. + + The beauty of his boyhood's smile,-- + What human faith could find it now + In yonder man of grief and guile,-- + A very Cain, with branded brow? + + Yet, overlaid and hidden, still + It lingers,--of his life a part; + As the scathed pine upon the hill + Holds the young fibres at its heart. + + And, haply, round the Eternal Throne, + Heaven's pitying angels shall not ask + For that last look the world hath known, + But for the face behind the mask! + + + + +DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. + + +We were lately lounging away a Roman morning among the gems in +Castellani's sparkling rooms in the Via Poli. One of the treasures +handed out for rapturous examination was a diamond necklace, just +finished for a Russian princess, at the cost of sixty thousand dollars, +and a set of pearls for an English lady, who must pay, before she bears +her prize homeward, the sum of ten thousand dollars. Castellani junior, +a fine, patriotic young fellow, who has since been banished for his +liberal ideas of government, smiled as he read astonishment in our eyes, +and proceeded forthwith to dazzle us still further with more gems of +rarest beauty, till then hidden away in his strong iron boxes. + +Castellani, father and son, are princes among jewellers, and deserve to +be ranked as artists of a superior order. Do not fail to visit their +charming apartments, as among the most attractive lesser glories, when +you go to Rome. They have a grand way of doing things, right good to +look upon; and we once saw a countrywoman of ours, who has written +immortal words in the cause of freedom, made the recipient of a gem at +their hands, which she cannot but prize as among the chief tributes so +numerously bestowed in all parts of the Christian world where her feet +have wandered. + +Castellani's jeweller's shop has existed in Rome since the year 1814. +At that time all the efforts of this artist (Castellani the elder) were +directed to the imitation of the newest English and French fashions, and +particularly to the setting of diamonds. This he continued till 1823. +From 1823 to 1827 he sought aid for his art in the study of Technology. +And not in vain; for in 1826 he read before the _Accademia dei Lincei_ +of Rome, (founded by Federico Cesi,) a paper on the chemical process of +coloring _a giallone_ (yellow) in the manufacture of gold, in which he +announced some facts in the action of electricity, long before Delarive +and other chemists, as noticed in the "Quarterly Journal of Science," +Dec., 1828, No. 6, and the "Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève," 1829, +Tom. xi. p. 84. + +At this period Etruria began to lay open the treasures of her art. +All were struck by the beauty of the jewels found in the tombs; but +Castellani was the first who thought of reproducing some of them; and he +did it to the great admiration of the amateurs, foremost among whom may +be mentioned the Duke Don Michelangelo Caetani, a man of great artistic +feeling, who aided by his counsels and his designs the _renaissance_ of +Roman jewelry. + +The discovery of the celebrated tomb Regulini-Galassi at Cervetri was +an event in jewelry. The articles of gold found in it (all now in the +Vatican) were diligently studied by Castellani, when called upon to +appraise them. Comprehending the methods and the character of the work, +he boldly followed tradition. + +The discoveries of Campanari of Toscanella, and of the Marquis Campana +of Rome, gave valuable aid to this new branch of art. + +Thus it went on improving; and Castellani produced very expert pupils, +all of them Italians. Fashion, if not public feeling, came to aid the +_renaissance_, and others, in Rome and elsewhere, undertook similar work +after the models of Castellani. It may be asserted that the triumph of +the classic jewelry is now complete. Castellani renounced the modern +methods of chasing and engraving, and adhered only to the antique +fashion of overlaying with cords, grains, and finest threads of +gold. From the Etruscan style he passed to the Greek, the Roman, the +Christian. In this last he introduced the rough mosaics, such as were +used by the Byzantines with much effect and variety of tint and of +design. + +The work of Castellani is dear; but that results from his method of +execution, and from the perfect finish of all the details. He does not +seek for cheapness, but for the perfection of art: this is the only +thing he has in view. As he is a man of genius, we have devoted +considerable space to his admirable productions. + +The Talmud informs us that Noah had no other light in the ark than that +which came from precious stones. Why do not our modern jewellers take a +hint from the ancient safety-boat, and light up accordingly? We dare +say old Tavernier, that knowing French gem-trader of the seventeenth +century, had the art of illuminating his château at Aubonne in a way +wondrous to the beholder. Among all the jewellers, ancient or modern, +Jean Baptiste Tavernier seems to us the most interesting character. His +great knowledge of precious stones, his acute observation and unfailing +judgment, stamp him as one of the remarkable men of his day. Forty years +of his life he passed in travelling through Turkey, Persia, and the +East Indies, trading in gems of the richest and rarest lustre. A great +fortune was amassed, and a barony in the Canton of Berne, on the Lake of +Geneva, was purchased as no bad harbor for the rest of his days. There +he hoped to enjoy the vast wealth he had so industriously acquired. But, +alas! stupid nephews abound everywhere; and one of his, to whom he had +intrusted a freight worth two hundred and twenty thousand livres, caused +him so great a loss, that, at the age of eighty-four, he felt obliged to +sail again for the East in order to retrieve his fortune, or at least +repair the ill-luck arising from his unfortunate speculation. He forgot, +poor old man! that youth and strength are necessary to fight against +reverses; and he died at Moscow, on his way, in 1689. When you visit the +great Library in Paris, you will find his "Travels," in three volumes, +published in 1677-79, on a shelf among the quartos. Take them down, and +spend a pleasant hour in looking through the pages of the enthusiastic +old merchant-jeweller. His adventures in search of diamonds and other +precious commodities are well told; and although he makes the mistakes +incident to many other early travellers, he never wilfully romances. +He supposed he was the first European that had explored the mines of +Golconda; but an Englishman of the name of Methold visited them as early +as 1622, and found thirty thousand laborers working away for the rich +Marcandar, who paid three hundred thousand pagodas annually to the king +for the privilege of digging in a single mine. The first mine visited by +Tavernier was that of Raolconda, a five-days' journey from Golconda. The +manner of trading there he thus describes:-- + +"A very pretty sight is that presented every morning by the children of +the master-miners and of other inhabitants of the district. The boys, +the eldest of which is not over sixteen or the youngest under ten, +assemble and sit under a large tree in the public square of the village. +Each has his diamond weight in a bag hung on one side of his girdle, and +on the other a purse containing sometimes as much as five or six hundred +pagodas. Here they wait for such persons as have diamonds to sell, +either from the vicinity or from any other mine. When a diamond is +brought to them, it is immediately handed to the eldest boy, who is +tacitly acknowledged as the head of this little band. By him it is +carefully examined, and then passed to his neighbor, who, having also +inspected it, transmits it to the next boy. The stone is thus passed +from hand to hand, amid unbroken silence, until it returns to that of +the eldest, who then asks the price and makes the bargain. If the little +man is thought by his comrades to have given too high a price, he must +keep the stone on his own account. In the evening the children take +account of stock, examine their purchases, and class them according to +their water, size, and purity, putting on each stone the price they +expect to get for it; they then carry the stones to the masters, who +have always assortments to complete, and the profits are divided among +the young traders, with this difference in favor of the head of the +firm, that he receives one-fourth per cent. more than the others. These +children are so perfectly acquainted with the value of all sorts of +gems, that, if one of them, after buying a stone, is willing to lose +one-half per cent. on it, a companion is always ready to take it." + +Master Tavernier discourses at some length on the ingenious methods +adopted by the laborers to conceal diamonds which they have found, +sometimes swallowing them,--and he tells of one miner who hid in the +corner of his eye a stone of two carats! Altogether, his work is one +worthy to be turned over, even in that vast collection, the Imperial +Library, for its graphic pictures of gem-hunting two hundred years ago. + +Professor Tennant says, "One of the common marks of opulence and taste +in all countries is the selection, preservation, and ornamental use of +gems and precious stones." Diamonds, from the time Alexander ordered +pieces of flesh to be thrown into the inaccessible valley of Zulmeah, +that the vultures might bring up with them the precious stones which +attached themselves, have everywhere ranked among the luxuries of a +refined cultivation. It is the most brilliant of stones, and the hardest +known body. Pliny says it is so hard a substance, that, if one should +be laid on an anvil and struck with a hammer, look out for the hammer! +[_Mem_. If the reader have a particularly fine diamond, never mind +Pliny's story: the risk is something, and Pliny cannot be reached for an +explanation, should his experiment fail.] By its own dust only can +the diamond be cut and polished; and its great lustre challenges +the admiration of the world. Ordinary individuals, with nothing to +distinguish them from the common herd, have "got diamonds," and +straightway became ever afterwards famous. An uncommon-sized brilliant, +stuck into the front linen of a foolish fellow, will set him up as +a marked man, and point him out as something worth looking at. The +announcement in the papers of the day, that "Mademoiselle Mars would +wear all her diamonds," never failed to stimulate the sale of tickets +on all such occasions. As it may interest our readers to know what +treasures an actress of 1828 possessed, we copy from the catalogue of +her effects a few items. + +"Two rows of brilliants set _en chatons_, one row composed of forty-six +brilliants, the other of forty-four; eight sprigs of wheat in +brilliants, composed of about five hundred brilliants, weighing +fifty-seven carats; a garland of brilliants that may be taken to pieces +and worn as three distinct ornaments, three large brilliants forming the +centre of the principal flowers, the whole comprising seven hundred and +nine brilliants, weighing eighty-five carats three-quarters; a Sévigné +mounted in colored gold, in the centre of which is a burnt topaz +surrounded by diamonds weighing about three grains each, the drops +consisting of three opals similarly surrounded by diamonds; one of +the three opals is of very large size, in shape oblong, with rounded +corners; the whole set in gold studded with rubies and pearls. + +"A _parure_ of opals, consisting of a necklace and Sévigné, two +bracelets, ear-rings the studs of which are emeralds, comb, belt-plate +set with an opal in the shape of a triangle; the whole mounted in +wrought gold, studded with small emeralds. + +"A Gothic bracelet of enamelled gold, in the centre a burnt topaz +surrounded by three large brilliants; in each link composing the +bracelet is a square emerald; at each extremity of the topaz forming +the centre ornament are two balls of burnished gold, and two of wrought +gold. + +"A pair of girandole ear-rings of brilliants, each consisting of a large +stud brilliant and of three pear-shaped brilliants united by four small +ones; another pair of ear-rings composed of fourteen small brilliants +forming a clustre of grapes, each stud of a single brilliant. + +"A diamond cross composed of eleven brilliants, the ring being also of +brilliants. + +"A bracelet with a gold chain, the centre-piece of which is a fine opal +surrounded with brilliants; the opal is oblong and mounted in the Gothic +style; the clasp is an opal. + +"A gold bracelet, with a _grecque_ surrounded by six angel heads graven +on turkoises, and a head of Augustus. + +"A serpent bracelet _à la Cléopatre_, enamelled black, with a turkois on +its head. + +"A bracelet with wrought links burnished on a dead ground; the clasp a +heart of burnished gold with a turkois in the centre, graven with Hebrew +characters. + +"A bracelet with a row of Mexican chain, and a gold ring set with a +turkois and fastened to the bracelet by a Venetian chain. + +"A ring, the hoop encircled with small diamonds. + +"A ring, _à la chevalière_, set with a square emerald between two +pearls. + +"A gold _chevalière_ ring, on which is engraved a small head of +Napoleon. + +"Two belt-buckles, Gothic style, one of burnished gold, the other set +with emeralds, opals, and pearls. + +"A necklace of two rows coral; a small bracelet of engraved carnelians. + +"A comb of rose diamonds, form D 5, surmounted by a large rose +surrounded by smaller ones, and a cinque-foil in roses, the _chatons_ +alternated, below a band of roses." + +The weight of the diamond, as every one knows, is estimated in _carats_ +all over the world. And what is a carat, pray? and whence its name? It +is of Indian origin, a _kirat_ being a small seed that was used in India +to weigh diamonds with. Four grains are equal to one carat, and six +carats make one pennyweight. But there is no standard weight fixed for +the finest diamonds. Competition alone among purchasers must arrange +their price. The commercial value of gems is rarely affected, and +among all articles of commerce the diamond is the least liable to +depreciation. Panics that shake empires and topple trade into the dust +seldom lower the cost of this king of precious stones; and there is no +personal property that is so apt to remain unchanged in money-value. + +Diamond anecdotes abound, the world over; but we have lately met with +two brief ones that ought to be preserved. + +"Carlier, a bookseller in the reign of Louis XIV., left, at his death, +to each of his children,--one a girl of fifteen, the other a captain in +the guards,--a sum of five hundred thousand francs, then an enormous +fortune. Mademoiselle Carlier, young, handsome, and wealthy, had +numerous suitors. One of these, a M. Tiquet, a Councillor of the +Parliament, sent her on her fête-day a bouquet, in which the calices of +the roses were of large diamonds. The magnificence of this gift gave so +good an opinion of the wealth, taste, and liberality of the donor, that +the lady gave him the preference over all his competitors. But sad was +the disappointment that followed the bridal! The husband was rather poor +than rich; and the bouquet, that had cost forty-five thousand francs, +(nine thousand dollars,) had been bought on credit, and was paid out of +the bride's fortune." + +"The gallants of the Court of Louis XV. carried extravagance as far +as the famous Egyptian queen. She melted a pearl,--they pulverized +diamonds, to prove their insane magnificence. A lady having expressed a +desire to have the portrait of her canary in a ring, the last Prince de +Conti requested she would allow him to give it to her; she accepted, on +condition that no precious gems should be set in it. When the ring was +brought to her, however, a diamond covered the painting. The lady had +the brilliant taken out of the setting, and sent it back to the giver. +The Prince, determined not to be gainsaid, caused the stone to be ground +to dust, which he used to dry the ink of the letter he wrote to her on +the subject." + +Let us mention some of the most noted diamonds in the world. The largest +one known, that of the Rajah of Matan, in Borneo, weighs three hundred +and sixty-seven carats. It is egg-shaped and is of the finest water. +Two large war-vessels, with all their guns, powder, and shot, and one +hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money, were once refused for it. +And yet its weight is only about three ounces! + +The second in size is the _Orloff_, or _Grand Russian_, sometimes called +the _Moon of the Mountain_, of one hundred and ninety-three carats. +The Great Mogul once owned it. Then it passed by conquest into the +possession of Nadir the Shah of Persia. In 1747 he was assassinated, and +all the crown-jewels slipped out of the dead man's fingers,--a common +incident to mortality. What became of the great diamond no one at that +time knew, till one day a chief of the Anganians walked, mole-footed, +into the presence of a rich Armenian gentleman in Balsora, and proposed +to sell him (no lisping,--not a word to betray him) a large emerald, a +splendid ruby, and the great Orloff diamond. Mr. Shafrass counted out +fifty thousand piastres for the lot; and the chief folded up his robes +and silently departed. Ten years afterwards the people of Amsterdam were +apprised that a great treasure had arrived in their city, and could +be bought, too. Nobody there felt rich enough to buy the great Orloff +sparkler. So the English and Russian governments sent bidders to compete +for the gem. The Empress Catharine offered the highest sum; and her +agent, the Count Orloff, paid for it in her name four hundred and fifty +thousand roubles, cash down, and a grant of Russian nobility! The size +of this diamond is that of a pigeon's egg, and its lustre and water are +of the finest: its shape is not perfect. + +The _Grand Tuscan_ is next in order,--for many years held by the Medici +family. It is now owned by the Austrian Emperor, and is the pride of +the Imperial Court. It is cut as a rose, nine-sided, and is of a yellow +tint, lessening somewhat its value. Its weight is one hundred and +thirty-nine and a half carats; and its value is estimated at one hundred +and fifty-five thousand, six hundred and eighty-eight pounds. + +The most perfect, though not the largest, diamond in Europe is the +_Regent_, which belongs to the Imperial diadem of France. Napoleon the +First used to wear it in the hilt of his state-sword. Its original +weight was four hundred and ten carats; but after it was cut as a +brilliant, (a labor of two years, at a cost of three thousand pounds +sterling,) it was reduced to one hundred and thirty-seven carats. It +came from the mines of Golconda; and the thief who stole it therefrom +sold it to the grandfather of the Earl of Chatham, when he was governor +of a fort in the East Indies. Lucky Mr. Pitt pocketed one hundred and +thirty-five thousand pounds for his treasure, the purchaser being Louis +XV. This amount, it is said, is only half its real value. However, as it +cost the Governor, according to his own statement, some years after +the sale, only twenty thousand pounds, his speculation was "something +handsome." Pope had a fling at Pitt, in his poetical way, intimating a +wrong with regard to the possession of the diamond; but we believe the +transaction was an honest one. In the inventory of the crown-jewels, the +Regent diamond is set down at twelve million francs! + +The _Star of the South_ comes next in point of celebrity. It is the +largest diamond yet obtained from Brazil; and it is owned by the King of +Portugal. It weighed originally two hundred and fifty-four carats, but +was trimmed down to one hundred and twenty-five. The grandfather of +the present king had a hole bored in it, and liked to strut about on +gala-days with the gem suspended around his neck. This magnificent jewel +was found by three banished miners, who were seeking for gold during +their exile. A great drought had laid dry the bed of a river, and there +they discovered this lustrous wonder. Of course, on promulgating their +great luck, their sentence was revoked immediately. + +The world-renowned _Koh-i-noor_ next claims our attention. + +A Venetian diamond-cutter (wretched, bungling Hortensio Borgis!) +reduced the great _Koh-i-noor_ from its primitive weight--nine hundred +carats--to two hundred and eighty. Tavernier saw this celebrated jewel +two hundred years ago, not long after its discovery. It came into the +possession of Queen Victoria in 1849, _three thousand years_, say the +Eastern sages, after it belonged to Karna, the King of Anga! On the 16th +of July, 1852, the Duke of Wellington superintended the commencement +of the re-cutting of the famous gem, and for thirty-eight days the +operation went on. Eight thousand pounds were expended in the cutting +and polishing. When it was finished and ready to be restored to the +royal keeping, the person (a celebrated jeweller) to whom the whole +care of the work had been intrusted, allowed a friend to take it in his +fingers for examination. While he was feasting his eyes over it, and +turning it to the light in order to get the full force of its marvellous +beauty, down it slipped from his grasp and fell upon the ground. The +jeweller nearly fainted with alarm, and poor "Butterfingers" was +completely jellified with fear. Had the stone struck the ground at a +particular angle, it would have split in two, and been ruined forever. + +Innumerable anecdotes cluster about this fine diamond. Having passed +through the hands of various Indian princes, violence and fraud are +copiously mingled up with its history. We quote one of Madame de +Barrera's stories concerning it:---- + +"The King of Lahore having heard that the King of Cabul possessed a +diamond that had belonged to the Great Mogul, the largest and purest +known, he invited the fortunate owner to his court, and there, having +him in his power, demanded his diamond. The guest, however, had provided +himself against such a contingency with a perfect imitation of the +coveted jewel. After some show of resistance, he reluctantly acceded to +the wishes of his powerful host. The delight of Runjeet was extreme, but +of short duration,--the lapidary to whom he gave orders to mount his +new acquisition pronouncing it to be merely a bit of crystal. The +mortification and rage of the despot were unbounded. He immediately +caused the palace of the King of Cabul to be invested, and ransacked +from top to bottom. But for a long while all search was vain; at last a +slave betrayed the secret;--the diamond was found concealed beneath +a heap of ashes. Runjeet Singh had it set in an armlet, between two +diamonds, each the size of a sparrow's egg." + +The _Shah of Persia_, presented to the Emperor Nicholas by the Persian +monarch, is a very beautiful stone, irregularly shaped. Its weight is +eighty-six carats, and its water and lustre are superb. + +The various stories attached to the _Sancy_ diamond, the next in point +of value, would occupy many pages. During four centuries it has been +accumulating romantic circumstances, until it is now very difficult to +give its true narrative. If Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy, +ever wore it suspended round his neck, he sported a magnificent jewel. +If the Curate of Montagny bought it for a crown of a soldier who picked +it up after the defeat of Granson, not knowing its value, the soldier +was unconsciously cheated by the Curate. If a citizen of Berne got it +out of the Curate's fingers for three crowns, he was a shrewd knave. De +Barante says, that in 1492 (Columbus was then about making land in this +hemisphere) this diamond was sold in Lucerne for five thousand ducats. +After that, all sorts of incidents are related to have befallen it. Here +is one of them.--Henry IV. was once in a strait for money. The Sieur +de Sancy (who gave his name to the gem) wished to send the monarch his +diamond, that he might raise funds upon it from the Jews of Metz. A +trusty servant sets off with it, to brave the perils of travel, by no +means slight in those rough days, and is told, in case of danger from +brigands, to swallow the precious trust. The messenger is found dead on +the road, and is buried by peasants. De Sancy, impatient that his man +does not arrive, seeks for his body, takes it from the ground where it +is buried, opens it, and recovers his gem! In some way not now known, +Louis XV. got the diamond into his possession, and wore it at his +coronation. In 1789, it disappeared from the crown-treasures, and no +trace of it was discovered till 1830, when it was offered for sale by a +merchant in Paris. Count Demidoff had a lawsuit over it in 1832; and as +it is valued at a million of francs, it was worth quarrelling about. + +The _Nassuck Diamond_, valued at thirty thousand pounds, is a +magnificent jewel, nearly as large as a common walnut. Pure as a drop of +dew, it ranked among the richest treasures in the British conquest of +India. + +What has become of the great triangular _Blue Diamond_, weighing +sixty-seven carats, stolen from the French Court at the time of the +great robbery of the crown-jewels? Alas! it has never been heard from. +Three millions of francs represented its value; and no one, to this day, +knows its hiding-place. What a pleasant morning's work it would be to +unearth this gem from its dark corner, where it has lain _perdu_ so many +years! The bells of Notre Dame should proclaim such good-fortune to all +Paris. + +But enough of these individual magnificos. Their beauty and rarity have +attracted sufficient attention in their day. Yet we should like to +handle a few of those Spanish splendors which Queen Isabel II. wore at +the reception of the ambassadors from Morocco. That day she shone in +diamonds alone to the amount of two million dollars! We once saw a +monarch's sword, of which + + "The jewelled hilt, + Whose diamonds lit the passage of his blade," + +was valued at one hundred thousand dollars! But one of the pleasantest +of our personal remembrances, connected with diamonds, is the picking up +of a fine, lustrous gem which fell from O.B.'s violin-bow, (the gift of +the Duke of Devonshire,) one night, after he had been playing his magic +instrument for the special delight of a few friends. The tall Norwegian +wrapped it in a bit of newspaper, when it was restored to him, and +thrust it into his cigar-box! [O.B. sometimes carried his treasures in +strange places. One day he was lamenting the loss of a large sum of +money which he had received as the proceeds of a concert in New York. A +week afterwards he found his missing nine hundred dollars stuffed away +in a dark corner of one of his violin-cases.] + +There is a very pretty diamond-story current in connection with the good +Empress Eugénie. Madame de Barrera relates it in this wise. + +"When the sovereign of France marries, by virtue of an ancient custom +kept up to the present day, the bride is presented by the city of Paris +with a valuable gift. Another is also offered at the birth of the +first-born. + +"In 1853, when the choice of His Majesty Napoleon III. raised the +Empress Eugénie to the throne, the city of Paris, represented by the +Municipal Commission, voted the sum of six hundred thousand francs for +the purchase of a diamond necklace to be presented to Her Majesty. + +"The news caused quite a sensation among the jewellers. Each was eager +to contribute his finest gems to form the Empress's necklace,--a +necklace which was to make its appearance under auspices as favorable as +those of the famous _Queen's Necklace_ had been unpropitious. But on the +28th of January, two days after the vote of the Municipal Commission, +all this zeal was disappointed; the young Empress having expressed +a wish that the six hundred thousand francs should be used for the +foundation of an educational institution for poor young girls of the +Faubourg St. Antoine. + +"The wish has been realized, and, thanks to the beneficent fairy in +whose compassionate heart it had its origin, the diamond necklace has +been metamorphosed into an elegant edifice, with charming gardens. Here +a hundred and fifty young girls, at first, but now as many as four +hundred, have been placed, and receive, under the management of those +angels of charity called the _Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul_, an +excellent education proportioned to their station, and fitting them to +be useful members of society. + +"The solemn opening of the Maison-Eugénie-Napoleon took place on the +1st of January, 1857. + +"M. Veron, the _journaliste_, now deputy of the Seine, has given, in the +'Moniteur,' a very circumstantial account of this establishment. From it +we borrow the following:-- + +"'The girls admitted are usually wretchedly clad; on their entrance, +they receive a full suit of clothes. Almost all are pale, thin, weak +children, to whom melancholy and suffering have imparted an old and +careworn expression. But, thanks to cleanliness, to wholesome and +sufficient food, to a calm and well-regulated life, to the pure, healthy +air they breathe, the natural hues and the joyousness of youth soon +reanimate the little faces; and with lithe, invigorated limbs, and happy +hearts, these young creatures join merrily in the games of their new +companions. They have entered the institution old; they will leave it +young.' + +"The Empress Eugénie delights in visiting the institution of the +Faubourg St. Antoine. This is natural. Her Majesty cannot but feel +pleasure in the contemplation of all she has accomplished by sacrificing +a magnificent, but idle ornament to the welfare of so many beings +rescued from misery and ignorance. These four hundred young girls will +be so many animated, happy, and grateful jewels, constituting for Her +Majesty in the present, and for her memory in the future, an ever new +set of jewels, an immortal ornament, a truly celestial talisman. + +"A fresco painting represents, in a hemicycle, the Empress in her bridal +dress, offering to the Virgin a diamond necklace; young girls are +kneeling around her in prayer; admiration and fervent faith are depicted +on their brows." + +A very large amount of the world's capital is represented in precious +stones, and ninety per cent of that capital so invested is in diamonds. +This was not always the case. Ancient millionnaires held their +enormous jewelry-riches more in colored stones than is the custom now. +Crystallized carbon has risen in the estimation of capitalists, and +crystallized clay has gone down in the scale of value. If the diamond be +the hardest known substance in the world's jewel-box, the pearl is by no +means its near relation in that particular. The daughters of Stilicho +slept undisturbed eleven hundred and eighteen years, with all their +riches in sound condition, except the pearls that were found with their +splendid ornaments. The other decorations sparkled in the light as +brilliantly as ever; but the pearls crumbled into dust, as their owners +had done centuries before. Eight hundred years before these ladies lived +and wore pearls, a queen with "swarthy cheeks and bold black eyes" tried +a beverage which cost, exclusive of the vinegar which partly composed +it, the handsome little sum of something over eighty thousand pounds. +Diamond and vinegar would not have mixed so prettily. + +Pearls are perishable beauties, exquisite in their perfect state, but +liable to accident from the nature of their delicate composition. Remote +antiquity chronicles their existence, and immemorial potentates eagerly +sought for them to adorn their persons. Pearl-fisheries in the Persian +Gulf are older than the reign of Alexander; and the Indian Ocean, the +Red Sea, and the Coast of Coromandel yielded their white wonders ages +ago. Under the Ptolemies, in the time of the Caliphs, the pearl-merchant +flourished, grew rich, and went to Paradise. To-day the pearl-diver is +grubbing under the waves that are lapping the Sooloo Islands, the coast +of Coromandel, and the shores of Algiers. In Ceylon he is busiest, and +you may find him from the first of February to the middle of April +risking his life in the perilous seas. His boat is from eight to ten +tons burden, and without a deck. At ten o'clock at night, when the +cannon fires, it is his signal to put off for the bank opposite +Condatchy, which he will reach by daylight, if the weather be fair. +Unless it is calm, he cannot follow his trade. As soon as light dawns, +he prepares to descend. His diving-stone, to keep him at the bottom, +is got ready, and, after offering up his devotions, he leaps into the +water. Two minutes are considered a long time to be submerged, but +some divers can hold out four or five minutes. When his strength is +exhausted, he gives a signal by pulling the rope, and is drawn up with +his bag of oysters. Appalling dangers compass him about. Sharks watch +for him as he dives, and not infrequently he comes up maimed for life. +It is recorded of a pearl-diver, that he died from over-exertion +immediately after he reached land, having brought up with him a shell +that contained a pearl of great size and beauty. Barry Cornwall has +remembered the poor follow in song so full of humanity, that we quote +his pearl-strung lyric entire. + + "Within the midnight of her hair, + Half hidden in its deepest deeps, + A single, peerless, priceless pearl + (All filmy-eyed) forever sleeps. + Without the diamond's sparkling eyes, + The ruby's blushes, there it lies, + Modest as the tender dawn, + When her purple veil's withdrawn,-- + The flower of gems, a lily cold and pale! + Yet what doth all avail,-- + All its beauty, all its grace, + All the honors of its place? + He who plucked it from its bed, + In the far blue Indian ocean, + Lieth, without life or motion, + In his earthy dwelling,--dead! + And his children, one by one, + When they look upon the sun, + Curse the toil by which he drew + The treasure from its bed of blue. + + "Gentle Bride, no longer wear, + In thy night-black, odorous hair, + Such a spoil! It is not fit + That a tender soul should sit + Under such accursed gem! + What need'st _thou_ a diadem,-- + Thou, within whose Eastern eyes + Thought (a starry Genius) lies,-- + Thou, whom Beauty has arrayed,-- + Thou, whom Love and Truth have made + Beautiful,--in whom we trace + Woman's softness, angel's grace, + All we hope for, all that streams + Upon us in our haunted dreams? + + "O sweet Lady! cast aside, + With a gentle, noble pride, + All to sin or pain allied! + Let the wild-eyed conqueror wear + The bloody laurel in his hair! + Let the black and snaky vine + Round the drinker's temples twine! + Let the slave-begotten gold + Weigh on bosoms hard and cold! + But be THOU forever known + By thy natural light alone!" + +One of the best judges of pearls that ever lived, out of the regular +trade, was no less a person than Caesar. He was a great connoisseur, and +could tell at once, when he took a pearl in his hand, its weight and +value. He gave one away worth a quarter of a million dollars. Servilia, +the mother of Brutus, was the lady to whom he made the regal present. + +Caligula, not satisfied with building ships of cedar with sterns inlaid +with gems, had a pearl-collar made for a favorite horse! Pliny grows +indignant as he chronicles the luxury of this Emperor. + +"I have seen," says he, "Lollia Paulina, who was the wife of the +Emperor Caligula,--and this not on the occasion of a solemn festival or +ceremony, but merely at a supper of ordinary betrothals,--I have seen +Lollia Paulina covered with emeralds and pearls, arranged alternately, +so as to give each other additional brilliancy, on her head, neck, arms, +hands, and girdle, to the amount of forty thousand sesterces, [£336,000 +sterling,] the which value she was prepared to prove on the instant by +producing the receipts. And these pearls came, not from the prodigal +generosity of an imperial husband, but from treasures which had been the +spoils of provinces. Marcus Lollius, her grandfather, was dishonored +in all the East on account of the gifts he had extorted from kings, +disgraced by Tiberius, and obliged to poison himself, that his +grand-daughter might exhibit herself by the light of the _lucernae_ +blazing with jewels." + +Nero offered to Jupiter Capitolinus the first trimmings of his beard in +a magnificent vase enriched with the costliest pearls. + +Catherine de Medicis and Diane de Poitiers almost floated in pearls, +their dresses being literally covered with them. The wedding-robe of +Anne of Cleves was a rich cloth-of-gold, thickly embroidered with +great flowers of large Orient pearls. Poor Mary, Queen of Scots, had a +wonderful lot of pearls among her jewels; and the sneaking manner in +which Elizabeth got possession of them we will leave Miss Strickland, +the biographer of Queens, to relate. + +"If anything farther than the letters of Drury and Throgmorton be +required to prove the confederacy between the English Government and the +Earl of Moray, it will only be necessary to expose the disgraceful +fact of the traffic of Queen Mary's costly _parure_ of pearls, her own +personal property, which she had brought with her from France. A few +days before she effected her escape from Lochleven Castle, the righteous +Regent sent these, with a choice collection of her jewels, very secretly +to London, by his trusty agent, Sir Nicholas Elphinstone, who undertook +to negotiate their sale, with the assistance of Throgmorton, to whom he +was directed for that purpose. As these pearls were considered the most +magnificent in Europe, Queen Elizabeth was complimented with the first +offer of them. 'She saw them yesterday, May 2nd,' writes Bodutel La +Forrest, the French ambassador at the Court of England, 'in the presence +of the Earls of Pembroke and Leicester, and pronounced them to be of +unparalleled beauty.' He thus describes them: 'There are six cordons +of large pearls, strung as paternosters; but there are five-and-twenty +separate from the rest, much finer and larger than those which are +strung; these are for the most part like black _muscades_. They had not +been here more than three days, when they were appraised by various +merchants; this Queen wishing to have them at the sum named by the +jeweller, who could have made his profit by selling them again. They +were at first shown to three or four working jewellers and lapidaries, +by whom they were estimated at three thousand pounds sterling, (about +ten thousand crowns,) and who offered to give that sum for them. Several +Italian merchants came after them, who valued them at twelve thousand +crowns, which is the price, as I am told, this Queen Elizabeth will take +them at. There is a Genoese who saw them after the others, and said they +were worth sixteen thousand crowns; but I think they will allow her to +have them for twelve thousand.' 'In the mean time,' continues he, in his +letter to Catherine of Medicis, 'I have not delayed giving your Majesty +timely notice of what was going on, though I doubt she will not allow +them to escape her. The rest of the jewels are not near so valuable as +the pearls. The only thing I have heard particularly described is +a piece of unicorn richly carved and decorated.' Mary's royal +mother-in-law of France, no whit more scrupulous than her good cousin of +England, was eager to compete with the latter for the purchase of the +pearls, knowing that they were worth nearly double the sum at which they +had been valued in London. Some of them she had herself presented to +Mary, and especially wished to recover; but the ambassador wrote to her +in reply, that 'he had found it impossible to accomplish her desire of +obtaining the Queen of Scots' pearls, for, as he had told her from the +first, they were intended for the gratification of the Queen of England, +who had been allowed to purchase them at her own price, and they were +now in her hands.' + +"Inadequate though the sum for which her pearls were sold was to their +real value, it assisted to turn the scale against their real owner. + +"In one of her letters to Elizabeth, supplicating her to procure some +amelioration of the rigorous confinement of her captive friends, Mary +alludes to her stolen jewels:--'I beg also,' says she, 'that you will +prohibit the sale of the rest of my jewels, which the rebels have +ordered in their Parliament, for you have promised that nothing should +be done in it to my prejudice. I should be very glad, if they were in +safer custody, for they are not meat proper for traitors. Between you +and me it would make little difference, and I should be rejoiced, if any +of them happened to be to your taste, that you would accept them from me +as offerings of my good-will.' + +"From this frank offer it is apparent that Mary was not aware of the +base part Elizabeth had acted, in purchasing her magnificent _parure_ of +pearls of Moray, for a third part of their value." + +One of the most famous pearls yet discovered (there may be shells down +below that hide a finer specimen) is the beautiful _Peregrina_. It was +fished up by a little negro boy in 1560, who obtained his liberty by +opening an oyster. The modest bivalve was so small that the boy in +disgust was about to pitch it back into the sea. But he thought better +of his rash determination, pulled the shells asunder, and, lo, the +rarest of priceless pearls! [_Moral._ Don't despise little oysters.] La +Peregrina is shaped like a pear, and is of the size of a pigeon's egg. +It was presented to Philip II. by the finder's master, and is still in +Spain. No sum has ever determined its value. The King's jeweller named +five hundred thousand dollars, but that paltry amount was scouted as +ridiculously small. + +There is a Rabbinical story which aptly shows the high estimate of +pearls in early ages, only one object in Nature being held worthy to be +placed above them:-- + +"On approaching Egypt, Abraham locked Sarah in a chest, that none might +behold her dangerous beauty. But when he was come to the place of paying +custom, the collectors said, 'Pay us the custom': and he said, 'I will +pay the custom.' They said to him, 'Thou carriest clothes': and he said, +'I will pay for clothes.' Then they said to him, 'Thou carriest gold': +and he answered them, 'I will pay for my gold.' On this they further +said to him, 'Surely thou bearest the finest silk': he replied, 'I will +pay custom for the finest silk.' Then said they, 'Surely it must be +pearls that thou takest with thee': and he only answered, 'I will pay +for pearls.' Seeing that they could name nothing of value for which the +patriarch was not willing to pay custom, they said, 'It cannot be but +thou open the box, and let us see what is within.' So they opened the +box, and the whole land of Egypt was illumined by the lustre of Sarah's +beauty,--far exceeding even that of pearls." + +Shakspeare, who loved all things beautiful, and embalmed them so that +their lustre could lose nothing at his hands, was never tired of +introducing the diamond and the pearl. They were his favorite ornaments; +and we intended to point out some of the splendid passages in which he +has used them. But we have room now for only one of those priceless +sentences in which he has set the diamond and the pearl as they were +never set before. No kingly diadem can boast such jewels as glow along +these lines from "Lear":-- + + "You have seen + Sunshine and rain at one: her smiles and tears + Were like a better day: Those happy smiles + That played on her ripe lip seemed not to know + What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence, + _As pearls from diamonds dropp'd._" + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +1. _Lis Oubreto_ de ROUMANILLE. Avignon. 1860. 12mo. + +2. T. AUBANEL. _La Miougrano Entreduberto._ Avec Traduction littérale en +regard. Avignon: J. Roumanille. 1860. 12mo. + +3. _Mirèio._ Pouèmo Prouvençau de FREDERI MISTRAL. Avec la Traduction +littérale en regard. Avignon: J. Roumanille. 1859. 8vo. + +4. _Las Papillôtos_ de JACQUES JASMIN, de l'Académie d'Agen, Maître ès +Jeux-Floraux, Grand Prix de l'Académie Française. Édition populaire, +avec le Français en regard, et ornée d'un Portrait. De 1822 à 1858. +Paris: Firmin Didot, Frères & Cie. 1860. 12mo. + +5. _Lés Piaoulats d'un Reïpetit._ Recueil de Poésies Patoises. Par J.B. +Veyre, Instituteur à Saint-Simon (Cantal). Aurillac: Imprimerie de L. +Bonnet-Picut. 1860. 8vo. + +Few persons, when they consider the present greatness and prosperity of +the French Empire, bear in mind the heterogeneous elements of which it +is composed. For us, Paris is France, and the literature of the realm +is comprised in the words, "Paris publications." We think not of the +millions of Frenchmen to whom the language of the capital is a sealed +letter,--of the Germans of Alsatia, the Flemings of the extreme +North-East, the Bretons of the peninsula of Finisterre, the Basques, the +Catalans of the mountains of Roussillon, and, more numerous than all +these, the fourteen millions of the thirty-seven departments south of +the Loire. These speak, to this day, with fewer modifications than have +taken place in any other of the European languages during the same lapse +of time, the very tongue in which wrote Bertran de Born and Pierre +Vidal, the idiom in which Dante and Petrarca found some of their +happiest inspirations, and which, we are told, Tasso envied for its +poetic capabilities. + +True, the Provinces of Gascony, Provence, Auvergne may be traversed by +the stranger almost without his suspecting that other than the French, +more or less badly spoken, is in common use. In hotels and shops he will +hear nothing else. + +The larger towns in direct communication with the capital, and all that +is purely exterior in the people, are becoming more and more French +every day. But in the family interior, far from the noise of affairs, +the bustle of towns, in hamlets, among the vine-growers and tenders of +the silk-worm, in the mountains and retired valleys, the home-tongue is +again at ease. Simple, ingenuous, amber-like in its sunny tints, it is a +reflection of that ardent poetical imagination which made the courts of +the Counts of Toulouse the nurseries of modern poesy, when the rest of +Europe was little else than one wrangling battle-field. Neither the +exterminating crusade against the Albigenses, after which the idiom +of Provence was wellnigh stigmatized as heretical, nor the civil and +religious wars of the seventeenth century, nor even the _dragonnades_ of +Louis XIV., have been able to outroot it. The levelling edicts of the +first French Revolution were powerless against it. The Provençal, or +Langue d'Oc, if you will, the Gascon, the Auvergnat, are spoken to this +day in their respective provinces, universally spoken by the people, who +in many instances do not understand French at all. They must be preached +to in their own dialect. They have their songs, their theatre even. + +Nor must this be understood as referring only to the lower strata +of society. The better classes, even, retain a fondness for their +mother-tongue which years of residence in Paris will not obliterate. In +their very French, they still retain the inflections, the tones of the +South,--a measured cadence in the phrase, which the Parisian uniformly +styles _gasconner_. They feel ill at ease in what they call the +cold-mannered speech of the _Franchiman_. In the words of one of their +poets, Mistral, who has proved that he was no less a master of the +academic forms and rules than of the riches and power of his own +Avignonais:--"Those who have not lived at the South, and especially +in the midst of our rural population, can have no idea of the +incompatibility, the insufficiency, the poverty of the language of the +North in regard to our manners, our needs, our organization. The French +language, transplanted to Provence, seems like the cast-off clothes of a +Parisian dandy adapted to the robust shoulders of a harvester bronzed by +the Southern sun." + +The Provençal, in its two principal divisions, the Gascon and Langue +d'Oc, is the current idiom south of the Loire. The South-West Provinces +had, in the seventeenth century, no mean poet in Godelin; and in our +own day, Jasmin has found a host of followers. The inhabitants of the +South-East, however, the more immediate retainers of the language of +the Troubadours, save in a few drinking-songs and Christmas carols, had +forgotten the strains that once resounded beyond the limits of Provence +and had first awaked the poetic emulation of Spain and Italy. The +princess of song, stung by the envious spirit of persecution in the +Albigensian wars, had slept for centuries, and the thick hedge of +forgetfulness had grown rank about the language and its treasures. What +Raynouard, Diez, Mahn, Fauriel, and others have done to bring to light +again the unedited texts was little better than an autopsy. A living, +breathing poet was wanting to reanimate by his touch the poesy that had +slept so long. That poet was Roumanille. + +The Minnesingers have found heirs and continuators in the modern writers +of Germany. Side by side with the increasing tendency to unity in all +national literature is working the force of races confounded under one +political banner, to assert their existence as such. Congresses have +shaped new kingdoms; but they have not reached or removed the limits +of nationalities that have each their expression in song, whether in +Moldavia or among the Czechs of Bohemia. The regeneration of local +idioms, which is fast working its way from the Bosphorus to the +Atlantic, was first undertaken in Provence, at the instigation of +Roumanille. The son of a gardener of St. Remy, he was first struck with +the insufficiency of French literature for his immediate countrymen, +when, on his return from college, seeking to recite some of his earlier +poems in the language of Racine to his aged mother, she failed to +understand them. For her he translated, and found that his own Provençal +was richer, more copious and melodious than the French itself, and, if +less finical and restrained by grammatical forms, more pliant for the +poet, and better answering the exigencies of primitive, spontaneous +expression of feeling. From that moment his efforts were unceasingly +directed towards the reintegration of his mother-tongue, which had so +long played but the part of a Cinderella among the Romanic nations. + +His poems, collected in 1847, under the title of "Margarideto," +(Daisies,) were hailed by his countrymen with their habitual national +enthusiasm. Nor did he remain inactive during the Revolution of 1848, +addressing the people in home-phrase in several small volumes of prose. +In 1852, he sent forth a call to his brother-writers, the _felibre_, who +had joined with him in his efforts. The result was the publication of +"Li Prouvençalo," a charming selection from those modern Troubadours +who in all ranks of society sing, because sing they must, in bright and +sunny Provence, and who in very deed find poetry + + "In the forge's dust and ashes, in the tissues + of the loom." + +The call of Roumanille was the signal for a revival. Since that time, he +himself, now a publisher in Avignon, has steadily watched and +fostered the movement. The new literature has rapidly gone beyond its +home-limits. Within the present year, Paris has republished several of +the most noted works. + +The volume which has called forth these remarks, "Lis Oubreto," +comprises the poems of M. Roumanille,--"Li Margarideto," "Li Nouvè," +"Li Sounjarello," "La Part de Dieu," "Li Flour de Sauvi." They are +characterized by an elevation in the thoughts and a religious purity +of sentiment, qualities which, it has been urged, and justly too, were +lacking in many of the former productions in various dialects of France. +We call the poetry of Roumanille elevated, yet it always addresses +itself to the people of Provence, and borrows its images from the +many-colored life of those to whom it speaks; religious, but simple and +ingenuous, with a tinge of mysticism,--not the mysticism that seeks the +good in dreamy inaction, as in some of the Spanish authors, nor has it +the obscure tinge of the transcendental English school. The religion +of Roumanille is active, not dogmatic; he incites to _do_, rather than +discuss or dream the good. There is a health, a vigor, an earnestness, +in this spontaneous poesy of an idiom which six centuries ago was the +language of courts, and now sings the song of toil. Side by side with +the over-cultured language of the Parisian, it seems so free and frank! +Where the one is hampered for fear of sinning, the other, buoyant and +elastic, treads freely and fears not to be too ingenuous. + +Roumanille's poems have not been translated; it is hardly likely they +ever will be,--at least, the greater number. They were not made for +Paris. They are not at ease in a French garb,--nor, for that matter, +in any other than their own diaphanous, sun-tinted, vowelly Provençal, +unless they could find their expression in some _folk-speech_, as the +Germans say, that could utter things of daily life without euphuistic +windings, without fear of ridicule for things of home expressed in +home-words. + +As characterizing the nature and tendency of the new poetry, we subjoin +a translation of "Li Crecho," (The Infant Asylums,) of which M. +Sainte-Beuve, of the French Academy, one whose judgment as literary +critic could be little biased in favor of the _naïve_ graces of the +original, said,--"The piece is worthy of the ancient Troubadours. The +angel of the asylums and of little children in his celestial sadness +could not be disavowed by the angels of Klopstock, nor by that of Alfred +de Vigny." + +"Li Crecho" was recited by the author at the inauguration of the Infant +Asylum of Avignon, the 20th of November, 1851, and forms part of the +sheaf of poems entitled "Li Flour de Sauvi." + +I. + +"Among the choirs of Seraphim, whom God has created to sing eternally, +transported with love, 'Glory, glory to the Father!'--among the joys of +Paradise, one oftentimes, far from the happy singers, went thoughtful +away. + +"And his snow-white forehead inclined towards our world, as droops a +flower that has no moisture in summer. Day by day he grew more dreamy. +If sadness, when in God's glory, could torment the heart, I should say +that this fair angel was pining with sorrow. + +"Of what did he dream thus, and in secret? Why was he not of the feast? +Why, alone among angels, as one that had sinned, did he bow the head?" + +II. + +"Lo! he has just knelt at the feet of God. What will he say? What will +he do? To see and hear him, his brethren interrupt their song of praise." + +III. + +"'When Jesus, thy child, wept,--when he shivered with cold in the +manger of Bethlehem,--it was my smile that consoled him, my wings that +sheltered him, with my warm breath did I comfort him. + +"'And since then, O God, when a child weeps, in my pitying heart his +voice resounds. Therefore forever now am I sick at heart,--therefore, O +Lord, am I ever thoughtful. + +"'On earth, O God, I have something to do. Let me descend there. There +are so many babes, poor milk-lambs, who, shivering with cold, weep and +wail far from the breasts, far from the kisses of their mothers! In warm +rooms will I shelter them,--will cover and tend them,--will nurse and +caress them,--will lull them to rest. Instead of one mother, they shall +each have twenty that shall give them suck and soothe them to sleep.'" + +IV. + +"And with heart and hand did the angels applaud,--a tremor of joy shot +through the stars of heaven,--and, unfolding his pinions, with the +rapidity of lightning the angel descended. The road-side smiled with +flowers, as he passed,--and mothers trembled for joy; for infant-asylums +arose wherever the child-angel trod." + +One of the first to respond to the call of Roumanille for the +composition of the selection "Li Prouvençalo" was Th. Aubanel, also of +Avignon. The "Segaire" (Mowers) and "Lou 9 Thermidor" made it plain, +that, of the thirty names, that of the young printer would soon take a +prominent place among the revivers of Southern letters. And now, eight +years later, the promise of M. René Taillandier, in his introduction to +the selection, has become reality. + +"La Miougrano Entreduberto" (The Opened Pomegranate) is printed with an +accompanying French translation. Mistral, the brother-poet and friend of +the author, thus announces the poems:-- + +"The pomegranate is of its nature wilder than other trees. It loves to +grow in pebbly elevations (_clapeirolo_) in the full sun-rays, far from +man and nearer to God. There alone, in the scorching summer-beams, it +expands in secret its blood-red flowers. Love and the sun fecundate +its bloom. In the crimson chalices thousands of coral-grains germ +spontaneously, like a thousand fair sisters all under the same roof. + +"The swollen pomegranate holds imprisoned as long as it can the roseate +seeds, the thousand blushing sisters. But the birds of the moor speak to +the solitary tree, saying,--'What wilt thou do with the seeds? Even now +comes the autumn, even now comes the winter, that chases us beyond the +hills, beyond the seas.....And shall it be said, O wild pomegranate, +that we have left Provence without seeing thy beautiful coral-grains, +without having a glimpse of thy thousand virgin daughters?' + +"Then, to satisfy the envious birdlings of the moor, the pomegranate +slowly half-opens its fruit; the thousand vermeil seeds glitter in the +sun; the thousand timorous sisters with rosy cheeks peep through the +arched window: and the roguish birds come in flocks and feast at ease on +the beautiful coral-grains; the roguish lovers devour with kisses the +fair blushing sisters. + +"Aubanel--and you will say as I do, when you have read his book--is a +wild pomegranate-tree. The Provençal public, whom his first poems had +pleased so much, was beginning to say,--'But what is our Aubanel doing, +that we no longer hear him sing?'" + +Then follows an exposition of the hopeless passion of the poet,--how he +took for motto, + + "Quau canto, + Soun mau encanto." + +Hence the three books of poems now before us,--"The Book of Love," +"Twilight," and "The Book of Death." "The Book of Love," "a thing +excessively rare," as we are told in the Preface, "but this one written +in good faith," opens with a couplet that is a key to the whole +volume:-- + + "I am sick at heart, + And _will_ not be cured." + +We subjoin a literal translation of the eleventh song, line for line:-- + + De-la-man-d'eilà de la mar, + Dins mis ouro de pantaiage, + Souvènti-fes iéu fau un viage, + Iéu fau souvènt un viage amar, + De-la-man-d'eilà, de la mar." + etc., etc. + + "Far away, beyond the seas, + In my hours of reverie, + Oftentimes I make a voyage, + I often make a bitter voyage, + Far away, beyond the seas. + + "Yonder far, towards the Dardanelles, + With the ships I glide away, + Whose long masts pierce the sky; + Towards my loved one do I go, + Yonder far, towards the Dardanelles. + + "With the great white clouds sailing on, + Driven by the wind, their master-shepherd, + The great clouds which before the stars + Pass onwards like white flocks, + With the clouds I go sailing on. + + "With the swallows I take my flight, + The swallows returning to the sun; + Towards fair days do they go, quick, quick; + And I, quick, quick, towards my love, + With the swallows take my flight. + + "Oh, I am very sick for home, + Sick for the home that my love haunts! + Far from that foreign country, + As the bird far from its nest, + I am very sick for home. + + "From wave to wave, o'er the bitter waters, + Like a corse thrown to the seas, + In dreams am I borne onward + To the feet of her that's dear, + From wave to wave, o'er the bitter waters. + + "On the shores I am there, dead! + My love in her arms supports me; + Speechless she gazes and weeps, + Lays her hand upon my heart, + And suddenly I live again! + + "Then I clasp her, then I fold her + In my arms: 'I have suffered enough! + Stay, stay! I _will_ not die!' + And as a drowning one I seize her, + And fold her in my arms. + + "Far away, beyond the seas, + In my hours of reverie, + Oftentimes I make a voyage, + I often make a bitter voyage, + Far away, beyond the seas." + +As may easily be seen, Aubanel writes not, like Roumanille, for his +own people alone. His Muse is more ambitious, and seeks to interest by +appealing to the sentiments in a language polished with all the art +of its sister, the French. There are innumerable exquisite passages +scattered through the work, which make us ready to believe in the +figurative comparison of the prefacer, when he tells us that "the +coral-grains of the 'Opened Pomegranate' will become in Provence the +chaplet of lovers." + +If Roumanille and Aubanel contented themselves with the publication of +poems of no very ambitious length, the author of "Mirèio" aimed directly +at enriching his language at the outset with an epic. He has given us in +twelve cantos the song of Provence. He makes us see and feel the life of +Languedoc,--traverse the Crau, that Arabia Petrasa of France,--see +the Rhone, and the fair daughters of Arles, in their picturesque +costumes,--see the wild bulls of the Camargo, the Pampas of the +Mediterranean. We are among the growers of the silk-worm; we hear the +home-songs and talks of the Mas, listen to the people's legends and +tales of witchery, and can study the Middle-Age spirit that still in +these regions endows every shrine with miracles, as we follow the +pilgrimage to the chapel of the Three Marys. + +"Mirèio" is all Provence living and breathing before us in a poem. No +wonder, then, that, in the present dearth of poetry in France, this epic +or idyl, call it as you will, was received with acclamations. M. René +Taillandier has consecrated to it one of his most masterly articles +in the "Revue des Deux Mondes." Lamartine has devoted to it a whole +_entretien_ in his "Cours de Littérature." It was discussed, quoted, +translated in all the journals of the capital. We may revert to it at +greater length in a future number of the "Atlantic." + +The name of Jasmin, the harbor-poet of Agen, is already familiar to the +English public. Professor Longfellow has translated his "Blind Girl of +Castel-Cuillé." His name is known in Paris as well, perhaps, as that of +any other living French poet, if we except Lamartine and Victor Hugo. +Accompanied with a French translation, his principal poems, "Mous +Soubenis," "L'Abuglo de Castel-Cuillé," "Francouneto," "Maltro +l'Innoucento," "Lous Dus Frays Bessous," "La Semmâno d'un Fil," have +been read as much north of the Loire as south. + +"The Curl-Papers"--for thus he styles his works--having been translated +into German and English, the reputation of the author may be called +European. The forty maintainers of the Floral Games of Clémence Isaure +at Toulouse awarded him the title of _Maître ès Jeux-Floraux_. His +progress through the South was marked by ovations, and every town, from +Marseilles to Bordeaux, hastened to recognize the modern Troubadour. +Happier than most of his predecessors, Jasmin receives his laurels in +season, and can wear the crowns that are presented him. The "Papillôtos" +were formerly scattered in three costly volumes; they have now been +collected in one handsome duodecimo, with an accompanying French +translation of the principal pieces,--a translation which called from +Ampère the remark,--_"A défaut des vers de Jasmin, on ferait cent lieues +pour entendre cette prose-là!"_ + +"Lés Piaoulats d'un Reïpetit" is one of the rare productions of the +written literature of Auvergne, so rich in antique legends and original +popular songs. The author, at the Archaeological Concourse of Béziers, +in 1838, obtained deserved encomium for his "Ode to Riquet," the +creator of the great Southern French Canal, linking the Atlantic and +Mediterranean. He has written in the Romanic dialect in use in Auvergne, +which, if it lacks the finish and polish of the Provençal, is not +wanting in grace and ingenuousness. It is characterized by a rude +energy, a sombre harmony, that tallies well with the wild and rural +character of the country. + +At first sight, the dialect seems to have a marked affinity with that +made use of by Jasmin in his "Papillôtos." It is, however, easily +distinguishable by the frequent use of peculiar gutturals, the almost +constant change of _a_ into _o_, and a greater number of radicals of +Celtic origin. In a recent work on Auvergne, it is argued that these +Celtic words form the basis of the language. The history of the region +itself would tend to corroborate this theory. + +Sheltered by rocky mountain-ranges, the Dômes, the Dores, and Cantal, +(_Mons Celtorum_) the Arverni obstinately repulsed every attempt towards +the naturalization of the Roman tongue, and battled for six centuries +with the same energy displayed by them, when, under Vercingetorix, +they fought for their nationality and the independence of Gaul against +Caesar. The Latin could exercise, therefore, but slight influence on +the idiom of these regions, which has preserved since then in its +vocabulary, and even in syntactical forms, a marked relationship with +the Celtic, which, according to Sidonius Apollinaris, was still spoken +there in the sixth century. + +The actual dialect of Auvergne is peculiarly adapted to recitals of a +legendary nature, owing to its vivacity of articulation, coupled with +a kind of gloom in the quality of the sounds. _Naïf_ and touching in +popular song and Christmas carol, it is not divested of a certain +grandeur for subjects deserving of a higher style. + +The works of M. Veyre comprise the various styles of shorter poems. His +"Ode to Riquet," and that in honor of Gerbert, (Pope Silvester II., a +native of Auvergne,) show what the language can do in the hands of a +master. In the latter he describes the career of that predestined child +whom legend accompanied from his cradle to the grave. + +"La Fiëro de St. Urbo," curious picture of the manners of the country, +is written in that ironical and gay vein of which the older French +writers possessed the secret; but that is now fast dying away. +"Répopiado" and "Lou Boun Sens del Payson" show that the language of +Auvergne is no less adapted to moral teachings than to the touching +inspirations and free jovial songs of the country Muse. + +The work of M. Veyre is the first tending to give his native province +a share in the literary revival of the Romanic idioms, which is so +universally felt in Southern France, and has of late produced so much. + +_History of the United Netherlands, from the Death of William the Silent +to the Synod of Dort._ With a Full View of the English--Dutch Struggle +against Spain; and of the Origin and Destruction of the Spanish Armada. +By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D., D.C.L. New York: Harper & Brothers. Vols. +I. and II. 8vo. + +These volumes bear the unmistakable mark, not merely of historical +accuracy and research, but of historical genius; and the genius is not +that of Thierry or Guizot, of Gibbon or Macaulay, but has a palpable +individuality of its own. They evince throughout a patient, persistent +industry in investigating original documents, from the mere labor of +which an Irish hod-carrier would shrink aghast, and thank the Virgin +that, though born a drudge, he was not born to drudge in the bogs and +morasses of unexplored domains of History; yet the genius and enthusiasm +of the historian are so strong that he converts the drudgery into +delight, and lives joyful, though "laborious days." There is not a page +in these volumes which does not sparkle with evidences of an enjoyment +far beyond any that the rich and pleasure-seeking idler can ever know; +and while the materials are those of the barest and bleakest fact, the +style of the narrative is that of the gayest, most genial, and most +elastic spirit of romance. We have read all the best fictions which +have been published during the interval which has elapsed between the +publication of the "History of the Dutch Republic" and that of the +"History of the United Netherlands," but we have read none which +fairly exceeds, in what is called, in the slang of fifth-rate critics, +"breathless interest," this novel, but authentic memorial of a past +heroic age. + +The first requirement of an historian in the present century is original +research,--not merely research into rare printed books and pamphlets, +but into unpublished and almost unknown manuscripts. No sobriety of +judgment, no sagacity of insight, no brilliancy of imagination can +compensate for defective information. The finest genius is degraded to +the rank of a compiler, unless he sheds new light upon his subject by +contributing new facts. The severest requirements of the Baconian method +of induction--requirements which have been notoriously disregarded +by men of science in the investigation of Nature--remain in force as +regards the students of history. The powers of analysis, generalization, +statement, and narrative in Macaulay's historical essays were fully +equal to any powers he displayed in the "History of England from the +Reign of James II." No candid critic can deny that there is little in +his "History" which, as far as regards essential facts and principles, +had not been previously stated in a more sententious form in his Essays. +But we recollect the time when the same dignified scholars who are now +insensible to his defects were blind to his merits, and with majestic +dulness classed him among the inglorious company of superficial, +untrustworthy, brilliant declaimers. The moment, however, he published +in octavo volumes a solid history, and appended to the bottom of each +page the obscure authorities on which his narrative was founded, and +which plainly exhibited the capacity of the brilliant declaimer +to perform all the austerest duties of the drudge, his reputation +marvellously increased among the most frigid and most exacting +dispensers of praise. To come nearer home, we remember the time when +Bancroft's rhetoric entirely shut out from the eyes of antiquaries and +men of taste Bancroft's industry and scholarship. It was not until he +plainly showed his power to "toil terribly," not until he palpably +_added_ to our knowledge of American history, that men who had sneered +at his occasional rhapsodies of patriotism admitted his claims to be +considered the historian of the United States. They resisted Bancroft as +long as Bancroft gave them the slightest reason to believe that he was +interposing his own mind between them and facts which they know its well +as he; but when, by independent and indefatigable research, at home and +abroad, he indisputably widened the sphere of their information, they +pardoned the faults of the rhetorician in their gratitude to the toiling +investigator who had added to their knowledge. + +It is the felicity of Mr. Motley, that, like Prescott, he is not placed +under the necessity of overcoming prejudices. There is nobody on either +side of the Atlantic (whether we use the word as indicating its limited +sense as an ocean, or its larger and more liberal moaning as a magazine) +who would not rejoice in his success, and be grieved by his failure. And +this good feeling on the part of the public he owes, in a great degree, +to the individuality he has impressed upon his work. That individuality +is not the individuality of a partisan or of a theorist, but the +individuality of a broad-minded, high-minded, chivalrous gentleman. With +a soul open to the finest sentiments and ideas of the age in which he +lives, tolerant of frailty, but intolerant of meanness, falsehood, and +malignity, and writing with the frankness with which a cultivated man of +decided opinions might speak to a company of chosen associates, the +most obstinate bigot can hardly fail to feel the charm of his free +and cordial manner of expression. Hume, Gibbon, Hallam, and Macaulay, +Sismondi, Guizot, and Michelet, all have in their characters something +which invites and provokes opposition. But the spirit which underlies +Mr. Motley's large scholarship is so thoroughly genial and generous, +and is so purified from the pedantry of knowledge and the pedantry of +opinion, that it is impossible for him to rouse in other minds any of +the antipathy which is often felt for powerful individualities whose +powers of mind and extent of erudition still enforce respect and extort +admiration. The instinctive sympathy he thus creates is due to no lack +of intrepidity in expressing his love for what is right and his hatred +for what is wrong. No historian is more decisive in his judgments, or +more scornful of the arts and hypocrisies by which the champions of +opposite opinions are flattered and propitiated. But his spirit is that +of the knight "without reproach," as well as the knight "without fear"; +and even his adversaries cannot but delight in the singleness and +simplicity of purpose with which he strives after the truth. Nothing in +his position or in his character gives them the slightest pretence for +supposing that his bold advocacy of liberal views is connected with any +ulterior designs or any "fatted calf" of theory or office. While he +is thus healthily free from the taint of the partisan, he is also +independent of the austere insensibility of the judicial Pharisee, whose +boast is that he decides questions relating to human nature without any +admixture of human instinct and human feeling. Mr. Motley, throughout +his History, writes from his heart as well as from his head; and we have +been unable to discover that he has swerved from the truth of things by +allowing his narrative to be vitiated by an undue prominence of either. + +If we pass from the historian's individuality to his materials, we find, +that, in a great degree, his facts are discoveries, and that, if his +book possessed no literary value whatever, it would still be an' +important addition to the history of Europe during the latter part of +the sixteenth century. He has, of course, studied all the prominent +contemporary chronicles and pamphlets of Holland, Flanders, Spain, +France, Germany, and England; and if his materials had been confined to +published sources of information, he would still be in possession of +facts not generally known or carefully analyzed and combined; but the +peculiar value of his History is due to its exhaustive examination, of +unpublished private letters and political documents. The archives of +Holland, England, and Spain have been opened to his investigations, +and he has been particularly fortunate in being able to road the whole +correspondence between Philip II., his ministers, and governors, +relating to the affairs of the Netherlands, from 1584 to the death of +that monarch. Placed thus at the centre from which events radiated, and +understanding perfectly the real designs which Spain concealed under a +cover of the most diabolical dissimulation, and which are now for the +first time completely elucidated, he was able to judge of the mistakes +of the other cabinets of Europe, also laid bare to his unwearied +research. The study of the manuscripts in the English State-Paper +Office, and in the collections of the British Museum, has given him a +perfect insight into the characters and policy of the statesmen of the +England of Elizabeth; and the exact relations which England bore to +Holland and Spain he has for the first time clearly indicated. As +a contribution to the history of England, these two volumes are of +inestimable value. They will disturb, and in some cases revolutionize, +the fixed opinions which the most intelligent Englishmen of the present +day have formed of almost every public man of the Elizabethan era; +and we cannot but wonder that this work should have been left for an +American scholar to accomplish. + +The present volumes of Mr. Motley's History begin with the murder of +William of Orange, in 1584, and extend only to the assassination of +Henry HI. of France, in 1589. These five years, however, are crowded +with individuals and events of special importance, and the historian +has shed new light on every topic he has touched. The determination of +Philip II. to put down the revolt of the Netherlands was part of an +extensive scheme, which involved the conquest of England and France, +the extermination of Protestantism, and the subjection of Europe to +the despotic sway of Spain and Rome. The interest of the history is +therefore European. To grasp it requires a knowledge of the minutest +threads of a tangled web of intrigue which spread from the Escorial to +the North Sea. This knowledge Mr. Motley has obtained. The cabinets of +Spain, England, and France have yielded up their inmost secrets to his +indefatigable research. He peeps over the shoulder of Philip, and reads +the despatch by which he intends to outwit Walsingham,--and in a second +of time is peeping over the shoulder of Walsingham, to see what the +latter is doing to outwit Philip. There is something inexpressibly +stimulating to curiosity in watching the movements of the nimble +historian as he speeds from one cabinet to another, and, the invisible +spy in the councils of all, detects the misconceptions and blunders +of each. In this complicated game of craft, policy, and passion, our +historian is the first writer who has arrived at the knowledge of the +cards which each player held in his hand at the time the game was +played. + +In 1584, the subjugation of the Netherlands seemed to be but a question +of time; and the disparity between the power of Spain and that of her +revolted provinces is thus strikingly stated:-- + +"The contest between those seven meagre provinces upon the sand-banks +of the North Sea and the great Spanish Empire seemed at the moment with +which we are now occupied a sufficiently desperate one. Throw a +glance upon the map of Europe. Look at the broad, magnificent Spanish +Peninsula, stretching across eight degrees of latitude and ten of +longitude, commanding the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with a genial +climate, warmed in winter by the vast furnace of Africa, and protected +from the scorching heats of summer by shady mountain and forest and +temperate breezes from either ocean. A generous southern territory, +flowing with wine and oil and all the richest gifts of a bountiful +Nature,--splendid cities,--the new and daily expanding Madrid, rich in +the trophies of the most artistic period of the modern world,--Cadiz, as +populous at that day as London, seated by the straits where the ancient +and modern systems of traffic were blending like the mingling of the two +oceans,--Granada, the ancient wealthy seat of the fallen Moors,--Toledo, +Valladolid, and Lisbon, chief city of the recently conquered kingdom of +Portugal, counting, with its suburbs, a larger population than any city, +excepting Paris, in Europe, the mother of distant colonies, and the +capital of the rapidly developing traffic with both the Indies: these +were some of the treasures of Spain herself. But she possessed Sicily +also, the better portion of Italy, and important dependencies in Africa, +while the famous maritime discoveries of the age had all inured to her +aggrandizement. + +"The world seemed suddenly to have expanded its wings from East to West +only to bear the fortunate Spanish Empire to the most dizzy heights of +wealth and power. The most accomplished generals, the most disciplined +and daring infantry the world has ever known, the best-equipped and most +extensive navy, royal and mercantile, of the age, were at the absolute +command of the sovereign. Such was Spain. + +"Turn now to the north-western corner of Europe. A morsel of territory, +attached by a slight sand-hook to the continent, and half-submerged by +the stormy waters of the German Ocean: this was Holland. A rude climate, +with long, dark, rigorous winters and brief summers,--a territory, the +mere wash of three great rivers, which had fertilized happier portions +of Europe only to desolate and overwhelm this less-favored land,--a soil +so ungrateful, that, if the whole of its four hundred thousand acres of +arable land had been sowed with grain, it could not feed the laborers +alone,--and a population largely estimated at one million of souls: +these were the characteristics of the province which already had +begun to give its name to the new commonwealth. The isles of +Zealand--entangled in the coils of deep, slow-moving rivers, or +combating the ocean without--and the ancient episcopate of Utrecht, +formed the only other provinces that had quite shaken off the foreign +yoke. In Friesland, the important city of Groningen was still held for +the King; while Bois-le-Duc, Zutphen, besides other places in Gelderland +and North Brabant, also in possession of the royalists, made the +position of those provinces precarious." + +The safety of the Netherlands appeared to depend so entirely on their +success in gaining the assistance of foreign powers, that it is not +surprising that the Estates eagerly offered the sovereignty of the +country, first to France and then to England. The details of the +negotiations with these powers Mr. Motley recounts at great length. +When England, at last, adopted the side of the Netherlands, and caught +glimpses of the fact that the struggle of the latter against Spain +was her cause no less than the cause of the Dutch, the parsimony and +indecision of Elizabeth, and the hesitating counsels of her favorite +minister, Burleigh, prevented the English-Dutch alliance from being +efficient against the common enemy. An incompetent general, the Earl of +Leicester, was sent over to Holland with the English troops; yet even +his incompetency might not have stood in the way of success, had he +not been hampered with instructions which paralyzed what vigor and +intelligence he possessed, and had not his soldiers been left to starve +by the government they served. Elizabeth was trying to secure a peace +with Spain, while Philip and Farnese were busy in contriving the means +of an invasion of England; and up to the time the Spanish Armada +appeared in the British seas, she and her government were thoroughly +cajoled by Spanish craft. Mr. Motley remorselessly exposes, not only the +duplicity of Philip, but the credulity of Elizabeth; he demonstrates +the superiority of Spain in all the arts which were then supposed to +constitute statesmanship; and shows that it was to no sagacity and +vigor on the part of the English government, but to the instinctive +intelligence and intrepidity of the English people, that the nation was +saved from overthrow. Walsingham is almost the only English statesman +who comes out from the historian's pitiless analysis with any credit; +and, in respect to sagacity, Burleigh is degraded below Leicester: for +Leicester at least understood that the enmity of Philip of Spain to +England was unappeasable, and therefore justly considered his perfidious +negotiations for peace as a mere blind to cover designs of conquest. + +But we have no space, in this hurried notice of Mr. Motley's work, to +linger on the fertile topics which his luminous narrative suggests. In a +future article we hope to do some justice to the facts, principles, and +judgments he has established. At present, after indicating his diligence +in exploring original authorities, and the importance of the conclusions +at which he arrives, we can only venture a few remarks on his historical +genius and method. + +As regards his historical genius, it is sufficient to say that he +exhibits both sympathy and imagination. He has so completely assimilated +his materials that his narrative of events is that of an eye-witness +rather than that of a chronicler. Reproducing the passions, without +participating in the errors of the age about which he writes, he +intensely realizes everything he recounts. The siege of Antwerp and +the defeat of the Spanish Armada are the two prominent and obvious +illustrations of his power of pictorial description: in these he has +presented facts with a vividness and coherence worthy of the great +masters of poetry and romance; and his capacity of thus giving +unmistakable reality to events is not merely exercised in harmony +with the literal truth of things, but makes that truth more clearly +appreciated. Desirous as he is to impress the imagination, he never +sacrifices accuracy to effect. + +The same picturesque truthfulness characterizes his descriptions of +individuals. In the present volumes he has analyzed and represented a +wide variety of human character, separated not only by personal, but +national traits. Philip II., Farnese, and Mendoza,--Olden-Barneveld, +Paul Buys, St. Aldegonde, Hohenlo, Martin Schenk, and Maurice of +Nassau,--Henry III., Henry of Navarre, and the Duke of Guise,--Queen +Elizabeth, Burleigh, Walsingham, Buckhurst, Leicester, Davison, Raleigh, +Sidney, Howard, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and Norris,--all, as +delineated by him, have vital reality, all palpably live and move before +the eye of his mind. + +The method which Mr. Motley has adopted is admirably calculated to +insure accuracy as well as reality to his representation of events and +persons. His plan is always to allow the statesmen and soldiers who +appear in his work to express themselves in their own way, and convey +their opinions and purposes in their own words. This mode is opposed to +compression, but favorable to truth. Macaulay's method is to re-state +everything in his own language, and according to his own logical forms. +He never allows the Whigs and Tories, whose opinions and policy he +exhibits, to say anything for themselves. He detests quotation-marks. +His summaries are so clear and compact that, we are tempted to forget +that they leave out the modifications which opinions receive from +individual character. The reason that his statements are so often +questioned is due to the fact that he insists on his readers viewing +everything through the medium of his own mind. Mr. Motley is more +objective in his representations; and his readers can dispute his +summaries of character and expositions of policy by the abundant +materials for differing judgment which the historian himself supplies. + + +_Life of Andrew Jackson_. By JAMES PARTON, Author of the "Life of Aaron +Burr," etc., etc. 3 vols. 8vo. New York: Mason Brothers. 1860. + +We criticized Mr. Parton's "Life of Aaron Burr" with considerable +severity at the time of its appearance; and we are the more glad to meet +with a book of his which we can as sincerely and heartily commend. The +same quality of sympathy with his subject, which led him in his former +work to palliate the moral obliquity and overlook the baseness of his +hero, in consideration of brilliant gifts of intellect and person, gives +vigor and spirit to his delineation of a character in most respects so +different as that of Jackson. This man, who filled so large a place +in our history, and left perhaps a stronger impress of himself on our +politics than any other of our public men except Jefferson, was well +worthy to be made a subject of careful study and elucidation. Mr. Parton +has given us the means of understanding a character hitherto a puzzle, +and deserves our hearty thanks for the manner in which he has done it. + +We think the book remarkably fair in its tone, though perhaps Mr. Parton +is now and then led to exaggerate the positive greatness of Jackson, +who, as it appears to us, was rather eminent by comparison and contrast +with the men around him. But there were many strong, if not great +qualities in his composition, and so much that was picturesque and +strange in the incidents of his career and the state of society which +formed his character, that we have found this biography one of the most +instructive and entertaining we ever read. If Mr. Parton sometimes +exaggerates his hero's merits, he is also outspoken in regard to his +faults. If here and there a little Carlylish, his style has the merit of +great liveliness, and his pictures of frontier-life are full of interest +and vivacity. + +Mr. Parton begins his book with a new kind of genealogy, and one suited +to our Western hemisphere, where men are valued more for what they +themselves are than for what their grandfathers were,--for making than +for wearing an illustrious name. He shows that Jackson came of a good +stock,--pious, tenacious of opinion and purpose, and brave,--the +Scotch-Irish. He then tells us how young Jackson imbibed his fierce +patriotism, riding as a boy-trooper, and wellnigh dying a prisoner, +during the last years of the Revolutionary War. He lets us see his hero +cock-fighting, horse-racing, bad-whiskey-drinking, studying law, and +fighting by turns, leaving behind him somewhat dubious but on the +whole favorable memories, yet somehow getting on, till he is appointed +District-Attorney among the wolves, wildcats, and redskins of Tennessee. +The story of his emigration thither and his early life there is +wonderfully picturesque, and told by Mr. Parton with the spirit which +only sympathy can give. + +A great part of the material is wholly new, and we are at last enabled +to get at the real Jackson, and to gain something like an adequate and +consistent conception, of him. We are particularly glad to learn +the truth about Mrs. Jackson, after so many years of slander and +misunderstanding, and to find something really touching and noble, +instead of ludicrous, in the grim General's devotion to his first and +only love. We get also for the first time an understandable account of +the Battle of New Orleans, made up with praiseworthy impartiality from +the accounts of both sides. Nor is it only here that the author gives us +new light. He enables us to judge fairly of the sad story of Arbuthnot +and Ambrister, and throws a great deal of light on many points of our +political history which much needed honest illumination. The book is of +especial interest at the present time, as it contains the best narrative +we have ever seen of the Nullification troubles of 1832. Mr. Parton not +only shows a decided talent for biography, but his work is characterized +by a thoroughness of research and honesty of purpose that make it, on +the whole, the best life yet written of any of our public men. + + +_Poems_. By ROSE TERRY. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1861. pp. 231. + +We forget who it was that once charitably christened one of his volumes +"Prose by a Poet," in order that the public might be put on their guard +as to the difference between it and the others,--inexperienced critics +are so apt to make mistakes! The example seems to us worth following, +and, were this dangerous frankness made a point of honor in title-pages, +we should be able at a glance to distinguish the books that must be +bought from those that may be read. We should then see advertised "The +Ten-Inch Bore, or Sermons by Rev. Canon So-and-so,"--"Essays to do Good, +by a Victim of Original Sin,"--"Poems by a Proser,"--"Political Economy, +by a Bankrupt," and the like. We should know, at least, what we had to +expect. + +We do not mean to apply this to Miss Terry; but her volume reminded us, +by the association of opposites, of the title to which we have referred. +We had long known her as a writer of picturesque and vigorous prose, as +one of the most successful sketchers of New England character, abounding +in humor and pathos; but we had never conceived her as a writer of +verse. The readers of the "Atlantic" remember too well her "Maya, the +Princess," "Metempsychosis," and "The Sphinx's Children," to need +reminding that she has qualities of fancy as remarkable as her faculty +for observing real life. Miss Terry seems in this volume to have sought +refuge from the real in the ideal, from the jar and bustle of the +outward world in the silent and shadowy interior of thought and being. +Her poems have the fault of nearly all modern poetry, inasmuch as they +are over-informed with thought and sadness. By far the greater number of +her themes are abstract and melancholy. It appears to us that her mind +moves more naturally and finds readier expression in the picturesque +than in the metaphysical; and in saying this we mean to say that she is +really a poet, and not a rhymer of thoughts. "Midnight" is a poem full +of originality and vigor, with that suggestion of deepest meaning which +is so much more effective than definite statement. "December XXXI." +gives us a new and delightful treatment of a subject which the poets +have made us rather shy of by their iteration. We would signalize also, +as an especial favorite of ours, "The Two Villages," and still more the +very striking poem "At Last." But, after all, we are not sure that the +Ballads are not the best pieces in the volume. The "Frontier Ballads," +in particular, quiver with strength and spirit, and have the true +game-flavor of the border. + + +_Harrington_. By the Author of "What Cheer?" Boston: Thayer & Eldridge. + +One of the most impossible books that man ever wrote. A book which one +could almost prove never could be written, and which, as an illogical +conclusion, but a stubborn fact, has been written, nevertheless. +"Harrington" is an Abolition novel, the scene of which is laid in +Boston, with a few introductory chapters of plantation-slavery in +Louisiana. Its principal merit is its burning earnestness of feeling and +purpose; and earnestness is sacred from criticism. Whenever the warm, +pulse of an author's heart can be felt through the texture of his story, +criticism is mere flippancy. But, at the risk of making our author's lip +curl with disdain of the sordid insensibility that refuses to join +in his enthusiasm throughout, we shall venture to remind him that +enthusiasm is no proof of truth, whether in argument or conclusion. + +The introductory chapters, containing the flight of the slave Antony +through the Louisiana swamp, are almost unequalled for unfaltering +power, for gorgeous wealth of color. Many of the glowing sentences +belong rather to passionate poetry than to tamer prose. The agonized +resolution that turns the panting fugitive's blood and body to +fire,--the fear, so vividly portrayed that the reader's nerves thrill +with the shock that brings the hunted negro's heart almost to his mouth +with one wild throb,--the matchless picture of the forest and marsh, +lengthening and widening with dizzy swell to the weary eye and failing +brain,--all are the work of a master of language. + +When the scene shifts to Boston, the language, which was in perfect +keeping with the tropical madness of Antony's flight and the tropical +splendor of the Southern forest, is extravagant to actual absurdity, +when used with reference to ordinary scenes and ordinary events. All the +force of contrast is lost; and contrast is the great secret of effect. +The lavish richness of our author's words is as little suited to the +things they describe as a mantle of gold brocade would be to the +shoulders of a beggar. Even the loveliest of young women is more likely +to enter a room by the ordinary mysterious mode of locomotion than to +"flash" into it like a salamander. That it was possible for Muriel +Eastman, in gratifying her "vaulting ambition" by a very creditable +spring over the parallel bars, to "toss the air into perfume," we are +not prepared to deny, having no very clear notion of the meaning of +those remarkable words; but when, we are told that Mrs. Eastman was +"ineffably surprised, yet more ineffably amused," we must be allowed to +enter an energetic protest. Harrington himself is perhaps a trifle too +"regnant" to be altogether satisfactory; and there are many similar +extravagances and inaccuracies. + +The social intercourse of the ladies and gentlemen in this book is +particularly bad. It seems as if the author were ignorant of the usages +of good society, and, impatient of the vulgar ceremony of inferior +people, had seen no way to assert the superiority of his two fair ladies +and their unimaginable lovers, except making them dispense with all +such observances whatever. His uncertainty how people in their position +really do act has hampered his powers; and he is not that rarity, an +original writer, but that very common person, one who tries to be +original. Real ladies and gentlemen are not reduced to the alternative +of either being embarrassed by the ordinary social rules or disregarding +them altogether; they take advantage of them. It is a false originality +that is singular about ordinary forms; it is only the tyro in chess who +is "original" in his first move; Paul Morphy, the most inventive of +players, always begins with the customary advance of the king's pawn. + +There is the usual partiality--one-sidedness--common to the writings +and orations of our author's political school. It may well be doubted +whether in reality all the virtues have been monopolized by the +Antislavery men, all the vices by their opponents. Our author only hurts +his own cause, when he invests with a halo of light every brawler +who echoes the words of the really eminent leaders. Because one +Abolitionist, who has sacrificed power and position to his creed, is +entitled to praise, is another, who perhaps, by advocating the same +doctrines, gains a higher position, a wider influence, perhaps an easier +support, than he could in any other way, to share the credit of having +made a sacrifice? One would not disparage martyrs; but Saint Lawrence on +a cold gridiron, and the pilgrim who boiled his peas, are entitled to +more credit for their shrewdness than their suffering. Our author, +however, makes no distinction; and a natural result will be that many of +his readers, knowing that in one case his praises are undeserved, will +be slow to believe them just in any case. And not only are all of +this particular school disinterested, but they are all among the +master-intellects of the age, apparently by definition. Mr. Harrington +himself is the commanding intellect of the story, perhaps because of his +belief in the greatest number of heresies,--being somewhat peculiar +in his religious views, believing in woman's rights, considering the +marriage ceremony a silly concession to popular prejudice, giving +credence to omens, active as an Abolitionist, and--to crown all--holding +that Lord Bacon wrote Shakspeare's Plays! We sympathize entirely with +the author's indignant protest against thinking a theory necessarily +inaccurate because it contravenes the opinion of the majority. +Certainly, a new thing is not necessarily wrong; but neither is a new +thing necessarily right; and we are heartless enough to pronounce the +"Baconian theory" rather weak than otherwise for a hero. + +We cannot close our notice of this book without commending the old +French fencing-master as particularly good. He talks very simply and +well on matters that he understands, and is silent on those that he does +not understand,--affording in both respects an excellent example to the +more important characters. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The North American Review. No. CXC. January, 1861. Boston. Crosby, +Nichols, Lee, & Co. 8vo, paper, pp. 296. $1.25. + +Marion Graham; or, Higher than Happiness. By Meta Lander. Boston. +Crosby, Nichols, Lee, & Co. 12mo. pp. 506. $1.25. + +Harry Coverdale's Courtship and Marriage. By Frank E. Smedley. +Illustrated. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 357. +$1.25. + +Life in the Old World; or, Two Years in Switzerland and Italy. By +Frederika Bremer. Translated by Mary Howitt. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson +& Brothers. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 488, 474. $2.50. + +One of Them. By Charles Lever. New York. Harper & Brothers. 8vo. paper, +pp. 187. 50 cts. + +Human Destiny: a Critique on Universalism. By C.F. Hudson. Boston. James +Munroe & Co. 12mo. pp. 147. 50 cts. + +Negroes and Negro-Slavery: the First, an Inferior Race; the Latter, +their Normal Condition. By J.H. Van Evrie, M.D. New York. Van Evrie, +Horton, & Co. 12mo. pp. 339. $1.00. + +The Works of Francis Bacon. Vol. XIV. Being Vol. IV. of the Literary and +Professional Works. Boston. Brown & Taggard. 12mo. pp. 432. $1.50. + +The History of Latin Christianity. By Henry Hart Milman. Vol. IV. New +York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. 555. $1.50. + +The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus; to which are added those +of his Companions. By Washington Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New +York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 494. $1.50. + +The Westminster Review, for January, 1861. New York. Leonard Scott & Co. +8vo. paper, pp. 160. 50 cts. + +Elsie Venner. A Romance of Destiny. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston. +Ticknor & Fields. 2 vols. 16mo. pp. 288, 312. $1.75. + +The Deerslayer. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Darley's Illustrated Edition. New +York. W.A. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 598. $1.50. + +American Slavery, distinguished from the Slavery of English Theorists, +and justified by the Law of Nature. By Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D. New +York. Mason Brothers. 12mo. pp. 319. $1.25. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 7, ISSUE +41, MARCH, 1861*** + + +******* This file should be named 11134-8.txt or 11134-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/1/3/11134 + + +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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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/11134-8.zip b/old/11134-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..57fecd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11134-8.zip diff --git a/old/11134.txt b/old/11134.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..880f432 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11134.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9091 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 41, March, +1861, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 41, March, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 17, 2004 [eBook #11134] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 7, ISSUE +41, MARCH, 1861*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VII.--MARCH, 1861.--NO. XLI. + + + + + + + +GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. + + +THE PROFESSORS. + + +"Which of the German universities would be the best adapted to my +purpose?" is the question of many an American student, who, having gone +through the usual course in the United States, looks abroad for the +completion of his scientific or liberal studies. Of Goettingen and +Heidelberg he will often have read and heard; the reputation of the +comparatively new university of Berlin will not be unfamiliar to him; +but of Tuebingen, Wuerzburg, Erlangen, Halle, or Bonn, even, he will +perhaps know little more than the name. In the majority of the +last-named places, foreigners, especially his own countrymen, are rare; +none of his friends have studied there; they have followed the current, +since the last century, and spent their time in Goettingen or Heidelberg, +perhaps a winter in Berlin. They have found these institutions good, and +affording every facility for study; but would not Munich, or Leipzig, or +Jena, or any other one of the twenty-six universities of Germany, better +answer the purpose of many a student? + +During the last winter, in many conversations with a retired professor +in Berlin, who manifested a special interest in American institutions, +mainly in the American educational system, he was very particular in +inquiring as to what we meant by our term _College_. He had read the +work of the historian Raumer on America, and declared that from this he +could get no notion whatever as to what the term meant with us. The very +same thing occurs daily in the United States in regard to foreign, or, +more properly, the Continental universities. Accustomed as we are to the +prevalence of the tutorial system, the use of text-books,--in many parts +of the Union not defining clearly the difference between the terms +University, College, Institute, and Academy, giving the first name often +to institutions having but one faculty, and that at times incomplete, +with no theological, and often no law or medical department, forgetting +that the University should, from its very name, be as universal as +possible in its teachings, comprehending in its list of studies the +combined scientific and literary pursuits of the age,--we are apt to +look upon foreign schools of learning as similar in nature and purpose +to our own, differing not in the quality or specific character of the +teaching, but rather in the scope and extent of the branches taught. Yet +nothing is farther from the truth. The result is, that many a one starts +for Europe full of hope, to seek what he would have found better at +home,--or, when prepared and mature for European travel, is left to +chance or one-sided advice in the choice of a locality in which to +prosecute further studies. Often with only book-knowledge of the +language of the country, accident will lead him to the very university +the least adequate to his purpose. + +Having now spent some time in four of the leading German universities, +and contemplating a longer stay for the purpose of visiting others, the +writer has thought that some general remarks might call attention to +points often disregarded, and serve to give some insight into the nature +of the institutions of learning of the country,--rather aiming to +characterize the system of higher education as it now exists than to +give detailed historical notices, including something of student-life, +and the professors,--in fine, such observations as would not be likely +to be made by a general tourist, and such as native writers deem it +unnecessary to make, presupposing a knowledge of the facts in their own +readers. + +The German universities are the culminating point of German culture. +They concentrate within themselves the intellectual pith of the country. +Dating their foundation as far back as the fourteenth century, as +Prague, Vienna, and Heidelberg,--or established but of late years in +the nineteenth, as Berlin, Bonn, and Munich,--they attract to themselves +the mental strength of the land, forming a focus from which radiates, +whether in Theology, Science, Literature, or Art, the new world of +thought, which finds its way to remotest regions, often filtered +and unacknowledged. They number among their professors the most +distinguished men of the century, whether poets, philosophers, or +divines. All who lay claim to authorship find in the lecture-room a +firm stand and rank in society, as Government is ever ready to insure a +life-position to distinguished scholars. To mention only a few +examples of men who would scarcely be thought of in a professorial +career,--Schiller was Professor of History in Jena, Rueckert Professor in +Berlin, Uhland in Tuebingen. + +In nothing can Germany manifest a better-grounded feeling of national +pride than in this, its university system. Politically inert, divided +into petty states, powerless, the ever-ready prey of more active or +ambitious neighbors, it has played a pitiful _role_ in the world's +history, with annals made up of petty feuds and jealousies and +tyrannical meannesses, never working as one people, save when driven to +extremity. With countless differences of dialect, manners, customs, it +is one and national in nothing save in its literature, and feels that, +through the high culture of its scholars, through the new paths its +men of science have opened, through the profound investigations of +the learned in every sphere, it holds its place at the head of every +intellectual movement of the age. It feels that its universities are the +laboratories whence issue the thoughts whose significance the world is +ever more and more ready to acknowledge. France even, selfish and proud +of its past supremacy in all things, has within the last quarter of a +century laid aside much of its exclusiveness, and a Germanic infusion is +perceptible through all the mannerism of the latest and best productions +of the French school. Comparatively of late years is it, that the +English mind has fairly come in contact with this German culture. Its +first loud manifestation may be heard in the prose of Carlyle and his +school; yet even now its influence has permeated our whole literature so +much, that, when reading some of our latest poetry, tones and melodies +will come like distant echoes from the groves on the hillsides where +warble the nightingales of Germany. + +A most unpractical people, however, the Germans, who have been so active +in almost every possible field of speculation, have produced nothing +which could give one unacquainted with their university system a true +notion of its workings and actual state. Much has been written on +Pedagogy, its history general and special, the common schools and +gymnasia; but until 1854 there was not even a general work on the +history of the universities. To Karl von Raumer, former Minister of +Public Worship in Prussia, we owe the first _Beitrag_, as he modestly +calls it, the fourth volume of his "History of Pedagogy" being devoted +exclusively to these. Partly made up of historical sketches, partly +narrations of the writer's personal experience as student from 1801, as +professor in various places from 1811, it does not aim and is but little +calculated to give a clear idea of the system itself. Special works, as +the one of Tomek on Prague, and of Kluepfel on Tuebingen, do exist, +but otherwise nothing but personal observation can be made use of. +Statistics, every information, in fine, concerning the present +intellectual wealth of the nation, must be acquired either orally, or +from the catalogues, programmes, and hundreds of local pamphlets that +are issued yearly. The work of the Rev. Dr. Schaff, "Germany, its +Universities, Theology, and Religion," (Philadelphia, 1857,) rather aims +to characterize the nature and tendency of German theology, the latter +part being taken up with interesting and well-written sketches of the +leading divines. + +Before proceeding to these high-schools themselves, let us glance at the +general system of German education. In spite of political differences, +there exists much uniformity in this throughout the Confederation. The +German States are exceedingly _paternal_ in the care they take of their +subjects. They extend their parental supervision even to the family +interior, every relation of life regulated by fixed laws, and even +after death the inhumation must be conducted the forms and with the +precautions prescribed. The new-born child _must_ be baptized within +six weeks after birth. If the parents neglect it, Government sees to +it,--unless they claim the privileges of Israelites, in which case the +rites of their religion must be followed. Between his sixth and +seventh year the child _must_ enter some school or receive elementary +instruction at home. So far is education compulsory; beyond, it is +optional. When duly prepared, he enters, if the parents desire it, the +Government Gymnasium or Lyceum, answering pretty much to our College; it +fits the youth for entering the University. It confers no degrees; only, +at the conclusion of the studies, an _Examen Maturitatis_ takes place. +The youth is then declared ripe for matriculation. Without having +undergone this examination, he can never become a regular student. Even +should he have attended regularly any of the many private academies, or +the _Realschule_, where thorough instruction is given, but with less +special, though no slight attention to Latin and Greek, and more to +mathematics and practical branches, even then he must acquire from +one of the gymnasia the exemption-and-maturity-right. In the slang of +student-life, the gymnasiast is styled a _Frog_, the school itself +a _Pond_; between the time of his declaration of maturity and his +reception as student, he is called a _Mule_. + +The course is no light one the candidate has gone through,--nine or ten +years of classical training, Latin the whole time, Greek the last six or +seven years, Hebrew the last four, generally optional, though in many +cases required at future examinations. The modern languages have not +been neglected: French he has pursued seven years, English or Italian +the last three or four. Beside all these, the elements of Philosophy, +Moral and Natural, History, Mathematics, etc. In fine, the certificate +of maturity would in most cases equal, in many surpass, what our +colleges is styled the degree of A.M. Of course, the parallel must not +be understood as existing with respect to many of the older institutions +in the United States, which presuppose, in the entering freshman, a +preparatory course of several years. + +The classical training so strictly required of natives who enter +these high-schools is not so rigidly inquired into in the case of +foreigners,--though in this respect the regulations differ in various +states. In Prussia and generally, the passport is all-sufficient; but +in Wuertemberg, a diploma or some certificate of former studies must be +exhibited before admission. The officers of some of the universities, as +Tuebingen, for instance, are very particular in enforcing all the rules, +inquiring of the applicant, whatever be his age or nationality, whether +he has a written permission from his parents to study abroad and in +their university, whether he has the money necessary to pay the debts he +may contract, and such other minute questions as will strike an American +especially as particularly impertinent. The precaution is carried +so far, that, when no positive information is given as to means of +subsistence, the letter of credit must be delivered into the hands +of the beadle as security. Yet such little incidents are but slight +annoyances at most, which a little good-humor and desire to conform to +the habits and ways of doing of the country will remove. He who goes +abroad always ready to bristle up against what does not exactly conform +to his preconceived ideas of propriety, measuring and weighing all +things with his own national weights and measures, will be continually +making himself disagreeable and unhappy, and in the end profit little by +his absence from home. + +The conclusion of the training-system in the gymnasia usually occurs +before the nineteenth or twentieth year. With the reception of the +certificate of maturity the youth may be said to have donned the virile +toga. He enjoys during his university years a degree of liberty such as +he never enjoyed before, never will enjoy again when his student-days +are over. Having taken out his matriculation-papers, and given the +_Handschlag_ (taken the oath) to obey the laws of the land and the +statutes of the university, he has become a student,--a _Fox_, as the +freshman is styled,--he chooses his own career, his own professors, +hears the lectures he pleases, attends or omits as he pleases, leads the +life of a god for a triennium or a quadrennium, fights his duels, drinks +his beer, sings his club-and-corps songs.--But of student-life more in +due time.--There is no check, no constraint whatever, during the whole +time the studies last. At the expiration of three or four, sometimes +even five years, an examination takes place before the degree of Doctor +can be conferred,--not a severe one by any means, confined as it is to +the special branch to which the candidate wishes to devote himself. +In the Medical and Law Departments it is more serious than in the +Philosophical. This examination is followed by a public discussion in +presence of the dean and professors of the faculty, held in Latin, on +some thesis that has been treated and printed in the same language by +the candidate. His former fellow-students, and any one present that +wishes, stand as opponents. This disputation, whatever may have been its +merits in former days, has degenerated in the present into a mere piece +of acted mummery, where the partakers not only stutter and stammer over +bad Latin, but even help themselves, when their memory fails utterly, +with the previously written notes of their extempore objections and +answers. The principal requisite for the attainment of the Doctor's +degree, when the necessary amount of time has been given, in the +Philosophical Faculty at least, is the fees, which often mount quite +high. + +From the ranks of such as have attained this _title_, for so it should +be called, every office of any importance in the State is filled. +Through every ramification of the complicated system of government, +recommendations and testimonials play the greatest _role_,--the first +necessary step for advancement being the completion of the university +studies--And by public functionaries must not be understood merely those +holding high civil or military grades. Every minister of the Church, +every physician, chemist, pharmaceutist, law-practitioner of any +grade, every professor and teacher, all, in fact, save those devoting +themselves to the merely mechanical arts or to commercial pursuits, and +even these, though with other regulations, receive their appointment or +permission to exercise their profession from the State. It is one huge +clock-work, every wheel working into the next with the utmost precision. +To him who has gone so far, and received the Doctorate, several +privileges are granted. He has claims on the State, claims for a +position that will give him a means of subsistence, if only a scanty +one. With talent and industry and much enduring toil, he may reach the +highest places. He belongs to the aristocracy of learning,--a poor, +penniless aristocracy, it may be, yet one which in Germany yields in +point of pride to none. + +We proceed to the Professors. It is within the power of all to attain +the position of Lecturer in a university. The diploma once obtained, the +farewell-dinner, the _comilat_, and general leave-taking over, the man's +career has commenced in earnest. If he turn his attention to education, +he may find employment in some of the many schools of the State. Does he +look more directly to the University, he undergoes, when duly prepared +on the branches to which he wishes to devote himself, the _Examen +Rygorosum_, delivers a trial-lecture in presence of his future +colleagues, and is entitled to lecture in the capacity of a +_Privat-Docent_. As such be receives no remuneration whatever from +Government; his income depends upon what he receives from his hearers, +two to six dollars the term from each. All who aspire to the dignity of +Professor must have passed through this stage; rarely are men called +directly from other ranks of life,--though eminent scholars, +physicians, or jurists have been sometimes raised immediately to an +academical seat. After a few years, five or more, the _Privat-Docent_ +who has met with a reasonable degree of success may hope for a +professorship,--though many able men have remained in this inferior +position for long years, some even for life. If their hearers are but +few, they resort to private lessons, to book-making, anything that +will aid them in maintaining their position, always with the hope that +"something must turn up." + +The _Privat-Docent_ system, though condemned by some, has been much +extolled by many German writers. It is, say the latter, a warranty for +the freedom of teaching, no slight point In a country where all is +subservient to the political rulers, forming men for the professorship, +and giving them a confidence in their own powers, as they must rely +exclusively for their support on the income they receive from their +hearers. From among their number are chosen those constituting the +regular faculties; and thus there are ever at hand men ready to fill the +highest places upon any vacancy, men not new or inexperienced, but whose +whole life has been one training for the position they may be called to +occupy. + +The _Privat-Docent_ may be raised directly to a seat in the faculty, but +more generally he passes through the intermediate stage of _Professor +Extraordinarius_. The Professors Extraordinary receive no, or at most a +very small, income from the State; they are merely titled lecturers, +and nothing more; yet in their ranks, as well as among the more modest +_Privatim-Docentes_, are often found men of the greatest learning, whose +names are known abroad, whose contributions to science are universally +acknowledged, whose lecture-rooms are thronged with students, while the +halls of some of the regular professors may be left empty. No vacancy +may have occurred in their department,--or, as is unfortunately +oftener the case, some political reasons may be the occasion of their +non-advancement. + +We come to the regular faculty of the university, the _Professores +Ordinarii_. They enjoy the fullest privileges, are appointed for life, +and receive beside the tuition-fees regular incomes. They may be elected +to the Academic Senate and to the Rectorship, the Rector or Chancellor +not being appointed for life, but changing yearly,--the various +faculties being represented in turn. He is styled _Rector Magnificus_. + +The faculties are usually four in number. In several universities, +of late, a fifth has been created,--the _Staatswissenschaftliche_, +Cameralistic; so that in institutions where both Catholic and Protestant +Theology are represented, there are in fact six faculties. The +Philosophical Department stretches over so wide a field, that, were it +separated into its real divisions, as Philosophy proper, Philology, +History, the Mathematical and Natural Sciences, the faculties would +extend far beyond the present number. In France, it is divided into +a _Faculte des Lettres and a Faculte des Sciences._ The present +comprehensive use of the term is but an extension of the Middle-Age +division of the liberal arts into the Trivium,--Grammar, Rhetoric, +Dialectics,--and the Quadrivium,--Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and +Astronomy,--as expressed in the verse,-- + + "Lingus, tropus, ratio, numerus, tenor, + angulus, astra." + +The term _Magister Artium Liberalium,_ so often met with, refers to +these. Those pursuing these studies were denominated _Artisti._ As the +number of studies increased, the name was changed, and the department +now includes all branches not ranged under one of the heads of Theology, +Law, or Medicine; so that every student, whatever his pursuits may be, +if he does not confine himself exclusively to them, will wish to hear +one or more courses of lectures in this faculty. + +The Professors Ordinary and Extraordinary, together with the +_Privat-Docents_, form the active force of the German university. In +Tuebingen are _Repetenten_, who lecture or comment on classical and +Biblical writers and form classes in the ancient or modern languages. +Those teaching the modern languages exclusively are styled _Lectors_. +The title, _Professor Honorarius_, as of Gervinus in Heidelberg, is +conferred merely as a mark of honor, the bearer lecturing only when he +pleases. To complete this enumeration, it may not be unnecessary to +state, connected with each university are masters for riding, fencing, +swimming, gymnastics, and dancing, regular places appointed for these +exercises, beside access to museums, the university library, scientific +collections, etc. + +The number of professors--and under this name we include the three +divisions of lecturers--varies from forty to one hundred and seventy and +upwards, according to the size and importance of the institution. In +Berlin, last winter, there were one hundred and sixty-nine; in Erlangen, +but forty-four; in Munich, one hundred and eleven. The University +of Kiel, with not one hundred and thirty students, numbers fifty +professors. These each deliver at least one course of lectures; most +deliver more,--some as many as four or five. In Prussia, each is +required by law to read one course, at least, gratis (_publice_); +otherwise the lectures are _privatim_, a fee being paid by the +hearer,--say four or five dollars on the average for the term. The +_privatissime_ are private lessons or lectures, the when and where to be +settled with the lecturer himself. + +The year is divided into two terms, varying somewhat in different +places. The summer session is the shorter of the two, lasting from near +the middle of April till August, when the long vacation takes place. The +winter semester usually commences in October and lasts till the latter +part of March. + +As to the scope and variety of the lectures, it is unlimited, and varies +yearly. In Berlin, during the winter semester of 1859-60, there were +no less than three hundred and forty-six courses in all, besides the +clinics, demonstrative and practical courses, philological exercises, +and the like. These were divided as follows:-- + + In Theology . . . . . . 38 + " Law. . . . . . . . 56 + " Medicine . . . . . . 78 + " Philosophy . . . . . 174 + +In the latter department there were,-- + + In Philosophy proper . . . 18 + " Mathematical Sciences . . 19 + " Natural " . . 45 + " Political Economy, etc. . 10 + " History and Geography . . 12 + " Aesthetics . . . . 19 + " Philology . . . . . 51 + +But Berlin is by far the most complete university in Germany, however +much it may be surpassed in many points by others. Lesser institutions +do not exhibit half this number of courses, though there are always +enough to satisfy the student who does not devote himself to a narrow +speciality. Private tuition can always be resorted to. + +Beside the lectures, there are also occasionally _Seminaren_, mostly +conducted in Latin, where classical or Biblical authors are explained +and read by the students, or where discussions take place, in presence +of a professor, on philosophical, historical, or philological +subjects,--resembling, however, in nothing our debating-societies. + +It is only since the middle of the last century that instruction in +the higher branches has been usually carried on in German. Latin was +formerly in general use; it is now seldom made a medium. There is +occasionally a course delivered in English, Italian, or French,--in +Berlin often in one of the Sclavonic languages. Modern Literature and +Philology are by no means extensively cultivated. Lectures on the +Provencal, the Langue d'Oil, the Old-German, the Cyrillic, are not +uncommon, though but poorly attended. The study of the modern languages +themselves must be pursued with private teachers. A knowledge of these, +as well as a thorough preparatory training in Latin and Greek, is +presupposed. Modern History, on the contrary, has of late years become +an important branch of study. The "Period of Revolutions" is fully +treated every semester, and always draws crowds of students. The spirit +that animates them is the unity of the Fatherland. Classical studies, +though not holding the same undisputed ascendency as in former times, +are yet very actively pursued, embracing Greek and Roman history and +antiquities, comments on classical authors, lectures, critical and +minute in the extreme, where every line is made the subject of +microscopic investigation, and different readings are weighed and +compared, with often an unlimited amount of abuse of editors who have +differed in opinion from the lecturer. The German philologers are not +remarkable for mildness when speaking of each other; and many a one, +as Haupt in Berlin, will enrich his vocabulary with ever-varying, +new-coined epithets to characterize the ridiculousness, tameness, and +stupidity of emendations proposed, and that, too, when speaking of such +men as Orelli and Kirchner, his own colleagues in the profession. A +laugh raised at the expense of a brother is enough to justify the +severest slash. Comparative Philology, which owes its existence +and progress to the labors of German scholars, and whose first +representative, Bopp, is still living and teaching in Berlin, is more +and more pursued of late. Sanscrit is now taught universally; and +lectures are delivered on the affinities of the Indo-Germanic languages +with each other and with the mother-tongue of all. A perceptible +movement is being felt to introduce this study into the preparatory +departments. Such a change would result in a complete revolution of the +methods formerly employed in elementary classical tuition. The higher +laws of affinity, as applied to the Romanic languages, are also daily +more a matter of investigation. Diez and Delius, in Bonn, are at the +head of this movement. In Philosophy, properly so called, the list +of studies is often very full, comprising lectures on Logic, the +Encyclopedia of Science, Metaphysics, Anthropology and Psychology, +Ethics, the Philosophy of Nature, of Law, of History, of Religion, the +History of Philosophy, general and special, and the Philosophy of Art, +or Aesthetics,--the latter general, or branching into specialities, as +Music, Painting, Sculpture, Ancient and Modern Art. Special points are +also treated,--as the Philosophy of Aristotle, of Kant, of Hegel, etc. +Mathematics and the Natural Sciences are not always cultivated to the +same extent as the above-named branches. They are made the subject of +particular attention, however, in the numerous Polytechnic Schools, the +most celebrated being those of Hanover and Carlsruhe. They have risen in +reputation and attendance of late to such a degree, that in the Grand +Duchy of Baden, for instance, a perceptible diminution is felt in +university attendance, while new appropriations have been made for the +enlargement of the Carlsruhe school. + +The Theological Faculty ranks the highest, and comprises a wide range of +study. We quote from Dr. Schaff:-- + +"In modern times the field has been greatly enlarged by the addition +of Oriental Philology, Biblical Criticism, Hermeneutics, Antiquities, +Church-History and Doctrine-History, Homiletics, Catechetics, Liturgies, +Pastoral Theology, and Theory of Church-Government. No theological +faculty is considered complete now which has not separate teachers +for the exegetical, historical, systematic, and practical branches of +divinity. The German professors, however, are not confined to their +respective departments, as is the case in our American seminaries, +but may deliver lectures on any other branch, as far as it does not +interfere with their immediate duties. Schleiermacher, for instance, +taught, at different times, almost every branch of theology and +philosophy." + +The Law Department, to which the celebrated school of Bologna served as +a first model, extends over a far wider field than similar institutions +elsewhere. Starting from the Roman Law, it embraces lectures on the +History of Jurisprudence, the Pandects, Civil, Criminal, and Common Law, +and Natural Rights, besides History and Philosophy, as applied to legal +studies,--branching into specialities for German Law and Practice, local +and general. To Americans, of course, only the first part of these +studies would be at all desirable. Moreover, the advantages are not all +of a practical nature. + +The Medical Faculty embraces all the studies pursued in our medical +colleges, more specialities being treated,--the time required being +scarcely ever less than five years for the course, often more. +Examinations are severe. The faculties of Berlin, Munich, and Wuerzburg +are in especial repute,--Vienna also affording many advantages. In some +of the smaller university towns the means of study are limited for +the advanced student, extensive collections and large hospitals being +wanting. Medical studies are attended with more expense than any other. + +The _Cameralistische Facultaet_ is devoted to those preparing themselves +for practical statesmanship. It is new, and established only of late +years in a few of the universities. In others, the branches taught +are still comprehended under the philosophical. Munich is in especial +repute. It comprises lectures on Political Economy in all its branches, +Mining, Engineering,--in fact, whatever is necessary to fit one for +service in the State. + +Let no one, from the above comprehensive list of studies, form the idea, +that the outward incarnation of the German intellect, in speech or deed, +corresponds to its inner worth and solidity. The name _Dryasdust_ +must cling to many a learned professor more firmly than to the most +chronological of the old historians. Germany is not the land of outward +form. To one accustomed to public speaking, the lecturers will often +appear far below the standard of mediocrity in their manner. Though such +men as Lasaulx in Munich, Haeusser in Heidelberg, Droyson and Werder +in Berlin deliver their lectures in a style that would grace the +lecture-room of any country, yet the great majority are far, very far, +from any eloquence in their delivery. Timid and bashful often to an +extreme, they ascend their rostrum with a shuffling, ambling gait, the +very opposite of manly grace and bearing, and, prefacing their +discourse with the short address, _"Meine Herren"_ keep on in one long, +never-varying, monotonous strain, from beginning to end,--reading wholly +or in part, often so slowly that the hearer can write down _every_ word, +often only the heads and substance of paragraphs, definitions and the +like,--and that so indistinctly, so carelessly of all but the very words +themselves, that it is not only unpleasant, at first, but even repulsive +to many. This dictating of every word, a relic of the times when +printing was yet unknown, is fast dying away. Many, both students and +professors, are loud against it, yet the tedious method is still pursued +in many places. The introductory remark of a celebrated lecturer is +characteristic. Seeing all his hearers, on the first day of the course, +ready with pen and paper, he began,--"Gentlemen, I will not dictate: if +that were necessary, I should send my maid-servant with my manuscript, +and you yours with pen and paper; my servant would dictate, yours would +write, and we in the mean while could enjoy a pleasant walk." This +is, however, not the only point that will be likely to produce an +unfavorable impression. To see a man whose name you have met in your +reading as the highest authority, whose works you have so often admired, +his style energetic, fiery, and impressive,--to see him ascend his +rostrum with every mark of negligence, uncouth and awkward in his +appearance, with every possible mannerism, talking through his nose, +indistinctly and unsteadily mumbling over his sentences, careless of all +outward form and polish, awakens anything but pleasant feelings, as the +preconceived ideal must give way to the living reality. And yet so it is +with many! + +It may have contributed not a little to the reputation of Goettingen and +Heidelberg with foreigners, that a good and clear German is spoken in +both places by the professors. In Tuebingen, on the contrary, even in +Munich, to a great extent, the local dialect prevails to such a degree, +that students from Northern Germany, many of whom frequent these cities +in the summer session, find it difficult, nay, almost impossible, to +understand at first, especially the broad Suabian of Tuebingen. Here, +however, as the system of dictation prevails, the slowness of utterance +compensates in a measure for its indistinctness and incorrectness. + +In some places, where academic freedom, as the students style it, exists +to a high degree, a general scraping of the feet admonishes the lecturer +to repeat his words or be more distinct and clear in his enunciation. +This pedal language, though often disregarded, still does not fail in +the end in producing the desired effect. + +With such characteristics, it cannot be a matter of wonder, if some +time be required to be spent in hearing lectures daily before the full +benefit can be fairly appreciated. Many will appear slow in the extreme; +and the constant recourse to notes, and the tedious manner, will create +a feeling of weariness hard to overcome. However, these peculiarities +are soon forgotten in the excellence of the matter, and their +disagreeableness is scarcely noticed after a few weeks, except in +extreme cases. The mannerism fades away, and the hearer learns to follow +from thought to thought under the guidance of an experienced leader, +whose living words he hears, whose thought he feels as it is +communicated directly to him. + +Not so much from the actual things heard, the actual facts mastered, is +the lecture-system valuable to the student, as for the method of +study which he derives from it. He is no longer like an automaton, a +school-boy guided by his teacher and text-book, but is spoken to as an +independent thinker. Authorities are quoted, which he may consult at his +leisure. No subject is exhausted,--it is only touched upon. He learns to +teach himself. + +Far different is the mental training thus acquired from that gained in +the same amount of time spent in mere reading. Thought is stimulated to +a far greater degree. The lecture-room becomes a laboratory, where the +mind of the hearer, in immediate contact with that of a man mature in +the ways of study, of one whose whole life seems to have prepared him +for the present hour, assimilates to itself more than knowledge. The +lecturer gives what no books can give, his own force to impel his own +words. His mind is ever active while he speaks. The hearer feels its +workings, and his own is stirred into action by the contact. It is +not given to all to enjoy the conversation and intercourse of the +master-minds of the age: in the lecture-room they speak to us +immediately; we feel the current of their life-blood; it pulsates +through all they say. + +That seeming exceptions may occur, as in the case of professors who year +after year deliver the same written course, can have no weight against +the system. The tone and gesture, the very look, must animate the +whole;--and these very written lectures, read and delivered so often, +are no dead stalk, but a living stem, which puts forth new leaves and +blossoms every spring. + +Nor is the hearer himself without his corresponding influence. His +attention and eager desire for knowledge stimulate new thought in the +speaker day by day, hour by hour; and many a German scholar must have +felt with Friedrich August Wolf, when he says,--"I am one who has been +long accustomed to the gentle charm which lies in the momentaneous +unfolding of thought in the presence of attentive hearers, to that +living reaction softly felt by the teacher, whereby a perennial mental +harmony is awakened in his soul, which far surpasses the labors in the +study, before blank walls and the feelingless paper." + + +THE STUDIES. + + +The first entrance into a German auditorium or _Hoersaal_, as the +lecture-rooms in the universities are called, will show much that is +characteristic. But little care is bestowed on the decoration of the +apartment. Whatever aesthetic culture the nation may have, it finds +little manifestation in the things of daily life, and elegance seems +little less than banished from the precincts of the learned world. The +academic halls present to the view nothing but dingy walls, rough floors +coated with the dust and mud of days or weeks, and, winter and summer, +the huge porcelain stove in one corner,--that immovable article of +cheerless German furniture, where wood is put in by the pound, and no +bright glow ever discloses the presence of that warmest friend of man, +a good fire. For the students there are coarse, long wooden desks and +benches, with places all numbered, cut up and disfigured to an extent +which will soon convince one that whittling is not a trait of American +destructiveness exclusively. Here are carved names and intertwined +lettering, arabesque masterpieces of penknife-ingenuity, with a general +preponderance of feminine appellatives, bold incisures, at times, of +some worthy professor in profile,--the whole besmutched with ink, and +dotted with countless punctures, the result of the sharp spike with +which every student's ink-horn is armed, that he may steady it upon the +slanting board. The preceding lecture ended when the university-clock +struck the hour; the next should begin within ten or fifteen minutes. +One by one the students drop in and take their places,--high and low, +rich and poor, all on the same straight-backed pine benches. The days +fire over, even in title-loving Germany, though not long since, when +the young counts and barons sat foremost, on a privileged, raised, and +cushioned seat, and were addressed by their title. + +As the hearers thus assemble, they present a motley appearance,--being, +in the larger cities especially, from all lands, all ranks of society, +and of every age. Side by side with the young freshman in his first +semester, the _Fat Fox_, as he is called, who has just made a leap from +the strict discipline of the gymnasium to the unbounded freedom of the +university, will be a gray-haired man, to whom the academic title of +_Juvenis Studiosus_ will no longer apply. Here sits, with his gaudy +watch-guard, the colors of his corps, one of those students by +profession who have been inscribed year after year so long that they +have acquired the name of _Bemossed Heads_. Were his scientific +attainments measured by his capacities for beer-drinking and +sword-slashing, he would long ago have been dubbed a Doctor in all the +faculties. He hears a lecture now and then for form's sake, though it is +rather an unusual thing for him. By his side, but retiring and earnest, +may be one of the younger professors, who the hour before stood as a +teacher, and now sits among some of his former hearers to profit by the +experience of his older professional brother. Where the court resides +and many officers are garrisoned, the hall presents a spangled +appearance of bright epaulettes and glittering uniforms. It is no +unusual thing for young men during their years of service to attend the +courses regularly. The uncomfortable sword is laid on the knee, where it +may not dangle and clink with every motion of the wearer,--no easy +task in the very narrow space left between desk and desk. In the last +century, it was a universal custom for all students to wear the sword; +but this academic privilege, as it was considered, leading to numerous +abuses, laws were enacted against it, as well as other eccentricities in +dress. + +The regular students are provided with portfolios, or rather, soft +leathern pouches, which they can fold and pocket, containing the _heft_ +or quire of paper on which the lecture is transcribed by them wholly or +in part. These _hefts_ are often the object of much care and labor. Each +plants his ink-horn firmly in front of him. As the time approaches, +and all are in readiness with pen in hand, there is a universal buzz +throughout the room. Though, when the auditory is large, many nations +are represented, as well as the various provinces of the Confederation, +still the language heard is predominantly that of the country. Though +Poles and Greeks, English and Russians, may be in abundance, still they +rarely congregate in nationalities,--save the Poles, who speak their own +language at all times and places, and cling the more fondly to their own +idiom since they have been robbed of everything else. After some fifteen +minutes of expectation the professor enters. All is still in an instant. +He advances with hasty strides and bent-down head to his rostrum, an +elevated platform, on which stands a plain, high, pine desk. He unfolds +his notes, looks over the rim of his spectacles at the attentive +hearers, who sit ready to write down the words of wisdom he is about to +utter, and begins with the short address, "_Meine Herren._" There is +then an uninterrupted gliding of pens for three-quarters of an hour, +until, above the monotony, rarely the eloquence, of the speaker, the +great clock in the centre of the building gives the significant sound of +relief to busy fingers and rest to ear and brain unaccustomed to such +slow, entangled, lisping, laborious, in rare instances manly delivery. +The lecture is at an end, and each prepares to enter another auditorium, +or wends his way home, to study out the notes taken, consult the +authorities quoted, complete or even copy his work anew. In the study of +these _hefts_ consists the main preparation for future examinations, as +text-books are rarely used, save in Austria, and the examiners are the +professors themselves, who will not ask the candidate much beyond what +they have embraced in their own lesson. + +With a remarkable degree of skill, the practised German student can take +down, even when the delivery is by no means slow, the pith and essence +of a whole lecture. Yet there is much abuse in this; and it has called +forth, ever since the invention of printing has made the multiplication +of books by transcription unnecessary, much just, though at times unjust +criticism. A German writer has said, that the man of genius takes his +notes on a slip of paper, he of good abilities on a half-page, while the +dunce must fill a whole sheet. Now the reverse would be quite as true +in many cases. For though thoughtless writing may be little more than +wasted labor, yet there is nothing that can fix more steadily thoughts +and facts in the mind than the precision and constant attention required +in following a lecture with the pen, especially when the words of the +professor are not taken down with slavish exactitude, but when, as is +most generally the case, merely the thoughts are noted in the hearer's +own language. The ideas thus gained have been assimilated and become the +listener's own property. There is thus generated a steady transfusion, +the surest remedy against flagging mental activity. Many a foreigner +writes down the lecture in his own tongue, and values highly this +training of constant translation, though, before many months, the mere +transposition from one language into the other must become purely +mechanical. It is amusing to see the puzzled expression of countenance +of some Swiss student who takes his notes in French, when one of those +long German compounds, involving some bold figure of speech, is uttered. +What circumlocutions must he not use, if he wish to give the full force +of the idea! + +A real abuse, however, is the perpetual dictation-system still used by +some. For these, the three worthies in profile on the title-page of old +Elzevir editions are as if they had never existed; they teach as they +have been taught, perpetuating the methods in use in the days of +Abelard, when books were dearer than time. All that has been said and +written against the custom will do less towards abolishing it than the +recent introduction of lessons in phonography, or stenography rather, +which is now taught in several universities. The question is agitated +of introducing this study into the preparatory schools. The system is +different from the English or American, being based on the etymological +nature of the language. It is fast coming into use, though as yet not +general. The old slow delivery seems little better than spelling +to those that have mastered it. The students have usually special +abbreviations of their own, and so find no difficulty in taking down all +the important points, even when the utterance is rapid. + +Not all, by any means, go through this labor of transcription. Many of +the wealthier and high-titled attend but irregularly, and when they do, +are impatient listeners. In Berlin may be seen many a youth who, from +the exquisite fit and finish of his dress, if he be not an American just +from Paris, must at least be a German count The young _Graf_ plays +with his lips on the ivory head of his bamboo, as he holds it with his +kid-gloved hand, sitting carefully the while, lest the elbow of his +French coat should be soiled by contact with a desk ignorant of duster +for many a month. He is condemned, however, to hear, day by day, over +and over, many a truth that will scarcely flatter his noble ears. The +_heft_ and the toil of writing down a lecture are unknown to him. He +pays a reasonable sum to some poor scholar who sits behind and copies +it all afterwards, while he takes his afternoon-ride towards +Charlottenburg, or saunters along Unter-den-Linden, ogling the pretty +English girls, and spying every chance of saluting, whenever a royal +equipage, preceded by a monkey-looking lackey, rolls by. These are, of +course, exceptions, rarer in the present than formerly. In Padua, in the +sixteenth century, it became notorious that the richer students never +attended in person, but always sent one of their servants who wrote a +good hand. Laws were enacted to prevent the evil, yet long after this +there were still many promotions of these paper-doctors. + +Many, in taking their notes, abandon the German script as too illegible, +and make use of the Latin letters. A word or two on this subject, as +connected with general education. The German script, which any one may +learn in a few hours, is a constant source of vexation to a foreigner. +To write, and write fast, too, is easy enough; but then to read one's +own handwriting, not to mention the crumpled notices of the professors +tacked on the blackboard in the _Aula_, is almost impossible without +much practice. Why the Germans should have kept their Gothic lettering +and peculiar script, when all other European nations, save the Russian, +have adopted the Roman, it is difficult to say, unless it be with them +a matter of national pride. And they have been unnational in so many +things! That the Russians should have their own alphabet is natural +enough; they have sounds and letters and combinations--which neither the +Germanic nor the Romanic group of languages possess. And yet both in +Polish and Zechish, where the same sounds exist to a great extent, the +deficiencies are made up by accented and dotted letters. So, though +we have a universal standard of spelling for names and places on the +Continent, we find in our most popular histories and geographies a +divergence in the lesser known Russian names, not far removed from that +we daily meet in the nomenclature of the gods of Hindoo mythology. + +The like plea of necessity cannot be urged in regard to the Teutonic or +Scandinavian languages. Within the last quarter of a century, the chief +scientific works issued in Northern Germany, and many even in Southern, +have been printed in the Roman character. Were there no other argument +in favor of its universal adoption, it has been found less trying to the +eyes. It can be read by all nations; and the other is at best but an +additional difficulty for the learner, even in the case of native +children, who are plagued with two alphabets and two diametrically +opposite systems of penmanship in their earliest years. The result is +evident: a good hand is a rare thing In Germany. It is a good sign, that +of late years public acts and records, works of learning, all the higher +literature, in fact, not purely national, as poetry and romance, are all +printed in the Roman character. Nor will any look upon this as a servile +imitation. Some of the most national of German writers and scholars, as +the brothers Grimm, have pronounced themselves loudly in favor of the +change. The tendency of the age is towards universality. It will occur +to none to talk of French imitation because chemists make use of the +excellent and universally applicable system of the decimal French +weights and measures. + +What has been said above is not altogether irrelevant as characterizing +the tendency of the higher institutions of learning. Every movement in +Germany, even the least, since the Reformation, whose chief +propagators were professors in the universities,--Luther, Reuchlin, +Melancthon,--every permanent and pervading conquest of the new and good +over the old and worn-out, has issued from the lecture-room. Whatever +sticklers for old forms and crab-like progress may be found, there is +always an overbalancing power. The unity of Germany as one nation has +never stood a better chance of being realized than now, when the very +men who were students and flocked as volunteers when the iron hand of +Napoleon I. weighed heavily on their Fatherland stand as lecturers in +the days of Napoleon III., warning of the past, and preaching louder +than Schiller or Koerner or Arndt for the brotherhood of Prussian and +Bavarian, of those that dwell on the Rhine and those that inhabit the +regions of the Danube. + +Thanks, not to her statesmen, not to her nobility, not to her princes +even, that Germany has at last fairly shaken off the self-imposed yoke +of servile French imitation, but thanks to her scholars who centre in +her twenty-six universities! There was a time, and that not a century +ago, when the German language was considered to be of too limited +circulation for works of general scientific interest. Lectures were +all delivered in Latin, until Thomasius broke open a new path, and now +lessons otherwise than in the vernacular tongue are exceptions. French +was long the universal medium. Even Humboldt wrote most of his works +in that language; and it is not two years since one of the most +distinguished Egyptian scholars of Prussia published his History of +Egypt in French. The last representatives of this tendency are dying +off. The days are over, when every petty German prince must create in +his domains a servile imitation of the stiff parks of Versailles,--the +days of powdered wigs and long cues,--when French ballet-dancers gave +the tone, and French actors strutted on every stage,--when Boileau was +the great canon of criticism, and Racine and Moliere perpetuated in +tragedy and comedy a pseudo-classicism. They are far, those times when +Frederick the Great wrote French at which Voltaire laughed, and could +find no better occupation for his leisure hours at Sans-Souci than the +discussion of the materialistic philosophy of the Encyclopedists, while +he affected to despise his own tongue, rejecting every effort towards +the popularization of a national literature. Well is it for Germany that +other ideas now prevail,--well, that Goethe in his old age overcame the +Gallomania, which for a while possessed him, of translating all his +works, and thenceforth writing only in French. The iron hand of Goetz of +Berlichingen would burst the seams of a Paris kid-glove. The bold lyric +and dramatic poesy of a language whose figures well up in each word +with primitive freshness can ill be contained in an idiom _blase_ by +conventionality and frozen into crystal rigidity by the academy of the +illustrious forty,--in an idiom in which an unfortunate pun or allusion +can destroy the effect of a whole piece. We need but call to mind that +Shakspeare's "Othello" was laughed off the stage of the Odeon, owing to +the ridiculous ideas the word "napkin" or "handkerchief" called up in +the auditory. + +Nor is the influence of the university in Germany exerted in matters +of great national interest only. It pervades the social, literary, +and political organization of the people. The least part of what +characterizes an individual nation ever comes into its books. Here it +finds its way from mouth to mouth to the remotest corners of the land. +When Luther, the Professor of Wittenberg, spoke against indulgences, it +was more than priest or monk that was heard. The voice of the monk would +not have echoed beyond his cell, and the influence of the priest would +have been arrested and checked before it could have been exerted beyond +the limits of his parish or town. But the Professor Luther addressed +himself to a more influential audience. His words were carried before +many years into every part of the Empire. + +Setting aside the Austrian universities, which are no longer what they +were formerly, the teaching in these higher schools, whatever the State +restrictions may be, is eminently free,--freer than in France,--freer +than in England,--in many respects even, however it may sound, freer +than in the United States. As a result, the land is a hot-bed of the +boldest philosophical systems and the wildest theological aberrations. +There is no branch of speculation that does not find its representative. +In law, in medicine, in philology, in history, the old methods of study +and research have been revolutionized. But the State stands before the +innovators, firm and conservative in its practice. And in the end it has +been found, that, whatever wild theories may spring up in theology and +in philosophy, the corrective is nigh at hand, and truth will make its +way when the field is open to all. + +It must be remembered that the German university is no preparatory +school; those who enter it have gone through studies and a mental +training that have made them capable of judging for themselves. They +hear whom they please. Their chief study, whatever they acquire in the +lecture-room, is done when alone. They attend on an average for three +or four hours a day, spending as much time in the libraries, from which +they have the privilege of taking out books. As a completion to their +lectures, the professors generally have _Seminaren_ once or twice a +week, or _Exercitationes_ in history, philology, etc., in which the +Socratic method of teaching in dialogue is made use of. Museums and +scientific collections are richly provided in the larger institutions. +In some of these lectures are held: thus, Lepsius explains Egyptian +archaeology in the Egyptian halls in Berlin. The libraries provided by +the State, and to which all have access, are often considerable: thus, +Goettingen has 350,000 volumes; Berlin, 600,000; Munich, 800,000. + +As for the expenses of study, they are inconsiderable; thirty or +thirty-five dollars the term will cover them, as there are generally +several courses public. The students often attend for months as guests, +_hospitanten_. As they say,--"The _Fox_ pays for more than he hears, and +the _Bursch_ hears more than he pays for." The lecturers take no notice +of those present; and, provided the matriculation-papers have been taken +out, the beadle has nothing to say. There is the fullest liberty of +wandering from room to room, and hearing, if only once or twice, any one +of the professors. As for the expenses of living, they vary. To one who +would be satisfied with German student-fare and comforts, four hundred +dollars a year will answer every purpose, even in the dearest cities: +many do with much less. In Southern Germany, life is simpler and cheaper +than in Northern, and the saying is true in Munich, that a _Gulden_ +there will go as far as a _Thaler_ in Prussia. There are poorer +students, who are exempted from college-fees, and support themselves by +_Stipendia,_ whose outlay never exceeds a hundred dollars a year. + +When several hundred or thousand young men are thus thrown together, +with their time all their own, and none to whom they are responsible +for their actions, it may easily be supposed that many abuses and +irregularities will occur. Yet the great mass are better than they have +been represented; though regular attendance upon lectures is true +only of those who _ox_ it at home, as the phrase goes, and who by the +rioting, beer-drinking _Burschen_ are styled _Philistines_ or _Camels_. +These same quiet individuals, whom the Samsons affect to despise, will +be found to be by far in preponderance, when the statistics of _Corps, +Landmannschaften_, and all such clubs, are looked into; though the +characteristic of the latter, always to be seen at public places of +amusement with their colored caps, gaudy watch-guards, or cannon-boots, +would lead one to suppose that German student-life was one round of +beer-drinking, sword-slashing, and jolly existence, as represented, or +rather, misrepresented, by William Howitt, in the halo of poetry he +throws around it. No,--the fantastically dressed fellows whom the +tourist may notice at Jena, and the groups of starers who stop every +narrow passageway in front of the confectionery-shops of Heidelberg, or +amuse themselves of summer-afternoons with their trained dogs, diverting +the attention of the temporary guest of "Prince Carl" from the +contemplation of the old ruined castle of the Counts-Palatine,--these +are but a fraction of the German students. From, among them may be +chosen those tight-laced officers who make the court-residences of +Europe look like camps; or, as they are often the sons of noblemen or +rich parents, they may reach some of the sinecures in the State. They +make their student-years but a pretext for a life of rough debauchery, +from which they issue with a bought diploma; and, in many cases, +satiated and disgusted with their own lives, they dwindle down into +the timeserving reactionaries, the worst enemies of free development, +because they themselves have abused in youth the little liberty they +enjoyed. + +If the numbers be counted of those who lead the life so much extolled +by William Howitt,--who, by the way, has left out some of its roughest +traits,--they will be found, even where most numerous, as in the smaller +towns, never to exceed one-fourth of those inscribed as students. +The linguists and philosophers of Germany, her historians and men of +letters, her professors and _savans_, have come from the ranks of that +stiller and more numerous class whom the stranger will never notice: +for their triennium is spent mostly in the lecture-room or at home; and +their conviviality--for there are neither disciples nor apostles of +temperance in this beer-drinking land--is of a nature not to divert them +from their earnest pursuits. + +Truth and earnestness are the distinguishing traits of the German +character; and these qualities show no less strongly in the youth who +frequent the universities than in the professors themselves. The latter, +conscientious to a nicety in exposing the fullest fruits of their +laborious researches, are ever faithful to the trust reposed in them. +Placed by the State in a position beyond ordinary ambition and above +pecuniary cares, they can devote themselves exclusively to their +calling, concentrating their powers in one channel,--to raise, to +ennoble, to educate. It contributes not a little to their success, that +their hearers are permeated, whatever wild and unbridled freaks they may +fall into at times, with the fullest sense of honor and manly worth, +with an ardent love for knowledge and science for their own sake, not +for future utility. Their sympathies are awake for the good everywhere, +their minds receptive of the highest teachings. Their loves and likes +are great and strong,--as it behooves, when the first bubblings of +mental and physical activity are manifested in action. They abandon +themselves, body and soul, to the occupation of the moment, be it study, +be it pleasure. Their gatherings and feasts and excursions are ennobled +by vocal music from the rich store of healthy, vigorous German song,-- +from which they learn, in the words of one of their most popular +melodies, to honor "woman's love, man's strength, the free word, the +bold deed, and the FATHERLAND!" + + * * * * * + + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE SECRET IS WHISPERED. + + +The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather's congregation was not large, but +select. The lines of social cleavage run through religious creeds as +if they were of a piece with position and fortune. It is expected of +persons of a certain breeding, in some parts of New England, that they +shall be either Episcopalians or Unitarians. The mansion-house gentry of +Rockland were pretty fairly divided between the little chapel with the +stained window and the trained rector, and the meeting-house where the +Reverend Mr. Fairweather officiated. + +It was in the latter that Dudley Venner worshipped, when he attended +service anywhere,--which depended very much on the caprice of Elsie. He +saw plainly enough that a generous and liberally cultivated nature might +find a refuge and congenial souls in either of these two persuasions, +but he objected to some points of the formal creed of the older church, +and especially to the mechanism which renders it hard to get free +from its outworn and offensive formulae,--remembering how Archbishop +Tillotson wished in vain that it could be "well rid of" the Athanasian +Creed. This, and the fact that the meeting-house was nearer than the +chapel, determined him, when the new, rector, who was not quite up to +his mark in education, was appointed, to take a pew in the "liberal" +worshippers' edifice. + +Elsie was very uncertain in her feeling about going to church. In +summer, she loved rather to stroll over The Mountain on Sundays. There +was even a story, that she had one of the caves before mentioned fitted +up as an oratory, and that she had her own wild way of worshipping the +God whom she sought in the dark chasms of the dreaded cliffs. Mere +fables, doubtless; but they showed the common belief, that Elsie, with +all her strange and dangerous elements of character, had yet strong +religions feeling mingled with them. The hymn-book which Dick had found, +in his midnight invasion of her chamber, opened to favorite hymns, +especially some of the Methodist and Quietist character. Many had +noticed, that certain tunes, as sung by the choir, seemed to impress her +deeply; and some said, that at such times her whole expression would +change, and her stormy look would soften so as to remind them of her +poor, sweet mother. + +On the Sunday morning after the talk recorded in the last chapter, Elsie +made herself ready to go to meeting. She was dressed much as usual, +excepting that she wore a thick veil, turned aside, but ready to conceal +her features. It was natural enough that she should not wish to be +looked in the face by curious persons who would be staring to see what +effect the occurrence of the past week had had on her spirits. Her +father attended her willingly; and they took their seats in the pew, +somewhat to the surprise of many, who had hardly expected to see them, +after so humiliating a family development as the attempted crime of +their kinsman had just been furnishing for the astonishment of the +public. + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was now in his coldest mood. He had passed +through the period of feverish excitement which marks a change of +religious opinion. At first, when he had begun to doubt his own +theological positions, he had defended them against himself with more +ingenuity and interest, perhaps, than he could have done against +another; because men rarely take the trouble to understand anybody's +difficulties in a question but their own. After this, as he began +to draw off from different points of his old belief, the cautious +disentangling of himself from one mesh after another gave sharpness to +his intellect, and the tremulous eagerness with which he seized upon the +doctrine which, piece by piece, under various pretexts and with various +disguises, he was appropriating, gave interest and something like +passion to his words. But when he had gradually accustomed his people +to his new phraseology, and was really adjusting his sermons and his +service to disguise his thoughts, he lost at once all his intellectual +acuteness and all his spiritual fervor. + +Elsie sat quietly through the first part of the service, which was +conducted in the cold, mechanical way to be expected. Her face was +bidden by her veil; but her father knew her state of feeling, as well by +her movements and attitudes as by the expression of her features. The +hymn had been sung, the short prayer offered, the Bible read, and the +long prayer was about to begin. This was the time at which the "notes" +of any who were in affliction from loss of friends, the sick who +were doubtful of recovery, those who had cause to be grateful for +preservation of life or other signal blessing, were wont to be read. + +Just then it was that Dudley Venner noticed that his daughter was +trembling,--a thing so rare, so unaccountable, indeed, under the +circumstances, that he watched her closely, and began to fear that some +nervous paroxysm, or other malady, might have just begun to show itself +in this way upon her. + +The minister had in his pocket two notes. One, in the handwriting of +Deacon Soper, was from a member of this congregation, returning thanks +for his preservation through a season of great peril,--supposed to +be the exposure which he had shared with others, when standing in the +circle around Dick Venner. The other was the anonymous one, in a female +hand, which he had received the evening before. He forgot them both. His +thoughts were altogether too much taken up with more important matters. +He prayed through all the frozen petitions of his expurgated form of +supplication, and not a single heart was soothed or lifted, or reminded +that its sorrows were struggling their way up to heaven, borne on the +breath from a human soul that was warm with love. + +The people sat down as if relieved when the dreary prayer was finished. +Elsie alone remained standing until her father touched her. Then she sat +down, lifted her veil, and looked at him with a blank, sad look, as if +she had suffered some pain or wrong, but could not give any name or +expression to her vague trouble. She did not tremble any longer, but +remained ominously still, as if she had been frozen where she sat. + +--Can a man love his own soul too well? Who, on the whole, constitute +the nobler class of human beings? those who have lived mainly to make +sure of their own personal welfare in another and future condition of +existence, or they who have worked with all their might for their race, +for their country, for the advancement of the kingdom of God, and left +all personal arrangements concerning themselves to the sole charge of +Him who made them and is responsible to Himself for their safe-keeping? +Is an anchorite, who has worn the stone floor of his cell into basins +with his knees bent in prayer, more acceptable than the soldier who +gives his life for the maintenance of any sacred right or truth, without +thinking what will specially become of him in a world where there are +two or three million colonists a month, from this one planet, to be +cared for? These are grave questions, which must suggest themselves to +those who know that there are many profoundly selfish persons who are +sincerely devout and perpetually occupied with their own future, while +there are others who are perfectly ready to sacrifice themselves for any +worthy object in this world, but are really too little occupied with +their exclusive personality to think so much as many do about what is to +become of them in another. + +The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather did not, most certainly, belong to this +latter class. There are several kinds of believers, whose history we +find among the early converts to Christianity. + +There was the magistrate, whose social position was such that he +preferred private interview in the evening with the Teacher to following +him with the street-crowd. He had seen extraordinary facts which had +satisfied him that the young Galilean had a divine commission. But still +he cross-questioned the Teacher himself. He was not ready to accept +statements without explanation. That was the right kind of man. See how +he stood up for the legal rights of his Master, when the people were for +laying hands on him! + +And again, there was the government official, intrusted with public +money, which, in those days, implied that he was supposed to be honest. +A single look of that heavenly countenance, and two words of gentle +command, were enough for him. Neither of these men, the early disciple +nor the evangelist, seems to have been thinking primarily about his own +personal safety. + +But now look at the poor, miserable turnkey, whose occupation shows +what he was like to be, and who had just been thrusting two respectable +strangers, taken from the hands of a mob, covered with stripes and +stripped of clothing, into the inner prison, and making their feet fast +in the stocks. His thought, in the moment of terror, is for himself: +first, suicide; then, what he shall do,--not to save his household,--not +to fulfil his duty to his office,--not to repair the outrage he has been +committing,--but to secure his own personal safety. Truly, character +shows itself as much in a man's way of becoming a Christian as in any +other! + +----Elsie sat, statue-like, through the sermon. It would not be fair to +the reader to give an abstract of that. When a man who has been bred to +free thought and free speech suddenly finds himself stepping about, like +a dancer amidst his eggs, among the old addled majority-votes which he +must not tread upon, he is a spectacle for men and angels. Submission to +intellectual precedent and authority does very well for those who have +been bred to it; we know that the under-ground courses of their minds +are laid in the Roman cement of tradition, and that stately and splendid +structures may be reared on such a foundation. But to see one laying a +platform over heretical quicksands, thirty or forty or fifty years deep, +and then beginning to build upon it, is a sorry sight. A new convert +from the reformed to the ancient faith may be very strong in the arms, +but he will always have weak legs and shaky knees. He may use his hands +well, and hit hard with his fists, but he will never stand on his legs +in the way the man does who inherits his belief. + +The services were over at last, and Dudley Venner and his daughter +walked home together in silence. He always respected her moods, and saw +clearly enough that some inward trouble was weighing upon her. There +was nothing to be said in such cases, for Elsie could never talk of her +griefs. An hour, or a day, or a week of brooding, with perhaps a sudden +flash of violence: this was the way in which the impressions which make +other women weep, and tell their griefs by word or letter, showed their +effects in her mind and acts. + +She wandered off up into the remoter parts of The Mountain, that day, +after their return. No one saw just where she went,--indeed, no one +knew its forest-recesses and rocky fastnesses as she did. She was gone +until late at night; and when Old Sophy, who had watched for her, bound +up her long hair for her sleep, it was damp with the cold dews. + +The old black woman looked at her without speaking, but questioning her +with every feature as to the sorrow that was weighing on her. + +Suddenly she turned to Old Sophy. + +"You want to know what there is troubling me," she said. "Nobody loves +me. I cannot love anybody. What is love, Sophy?" + +"It's what poor ol' Sophy's got for her Elsie," the old woman answered. +"Tell me, darlin',--don' you love somebody?--don' you love----? you +know,--oh, tell me, darlin', don' you love to see the gen'l'man +that keeps up at the school where you go? They say he's the pootiest +gen'l'man that was ever in the town here. Don' be 'fraid of poor Ol' +Sophy, darlin',--she loved a man once,--see here! Oh, I've showed you +this often enough!" + +She took from her pocket a half of one of the old Spanish silver coins, +such as were current in the earlier part of this century. The other half +of it had been lying in the deep sea-sand for more than fifty years. + +Elsie looked her in the face, but did not answer in words. What strange +intelligence was that which passed between them through the diamond +eyes and the little beady black ones?--what subtile intercommunication, +penetrating so much deeper than articulate speech? This was the nearest +approach to sympathetic relations that Elsie ever had: a kind of dumb +intercourse of feeling, such as one sees in the eyes of brute mothers +looking on their young. But, subtile as it was, it was narrow and +individual; whereas an emotion which can shape itself in language opens +the gate for itself into the great community of human affections; for +every word we speak is the medal of a dead thought or feeling, struck in +the die of some human experience, worn smooth by innumerable contacts, +and always transferred warm from one to another. By words we share the +common consciousness of the race, which has shaped itself in these +symbols. By music we reach those special states of consciousness +which, being without _form_, cannot be shaped with the mosaics of the +vocabulary. The language of the eyes runs deeper into the personal +nature, but it is purely individual, and perishes in the expression. If +we consider them all as growing out of the consciousness as their root, +language is the leaf, music is the flower; but when the eyes meet and +search each other, it is the uncovering of the blanched stem through +which the whole life runs, but which has never taken color or form from +the sunlight. + +For three days Elsie did not return to the school. Much of the time she +was among the woods and rocks. The season was now beginning to wane, and +the forest to put on its autumnal glory. The dreamy haze was beginning +to soften the landscape, and the most delicious days of the year were +lending their attraction to the scenery of The Mountain. It was not very +singular that Elsie should be lingering in her old haunts, from which +the change of season must soon drive her. But Old Sophy saw clearly +enough that some internal conflict was going on, and knew very well that +it must have its own way and work itself out as it best could. As much +as looks could tell Elsie had told her. She had said in words, to be +sure, that she could not love. Something warped and thwarted the emotion +which would have been love in another, no doubt; but that such an +emotion was striving with her against all malign influences which +interfered with it the old woman had a perfect certainty in her own +mind. + +Everybody who has observed the working of emotions in persons of various +temperaments knows well enough that they have periods of _incubation_, +which differ with the individual, and with the particular cause and +degree of excitement, yet evidently go through a strictly self-limited +series of evolutions, at the end of which, their result--an act of +violence, a paroxysm of tears, a gradual subsidence into repose, or +whatever it may be--declares itself, like the last stage of an attack of +fever and ague. No one can observe children without noticing that there +is a _personal equation_, to use the astronomer's language, in their +tempers, so that one sulks an hour over an offence which makes another a +fury for five minutes, and leaves him or her an angel when it is over. + +At the end of three days, Elsie braided her long, glossy, black hair, +and shot a golden arrow through it. She dressed herself with more than +usual care, and came down in the morning superb in her stormy beauty. +The brooding paroxysm was over, or at least her passion had changed its +phase. Her father saw it with great relief; he had always many fears for +her in her hours and days of gloom, but, for reasons before assigned, +had felt that she must be trusted to herself, without appealing to +actual restraint, or any other supervision than such as Old Sophy could +exercise without offence. + +She went off at the accustomed hour to the school. All the girls had +their eyes on her. None so keen as these young misses to know an inward +movement by an outward sign of adornment: if they have not as many +signals as the ships that sail the great seas, there is not an end of +ribbon or a turn of a ringlet which is not a hieroglyphic with a hidden +meaning to these little cruisers over the ocean of sentiment. + +The girls all looked at Elsie with a new thought; for she was more +sumptuously arrayed than perhaps ever before at the school; and they +said to themselves that she had come meaning to draw the young master's +eyes upon her. That was it; what else could it be? The beautiful, cold +girl with the diamond eyes meant to dazzle the handsome young gentleman. +He would be afraid to love her; it couldn't be true, that which some +people had said in the village; she wasn't the kind of young lady to +make Mr. Langdon happy. Those dark people are never safe: so one of the +young blondes said to herself. Elsie was not literary enough for such +a scholar: so thought Miss Charlotte Ann Wood, the young poetess. She +couldn't have a good temper, with those scowling eyebrows: this was the +opinion of several broad-faced, smiling girls, who thought, each in her +own snug little mental _sanctum_, that, if, etc., etc. she could make +him _so_ happy! + +Elsie had none of the still, wicked light in her eyes, that morning. +She looked gentle, but dreamy; played with her books; did not trouble +herself with any of the exercises,--which in itself was not very +remarkable, as she was always allowed, under some pretext or other, to +have her own way. + +The school-hours were over at length. The girls went out, but she +lingered to the last. She then came up to Mr. Bernard, with a book in +her hand, as if to ask a question. + +"Will you walk towards my home with me to-day?" she said, in a very low +voice, little more than a whisper. + +Mr. Bernard was startled by the request, put in such a way. He had a +presentiment of some painful scene or other. But there was nothing to be +done but to assure her that it would give him great pleasure. + +So they walked along together on their way toward the Dudley mansion. + +"I have no friend," Elsie said, all at once. "Nothing loves me but one +old woman. I cannot love anybody. They tell me there is something in my +eyes that draws people to me and makes them faint. Look into them, will +you?" + +She turned her face toward him. It was very pale, and the diamond eyes +were glittering with a film, such as beneath other lids would have +rounded into a tear. + +"Beautiful eyes, Elsie," he said,--"sometimes very piercing,--but soft +now, and looking as if there were something beneath them that friendship +might draw out. I am your friend, Elsie. Tell me what I can do to render +your life happier." + +"_Love me!_" said Elsie Venner. + +What shall a man do, when a woman makes such a demand, involving such +an avowal? It was the tenderest, cruellest, humblest moment of Mr. +Bernard's life. He turned pale, he trembled almost, as if he had been a +woman listening to her lover's declaration. + +"Elsie," he said, presently, "I so long to be of some use to you, to +have your confidence and sympathy, that I must not let you say or do +anything to put us in false relations. I do love you, Elsie, as a +suffering sister with sorrows of her own,--as one whom I would save at +the risk of my happiness and life,--as one who needs a true friend more +than any of all the young girls I have known. More than this you would +not ask me to say. You have been through excitement and trouble lately, +and it has made you feel such a need more than ever. Give me your hand, +dear Elsie, and trust me that I will be as true a friend to you as if we +were children of the same mother." + +Elsie gave him her hand mechanically. It seemed to him that a cold +_aura_ shot from it along his arm and chilled the blood running through +his heart. He pressed it gently, looked at her with a face full of grave +kindness and sad interest, then softly relinquished it. + +It was all over with poor Elsie. They walked almost in silence the rest +of the way. Mr. Bernard left her at the gate of the mansion-house, and +returned with sad forebodings. Elsie went at once to her own room, and +did not come from it at the usual hours. At last Old Sophy began to +be alarmed about her, went to her apartment, and, finding the door +unlocked, entered cautiously. She found Elsie lying on her bed, her +brows strongly contracted, her eyes dull, her whole look that of great +suffering. Her first thought was that she had been doing herself a harm +by some deadly means or other. But Elsie saw her fear, and reassured +her. + +"No," she said, "there is nothing wrong, such as you are thinking of; I +am not dying. You may send for the Doctor; perhaps he can take the pain +from my head. That is all I want him to do. There is no use in the pain, +that I know of; if he can stop it, let him." + +So they sent for the old Doctor. It was not long before the solid trot +of Caustic, the old bay horse, and the crashing of the gravel under the +wheels, gave notice that the physician was driving up the avenue. + +The old Doctor was a model for visiting practitioners. He always +came into the sick-room with a quiet, cheerful look, as if he had a +consciousness that he was bringing some sure relief with him. The way a +patient snatches his first look at his doctor's face, to see whether +he is doomed, whether he is reprieved, whether he is unconditionally +pardoned, has really something terrible about it. It is only to be +met by an imperturbable mask of serenity, proof against anything and +everything in a patient's aspect. The physician whose face reflects his +patient's condition like a mirror may do well enough to examine people +for a life-insurance office, but does not belong to the sick-room. The +old Doctor did not keep people waiting in dread suspense, while he +stayed talking about the case,--the patient all the time thinking that +he and the friends are discussing some alarming symptom or formidable +operation which he himself is by-and-by to hear of. + +He was in Elsie's room almost before she knew he was in the house. He +came to her bedside in such a natural, quiet way, that it seemed as if +he were only a friend who had dropped in for a moment to say a pleasant +word. Yet he was very uneasy about Elsie until he had seen her; he never +knew what might happen to her or those about her, and came prepared for +the worst. + +"Sick, my child?" he said, in a very soft, low voice. + +Elsie nodded, without speaking. + +The Doctor took her hand,--whether with professional views, or only in a +friendly way, it would have been hard to tell. So he sat a few minutes, +looking at her all the time with a kind of fatherly interest, but with +it all noting how she lay, how she breathed, her color, her expression, +all that teaches the practised eye so much without a single question +being asked. He saw she was in suffering, and said presently,-- + +"You have pain somewhere; where is it?" + +She put her hand to her head. + +As she was not disposed to talk, he watched her for a while, questioned +Old Sophy shrewdly a few minutes, and so made up his mind as to the +probable cause of disturbance and the proper means to be used. + +Some very silly people thought the old Doctor did not believe in +medicine, because he gave less than certain poor half-taught creatures +in the smaller neighboring towns, who took advantage of people's +sickness to disgust and disturb them with all manner of ill-smelling +and ill-behaving drugs. To tell the truth, he hated to give any thing +noxious or loathsome to those who were uncomfortable enough already, +unless he was very sure it would do good,--in which case, he never +played with drugs, but gave good, honest, efficient doses. Sometimes he +lost a family of the more boorish sort, because they did not think they +got their money's worth out of him, unless they had something more than +a taste of everything he carried in his saddle-bags. + +He ordered some remedies which he thought would relieve Elsie, and left +her, saying he would call the next day, hoping to find her better. +But the next day came, and the next, and still Elsie was on her +bed,--feverish, restless, wakeful, silent. At night she tossed about +and wandered, and it became at length apparent that there was a settled +attack, something like what they called formerly a "nervous fever." + +On the fourth day she was more restless than common. One of the women +of the house came in to help to take care of her; but she showed an +aversion to her presence. + +"Send me Helen Darley," she said at last. + +The old Doctor told them, that, if possible, they must indulge this +fancy of hers. The caprices of sick people were never to be despised, +least of all of such persons as Elsie, when rendered irritable and +exacting by pain and weakness. + +So a message was sent to Mr. Silas Peckham, at the Apollinean Institute, +to know if he could not spare Miss Helen Darley for a few days, if +required to give her attention to a young lady who attended his school +and who was now lying ill,--no other person than the daughter of Dudley +Venner. + +A mean man never agrees to anything without deliberately turning it +over, so that he may see its dirty side, and, if he can, sweating the +coin he pays for it. If an archangel should offer to save his soul for +sixpence, he would try to find a sixpence with a hole in it. A gentleman +says yes to a great many things without stopping to think: a shabby +fellow is known by his caution in answering questions, for fear of +compromising his pocket or himself. + +Mr. Silas Peckham looked very grave at the request. The dooties of Miss +Darley at the Institoot were important, very important. He paid her +large sums of money for her time,--more than she could expect to get in +any other institootion for the education of female youth. A deduction +from her salary would be necessary, in case she should retire from the +sphere of her dooties for a season. He should be put to extra expense, +and have to perform additional labors himself. He would consider of the +matter. If any arrangement could be made, he would send word to Squire +Venner's folks. + +"Miss Darley," said Silas Peckham, "the' 's a message from Squire +Venner's that his daughter wants you down at the mansion-house to see +her. She's got a fever, so they inform me. If it's any kind of ketchin' +fever, of course you won't think of goin' near the mansion-house. If +Doctor Kittredge says it's safe, perfec'ly safe, I can't objec' to your +goin', on sech conditions as seem to be fair to all concerned. You will +give up your pay for the whole time you are absent,--portions of days to +be caounted as whole days. You will be charged with board the same as +if you eat your victuals with the household. The victuals are of no use +after they're cooked but to be eat, and your bein' away is no savin' to +our folks. I shall charge you a reasonable compensation for the demage +to the school by the absence of a teacher. If Miss Crabs undertakes any +dooties belongin' to your department of instruction, she will look to +you for sech pecooniary considerations as you may agree upon between +you. On these conditions I am willin' to give my consent to your +temporary absence from the post of dooty. I will step down to Doctor +Kittredge's, myself, and make inquiries as to the nature of the +complaint." + +Mr. Peckham took up a rusty and very narrow-brimmed hat, which he cocked +upon one side of his head, with an air peculiar to the rural gentry. It +was the hour when the Doctor expected to be in his office, unless he had +some special call which kept him from home. + +He found the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather just taking leave of the +Doctor. His hand was on the pit of his stomach, and his countenance +expressive of inward uneasiness. + +"Shake it before using," said the Doctor; "and the sooner you make up +your mind to speak right out, the better it will be for your digestion." + +"Oh, Mr. Peckham! Walk in, Mr. Peckham! Nobody sick up at the school, I +hope?" + +"The haalth of the school is fust-rate," replied Mr. Peckham. "The +sitooation is uncommonly favorable to saloobrity." (These last words +were from the Annual Report of the past year.) "Providence has spared +our female youth in a remarkable measure, I've come with reference to +another consideration. Dr. Kittredge. is there any ketchin' complaint +goin' about in the village?" + +"Well, yes," said the Doctor, "I should say there was something of that +sort. Measles. Mumps. And Sin,--that's always catching." + +The old Doctor's eye twinkled; once in a while he had his little touch +of humor. Silas Peckham slanted his eye up suspiciously at the Doctor, +as if he was getting some kind of advantage over him. That is the way +people of his constitution are apt to take a bit of pleasantry. + +"I don't mean sech things, Doctor; I mean fevers. Is there any ketchin' +fevers--bilious, or nervous, or typus, or whatever you call 'em--now +goin' round this village? That's what I want to ascertain, if there's no +impropriety." + +The old Doctor looked at Silas through his spectacles. + +"Hard and sour as a green cider-apple," he thought to himself. "No," he +said,--"I don't know any such cases." + +"What's the matter with Elsie Venner?" asked Silas, sharply, as if he +expected to have him this time. + +"A mild feverish attack, I should call it in anybody else; but she has +a peculiar constitution, and I never feel so safe about her as I should +about most people." + +"Anything ketchin' about it?" Silas asked, cunningly. + +"No, indeed!" said the Doctor,--"catching?--no,--what put that into +your head, Mr. Peckham?" + +"Well, Doctor," the conscientious Principal answered, "I naterally +feel a graat responsibility, a very graiiiit responsibility, for the +noomerous and lovely young ladies committed to my charge. It has been a +question, whether one of my assistants should go, accordin' to request, +to stop with Miss Venner for a season. Nothin' restrains my givin' my +full and free consent to her goin' but the fear lest contagious maladies +should be introdooced among those lovely female youth. I shall abide by +your opinion,--I understan' you to say distinc'ly, her complaint is +not ketchin'?--and urge upon Miss Darley to fulfil her dooties to a +sufferin' fellow-creature at any cost to myself and my establishment. We +shall miss her very much; but it is a good cause, and she shall go,--and +I shall trust that Providence will enable us to spare her without +permanent demage to the interests of the Institootion." + +Saying this, the excellent Principal departed, with his rusty +narrow-brimmed hat leaning over, as if it had a six-knot breeze abeam, +and its gunwale (so to speak) was dipping into his coat-collar. He +announced the result of his inquiries to Helen, who had received a brief +note in the mean time from a poor relation of Elsie's mother, then at +the mansion-house, informing her of the critical situation of Elsie +and of her urgent desire that Helen should be with her. She could not +hesitate. She blushed as she thought of the comments that might be made; +but what were such considerations in a matter of life and death? She +could not stop to make terms with Silas Peckham. She must go. He might +fleece her, if he would; she would not complain,--not even to Bernard, +who, she knew, would bring the Principal to terms, if she gave him the +least hint of his intended extortions. + +So Helen made up her bundle of clothes to be sent after her, took a book +or two with her to help her pass the time, and departed for the Dudley +mansion. It was with a great inward effort that she undertook the +sisterly task which was thus forced upon her. She had a kind of terror +of Elsie; and the thought of having charge of her, of being alone with +her, of coming under the full influence of those diamond eyes,--if, +indeed, their light were not dimmed by suffering and weariness,--was one +she shrank from. But what could she do? It might be a turning-point in +the life of the poor girl; and she must overcome all her fears, all her +repugnance, and go to her rescue. + +"Is Helen come?" said Elsie, when she heard, with her fine sense +quickened by the irritability of sickness, a light footfall on the +stair, with a cadence unlike that of any inmate of the house. + +"It's a strange woman's step," said Old Sophy, who, with her exclusive +love for Elsie, was naturally disposed to jealousy of a new-comer. "Lot +Ol' Sophy set at th' foot o' th' bed, if th' young missis sets by th' +piller,--won' y', darlin'? The' 's nobody that's white can love y' as +th' ol' black woman does;--don' sen' her away, now, there's a dear +soul!" + +Elsie motioned her to sit in the place she had pointed to, and Helen at +that moment entered the room. Dudley Venner followed her. + +"She is your patient," he said, "except while the Doctor is here. She +has been longing to have you with her, and we shall expect you to make +her well in a few days." + +So Helen Darley found herself established in the most unexpected manner +as an inmate of the Dudley mansion. She sat with Elsie most of the +time, by day and by night, soothing her, and trying to enter into her +confidence and affections, if it should prove that this strange creature +was really capable of truly sympathetic emotions. + +What was this unexplained something which came between her soul and +that of every other human being with whom she was in relations? Helen +perceived, or rather felt, that she had, folded up in the depths of +her being, a true womanly nature. Through the cloud that darkened her +aspect, now and then a ray would steal forth, which, like the smile of +stern and solemn people, was all the more impressive from its contrast +with the expression she wore habitually. It might well be that pain and +fatigue had changed her aspect; but, at any rate, Helen looked into +her eyes without that nervous agitation which their cold glitter had +produced on her when they were full of their natural light. She felt +sure that her mother must have been a lovely, gentle woman. There were +gleams of a beautiful nature shining through some ill-defined medium +which disturbed and made them flicker and waver, as distant images do +when seen through the rippling upward currents of heated air. She loved, +in her own way, the old black woman, and seemed to keep up a kind of +silent communication with her, as if they did not require the use of +speech. She appeared to be tranquillized by the presence of Helen, and +loved to have her seated at the bedside. Yet something, whatever it was, +prevented her from opening her heart to her kind companion; and even now +there were times when she would lie looking at her, with such a still, +watchful, almost dangerous expression, that Helen would sigh, and change +her place, as persons do whose breath some cunning orator has been +sucking out of them with his spongy eloquence, so that, when he stops, +they must get some air and stir about, or they feel as if they should be +half-smothered and palsied. + +It was too much to keep guessing what was the meaning of all this. Helen +determined to ask Old Sophy some questions which might probably throw +light upon her doubts. She took the opportunity one evening when Elsie +was lying asleep and they were both sitting at some distance from her +bed. + +"Tell me, Sophy," she said, "was Elsie always as shy as she seems to be +now, in talking with those to whom she is friendly?" + +"Alway jes' so, Miss Darlin', ever sence she was little chil'. When she +was five, six year old, she lisp some,--call me _Thophy_; that make her +kin' o' 'shamed, perhaps: after she grow up, she never lisp, but she +kin' o' got the way o' not talkin' much. Fac' is, she don' like talkin' +as common gals do, 'xcep' jes' once in a while with some partic'lar +folks,--'n' then not much." + +"How old is Elsie?" + +"Eighteen year this las' September." + +"How long ago did her mother die?" Helen asked, with a little trembling +in her voice. + +"Eighteen year ago this October," said Old Sophy. + +Helen was silent for a moment. Then she whispered, almost +inaudibly,--for her voice appeared to fail her,-- + +"What did her mother die of, Sophy?" + +The old woman's small eyes dilated until a ring of white showed round +their beady centres. She caught Helen by the hand and clung to it, as if +in fear. She looked round at Elsie, who lay sleeping, as if she might be +listening. Then she drew Helen towards her and led her softly out of the +room. + +"'Sh!--'sh!" she said, as soon as they were outside the door. "Don' +never speak in this house 'bout what Elsie's mother died of!" she said. +"Nobody never says nothin' 'bout it. Oh, God has made Ugly Things wi' +death in their mouths, Miss Darlin', an' He knows what they're for; but +my poor Elsie!--to have her blood changed in her before--It was in July +Mistress got her death, but she liv' till three week after my poor Elsie +was born." + +She could speak no more. She had said enough. Helen remembered the +stories she had heard on coming to the village, and among them one +referred to in an early chapter of this narrative. All the unaccountable +looks and tastes and ways of Elsie came back to her in the light of an +ante-natal impression which had mingled an alien element in her nature. +She knew the secret of the fascination which looked out of her cold, +glittering eyes. She knew the significance of the strange repulsion +which--she felt in her own intimate consciousness underlying the +inexplicable attraction which drew her towards the young girl in +spite of this repugnance. She began to look with new feelings on the +contradictions in her moral nature,--the longing for sympathy, as shown +by her wishing for Helen's company, and the impossibility of passing +beyond the cold circle of isolation within which she had her being. +The fearful truth of that instinctive feeling of hers, that there was +something not human looking out of Elsie's eyes, came upon her with +a sudden flash of penetrating conviction. There were two warring +principles in that superb organization and proud soul. One made her a +woman, with all a woman's powers and longings. The other chilled all the +currents of outlet for her emotions. It made her tearless and mute, when +another woman would have wept and pleaded. And it infused into her soul +something--it was cruel now to call it malice--which was still and +watchful and dangerous,--which waited its opportunity, and then shot +like an arrow from its bow out of the coil of brooding premeditation. +Even those who had never seen the white scars on Dick Venner's wrist, +or heard the half-told story of her supposed attempt to do a graver +mischief, knew well enough by looking at her that she was one of the +creatures not to be tampered with,--silent in anger and swift in +vengeance. + +Helen could not return to the bedside at once after this communication. +It was with altered eyes that she must look on the poor girl, the victim +of such an unheard-of fatality. All was explained to her now. But it +opened such depths of solemn thought in her awakened consciousness, that +it seemed as if the whole mystery of human life were coming up again +before her for trial and judgment. "Oh," she thought, "if, while the +will lies sealed in its fountain, it may be poisoned at its very source, +so that it shall flow dark and deadly through its whole course, who are +we that we should judge our fellow-creatures by ourselves?" Then came +the terrible question, how far the elements themselves are capable of +perverting the moral nature: if valor, and justice, and truth, the +strength of man and the virtue of woman, may not be poisoned out of a +race by the food of the Australian in his forest,--by the foul air and +darkness of the Christians cooped up in the "tenement-houses close by +those who live in the palaces of the great cities?" + +She walked out into the garden, lost in thought upon these dark and deep +matters. Presently she heard a step behind her, and Elsie's father came +up and joined her. Since his introduction to Helen at the distinguished +tea-party given by the Widow Rowens, and before her coming to sit with +Elsie, Mr. Dudley Venner had in the most accidental way in the world met +her on several occasions: once after church, when she happened to be +caught in a slight shower and he insisted on holding his umbrella +over her on her way home;--once at a small party at one of the +mansion-houses, where the quick-eyed lady of the house had a wonderful +knack of bringing people together who liked to see each other;--perhaps +at other times and places; but of this there is no certain evidence. + +They naturally spoke of Elsie, her illness, and the aspect it had taken. +But Helen noticed in all that Dudley Venner said about his daughter a +morbid sensitiveness, as it seemed to her, an aversion to saying much +about her physical condition or her peculiarities,--a wish to feel +and speak as a parent should, and yet a shrinking, as if there were +something about Elsie which he could not bear to dwell upon. She thought +she saw through all this, and she could interpret it all charitably. +There were circumstances about his daughter which recalled the great +sorrow of his life; it was not strange that this perpetual reminder +should in some degree have modified his feelings as a father. But what +a life he must have been leading for so many years, with this perpetual +source of distress which he could not name! Helen knew well enough, now, +the meaning of the sadness which had left such traces in his features +and tones, and it made her feel very kindly and compassionate towards +him. + +So they walked over the crackling leaves in the garden, between the +lines of box breathing its fragrance of eternity;--for this is one of +the odors which carry us out of time into the abysses of the unbeginning +past; if we ever lived on another ball of stone than this, it must be +that there was box growing on it. So they walked, finding their way +softly to each other's sorrows and sympathies, each meeting some +counterpart to the other's experience of life, and startled to see how +the different, yet parallel, lessons they had been taught by suffering +had led them step by step to the same serene acquiescence in the +orderings of that Supreme Wisdom which they both devoutly recognized. + +Old Sophy was at the window and saw them walking up and down the +garden-alleys. She watched them as her grandfather the savage watched +the figures that moved among the trees when a hostile tribe was lurking +about his mountain. + +"There'll be a weddin' in the ol' house," she said, "before there's +roses on them bushes ag'in. But it won' be my poor Elsie's weddin', 'n' +Ol' Sophy won' be there." + +When Helen prayed in the silence of her soul that evening, it was not +that Elsie's life might be spared. She dared not ask that as a favor of +Heaven. What could life be to her but a perpetual anguish, and to those +about her an ever-present terror? Might she but be so influenced by +divine grace, that what in her was most truly human, most purely +woman-like, should overcome the dark, cold, unmentionable instinct which +had pervaded her being like a subtile poison: that was all she could +ask, and the rest she left to a higher wisdom and tenderer love than her +own. + + * * * * * + + +GYMNASTICS. + + +So your zeal for physical training begins to wane a little, my friend? I +thought it would, in your particular case, because it began too ardently +and was concentrated too exclusively on your one hobby of pedestrianism. +Just now you are literally under the weather. It is the equinoctial +storm. No matter, you say; did not Olmsted foot it over England under +an umbrella? did not Wordsworth regularly walk every guest round +Windermere, the day after arrival, rain or shine? So, the day before +yesterday, you did your four miles out, on the Northern turnpike, and +returned splashed to the waist; and yesterday you walked three miles +out, on the Southern turnpike, and came back soaked to the knees. To-day +the storm is slightly increasing, but you are dry thus far, and wish to +remain so; exercise is a humbug; you will give it all up, and go to the +Chess-Club. Don't go to the Chess-Club; come with me to the Gymnasium. + +Chess may be all very well to tax with tough problems a brain otherwise +inert, to vary a monotonous day with small events, to keep one awake +during a sleepy evening, and to arouse a whole family next morning +for the adjustment over the breakfast-table of that momentous +state-question, whether the red king should have castled at the fiftieth +move or not till the fifty-first. But for an average American man, who +leaves his place of business at nightfall with his head a mere furnace +of red-hot brains and his body a pile of burnt-out cinders, utterly +exhausted in the daily effort to put ten dollars more of distance +between his posterity and the poor-house,--for such a one to kindle up +afresh after office-hours for a complicated chess-problem seems much as +if a wood-sawyer, worn out with his week's work, should decide to order +in his saw-horse on Saturday evening, and saw for fun. Surely we have +little enough recreation at any rate, and, pray, let us make that little +un-intellectual. True, something can be said in favor of chess--for +instance, that no money can be made out of it, and that it is so far +profitable to us overworked Americans: but even this is not enough. For +this once, lock your brains into your safe, at nightfall, with your +other valuables; don't go to the Chess-Club; come with me to the +Gymnasium. + +Ten leaps up a steep, worn-out stairway, through a blind entry to +another stairway, and yet another, and we emerge suddenly upon the floor +of a large lighted room, a mere human machine-shop of busy motion, where +Indian clubs are whirling, dumb-bells pounding, swings vibrating, and +arms and legs flying in all manner of unexpected directions. Henderson +sits with his big proportions quietly rested against the weight-boxes, +pulling with monotonous vigor at the fifty-pound weights,--"the +Stationary Engine" the boys call him. For a contrast, Draper is floating +up and down between the parallel bars with such an airy lightness, that +you think he must have hung up his body in the dressing-room, and is +exercising only in his arms and clothes. Parsons is swinging in the +rings, rising to the ceiling before and behind; up and down he goes, +whirling over and over, converting himself into a mere tumbler-pigeon, +yet still bound by the long, steady vibration of the human pendulum. +Another is running a race with him, if sitting in the swing be running; +and still another is accompanying their motion, clinging to the +_trapeze_. Hayes, meanwhile, is spinning on the horizontal bar, now +backward, now forward, twenty times without stopping, pinioned through +his bent arms, like a Fakir on his iron. See how many different ways +of ascending a vertical pole these boys are devising!--one climbs with +hands and legs, another with hands only, another is crawling up on +all-fours in Feegee fashion, while another is pegging his way up by +inserting pegs in holes a foot apart,--you will see him sway and +tremble a bit, before he reaches the ceiling. Others are at work with a +spring-board and leaping-cord; higher and higher the cord is moved, one +by one the competitors step aside defeated, till the field is left to a +single champion, who, like an India-rubber ball, goes on rebounding till +he seems likely to disappear through the chimney, like a Ravel. Some +sturdy young visitors, farmers by their looks, are trying their +strength, with various success, at the sixty-pound dumb-bell, when some +quiet fellow, a clerk or a tailor, walks modestly to the hundred-pound +weight, and up it goes as steadily as if the laws of gravitation had +suddenly shifted their course, and worked upward instead of down. Lest, +however, they should suddenly resume their original bias, let us cross +to the dressing-room, and, while you are assuming flannel shirt or +complete gymnastic suit, as you may prefer, let us consider the merits +of the Gymnasium. + +Do not say that the public is growing tired of hearing about physical +training. You might as well speak of being surfeited with the sight of +apple-blossoms, or bored with roses,--for these athletic exercises are, +to a healthy person, just as good and refreshing. Of course, any one +becomes insupportable who talks all the time of this subject, or of any +other; but it is the man who fatigues you, not the theme. Any person +becomes morbid and tedious whose whole existence is absorbed in any +one thing, be it playing or praying. Queen Elizabeth, after admiring a +gentleman's dancing, refused to look at the dancing-master, who did it +better. "Nay," quoth her bluff Majesty,--"'tis his business,--I'll none +of him." Professionals grow tiresome. Books are good,--so is a boat; +but a librarian and a ferryman, though useful to take you where you +wish to go, are not necessarily enlivening as companions. The annals +of "Boxiana" and "Pedestriana" and "The Cricket-Field" are as pathetic +records of monomania as the bibliographical works of Mr. Thomas Dibdin. +Margaret Fuller said truly, that we all delight in gossip, and differ +only in the department of gossip we individually prefer; but a monotony +of gossip soon grows tedious, be the theme horses or octavos. + +Not one-tenth part of the requisite amount has yet been said of athletic +exercises as a prescription for this community. There was a time when +they were not even practised generally among American boys, if we may +trust the foreign travellers of a half-century ago, and they are but +just being raised into respectability among American men. Motley says +of one of his Flemish heroes, that "he would as soon have foregone his +daily tennis as his religious exercises,"--as if ball-playing were then +the necessary pivot of a great man's day. Some such pivot of physical +enjoyment we must have, for no other race in the world needs it so +much. Through the immense inventive capacity of our people, mechanical +avocations are becoming almost as sedentary and intellectual as the +professions. Among Americans, all hand-work is constantly being +transmuted into brain-work; the intellect gains, but the body suffers, +and needs some other form of physical activity to restore the +equilibrium. As machinery becomes perfected, all the coarser tasks are +constantly being handed over to the German or Irish immigrant,--not +because the American cannot do the particular thing required, but +because he is promoted to something more intellectual. Thus transformed +to a mental laborer, he must somehow supply the bodily deficiency. If +this is true of this class, it is of course true of the student, the +statesman, and the professional man. The general statement recently made +by Lewes, in England, certainly holds not less in America:--"It is rare +to meet with good digestion among the artisans of the brain, no matter +how careful they may be in food and general habits." The great majority +of our literary and professional men could echo the testimony of +Washington Irving, if they would only indorse his wise conclusion:--"My +own case is a proof how one really loses by over-writing one's self +and keeping too intent upon a sedentary occupation. I attribute all my +present indisposition, which is losing me time, spirits, everything, to +two fits of close application and neglect of all exercise while I was at +Paris. I am convinced that he who devotes two hours each day to vigorous +exercise will eventually gain those two and a couple more into the +bargain." + +Indeed, there is something involved in the matter far beyond any merely +physical necessity. All our natures need something more than mere bodily +exertion; they need bodily enjoyment. There is, or ought to be, in all +of us a touch of untamed gypsy nature, which should be trained, not +crushed. We need, in the very midst of civilization, something which +gives a little of the zest of savage life; and athletic exercises +furnish the means. The young man who is caught down the bay in a sudden +storm, alone in his boat, with wind and tide against him, has all the +sensations of a Norway sea-king,--sensations thoroughly uncomfortable, +if you please, but for the thrill and glow they bring. Swim out after a +storm at Dove Harbor, topping the low crests, diving through the high +ones, and you feel yourself as veritable a South-Sea Islander as if you +were to dine that day on missionary instead of mutton. Tramp, for a +whole day, across hill, marsh, and pasture, with gun, rod, or whatever +the excuse may be, and camp where you find yourself at evening, and +you are as essentially an Indian on the Blue Hills as among the Rocky +Mountains. Less depends upon circumstances than we fancy, and more upon +our personal temperament and will. All the enjoyments of Browning's +"Saul," those "wild joys of living" which make us happy with their +freshness as we read of them, are within the reach of all, and make us +happier still when enacted. Every one, in proportion as he develops his +own physical resources, puts himself in harmony with the universe, and +contributes something to it; even as Mr. Pecksniff, exulting in his +digestive machinery, felt a pious delight after dinner in the thought +that this wonderful apparatus was wound up and going. + +A young person can no more have too much love of adventure than a mill +can have too much water-power; only it needs to be worked, not wasted. +Physical exercises give to energy and daring a legitimate channel, +supply the place of war, gambling, licentiousness, highway-robbery, and +office-seeking. De Quincey, in like manner, says that Wordsworth made +pedestrianism a substitute for wine and spirits; and Emerson thinks the +force of rude periods "can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, +except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war." +The animal energy cannot and ought not to be suppressed; if debarred +from its natural channel, it will force for itself unnatural ones. A +vigorous life of the senses not only does not tend to sensuality in the +objectionable sense, but it helps to avert it. Health finds joy in mere +existence; daily breath and daily bread suffice. This innocent enjoyment +lost, the normal desires seek abnormal satisfactions. The most brutal +prize-fighter is compelled to recognize the connection between purity +and vigor, and becomes virtuous when he goes into training, as the +heroes of old observed chastity, in hopes of conquering at the Olympic +Games. The very word _ascetic_ comes from a Greek word signifying the +preparatory exercises of an athlete. There are spiritual diseases which +coil poisonously among distorted instincts and disordered nerves, and +one would be generally safer in standing sponsor for the soul of the +gymnast than of the dyspeptic. + +Of course, the demand of our nature is not always for continuous +exertion. One does not always seek that "rough exercise" which Sir John +Sinclair asserts to be "the darling idol of the English." There are +delicious languors, Neapolitan reposes, Creole siestas, "long days and +solid banks of flowers." But it is the birthright of the man of the +temperate zones to alternate these voluptuous delights with more heroic +ones, and sweeten the reverie by the toil. So far as they go, the +enjoyments of the healthy body are as innocent and as ardent as those of +the soul. As there is no ground of comparison, so there is no ground of +antagonism. How compare a sonata and a sea-bath or measure the Sistine +Madonna against a gallop across country? The best thanksgiving for each +is to enjoy the other also, and educate the mind to ampler nobleness. +After all, the best verdict on athletic exercises was that of the great +Sully, when he said, "I was always of the same opinion with Henry +IV. concerning them: he often asserted that they were the most solid +foundation, not only of discipline and other military virtues, but also +of those noble sentiments and that elevation of mind which give one +nature superiority over another." + +We are now ready, perhaps, to come to the question, How are these +athletic enjoyments to be obtained? The first and easiest answer is, By +taking a long walk every day. If people would actually do this, instead +of forever talking about doing it, the object might be gained. To be +sure, there are various defects in this form of exercise. It is not a +play, to begin with, and therefore does not withdraw the mind from its +daily cares; the anxious man recurs to his problems on the way; and each +mile, in that case, brings fresh weariness to brain as well as body. +Moreover, there are, according to Dr. Grau, "three distinct groups +of muscles which are almost totally neglected where walking alone is +resorted to, and which consequently exist only in a crippled state, +although they are of the utmost importance, and each stands in close +_rapport_ with a number of other functions of the greatest necessity to +health and life." These he afterwards classifies as the muscles of the +shoulders and chest, having a bearing on the lungs,--the abdominal +muscles, bearing on the corresponding organs,--and the spinal muscles, +which are closely connected with the whole nervous system. + +But the greatest practical difficulty is, that walking, being the least +concentrated form of exercise, requires a larger appropriation of +time than most persons are willing to give. Taken liberally, and in +connection with exercises which are more concentrated and have more play +about them, it is of great value, and, indeed, indispensable. But so +far as I have seen, instead of these other pursuits taking the place of +pedestrianism, they commonly create a taste for it; so that, when the +sweet spring-days come round, you will see our afternoon gymnastic class +begin to scatter literally to the four winds; or they look in for a +moment, on their way home from the woods, their hands filled and scented +with long wreaths of the trailing arbutus. + +But the gymnasium is the normal type of all muscular exercise,--the only +form of it which is impartial and comprehensive, which has something for +everybody, which is available at all seasons, through all weathers, +in all latitudes. All other provisions are limited: you cannot row +in winter nor skate in summer, spite of parlor-skates and ice-boats; +ball-playing requires comrades; riding takes money; everything needs +daylight: but the gymnasium is always accessible. Then it is the only +thing which trains the whole body. Military drill makes one prompt, +patient, erect, accurate, still, strong. Rowing takes one set of muscles +and stretches them through and through, till you feel yourself turning +into one long spiral spring from finger-tips to toes. In cricket or +base-ball, a player runs, strikes, watches, catches, throws, must learn +endurance also. Yet, no matter which of these may be your special hobby, +you must, if you wish to use all the days and all the muscles, seek the +gymnasium at last,--the only thorough panacea. + +The history of modern gymnastic exercises is easily written: it is +proper to say modern,--for, so far as apparatus goes, the ancient +gymnasiums seem to have had scarcely anything in common with our own. +The first institution on the modern plan was founded at Schnepfenthal, +near Gotha, in Germany, in 1785, by Salzmann, a clergyman and the +principal of a boys' school. After eight years of experience, his +assistant, Gutsmuths, wrote a book upon the subject, which was +translated into English, and published at London in 1799 and at +Philadelphia in 1800, under the name of "Salzmann's Gymnastics." No +similar institution seems to have existed in either country, however, +till those established by Voelckers, in London, in 1824, and by Dr. +Follen, at Cambridge, Mass., in 1826. Both were largely patronized +at first, and died out at last. The best account of Voelckers's +establishment will be found in Hone's "Every-Day Book"; its plan seems +to have been unexceptionable. But Dr. James Johnson, writing his +"Economy of Health" ten years after, declared that these German +exercises had proved "better adapted to the Spartan youth than to the +pallid sons of pampered cits, the dandies of the desk, and the squalid +tenants of attics and factories," and also adds the epitaph, "This +ultra-gymnastic enthusiast did much injury to an important branch of +hygiene by carrying it to excess, and consequently by causing its +desuetude." And Dr. Jarvis, in his "Practical Physiology," declares the +unquestionable result of the American experiment to have been "general +failure." + +Accordingly, the English, who are reputed kings in all physical +exercises, have undoubtedly been far surpassed by the Germans, and +even by the French, in gymnastics. The writer of the excellent little +"Handbook for Gymnastics," George Forrest, M.A., testifies strongly to +this deficiency. "It is curious that we English, who possess perhaps +the finest and strongest figures of all European nations, should leave +ourselves so undeveloped bodily. There is not one man in a hundred who +can even raise his toes to a level with his hands, when suspended by the +later members; and yet to do so is at the very beginning of gymnastic +exercises. We, as a rule, are strong in the arms and legs, but weak +across the loins and back, and are apparently devoid of that beautiful +set of muscles that run round the entire waist, and show to such +advantage in the ancient statues. Indeed, at a bathing-place, I can pick +out every gymnast merely by the development of those muscles." + +It is the Germans and the military portion of the French nation, +chiefly, who have developed gymnastic exercises to their present +elaboration, while the working out of their curative applications was +chiefly due to Ling, a Swede. In the German manuals, such, for instance, +as Eiselen's "Turnuebungen," are to be found nearly all the stock +exercises of our institutions. Until within a few years, American skill +has added nothing to these, except through the medium of the circus; but +the present revival of athletic exercises is rapidly placing American +gymnasts in advance of the _Turners_, both in the feats performed and +in the style of doing them. Never yet have I succeeded in seeing a +thoroughly light and graceful German gymnast, while again and again I +have seen Americans who carried into their severest exercise such +an airy, floating elegance of motion, that all the beauty of Greek +sculpture appeared to return again, and it seemed as if plastic art +might once more make its studio in the gymnasium. + +The apparatus is not costly. Any handful of young men in the smallest +country-village, with a very few dollars and a little mechanical skill, +can put up in any old shed or shoe-shop a few simple articles of +machinery, which will, through many a winter evening, vary the monotony +of the cigar and the grocery-bench by an endless variety of manly +competitions. Fifteen cents will bring by mail from the publishers of +the "Atlantic" Forrest's little sixpenny "Handbook," which gives a +sufficient number of exercises to form an introduction to all others; +and a gymnasium is thus easily established. This is just the method of +the simple and sensible Germans, who never wait for elegant upholstery. +A pair of plain parallel bars, a movable vaulting-bar, a wooden horse, +a spring-board, an old mattress to break the fall, a few settees where +sweethearts and wives may sit with their knitting as spectators, and +there is a _Turnhalle_ complete,--to be henceforward filled, two or +three nights in every week, with cheery German faces, jokes, laughs, +gutturals, and gambols. + +But this suggests that you are being kept too long in the anteroom. Let +me act as cicerone through this modest gymnastic hall of ours. You will +better appreciate all this oddly shaped apparatus, if I tell you in +advance, as a connoisseur does in his picture-gallery, precisely what +you are expected to think of each particular article. + +You will notice, however, that a part of the gymnastic class are +exercising without apparatus, in a series of rather grotesque movements +which supple and prepare the body for more muscular feats: these are +calisthenic exercises. Such are being at last introduced, thanks to Dr. +Lewis and others, into our common schools. At the word of command, as +swiftly as a conjuror twists his puzzle-paper, these living forms are +shifted from one odd resemblance to another, at which it is quite lawful +to laugh, especially if those laugh who win. A series of windmills,--a +group of inflated balloons,--a flock of geese all asleep on one leg,--a +circle of ballet-dancers, just poised to begin,--a band of patriots +just kneeling to take an oath upon their country's altar,--a senate of +tailors,--a file of soldiers,--a whole parish of Shaker worshippers,--a +Japanese embassy performing _Ko-tow_: these all in turn come like +shadows,--so depart. This complicated attitudinizing forms the +preliminary to the gymnastic hour. But now come and look at some of the +apparatus. + +Here is a row of Indian clubs, or sceptres, as they are sometimes +called,--tapering down from giants of fifteen pounds to dwarfs of four. +Help yourself to a pair of dwarfs, at first; grasp one in each hand, +by the handle; swing one of them round your head quietly, dropping the +point behind as far as possible,--then the other,--and so swing them +alternately some twenty times. Now do the same back-handed, bending the +wrist outward, and carrying the club behind the head first. Now +swing them both together, crossing them in front, and then the same +back-handed; then the same without crossing, and this again backward, +which you will find much harder. Place them on the ground gently after +each set of processes. Now can you hold them out horizontally at arm's +length, forward and then sideways? Your arms quiver and quiver, and down +come the clubs thumping at last. Take them presently in a different and +more difficult manner, holding each club with the point erect instead of +hanging down; it tries your wrists, you will find, to manipulate them +so, yet all the most graceful exercises have this for a basis. Soon you +will gain the mastery of heavier implements than you begin with, and +will understand how yonder slight youth has learned to handle his two +heavy clubs in complex curves that seem to you inexplicable, tracing +in the air a device as swift and tangled as that woven by a swarm of +gossamer flies above a brook, in the sultry stillness of the summer +noon. + +This row of masses of iron, laid regularly in order of size, so as to +resemble something between a musical instrument and a gridiron, consists +of dumb-bells weighing from four pounds to a hundred. These playthings, +suited to a variety of capacities, have experienced a revival of favor +within a few years, and the range of exercises with them has been +greatly increased. The use of very heavy ones is, so far as I can find, +a peculiarly American hobby, though not originating with Dr. Windship. +Even he, at the beginning of his exhibitions, used those weighing only +ninety-eight pounds; and it was considered an astonishing feat, when, +a little earlier, Mr. Richard Montgomery used to "put up" a dumb-bell +weighing one hundred and one pounds. A good many persons, in different +parts of the country, now handle one hundred and twenty-five, and Dr. +Windship has got much farther on. There is, of course, a knack in +using these little articles, as in every other feat, yet it takes good +extensor muscles to get beyond the fifties. The easiest way of elevating +the weight is to swing it up from between the knees; or it may be thrown +up from the shoulder, with a simultaneous jerk of the whole body; but +the only way of doing it handsomely is to put it up from the shoulder +with the arm alone, without bending the knee, though you may bend the +body as much as you please. Dr. Windship now puts up one hundred and +forty-one pounds in this manner, and by the aid of a jerk can elevate +one hundred and eighty with one arm. This particular movement with +dumb-bells is most practised, as affording a test of strength; but there +are many other ways of using them, all exceedingly invigorating, and all +safe enough, unless the weight employed be too great, which it is very +apt to be. Indeed, there is so much danger of this, that at Cambridge it +has been deemed best to exclude all beyond seventy pounds. Nevertheless, +the dumb-bell remains the one available form of home or office exercise: +it is a whole athletic apparatus packed up in the smallest space; it is +gymnastic pemmican. With one fifty-pound dumb-bell, or a pair of half +that size--or more or less, according to his strength and habits,--a +man may exercise nearly every muscle in his body in half an hour, if he +has sufficient ingenuity in positions. If it were one's fortune to be +sent to prison,--and the access to such retirement is growing more and +more facile in many regions of our common country,--one would certainly +wish to carry a dumb-bell with him, precisely as Dr. Johnson carried an +arithmetic in his pocket on his tour to the Hebrides, as containing the +greatest amount of nutriment in the compactest form. + +Apparatus for lifting is not yet introduced into most gymnasiums, in +spite of the recommendations of the Roxbury Hercules: beside the fear +of straining, there is the cumbrous weight and cost of iron apparatus, +while, for some reason or other, no cheap and accurate dynamometer has +yet come into the market. Running and jumping, also, have as yet been +too much neglected in our institutions, or practised spasmodically +rather than systematically. It is singular how little pains have been +taken to ascertain definitely what a man can do with his body,--far +less, as Quetelet has observed, than in regard to any animal which man +has tamed, or any machine which he has invented. It is stated, for +instance, in Walker's "Manly Exercises," that six feet is the maximum +of a high leap, with a run,--and certainly one never finds in the +newspapers a record of anything higher; yet it is the English tradition, +that Ireland, of Yorkshire, could clear a string raised fourteen feet, +and that he once kicked a bladder at sixteen. No spring-board would +explain a difference so astounding. In the same way, Walker fixes the +limit of a long leap without a run at fourteen feet, and with a run at +twenty-two,--both being large estimates; and Thackeray makes his young +Virginian jump twenty-one feet and three inches, crediting George +Washington with a foot more. Yet the ancient epitaph of Phayllus the +Crotonian claimed for him nothing less than fifty-five feet, on an +inclined plane. Certainly the story must have taken a leap also. + +These ladders, aspiring indefinitely into the air, like Piranesi's +stairways, are called technically peak-ladders; and dear banished +T.S.K., who always was puzzled to know why Mount Washington kept up such +a pique against the sky, would have found his joke fit these ladders +with great precision, so frequent the disappointment they create. But +try them, and see what trivial appendages one's legs may become,--since +the feet are not intended to touch these polished rounds. Walk up +backward on the under side, hand over hand, then forward; then go up +again, omitting every other round; then aspire to the third round, if +you will. Next grasp a round with both hands, give a slight swing of +the body, let go, and grasp the round above, and so on upward; then the +same, omitting one round, or more, if you can, and come down in the +same way. Can you walk up on _one_ hand? It is not an easy thing, but a +first-class gymnast will do it,--and Dr. Windship does it, taking only +every third round. Fancy a one-armed and legless hodman ascending the +under side of a ladder to the roof, and reflect on the conveniences of +gymnastic habits. + +Here is a wooden horse; on this noble animal the Germans say that not +less than three hundred distinct feats can be performed. Bring yonder +spring-board, and we will try a few. Grasp these low pommels and vault +over the horse, first to the right, then again to the left; then with +one hand each way. Now spring to the top and stand; now spring between +the hands forward, now backward; now take a good impetus, spread your +feet far apart, and leap over it, letting go the hands. Grasp the +pommels again and throw a somerset over it,--coming down on your feet, +if the Fates permit. Now vault up and sit upon the horse, at one end, +knees the same side; now grasp the pommels and whirl yourself round +till you sit at the other end, facing the other way. Now spring up and +bestride it, whirl round till you bestride it the other way, at the +other end; do it once again, and, letting go your hand, seat yourself in +the saddle. Now push away the spring-board and repeat every feat without +its aid. Next, take a run and spring upon the end of the horse astride; +then walk over, supporting yourself on your hands alone, the legs not +touching; then backward, the same. It will be hard to balance yourself +at first, and you will careen uneasily one way or the other; no matter, +you will get over it somehow. Lastly, mount once more, kneel in the +saddle, and leap to the ground. It appears at first ridiculously +impracticable, the knees seem glued to their position, and it looks +as if one would fall inevitably on his face; but falling is hardly +possible. Any novice can do it, if he will only have faith. You shall +learn to do it from the horizontal bar presently, where it looks much +more formidable. + +But first you must learn some simpler exercises on this horizontal bar: +you observe that it is made movable, and may be placed as low as your +knee, or higher than your hand can reach. This bar is only five inches +in circumference; but it is remarkably strong and springy, and therefore +we hope secure, though for some exercises our boys prefer to substitute +a larger one. Try and vault it, first to the right, then to the left, as +you did with the horse; try first with one hand, then see how high +you can vault with both. Now vault it between your hands, forward and +backward: the latter will baffle you, unless you have brought an unusual +stock of India-rubber in your frame, to begin with. Raise it higher +and higher, till you can vault it no longer. Now spring up on the bar, +resting on your palms, and vault over from that position with a swing of +your body, without touching the ground; when you have once managed this, +you can vault as high as you can reach: double-vaulting this is called. +Now put the bar higher than your head; grasp it with your hands, and +draw yourself up till you look over it; repeat this a good many times: +capital practice this, as is usually said of things particularly +tiresome. Take hold of the bar again, and with a good spring from the +ground try to curl your body over it, feet foremost. At first, in all +probability, your legs will go angling in the air convulsively, and come +down with nothing caught; but ere long we shall see you dispense with +the spring from the ground and go whirling over and over, as if the bar +were the axle of a wheel and your legs the spokes. Now spring upon the +bar, supporting yourself on your palms, as before; put your hands a +little farther apart, with the thumbs forward, then suddenly bring up +your knees on the bar and let your whole body go over forward: you will +not fall, if your hands have a good grasp. Try it again with your feet +outside your hands, instead of between them; then once again flinging +your body off from the bar and describing a long curve with it, arms +stiff: this is called the Giant's Swing. Now hang to the bar by the +knees,--by both knees; do not try it yet with one; then seize the bar +with your hands and thrust the legs still farther and farther forward, +pulling with your arms at the same time, till you find yourself sitting +unaccountably on the bar itself. This our boys cheerfully denominate +"skinning the cat," because the sensations it suggests, on a first +experiment, are supposed to resemble those of pussy with her skin drawn +over her head; but, after a few experiments, it seems like stroking the +fur in the right direction, and grows rather pleasant. + +Try now the parallel bars, the most invigorating apparatus of the +gymnasium, and in its beginnings "accessible to the meanest capacity," +since there are scarcely any who cannot support themselves by the hands +on the bars, and not very many who cannot walk a few steps upon the +palms, at the first trial. Soon you will learn to swing along these bars +in long surges of motion, forward and backward; to go through them, in +a series of springs from the hand only, without a jerk of the knees; to +turn round and round between them, going forward or backward all the +while; to vault over them and under them in complicated ways; to turn +somersets in them and across them; to roll over and over on them as +a porpoise seems to roll in the sea. Then come the "low-standing" +exercises, the grasshopper style of business; supporting yourself now +with arms not straight, but bent at the elbow, you shall learn to raise +and lower your body and to hold or swing yourself as lightly in that +position as if you had not felt pinioned and paralyzed hopelessly at the +first trial; and whole new systems of muscles shall seem to shoot out +from your shoulder-blades to enable you to do what you could not have +dreamed of doing before. These bars are magical,--they are conduits of +power; you cannot touch them, you cannot rest your weight on them in the +slightest degree, without causing strength to flow into your body as +naturally and irresistibly as water into the aqueduct-pipe when you turn +it on. Do you but give the opportunity, and every pulsation of blood +from your heart is pledged for the rest. + +These exercises, and such as these, are among the elementary lessons of +gymnastic training. Practise these thoroughly and patiently, and you +will in time attain evolutions more complicated, and, if you wish, more +perilous. Neglect these, to grasp at random after everything which you +see others doing, and you will fail like a bookkeeper who is weak in +the multiplication-table. The older you begin, the more gradual the +preparation must be. A respectable middle-aged citizen, bent on +improving his _physique_, goes into a gymnasium, and sees slight, +smooth-faced boys going gayly through a series of exercises which show +their bodies to be a triumph, not a drag, and he is assured that the +same might be the case with him. Off goes the coat of our enthusiast and +in he plunges; he gripes a heavy dumb-bell and strains one shoulder, +hauls at a weight-box and strains the other, vaults the bar and bruises +his knee, swings in the rings once or twice till his hand slips and he +falls to the floor. No matter, he thinks the cause demands sacrifices; +but he subsides, for the next fifteen minutes, into more moderate +exercises, which he still makes immoderate by his awkward way of doing +them. Nevertheless, he goes home, cheerful under difficulties, and will +try again to-morrow. To-morrow finds him stiff, lame, and wretched; he +cannot lift his arm to his face to shave, nor lower it sufficiently to +pull his boots on; his little daughter must help him with his shoes, +and the indignant wife of his bosom must put on his hat, with that +ineffectual one-sidedness to which alone the best-regulated female mind +can attain, in this difficult part of costuming. His sorrows increase +as the day passes; the gymnasium alone can relieve them, but his soul +shudders at the remedy; and he can conceive of nothing so absurd as a +first gymnastic lesson, except a second one. But had he been wise enough +to place himself under an experienced adviser at the very beginning, he +would have been put through a few simple movements which would have sent +him home glowing and refreshed and fancying himself half-way back to +boyhood again; the slight ache and weariness of next day would have +been cured by next day's exercise; and after six months' patience, by a +progress almost imperceptible, he would have found himself, in respect +to strength and activity, a transformed man. + +Most of these discomforts, of course, are spared to boys; their frames +are more elastic and less liable to ache and strain. They learn +gymnastics, as they learn everything else, more readily than their +elders. Begin with a boy early enough, and if he be of a suitable +temperament, he can learn in the gymnasium all the feats usually seen in +the circus-ring, and could even acquire more difficult ones, if it were +worth his while to try them. This is true even of the air-somersets and +hand-springs which are not so commonly cultivated by gymnasts; but it is +especially true of all exercises with apparatus. It is astonishing how +readily our classes pick up any novelty brought into town by a strolling +company,--holding the body out horizontally from an upright pole, or +hanging by the back of the head, or touching the head to the heels, +though this last is oftener tried than accomplished. They may be seen +practising these antics, at all spare moments, for weeks, until some +later hobby drives them away. From Blondin downwards, the public feats +derive a large part of their wonder from the imposing height in the air +at which they are done. Many a young man who can swing himself more +than his own length on the horizontal ladder at the gymnasium has yet +shuddered at _l'echelle perilleuse_ of the Hanlons; and I noticed that +even the simplest of their performances, such as holding by one hand, or +hanging by the knees, seemed perfectly terrific when done at a height +of twenty or thirty feet in the air, even to those who had done them a +hundred times at a lower level. It was the nerve that was astounding, +not the strength or skill; but the eye found it hard to draw the +distinction. So when a gymnastic friend of mine, crossing the +ocean lately, amused himself with hanging by one leg to the +mizzen-topmast-stay, the boldest sailors shuddered, though the feat +itself was nothing, save to the imagination. + +Indeed, it is almost impossible for an inexperienced spectator to form +the slightest opinion as to the comparative difficulty or danger of +different exercises, since it is the test of merit to make the hardest +things look easy. Moreover, there may be a distinction between two +feats almost imperceptible to the eye,--a change, for instance, in the +position of the hands on a bar,--which may at once transform the thing +from a trifle to a wonder. An unpractised eye can no more appreciate +the difficulty of a gymnastic exercise by seeing it executed, than an +inexperienced ear, of the perplexities of a piece of music by hearing it +played. + +The first effect of gymnastic exercise is almost always to increase the +size of the arms and the chest; and new-comers may commonly be known by +their frequent recourse to the tape-measure. The average increase among +the students of Harvard University during the first three months of the +gymnasium was nearly two inches in the chest, more than one inch in the +upper arm, and more than half an inch in the fore-arm. This was far +beyond what the unassisted growth of their age would account for; and +the increase is always very marked for a time, especially with thin +persons. In those of fuller habit the loss of flesh may counterbalance +the gain in muscle, so that size and weight remain the same; and in all +cases the increase stops after a time, and the subsequent change is +rather in texture than in volume. Mere size is no index of strength: Dr. +Windship is scarcely larger or heavier now than when he had not half his +present powers. + +In the vigor gained by exercise there is nothing false or morbid; it +is as reliable as hereditary strength, except that it is more easily +relaxed by indolent habits. No doubt it is aggravating to see some +robust, lazy giant come into the gymnasium for the first time, and by +hereditary muscle shoulder a dumb-bell which all your training has +not taught you to handle. No matter; it is by comparing yourself with +yourself that the estimate is to be made. As the writing-master exhibits +with triumph to each departing pupil the uncouth copy which he wrote +on entering, so it will be enough to you, if you can appreciate your +present powers with your original inabilities. When you first joined the +gymnastic class, you could not climb yonder smooth mast, even with all +your limbs brought into service; now you can do it with your hands +alone. When you came, you could not possibly, when hanging by your hands +to the horizontal bar, raise your feet as high as your head,--nor could +you, with any amount of spring from the ground, curl your body over the +bar itself; now you can hang at arm's length and fling yourself over it +a dozen times in succession. At first, if you lowered yourself with bent +elbows between the parallel bars, you could not by any manoeuvre get up +again, but sank to the ground a hopeless wreck; now you can raise and +lower yourself an indefinite number of times. As for the weights and +clubs and dumb-bells, you feel as if there must be some jugglery about +them,--they have grown so much lighter than they used to be. It is you +who have gained a double set of muscles to every limb; that is all. +Strike out from the shoulder with your clenched hand; once your arm was +loose-jointed and shaky; now it is firm and tense, and begins to feel +like a natural arm. Moreover, strength and suppleness have grown +together; you have not stiffened by becoming stronger, but find yourself +more flexible. When you first came here, you could not touch your +fingers to the ground without bending the knees, and now you can place +your knuckles on the floor; then you could scarcely bend yourself +backward, and now you can lay the back of your head in a chair, or walk, +without crouching forward, under a bar less than three feet from +the ground. You have found, indeed, that almost every feat is done +originally by sheer strength, and then by agility, requiring very little +expenditure of force after the precise motion is hit upon; at first +labor, puffing, and a red face,--afterwards ease and the graces. + +To a person who begins after the age of thirty or thereabouts, the +increase of strength and suppleness, of course, comes more slowly; yet +it comes as surely, and perhaps it is a more permanent acquisition, less +easily lost again, than in the softer frame of early youth. There is no +doubt that men of sixty have experienced a decided gain in strength and +health by beginning gymnastic exercises even at that age, as Socrates +learned to dance at seventy; and if they have practised similar +exercises all their lives, so much is added to their chance of +preserving physical youthfulness to the last. Jerome and Gabriel Ravel +are reported to have spent near three-score years on the planet which +their winged feet have so lightly trod; and who will dare to say how +many winters have passed over the head of the still young and graceful +Papanti? + +Dr. Windship's most important experience is, that strength is to a +certain extent identical with health, so that every increase in muscular +development is an actual protection against disease. Americans, who are +ashamed to confess to doing the most innocent thing for the sake of mere +enjoyment, must be cajoled into every form of exercise under the plea of +health. Joining, the other day, in a children's dance, I was amused by a +solemn parent who turned to me, in the midst of a Virginia reel, still +conscientious, though breathless, and asked if I did not consider +dancing to be, on the whole, a _healthy_ exercise? Well, the gymnasium +is healthy; but the less you dwell on that fact, the better, after you +have once entered it. If it does you good, you will enjoy it; and if +you enjoy it, it will do you good. With body, as with soul, the highest +experience merges duty in pleasure. The better one's condition is, the +less one has to think about growing better, and the more unconsciously +one's natural instincts guide the right way. + +When ill, we eat to support life; when well, we eat because the food +tastes good. It is a merit of the gymnasium, that, when properly taken, +it makes one forget to think about health or anything else that is +troublesome; "a man remembereth neither sorrow nor debt"; cares must be +left outside, be they physical or metaphysical, like canes at the door +of a museum. + +No doubt, to some it grows tedious. It shares this objection with all +means of exercise. To be an American is to hunger for novelty; and all +instruments and appliances, especially, require constant modification: +we are dissatisfied with last winter's skates, with the old boat, and +with the family pony. So the zealot finds the gymnasium insufficient +long before he has learned half the moves. To some temperaments it +becomes a treadmill, and that, strangely enough, to diametrically +opposite temperaments. A lethargic youth, requiring great effort to keep +himself awake between the exercises, thinks the gymnasium slow, because +he is; while an eager, impetuous young fellow, exasperated because +he cannot in a fortnight draw himself up by one hand, finds the same +trouble there as elsewhere, that the laws of Nature are not fast enough +for his inclinations. No one without energy, no one without patience, +can find permanent interest in a gymnasium; but with these qualities, +and a modest willingness to live and learn, I do not see why one should +ever grow tired of the moderate use of its apparatus. For one, I really +never enter it without exhilaration, or leave it without a momentary +regret: there are always certain special new things on the docket for +trial; and when those are settled, there will be something more. It is +amazing what a variety of interest can be extracted from those few bits +of wood and rope and iron. There is always somebody in advance, some +"man on horseback" on a wooden horse, some India-rubber hero, some +slight and powerful fellow who does with ease what you fail to do with +toil, some terrible Dr. Windship with an ever-waxing dumb-bell. The +interest becomes semi-professional. A good gymnast enjoys going into +a new and well-appointed establishment, precisely as a sailor enjoys +a well-rigged ship; every rope and spar is scanned with intelligent +interest; "we know the forest round us as seamen know the sea." The +pupils talk gymnasium as some men talk horse. A particularly smooth +and flexible horizontal pole, a desirable pair of parallel bars, a +remarkably elastic spring-board,--these are matters of personal pride, +and described from city to city with loving enthusiasm. The gymnastic +apostle rises to eloquence in proportion to the height of the +handswings, and points his climax to match the peak-ladders. + +An objection frequently made to the gymnasium, and especially by anxious +parents, is the supposed danger of accident. But this peril is obviously +inseparable from all physical activity. If a man never leaves his house, +the chances undoubtedly are, that he will never break his leg, unless +upon the stairway; but if he is always to stay in the house, he might +as well have no legs at all. Certainly we incur danger every time we go +outside the front-door; but to remain always on the inside would prove +the greatest danger of the whole. When a man slips in the street and +dislocates his arm, we do not warn him against walking, but against +carelessness. When a man is thrown from his horse and gratifies the +surgeons by a beautiful case of compound fracture, we do not advise him +to avoid a riding-school, but to go to one. Trivial accidents are not +uncommon in the gymnasium, severe ones are rare, fatal ones almost +unheard-of,--which is far more than can be said of riding, driving, +hunting, boating, skating, or even "coasting" on a sled. Learning +gymnastics is like learning to swim,--you incur a small temporary risk +for the sake of acquiring powers that will lessen your risks in the end. +Your increased strength and agility will carry you past many unseen +perils hereafter, and the invigorated tone of your system will make +accidents less important, if they happen. Some trifling sprain causes +lameness for life, some slight blow brings on wasting disease, to +a person whose health is merely negative, not positive,--while a +well-trained frame throws it off in twenty-four hours. It is almost +proverbial of the gymnasium, that it cures its own wounds. + +A minor objection is, that these exercises are not performed in the +open air. In summer, however, they may be, and in winter and in stormy +weather it is better that they should not be. Extreme cold is not +favorable to them; it braces, but stiffens; and the bars and ropes +become slippery and even dangerous. In Germany it is common to have a +double set of apparatus, out-doors and in-doors; and this would always +be desirable, but for the increased expense. Moreover, the gymnasium +should be taken in addition to out-door exercise, giving, for instance, +an hour a day to each, one for training, the other for oxygen. I know +promising gymnasts whose pallid complexions show that their blood is not +worthy of their muscle, and they will break down. But these cases are +rare, for the reason already hinted,--that nothing gives so good an +appetite for out-door life as this indoor activity. It alternates +admirably with skating, and seduces irresistibly into walking or rowing +when spring arrives. + +My young friend Silverspoon, indeed, thinks that a good trot on a fast +horse is worth all the gymnastics in the world. But I learn, on inquiry, +that my young friend's mother is constantly imploring him to ride in +order to air her horses. It is a beautiful parental trait; but for those +born horseless, what an economical substitute is the wooden quadruped of +the gymnasium! Our Autocrat has well said, that the livery-stable horse +is "a profligate animal"; and I do not wonder that the Centaurs of old +should be suspected of having originated spurious coin. Undoubtedly it +was to pay for the hire of their own hoofs. + +For young men in cities, too, the facilities for exercise are limited +not only by money, but by time. They must commonly take it after dark. +It is every way a blessing, when the gymnasium divides their evenings +with the concert, the book, or the public meeting. Then there is no +time left, and small temptation, for pleasures less pure. It gives an +innocent answer to that first demand for evening excitement which perils +the soul of the homeless boy in the seductive city. The companions whom +he meets at the gymnasium are not the ones whose pursuits of later +nocturnal hours entice him to sin. The honest fatigue of his exercises +calls for honest rest. It is the nervous exhaustion of a sedentary, +frivolous, or joyless life which madly tries to restore itself by the +other nervous exhaustion of debauchery. It is an old prescription,-- + + "Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit, + _Abstinuit venere et vino_." + +There is another class of critics whose cant is simply can't, and who, +being unable or unwilling to surrender themselves to these simple +sources of enjoyment, are grandiloquent upon the dignity of manhood, +and the absurdity of full-grown men in playing monkey-tricks with their +bodies. Full-grown men? There is not a person in the world who can +afford to be a "full-grown man" through all the twenty-four hours. There +is not one who does not need, more than he needs his dinner, to have +habitually one hour in the day when he throws himself with boyish +eagerness into interests as simple as those of boys. No church or state, +no science or art, can feed us all the time; some morsels there must be +of simpler diet, some moments of unadulterated play. But dignity? Alas +for that poor soul whose dignity must be "preserved,"--preserved in +the right culinary sense, as fruits which are growing dubious in their +natural state are sealed up in jars to make their acidity presentable! +"There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned," and degradation in +the dignity that has to be preserved. Simplicity is the only dignity. If +one has not the genuine article, no affluence of starch, no snow-drift +of white-linen decency, will furnish any substitute. If one has it, he +will retain it, whether he stand on his head or his heels. Nothing +is really undignified but affectation or conceit; and for the total +extinction and annihilation of every vestige of these, there are few +things so effectual as athletic exercises. + +Still another objection is that of the medical men, that the gymnasium, +as commonly used, is not a specific prescription for the special disease +of the patient. But setting aside the claims of the system of applied +gymnastics, which Ling and his followers have so elaborated, it is +enough to answer, that the one great fundamental disorder of all +Americans is simply nervous exhaustion, and that for this the gymnasium +can never be misdirected, though it may be used to excess. Of course one +can no more cure over-work of brain by over-work of body than one +can restore a wasted candle by lighting it at the other end. But by +subtracting an hour a day from the present amount of purely intellectual +fatigue, and inserting that quantum of bodily fatigue in its place, you +begin an immediate change in your conditions of life. Moreover, the +great object is not merely to get well, but to keep well. The exhaustion +of over-work can almost always be cured by a water-cure, or by a voyage, +which is a salt-water cure; but the problem is, how to make the whole +voyage of life perpetually self-curative. Without this, there is +perpetual dissatisfaction and chronic failure. Emerson well says, "Each +class fixes its eye on the advantages it has not,--the refined on rude +strength, the democrat on birth and breeding." This is the aim of the +gymnasium, to give to the refined this rude strength, or its better +substitute, refined strength. It is something to secure to the student +or the clerk the strong muscles, hearty appetite, and sound sleep of the +sailor and the ploughman,--to enable him, if need be, to out-row the +fisherman, and out-run the mountaineer, and lift more than his porter, +and to remember head-ache and dyspepsia only as he recalls the primeval +whooping-cough of his childhood. I am one of those who think that the +Autocrat rides his hobby of the pavements a little too far; but it is +useless to deny, that, within the last few years of gymnasiums and +boat-clubs, the city has been gaining on the country, in physical +development. Here in our town we had all the city- and college-boys +assembled in July to see the regattas, and all the country-boys in +September to see the thousand-dollar base-ball match; and it was +impossible to deny, whatever one's theories, that the physical +superiority lay for the time being with the former. + +The secret is, that, though the country offers to farmers more oxygen +than to anybody in the city, yet not all dwellers in the country are +farmers, and even those who are such are suffering from other causes, +being usually the very last to receive those lessons of food and +clothing and bathing and ventilation which have their origin in cities. +Physical training is not a mechanical, but a vital process: no bricks +without straw; no good _physique_ without good materials and conditions. +The farmer knows, that, to rear a premium colt or calf, he must oversee +every morsel that it eats, every motion it makes, every breath it +draws,--must guard against over-work and under-work, cold and heat, wet +and dry. He remembers it for the quadrupeds, but he forgets it for his +children, his wife, and himself: so his cattle deserve a premium, and +his family does not. + +Neglect is the danger of the country; the peril of the city is in living +too fast. All mental excitement acts as a stimulant, and, like all +stimulants, debilitates when taken in excess. This explains the +unnatural strength and agility of the insane, always followed by +prostration; and even moderate cerebral excitement produces similar +results, so far as it goes. Quetelet discovered that sometimes after +lecturing, or other special intellectual action, he could perform +gymnastic feats impossible to him at other times. The fact is +unquestionable; and it is also certain that an extreme in this direction +has precisely the contrary effect, and is fatal to the physical +condition. One may spring up from a task of moderate mental labor with a +sense of freedom like a bow let loose; but after an immoderate task +one feels like the same bow too long bent, flaccid, nerveless, all the +elasticity gone. Such fatigue is far more overwhelming than any mere +physical exhaustion. I have lounged into the gymnasium, after an +afternoon's skating, supposing myself quite tired, and have found myself +in excellent condition; and I have gone in after an hour or two of some +specially concentrated anxiety or thought, without being aware that +the body was at all fatigued, and found it good for nothing. Such +experiences are invaluable; all the libraries cannot so illustrate the +supremacy of immaterial forces. Thought, passion, purpose, expectation, +absorbed attention even, all feed upon the body's powers; let them +act one atom too intensely or one moment too long, and this wondrous +physical organization finds itself drained of its forces to support +them. It does not seem strange that strong men should have died by a +single ecstasy of emotion too convulsive, when we bear within us this +tremendous engine whose slightest pulsation so throbs in every fibre of +our frame. + +The relation between mental culture and physical powers is a subject of +the greatest interest, as yet but little touched, because so few of our +physiologists have been practical gymnasts. Nothing is more striking +than the tendency of all athletic exercises, when brought to perfection, +to eliminate mere brute bulk from the competition, and give the palm +to more subtile qualities, agility, quickness, a good eye, a ready +hand,--in short, superior fineness of organization. Any clown can learn +the military manual exercise; but it needs brain-power to drill with +the Zouaves. Even a prize-fight tests strength less than activity and +"science." The game of base-ball, as played in our boyhood, was a +simple, robust, straightforward contest, where the hardest hitter +was the best man; but it is every year becoming perfected into a +sleight-of-hand, like cricket; mere strength is now almost valueless +in playing it, and it calls rather for the qualities of the +billiard-player. In the last champion-match at Worcester, nearly the +whole time was consumed in skilful feints and parryings, and it took +five days to make fifty runs. And these same characteristics mark +gymnastic exercises above all; men of great natural strength are very +apt to be too slow and clumsy for them, and the most difficult feats +are usually done by persons of comparatively delicate _physique_ and a +certain artistic organization. It is this predominance of the nervous +temperament which is yet destined to make American gymnasts the foremost +in the world. + +Indeed, the gymnasium is as good a place for the study of human nature +as any. The perpetual analogy of mind and body can be appreciated only +where both are trained with equal system. In both departments the great +prizes are not won by the most astounding special powers, but by a +certain harmonious adaptation. There is a physical tact, as there is +a mental tact. Every process is accomplished by using just the right +stress at just the right moment; but no two persons are alike in the +length of time required for these little discoveries. Gymnastic genius +lies in gaining at the first trial what will cost weeks of perseverance +to those less happily gifted. And as the close elastic costume which is +worn by the gymnast, or should be worn, allows no merit or defect of +figure to be concealed, so the close contact of emulation exhibits all +the varieties of temperament. One is made indolent by success, and +another is made ardent; one is discouraged by failure, and another +aroused by it; one does everything best the first time and slackens ever +after, while another always begins at the bottom and always climbs to +the top. + +One of the most enjoyable things in these mimic emulations is this +absolute genuineness in their gradations of success. In the great world +outside, there is no immediate and absolute test for merit. There are +cliques and puffings and jealousies, quarrels of authors, tricks of +trade, caucusing in politics, hypocrisy among the deacons. We distrust +the value of others' successes, they distrust ours, and we all sometimes +distrust our own. There are those who believe in Shakspeare, and those +who believe in Tupper. All merit is measured by sliding scales, and each +has his own theory of the sliding. In a dozen centuries it will all come +right, no doubt. In the mean time there is vanity in one half the world +and vexation of spirit in the other half, and each man joins each half +in turn. But once enter the charmed gate of the gymnasium, and you leave +shams behind. Though you be saint or sage, no matter, the inexorable +laws of gravitation are around you. If you flinch, you fail; if you +slip, you fall. That bar, that rope, that weight shall test you +absolutely. Can you handle it, it is well; but if not, stand aside for +him who can. You may have every other gift and grace, it counts for +nothing; he, not you, is the man for the hour. The code of Spanish +aristocracy is slight and flexible compared with this rigid precedence. +It is Emerson's Astraea. Each registers himself, and there is no appeal. +No use to kick and struggle, no use to apologize. Do not say that +to-night you are tired, last night you felt ill. These excuses may serve +for a day, but no longer. A slight margin is allowed for moods and +variations, but it is not great after all. One revels in this Palace +of Truth. Defeat itself is a satisfaction, before a tribunal of such +absolute justice. + +This contributes to that healthful ardor with which, in these exercises, +a man forgets the things which are behind and presses forward to fresh +achievements. This perpetually saves from vanity; for everything seems +a trifle, when you have once attained to it. The aim which yesterday +filled your whole gymnastic horizon you overtake and pass as a boat +passes a buoy: until passed, it was a goal; when passed, a mere speck in +the horizon. Yesterday you could swing yourself three rounds upon the +horizontal ladder; to-day, after weeks of effort, you have suddenly +attained to the fourth, and instantly all that long laborious effort +vanishes, to be formed again between you and the fifth round: five, five +is the only goal for heroic labor to-day; and when five is attained, +there will be six, and so on while the Arabic numerals hold out. A +childish aim, no doubt; but is not this what we all recognize as the +privilege of childhood, to obtain exaggerated enjoyment from little +things? When you have come to the really difficult feats of the +gymnasium,--when you have conquered the "barber's curl" and the +"peg-pole,"--when you can draw yourself up by one arm, and perform the +"giant's swing" over and over, without changing hands, and vault the +horizontal bar as high as you can reach it,--when you can vault across +the high parallel bars between your hands backward, or walk through them +on your palms with your feet in the vicinity of the ceiling,--then you +will reap the reward of your past labors, and may begin to call yourself +a gymnast. + +It is pleasant to think, that, so great is the variety of exercises in +the gymnasium, even physical deficiencies and deformities do not wholly +exclude from its benefits. I have seen an invalid girl, so lame from +childhood that she could not stand without support, whose general health +had been restored, and her bust and arms made a study for a sculptor, by +means of gymnastics. Nay, there are odd compensations of Nature by which +even exceptional formations may turn to account in athletic exercises. A +squinting eye is a treasure to a boxer, a left-handed batter is a prize +in a cricketing eleven, and one of the best gymnasts in Chicago is an +individual with a wooden leg, which he takes off at the commencement +of affairs, thus economizing weight and stowage, and performing +achievements impossible except to unipeds. + +In the enthusiasm created by this emulation, there is necessarily some +danger of excess. Dr. Windship approves of exercising only every other +day in the gymnasium; but as most persons take their work in a more +diluted form than his, they can afford to repeat it daily, unless warned +by headache or languor that they are exceeding their allowance. There +is no good in excess; our constitutions cannot be hurried. The law is +universal, that exercise strengthens as long as nutrition balances it, +but afterwards wastes the very forces it should increase. We cannot make +bricks faster than Nature supplies us with straw. + +It is one good evidence of the increasing interest in these exercises, +that the American gymnasiums built during the past year or two have far +surpassed all their predecessors in size and completeness, and have +probably no superiors in the world. The Seventh Regiment Gymnasium in +New York, just opened by Mr. Abner S. Brady, is one hundred and eighty +feet by fifty-two, in its main hall, and thirty-five feet in height, +with nearly a thousand pupils. The beautiful hall of the Metropolitan +Gymnasium, in Chicago, measures one hundred and eight feet by eighty, +and is twenty feet high at the sides, with a dome in the centre, forty +feet high, and the same in diameter. Next to these probably rank the +new gymnasium at Cincinnati, the Tremont Gymnasium at Boston, and the +Bunker-Hill Gymnasium at Charlestown, all recently opened. Of college +institutions the most complete are probably those at Cambridge and New +Haven,--the former being eighty-five feet by fifty, and the latter one +hundred feet by fifty, in external dimensions. The arrangements for +instruction are rather more systematic at Harvard, but Yale has several +valuable articles of apparatus--as the rack-bars and the series +of rings--which have hardly made their appearance, as yet, in +Massachusetts, though considered indispensable in New York. + +Gymnastic exercises are as yet but very sparingly introduced into our +seminaries, primary or professional, though a great change is already +beginning. Frederick the Great complained of the whole Prussian +school-system of his day, because it assumed that men were originally +created for students and clerks, whereas his Majesty argued that the +very shape of the human body rather proved them to be meant by Nature +for postilions. Until lately all our educational plans have assumed man +to be a merely sedentary being; we have employed teachers of music and +drawing to go from school to school to teach those elegant arts, but +have had none to teach the art of health. Accordingly, the pupils have +exhibited more complex curves in their spines than they could possibly +portray on the blackboard, and acquired such discords in their nervous +systems as would have utterly disgraced their singing. It is something +to have got beyond the period when active sports were actually +prohibited. I remember when there was but one boat owned by a Cambridge +student,--the owner was the first of his class, by the way, to get his +name into capitals in the "Triennial Catalogue" afterwards,--and that +boat was soon reported to have been suppressed by the Faculty, on the +plea that there was a college law against a student's keeping domestic +animals, and a boat was a domestic animal within the meaning of the +statute. Manual labor was thought less reprehensible; but schools on +this basis have never yet proved satisfactory, because either the hands +or the brains have always come off second-best from the effort to +combine: it is a law of Nature, that after a hard day's work one does +not need more work, but play. But in many of the German common-schools +one or two hours are given daily to gymnastic exercises with apparatus, +with sometimes the addition of Wednesday or Saturday afternoon; and this +was the result, as appears from Gutsmuth's book, of precisely the same +popular reaction against a purely intellectual system which is visible +in our community now. In the French military school at Joinville, the +degree of Bachelor of Agility is formally conferred; but Horace Mann's +remark still holds good, that it is seldom thought necessary to train +men's bodies for any purpose except to destroy those of other men. +However, in view of the present wise policy of our leading colleges, +we shall have to stop croaking before long, especially as enthusiastic +alumni already begin to fancy a visible improvement in the _physique_ of +graduating classes on Commencement Day. + +It would be unpardonable, in this connection, not to speak a good word +for the hobby of the day,--Dr. Lewis, and his system of gymnastics, or, +more properly, of calisthenics. Aside from a few amusing games, there is +nothing very novel in the "system," except the man himself. Dr. Windship +had done all that was needed in apostleship of severe exercises, and +there was wanting some man with a milder hobby, perfectly safe for a +lady to drive. The Fates provided that man, also, in Dr. Lewis,--so +hale and hearty, so profoundly confident in the omnipotence of his own +methods and the uselessness of all others, with such a ready invention, +and such an inundation of animal spirits that he could flood any +company, no matter how starched or listless, with an unbounded appetite +for ball-games and bean-games. How long it will last in the hands of +others than the projector remains to be seen, especially as some of his +feats are more exhausting than average gymnastics; but, in the mean +time, it is just what is wanted for multitudes of persons who find or +fancy the real gymnasium to be unsuited to them. It will especially +render service to female pupils, so far as they practise it; for the +accustomed gymnastic exercises seem never yet to have been rendered +attractive to them, on any large scale, and with any permanency. Girls, +no doubt, learn as readily as boys to row, to skate, and to swim,--any +muscular inferiority being perhaps counterbalanced in swimming by +their greater physical buoyancy, in skating by their dancing-school +experience, and in rowing by their music-lessons enabling them more +promptly to fall into regular time,--though these suggestions may all be +fancies rather than facts. The same points help them, perhaps, in the +lighter calisthenic exercises; but when they come to the apparatus, one +seldom sees a girl who takes hold like a boy: it, perhaps, requires a +certain ready capital of muscle, at the outset, which they have not at +command, and which it is tedious to acquire afterwards. Yet there seem +to be some cases, as with the classes of Mrs. Molineaux at Cambridge, +where a good deal of gymnastic enthusiasm is created among female +pupils, and it may be, after all, that the deficiency lies thus far in +the teachers. + +Experience is already showing that the advantages of school-gymnasiums +go deeper than was at first supposed. It is not to be the whole object +of American education to create scholars or idealists, but to produce +persons of a solid strength,--persons who, to use the most expressive +Western phrase that ever was coined into five monosyllables, "will do to +tie to"; whereas to most of us it would be absurd to tie anything but +the Scriptural millstone. In the military school of Brienne, the only +report appended to the name of the little Napoleon Bonaparte was "Very +healthy"; and it is precisely this class of boys for whom there is least +place in a purely intellectual institution. A child of immense animal +activity and unlimited observing faculties, personally acquainted with +every man, child, horse, dog, in the township,--intimate in the families +of oriole and grasshopper, pickerel and turtle,--quick of hand and +eye,--in short, born for practical leadership and victory,--such a boy +finds no provision for him in most of our seminaries, and must, by his +constitution, be either truant or torment. The theory of the institution +ignores such aptitudes as his, and recognizes no merits save those of +some small sedentary linguist or mathematician,--a blessing to his +teacher, but an object of watchful anxiety to the family physician, and +whose career was endangering not only his health, but his humility. +Introduce now some athletic exercises as a regular part of the +school-drill, instantly the rogue finds his legitimate sphere, and leads +the class; he is no longer an outcast, no longer has to look beyond the +school for companions and appreciation; while, on the other hand, the +youthful pedant, no longer monopolizing superiority, is brought down to +a proper level. Presently comes along some finer fellow than either, who +cultivates all his faculties, and is equally good at spring-board and +black-board; and straightway, since every child wishes to be a Crichton, +the whole school tries for the combination of merits, and the grade of +the juvenile community is perceptibly raised. + +What is true of childhood is true of manhood also. What a shame it is +that even Kingsley should fall into the cant of deploring maturity as a +misfortune, and declaring that our freshest pleasures come "before +the age of fourteen"! Health is perpetual youth,--that is, a state of +positive health. Merely negative health, the mere keeping out of the +hospital for a series of years, is not health. Health is to feel the +body a luxury, as every vigorous child does,--as the bird does when it +shoots and quivers through the air, not flying for the sake of the goal, +but for the sake of the flight,--as the dog does when he scours madly +across the meadow, or plunges into the muddy blissfulness of the +stream. But neither dog nor bird nor child enjoys his cup of physical +happiness--let the dull or the worldly say what they will--with a +felicity so cordial as the educated palate of conscious manhood. To +"feel one's life in every limb," this is the secret bliss of which all +forms of athletic exercise are merely varying disguises; and it is +absurd to say that we cannot possess this when character is mature, but +only when it is half-developed. As the flower is better than the bud, so +should the fruit be better than the flower. + +We need more examples of a mode of living which shall not alone be a +success in view of some ulterior object, but which shall be, in its +nobleness and healthfulness, successful every moment as it passes on. +Navigating a wholly new temperament through history, this American race +must of course form its own methods and take nothing at second-hand; but +the same triumphant combination of bodily and mental training which made +human life beautiful in Greece, strong in Rome, simple and joyous in +Germany, truthful and brave in England, must yet be moulded to a higher +quality amid this varying climate and on these low shores. The regions +of the world most garlanded with glory and romance, Attica, Provence, +Scotland, were originally more barren than Massachusetts; and there is +yet possible for us such an harmonious mingling of refinement and vigor, +that we may more than fulfil the world's expectation, and may become +classic to ourselves. + + * * * * * + + +LAND-LOCKED. + + + Black lie the hills, swiftly doth daylight flee, + And, catching gleams of sunset's dying smile, + Through the dusk land for many a changing mile + The river runneth softly to the sea. + + O happy river, could I follow thee! + O yearning heart, that never can be still! + O wistful eyes, that watch the steadfast hill, + Longing for level line of solemn sea! + + Have patience; here are flowers and songs of birds, + Beauty and fragrance, wealth of sound and sight, + All summer's glory thine from morn till night, + And life too full of joy for uttered words. + + Neither am I ungrateful. But I dream + Deliciously, how twilight falls to-night + Over the glimmering water, how the light + Dies blissfully away, until I seem + + To feel the wind sea-scented on my cheek, + To catch the sound of dusky flapping sail, + And dip of oars, and voices on the gale, + Afar off, calling softly, low and sweet. + + O Earth, thy summer-song of joy may soar + Ringing to heaven in triumph! I but crave + The sad, caressing murmur of the wave + That breaks in tender music on the shore. + + + + +TWO OR THREE TROUBLES. + + +If there are only two or three, I am pretty sure of a sympathetic +hearing. If there were two-and-twenty, I should be much more doubtful: +for only last night, on being introduced to a tall lady in deep +mourning, and assured that she had been "a terrible sufferer," that her +life, indeed, had been "one long tragedy," I may as well confess, that, +so far from being interested in this tall long tragedy, merely as such, +I stepped a little aside on the instant, on some frivolous pretence, and +took an early opportunity to get out of the way. Why this was I leave to +persons who understand the wrong side of human nature. I am ashamed +of it; but there it is,--neither worse nor better. And I can't expect +others to be more compassionate than I am myself. + +One of my troubles grew out of a pleasure, but was not less a trouble +for the time. The other was not an excrescence, but ingrained with the +material: not necessarily, indeed,--far from it; but, from the nature of +the case, hopelessly so. + +The penny-postman had brought me a letter from my Aunt Allen, from +Albany. This letter contained, in three lines, a desire that her +dear niece would buy something with the inclosed, and accept it as a +wedding-gift, with the tenderest wishes for her life-long happiness, +from the undersigned. + +"The inclosed" fell on the floor, and Laura picked it up. + +"Fifty dollars!--hum!--Metropolitan Bank." + +"Oh, now, that is charming! Good old soul she is!" + +"Yes. Very well. I'm glad she sent it in money." + +"So am I. 'T isn't a butter-knife, anyhow." + +"How do you mean?" inquired Laura. + +"Why, Mr. Lang was telling last night about his clerk. He said he bought +a pair of butter-knives for his clerk Hillman, hearing that he was to be +married, and got them marked. A good substantial present he thought it +was,--cost only seven dollars for a good article, and couldn't fail to +be useful to Hillman. He took them himself, so as to be doubly gracious, +and met his clerk at the store-door. + +"'Good morning!--good morning! Wish you joy, Hillman! I've got a pair of +butter-knives for your wife.--Hey? got any?' + +"'Eleven, Sir.' + +"Eleven butter-knives! and all marked _Marcia Ann Hillman, from A.B., +from C.D._, and so on!" + +Laura laughed, and said she hoped my friends would all be as considerate +as Aunt Allen, or else consult her. Suppose eleven tea-pots, for +instance, or eleven silver salvers, all in a row! Ridiculous! + +"Now, Del, I will tell you what it is," said Laura, gravely. + +Laura was the sensible one, like Laura in Miss Edgeworth's "Moral +Tales," and never made any mistake. I was like the naughty horse that +is always rearing and jumping, but kept on the track by the good steady +one. Of course, I was far more interesting, and was to be married in +three weeks. + +"Now, Del, I'll tell you what it is. Are you going to have all your +presents paraded on the study-table, for everybody to pull over and +compare values,--and have one mortified, and another elated, and all +uncomfortable?" + +"Why, what can I do?" + +"I know what I wouldn't do." + +"You wouldn't do it, Laura?" said I, looking steadily at the +fifty-dollar note. + +"Never, Del! I told Mrs. Harris so, when we were coming home from Ellis +Hall's wedding. It looked absolutely vulgar." + +We all swore by Mrs. Harris in that part of Boynton, and it was +something to know that Mrs. Harris had received the shock of such a +heterodox opinion. + +"And what did Mrs. Harris say, Laura?" + +"She said she agreed with me entirely." + +"Did she really?" said I, drawing a good long breath. + +"Yes,--and she said she would as soon, and sooner, go to a silversmith's +and pull over all the things on the counter. There were knives and +forks, tea-spoons and table-spoons, fish-knives and pie-knives, +strawberry-shovels and ice-shovels, large silver salvers and small +silver salvers and medium silver salvers. Everything useful, and nothing +you want to look at. There wasn't a thing that was in good taste to +show, but just a good photograph of the minister that married them,--and +a beautiful little wreath of sea-weed, that one of her Sunday-school +scholars made for her. As to everything else, I would, as far as good +taste goes, have just as soon had a collection of all Waterman's +kitchen-furniture." + +Laura stopped at last, indignant, and out of breath. + +"There was a tremendous display of silver, I allow," said I; "the piano +and sideboard were covered with it." + +"Yes, and thoroughly vulgar, for that reason. A wedding-gift should be +something appropriate,--not merely useful. As soon as it is only that, +it sinks at once. It should speak of the bride, or to the bride, or +of and from the friend,--intimately associating the gift with past +impressions, with personal tastes, and future hopes felt by both. +The gift should always be a dear reminder of the giver; a +picture,--Evangeline or Beatrice; something you have both of you loved +to look at, or would love to. But think of the delight of cutting your +meat with Edward's present! forking ditto with Mary's! a crumb-scraper +reminding you of this one, table-bell of that one; large salver, +Uncle,--rich; small salver, Uncle,--mean; gold thimble, Cousin,--meanest +of all. Table cleared, ditto mind and memory, of the whole of them--till +next meal, _perhaps!_" + +Laura ceased talking, but rocked herself swiftly to and fro in her +chair. It is not necessary to say we were in our chambers,--as, since +our British cousins have ridiculed our rocking-chairs, they are all +banished from the parlor. Consequently we remain in our chambers to rock +and be useful, and come into the parlor to be useless and uncomfortable +in _fauteuils_, made, as the chair-makers tell us, "after the line of +beauty." Laura and I both detest them, and Polly says, "Nothing can be +worse for the spine of a person's back." To be + + "Stretched on the rack of a too-easy chair," + +let anybody try a modern drawing-room. So Laura and I have cane +sewing-chairs, which, it is needless to add, rock,--rock eloquently, +too. They wave, as the boat waves with the impetus of the sea, gently, +calmly, slowly,--or, as conversation grows animated, as disputes arise, +as good stories are told, one after another, so do the sympathizing and +eloquent rocking-chairs keep pace with our conversation, stimulating or +soothing, as it chances. + +And now I come to my first trouble,--first, and, as it happened, of long +standing now; insomuch that, when Laura asked me once, gravely, why I +had not made it a vital objection, in the first place, I had not a word +to reply, but just--rocked. + +She, Laura, was stitching on some shirts for "him." They were intended +as a wedding-gift from herself, and were beautifully made. Laura +despised a Wheeler-and-Wilson, and all its kindred,--and the shirts +looked like shirts, consequently. + +I linger a little, shivering on the brink. Somehow I always say +"_him_,"--nowadays, of course, Mr. Sampson,--but then I always said "he" +and "him." I know why country-folk say so, now. Though sentimentalists +say, it is because there is only one "he" for "her," I don't believe it. +It is because their names are Jotham, or Adoniram, or Jehiel, or Asher, +or some of those names, and so they say "he," for short. But there +was no short for me. So I may as well come to it. "His" name was +America,--America Sampson. It is four years and a half since I knew this +for a fact, yet my surprise is not lessened. Epithets are weak trash for +such an occasion, or I should vituperate even now the odious practice +of saddling children with one's own folly or prejudice in the shape of +names. + +There was no help for it. There was no hope. My lover had not received +his name from any rich uncle, with the condition of a handsome fortune; +so he had no chance of indignantly asserting his choice to be Herbert +barefoot rather than Hog's-flesh with gold shoes. His father and mother +had given his name,--not at the baptismal font, for they were Baptists, +and didn't baptize so,--but they had given it to him. They were both +alive and well, and so were seventeen uncles and aunts who would all +know,--in good health, and bad taste, all of them. + +"He" had four brothers to keep him in countenance, all with worse names +than his: Washington, Philip Massasoit, Scipio, and Hiram Yaw Byron! +There was the excuse, in this last name, of its being a family one, +as far as Yaw went; but----However, as I said, language is wholly +inadequate and weak for some purposes. There was a lower deep than +America,--that was some comfort. + +Hiram Yaw wasn't sent to college, but to Ashtabula, wherever that is, +and I never wish to see him. But to college was America sent,--to be +"hazed," and taunted, and called "E Plury," and his beak and claws +inquired after, through the freshman year. I never knew how he went +through,--I mean, with what feelings. Of course, he was the first +scholar. But that, even, must have been but a small consolation. + +The worst of all was, he was sensitive about his name,--whether because +it had been used to torment him, and so, like poor worn-out Nessus, +he wrapped more closely his poisoned scarf, (I like scarf better than +shirt,)--or whether he had, in the course of his law-studies and +men-studies, come to think it really mattered very little what a man's +name was in the beginning; at all events, he had no notion of dismissing +his own. + +My own secret hope had been, that, by an Act of the Legislature, which +that very season had changed Pontifex Parker to Charles Alfred Parker, +Mr. Sampson might be accommodated with a name less unspeakably national. +Dear me! Alfred, Arthur, Albert,--if he must begin with A. + + "A was an Archer, and shot at a frog." + +I should even prefer Archer. It needn't be Insatiate Archer. So I kept +turning over and over the painful subject, one evening,--I mean, of +course, in my mind, for I had not really broached this matter of +legislative action. Luckily, "he" had brought in the new edition of +George Herbert's Works. We were reading aloud, and "he" read the chapter +of "The Parson in Sacraments." At the foot was an extract from "The +Parish Register" of Crabbe, which he read, unconscious of the way in +which I mentally applied it. Indeed, I think he scarcely thought of his +own name at that time. But I did, twenty-four times in every day. This +was the note:-- + + "Pride lives with all; strange names our rustics give + To helpless infants, that their own may live; + Pleased to be known, they'll some attention claim, + And find some by-way to the house of fame. + 'Why Lonicera wilt thou name thy child?' + I asked the gardener's wife, in accents mild. + 'We have a right,' replied the sturdy dame; + And Lonicera was the infant's name." + +He stopped reading just here, to look at the evening paper, which had +been brought in. I read something in it, and then we all went to sit on +the piazza, with the street-lamp shining through the bitter-sweet vine, +as good as the moon, and the conversation naturally and easily turned +on odd names. I told what I had read in the paper: that our country +rivalled Dickens's in queer names, and that it wasn't for a land that +had Boggs and Bigger and Bragg for governors, and Stubbs, Snoggles, +Scroggs, and Pugh among its respectable citizens, to accuse Dickens +of caricature. I turned, a little tremulously, I confess, to "him," +saying,-- + +"If you had been so unfortunate as to have for a name Darius Snoggles, +now, for instance, wouldn't you have it changed by the Legislature?" + +I shivered with anxiety. + +"Certainly not," he replied, with perfect unconsciousness. "Whatever my +name might be, I would endeavor to make it a respectable one while I +bore it." + +Laura sat the other side of me, and softly touched me. So I only +asked, if that great star up there was Lyra; but all the time Anodyne, +Ambergris, Abner, Albion, Alpheus, and all the names that begin with A, +rolled through my memory monotonously and continually. + +After we went up-stairs that night, and while I was trying in vain to do +up my hair so as to make a natural wave in front, (sometimes everything +goes wrong,) Laura said,-- + +"Delphine!" + +My mother mixed romance with good practical sense, and very properly +said that girls with good names and tolerable faces might get on in the +world, but it took fortune to make your Sallies and Mollies go down. She +had good taste, too, and didn't name either of us Louisa Prudence, like +an unfortunate I once saw; and we were left, with our nice cottage +covered with its vine of bitter-sweet and climbing rose, fifteen hundred +dollars each, and our names, Delphine and Laura. Not a bad heritage, +with economy, good looks, and hearts to take life cheerily. Still it +is plain enough that a fifty-dollar note for the bride was not to be +despised nor overlooked. In fact, with the exception of Polly's present +of a brown earthen bowl and a pudding-stick, it was the first approach +to a wedding-gift that I had yet received. And this note was trouble the +second. But of that, by-and-by. + +"Delphine!" said Laura, softly. + +Some people's voices excoriate you, Laura's was soft and soothing. + +"Well!" + +"Don't say any more to--to Mr. Sampson about names." + +"Oh, dear! hateful!" + +"Delphine, be thankful it's no worse!" + +"How could it be worse,--unless it were Hog-and-Hominy? I never knew +anything so utterly ridiculous! America! Columbia! Yankee-Doodle! I'd +rather it had been Abraham!" + +All this I almost shouted in a passion of vexation, and Laura hastily +closed the window. + +"Let me loosen your braids for you, Del," said she, quietly, taking up +my hair in her gentle way, which always had a good effect on my prancing +nerves; "let me bathe your forehead with this, dear;--now, let me tell +you something you will like." + +"Oh, my heart! Laura, I wish you could! for I declare to you, that, if +it wasn't for--if it didn't----Oh, dear, dear! how I do hate that name!" + +"It is not so very good a name,--that must be owned, Del. All is, you +will have to call him 'Mr. Sampson,' or 'My dear,' or 'You'; or, stay, +you might abbreviate it into Ame, Ami. Ami and Delphine!--it sounds like +a French story for youth. If I were you, I wouldn't meddle with it or +think any more about it." + +"Such a name! so ridiculous!" I muttered. + +"You have considered it so much and so closely, Del, that it is most +disproportionately prominent in your mind. You can put out Bunker-Hill +Monument with your little finger, if you hold it close enough to your +eye. Don't you remember what Mr. Sampson said to-night about somebody +whose mind had no perspective in it? that his shoe-ribbon was as +prominent and important as his soul? Don't go and be a goosey, Del, and +have no perspective, will you?" And Laura leaned over and kissed my +forehead, all corrugated with my pet grief. + +"Well, Laura, what can be worse? I declare--almost I think, Laura, I +would rather he should have some great defect." + +"Moral or physical? Gambling? one leg? one eye? lying? six fingers? How +do you mean, Del?" + +"Oh, patience! no, indeed!--six fingers! I only meant"---- + +And here, of course, I stopped. + +"Which virtue could you spare in Mr. Sampson?" said Laura, coolly, +fastening my hair neatly in its net, and sitting down in _her_ +rocking-chair. + +When it came to that, of course there were none to be spared. We +undressed, silently,--Laura rolling all her ribbons carefully, and +I throwing mine about; Laura, consistent, conservative, allopathic, +High-Church,--I, homoeopathic, hydropathic, careless, and given to +Parkerism. It did not matter, as to harmony. Two bracelets, but no +need to be alike. We clasped arms and hearts all the same. By-and-by I +remembered,-- + +"Oh! what's your good news, Laura?" + +"Ariana Cooper and Geraldine Parker are both married,--both on the same +day, at Grace Church, New York." + +"Is it possible? Who told you? How do you know?" + +"I read it in the 'Evening Post,' just before I came up-stairs. Now +guess,--guess a month, Del, and you won't guess whom they have married." + +"No use to guess. They've found somebody in New York at their aunt's, +I suppose. Both so pretty and rich, they were likely to find good +_partis_." + +"Merchants both, I think. Now do guess!" + +"How can I? Herbert Clark, maybe,--or Captain Ellington? No, of course +not. A merchant? Julius Winthrop. I know Ariana was a great admirer of +a military man. She used to say she would have loved Sidney for his +chivalry, and Raleigh for his graceful foppery; and Pembroke Dunkin she +admired for both. It isn't Pembroke?" + +And here I sighed over and over, like a foolish virgin. + +"Now, then, listen. Here it is in the paper," said Laura. + +"'Married, at Grace Church, by the Rev. So-and-So, assisted, etc., etc., +Ossian Smutt, Esq., of the firm of S. Hamilton & Company, to Ariana, +eldest daughter of the late George S. Cooper. At the same place, and +day, Hon. Unity Smith, M.C., to Geraldine Miranda, daughter of the late +Russell Parker of Pine Lodge. The happy quartette have left in the +Persia for a tour in Europe. We wish them joy.'" + +"Ugh! Laura! goodness! well, that outdoes me," I screamed, with a sudden +sense of relief, that set me laughing as passionately as I had been +crying. For, though I have not before owned it, I had been crying +heartily. + +The Balm of a Thousand Flowers descended on my lacerated heart. To say +the truth, I had dreaded more Ariana's little shrug, and Geraldine +Parker's upraised eyebrows, on reading my marriage, than a whole life of +_that_ name, on my own account merely. But now, thank Heaven, so much +trouble was out of my way. Mrs. Unity Smith, and Mrs. Orlando--no, +Ossian Smutt, could by no possibility laugh at me. Mrs. A. Sampson +wasn't bad on a card. It would not smut one, anyhow. I laughed grimly, +and composed myself to sleep. + +The next morning had come the pleasant letter from my Albany aunt, with +the fifty-dollar note. Laura continued rocking, fifty strokes a minute, +and stitching at the rate of sixty. I held the note idly, rubbing up +my imagination for things new and old. Laura, being industrious, was +virtuously employing her thoughts. As idleness brings mischief, and +riches anxiety, I did not rock long without evil consequences. Eve +herself was not contented in Eden. She had to do all the cooking, for +one thing,--and angels always happening in to dinner! For my part, the +name of Adam would have been enough to spoil my pleasure. Here Laura +interrupted my thoughts, which were running headlong into everything +wicked. + +"What do you say?" + +"What do you?" I answered; for, like other bad people, I had the +greatest respect for good people's opinions. + +"I think--a small--silver salver!" + +"Do you think so, really?" + +"Yes, Del. That will be good; silver, you know, is always good to have; +and it will be handsome and useful always." + +"What! for us?" + +"Yes,--pretty to hand a cup of tea on, or a glass of wine,--pretty to +set in the middle of a long table with a vase of flowers on it, when you +have the Court and High-Sheriff to dine,--as you will, of course, every +year,--or with your spoon-goblet. Oh, there are plenty of ways to make a +small silver salver useful. Mrs. Harris says she doesn't see how any one +can keep house without a silver salver." + +The last sentence she said with a laugh, for she knew I thought so much +of what Mrs. Harris said. + +"We've kept house all our lives without one, Laura." + +"Yes,--but I often wish we had one, for all that. As Mrs. Harris says, +'It gives such an air!'" + +What a dreadful utilitarian Laura was, I thought. Now, the whole world +and Boston were full of beautiful things,--full of things that had no +special usefulness, but were absolutely and of themselves beautiful. And +such a thing I wanted,--such a presence before me,--"a thing of beauty +and of joy forever,"--something that would not speak directly or +indirectly of labor, of something to be wrought out with toil, or +associated with common, every-day objects. When that life should come to +which I secretly looked forward,--when my soul should bound into a more +radiant atmosphere, where the clouds, if any were, should be all +gold- and silver-tinted, and where my sorrows, love-colored, were to be +sweeter than other people's joys,--in that life, there would be moments +of sweet abandonment to the simple sense of happiness. Then I should +want something on which my mind might linger, my eye rest,--as the bird +rests for an instant, to turn her plumage in the sun, and take another +and loftier flight. Not a word of all this, which common minds called +farrago, but which had its truth to me, did I utter to Laura. Of course, +none of these things bear transplanting or expressing. + +"Laura, do you like that statue of Mercury in Mrs. Gore's library?" + +"Very much. But I am sure I should be tired of seeing it every day, +standing on one toe. I should be tired, if he wasn't." + +"Mrs. Gore says she never tires of it. I asked her. She says it is a +delight to her to lie on the sofa and trace the beautiful undulations +of his figure. How airy! It looks as if it would fly again without the +least effort,--as if it had just 'new-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill'! +Don't you think it perfect, Laura?" + +"Well--yes,--I suppose so. I am not so enthusiastic as you are about +it." + +"Why don't you like it?" + +I would not let Laura see how disappointed I was. + +"One thing,--I don't like statuary in any attitude which, if continued, +would seem to be painful. I know artists admire what gives an impression +of motion; and I like to look at Mercury once; as you say, it gives an +idea of flight, of motion,--and it is beautiful for two minutes. But +then comes a sense of its being painful. So that statue of Hebe, or +Aurora,--which is it?--looks as if swiftly coming towards you; but only +for a minute. It does not satisfy you longer, because the unfitness +comes then, and the fatigue, and your imagination is harassed and +fretted. I think statuary should be in repose,--that is, if we want it +in the house as a constant object of sight. Eve at the fountain, or Echo +listening, or Sabrina fair sitting + + "'Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, + With twisted braids of lilies knitting + The loose train of her amber-dropping hair.' + +"No matter, if she is represented employed. The motion may go so far." + +I suppose I looked blank. + +"Oh, don't think I am not glad to admire it. I thought you were thinking +of it for Aunt Allen's gift," continued Laura. + +"And so I was. It costs just fifty dollars. But I think you are right +about it. And, besides, do you like bronze, Laura?" + +"I like marble a great, great deal best. There is a bronze statue of +Fortune, and a Venus, at Harris & Stanwood's, that are called 'so +beautiful!'--and I wouldn't have them in my house." + +Here was an extinguisher. Laura didn't like bronze. And Laura was to be +in my house, whether bronzes--were or not. + + * * * * * + +The sun shone brightly through the bitter-sweet that ran half over the +window, and lighted on the corner of an old mahogany chest. + +"That reminds me!" said I, suddenly. "Yesterday, I was looking at +crockery, and there was the most delightful cabinet!--real Japan work, +such as we read of; full of little drawers, and with carved silver +handles, and a secret drawer that shoots out when you touch a spring at +the back. Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing to stand in the parlor, +Laura?" + +"For what, Del? Could you keep silver in it? How large is it?" + +"Why, no,--it wouldn't be large enough to hold silver. And, besides, I +don't know that I want it for any such purpose. It would hold jewelry." + +"If you had any, Del." + +"There's the secret drawer,--that would be capital for anything I wanted +to keep perfectly secret." + +"Such as what'?" + +"Oh, I don't know what, now; but I might possibly have." + +"I can't think of anything you would want to shut up in that drawer," +said Laura, laughing at my mysterious face, which she said looked about +as secret as a hen-coop with the chickens all flying out between the +slats. "In the first place, you haven't any secrets, and are not likely +to have; and next, you will show us (Mr. Sampson and me) the drawer and +spring the first thing you do. And I shall look there every week, to see +if there's anything hid there!" + +"Oh, bah!" said I to myself; "Sumner told me that cabinet was just fifty +dollars." + +Something--I know not what, and probably never shall know--made me rise +from my rocking-chair, and walk to the chamber-window. At that moment, a +man with a green bag in his hand walked swiftly by, touched his hat as +he passed, and smiled as he turned the corner out of sight. A little +spasm, half painful in its pleasure, contracted my chest, and then +set out at a thrilling pace to the end of my fingers. Then a sense of +triumphant fulness, in my heart, on my lip, in my eyes. Not the name, +but the nature passed,--strong to wrestle, determined to win. Not the +body, but the soul of a man, passed across my field of vision, armed for +earth-strife, gallantly breasting life. What mattered the shape or the +name,--whether handsome or with a fine fortune? How these accidents fell +off from the soul, as it beamed in the loving eye and firm lip! + + "The moment that his face I see, + I know the man that must" lead "me." + +And gently as the fawn follows the forest-keeper does my heart follow +his, to the green pastures and still waters where he loves to lead. I +did not think whether he had a name. + +"Are you considering what to put into the secret drawer, Del?" + +"Yes,--rather." + +Again Laura and I sat and rocked,--this time silently, for my head was +full, and I was holding a stopper on it to keep it from running over; +while Laura was really puzzled about the way to make a dog's eyes with +Berlin wool. As I rocked, from association probably, I thought again of +Eve,--who never seems at all like a grandmother to me, nor even like +"the mother of all living," but like a sweet, capricious, tender, +naughty girl. Like Eve, I had only to stretch forth my hand (with the +fifty-dollar note in it) and grasp "as much beauty as could live" within +that space. Yet, as fifty dollars would buy not only this, but that, +and also the other, it presently became the representative of tens +of fifties, hundreds of fifties, thousands of fifties, and so +on,--different fifties all, but all assuming shapes of beauty and value; +finally, alternately clustering and separating, gathering as if in all +sorts of beautiful heads,--angel heads, winged children,--then shooting +off in a thousand different directions, leaving behind landscapes of +exquisite sunsets, of Norwegian scenery, of processions of pines, of +moonlight seen through arched bridges, of Palmyrene deserts, of +pilgrims in the morning praying. Then came hurdy-gurdy boys and little +flower-girls again, mingling with the landscapes, and thrusting their +curly heads forward, as if to bid me not forget them. Then they all ran +away and left me standing in a long, endless hall with endless columns, +and white figures all about,--in the niches, on the floor, on the +walls,--each Olympian in beauty, in grandeur, in power to lift the +entranced soul to the high region where itself was created, and to which +it always pointed. The white figures melted and warmed into masses and +alcoves, and innumerable volumes looked affectionately at me. They knew +me of old, and had told me their delightful secrets. "They had slept +in my bosom, and whispered kind things to me in the dark night." Some +pressed forward, declaring that here was the new wine of thought, +sparkling and foaming as it had never done before, from the depths of +human sympathy; and others murmured, "The old is better," and smiled at +the surface-thoughts in blue and gold. Volumes and authors grew angry +and vituperative. There was so much to be said on all sides, that I was +deafened, and, with a shake of my head, shook everything into chaos, as +I had done a hundred times before. + +"What are you thinking of, Del?" said Laura, pointing the dog's eye with +scarlet wool, to make him look fierce. "You have been looking straight +at me for half a minute." + +"Half a minute! have I?" + +That wasn't long, however, considering what I had seen in the time. + +"At Cotton's, yesterday, I saw, Laura, a beautiful engraving of Arria +and Paetus. She is drawing the dagger from her side, and saying, so +calmly, so heroically,--'My Paetus! it is not hard to die!'" + +I had inquired the price of this engraving, and the man said it was +fifty dollars without the frame. + +"Those pictures are so painful to look at! don't you think so, Del? And +the better they are, the worse they are! Don't you remember that day we +passed with Sarah, how we wondered she could have her walls covered with +such pictures?" + +"Merrill brought them home from Italy, or she wouldn't, perhaps. But I +do remember,--they ware very disagreeable. That flaying of Marsyas! and +Christ crowned with thorns! and that sad Ecce Homo!" + +"Yes,--and the Laocooen on that centre bracket! enough to make you scream +to look at it! I desire never to have such bloody reminders about me; +and for a parlor or sitting-room I would infinitely prefer a dead wall +to such a picture, if it were by the oldest of the old masters. Who +wants Ugolino in the house, if it is ever so well painted? Supping on +horrors indeed!" + +We rocked again,--and Laura talked about plants and shirts and such +healthy subjects. But, of course, my mind was in such a condition, +nothing but fifty-dollar subjects would stay in it; and, most of all, I +must not let Laura guess what I was thinking of. + +"Do you like enamelled watches, Laura,--those pretty little ones made in +Geneva, I mean, worth from forty to sixty dollars?" + +"How do you mean? Do I like the small timepieces? or is it the picture +on the back?" said Laura. + +"Oh, either. I was thinking of a beauty I saw at Crosby's yesterday, +with the Madonna della Seggiola on the back. Now it is a good thing to +have such a picture about one, any way. I looked at this through the +microscope. It was surprisingly well done; and I suppose the watches are +as good as most." + +"Better than yours and mine, Del?" said Laura, demurely. + +"Why, no,--I suppose not so good. But I was thinking more of the +picture." + +"Oh!" said Laura. + +I was on the point of asking what she thought of Knight's Shakspeare, +when the bell rang and Polly brought up Miss Russell's card. + +Miss Russell was good and pretty, with a peach-bloom complexion, soft +blue eyes, and curling auburn hair. Still those were articles that could +not well be appraised, as I thought the first minute after we were +seated in the parlor. But she had over her shoulders a cashmere scarf, +which Mr. Russell had brought from India himself, which was therefore a +genuine article, and which, to crown all, cost him only fifty dollars. +It would readily bring thrice that sum in Boston, Miss Russell said. But +such chances were always occurring. Then she described how the shawls +were all thrown in a mess together in a room, and how the captains of +vessels bought them at hap-hazard, without knowing anything about their +value or their relative fineness, and how you could often, if you knew +about the goods, get great bargains. It was a good way to send out fifty +or a hundred dollars by some captain you could trust for taste, or the +captain's wife. But it was generally a mere chance. Sometimes there +would be bought a great old shawl that had been wound round the naked +waist and shoulders of some Indian till it was all soiled and worn. That +would have to be cut up into little neck-scarfs. But sometimes, too, you +got them quite new. Papa knew about dry goods, luckily, and selected a +nice one. + +Part of this was repulsive,--but, again, part of it attractive. We don't +expect to be the cheated ones ourselves. + +The bell rang again, and this time Lieutenant Clarence Herbert entered +on tiptoe: not of expectation particularly, but he had a way of +tiptoeing which had been the fashion before he went to sea the last +time, and which he resumed on his return, without noticing that in the +mean time the fashion had gone by, and everybody stood straight and +square on his feet. The effect, like all just-gone-by fashions, was to +make him look ridiculous; and it required some self-control on our part +to do him the justice of remembering that he could be quite brilliant +when he pleased, was musical and sentimental. He had a good name, as I +sighed in recalling. + +We talked on, and on, instinctively keeping near the ground, and hopping +from bough to bough of daily facts. + +When they were both gone, we rejoiced, and went up-stairs again to our +work and our rocking. Laura hummed,-- + + "'The visit paid, with ecstasy we come, + As from a seven-years' transportation, home, + And there resume the unembarrassed brow, + Recovering what we lost, we know not how,'-- + +"What is it?-- + + "'Expression,--and the privilege of thought.'" + +"What an idea Louisa Russell always gives one of clothes!" said Laura. +"I never remember the least thing she says. I would almost as soon have +in the house one of those wire-women they keep in the shops to hang +shawls on, for anything she has to say." + +"I know it," I answered. "But, to tell the truth, Laura, there was +something very interesting about her clothes to me to-day. That scarf! +Don't you think, Laura, that an India scarf is always handsome?" + +"Always handsome? What! all colors and qualities?" + +"Of course not. I mean a handsome one,--like Louisa Russell's." + +"Why, yes, Del. A handsome scarf is always handsome,--that is, until it +is defaced or worn out. What a literal mood you are in just now!" + +"Well, Laura,"--I hesitated, and then added slowly, "don't you think +that an India scarf has become almost a matter of necessity? I mean, +that everybody has one?" + +"In Boston, you mean. I understand the New York traders say they sell +ten cashmere shawls to Boston people where they do one to a New-Yorker." + +"Mrs. Harris told me, Laura, that she _could not_ do without one. She +says she considers them a real necessary of life. She has lost four of +those little neck-scarfs, and, she says, she just goes and buys another. +Her neck is always cold just there." + +"Is it, really?" said Laura, dryly. "I suppose nothing short of cashmere +could possibly warm it!" + +"Well, it is a pretty thing for a present, any way," said I, rather +impatiently; for I had settled on a scarf as unexceptionable in most +respects. There was the bargain, to begin with. Then it was always a +good thing to hand down to one's heirs. The Gores had a long one that +belonged to their grandmamma, and they could draw it through a gold +ring. It was good to wear, and good to leave. Indicated blood, +too,--and--and----In short, a great deal of nonsense was on the end of +my tongue, waiting my leave to slip off, when Laura said,-- + +"Didn't Lieutenant Herbert say he would bring you Darley's 'Margaret'?" + +"Yes,--he is to bring it to-morrow. What a pretty name Clarence Herbert +is! Lieutenant Clarence Herbert,--there's a good name for you! How many +pretty names there are!" + +"You wouldn't be at a loss to name boys," said Laura, laughing,--"like +Mr. Stickney, who named his boys One, Two, and Three. Think of going by +the name of One Stickney!" + +"That isn't so bad as to be named 'The Fifteenth of March.' And that was +a real name, given to a girl who was born at sea--I wonder what _she_ +was called 'for short.'" + +"Sweet fifteen, perhaps." + +"That would do. Yes,--Herbert, Robert," said I, musingly, "and Philip, +and Arthur, and Algernon, Alfred, Sidney, Howard, Rupert"---- + +"Oh, don't, Del! You are foolish, now." + +"How, Laura?" said I, consciously. + +"Why don't you say America?" + +"Oh, what a fall!" + +"Enough better than your fine Lieutenant, Del, with his taste, and his +sentiments, and his fine bows, and 'his infinite deal of nothing.'" + +I sighed and said nothing. The name-fancies had gone by in long +procession. America had buried them all, and stamped sternly on their +graves. + +"What made you ask about Darley's 'Margaret,' Laura?" + +"Oh,--only I wanted to see it." + +"Don't you think," said I, suddenly reviving with a new idea, "that a +portfolio of engravings is a handsome thing to have in one's parlor +or library? Add to it, you know, from time to time; but begin with +'Margaret,' perhaps, and Retzsch's 'Hamlet' or 'Faust,'--or a collection +of fine wood engravings, such as Mrs. Harris has,--and perhaps one of +Albert Duerer's ugly things to show off with. What do you think of it, +Laura?" + +"Do you ever look at Mrs. Harris's nowadays, Del?" + +"Why, no,--I can't say I do, now. But I have looked at them when people +were there. How she would shrug and shiver when they _would_ put their +fingers on her nice engravings, and soil, or bend and break them at +the corners! Somebody asked her once, all the time breaking up a fine +Bridgewater Madonna she had just given forty dollars for, 'What is +this engraving worth, now?' She answered, coldly,--'Five minutes ago I +thought it worth forty dollars: now I would take forty cents for it.'" + +"Not very polite, I should say," said Laura. "And rather cruel too, +on the whole; since the offence was doubtless the result of ignorance +only." + +"I know. But Mrs. Harris said she was so vexed she could not restrain +herself; and besides, she would infinitely prefer that he should be +mortally offended, at least to the point of losing his acquaintance, to +having her best pictures spoiled. She said he cost too much altogether." + +"She should have the corners covered somehow. To be sure, it would be +better for people to learn how to treat nice engravings,--but they +won't; and every day somebody comes to see you, and talks excellent +sense, all the while either rolling up your last 'Art Journal,' or +breaking the face of Bryant's portrait in, or some equal mischief. I +don't think engravings pay, to keep,--on the whole; do you, Del?" And +Laura smiled while she rocked. + +"Well, perhaps not. I am sure I shouldn't be amiable enough to have mine +thumbed and ruined; and certainly, if they are only to be kept in a +portfolio, it seems hardly worth while." + +"So I think," said Laura. + +This vexatious consideration--for so it had become--of how I should +spend my aunt's money, came at length almost to outweigh the pleasure of +having it to spend. It was perhaps a little annoyance, at first, but by +repetition became of course great. The prick of a pin is nothing; but if +it prick three weeks, sleeping and waking, "there is differences, look +you!" + +"What shall I do with it?" became a serious matter. Suppose I left the +regions of art and beauty particularly, and came back and down to what +would be suitable on the whole, and agreeable to my aunt, whose taste +was evidently beyond what Albany could afford, or she would not have +sent me to the Modern Athens to buy the right thing. Nothing that would +break; else, Sevres china would be nice: I might get a small plate, or +a dish, for the money. Clothes wear out. Furniture,--you don't want to +say, "This chair, or this bureau or looking-glass, is my Aunt Allen's +gift." No, indeed! It must be something uncommon, _recherche_, tasteful, +durable, and, if possible, something that will show well and sound well +always. If it were only to spend the money, of course I could buy a +carpet or fire-set with it. And off went my bewildered head again on a +tour of observation. + +[To be continued.] + + * * * * * + + +HARBORS OF THE GREAT LAKES. + + +In a recent article upon "The Great Lakes,"[A] we remarked, that, +from the conformation of their shores, natural harbors are of rare +occurrence. Consequently, for the protection and convenience of +commerce, a system of artificial harbors has been adopted by the Federal +Government, and appropriations have been made from time to time by +Congress for this purpose; and officers of the United States Engineer +Corps have been appointed to carry on the work. It is to some extent a +new and peculiar kind of engineering, caused by the peculiar conditions +of the case. + +[Footnote A: See _Atlantic Monthly_ for February.] + +Most of the lake-towns are built upon rivers which empty into the lakes, +and these rivers are usually obstructed at their mouths by bars of sand +and clay. The formation of these bars is due to several causes. The +principal one is this:--The shores of the lakes being usually composed +of sand, this is carried along by the shore-currents of the lake and +deposited at the river-mouths. Another cause of these obstructions may +be found in the fact, that the currents of the rivers are constantly +bringing down with them an amount of soil, which is deposited at the +point where the current meets the still waters of the lake. A third +cause, as we are told by Col. Graham, in his Report for 1855, is the +following:-- + +"Although the great depth of Lake Michigan prevents the surface from +freezing, yet the ice accumulates in large bodies in the shallow water +near the shores, and is driven by the wind into the mouths of the +rivers. A barrier being thus formed to the force of the lake-waves, the +sudden check of velocity causes them to deposit a portion of the silt +they hold in suspension upon the upper surface of this stratum of ice. +By repeated accumulations in this way, the weight becomes sufficient to +sink the whole mass to the bottom. There it rests, together with other +strata, which are sunk in the same way, until the channel is obstructed +by the combined masses of ice and silt. In the spring, when the ice +melts, the silt is dropped to the bottom, which, combined with that +constantly deposited by the lakeshore currents, causes a greater +accumulation in winter than at any other season." + +These bars at the natural river-mouths have frequently not more than two +or three feet of water; and some of them have entirely closed up the +entrance, although at a short distance inside there may be a depth of +from twelve to fifteen or even twenty feet of water. + +The channels of these rivers have also a tendency to be deflected from +their courses, on entering the lake, by the shore-currents, which, +driven before the prevailing winds, bend the channel off at right +angles, and, carrying it parallel with the lake-shore, form a long spit +of sand between the river and the lake. + +Thus, in constructing an artificial harbor at one of these river-mouths, +the first object to be aimed at is to prevent the further formation of a +bar; and the second, to deepen and improve the river-channel. The former +is attained by running out piers into the lake from the mouth of the +river; and the latter, by the use of a dredge-boat, to cut through the +obstructions. + +These piers are formed of a line of cribs, built of timber, and loaded +with stone to keep them in place, and enable them to resist the action +of the waves. They are usually built about twenty or twenty-five feet +wide, and from thirty to forty feet long. They are strengthened by +cross-ties of timber, uniting together the outward walls of the crib. +Piles are usually driven down into the clay, inside of these cribs, and +they are covered with a deck or flooring of plank. As the action of the +currents is constantly tending to remove the bed on which the cribs +rest, and thus cause them to tilt over, their bottoms are constructed +in a sort of open lattice-work, with openings large enough to allow the +stones with which they are loaded to drop through and supply the place +of the earth which is washed away. + +The effect of these piers is to concentrate and deepen the +river-channel, and to retard the formation of bars, though they do not +wholly prevent it. In the spring it is often necessary to employ the +services of a steam-dredge-boat to cut through the bar, before vessels +can pass out. + +The portion of these cribs above water is found not to last more than +ten or fifteen years; so that it is now recommended to replace them with +piers of stone masonry, wherever the material is easy of access. + +As to the cause of the shore-currents which produce this mischief, Col. +Graham says, in one of his Reports,-- + +"The great power which operates to produce the littoral or shore +currents of the lake is the prevailing winds; just as the great ocean +current called the Gulf Stream is produced by the trade-winds. The +first-mentioned phenomenon is but a miniature demonstration of the same +principle which is more boldly shown in the other. The wind, acting +in its most prevalent lakeward direction, combined with this littoral +current, produces the great power which is constantly forming sand-bars +and shoals at all the harbor-entrances on our extensive lake-coasts. To +counteract the effect of this great power, upon a given point, is what +we have chiefly to contend for in planning the harbor-piers for all the +lake-ports intended to be improved. The point which an engineer first +aims at, in undertaking to plan any of these harbor-works, is to +ascertain as nearly as possible the direction and force of the +prevailing winds." + +The length of the Chicago piers is as follows:--North pier, 3900 feet +long, 24 feet wide; south pier, 1800 feet long, 24 feet wide; and they +are placed 200 feet apart. + +Harbors of this kind have been constructed at Chicago, Waukegan, +Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Manitoowoc, Michigan City, and +St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan; at Clinton River, on Lake St. Clair; at +Monroe, Sandusky, Huron, Vermilion, Black River, Cleveland, Grand River, +Ashtabula, Conneaut, Erie, Dunkirk, and Buffalo, on Lake Erie; at Oak +Orchard, Genesee River, Sodus Bay, Oswego, and Ogdensburg, on Lake +Ontario. + +For Lakes Huron and Superior it is believed that no appropriations have +been made, the scanty population of their shores not seeming as yet +to demand it, and those two lakes having in their numerous groups of +islands more natural shelter for vessels than Michigan or Erie. + +Besides these river-harbors, Col. Graham recommends to Government the +construction at certain points on the lakes of sheltered roadsteads, or +harbors of refuge, to which vessels may run for shelter in bad weather, +when it may be difficult or dangerous to enter the river-mouths. These +are proposed to be made by building breakwaters of crib-work, loaded +with stone, and extending along the shore in a sufficient depth of water +to admit vessels riding easily at anchor under their lee. Many lives +and much property would undoubtedly be saved every year by such +constructions; for it is a difficult matter for a vessel to enter these +narrow rivers in a heavy gale of wind, and if she misses the entrance, +she is very likely to go ashore. + +Another very important work to the navigation of the lakes is the +deepening of the channel in Lake St. Clair. + +Between Lakes Huron and Erie lies Lake St. Clair, a shallow sheet of +water, some twenty miles in length, through which all the trade of the +Upper Lakes is obliged to pass. At the mouth of the river which connects +this lake with Huron, there is a delta of mud flats, with numerous +channels, which in their deepest parts have not more than ten feet of +water, and would be utterly impassable, were not the bottom of a soft +and yielding mud, which permits the passage of vessels through it, under +the impulse of steam or a strong wind. + +Mr. James L. Barton, a gentleman long connected with the lake-commerce, +thus wrote some years ago upon this subject to the Hon. Robert +McClelland, then chairman of the House Committee on Commerce:-- + +"These difficulties are vastly increased from the almost impassable +condition of the flats in Lake St. Clair. Here steamboats and vessels +are daily compelled in all weather to lie fast aground, and shift their +cargoes, passengers, and luggage into lighters, exposing life, health, +and property to great hazard, and then by extraordinary heaving and +hauling are enabled to get over. Indeed, so bad has this passage become, +that one of the largest steamboats, after lying two or three days on +these flats, everything taken from her into lighters, was unable, with +the powerful aid of steam and everything else she could bring into +service, to pass over; she was obliged to give her freight and +passengers to a smaller boat, abandon the trip, and return to Buffalo. +Other vessels have been compelled not only to take out all their +cargoes, but even their chains and anchors have been stripped from them, +before they could get over. To meet this difficulty as far as possible, +the commercial men around these lakes have imposed a tax upon their +shipping, to dredge out and deepen the channel through these flats." + +Col. Graham, in one of his Reports to the Department, writes as follows +upon the importance of this improvement in a military point of view:-- + +"Since the opening of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal, the only obstacle to +the co-operation of armed fleets, which in time of war would be placed +upon Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, with that which would be on +Lake Erie, is at St. Clair flats. That obstacle removed, and a depth +of channel of twelve feet obtained there, which might be increased to +sixteen or eighteen feet by dredging, war-steamers of the largest +class which would probably be placed on these lakes would have a free +navigation from Buffalo at the foot of Lake Erie to Fond du Lac of Lake +Superior. + +"It would be very important that these fleets should have the power of +concentration, either wholly or in part, at certain important points now +rendered impracticable by these intervening flats. It would no doubt +often be important as a measure of naval tactics alone. It would as +often, again, be equally necessary in cooeperating with our land-forces. +It might even become necessary to depend on the navy to transport our +land-forces rapidly from one point to another on different sides of the +flats. + +"When a work like this subserves the double purpose of military defence +in times of war, and of promoting the interests of commerce between +several of the States of the Union in time of peace, it would seem to +have an increased claim to the attention of the General Government. If +any work of improvement can be considered national in its character, +the improvement of St. Clair flats, in the manner proposed, may, it is +submitted, justly claim to be placed in that category." + +The plan proposed by the United States Engineers for this improvement is +to construct two parallel piers of about four thousand feet long, as a +permanent protection to the channel-way, and to dredge out a channel +between these piers, six hundred feet wide and twelve feet deep. The +cost of this work is estimated at about $533,000. This may seem a large +sum of money; but when it is considered that the value of the commerce +which passed over these flats in the year 1855 was ascertained by +Col. Graham to be over two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, or +considerably more than the whole exports of the Southern States for the +year 1860, more than a million of dollars per day during the period of +navigation, and that the increased charge on freights by reason of this +obstruction is more than two millions of dollars per annum, which of +course has to be paid by the producer, the investment of one quarter of +that annual charge in a work which would do away with the tax might seem +to be a measure of economy. + +To show the importance of these lake-harbors, and the vast amount of +commerce which depends upon them, and which has grown up within the last +twenty years, we will give an extract from another of Col. Graham's very +interesting Reports, upon the Chicago harbor. + +"The present vast extent and rapidly increasing growth of the commerce +of Chicago render it a matter of absolute necessity, in which not +only Illinois, but also a number of her neighboring States are deeply +interested, that her harbor should be kept in the best and most secure +state of improvement, so as always to afford, during the season of +navigation, a safe and easy entrance and departure for vessels drawing +at least twelve feet water. + +"The States which are thus directly interested in the port of Chicago +are New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, +Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The shores of all these are washed either by +Lake Michigan or the other Great Lakes, with which Chicago has a direct +and very extensive commerce through the St. Clair flats. The other +States and Territories, which do not reach to the Great Lakes, but which +are nevertheless greatly interested in the preservation of Chicago +harbor, are Iowa and Missouri, and Nebraska and Kansas. A very large +portion of the wheat and other grain produced in those last-mentioned +States and Territories will be brought by railroads to the port of +Chicago, to be shipped thence to the Eastern Atlantic markets. + +"The average amount of duties received annually at the Chicago +custom-house for three years, 1853, '54, and '55, was $377,797.86. The +imports at Chicago for 1855 were,-- + + By lake shipment, $100,752,304.41 + " Illinois and Michigan Canal, 7,426,262.35 + " Railroads, 68,481,497.90 + + Total imports in 1855, $196,660,064.66 + +_Exports_. + + By lake shipment, $34,817,716.32 + " Canal, 79,614,042.70 + " Railroads, 98,521,262.86 + ---------------- + Total value of exports in 1855, $212,953,021.88 + +"Aggregate value of imports and exports at Chicago in the year 1855, +$409,613,086.54.[B] + +[Footnote B: This is more than half of the value of all the exports and +imports of the Union in the year 1860, King Cotton included.] + +"These statistics have been obtained by much labor and perseverance, +with a view to the strictest accuracy. The result has amply justified +the labor; for the published statistics of this commerce, which have +gone forth to the country through the newspaper-press of the city, fall +far short of its actual extent. On discovering this fact, I felt it to +be a matter of duty to obtain the information directly from the only +authentic sources, namely, the custom-house, mercantile, and warehouse +records. + +"Such are the claims which, in a civil point of view, are presented in +behalf of the preservation of this harbor. + +"There is still another, of not less magnitude, which is exclusively +national. It is the influence it would have on the military defence of +this part of our frontier, and the success of our arms in time of war. A +single glance at the general map of the United States will be sufficient +to show the importance of Chicago as a military position in conducting +our operations in defence of our northwestern frontier in time of war. + +"The great depth to which Lake Michigan here penetrates into a populous +and fertile country totally devoid of fortifications would constitute an +irresistible inducement to an enemy to aim with all his strength at this +point, should he find it divested of any of the chief means of defence +which are by all nations accorded to maritime ports of chief importance, +He would find Chicago very much in such a state of weakness, if the +harborworks here are allowed to fall into a dilapidated condition; for +then our naval force would not itself be secure in hovering about this +port, or in cruising in its immediate vicinity for purposes of military +defence. There is scarcely a week in the year that a fleet might not +have occasion to take refuge from the lake-gales in a safe harbor. +Deprived of this advantage, the only resort would be to take the open +sea, and there buffet out the storms. On their subsiding, this defensive +fleet, on attempting to resume its proper position, might find it +occupied by an enemy, with all the advantages, in a combat, which ought +to be secured to our side. + +"An enemy, once possessing this harbor, could by a powerful fleet cover +the landing of an army in pursuit of the conquest of territory, or +designing to lay heavy pecuniary contributions upon the inhabitants. +Peace is the proper time to prepare against such a catastrophe, and the +protection of the harbor is the first element in the military defence +that should be attended to. With the harbor secured permanently in good +condition, the port of Chicago, through the enterprise of the people +of Illinois and the surrounding States, will possess the elements of +military strength in perhaps a greater degree than any other seaport in +the Union. + +"The immense reticulation of railroads, amounting to an aggregate length +of 2720 miles, which are tributary to this port, now daily brings into +Chicago the vast amount of agricultural produce exhibited in our tables. +These are their peace-offerings to other nations. In the emergency of +war, however, these railroads could in a single day concentrate at +Chicago troops enough for any military campaign, even if designed to +cover our whole northwestern lake-frontier. Besides this, they would be +the means of bringing here, daily, the munitions of war, and, above all, +the necessary articles of subsistence and forage, to sustain an army of +any magnitude, and to keep it in activity throughout any period that +the war might last. In other words, Chicago would be in time of war the +chief _point d'appui_ of military operations in the Northwest." + +In regard to the military importance of the command of the Great Lakes, +history ought to teach us a lesson. At the breaking out of the War of +1812, this matter had been entirely neglected by our Government, in +spite of the earnest appeals of the officer in command in this quarter. +The consequence was the utter failure of the campaign against Canada, +and the capture of the principal posts in the Northwest by the British, +who had provided a naval force here, small, indeed, but sufficient where +there was no opponent. It was not until the naval force organized by +Commodore Perry swept the British from Lake Erie that General Harrison +was able to recover the lost territory. From these considerations, the +importance of strong fortifications in the Straits of Mackinac, to +command the entrance of our Mediterranean, would seem to be evident. + +The early advocates in Congress of these lake-improvements had to +encounter a very violent opposition from various quarters. + +First, the abstractionists of the Virginia school--men who "would cavil +for the ninth part of a hair"--affirmed in general terms, that this +Government was established with the view of regulating our external +affairs, leaving all internal matters to be regulated by the States; and +then, descending to particulars, declared, that, while Congress had the +power to make improvements on salt water, it could do nothing on fresh. +Furthermore, they argued, that, to give the power of spending money, the +water must ebb and flow, and that the improvement must be below a port +of entry, and not above. Another refinement of the Richmond sophists +was this:--If a river be already navigable, Congress has the power to +improve it, because it can "regulate" commerce; but if a sand-bar at +its mouth prevents vessels from passing in or out, Congress cannot +interfere, because that would be "creating," and not "regulating." +Other Southern orators and their Northern followers denounced these +appropriations as a system of plunder and an attack upon Southern +rights, forgetting the fact, that, in these harbor and coast +appropriations, the South, with a much smaller commerce than the North, +had always claimed the larger share of expenditure. Thus, from 1825 to +1831, + + New England received $ 327,563.21 + The Middle States, including + the Lakes, 982,145.20 + The South and Southwest 2,233,813.18 + +Others joined in this opposition, from ignorance of the great commerce +growing up on the lakes; and frequently, where bills have been passed by +Congress, Southern influence has caused the Executive to veto them. In +spite of all these obstacles, however, this great interest forced itself +upon the attention of the country; and in July, 1847, a Convention, +composed of delegates from eighteen States, met in Chicago, to concert +measures for obtaining from Government the necessary improvements for +Western rivers and harbors. This body sent an able memorial to Congress, +and the result has been that larger appropriations have since been made. +Still, however, much remains to be done, and it appears by the last +Report of Colonel Graham, that his estimates for necessary work on lake +harbors and roadsteads amount to nearly three millions of dollars, to +which half a million should be added for the improvement of St. Clair +flats, making an aggregate of three and a half millions of dollars, +which is much needed at this time, for the safe navigation of the lakes. + +It may be remarked, in tins connection, that the lakes, with their +tributary streams, are furnished with nearly a hundred light-houses, +four or five of which are revolving, and the remainder fixed +lights,--Lake Ontario having eight, Lake Erie twenty-three, Lake St. +Clair two, Lake Huron nine, Lake Michigan thirty-two, and Lake Superior +fourteen. + +When we say that Chicago exports thirty millions of bushels of grain, +and is the largest market in the world, many persons doubtless believe +that these are merely Western figures of speech, and not figures of +arithmetic. Let us, then, compare the exports of those European cities +winch have confessedly the largest corn-trade with those of Chicago. + + 1854. Bushels of Grain. + Odessa, on the Black Sea, 7,040,000 + Galatz and Bruilow, do., 8,320,000 + Dantzic, on the Baltic, 4,408,000 + Riga, do., 4,000,000 + St. Petersburg, Gulf of Finland, 7,200,000 + Archangel, on the White Sea, 9,528,000 + ---------- + 40,496,000 + + Chicago, 1860, 30,000,000 + +or three-quarters of the amount of grain shipped by the seven largest +corn-markets in Europe; and if we add to the shipments from Chicago the +amount from other lake-ports last year, the aggregate will be found to +exceed the shipments of those European cities by ten to twenty millions +of bushels. Will any one doubt that the granary of the world is in the +Mississippi Valley? + +The internal commerce of the country, as it exists on the lakes, +rivers, canals, and railroads, is not generally appreciated. It goes on +noiselessly, and makes little show in comparison with the foreign trade; +but its superiority may be seen by a few comparisons taken from a speech +of the Hon. J.A. Rockwell, in Congress, in 1846. + + In the year 1844, the value of + goods transported on the New + York Canals was..... $92,750,874 + + The whole exports of the country + in 1844......... 99,716,179 + + The imports and exports of Cleveland + the same year amounted + to the sum of...... $11,195,703 + + The whole Mediterranean and + South American trade, in 1844, + amounted to....... 11,202,548 + +And if, as we have shown, the trade of one of these lake-ports, in 1855, +amounted to over four hundred millions, we may safely claim that the +whole lake-commerce in 1860 exceeds the entire foreign trade of the +United States. + +A few statistics of the lake-steamboats may not he uninteresting. They +are taken from Mr. Barton's letter, above referred to. + +"The 'New York Mercantile Advertiser,' of May--, 1819, contained the +following notice:-- + +"'The swift steamboat Walk-in-the-Water is intended to make a voyage +early in the summer from Buffalo, on Lake Erie, to Michilimackinac, +on Lake Huron, for the conveyance of company. The trip has so near a +resemblance to the famous Argonautic expedition in the heroic ages of +Greece, that expectation is quite alive on the subject. Many of our most +distinguished citizens are said to have already engaged their passage +for this splendid adventure.' + +"Her speed may be judged from the fact that it took her ten days to make +the trip from Buffalo to Detroit and back, and the charge was eighteen +dollars. + +"In 1826 or '27, the majestic waters of Lake Michigan were first +ploughed by steam,--a boat having that year made an excursion with a +pleasure-party to Green Bay. These pleasure-excursions were annually +made by two or three boats, till the year 1832. This year, the +necessities of the Government requiring the transportation of troops and +supplies for the Indian war then existing, steamboats were chartered by +the Government, and made their first appearance at Chicago, then an open +roadstead, in which they were exposed to the full sweep of northerly +storms the whole length of Lake Michigan. + +"In 1833, eleven steamboats were employed on the lakes, which carried in +that year 61,485 passengers, and only two trips were made to Chicago. +Time of the round trip, twenty-five days. + +"In 1834, eighteen boats were upon the lakes, and three trips were made +to Chicago. The lake-business now increased so much, that in 1839 a +regular line of eight boats was formed to run from Buffalo to Chicago. + +"In 1840, the number of steamboats on the lakes was forty-eight. +Cabin-passage from Buffalo to Chicago, twenty dollars." + +About 1850 was the height of steamboat-prosperity on the lakes. There +was at that time a line of sixteen first-class steamers from Buffalo to +Chicago, leaving each port twice a day. The boats were elegantly fitted +up, usually carried a band of music, and the table was equal to that +of most American hotels. They usually made the voyage from Buffalo to +Chicago in three or four days, and the charge was about ten dollars. +They went crowded with passengers, four or five hundred not being an +uncommon number, and their profits must have been large. The building of +railroads from East to West, such as the Michigan Central and Southern +lines, and the Lake Shore and Great Western, soon took away the +passenger-business, and the propellers could carry freight at lower +rates than those expensive side-wheel boats could pretend to do. So they +have gradually disappeared from these waters, until at present their +number is very small, compared with what it was ten years ago, while +the number of screw-propellers is increasing yearly, as well as that of +sail-vessels. + +Great as is this lake-commerce now, it is still but in its infancy. The +productive capacities of most of the States which border upon these +waters are only beginning to be developed. If in twenty-five years the +trade has grown to its present proportions, what may be expected from it +in twenty-five years more? + +The secession of the Gulf States from the Union, and the closing of the +Mississippi to the products of the Northwest, could we suppose such a +state of things to be possible, would still more clearly show the value +of the lake-route to the ocean. + +Run the line of 36 deg. 30' across the continent from sea to sea, and build +a wall upon it, if you will, higher than the old wall of China, and the +Northern Confederacy will contain within itself every element of wealth +and prosperity. Commerce and agriculture, manufactures and mines, +forests and fisheries,--all are there. + + + + +THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS YOUNG. + + +At Munich, last summer, I made the acquaintance of M---y, the famous +painter. I had heard much of him during my stay there, and of his +eccentricities. Just then it was quite the mode to circulate stories +about him, and I listened to so many which were incredible that I was +seized with an irresistible desire to meet him. I took, certainly, a +roundabout way to accomplish this. M---y had a horror of forming new +acquaintances,--so it was said. He fled from letters of introduction +coming in the ordinary way, as from the plague. Neither prince nor +noble could win his intimacy or tempt him out of the pale of his daily +routine. We are most eager in the pursuit of what is forbidden. I became +the more determined to make M---y's acquaintance, the more difficult it +seemed. After revolving the matter carefully, I wrote to America to my +intimate friend R., who I knew had subdued "the savage," as M---y was +sometimes called, and begged him to put me in the way of getting hold +of the strange fellow. In four or five weeks I received an answer. +R. simply inclosed me his own card with the painter's name in pencil +written on it,--advising me to go to the artist's house, deliver the +card in person, and trust the result to fortune. Now I had heard, as +before intimated, all sorts of stories about M---y. He was a bachelor, +at least fifty years old. He lived by himself, as was reported,--in +a superb house in an attractive part of the town. Gossip circulated +various tales about its interior. Sometimes he reigned a Sardanapalus; +at other times, a solitary queen graced but a temporary throne. He was +addicted to various vices. He played high, lost generally large sums, +and was in perpetual fear of the bailiffs. It was even reported that a +royal decree had been issued to exempt so extraordinary a genius from +ordinary arrest. In short, scarcely anything extravagant in the category +of human occurrences was omitted in the daily changing detail of the +scandal-loving society of Magnificent Munich. Only, no one ever imputed +a mean or dishonorable thing to M---y; but for the rest, there was +nothing he did not do or permit to be done. He painted when he liked and +what he liked. His compositions, whether of landscape or history, were +eagerly snatched up at extravagant prices,--for M---y was always +exorbitant in his demands. Besides, when he chose, M---y painted +portraits,--never on application, nor for the aristocracy or the +rich,--but as the mood seized him, of some subject that attracted him +while on his various excursions, or of some of his friends. Yet who +_were_ his friends? Could any one tell? I could not find a person who +claimed to know him intimately. Everybody had something to praise him +for: "But it was such a pity that"--and here would follow one of the +thousand bits of gossip which were floating about and had been floating +for years, I had seen M---y often,--for he was no recluse, and could be +met daily in the streets. His general appearance so fascinated me that +the desire to know the man led me to adopt the course I have just +mentioned. So much by way of explanation. + +And now, furnished with the card and the advice contained in my friend +R.'s letter, I proceeded one afternoon to the ---- Strasse, and sought +admittance. A decent-looking servant-woman opened the door, and to my +inquiry replied that Herr M---y was certainly at home, but whether +engaged or not she could not answer. She ushered me into a small +apartment on my right, which seemed intended for a reception-room. I was +about sending some kind of message to the master of the house, for I did +not like to trust the magic card out of my possession, when I heard a +door open and shut at the end of the hall, and the quick, nervous step +of a along the passage. Seeing the servant standing by the door, M---y, +for it was he, walked toward it and presented himself bodily before me. +He wore a cap and dressing-gown, and looked vexed, but not ill-natured, +on seeing me. I was much embarrassed, and, forgetting what I had +proposed to say to him, I put R.'s card into his hand without a word. +His eye lighted up instantly. + +"You are from America?--You are welcome!--How is my friend?" were words +rapidly enunciated. "Come with me,--leave your hat there,--so!"--and +we mounted a flight of stairs, passed what I perceived to be a fine +_salon_, then through a charming, domestic-looking apartment into one +still smaller, around the walls of which hung three portraits. Portraits +did I say? I can employ no other name,--but so life-like and so human, +my first impression was that I was entering a room where were three +living people. + +"Never you mind these," exclaimed M---y, pleasantly, "but sit down +there," pointing to a large _fauteuil_, "and tell me when you reached +Munich, and if you will stay some time: then I can judge better how to +do for you." + +My face flushed, for I felt guilty at the little fraud I seemed to have +practised on him. I hesitated only an instant, and then frankly told him +the truth: how it was eighteen months since I left America; how I had +been three months in Munich already; how, hearing so much about him +and observing him frequently in the streets, I became anxious for his +acquaintance, and had written to R. accordingly. + +The man has the face of a child: cloud and sunshine pass rapidly over +it. Pleasure and chagrin, sometimes anger, oftener joy, flit across +it, swiftly as the flashing of a meteor. While I was making this +explanation, he looked at me with a searching scrutiny,--at first +angrily, then sadly, as if he were going to cry; but when I finished, he +took my hand in both of his, and said, very seriously,-- + +"You are welcome just the same." + +Soon he commenced laughing: the oddity of the affair was just beginning +to strike him. After conversing awhile, he said,-- + +"Ah, we shall like each other,--shall we not? Where do you stay? You +shall come and live with me. But will that content you? Have you seen +enough of the outside of Munich?" + +I really knew not what to make of so unexpected a demonstration. Should +I accept his invitation, so entirely a stranger as I was? Why not? M---y +was in earnest; he meant what he said; yet I hesitated. + +"You need feel no embarrassment," he said, kindly. "I really want you to +come,--unless, indeed, it is not agreeable to you." + +"A thousand thanks!" I exclaimed,--"I will come." + +"Not a single one," said M---y. "Go and arrange affairs at your hotel, +and make haste back for dinner: it will be served in an hour." + +The next day I was domesticated in M---y's house. + +I have not the present design to give any account of him. Should the +reader find anything in what is written to interest or attract, it is +possible that in a future number a chapter may be devoted to the great +artist of Munich. Now, however, I remark simply, that the gossip and +strange stories and incidents and other _et ceteras_ told of him proved +to be ridiculous creations, with scarcely a shadow to rest on, having +their inception in M---y's peculiarities,--peculiarities which +originated from an entire and absolute independence of thought and +manner and conduct. A grown-up man in intellect, experience, and +sagacity,--a child in simplicity and feeling, and in the effect produced +by the forms and ceremonies and conventionalities of life: these seemed +always to astonish him, and he never, as he said, could understand why +people should live with masks over their faces, when they would breathe +so much freer and be so much more at their ease by taking them off. This +was the man who invited me to come to his house,--and who would not have +given the invitation, had he not wanted me to accept it. + +I have spoken of three paintings which excited my attention the day I +paid my first visit. These were masterpieces,--three portraits, not +life-like, but life itself. They did not attract by the perpetual +stare of the eyes following one, whichever way one turned, as in many +pictures; in these the eyes were not thrown on the spectator. One +portrait was that of a man of at least fifty: an intellectual head; +eyes, I know not what they were,--fierce, defiant, hardly human, but +earthly, devilish; a mouth repulsive to behold, in its eager, absorbing, +selfish expression. Another,--the same person evidently: the same clear +breadth and development of brain, but a subdued and almost heavenly +expression of the eyes, while the mouth was quite a secondary feature, +scarcely disagreeable. The third was the likeness of a young girl, +beautiful, even to perfection. What character, what firmness, what power +to love could be read in those features! What hate, what revulsion, what +undying energy for the true and the right were there! A fair, young +creation,--so fair and so young, it seemed impossible that her destiny +should be an unhappy one: yet her destiny was unhappy. The shadow on the +brow, the melancholy which softened the clear hazel eye, the slightest +possible compression of the mouth, said,--"_Destined to misfortune!_" +Were these actual portraits of living persons, or at least of persons +who had lived? Was there any connection between the man with two faces +and two lives and the maiden with an unhappy destiny? After I became +better acquainted with M---y, I asked him the question, and in reply he +told me the following story, which I now give as nearly as possible in +his own words. + + * * * * * + +Many years ago, in one of my excursions, I came to Baden-Baden. It was a +favorite resort for me, because I found there so many varieties of the +human countenance, and I liked to study them. One evening I was in the +Conversation-Haus, looking at the players at _rouge-et-noir_. At one end +of the table I saw seated a man apparently past fifty; around him were +three or four young fellows of twenty or twenty-five. It is nothing +unusual to see old men at the gaming-table,--quite the contrary. But +this person's head and forehead gave the lie to his countenance, and +I stopped to regard him. While I was doing so, his eyes met mine. +I suppose my gaze was earnest; for his eyes instantly fell, but, +recovering, he returned my look with a stare so impudently defiant that +I directed my attention at once elsewhere. Ever and anon, however, I +would steal a glance at this person,--for there was something in his +looks which fascinated me. He entered with gusto into the game, won +and lost with a good-natured air, yet so premeditated, so, in fact, +_youthfully-old_, I felt a chill pass over me while I was looking at +him. Later in the evening I encountered him again. It was in the public +room of my own hotel, at supper. He was drinking Rhine-wine with the +same young men who were with him at _rouge-et-noir_. The tone of the +whole company was boisterous, and became more so as each fresh bottle +was emptied. The young fellows were very noisy, but impulsively so. The +man also was turbulent and inclined to be merry in the extreme; but as +I watched his eye, I shuddered, for there enthroned was a permanent +expression indicating _a consciousness in every act which he committed_. +Once again our eyes met, and I turned away and left the apartment. +During my walk half an hour afterwards, I encountered the same party, +still more excited and hilarious, in company with some women, whose +character it was not easy to mistake. As I passed, the Unknown brushed +close by me, and again his glance met my own. He seemed half-maddened +by my curious look, which he could not but perceive, and, as I thought, +made use of some insulting expression. I took no notice of it, but +passed on my way, and saw him no more during my stay in the place. + +From Baden I made an excursion into Switzerland. I was stopping at a +pleasant village in the romantic neighborhood of the Bernese Alps. One +afternoon I took a walk of several miles in a new direction. I left the +road and pursued a path used only by pedestrians, which shortened the +distance to another village not far off. A little way from this path was +erected a small chapel, and in a niche stood an image of Christ, well +executed in fine white marble. The work was so superior to the rude +designs we find throughout the country that I stopped to examine it. +I was amply repaid. In place of the painful-looking Christ on the +Cross,--too often a mere caricature,--the image was that of the Youthful +Saviour,--mild, benignant, forgiving. In his left palm, which was not +extended, but held near his person, rested a globe, which he seemed to +regard with a heavenly love and compassion, and the effect on me was so +impressive that the words came impulsively to my lips,--"_I am the light +of the world_." + +For several minutes I stood regarding with intense admiration this +beautiful exhibition of the Saviour of Sinners. Presently, I saw the +door of the chapel was open. Should I look in? I did so. What did +I behold? The individual I had seen at Baden,--the gamester, the +bacchanal, the debauchee! Now, how changed! He was kneeling at a +tomb,--the only one in the chapel. The setting sun fell directly on his +features. His fine brow seemed fairer and more intellectual than before. +His eyes were soft and subdued, and destitute of anything which could +partake of an earthly element. Even the mouth, which had so disgusted +me, was no longer disagreeable. Contrition, humility, an earnest, +sincere repentance, were tokens clearly to be read in every line of his +face. I took very quietly some steps backward, so as to quit the spot +unobserved, if possible. In doing so, I stumbled and fell over some +loose stones. The noise startled the stranger, who was, I think, about +to leave the chapel. He came forward just as I was recovering myself. We +stood close together, facing each other. A flush passed over the man's +face. He seized my arm and exclaimed fiercely,-- + +"What are you doing here?" + +Without appearing to recognize him, I hastened to explain that my +presence there was quite accidental, and it was in attempting to retreat +quietly, after discovering I was likely to prove an intruder, that my +falling over some stones had attracted his notice. Thus saying, and +bowing, I was about to proceed homeward, when the stranger suddenly +exclaimed,-- + +"Stop!" + +He came up close to me. Every trace of angry excitement had vanished. +Calm and self-possessed, but very mournfully, he said,-- + +"Are you willing I should put my arm in yours, and walk back with you +to the inn? I am alone,--and God above knows," he added, after a pause, +"how utterly so." + +I could only bow an assent, for this sudden exhibition of weakness was +annoying to me. My new acquaintance took my arm, much in the manner a +child would do, and we walked along together. + +"I am staying at the same house with you," he said, as we proceeded. +"Did you know it?" + +"No, I did not." + +"Yes," he continued,--"I saw you when you dismounted, and I knew you at +once. Don't you recognize me?" he inquired, sadly. + +"I do," was all I replied. + +"So much the better!" he went on. "I like your countenance,--nay, I love +to look at your face. You are a good man; do you know it? I suppose not: +the good are never conscious, and I should not tell you. Excuse my rude +approach just now: the Devil had for a moment dominion over me. Will you +remain here awhile? Shall we sit and be together? And will you--say, +will you talk with me?" + +I promised I would. My feelings, despite his miserable weakness, were +becoming interested, and in this manner we reached the inn. Then I +persuaded this strange person to sit down in my room, where I ordered +something comfortable provided for supper. In fact, I thought it the +best thing I could do for him. Very soon I gained his entire confidence. +After two or three days he exhibited to me a small portrait, exquisitely +painted, of a most lovely young girl, and permitted me to copy it. It is +one of the three which you see on the wall there. The others, I need not +add, are portraits of the man himself in the two moods I have described. +For his history, it teaches its lesson, and I shall tell it to you. He +narrated it to me the evening before he left the inn, where we spent two +weeks or more, and I have neither seen nor heard from him since. Seated +near me, in my room, he gave the following account of himself. + + * * * * * + +I was born in Frankfort. My parents had several children, all of whom +died in infancy except me. I was the youngest, and I lived through the +periods which had proved so fatal to the rest. The extraordinary care +of my mother, who watched me with a melancholy tenderness, no doubt +contributed to save a life which in boyhood, and indeed to a mature age, +was at the best a precarious one. My parents were respectable people, in +easy circumstances. I grew up selfish and effeminate, in consequence of +being so much indulged. I exhibited early a studious disposition, and it +was decided to give me an accomplished education, with reference to +my occupying, could I attain it at a future day, a chair in some +university. My mother was a very religious woman. From the first, she +had a morbid sense of the responsibility of bringing up a boy. She +believed my way to manhood was beset by innumerable temptations, almost +impossible to escape, difficult to be resisted, and absolutely ruinous +to my soul, if yielded to. She preached to me incessantly. She kept +me from the society of boys of my own age, for fear I should be +contaminated,--and from the approach of any of the other sex, lest my +mind should be diverted from serious matters and led into wantonness +and folly. She would have made a priest of me, had it not been for +my father;--he objected. His brother, for whom I was named, was a +distinguished professor, to whom I bore, as he thought, a close +resemblance, and he desired I should imitate him in my pursuits. I had +good abilities, and was neither inefficient nor wanting in resolution or +industry. At first I longed for natural life and society; but by degrees +habit helped me to endure, and finally to conquer. In fact, I was taught +that I was doing God service in cultivating an ascetic life. My studies +were pursued with success. I rapidly mastered what was placed before +me, and my relations were proud of my progress. At the usual period the +ordinary craving for female society became strong in me. My mother took +great pains to impress on me that here commenced my first struggle with +Satan, and, if I yielded, I should certainly and beyond all peradventure +become a child of the Devil. I was in a degree conscientious. I was +ambitious to attain to a holy life. I believed what my mother had from +my infancy labored so hard to inculcate, and I trod out with an iron +step every fresh rising emotion of my heart, every genuine passion of +my nature. But I suffered much. The imagination could not always be +subdued, and there were periods when. I felt that the "strong man armed" +had possession of me. Nevertheless his time was not come, and at length +the struggle was over. It was not that I had gained a laudable control +of myself; but, having crucified every rebellious thought, there was +nothing left for control. I had marked my victory by extermination. +To live was no joy; neither was it specially the reverse: a long, +monotonous, changeless platitude; yet no desire to quit the terrible +uniformity. + +I was forty years old. I had obtained my purpose. I was a learned +professor. As I gained in acquirements and reputation, I became more and +more laborious. My health, which had become quite firm, began to yield +under incessant application. I was advised, indeed commanded, by my +physician to take repose and recreation. I came here among the Alps. I +stopped at this very house. The season was fine, the inns were filled +with tourists, and great glee and hilarity prevailed. It was not without +its effect on me. By slow degrees, with returning health, the pulses +of life beat with what seemed an unnatural excitement. The world, as I +opened my eyes on it from the window of the inn, was for the first time +not without its attractions. I quieted myself with the idea, that, once +back with my books, my thoughts would flow in the regular channel; and I +called to mind something the physician had said about the necessity of +my being amused, and so forth, to quiet my conscience, which began to +reproach me for enjoying the small ray of sunlight which shone in on my +spirit. + +One day, in a little excursion with two or three gentlemen, I was +attracted by the beauty of a spot away from the travelled road. Leaving +my acquaintances resting under some trees to await my return, I strolled +by a narrow path, across the small valley, till I reached the wished-for +place. You know it already. It is where you beheld erected the Christ +and the Tomb. I was looking around with much admiration, when from the +opposite direction came some strolling Savoyards, with a species +of puppet, or _marionnette_, called by these people _Mademoiselle +Catherina._ Without waiting for my assent, the man stopped, and with +the aid of his wife arranged the machine and set _Catherina_ in motion, +accompanying the dance with a song of his own:-- + + "Ma commere, quand ja danse, + Mon cotillon, va-t-il bien? + Il va d'ici, il va de la, + Ha, ha, ha! + Ma commere, quand je danse," etc. + +I stopped and looked, and was amused. The music was rude, but wild, and +carried with it an _abandon_ of feeling. I avow to you, it stole upon +me, penetrating soul and body. How I wished I could, on the spot, throw +off the coil which surrounded me and wander away with these children of +the road! + +While I stood preoccupied and abstracted, I was roused by a low voice +pronouncing something,--I did not hear what,--and, coming to myself, I +saw standing before me, with her tambourine outstretched, a young girl, +fourteen or fifteen years old. She spoke again,--_"S'il vous plait, +Monsieur."_ Large, lustrous, beaming eyes were turned on me,--not +boldly, not with assurance, neither altogether bashfully,--but honestly +regarding me full in the face, questioning if, after being so attentive +a spectator, I were willing to bestow something. It was strange I had +not noticed this girl before. I had hardly perceived there were three +in the company. Now that I did observe her, I kept looking so earnestly +that I forgot to respond to her request. She was faultless in form and +physical development,--absolutely and unequivocally faultless. Her face, +though browned by constant exposure, was classically beautiful; the foot +and hand very small and delicate. Heavens! how every fibre in my frame +thrilled with an ecstatic emotion, as, for the first time in my life, I +was brought under the influence of female charms! My head swam, my eyes +grew dim,--I staggered. I think I should have fallen, had not the young +girl herself seized my arm and supported me. This brought me to myself. +I bestowed nothing on the strollers, but asked if they were coming to +the village. They answered in the affirmative; and telling them to come +and play at the inn where I was lodging, I hastily quitted the scene. + +Do not think I am in the least exaggerating in this narrative. God +knows, what I have to recount is sufficiently extraordinary. I hastened +homeward, my soul in a tumult. On a sudden, the labor of a lifetime was +destroyed, the opinions and convictions of a lifetime stultified and set +at nought. And how?--by what? By a strolling, vagrant Savoyard. Rather +by an exquisite specimen of God's handiwork in flesh and blood! And if +God's handiwork, why might I _not_ be roused and touched and thrilled +and entranced? Something within boldly, in fact audaciously, put that +question to me. + +I slept none that night. I was haunted by that form and face. I essayed +to be calm, and to compose myself to slumber. Impossible! For the moment +was swept away my past, with its dreary, lifeless forms, its ghostly +ceremonies, its masked shapes, its soulless, rayless, emotionless +existence. To awake and find life has been one grand error,--to awake +and know that youth and early manhood are gone, and that you have been +cheated of your honest and legitimate enjoyments,--to feel that Pleasure +might have wooed you gracefully when young, and when it would become +you to sacrifice at her shrine,--gods and fiends! I gnashed my teeth in +impotent rage,--I blasphemed,--I was mad! + +The morning brought to me composure. While I was dressing, I heard the +music of my Savoyards under the window. I did not trust myself to look +out; but, after breakfasting, I went into the street to search for them. + +I was not long unsuccessful, and was immediately recognized with a +profusion of nods and grimaces by the man and a coarse smile by the +woman, who prepared to set _Mademoiselle Catherina_ instantly at work. +The young girl took scarcely any notice of me. I bestowed some money +on the couple, and bade them go to the nearest wine-shop and procure +whatever they desired. They started off, quite willing, I thought, to +leave me alone with the girl. I lost no time. Going close to her, I +said,-- + +"You are not the child of these people?" + +"Alas, no, Monsieur!--I have neither father nor mother." + +"And no relations?" + +"No relations, Monsieur." + +"How long have you lived in this way?" + +"Almost always, I suppose. But I remember something many years ago--very +strange. I was all the time in one place,--such a beautiful spot, it +makes it hurt here," (putting her hand on her heart) "when I think of +that. Afterwards it was dark a long time. I do not remember any more." + +"And do you like to wander about in this way?" + +"Oh, no, Monsieur!--no, indeed!" + +"Would you be pleased to go to a nice home, and stay, as you say, all +the time in one place, and learn to read and write, and have friends to +love you and take care of you?" + +"Yes! oh, yes!" + +"Would you be afraid to go with me?" + +The young girl regarded me with a look of penetration which was +surprising, and replied calmly, but with some timidity,-- + +"No." + +"Then it shall be so," I said. + +I bade the child sit down and wait for my return, I took the direction +which the man and his wife had pursued, and found them already busily +engaged in the wine-shop, where they had purchased what for them was a +sumptuous entertainment. + +"You have stolen that girl," I exclaimed, with severity; "and I shall +have the matter investigated before the Syndic." + +They were not so frightened as I expected to see them, although a good +deal decomposed. + +"Monsieur mistakes," said the man. "It was we who saved the poor thing's +life, when the father and mother were put to death far away from here +in Hungary, and not a soul to take compassion on her. She was only four +years old; the prison-door was opened and her parents led to execution, +and she left to wander about until she should starve." + +I asked if they knew who her parents were. They did not, but were sure +they were people of distinction, condemned for political offences. This +was all I could learn. The child, they said, was in possession of no +relic which betrayed her name or origin. She only wore a small gold +medallion on which was engraved a youthful Christ,--the same in +design as you see erected near the tomb in yonder valley. It has been +faithfully copied. + +It was difficult to induce the couple to part with Eudora,--that was her +name. She was now useful to them, and her marvellous beauty began to +attract and brought additional coin to their collections, after the +performances of the _marionnette_. But I was resolved. I offered to the +strollers so large a sum in gold that they could not resist. It was +arranged on the spot. With very little ceremony they said "Good-bye" to +Eudora, and, taking the path over the mountain, in a few minutes were +out of sight. + +What a new, what a strange attitude for me! Could I believe in my own +existence? There I stood, a grave professor of the University of ----, +educated and trained in the discipline I have already explained to you. +There stood Eudora, just as perfect in form and feature as imagination +of poet ever pictured. + +My plan was formed on the spot, instantly. It was praiseworthy; but I +deserved no praise for it. A deep, engrossing selfishness, pervading +alike sense and spirit, actuated me. I had already brought under control +the fever of the previous day. I could reason calmly; but my conclusions +had reference only to my own gratification and my own happiness. I +regarded Eudora as mine,--my property,--literally belonging to me. I was +forty,--she not fifteen. Yet what was I to do with her? Recommend her +to the care of my mother, who was still alive? Certainly not; she would +then be lost to me. I had a cousin, a lady of high respectability, well +married, who resided in the same town in which I lived. She had no child +of her own; she had often spoken of adopting one. I frequently visited +her house; and when there, she never ceased to criticize me for leading +such an ascetic life. Here was an excellent opportunity for my new +charge. My cousin would be delighted to have the guardianship of such a +lovely creature. She would be as devoted to her as to an own child. She +would sympathize in my plans, and would be careful to train Eudora _for +me_. + +Such was the programme. It flashed on me and was definitely settled +before I had time to bid her follow me to the inn. She came +unhesitatingly, and as if she had confidence in my kind intentions. I +did not converse much with her, but, making hasty preparations, we left +the place and proceeded rapidly homeward. + +I was not disappointed. My cousin entered readily into my plans. She was +a really good person, seeing all things which she undertook through +the complacent medium of duty. This was, she thought, such a fortunate +incident! It gave her what she had long desired, and it would serve to +distract me from the wretched life I had always led. Thereupon Eudora +was installed in her new home, where she found father and mother in my +cousin and her husband, where her education was commenced and got on +fast. She had a quick intellect, instinctively seizing what was most +important and rapidly forming conclusions. How, day by day, I witnessed +the development of her mind! How I watched every new play of the +emotions! How I saw with a beating heart, as she advanced toward +womanhood, fresh charms displayed and additional beauty manifested! I +shall not tire you with a prolonged narrative of how I enjoyed, month +after month, for more than two years, the society of Eudora, +during which time she made satisfactory advances in education and +accomplishment and attained in grace and loveliness the absolute +perfection of womanhood. + +And what, during this period, were my relations with Eudora?--what were +her feelings toward me? I approach the subject with pain. I look back +now on those feelings and on my conduct with an abhorrence and disgust +which I cannot describe. From the first she trusted to me with implicit +confidence. Discriminating in an extraordinary degree, her gratitude +prevented her perceiving my real character. She gave me credit for +absolute, unqualified, disinterested benevolence in rescuing her from +the wretched and precarious condition of a vagrant. Thus she set about +in her own mind to adorn me with every virtue. I was magnanimous, noble, +unselfish, truthful, brave, the soul of honor, incapable of anything +mean or petty. How often has she told me this, holding my hand in hers, +looking full in my face, her own beaming with honest enthusiasm! How my +soul literally shrank within me! How like a guilty wretch I felt to +hear these words! How I wished I could be all Eudora pictured me! How +I essayed to act the part! How careful I was lest ever my real nature +should disclose itself! Even when, despite my efforts, something did +transpire to excite an instant's question, she put it aside at once by +giving an interpretation to it worthy of me. Now, what was I to do? +Eudora had reached a marriageable age. She had seen but little of +society, though by no means living a recluse. My cousin had watched +carefully over her, and was to her, indeed, all a mother could be. I had +remained perfectly tranquil, secure, as I supposed, in her affections. I +thought I had but to wait till the proper period should arrive and then +take her to myself. + +My cousin, as I have intimated, understood my views. It was therefore +with no sort of perturbation, that, one day, I heard her ask me to +step into her little sitting-room in order to converse about Eudora. +I supposed she was going to tell me that it was time we were +married,--indeed, I thought so myself. I was therefore very much +astonished when she commenced by saying that I ought now to begin to +treat Eudora as a young lady, especially if I expected ever to win her +hand. I turned deadly pale, and asked her what she meant. + +"I mean," she replied, "that you ought to act toward Eudora as men +generally act who wish to win a fair lady. Do not deceive yourself with +the idea that she loves you. She would tell you she did in a moment, if +you asked her,--and wonder, besides, why you thought it necessary to put +the question. But she knows nothing about it. The thought of becoming +your wife never enters her head, and you would frighten her, if you +spoke to her on such a subject. No, my cousin; it is time you behaved +as other men behave. Eudora is grateful to you beyond expression. She +believes you to be perfect; and you seem content to sit and let her tell +you so, when you ought to be a manly wooer." + +I will not detail the remarks of my cousin. She talked with me at least +two hours. I was perfectly confounded by what she said. I began to hate +her for the ridiculous advice she gave me. I put it down to a curious, +meddlesome nature. I grew vexed, too, with Eudora, because my cousin +said she did not love me. I did not reflect that I had done nothing +to excite love. I had drawn perpetually on a heart overflowing and +grateful,--selfish caitiff that I was! This, however, I did not then +understand,--so completely were my eyes blinded! + +I left my cousin in a petulant spirit, and sought Eudora. She saw I +was troubled, and asked me the cause. I told her. A shadow, a dark, +portentous shadow, suddenly clouded her face;--as suddenly it passed +away, giving place to a look of sharp, painful agony, which was +succeeded by a return of something like her natural expression. Then she +scrutinized my face calmly, critically. All this did not occupy half a +minute. Ere one could say it had been, Eudora was apparently the same as +ever. God alone knows all which in that half-minute rose in that young +girl's heart. She took my hand; she reproached me for my apparent +distrust of her; she said she was mine to love and to honor me forever. +She would go at once to her mother--so she called my cousin--and tell +her so. Thus saying, she left me. And I--I did not then understand +the struggle and the victory of the poor girl over herself. I did not +reflect that no maidenly blush, no charming confusion, announced my +happy destiny,--no kiss, no caress, no sign that the heart's citadel had +surrendered; but, instead, a calmness, a composure, and a hastening from +my presence. No, I thought nothing of this; I only considered that now +the time was at hand when Eudora would be mine! + +_I married her._ It was but three weeks after this conversation. I was +in haste, and Eudora herself seemed desirous that the day should be an +early one. My cousin was amazed. I enjoyed her discomfiture; for she did +not relish the thought that I should thus set at nought her advice and +overturn her theory. She shook her head,--she attempted a protest,--and +then began zealously the preparations for the wedding. + +I wish I could give you some clear idea of the wife I had gained, +some slight notion of the happiness and delight and bliss in which I +revelled,--that is, if a man purely and unutterably selfish has a right +to call that happiness--which he enjoys. Eudora lived only for me. She +rose, she sat, she came, she went only to pleasure me. She had +one thought, one idea: it was for me. And what was my return? +Nothing,--absolutely and literally nothing. I accepted every service, +every sweet, loving token, every delicate act of devotion, as something +to which I was entitled,--as my right. Forty-four years old, a life with +one idea, a narrow, selfish, overbearing nature, ministered to by such a +creature, noble, lovely, true, with eighteen years of life! + +Three years thus passed,--three years which ate slowly into Eudora's +heart,--teaching her she _had_ a heart, and bringing forth such fruit as +such experiences would produce. Yet she had not lost faith in me. She +might have felt that perfection did not belong to man, and therefore I +was not perfect; but she cheated herself as to all the rest. If she were +not perfectly happy with a husband who took no pains to sympathize with +her, who repressed instead of encouraging the natural vivacity of her +nature, who never went abroad with her to places where every one was +accustomed to go, still she did not lay the cause at my door. + +I had another cousin: this cousin was a man, twenty-four years old when +he first came, by a mere chance, to the town where we lived. He was, +like you, a painter,--not one of those poor romantic vagabonds who +multiply pictures of themselves in every new composition, and who +starve on their own sighs. This man was in the enjoyment of a handsome +competence, and made painting his profession because he loved the art. +My cousin who resided in the place knew this man-cousin of mine. He paid +her a visit; and while he was in her house, my wife happened to go in. +Thus the acquaintance began. The next day he came to see me. I received +him cordially, and invited him to visit us often. At length he became +perfectly at home in our house. I was pleased with this,--for I began +to feel that Eudora drew heavily on my time, insisting too much on my +society; and I was only glad to escape by leaving her to the society of +my relative,--blind fool that I was! But I must do him justice. He was a +noble specimen of a fresh-hearted young man,--loyal and honorable. Yet +how could he escape the fascination of Eudora's presence?--how tear +himself away from it, when he had no thought that it was dangerous? At +my request, my wife sat to him for a small portrait: this is it which I +have permitted you to copy. By-and-by, and really to keep Eudora from +engrossing too much of my time, I allowed her to go out with our +artist-cousin; and in company they examined paintings, and viewed +scenery, and talked, and walked, and sometimes read together. + +One evening, while seated in my library, deeply abstracted, the door +opened and Eudora entered. I looked up, saw who it was, and relapsed +into study. + +"My husband," exclaimed she, in a soft, sweet tone, "put down your book; +sit upon this sofa; I want to speak with you." + +I rose, a little petulantly, and did as she desired. She threw her arms +around my neck, and kissed me tenderly. + +"I have something to ask of you," she said,--"something to request." + +"What is it?" I exclaimed,--almost sharply. + +"It is that you would not invite Alphonse to come here any more,--that +you would never speak of my going out with him again, but encourage his +leaving here,--and that you would give me more of your society." + +"Pray, what does all this mean, Eudora?" I demanded. "Alphonse and you +have been quarrelling, I suppose." + +"No, my husband." + +"Then, what do you mean by such nonsense?" I asked, in an irritated +tone. + +"I scarcely have courage to tell you," she cried,--"for I fear it will +make us both forever miserable." + +Thoroughly aroused by this astounding avowal, I repeated, in a stern +tone and without one touch of sympathy, my demand for an explanation. +She knelt lovingly at my feet,--not in a posture submissive or +humiliating, but as if thus she could get nearer my heart,--and began, +calmly:-- + +"Sometimes, my husband, I have thought my feelings for you were such as +I ought to entertain for my father or an elder brother. I venerate and +admire your character; I would die for you,--oh, how willingly!--but +sometimes I fear it is not _love_ I feel for you." + +She paused, and looked at me earnestly. + +"How long have you felt as you now do?" I asked, with an icy calmness. + +"I do not know. I cannot tell. But I have not thought of it seriously +till Alphonse came here,--and I want you to send him away." + +"And do you love Alphonse?" I asked, slowly. + +"Oh, God! I do not know. I cannot tell what is the matter with me. +Perhaps it is mere infatuation. Alas! I cannot tell." + +"And why do you come with this to me?" I said sneeringly, devil that I +was. + +"Because you are my husband,--because you are wise and strong and good, +and the only one who can advise me,--because I am in danger, and you can +save me," she cried, looking imploringly on my frigid features. + +"And for that purpose you come to _me?_" + +"I do, I do!" she exclaimed. At the same time she threw her arms around +me passionately, buried her face in my bosom, and wept. + +There was a struggle within me,--not violent nor desperate, but calm and +cold,--while the face of that fair young creature was pressed close to +my heart by her own arms thrown clingingly around me. I did not move +the while; I did not respond to her sad embrace even by the slightest +pressure of my hand. Yet I was all the time conscious that a pure and +noble being was supplicating me for help,--a being who had devoted her +life to me,--whose soul was stainless, while mine was spotted with the +leprosy of a selfish nature. Like one under the influence of nightmare, +who knows he does but dream and makes an effort fruitless as imaginary +to lift himself out of it, I did try to follow what my heart said I +should do,--fold my dear wife in my arms, and reassure her in all +things. But I did no such thing. The other spirit--I should say seven +others more hateful and detestable than any which had before possession +of me--conquered. I raised Eudora from her kneeling posture. I placed +her on the sofa beside me. I began to hate her,--to hate her for her +goodness, her gentleness, her truthfulness, her fidelity,--to hate her +because she dared make such an avowal, and because it was true. What +right had she to permit her feelings to be influenced by another,--she, +my lawfully wedded wife? I would not admit the truth to myself that _I_ +was the sole, miserable, detestable cause. Oh, no! + +"Eudora," I said at length, "I have never seen you manifest so much +nervous excitement. Do you not see how ridiculous is your request? You +want me to bring ridicule, not to say disgrace, on myself, by suddenly +forbidding Alphonse my house. What will he suppose, what will the world +think, except that there has been some extraordinary cause for such a +procedure? And all out of a silly, romantic, imaginary notion which has +got into your head. Now, listen: if you would do your duty and honor me, +let Alphonse come and go as usual; let him perceive no difference in +your manner or in your treatment of him: in this way only I shall escape +mortification and chagrin." + +She rose as I finished,--slowly rose,--with a countenance disheartened +and despairing. She uttered no word, and turned slowly to leave the +room. She had reached the door, when, not content with the merciless +outrage on her heart already inflicted, under the instigation of the +demon working within me, I prepared another stab. + +"Eudora," I said, "one word more." + +She came immediately back, doubtless with a slight hope that I would +show some sympathy for her. + +"Eudora," I continued, rising and laying my hand on her shoulder, _"have +you permitted any improper familiarities from Alphonse?"_ + +Quick as lightning was my hand struck from its resting-place; swift as +thought her face changed to an expression so terrible that instinctively +I stepped back to avoid her. It was but an instant. Then came a last +awful look of _recognition_, whereby I knew I was found out, my soul was +stripped of all hypocritical coverings, and she saw and understood me. +What a scene! To discover in the one she had revered and worshipped so +long her moral assassin! To stand face to face and have the dreadful +truth suddenly revealed! The darkness of despair gathered around her +brow; an agony, like that which finds no comforter, was stamped on her +face; and with these a hate, a horror, a contempt, mingled triumphantly. +The door opened,--it was closed,--and my wife was lost to me forever. I +essayed to call her back. "Eudora" came faintly to my lips. It was too +late. Then a contemptible, jealous hatred took possession of me. Ere I +left my apartment, I said, "She shall pay dear for this! she shall soon +come submissive to my feet! she cannot live away from me; and before I +forgive, she must be humiliated!" How little did I know her! + +From that period Eudora simply treated me with the courtesy of a lady. +She never looked in my face,--her eyes never met mine. On my part, to +carry out a plan I had adopted, I encouraged more and more the visits +of Alphonse. He had expected to leave that week; but I persuaded him to +remain another month, and pressed him to stay at my house. I told him +that this would be agreeable to my wife, who could have his society when +I was not able to be with her, and I should insist on his accepting my +invitation. This was after I saw how rebellious, as I termed it, Eudora +was becoming; and I was determined to torture her all I could. +Alphonse was now an inmate of our house, which greatly increased +the opportunities for his being with Eudora. She appeared to enjoy +intercourse with him just as usual; I think, in fact, she did enjoy +it more than usual; and it made me hate her to see that she was not +repentant and miserable. Three weeks passed in this way;--I becoming +more hateful and severe by every petty, petulant, despicable device of +which my nature was capable; she continuing with little change of manner +or conduct; and Alphonse unconsciously growing more devoted. + +It was a cold, stormy afternoon: the rain had increased since morning. +Eudora had gone out immediately after breakfast. She did not come back +to dinner, and Alphonse, who had remained in all day, said she spoke of +going to my cousin's. I took it for granted the storm detained her; but +when it was evening and she did not appear, I began to be disturbed +and asked Alphonse to go for her. In a short time he returned with the +information that Eudora had not been at my cousin's that day. I was +alarmed; I could see the shadow of my Nemesis close by me. It had fallen +suddenly, and with no warning. For a moment I suspected Alphonse; but +the distress he manifested was too genuine to be counterfeited, and I +dismissed the thought. In the midst of this confusion and dismay,--now +late in the evening,--a letter was put into my hands, just left by a +messenger at my door. The address was in my wife's hand. I tore open the +envelope, and read,-- + +"Man! I can endure no longer." + +This was the end of the chapter beginning with my introduction to the +strolling Savoyards, the dance of the _marionnette_, the transfer of +Eudora! I attempted no search for her; too well I knew it would be +useless; indeed, I felt a strange sense of freedom. My professor's life +disgusted me: I threw it off. I resigned my chair, and sold my house, my +furniture, my books,--everything. My nature clamored for indulgence, my +senses for enjoyment. I quitted the place. I threw off all restraint. +Literally I let myself loose on the world. I sought the company of the +young. I drank, I gamed, I was as debauched as the worst. But although +_with_ them, I was not _of_ them. _They_--only from the effervescence +of strong animal spirits did they do into excesses. What they did was +without reflection, impulsive, unpremeditated. _Me_ a calm consciousness +pervaded always. Go where I would, do what I would, amidst every +criminal indulgence, every noisy debauch or riotous dissipation, it +always rode the storm and was present in the fury of the tempest;--that +fearful, awful conscious _Egomet_! How I wished I could commit one +impulsive sin! + +After three years, I was passing with a gay company through the Swiss +town of ----. In that place is the convent of the Sisterhood of Our +Mother of Pity. The night I stayed there, one of the number died. I +heard of it in the morning, as we were preparing to leave. From what was +said in connection with the circumstance, I knew it was Eudora. I left +my companions to go on by themselves. I made my way to the convent and +begged permission to look on the dead face of my wife. It was granted. +She was already arrayed for the grave. I came and threw myself on the +lifeless form, and cried as children dry. The fountains of my heart gave +way, the sympathies of my nature were upheaved, and for two hours I wept +on unrestrained. Even consciousness fled for once and left me to the +luxury of grief. At length the worthy people came to me and took me +from the room. I asked many questions, to which they could give me but +unsatisfactory replies. They knew little of Eudora's history. She had +come directly from my house to this place, and had been remarkable for +her acts of untiring benevolence in ministering to the sick and the +destitute. She lost her life from too great exposure in watching at +the bedside of a miserable woman whom all the world seemed to have +abandoned, and who died of some malignant fever. I will not attempt to +describe what I passed through. I became sincerely repentant. I saw my +character in its true light. I prayed that my sins might be forgiven. + +The place where Eudora died was not far from the spot where we first +met. I begged the good priest who acted as her confessor to consecrate +a little chapel which I should build there, and permit me to place my +wife's remains in it. He consented. I caused the image of the Christ +which she always wore to be carefully copied in marble and placed before +the chapel, and I spent several weeks there, deploring my sins and +seeking for light from above. + +It was not to be that I should thus easily settle the error of a +lifetime. After a while I felt the desperate gnawing of the senses +inexpressible and irresistible. Satan had come again, and I was called +for. And I went! There was no escape,--there _is_ no escape! Once more +I plunged into riotous folly and excess, giving full license to my +unbridled appetites,--but conscious always. When the fever subsided, +I was once more repentant and sorrowful, and I came here,--only to be +carried off again to renew the same wretched scenes. I know not how long +this will last. I know not if Heaven or Hell will triumph. Yet, strange +as you may think it, I believe I am not so bad a man as when I was a +professor in ----, slowly destroying my lovely wife. From each paroxysm +I fancy I escape somewhat stronger, somewhat more manly than before. I +think, too, my periods of excess are shorter, and of repentance longer; +and I sometimes entertain a hope that folly and madness will in me, as +in the young, become exhausted, and that beyond still lies the goal of +peace and wisdom. + +Such as it is, strange as it may seem, you have from me a truthful +history. Would that the world might hear it and be wiser! Mark me! Let +not those who undertake to train the young attempt to destroy what +Nature has implanted. Let them direct and modify, but not extinguish. +The impulsive freedom of youth is generally the result of an exuberant +and overflowing spirit, and should be treated accordingly,--else, later +in life, it may burst forth fierce and unconquerable, or, what is worse, +be indulged in secret and make of us hypocrites and dissemblers. + +WOE TO THE MAN WHO HAS HAD NO YOUTH! + + * * * * * + + +THE MEN OF SCHWYZ. + + +As you go from Lucerne in a decorous little steamboat down the pleasant +Vierwaldstaettersee, or Lake of the Four Forest Cantons, with the sloping +hills on either side, and the green meadow-patches and occasional house +among the trees, you come to a sudden turn where the scenery changes +swiftly, and pass between steep and shaggy rocks rising perpendicularly +out of the blue water, which seems to get bluer there, into the frowning +Bay of Uri, guarded, as if it were the last home of freedom, by great +granite hills, lying like sleepy giants with outstretched arms, while +the heavy clouds rest black and broken on their summits, and the white +vapors float below. Just where the lake makes this turn is the hamlet of +Brunnen, which you will not hurry by, if you are wise, but tarry with +the kind little hostess of the Golden Eagle by the pleasant shore, and +learn, if you will, as nowhere else, what the spirit of the Swiss was in +the ancient time, as in this. + +As you walk across the little valley which stretches down from the hills +to the lake where Brunnen is, you remember that it is the town of Schwyz +you come to, where dwelt once the hardy, valorous little colony +which gave its name to Switzerland,--famous in the annals of this +stout-hearted mountain-land for the "peculiar fire" with which they have +always fought for their ancient freedom,--worthy to leave their name, in +lasting token of the service they did to their fellows and to mankind. + +Schwyz lies at the foot of the Hacken Mountain, which rises with double +peaks known as the Mythen, (Murray and the tourists, with dubious +etymological right, translate _Mitres_,)--with the dark forests above it +on the slopes, and the green openings sparkling in the sunlight, +where men and their herds of cattle breathe a purer air. Behind these +everlasting walls the spirit of freedom has found a resting-place +through the turbulent centuries, during which, on rough Northern soil, +the new civilization was taking root, hereafter to overshadow the earth. + +Touching the origin of these men of Schwyz, there is a tradition, handed +down from father to son, which runs in this wise. + +"Toward the North; in the land of the Swedes and Frisians, there was +an ancient kingdom, and hunger came upon the people, and they gathered +together, and it was resolved that every tenth man should depart. And +so they went forth from among their friends, in three bands under three +leaders, six thousand fighting men, great like unto giants, with their +wives and children and all their worldly goods. And they swore never +to desert one another, and smote with victorious arm Graf Peter of the +Franks, who would obstruct their progress. They besought of God a land +like that of their ancestors, where they might pasture their cattle in +peace; and God led them into the country of Brochenburg, and they built +there Schwyz; and the people increased, and there was no more room for +them in the valley. Some went forth, therefore, into the country round +about, even as far as the Weissland; and it is still in the memory of +old men how the people went from mountain to mountain, from valley to +valley, to Frutigen, Obersibenthal, Sanen, Afflentsch, and Jaun;--and +beyond Jaun dwell other races." + +The time and circumstance of this wandering are unknown, and we may +make what we will of it; but to the men of Schwyz the tradition is an +affirmation of their original primal independence. And of old time, +also, the Emperors have admitted that these people of their own free +will sought and obtained the protection of the Empire,--a privilege by +no means extended to all the dwellers of the Waldstaette, (or Forest +Cantons,) but confined to the men of Schwyz. + +As the Emperors were often absent, engaged in great wars, and the times +were very troublous, and there was need of some commanding character +among them, for the administration of the criminal law touching the +shedding of blood, they often made the Count of Lenzburg Bailiff. But no +matter of any moment could be acted upon without the sense of the people +being taken, of the serf as well as the freeman: for these two classes +existed not less among these primitive people than elsewhere, in the +feudal times; and this community of counsel of freeman and serf is +related to have worked harmoniously, "for equality existed of itself, by +nature, there." They chose a _Landammann_, or chief magistrate,--a man +free by birth, of an honorable name and some substance; and for judges +also they were careful to select men of substance, "for he careth most +for freedom and order who hath most to lose"; and for the greater peace +of the land there was a Street-Council, consisting of seven reputable +men, who went through the streets administering justice in small causes +here and there, as in the East the judges sat at the city-gate or at the +door of the palace. + +As the people increased, the valleys of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden +were separated and grew to be independent in their own domestic matters, +while united with respect to external affairs, as in the league made in +1251 between Zurich, Schwyz, and Uri;--they were like the Five Nations +of Canada, says the historian, but more human through Christianity. +Their religious belief was simple and fervent; the Goths, as Arians, had +rejected the supremacy of the Pope; and now there came secretly teachers +from the East, through Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Hungary, even into Rhaetia, +and thence to these fastnesses of the Alps. The mind of men, thus left +free, developed itself according to the different character of the +races. The people of Schwyz were strengthened in their adherence to the +authentic Word of God, as it was with the Apostles, without the use of +pictures or the bones of saints; this Word they learned by heart, and +made little of the additions of men; hence they got to be heretics, and +were called Manicheans; but Catholicism conquered them at last. + +Thus simple and unknown lived this ancient people,--destined to restore +in the end the Confederacy of Helvetia, lost since the days of Caesar's +victory, thirteen hundred years before,--till Gerhard, Abbot of +Einsiedeln, complained of them to the Emperor Henry V. for pasturing +their cattle upon the slopes which belonged to the convent: for, +forgetful of the people who dwelt in these parts, whose existence, +indeed, was concealed from him by the monks, the Emperor Henry II., in +1018, had bestowed upon the convent the neighboring _desert_; and the +Abbot, of course, did not fail to make the most of the gift. Thus there +occurred a collision. The Abbot pursued these poor peasants with the +spiritual power, which was not light in those days, and summoned them +before the Diet of Nobles of Swabia; but they rejected that tribunal, +for they acknowledged only the authority of the Emperor. Whereupon the +Abbot laid his complaint before Henry V. at Basel, where Graf Rudolph of +Lenzburg, Bailiff of Schwyz, spoke for them. A simple people, innocent +of human learning, they could urge against the patent of the Emperor +only the tradition of their fathers, and judgment went against them +touching the matter, and no question was made in it as to the validity +of the Emperor's patent. It was an unexpected blow to the Schwyzers. +Tradition among people living solitary grows into a religious right, +which they fight for readily. For eleven years their turbulence went +unpunished; for Henry V. had other matters on his hands, and his two +successors conferred other privileges upon the convent. Thirty years +afterwards, however, in 1142 or thereabouts, at the solicitation of the +monks, obedience was commanded by the Emperor Conrad III., then on the +point of departing with his Crusaders to Palestine. But the people +answered,--"If the Emperor, to our injury, contemning the traditions of +our fathers, will give our land to unrighteous priests, the protection +of the Empire is worthless to us." Thereupon the Emperor waxed wroth; +the ban was laid upon them by Hermann, Bishop of Constance; but they +withdrew, nevertheless, from the protection of the Empire, and Uri and +Unterwalden with them,--fearing neither the Emperor nor the ban, for +they could not conceive how it was a sin to maintain the right, and so +they pastured their cattle without fear. + +When Friedrich I. came to the throne and wanted soldiers, he sent Graf +Ulrich of Lenzburg, Bailiff of the Waldstaette, into the valleys to speak +to the men of Schwyz. "The heart of the people is in the hands of noble +heroes," says the historian;--gladly did the youths, six hundred strong, +seize their arms and go forth under Graf Ulrich, whom they loved, to +fight for the Emperor his friend, beyond the mountains, in Italy. And +now it came the Emperor's turn for the ban; the whole Imperial House of +Hohenstaufen fell into spiritual disgrace; Friedrich II. was cursed at +Lyons as a blasphemer; but these things did not turn away the hearts of +the men of Schwyz from his House. + +Long after the time of this Ulrich, the last reigning Graf of Lenzburg, +shortly after the Swiss Union had been renewed, at the instance of +Walther of Attinghausen, in 1206, Unterwalden chose Rudolph, Count of +Hapsburg, for Bailiff. He endeavored to extend his authority over the +other two Cantons, in which he was aided by the Emperor Otho IV., of the +House of Brunswick, who had been raised to the throne in opposition to +the House of Swabia, and who, for the purpose of conciliating him, made +him Imperial Bailiff of the Waldstaette. An active, vigorous man this +Rudolph, grandfather of the Rudolph who was afterwards called to be King +of the Germans, whom the Swiss, scattered in their hamlets, were little +prepared to make head against, and therefore recognized him with what +grace they might, after an assurance that their freedom and rights +should be maintained; and he smoothed for them their old controversy +with the monks of Einsiedeln, and got a comfortable division of the +property made in 1217. But he was hateful to them, nevertheless; and +although we know nothing of the way in which he administered his office, +we conjecture that it was partly because the Emperor who appointed him +was not of the House of Hohenstaufen, to which they were attached, and +partly because he claimed that the office of Bailiff was hereditary in +his family, whereas the men of Schwyz preferred to offer it of their own +free will to whom they would. They made it a condition of assistance to +the Emperor Friedrich in 1231, when he went down into Italy to fight the +Guelphs, that he should deprive this Rudolph of the office of Imperial +Bailiff; and then they went forth, six hundred strong, and did famous +work against the Guelphs, with such fire in them that the Emperor not +only knighted Struthan von Winkelried of Unterwalden, but gave that +valley a patent of freedom, according to which the Schwyzers voluntarily +chose the protection of the Empire. + +And now Rudolph, Count of Hapsburg, founder of the Austrian monarchy, +strides into the history of the men of Schwyz. A tall, slender man this +Rudolph, bald and pale; with much seriousness in his features, but +winning confidence the moment one spoke with him by his friendliness, +loving simplicity; a restless, stirring man, with more wisdom in him +than his companions had, equal or superior to him in birth or power, +working his way by device when he could, by the strong arm when that was +needed. He took the part of the peasants against the nobles, and used +the one to put down the other. In the midst of the turmoils in which he +got involved with Sanct Gallen and Basel, and while encamped before the +walls of the latter city, he was wakened in his tent at midnight by +Friedrich of Hohenzollern, Burgrave of Nuernberg; for there had come from +Frankfort on the Main Heinrich von Pappenheim, Hereditary Marshal of +the Empire, with the news, that, "in the name of the Electors, with +unanimous consent, in consideration of his great virtue and wisdom, +Lewis Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria had named Count +Rudolph of Hapsburg King of the Roman Empire of the Germans": at which +Rudolph was more astonished than those who knew him, it is recorded. Not +because of his genealogy, nor his marriage with Gertrude Anne, daughter +of Burcard, Count of Hohenburg and Hagenlock, did he win this great +fortune, but, as the Elector Engelbrecht of Cologne said, "because he +was just and wise and loved of God and men." And now the world learned +what was in him; and how for eighteen years he kept the throne, which +no king for three-and-twenty years before him had been able to hold, +history will relate to the curious. + +Switzerland was divided at this period into small sovereignties and +baronial fiefs; and there were, besides, also the Imperial cities of +Bern and Basel and Zuerich. The nobles were warlike and restless. Rudolph +checked their depredations and composed their dissensions. Upon that +seething age of violence and rapine he laid, as it were, the forming +hand, as if in the darkness the coming time was dimly visible to him;--a +man to be remembered, in the vexed and disheartening history of Austria, +as one of her few heroes. The people of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, +notwithstanding the dislike they had shown to his ancestor, voluntarily +appointed him their protector; and he gave them, in 1274, the firm +assurance that he would treat them as worthy sons of the Empire in +inalienable independence; and to that assurance he remained true till +his death, which happened in 1291, in the seventy-fourth year of his +age. + +It is related in the Rhymed Chronicle of Ottocar, how he had been kept +alive for a whole year by the skill of his physicians, but that they +told him at last, as he sat playing at draughts, that death was upon +him, and that he could live but five days. "Well, then," he said, "on +to Spires!" that he might lay him in the Imperial vault in the great +Cathedral there,--where many Emperors slept their long sleep, till, in +the Orleans Succession War in the time of Louis XIV., as afterwards in +1794, under the revolutionary commander Custine, French soldiers rudely +disturbed it, with every circumstance of outrage which Frenchmen only +could devise. Rudolph went forth thither, but fell by the way, and died +at Germersheim, a dirty little village which he had founded. And in the +Cathedral at Spires, where he rested from his activities, you may see +this day a monumental statue of him, executed by that great artist, the +late Ludwig Schwanthaler of Munich, for his art-loving patron, Ludwig +I., King of Bavaria. + +Rudolph was succeeded by his son Albrecht, then forty-three years old, +likewise a vigorous man, whose restless spirit of aggrandizement gave +the Swiss much uneasiness. His purpose seems to have been to acquire the +sovereignty of the ecclesiastical and baronial fiefs, and, having thus +encompassed the free cities and the Three Cantons, to compel submission +to his authority. In the seventh week after Rudolph's death, they +met together to renew the ancient bond with the people of Uri and +Unterwalden; and they swore, in or out of their valleys, to stand by one +another, if harm should be done to any of them. "In this we are as one +man," ran their oath, among other things, "in that we will receive no +judge who is not a countryman and an inhabitant, or who has bought his +office." + +After several years of troubles and frights among them, the Emperor sent +to the Forest Cantons to say, that it would be well for them and their +posterity, if they submitted to the protection of the Royal House, as +all neighboring cities and counties had done; he wished them to be his +dear children; he was the descendant of their Bailiff of Lenzburg, son +of their Emperor Rudolph; if he offered them the protection of his +glorious line, it was not that he lusted after their flocks or would +make merchandise of their poverty, but because he knew from his father +and from history what brave men they were, whom he would lead to victory +and knighthood and plunder. + +Then spake the nobles and the freemen of the Forest Cantons: "They know +very well, and will ever remember, how his father of blessed memory was +a good leader and Bailiff to them; but they love the condition of their +ancestors, and will abide by it. If the King would but confirm it!" + +And thereupon they sent Werner, Baron of Attinghausen, Landammann of +Uri, like his fathers before him and his posterity after him, to the +Imperial Court. But the King was quarrelling with his Electors, and was +in bad humor, and sent to Uri to forbid them from assessing land-rates +on a convent there. Whereupon the men of Schwyz, being without +protection, made a league for ten years with Werner, Count of Honburg; +and that their submission to the Austrian power might not be construed +into a duty, they sent to the King for an Imperial Bailiff. Albrecht +appointed Hermann Gessler of Brunek, and Beringer of Landenberg, whose +cousin Hermann was in much favor with him. Beringer's manners were rough +even at the Court; and to get rid of him, they sent him to tame the +Waldstaette. He appointed Bailiffs whose poverty and avarice were the +cause of much oppression, emboldened as they were by the ill-feeling of +the King towards the men of Schwyz, whose freedom the King had refused +to confirm, and waited only for opportunity to annihilate their ancient +rights, after the example he had already set in Vienna and Styria. + +The Imperial Bailiffs resolved to take up their abode in the Forest +Cantons,--Landenberg in Unterwalden, near Sarnen, in a castle of the +King's, while Gessler built a prison-castle by Altorf in Uri; for within +the memory of men no lord had dwelt in Schwyz. They used their power +wantonly;--unjust and weary imprisonments for slightest faults; haughty +manners, and all the stings of insolent authority;--and no redress to +be had at the King's hands. The peace and happy security of the men of +Schwyz were gone, and they looked in one another's faces for the thing +that was to be done. The honored families of their race were despised +and called peasant-nobles;--there was Werner Stauffacher, a well-to-do +and well-meaning man; and the Lord of Attinghausen above all, of an +ancient house, in years, with much experience, and true to his country; +there was Rudolph Redings of Biberek, whose descendants live to this +day in Schwyz, supporting still the honor of their name; and the +Winkelrieds, mindful of the spirit of their ancestor who slew the +dragon. In such persons the people _believed_; they knew them and their +fathers before them; and when they were made light of, there was hatred +between the people and the Bailiffs. As Gessler passed Stauffacher's +house in Steinen, one day, where the little chapel now stands, and saw +how the house was well built, with many windows, and painted over with +mottoes, after the manner of rich farmers' houses, he cried to his face, +"Can one endure that these peasants should live in such houses?" + +It came at last to insulting their wives and daughters; and the first +man that attempted this, one Wolfenschiess, was struck dead by an angry +husband; and when the brave wife of Stauffacher reflected how her turn +might come next, she persuaded her husband to anticipate the danger. +Werner Stauffacher at once crossed the lake to Uri, to consult with his +friend Walther, Prince of Attinghausen, with whom he found concealed a +young man of courage and understanding. "He is an Unterwaldner from the +Melchthal," said Walther; "his name is Erni an der Halden, and he is +a relation of mine; for a trifling matter Landenberg has fined him +a couple of oxen; his father Henry complained bitterly of the loss, +whereupon a servant of the Bailiff said, 'If the peasants want to eat +bread, they can draw their own plough'; at which Erni took fire, and +broke one of the fellow's fingers with his stick, and then took refuge +here; meanwhile the Bailiff has caused his father's eyes to be put out." +And then the two friends took counsel together; and Walther bore witness +how the venerable Lord of Attinghausen had said that these Bailiffs were +no longer to be endured. What desolating wrath resistance would bring +upon the Waldstaette they knew and measured, and swore that death was +better than an unrighteous yoke. And they parted, each to sound his +friends,--appointing as a place of conference the Ruetli. It is a little +patch of meadow, which the precipices seem to recede expressly to form, +on the Bay of Uri, sloping down to the water's edge,--so called from the +trees being rooted out (_ausgereutet_) there,--not far from the boundary +between Unterwalden and Uri, where the Mytenstein rises solitary like an +obelisk out of the water. There, in the stillness of night, they often +met together for council touching the work which was to be done; thither +by lonely paths came Fuerst and Melchthal, Stauffacher in his boat, +and from Unterwalden his sister's son, Edelknecht of Rudenz. The more +dangerous the deed, the more solemn the bond which bound them. + +On the night of Wednesday before Martinmas, on the 10th of November, +1307, Fuerst, Melchthal, and Stauffacher brought each from his own Canton +ten upright men to the Ruetli, to deliberate honestly together. And when +they came there and remembered their inherited freedom, and the eternal +brotherly bond between them, consecrated by the danger of the times, +they feared neither Albrecht nor the power of Austria; and they took +each other by the hand, and said, that "in these matters no one was +to act after his own fancy; no one was to desert another; that in +friendship they would live and die; each was so to strive to preserve +the ancient rights of the people that the Swiss through all time might +taste of this friendship; neither should the property or the rights of +the Count of Hapsburg be molested, nor the Bailiffs or their servants +lose one drop of blood; but the freedom which their fathers gave them +they would bequeath to their children": and then, when remembering that +upon what they did now the fate of their posterity depended, each looked +upon his friend, consoled. And Walther Fuerst, Werner Stauffacher, and +Arnold an der Halden of Melchthal lifted their hands to heaven, and, in +the name of God, who created emperor and peasant with the inalienable +rights of man, swore to maintain their freedom; and when the thirty +heard this, each one raised his hand and swore the same by God and the +Saints;--and then each went his way to his hut, and was silent, and +wintered his cattle. + +In the mean while it happened that the Bailiff Hermann Gessler was +shot dead by Wilhelm Tell, who was of Buerglen, at the entrance of the +Schaechenthal, a half-hour from Altorf, in Uri,--son-in-law of Walther +Fuerst, and a man of some substance, for he had the steward-ship in +fee in Buerglen of the Frauenmuester Abbey in Zuerich,--one of the +conspirators. Out of wanton tyranny, or suspicious of the breaking out +of disturbances, Gessler determined to discover who bore the joke most +impatiently; and, after the symbolical way of the times and the people, +set up a hat, (it was on the 18th of November,) to represent the dignity +of the Duke Albrecht of Austria, and commanded all to do it homage. The +story of Tell's refusal, and of the apple placed on the head of his son +to be shot at, the world knows far and wide. Convinced by his success +that God was with him, Tell confessed, that, if the matter had gone +wrong, he would have had his revenge upon the Bailiff. Gessler did +not dare to detain him in Uri, on account of Tell's many friends and +relations, but took him up the lake, contrary to the traditions of the +people, which forbade foreign imprisonment. They had not got far beyond +the Ruetli, when the foehn-wind, breaking loose from the gulfs of the +Gothard, threw the waves into a rage, and the rocks echoed with its +angry cries. In this moment of deadly danger, Gessler commanded them to +unbind Tell, who, he knew, was an excellent boatman; and as they passed +by the foot of the Axen Mountain, to the right as you come out of the +Bay of Uri, Tell grasped his bow and leaped upon a flat rock there, +climbed up the mountain while the boat tossed to and fro against the +rocks, and fled through the land of the men of Schwyz. But the Bailiff +escaped the storm also, and landed by Kuessnacht, where he fell with +Tell's arrow through him. + +It should be remembered that this was Tell's deed alone: the hour which +the people had agreed upon for their deliverance had not come; they had +no part in the death of Gessler. Carlyle has remarked this as appearing +also in Schiller's drama, in the construction of which, he says, "there +is no connection, or a very slight one, between the enterprise of Tell +and that of the men of Ruetli." It was not a deed conformable to law +or the highest ethics, yet it was one which mankind is ever ready to +forgive and applaud; and the echo of it through the ages will die away +only when hatred of tyranny and wrathful impatience under hopeless +oppression die away also from the hearts of men. Tell was an outlaw, and +he took an outlaw's vengeance: it was life against life. And yet it is a +curious fact, that the historian of Switzerland (that wonderful genius, +Johannes Mueller, who is reported to have read more books than any man in +Europe, in proof of which they point you to his fifty folio volumes of +excerpts in the Town Library at Schaffhausen) suggests as a reason why +there were only one hundred and fourteen persons, who had known Tell, +to gather together in 1388, not much more than thirty years after his +death, at the erection of a chapel dedicated to his memory on the rock +where he leaped ashore, that Tell did not often leave Buerglen, where he +dwelt, and that, according to the ethics of that period, the deed was +not one likely to attract inquisitive wonderers to him. + +There is hardly an event or character in history which is not to +somebody a myth or a phantom; and so Tell has not escaped the skepticism +of men. But those who doubt his existence have little experience of +history, says Mueller. Grasser was the first to remark the resemblance +between the adventures of Tell and those of a certain Tocco, or Toke, or +Palnatoke, of Denmark, which are related by Saxo Grammaticus, a learned +historian who flourished in Denmark in the twelfth century, of which +kingdom and its dependencies he compiled an elaborate history, first +printed at Paris in 1486; but the Danish Tocco, who is supposed to have +existed in the latter half of the tenth century, was wholly unknown +to the Swiss, who, if ever, came to the Alps before that time. The +Icelanders, also, have a similar story about another hero, which appears +in the "Vilkinasaga" of the fourteenth century. It is more likely that +the Danes and other Northern people got their tradition from the Swiss, +by way of the Hanse Towns perhaps, if we are to be permitted to believe +in but one original tradition, which is not less arbitrary than +unphilosophic. + +Moreover, for what did these one hundred and fourteen people dedicate a +chapel to him thirty years and a little more after his death? And there +is the Chronicle of Klingenberg, which covers the end of the fourteenth +century, which tells his story; and Melchior Russ, of Lucerne, who, in +compiling his book, about the year 1480, had before him a Tell-song, and +the Chronicle of Eglof Etterlins, Town-Clerk of Lucerne in the first +half of the fifteenth century; and since 1387, too, there has been +solemn service by the people of Uri to commemorate him. So that the +"Fable Danoise" of Uriel Freudenberger of Bern (1760) becomes a mere +absurdity, and the indignant Canton of Uri had no less right to burn it +(although to burn was not to answer it, suggests the critic,) than to +honor the "Defence" by Balthasar with two medals of gold. And what +has been written to establish him may be read in Zurlauben, (whose +approbation is almost proof, says Mueller, reverentially,) and elsewhere +as undernoted.[A] + +[Footnote A: In Balthasar, _Def. de Guill. Tell_ (Lucerne, 1760); Gottl. +Eman. von Haller, _Vorlesung ueber Wilh. Tell_, etc. (Bern, 1772); +Hisely, _Guill. Tell et la Revolution de_ 1307 (Delft, 1826); Ideler, +_Die Sage vom Schuesse des Tell_ (Berlin, 1836); Haeusser, _Die Sage vom +Tell_ (Heidelberg, 1840); Schoenhuth, _Wilh. Tell, Geschichte aus der +Vorzeit_ (Reutlingen, 1836); Henning, _Wilh. Tell_ (Nuernberg, 1836); and +_Histoire de Guill. Tell, Liberateur de la Suisse_ (Paris, 1843).] + +Tell's posterity in the male line is reported to have died out with +Johann Martin, in 1684; the female, with Verena, in 1720. Yet it is +certainly a little surprising that the elder Swiss chroniclers, John of +Winterthur, and Justinger of Bern, for instance, who were almost Tell's +contemporaries, make no mention of him in relating the Revolution in the +Waldstaette, and that it should be left to Tschudi and others, almost two +hundred years afterwards, in the sixteenth century, to give his story +that dramatic importance upon which Schiller has set the seal forever. +It can be explained, perhaps, on the ground that it did not at the time +possess that importance which we have been taught to give it; though +roughly, thus, we do away with the poetry of it, to be sure. Let +Voltaire, whose function it was to deny, enjoy his feeble sneer, that +"the difficulty of pronouncing those respectable names"--to wit, +_Melchtad_, and _Stauffager_, and _Valtherfurst_, to say nothing of +_Grisler_--"injures their celebrity." Neither are we to conceal the +fact, that it is doubted, if not denied, that there ever was any Gessler +in Uri to perform all the wicked things ascribed to him, and to get that +arrow through him in such dramatic and effective manner in the Hollow +Way; for has not Kopp published, with edifying explanation, "Documents +for the History of the Confederation," (Lucerne, 1835,) in which, in the +list of Bailiffs (_Landvoigte_) at Kuessnacht, we do not find the name of +Gessler? Perhaps there was a mistake in the name, the critic suggests. + +The Revolution thus begun at the Ruetli, and by Tell, went forward +swiftly in January, 1308; and, true to their oath, it was consummated +by the men of Schwyz without harm to the property of the Bailiffs, also +without the spilling of a single drop of blood. The prison at Uri was +captured, and Landenberg also, as he descended to hear mass, by twenty +men from Unterwalden; but, escaping, he fled across the meadows from +Sarnen to Alpnach, where he was overtaken and made to swear that he +would never set foot again in the Waldstaette, and then suffered to +depart safely to the King. And the peasants breathed again; and +Stauffacher's wife opened her house to all who had been at the Ruetli; +and there was joy in the land. + +And how in that same year Duke Albrecht met with a bloody end, such as +befell no King or Emperor of the Germans before or after him, at the +hands of Duke John, his nephew, whose inheritance he had kept back, and +other conspirators; and what vengeance overtook the murderers; and how +Duke John, escaping in the habit of a monk into Italy, was no more heard +of, but became a shadow forever, like the rest of them;--and how, eight +years afterwards, came the expedition of Duke Leopold of Austria against +the Waldstaette, and the fight at Morgarten, where the Swiss, thirteen +hundred mountaineers in all, Wilhelm Tell among them, routed twenty +thousand of the well-armed chivalry of Austria,--dating from that heroic +Thermopylae of theirs the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy, as, +larger and perhaps not less resolute, we see it to-day, ready to +defy, if need be, single-handed, the greatest military nation of the +earth;--and how, thirty years afterwards, the men of Schwyz and Uri go +forth, nine hundred strong,--among them Tell, and Werner Stauffacher, +now bent with years,--to the aid of Bern, threatened by the nobles +roundabout;--and how, in 1332, was formed the league with Lucerne, +whereby the beautiful lake gets its name as the Lake of the _Four_ +Forest Cantons;--and how, one sultry July day in 1386, the men of Schwyz +and Uri and Unterwalden, together with other Swiss,--some of them armed +with the very halberds with which their fathers defended the pass at +Morgarten,--fought again their hereditary enemy, Austria, by the clear +waters of the little Lake of Sempach; how, when they saw the enemy, they +fell upon their knees, according to their ancient custom, and prayed to +God, and then with loud war-cry dashed at full run upon the Austrian +host, whose shields were like a dazzling wall, and their spears like a +forest, and the Mayor of Lucerne with sixty of his followers went down +in the shock, but not a single one of the Austrians recoiled; and how at +that critical, dreadful moment,--for the flanks of the enemy's phalanx +were advancing to encompass them,--there suddenly strode forth the +Knight Arnold Strutthan von Winkelried, crying, "I will make a path +for you! care for my wife and children!" and, rushing forward, grasped +several spears and buried them in his breast,--a large, strong man, he +bore the soldiers down with him as he fell, and his companions pushed +forward over his dead body into the midst of the host, and the victory +was won, and another book was added to the epic story of the men of +Schwyz and Uri and Unterwalden;--and how Duke Leopold fell fighting +bravely, as became his house, and six hundred and fifty nobles with him, +so that there was mourning at the Court of Austria for many a year, and +men said it was a judgment upon the reckless spirit of the nobles; and +how Martin Malterer, standard-bearer, of Freyburg in the Breisgau, +happening to come upon Leopold as he was dying, was as one petrified, +and the banner fell from his hands, and he threw himself across the body +of Leopold to save it from further outrage, waiting for and finding his +own death there;--and how this ruinous contest between Switzerland and +Austria was not finally closed till the time of Maximilian, in 1499, +when first the right of private war was abolished in Germany;--and how, +through the various fortunes of the succeeding centuries, the character +of the Swiss has remained for the most part the same as in the earlier +time:--these things one may read at large elsewhere; but we hasten to +the conclusion. + +The story of Tell has been the subject of several dramas. Lemierre, a +popular French dramatist of his day, (though J. J. Rousseau affects to +call him a _scribe_ whom the French Academy once crowned,) produced +a play founded upon it, in Paris, in 1766; but the language of Swiss +freemen on a French stage was little to the taste of those days, and +it was a failure. Voltaire, when asked what he thought of it, +replied,--"_Il n'y a rien a dire; il est ecrit en langue du pays._" But +twenty years afterwards it was revived with prodigious success; for the +truth which was in it flashed out then, forerunner of the storm which +was soon to break over France. Again, when Florian, whom we are to +remember always for his "Fables," banished in 1793 by the decree which +forbade nobles to remain in Paris, taking refuge at Sceaux, was arrested +and thrown into prison, he consoled his captivity by composing his drama +of "Guillaume Tell,"--the worst of his productions, it is recorded. +Lastly, it has been consecrated for all time by the genius of Friedrich +Schiller. The legend was first brought to Schiller's notice, doubtless, +by Goethe, who writes to him concerning it from Switzerland in 1797. +Goethe himself thought of founding an epic on it. It was not, however, +till 1801, before his journey to Dresden, that Schiller's attention was +permanently directed to it. Completed on the 18th of February, it +was brought out at Weimar on the 17th of March, 1804, with the most +extraordinary success: the fifth act, however, was suppressed, in +deference to the intended court alliance with the daughter of a murdered +Russian emperor; it not being considered good taste to represent the +assassination of an autocrat upon such an occasion. + +Schiller's drama has been translated into French by Merle d'Aubigne and +others, and many times into English,--among us by the Rev. C. T. Brooks. +It follows the tradition substantially. Carlyle declares, indeed, that +"the incidents of the Swiss Revolution, as detailed in Tschudi or +Mueller, are here faithfully preserved, even to their minutest branches." +We tarried once for several days at Brunnen, and read the play upon the +spot in sight of the Ruetli, in the little balcony of the _pension_ of +the Golden Eagle, with the deep, calm, blue lake at our feet, and the +Hacken and Axen mountains and the Selisberg shutting out the world for +a time; and as we look at the play now, it recalls with the utmost +minuteness the scenery and the coloring of it all: yet Schiller never +was there. It was the last startling effulgence of his comet-like +genius; for when the spring-flowers came again, he was gone from our +earth. + +In the last act of the great drama, as Tell sits at his cottage-door +in Buerglen in Uri, surrounded by his wife and children, after the +consummation of the deed, there approaches a monk begging alms;--it is +the parricide Duke John, flying the sight and presence of men. In the +contrast of the feelings of these two persons, then and there, one reads +Schiller's justification of his hero. As if to complete by contrast the +moral of the drama of "Tell," it is related also in the tradition, that +in 1354, when the stream of the Schaechen was swollen, Tell, then bowing +under the snowy years, seeing a child fall into it, as he passed that +way, plunged in, and lost his life. Uhland has indicated this in his +"Death of Tell," as only Uhland could:-- + + "Die Kraft derselben Liebe, + Die du dem Knaben trugst, + Ward einst in dir zum Triebe, + Dass du den Zwingherrn schlugst." + +Some liken life to a book to be read in. To us it is rather an unwritten +poem which each age repeats to the next,--melodious sometimes, as when +the blind old mythic bard of Chios sang it under the olive-trees, by the +blue Aegean, to the listening Greeks, thirsty for beauty, drinking it +ever with their eyes, and with their lips lisping it,--or rough and +more full of meaning, as when, with the men of Schwyz and Uri and +Unterwalden, the great idea of freedom, majestic as their mountains, +utters itself, composed and stern, in deeds which for all time make +Switzerland honored and free. + +On the 10th of November, 1859, the heart of Germany beat with gladness, +if touched also with a certain sorrow, as in every hamlet, on every +hill-side, from the German Ocean to the Tyrolese Alps, from the Vosges +to the Carpathians and the Slavic border, the people met to celebrate +with simple rites the hundredth birthday of its great poet Schiller, +in whom they recognize not more what he did than what he sought after, +whose striving is their striving, from highest to lowest,--the ideal +man, burning to gather them together, and fold them as one flock under +one shepherd, that, no longer divided, they may face the world and the +future with one heart, with one great trembling hope, to lead the new +civilization to its lasting triumphs. + +Schiller had sung of Wilhelm Tell; and the men of Schwyz remembered +him on that occasion, too, on the Ruetli, with their confederates from +Oberwalden and Niederwalden. On the afternoon of the 11th of November, +they met at Brunnen,--on the lake, as we have said,--the men of Schwyz +embarking in one great boat, amidst peals of music, while numberless +little canoes received the others. The wind, blowing strong from the +north, filled the sail, and, as they floated down the Bay of Uri, they +remembered Stauffacher and his friends, who had glided over the same +dark waters at dead of night, past the Mytenstein to the Ruetli, and +the old time lived again; and the little chapel on the spot where Tell +sprang ashore, erected by the Canton Uri, where once a year, since 1388, +mass is said, and a sermon preached to the people, who go up in solemn +procession of little boats, looked friendly over to them; and the +countrymen of Schiller, present for the first time from Stuttgart and +Munich, wondered at the solemn beauty of the snowpeaks reflected in the +waters below. A chorus of many voices broke upon the mountain-stillness, +as the little fleet approached the Ruetli; the men of Uri, already there, +"the first on the spot," and with them the men of Gersau, a valiant +band, answered in a song of welcome; and they shook each other by the +hand, and made a little circle, three hundred in all, upon the Ruetli; +and Lusser of Uri thanked the men of Schwyz for the invitation to +remember their fathers here on the five hundred and fifty-second +anniversary of the deeds which Schiller has so gloriously sung. We best +remember the poet by repeating and upholding his words:-- + + "Wir wollen seyn ein einzig Volk von Bruedern, + In keiner Noth uns trennen und Gefahr. + Wir wollen frey seyn, wie die Vaeter waren, + Eher den Tod als in der Knechtschaft leben. + Wir wollen trauen auf den hoechsten Gott, + Und uns nicht fuerchten vor der Macht der + Menschen." + + "One people will we be,--a band of brothers; + No danger, no distress shall sunder us. + We will be freemen as our fathers were, + And sooner welcome death than live as slaves. + We will rely on God's almighty arm, + And never quail before the power of man." [B] + +[Footnote B: Rev. C. T. Brooks's translation, p. 53.] + +Then they read the scene of the Ruetli Oath from Schiller's play, and +sing the Swiss national song, "Callest thou, my Fatherland?" And the +pastor Tschuemperlin admonishes them that they best cultivate the spirit +of Schiller and Tell by worthy training of their children. As they are +about to break up at last, the Landammann Styger of Schwyz suggests a +beautiful thing to them:--"As we came from Brunnen, and looked up at the +Mytenstein as we passed it,--the great pyramid rising up there out of +the water as if meant by Nature for a monument,--it seemed to us that a +memorial tablet should be placed there, simple like the column itself, +with words like these: 'To Him who wrote "Tell," on his One Hundredth +Birthday, the Original Cantons.'" And the proposition was received +with unanimous shout of assent. "This was the worthy ending of the +Schiller-Festival on the Ruetli," says the contemporary chronicle. + +On the 10th day of November, 1859, also, there was put into the hands +of the Central Committee of the Society of the Swiss Union the deed of +purchase of the Ruetli. It is in the handwriting of Franz Lusser of Uri, +Clerk of the Court, and dated the 10th of November, the birthday of +Schiller. Thus Switzerland owns its sacred places, and the title-deeds +long laid up in its heart are written out at last. + +On the 21st of October of last year, on a brilliant afternoon, the +men of Schwyz and Uri went forth again from Brunnen, with the chief +magistracy of the land. From Treib came the Unterwaldners, all in richly +decorated boats, and the inhabitants of Lucerne in two steamboats with +much music, meeting in front of the Mytenstein, which lifts its colossal +front eighty feet above the water there. The top of it was covered with +a large boat-sail, with the arms of the original Cantons and Swiss +mottoes on it; in a wreath of evergreen, the arms of the other Cantons; +in the middle of it, in token of the twenty-two Cantons, a white cross +upon red ground; above all, the flag of the Confederacy spread to the +Foehn. At the foot was a little stand made of twigs for the speaker, +about which the little fleet was grouped, under the charge of the +Landammann Aufdermauer of Brunnen, a gallant gentleman, host of the +Golden Eagle, with his kind little sister, of whom we spoke at the +beginning. + +When all was still, Uri opens the musical trilogy,--the words by P. +Gall. Morell, monk of Einsiedeln, the music by Baumgartner of Zuerich; +Unterwalden takes up the burden; then Schwyz; then all three in +chorus;--and the echo of the fresh voices among the rocks there was as +in a cathedral. Then Landammann Styger climbs to the stand, and makes a +little speech, and reads a letter from Schiller's daughter, (of which +presently,) while the curious shepherd-boys stretch out their necks over +the craggy tops of the Selisberg to look down upon the lively scene +below. + +At the end of his speech, Styger lets fall the sail amid the beating of +the drums and the shouts of the multitude; and on the flat sides of the +rock appear the gilded metal letters, a foot high,--"To the Singer of +Tell, Fr. Schiller, the Original Cantons, 1859." And there were other +little speeches,--one by Lusser, who exclaims with much truth, "The +rocks of our mountains can be broken, but not _bent_"; and then followed +the Swiss psalm by Zwysig. And afterwards, in the evening, a feast in +the Golden Eagle in Brunnen, at which, with the ancient sobriety, they +remember the dangers of the present, and affirm their neutrality, which +should not hang upon the caprice of a neighbor, but be grounded in their +own will, for there is no Lord in Christendom for them except Him who is +above all. + +Thus wrote Schiller's daughter:-- + +_"Gentlemen of the Committee of the Schiller Memorial on the +Mytenstein:_-- + +"Your friendly words have truly delighted and deeply moved my heart;-- +not less the engraving of the Mytenstein, which shall stand as the very +worthy and noble memorial of the Singer of Wilhelm Tell in the land of +the Swiss for all time forever,--a token of recognition of the genius +which, struggling for the highest good of mankind, has found its home in +the hearts of all noble men and women. With infinite joy I greeted the +beautiful idea, so wholly worthy of the land as of the poet,--there, +where magnificent Nature, grown friendly, offers its hand on the very +ground where one of the noblest, most finished creations of Schiller +takes root, to consecrate to him a memorial which, defying time and +storms, shall illumine afar off every heart which turns to it. + +"In memory also of my beloved mother, Charlotte, Schiller's earthly +angel, I rejoice in this memorial. She it was who, with deepest love +for Switzerland, which she calls the land of her affections, where she +passed happy youthful days from 1783 to 1784, led Schiller to it, and by +her fresh, lively descriptions made him partake of it; and so prepared +the way for the genius which could embrace and penetrate all things for +the masterly representation of the country, which, unfortunately, his +feet never trod. If, unhappily, I am not able to be present at the +festival on the 21st of October, I am not the less thankful for your +kind invitation; and in that sacred hour I will be with you in spirit, +deeply sympathizing with all that the noble _idea_ brought into life. + +"A little memorial of the 10th of November, 1859, representing Schiller +and Charlotte, I pray you, Gentlemen, to accept of me, and, when you +recall the parents, to remember also the daughter. + +"Respectfully yours, + +"EMILIE v. GLEICHEN-RUSSWURM, geb. v. SCHILLER. + +"_Greiffenstein ob Bonnland. 12 October, 1860._" + +In the churchyard of Cleversulzbach lies buried, since the 2d of May, +1802, the mother of Schiller. Prof. Dr. E. Moerika, when he was preacher +there, erected a simple stone cross over the grave, and with his own +hands engraved upon it the words, "Schiller's Mother." On the famous +10th of November, 1859, woman's hand decorated the grave with flowers, +and put a laurel wreath upon the cross; and in the hour when great +cities with festal processions and banquets and oratory and jubilant +song offered their homage to the son, a few persons gathered around the +grave of the mother, and in the silence there planted a linden-tree; +for in stillness thus, while she lived, had his mother done her part, +lovingly and with faith, to unfold and consecrate the genius of +Friedrich Schiller. + + * * * * * + + +A NOOK OF THE NORTH. + + +Adventurous travellers, who penetrated into Canada during the late visit +of the Sovereign-Apparent of that colony, have furnished the public, +through the daily press, with minute and more or less faithful +descriptions of places upon the grand routes, Quebec and Montreal have +been done by them to a hair; Kingston and another wicked place made +notorious for bad manners; Toronto, Hamilton, and London of the West +photographed with a camera of maximum dimensions. Upon the two great +railroad-lines by which Canada is now traversed,--the Grand Trunk +and the Great Western,--there is hardly a station which has not been +mentioned by the reporters, either for the loyal manner in which it +was decorated to do honor to the youthful Prince, or for the rather +inhospitable display of certain objectionable symbols by the people +around. + +But neither in Canada nor elsewhere is it upon the grand routes that +glimpses can be had of interior life and character. Primitive simplicity +is altogether incompatible with railroads. The boy who resides near a +station is quite an old man, compared with any average boy taken from +the sequestered clearings ten miles back: he may be a worse kind of boy, +or he may be a better, but he isn't the same kind, at any rate. Of +girls it is more difficult to speak with confidence in the present +era,--hooped skirts having pretty nearly assimilated them everywhere; +but I have noticed that they are less ingenuous along railroads than in +secluded districts, and their parents more suspicious,--a fact which +makes railroad-vicinities inferior places to dwell in, compared to those +that are rural and remote from the demoralizing influences of up and +down trains. + +I do not aver that the railroad is devoid of a kind of poetry of its +own,--the same kind of sentiment, nearly, that resides about anvils +and smelting-furnaces in the Hartz Mountains and in the great +coal-districts: an infernal kind of sentiment, for the most part, being +inseparable from burning fiery furnaces and grime; as in "Fridolin," and +in the "Song of the Bell," and in the "Forging of the Anchor." Once, +particularly, in travelling by rail, did I experience the mysterious +glamour that seems to hang round iron more than about any other metal. +It was past midnight; and on waking up after a sleep of some hours, I +found myself alone in the long car, which had come to a stand-still +while I slept. The stillness of the night was broken at intervals by a +short, loud boom, as of an iron bell ringing up some terrible domestic +from the incomprehensible unseen. On looking out of the window, I saw by +some dim lamp-light that we were alone in an immense iron hall; _we_, I +say, for there was a ponderous, grimy being darkly visible to me, whose +gigantic shadow made terrible gestures upon the walls and among the +great iron girders of the roof, as he moved slowly along the train, +striking the wheels with a heavy sledge-hammer as he went. Of course +there was nothing unusual in such a proceeding, the object of which was, +probably, to ascertain something connected with the condition of the +rolling stock; but there was a kind of awful poetry in the toll of the +iron bell, which ran, and reverberated, and tingled among the iron ribs +in the building, making them all sing as if they were things of flesh +and blood, with plenty of iron in the latter, which is reckoned to be +conducive to robust health. + +But the romance of rolling stock has yet to be disengaged, and the +inspired conductor or bardic baggage-master destined to do that is yet +in the shell. May he long remain there! + +Off the track some ten or twenty miles, though, almost anywhere, some of +the materials, at least, for good, regular poetry of the old-fashioned +kind are to be found. A mill, for instance, with a wooden wheel,--no +demoralizing iron about it, in fact, except what cannot well be +dispensed with, in view of wear and tear. A white cottage, where +the miller dwells serene; mossy roof, red brick chimney, and no +lightning-rod or any other iron, being the principal features of the +serene miller's abode. Cherries, in that tranquil person's garden, that +are nearly ripe, and roses of a delicate red,--but none so ripe or so +red as the lips and cheeks of the serene miller's daughter, who trips +across the little wooden foot-bridge over the mill-stream, singing a +birdy kind of song as she goes. She is clad in a black velvet bodice +and russet skirt, and has no iron about her of any description, unless, +indeed, it is in her blood,--where it ought to be. The breath of kine +waiting to be relieved of their honest milk, which is a good, solid kind +of fluid in such places, and meanders about the land with great freedom +in company with honey. All these things will be very scarce in the world +by-and-by, on which account it seems to be a judicious thing to go off +the track a little, now and then, if only to "say that we have seen +them." + +In following the graphic narratives of the Prince of Wales's tour, the +mind naturally wandered away to places _not_ visited by him, although +within easy distance of his fore-ordered course. It is well that there +are places left to talk about! Let us conjure up a few old reminiscences +of one,--a silent, primitive little nook of the North, within an hour's +ride of Quebec, but too insignificant a spot for the coveted distinction +of a royal visit. Crowned heads, then, will have the goodness to +transfer their attention, and skip to the next article. + +The nook to which I refer is Lorette, in Lower or French Canada, where +it is commonly called _Jeune Lorette_, to distinguish it from _Ancienne +Lorette_,--a less interesting place, distant from it about four miles. + +Jeune Lorette is situated about eight miles north-west of Quebec, upon +the beautiful, romantic stream called the St. Charles, which rushes down +many a picturesque gorge, and winds through many pleasant meadows, in +its course of some twenty miles from Lake St. Charles away up in the +hills to the St. Roch suburb of Quebec. Here it assumes the character of +a deep, tortuous dock, incumbered with the _debris_ of many ship-yards, +and reflecting the skeleton shapes of big-ribbed merchantmen on the +stocks. Here, too, it is generally called the Little River; probably to +distinguish it from the great River St. Lawrence, into which it oozes at +this point. + +But higher up, as I have said, the St. Charles is romantic and rushes +on its fate. At Lorette, it divides the village in twain: a western +section, for the most part peopled by French-Canadian _habitans_; an +eastern one, inhabited by half-breed Indians, a remnant of the once +powerful Hurons of old. + +These Canadian Hurons are not, in their present condition, corroborative +of the Cooper specifications of Indian life: rather the contrary, in +fact. There is a wing of them--a wing without feathers, indeed--settled +down at Amherstburgh, on the far western marge of Lake Erie, in Canada, +quite six hundred miles away from their brethren of Lorette. When +shooting woodcock once in that district, I entered the comfortable log +farm-house of the chief of the settlement, whose name was Martin. He +was a fat, rather Dutch-looking Indian, but still active and +industrious,--for a man who is an Indian and fat. I asked Mr. Martin if +he hunted much; to which he replied, No, he did not,--adding, that he +never was far into the woods but once in his life, and that was on +his own lot of a hundred acres of bush, in which he was lost, on that +occasion, for two days. + +Among the Hurons of Lorette there are a few young men who hunt moose and +caribou in the proper season; but the men, generally speaking, as +well as the women, are engaged in the manufacture of snow-shoes and +moccasons,--articles for which there is a great demand in Lower Canada. +Philippe Vincent, a chieftain and shoemaker of the tribe, told me that +he had disposed of twelve hundred dollars' worth of these articles, on +a trip to Montreal, from which he had just returned. Many articles of +Indian fancy-work are also manufactured by them: beaded pouches for +tobacco, bark-work knick-knacks, and curious racks made of the hoofs of +the moose, and hung upon the wall to stick small articles into. + +On the profits of this work many of them live in comfort,--nay, in +luxury. Paul Vincent, a cousin of Philippe mentioned above, and, like +him, a chief of the tribe and a renowned builder of snow-shoes, paid two +hundred and seventy-five dollars for a piano for his daughter, when I +was at Quebec, five or six years ago. Whenever I visited Philippe, that +stately man of the Hurons would usher me into a little parlor with a +sofa in it and a carpet on the floor; he would produce brandy in a cut +decanter, and cake upon a good porcelain plate, and would be merry in +French and expansive on the subject of trade. + +Most of these hybrid Hurons are quite as white as their Canadian +neighbors; but they generally have the horse-tail hair, and black, beady +eye of the aborigines. The ordinary dress of the men, in winter, is a +blue blanket-coat, made with a _capuchon_, or hood, which latter is +generally trimmed with bright-colored ribbon and ornamented with beads. +Epaulettes, fashioned out of pieces of red and blue cloth, somewhat +after the pattern of a pen-wiper, impart a distinguished appearance +to the shoulders of these garments, which are rendered still more +picturesque by being tucked round the body with heavy woollen sashes, +variegated in red, blue, and yellow. Some of these sashes are heavily +beaded, and worth from five to ten dollars each; and they, as well +as the Indian blanket-coats, are to be had at the furriers' shops in +Quebec, where there is a considerable demand for them by members of +snow-shoe clubs, and others whose occupations or amusements render that +style of costume appropriate for their wear. The older women dress +in the ordinary squaw costume, with short, narrow petticoats, and +embroidered _metasses_, or leggings. When going out, they fold a blue +blanket over all, and put on a regular, unpicturesque, stove-pipe hat, +with a band of tin-foil around it,--which makes them look like one of +those mulatto coachmen one sees now and then on the box of a _bonton_ +barouche, with his silver-mounted hat and double-caped blue box-coat. +The young girls are disposed to innovations upon the petticoats, and +modifications of the _metasses_. Once I saw one standing on a great gray +crag at the foot of the fall. She looked extremely picturesque at a +little distance, giving a nice bit of local color to the scene with her +scarlet legs; but on a nearer approach, much of the value of the color +disappeared before the unromantic facts of a pale-face petticoat and +patent-leather gaiter-boots. I have noticed several of the younger +people here with brown hair and blue or gray eyes, significant that the +aboriginal blood is being gradually diluted. In another generation or +two, there will be little of it left among them. But the correspondents +of the press, who described some of these Indians seen by them at +Quebec, are mistaken in attributing to them an admixture of Irish blood. +Until within eight years past, there were few, if any, Irish to be found +in the neighborhood of Lorette. Since that time, the construction of the +Quebec water-works, which are supplied from Lake St. Charles, has given +employment to hundreds of the Hibernian stock in that neighborhood; +and I know not whether their influence as regards race may not be now +discernible in the features of many pugnacious Huronites of tender +years: but the white element traceable in the lineaments of the present +and passing generations of the settlement is distinctly attributable to +the proximity of the French-Canadian, whose language has been transfused +into them with the blood. + +Few, if any, of the older people of Lorette speak English,--Huron and +French being the only languages at their command. Since the building of +the great reservoir, however, many of the rising generation are picking +up the English tongue in its roundest Irish form. Previously, matters +were the reverse. I once noticed a handsome, brown-faced boy there, who +used to come about with a bow and arrows, soliciting coppers, which were +placed one by one in a split stick, shot at, and pocketed by the archer, +if hit,--as they almost always were. He spoke Indian and French, and I +took him for an olive-branch of the tribe; but, on questioning him, he +told me that his name was Bill Coogan, and that he first saw the light, +I think, in Cork, Ireland. + +There is one charming feature at Lorette,--a winding, dashing cascade, +which boils and creams down with splendid fury through a deep gorge +fenced with pied and tumbled rocks, and overhung by gnarly-boughed +cedars, pines, and birches. There is, or at least there was, a crumbling +old saw-mill on a ledge of rock nearly half-way up the torrent. It was +in keeping with the scene, and I hope it is there still; but it was very +shaky when I last saw it, and has probably made an _eboulement_ down to +the foot of the fall before now. Some short distance above the head of +the fall, near the bridge by which the two villages are connected, +the scene is pictorially damaged by a stark, staring paper-mill, the +dominant colors of which are Solferino-red and pea-green. This, a +comparatively new feature in the landscape, is not visible from below, +however, and it is from there that the fall is seen to best advantage. + +To the eye of the experienced fisherman, it is obvious that the St. +Charles, with its sparkling rapids, and the deep, swirling pools formed +by its numerous "elbows," must erstwhile have been a chosen, retreat of +the noble salmon. Even now, notwithstanding the obstructions caused by +the immense deposits of ship-yard refuse at its mouth, a few of these +fine fish are caught every season by one or two persevering anglers +from Quebec,--men who thrive on disappointment,--whose fish-hooks are +miniature anchors of Hope. Lake St. Charles, from which the river +derives its existence and its name, is a wild, beautiful tarn, about +five miles above Lorette, embosomed in hills and woods. There are good +bass in that lake, by whose shores there dwells--or dwelt--an ancient +fisherman called Gabriel, who supplied anglers with canoes, and paddled +them about the waters. + +Lorette, although undistinguished by a glance from the mild blue eyes of +the Premier Prince of England, was flashed upon, years ago, by the awful +light that gleamed from the dark, fierce ones of Hamlet, Prince of +Denmark. This is how I came to know it. + +Fifteen years ago,--it was on the seventeenth of August, 1845,--I made +my first pilgrimage to Lorette, in company with a friend. We wandered at +large through the village, talking _patois_ to the swarthy damsels, and +picking up Indian knick-knacks, as we went. At last, fired with the +ambition of doing a distinguished thing, we proposed calling upon the +head chief of the village, whose name, I think, was Simon, but might +possibly have been Peter,--for I regret to say that my memory is rather +misty upon that important point. That personage was absent from home; +but we were hospitably received by his father, who also appeared to be +his butler, as he was engaged in bottling off some root-beer into stone +blacking-jars, when we entered. I suppose the chief's father must once +have been a chief himself, and that his menial position arose from the +fact of his appearance being rather disreputable. He was a decrepit and +very dirty old man, in a tight blue frock-coat, and swathed as to his +spindle shanks with scarlet leggings. Sitting by a small window at the +farther end of the large, bare room, was the prettiest little Huronite +damsel I ever saw, rather fair than dark, and very neatly attired in a +costume partly Indian. This little girl--a granddaughter of the dirty +old man, as that person informed us--was occupied in tying up some small +bundles of what the Canadians call _racine_--a sweet-smelling kind of +rush-grass, sold by them in the Quebec market, and used like _sachets_, +for imparting a pleasant odor to linen garments. After some conversation +of a general character, the old man requested us to write our names in +his visitors' book, which was a long, dirty volume, similar in form to +those usually seen upon bar-counters. In this book we were delighted to +find the autographs of many dear friends, of whom we little expected +to meet with traces in this nook of the North. Mark Tapley and Oliver +Twist, for instance, had visited the place in company some two years +before. There could be no mistake about it; for there were the two +names, in characteristic, but different manuscript, bound together +by the mystic circumflex that indicated them to be friends and +travelling-companions. The record covered a period of ten years; but +was that sufficient to account for the appearance of Shakspeare on its +pages? And yet there he was; and in merry mood he must have been, when +he came to Lorette,--for he wrote himself down "Bill," and dashed off +a little picture of himself after the signature, in a bold, if not +artistic manner. Our friend Titmouse was there, too, represented by +his famous declaration commencing, "Tittlebat Titmouse is my name." He +seemed to have taken particularly fast hold of the memory of the old +Huron, who described him as a tremendous-looking, big person, with +large black whiskers, and remembered having enjoyed a long pull at a +brandy-flask carried by him. Of course there can be no doubt about that +man being the real Tittlebat of our affections. Of the other signatures +in the Huronite album, I chiefly remember that of M.F. Tupper, which I +looked upon at the time as a base forgery, and do aver my belief now +that it was nothing else: for the aged sagamore described the writer of +that signature as a young, cheerful, and communicative man, who smoked a +short, black pipe, and had spaniels with him. Could my friend, could I, +venture to inscribe our humble names among this galaxy of the good and +great? Not so: and yet, to pacify the Huronite patriarch's thirst for +autographs, we wrote signatures in his brown old book; and if that +curious volume is still in existence, the names of Don Caesar de Bazan +and Sir Lucius O'Trigger, Bart., will be found closely linked together +on a particular page with the circumflex of friendship. + +And now the old man, delighted with the addition to his autographs, +proposed to treat us to an exhibition of several medals gained by him +for deeds of valor when he was a warrior, and previously to his having +entered upon the career of a bottler of root-beverages. He had silver +disks presented to him by at least two of Thackeray's Georges, a couple +from William IV., and I think one from her present Majesty, Queen +Victoria. All of these he touched with reverence, and not until he had +purified his hands upon a dirty towel. After we had duly admired these +decorations, and listened with patience to the old man's garrulous talk +about them, he told us that he had yet another to show,--one presented +to him many years ago by a great man of that day,--a man embalmed +for all posterity on account of his unrivalled performances upon the +tight-rope,--a man of whom he reduced all description to mendicancy in +designating him as _un danseur tres-renomme sur la corde tendue_. The +medal was a small silver one, and it bore the following inscription:-- + +FROM EDMUND KEAN, THE BRITISH ACTOR, + +TO TOUSSAHISSA, CHIEF OF THE HURON INDIANS. 1826. + +And such is fame! It appears that Kean, always fond of excitement, had +organized a tremendous _pow-wow_ among these poor specimens of the red +man, on his visit to Quebec. They adopted him,--constituted him a chief +of their tribe. It would be interesting to have a full account of the +great passionist's demeanor upon that solemn occasion. Did he harrow +up his hearers with a burst from "Othello" or a deep-sea groan from +"Hamlet," and then create a revulsion of feeling by somersaulting over +the centre-fire of the circle and standing on his head before it, +grinning diabolically at the incensed pot? Or did he, foreshadowing the +coming Blondin, then unplanned, stretch his tight-rope across the small +Niagara that flashes down into the chasm of the St. Charles, and, +kicking his boots off, carry some "mute, inglorious" Colcord over in an +Indian bark basket? If he did such things, the old Huronite was foggy +upon the subject and reserved, limiting his assertions to the statement, +that "the British actor" was a _farceur_, and likewise _un danseur +tres-renomme sur la corde tendue_. + +Long afterwards, when I resided at Quebec, my visits to Lorette were +very frequent. Once, as I passed along the street, or road, between the +straggling log-houses, I was accosted, in good English, by a fat and +very jovial old squaw, who was attired in a green silk dress, sported +a turban, and appeared to be altogether a superior kind of person. On +inquiry, I learned from her that she was the widow of a former chief of +the tribe, and came originally from Upper Canada, where she learned to +speak English. Her husband had been presented with many medals, she +said;--would I like to see them? I followed the old lady into her +dwelling, where she showed me several silver medals, which I thought I +recognized as the same exhibited by the aged Huronite with the red legs. +But the Kean medal was not among them; nor could I, by any system of +description in my power, recall the features of the relic to the memory +of the old squaw. + +Subsequently, I tried many times to trace it, but without success. Many +strangers visit Lorette during the summer season, and it is possible +that some virtuoso, struck by the associative value of the relic, may +have prevailed on its owner to part with it for a consideration. There +are people who would have possessed themselves of it without the +exchange of a consideration. Should this meet the eye of its present +possessor, and if so be that the medal came into his hands on the +consideration principle, so that he need not be ashamed of it, he will +confer a favor by giving the correct reading of the Indian name. For +"Toussahissa," as I have rendered it, is not exact, but only as near +as I can make it out from my pencil-memoranda, which, written in a +note-book that did occasional duty as a fly-book, have been partially +obliterated in that spot by the contact of a large and remarkably gaudy +salmon-fly, whose repose between the leaves is disturbed, perhaps, by +aquatic nightmares of salmon gaping at him from whirling eddies. + +Between Lorette and the unexplored wilderness that stretches away to +polar desolation there is but a narrow selvage of civilization. Looking +toward it from my windows at Quebec, I could see the blue, serrated +ridge of highlands beyond which the surveyor has never yet run his +lines,--beyond which the surveyor's lines would be superfluous, indeed, +and futile; for the soil is of the barren, rocky kind, and the timber of +the scrubby. Not quite so savage is this frontier, indeed, as the wild +precincts described by the Nebraska editor, whose meditations for a +leader used to be cut short, occasionally, by the bellowing of the +shaggy bison at his window, or the incursion of the redoubtable +"grizzly" into his wood-shed where the elk-meat hung. But, in the clear, +cold nights that precede the punctual and distinct winter of these +regions, the black bears often come down from their fastnesses amid the +wild ridges, and astonish the drowsy _habitant_ and his household by +their pranks among his pigs and calves: also in the spring. + +In a small settlement of this wild tract, a few miles to the north-east +of Lorette, there dwelt, some six or seven years ago, a poor farmer +named Cantin, who added to the meagre fare afforded by his sterile acres +such stray birds and hares as he could get within range of his old +musket, without risking himself very far away from the isolated +clearing. One night in the early part of May, when the snow had +disappeared from the open grounds, but lingered yet in the ravines and +rocky thickets, a dreadful tumult among the cattle of the settlement +indicated the presence of bear. Cantin had the old firelock ready, but +the night was dark and unfavorable for active measures. At gray morning, +traces of the nocturnal intruder were visible, and that close by the +_cabane_ in which Cantin lived, in the little inclosure near which a +struggle had evidently taken place, resulting in the discomfiture of a +yearling calf, portions of which were discovered in the thickets a short +distance from the clearing. Here the patches of snow gave ample evidence +of the passage of a very large bear. When the sun was well up, +Cantin sallied forth alone, with his gun and a small supply of +ammunition,--unluckily for him, a very small supply. He did not return +to dinner. Shots were heard in the course of the day, at a considerable +distance in the hills; and when the afternoon was far advanced, and +Cantin had not made his appearance, several of his neighbors--all the +men of the settlement, indeed, and they made but a small party--set out +in search of him. The snow-patches facilitated their search; and, having +tracked him a good way, they suddenly saw him kneeling by a tree at the +end of an open glade, with his hands clasped in an attitude of prayer. +He was a frightful spectacle when they raised his _bonnet-bleu_, which +had fallen down over his face. The entire facial mask had been torn +clean from the skull by a fearful sweep of the bear's paw, and hung from +his collar-bone by a strip of skin. He must have been dead for some +hours. Fifty yards from where he knelt, the bear was found lying under +some bushes, quite dead, and with two bullet-holes through its carcass. +Cantin, it appeared, had expended all his ammunition, and the wounded +beast had executed a terrible vengeance on him while the life-blood +was welling through the last bullet-hole. I saw this bear brought into +Quebec, in a cart, on the following day; and it is to be seen yet, I +believe, or at least the taxidermal presentment of it is, in the shop of +a furrier in John Street of that city. An enterprising druggist bought +up the little fat left in the animal after its long winter's fast; and +such was the demand among sensational people for gallipots of "grease of +the bear that killed Cantin," that it seemed as if fashion had ordained +the wearing of hair "on end." + +Of the other wild beasts of this hill-district, the commonest is that +known to the inhabitants as the _loup-cervier_,--a name oddly enough +misconstructed by a writer on Canadian sports into "Lucifer." This is +the true lynx,--a huge cat with long and remarkably thick legs, paws in +which dangerous claws are sheathed, and short tail. Its principal prey +is the common or Northern hare, which abounds in these regions: but at +times the _loup-cervier_ will invade the poultry-yards; and he is even +held to account, now and then, for the murder of innocent lambs, and the +disappearance of tender piglings whose mothers were so negligent as to +let them stray alone into the brushwood. These fierce cats have been +killed, occasionally, quite close to Quebec. When thus driven to +approach populous districts, it must be from scarcity of their +accustomed food; for they are usually very savage and ravenous, when +found in such places. I know an instance, myself, in which a gentleman +of Quebec, riding a little way from the town, was suddenly pounced upon +and attacked by a _loup-cervier_, near the Plains of Abraham. He struck +the animal with his whip several times, but it persisted in following +him, and he got rid of it only by putting spurs to his horse and beating +it in speed. The animal was killed soon afterwards, near the same place. + +I had heard of another variety of wildcat, seen at rare intervals in the +same districts. The _habitant_ is rather foggy on the subject of zoology +in general, and my attempts to obtain a satisfactory description of this +animal were futile. Some of the definitions of this rare _chat-sauvage,_ +indeed, might have answered for specifications of a griffin, or of a +vampire-bat. At last, one day, when walking about in the market-place +at Quebec, I saw a crowd assembled round a gray-clad countryman, who +presided over a small box on which the words _Chat-Sauvage_ were +painted. Now was my time to set the question at rest. I invested +sixpence in the show. When a good number of sixpences had been paid in, +the proprietor opened his box, out from which crawled a fat, familiar +raccoon, apparently as much at home in the market-place as he could have +been in the middle of his native swamp. And this was the mysterious +"wild-cat" about which I had asked so many questions and heard so many +stories! + +It is noticeable that thunder-storms, travelling from the westward +toward Quebec, usually diverge across the valley of the St. Charles in +the direction of Lorette, and coast along the ridge of ground on which +that place is situated to Charlesbourg, a small village lying about four +miles to the east of it, upon the ridge. There the storms appear to +culminate, pouring out the full vials of their wrath upon the devoted +_habitans_ of white-cotted Charlesbourg. The wayfarer who wends through +this rustical district will hardly fail to observe the prevailing taste +for lightning-rods. The smallest cottage has at least two of these +fire-irons, one upon each gable; houses of more pretensions are provided +with an indefinite number; and the big white church has its purple roof +so bristled with them, that the pause which a flash of lightning must +necessarily make before deciding by which of them to come down must +enable any tolerably active person to get out of the way in good time. +And yet, with all these defenders of the faithful, I remember how the +steeple was taken clean off the big white church, in splinters, one wild +night after I had watched a long array of cloud-chariots rolling heavily +away eastward along the ridge: also, how a farmer's handsome daughter, +the belle of the village, sat upright and dead upon a sofa when people +came again to their eyesight after a blinding flash. So much for +lightning-rods!--so much for the mystic iron! + +When the day of the _Fete Dieu_ comes round, Quebec and its neighboring +villages are all alive for the celebration of the _fete_, which takes +place on the following Sunday. Then the great suburb of St. Roch is +a sight to see. Every street of it is converted into a green alley, +embowered with young pine-trees, and flaunting with banners temporarily +constructed out of all available pieces of dry-goods, lent by the +devoted shop-keepers of the olden Church. Most extraordinary lithographs +of holy personages are hung out upon the door-posts and walls of every +house. Bowers shading curious little shrines meet the eye everywhere. +The white tables of the little shrines are loaded with gilt and +tinselled offerings in immense variety. Curious bosses, like +lace-pillows got up for church, swing pendent from the verdant +pine-branches. The vast parish-church, of sombre gray masonry, flashing +carnival-fires from the tin-plated pepper-boxes and slopes of its acre +of roof, is receiving or disgorging a variegated multitude of good +Catholics. Within, it is a mass of foliage, a wilderness of shrines, a +cloud-land of incense. Long processions of maidens all in white, and +others of maidens all in pale watchet-blue, are threading the principal +streets. They are not _all_ very religious maidens, I am afraid; +because, as sure as fate, one very young one of those robed in pure +white "made eyes" at me as she passed. Now all this display in Quebec +and its suburbs is set forth on a great scale and with bewildering +turmoil; but if you want to see it in miniature presentment, you must +pass down through St. Roch, and take the road to Lorette. Arrived among +the _sauvages_,--for so the Canadian _habitant_ invariably calls +his Indian brother, who is often as like him as one pea is like +another,--you will there see the little old Huron church decked out in +humble imitation of its younger, but bigger brothers in the city. The +lanes between the log-houses are embowered in a modest way, and the +drapery is eked out by many a yellow flannel petticoat and pair of +scarlet leggings that dally riotously with each other in the breeze. The +shrines are certainly less magnificent than those fairy bowers of +the elf-land St. Roch, but there is a good deal of beaded peltry and +bark-work about them, giving them, in a small way, the character of +aboriginal bazaars. The Hurons are _bons Catholiques_, and everything +connected with the _fete_ is conducted with a solemnity becoming the +character of the Christian red man. So decorous, indeed, are the little +_sauvagesses_ forming the miniature processions, that I do not remember +ever detecting the eyes of any of them wandering and wantoning around, +like those of the naughty little processional in white about whose +conduct I just now complained. + +The instinct of the French-Canadian for Indian trading has led one of +that race to establish a general store close by the Huron village, +though on the _habitant_ side of the stream. The gay printed cottons +indispensable to the _belle sauvagesse_ are here to be found, as well as +the blue blankets and the white, of so much account in the wardrobe of +the women as well as of the men. Here, too, are to be had the assorted +beads and silks and worsteds used in the embroidery of moccasons, +epaulettes, and such articles; nor is the quality of the Cognac kept on +hand by Joe for his customers to be characterized as despicable. Indeed, +it would be hazardous to aver that anything is _not_ to be had, for the +proper compensation, in Joe's establishment,--that is, anything +that could possibly be required by the most exacting _sauvage_ +or _sauvagesse_, from a strap of sleigh-bells to a red-framed +looking-glass. Out of that store, too, comes a deal of the vivid drapery +displayed upon the _Fete Dieu_, and much of the art-union resource +combined in the attractive cheap lithograph element so edifying to the +connoisseur. + +I think it was one of those _fetes_--if not, another bright summer +holiday--that I once saw darkly disturbed in this quiet little hamlet. +Standing upon the table-rock that juts out at the foot of the fall so +as to half-bridge over the lower-most eddy, I saw a small object topple +over the summit of the cascade. It was nothing but a common pail or +stable-bucket, as I perceived, when it glided past, almost within arm's +length of me, and disappeared down the winding gorge. When I went up +again to the road, I saw a crowd of holiday people standing near the +little inn. They were solemn and speechless, and, on approaching, I saw +that they were gazing upon the body of a man, dead and sadly crushed +and mutilated. He was a _caleche_-driver from Quebec, well known to the +small community; and although it does not seem any great height from the +roadway near the inn to the tumbled rocks by the river's edge just +above the fall, yet it was a drop to mash and kill the poor fellow dead +enough, when his foot slipped, as he descended the unsafe path to get +water for his horse. A dweller in great cities--say, for instance, one +who lives within decent distance of such a charming locality as that +called the Five Points in New York--could hardly realize the amount of +awe that an event so trifling as a sudden and violent death will spread +over a primitive village community. This happened in the French division +of the place, which, of course, was decorated to the utmost ability of +the people in honor of the _fete_: and so palpable was the gloom cast +over all by the circumstance, that the bright flannels flaunting from +the _cordons_ stretched across the way seemed to darken into palls, and +the gay red streamers must have appeared to the subdued carnival spirits +as warning crape-knots on the door-handle of death. + +I believe it is a maxim with the Italian connoisseur of art, that no +landscape is perfect without one red spot to give value to its varieties +of green. On this principle, let me break the monotony of this little +rural sketch with the one touch of genuine American character that +belonged to it at the time of which I speak. Let William Button be the +one red spot that predominated vastly over the green influences by which +he was surrounded. The little inn at Lorette was then kept by a worthy +host bearing the above-mentioned name, which was dingily lettered out +upon a swinging sign, dingily representing a trotting horse,--emblem +as dear to the slow Canadian as to the fast American mind. William +Button--known as Billy Button to hosts of familiar friends--was, I +think, a Kentuckian by birth; a fact which might honestly account for +his having come by the loss of an eye through some operation by which +marks of violence had been left upon the surrounding tracts of his +rugged countenance. He was a short, thick-set man, with bow-legs like +those of a bull-terrier, and walked with a heavy lurch in his gait. +William's head was of immense size in proportion to his stature. Indeed, +that important joint of his person must have been a division by about +two of what artists term heroic proportions, or eight heads to a +height,--a standard by which Button was barred from being a hero, for +his head could hardly have been much less than a fourth of his entire +length. The expression of his face was remarkably typical of American +humor and shrewdness, an effect much aided by the chronic wink afforded +by his closed eye. How Button found his way to this remote spot would +have been a puzzle to any person unfamiliar with American character. How +he managed to live among and deal with and very considerably master a +community speaking no language with which he was acquainted was more +unaccountable still. The inn could not have been a very profitable +speculation, in itself; but there was one room in it fitted out with a +display of Indian manufactures,--some of the articles reposing in +glass cases to protect them from hands and dust, others arranged with +negligent regularity upon the walls. Out of these the landlord made a +good penny, as he charged an extensive percentage upon the original +cost,--that is, to strangers; but if you were in Button's confidence, +then was there no better fellow to intrust with a negotiation for a +pair of snow-shoes, or moose-horns, or anything else in that line +of business. In the winter season he was a great instigator of +moose- and caribou-expeditions to the districts where these animals +abound, assembling for this purpose the best Indian hunters to be found +in the neighborhood, and accompanying the party himself. Out of the spoils +of these expeditions he sometimes made a handsome profit: a good pair of +moose-horns, for instance, used to fetch from six to ten dollars; and +there is always a demand for the venison in the Quebec market. The skins +were manufactured into moccason-leather by Indian adepts whom Button had +in his pay, and who worked for a very low rate of remuneration,--quite +disproportioned, indeed, to the fancy prices always paid by strangers +for the articles turned out by their hands. + +The name "Billy Button" carries with it an association oddly +corroborated by a story narrated of himself by the man of whom I am +speaking. Of all the reminiscences connected with the illegitimate drama +that have dwelt with me from my early childhood until now, not one is +more vividly impressed upon my memory than that standard old comedy +on horseback performed by circus-riders long since gone to rest, and +entitled "Billy Button's Journey to Brentford." The hero of this +pleasant horse-play was a tailor,--men following that useful trade being +considered capable of affording more amusement in connection with horses +than any others, excepting, perhaps, jolly mariners on a spree. The plot +of the drama used to strike my young mind as being a "crib" from "John +Gilpin"; but I forgave that, in consideration of the skilful manner in +which the story was wrought out. With what withering contempt used +I, brought up among horses and their riders, to jeer at the wretched +attempts of the tailor to remain permanently upon any central point of +the horse's spinal ridge! How cheerful my feelings, when that man +of shreds and patches fell prostrate in the sawdust, where he lay +grovelling until the next revolution of his noble steed, when the animal +caught him up by the baggiest portion of the trousers and carried him +round the arena as a terrier might a rat! But, oh, what mingled joy and +admiration, when out from the worried mass of coats leaped the nimble +rider, now no longer a miserable tailor, but a roseate young man in +tights and spangles, featly posturing over all the available area of his +steed, and "witching the world with noble horsemanship"! + +All these memories crowded upon me with a tremendous shock the very +first time I saw the name of William Button upon the dingy swinging +sign. Afterwards, when I became intimate with that curious person, I +discovered that he was a capital "whip,"--first-rate, indeed, as a +driver of the fast trotting horse, as well as a good judge of that +superior article. With respect to his experiences as a rider he was more +reserved; and it was not until after I had known him a long time that he +confided to me the particulars of a ride once taken by him, which bore, +in its principal features, a singular resemblance to the one performed +by his great name-sake of the sawdust-ring. + +There is a pack of fox-hounds kept at Montreal, maintained chiefly by +officers of the garrison, as a shadowy reminiscence, perhaps, of the +real thing, which is essentially of insular Britain and of nowhere else. +Button happened to go to Montreal, on one occasion, for the purpose of +picking up a race-horse, I think, for the Quebec market. Somebody who +used to ride with the hounds had a horse which he wanted to get rid +of, on account of headstrong tendencies in general and inability to +appreciate the advantages of a bit. I remember the animal well. He was +a fiery chestnut, with white about the legs, and very good across a +country so long as he was wanted to go; but no common power could stop +him when once he began to do that. On this animal--"The Buffer," he was +called--Button was persuaded to mount, "just to try him a little," +his owner said; and by way of doing that with perfect freedom from +restraint, they rode out to where the hounds were to throw off, a couple +of miles from the city. Button used to say that the term "throw off," +which was new to him in that application, haunted him all the way out, +like a bad dream. It was a bag-fox day, I believe: that is, the hunt was +provided with a trapped animal, brought upon the ground in a sack and +let out when the proper time came,--a process known in sporting parlance +as "shaking a fox." The usual amount of "law" having been conceded, the +hounds were laid on, and went away, as Button said, like a fire-flake +over a prairie. No sooner did "The Buffer" hear the cry of the pack, +than he started forward with a suddenness and force by which his +wretched rider was jerked back at least a foot behind the saddle, +into which place of rest he never once again fell during his many +vicissitudes of position in that ride. I have said that Button was +bow-legged; and to that providential fact did he attribute the power by +which he clung on to various parts of the steed during his wild career +of perhaps a mile, but which seemed to the troubled senses of the rider +not much less than fifty. It was providential for him, too, that the +country was but sparsely intersected by fences, and those not of a very +formidable character: nevertheless, at each of these the too confiding +Button experienced a change of position, being, as he used to express +it, "interjuiced forrard o' the saddle or back'ard o' the saddle, +accordin' to the kind o' thing the hoss flew over, and one time +booleyvusted right under the hoss, whar he hung on by the girth ontil +another buck-jump sent him right side on ag'in; but never, on no +account, did he touch leather ag'in in all that ride." And thus Billy +Button might have ridden farther and fared worse, had he not seen a +terrible fate staring him imminently in the face. The hounds had just +entered a little grove of young pine-trees, which stood very close +together, and bristled with sharp, jagged branches nearly to the root, +after the manner of these children of the wood. At this place of torture +"The Buffer" was rushing with all his might, Button being then situated +upon his neck, in a position most convenient for being "skinned alive" +by the trees, as he said, when a plunge made by the animal over a plashy +pool transferred the rider to his tail, from which he "collapsed right +down in a kind o' swoon, and when he come to, found himself settin' up +to his elbows in muddy water, very solitary-like, and with a terrible +stillness all around."--What became of "The Buffer" I forget, and also +how Button got home; but he certainly did not ride. And he always wound +up the narrative of his first and last fox-hunt by invoking terrible +ends to himself, if ever he "threw leg over dog-hoss ag'in, to see a +throw-off." + +Button left Lorette about two years after I first became acquainted with +him, and I next heard of him down at the rock-walled Saguenay, where he +had gone into a speculation for supplying the Boston market with salmon. +But horse-flesh seemed to be more palatable to him than fish; for, later +still, I met him at Toronto, in Upper Canada, mounted upon a powerful +dark brown stallion, and leading another, its exact counterpart. + +"Hollo, Button!" said I, in response to his cheery, "How de dew?"--"On +horseback again, I see; have you forgotten the Buffer-business, then?" + +"Forgot the yaller cuss!" replied he. "No, Sir-ree! He hangs round me +yet, like fever 'n' agur upon a ma'sh. But the critter I'm onto a'n't no +dog-hoss, you may believe; he don't 'throw off' nor nothin', _he_ don't. +Him and his mate here a'n't easy matched. I fetched 'em up from below on +spec, and you can hev the span for a cool thousand on ice." + +And this was the last I saw of Button, who was one of the strangest +combinations of hotel-keeper, horse-jockey, Indian-trader, fish-monger, +and alligator, I ever met. + +Tradition still retains a hold upon the Hurons of Lorette, little as +remains to them of the character and lineaments of the red man. A +pitiable procession of their diluted "braves" may sometimes be seen in +the streets of Quebec, on such distinguished occasions as the Prince's +visit. But it is with a manifest consciousness of the ludicrous that +these industrials now do their little drama of the war-dance and the +oration and the council-smoke. That drama has degenerated into a very +feeble farce now, and the actors in it would be quite outdone in their +travesty by any average corps of "supes" at one of our theatres. +By-and-by all this will have died out, and the "Indian side" of the +stream at Lorette will be assimilated in all its features to the other. +The moccason is already typifying the decadence of aboriginal things +there. That article is now fitted with India-rubber soles for the Quebec +demand,--a continuation of the sole running in a low strip round the +edge of the foot. With the gradual widening of that strip, until the +moccason of the red man has been clean obliterated from things that are +by the India-rubber of the white, will the remnant of the Hurons have +passed away with things that were. Verdict on the "poor Indian":--"Wiped +out with an India-rubber shoe." + +And then, in future generations, the tradition of Indian blood among +Canadian families of dark complexion, along these ridges, will be about +as vague as that of Spanish descent in the case of certain tribes of +fishermen on the western coast of Ireland. From the assimilation already +going on, however, it may be argued that the physical character of the +Indian will be gradually merged and lost in that of the French colonist. +The Hurons are described as having formerly been a people of large +stature, while those of the present day in Lower Canada are usually +rather undersized than otherwise, like their _habitant_ neighbors. As +a race, the latter are below the middle stature, although generally of +great bodily strength and endurance. + +Physical size and grand proportions are looked upon by the +French-Canadian with great respect. In all the cases of popular +_emeutes_ that have from time to time broken out in Lower Canada, the +fighting leaders of the people were exceptional men, standing head +and shoulders over their confiding followers. Where gangs of raftsmen +congregate, their "captains" may be known by superior stature. The +doings of their "big men" are treasured by the French-Canadians in +traditionary lore. One famous fellow of this governing class is known +by his deeds and words to every lumberer and stevedore and timber-tower +about Montreal and Quebec. This man, whose name was Joe Monfaron, was +the bully of the Ottawa raftsmen. He was about six feet six inches high +and proportionably broad and deep; and I remember how people would turn +round to look after him, as he came pounding along Notre-Dame Street, in +Montreal, in his red shirt and tan-colored _shupac_ boots, all dripping +wet after mooring an acre or two of raft, and now bent for his +ashore-haunts in the Ste.-Marie suburb, to indemnify himself with +bacchanalian and other consolations for long-endured hardship. Among +other feats of strength attributed to him, I remember the following, +which has an old, familiar taste, but was related to me as a fact. + +There was a fighting stevedore or timber-tower, I forget which, at +Quebec, who never had seen Joe Monfaron, as the latter seldom came +farther down the river than Montreal. This fighting character, however, +made a custom of laughing to scorn all the rumors that came down on +rafts, every now and then, about terrible chastisements inflicted by Joe +upon several hostile persons at once. He, the fighting timber-tower, +hadn't found his match yet about the lumber-coves at Quebec, and he only +wanted to see Joe Monfaron once, when he would settle the question as to +the championship of the rafts on sight. One day, a giant in a red shirt +stood suddenly before him, saying,-- + +"You're Dick Dempsey, eh?" + +"That's me," replied the timber-tower; "and who are you?" + +"Joe Monfaron. I heard you wanted me,--here I am," was the Caesarean +response of the great captain of rafts. + +"Ah! you're Joe Monfaron!" said the bully, a little staggered at the +sort of customer he saw before him. "I said I'd like to see you, for +sure; but how am I to know you're the right man?" + +"Shake hands, first," replied Joe, "and then you'll find out, may be." + +They shook hands,--rather warmly, perhaps, for the timber-tower, whose +features wore an uncertain expression during the operation, and who at +last broke out into a yell of pain, as Joe cast him off with a defiant +laugh. Nor did the bully wait for any further explanations; for, whether +the man who had just brought the blood spouting out at the tips of his +fingers was Joe Monfaron or not, he was clearly an ugly customer and had +better be left alone. + +There are several roads from Quebec to Lorette, all of them good for +carriages except one, which, from its extreme destitution of every +condition essential to easy locomotion on wheels, is called, in the +expressive language of the French colonists, _La Misere_. And yet this +is the only road which, from touching various points of the River St. +Charles, affords the traveller compensating glimpses of the picturesque +windings of that stream. The pedestrian, however, is the only kind of +explorer who really sees a country and its people; and for him who is +not too proud to walk, _La Misere_ is not so hard to bear as its name +might imply. + +If iron takes the romance out of things, in a general way, as I +mentioned at the beginning of this article my impression that it +rather does, I know not whether primitive Lorette has not become sadly +vulcanized into prosaic progress by the grand system of water-works +established there for the benefit of Quebec. Connected as it is, now, +with the latter place, by seven miles of iron pipes, I would not +undertake to say that it retains aught of the rustic simplicity of its +greener days. Had the pipes been of wood, indeed, the place might +yet have had a chance. To understand this, one should hear the +French-Canadian expatiate upon the superiority of the wooden to the +metal bridge. Five years ago, the road-trustees of Quebec undertook to +span the Montmorency River, just above the great fall, with an iron +suspension-bridge. This would shorten the road, they said, by some two +or three hundred yards of divergence from the old wooden bridge higher +up. They built their bridge, which looked like a spider's web spanning +the verge of the stupendous cataract, when seen from the St. Lawrence +below. It was opened to the public in April, 1856, but was little used +for some days, as the conservative _habitans_, who had gone the crooked +road over the wooden bridge all their lives, declined to see what +advantage could be gained by taking to a straight one pontificed with +iron. It had not been open a week, however, when, as two or three +hurrying peasants were venturing it with their carts, it fell with a +crash, and all were washed headlong in an instant over the precipice +and into the boiling abyss below, from which not one vestige of their +remains was ever returned for a sign to their awe-stricken friends. +Supposing this bridge to be rebuilt,--which is not likely,--I do not +believe that a _habitant_ of all that region could be got to cross it, +even under the malediction, with bell, book, and candle, of his priest. +And so the old wooden bridge flourishes, and the crooked road is +travelled by gray-coated _cultivateurs_, whose forefathers went crooked +in the same direction for several generations, mounted upon persevering +ponies which wouldn't upon any account be persuaded into going straight. + +A gleam of hope for Lorette flashes upon me since the above was written. +On looking over a provincial paper, I find astounding rumors of ghosts +appearing upon the track of a western railroad. Things clothed in the +traditional white appear before the impartial cow-catcher, which divides +them for the passage of the train, in the wake of which they immediately +reappear in a full state of repair and posture of contempt. If this +sort of thing goes on, what a splendid new field will be opened for the +writer of romance! + +Certainly, I do not yet see what antidote there is for the primitive and +pastoral against seven miles of iron pipe; but it is cheerful to know +that ghosts are beginning to come about railroads, and all may yet be +well with Lorette. + + + + +BEHIND THE MASK. + + + It was an old, distorted face,-- + An uncouth visage, rough and wild; + Yet from behind, with laughing grace, + Peeped the fresh beauty of a child. + + And so contrasting, fair and bright, + It made me of my fancy ask + If half earth's wrinkled grimness might + Be but the baby in the mask. + + Behind gray hairs and furrowed brow + And withered look that life puts on, + Each, as he wears it, comes to know + How the child hides, and is not gone. + + For, while the inexorable years + To saddened features fit their mould, + Beneath the work of time and tears + Waits something that will not grow old! + + And pain and petulance and care + And wasted hope and sinful stain + Shape the strange guise the soul doth wear, + Till her young life look forth again. + + The beauty of his boyhood's smile,-- + What human faith could find it now + In yonder man of grief and guile,-- + A very Cain, with branded brow? + + Yet, overlaid and hidden, still + It lingers,--of his life a part; + As the scathed pine upon the hill + Holds the young fibres at its heart. + + And, haply, round the Eternal Throne, + Heaven's pitying angels shall not ask + For that last look the world hath known, + But for the face behind the mask! + + + + +DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. + + +We were lately lounging away a Roman morning among the gems in +Castellani's sparkling rooms in the Via Poli. One of the treasures +handed out for rapturous examination was a diamond necklace, just +finished for a Russian princess, at the cost of sixty thousand dollars, +and a set of pearls for an English lady, who must pay, before she bears +her prize homeward, the sum of ten thousand dollars. Castellani junior, +a fine, patriotic young fellow, who has since been banished for his +liberal ideas of government, smiled as he read astonishment in our eyes, +and proceeded forthwith to dazzle us still further with more gems of +rarest beauty, till then hidden away in his strong iron boxes. + +Castellani, father and son, are princes among jewellers, and deserve to +be ranked as artists of a superior order. Do not fail to visit their +charming apartments, as among the most attractive lesser glories, when +you go to Rome. They have a grand way of doing things, right good to +look upon; and we once saw a countrywoman of ours, who has written +immortal words in the cause of freedom, made the recipient of a gem at +their hands, which she cannot but prize as among the chief tributes so +numerously bestowed in all parts of the Christian world where her feet +have wandered. + +Castellani's jeweller's shop has existed in Rome since the year 1814. +At that time all the efforts of this artist (Castellani the elder) were +directed to the imitation of the newest English and French fashions, and +particularly to the setting of diamonds. This he continued till 1823. +From 1823 to 1827 he sought aid for his art in the study of Technology. +And not in vain; for in 1826 he read before the _Accademia dei Lincei_ +of Rome, (founded by Federico Cesi,) a paper on the chemical process of +coloring _a giallone_ (yellow) in the manufacture of gold, in which he +announced some facts in the action of electricity, long before Delarive +and other chemists, as noticed in the "Quarterly Journal of Science," +Dec., 1828, No. 6, and the "Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve," 1829, +Tom. xi. p. 84. + +At this period Etruria began to lay open the treasures of her art. +All were struck by the beauty of the jewels found in the tombs; but +Castellani was the first who thought of reproducing some of them; and he +did it to the great admiration of the amateurs, foremost among whom may +be mentioned the Duke Don Michelangelo Caetani, a man of great artistic +feeling, who aided by his counsels and his designs the _renaissance_ of +Roman jewelry. + +The discovery of the celebrated tomb Regulini-Galassi at Cervetri was +an event in jewelry. The articles of gold found in it (all now in the +Vatican) were diligently studied by Castellani, when called upon to +appraise them. Comprehending the methods and the character of the work, +he boldly followed tradition. + +The discoveries of Campanari of Toscanella, and of the Marquis Campana +of Rome, gave valuable aid to this new branch of art. + +Thus it went on improving; and Castellani produced very expert pupils, +all of them Italians. Fashion, if not public feeling, came to aid the +_renaissance_, and others, in Rome and elsewhere, undertook similar work +after the models of Castellani. It may be asserted that the triumph of +the classic jewelry is now complete. Castellani renounced the modern +methods of chasing and engraving, and adhered only to the antique +fashion of overlaying with cords, grains, and finest threads of +gold. From the Etruscan style he passed to the Greek, the Roman, the +Christian. In this last he introduced the rough mosaics, such as were +used by the Byzantines with much effect and variety of tint and of +design. + +The work of Castellani is dear; but that results from his method of +execution, and from the perfect finish of all the details. He does not +seek for cheapness, but for the perfection of art: this is the only +thing he has in view. As he is a man of genius, we have devoted +considerable space to his admirable productions. + +The Talmud informs us that Noah had no other light in the ark than that +which came from precious stones. Why do not our modern jewellers take a +hint from the ancient safety-boat, and light up accordingly? We dare +say old Tavernier, that knowing French gem-trader of the seventeenth +century, had the art of illuminating his chateau at Aubonne in a way +wondrous to the beholder. Among all the jewellers, ancient or modern, +Jean Baptiste Tavernier seems to us the most interesting character. His +great knowledge of precious stones, his acute observation and unfailing +judgment, stamp him as one of the remarkable men of his day. Forty years +of his life he passed in travelling through Turkey, Persia, and the +East Indies, trading in gems of the richest and rarest lustre. A great +fortune was amassed, and a barony in the Canton of Berne, on the Lake of +Geneva, was purchased as no bad harbor for the rest of his days. There +he hoped to enjoy the vast wealth he had so industriously acquired. But, +alas! stupid nephews abound everywhere; and one of his, to whom he had +intrusted a freight worth two hundred and twenty thousand livres, caused +him so great a loss, that, at the age of eighty-four, he felt obliged to +sail again for the East in order to retrieve his fortune, or at least +repair the ill-luck arising from his unfortunate speculation. He forgot, +poor old man! that youth and strength are necessary to fight against +reverses; and he died at Moscow, on his way, in 1689. When you visit the +great Library in Paris, you will find his "Travels," in three volumes, +published in 1677-79, on a shelf among the quartos. Take them down, and +spend a pleasant hour in looking through the pages of the enthusiastic +old merchant-jeweller. His adventures in search of diamonds and other +precious commodities are well told; and although he makes the mistakes +incident to many other early travellers, he never wilfully romances. +He supposed he was the first European that had explored the mines of +Golconda; but an Englishman of the name of Methold visited them as early +as 1622, and found thirty thousand laborers working away for the rich +Marcandar, who paid three hundred thousand pagodas annually to the king +for the privilege of digging in a single mine. The first mine visited by +Tavernier was that of Raolconda, a five-days' journey from Golconda. The +manner of trading there he thus describes:-- + +"A very pretty sight is that presented every morning by the children of +the master-miners and of other inhabitants of the district. The boys, +the eldest of which is not over sixteen or the youngest under ten, +assemble and sit under a large tree in the public square of the village. +Each has his diamond weight in a bag hung on one side of his girdle, and +on the other a purse containing sometimes as much as five or six hundred +pagodas. Here they wait for such persons as have diamonds to sell, +either from the vicinity or from any other mine. When a diamond is +brought to them, it is immediately handed to the eldest boy, who is +tacitly acknowledged as the head of this little band. By him it is +carefully examined, and then passed to his neighbor, who, having also +inspected it, transmits it to the next boy. The stone is thus passed +from hand to hand, amid unbroken silence, until it returns to that of +the eldest, who then asks the price and makes the bargain. If the little +man is thought by his comrades to have given too high a price, he must +keep the stone on his own account. In the evening the children take +account of stock, examine their purchases, and class them according to +their water, size, and purity, putting on each stone the price they +expect to get for it; they then carry the stones to the masters, who +have always assortments to complete, and the profits are divided among +the young traders, with this difference in favor of the head of the +firm, that he receives one-fourth per cent. more than the others. These +children are so perfectly acquainted with the value of all sorts of +gems, that, if one of them, after buying a stone, is willing to lose +one-half per cent. on it, a companion is always ready to take it." + +Master Tavernier discourses at some length on the ingenious methods +adopted by the laborers to conceal diamonds which they have found, +sometimes swallowing them,--and he tells of one miner who hid in the +corner of his eye a stone of two carats! Altogether, his work is one +worthy to be turned over, even in that vast collection, the Imperial +Library, for its graphic pictures of gem-hunting two hundred years ago. + +Professor Tennant says, "One of the common marks of opulence and taste +in all countries is the selection, preservation, and ornamental use of +gems and precious stones." Diamonds, from the time Alexander ordered +pieces of flesh to be thrown into the inaccessible valley of Zulmeah, +that the vultures might bring up with them the precious stones which +attached themselves, have everywhere ranked among the luxuries of a +refined cultivation. It is the most brilliant of stones, and the hardest +known body. Pliny says it is so hard a substance, that, if one should +be laid on an anvil and struck with a hammer, look out for the hammer! +[_Mem_. If the reader have a particularly fine diamond, never mind +Pliny's story: the risk is something, and Pliny cannot be reached for an +explanation, should his experiment fail.] By its own dust only can +the diamond be cut and polished; and its great lustre challenges +the admiration of the world. Ordinary individuals, with nothing to +distinguish them from the common herd, have "got diamonds," and +straightway became ever afterwards famous. An uncommon-sized brilliant, +stuck into the front linen of a foolish fellow, will set him up as +a marked man, and point him out as something worth looking at. The +announcement in the papers of the day, that "Mademoiselle Mars would +wear all her diamonds," never failed to stimulate the sale of tickets +on all such occasions. As it may interest our readers to know what +treasures an actress of 1828 possessed, we copy from the catalogue of +her effects a few items. + +"Two rows of brilliants set _en chatons_, one row composed of forty-six +brilliants, the other of forty-four; eight sprigs of wheat in +brilliants, composed of about five hundred brilliants, weighing +fifty-seven carats; a garland of brilliants that may be taken to pieces +and worn as three distinct ornaments, three large brilliants forming the +centre of the principal flowers, the whole comprising seven hundred and +nine brilliants, weighing eighty-five carats three-quarters; a Sevigne +mounted in colored gold, in the centre of which is a burnt topaz +surrounded by diamonds weighing about three grains each, the drops +consisting of three opals similarly surrounded by diamonds; one of +the three opals is of very large size, in shape oblong, with rounded +corners; the whole set in gold studded with rubies and pearls. + +"A _parure_ of opals, consisting of a necklace and Sevigne, two +bracelets, ear-rings the studs of which are emeralds, comb, belt-plate +set with an opal in the shape of a triangle; the whole mounted in +wrought gold, studded with small emeralds. + +"A Gothic bracelet of enamelled gold, in the centre a burnt topaz +surrounded by three large brilliants; in each link composing the +bracelet is a square emerald; at each extremity of the topaz forming +the centre ornament are two balls of burnished gold, and two of wrought +gold. + +"A pair of girandole ear-rings of brilliants, each consisting of a large +stud brilliant and of three pear-shaped brilliants united by four small +ones; another pair of ear-rings composed of fourteen small brilliants +forming a clustre of grapes, each stud of a single brilliant. + +"A diamond cross composed of eleven brilliants, the ring being also of +brilliants. + +"A bracelet with a gold chain, the centre-piece of which is a fine opal +surrounded with brilliants; the opal is oblong and mounted in the Gothic +style; the clasp is an opal. + +"A gold bracelet, with a _grecque_ surrounded by six angel heads graven +on turkoises, and a head of Augustus. + +"A serpent bracelet _a la Cleopatre_, enamelled black, with a turkois on +its head. + +"A bracelet with wrought links burnished on a dead ground; the clasp a +heart of burnished gold with a turkois in the centre, graven with Hebrew +characters. + +"A bracelet with a row of Mexican chain, and a gold ring set with a +turkois and fastened to the bracelet by a Venetian chain. + +"A ring, the hoop encircled with small diamonds. + +"A ring, _a la chevaliere_, set with a square emerald between two +pearls. + +"A gold _chevaliere_ ring, on which is engraved a small head of +Napoleon. + +"Two belt-buckles, Gothic style, one of burnished gold, the other set +with emeralds, opals, and pearls. + +"A necklace of two rows coral; a small bracelet of engraved carnelians. + +"A comb of rose diamonds, form D 5, surmounted by a large rose +surrounded by smaller ones, and a cinque-foil in roses, the _chatons_ +alternated, below a band of roses." + +The weight of the diamond, as every one knows, is estimated in _carats_ +all over the world. And what is a carat, pray? and whence its name? It +is of Indian origin, a _kirat_ being a small seed that was used in India +to weigh diamonds with. Four grains are equal to one carat, and six +carats make one pennyweight. But there is no standard weight fixed for +the finest diamonds. Competition alone among purchasers must arrange +their price. The commercial value of gems is rarely affected, and +among all articles of commerce the diamond is the least liable to +depreciation. Panics that shake empires and topple trade into the dust +seldom lower the cost of this king of precious stones; and there is no +personal property that is so apt to remain unchanged in money-value. + +Diamond anecdotes abound, the world over; but we have lately met with +two brief ones that ought to be preserved. + +"Carlier, a bookseller in the reign of Louis XIV., left, at his death, +to each of his children,--one a girl of fifteen, the other a captain in +the guards,--a sum of five hundred thousand francs, then an enormous +fortune. Mademoiselle Carlier, young, handsome, and wealthy, had +numerous suitors. One of these, a M. Tiquet, a Councillor of the +Parliament, sent her on her fete-day a bouquet, in which the calices of +the roses were of large diamonds. The magnificence of this gift gave so +good an opinion of the wealth, taste, and liberality of the donor, that +the lady gave him the preference over all his competitors. But sad was +the disappointment that followed the bridal! The husband was rather poor +than rich; and the bouquet, that had cost forty-five thousand francs, +(nine thousand dollars,) had been bought on credit, and was paid out of +the bride's fortune." + +"The gallants of the Court of Louis XV. carried extravagance as far +as the famous Egyptian queen. She melted a pearl,--they pulverized +diamonds, to prove their insane magnificence. A lady having expressed a +desire to have the portrait of her canary in a ring, the last Prince de +Conti requested she would allow him to give it to her; she accepted, on +condition that no precious gems should be set in it. When the ring was +brought to her, however, a diamond covered the painting. The lady had +the brilliant taken out of the setting, and sent it back to the giver. +The Prince, determined not to be gainsaid, caused the stone to be ground +to dust, which he used to dry the ink of the letter he wrote to her on +the subject." + +Let us mention some of the most noted diamonds in the world. The largest +one known, that of the Rajah of Matan, in Borneo, weighs three hundred +and sixty-seven carats. It is egg-shaped and is of the finest water. +Two large war-vessels, with all their guns, powder, and shot, and one +hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money, were once refused for it. +And yet its weight is only about three ounces! + +The second in size is the _Orloff_, or _Grand Russian_, sometimes called +the _Moon of the Mountain_, of one hundred and ninety-three carats. +The Great Mogul once owned it. Then it passed by conquest into the +possession of Nadir the Shah of Persia. In 1747 he was assassinated, and +all the crown-jewels slipped out of the dead man's fingers,--a common +incident to mortality. What became of the great diamond no one at that +time knew, till one day a chief of the Anganians walked, mole-footed, +into the presence of a rich Armenian gentleman in Balsora, and proposed +to sell him (no lisping,--not a word to betray him) a large emerald, a +splendid ruby, and the great Orloff diamond. Mr. Shafrass counted out +fifty thousand piastres for the lot; and the chief folded up his robes +and silently departed. Ten years afterwards the people of Amsterdam were +apprised that a great treasure had arrived in their city, and could +be bought, too. Nobody there felt rich enough to buy the great Orloff +sparkler. So the English and Russian governments sent bidders to compete +for the gem. The Empress Catharine offered the highest sum; and her +agent, the Count Orloff, paid for it in her name four hundred and fifty +thousand roubles, cash down, and a grant of Russian nobility! The size +of this diamond is that of a pigeon's egg, and its lustre and water are +of the finest: its shape is not perfect. + +The _Grand Tuscan_ is next in order,--for many years held by the Medici +family. It is now owned by the Austrian Emperor, and is the pride of +the Imperial Court. It is cut as a rose, nine-sided, and is of a yellow +tint, lessening somewhat its value. Its weight is one hundred and +thirty-nine and a half carats; and its value is estimated at one hundred +and fifty-five thousand, six hundred and eighty-eight pounds. + +The most perfect, though not the largest, diamond in Europe is the +_Regent_, which belongs to the Imperial diadem of France. Napoleon the +First used to wear it in the hilt of his state-sword. Its original +weight was four hundred and ten carats; but after it was cut as a +brilliant, (a labor of two years, at a cost of three thousand pounds +sterling,) it was reduced to one hundred and thirty-seven carats. It +came from the mines of Golconda; and the thief who stole it therefrom +sold it to the grandfather of the Earl of Chatham, when he was governor +of a fort in the East Indies. Lucky Mr. Pitt pocketed one hundred and +thirty-five thousand pounds for his treasure, the purchaser being Louis +XV. This amount, it is said, is only half its real value. However, as it +cost the Governor, according to his own statement, some years after +the sale, only twenty thousand pounds, his speculation was "something +handsome." Pope had a fling at Pitt, in his poetical way, intimating a +wrong with regard to the possession of the diamond; but we believe the +transaction was an honest one. In the inventory of the crown-jewels, the +Regent diamond is set down at twelve million francs! + +The _Star of the South_ comes next in point of celebrity. It is the +largest diamond yet obtained from Brazil; and it is owned by the King of +Portugal. It weighed originally two hundred and fifty-four carats, but +was trimmed down to one hundred and twenty-five. The grandfather of +the present king had a hole bored in it, and liked to strut about on +gala-days with the gem suspended around his neck. This magnificent jewel +was found by three banished miners, who were seeking for gold during +their exile. A great drought had laid dry the bed of a river, and there +they discovered this lustrous wonder. Of course, on promulgating their +great luck, their sentence was revoked immediately. + +The world-renowned _Koh-i-noor_ next claims our attention. + +A Venetian diamond-cutter (wretched, bungling Hortensio Borgis!) +reduced the great _Koh-i-noor_ from its primitive weight--nine hundred +carats--to two hundred and eighty. Tavernier saw this celebrated jewel +two hundred years ago, not long after its discovery. It came into the +possession of Queen Victoria in 1849, _three thousand years_, say the +Eastern sages, after it belonged to Karna, the King of Anga! On the 16th +of July, 1852, the Duke of Wellington superintended the commencement +of the re-cutting of the famous gem, and for thirty-eight days the +operation went on. Eight thousand pounds were expended in the cutting +and polishing. When it was finished and ready to be restored to the +royal keeping, the person (a celebrated jeweller) to whom the whole +care of the work had been intrusted, allowed a friend to take it in his +fingers for examination. While he was feasting his eyes over it, and +turning it to the light in order to get the full force of its marvellous +beauty, down it slipped from his grasp and fell upon the ground. The +jeweller nearly fainted with alarm, and poor "Butterfingers" was +completely jellified with fear. Had the stone struck the ground at a +particular angle, it would have split in two, and been ruined forever. + +Innumerable anecdotes cluster about this fine diamond. Having passed +through the hands of various Indian princes, violence and fraud are +copiously mingled up with its history. We quote one of Madame de +Barrera's stories concerning it:---- + +"The King of Lahore having heard that the King of Cabul possessed a +diamond that had belonged to the Great Mogul, the largest and purest +known, he invited the fortunate owner to his court, and there, having +him in his power, demanded his diamond. The guest, however, had provided +himself against such a contingency with a perfect imitation of the +coveted jewel. After some show of resistance, he reluctantly acceded to +the wishes of his powerful host. The delight of Runjeet was extreme, but +of short duration,--the lapidary to whom he gave orders to mount his +new acquisition pronouncing it to be merely a bit of crystal. The +mortification and rage of the despot were unbounded. He immediately +caused the palace of the King of Cabul to be invested, and ransacked +from top to bottom. But for a long while all search was vain; at last a +slave betrayed the secret;--the diamond was found concealed beneath +a heap of ashes. Runjeet Singh had it set in an armlet, between two +diamonds, each the size of a sparrow's egg." + +The _Shah of Persia_, presented to the Emperor Nicholas by the Persian +monarch, is a very beautiful stone, irregularly shaped. Its weight is +eighty-six carats, and its water and lustre are superb. + +The various stories attached to the _Sancy_ diamond, the next in point +of value, would occupy many pages. During four centuries it has been +accumulating romantic circumstances, until it is now very difficult to +give its true narrative. If Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy, +ever wore it suspended round his neck, he sported a magnificent jewel. +If the Curate of Montagny bought it for a crown of a soldier who picked +it up after the defeat of Granson, not knowing its value, the soldier +was unconsciously cheated by the Curate. If a citizen of Berne got it +out of the Curate's fingers for three crowns, he was a shrewd knave. De +Barante says, that in 1492 (Columbus was then about making land in this +hemisphere) this diamond was sold in Lucerne for five thousand ducats. +After that, all sorts of incidents are related to have befallen it. Here +is one of them.--Henry IV. was once in a strait for money. The Sieur +de Sancy (who gave his name to the gem) wished to send the monarch his +diamond, that he might raise funds upon it from the Jews of Metz. A +trusty servant sets off with it, to brave the perils of travel, by no +means slight in those rough days, and is told, in case of danger from +brigands, to swallow the precious trust. The messenger is found dead on +the road, and is buried by peasants. De Sancy, impatient that his man +does not arrive, seeks for his body, takes it from the ground where it +is buried, opens it, and recovers his gem! In some way not now known, +Louis XV. got the diamond into his possession, and wore it at his +coronation. In 1789, it disappeared from the crown-treasures, and no +trace of it was discovered till 1830, when it was offered for sale by a +merchant in Paris. Count Demidoff had a lawsuit over it in 1832; and as +it is valued at a million of francs, it was worth quarrelling about. + +The _Nassuck Diamond_, valued at thirty thousand pounds, is a +magnificent jewel, nearly as large as a common walnut. Pure as a drop of +dew, it ranked among the richest treasures in the British conquest of +India. + +What has become of the great triangular _Blue Diamond_, weighing +sixty-seven carats, stolen from the French Court at the time of the +great robbery of the crown-jewels? Alas! it has never been heard from. +Three millions of francs represented its value; and no one, to this day, +knows its hiding-place. What a pleasant morning's work it would be to +unearth this gem from its dark corner, where it has lain _perdu_ so many +years! The bells of Notre Dame should proclaim such good-fortune to all +Paris. + +But enough of these individual magnificos. Their beauty and rarity have +attracted sufficient attention in their day. Yet we should like to +handle a few of those Spanish splendors which Queen Isabel II. wore at +the reception of the ambassadors from Morocco. That day she shone in +diamonds alone to the amount of two million dollars! We once saw a +monarch's sword, of which + + "The jewelled hilt, + Whose diamonds lit the passage of his blade," + +was valued at one hundred thousand dollars! But one of the pleasantest +of our personal remembrances, connected with diamonds, is the picking up +of a fine, lustrous gem which fell from O.B.'s violin-bow, (the gift of +the Duke of Devonshire,) one night, after he had been playing his magic +instrument for the special delight of a few friends. The tall Norwegian +wrapped it in a bit of newspaper, when it was restored to him, and +thrust it into his cigar-box! [O.B. sometimes carried his treasures in +strange places. One day he was lamenting the loss of a large sum of +money which he had received as the proceeds of a concert in New York. A +week afterwards he found his missing nine hundred dollars stuffed away +in a dark corner of one of his violin-cases.] + +There is a very pretty diamond-story current in connection with the good +Empress Eugenie. Madame de Barrera relates it in this wise. + +"When the sovereign of France marries, by virtue of an ancient custom +kept up to the present day, the bride is presented by the city of Paris +with a valuable gift. Another is also offered at the birth of the +first-born. + +"In 1853, when the choice of His Majesty Napoleon III. raised the +Empress Eugenie to the throne, the city of Paris, represented by the +Municipal Commission, voted the sum of six hundred thousand francs for +the purchase of a diamond necklace to be presented to Her Majesty. + +"The news caused quite a sensation among the jewellers. Each was eager +to contribute his finest gems to form the Empress's necklace,--a +necklace which was to make its appearance under auspices as favorable as +those of the famous _Queen's Necklace_ had been unpropitious. But on the +28th of January, two days after the vote of the Municipal Commission, +all this zeal was disappointed; the young Empress having expressed +a wish that the six hundred thousand francs should be used for the +foundation of an educational institution for poor young girls of the +Faubourg St. Antoine. + +"The wish has been realized, and, thanks to the beneficent fairy in +whose compassionate heart it had its origin, the diamond necklace has +been metamorphosed into an elegant edifice, with charming gardens. Here +a hundred and fifty young girls, at first, but now as many as four +hundred, have been placed, and receive, under the management of those +angels of charity called the _Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul_, an +excellent education proportioned to their station, and fitting them to +be useful members of society. + +"The solemn opening of the Maison-Eugenie-Napoleon took place on the +1st of January, 1857. + +"M. Veron, the _journaliste_, now deputy of the Seine, has given, in the +'Moniteur,' a very circumstantial account of this establishment. From it +we borrow the following:-- + +"'The girls admitted are usually wretchedly clad; on their entrance, +they receive a full suit of clothes. Almost all are pale, thin, weak +children, to whom melancholy and suffering have imparted an old and +careworn expression. But, thanks to cleanliness, to wholesome and +sufficient food, to a calm and well-regulated life, to the pure, healthy +air they breathe, the natural hues and the joyousness of youth soon +reanimate the little faces; and with lithe, invigorated limbs, and happy +hearts, these young creatures join merrily in the games of their new +companions. They have entered the institution old; they will leave it +young.' + +"The Empress Eugenie delights in visiting the institution of the +Faubourg St. Antoine. This is natural. Her Majesty cannot but feel +pleasure in the contemplation of all she has accomplished by sacrificing +a magnificent, but idle ornament to the welfare of so many beings +rescued from misery and ignorance. These four hundred young girls will +be so many animated, happy, and grateful jewels, constituting for Her +Majesty in the present, and for her memory in the future, an ever new +set of jewels, an immortal ornament, a truly celestial talisman. + +"A fresco painting represents, in a hemicycle, the Empress in her bridal +dress, offering to the Virgin a diamond necklace; young girls are +kneeling around her in prayer; admiration and fervent faith are depicted +on their brows." + +A very large amount of the world's capital is represented in precious +stones, and ninety per cent of that capital so invested is in diamonds. +This was not always the case. Ancient millionnaires held their +enormous jewelry-riches more in colored stones than is the custom now. +Crystallized carbon has risen in the estimation of capitalists, and +crystallized clay has gone down in the scale of value. If the diamond be +the hardest known substance in the world's jewel-box, the pearl is by no +means its near relation in that particular. The daughters of Stilicho +slept undisturbed eleven hundred and eighteen years, with all their +riches in sound condition, except the pearls that were found with their +splendid ornaments. The other decorations sparkled in the light as +brilliantly as ever; but the pearls crumbled into dust, as their owners +had done centuries before. Eight hundred years before these ladies lived +and wore pearls, a queen with "swarthy cheeks and bold black eyes" tried +a beverage which cost, exclusive of the vinegar which partly composed +it, the handsome little sum of something over eighty thousand pounds. +Diamond and vinegar would not have mixed so prettily. + +Pearls are perishable beauties, exquisite in their perfect state, but +liable to accident from the nature of their delicate composition. Remote +antiquity chronicles their existence, and immemorial potentates eagerly +sought for them to adorn their persons. Pearl-fisheries in the Persian +Gulf are older than the reign of Alexander; and the Indian Ocean, the +Red Sea, and the Coast of Coromandel yielded their white wonders ages +ago. Under the Ptolemies, in the time of the Caliphs, the pearl-merchant +flourished, grew rich, and went to Paradise. To-day the pearl-diver is +grubbing under the waves that are lapping the Sooloo Islands, the coast +of Coromandel, and the shores of Algiers. In Ceylon he is busiest, and +you may find him from the first of February to the middle of April +risking his life in the perilous seas. His boat is from eight to ten +tons burden, and without a deck. At ten o'clock at night, when the +cannon fires, it is his signal to put off for the bank opposite +Condatchy, which he will reach by daylight, if the weather be fair. +Unless it is calm, he cannot follow his trade. As soon as light dawns, +he prepares to descend. His diving-stone, to keep him at the bottom, +is got ready, and, after offering up his devotions, he leaps into the +water. Two minutes are considered a long time to be submerged, but +some divers can hold out four or five minutes. When his strength is +exhausted, he gives a signal by pulling the rope, and is drawn up with +his bag of oysters. Appalling dangers compass him about. Sharks watch +for him as he dives, and not infrequently he comes up maimed for life. +It is recorded of a pearl-diver, that he died from over-exertion +immediately after he reached land, having brought up with him a shell +that contained a pearl of great size and beauty. Barry Cornwall has +remembered the poor follow in song so full of humanity, that we quote +his pearl-strung lyric entire. + + "Within the midnight of her hair, + Half hidden in its deepest deeps, + A single, peerless, priceless pearl + (All filmy-eyed) forever sleeps. + Without the diamond's sparkling eyes, + The ruby's blushes, there it lies, + Modest as the tender dawn, + When her purple veil's withdrawn,-- + The flower of gems, a lily cold and pale! + Yet what doth all avail,-- + All its beauty, all its grace, + All the honors of its place? + He who plucked it from its bed, + In the far blue Indian ocean, + Lieth, without life or motion, + In his earthy dwelling,--dead! + And his children, one by one, + When they look upon the sun, + Curse the toil by which he drew + The treasure from its bed of blue. + + "Gentle Bride, no longer wear, + In thy night-black, odorous hair, + Such a spoil! It is not fit + That a tender soul should sit + Under such accursed gem! + What need'st _thou_ a diadem,-- + Thou, within whose Eastern eyes + Thought (a starry Genius) lies,-- + Thou, whom Beauty has arrayed,-- + Thou, whom Love and Truth have made + Beautiful,--in whom we trace + Woman's softness, angel's grace, + All we hope for, all that streams + Upon us in our haunted dreams? + + "O sweet Lady! cast aside, + With a gentle, noble pride, + All to sin or pain allied! + Let the wild-eyed conqueror wear + The bloody laurel in his hair! + Let the black and snaky vine + Round the drinker's temples twine! + Let the slave-begotten gold + Weigh on bosoms hard and cold! + But be THOU forever known + By thy natural light alone!" + +One of the best judges of pearls that ever lived, out of the regular +trade, was no less a person than Caesar. He was a great connoisseur, and +could tell at once, when he took a pearl in his hand, its weight and +value. He gave one away worth a quarter of a million dollars. Servilia, +the mother of Brutus, was the lady to whom he made the regal present. + +Caligula, not satisfied with building ships of cedar with sterns inlaid +with gems, had a pearl-collar made for a favorite horse! Pliny grows +indignant as he chronicles the luxury of this Emperor. + +"I have seen," says he, "Lollia Paulina, who was the wife of the +Emperor Caligula,--and this not on the occasion of a solemn festival or +ceremony, but merely at a supper of ordinary betrothals,--I have seen +Lollia Paulina covered with emeralds and pearls, arranged alternately, +so as to give each other additional brilliancy, on her head, neck, arms, +hands, and girdle, to the amount of forty thousand sesterces, [L336,000 +sterling,] the which value she was prepared to prove on the instant by +producing the receipts. And these pearls came, not from the prodigal +generosity of an imperial husband, but from treasures which had been the +spoils of provinces. Marcus Lollius, her grandfather, was dishonored +in all the East on account of the gifts he had extorted from kings, +disgraced by Tiberius, and obliged to poison himself, that his +grand-daughter might exhibit herself by the light of the _lucernae_ +blazing with jewels." + +Nero offered to Jupiter Capitolinus the first trimmings of his beard in +a magnificent vase enriched with the costliest pearls. + +Catherine de Medicis and Diane de Poitiers almost floated in pearls, +their dresses being literally covered with them. The wedding-robe of +Anne of Cleves was a rich cloth-of-gold, thickly embroidered with +great flowers of large Orient pearls. Poor Mary, Queen of Scots, had a +wonderful lot of pearls among her jewels; and the sneaking manner in +which Elizabeth got possession of them we will leave Miss Strickland, +the biographer of Queens, to relate. + +"If anything farther than the letters of Drury and Throgmorton be +required to prove the confederacy between the English Government and the +Earl of Moray, it will only be necessary to expose the disgraceful +fact of the traffic of Queen Mary's costly _parure_ of pearls, her own +personal property, which she had brought with her from France. A few +days before she effected her escape from Lochleven Castle, the righteous +Regent sent these, with a choice collection of her jewels, very secretly +to London, by his trusty agent, Sir Nicholas Elphinstone, who undertook +to negotiate their sale, with the assistance of Throgmorton, to whom he +was directed for that purpose. As these pearls were considered the most +magnificent in Europe, Queen Elizabeth was complimented with the first +offer of them. 'She saw them yesterday, May 2nd,' writes Bodutel La +Forrest, the French ambassador at the Court of England, 'in the presence +of the Earls of Pembroke and Leicester, and pronounced them to be of +unparalleled beauty.' He thus describes them: 'There are six cordons +of large pearls, strung as paternosters; but there are five-and-twenty +separate from the rest, much finer and larger than those which are +strung; these are for the most part like black _muscades_. They had not +been here more than three days, when they were appraised by various +merchants; this Queen wishing to have them at the sum named by the +jeweller, who could have made his profit by selling them again. They +were at first shown to three or four working jewellers and lapidaries, +by whom they were estimated at three thousand pounds sterling, (about +ten thousand crowns,) and who offered to give that sum for them. Several +Italian merchants came after them, who valued them at twelve thousand +crowns, which is the price, as I am told, this Queen Elizabeth will take +them at. There is a Genoese who saw them after the others, and said they +were worth sixteen thousand crowns; but I think they will allow her to +have them for twelve thousand.' 'In the mean time,' continues he, in his +letter to Catherine of Medicis, 'I have not delayed giving your Majesty +timely notice of what was going on, though I doubt she will not allow +them to escape her. The rest of the jewels are not near so valuable as +the pearls. The only thing I have heard particularly described is +a piece of unicorn richly carved and decorated.' Mary's royal +mother-in-law of France, no whit more scrupulous than her good cousin of +England, was eager to compete with the latter for the purchase of the +pearls, knowing that they were worth nearly double the sum at which they +had been valued in London. Some of them she had herself presented to +Mary, and especially wished to recover; but the ambassador wrote to her +in reply, that 'he had found it impossible to accomplish her desire of +obtaining the Queen of Scots' pearls, for, as he had told her from the +first, they were intended for the gratification of the Queen of England, +who had been allowed to purchase them at her own price, and they were +now in her hands.' + +"Inadequate though the sum for which her pearls were sold was to their +real value, it assisted to turn the scale against their real owner. + +"In one of her letters to Elizabeth, supplicating her to procure some +amelioration of the rigorous confinement of her captive friends, Mary +alludes to her stolen jewels:--'I beg also,' says she, 'that you will +prohibit the sale of the rest of my jewels, which the rebels have +ordered in their Parliament, for you have promised that nothing should +be done in it to my prejudice. I should be very glad, if they were in +safer custody, for they are not meat proper for traitors. Between you +and me it would make little difference, and I should be rejoiced, if any +of them happened to be to your taste, that you would accept them from me +as offerings of my good-will.' + +"From this frank offer it is apparent that Mary was not aware of the +base part Elizabeth had acted, in purchasing her magnificent _parure_ of +pearls of Moray, for a third part of their value." + +One of the most famous pearls yet discovered (there may be shells down +below that hide a finer specimen) is the beautiful _Peregrina_. It was +fished up by a little negro boy in 1560, who obtained his liberty by +opening an oyster. The modest bivalve was so small that the boy in +disgust was about to pitch it back into the sea. But he thought better +of his rash determination, pulled the shells asunder, and, lo, the +rarest of priceless pearls! [_Moral._ Don't despise little oysters.] La +Peregrina is shaped like a pear, and is of the size of a pigeon's egg. +It was presented to Philip II. by the finder's master, and is still in +Spain. No sum has ever determined its value. The King's jeweller named +five hundred thousand dollars, but that paltry amount was scouted as +ridiculously small. + +There is a Rabbinical story which aptly shows the high estimate of +pearls in early ages, only one object in Nature being held worthy to be +placed above them:-- + +"On approaching Egypt, Abraham locked Sarah in a chest, that none might +behold her dangerous beauty. But when he was come to the place of paying +custom, the collectors said, 'Pay us the custom': and he said, 'I will +pay the custom.' They said to him, 'Thou carriest clothes': and he said, +'I will pay for clothes.' Then they said to him, 'Thou carriest gold': +and he answered them, 'I will pay for my gold.' On this they further +said to him, 'Surely thou bearest the finest silk': he replied, 'I will +pay custom for the finest silk.' Then said they, 'Surely it must be +pearls that thou takest with thee': and he only answered, 'I will pay +for pearls.' Seeing that they could name nothing of value for which the +patriarch was not willing to pay custom, they said, 'It cannot be but +thou open the box, and let us see what is within.' So they opened the +box, and the whole land of Egypt was illumined by the lustre of Sarah's +beauty,--far exceeding even that of pearls." + +Shakspeare, who loved all things beautiful, and embalmed them so that +their lustre could lose nothing at his hands, was never tired of +introducing the diamond and the pearl. They were his favorite ornaments; +and we intended to point out some of the splendid passages in which he +has used them. But we have room now for only one of those priceless +sentences in which he has set the diamond and the pearl as they were +never set before. No kingly diadem can boast such jewels as glow along +these lines from "Lear":-- + + "You have seen + Sunshine and rain at one: her smiles and tears + Were like a better day: Those happy smiles + That played on her ripe lip seemed not to know + What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence, + _As pearls from diamonds dropp'd._" + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +1. _Lis Oubreto_ de ROUMANILLE. Avignon. 1860. 12mo. + +2. T. AUBANEL. _La Miougrano Entreduberto._ Avec Traduction litterale en +regard. Avignon: J. Roumanille. 1860. 12mo. + +3. _Mireio._ Pouemo Prouvencau de FREDERI MISTRAL. Avec la Traduction +litterale en regard. Avignon: J. Roumanille. 1859. 8vo. + +4. _Las Papillotos_ de JACQUES JASMIN, de l'Academie d'Agen, Maitre es +Jeux-Floraux, Grand Prix de l'Academie Francaise. Edition populaire, +avec le Francais en regard, et ornee d'un Portrait. De 1822 a 1858. +Paris: Firmin Didot, Freres & Cie. 1860. 12mo. + +5. _Les Piaoulats d'un Reipetit._ Recueil de Poesies Patoises. Par J.B. +Veyre, Instituteur a Saint-Simon (Cantal). Aurillac: Imprimerie de L. +Bonnet-Picut. 1860. 8vo. + +Few persons, when they consider the present greatness and prosperity of +the French Empire, bear in mind the heterogeneous elements of which it +is composed. For us, Paris is France, and the literature of the realm +is comprised in the words, "Paris publications." We think not of the +millions of Frenchmen to whom the language of the capital is a sealed +letter,--of the Germans of Alsatia, the Flemings of the extreme +North-East, the Bretons of the peninsula of Finisterre, the Basques, the +Catalans of the mountains of Roussillon, and, more numerous than all +these, the fourteen millions of the thirty-seven departments south of +the Loire. These speak, to this day, with fewer modifications than have +taken place in any other of the European languages during the same lapse +of time, the very tongue in which wrote Bertran de Born and Pierre +Vidal, the idiom in which Dante and Petrarca found some of their +happiest inspirations, and which, we are told, Tasso envied for its +poetic capabilities. + +True, the Provinces of Gascony, Provence, Auvergne may be traversed by +the stranger almost without his suspecting that other than the French, +more or less badly spoken, is in common use. In hotels and shops he will +hear nothing else. + +The larger towns in direct communication with the capital, and all that +is purely exterior in the people, are becoming more and more French +every day. But in the family interior, far from the noise of affairs, +the bustle of towns, in hamlets, among the vine-growers and tenders of +the silk-worm, in the mountains and retired valleys, the home-tongue is +again at ease. Simple, ingenuous, amber-like in its sunny tints, it is a +reflection of that ardent poetical imagination which made the courts of +the Counts of Toulouse the nurseries of modern poesy, when the rest of +Europe was little else than one wrangling battle-field. Neither the +exterminating crusade against the Albigenses, after which the idiom +of Provence was wellnigh stigmatized as heretical, nor the civil and +religious wars of the seventeenth century, nor even the _dragonnades_ of +Louis XIV., have been able to outroot it. The levelling edicts of the +first French Revolution were powerless against it. The Provencal, or +Langue d'Oc, if you will, the Gascon, the Auvergnat, are spoken to this +day in their respective provinces, universally spoken by the people, who +in many instances do not understand French at all. They must be preached +to in their own dialect. They have their songs, their theatre even. + +Nor must this be understood as referring only to the lower strata +of society. The better classes, even, retain a fondness for their +mother-tongue which years of residence in Paris will not obliterate. In +their very French, they still retain the inflections, the tones of the +South,--a measured cadence in the phrase, which the Parisian uniformly +styles _gasconner_. They feel ill at ease in what they call the +cold-mannered speech of the _Franchiman_. In the words of one of their +poets, Mistral, who has proved that he was no less a master of the +academic forms and rules than of the riches and power of his own +Avignonais:--"Those who have not lived at the South, and especially +in the midst of our rural population, can have no idea of the +incompatibility, the insufficiency, the poverty of the language of the +North in regard to our manners, our needs, our organization. The French +language, transplanted to Provence, seems like the cast-off clothes of a +Parisian dandy adapted to the robust shoulders of a harvester bronzed by +the Southern sun." + +The Provencal, in its two principal divisions, the Gascon and Langue +d'Oc, is the current idiom south of the Loire. The South-West Provinces +had, in the seventeenth century, no mean poet in Godelin; and in our +own day, Jasmin has found a host of followers. The inhabitants of the +South-East, however, the more immediate retainers of the language of +the Troubadours, save in a few drinking-songs and Christmas carols, had +forgotten the strains that once resounded beyond the limits of Provence +and had first awaked the poetic emulation of Spain and Italy. The +princess of song, stung by the envious spirit of persecution in the +Albigensian wars, had slept for centuries, and the thick hedge of +forgetfulness had grown rank about the language and its treasures. What +Raynouard, Diez, Mahn, Fauriel, and others have done to bring to light +again the unedited texts was little better than an autopsy. A living, +breathing poet was wanting to reanimate by his touch the poesy that had +slept so long. That poet was Roumanille. + +The Minnesingers have found heirs and continuators in the modern writers +of Germany. Side by side with the increasing tendency to unity in all +national literature is working the force of races confounded under one +political banner, to assert their existence as such. Congresses have +shaped new kingdoms; but they have not reached or removed the limits +of nationalities that have each their expression in song, whether in +Moldavia or among the Czechs of Bohemia. The regeneration of local +idioms, which is fast working its way from the Bosphorus to the +Atlantic, was first undertaken in Provence, at the instigation of +Roumanille. The son of a gardener of St. Remy, he was first struck with +the insufficiency of French literature for his immediate countrymen, +when, on his return from college, seeking to recite some of his earlier +poems in the language of Racine to his aged mother, she failed to +understand them. For her he translated, and found that his own Provencal +was richer, more copious and melodious than the French itself, and, if +less finical and restrained by grammatical forms, more pliant for the +poet, and better answering the exigencies of primitive, spontaneous +expression of feeling. From that moment his efforts were unceasingly +directed towards the reintegration of his mother-tongue, which had so +long played but the part of a Cinderella among the Romanic nations. + +His poems, collected in 1847, under the title of "Margarideto," +(Daisies,) were hailed by his countrymen with their habitual national +enthusiasm. Nor did he remain inactive during the Revolution of 1848, +addressing the people in home-phrase in several small volumes of prose. +In 1852, he sent forth a call to his brother-writers, the _felibre_, who +had joined with him in his efforts. The result was the publication of +"Li Prouvencalo," a charming selection from those modern Troubadours +who in all ranks of society sing, because sing they must, in bright and +sunny Provence, and who in very deed find poetry + + "In the forge's dust and ashes, in the tissues + of the loom." + +The call of Roumanille was the signal for a revival. Since that time, he +himself, now a publisher in Avignon, has steadily watched and +fostered the movement. The new literature has rapidly gone beyond its +home-limits. Within the present year, Paris has republished several of +the most noted works. + +The volume which has called forth these remarks, "Lis Oubreto," +comprises the poems of M. Roumanille,--"Li Margarideto," "Li Nouve," +"Li Sounjarello," "La Part de Dieu," "Li Flour de Sauvi." They are +characterized by an elevation in the thoughts and a religious purity +of sentiment, qualities which, it has been urged, and justly too, were +lacking in many of the former productions in various dialects of France. +We call the poetry of Roumanille elevated, yet it always addresses +itself to the people of Provence, and borrows its images from the +many-colored life of those to whom it speaks; religious, but simple and +ingenuous, with a tinge of mysticism,--not the mysticism that seeks the +good in dreamy inaction, as in some of the Spanish authors, nor has it +the obscure tinge of the transcendental English school. The religion +of Roumanille is active, not dogmatic; he incites to _do_, rather than +discuss or dream the good. There is a health, a vigor, an earnestness, +in this spontaneous poesy of an idiom which six centuries ago was the +language of courts, and now sings the song of toil. Side by side with +the over-cultured language of the Parisian, it seems so free and frank! +Where the one is hampered for fear of sinning, the other, buoyant and +elastic, treads freely and fears not to be too ingenuous. + +Roumanille's poems have not been translated; it is hardly likely they +ever will be,--at least, the greater number. They were not made for +Paris. They are not at ease in a French garb,--nor, for that matter, +in any other than their own diaphanous, sun-tinted, vowelly Provencal, +unless they could find their expression in some _folk-speech_, as the +Germans say, that could utter things of daily life without euphuistic +windings, without fear of ridicule for things of home expressed in +home-words. + +As characterizing the nature and tendency of the new poetry, we subjoin +a translation of "Li Crecho," (The Infant Asylums,) of which M. +Sainte-Beuve, of the French Academy, one whose judgment as literary +critic could be little biased in favor of the _naive_ graces of the +original, said,--"The piece is worthy of the ancient Troubadours. The +angel of the asylums and of little children in his celestial sadness +could not be disavowed by the angels of Klopstock, nor by that of Alfred +de Vigny." + +"Li Crecho" was recited by the author at the inauguration of the Infant +Asylum of Avignon, the 20th of November, 1851, and forms part of the +sheaf of poems entitled "Li Flour de Sauvi." + +I. + +"Among the choirs of Seraphim, whom God has created to sing eternally, +transported with love, 'Glory, glory to the Father!'--among the joys of +Paradise, one oftentimes, far from the happy singers, went thoughtful +away. + +"And his snow-white forehead inclined towards our world, as droops a +flower that has no moisture in summer. Day by day he grew more dreamy. +If sadness, when in God's glory, could torment the heart, I should say +that this fair angel was pining with sorrow. + +"Of what did he dream thus, and in secret? Why was he not of the feast? +Why, alone among angels, as one that had sinned, did he bow the head?" + +II. + +"Lo! he has just knelt at the feet of God. What will he say? What will +he do? To see and hear him, his brethren interrupt their song of praise." + +III. + +"'When Jesus, thy child, wept,--when he shivered with cold in the +manger of Bethlehem,--it was my smile that consoled him, my wings that +sheltered him, with my warm breath did I comfort him. + +"'And since then, O God, when a child weeps, in my pitying heart his +voice resounds. Therefore forever now am I sick at heart,--therefore, O +Lord, am I ever thoughtful. + +"'On earth, O God, I have something to do. Let me descend there. There +are so many babes, poor milk-lambs, who, shivering with cold, weep and +wail far from the breasts, far from the kisses of their mothers! In warm +rooms will I shelter them,--will cover and tend them,--will nurse and +caress them,--will lull them to rest. Instead of one mother, they shall +each have twenty that shall give them suck and soothe them to sleep.'" + +IV. + +"And with heart and hand did the angels applaud,--a tremor of joy shot +through the stars of heaven,--and, unfolding his pinions, with the +rapidity of lightning the angel descended. The road-side smiled with +flowers, as he passed,--and mothers trembled for joy; for infant-asylums +arose wherever the child-angel trod." + +One of the first to respond to the call of Roumanille for the +composition of the selection "Li Prouvencalo" was Th. Aubanel, also of +Avignon. The "Segaire" (Mowers) and "Lou 9 Thermidor" made it plain, +that, of the thirty names, that of the young printer would soon take a +prominent place among the revivers of Southern letters. And now, eight +years later, the promise of M. Rene Taillandier, in his introduction to +the selection, has become reality. + +"La Miougrano Entreduberto" (The Opened Pomegranate) is printed with an +accompanying French translation. Mistral, the brother-poet and friend of +the author, thus announces the poems:-- + +"The pomegranate is of its nature wilder than other trees. It loves to +grow in pebbly elevations (_clapeirolo_) in the full sun-rays, far from +man and nearer to God. There alone, in the scorching summer-beams, it +expands in secret its blood-red flowers. Love and the sun fecundate +its bloom. In the crimson chalices thousands of coral-grains germ +spontaneously, like a thousand fair sisters all under the same roof. + +"The swollen pomegranate holds imprisoned as long as it can the roseate +seeds, the thousand blushing sisters. But the birds of the moor speak to +the solitary tree, saying,--'What wilt thou do with the seeds? Even now +comes the autumn, even now comes the winter, that chases us beyond the +hills, beyond the seas.....And shall it be said, O wild pomegranate, +that we have left Provence without seeing thy beautiful coral-grains, +without having a glimpse of thy thousand virgin daughters?' + +"Then, to satisfy the envious birdlings of the moor, the pomegranate +slowly half-opens its fruit; the thousand vermeil seeds glitter in the +sun; the thousand timorous sisters with rosy cheeks peep through the +arched window: and the roguish birds come in flocks and feast at ease on +the beautiful coral-grains; the roguish lovers devour with kisses the +fair blushing sisters. + +"Aubanel--and you will say as I do, when you have read his book--is a +wild pomegranate-tree. The Provencal public, whom his first poems had +pleased so much, was beginning to say,--'But what is our Aubanel doing, +that we no longer hear him sing?'" + +Then follows an exposition of the hopeless passion of the poet,--how he +took for motto, + + "Quau canto, + Soun mau encanto." + +Hence the three books of poems now before us,--"The Book of Love," +"Twilight," and "The Book of Death." "The Book of Love," "a thing +excessively rare," as we are told in the Preface, "but this one written +in good faith," opens with a couplet that is a key to the whole +volume:-- + + "I am sick at heart, + And _will_ not be cured." + +We subjoin a literal translation of the eleventh song, line for line:-- + + De-la-man-d'eila de la mar, + Dins mis ouro de pantaiage, + Souventi-fes ieu fau un viage, + Ieu fau souvent un viage amar, + De-la-man-d'eila, de la mar." + etc., etc. + + "Far away, beyond the seas, + In my hours of reverie, + Oftentimes I make a voyage, + I often make a bitter voyage, + Far away, beyond the seas. + + "Yonder far, towards the Dardanelles, + With the ships I glide away, + Whose long masts pierce the sky; + Towards my loved one do I go, + Yonder far, towards the Dardanelles. + + "With the great white clouds sailing on, + Driven by the wind, their master-shepherd, + The great clouds which before the stars + Pass onwards like white flocks, + With the clouds I go sailing on. + + "With the swallows I take my flight, + The swallows returning to the sun; + Towards fair days do they go, quick, quick; + And I, quick, quick, towards my love, + With the swallows take my flight. + + "Oh, I am very sick for home, + Sick for the home that my love haunts! + Far from that foreign country, + As the bird far from its nest, + I am very sick for home. + + "From wave to wave, o'er the bitter waters, + Like a corse thrown to the seas, + In dreams am I borne onward + To the feet of her that's dear, + From wave to wave, o'er the bitter waters. + + "On the shores I am there, dead! + My love in her arms supports me; + Speechless she gazes and weeps, + Lays her hand upon my heart, + And suddenly I live again! + + "Then I clasp her, then I fold her + In my arms: 'I have suffered enough! + Stay, stay! I _will_ not die!' + And as a drowning one I seize her, + And fold her in my arms. + + "Far away, beyond the seas, + In my hours of reverie, + Oftentimes I make a voyage, + I often make a bitter voyage, + Far away, beyond the seas." + +As may easily be seen, Aubanel writes not, like Roumanille, for his +own people alone. His Muse is more ambitious, and seeks to interest by +appealing to the sentiments in a language polished with all the art +of its sister, the French. There are innumerable exquisite passages +scattered through the work, which make us ready to believe in the +figurative comparison of the prefacer, when he tells us that "the +coral-grains of the 'Opened Pomegranate' will become in Provence the +chaplet of lovers." + +If Roumanille and Aubanel contented themselves with the publication of +poems of no very ambitious length, the author of "Mireio" aimed directly +at enriching his language at the outset with an epic. He has given us in +twelve cantos the song of Provence. He makes us see and feel the life of +Languedoc,--traverse the Crau, that Arabia Petrasa of France,--see +the Rhone, and the fair daughters of Arles, in their picturesque +costumes,--see the wild bulls of the Camargo, the Pampas of the +Mediterranean. We are among the growers of the silk-worm; we hear the +home-songs and talks of the Mas, listen to the people's legends and +tales of witchery, and can study the Middle-Age spirit that still in +these regions endows every shrine with miracles, as we follow the +pilgrimage to the chapel of the Three Marys. + +"Mireio" is all Provence living and breathing before us in a poem. No +wonder, then, that, in the present dearth of poetry in France, this epic +or idyl, call it as you will, was received with acclamations. M. Rene +Taillandier has consecrated to it one of his most masterly articles +in the "Revue des Deux Mondes." Lamartine has devoted to it a whole +_entretien_ in his "Cours de Litterature." It was discussed, quoted, +translated in all the journals of the capital. We may revert to it at +greater length in a future number of the "Atlantic." + +The name of Jasmin, the harbor-poet of Agen, is already familiar to the +English public. Professor Longfellow has translated his "Blind Girl of +Castel-Cuille." His name is known in Paris as well, perhaps, as that of +any other living French poet, if we except Lamartine and Victor Hugo. +Accompanied with a French translation, his principal poems, "Mous +Soubenis," "L'Abuglo de Castel-Cuille," "Francouneto," "Maltro +l'Innoucento," "Lous Dus Frays Bessous," "La Semmano d'un Fil," have +been read as much north of the Loire as south. + +"The Curl-Papers"--for thus he styles his works--having been translated +into German and English, the reputation of the author may be called +European. The forty maintainers of the Floral Games of Clemence Isaure +at Toulouse awarded him the title of _Maitre es Jeux-Floraux_. His +progress through the South was marked by ovations, and every town, from +Marseilles to Bordeaux, hastened to recognize the modern Troubadour. +Happier than most of his predecessors, Jasmin receives his laurels in +season, and can wear the crowns that are presented him. The "Papillotos" +were formerly scattered in three costly volumes; they have now been +collected in one handsome duodecimo, with an accompanying French +translation of the principal pieces,--a translation which called from +Ampere the remark,--_"A defaut des vers de Jasmin, on ferait cent lieues +pour entendre cette prose-la!"_ + +"Les Piaoulats d'un Reipetit" is one of the rare productions of the +written literature of Auvergne, so rich in antique legends and original +popular songs. The author, at the Archaeological Concourse of Beziers, +in 1838, obtained deserved encomium for his "Ode to Riquet," the +creator of the great Southern French Canal, linking the Atlantic and +Mediterranean. He has written in the Romanic dialect in use in Auvergne, +which, if it lacks the finish and polish of the Provencal, is not +wanting in grace and ingenuousness. It is characterized by a rude +energy, a sombre harmony, that tallies well with the wild and rural +character of the country. + +At first sight, the dialect seems to have a marked affinity with that +made use of by Jasmin in his "Papillotos." It is, however, easily +distinguishable by the frequent use of peculiar gutturals, the almost +constant change of _a_ into _o_, and a greater number of radicals of +Celtic origin. In a recent work on Auvergne, it is argued that these +Celtic words form the basis of the language. The history of the region +itself would tend to corroborate this theory. + +Sheltered by rocky mountain-ranges, the Domes, the Dores, and Cantal, +(_Mons Celtorum_) the Arverni obstinately repulsed every attempt towards +the naturalization of the Roman tongue, and battled for six centuries +with the same energy displayed by them, when, under Vercingetorix, +they fought for their nationality and the independence of Gaul against +Caesar. The Latin could exercise, therefore, but slight influence on +the idiom of these regions, which has preserved since then in its +vocabulary, and even in syntactical forms, a marked relationship with +the Celtic, which, according to Sidonius Apollinaris, was still spoken +there in the sixth century. + +The actual dialect of Auvergne is peculiarly adapted to recitals of a +legendary nature, owing to its vivacity of articulation, coupled with +a kind of gloom in the quality of the sounds. _Naif_ and touching in +popular song and Christmas carol, it is not divested of a certain +grandeur for subjects deserving of a higher style. + +The works of M. Veyre comprise the various styles of shorter poems. His +"Ode to Riquet," and that in honor of Gerbert, (Pope Silvester II., a +native of Auvergne,) show what the language can do in the hands of a +master. In the latter he describes the career of that predestined child +whom legend accompanied from his cradle to the grave. + +"La Fiero de St. Urbo," curious picture of the manners of the country, +is written in that ironical and gay vein of which the older French +writers possessed the secret; but that is now fast dying away. +"Repopiado" and "Lou Boun Sens del Payson" show that the language of +Auvergne is no less adapted to moral teachings than to the touching +inspirations and free jovial songs of the country Muse. + +The work of M. Veyre is the first tending to give his native province +a share in the literary revival of the Romanic idioms, which is so +universally felt in Southern France, and has of late produced so much. + +_History of the United Netherlands, from the Death of William the Silent +to the Synod of Dort._ With a Full View of the English--Dutch Struggle +against Spain; and of the Origin and Destruction of the Spanish Armada. +By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D., D.C.L. New York: Harper & Brothers. Vols. +I. and II. 8vo. + +These volumes bear the unmistakable mark, not merely of historical +accuracy and research, but of historical genius; and the genius is not +that of Thierry or Guizot, of Gibbon or Macaulay, but has a palpable +individuality of its own. They evince throughout a patient, persistent +industry in investigating original documents, from the mere labor of +which an Irish hod-carrier would shrink aghast, and thank the Virgin +that, though born a drudge, he was not born to drudge in the bogs and +morasses of unexplored domains of History; yet the genius and enthusiasm +of the historian are so strong that he converts the drudgery into +delight, and lives joyful, though "laborious days." There is not a page +in these volumes which does not sparkle with evidences of an enjoyment +far beyond any that the rich and pleasure-seeking idler can ever know; +and while the materials are those of the barest and bleakest fact, the +style of the narrative is that of the gayest, most genial, and most +elastic spirit of romance. We have read all the best fictions which +have been published during the interval which has elapsed between the +publication of the "History of the Dutch Republic" and that of the +"History of the United Netherlands," but we have read none which +fairly exceeds, in what is called, in the slang of fifth-rate critics, +"breathless interest," this novel, but authentic memorial of a past +heroic age. + +The first requirement of an historian in the present century is original +research,--not merely research into rare printed books and pamphlets, +but into unpublished and almost unknown manuscripts. No sobriety of +judgment, no sagacity of insight, no brilliancy of imagination can +compensate for defective information. The finest genius is degraded to +the rank of a compiler, unless he sheds new light upon his subject by +contributing new facts. The severest requirements of the Baconian method +of induction--requirements which have been notoriously disregarded +by men of science in the investigation of Nature--remain in force as +regards the students of history. The powers of analysis, generalization, +statement, and narrative in Macaulay's historical essays were fully +equal to any powers he displayed in the "History of England from the +Reign of James II." No candid critic can deny that there is little in +his "History" which, as far as regards essential facts and principles, +had not been previously stated in a more sententious form in his Essays. +But we recollect the time when the same dignified scholars who are now +insensible to his defects were blind to his merits, and with majestic +dulness classed him among the inglorious company of superficial, +untrustworthy, brilliant declaimers. The moment, however, he published +in octavo volumes a solid history, and appended to the bottom of each +page the obscure authorities on which his narrative was founded, and +which plainly exhibited the capacity of the brilliant declaimer +to perform all the austerest duties of the drudge, his reputation +marvellously increased among the most frigid and most exacting +dispensers of praise. To come nearer home, we remember the time when +Bancroft's rhetoric entirely shut out from the eyes of antiquaries and +men of taste Bancroft's industry and scholarship. It was not until he +plainly showed his power to "toil terribly," not until he palpably +_added_ to our knowledge of American history, that men who had sneered +at his occasional rhapsodies of patriotism admitted his claims to be +considered the historian of the United States. They resisted Bancroft as +long as Bancroft gave them the slightest reason to believe that he was +interposing his own mind between them and facts which they know its well +as he; but when, by independent and indefatigable research, at home and +abroad, he indisputably widened the sphere of their information, they +pardoned the faults of the rhetorician in their gratitude to the toiling +investigator who had added to their knowledge. + +It is the felicity of Mr. Motley, that, like Prescott, he is not placed +under the necessity of overcoming prejudices. There is nobody on either +side of the Atlantic (whether we use the word as indicating its limited +sense as an ocean, or its larger and more liberal moaning as a magazine) +who would not rejoice in his success, and be grieved by his failure. And +this good feeling on the part of the public he owes, in a great degree, +to the individuality he has impressed upon his work. That individuality +is not the individuality of a partisan or of a theorist, but the +individuality of a broad-minded, high-minded, chivalrous gentleman. With +a soul open to the finest sentiments and ideas of the age in which he +lives, tolerant of frailty, but intolerant of meanness, falsehood, and +malignity, and writing with the frankness with which a cultivated man of +decided opinions might speak to a company of chosen associates, the +most obstinate bigot can hardly fail to feel the charm of his free +and cordial manner of expression. Hume, Gibbon, Hallam, and Macaulay, +Sismondi, Guizot, and Michelet, all have in their characters something +which invites and provokes opposition. But the spirit which underlies +Mr. Motley's large scholarship is so thoroughly genial and generous, +and is so purified from the pedantry of knowledge and the pedantry of +opinion, that it is impossible for him to rouse in other minds any of +the antipathy which is often felt for powerful individualities whose +powers of mind and extent of erudition still enforce respect and extort +admiration. The instinctive sympathy he thus creates is due to no lack +of intrepidity in expressing his love for what is right and his hatred +for what is wrong. No historian is more decisive in his judgments, or +more scornful of the arts and hypocrisies by which the champions of +opposite opinions are flattered and propitiated. But his spirit is that +of the knight "without reproach," as well as the knight "without fear"; +and even his adversaries cannot but delight in the singleness and +simplicity of purpose with which he strives after the truth. Nothing in +his position or in his character gives them the slightest pretence for +supposing that his bold advocacy of liberal views is connected with any +ulterior designs or any "fatted calf" of theory or office. While he +is thus healthily free from the taint of the partisan, he is also +independent of the austere insensibility of the judicial Pharisee, whose +boast is that he decides questions relating to human nature without any +admixture of human instinct and human feeling. Mr. Motley, throughout +his History, writes from his heart as well as from his head; and we have +been unable to discover that he has swerved from the truth of things by +allowing his narrative to be vitiated by an undue prominence of either. + +If we pass from the historian's individuality to his materials, we find, +that, in a great degree, his facts are discoveries, and that, if his +book possessed no literary value whatever, it would still be an' +important addition to the history of Europe during the latter part of +the sixteenth century. He has, of course, studied all the prominent +contemporary chronicles and pamphlets of Holland, Flanders, Spain, +France, Germany, and England; and if his materials had been confined to +published sources of information, he would still be in possession of +facts not generally known or carefully analyzed and combined; but the +peculiar value of his History is due to its exhaustive examination, of +unpublished private letters and political documents. The archives of +Holland, England, and Spain have been opened to his investigations, +and he has been particularly fortunate in being able to road the whole +correspondence between Philip II., his ministers, and governors, +relating to the affairs of the Netherlands, from 1584 to the death of +that monarch. Placed thus at the centre from which events radiated, and +understanding perfectly the real designs which Spain concealed under a +cover of the most diabolical dissimulation, and which are now for the +first time completely elucidated, he was able to judge of the mistakes +of the other cabinets of Europe, also laid bare to his unwearied +research. The study of the manuscripts in the English State-Paper +Office, and in the collections of the British Museum, has given him a +perfect insight into the characters and policy of the statesmen of the +England of Elizabeth; and the exact relations which England bore to +Holland and Spain he has for the first time clearly indicated. As +a contribution to the history of England, these two volumes are of +inestimable value. They will disturb, and in some cases revolutionize, +the fixed opinions which the most intelligent Englishmen of the present +day have formed of almost every public man of the Elizabethan era; +and we cannot but wonder that this work should have been left for an +American scholar to accomplish. + +The present volumes of Mr. Motley's History begin with the murder of +William of Orange, in 1584, and extend only to the assassination of +Henry HI. of France, in 1589. These five years, however, are crowded +with individuals and events of special importance, and the historian +has shed new light on every topic he has touched. The determination of +Philip II. to put down the revolt of the Netherlands was part of an +extensive scheme, which involved the conquest of England and France, +the extermination of Protestantism, and the subjection of Europe to +the despotic sway of Spain and Rome. The interest of the history is +therefore European. To grasp it requires a knowledge of the minutest +threads of a tangled web of intrigue which spread from the Escorial to +the North Sea. This knowledge Mr. Motley has obtained. The cabinets of +Spain, England, and France have yielded up their inmost secrets to his +indefatigable research. He peeps over the shoulder of Philip, and reads +the despatch by which he intends to outwit Walsingham,--and in a second +of time is peeping over the shoulder of Walsingham, to see what the +latter is doing to outwit Philip. There is something inexpressibly +stimulating to curiosity in watching the movements of the nimble +historian as he speeds from one cabinet to another, and, the invisible +spy in the councils of all, detects the misconceptions and blunders +of each. In this complicated game of craft, policy, and passion, our +historian is the first writer who has arrived at the knowledge of the +cards which each player held in his hand at the time the game was +played. + +In 1584, the subjugation of the Netherlands seemed to be but a question +of time; and the disparity between the power of Spain and that of her +revolted provinces is thus strikingly stated:-- + +"The contest between those seven meagre provinces upon the sand-banks +of the North Sea and the great Spanish Empire seemed at the moment with +which we are now occupied a sufficiently desperate one. Throw a +glance upon the map of Europe. Look at the broad, magnificent Spanish +Peninsula, stretching across eight degrees of latitude and ten of +longitude, commanding the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with a genial +climate, warmed in winter by the vast furnace of Africa, and protected +from the scorching heats of summer by shady mountain and forest and +temperate breezes from either ocean. A generous southern territory, +flowing with wine and oil and all the richest gifts of a bountiful +Nature,--splendid cities,--the new and daily expanding Madrid, rich in +the trophies of the most artistic period of the modern world,--Cadiz, as +populous at that day as London, seated by the straits where the ancient +and modern systems of traffic were blending like the mingling of the two +oceans,--Granada, the ancient wealthy seat of the fallen Moors,--Toledo, +Valladolid, and Lisbon, chief city of the recently conquered kingdom of +Portugal, counting, with its suburbs, a larger population than any city, +excepting Paris, in Europe, the mother of distant colonies, and the +capital of the rapidly developing traffic with both the Indies: these +were some of the treasures of Spain herself. But she possessed Sicily +also, the better portion of Italy, and important dependencies in Africa, +while the famous maritime discoveries of the age had all inured to her +aggrandizement. + +"The world seemed suddenly to have expanded its wings from East to West +only to bear the fortunate Spanish Empire to the most dizzy heights of +wealth and power. The most accomplished generals, the most disciplined +and daring infantry the world has ever known, the best-equipped and most +extensive navy, royal and mercantile, of the age, were at the absolute +command of the sovereign. Such was Spain. + +"Turn now to the north-western corner of Europe. A morsel of territory, +attached by a slight sand-hook to the continent, and half-submerged by +the stormy waters of the German Ocean: this was Holland. A rude climate, +with long, dark, rigorous winters and brief summers,--a territory, the +mere wash of three great rivers, which had fertilized happier portions +of Europe only to desolate and overwhelm this less-favored land,--a soil +so ungrateful, that, if the whole of its four hundred thousand acres of +arable land had been sowed with grain, it could not feed the laborers +alone,--and a population largely estimated at one million of souls: +these were the characteristics of the province which already had +begun to give its name to the new commonwealth. The isles of +Zealand--entangled in the coils of deep, slow-moving rivers, or +combating the ocean without--and the ancient episcopate of Utrecht, +formed the only other provinces that had quite shaken off the foreign +yoke. In Friesland, the important city of Groningen was still held for +the King; while Bois-le-Duc, Zutphen, besides other places in Gelderland +and North Brabant, also in possession of the royalists, made the +position of those provinces precarious." + +The safety of the Netherlands appeared to depend so entirely on their +success in gaining the assistance of foreign powers, that it is not +surprising that the Estates eagerly offered the sovereignty of the +country, first to France and then to England. The details of the +negotiations with these powers Mr. Motley recounts at great length. +When England, at last, adopted the side of the Netherlands, and caught +glimpses of the fact that the struggle of the latter against Spain +was her cause no less than the cause of the Dutch, the parsimony and +indecision of Elizabeth, and the hesitating counsels of her favorite +minister, Burleigh, prevented the English-Dutch alliance from being +efficient against the common enemy. An incompetent general, the Earl of +Leicester, was sent over to Holland with the English troops; yet even +his incompetency might not have stood in the way of success, had he +not been hampered with instructions which paralyzed what vigor and +intelligence he possessed, and had not his soldiers been left to starve +by the government they served. Elizabeth was trying to secure a peace +with Spain, while Philip and Farnese were busy in contriving the means +of an invasion of England; and up to the time the Spanish Armada +appeared in the British seas, she and her government were thoroughly +cajoled by Spanish craft. Mr. Motley remorselessly exposes, not only the +duplicity of Philip, but the credulity of Elizabeth; he demonstrates +the superiority of Spain in all the arts which were then supposed to +constitute statesmanship; and shows that it was to no sagacity and +vigor on the part of the English government, but to the instinctive +intelligence and intrepidity of the English people, that the nation was +saved from overthrow. Walsingham is almost the only English statesman +who comes out from the historian's pitiless analysis with any credit; +and, in respect to sagacity, Burleigh is degraded below Leicester: for +Leicester at least understood that the enmity of Philip of Spain to +England was unappeasable, and therefore justly considered his perfidious +negotiations for peace as a mere blind to cover designs of conquest. + +But we have no space, in this hurried notice of Mr. Motley's work, to +linger on the fertile topics which his luminous narrative suggests. In a +future article we hope to do some justice to the facts, principles, and +judgments he has established. At present, after indicating his diligence +in exploring original authorities, and the importance of the conclusions +at which he arrives, we can only venture a few remarks on his historical +genius and method. + +As regards his historical genius, it is sufficient to say that he +exhibits both sympathy and imagination. He has so completely assimilated +his materials that his narrative of events is that of an eye-witness +rather than that of a chronicler. Reproducing the passions, without +participating in the errors of the age about which he writes, he +intensely realizes everything he recounts. The siege of Antwerp and +the defeat of the Spanish Armada are the two prominent and obvious +illustrations of his power of pictorial description: in these he has +presented facts with a vividness and coherence worthy of the great +masters of poetry and romance; and his capacity of thus giving +unmistakable reality to events is not merely exercised in harmony +with the literal truth of things, but makes that truth more clearly +appreciated. Desirous as he is to impress the imagination, he never +sacrifices accuracy to effect. + +The same picturesque truthfulness characterizes his descriptions of +individuals. In the present volumes he has analyzed and represented a +wide variety of human character, separated not only by personal, but +national traits. Philip II., Farnese, and Mendoza,--Olden-Barneveld, +Paul Buys, St. Aldegonde, Hohenlo, Martin Schenk, and Maurice of +Nassau,--Henry III., Henry of Navarre, and the Duke of Guise,--Queen +Elizabeth, Burleigh, Walsingham, Buckhurst, Leicester, Davison, Raleigh, +Sidney, Howard, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and Norris,--all, as +delineated by him, have vital reality, all palpably live and move before +the eye of his mind. + +The method which Mr. Motley has adopted is admirably calculated to +insure accuracy as well as reality to his representation of events and +persons. His plan is always to allow the statesmen and soldiers who +appear in his work to express themselves in their own way, and convey +their opinions and purposes in their own words. This mode is opposed to +compression, but favorable to truth. Macaulay's method is to re-state +everything in his own language, and according to his own logical forms. +He never allows the Whigs and Tories, whose opinions and policy he +exhibits, to say anything for themselves. He detests quotation-marks. +His summaries are so clear and compact that, we are tempted to forget +that they leave out the modifications which opinions receive from +individual character. The reason that his statements are so often +questioned is due to the fact that he insists on his readers viewing +everything through the medium of his own mind. Mr. Motley is more +objective in his representations; and his readers can dispute his +summaries of character and expositions of policy by the abundant +materials for differing judgment which the historian himself supplies. + + +_Life of Andrew Jackson_. By JAMES PARTON, Author of the "Life of Aaron +Burr," etc., etc. 3 vols. 8vo. New York: Mason Brothers. 1860. + +We criticized Mr. Parton's "Life of Aaron Burr" with considerable +severity at the time of its appearance; and we are the more glad to meet +with a book of his which we can as sincerely and heartily commend. The +same quality of sympathy with his subject, which led him in his former +work to palliate the moral obliquity and overlook the baseness of his +hero, in consideration of brilliant gifts of intellect and person, gives +vigor and spirit to his delineation of a character in most respects so +different as that of Jackson. This man, who filled so large a place +in our history, and left perhaps a stronger impress of himself on our +politics than any other of our public men except Jefferson, was well +worthy to be made a subject of careful study and elucidation. Mr. Parton +has given us the means of understanding a character hitherto a puzzle, +and deserves our hearty thanks for the manner in which he has done it. + +We think the book remarkably fair in its tone, though perhaps Mr. Parton +is now and then led to exaggerate the positive greatness of Jackson, +who, as it appears to us, was rather eminent by comparison and contrast +with the men around him. But there were many strong, if not great +qualities in his composition, and so much that was picturesque and +strange in the incidents of his career and the state of society which +formed his character, that we have found this biography one of the most +instructive and entertaining we ever read. If Mr. Parton sometimes +exaggerates his hero's merits, he is also outspoken in regard to his +faults. If here and there a little Carlylish, his style has the merit of +great liveliness, and his pictures of frontier-life are full of interest +and vivacity. + +Mr. Parton begins his book with a new kind of genealogy, and one suited +to our Western hemisphere, where men are valued more for what they +themselves are than for what their grandfathers were,--for making than +for wearing an illustrious name. He shows that Jackson came of a good +stock,--pious, tenacious of opinion and purpose, and brave,--the +Scotch-Irish. He then tells us how young Jackson imbibed his fierce +patriotism, riding as a boy-trooper, and wellnigh dying a prisoner, +during the last years of the Revolutionary War. He lets us see his hero +cock-fighting, horse-racing, bad-whiskey-drinking, studying law, and +fighting by turns, leaving behind him somewhat dubious but on the +whole favorable memories, yet somehow getting on, till he is appointed +District-Attorney among the wolves, wildcats, and redskins of Tennessee. +The story of his emigration thither and his early life there is +wonderfully picturesque, and told by Mr. Parton with the spirit which +only sympathy can give. + +A great part of the material is wholly new, and we are at last enabled +to get at the real Jackson, and to gain something like an adequate and +consistent conception, of him. We are particularly glad to learn +the truth about Mrs. Jackson, after so many years of slander and +misunderstanding, and to find something really touching and noble, +instead of ludicrous, in the grim General's devotion to his first and +only love. We get also for the first time an understandable account of +the Battle of New Orleans, made up with praiseworthy impartiality from +the accounts of both sides. Nor is it only here that the author gives us +new light. He enables us to judge fairly of the sad story of Arbuthnot +and Ambrister, and throws a great deal of light on many points of our +political history which much needed honest illumination. The book is of +especial interest at the present time, as it contains the best narrative +we have ever seen of the Nullification troubles of 1832. Mr. Parton not +only shows a decided talent for biography, but his work is characterized +by a thoroughness of research and honesty of purpose that make it, on +the whole, the best life yet written of any of our public men. + + +_Poems_. By ROSE TERRY. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1861. pp. 231. + +We forget who it was that once charitably christened one of his volumes +"Prose by a Poet," in order that the public might be put on their guard +as to the difference between it and the others,--inexperienced critics +are so apt to make mistakes! The example seems to us worth following, +and, were this dangerous frankness made a point of honor in title-pages, +we should be able at a glance to distinguish the books that must be +bought from those that may be read. We should then see advertised "The +Ten-Inch Bore, or Sermons by Rev. Canon So-and-so,"--"Essays to do Good, +by a Victim of Original Sin,"--"Poems by a Proser,"--"Political Economy, +by a Bankrupt," and the like. We should know, at least, what we had to +expect. + +We do not mean to apply this to Miss Terry; but her volume reminded us, +by the association of opposites, of the title to which we have referred. +We had long known her as a writer of picturesque and vigorous prose, as +one of the most successful sketchers of New England character, abounding +in humor and pathos; but we had never conceived her as a writer of +verse. The readers of the "Atlantic" remember too well her "Maya, the +Princess," "Metempsychosis," and "The Sphinx's Children," to need +reminding that she has qualities of fancy as remarkable as her faculty +for observing real life. Miss Terry seems in this volume to have sought +refuge from the real in the ideal, from the jar and bustle of the +outward world in the silent and shadowy interior of thought and being. +Her poems have the fault of nearly all modern poetry, inasmuch as they +are over-informed with thought and sadness. By far the greater number of +her themes are abstract and melancholy. It appears to us that her mind +moves more naturally and finds readier expression in the picturesque +than in the metaphysical; and in saying this we mean to say that she is +really a poet, and not a rhymer of thoughts. "Midnight" is a poem full +of originality and vigor, with that suggestion of deepest meaning which +is so much more effective than definite statement. "December XXXI." +gives us a new and delightful treatment of a subject which the poets +have made us rather shy of by their iteration. We would signalize also, +as an especial favorite of ours, "The Two Villages," and still more the +very striking poem "At Last." But, after all, we are not sure that the +Ballads are not the best pieces in the volume. The "Frontier Ballads," +in particular, quiver with strength and spirit, and have the true +game-flavor of the border. + + +_Harrington_. By the Author of "What Cheer?" Boston: Thayer & Eldridge. + +One of the most impossible books that man ever wrote. A book which one +could almost prove never could be written, and which, as an illogical +conclusion, but a stubborn fact, has been written, nevertheless. +"Harrington" is an Abolition novel, the scene of which is laid in +Boston, with a few introductory chapters of plantation-slavery in +Louisiana. Its principal merit is its burning earnestness of feeling and +purpose; and earnestness is sacred from criticism. Whenever the warm, +pulse of an author's heart can be felt through the texture of his story, +criticism is mere flippancy. But, at the risk of making our author's lip +curl with disdain of the sordid insensibility that refuses to join +in his enthusiasm throughout, we shall venture to remind him that +enthusiasm is no proof of truth, whether in argument or conclusion. + +The introductory chapters, containing the flight of the slave Antony +through the Louisiana swamp, are almost unequalled for unfaltering +power, for gorgeous wealth of color. Many of the glowing sentences +belong rather to passionate poetry than to tamer prose. The agonized +resolution that turns the panting fugitive's blood and body to +fire,--the fear, so vividly portrayed that the reader's nerves thrill +with the shock that brings the hunted negro's heart almost to his mouth +with one wild throb,--the matchless picture of the forest and marsh, +lengthening and widening with dizzy swell to the weary eye and failing +brain,--all are the work of a master of language. + +When the scene shifts to Boston, the language, which was in perfect +keeping with the tropical madness of Antony's flight and the tropical +splendor of the Southern forest, is extravagant to actual absurdity, +when used with reference to ordinary scenes and ordinary events. All the +force of contrast is lost; and contrast is the great secret of effect. +The lavish richness of our author's words is as little suited to the +things they describe as a mantle of gold brocade would be to the +shoulders of a beggar. Even the loveliest of young women is more likely +to enter a room by the ordinary mysterious mode of locomotion than to +"flash" into it like a salamander. That it was possible for Muriel +Eastman, in gratifying her "vaulting ambition" by a very creditable +spring over the parallel bars, to "toss the air into perfume," we are +not prepared to deny, having no very clear notion of the meaning of +those remarkable words; but when, we are told that Mrs. Eastman was +"ineffably surprised, yet more ineffably amused," we must be allowed to +enter an energetic protest. Harrington himself is perhaps a trifle too +"regnant" to be altogether satisfactory; and there are many similar +extravagances and inaccuracies. + +The social intercourse of the ladies and gentlemen in this book is +particularly bad. It seems as if the author were ignorant of the usages +of good society, and, impatient of the vulgar ceremony of inferior +people, had seen no way to assert the superiority of his two fair ladies +and their unimaginable lovers, except making them dispense with all +such observances whatever. His uncertainty how people in their position +really do act has hampered his powers; and he is not that rarity, an +original writer, but that very common person, one who tries to be +original. Real ladies and gentlemen are not reduced to the alternative +of either being embarrassed by the ordinary social rules or disregarding +them altogether; they take advantage of them. It is a false originality +that is singular about ordinary forms; it is only the tyro in chess who +is "original" in his first move; Paul Morphy, the most inventive of +players, always begins with the customary advance of the king's pawn. + +There is the usual partiality--one-sidedness--common to the writings +and orations of our author's political school. It may well be doubted +whether in reality all the virtues have been monopolized by the +Antislavery men, all the vices by their opponents. Our author only hurts +his own cause, when he invests with a halo of light every brawler +who echoes the words of the really eminent leaders. Because one +Abolitionist, who has sacrificed power and position to his creed, is +entitled to praise, is another, who perhaps, by advocating the same +doctrines, gains a higher position, a wider influence, perhaps an easier +support, than he could in any other way, to share the credit of having +made a sacrifice? One would not disparage martyrs; but Saint Lawrence on +a cold gridiron, and the pilgrim who boiled his peas, are entitled to +more credit for their shrewdness than their suffering. Our author, +however, makes no distinction; and a natural result will be that many of +his readers, knowing that in one case his praises are undeserved, will +be slow to believe them just in any case. And not only are all of +this particular school disinterested, but they are all among the +master-intellects of the age, apparently by definition. Mr. Harrington +himself is the commanding intellect of the story, perhaps because of his +belief in the greatest number of heresies,--being somewhat peculiar +in his religious views, believing in woman's rights, considering the +marriage ceremony a silly concession to popular prejudice, giving +credence to omens, active as an Abolitionist, and--to crown all--holding +that Lord Bacon wrote Shakspeare's Plays! We sympathize entirely with +the author's indignant protest against thinking a theory necessarily +inaccurate because it contravenes the opinion of the majority. +Certainly, a new thing is not necessarily wrong; but neither is a new +thing necessarily right; and we are heartless enough to pronounce the +"Baconian theory" rather weak than otherwise for a hero. + +We cannot close our notice of this book without commending the old +French fencing-master as particularly good. He talks very simply and +well on matters that he understands, and is silent on those that he does +not understand,--affording in both respects an excellent example to the +more important characters. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The North American Review. No. CXC. January, 1861. Boston. Crosby, +Nichols, Lee, & Co. 8vo, paper, pp. 296. $1.25. + +Marion Graham; or, Higher than Happiness. By Meta Lander. Boston. +Crosby, Nichols, Lee, & Co. 12mo. pp. 506. $1.25. + +Harry Coverdale's Courtship and Marriage. By Frank E. Smedley. +Illustrated. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 357. +$1.25. + +Life in the Old World; or, Two Years in Switzerland and Italy. By +Frederika Bremer. Translated by Mary Howitt. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson +& Brothers. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 488, 474. $2.50. + +One of Them. By Charles Lever. New York. Harper & Brothers. 8vo. paper, +pp. 187. 50 cts. + +Human Destiny: a Critique on Universalism. By C.F. Hudson. Boston. James +Munroe & Co. 12mo. pp. 147. 50 cts. + +Negroes and Negro-Slavery: the First, an Inferior Race; the Latter, +their Normal Condition. By J.H. Van Evrie, M.D. New York. Van Evrie, +Horton, & Co. 12mo. pp. 339. $1.00. + +The Works of Francis Bacon. Vol. XIV. Being Vol. IV. of the Literary and +Professional Works. Boston. Brown & Taggard. 12mo. pp. 432. $1.50. + +The History of Latin Christianity. By Henry Hart Milman. Vol. IV. New +York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. 555. $1.50. + +The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus; to which are added those +of his Companions. By Washington Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New +York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 494. $1.50. + +The Westminster Review, for January, 1861. New York. Leonard Scott & Co. +8vo. paper, pp. 160. 50 cts. + +Elsie Venner. A Romance of Destiny. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston. +Ticknor & Fields. 2 vols. 16mo. pp. 288, 312. $1.75. + +The Deerslayer. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Darley's Illustrated Edition. New +York. W.A. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 598. $1.50. + +American Slavery, distinguished from the Slavery of English Theorists, +and justified by the Law of Nature. By Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D. New +York. Mason Brothers. 12mo. pp. 319. $1.25. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 7, ISSUE +41, MARCH, 1861*** + + +******* This file should be named 11134.txt or 11134.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/1/3/11134 + + +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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