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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:08 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:08 -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/11157-0.txt b/11157-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b66890f --- /dev/null +++ b/11157-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8302 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11157 *** + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VIII--AUGUST, 1861.--NO. XLVI. + + + + +TREES IN ASSEMBLAGES. + + +The subject of Trees cannot be exhausted by treating them as individuals +or species, even with a full enumeration of their details. Some trees +possess but little interest, except as they are grouped in assemblages +of greater or less extent. A solitary Fir or Spruce, for example, when +standing in an inclosure or by the roadside, is a stiff and disagreeable +object; but a deep forest of Firs is not surpassed in grandeur by one of +any other species. These trees must be assembled in extensive groups to +affect us agreeably; while the Elm, the Oak, and other wide-spreading +trees, are grand objects of sight, when standing alone, or in any other +situation. + +I will not detain the reader with a prolix account of the classification +of trees in assemblages, but simply glance at a few points. The Romans +used four different words to express these distinctions. When they spoke +of a wood with reference to its timber, they used the word _silva_; +_sal[Transcriber's note: remainder of word illegible]_, was a collection +of wild-wood in the mountains; _nemus_, a smaller collection, partaking +of cultivation, and answering to our ideas of a grove; _lucus_ was a +wood, of any description, which was set apart for religious purposes, +or dedicated to some Deity. In the English language we can make these +distinctions intelligible only by the use of adjectives. A _forest_ is +generally understood to be a wild-wood of considerable extent, retaining +all its natural features. A _grove_ is a smaller assemblage of trees, +not crowded together, but possessing very generally their full +proportions, and divested of their undergrowth. Other inferior groups +are designated as _copse_ and _thicket_. The words _park_, _clump_, +_arboretum_, and the like, are mere technical terms, that do not come +into use in a general description of Nature. + +Groves, fragments of forest, and inferior groups only are particularly +interesting in landscape. An unbroken forest of wide extent makes but +a dreary picture and an unattractive journey, on account of its gloomy +uniformity. Hence the primitive state of the earth, before it was +modified by human hands, must have been sadly wanting in those romantic +features that render a scene the most attractive. Nature must be +combined with Art, however simple and rude, and associated with human +life, to become deeply affecting to the imagination. But it is not +necessary that the artificial objects of a landscape should be of a +grand historical description, to produce these agreeable effects: humble +objects, indeed, are the most consonant with Nature's sublime aspects, +because they manifest no seeming endeavor to rival them. In the deep +solitary woods, the sight of a woodman's hut in a clearing, of a +farmer's cottage, or of a mere sheepfold, immediately awakens a tender +interest, and enlivens the scene with a tinge of romance. + +The earth must have been originally covered with forest, like the +American continent in the time of Columbus. This has in all cases +disappeared, as population has increased; and groves, fragments of +wild-wood, small groups, and single trees have taken its place. Great +Britain, once renowned for its extensive woods, now exhibits only +smaller assemblages, chiefly of an artificial character, which are more +interesting to the landscape-gardener than to the lover of Nature's +primitive charms. Parks, belts, arboretums, and clipped hedge-rows, +however useful as contributing to pleasure, convenience, or science, are +not the most interesting features of wood-scenery. But the customs of +the English nobility, while they have artificialized all the fairest +scenes in the country, and ruined them for the eyes of the poet or the +painter, have been the means of preserving some valuable forests, +which under other circumstances would have been utterly destroyed. +A deer-forest belonging to the Duke of Athol comprises four hundred +thousand acres; the forest of Farquharson contains one hundred and +thirty thousand acres; and several others of smaller extent are still +preserved as deer-parks. Thus do the luxuries of the rich tend, in +some instances, to preserve those natural objects of which they are in +general the principal destroyers. + +Immense forests still overspread a great part of Northern Russia, +through which it has been asserted that a squirrel might traverse +hundreds of miles, without touching the ground, by leaping from tree to +tree. Since the general adoption of railroad travelling, however, great +ravages have been made in these forests, and not many years will be +required to reduce them to fragments. In the South of Europe a great +part of the territory is barren of woods, and the climate has suffered +from this cause, which has diminished the bulk of the streams and +increased the severity of droughts. But Nature has established a partial +remedy for the evil arising from the imprudent destruction of forests, +in lofty and precipitous mountains, that serve not only to perpetuate +moisture for the supply of rain to the neighboring countries, but +contribute also to preserve the timber in their inaccessible ravines. +Were it not for this safeguard of mountains, the South of Europe would +ere this have become a desert, from the destruction of its forests, like +Sahara, whose barrenness was anciently produced by the same cause. + +Most of the territory of North America is still comparatively a +wilderness; but in the United States the forests have been so +extensively invaded, that they seldom exhibit any distinct outlines, and +few of them possess the character of unique assemblages. They are but +scattered fragments of the original forest, through which the settlers +have made their irregular progress from east to west, diversifying it +with roads, farms, and villages. The recent clearings are palisaded by +tall trees, exhibiting a naked outline of skeleton timber, without any +attractions. It is in the old States only that we see anything like a +picturesque grouping of woods; and here, the absence of art and design, +in the formation and relative disposition of these groups, gives them +a peculiar interest to the lover of natural scenery. There is a charm, +therefore, in New-England landscape, existing nowhere else in +equal degree; but this is rapidly giving place to those artificial +improvements that are destined to ruin the face of the country, which +owes its present attractions to the spontaneous efforts of Nature, +modified only by the unartistic operations of a simple agriculture. + +Travelling in a forest, though delightful as an occasional recreation, +is, when continued many hours in succession, unless one be engaged +in scientific researches, very monotonous and wearisome. Even the +productions of a forest are not so various as those of a tract in which +all the different conditions of wildness and culture are intermingled. A +view of an unbroken wilderness from an elevation is equally monotonous. +Wood must be blended with other forms of landscape, with pasture and +tillage, with roads, houses, and farms, to convey to the mind the +most agreeable sensations. The monotony of unbroken forest-scenery is +partially relieved in the autumn by the mixed variety of tints belonging +to the different trees; but this does not wholly subdue the prevailing +expression of dreariness and gloom. + +Nothing can surpass the splendor of this autumnal pageantry, as beheld +in the Green Mountains of Vermont and Western Massachusetts, in the +early part of October. This region abounds in Sugar-Maples, which are +very beautifully tinted, and in a sufficient variety of other trees to +delight the eye with every specious hue. A remarkable appearance may +always be observed in Maples. Some trees of this kind are entirely +green, with the exception perhaps of a single bough, which is of a +bright crimson or scarlet. Sometimes the lower half of the foliage will +be green, while the upper part is entirely crimsoned, resembling a spire +of flame rising out of a mass of verdure. In other cases this order is +reversed, and the tree presents the appearance of a green spire +rising out of flame. We see no end to the variety of these apparently +capricious phenomena, which some have explained by supposing the +colored branches to be affected with partial disease that hastens their +maturity: but this can hardly be admitted as the true explanation, +as such appearances exist when no other symptoms of malady can be +discovered. + +So much has been said and written of late in regard to the tints of +autumn leaves, that the writer of this cannot be expected to advance +anything new concerning them. Let me remark, however, that these +beautiful tintings are not due to the action of frost, which is, on +the contrary, highly prejudicial to them, as we may observe on several +different occasions. If, for example, a frost should occur in September +of sufficient intensity to cut down the tender annuals of our +gardens,--after this, when the tints begin to appear, the outer portion +of the foliage that was touched by the frost will exhibit a sullied and +rusty hue. The effects of these early frosts are seldom apparent while +the leaves are green, except on close inspection; for a very intense +frost is required to sear and roll up the leaves. Early autumnal frosts +seldom do more than to injure their capacity to receive a fine tint when +they become mature. + +The next occasion that renders the injurious effects of frost apparent +is later in the season, after the tints are very generally developed. +Every severe frost that happens at this period impairs their lustre, as +we may perceive on any day succeeding a frosty night, when the woods, +which were previously in their gayest splendor, will be faded to a +duller and more uniform shade,--as if the whole mass had been dipped +into a brownish dye, leaving the peculiar tints of each species dimly +conspicuous through this shading. The most brilliant and unsullied hues +are displayed in a cool, but not frosty autumn, succeeding a moderate +summer. Very warm weather in autumn hastens the coloring process, and +renders the hues proportionally transient. I have known Maple woods, +early in October, to be completely embrowned and stripped of their +leaves by two days of summer heat. Cool days and nights, unattended with +frost, are the favorable conditions for producing and preserving the +beauty of autumnal wood-scenery. + +The effects of heat and frost are not so apparent in Oak woods, which +have a more coriaceous and persistent foliage than other deciduous +trees: but Oaks do not attain the perfection of their beauty, until +the Ash, the Maple, and the Tupelo--the glory of the first period of +autumn--have shed a great portion of their leaves. The last-named trees +are in their splendor during a period of about three weeks after the +middle of September, varying with the character of the season. + +Oaks are not generally tinted until October, and are brightest near the +third week of this month, preserving their lustre, in great measure, +until the hard frosts of November destroy the leaves. The colors of the +different Oaks are neither so brilliant nor so variegated as those of +Maples; but they are more enduring, and serve more than those of any +other woods to give character to our autumnal landscapes. + +It would be difficult to convey to the mind of a person who had never +witnessed this brilliant, but solemn pageantry of the dying year, a +clear idea of its magnificence. Nothing else in Nature will compare +with it: for, though flowers are more beautiful than tinted leaves, no +assemblage of flowers, or of flowering trees and shrubs, can produce +such a deeply affecting scene of beauty as the autumn woods. If we would +behold them In their greatest brilliancy and variety, we must journey +during the first period of the Fall of the Leaf in those parts of the +country where the Maple, the Ash, and the Tupelo are the prevailing +timber. If we stand, at this time, on a moderate elevation affording a +view of a wooded swamp rising into upland and melting imperceptibly into +mountain landscape, we obtain a fair sight of the different assemblages +of species, as distinguished by their tints. The Oaks will be marked, at +this early period, chiefly by their unaltered verdure. In the lowland +the scarlet and crimson hues of the Maple and the Tupelo predominate, +mingled with a superb variety of colors from the shrubbery, whose +splendor is always the greatest on the borders of ponds and +water-courses, and frequently surpasses that of the trees. As the plain +rises into the hill-side, the Ash-trees may be distinguished by their +peculiar shades of salmon, mulberry, and purple, and the Hickories by +their invariable yellows. The Elm, the Lime, and the Buttonwood are +always blemished and rusty: they add no brilliancy to the spectacle, +serving only to sober and relieve other parts of the scenery. + +When the second period of the Fall of the Leaf has arrived, the woods +that were first tinted have mostly become leafless. The grouping of +different species is, therefore, very apparent at this time,--some +assemblages presenting the denuded appearance of winter, some remaining +still green, while the Oaks are the principal attraction, with an +intermixture of a few other species, whose foliage has been protected +and the development of their hues retarded by some peculiarity of +situation. Green rows of Willows may also be seen by road-sides in damp +places, and irregular groups of them near the water-courses. The foreign +trees--seldom found in woods--are still unchanged, as we may observe +wherever there is a row of European Elms, Weeping Willows, or a +hedge-row of Privet. + +One might suppose that a Pine wood must look particularly sombre in this +grand spectacle of beauty; but it cannot be denied that in those regions +where there is a considerable proportion of Pines the perfection of this +scenery is witnessed. Something is needful to relieve the eye as it +wanders over such a profusion of brilliant colors. Pine woods provide +this relief, and cause the tinted forest groups to stand out in greater +prominence. In many districts where Pines were the original growth, they +still constitute the larger sylvan assemblages, while the deciduous +trees stand in scattered groups on the edge of the forest, and the +contiguous plain. The verdurous Pine wood forms a picturesque groundwork +to set off the various groups in front of it; and the effect of a +scarlet Oak or Tupelo rising like a spire of flame in the midst of +verdure is far more striking than if it stood where it was unaffected by +contrast. + +The cause of the superior tinting of the American forest, compared with +that of Europe, has never been satisfactorily explained, though it +seems to be somewhat inexplicably connected with the brightness of the +American climate. It is a subject that has not engaged the attention of +scientific travellers, who seem to have regarded it as worthy only of +the describer of scenery. It may, however, deserve more attention as a +scientific fact than has been generally supposed,--particularly as one +of the phenomena that perhaps distinguish the productions of the eastern +from those of the western coasts of the two grand divisions of the +earth. I have observed that the Smoke-tree, which is a Sumach from +China, and the Cydonia Japonica, are as brightly colored in autumn as +any of our indigenous shrubs; while the Silver-Maple, which, though +indigenous in the Western States, probably originated on the western +coast of America, shows none of the fine tinting so remarkable in the +other American Maples. These facts have led me to conjecture that this +superior tinting of the autumnal foliage may be peculiar to the +eastern coasts both of the Old and the New Continent, in the northern +hemisphere. May not this phenomenon bear some relation to the colder +winters and the hotter summers of the eastern compared with the western +coasts? I offer this suggestion as a query, not as a theory, and +with the hope that it may induce travellers to make some particular +observations in reference to it. + +The indigenous trees of America, or rather of the Atlantic side of this +continent, are remarkable not only for their superior autumnal hues, +but also for the shorter period during which the foliage remains on the +trees and retains its verdure. Our fruit-trees, which are all exotics, +retain their foliage long after our forest-trees are leafless; and if +we visit an arboretum in the latter part of October, we may select the +American from the foreign species, by observing that the latter are +still green, while the others are either entirely denuded, or in that +colored array which immediately precedes the fall of the leaf. +The exotics may likewise be distinguished in the spring by their +precocity,--their leaves being out a week or ten days earlier than the +leaves of our trees. Hence, if we take both the spring and autumn into +the account, the foreign, or rather the European species, show a period +of verdure of three or four weeks' greater duration than the American +species. Many of the former, like the Weeping Willow, do not lose +their verdure, nor shed their leaves, until the first wintry blasts of +November freeze them upon their branches and roll them into a crisp. + +In a natural forest there is a very small proportion of perfectly formed +trees; and these occur only in such places as permit some individuals to +stand isolated from the rest, and to spread out their branches to their +full extent. When we walk in a forest, we observe several conditions +which are favorable to this full expansion of their forms. On the +borders of a pond or morass, or of an extensive quarry, the trees +extend their branches into the opening, but, as they are cramped on the +opposite side, they are only half developed. But this expansion takes +place on the side that is exposed to view: hence the incomparable beauty +of a wood on the borders of a pond, or on the banks of a river, as +viewed from the water; also of a wood on the outside of an islet in a +lake or river. + +Fissures or cavities sometimes occur in a large rock, allowing +a solitary tree that has become rooted there to attain its full +proportions. It is in such places, and on sudden eminences that rise +above the forest-level, on a precipice, for example, that overlooks the +surrounding wood, that the forest shows individual trees possessing the +characters of standards, like those we see by the roadsides and in the +open field. We must conclude, therefore, that a primitive forest must +contain but a very small proportion of perfect trees: these are, for +the most part, the occupants of land cleared by cultivation, and may be +found also among the sparse growth of timber that has come up in pasture +land, where the constant browsing of cattle prevents the formation of +any dense assemblages. + +In the opinion of Whately, grandeur is the prevailing character of a +forest, and beauty that of a grove. This distinction may seem to +be correct, when such collections of wood exhibit all their proper +characters: but perfectly unique forms of wood are seldom found in this +country, where almost all the timber is of spontaneous growth. We have +genuine forests; but other forms of wood are of a mixed character, and +we have rather fragments of forest than legitimate groves. In the South +of Europe many of the woods are mere plantations, in which the trees +were first set in rows, with straight avenues, or vistas, passing +directly through them from different points. In an assemblage of this +kind there can be nothing of that interesting variety observed in a +natural forest, and which is manifestly wanting even in woods planted +with direct reference to the attainment of these natural appearances. +"It is curious to see," as Gilpin remarks, "with what richness of +invention, if I may so speak, Nature mixes and intermixes her trees, and +shapes them into such a wonderful variety of groups and beautiful forms. +Art may admire and attempt to plant and to form combinations like hers; +but whoever observes the wild combinations of a forest and compares them +with the attempts of Art has little taste, if he do not acknowledge with +astonishment the superiority of Nature's workmanship." + +When a tract is covered with a dense growth of tall trees, especially of +Pines, which have but little underbrush, the wood represents overhead a +vast canopy of verdure supported by innumerable lofty pillars. No one +could enter these dark solitudes without feeling a deep impression of +sublimity, especially if it be an hour of general stillness of the +winds. The voices of animals and of birds, particularly the hammering +of the woodpecker, serve to magnify our perceptions of grandeur. A very +slight sound, during a calm in one of these deep woods, like the +ticking of a clock in a vast hall, has a distinctness almost startling, +especially if there be but little undergrowth. These feeble sounds +afford one a more vivid sense of the magnitude of the place than louder +sounds, that differ less from those we hear in the open plain. The +canopy of foliage overhead and the absence of undergrowth are favorable +to those reverberations which are so perceptible in a Pine wood. + +In a grove we experience different sensations. Here pleasantness and +cheerfulness are combined, and the feeling of grandeur is excited only +perhaps by the sight of some noble tree. In a grove the trees are +generally well formed, many of them being nearly perfect in their +proportions. Their shadows are cast separately upon the ground, which is +green beneath them as in an orchard. If we look upon them from a near +eminence, we observe a variety of outlines, and may identify the +different species by their shape, while in the forest we see one +unbroken mass of foliage. A wild-wood is frequently converted into a +grove by clearing it of undergrowth and leaving the space a grassy lawn. +It may then yield us shade, coolness, and other agreeable sensations of +a cultivated wood, but the individual trees always retain their gaunt +and imperfect shapes. + +The greater part of the woodland of this country partakes of the +characters of both forest and grove, exhibiting a pleasant admixture of +each, combined with pasture and thicket. In Great Britain the woods are +chiefly groves and parks: a wild-wood of spontaneous growth is now rare +in that country, once renowned for the extent and beauty of its forests. +Most of our American woods are fragments of forest, particularly in +the Western States, where they stand out prominently, and deform +the landscape by presenting a perpendicular front of naked pillars, +unrelieved by any foliage. They remind one of those houses, in the city, +which have been cut asunder to widen a street, leaving the interior +rooms and partition-walls exposed to view. These sections of wood are +the grand picturesque deformity of a country lately cleared. In the +older settlements, a recent growth of wood has in many instances come +up outside of these palisades, serving in a measure to conceal their +baldness. + +The most lovely appearances in landscape are caused by the spontaneous +growth of miscellaneous trees, some in dense assemblages and some in +scattered groups, with here and there a few single trees standing in +open space. Such is the scenery of considerable portions of the Atlantic +States, both North and South. These varied assemblages of wood and +shrubbery are the characteristic features of the landscape in the +older villages of New England, and indeed of all the States that were +established before the Revolution. But the New-England system of +farming--so much abhorred by those who wish to bring agriculture to +such a state of improvement as shall make it profitable exclusively +to capitalists--has been more favorable to the sylvan beauty of the +landscape than that of any other part of the continent. At the South, +especially, where agriculture is carried on in large plantations, we see +wide fields of tillage, and forest groups of corresponding size. But the +small and independent farming of New England--as favorable to general +happiness as it is to beautiful scenery--has produced a charming variety +of wood, pasture, and tillage, so agreeably intermixed that one is never +weary of looking upon it. The varied surface of the landscape, in the +uneven parts which are not mountainous, has increased these advantages, +producing an endless multitude of those limited views which may be +termed picturesque. + +In no other part of the country are the minor inequalities of surface so +frequent as in New England: I allude to that sort of ruggedness which is +unfavorable to any "mammoth" system of agriculture, and plainly evinces +that Nature and Providence have designed this part of the country for +free and independent labor. Here little meadows, of a few acres in +extent, are common, encircled by green pasture hills or by wood. A +rolling surface is more favorable to grandeur of scenery; but nothing +is more beautiful than landscape formed by hills rising suddenly out of +perfect levels. As it is not my present purpose to treat of landscape in +general, I will simply remark that the barrenness of a great part of the +soil of the Eastern States is favorable to picturesque scenery. This may +seem a paradoxical assertion to those who can see no beauty except +in universal fatness; but unvaried luxuriance is fatal to variety of +scenes, though it undoubtedly encourages the development of individual +growth. An agreeable intermixture of various sylvan assemblages is one +of the effects of a barren soil, containing numerous fertile tracts. +Not having in general sufficient strength to produce timber, it covers +itself with diverse groups of vegetation, corresponding with the +varieties of soil and surface. Thus, in a certain degree, we are obliged +to confess that beauty springs out of Nature's deficiencies. + +We live in a latitude and upon a soil, therefore, which are favorable +to the harmonious grouping of vegetation. As we proceed southward, we +witness a constant increase of the number of species gathered together +in a single group. Nature is more addicted at the North to the habit of +classifying her productions and of assembling them in uniform phalanxes. +The painter, on this account, finds more to interest the eye and to +employ his pencil in the picturesque regions of frost and snow; while +the botanist finds more to exercise his observation in the crowded +variety that marks the region of perpetual summer. + +But while vegetation is more generally social in high latitudes, several +families of Northern trees are entirely wanting in this quality. Seldom +is a forest composed chiefly of Elms, Locusts, or Willows. Oaks and +Birches are associated in forests, Elms in groves, and Willows in small +groups following the courses of streams. Those Northern trees which are +most eminently social, including the two just named, are the Beech, the +Maple, the Hickory, the coniferous trees, and some others; and by the +predominance of any one kind the character of the soil may be partially +determined. There is no tree that grows so abundantly in miry land, +both North and South upon this continent, as the Red Maple. It occupies +immense tracts of morass in the Middle States, and is the last tree +which is found in swamps, according to Michaux, as the Birch is the last +we meet in ascending mountains. The Sugar-Maple is confined mostly to +the Northeastern parts of the continent. Poplars are not generally +associated exclusively in forests; but at the point where the Ohio +and the Mississippi mingle their waters are grand forests of Deltoid +Poplars, that stamp upon the features of that region a very peculiar +physiognomy. + +The characteristics of different woods, composed chiefly of one family +of trees, would make an interesting study; but it would be tiresome +to enter minutely into their details. Some are distinguished by a +superfluity, others by a deficiency of undergrowth. In general, Pine and +Fir woods are of the latter description, differing in this respect +from deciduous woods. These differences are most apparent in large +assemblages of wood, which have a flora as well as a fauna of their own. +The same shrubs and herbaceous plants, for example, are not common to +Oak and to Pine woods. There is a difference also in the cleanness and +beauty of their stems. The gnarled habit of the Oak is conspicuous +even in the most crowded forest, and coniferous woods are apt to be +disfigured by dead branches projecting from the bole. The Birch, the +Poplar, and the Beech are remarkable for the straightness, evenness, and +beauty of their shafts, when assembled in a dense wood. + +Some of the most beautiful forests in high latitudes consist of White +Canoe-Birches. We see them in Massachusetts only in occasional groups, +but farther north, upon river-banks, they form woods of considerable +extent and remarkable beauty; and with their tall shafts, and their +smooth white bark, resembling pillars of marble, supporting a canopy of +bright green foliage, on a light feathery spray, they constitute one of +the picturesque attractions of a Northern tour. Nature seems to indicate +the native habitat of this noble tree by causing its exterior to bear +the whiteness of snow, and it would be difficult to estimate its +importance to the aboriginal inhabitants of Northern latitudes. Yellow +Birch woods are not inferior in their attractions: individual trees +of this species are often distinguished among other forest timber by +extending their feathery summits above the level of the other trees. + +The small White Birch is never assembled in large forest groups. Like +the Alder, it seems to be employed by Nature for the shading of her +living pictures, and for producing those gradations which are the charm +of spontaneous wood-scenery. In this part of the continent, a Pitch-Pine +wood is commonly fringed with White Birches, and outside of these with +a lower growth of Hazels, Cornels, and Vacciniums, uniting them +imperceptibly with the herbage of the plain. The importance of this +native embroidery is not sufficiently considered by those industrious +plodders who are constantly destroying wayside shrubbery, as if it were +the pest of the farm,--nor by those "improvers," on the other hand, who +wage an eternal warfare against little spontaneous groups of wood, as +if they thought everything outside of the forest an intruder, if it was +planted by accident, and had not cost money before it was placed there. +Give me an old farm, with its stone-walls draped with Poison-Ivy and +Glycine, and verdurous with a mixed array of Viburnums, Hazels, and +other wild shrubbery, harboring thousands of useful birds, and smiling +over the abundant harvests which they surround, before the finest +artistical landscape in the world! + +Pines are remarkably social in their habit, and cover immense tracts in +high latitudes, extending southward, on this continent, as far as the +very boundary of the tropics, where they are found side by side with the +Dwarf Palm of Florida. But in the region of the true Palms the Pine is +wanting. It is worthy of remark, however, that in the fossil vegetation +of the Eocene world these two vegetable tribes are found associated. +This fact, it seems to me, should be attributed to the mixing of the +mountain Pines with the Palms of the sea-level, during that revulsion of +Nature by which they were hurled into the same chaotic heap. We are not +obliged to infer from their contiguity in these geological remains, that +the two species ever flourished together in the same region. + +Pine woods possess attractions of a peculiar kind: all lovers of Nature +are enraptured with them, and there is a grandeur about them which is +felt at once, when we enter them. Their dark verdure, their deep shade, +their lofty height, and their branches which are ever mysteriously +murmuring, as they are swayed by the wind, render them singularly solemn +and sublime. This expression is increased by the hollow reverberating +interior of the wood, caused by its clearness and freedom from +underbrush. The ground beneath is covered by a matting of fallen leaves, +making a smooth brown carpet, that renders a walk within its precincts +as comfortable as in a garden. The foliage of the Pine is so hard and +durable that in summer we always find the last autumn's crop lying upon +the ground in a state of perfect soundness, and under it that of the +preceding year only partially decayed. The foliage of two summers, +therefore, lies upon the surface, checking the growth of humble +vegetation, and permitting only certain species of plants to flourish +with vigor. + +Mushrooms of various forms and sizes spring out of these decayed leaves, +often rivalling the flowers in elegance. Monotropas, uniting some of +the habits of the Fungi with the botanical characters of the flowering +plants, flourish side by side with the snowy Cypripedium and the +singular Coral-Weed. The evergreen Dewberry, a delicate species of +Rubus, trails its glossy leaves over the turfs, and mingles its beaded +fruit with the scarlet berries of the Mitchella. The Pyrola, named +by the Indians Pipsissewa, and regarded by them as a specific for +consumption, suspends its pale purple flowers in beautiful umbels, as if +to invite the feeble invalid to accept its proffered remedies. Variety, +indeed, may be found in these deep shades; but it exists without +that profusion which in more favored situations often benumbs our +susceptibility to the charms of Nature. + +The edging of a Pine wood depends on the character of the soil. The +Pitch-Pine, that delights in sandy plains, is embroidered at the North +by White Birches; and if a road be cut through a wood of this kind, +these graceful trees immediately spring up in abundance by the wayside. +If a pond occurs in the middle of a Pine wood, its margin is covered +first with low bushes, such as the Andromeda, the Myrica, and the +sweet-scented Azalea, then Alders and Willows rise between them and the +forest. On the side of the pond that is bounded by high gravelly banks, +the margin will be covered by Poplars and Birches. The White Pine, the +most noble and the most beautiful tree of the whole coniferous tribe, +predominates in the New-England forest; though some wide tracts are +covered with the more homely Pitch-Pines, which are the trees that scent +the atmosphere on damp still days with their delightful terebinthine +odors. The woods in the vicinity of Concord, N.H., on the banks of the +Merrimack, known by the poetic appellation of "The Dark Plains", are +of this description. In still higher latitudes the dark, majestic Firs +become the prevailing timber, and are regarded as typical of sub-arctic +regions, where they are accompanied, as if to form a striking and +cheerful contrast with their melancholy grandeur, by groups of graceful +Birches, and lively, tremulous Poplars. + +The Pine-Barrens of the Southern States are celebrated as healthful +retreats for the inhabitants of seaport towns, whither they resort in +summer for security from the prevailing fevers. They are of a mixed +character, consisting of the Northern Pitch-Pine, the Broom-Pine, and +the Cypress, intermixed with Red Maples, Sweet Gums, and other deciduous +trees. The Pines, however, are the dominant growth: but here they do not +grow so compactly as in colder regions, standing widely apart, with a +frequent intervening growth of Willows and shrubbery. The sparseness of +these woods may be in part attributed to the practice of tapping the +trees for their turpentine, which has caused them for a century past to +be gradually thinned by consequent decay. Their tall, gaunt forms and +almost branchless trunks show that they obtained their principal growth +in a dense wood. + +The first time I entered one of these Pine-Barrens was some years since, +in the month of June, when vegetation was in its prime, before the +summer droughts had seared the green herbage, and when the flowering +trees and shrubs were in all their glory. During my botanical rambles in +the wood, I was struck with the multitude of beautiful flowers in its +shady retreats,--seeming the more numerous to me, as I had previously +confined my researches to Northern woods. The Phlox grew here in all its +native grace and delicacy, where it had never known the fostering hand +of Art. Crimson Rhexias, called by the inhabitants Deer-Weed, were +distributed among the grassy knolls, like clusters of Picotees. +Variegated Passion-Flowers were conspicuous on the bare white sand that +checkered the ground, displaying their emblematic forms on their low +repent vines, and reminding the wanderer in these almost trackless +solitudes of that Faith which was founded on humility and crowned with +martyrdom. Here, too, the Spiderwort of our gardens, in a meeker form of +beauty and with a paler radiance, luxuriated under the protection of the +wood. Already I observed the predominance of luxuriant vines, indicating +our nearness to the tropic, wreathed gayly over the tall and branchless +trunks of the trees: some, like the Bignonia, in a full blaze of +crimson; others, like the Climbing Fern, draping the trees in continual +verdure. + +These Pines constitute a great part of the timber of the flat country +between the mountains and the coast, and render a journey through +that region singularly monotonous and gloomy. In the low grounds, a +considerable proportion of the wood consists of the Southern Cypress, a +graceful and magnificent tree, whose appearance would be very lively +and cheerful, were it not for the abundance of long trailing "moss" +(_usnea_) that hangs, like funereal drapery, from its branches, and +darkens the whole forest. This parasitic appendant wreathes the woods +sometimes almost in darkness, especially in those immense tracts on the +borders of the Mexican Gulf that consist entirely of Cypress. There it +has been poetically styled the "Garlands of Death," as significant of +the fevers that prevail wherever it is abundant. + +It is remarkable that the two extremes of climate are distinguished +by the predominance of evergreens in their vegetation. Thus, the +acicular-leaved trees, consisting of Pines and their congeners, mark the +cold-temperate and sub-arctic zones, in north latitude,--while Myrtles, +Magnolias, and other broad-leaved evergreens, mark the equatorial and +tropical regions. The deciduous trees belong properly to the temperate +zones, and constitute, indeed, the most interesting of all arborescent +vegetation. + +With regard to the age of forests, it may be affirmed that there are +some undoubtedly in existence which are coeval with the earliest history +of nations; but no individual trees are of such antiquity. Like nations, +the assemblage may be perpetual, while the members that compose it are +constantly perishing, and leaving their places to be supplied by others +of more recent origin. Probably the earth does not contain forests in +which any tree exceeds a thousand years of age, though the oldest forest +extant may be as ancient as the Chinese Empire; for the oldest trees +are not found in dense assemblages, but are probably such as have grown +singly in isolated situations. As soon as a tree in a forest begins to +feel the infirmities of age, its place is usurped by some young and more +vigorous neighbor, and it is gradually deprived of subsistence in this +unequal contest. The tempests and tornadoes, it may be added, which +occasionally sweep over a country, commonly make the oldest and tallest +trees their victims; for events seem to follow the same course in a +forest as in human society. The most vigorous growers at any period +continue to flourish a certain length of time at the expense of others; +but when they have risen above the common level, they become marks for +destruction,--they fall before certain inimical forces that do not reach +their more humble companions. + +It was the opinion of Humboldt, that, if any tract of wooded country +deserves to be considered a part of the great "primeval forest", it is +"that boundless district which, in the torrid zone of South America, +connects the river-basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco." This tract, +unequalled in extent by any other forest in the world, occupies an area +of more than a thousand miles square. In this vast chaos of teeming +vegetation, trees of the largest dimensions are connected by an +undergrowth of vines and shrubbery which is almost impenetrable. Immense +rivers and their tributaries intersect the forest in all directions, and +constitute the only avenues of commercial intercourse. This impervious +thicket is like a huge wall, separating near neighbors, rendering them, +as it were, inhabitants of distant regions, and obliging them to make +long and circuitous river journeys before they can hold communication. + +Here the leaves of the trees are always green, and flowers appear in +constant succession; but the surface of the ground is without herbage, +for the darkness of the wood is fatal to all humble vegetation. The +small plants are mostly parasites, thousands inserting their roots into +the bark of trees and garlanding them with beauty. Those that take root +in the ground show but few leaves or flowers, until they have clambered +upwards, through the underwood, into the light of heaven. Almost the +only relief afforded the sight, in this vast solitude, comes from the +rivers and other collections of water, over whose expanse the eye revels +with the delight we feel on emerging from the gloom of a cavern. Every +object seems to be struggling to get outside of this chaotic growth, +where it can obtain the genial influence of the sun: for near the +surface of the ground are perpetual shade and hideous entanglement. + +In this primeval forest we must not expect to realize any of our +poetical ideas of the primitive residence of the first human family. +Here are no Arcadian scenes of peace and rural felicity. On all sides we +behold an undying competition for light and life, among both plants +and animals. We are reminded here of life in a crowded city, where +the excessive abundance of supplies for human wants imported from the +surrounding country causes a still greater superfluity of population, +and produces a struggle for a livelihood more severe than in a rural +district of gravel and boulders. The oases of this great wilderness are +those places in which there is an absence of the general fertility: +barrenness in such circumstances is a relief,--because it allows both +freedom and repose. + +This wood is the nursery of all descriptions of monsters, living chiefly +in trees. On their branches and in their tangled recesses, adorned with +all sorts of foliage and flowers, creatures the most terrible and the +most loathsome are seen crowding and crouching in close proximity to +the most beautiful forms of living things. They fill the air with their +discordant utterances, and allow no permanent silence or tranquillity. +Hours of periodical stillness and repose, occurring mostly at noonday, +and affecting one with a sensation of awful grandeur, by contrast with +the preceding disturbances, are followed, especially in the night, by a +tumultuous roar from the legions of contending animals. + + "A universal hubbub wild + Of stunning sounds and voices all confused, + Borne through the hollow dark, assaults the ear + With loudest vehemence." + +Even the notes of insects are a deafening crash, like the rattling of +machinery in a cotton-mill. Except in the hush of noonday, the notes of +singing-birds are drowned amidst the howling of monkeys, the whining of +sapajous, the roar of the jaguar, and the dismal hooting of thousands +of wild animals that riot in these awful solitudes. The sight of the +fairest flowers and the most beautiful insects and birds only renders +one more keenly sensitive to the frightful discords that startle and the +perils that surround him. + +Similar contrasts are observed in the vegetation of this region, where +the giant trees of the forest are chained in the embraces of vines that +contend with them for existence and finally strangle them. Trees and +other plants are crowded together so promiscuously, that Nature seems to +be striving to collect into one space every possible variety of species. +Trees of the most poisonous and deadly qualities grow side by side with +the Bread-Fruit, the Cocoa-Nut, and the beneficent Cinchona. Here +are the poison and its antidote,--the monster tree and its miniature +epiphyte,--the plant that astonishes by its magnitude, and the one that +delights us by its minuteness. Here, if anywhere on the face of the +earth, may we form some conception of the state of our planet during the +Eocene period, before the world had come under the dominion of the human +race. + +But if Nature in this region has manifested an exuberance of animal and +vegetable life, thereby rendering her bounties almost unavailable to +man, there are other parts in which she seems to have provided for his +particular benefit. In these favored regions, we find the Banana, the +Cocoa, and the Date Palm, and other special gifts of Providence to the +inhabitants of the equator. Palms are generally found only in small +groups and plantations, but there are certain species of this family +which are associated in extensive woods, and constitute, in some +respects, one of the most charming descriptions of forest-scenery. The +Dwarf Palms of the sub-tropical regions are chiefly assembled in masses, +of which the Palmetto of Florida and the Chaemerops of the South of +Europe are conspicuous examples. The true Palms are likewise sometimes +associated in forests, though not generally of a social habit. In one +of the most celebrated of these, at the mouth of the Orinoco, composed +chiefly of the Mauritian Palms, the wild Guaranos have established a +national existence. Like monkeys, they live almost wholly in trees, +having their habitations supported either by wooden pillars or by a +matting suspended from tree to tree. In the wet season, when the ground +is inundated, the inhabitants travel about their village in canoes. + +The beauty of a grove of Palms has been a favorite theme of travellers. +Humboldt, who saw Nature with the eye of a painter and the feelings of +a poet, amidst all the dry details of science, regards them as the most +beautiful of vegetable productions. It has always seemed to me, however, +that travellers in general have been led to exaggerate the charms of +Nature in the tropics, by observing the remarkable beauty of a few +individual objects. Their susceptibility to be affected by the scenes +presented to their view is likewise exalted by the confinement of their +voyage; they are enraptured with the novelty of everything about them, +by the voluptuousness of the climate and the abundance of delicious +fruits, and always afterwards recur to the scenes of their tropical +visit with an excited imagination. + +In countries near the equator, many plants which are herbs in our +latitude assume arborescent forms. Such are the Tree-Grasses, which form +impenetrable forests, equalling some of the Fir woods of the North in +extent, if not in beauty and grandeur. In this part of the world we know +the Ferns only as a low herbaceous tribe of plants, consisting of mere +fronds rising out of the ground. We admire them for their beautifully +compounded leaves, and their colors of red, orange, and russet that +variegate our meadows in June, their garlands of verdure upon the rocky +hills in winter, and the profusion of their frondage in the shady glens +in summer. But in certain parts of the equatorial zone the Ferns put +off the humble guise in which they appear at the North. They no longer +associate with the lowly Violet, allowing themselves to be crowded by +the Hellebore and overtopped by the Meadow Rue; but they rear their +branches aloft and assume the dignity and stature of trees. Man, who +looks down upon them in our own latitude, and tramples them under +his feet, looks in that region far above his head, and beholds their +magnificent fronds spread out like a great tent between him and the +heavens. + +Tree-Ferns, though confined principally to the equatorial zone, are +unable to endure the heat of the plains. They occupy an elevation that +affords them the continual temperature of spring, three thousand feet +above the sea,--the region of the lowest stratum of clouds,--where they +receive the benefit of their moisture before it descends to the earth +in showers. Humboldt ranks them with the noblest forms of tropical +vegetation,--less lofty than the Palms, but surpassing them in beauty of +foliage. The arborescent Ferns and Grasses are true specimens of those +plants, of simple organic structure, which are found in the fossil +remains of the early geological periods, and are the only plants now +extant which may be considered the representatives of that epoch, when +the saurians and the mastodons held dominion over the earth, and before +the Angel of Light had descended from heaven to make preparation for a +higher race of beings. + + * * * * * + + +MISS LUCINDA. + + +But that Solomon is out of fashion I should quote him, here and now, to +the effect that there is a time for all things; but Solomon is obsolete, +and never, no, never, will I dare to quote a dead language, "for raisons +I have," as the exiles of Erin say. Yet, in spite of Solomon and Horace, +I may express my own less concise opinion, that even in hard times, and +dull times, and war times, there is yet a little time to laugh, a brief +hour to smile and love and pity, just as through this dreary easterly +storm, bringing clouds and rain, sobbing against casement and door with +the inarticulate wail of tempests, there comes now and then the soft +shine of a sun behind it all, a fleeting glitter, an evanescent aspect +of what has been. + +But if I apologize for a story that is nowise tragic, nor fitted to "the +fashion of these times," possibly somebody will say at its end that I +should also have apologized for its subject, since it is as easy for an +author to treat his readers to high themes as vulgar ones, and velvet +can be thrown into a portrait as cheaply as calico; but of this apology +I wash my hands. I believe nothing in place or circumstance makes +romance. I have the same quick sympathy for Biddy's sorrows with Patrick +that I have for the Empress of France and her august, but rather grim +lord and master. I think words are often no harder to bear than "a blue +bating," and I have a reverence for poor old maids as great as for the +nine Muses. Commonplace people are only commonplace from character, and +no position affects that. So forgive me once more, patient reader, if I +offer to you no tragedy in high life, no sentimental history of fashion +and wealth, but only a little story about a woman who could not be a +heroine. + +Miss Lucinda Jane Ann Manners was a lady of unknown age, who lived in a +place I call Dalton, in a State of these Disuniting States, which I +do not mention for good cause. I have already had so many unconscious +personalities visited on my devoted head that but for lucidity I should +never mention persons or places, inconvenient as it would be. However, +Miss Lucinda did live, and lived by the aid of "means," which, in the +vernacular, is money. Not a great deal, it is true,--five thousand +dollars at lawful interest, and a little wooden house, do not imply many +luxuries even to a single-woman; and it is also true that a little fine +sewing taken in helped Miss Manners to provide herself with a few +small indulgences otherwise beyond her reach. She had one or two +idiosyncrasies, as they are politely called, that were her delight. +Plenty of dish-towels were necessary to her peace of mind; without five +pair of scissors she could not be happy; and Tricopherous was essential +to her well-being: indeed, she often said she would rather give up +coffee than Tricopherous, for her hair was black and wiry and curly, and +caps she abhorred, so that of a winter's day her head presented the most +irrelevant and volatile aspect, each particular hair taking a twist on +its own responsibility, and improvising a wild halo about her unsaintly +face, unless subdued into propriety by the aforesaid fluid. + +I said Miss Lucinda's face was unsaintly,--I mean unlike ancient saints +as depicted by contemporary artists: modern and private saints are after +another fashion. I met one yesterday, whose green eyes, great nose, +thick lips, and sallow wrinkles, under a bonnet of fifteen years' +standing, further clothed upon by a scant merino cloak and cat-skin +tippet, would have cut a sorry figure in the gallery of the Vatican or +the Louvre, and put the tranquil Madonna of San Sisto into a state of +stunning antithesis; but if Saint Agnes or Saint Catharine was half as +good as my saint, I am glad of it! + +No, there was nothing sublime and dolorous about Miss Manners; her face +was round, cheery, and slightly puckered, with two little black eyes +sparking and shining under dark brows, a nose she unblushingly called +pug, and a big mouth with eminently white and regular teeth, which she +said were such a comfort, for they never ached, and never would to the +end of time. Add to this physiognomy a small and rather spare figure, +dressed in the cleanest of calicoes, always made in one style, and +rigidly scorning hoops,--without a symptom of a collar, in whose place +(or it may be over which) she wore a white cambric handkerchief, knotted +about her throat, and the two ends brought into subjection by means of +a little angular-headed gold pin, her sole ornament, and a relic of her +old father's days of widowhood, when buttons were precarious tenures. So +much for her aspect. Her character was even more quaint. + +She was the daughter of a clergyman, one of the old school, the last +whose breeches and knee-buckles adorned the profession, who never +"outlived his usefulness," nor lost his godly simplicity. Parson Manners +held rule over an obscure and quiet village in the wilds of Vermont, +where hard-handed farmers wrestled with rocks and forests for their +daily bread, and looked forward to heaven as a land of green pastures +and still waters, where agriculture should be a pastime, and winter +impossible. Heavy freshets from the mountains that swelled their rushing +brooks into annual torrents, and snow-drifts that covered five-rail +fences a foot above the posts and blocked up the turnpike-road for +weeks, caused this congregation fully to appreciate Parson Manners's +favorite hymns,-- + + "There is a land of pure delight," + +and + + "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand." + +Indeed, one irreverent, but "pretty smart feller," who lived on the top +of a hill known as Drift Hill, where certain adventurous farmers dwelt +for the sake of its smooth sheep-pastures, was heard to say, after a +mighty sermon by Parson Manners about the seven-times heated furnaces +of judgment reserved for the wicked, that "Parson hadn't better try to +skeer Drift-Hillers with a hot place; 't wouldn't more 'n jest warm 'em +through down there, arter a real snappin' winter." + +In this out-of-the-way nook was Lucinda Jane Ann born and bred. Her +mother was like her in many things,--just such a cheery, round-faced +little body, but with no more mind than found ample scope for itself in +superintending the affairs of house and farm, and vigorously "seeing to" +her husband and child. So, while Mrs. Manners baked, and washed, and +ironed, and sewed, and knit, and set the sweetest example of quiet +goodness and industry to all her flock, without knowing she _could_ set +an example, or be followed as one, the Parson amused himself, between +sermons of powerful doctrine and parochial duties of a more human +interest, with educating Lucinda, whose intellect was more like his +own than her mother's. A strange training it was for a young +girl,--mathematics, metaphysics, Latin, theology of the driest sort; +and after an utter failure at Greek and Hebrew, though she had toiled +patiently through seven books of the "Aeneid," Parson Manners mildly +sniffed at the inferiority of the female mind, and betook himself to +teaching her French, which she learned rapidly, and spoke with a pure +American accent, perhaps as pleasing to a Parisian ear as the hiss of +Piedmont or the gutturals of Switzerland. Moreover, the minister had +been brought up, himself, in the most scrupulous refinement of manner; +his mother was a widow, the last of an "old family," and her dainty, +delicate observances were inbred, as it were, in her only son. This sort +of elegance is perhaps the most delicate test of training and descent, +and all these things Lucinda was taught from the grateful recollection +of a son who never forgot his mother, through all the solitary labors +and studies of a long life. So it came to pass, that, after her mother +died, Lucinda grew more and more like her father, and, as she became a +woman, these rare refinements separated her more and more from those +about her, and made her necessarily solitary. As for marriage, the +possibility of such a thing never crossed her mind; there was not a man +in the parish who did not offend her sense of propriety and shock her +taste, whenever she met one; and though her warm, kind heart made her a +blessing to the poor and sick, her mother was yet bitterly regretted at +quiltings and tea-drinkings, where she had been so "sociable-like." + +It is rather unfortunate for such a position as Lucinda's, that, as +Deacon Stowell one day remarked to her father, "Natur' will be Natur' as +much on Drift Hill as down to Bosting"; and when she began to feel that +"strong necessity of loving" that sooner or later assails every woman's +heart, there was nothing for it to overflow on, when her father had +taken his share. Now Lucinda loved the Parson most devoutly. Ever since +the time when she could just remember watching through the dusk his +white stockings, as they glimmered across the road to evening-meeting, +and looked like a supernatural pair of legs taking a walk on their own +responsibility, twilight concealing the black breeches and coat from +mortal view, Lucinda had regarded her father with a certain pleasing +awe. His long abstractions, his profound knowledge, his grave, benign +manners, and the thousand daily refinements of speech and act that +seemed to put him far above the sphere of his pastorate,--all these +things inspired as much reverence as affection; and when she wished with +all her heart and soul she had a sister or a brother to tend and +kiss and pet, it never once occurred to her that any of those tender +familiarities could be expended on her father: she would as soon have +thought of caressing any of the goodly angels whose stout legs, flowing +curls, and impossible draperies sprawled among the pictures in the big +Bible, and who excited her wonder as much by their garments as their +turkey-wings and brandishing arms. So she betook herself to pets, and +growing up to the old-maidenhood of thirty-five before her father fell +asleep, was by that time the centre of a little world of her own,--hens, +chickens, squirrels, cats, dogs, lambs, and sundry transient guests of +stranger kind; so that, when she left her old home, and removed to the +little house in Dalton that had been left her by her mother's aunt, and +had found her small property safely invested by means of an old friend +of her father's, Miss Manners made one more journey to Vermont to bring +in safety to their future dwelling a cat and three kittens, an old blind +crow, a yellow dog of the true cur breed, and a rooster with three hens, +"real creepers," as she often said, "none of your long-legged, screaming +creatures." + +Lucinda missed her father, and mourned him as constantly and faithfully +as ever a daughter could; but her temperament was more cheerful and +buoyant than his, and when once she was quietly settled in her little +house, her garden and her pets gave her such full occupation that she +sometimes blamed herself for not feeling more lonely and unhappy. A +little longer life or a little more experience would have taught her +better: power to be happy is the last thing to regret. Besides, it would +have been hard to be cheerless in that sunny little house, with its +queer old furniture of three-legged tables, high-backed chairs, and +chintz curtains where red mandarins winked at blue pagodas on a +deep-yellow ground, and birds of insane ornithology pecked at insects +that never could have been hatched, or perched themselves on blossoms +totally unknown to any mortal flora. Old engravings of Bartolozzi, from +the stiff elegances of Angelica Kaufman and the mythologies of Reynolds, +adorned the shelf; and the carpet in the parlor was of veritable English +make, older than Lucinda herself, but as bright in its fading and as +firm in its usefulness as she. Up-stairs the tiny chambers were decked +with spotless white dimity, and rush-bottomed chairs stood in each +window, with a strip of the same old carpet by either bedside; and in +the kitchen the blue settle that had stood by the Vermont fireside now +defended this lesser hearth from the draught of the door, and held under +the seat thereof sundry ironing-sheets, the blanket belonging to them, +and good store of ticking and worsted holders. A half-gone set of +egg-shell china stood in the parlor-closet,--cups, and teapot, and +sugar-bowl, rimmed with brown and gold in a square pattern, and a shield +without blazon on the side; the quaint tea-caddy with its stopper stood +over against the pursy little cream-pot, and held up in its lumps of +sparkling sugar the oddest sugar-tongs, also a family relic;--beside +this, six small spoons, three large ones, and a little silver porringer +comprised all the "plate" belonging to Miss Manners, so that no fear of +burglars haunted her, and but for her pets she would have lived a life +of profound and monotonous tranquillity. But this was a vast exception; +in her life her pets were the great item now;--her cat had its own chair +in the parlor and kitchen; her dog, a rug and a basket never to be +meddled with by man or beast; her old crow, its special nest of flannel +and cotton, where it feebly croaked as soon as Miss Lucinda began to +spread the little table for her meals; and the three kittens had their +own playthings and their own saucer as punctiliously as if they had been +children. In fact, Miss Manners had a greater share of kindness +for beasts than for mankind. A strange compound of learning and +unworldliness, of queer simplicity, native penetration, and common +sense, she had read enough books to despise human nature as it develops +itself in history and theology, and she had not known enough people to +love it in its personal development. She had a general idea that all men +were liars, and that she must be on her guard against their propensity +to cheat and annoy a lonely and helpless woman; for, to tell the truth, +in her good father's over-anxiety to defend her from the snares of evil +men after his death, his teachings had given her opinion this bias, and +he had forgotten to tell her how kindly and how true he had found many +of his own parishioners, how few inclined to harm or pain him. So Miss +Lucinda made her entrance into life at Dalton, distrustful, but not +suspicious; and after a few attempts on the part of the women who +were her neighbors to be friendly or intimate, they gave her up as +impracticable: not because she was impolite or unkind: they did not +themselves know why they failed, though she could have told them; for, +old maid as she was, poor and plain and queer, she could not bring +herself to associate familiarly with people who put their teaspoons +into the sugar-bowl, helped themselves with their own knives and forks, +gathered up bits of uneaten butter and returned them to the plate for +next time, or replaced on the dish pieces of cake half eaten or cut with +the knives they had just introduced into their mouths. Miss Lucinda's +code of minor morals would have forbidden her to drink from the same cup +with a queen, and have considered a pitchfork as suitable as a knife to +eat with, nor would she have offered to a servant the least thing she +had touched with her own lips or her own implements of eating; and she +was too delicately bred to look on in comfort where such things were +practised. Of course these women were not ladies; and though many of +them had kind hearts and warm impulses of goodness, yet that did not +make up to her for their social misdemeanors, and she drew herself +more into her own little shell, and cared more for her garden and her +chickens, her cats and her dog, than for all the humanity of Dalton put +together. + +Miss Manners held her flowers next dearest to her pets, and treated them +accordingly. Her garden was the most brilliant bit of ground possible. +It was big enough to hold one flourishing peach-tree, one Siberian crab, +and a solitary egg-plum; while under these fruitful boughs bloomed +moss-roses in profusion, of the dear old-fashioned kind, every deep pink +bud with its clinging garment of green breathing out the richest odor; +close by, the real white rose, which fashion has banished to country +towns, unfolded its cups of pearl flushed with yellow sunrise to the +heart; and by its side its damask sister waved long sprays of bloom +and perfume. Tulips, dark-purple and cream-color, burning scarlet and +deep-maroon, held their gay chalices up to catch the dew; hyacinths, +blue, white, and pink, hung heavy bells beneath them; spiced carnations +of rose and garnet crowded their bed in July and August, heart's-ease +fringed the walks, May honeysuckles clambered over the board-fence, +and monthly honeysuckles overgrew the porch at the back-door, making +perpetual fragrance from their moth-like horns of crimson and +ivory. Nothing inhabited those beds that was not sweet and fair and +old-fashioned. Gray-lavender-bushes sent up purple spikes in the middle +of the garden and were duly housed in winter, but these were the sole +tender plants admitted, and they pleaded their own cause in the breath +of the linen-press and the bureau-drawers that held Miss Lucinda's +clothes. Beyond the flowers, utility blossomed in a row of bean-poles, +a hedge of currant-bushes against the farther fence, carefully tended +cauliflowers, and onions enough to tell of their use as sparing as their +number; a few deep-red beets and golden carrots were all the vegetables +beside: Miss Lucinda never ate potatoes or pork. + +Her housekeeping, but for her pets, would have been the proper +housewifery for a fairy. Out of her fruit she annually conserved +miracles of flavor and transparence,--great plums like those in +Aladdin's garden, of shining topaz,--peaches tinged with the odorous +bitter of their pits, and clear as amber,--crimson crabs floating in +their own ruby sirup, or transmuted into jelly crystal clear, yet +breaking with a grain,--and jelly from the acid currants to garnish her +dinner-table or refresh the fevered lips of a sick neighbor. It was a +study to visit her tiny pantry, where all these "lucent sirops" stood in +tempting array,--where spices, and sugar, and tea, in their small jars, +flanked the sweetmeats, and a jar of glass showed its store of whitest +honey, and another stood filled with crisp cakes. Here always a loaf +or two of home-made bread lay rolled in a snowy cloth, and another was +spread over a dish of butter; pies were not in favor here,--nor milk, +save for the cats; salt fish Miss Manners never could abide,--her +savory taste allowed only a bit of rich old cheese, or thin scraps of +hung beef, with her bread and butter; sauces and spices were few in her +repertory, but she cooked as only a lady can cook, and might have +asked Soyer himself to dinner. For, verily, after much meditation and +experience, I have divined that it takes as much sense and refinement +and talent to cook a dinner, wash and wipe a dish, make a bed as it +should be made, and dust a room as it should be dusted, as goes to the +writing of a novel or shining in high society. + +But because Miss Lucinda Manners was reserved and "unsociable," as the +neighbors pronounced her, I did not, therefore, mean to imply that she +was inhuman. No neighbor of hers, local or Scriptural, fell ill, without +an immediate offer of aid from her: she made the best gruel known to +Dalton invalids, sent the ripest fruit and the sweetest flowers; and if +she could not watch with the sick, because it interfered with her duties +at home in an unpleasant and inconvenient way, she would sit with them +hour after hour in the day-time, and wait on all their caprices with the +patient tenderness of a mother. Children she always eyed with strange +wistfulness, as if she longed to kiss them, but didn't know how; yet no +child was ever invited across her threshold, for the yellow cur hated to +be played with, and children always torment kittens. + +So Miss Lucinda wore on happily toward the farther side of the middle +Ages. One after another of her pets passed away and was replaced, the +yellow cur barked his last currish signal, the cat died and her kittens +came to various ends of time or casualty, the crow fell away to dust and +was too old to stuff, and the garden bloomed and faded ten times over, +before Miss Manners found herself to be forty-six years old, which she +heroically acknowledged one fine day to the census-taker. But it was not +this consciousness, nor its confession, that drew the dark brows so low +over Miss Lucinda's eyes that day; it was quite another trouble, and one +that wore heavily on her mind, as we shall proceed to explain. For Miss +Manners, being, like all the rest of her sex, quite unable to do without +some masculine help, had employed, for some seven years, an old man by +the name of Israel Slater, to do her "chores," as the vernacular hath +it. It is a mortifying thing, and one that strikes at the roots of +Women's Rights terribly sharp blows, but I must even own it, that one +might as well try to live without one's bread-and-butter as without the +aid of the dominant sex. When I see women split wood, unload coal-carts, +move wash-tubs, and roll barrels of flour and apples handily down +cellar-ways or up into carts, then I shall believe in the sublime +theories of the strong-minded sisters; but as long as I see before me +my own forlorn little hands, and sit down on the top stair to recover +breath, and try in vain to lift the water-pitcher at table, just so long +I shall be glad and thankful that there are men in the world, and that +half a dozen of them are my kindest and best friends. It was rather an +affliction to Miss Lucinda to feel this innate dependence, and at first +she resolved to employ only small boys, and never any one of them more +than a week or two. She had an unshaped theory that an old maid was a +match for a small boy, but that a man would cheat and domineer over her. +Experience sadly put to flight these notions for a succession of boys in +this cabinet-ministry for the first three years of her stay in Dalton +would have driven her into a Presbyterian convent, had there been one at +hand. Boy Number One caught the yellow cur out of bounds one day, and +shaved his plumy tail to a bare stick, and Miss Lucinda fairly shed +tears of grief and rage when Pink appeared at the door with the denuded +appendage tucked between his little legs, and his funny yellow eyes +casting sidelong looks of apprehension at his mistress. Boy Number One +was despatched directly. Number Two did pretty well for a month, but his +integrity and his appetite conflicted, and Miss Lucinda found him one +moonlight night perched in her plum-tree devouring the half-ripe fruit. +She shook him down with as little ceremony as if he had been an +apple; and though he lay at Death's door for a week with resulting +cholera-morbus, she relented not. So the experiment went on, till a list +of casualties that numbered in it fatal accidents to three kittens, +two hens and a rooster, and at last Pink himself, who was pent into a +decline by repeated drenchings from the watering-pot, put an end to her +forbearance, and she instituted in her viziership the old man who had +now kept his office so long,--a queer, withered, slow, humorous old +creature, who did "chores" for some six or seven other households, and +got a living by sundry "jobs" of wood-sawing, hoeing corn, and other +like works of labor, if not of skill. Israel was a great comfort to Miss +Lucinda: he was efficient counsel in the maladies of all her pets, had +a sovereign cure for the gapes in chickens, and could stop a cat's fit +with the greatest ease; he kept the tiny garden in perfect order, +and was very honest, and Miss Manners favored him accordingly. She +compounded liniment for his rheumatism, herb-sirup for his colds, +presented him with a set of flannel shirts, and knit him a comforter; so +that Israel expressed himself strongly in favor of "Miss Lucindy," and +she said to herself he really was "quite good for a man." + +But just now, in her forty-seventh year, Miss Lucinda had come to grief, +and all on account of Israel and his attempts to please her. About six +months before this census-taking era, the old man had stepped into Miss +Manners's kitchen with an unusual radiance on his wrinkles and in his +eyes, and began without his usual morning greeting,-- + +"I've got so'thin' for you naow, Miss Lucindy. You're a master-hand for +pets, but I'll bet a red cent you ha'n't an idee what I've got for ye +naow!" + +"I'm sure I can't tell, Israel," said she; "you'll have to let me see +it." + +"Well," said he, lifting up his coat and looking carefully behind him +as he sat down on the settle, lest a stray kitten or chicken should +preoccupy the bench, "you see I was down to Orrin's abaout a week back, +and he hed a litter o' pigs,--eleven on 'em. Well, he couldn't raise +the hull on 'em,--'t a'n't good to raise more 'n nine,--an' so he said, +ef I'd 'a' had a place o' my own, I could 'a' had one on 'em, but, as't +was, he guessed he'd hev to send one to market for a roaster. I went +daown to the barn to see 'em, an' there was one, the cutest little +critter I ever sot eyes on, and I've seen more 'n four pigs in my +day,--'t was a little black-spotted one, as spry as an ant, and the +dreffullest knowin' look out of its eyes! I fellowshipped it right +off, and I said, says I, 'Orrin, ef you'll let me hev that 'ere +little spotted feller, I'll git a place for him, for I do take to him +consarnedly.' So he said I could, and I fetched him hum, and Miss Slater +and me we kinder fed him up for a few days back, till he got sorter +wonted, and I'm a-goin' to fetch him to you." + +"But, Israel, I haven't any place to put him in." + +"Well, that a'n't nothin' to hender. I'll jest fetch out them old boards +out of the wood-shed, and knock up a little sty right off, daown by the +end o' the shed, and you ken keep your swill that I've hed before, and +it'll come handy." + +"But pigs are so dirty!" + +"I don't know as they be; they ha'n't no great conveniences for washin' +ginerally; but I never heerd as they was dirtier 'n other critters, +where they run wild. An' beside, that a'n't goin' to hender, nuther; I +calculate to make it one o' the chores to take keer of him; 't won't +cost no more to you; and I ha'n't no great opportunities to do things +for folks that 's allers a-doin' for me; so't you needn't be afeard, +Miss Lucindy: I love to." + +Miss Lucinda's heart got the better of her judgment. A nature that could +feel so tenderly for its inferiors in the scale could not be deaf to the +tiny voices of humanity, when they reached her solitude; and she thanked +Israel for the pig so heartily that the old man's face brightened still +more, and his voice softened from its cracked harshness, as he said, +clicking up and down the latch of the back-door,-- + +"Well, I'm sure you're as welcome as you are obleeged, and I'll knock up +that 'ere pen right off; he sha'n't pester ye any,--that's a fact." + +Strange to say,--yet perhaps it might have been expected from her +proclivities,--Miss Lucinda took an astonishing fancy to the pig. Very +few people know how intelligent an animal a pig is; but when one is +regarded merely as pork and hams, one's intellect is apt to fall into +neglect: a moral sentiment which applies out of Pigdom. This creature +would not have passed muster at a county fair; no Suffolk blood +compacted and rounded him; he belonged to the "racers," and skipped +about his pen with the alacrity of a large flea, wiggling his curly tail +as expressively as a dog's, and "all but speakin'," as Israel said. He +was always glad to see Miss Lucinda, and established a firm friendship +with her dog Fun, a pretty, sentimental, German spaniel. Besides, he +kept tolerably clean by dint of Israel's care, and thrust his long +nose between the rails of his pen for grass, or fruit, or carrot- and +beet-tops, with a knowing look out of his deep-set eyes that was never +to be resisted by the soft-hearted spinster. Indeed, Miss Lucinda +enjoyed the possession of one pet who could not tyrannize over her. +Pink's place was more than filled by Fun, who was so oppressively +affectionate that he never could leave his mistress alone. If she lay +down on her bed, he leaped up and unlatched the door, and stretched +himself on the white counterpane beside her with a grunt of +satisfaction; if she sat down to knit or sew, he laid his head and +shoulders across her lap, or curled himself up on her knees; if she was +cooking, he whined and coaxed round her till she hardly knew whether she +fried or broiled her steak; and if she turned him out and buttoned the +door, his cries were so pitiful she could never be resolute enough to +keep him in exile five minutes,--for it was a prominent article in her +creed, that animals have feelings that are easily wounded, and are of +"like passions" with men, only incapable of expression. + +Indeed, Miss Lucinda considered it the duty of human beings to atone to +animals for the Lord's injustice in making them dumb and four-legged. +She would have been rather startled at such an enunciation of her +practice, but she was devoted to it as a practice: she would give her +own chair to the cat and sit on the settle herself; get up at midnight, +if a mew or a bark called her, though the thermometer was below zero; +The tenderloin of her steak or the liver of her chicken was saved for a +pining kitten or an ancient and toothless cat; and no disease or wound +daunted her faithful nursing, or disgusted her devoted tenderness. It +was rather hard on humanity, and rather reversive of Providence, that +all this care and pains should be lavished on cats and dogs, while +little morsels of flesh and blood, ragged, hungry, and immortal, +wandered up and down the streets. Perhaps that they were immortal +was their defence from Miss Lucinda; one might have hoped that her +"other-worldliness" accepted that fact as enough to outweigh present +pangs, if she had not openly declared, to Israel Slater's immense +amusement and astonishment, that _she_ believed creatures had +souls,--little ones perhaps, but souls after all, and she did expect to +see Pink again some time or other. + +"Well, I hope he's got his tail feathered out ag'in," said Israel, +dryly. "I do'no' but what hair'd grow as well as feathers in a +sperctooal state, and I never see a pictur' of an angel but what hed +consider'ble many feathers." + +Miss Lucinda looked rather confounded. But humanity had one little +revenge on her in the shape of her cat, a beautiful Maltese, with great +yellow eyes, fur as soft as velvet, and silvery paws as lovely to look +at as they were thistly to touch. Toby certainly pleaded hard for Miss +Lucinda's theory of a soul; but his was no good one: some tricksy and +malign little spirit had lent him his share of intellect, and he used it +to the entire subjugation of Miss Lucinda. When he was hungry, he was as +well-mannered and as amiable as a good child,--he would coax, and purr, +and lick her fingers with his pretty red tongue, like a "perfect love"; +but when he had his fill, and needed no more, then came Miss Lucinda's +time of torment. If she attempted to caress him, he bit and scratched +like a young tiger, he sprang at her from the floor and fastened on her +arm with real fury; if he cried at the window and was not directly let +in, as soon as he had achieved entrance his first manoeuvre was to +dash at her ankles and bite them, if he could, as punishment for her +tardiness. This skirmishing was his favorite mode of attack; if he was +turned out of the closet, or off the pillow up-stairs, he retreated +under the bed and made frantic sallies at her feet, till the poor woman +got actually nervous, and if he was in the room made a flying leap as +far as she could to her bed, to escape those keen claws. Indeed, +old Israel found her more than once sitting in the middle of the +kitchen-floor with Toby crouched for a spring under the table, his +poor mistress afraid to move, for fear of her unlucky ankles. And this +literally cat-ridden woman was hazed about and ruled over by her feline +tyrant to that extent that he occupied the easiest chair, the softest +cushion, the middle of the bed, and the front of the fire, not only +undisturbed, but caressed. This is a veritable history, beloved reader, +and I offer it as a warning and an example: if you will be an old maid, +or if you can't help it, take to petting children, or donkeys, or even a +respectable cow, but beware of domestic tyranny in any shape but man's! + +No wonder Miss Lucinda took kindly to the pig, who had a house of his +own, and a servant, as it were, to the avoidance of all trouble on her +part,--the pig who capered for joy when she or Fun approached, and had +so much expression in his physiognomy that one almost expected to see +him smile. Many a sympathizing conference Miss Lucinda held with Israel +over the perfections of Piggy, as he leaned against the sty and looked +over at his favorite after this last chore was accomplished. + +"I say for 't," exclaimed the old man, one day, "I b'lieve that cre'tur' +knows enough to be professor in a college. Why, he talks! he re'lly +doos: a leetle through his nose, maybe, but no more 'n Dr. Colton allers +does,--'n' I declare he appears to have abaout as much sense. I never +see the equal of him. I thought he'd 'a larfed right out yesterday, when +I gin him that mess o' corn: he got up onto his forelegs on the trough, +an' he winked them knowin' eyes o' his'n, an' waggled his tail, an' then +he set off an' capered round till he come bunt up ag'inst the boards. I +tell _you_,--that sorter sobered him; he gin a growlin' grunt, an' shook +his ears, an' looked sideways at me, and then he put to and eet up that +corn as sober as a judge. I swan! he doos beat the Dutch!" + +But there was one calculation forgotten both by Miss Lucinda and Israel: +the pig would grow,--and in consequence, as I said before, Miss Lucinda +came to grief; for when the census-taker tinkled her sharp little +door-bell, it called her from a laborious occupation at the sty,--no +more and no less than trying to nail up a board that Piggy had torn down +in struggling to get out of his durance. He had grown so large that Miss +Lucinda was afraid of him; his long legs and their vivacious motion +added to the shrewd intelligence of his eyes, and his nose seemed as +formidable to this poor little woman as the tusk of a rhinoceros: but +what should she do with him? One might as well have proposed to her to +kill and cut up Israel as to consign Piggy to the "fate of race." She +could not turn him into the street to starve, for she loved him; and the +old maid suffered from a constancy that might have made some good man +happy, but only embarrassed her with the pig. She could not keep him +forever,--that was evident; she knew enough to be aware that time +would increase his disabilities as a pet, and he was an expensive one +now,--for the corn-swallowing capacities of a pig, one of the "racer" +breed, are almost incredible, and nothing about Miss Lucinda wanted for +food even to fatness. Besides, he was getting too big for his pen, and +so "cute" an animal could not be debarred from all out-door pleasures, +and tantalized by the sight of a green and growing garden before his +eyes continually, without making an effort to partake of its delights. +So, when Miss Lucinda indued herself with her brown linen sack and +sun-bonnet to go and weed her carrot-patch, she was arrested on the way +by a loud grunting and scrambling in Piggy's quarter, and found to her +distress that he had contrived to knock off the upper board from his +pen. She had no hammer at hand; so she seized a large stone that lay +near by and pounded at the board till the twice-tinkling bell recalled +her to the house, and as soon as she had made confession to the +census-taker she went back,--alas, too late! Piggy had redoubled his +efforts, another board had yielded, and he was free! What a thing +freedom is! how objectionable in practice, how splendid in theory! More +people than Miss Lucinda have been put to their wits' end when "Hoggie" +burst his bonds and became rampant instead of couchant. But he enjoyed +it; he made the tour of the garden on a delightful canter, brandishing +his tail with an air of defiance that daunted his mistress at once, and +regarding her with his small bright eyes as if he would before long +taste her and see if she was as crisp as she looked. She retreated +forthwith to the shed and caught up a broom with which she courageously +charged upon Piggy, and was routed entirely; for, being no way alarmed +by her demonstration, the creature capered directly at her, knocked her +down, knocked the broom out of her hand, and capered away again to the +young carrot-patch. + +"Oh, dear!" said Miss Manners, gathering herself up from the +ground,--"if there only was a man here!" + +Suddenly she betook herself to her heels,--for the animal looked at her, +and stopped eating: that was enough to drive Miss Lucinda off the field. +And now, quite desperate, she rushed through the house and out of the +front-door, actually in search of a man! Just down the street she saw +one. Had she been composed, she might have noticed the threadbare +cleanliness of his dress, the odd cap that crowned his iron-gray locks, +and the peculiar manner of his walk; for our little old maid had +stumbled upon no less a person than Monsieur Jean Leclerc, the +dancing-master of Dalton. Not that this accomplishment was much in +vogue in the embryo city; but still there were a few who liked to fit +themselves for firemen's balls and sleighing-party frolics, and quite a +large class of children were learning betimes such graces as children in +New England receive more easily than their elders. Monsieur Leclerc had +just enough scholars to keep his coat threadbare and restrict him to +necessities; but he lived, and was independent. All this Miss Lucinda +was ignorant of; she only saw a man, and, with the instinct of the sex +in trouble or danger, she appealed to him at once. + +"Oh, Sir! won't you step in and help me? My pig has got out, and I can't +catch him, and he is ruining my garden!" + +"Madame, I shall!" replied the Frenchman, bowing low, and assuming the +first position. + +So Monsieur Leclerc followed Miss Manners, and supplied himself with a +mop that was hanging in the shed as his best weapon. Dire was the battle +between the pig and the Frenchman. They skipped past each other and back +again as if they were practising for a cotillon. Piggy had four legs, +which gave him a certain advantage; but the Frenchman had most brain, +and in the long run brain gets the better of legs. A weary dance they +led each other, but after a while the pet was hemmed in a corner, and +Miss Lucinda had run for a rope to tie him, when, just as she returned, +the beast made a desperate charge, upset his opponent, and giving a leap +in the wrong direction, to his manifest astonishment, landed in his own +sty! Miss Lucinda's courage rose; she forgot her prostrate friend in +need, and, running to the pen, caught up hammer and nail-box on her way, +and, with unusual energy, nailed up the bars stronger than ever, and +then bethought herself to thank the stranger. But there he lay quite +still and pale. + +"Dear me!" said Miss Manners, "I hope you haven't hurt yourself, Sir?" + +"I have fear that I am hurt, Madame," said he, trying to smile. "I +cannot to move but it pains me." + +"Where is it? Is it your leg or your arm? Try and move one at a time," +said Miss Lucinda, promptly. + +The left leg was helpless, it could not answer to the effort, and the +stranger lay back on the ground pale with the pain. Miss Lucinda took +her lavender-bottle out of her pocket and softly bathed his head and +face; then she took off her sack and folded it up under his head, and +put the lavender beside him. She was good at an emergency, and she +showed it. + +"You must lie quite still," said she; "you must not try to move till I +come back with help, or your leg will be hurt more." + +With that she went away, and presently returned with two strong men +and the long shutter of a shop-window. To this extempore litter she +carefully moved the Frenchman, and then her neighbors lifted him and +carried him into the parlor, where Miss Lucinda's chintz lounge was +already spread with a tight-pinned sheet to receive the poor man, and +while her helpers put him to bed she put on her bonnet and ran for the +doctor. + +Doctor Colton did his best for his patient, but pronounced it an +impossibility to remove him till the bone should be joined firmly, as a +thorough cure was all-essential to his professional prospects. And now, +indeed, Miss Lucinda had her hands full. A nurse could not be afforded, +but Monsieur Leclerc was added to the list of old Israel's "chores," and +what other nursing he needed Miss Lucinda was glad to do; for her kind +heart was full of self-reproaches to think it was her pig that had +knocked down the poor man, and her mop-handle that had twisted itself +across and under his leg, and aided, if not caused, its breakage. So +Israel came in four or five times a day to do what he could, and Miss +Lucinda played nurse at other times to the best of her ability. Such +flavorous gruels and porridges as she concocted! such _tisanes_ after +her guest's instructions! such dainty soups, and sweetbreads, and +cutlets, served with such neatness! After his experience of a +second-rate boarding-house, Monsieur Leclerc thought himself in a +gastronomic paradise. Moreover, these tiny meals were garnished with +flowers, which his French taste for color and decoration appreciated: +two or three stems of lilies-of-the-valley in their folded green leaves, +cool and fragrant; a moss-rosebud and a spire of purple-gray lavender +bound together with ribbon-grass; or three carnations set in glittering +myrtle-sprays, the last acquisition of the garden. + +Miss Lucinda enjoyed nursing thoroughly, and a kindlier patient no woman +ever had. Her bright needle flew faster than ever through the cold linen +and flaccid cambric of the shirts and cravats she fashioned, while he +told her, in his odd idioms, stories of his life in France, and the +curious customs both of society and _cuisinerie_, with which last he +showed a surprising acquaintance. Truth to tell, when Monsieur Leclerc +said he had been a member of the Duc de Montmorenci's household, +he withheld the other half of this truth,--that he had been his +_valet-de-chambre_: but it was an hereditary service, and seemed to him +as different a thing from common servitude as a peer's office in the +bedchamber differs from a lackey's. Indeed, Monsieur Leclerc was a +gentleman in his own way,--not of blood, but of breeding; and while he +had faithfully served the "aristocrats," as his father had done before +him, he did not limit that service to their prosperity, but in their +greatest need descended to menial offices, and forgot that he could +dance and ride and fence almost as well as his young master. But a +bullet from a barricade put an end to his duty there, and he hated +utterly the democratic rule that had overturned for him both past +and future, so he escaped, and came to America, the grand resort of +refugees, where he had labored, as he best knew how, for his own +support, and kept to himself his disgust at the manners and customs of +the barbarians. Now, for the first time, he was at home and happy. Miss +Lucinda's delicate fashions suited him exactly; he adored her taste for +the beautiful, which she was unconscious of; he enjoyed her cookery, and +though he groaned within himself at the amount of debt he was incurring, +yet he took courage from her kindness to believe she would not be a hard +creditor, and, being naturally cheerful, put aside his anxieties and +amused himself as well as her with his stories, his quavering songs, his +recipes for _pot-au-feu_, _tÃsane_, and _pâtés_, at once economical and +savory. Never had a leg of lamb or a piece of roast beef gone so far +in her domestic experience, a chicken seemed almost to outlive its +usefulness in its various forms of reappearance, and the salads he +devised were as wonderful as the omelets he superintended, or the gay +dances he played on his beloved violin, as soon as he could sit up +enough to manage it. Moreover,--I should say _mostover_, if the word +were admissible,--Monsieur Leclerc lifted a great weight before long +from Miss Lucinda's mind. He began by subduing Fun to his proper place +by a mild determination that completely won the dog's heart. "Women and +spaniels," the world knows, "like kicking"; and though kicks were no +part of the good man's Rareyfaction of Fun, he certainly used a certain +amount of coercion, and the dog's lawful owner admired the skill of the +teacher and enjoyed the better manners of the pupil thoroughly; she +could do twice as much sewing now, and never were her nights disturbed +by a bark, for the dog crouched by his new friend's bed in the parlor +and lay quiet there. Toby was next undertaken, and proved less amenable +to discipline; he stood in some slight awe of the man who tried to teach +him, but still continued to sally out at Miss Lucinda's feet, to spring +at her caressing hand when he felt ill-humored, and to claw Fun's +patient nose and his approaching paws when his misplaced sentimentality +led him to caress the cat; but after a while a few well-timed slaps +administered with vigor cured Toby of his worst tricks, though every +blow made Miss Lucinda wince, and almost shook her good opinion of +Monsieur Leclerc: for in these long weeks he had wrought out a good +opinion of himself in her mind, much to her own surprise; she could not +have believed a man could be so polite, so gentle, so patient, and above +all so capable of ruling without tyranny. Miss Lucinda was puzzled. + +One day, as Monsieur Leclerc was getting better, just able to go about +on crutches, Israel came into the kitchen, and Miss Manners went out to +see him. She left the door open, and along with the odor of a pot of +raspberry-jam scalding over the fire, sending its steams of leaf- +and insect-fragrance through the little house, there came in also the +following conversation. + +"Israel," said Miss Lucinda, in a hesitating and rather forlorn tone, "I +have been thinking,--I don't know what to do with Piggy. He is quite too +big for me to keep. I'm afraid of him, if he gets out; and he eats up +the garden." + +"Well, that _is_ a consider'ble swaller for a pig, Miss Lucindy; but +I b'lieve you're abaout right abaout keepin' on him. He _is_ too +big,--that's a fact; but he's so like a human cre'tur', I'd jest +abaout as lieves slarter Orrin. I declare, I don't know no more 'n a +taown-haouse goose what to do with him!" + +"If I gave him away, I suppose he would be fatted and killed, of +course?" + +"I guess he'd be killed, likely; but as for fattenin' on him, I'd jest +as soon undertake to fatten a salt codfish. He's one o' the racers, an' +they're as holler as hogsheads: you can fill 'em up to their noses, ef +you're a mind to spend your corn, and they'll caper it all off their +bones in twenty-four haours. I b'lieve, ef they was tied neck an' heels +an' stuffed, they'd wiggle thin betwixt feedin'-times. Why, Orrin, he +raised nine on 'em, and every darned critter's as poor as Job's turkey, +to-day: they a'n't no good. I'd as lieves ha' had nine chestnut +rails,--an' a little lieveser, 'cause they don't eat nothin'." + +"You don't know of any poor person who'd like to have a pig, do you?" +said Miss Lucinda, wistfully. + +"Well, the poorer they was, the quicker they'd eat him up, I guess,--ef +they could eat such a razor-back." + +"Oh, I don't like to think of his being eaten! I wish he could be got +rid of some other way. Don't you think he might be killed in his sleep, +Israel?" + +This was a little too much for Israel. An irresistible flicker of +laughter twitched his wrinkles and bubbled in his throat. + +"I think it's likely 'twould wake him up," said he, demurely. "Killin's +killin', and a cre'tur' can't sleep over it 's though 't was the +stomach-ache. I guess he'd kick some, ef he _was_ asleep,--and screech +some, too!" + +"Dear me!" said Miss Lucinda, horrified at the idea. "I wish he could +be sent out to run in the woods. Are there any good woods near here, +Israel?" + +"I don't know but what he'd as lieves be slartered to once as to starve, +an' be hunted down out in the lots. Besides, there a'n't nobody as I +knows of would like a hog to be a-rootin' round amongst their turnips +and young wheat." + +"Well, what I shall do with him I don't know!" despairingly exclaimed +Miss Lucinda. "He was such a dear little thing when you brought him, +Israel! Do you remember how pink his pretty little nose was,--just like +a rosebud,--and how bright his eyes looked, and his cunning legs? And +now he's grown so big and fierce! But I can't help liking him, either." + +"He's a cute critter, that's sartain; but he does too much rootin' to +have a pink nose now, I expect;--there's consider'ble on't, so I guess +it looks as well to have it gray. But I don't know no more 'n you do +what to do abaout it." + +"If I could only get rid of him without knowing what became of him!" +exclaimed Miss Lucinda, squeezing her forefinger with great earnestness, +and looking both puzzled and pained. + +"If Mees Lucinda would pairmit?" said a voice behind her. + +She turned round to see Monsieur Leclerc on his crutches, just in the +parlor-door. + +"I shall, Mees, myself dispose of Piggee, if it please. I can. I shall +have no sound; he shall to go away like a silent snow, to trouble you no +more, never!" + +"Oh, Sir! if you could! But I don't see how!" + +"If Mees was to see, it would not be to save her pain. I shall have him +to go by _magique_ to fiery land." + +Fairy-land, probably! But Miss Lucinda did not perceive the _équivoque_. + +"Nor yet shall I trouble Meester Israyel. I shall have the aid of myself +and one good friend that I have; and some night when you rise of the +morning, he shall not be there." + +Miss Lucinda breathed a deep sigh of relief. + +"I am greatly obliged,--I shall be, I mean," said she. + +"Well, I'm glad enough to wash my hands on't," said Israel. "I shall +hanker arter the critter some, but he's a-gettin' too big to be handy; +'n' it's one comfort abaout critters, you ken get rid on 'em somehaow +when they're more plague than profit. But folks has got to be let alone, +excep' the Lord takes 'em; an' He don't allers see fit." + +What added point and weight to these final remarks of old Israel was +the well-known fact that he suffered at home from the most pecking and +worrying of wives, and had been heard to say in some moment of unusual +frankness that he "didn't see how't could be sinful to wish Miss Slater +was in heaven, for she'd be lots better off, and other folks too!" + +Miss Lucinda never knew what befell her pig one fine September night; +she did not even guess that a visit paid to Monsieur by one of his +pupils, a farmer's daughter just out of Dalton, had anything to do with +this _enlèvement_; she was sound asleep in her bed up-stairs, when +her guest shod his crutches with old gloves, and limped out to the +garden-gate by dawn, where he and the farmer tolled the animal out of +his sty and far down the street by tempting red apples, and then Farmer +Steele took possession of him, and he was seen no more. No, the first +thing Miss Lucinda knew of her riddance was when Israel put his head +into the back-door that same morning, some four hours afterward, and +said, with a significant nod,-- + +"He's gone!" + +After all his other chores were done, Israel had a conference with +Monsieur Leclerc, and the two sallied into the garden, and in an hour +had dismantled the low dwelling, cleared away the wreck, levelled and +smoothed its site, and Monsieur, having previously provided himself with +an Isabella-grape-vine, planted it on this forsaken spot, and trained +it carefully against the end of the shed: strange to say, though it was +against all precedent to transplant a grape in September, it lived and +flourished. Miss Lucinda's gratitude to Monsieur Leclerc was altogether +disproportioned, as he thought, to his slight service. He could not +understand fully her devotion to her pets, but he respected it, and +aided it whenever he could, though he never surmised the motive that +adorned Miss Lucinda's table with such delicate superabundance after +the late departure, and laid bundles of lavender-flowers in his tiny +portmanteau till the very leather seemed to gather fragrance. + +Before long, Monsieur Leclerc was well enough to resume his classes, +and return to his boarding-house; but the latter was filled, and only +offered a prospect of vacancy in some three weeks after his application; +so he returned home somewhat dejected, and as he sat by the little +parlor-fire after tea, he said to his hostess, in a reluctant tone,-- + +"Mees Lucinda, you have been of the kindest to the poor alien. I have it +in my mind to relieve you of this care very rapidly, but it is not in +the Fates that I do. I have gone to my house of lodgings, and they +cannot to give me a chamber as yet I have fear that I must yet rely me +on your goodness for some time more, if you can to entertain me so much +more of time?" + +"Why, I shall like to, Sir," replied the kindly, simple-hearted old +maid. "I'm sure you are not a mite of trouble, and I never can forget +what you did for my pig." + +A smile flitted across the Frenchman's thin, dark face, and he watched +her glittering needles a few minutes in silence before he spoke again. + +"But I have other things to say of the most unpleasant to me, Mees +Lucinda. I have a great debt for the goodness and care you to me have +lavished. To the angels of the good God we must submit to be debtors, +but there are also of mortal obligations. I have lodged in your mansion +for more of ten weeks, and to you I pay yet no silver, but it is that I +have it not at present--I must ask of your goodness to wait." + +The old maid's shining black eyes grew soft as she looked at him. + +"Why!" said she, "I don't think you owe me much of anything, Mr. +Leclerc. I never knew things last as they have since you came. I really +think you brought a blessing. I wish you would please to think you don't +owe me anything." + +The Frenchman's great brown eyes shone with suspicious dew. + +"I cannot to forget that I owe to you far more than any silver of man +repays; but I should not think to forget that I also owe to you silver, +or I should not be worthy of a man's name. No, Mees! I have two hands +and legs. I will not let a woman most solitary spend for me her good +self." + +"Well," said Miss Lucinda, "if you will be uneasy till you pay me, I +would rather have another kind of pay than money. I should like to know +how to dance. I never did learn, when I was a girl, and I think it would +be good exercise." + +Miss Lucinda supported this pious fiction through with a simplicity that +quite deceived the Frenchman. He did not think it so incongruous as it +was. He had seen women of sixty, rouged, and jewelled, and furbelowed, +foot it deftly in the halls of the Faubourg St. Germain in his earliest +youth; and this cheery, healthy woman, with lingering blooms on either +cheek, and uncapped head of curly black hair but slightly strewn with +silver, seemed quite as fit a subject for the accomplishment. Besides, +he was poor,--and this offered so easy a way of paying the debt he had +so dreaded! Well said Solomon,--"The destruction of the poor is their +poverty!" For whose moral sense, delicate sensitivenesses, generous +longings, will not sometimes give way to the stringent need of food and +clothing, the gall of indebtedness, and the sinking consciousness of an +empty purse and threatening possibilities? + +Monsieur Leclerc's face brightened. + +"Ah! with what grand pleasure shall I teach you the dance!" + +But it fell dark again as he proceeded,-- + +"Though not one, nor two, nor three, nor four quarters shall be of value +sufficient to achieve my payment." + +"Then, if that troubles you, why, I should like to take some French +lessons in the evening, when you don't have classes. I learned French +when I was quite a girl, but not to speak it very easily; and if I could +get some practice and the right way to speak, I should be glad." + +"And I shall give you the real _Parisien_ tone, Mees Lucinda!" said he, +proudly. "I shall be as if it were no more an exile when I repeat my +tongue to you!" + +And so it was settled. Why Miss Lucinda should learn French any more +than dancing was not a question in Monsieur Leclerc's mind. It is true, +that Chaldaic would, in all probability, be as useful to our friend as +French; and the flying over poles and hanging by toes and fingers, so +eloquently described by the Apostle of the Body in these "Atlantic" +pages, would have been as well adapted to her style and capacity as +dancing;--but his own language, and his own profession! what man would +not have regarded these as indispensable to improvement, particularly +when they paid his board? + +During the latter three weeks of Monsieur Leclerc's stay with Miss +Lucinda he made himself surprisingly useful. He listed the doors against +approaching winter breezes,--he weeded in the garden,--trimmed, tied, +trained, wherever either good office was needed,--mended china with an +infallible cement, and rickety chairs with the skill of a cabinet-maker; +and whatever hard or dirty work he did, he always presented himself at +table in a state of scrupulous neatness: his long brown hands showed no +trace of labor; his iron-gray hair was reduced to smoothest order; +his coat speckless, if threadbare; and he ate like a gentleman, an +accomplishment not always to be found in the "best society," as the +phrase goes,--whether the best in fact ever lacks it is another thing. +Miss Lucinda appreciated these traits,--they set her at ease; and a +pleasanter home-life could scarce be painted than now enlivened the +little wooden house. But three weeks pass away rapidly; and when the +rusty portmanteau was gone from her spare chamber, and the well-worn +boots from the kitchen-corner, and the hat from its nail, Miss Lucinda +began to find herself wonderfully lonely. She missed the armfuls of wood +in her wood-box, that she had to fill laboriously, two sticks at a time; +she missed the other plate at her tiny round table, the other chair +beside her fire; she missed that dark, thin, sensitive face, with its +rare and sweet smile; she wanted her story-teller, her yarn-winder, +her protector, back again. Good gracious! to think of an old lady of +forty-seven entertaining such sentiments for a man! + +Presently the dancing-lessons commenced. It was thought advisable that +Miss Manners should enter a class, and, in the fervency of her good +intentions, she did not demur. But gratitude and respect had to strangle +with persistent hands the little serpents of the ridiculous in Monsieur +Leclerc's soul, when he beheld his pupil's first appearance. What reason +was it, O rose of seventeen, adorning thyself with cloudy films of lace +and sparks of jewelry before the mirror that reflects youth and beauty, +that made Miss Lucinda array herself in a brand-new dress of yellow +muslin-de-laine strewed with round green spots, and displace her +customary hand-kerchief for a huge tamboured collar, on this eventful +occasion? Why, oh, why did she tie up the roots of her black hair with +an unconcealable scarlet string? And most of all, why was her dress +so short, her slipper-strings so big and broad, her thick slippers so +shapeless by reason of the corns and bunions that pertained to the feet +within? The "instantaneous rush of several guardian angels" that once +stood dear old Hepzibah Pynchon in good stead was wanting here,--or +perhaps they stood by all-invisible, their calm eyes softened with love +deeper than tears, at this spectacle so ludicrous to man, beholding in +the grotesque dress and adornments only the budding of life's divinest +blossom, and in the strange skips and hops of her first attempts at +dancing only the buoyancy of those inner wings that goodness and +generosity and pure self-devotion were shaping for a future strong and +stately flight upward. However, men, women, and children do not see +with angelic eyes, and the titterings of her fellow-pupils were +irrepressible; one bouncing girl nearly choked herself with her +hand-kerchief trying not to laugh, and two or three did not even try. +Monsieur Leclerc could not blame them,--at first he could scarce control +his own facial muscles; but a sense of remorse smote him, as he saw how +unconscious and earnest the little woman was, and remembered how often +those knotty hands and knobbed feet had waited on his need or his +comfort. Presently he tapped on his violin for a few moments' respite, +and approached Miss Lucinda as respectfully as if she had been a queen. + +"You are ver' tired, Mees Lucinda?" said he. + +"I am a little, Sir," said she, out of breath. "I am not used to +dancing; it's quite an exertion." + +"It is that truly. If you are too much tired, is it better to wait? +I shall finish for you the lesson till I come to-night for a French +conversation?" + +"I guess I will go home," said the simple little lady. "I am some afraid +of getting rheumatism; but use makes perfect, and I shall stay through +next time, no doubt." + +"So I believe," said Monsieur, with his best bow, as Miss Lucinda +departed and went home, pondering all the way what special delicacy she +should provide for tea. + +"My dear young friends," said Monsieur Leclerc, pausing with the +uplifted bow in his hand, before he recommenced his lesson, "I have +observe that my new pupil does make you much to laugh. I am not so +surprise, for you do not know all, and the good God does not robe all +angels in one manner; but she have taken me to her mansion with a leg +broken, and have nursed me like a saint of the blessed, nor with any pay +of silver except that I teach her the dance and the French. They are +pay for the meat and the drink, but she will have no more for her good +patience and care. I like to teach you the dance, but she could teach +you the saints' ways, which are better. I think you will no more to +laugh." + +"No! I guess we _won't_!" said the bouncing girl with great emphasis, +and the color rose over more than one young face. + +After that day Miss Lucinda received many a kind smile and hearty +welcome, and never did anybody venture even a grimace at her expense. +But it must be acknowledged that her dancing was at least peculiar. +With a sanitary view of the matter, she meant to make it exercise, +and fearful was the skipping that ensued. She chassed on tiptoe, and +balanced with an indescribable hopping twirl, that made one think of a +chickadee pursuing its quest of food on new-ploughed ground; and some +late-awakened feminine instinct of dress, restrained, too, by due +economy, indued her with the oddest decorations that woman ever devised. +The French lessons went on more smoothly. If Monsieur Leclerc's Parisian +ear was tortured by the barbarous accent of Vermont, at least he bore it +with heroism, since there was nobody else to hear; and very pleasant, +both to our little lady and her master, were these long winter evenings, +when they diligently waded through Racine, and even got as far as the +golden periods of Chateaubriand. The pets fared badly for petting in +these days; they were fed and waited on, but not with the old devotion; +it began to dawn on Miss Lucinda's mind that something to talk to was +preferable, as a companion, even to Fun, and that there might be a +stranger sweetness in receiving care and protection than in giving it. + +Spring came at last. Its softer skies were as blue over Dalton as in +the wide fields without, and its footsteps as bloom-bringing in Miss +Lucinda's garden as in mead or forest. Now Monsieur Leclerc came to +her aid again at odd minutes, and set her flower-beds with mignonette +borders, and her vegetable-garden with salad herbs of new and +flourishing kinds. Yet not even the sweet season seemed to hurry the +catastrophe that we hope, dearest reader, thy tender eyes have long seen +impending. No, for this quaint alliance a quainter Cupid waited,--the +chubby little fellow with a big head and a little arrow, who waits on +youth and loveliness, was not wanted here. Lucinda's God of Love wore a +lank, hard-featured, grizzly shape, no less than that of Israel Slater, +who marched into the garden one fine June morning, earlier than +usual, to find Monsieur in his blouse, hard at work weeding the +cauliflower-bed. + +"Good mornin', Sir! good mornin'!" said Israel, in answer to the +Frenchman's greeting. "This is a real slick little garden-spot as ever I +see, and a pootty house, and a real clever woman too. I'll be skwitched, +ef it a'n't a fust-rate consarn, the hull on't. Be you ever a-goin' back +to France, Mister?" + +"No, my goot friend. I have nobody there. I stay here; I have friend +here: but there,--_oh, non! je ne reviendrai pas! ah, jamais! jamais!_" + +"Pa's dead, eh? or shamming? Well, I don't understand your lingo; but ef +you're a-goin' to stay here, I don't see why you don't hitch hosses with +Miss Lucindy." + +Monsieur Leclerc looked up astonished. + +"Horses, my friend? I have no horse!" + +"Thunder 'n' dry trees! I didn't say you hed, did I? But that comes o' +usin' what Parson Hyde calls figgurs, I s'pose. I wish't he'd use one +kind o' figgurin' a leetle more; he'd pay me for that wood-sawin'. I +didn't mean nothin' about hosses. I sot out fur to say, Why don't ye +marry Miss Lucindy?" + +"I?" gasped Monsieur,--"I, the foreign, the poor? I could not to presume +so!" + +"Well, I don't see 's it's sech drefful presumption. Ef you're poor, +she's a woman, and real lonesome too; she ha'n't got nuther chick nor +child belongin' to her, and you're the only man she ever took any kind +of a notion to. I guess 't would be jest as much for her good as yourn." + +"Hush, good Is-ray-el! it is good to stop there. She would not to marry +after such years of goodness: she is a saint of the blessed." + +"Well, I guess saints sometimes fellerships with sinners; I've heerd +tell they did; and ef I was you, I'd make trial for 't. Nothin' ventur', +nothin' have." + +Whereupon Israel walked off, whistling. + +Monsieur Leclerc's soul was perturbed within him by these suggestions; +he pulled up two young cauliflowers and reset their places with +pigweeds; he hoed the nicely sloped border of the bed flat to the path, +and then flung the hoe across the walk, and went off to his daily +occupation with a new idea in his head. Nor was it an unpleasant one. +The idea of a transition from his squalid and pinching boarding-house to +the delicate comfort of Miss Lucinda's _ménage_, the prospect of so kind +and good a wife to care for his hitherto dreaded future,--all this was +pleasant. I cannot honestly say he was in love with our friend; I must +even confess that whatever element of that nature existed between the +two was now all on Miss Lucinda's side, little as she knew it. Certain +it is, that, when she appeared that day at the dancing-class in a new +green calico flowered with purple, and bows on her slippers big enough +for a bonnet, it occurred to Monsieur Leclerc, that, if they were +married, she would take no more lessons! However, let us not blame him; +he was a man, and a poor one; one must not expect too much from men, or +from poverty; if they are tolerably good, let us canonize them even, it +is so hard for the poor creatures! And to do Monsieur Leclerc justice, +he had a very thorough respect and admiration for Miss Lucinda. Years +ago, in his stormy youth-time, there had been a pair of soft-fringed +eyes that looked into his as none would ever look again,--and they +murdered her, those mad wild beasts of Paris, in the chapel where she +knelt at her pure prayers,--murdered her because she knelt beside an +aristocrat, her best friend, the Duchess of Montmorenci, who had taken +the pretty peasant from her own estate to bring her up for her maid. +Jean Leclerc had lifted that pale shape from the pavement and buried it +himself; what else he buried with it was invisible; but now he recalled +the hour with a long, shuddering sigh, and, hiding his face in his +hands, said softly, "The violet is dead,--there is no spring for her. I +will have now an amaranth,--it is good for the tomb." + +Whether Miss Lucinda's winter dress suggested this floral metaphor let +us not inquire. Sacred be sentiment,--when there is even a shadow of +reality about it!--when it becomes a profession, and confounds itself +with millinery and shades of mourning, it is--"bosh," as the Turkeys +say. + +So that very evening Monsieur Leclerc arrayed himself in his best, to +give another lesson to Miss Lucinda. But, somehow or other, the lesson +was long in beginning; the little parlor looked so home-like and so +pleasant, with its bright lamp and gay bunch of roses on the table, that +it was irresistible temptation to lounge and linger. Miss Lucinda had +the volume of Florian in her hands, and was wondering why he did not +begin, when the book was drawn away, and a hand laid on both of hers. + +"Lucinda!" he began, "I give you no lesson to-night. I have to ask. Dear +Mees, will you to marry your poor slave?" + +"Oh, dear!" said Miss Lucinda. + +Don't laugh at her, Miss Tender-eyes! You will feel just so yourself +some day, when Alexander Augustus says, "Will you be mine, loveliest of +jour sex?" only you won't feel it half so strongly, for you are young, +and love is Nature to youth, but it is a heavenly surprise to age. + +Monsieur Leclerc said nothing. He had a heart after all, and it was +touched now by the deep emotion that flushed Miss Lucinda's face, and +made her tremble so violently,--but presently he spoke. + +"Do not!" said he. "I am wrong. I presume. Forgive the stranger!" + +"Oh, dear!" said poor Lucinda again,--"oh, you know it isn't that! but +how can you like _me_?" + +There, Mademoiselle! there's humility for you! _you_ will never say that +to Alexander Augustus! + +Monsieur Leclerc soothed this frightened, happy, incredulous little +woman into quiet before very long; and if he really began to feel a true +affection for her from the moment he perceived her humble and entire +devotion to him, who shall blame him? Not I. If we were all heroes, who +would be _valet-de-chambre_? if we were all women, who would be men? He +was very good as far as he went; and if you expect the chivalries of +grace out of Nature, you "may expect," as old Fuller saith. So it was +peacefully settled that they should be married, with a due amount of +tears and smiles on Lucinda's part, and a great deal of tender sincerity +on Monsieur's. She missed her dancing-lesson next day, and when Monsieur +Leclerc came in the evening he found a shade on her happy face. + +"Oh, dear!" said she, as he entered. + +"Oh, dear!" was Lucinda's favorite aspiration. Had she thought of it as +an Anglicizing of "_O Dieu_!" perhaps she would have dropped it; but +this time she went on headlong, with a valorous despair,-- + +"I have thought of something! I'm afraid I can't! Monsieur, aren't you a +Romanist?" + +"What is that?" said he, surprised. + +"A Papist,--a Catholic!" + +"Ah!" he returned, sighing, "once I was _bon Catholique_,--once in my +gone youth; after then I was nothing but the poor man who bats for his +life; now I am of the religion that shelters the stranger and binds up +the broken poor." + +Monsieur was a diplomatist. This melted Miss Lucinda's orthodoxy right +down; she only said,-- + +"Then you will go to church with me?" + +"And to the skies above, I pray," said Monsieur, kissing her knotty hand +like a lover. + +So in the earliest autumn they were married, Monsieur having previously +presented Miss Lucinda with a delicate plaided gray silk for her wedding +attire, in which she looked almost young; and old Israel was present +at the ceremony, which was briefly performed by Parson Hyde in Miss +Manners's parlor. They did not go to Niagara, nor to Newport; but that +afternoon Monsieur Leclerc brought a hired rockaway to the door, and +took his bride a drive into the country. They stopped beside a pair of +bars, where Monsieur hitched his horse, and, taking Lucinda by the +hand, led her into Farmer Steele's orchard, to the foot of his biggest +apple-tree. There she beheld a little mound, at the head and foot of +which stood a daily rose-bush shedding its latest wreaths of bloom, and +upon the mound itself was laid a board on which she read, + +"Here lie the bones of poor Piggy." + +Mrs. Lucinda burst into tears, and Monsieur, picking a bud from the +bush, placed it in her hand, and led her tenderly back to the rockaway. + +That evening Mrs. Lucinda was telling the affair to old Israel with so +much feeling that she did not perceive at all the odd commotion in his +face, till, as she repeated the epitaph to him, he burst out with,--"He +didn't say what become o' the flesh, did he?"--and therewith fled +through the kitchen-door. For years afterward Israel would entertain a +few favored auditors with his opinion of the matter, screaming till the +tears rolled down his cheeks,-- + +"That was the beateree of all the weddin'-towers I ever heerd tell on. +Goodness! it's enough to make the Wanderin' Jew die o' larfin'!" + + * * * * * + + +A SOLDIER'S ANCESTRY. + + + When Nadir asked a princess for his son, + And Delhi's throne required his pedigree, + He stared upon the messenger as one + Who should have known his birth of bravery. + + "Go back," he cried, in undissembled scorn, + "And bear this answer to your waiting lord:-- + 'My child is noble! for, though lowly born, + He is the son and grandson of the _Sword_!'" + + + + +FIBRILIA. + + +There are not a few timid souls who imagine that England is falling into +decay. Our Cousin John is apt to complain. He has been accustomed to +enlarge upon his debts, his church-rates and poor-rates, his taxes on +air, light, motion, "everything, from the ribbons of the bride to the +brass nails of the coffin," upon the wages of his servants both on the +land and the water, upon his Irish famine and exodus, and his vast +expenses at home and abroad. And when we consider how small is his +homestead, a few islands in a high latitude inferior to those of Japan +in size and climate, and how many of his family have left him to better +their condition, one might easily conclude that he had passed his +meridian, and that his prospects were as cloudy as his atmosphere. + +But our Cousin John, with a strong constitution, is in a green old age, +and still knows how to manage his property. + +Within the last two years he has quietly extinguished sixty millions of +his debts in terminable annuities. He has improved his outlying lands +of Scotland and Ireland, ransacked the battle-fields of Europe for +bone-dust and the isles of the Pacific for guano, and imported enough to +fertilize four millions of acres, and, not content with the produce of +his home-farm, imports the present year more than four millions of tons +of grain and corn to feed nineteen millions of his people. + +He has carried his annual exports up to six hundred and thirty millions +of dollars, and importing more than he exports still leaves the world +his debtor. He has a strong fancy for new possessions, and selects the +most productive spots for his plantations. When he desired muslin, +calico, and camel's-hair shawls for his family, he put his finger on +India; and when he called for those great staples of commerce, indigo, +saltpetre, jute, flax, and linseed, India sent them at his bidding. When +he required coffee, he found Ceylon a Spice Island, and at his demand +it furnished him with an annual supply of sixty millions of pounds. He +required more sugar for his coffee, and by shipping a few coolies from +Calcutta and Bombay to the Mauritius, once the Isle of France, it yields +him annually two hundred and forty million pounds of sugar, more than +St. Domingo ever yielded in the palmy days of slavery. He wanted wool, +and his flocks soon overspread the plains of Australia, tendering him +the finest fleeces, and his shepherds improved their leisure not in +playing like Tityrus on the reed, but in opening for him mines of copper +and gold. He had his eye on California, but Fremont was too quick for +him, and he now contents himself with pocketing a large proportion of +her gold, to say nothing of the silver of Mexico and Peru. + +Wherever there is a canal to be excavated, a railway to be built, or a +line of steamers to be established, our Cousin John is ready with a full +purse to favor the enterprise. He turns even his sailors and soldiers to +good account: the other day he subdued one hundred and fifty millions of +rebels in the Indies, and then we find him dictating a treaty of +peace and a tribute to the Emperor of China from the ruins of his +summer-palace and the walls of Pekin. Although generally well disposed, +especially towards his kith and kin this side the water, he is choleric, +and if his best customers treat him ill, he does not hesitate to knock +them down. Although dependent on Russia for his hemp and naval +stores, and on China for his raw silk and teas, he suffers no such +considerations to deter him from fighting, and usually gets some +advantage when he comes to terms. He is belting the world with colonies, +and forming agencies for his children wherever he can send the +messengers of his commerce. At this very moment he is considering +whether he shall transport coolies from China to Australia, Natal, or +the Feegee Islands, to raise his cotton and help put down Secession and +export-duties, or whether he shall give a new stimulus to India cotton +by railways and irrigation. He seems to prosper in all his business; +for the "Edinburgh Review" reports him worth six thousand millions of +pounds, at least,--a very comfortable provision for his family. + +The wealth and power of Great Britain are supposed to rest upon her +mines of iron and coal. These undoubtedly help to sustain the fabric. +With her iron and coal, she fashions and propels the winged Mercuries +of her commerce; with these and the clay that underlies her soil, she +erects her factories and workshops; these form the Briarean arms by +which she fabricates her tissues. But it is by more minute columns than +these, it is by the hollow tubes revealed by the microscope, the fibres +of silk, wool, and flax, hemp, jute, and cotton, that she sustains the +great structure of her wealth. These she spins, weaves, and prints into +draperies which exact a tribute from the world. During the year 1860 +Great Britain imported or produced a million tons of such fibres, an +amount equal to five million bales of cotton, more than one-half of +which were in cotton alone. These fibres it is our purpose to examine. + + * * * * * + +The thread of the silk-worm came early into use. The Chinese ascribe its +introduction to the wife of one of their emperors, to whom divine honors +were subsequently paid. Until the Christian era silk was little known in +Europe or Western Asia. It is mentioned but three times in the common +version of the Old Testament, and in each case the accuracy of the +translation is questioned by German critics. It is, however, distinctly +alluded to by St. John, by Aristotle, and by the poets who flourished at +the court of Augustus, Virgil, Horace, and Tibullus, and is referred to +by the writers of the first four centuries. Tertullian, in his homily on +Female Attire, tells the ladies,--"Clothe yourselves with the silk of +truth, with the fine linen of sanctity, and the purple of modesty." The +golden-mouthed St. Chrisostom writes in his Homilies,--"Does the rich +man wear silken shawls? His soul is in tatters." "Silken shawls are +beautiful, but they are the production of worms." + +The silken thread was early introduced. Galen recommends it for tying +blood-vessels in surgical operations, and remarks that the rich ladies +in the cities of the Roman Empire generally possessed such thread; he +alludes also to shawls interwoven with gold, the material of which is +brought from a distance, and is called _Sericum_, or silk. Down to the +time of the Emperor Aurelian silk was of great value, and used only by +the rich. His biographer informs us that Aurelian neither had himself +in his wardrobe a garment composed wholly of silk, nor presented any to +others, and when his own wife begged him to allow her a single shawl +of purple silk, he replied,--"Far be it from me to permit thread to be +balanced with its weight in gold!"--for a pound of gold was then the +price of a pound of silk. + +Silk is mentioned in some very ancient Arabic inscriptions; but down to +the reign of the Emperor Justinian was imported into Europe from the +country of the Seres, a people of Eastern Asia, supposed to be the +Chinese, from, whom it derived its name. During the reign of Justinian +two monks brought the eggs of the silkworm to Byzantium from Serinda in +India, and the manufacture of silk became a royal monopoly of the Roman +Empire. + +From Greece the culture of silk was gradually carried into Italy and +Spain, and English abbots and bishops often returned from Rome with +vestments of silk and gold. Silken threads are attached to the covers of +ancient English manuscripts. Silk in the form of velvet may be seen on +some of the ancient armor in the Tower of London; and portions of silk +garments were found in 1827 in the Cathedral of Durham, on opening the +tomb of St. Cuthbert. The use of silk, however, was so rare in England +down to the time of the Tudors, that a pair of silk hose formed an +acceptable present to Queen Elizabeth. + +The principal supply of raw silk is now derived from China, where silks +are much worn, and there Marco Polo several centuries since found silk +robes in very general use. Japan also abounds in silk, and the late +Japanese embassy and suite were arrayed in garments of that material. + +The annual consumption of raw silk in Great Britain now averages seven +millions of pounds, and the value of the annual export of silk fabrics +is not far from ten millions of dollars. + +The manufacture of silk was introduced into England by the French +Protestants who were driven into exile on the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes. Their descendants are still found in London and Coventry, where +the silk-trade has been long established, and is now going through the +ordeal to which it has been exposed by the new treaty with France. + +The French undoubtedly take the lead in silk fabrics, for which they are +admirably qualified by exquisite taste and great artistic skill; but +the silk manufacture in England is now so interwoven, in many of its +branches, with the manufacture of wool and cotton, and aided by improved +machinery, that it may be considered as firmly established. + +Our own climate is well adapted to the silk-worm, and we have had our +_Morus-multicaulis_ fever; but so light is the freight on silk compared +with its value, that we must defer our hope of any extended growth until +the price of labor in Europe approaches nearer to our own, or until the +excess of production in other branches shall divert genius into this +channel, in which it will eventually cheapen production by machinery as +it has done in other enterprises. + + * * * * * + +We read in the classics of the Colchian and Milesian fleeces, of the +soft wools of Italy, and of the transfer of sheep from Italy to Bastica, +in Spain. Italy and Spain were both adapted to sheep husbandry. Virgil +writes,-- + + "Hic gelidi fontes, hie mollia prata, Lycori"; + +while Spain, with her alternations of hill and dale and her varying +climate, was eminently fitted for the pasturage of sheep. Even in +ancient times Spain furnished wool of great fineness and of various +colors, and cloths like the modern plaids were woven there from wool of +different shades. Sometimes the Spanish sheep was immersed alive in the +Tyrian purple. + +In modern times, the sheep of Spain have been introduced into France +and Germany, and from them have sprung the French merino and Saxony +varieties. These again have been exported to Natal and Australia. + +Before the American Revolution, the sheep of this country furnished a +wool so coarse that English travellers reported that America could never +compete with England in broadcloth. But when the French armies overran +Spain, the vast flocks of merinos which annually traversed the country +in search of fresh pasturage were driven into Portugal, and by the +enterprise of Messrs. Jarvis, Derby, and Humphrey, large numbers of them +were imported into our Northern States. These have improved our wool, +until now it surpasses the English in fineness. + +The fine-wool sheep thrive most in a dry climate and elevated country. +We learn from Strabo, Columella, and Martial, that the fine wool +of Italy was raised principally among the Apennines; and in Spain, +Estremadura, a part of the ancient Baetica, is still famous for its +wool. There the Spanish flocks winter, and thence in spring are sent to +pasture in the mountains of Leon and Asturias. Other flocks are led +in the same season from great distances to the heights of the Sierra +Morena, where the vegetation is remarkably favorable to improvement of +the wool. + +In this country, the elevated lands of Texas and New Mexico are +admirably adapted to the fine-wool sheep; and upon the head-waters of +the Missouri and the Yellowstone is another district much resembling the +Spanish sheep-walks, where the mountain-sheep and the antelope still +predominate. + +When Caesar invaded England he found there great numbers of flocks, and +for many centuries wool was the great staple of English exports; but +during the reign of Queen Elizabeth numerous artisans were driven from +Brabant and Flanders by the Duke of Alva, and the manufacture of wool, +which had enriched the Low Countries, was permanently established in +England. + +With the progress of agriculture, the turnip-culture enabled Great +Britain to increase the number of her sheep; but they were raised more +for the market than for their fleeces, which were rarely fine, and the +demand for wool soon exceeded the supply. England then opened her ports +to the free importation of wool from every region, and now annually +manufactures two hundred millions of pounds, twice the amount +manufactured in this country, of which two-thirds are drawn from distant +lands, and her export of woollens for 1860 exceeded one hundred millions +of dollars. + +The same policy which has built up this vast manufacture, namely, the +free importation of the raw material and of every article used in its +manufacture, with a moderate duty on foreign cloths, will enable us to +compete with England. Our farmers' wives prefer the sheep-husbandry to +the care of the dairy; much of our land furnishes cheap pasturage, and +the prices of mutton are remunerative; but many of the low grades of +wool come from abroad, and the mill-owner will not embark largely in +the manufacture, unless he can purchase his materials as cheaply as his +foreign competitor. + + * * * * * + +Cotton is mentioned by Herodotus five centuries before the Christian +era. He alludes to the cotton-trees of India, and describes a cuirass +sent from Egypt to the King of Sparta embellished with gold and with +fleeces from trees. Theophrastus, the disciple of Aristotle, notices +the growth of cotton both in India and Arabia, and observes that the +cotton-plants of India have a leaf like the black mulberry, and are set +on the plains in rows, resembling vines in the distance. On the Persian +Gulf he noticed that they bore no fruit, but a capsule about the size of +a quince, which, when ripe, expanded so as to set free the wool, which +was woven into cloth of various kinds, both very cheap and of great +value. + +The cotton-plant was observed by the Greeks who accompanied Alexander +in his march to India: and his officers have left a description of the +cotton dress and turban which formed the costume of the natives at that +remote period. + +Cotton early found its way into Egypt, then the seat of arts and of +commerce; for Pliny in his "Natural History" informs us that "in Upper +Egypt, towards Arabia, there grows a shrub which some call _Gossypion_ +and others _Xylon_. It is small, and bears a fruit resembling the +filbert, within which is a downy wool that is spun into thread. There +is nothing to be preferred to these stuffs for whiteness or softness. +Beautiful garments are made from them for the priests of Egypt." + +The troops of Anthony wore cotton when he visited Cleopatra, and she +was arrayed in vestments of fine muslin. It was soon after used for the +sails of vessels, and the Romans employed it for awnings in the Forum +and the Amphitheatres. + +It was cultivated at an early period in the Levant, whence it was +gradually introduced into Sicily, France, and England. + +Arabian travellers who reached China in the ninth century did not +observe the cotton-plant in that country, but found the natives clad in +silk. + +The cotton-plant, although indigenous in India, has also been found +growing spontaneously in many parts of Africa. It was discovered by +Columbus in Hispaniola, and among the presents sent by Cortés to Charles +V. were cotton mantles, vests, and carpets of various figures, and in +the conquest of Mexico the Indian allies wore armor of quilted cotton, +impervious to arrows. + +The plant of India resembles that of America in most particulars. It +is there often placed in alternate rows with rice, and after the +rice-harvest is over puts forth a beautiful yellow flower with a crimson +eye in each petal; this is succeeded by a green pod filled with a white +pulp, which as it ripens turns brown, and then separates into several +divisions containing the cotton. A luxuriant field, says Forbes in his +"Oriental Memoirs," "exhibits at the same time the expanding blossom, +the bursting capsule, and the snowy fleeces of pure cotton, and is one +of the most beautiful objects in the agriculture of Hindostan." + +The manufacture of cotton in India, with very simple machinery, was +early brought to high perfection. Travellers in the ninth century +describe muslins in India which were of such fineness that they might be +drawn through a ring of moderate size; and Tavernier speaks of turbans, +composed of thirty-five ells of the cloth, which would weigh but four +ounces. Muslin has been sold in India for five hundred rupees the piece, +so fine, that, when laid upon the grass after the dew had fallen, it +was no longer visible. The patience, the nice sense of touch, and the +flexible fingers of the Hindoos have with the simplest means achieved +results in this branch of manufacture which have not been surpassed by +any people. + +But this manufacture is now breathing its last; the cotton-gin, the +spinning-frame, the mule with its countless spindles, and the power-loom +are fearful competitors; and although British India still produces quite +as much cotton as our Southern States, and while she exports at least +eight hundred thousand bales annually to England and China, continues at +the same time to make the larger part of her own clothing, flourishing +cities, like Dacca and Delhi, once the seat of manufactures, are going +to decay, and a large proportion of her people, willing to toil at six +cents per day in occupations that have been transmitted for centuries +in the same families, are either driven to the culture of the fields or +compelled to spin and weave for a pittance the jute which is converted +into gunny-cloth. + +When India muslins and calicoes were first imported into England, they +met with a formidable opposition. They had suddenly become fashionable, +and threatened to supersede the long-established woollens; and the +nation, in its wisdom, first prohibited the importation of these +fabrics, and then subjected them to a duty of sixpence per yard. In +France, Amiens, Rouen, and Paris protested against cotton as ruinous +to the country. But it has surmounted all these obstacles, is firmly +established in both nations, and now its manufacture gives support to +one-seventh part of the population of Great Britain, employs there +thirty-four millions of spindles, consumes annually two and a half +million bales of the raw material, and sends abroad, in addition to +thread and yarn, twenty-eight hundred million yards of fabrics, of the +aggregate value of two hundred and thirty millions of dollars. + +In 1856, Great Britain derived her supply of cotton from the following +countries, namely:-- + + From the United States 71 per cent. + " the East Indies 19 " " + " Brazil 5 " " + " Egypt 4-1/2 " " + " the West Indies 1/2 " " + +But while her supply from India in the twelve years from 1845 to 1857 +increased nearly two hundred per cent, namely, from two hundred thousand +to six hundred thousand bales, she has increased her exports of cotton +fabrics to that country to such an extent, that, for every pound she +imports, she returns a pound of thread and cloth enhanced at least +fourfold in value, while she returns to the United States in cotton +fabrics less than three per cent, of the cotton she receives from them. +And since 1857 such improvements have been made in the cotton-mills of +New England, that we now consume more than a million of bales annually, +and our production and export are rapidly increasing. + +Some curious alternations have attended the growth and manufacture of +cotton. As machinery has improved and the cost of goods diminished, the +price of cotton has advanced and a strong stimulus been given to its +production. + +New States have consequently been opened to its culture, and the +alluvial lands of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas +have been devoted to the plant. Slaves have thus been attracted from the +Middle States and diverted from the less profitable culture of wheat and +tobacco to the cotton-fields. Half a century since, the Middle States +contained two-thirds of the negroes of the Union; but under the census +of 1860 two millions and a half of slaves are now found south of North +Carolina, and but a million and a half north of the Cotton States. In +the Cotton States the negroes nearly equal the white population; in the +Border States the whites are at least four to one. In the Cotton States +the slaves and the culture of cotton are increasing at the rate of at +least five per cent.; in the Border States the slave population is +either stationary or retrograde, and the future of those States is +clearly indicated. Down to a recent period the march of the planter and +his forces across the Cotton States has been like that of an invading +army. Vast forests of heavy timber have been felled, land rapidly +exhausted and abandoned, and new fields opened and soon deserted for a +virgin soil. + +But with the increased demand of the last seven years for cotton, and +with the enhanced price of the slave, which rises at least one hundred +dollars with each advance of a cent per pound on cotton, more permanent +improvements have been made, railways have been opened, and at least +fifty thousand tons of guano and cotton-seed have been annually applied +to the exhausted cotton-fields of the Carolinas and Georgia. Under +these appliances the crops of the United States have kept pace with +the manufacture, and in 1859 rose to the amount of twenty-one hundred +millions of pounds, thus replenishing the markets that had been recently +exhausted, and actually exceeding the entire consumption for the same +year of both Europe and America. + +But the crops fluctuate from year to year, and a less favorable season +for 1860, accompanied by an increase of at least ten per cent. in +spindles, leaves the supply barely equal to the demand, while the +diminished crop, and the cry of Secession at the South, with the +introduction of an export-duty, have alarmed the spinners of England and +led them to consider the effects of a deficiency and to seek new sources +of supply. + +With the progress of trade the price of the middling cotton of America +for the last fifteen years has varied at Liverpool from fourpence to +ninepence per pound, and now stands at seven and a halfpence by the last +quotations. As the stock accumulates or the sale of goods is checked, +the price naturally declines, and a check is given to production. As +the stock declines or goods advance, an impetus is given to prices, the +culture is extended, and cotton flows in from Egypt and India. When the +cotton of Bombay commands more than fivepence per pound at Liverpool, +it flows in a strong current from India to Manchester. Should the +export-duty be levied in the Cotton States, it may well be presumed +that the burden will fall principally upon the planter, and give an +additional stimulus to the growth of India, and a new incentive to the +British Government to start the culture in other colonies. + +The gentlemen of the South sometimes imagine that Old England, as well +as New England, is entirely dependent upon cotton, and that society +there would be disintegrated, if the crop in the Cotton States should +be withheld for a single year. But the Northern mills have usually six +months' supply; and Great Britain holds upon an average enough for three +months in her ports, for two months at her mills, and as much more +upon the ocean. The English spinner, too, can not only reduce his time +one-fourth without stopping, but can reduce his consumption another +fourth by raising his numbers and increasing the fineness of his cloth; +and as he draws one-fourth of his supply from other countries, it is +obvious that he might hold out for nearly two years without a bale from +America. + +Could the cotton-planter hold out any longer? Let it not be forgotten +that the Embargo was voted to bring England to terms by withholding +rice, cotton, wheat, and naval stores, but proved a signal failure. We +reaped from it no harvests, and were put back by it at least six years +in our national progress; while England enjoyed the carrying-trade of +the world, which we had abandoned, and drew her supplies from Russia and +India while our crops perished in our own warehouses. + +The vast export of cotton goods from Great Britain to India has now +liberated at least half a million bales of cotton for the supply of +England in addition to what India previously furnished; and as the +export of goods to India and China continues to increase, the surplus of +cotton must rise with it. But India is able to treble her production. It +is true that the staple of her cotton suffers from the dry summers, that +her land is but half tilled by ploughs consisting of a simple beam of +wood with two prongs and a single handle, that she has been destitute +of roads and facilities for transportation, that her lands are held at +oppressive rents, that American planters there have failed to make good +cotton, and that the annual yield of her soil is as small as that of the +exhausted fields of South Carolina. But still she produces at least four +million bales of cotton, and great changes are now in progress: railways +are pervading the country; canals are being dug for irrigating, and +irrigation quadruples the crop, while it improves the staple; and the +diversion of a few districts from the ordinary crops, with improved +tillage, will increase the production to an indefinite extent. + +The latest intelligence from India apprises us that in one large cotton +district the American planters have at length succeeded, and American +cotton is now growing there on one hundred and forty-six thousand acres. + +IN DARWAR. + + _In American Cotton. In Native Kupas. Total._ + 1851 31,688 acres 223,314 acres 255,002 + 1860 146,320 " 230,677 " 377,003 + +In Africa, also, the export of cotton is on the increase; and Egypt is +erecting new works to retain and direct the overflow of the Nile, which +will augment her exports. + +There is a belt around the earth's surface of at least sixty degrees in +width, adapted in great part to the culture of cotton. Great Britain now +commands capital, while China and India overflow with labor. Let Great +Britain divert a few millions of this capital and but half a million of +coolies to any fertile area of five thousand square miles within this +belt, and she can in a few years double her supply of cotton, and +command the residue of her importation at reasonable prices. + +Among these spots none is more promising than Central America, where the +cotton-plant is perennial, and a single acre, as we are assured by Mr. +Squier, yields semiannually a bale of superior cotton. But let us hope +that the South may abandon her dream of a Southern Empire, and the +chimera which now haunts her, that the Northerner is hostile to the +Southerner, when in reality he has no such feeling, but merely recoils +from institutions which he believes to be at variance with moral and +material progress. + +Hemp, or _Cannabis sativa_, from which we possibly derive the modern +term canvas, was known to the ancients and used by them for rope and +cordage and occasionally for cloth. It was found early in Thrace, in +Caria, and upon the Rhone. Herodotus says that garments were made of it +by the Thracians "so much like linen that none but an experienced person +could tell whether they were made of hemp or of flax." + +Moschion, who flourished two centuries before the Christian era, states +that the celebrated ship Syracusia built by Hiero II. was provided with +rope made from the hemp of the Rhone. Although the plant is indigenous +in Northern India, where it is cultivated for its narcotic qualities, it +is adapted to a southern climate; and we may safely infer that it was +not a native of either Italy, Greece, or Asia Minor, but was doubtless +introduced into Caria by the active trade between the Euxine and +Miletus. Cloth of hemp is still worn by boatmen upon the Danube; but +although its fibre is nearly as delicate as that of flax and cotton, it +is used principally for cordage, for which purpose it is imported from +the interior of Russia into England and the United States. In 1858 the +entire importation into Great Britain was forty-four thousand tons. +A large amount is now raised in Missouri and Kentucky, whose soil is +admirably adapted to the hemp-plant. Hemp grows freely in Bologna, +Romagna, and Naples, and the Italians have a saying, that "it may be +grown everywhere, but cannot be produced fit for use in heaven or on +earth without manure." The Italian hemp is aided by irrigation. + +The plant is annual, and attains a height of three to ten feet, +according to the soil and climate. Its stalk is hollow, filled with a +soft pith, and surrounded by a cellular texture coated with a delicate +membrane which runs parallel to the stalk and is covered by a thin +cuticle. In Russia the seed is sown in June and gathered in September. + +The Manila hemp (_Musa textilis_) does not appear to have been known to +the ancients, and is now found in the Philippine Islands, the Indian +Archipelago, and Japan, regions unexplored by the ancients. It is also +found at the base of the Himalaya Mountains. It is a large herbaceous +plant, which requires a warm climate, and is cut after a growth of +eighteen months. The outer layers or fibres of the plant are called the +_bandola_, which is used in the fabrication of cordage; the inner layers +have a more delicate fibre called the _lupis_, which is woven into fine +fabrics; while the intermediate layers, termed _tupoz_, are made into +cloth of different degrees of fineness. + +The filaments, after they are gathered, are separated by a knife, and +rendered soft and pliable by beating them with a mallet; their ends are +then gummed together, after which they are wound into balls, and the +finer qualities are woven without going through the process of spinning. +With the produce of this plant the natives pay their tribute, purchase +the necessaries of life, and provide themselves with clothing. + +The imports of this article into Great Britain in 1859 were very +considerable, while the United States also imported a very large amount. +It is used for cordage by the ships of both countries. In one respect +it differs from wool, cotton, and hemp, the fibres of all of which are +found by the microscope to consist of tubes, while the filaments of +the _Musa textilis_, although often fine, are in no case hollow, and +consequently are less flexible and divisible than other fibres. + +Within the last twenty years, a new export from India, in the shape of +Jute and its fabrics, has grown up from insignificance into commercial +importance, and is now among the chief exports of the country. This +article demands our particular attention, as it requires but four months +for its production, furnishes a very large supply of textile material, +is raised at one-fifth the expense of cotton, and has been sold in India +as low as one cent per pound. + +Jute is generally grown as an after-crop in India upon high ground, and +flourishes best in a hot and rainy season. The seed is sown broadcast in +April or May, when there is sufficient rain to moisten the ground. When +the plant is a foot and a half high it is weeded. It rises on good soil +to the height of twelve feet, and flowers between August and September. +The stems are usually three-fourths of an inch in diameter. The leaves +have long foot-stalks, the flowers are small and yellow, and the +capsules short and globose, containing five cells for the seed. The +fruit ripens in September and October. The average yield in fibre to +the acre is from four hundred to seven hundred pounds. When the crop is +ripe, the stems are cut close to the root, made up into bundles, and +deposited for a week in some neighboring pond or stream. + +The process of separating the fibre from the stem is thus described by +Mr. Healy in the "Journal of Agriculture for India";-- + +"The native operator, standing up to his middle in water, takes as many +of the sticks in his hands as he can grasp, and removing a small portion +of the bark from the end next the roots, and grasping them together, he +with a little management strips off the whole from end to end, without +breaking either stem or fibre. He then, swinging the bark around his +head, dashes it repeatedly against the surface of the water, drawing it +towards him to wash off the impurities." + +The filaments are then hung up to dry in the sun, often in lengths of +twelve feet, and when dried the jute is ready for the market. + +The color at first is a pure white, but gradually changes to yellow. The +fibre, which is fine and delicate, is tubular, like that of flax and +cotton, and is easily wrought; but its tenacity is not equal to that of +other textile materials, although it is substituted in many fabrics +for wool, flax, and cotton. A large portion of the crop, which already +exceeds two hundred thousand tons, is exported to England as it comes +from the field, and is there used in the manufacture both of wool and +cotton to cheapen the fabric. The vigilant eye will often detect it in +woollen manufactures, in shawls, and even in sail-cloths; but when spun +with cotton or wool, it is very difficult to discover its presence. + +A few years since, there was a great reduction in the price of plaid +shawls from England, which took the dealers by surprise, as the cost +was previously supposed to have reached the lowest point; but a close +examination of the threads elicited the fact that the manufacturer had +adroitly twisted in with his wool a liberal allowance of jute, costing +but two or three cents a pound when wool cost thirty, and thus reduced +the price of the fabric. + +By the use of shoddy in the manufacture of woollens, and of jute in both +cotton and woollen fabrics, the English artisan saves many millions +of pounds both of wool and cotton. In those districts of India where +British skill and commercial enterprise have checked the manufacture of +muslin and calicoes, the Hindoos of all classes find in the culture and +manufacture of jute employment for all, "from the palanquin-bearer and +husbandman down to the Hindoo widow, saved by the interposition of +England from the funeral pile, but condemned by custom for the residue +of her days literally to sackcloth and ashes." The fine and long-stapled +jute is reserved for the export trade, for which it bears a +comparatively high price; the residue is spun and woven by these classes +as a domestic manufacture; it is made into gunny-cloth, which is +circulated through the globe, forms the bagging for our corn, wheat, +and cotton on their voyage to distant ports, and finally makes its last +appearance as paper. + +The long stems of the jute are highly esteemed in India; they resemble +willow wands, are useful for basket-work and fencing, for trellis-work +and the support of vines, and to make a charcoal which is valued for the +manufacture of gunpowder. + +The export of jute from India to England for 1859 was sixty thousand +tons. The export of gunny-cloth from India to the United States in the +same year amounted to several millions of pieces. + +Why should not this valuable plant be introduced into America? It +requires the same season and soil as our Indian corn, and would +doubtless flourish in the rich alluvial lands of the West, and furnish a +very cheap and useful domestic manufacture for our Western farmers. + +The term Linen is doubtless derived from _Linum_, the classic and +botanic name of flax. In Holy Writ, Moses called down the hail upon the +growing flax of Lower Egypt, and Isaiah speaks of those "that work in +fine flax." According to Herodotus, the ancient Egyptians wore linen. +Plutarch informs us that the priests of Isis wore linen on account of +its purity, and mentions a tradition that flax was used for clothing +"because the color of its blossom resembles the ethereal blue which +surrounds the world"; and he adds, that the priests of Isis were buried +in their sacred vestments. An eminent cotton-spinner, who subjected four +hundred specimens of mummy-cloth to the microscope, has ascertained that +they were all linen; and even now, when aspiring cotton has contested +its superiority, and claimed to be more healthful and more beneficial +to the human frame, the choicest drapery of our tables and couches, and +many of our most costly and elegant articles of dress, are fabricated +from flax. + +Flax is sown in the spring and harvested in the summer, and requires but +three months for its growth. While cotton grows in hot climates only, +flax grows both under the tropics and in temperate climates, and as far +north as Russia, Ireland, and Canada; and while at the South it runs +mostly to seed, the best varieties are produced in Normandy, Belgium, +and Poland. + +In another particular flax has the advantage over cotton. While the +latter, under the ordinary course of cultivation in South Carolina, +yields but one bale to four acres, and in virgin soil rarely more than +one bale to two acres, flax yields in good soil from five to eight +hundred pounds of fibre to the acre, which may be converted into +flax-cotton by modern machinery; and as the product has but three per +cent. waste, while cotton loses eleven per cent. in its manufacture, the +flax-cotton which is produced from a single acre is the equivalent of +one to two bales of cotton. + +With these important advantages, namely, its adaptation to a northern +climate where the white man can labor, and a capacity for yielding so +large an amount of fibre, flax holds a high place in the list of textile +materials. + +Flax can be raised with very moderate expense up to the time of harvest. +If the soil is free from weeds, it requires little more preparation, +care, or expense for its culture than wheat or barley. But from this +point onward a large expenditure of labor is requisite, which greatly +enhances the cost, carrying it up as high as ten to twenty cents per +pound, according to the degree of fineness; for the filaments must be +separated from the stem by immersion in water, must be kept in parallel +lines, and prepared for the spindle by skilful and long-continued labor. + +To insure the best quality, it must be pulled and bound in bundles +before it is entirely ripe, thus impairing the value of the seed, while +the edible and nutritious portion of the stalk is lost or injured in the +water. + +For many years it was spun on the little wheel, but of late years +improved machinery has been applied at Belfast, Leeds, Dundee, and other +cities of Great Britain; yet nearly a third of the value is lost in the +broken filaments, which are reduced to tow in its preparation for the +spindle. With a fibre at least as fine and delicate as that of cotton, +its full value to the world will not be demonstrated until it is +effectually cottonized. + +In its present state, however, it has come into very extensive use. More +than eighty thousand tons were, in 1859, imported into Great Britain, +and many acres are there devoted to its culture. The consumption in that +country is estimated to exceed one hundred and sixty thousand tons, +a quantity equivalent to eight hundred thousand bales of cotton. In +addition to this, ten millions of bushels of flax-seed are annually +crushed in Great Britain, a large portion of which is drawn from India. + +The culture of flax was introduced into this country early in the last +century by the Scotch, who crossed over to Ireland under Elizabeth and +Cromwell, and soon after the siege of Derry transferred their arts and +their industry to this country. Several colonies of these were planted +in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and a large colony was established at +Natfield, New Hampshire, upon a tract twelve miles square, one of the +best sections of the State, situate in the area between Manchester, +Lowell, Lawrence, and Exeter. Here every farmer cultivated his field of +barley and flax, here every woman had her little wheel, and the +article formed the currency of the place;--notes were given payable in +spinning-wheels. Girls were seen beetling the linen on the grass; +and when the harvest over, the men mounted their horses, and with +well-filled saddle-bags threaded the by-roads of the forest to find +a market in Boston, Lynn, Salem, or Newburyport. Fortunes were thus +accumulated and a flourishing academy and two Presbyterian societies are +now sustained by funds thus acquired by the Pinkerton family. But as the +wages of girls gradually rose from two shillings to two dollars per +week with the invention of the cotton-gin, the power-loom, and the +spinning-jenny, the culture of flax was gradually abandoned, the seat +of manufactures removed from the hills to the waterfalls, and the +flax-fields converted into market-gardens or milk-farms. The town +of Derry, once the great seat of New-England manufactures, is now +principally distinguished for the Stark, Rogers, and Reed it gave to the +French War and the Revolution, for the Bells, Dinsmores, Wilsons, and +Pattersons it has given to the halls of legislation, and the McKeens, +McGregors, Morisons, and Nesmiths it has furnished to commerce or the +Church. + +At the present rates of labor, the culture of flax cannot be revived in +this region until the mode of curing and dressing it is cheapened; and +there is reason to hope that this revolution is at hand. + +At the present moment flax is raised both in India and Ohio for the seed +alone. An acre of ripened flax yields from ten to twenty bushels +of seed, and each bushel affords nearly or quite two gallons of +linseed-oil. The well-ripened seed is most prolific in oil. + +It has been supposed by some that flax exhausts the soil. It is +undoubtedly true that it does best under a rotation of crops, and +that the ingredients it withdraws from the soil should be restored to +preserve its fertility. But the reduction of the plant to ashes shows +that its chemical components can be restored at a cost of three dollars +per acre, while the properties withdrawn by the seed can be easily +supplied by returning in other fertilizers the equivalent for half a ton +of flax-seed. If the oil-cake be consumed upon the farm, little more +than the above and its product in manure will be required. + +The ashes of the flax-plant have been analyzed. Dr. Royle, of England, a +distinguished writer upon fibrous plants, assures us that the following +compound will supply to one acre all that the plant requires, and leave +the land as fertile as before the flax was gathered:-- + + _lbs. s. d._ + Muriate of Potash 30 cost 2 6 + Common Salt 28 " 0 3 + Burned Plaster of Paris 34 " 0 6 + Bone-Dust 54 " 3 3 + Epsom Salts 56 " 4 0 + 10 6 + +It has been ascertained by the microscope that wool, cotton, hemp, jute, +and flax are composed of minute fibres, each of which forms a hollow +tube, and there is a close resemblance between the tubes of each,--the +tube of the cotton, however, collapsing as it ripens. These tubes in the +jute and flax are closely cemented together, and the term _Fibrilia_ has +been applied to fibres of the plant when reduced to a short staple +like cotton. The process for effecting this result is very accurately +described in a work just published, entitled "Fibrilia." The patentees +of this invention claim that their process, in the space of twenty-four +hours, converts the flax and tow, as they come from the threshing-mill, +into an article which may be spun and woven by the same machinery as +cotton. The article produced and lately exhibited at public meetings +resembles cotton in its appearance and qualities, with the advantage +that it wastes less in the manufacture, has more lustre, and receives a +superior color. The patentees and their friends further claim that this +cotton can be raised in all temperate latitudes, at the rate of four to +eight hundred pounds per acre, and profess within the past year to have +manufactured twelve thousand pounds. + +These statements have been confidently made at public meetings in +the State House of Massachusetts, and it is understood that a mill +containing one hundred looms, half of which are now in operation, has +been erected at Roxbury, under the direction of gentlemen who are +familiar with the manufacture. Should the same results be obtained on a +large scale which have attended the manufacture of the first few bales, +the first step in a great revolution will be effected. + +By the process of Mr. S.M. Allen of Boston, the great outlay of labor +which has usually attended the culture and preparation of flax is +avoided. When the plant has attained its full height of twenty to thirty +inches, and its seed is ripened, it is harvested like grass with a +mowing-machine, dried like hay or oats in the field, and then carried +to the threshing-mill. After the seed is separated, the stalk is +transferred to a patent brake, moved by two or four horses, and costing +from three to four hundred dollars. This machine is composed of several +sets of fluted iron rollers, between which the stalk passes from one set +to another, the rollers gradually diminishing in size, but increasing in +rapidity of motion, by means of which the woody texture of the plant is +effectually broken and separated. The filaments are then carried through +a coarse card or picker. The shives are thus separated, and two tons of +stalks reduced to half a ton of linten, which may be either taken at +once to the retort or baled for shipment. When the flax is thus reduced +by the farmer to linten, the article is reputed to be worth to the +manufacturer four cents a pound, or at least twenty dollars for the +product of an acre yielding a single ton of flax-straw. + +According to this statement the farmer would realize from his crop at +least as follows:-- + + Estimated value of seed, 14 bushels, + at $1.25 $17.50 + Estimated value of 500 lbs. of linten, + at 4 cts. 20.00 + Estimated value of 3/4 of a ton of shives + from unrotted stems, valuable for + cattle, at $8.00 per ton 6.00 + + Produce of an acre $43.50 + +And this produce would be realized with little more labor than a crop +of oats or wheat, returning less than twenty-five dollars to the acre. +Unless the soil should be foul, no weeding would be required, while the +breaking would cost little more than a second threshing, and a second +crop of turnips can be taken from the same soil. + +From the patent brake and the picker the linten is carried to a retort, +which may hold from five hundred to three thousand pounds of fibre,--the +capacity of one hundred cubic feet being required for each thousand +pounds; and the retort, which may be made from boiler-plates, costs from +three hundred to fifteen hundred dollars. Here the linten is put into +a hot bath of air forced through heated water, and thus charged with +moisture, which softens the filaments and diminishes the cohesion of +the fibres. After this air-bath, pure water of the temperature of one +hundred and forty to one hundred and sixty degrees is admitted into the +retort, and the linten is immersed in it for five or six hours. + +After this steeping process is completed, the water is let off from +below, and pure water admitted from above under pressure, until the +color begins to change; the fibre is then steeped for three or four +hours in a weak solution of soda-ash; the alkali is washed out by the +admission of pure water alternating with steam, and, if necessary to +complete the bleaching, a weak solution of chlorine is applied. All this +may be effected without removing the linten from the retort. The product +is then dried as in ordinary drying-rooms. + +When dried, it is carried again through a set of cards, and a piece of +machinery termed a railway-head, with positive draught, which can be set +so as to give any length of staple, and to present the flax-cotton thus +produced in any form required for spinning, either separately or mixed +with cotton or wool, and thus adapted to the machinery used in the +manufacture of either of these articles. The cost of this process, from +the brake to the final production of the cotton, is set by the patentee, +after leaving him a fair profit, at three cents per pound of cotton; +and if we add this to the cost of the linten, and allow for freight and +storage, the entire cost of the fibrilia is but eight cents per pound, +or two-thirds of the present price of middling cotton. + +The idea of modifying the filaments of flax and hemp so as to convert +them into cotton is by no means a new one. As long ago as 1747 it was +proposed to convert flax into cotton by boiling it in a solution of +caustic potash, and subsequently washing it with soap; and in 1775 Lady +Moira, aided by T.B. Bailey, actually converted some refuse flax into +cotton by boiling it in alkali. The result was, that the fibres seemed +to be set at liberty from each other; after which it was carded on +cotton cards, spun, and woven as cotton. + +The Chevalier Claussen, as recently as 1850, claimed to have discovered +the process, and actually took out a patent; but his invention, which +consisted in boiling the cut and crushed stems of the flax in a solution +of caustic soda, turned out a failure,--the cutting, crushing, and +boiling processes proving alike defective. + +New discoveries are the result of repeated trials; perseverance usually +prevails; and if States are to secede at pleasure and withhold their +cotton, and no other good uses can be found for flax or hemp, why should +not their fibres secede also,--be set at liberty and resolve themselves +into a cotton state? + +We might pass from the fibrous plants, and the metamorphosis of flax +into cotton, to the _Pinna_, whose fibres grow in the sea on the coast +of Italy, and anchor the huge shell-fish to the rock or the sand. These +fibres are brought up by divers, and woven into beautiful fabrics. We +might repeat the tale of the crab which lives with this shell-fish, +and apprises his blind housekeeper of the approach of danger,--a tale +confirmed by ancient and modern naturalists,--for there are strange +doings in the sea as well as upon the land. We might also dilate upon +China grass, which is manufactured in the East into delicate fabrics. +But our limits compel us to defer these topics. + + + + +NAT TURNER'S INSURRECTION. + + +During the year 1831, up to the twenty-third of August, the Virginia +newspapers were absorbed in the momentous problems which then occupied +the minds of intelligent American citizens:--What General Jackson should +do with the scolds, and what with the disreputables,--Should South +Carolina be allowed to nullify? and would the wives of Cabinet Ministers +call on Mrs. Eaton? It is an unfailing opiate, to turn over the drowsy +files of the "Richmond Enquirer", until the moment when those dry and +dusty pages are suddenly kindled into flame by the torch of Nat Turner. +Then the terror flares on increasing, until the remotest Southern States +are found shuddering at nightly rumors of insurrection,--until far-off +European colonies, Antigua, Martinique, Caraccas, Tortola, recognize by +some secret sympathy the same epidemic alarms,--until the very boldest +words of freedom are reported as uttered in the Virginia House of +Delegates with unclosed doors,--until an obscure young man named +Garrison is indicted at Common Law in North Carolina, and has a price +set upon his head by the Legislature of Georgia. The insurrection +revived in one agonizing reminiscence all the distresses of Gabriel's +Revolt, thirty years before; and its memory endures still fresh, now +that thirty added years have brought the more formidable presence of +General Butler. It is by no means impossible that the very children or +even confederates of Nat Turner may be included at this moment among the +contraband articles of Fort Monroe. + +Near the southeastern border of Virginia, in Southampton County, there +is a neighborhood known as "The Cross Keys". It lies fifteen miles from +Jerusalem, the county-town or "court-house", seventy miles from Norfolk, +and about as far from Richmond. It is some ten or fifteen miles from +Murfreesboro in North Carolina, and about twenty-five from the Great +Dismal Swamp. Up to Sunday, the twenty-first of August, 1831, there was +nothing to distinguish it from any other rural, lethargic, slipshod +Virginia neighborhood, with the due allotment of mansion-houses and +log-huts, tobacco-fields and "old-fields", horses, dogs, negroes, "poor +white folks", so called, and other white folks, poor without being +called so. One of these last was Joseph Travis, who had recently married +the widow of one Putnam Moore, and had unfortunately wedded to himself +her negroes also. + +In the woods on the plantation of Joseph Travis, upon the Sunday just +named, six slaves met at noon for what is called in the Northern States +a picnic and in the Southern a barbecue. The bill of fare was to be +simple: one brought a pig, and another some brandy, giving to the +meeting an aspect so cheaply convivial that no one would have imagined +it to be the final consummation of a conspiracy which had been for six +months in preparation. In this plot four of the men had been already +initiated,--Henry, Hark or Hercules, Nelson, and Sam. Two others were +novices, Will and Jack by name. The party had remained together from +twelve to three o'clock, when a seventh man joined them,--a short, +stout, powerfully built person, of dark mulatto complexion and +strongly-marked African features, but with a face full of expression and +resolution. This was Nat Turner. + +He was at this time nearly thirty-one years old, having been born on +the second of October, 1800. He had belonged originally to Benjamin +Turner,--whence his last name, slaves having usually no patronymic,--had +then been transferred to Putnam Moore, and then to his present owner. +He had, by his own account, felt himself singled out from childhood for +some great work; and he had some peculiar marks on his person, which, +joined to his great mental precocity, were enough to occasion, among his +youthful companions, a superstitious faith in his gifts and destiny. +He had great mechanical ingenuity also, experimentalized very early in +making paper, gunpowder, pottery, and in other arts which in later life +he was found thoroughly to understand. His moral faculties were very +strong, so that white witnesses admitted that he had never been known to +swear an oath, to drink a drop of spirits, or to commit a theft. And in +general, so marked were his early peculiarities, that people said "he +had too much sense to be raised, and if he was, he would never be of +any use as a slave." This impression of personal destiny grew with his +growth;--he fasted, prayed, preached, read the Bible, heard voices when +he walked behind his plough, and communicated his revelations to the +awe-struck slaves. They told him in return, that, "if they had his +sense, they would not serve any master in the world." + +The biographies of slaves can hardly be individualized; they belong to +the class. We know bare facts; it is only the general experience of +human beings in like condition which can clothe them with life. The +outlines are certain, the details are inferential. Thus, for instance, +we know that Nat Turner's young wife was a slave; we know that she +belonged to a different master from himself; we know little more than +this, but this is much. For this is equivalent to saying that by day or +by night that husband had no more power to protect her than the man who +lies bound upon a plundered vessel's deck has power to protect his wife +on board the pirate-schooner disappearing in the horizon; she may be +reverenced, she may be outraged; it is in the powerlessness that the +agony lies. There is, indeed, one thing more which we do know of this +young woman: the Virginia newspapers state that she was tortured under +the lash, after her husband's execution, to make her produce his papers: +this is all. + +What his private experiences and special privileges or wrongs may have +been, it is therefore now impossible to say. Travis was declared to be +"more humane and fatherly to his slaves than any man in the county"; but +it is astonishing how often this phenomenon occurs in the contemporary +annals of slave insurrections. The chairman of the county court also +stated, in pronouncing sentence, that Nat Turner had spoken of his +master as "only too indulgent"; but this, for some reason, does not +appear in his printed Confession, which only says, "He was a kind +master, and placed the greatest confidence in me." It is very possible +that it may have been so, but the printed accounts of Nat Turner's +person look suspicious: he is described in Governor Floyd's proclamation +as having a scar on one of his temples, also one on the back of his +neck, and a large knot on one of the bones of his right arm, produced by +a blow; and although these were explained away in Virginia newspapers +as being produced by fights with his companions, yet such affrays are +entirely foreign to the admitted habits of the man. It must, therefore, +remain an open question, whether the scars and the knot were produced by +black hands or by white. + +Whatever Nat Turner's experiences of slavery might have been, it is +certain that his plans were not suddenly adopted, but that he had +brooded over them for years. To this day there are traditions among the +Virginia slaves of the keen devices of "Prophet Nat". If he was +caught with lime and lamp-black in hand, conning over a half-finished +county-map on the barn-door, he was always "planning what to do, if he +were blind", or "studying how to get to Mr. Francis's house." When he +had called a meeting of slaves, and some poor whites came eavesdropping, +the poor whites at once became the subjects for discussion; he +incidentally mentioned that the masters had been heard threatening to +drive them away; one slave had been ordered to shoot Mr. Jones's pigs, +another to tear down Mr. Johnson's fences. The poor whites, Johnson and +Jones, ran home to see to their homesteads, and were better friends than +ever to Prophet Nat. + +He never was a Baptist preacher, though such vocation has often been +attributed to him. The impression arose from his having immersed +himself, during one of his periods of special enthusiasm, together with +a poor white man named Brantley. "About this time", he says in his +Confession, "I told these things to a white man, on whom it had a +wonderful effect, and he ceased from his wickedness, and was attacked +immediately with a cutaneous eruption, and the blood oozed from the +pores of his skin, and after praying and fasting nine days he was +healed. And the Spirit appeared to me again, and said, as the Saviour +had been baptized, so should we be also; and when the white people +would not let us be baptized by the Church, we went down into the water +together, in the sight of many who reviled us, and were baptized by the +Spirit. After this I rejoiced greatly and gave thanks to God." + +The religious hallucinations narrated in his Confession seem to have +been as genuine as the average of such things, and are very well +expressed. It reads quite like Jacob Behmen. He saw white spirits and +black spirits contending in the skies, the sun was darkened, the thunder +rolled. "And the Holy Ghost was with me, and said, 'Behold me as I stand +in the heavens!' And I looked and saw the forms of men in different +attitudes. And there were lights in the sky, to which the children of +darkness gave other names than what they really were; for they were the +lights of the Saviour's hands, stretched forth from east to west, even +as they were extended on the cross on Calvary, for the redemption of +sinners." He saw drops of blood on the corn: this was Christ's blood, +shed for man. He saw on the leaves in the woods letters and numbers and +figures of men,--the same symbols which he had seen in the skies. On May +12, 1828, the Holy Spirit appeared to him and proclaimed that the yoke +of Jesus must fall on him, and he must fight against the Serpent when +the sign appeared. Then came an eclipse of the sun in February, 1831: +this was the sign; then he must arise and prepare himself, and slay his +enemies with their own weapons; then also the seal was removed from his +lips, and then he confided his plans to four associates. + +When he came, therefore, to the barbecue on the appointed Sunday, and +found, not these four only, but two others, his first question to the +intruders was, How they came thither. To this Will answered manfully, +that his life was worth no more than the others, and "his liberty was as +dear to him." This admitted him to confidence, and as Jack was known to +be entirely under Hark's influence, the strangers were no bar to their +discussion. Eleven hours they remained there, in anxious consultation: +one can imagine those terrible dusky faces, beneath the funereal woods, +and amid the flickering of pine-knot torches, preparing that stern +revenge whose shuddering echoes should ring through the land so long. +Two things were at last decided: to begin their work that night, and to +begin it with a massacre so swift and irresistible as to create in a +few days more terror than many battles, and so spare the need of future +bloodshed. "It was agreed that we should commence at home on that night, +and, until we had armed and equipped ourselves and gained sufficient +force, neither age nor sex was to be spared: which was invariably +adhered to." + +John Brown invaded Virginia with nineteen men, and with the avowed +resolution to take no life but in self-defence. Nat Turner attacked +Virginia from within, with six men, and with the determination to spare +no life until his power was established. John Brown intended to pass +rapidly through Virginia, and then retreat to the mountains. Nat Turner +intended to "conquer Southampton County as the white men did in the +Revolution, and then retreat, if necessary, to the Dismal Swamp." Each +plan was deliberately matured; each was in its way practicable; but each +was defeated by a single false step, as will soon appear. + +We must pass over the details of horror, as they occurred during the +next twenty-four hours. Swift and stealthy as Indians, the black men +passed from house to house,--not pausing, not hesitating, as their +terrible work went on. In one thing they were humaner than Indians +or than white men fighting against Indians,--there was no gratuitous +outrage beyond the death-blow itself, no insult, no mutilation; but +in every house they entered, that blow fell on man, woman, and +child,--nothing that had a white skin was spared. From every house they +took arms and ammunition, and from a few, money; on every plantation +they found recruits: those dusky slaves, so obsequious to their master +the day before, so prompt to sing and dance before his Northern +visitors, were all swift to transform themselves into fiends of +retribution now; show them sword or musket and they grasped it, though +it were an heirloom from Washington himself. The troop increased from +house to house,--first to fifteen, then to forty, then to sixty. Some +were armed with muskets, some with axes, some with scythes; some came on +their masters' horses. As the numbers increased, they could be divided, +and the awful work was carried on more rapidly still. The plan then was +for an advanced guard of horsemen to approach each house at a gallop, +and surround it till the others came up. Meanwhile what agonies of +terror must have taken place within, shared alike by innocent and by +guilty! what memories of wrongs inflicted on those dusky creatures, by +some,--what innocent participation, by others, in the penance! The +outbreak lasted for but forty-eight hours; but during that period +fifty-five whites were slain, without the loss of a single slave. + +One fear was needless, which to many a husband and father must have +intensified the last struggle. These negroes had been systematically +brutalized from childhood; they had been allowed no legalized +or permanent marriage; they had beheld around them an habitual +licentiousness, such as can scarcely exist except in a Slave State; some +of them had seen their wives and sisters habitually polluted by the +husbands and the brothers of these fair white women who were now +absolutely in their power. Yet I have looked through the Virginia +newspapers of that time in vain for one charge of an indecent outrage +on a woman against these triumphant and terrible slaves. Wherever they +went, there went death, and that was all. Compare this with ordinary +wars; compare it with the annals of the French Revolution. No one, +perhaps, has yet painted the wrongs of the French populace so terribly +as Dickens in his "Tale of Two Cities"; yet what man, conversant with +slave-biographies, can read that narrative without feeling it weak +beside the provocations to which fugitive slaves testify? It is +something for human nature that these desperate insurgents revenged such +wrongs by death alone. Even that fearful penalty was to be inflicted +only till the object was won. It was admitted in the "Richmond Enquirer" +of the time, that "indiscriminate massacre was not their intention, +after they obtained foothold, and was resorted to in the first instance +to strike terror and alarm. Women and children would afterwards have +been spared, and men also who ceased to resist." + +It is reported by some of the contemporary newspapers, that a portion +of this abstinence was the result of deliberate consultation among the +insurrectionists; that some of them were resolved on taking the white +women for wives, but were overruled by Nat Turner. If so, he is the only +American slave-leader of whom we know certainly that he rose above the +ordinary level of slave vengeance, and Mrs. Stowe's picture of Dred's +purposes is then precisely typical of his. "Whom the Lord saith unto us, +'Smite,' them will we smite. We will not torment them with the scourge +and fire, nor defile their women as they have done with ours. But we +will slay them utterly, and consume them from off the face of the +earth." + +When the number of adherents had increased to fifty or sixty, Nat Turner +judged it time to strike at the county-seat, Jerusalem. Thither a +few white fugitives had already fled, and couriers might thence +be despatched for aid to Richmond and Petersburg, unless promptly +intercepted. Besides, he could there find arms, ammunition, and money; +though they had already obtained, it is dubiously reported, from eight +hundred to one thousand dollars. On the way it was necessary to pass the +plantation of Mr. Parker, three miles from Jerusalem. Some of the +men wished to stop here and enlist some of their friends. Nat Turner +objected, as the delay might prove dangerous; he yielded at last, and it +proved fatal. + +He remained at the gate with six or eight men; thirty or forty went to +the house, half a mile distant. They remained too long, and he went +alone to hasten them. During his absence a party of eighteen white men +came up suddenly, dispersing the small guard left at the gate; and when +the main body of slaves emerged from the house, they encountered, for +the first time, their armed masters. The blacks halted, the whites +advanced cautiously within a hundred yards and fired a volley; on its +being returned, they broke into disorder, and hurriedly retreated, +leaving some wounded on the ground. The retreating whites were pursued, +and were saved only by falling in with another band of fresh men from +Jerusalem, with whose aid they turned upon the slaves, who in their turn +fell into confusion. Turner, Hark, and about twenty men on horseback +retreated in some order; the rest were scattered. The leader still +planned to reach Jerusalem by a private way, thus evading pursuit; +but at last decided to stop for the night, in the hope of enlisting +additional recruits. + +During the night the number increased again to forty, and they +encamped on Major Ridley's plantation. An alarm took place during the +darkness,--whether real or imaginary does not appear,--and the men +became scattered again. Proceeding to make fresh enlistments with the +daylight, they were resisted at Dr. Blunt's house, where his slaves, +under his orders, fired upon them, and this, with a later attack from a +party of white men near Captain Harris's, so broke up the whole force +that they never reunited. The few who remained together agreed to +separate for a few hours to see if anything could be done to revive the +insurrection, and meet again that evening at their original rendezvous. +But they never reached it. + +Sadly came Nat Turner at nightfall into those gloomy woods where +forty-eight hours before he had revealed the details of his terrible +plot to his companions. At the outset all his plans had succeeded; +everything was as he predicted: the slaves had come readily at his call, +the masters had proved perfectly defenceless. Had he not been persuaded +to pause at Parker's plantation, he would have been master before now +of the arms and ammunition at Jerusalem; and with these to aid, and the +Dismal Swamp for a refuge, he might have sustained himself indefinitely +against his pursuers. + +Now the blood was shed, the risk was incurred, his friends were killed +or captured, and all for what? Lasting memories of terror, to be sure, +for his oppressors; but on the other hand, hopeless failure for the +insurrection, and certain death for him. What a watch he must have kept +that night! To that excited imagination, which had always seen spirits +in the sky and blood-drops on the corn and hieroglyphic marks on the dry +leaves, how full the lonely forest must have been of signs and solemn +warnings! Alone with the fox's bark, the rabbit's rustle, and the +screech-owl's scream, the self-appointed prophet brooded over his +despair. Once creeping to the edge of the wood, he saw men stealthily +approach on horseback. He fancied them some of his companions; but +before he dared to whisper their ominous names, "Hark" or "Dred,"--for +the latter was the name, since famous, of one of his more recent +recruits,--he saw them to be white men, and shrank back stealthily +beneath his covert. + +There he waited two weary days and two melancholy nights,--long +enough to satisfy himself that no one would rejoin him, and that the +insurrection had hopelessly failed. The determined, desperate spirits +who had shared his plans were scattered forever, and longer delay would +be destruction for him also. He found a spot which he judged safe, dug +a hole under a pile of fence-rails in a field, and lay there for six +weeks, only leaving it for a few moments at midnight to obtain water +from a neighboring spring. Food he had previously provided, without +discovery, from a house near by. + +Meanwhile an unbounded variety of rumors went flying through the State. +The express which first reached the Governor announced that the militia +were retreating before the slaves. An express to Petersburg further +fixed the number of militia at three hundred, and of blacks at eight +hundred, and invented a convenient shower of rain to explain the +dampened ardor of the whites. Later reports described the slaves as +making three desperate attempts to cross the bridge over the Nottoway +between Cross Keys and Jerusalem, and stated that the leader had been +shot in the attempt. Other accounts put the number of negroes at three +hundred, all well mounted and armed, with two or three white men as +leaders. Their intention was supposed to be to reach the Dismal Swamp, +and they must be hemmed in from that side. + +Indeed, the most formidable weapon in the hands of slave-insurgents is +always this blind panic they create, and the wild exaggerations which +follow. The worst being possible, every one takes the worst for granted. +Undoubtedly a dozen armed men could have stifled this insurrection, even +after it had commenced operations; but it is the fatal weakness of a +slaveholding community, that it can never furnish men promptly for such +a purpose, "My first intention was," says one of the most intelligent +newspaper narrators of the affair, "to have attacked them with thirty or +forty men; but those who had families here were strongly opposed to it." + +As usual, each man was pinioned to his own hearth-stone. As usual, aid +had to be summoned from a distance, and, as usual, the United States +troops were the chief reliance. Colonel House, commanding at +Fort Monroe, sent at once three companies of artillery under +Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, and embarked them on board the steamer Hampton +for Suffolk. These were joined by detachments from the United States +ships Warren and Natchez, the whole amounting to nearly eight hundred +men. Two volunteer companies went from Richmond, four from Petersburg, +one from Norfolk, one from Portsmouth, and several from North Carolina. +The militia of Norfolk, Nansemond, and Princess Anne Counties, and the +United States troops at Old Point Comfort, were ordered to scour the +Dismal Swamp, where it was believed that two or three thousand fugitives +were preparing to join the insurgents. It was even proposed to send two +companies from New York and one from New London to the same point. + +When these various forces reached Southampton County, they found +all labor paralyzed and whole plantations abandoned. A letter from +Jerusalem, dated August 24th, says, "The oldest inhabitant of our county +has never experienced such a distressing time as we have had since +Sunday night last..... Every house, room, and corner in this place is +full of women and children, driven from home, who had to take the woods +until they could get to this place." "For many miles around their +track," says another, "the county is deserted by women and children." +Still another writes, "Jerusalem is full of women, most of them from +the other side of the river,--about two hundred at Vix's." Then follow +descriptions of the sufferings of these persons, many of whom had lain +night after night in the woods. But the immediate danger was at an end, +the short-lived insurrection was finished, and now the work of +vengeance was to begin. In the frank phrase of a North Carolina +correspondent,--"The massacre of the whites was over, and the white +people had commenced the destruction of the negroes, which was continued +after our men got there, from time to time, as they could fall in with +them, all day yesterday." A postscript adds, that "passengers by the +Fayetteville stage say, that, by the latest accounts, one hundred and +twenty negroes had been killed,"--this being little more than one day's +work. + +These murders were defended as Nat Turner defended his: a fearful blow +must be struck. In shuddering at the horrors of the insurrection, we +have forgotten the far greater horrors of its suppression. + +The newspapers of the day contain many indignant protests against the +cruelties which took place. "It is with pain," says a correspondent +of the "National Intelligencer," September 7, 1831, "that we speak of +another feature of the Southampton Rebellion; for we have been most +unwilling to have our sympathies for the sufferers diminished or +affected by their misconduct. We allude to the slaughter of many blacks +without trial and under circumstances of great barbarity..... We met +with an individual of intelligence who told us that he himself had +killed between ten and fifteen..... We [the Richmond troop] witnessed +with surprise the sanguinary temper of the population, who evinced a +strong disposition to inflict immediate death on every prisoner." + +There is a remarkable official document from General Eppes, the officer +in command, to be found in the "Richmond Enquirer" for September 6, +1831. It is an indignant denunciation of precisely these outrages; and +though he refuses to give details, he supplies their place by epithets: +"revolting,"--"inhuman and not to be justified,"--"acts of barbarity and +cruelty,"--"acts of atrocity,"--"this course of proceeding dignifies the +rebel and the assassin with the sanctity of martyrdom." And he ends by +threatening martial law upon all future transgressors. Such general +orders are not issued except in rather extreme cases. And in the +parallel columns of the newspaper the innocent editor prints equally +indignant descriptions of Russian atrocities in Lithuania, where the +Poles were engaged in active insurrection, amid profuse sympathy from +Virginia. + +The truth is, it was a Reign of Terror. Volunteer patrols rode in all +directions, visiting plantations. "It was with the greatest difficulty," +said General Brodnax before the House of Delegates, "and at the hazard +of personal popularity and esteem, that the coolest and most +judicious among us could exert an influence sufficient to restrain an +indiscriminate slaughter of the blacks who were suspected." A letter +from the Rev. G.W. Powell declares, "There are thousands of troops +searching in every direction, and many negroes are killed every day: the +exact number will never be ascertained." Petition after petition was +subsequently presented to the legislature, asking compensation for +slaves thus assassinated without trial. + +Men were tortured to death, burned, maimed, and subjected to nameless +atrocities. The overseers were called on to point out any slaves whom +they distrusted, and if any tried to escape, they were shot down. Nay, +worse than this. "A party of horsemen started from Richmond with the +intention of killing every colored person they saw in Southampton +County. They stopped opposite the cabin of a free colored man, who +was hoeing in his little field. They called out, 'Is this Southampton +County?' He replied, 'Yes, Sir, you have just crossed the line, by +yonder tree.' They shot him dead and rode on." This is from the +narrative of the editor of the "Richmond Whig," who was then on duty in +the militia, and protested manfully against these outrages. "Some +of these scenes," he adds, "are hardly inferior in barbarity to the +atrocities of the insurgents." + +These were the masters' stones. If even these conceded so much, it would +be interesting to hear what the slaves had to report. I am indebted to +my honored friend, Lydia Maria Child, for some vivid recollections of +this terrible period, as noted down from the lips of an old colored +woman, once well known in New York, Charity Bower. "At the time of the +old Prophet Nat," she said, "the colored folks was afraid to pray loud; +for the whites threatened to punish 'em dreadfully, if the least noise +was heard. The patrols was low drunken whites, and in Nat's time, if +they heard any of the colored folks praying or singing a hymn, they +would fall upon 'em and abuse 'em, and sometimes kill 'em, afore master +or missis could get to 'em. The brightest and best was killed in Nat's +time. The whites always suspect such ones. They killed a great many at +a place called Duplon. They killed Antonio, a slave of Mr. J. Stanley, +whom they shot; then they pointed their guns at him, and told him to +confess about the insurrection. He told 'em he didn't know anything +about any insurrection. They shot several balls through him, quartered +him, and put his head on a pole at the fork of the road leading to the +court." (This is no exaggeration, if the Virginia newspapers may be +taken as evidence.) "It was there but a short time. He had no trial. +They never do. In Nat's time, the patrols would tie up the free colored +people, flog 'em, and try to make 'em lie against one another, and +often killed them before anybody could interfere. Mr. James Cole, High +Sheriff, said, if any of the patrols came on his plantation, he would +lose his life in defence of his people. One day he heard a patroller +boasting how many niggers he had killed. Mr. Cole said, 'If you don't +pack up, as quick as God Almighty will let you, and get out of this +town, and never be seen in it again, I'll put you where dogs won't bark +at you.' He went off, and wasn't seen in them parts again." + +These outrages were not limited to the colored population; but other +instances occurred which strikingly remind one of more recent times. An +Englishman, named Robinson, was engaged in selling books at Petersburg. +An alarm being given, one night, that five hundred blacks were marching +towards the town, he stood guard, with others, on the bridge. After the +panic had a little subsided, he happened to remark, that "the blacks, as +men, were entitled to their freedom, and ought to be emancipated." +This led to great excitement, and he was warned to leave town. He took +passage in the stage, but the stage was intercepted. He then fled to a +friend's house; the house was broken open, and he was dragged forth. +The civil authorities, being applied to, refused to interfere. The mob +stripped him, gave him a great number of lashes, and sent him on foot, +naked, under a hot sun, to Richmond, whence he with difficulty found a +passage to New York. + +Of the capture or escape of most of that small band who met with Nat +Turner in the woods upon the Travis plantation little can now be known. +All appear among the list of convicted, except Henry and Will. General +Moore, who occasionally figures as second in command, in the newspaper +narratives of that day, was probably the Hark or Hercules before +mentioned; as no other of the confederates had belonged to Mrs. Travis, +or would have been likely to bear her previous name of Moore. As usual, +the newspapers state that most, if not all the slaves, were "the +property of kind and indulgent masters." Whether in any case they were +also the sons of those masters is a point ignored; but from the fact +that three out of the seven were at first reported as being white men by +several different witnesses,--the whole number being correctly given, +and the statement therefore probably authentic,--one must suppose that +there was an admixture of patrician blood in some of these conspirators. + +The subordinate insurgents sought safety as they could. A free colored +man, named Will Artist, shot himself in the woods, where his hat was +found on a stake and his pistol lying by him; another was found drowned; +others were traced to the Dismal Swamp; others returned to their homes, +and tried to conceal their share in the insurrection, assuring their +masters that they had been forced, against their will, to join,--the +usual defence in such cases. The number shot down at random must, by +all accounts, have amounted to many hundreds, but it is past all human +registration now. The number who had a formal trial, such as it was, is +officially stated at fifty-five; of these, seventeen were convicted and +hanged, twelve convicted and transported, twenty acquitted, and four +free colored men sent on for further trial and finally acquitted. "Not +one of those known to be concerned escaped." Of those executed, one only +was a woman: "Lucy, slave of John T. Barrow": that is all her epitaph, +shorter even than that of Wordsworth's more famous Lucy;--but whether +this one was old or young, pure or wicked, lovely or repulsive, octroon +or negro, a Cassy, an Emily, or a Topsy, no information appears; she was +a woman, she was a slave, and she died. + +There is one touching story, in connection with these terrible +retaliations, which rests on good authority, that of the Rev. M.B. Cox, +a Liberian missionary, then in Virginia. In the hunt which followed the +massacre, a slaveholder went into the woods, accompanied by a +faithful slave, who had been the means of saving his life during the +insurrection. When they had reached a retired place in the forest, the +man handed his gun to his master, informing him that he could not live a +slave any longer, and requesting him either to free him or shoot him on +the spot. The master took the gun, in some trepidation, levelled it at +the faithful negro, and shot him through the heart. It is probable that +this slaveholder was a Dr. Blunt,--his being the only plantation where +the slaves were reported as thus defending their masters. "If this +be true," said the "Richmond Enquirer," when it first narrated this +instance of loyalty, "great will be the desert of these noble minded +Africans." This "noble-minded African," at least, estimated his own +desert at a high standard: he demanded freedom,--and obtained it. + +Meanwhile the panic of the whites continued; for, though all others +might be disposed of, Nat Turner was still at large. We have positive +evidence of the extent of the alarm, although great efforts were +afterwards made to represent it as a trifling affair. A distinguished +citizen of Virginia wrote three months later to the Hon. W.B. Seabrook +of South Carolina,--"From all that has come to my knowledge during and +since that affair, I am convinced most fully that every black preacher +in the country east of the Blue Ridge was in the secret." "There is much +reason to believe," says the Governor's message on December 6th, "that +the spirit of insurrection was not confined to Southampton. Many +convictions have taken place elsewhere, and some few in distant +counties." The withdrawal of the United States troops, after some ten +days' service, was a signal for fresh excitement, and an address, +numerously signed, was presented to the United States Government, +imploring their continued stay. More than three weeks after the first +alarm, the Governor sent a supply of arms into Prince William, Fauquier, +and Orange Counties. "From examinations which have taken place in other +counties," says one of the best newspaper historians of the affair, +(in the "Richmond Enquirer" of September 6th,) "I fear that the scheme +embraced a wider sphere than I at first supposed." Nat Turner himself, +intentionally or otherwise, increased the confusion by denying all +knowledge of the North Carolina outbreak, and declaring that he had +communicated his plans to his four confederates within six months; +while, on the other hand, a slave-girl, sixteen or seventeen years old, +belonging to Solomon Parker, notified that she had heard the subject +discussed for eighteen months, and that at a meeting held during the +previous May some eight or ten had joined the plot. + +It is astonishing to discover, by laborious comparison of newspaper +files, how vast was the immediate range of these insurrectionary alarms. +Every Southern State seems to have borne its harvest of terror. On the +Eastern shore of Maryland great alarm was at once manifested, especially +in the neighborhood of Easton and Snowhill; and the houses of colored +men were searched for arms even in Baltimore. In Delaware, there were +similar rumors through Sussex and Dover Counties; there were arrests and +executions; and in Somerset County great public meetings were held, to +demand additional safeguards. On election-day, in Seaford, Del., some +young men, going out to hunt rabbits, discharged their guns in sport; +the men being absent, all the women in the vicinity took to flight; the +alarm spread like the "Ipswich Fright"; soon Seaford was thronged with +armed men; and when the boys returned from hunting, they found cannon +drawn out to receive them. + +In North Carolina, Raleigh and Fayetteville were put under military +defence, and women and children concealed themselves in the swamps for +many days. The rebel organization was supposed to include two thousand. +Forty-six slaves were imprisoned in Union County, twenty-five in Sampson +County, and twenty-three at least in Duplin County, some of whom were +executed. The panic also extended into Wayne, New Hanover, and Lenoir +Counties. Four men were shot without trial in Wilmington,--Nimrod, +Abraham, Prince, and "Dan the Drayman," the latter a man of +seventy,--and their heads placed on poles at the four corners of the +town. Nearly two months afterwards the trials were still continuing; and +at a still later day, the Governor in his proclamation recommended the +formation of companies of volunteers in every county. + +In South Carolina, General Hayne issued a proclamation "to prove the +groundlessness of the existing alarms,"--thus implying that serious +alarms existed. In Macon, Georgia, the whole population were roused from +their beds at midnight by a report of a large force of armed negroes +five miles off. In an hour, every woman and child was deposited in the +largest building of the town, and a military force hastily collected in +front. The editor of the Macon "Messenger" excused the poor condition of +his paper, a few days afterwards, by the absorption of his workmen in +patrol duties, and describes "dismay and terror" as the condition of the +people, of "all ages and sexes." In Jones, Twiggs, and Monroe Counties, +the same alarms were reported; and in one place "several slaves were +tied to a tree, while a militia captain hacked at them with his sword." + +In Alabama, at Columbus and Fort Mitchell, a rumor was spread of a joint +conspiracy of Indians and negroes. At Claiborne the panic was still +greater; the slaves were said to be thoroughly organized through that +part of the State, and multitudes were imprisoned; the whole alarm being +apparently founded on one stray copy of the "Liberator." + +In Tennessee, the Shelbyville "Freeman" announced that an +insurrectionary plot had just been discovered, barely in time for +its defeat, through the treachery of a female slave. In Louisville, +Kentucky, a similar organization was discovered or imagined, and arrests +were made in consequence. "The papers, from motives of policy, do +not notice the disturbance," wrote one correspondent to the Portland +"Courier." "Pity us!" he added. + +But the greatest bubble burst in Louisiana. Captain Alexander, an +English tourist, arriving in New Orleans at the beginning of September, +found the whole city in tumult. Handbills had been issued, appealing to +the slaves to rise against their masters, saying that all men were born +equal, declaring that Hannibal was a black man, and that they also might +have great leaders among them. Twelve hundred stand of weapons were said +to have been found in a black man's house; five hundred citizens were +under arms, and four companies of regulars were ordered to the city, +whose barracks Alexander himself visited. + +If such were the alarm in New Orleans, the story, of course, lost +nothing by transmission to other Slave States. A rumor reached +Frankfort, Kentucky, that the slaves already had possession of the +coast, both above and below New Orleans. But the most remarkable +circumstance is, that all this seems to have been a mere revival of an +old terror, once before excited and exploded. The following paragraph +had appeared in the Jacksonville (Georgia) "Observer," during the spring +previous:-- + +"FEARFUL DISCOVERY. We were favored, by yesterday's mail, with a letter +from New Orleans, of May 1st, in which we find that an important +discovery had been made a few days previous in that city. The following +is an extract:--'Four days ago, as some planters were digging under +ground, they found a square room containing eleven thousand stand of +arms and fifteen thousand cartridges, each of the cartridges containing +a bullet.' It is said the negroes intended to rise as soon as the sickly +season began, and obtain possession of the city by massacring the white +population. The same letter states that the mayor had prohibited the +opening of Sunday-schools for the instruction of blacks, under a penalty +of five hundred dollars for the first offence, and for the second, +death." + +Such were the terrors that came back from nine other Slave States, as +the echo of the voice of Nat Turner; and when it is also known that the +subject was at once taken up by the legislatures of other States, where +there was no public panic, as in Missouri and Tennessee,--and when, +finally, it is added that reports of insurrection had been arriving all +that year from Rio Janeiro, Martinique, St. Jago, Antigua, Caraccas, and +Tortola, it is easy to see with what prolonged distress the accumulated +terror must have weighed down upon Virginia, during the two months that +Nat Turner lay hid. + +True, there were a thousand men in arms in Southampton County, to +inspire security. But the blow had been struck by only seven men before; +and unless there were an armed guard in every house, who could tell but +any house might at any moment be the scene of new horrors? They might +kill or imprison unresisting negroes by day, but could they resist their +avengers by night? "The half cannot be told," wrote a lady from another +part of Virginia, at this time, "of the distresses of the people. In +Southampton County, the scene of the insurrection, the distress beggars +description. A gentleman who has been there says that even here, where +there has been great alarm, we have no idea of the situation of those in +that county.... I do not hesitate to believe that many negroes around us +would join in a massacre as horrible as that which has taken place, if +an opportunity should offer." + +Meanwhile the cause of all this terror was made the object of desperate +search. On September 17th the Governor offered a reward of five hundred +dollars for his capture, and there were other rewards swelling the +amount to eleven hundred dollars,--but in vain. No one could track or +trap him. On September 30th a minute account of his capture appeared +in the newspapers, but it was wholly false. On October 7th there was +another, and on October 18th another; yet all without foundation. Worn +out by confinement in his little cave, Nat Turner grew more adventurous, +and began to move about stealthily by night, afraid to speak to any +human being, but hoping to obtain some information that might aid his +escape. Returning regularly to his retreat before daybreak, he might +possibly have continued this mode of life until pursuit had ceased, had +not a dog succeeded where men had failed. The creature accidentally +smelt out the provisions hid in the cave, and finally led thither his +masters, two negroes, one of whom was named Nelson. On discovering the +terrible fugitive, they fled precipitately, when he hastened to retreat +in an opposite direction. This was on October 15th, and from this moment +the neighborhood was all alive with excitement, and five or six hundred +men undertook the pursuit. + +It shows a more than Indian adroitness in Nat Turner to have escaped +capture any longer. The cave, the arms, the provisions were found; and +lying among them the notched stick of this miserable Robinson Crusoe, +marked with five weary weeks and six days. But the man was gone. For ten +days more he concealed himself among the wheat-stacks on Mr. Francis's +plantation, and during this time was reduced almost to despair. Once he +decided to surrender himself, and walked by night within two miles of +Jerusalem before his purpose failed him. Three times he tried to get out +of that neighborhood, but in vain: travelling by day was, of course, +out of the question, and by night he found it impossible to elude the +patrol. Again and again, therefore, he returned to his hiding-place, +and during his whole two months' liberty never went five miles from the +Cross Keys. On the 25th of October, he was at last discovered by Mr. +Francis, as he was emerging from a stack. A load of buckshot was +instantly discharged at him, twelve of which passed through his hat +as he fell to the ground. He escaped even then, but his pursuers were +rapidly concentrating upon him, and it is perfectly astonishing that he +could have eluded them for five days more. + +On Sunday, October 30th, a man named Benjamin Phipps, going out for the +first time on patrol duty, was passing at noon a clearing in the woods +where a number of pine-trees had long since been felled. There was a +motion among their boughs; he stopped to watch it; and through a gap in +the branches he saw, emerging from a hole in the earth beneath, the +face of Nat Turner. Aiming his gun instantly, Phipps called on him +to surrender. The fugitive, exhausted with watching and privation, +entangled in the branches, armed only with a sword, had nothing to do +but to yield; sagaciously reflecting, also, as he afterwards explained, +that the woods were full of armed men, and that he had better trust +fortune for some later chance of escape, instead of desperately +attempting it then. He was correct in the first impression, since there +were fifty armed scouts within a circuit of two miles. His insurrection +ended where it began; for this spot was only a mile and a half from the +house of Joseph Travis. + +Torn, emaciated, ragged, "a mere scarecrow," still wearing the hat +perforated with buckshot, with his arms bound to his sides, he was +driven before the levelled gun to the nearest house, that of a Mr. +Edwards. He was confined there that night; but the news had spread so +rapidly that within an hour after his arrival a hundred persons had +collected, and the excitement became so intense "that it was with +difficulty he could be conveyed alive to Jerusalem." The enthusiasm +spread instantly through Virginia; Mr. Trezvant, the Jerusalem +postmaster, sent notices of it far and near; and Governor Floyd himself +wrote a letter to the "Richmond Enquirer" to give official announcement +of the momentous capture. + +When Nat Turner was asked by Mr. T.R. Gray, the counsel assigned him, +whether, although defeated, he still believed in his own Providential +mission, he answered, as simply as one who came thirty years after him, +"Was not Christ crucified?" In the same spirit, when arraigned before +the court, "he answered, 'Not guilty,' saying to his counsel that he did +not feel so." But apparently no argument was made in his favor by his +counsel, nor were any witnesses called,--he being convicted on the +testimony of Levi Waller, and upon his own confession, which was put in +by Mr. Gray, and acknowledged by the prisoner before the six justices +composing the court, as being "full, free, and voluntary." He was +therefore placed in the paradoxical position of conviction by his own +confession, under a plea of "Not guilty." The arrest took place on the +thirtieth of October, 1831, the confession on the first of November, the +trial and conviction on the fifth, and the execution on the following +Friday, the eleventh of November, precisely at noon. He met his death +with perfect composure, declined addressing the multitude assembled, and +told the sheriff in a firm voice that he was ready. Another account says +that he "betrayed no emotion, and even hurried the executioner in the +performance of his duty." "Not a limb nor a muscle was observed to +move. His body, after his death, was given over to the surgeons for +dissection." + +This last statement merits remark. There would he no evidence that this +formidable man was not favored during his imprisonment with that full +measure of luxury which slave-jails afford to slaves, but for a rumor +which arose after the execution, that he was compelled to sell his body +in advance, for purposes of dissection, in exchange for food. But it +does not appear probable, from the known habits of Southern anatomists, +that any such bargain could have been needed. For in the circular of the +South Carolina Medical School for that very year I find this remarkable +suggestion:--"Some advantages of a peculiar character are connected +with this institution. No place in the United States affords so great +opportunities for the acquisition of medical knowledge, subjects being +obtained among the colored population in sufficient number for every +purpose, and proper dissections carried on without offending any +individual." What a convenience, to possess for scientific purposes a +class of population sufficiently human to be dissected, but not human +enough to be supposed to take offence at it! And as the same arrangement +may be supposed to have existed in Virginia, Nat Turner would hardly +have gone through the formality of selling his body for food to those +who claimed its control at any rate. + +The Confession of the captive was published under authority of Mr. Gray, +in a pamphlet, at Baltimore. Fifty thousand copies of it are said to +have been printed, and it was "embellished with an accurate likeness +of the brigand, taken by Mr. John Crawley. portrait-painter, and +lithographed by Endicott & Swett, at Baltimore." The newly published +"Liberator" said of it, at the time, that it would "only serve to rouse +up other leaders, and hasten other insurrections," and advised grand +juries to indict Mr. Gray. I have never seen a copy of the original +pamphlet, it is not to be found in any of our public libraries, and I +have heard of but one as still existing, although the Confession itself +has been repeatedly reprinted. Another small pamphlet, containing the +main features of the outbreak, was published at New York during the same +year, and this is in my possession. But the greater part of the facts +which I have given were gleaned from the contemporary newspapers. + +Who now shall go back thirty years and read the heart of this +extraordinary man, who, by the admission of his captors, "never was +known to swear an oath or drink a drop of spirits,"--who, on the same +authority, "for natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension was +surpassed by few men," "with a mind capable of attaining anything,"--who +knew no book but his Bible, and that by heart,--who devoted himself +soul and body to the cause of his race, without a trace of personal hope +or fear,--who laid his plans so shrewdly that they came at last with +less warning than any earthquake on the doomed community around,--and +who, when that time arrived, took the life of man, woman, and child, +without a throb of compunction, a word of exultation, or an act of +superfluous outrage? Mrs. Stowe's "Dred" seems dim and melodramatic +beside the actual Nat Turner. De Quincey's "Avenger" is his only +parallel in imaginative literature: similar wrongs, similar retribution. +Mr. Gray, his self-appointed confessor, rises into a sort of bewildered +enthusiasm, with the prisoner before him. "I shall not attempt to +describe the effect of his narrative, as told and commented on by +himself, in the condemned-hole of the prison. The calm, deliberate +composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the +expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, still +bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him, clothed +with rags and covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled +hands to heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man,--I +looked on him, and the blood curdled in my veins." + +But the more remarkable the personal character of Nat Turner, the +greater the amazement felt that he should not have appreciated the +extreme felicity of his position as a slave. In all insurrections, the +standing wonder seems to be that the slaves most trusted and best used +should be most deeply involved. So in this case, as usual, they resorted +to the most astonishing theories of the origin of the affair. One +attributed it to Free-Masonry, and another to free whiskey,--liberty +appearing dangerous, even in these forms. The poor whites charged it +upon the free colored people, and urged their expulsion, forgetting that +in North Carolina the plot was betrayed by one of this class, and that +in Virginia there were but two engaged, both of whom had slave-wives. +The slaveholding clergymen traced it to want of knowledge of the Bible, +forgetting that Nat Turner knew scarcely anything else. On the other +hand, "a distinguished citizen of Virginia" combined in one sweeping +denunciation "Northern incendiaries, tracts, Sunday-schools, religion, +reading, and writing." + +But whether the theories of its origin were wise or foolish, +the insurrection made its mark, and the famous band of Virginia +emancipationists who all that winter made the House of Delegates ring +with unavailing eloquence--till the rise of slave-exportation to +new cotton regions stopped their voices--were but the unconscious +mouth-pieces of Nat Turner. In January, 1832, in reply to a member who +had called the outbreak a "petty affair," the eloquent James McDowell +thus described the impression it left behind:-- + +"Now, Sir, I ask you, I ask gentlemen, in conscience to say, was that +a 'petty affair' which startled the feelings of your whole +population,--which threw a portion of it into alarm, a portion of it +into panic,--which wrung out from an affrighted people the thrilling +cry, day after day, conveyed to your executive, '_We are in peril of our +lives; send us an army for defence_'? Was that a 'petty affair' which +drove families from their homes,--which assembled women and children in +crowds, without shelter, at places of common refuge, in every condition +of weakness and infirmity, under every suffering which want and terror +could inflict, yet willing to endure all, willing to meet death from +famine, death from climate, death from hardships, preferring anything +rather than the horrors of meeting it from a domestic assassin? Was that +a 'petty affair' which erected a peaceful and confiding portion of the +State into a military camp,--which outlawed from pity the unfortunate +beings whose brothers had offended,--which barred every door, penetrated +every bosom with fear or suspicion,--which so banished every sense of +security from every man's dwelling, that, let but a hoof or horn break +upon the silence of the night, and an aching throb would be driven to +the heart, the husband would look to his weapon, and the mother would +shudder and weep upon her cradle? Was it the fear of Nat Turner, and his +deluded, drunken handful of followers, which produced such effects? +Was it this that induced distant counties, where the very name of +Southampton was strange, to arm and equip for a struggle? No, Sir, +it was the suspicion eternally attached to the slave himself,--the +suspicion that a Nat Turner might be in every family,--that the same +bloody deed might be acted over at any time and in any place,--that the +materials for it were spread through the land, and were always ready for +a like explosion. Nothing but the force of this withering apprehension, +--nothing but the paralyzing and deadening weight with which it falls +upon and prostrates the heart of every man who has helpless dependents +to protect,--nothing but this could have thrown a brave people +into consternation, or could have made any portion of this powerful +Commonwealth, for a single instant, to have quailed and trembled." + +While these things were going on, the enthusiasm for the Polish +Revolution was rising to its height. The nation was ringing with a peal +of joy, on hearing that at Frankfort the Poles had killed fourteen +thousand Russians. "The Southern Religious Telegraph" was publishing an +impassioned address to Kosciusko; standards were being consecrated for +Poland in the larger cities; heroes, like Skrzynecki, Czartoryski, +Rozyski, Kaminski, were choking the trump of Fame with their complicated +patronymics. These are all forgotten now; and this poor negro, who did +not even possess a name, beyond one abrupt monosyllable,--for even the +name of Turner was the master's property,--still lives a memory of +terror and a symbol of retribution triumphant. + + + + +CONCERNING VEAL: + +A DISCOURSE OF IMMATURITY. + + +The man who, in his progress through life, has listened with attention +to the conversation of human beings, who has carefully read the writings +of the best English authors, who has made himself well acquainted with +the history and usages of his native land, and who has meditated much on +all he has seen and read, must have been led to the firm conviction that +by VEAL those who speak the English language intend to denote the flesh +of calves, and that by a calf is intended an immature ox or cow. A calf +is a creature in a temporary and progressive stage of its being. It will +not always be a calf; if it live long enough, it will assuredly cease to +be a calf. And if impatient man, arresting the creature at that stage, +should consign it to the hands of him whose business it is to convert +the sentient animal into the impassive and unconscious meat, the +nutriment which the creature will afford will be nothing more than +immature beef. There may be many qualities of Veal; the calf which +yields it may die at very different stages in its physical and moral +development; but provided only it die as a calf,--provided only that its +meat can fitly be styled Veal,--_this_ will be characteristic of +it, that the meat shall be immature meat. It may be very good, very +nutritious and palatable; some people may like it better than Beef, and +may feed upon it with the liveliest satisfaction; but when it is fairly +and deliberately put to us, it must be admitted, even by such as like +Veal the best, that Veal is but an immature production of Nature. I take +Veal, therefore, as the emblem of IMMATURITY,--of that which is now in +a stage out of which it must grow,--of that which, as time goes on, +will grow older, will probably grow better, will certainly grow very +different. _That_ is what I mean by Veal. + +And now, my reader and friend, you will discern the subject about which +I trust we are to have some pleasant and not unprofitable thought +together. You will readily believe that my subject is not that material +Veal which may be beheld and purchased in the butchers' shops. I am not +now to treat of its varied qualities, of the sustenance which it yields, +of the price at which it may be procured, or of the laws according to +which that price rises and falls. I am not going to take you to the +green fields in which the creature which yielded the Veal was fed, or to +discourse of the blossoming hawthorn hedges from whose midst it was reft +away. Neither shall I speak of the rustic life, the toils, cares, and +fancies of the farm-house near which it spent its brief lifetime. The +Veal of which I intend to speak is Moral Veal, or (to speak with +entire accuracy) Veal Intellectual, Moral, and Aesthetical. By Veal +I understand the immature productions of the human mind,--immature +compositions, immature opinions, feelings, and tastes. I wish to think +of the work, the views, the fancies, the emotions, which are yielded by +the human soul in its immature stages,--while the calf (so to speak) +is only growing into the ox,--while the clever boy, with his absurd +opinions and feverish feelings and fancies, is developing into the +mature and sober-minded man. And if I could but rightly set out the +thoughts which have at many different times occurred to me on this +matter, if one could catch and fix the vague glimpses and passing +intuitions of solid unchanging truth, if the subject on which one has +thought long and felt deeply were always that on which one could write +best, and could bring out to the sympathy of others what a man himself +has felt, what an excellent essay this would be! But it will not be so; +for, as I try to grasp the thoughts I would set out, they melt away and +elude me. It is like trying to catch and keep the rainbow hues you have +seen the sunshine cast upon the spray of a waterfall, when you try to +catch the tone, the thoughts, the feelings, the atmosphere of early +youth. + +There can be no question at all as to the fact, that clever young men +and women, when their minds begin to open, when they begin to think for +themselves, do pass through a stage of mental development which they +by-and-by quite outgrow, and entertain opinions and beliefs, and +feel emotions, on which afterwards they look back with no sympathy or +approval. This is a fact as certain as that a calf grows into an ox, or +that veal, if spared to grow, will become beef. But no analogy between +the material and the moral must be pushed too far. There are points of +difference between material and moral Veal. A calf knows it is a calf. +It may think itself bigger and wiser than an ox, but it knows it is not +an ox. And if it be a reasonable calf, modest, and free from prejudice, +it is well aware that the joints it will yield after its demise will be +very different from those of the stately and well-consolidated ox which +ruminates in the rich pasture near it. But the human boy often thinks he +is a man, and even more than a man. He fancies that his mental stature +is as big and as solid as it will ever become. He fancies that his +mental productions--the poems and essays he writes, the political +and social views he forms, the moods of feeling with which he regards +things--are just what they may always be, just what they ought always to +be. If spared in this world, and if he be one of those whom years make +wiser, the day comes when he looks back with amazement and shame on +those early mental productions. He discerns now how immature, absurd, +and extravagant they were,--in brief, how Vealy. But at the time, he +had not the least idea that they were so. He had entire confidence in +himself,--not a misgiving as to his own ability and wisdom. You, clever +young student of eighteen years old, when you wrote your prize essay, +fancied that in thought and style it was very like Macaulay,--and not +Macaulay in that stage of Vealy brilliancy in which he wrote his essay +on Milton, not Macaulay the fairest and most promising of calves, but +Macaulay the stateliest and most beautiful of oxen. Well, read over your +essay now at thirty, and tell us what you think of it. And you, clever, +warm-hearted, enthusiastic young preacher of twenty-four, wrote your +sermon; it was very ingenious, very brilliant in style, and you never +thought but that it would be felt by mature-minded Christian people as +suiting their case, as true to their inmost experience. You could not +see why you might not preach as well as a man of forty. And if people in +middle age had complained, that, eloquent as your preaching was, they +found it suited them better and profited them more to listen to the +plainer instructions of some good man with gray hair, you would not have +understood their feeling, and you might perhaps have attributed it to +many motives rather than the true one. But now at five-and-thirty, +find out the yellow manuscript, and read it carefully over; and I will +venture to say, that, if you were a really clever and eloquent young +man, writing in an ambitious and rhetorical style, and prompted to do +so by the spontaneous fervor of your heart and readiness of your +imagination, you will feel now little sympathy even with the literary +style of that early composition,--you will see extravagance and +bombast, where once you saw only eloquence and graphic power. And as for +the graver and more important matter of the thought of the discourse, +I think you will be aware of a certain undefinable shallowness and +crudity. Your growing experience has borne you beyond it. Somehow you +feel it does not come home to you, and suit you as you would wish it +should. It will not do. That old sermon you cannot preach now, till you +have entirely recast and rewritten it. But you had no such notion when +you wrote the sermon. You were satisfied with it. You thought it even +better than the discourses of men as clever as yourself, and ten or +fifteen years older. Your case was as though the youthful calf should +walk beside the sturdy ox, and think itself rather bigger. + +Let no clever young reader fancy, from what has been said, that I +am about to make an onslaught upon clever young men. I remember too +distinctly how bitter, and indeed ferocious, I used to feel, about +eleven or twelve years ago, when I heard men of more than middle age and +less than middling ability speak with contemptuous depreciation of the +productions and doings of men considerably their juniors, and vastly +their superiors,--describing them as _boys_, and as _clever lads_, with +looks of dark malignity. There are few more disgusting sights than +the envy and jealousy of their juniors, which may be seen in various +malicious, commonplace old men; as there is hardly a more beautiful and +pleasing sight than the old man hailing and counselling and encouraging +the youthful genius which he knows far surpasses his own. And I, my +young friend of two-and-twenty, who, relatively to you, may be regarded +as old, am going to assume no preposterous airs of superiority. I do not +claim to be a bit wiser than you; all I claim is to be older. I have +outgrown your stage; but I was once such as you, and all my sympathies +are with you yet. But it is a difficulty in the way of the essayist, +and, indeed, of all who set out opinions which they wish to be received +and acted on by their fellow-creatures, that they seem, by the very act +of offering advice to others, to claim to be wiser and better than those +whom they advise. But in reality it is not so. The opinions of the +essayist or of the preacher, if deserving of notice at all, are so +because of their inherent truth, and not because he expresses them. +Estimate them for yourself, and give them the weight which you think +their due. And be sure of this, that the writer, if earnest and sincere, +addressed all he said to himself as much as to any one else. This is the +thing which redeems all didactic writing or speaking from the charge of +offensive assumption and self-assertion. It is not for the preacher, +whether of moral or religious truth, to address his fellows as outside +sinners, worse than himself, and needing to be reminded of that of which +he does not need to be reminded. No, the earnest preacher preaches to +himself as much as to any in the congregation; it is from the picture +ever before him in his own weak and wayward heart that he learns to +reach and describe the hearts of others, if, indeed, he do so at all. +And it is the same with lesser things. + +It is curious and it is instructive to remark how heartily men, as they +grow towards middle age, despise themselves as they were a few years +since. It is a bitter thing for a man to confess that he is a fool; but +it costs little effort to declare that he was a fool, a good while ago. +Indeed, a tacit compliment to his present self is involved in the latter +confession: it suggests the reflection, what progress he has made, and +how vastly he has improved, since then. When a man informs us that he +was a very silly fellow in the year 1851, it is assumed that he is not a +very silly fellow in the year 1861. It is as when the merchant with ten +thousand a year, sitting at his sumptuous table, and sipping his '41 +claret, tells you how, when he came as a raw lad from the country, he +used often to have to go without his dinner. He knows that the plate, +the wine, the massively elegant apartment, the silent servants, so +alert, yet so impassive, will appear to join in chorus with the obvious +suggestion, "You see he has not to go without his dinner now!" Did you +ever, when twenty years old, look back at the diary you kept when +you were sixteen,--or when twenty-five, at the diary you kept when +twenty,--or at thirty, at the diary you kept when twenty-five? Was not +your feeling a singular mixture of humiliation and self-complacency? +What extravagant, silly stuff it seemed that you had thus written five +years before! What Veal! and, oh, what a calf he must have been who +wrote it! It is a difficult question, to which the answer cannot be +elicited, Who is the greatest fool in this world? But every candid and +sensible man of middle age knows thoroughly well the answer to the +question, Who was the greatest fool that he himself ever knew? And after +all, it is your diary, especially if you were wont to introduce into it +poetical remarks and moral reflections, that will mainly help you to +the humiliating conclusion. Other things, some of which I have already +named, will point in the same direction. Look at the prize essays you +wrote when you were a boy at school; look even at your earlier prize +essays written at college (though of these last I have something to say +hereafter); look at the letters you wrote home when away at school or +even at college, especially if you were a clever boy, trying to write +in a graphic and witty fashion; and if you have reached sense at last, +(which some, it may be remarked, never do,) I think you will blush even +through the unblushing front of manhood, and think what a terrific, +unutterable, conceited, intolerable blockhead you were. It is not till +people attain somewhat mature years that they can rightly understand +the wonderful forbearance their parents must have shown in listening +patiently to the frightful nonsense they talked and wrote. I have +already spoken of sermons. If you go early into the Church, say at +twenty-three or twenty-four, and write sermons regularly and diligently, +you know what landmarks they will be of your mental progress. The first +runnings of the stream are turbid, but it clears itself into sense and +taste month by month and year by year. You wrote many sermons in your +first year or two; you preached them with entire confidence in them, +and they did really keep up the attention of the congregation in a +remarkable way. You accumulate in a box a store of that valuable +literature and theology, and when by-and-by you go to another parish, +you have a comfortable feeling that you have a capital stock to go on +with. You think that any Monday morning, when you have the prospect of +a very busy week, or when you feel very weary, you may resolve that you +shall write no sermon that week, but just go and draw forth one from the +box. I have already said what you will probably find, even if you draw +forth a discourse which cost much labor. You cannot use it as it stands. +Possibly it may be structural and essential Veal: the whole framework of +thought may be immature. Possibly it may be Veal only in style; and by +cutting out a turgid sentence here and there, and, above all, by cutting +out all the passages which you thought particularly eloquent, the +discourse may do yet. But even then you cannot give it with much +confidence. Your mind can yield something better than that now. I +imagine how a fine old orange-tree, that bears oranges with the thinnest +possible skin and with no pips, juicy and rich, might feel that it has +outgrown the fruit of its first years, when the skin was half an inch +thick, the pips innumerable, and the eatable portion small and poor. It +is with a feeling such as _that_ that you read over your early +sermon. Still, mingling with the sense of shame, there is a certain +satisfaction. You have not been standing still; you have been getting +on. And we always like to think _that_. + +What is it that makes intellectual Veal? What are the things about a +composition which stamp it as such? Well, it is a certain character in +thought and style hard to define, but strongly felt by such as discern +its presence at all. It is strongly felt by professors reading the +compositions of their students, especially the compositions of the +cleverest students. It is strongly felt by educated folk of middle age, +in listening to the sermons of young pulpit orators, especially of +such as think for themselves, of such as aim at a high standard of +excellence, of such as have in them the makings of striking and eloquent +preachers. Dull and stupid fellows never deviate into the extravagance +and absurdity which I specially understand by Veal. They plod along in +a humdrum manner; there is no poetry in their soul,--none of those +ambitious stirrings which lead the man who has in him the true spark of +genius to try for grand things and incur severe and ignominious tumbles. +A heavy dray-horse, walking along the road, may possibly advance at a +very lagging pace, or may even stand still; but whatever he may do, he +is not likely to jump violently over the hedge, or to gallop off at +twenty-five miles an hour. It must be a thoroughbred who will go wrong +in that grand fashion. And there are intellectual absurdities and +extravagances which hold out hopeful promise of noble doings yet: the +eagle, which will breast the hurricane yet, may meet various awkward +tumbles before he learns the fashion in which to use those iron wings. +But the substantial goose, which probably escapes those tumbles in +trying to fly, will never do anything very magnificent in the way of +flying. The man who in his early days writes in a very inflated and +bombastic style will gradually sober down into good sense and accurate +taste, still retaining something of liveliness and eloquence. But expect +little of the man who as a boy was always sensible, and never bombastic. +He will grow awfully dry. He is sure to fall into the unpardonable sin +of tiresomeness. The rule has exceptions; but the earliest productions +of a man of real genius are almost always crude, flippant, and +affectedly smart, or else turgid and extravagant in a high degree. +Witness Mr. Disraeli; witness Sir E.B. Lytton; witness even Macaulay. +The man who as mere boy writes something very sound and sensible will +probably never become more than a dull, sensible, commonplace man. +Many people can say, as they bethink themselves of their old college +companions, that those who wrote with good sense and good taste at +twenty have mostly settled down into the dullest and baldest of prosers; +while such as dealt in bombastic flourishes and absurd ambitiousness of +style have learned, as time went on, to prune their early luxuriances, +while still retaining something of raciness, interest, and ornament. + +I have been speaking very generally of the characteristics of Veal in +composition. It is difficult to give any accurate description of it that +shall go into minuter details. Of course it is easy to think of little +external marks of the beast,--that is, the calf. It is Veal in style, +when people, writing prose, think it a fine thing to write _o'er_ +instead of _over_, _ne'er_ instead of _never_, _poesie_ instead of +_poetry_, and _methinks_ under any circumstances whatsoever. References +to the heart are generally of the nature of Veal; also allusions to the +mysterious throbbings and yearnings of our nature. The word _grand_ has +of late come to excite a strong suspicion of Veal; and when I read the +other day in a certain poem something about a _great grand man_, I +concluded that the writer of that poem was meanwhile a great grand calf. +The only case in which the words may properly be used together is in +speaking of your great-grandfather. To talk about _mine_ affections, +meaning _my_ affections, is Veal; and _mine bonnie love_ was decided +Veal, though it was written by Charlotte Bronté. _Wife mine_ is Veal, +though it stands in "The Caxtons." I should rather like to see the man +who in actual life is accustomed to address his spouse in that fashion. +To say _Not, oh, never_ shall we do so and so is outrageous Veal. +_Sylvan grove_ or _sylvan vale_ in ordinary conversation is Veal. The +word _glorious_ should be used with caution; when applied to trees, +mountains, or the like, there is a strong suspicion of Veal about it. +But one feels that in saying these things we are not getting at the +essence of Veal. Veal in thought is essential Veal, and it is very hard +to define. Beyond extravagant language, beyond absurd fine things, it +lies in a certain lack of reality and sobriety of sense and view,--in a +certain indefinable jejuneness in the mental fare provided, which makes +mature men feel that somehow it does not satisfy their cravings. You +know what I mean better than I can express it. You have seen and heard +a young preacher, with a rosy face and an unlined brow, preaching about +the cares and trials of life. Well, you just feel at once he knows +nothing about them. You feel that all this is at second-hand. He is +saying all this because he supposes it is the right thing to say. Give +me the pilot to direct me who has sailed through the difficult channel +many a time himself. Give me the friend to sympathize with me in sorrow +who has felt the like. There is a hollowness, a certain want, in the +talk about much tribulation of the very cleverest man who has never felt +any great sorrow at all. The great force and value of all teaching lie +in the amount of personal experience which is embodied in it. You feel +the difference between the production of a wonderfully clever boy and of +a mature man, when you read the first canto of "Childe Harold," and then +read "Philip van Artevelde." I do not say but that the boy's production +may have a liveliness and interest beyond the man's. Veal is in certain +respects superior to Beef, though Beef is best on the whole. I have +heard Vealy preachers whose sermons kept up breathless attention. From +the first word to the last of a sermon which was unquestionable Veal, I +have witnessed an entire congregation listen with that audible hush you +know. It was very different, indeed, from the state of matters when a +humdrum old gentleman was preaching, every word spoken by whom was the +maturest sense, expressed in words to which the most fastidious taste +could have taken no exception; but then the whole thing was sleepy: it +was a terrible effort to attend. In the case of the Veal there was no +effort at all. I defy you to help attending. But then you sat in pain. +Every second sentence there was some outrageous offence against good +taste; every third statement was absurd, or overdrawn, or almost +profane. You felt occasional thrills of pure disgust and horror, and you +were in terror what might come next. One thing which tended to carry all +this off was the manifest confidence and earnestness of the speaker. +_He_ did not think it Veal that he was saying. And though great +consternation was depicted on the faces of some of the better-educated +people in church, you could see that a very considerable part of the +congregation did not think it Veal either. There can be no doubt, my +middle-aged friend, if you could but give your early sermons now with +the confidence and fire of the time when you wrote them, they would make +a deep impression on many people yet. But it is simply impossible for +you to give them; and if you should force yourself some rainy Sunday to +preach one of them, you would give it with such a sense of its errors, +and with such an absence of corresponding feeling, that it would fall +very flat and dead. Your views are maturing; your taste is growing +fastidious; the strong things you once said you could not bring yourself +to say now. If you _could_ preach those old sermons, there is no doubt +they would go down with the mass of uncultivated folk,--go down better +than your mature and reasonable ones. We have all known such cases as +that of a young preacher who, at twenty-five, in his days of Veal, drew +great crowds to the church at which he preached, and who at thirty-five, +being a good deal tamed and sobered, and in the judgment of competent +judges vastly improved, attracted no more than a respectable +congregation. A very great and eloquent preacher lately lamented to me +the uselessness of his store of early discourses. If he could but get +rid of his present standard of what is right and good in thought and +language, and preach them with the enchaining fire with which he +preached them once! For many hearers remain immature, though the +preacher has matured. Young people are growing up, and there are people +whose taste never ripens beyond the enjoyment of Veal. There is a period +in the mental development of those who will be ablest and maturest, at +which Vealy thought and language are accepted as the best. Veal will be +highly appreciated by sympathetic calves; and the greatest men, with +rare exceptions, are calves in youth, while many human beings are calves +forever. And here I may remark, as something which has afforded me +consolation on various occasions within the last year, that it seems +unquestionable that sermons which are utterly revolting to people of +taste and sense have done much good to large masses of those people in +whom common sense is most imperfectly developed, and in whom taste is +not developed at all; and accordingly, wherever one is convinced of the +sincerity of the individuals, however foolish and uneducated, who go +about pouring forth those violent, exaggerated, and all but blasphemous +discourses of which I have read accounts in the newspapers, one would +humbly hope that a Power which works by many means would bring about +good even through an instrumentality which it is hard to contemplate +without some measure of horror. The impression produced by most things +in this world is relative to the minds on which the impression is +produced. A coarse ballad, deficient in rhyme and rhythm, and only half +decent, will keep up the attention of a rustic group to whom you might +read from "In Memoriam" in vain. A waistcoat of glaring scarlet will be +esteemed by a country bumpkin a garment every way preferable to one of +aspect more subdued. A nigger melody will charm many a one who would +yawn at Beethoven. You must have rough means to move rough people. +The outrageous revival-orator may do good to people to whom Bishop +Wilberforce or Dr. Caird might preach to no purpose; and if real good be +done, by whatever means, all right-minded people should rejoice to hear +of it. + + * * * * * + +And this leads to an important practical question, on which men at +different periods of life will never agree. _When_ shall thought be +regarded as mature? Is there a standard by which we may ascertain beyond +question whether a composition be Veal or Beef? I sigh for fixity and +assurance in matters aesthetical. It is vexatious that what I think very +good my friend Smith thinks very bad. It is vexatious that what strikes +me as supreme and unapproachable excellence strikes another person, at +least as competent to form an opinion, as poor. And I am angry with +myself when I feel that I honestly regard as inflated commonplace and +mystical jargon what a man as old and (let us say) nearly as wise +as myself thinks the utterance of a prophet. You know how, when +you contemplate the purchase of a horse, you lead him up to the +measuring-bar, and there ascertain the precise number of hands and +inches which he stands. How have I longed for the means of subjecting +the mental stature of human beings to an analogous process of +measurement! Oh for some recognized and unerring gauge of mental +calibre! It would be a grand thing, if somewhere in a very conspicuous +position--say on the site of the National Gallery at Charing +Cross--there were a pillar erected, graduated by some new Fahrenheit, +on which we could measure the height of a man's mind. How delightful it +would be to drag up some pompous pretender who passes off at once upon +himself and others as a profound and able man, and make him measure his +height upon that pillar, and understand beyond all cavil what a pigmy +he is! And how pleasant, too, it would be to bring up some man of +unacknowledged genius, and make the world see the reach of _his_ +intellectual stature! The mass of educated people, even, are so +incapable of forming any estimate of a man's ability, that it would be +a blessing, if men could be sent out into the world with the stamp upon +them, telling what are their weight and value, plain for every one to +see. But of course there are many ways in which a book, sermon, or essay +may be bad without being Vealy. It may be dull, stupid, illogical, +and the like, and yet have nothing of boyishness about it. It may be +insufferably bad, yet quite mature. Beef may be bad, and yet undoubtedly +Beef. And the question now is, not so much whether there be a standard +of what is in a literary sense good or bad, as whether there be a +standard of what is Veal and what is Beef. And there is a great +difficulty here. Is a thing to be regarded as mature, when it suits your +present taste, when it is approved by your present deliberate judgment? +For your taste is always changing: your standard is not the same for +three successive years of your early youth. The Veal you now despise you +thought Beef when you wrote it. And so, too, with the productions of +other men. You cannot read now without amazement the books which used +to enchant you as a child. I remember when I used to read Hervey's +"Meditations" with great delight. That was when I was about five years +old. A year or two later I greatly affected Macpherson's translation of +Ossian. It is not so very long since I felt the liveliest interest in +Tupper's "Proverbial Philosophy." Let me confess that I retain a kindly +feeling towards it yet; and that I am glad to see that some hundreds +of thousands of readers appear to be still in the stage out of which I +passed some years since. Yes, as you grow older, your taste changes: it +becomes more fastidious; and especially you come to have always less +toleration for sentimental feeling and for flights of fancy. And besides +this gradual and constant progression, which holds on uniformly year +after year, there are changes in mood and taste sometimes from day to +day and from hour to hour. The man who did a very silly thing thought +it was a wise thing when he did it. He sees the matter differently in a +little while. On the evening after the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of +Wellington wrote a certain letter. History does not record its matter or +style. But history does record, that some years afterwards the Duke paid +a hundred guineas to get it back again,--and that, on getting it, he +instantly burned it, exclaiming, that, when he wrote it, he must have +been the greatest idiot on the face of the earth. Doubtless, if we had +seen that letter, we should have heartily coincided in the sentiment of +the hero. He _was_ an idiot when he wrote it, but he did not think that +he was one. I think, however, that there is a standard of sense and +folly, and that there is a point at which Veal is Veal no more. But I do +not believe that thought can justly be called mature only when it has +become such as to suit the taste of some desperately dry old gentleman, +with as much feeling as a log of wood, and as much imagination as an +oyster. I know how intolerant some dull old fogies are of youthful +fire and fancy. I shall not be convinced that any discourse is puerile +because it is pronounced such by the venerable Dr. Dryasdust. I remember +that the venerable man has written many pages, possibly abundant in +sound sense, but which no mortal could read, and to which no mortal +could listen. I remember, that, though that not very amiable individual +has outlived such wits as he once had, he has not outlived the +unbecoming emotions of envy and jealousy; and he retains a strong +tendency to evil-speaking and slandering. You told me, unamiable +individual, how disgusted you were at hearing a friend of mine, who is +one of the best preachers in Britain, preach one of his finest sermons. +Perhaps you really were disgusted: there is such a thing as casting +pearls before swine, who will not appreciate them highly. But you went +on to give an account of what the great preacher said; and though I +know you are extremely stupid, you are not quite so stupid as to have +actually fancied that the great preacher said what you reported that he +said: you were well aware that you were grossly misrepresenting him. And +when I find malice and insincerity in one respect, I am ready to suspect +them in another: and I venture to doubt whether you were disgusted. +Possibly you were only ferocious at finding yourself so unspeakably +excelled. But even if you had been really disgusted, and even if you +were a clever man, and even if you were above the suspicion of jealousy, +I should not think that my friend's noble discourse was puerile because +you thought it so. It is not when the warm feelings of earlier days are +dried up into a cold, time-worn cynicism, that I think a man has become +the best judge of the products of the human brain and heart. It is +a noble thing when a man grows old retaining something of youthful +freshness and fervor. It is a fine thing to ripen without shrivelling,-- +to reach the calmness of age, yet keep the warm heart and ready sympathy +of youth. Show me such a man as _that_, and I shall be content to bow to +_his_ decision whether a thing be Veal or not. But as such men are not +found very frequently, I should suggest it as an approximation to a +safe criterion, that a thing may be regarded as mature when it is +deliberately and dispassionately approved by an educated man of good +ability and above thirty years of age. No doubt a man of fifty may +hold that fifty is the age of sound taste and sense; and a youth of +twenty-three may maintain that he is as good a judge of human doings +now as he will ever be. I do not claim to have proposed an infallible +standard. I give you my present belief, being well aware that it is very +likely to alter. + +It is not desirable that one's taste should become too fastidious, or +that natural feeling should be refined away. And a cynical young man is +bad, but a cynical old one is a great deal worse. The cynical young +man is probably shamming; he is a humbug, not a cynic. But the old man +probably _is_ a cynic, as heartless as he seems. And without thinking +of cynicism, real or affected, let us remember, that, though the taste +ought to be refined, and daily refining, it ought not to be refined +beyond being practically serviceable. Let things be good, but not too +good to be workable. It is expedient that a cart for conveying coals +should be of neat and decent appearance. Let the shafts be symmetrical, +the boards well-planed, the whole strong, yet not clumsy; and over the +whole let the painter's skill induce a hue rosy as beauty's cheek, or +dark-blue as her eye. All _that_ is well; and while the cart will carry +its coals satisfactorily, it will stand a good deal of rough usage, and +it will please the eye of the rustic who sits in it on an empty sack and +whistles as it moves along. But it would be highly inexpedient to make +that cart of walnut of the finest grain and marking, and to have it +French-polished. It would be too fine to be of use; and its possessor +would fear to scratch it, and would preserve it as a show, seeking some +plainer vehicle to carry his coals. In like manner, do not refine too +much either the products of the mind, or the sensibilities of the taste +which is to appreciate them. I know an amiable professor very different +from Dr. Dryasdust. He was a country clergyman,--a very interesting +plain preacher. But when he got his chair, he had to preach a good deal +in the college chapel; and by way of accommodating his discourses to an +academic audience, he rewrote them carefully, rubbed off all the salient +points, cooled down whatever warmth was in them to frigid accuracy, +toned down everything striking. The result was that his sermons became +eminently classical and elegant; only they became impossible to attend +to, and impossible to remember; and when you heard the good man preach, +you sighed for the rough and striking heartiness of former days. And +we have all heard of such a thing as taste refined to that painful +sensitiveness, that it became a source of torment,--that is, unfitted +for common enjoyments and even for common duties. There was once a great +man, let us say at Melipotamus, who never went to church. A clergyman +once, in speaking to a friend of the great man, lamented that the great +man set so bad an example before his humbler neighbors. "How _can_ that +man go to church?" was the reply; "his taste, and his entire critical +faculty, are sharpened, to that degree, that, in listening to any +ordinary preacher, he feels outraged and shocked at every fourth +sentence he hears, by its inelegance or its want of logic; and the +entire sermon torments him by its unsymmetrical structure, its want of +perspective in the presentment of details, and its general literary +badness." I quite believe that there was a moderate proportion of truth +in the excuse thus urged; and you will probably judge that it would have +been better, had the great man's mind not been brought to so painful a +polish. + +The mention of dried-up old gentlemen reminds one of a question which +has sometimes perplexed me. Is it Vealy to feel or to show keen emotion? +Is it a precious result and indication of the maturity of the human mind +to look as if you felt nothing at all? I have often looked with wonder, +and with a moderate amount of veneration, at a few old gentlemen whom I +know well, who are leading members of a certain legislative and judicial +council held in great respect in a country of which no more need be +said. I have beheld these old gentlemen sitting apparently quite +unmoved, when discussions were going on in which I knew they felt a very +deep interest, and when the tide of debate was setting strongly against +their peculiar views. There they sat, impassive as a Red Indian at the +stake. I think of a certain man who, while a smart speech on the other +side is being made, retains a countenance expressing actually nothing; +he looks as if he heard nothing, felt nothing, cared for nothing. But +when the other man sits down, he rises to reply. He speaks slowly at +first, but every weighty word goes home and tells: he gathers warmth and +rapidity as he goes on, and in a little you become aware that for a few +hundred pounds a year you may sometimes get a man who would have made +an Attorney-General or a Lord-Chancellor; you discern, that, under +the appearance of almost stolidity, there was the sharpest attention +watching every word of the argument of the other speaker, and ready to +come down on every weak point in it; and the other speaker is (in a +logical sense) pounded to jelly by a succession of straight-handed hits. +Yes, it is a wonderful thing to find a combination of coolness and +earnestness. But I am inclined to believe that the reason why some old +gentlemen look as if they did not care is that in fact they don't care. +And there is no particular merit in looking cool while a question is +being discussed, if you really do not mind a rush which way it may be +decided. A keen, unvarying, engrossing regard for one's self is a great +safeguard against over-excitement in regard to all the questions of the +day, political, social, and religious. + + * * * * * + +It is a curious, but certain fact, that clever young men, at that period +of their life when their own likings tend towards Veal, know quite +well the difference between Veal and Beef, and are quite able, when +necessary, to produce the latter. The tendency to boyishness of thought +and style may be repressed, when you know you are writing for the +perusal of readers with whom _that_ will not go down. A student of +twenty, who has in him great talent, no matter how undue a supremacy his +imagination may meanwhile have, if he be set to producing an essay in +Metaphysics to be read by professors of philosophy, will produce a +composition singularly free from any trace of immaturity. For such a +clever youth, though he may have a strong bent towards Veal, has in him +an instinctive perception that it _is_ Veal, and a keen sense of what +will and will not do for the particular readers he has to please. Go, +you essayist who carried off a host of university honors, and read over +now the prize essays you wrote at twenty-one or twenty-two. I think +the thing that will mainly strike you will be, how very mature these +compositions are,--how ingenious, how judicious, how free from +extravagance, how quietly and accurately and even felicitously +expressed. _They_ are not Veal. And yet you know that several years +after you wrote them you were still writing a great deal which was Veal +beyond all question. But then a clever youth can produce material to any +given standard; and you wrote the essays not to suit your own taste, but +to suit what you intuitively knew was the taste of the grave and even +smoke-dried professors who were to read them and sit in judgment on +them. + +And though it is very fit and right that the academic standard should be +an understood one, and quite different from the popular standard, still +it is not enough that a young man should be able to write to a standard +against which he in his heart rebels and protests. It is yet more +important that you should get him to approve and adopt a standard which +is accurate, if not severe. It is quite extraordinary what bombastic +and immature sermons are preached in their first years in the Church by +young clergymen who wrote many academic compositions in a style the +most classical. It seems to be essential that a man of feeling and +imagination should be allowed fairly to run himself out. The course +apparently is, that the tree should send out its rank shoots, and then +that you should prune them, rather than that by some repressive means +you should prevent the rank shoots coming forth at all. The way to get a +high-spirited horse to be content to stay peaceably in its stall is to +allow it to have a tearing gallop, and thus get out its superfluous +nervous excitement and vital spirit. Let the boiler blow off its steam. +All repression is dangerous. And some injudicious folk, instead of +encouraging the highly-charged mind and heart to relieve themselves +by blowing off in excited verse and extravagant bombast, would (so to +speak) sit on the safety-valve. Let the bursting spring flow! It will +run turbid at first; but it will clear itself day by day. Let a young +man write a vast deal: the more he writes, the sooner will the Veal be +done with. But if a man write very little, the bombast is not blown off; +and it may remain till advanced years. It seems as if a certain quantity +of fustian must be blown off before you reach the good material. I have +heard a mercantile man of fifty read a paper he had written on a social +subject. He had written very little save business letters all his life. +And I assure you that his paper was bombastic to a degree that you would +have said was barely tolerable in a youth of twenty. I have seldom +listened to Veal so outrageous. You see he had not worked through it in +his youth; and so here it was now. I have witnessed the like phenomenon +in a man who went into the Church at five-and-forty. I heard him preach +one of his earliest sermons, and I have hardly ever heard such boyish +rhodomontade. The imaginations of some men last out in liveliness longer +than those of others; and the taste of some men never becomes perfect; +and it is no doubt owing to these things that you find some men +producing Veal so much later in life than others. You will find men who +are very turgid and magniloquent at five-and-thirty, at forty, at fifty. +But I attribute the phenomenon in no small measure to the fact that such +men had not the opportunity of blowing off their steam in youth. Give +a man at four-and-twenty two sermons to write a week, and he will +very soon work through his Veal. It is probably because ladies write +comparatively so little, that you find them writing at fifty poetry and +prose of the most awfully romantic and sentimental strain. + + * * * * * + +We have been thinking, my friend, as you have doubtless observed, almost +exclusively of intellectual and aesthetical immaturity, and of its +products in composition, spoken or written. But combining with that +immaturity, and going very much to affect the character of that Veal, +there is moral immaturity, resulting in views, feelings, and conduct +which may be described as Moral Veal. But, indeed, it is very difficult +to distinguish between the different kinds of immaturity, and to say +exactly what in the moods and doings of youth proceeds from each. It is +safest to rest in the general proposition, that, even as the calf yields +Veal, so does the immature human mind yield immature productions. It +is a stage which you outgrow, and therefore a stage of comparative +immaturity, in which you read a vast deal of poetry, and repeat much +poetry to yourself when alone, working yourself up thereby to an +enthusiastic excitement. And very like a calf you look, when some one +suddenly enters the room in which you are wildly gesticulating or +moodily laughing, and thinking yourself poetical, and, indeed, sublime. +The person probably takes you for a fool; and the best, you can say for +yourself is that you are not so great a fool as you seem to be. Vealy is +the period of life in which you filled a great volume with the verses +you loved, and in which you stored your memory, by frequent reading, +with many thousands of lines. All that you outgrow. Fancy a man of fifty +having his commonplace book of poetry! And it will be instructive to +turn over the ancient volume, and to see how year by year the verses +copied grew fewer, and finally ceased entirely. I do not say that all +growth is progress: sometimes it is like that of the muscle, which once +advanced into manly vigor and usefulness, but is now ossifying into +rigidity. It is well to have fancy and feeling under command: it is not +well to have feeling and fancy dead. That season of life is Vealy in +which you are charmed by the melody of verse, quite apart from its +meaning. And there is a season in which that is so. And it is curious +to remark what verses they are that have charmed many men; for they are +often verses in which no one else could have discerned that singular +fascination. You may remember how Robert Burns has recorded that in +youth he was enchanted by the melody of two lines of Addison's,-- + + "For though in dreadful whirls we hung, + High on the broken wave." + +Sir Walter Scott felt the like fascination in youth (and he tells us it +was not entirely gone even in age) in Mickle's stanza,-- + + "The dews of summer night did fall; + The moon, sweet regent of the sky, + Silvered the walls of Cumnor Hall, + And many an oak that grew thereby." + +Not a remarkable verse, I think. However, it at least presents a +pleasant picture. But I remember well the enchantment which, when +twelve years old, I felt in a verse by Mrs. Hemans, which I can now see +presents an excessively disagreeable picture. I saw it not then; and +when I used to repeat that verse, I know it was without the slightest +perception of its meaning. You know the beautiful poem called the +"Battle of Morgarten." At least I remember it as beautiful; and I am not +going to spoil my recollection by reading it now. Here is the verse:-- + + "Oh! the sun in heaven fierce havoc viewed, + When the Austrian turned to fly: + And the brave, in the trampling multitude, + Had a fearful death to die!" + +As I write that verse, (at which the critical reader will smile,) I am +aware that Veal has its hold of me yet. I see nothing of the miserable +scene the poet describes; but I hear the waves murmuring on a distant +beach, and I see the hills across the sea, the first sea I ever beheld; +I see the school to which I went daily; I see the class-room, and the +place where I used to sit; I see the faces and hear the voices of my old +companions, some dead, one sleeping in the middle of the great Atlantic, +many scattered over distant parts of the world, almost all far away. +Yes, I feel that I have not quite cast off the witchery of the "Battle +of Morgarten." Early associations can give to verse a charm and a hold +upon one's heart which no literary excellence, however high, ever could. +Look at the first hymns you learned to repeat, and which you used to say +at your mother's knee; look at the psalms and hymns you remember hearing +sung at church when you were a child: you know how impossible it is for +you to estimate these upon their literary merits. They may be almost +doggerel; but not Mr. Tennyson can touch you like them! The most +effective eloquence is that which is mainly done by the mind to which +it is addressed: it is _that_ which touches chords which of themselves +yield matchless music; it is _that_ which wakens up trains of old +remembrance, and which wafts around you the fragrance of the hawthorn +that blossomed and withered many long years since. An English stranger +would not think much of the hymns we sing in our Scotch churches: he +could not know what many of them are to us. There is a magic about +the words. I can discern, indeed, that some of them are mawkish in +sentiment, faulty in rhyme, and, on the whole, what you would call +extremely unfitted to be sung in public worship, if you were judging of +them as new things: but a crowd of associations which are beautiful and +touching gathers round the lines which have no great beauty or pathos in +themselves. + +You were in an extremely Vealy condition, when, having attained the age +of fourteen, you sent some verses to the county newspaper, and with +simple-hearted elation read them in the corner devoted to what was +termed "Original Poetry." It is a pity you did not preserve the +newspapers in which you first saw yourself in print, and experienced the +peculiar sensation which accompanies that sight. No doubt your +verses expressed the gloomiest views of life, and told of the bitter +disappointments you had met in your long intercourse with mankind, and +especially with womankind. And though you were in a flutter of anxiety +and excitement to see whether or not your verses would be printed, your +verses probably declared that you had used up life and seen through +it,--that your heart was no longer to be stirred by aught on earth,--and +that, in short, you cared nothing for anything. You could see nothing +fine then in being good, cheerful, and happy; but you thought it a grand +thing to be a gloomy man, of a very dark complexion, with blood on your +conscience, upwards of six feet high, and accustomed to wander from land +to land, like Childe Harold. You were extremely Vealy when you used to +fancy that you were sure to be a very great man, and to think how proud +your relations would some day be of you, and how you would come back and +excite a great commotion at the place where you used to be a school-boy. +And it is because the world has still left some impressionable spot in +your hearts, my readers, that you still have so many fond associations +with "the school-boy spot we ne'er forget, though we are there +forgot." They were Vealy days, though pleasant to remember, my old +school-companions, in which you used to go to the dancing-school, (it +was in a gloomy theatre, seldom entered by actors,) in which you fell +in love with several young ladies about eleven years old, and (being +permitted occasionally to select your own partners) made frantic rushes +to obtain the hand of one of the beauties of that small society. Those +were the days in which you thought, that, when you grew up, it would +be a very fine thing to be a pirate, bandit, or corsair, rather than a +clergyman, barrister, or the like; even a cheerful outlaw like Robin +Hood did not come up to your views; you would rather have been a man +like Captain Kyd, stained with various crimes of extreme atrocity, which +would entirely preclude the possibility of returning to respectable +society, and given to moody laughter in solitary moments. Oh, what truly +asinine developments the human being must go through, before arriving at +the stage of common sense! You were very Vealy, too, when you used +to think it a fine thing to astonish people by expressing awful +sentiments,--such as that you thought Mahometans better than Christians, +that you would like to be dissected after death, that you did not care +what you got for dinner, that you liked learning your lessons better +than going out to play, that you would rather read Euclid than +"Ivanhoe," and the like. It may be remarked, that this peculiar +Vealiness is not confined to youth; I have seen it appearing very +strongly in men with gray hair. Another manifestation of Vealiness, +which appears both in age and youth, is the entertaining a strong belief +that kings, noblemen, and baronets are always in a condition of ecstatic +happiness. I have known people pretty far advanced in life, who not only +believed that monarchs must be perfectly happy, but that all who were +permitted to continue in their presence would catch a considerable +degree of the mysterious bliss which was their portion. I have heard a +sane man, rather acute and clever in many things, seriously say, "If a +man cannot be happy in the presence of his Sovereign, where can he be +happy?" + +And yet, absurd and foolish as is Moral Vealiness, there is something +fine about it. Many of the old and dear associations most cherished in +human hearts are of the nature of Veal. It is sad to think that most +of the romance of life is unquestionably so. All spooniness, all the +preposterous idolization of some one who is just like anybody else, +all love, (in the narrow sense in which the word is understood by +novel-readers,) you feel, when you look back, are Veal. The young lad +and the young girl, whom at a picnic party you have discerned stealing +off under frivolous pretexts from the main body of guests, and sitting +on the grass by the river-side, enraptured in the prosecution of a +conversation which is intellectually of the emptiest, and fancying that +they two make all the world, and investing that spot with remembrances +which will continue till they are gray, are (it must in sober sadness be +admitted) of the nature of calves. For it is beyond doubt that they are +at a stage which they will outgrow, and on which they may possibly look +back with something of shame. All these things, beautiful as they are, +are no more than Veal. Yet they are fitting and excellent in their time. +No, let us not call them Veal; they are rather like Lamb, which is +excellent, though immature. No doubt, youth is immaturity; and as you +outgrow it, you are growing better and wiser: still youth is a fine +thing; and most people would be young again, if they could. How cheerful +and light-hearted is immaturity! How cheerful and lively are the little +children even of silent and gloomy men! It is sad, and it is unnatural, +when they are not so. I remember yet, when I was at school, with what +interest and wonder I used to look at two or three boys, about twelve or +thirteen years old, who were always dull, sullen, and unhappy-looking. +In those days, as a general rule, you are never sorrowful without +knowing the reason why. You are never conscious of the dull atmosphere, +of the gloomy spirits, of after-time. The youthful machine, bodily and +mental, plays smoothly; the young being is cheery. Even a kitten is very +different from a grave old cat, and a young colt from a horse sobered by +the cares and toils of years. And you picture fine things to yourself in +your youthful dreams. I remember a beautiful dwelling I used often to +see, as if from the brow of a great hill. I see the rich valley below, +with magnificent woods and glades, and a broad river reflecting the +sunset; and in the midst of the valley, the vast Saracenic pile, with +gilded minarets blazing in the golden light. I have since then seen many +splendid habitations, but none in the least equal to that. I cannot even +yet discard the idea that somewhere in this world there stands that +noble palace, and that some day I shall find it out. You remember also +the intense delight with which you read the books that charmed you then: +how you carried off the poem or the tale to some solitary place,--how +you sat up far into the night to read it,--how heartily you believed +in all the story, and sympathized with the people it told of. I wish I +could feel now the veneration for the man who has written a book which I +used once to feel. Oh that one could read the old volumes with the +old feeling! Perhaps you have some of them yet, and you remember the +peculiar expression of the type in which they were printed: the pages +look at you with the face of an old friend. If you were then of an +observant nature, you will understand how much of the effect of any +composition upon the human mind depends upon the printing, upon the +placing of the points, even upon the position of the sentences on the +page. A grand, high-flown, and sentimental climax ought always to +conclude at the bottom of a page. It will look ridiculous, if it ends +four or five lines down from the top of the next page. Somehow there is +a feeling as of the difference between the night before and the next +morning. It is as though the crushed ball-dress and the dishevelled +locks of the close of the evening reappeared, the same, before +breakfast. Let us have homely sense at the top of the page, pathos +at the foot of it. What a force in the bad type of the shabby little +"Childe Harold" you used to read so often! You turn it over in a grand +illustrated edition, and it seems like another poem. Let it here be +said, that occasionally you look with something like indignation on the +volume which enchained you in your boyish days. For now you have burst +the chain. And you have somewhat of the feeling of the prisoner towards +the jailer who held him in unjust bondage. What right had that bombastic +rubbish to touch and thrill you as it used to do? Well, remember that +it suits successive generations at their enthusiastic stage. There are +poets whose great admirers are for the most part under twenty years +old; but probably almost every clever young person regards them at some +period in his life as among the noblest of mortals. And it is no ignoble +ambition to win the ardent appreciation of even immature tastes and +hearts. Its brief endurance is compensated by its intensity. You sit by +the fireside and read your leisurely "Times," and you feel a tranquil +enjoyment. You like it better than the "Sorrows of Werter," but you do +not like it a twentieth part as much as you once liked the "Sorrows +of Werter." You would be interested in meeting the man who wrote that +brilliant and slashing leader; but you would not regard him with +speechless awe, as something more than human. Yet, remembering all the +weaknesses out of which men grow, and on which they look back with a +smile or sigh, who does not feel that there is a charm which will not +depart about early youth? Longfellow knew that he would reach the hearts +of most men, when he wrote such a verse as this:-- + + "The green trees whispered low and mild; + It was a sound of joy! + They were my playmates when a child, + And rocked me in their arms so wild; + Still they looked at me and smiled, + As if I were a boy!" + +Such, readers as are young men will understand what has already been +said as to the bitter indignation with which the writer, some years ago, +listened to self-conceited elderly persons who put aside the arguments +and the doings of younger men with the remark that these younger men +were _boys_. There are few terms of reproach which I have heard uttered +with looks of such deadly ferocity. And there are not many which excite +feelings of greater wrath in the souls of clever young men. I remember +how in those days I determined to write an essay which should scorch up +and finally destroy all these carping and malicious critics. It was to +be called "A Chapter on Boys." After an introduction of a sarcastic and +magnificent character, setting out views substantially the same as those +contained in the speech of Lord Chatham in reply to Walpole, which boys +are taught to recite at school, that essay was to go on to show that +a great part of English literature was written by very young men. +Unfortunately, on proceeding to investigate the matter carefully, it +appeared that the best part of English literature, even in the range of +poetry, was in fact written by men of even more than middle age. So the +essay was never finished, though a good deal of it was sketched out. +Yesterday I took out the old manuscript; and after reading a bit of it, +it appeared so remarkably Vealy, that I put it with indignation into the +fire. Still I observed various facts of interest as to great things done +by young men, and some by young men who never lived to be old. Beaumont +the dramatist died at twenty-nine. Christopher Marlowe wrote "Faustus" +at twenty-five, and died at thirty. Sir Philip Sidney wrote his +"Arcadia" at twenty-six. Otway wrote "The Orphan" at twenty-eight, +and "Venice Preserved" at thirty. Thomson wrote the "Seasons" at +twenty-seven. Bishop Berkeley had devised his Ideal System at +twenty-nine; and Clarke at the same age published his great work on "The +Being and Attributes of God." Then there is Pitt, of course. But these +cases are exceptional; and besides, men at twenty-eight and thirty are +not in any way to be regarded as boys. What I wanted was proof of the +great things that had been done by young fellows about two-and-twenty; +and such proof was not to be found. A man is simply a boy grown up to +his best; and of course what is done by men must be better than what is +done by boys. Unless in very peculiar cases, a man at thirty will be +every way superior to what he was at twenty; and at forty to what he was +at thirty. Not, indeed, physically,--let _that_ be granted; not always +morally; but surely intellectually and aesthetically. + + * * * * * + +Yes, my readers, we have all been Calves. A great part of all our doings +has been, what the writer, in figurative language, has described as +Veal. We have not said, written, or done very much on which we can now +look back with entire approval; and we have said, written, and done a +very great deal on which we cannot look back but with burning shame +and confusion. Very many things, which, when we did them, we thought +remarkably good, and much better than the doings of ordinary men, we now +discern, on calmly looking back, to have been extremely bad. That time, +you know, my friend, when you talked in a very fluent and animated +manner after dinner at a certain house, and thought you were making a +great impression on the assembled guests, most of them entire strangers, +you are now fully aware that you were only making a fool of yourself. +And let this hint of one public manifestation of Vealiness suffice to +suggest to each of us scores of similar cases. But though we feel, in +our secret souls, what Calves we have been, and though it is well for us +that we should feel it deeply, and thus learn humility and caution, we +do not like to be reminded of it by anybody else. Some people have a +wonderful memory for the Vealy sayings and doings of their friends. +They may be very bad hands at remembering anything else; but they never +forget the silly speeches and actions on which one would like to shut +down the leaf. You may find people a great part of whose conversation +consists of repeating and exaggerating their neighbors' Veal; and though +that Veal may be immature enough and silly enough, it will go hard but +your friend Mr. Snarling will represent it as a good deal worse than the +fact. You will find men, who while at college were students of large +ambition, but slender abilities, revenging themselves in this fashion +upon the clever men who beat them. It is easy, very easy, to remember +foolish things that were said and done even by the senior wrangler or +the man who took a double first-class; and candid folk will think +that such foolish things were not fair samples of the men,--and will +remember, too, that the men have grown out of these, have grown mature +and wise, and for many a year past would not have said or done such +things. But if you were to judge from the conversation of Mr. Limejuice, +(who wrote many prize essays, but, through the malice and stupidity of +the judges, never got any prizes,) you would conclude that every word +uttered by his successful rivals was one that stamped them as essential +fools, and calves which would never grow into oxen. I do not think it +is a pleasing or magnanimous feature in any man's character, that he is +ever eager to rake up these early follies. I would not be ready to throw +in the teeth of a pretty butterfly that it was an ugly caterpillar once, +unless I understood that the butterfly liked to remember the fact. I +would not suggest to this fair sheet of paper on which I am writing, +that not long ago it was dusty rags and afterwards dirty pulp. You +cannot be an ox without previously having been a calf; you acquire taste +and sense gradually, and in acquiring them you pass through stages +in which you have very little of either. It is a poor burden for the +memory, to collect and shovel into it the silly sayings and doings in +youth of people who have become great and eminent. I read with much +disgust a biography of Mr. Disraeli which recorded, no doubt accurately, +all the sore points in that statesman's history. I remember with great +approval what Lord John Manners said in Parliament in reply to Mr. +Bright, who had quoted a well-known and very silly passage from Lord +John's early poetry. "I would rather," said Lord John, "have been the +man who in his youth wrote those silly verses than the man who in mature +years would rake them up." And with even greater indignation I regard +the individual who, when a man is doing creditably and Christianly +the work of life, is ever ready to relate and aggravate the moral +delinquencies of his school-boy and student days, long since repented of +and corrected. "Remember not," said a man who knew human nature well, +"the sins of my youth." But there are men whose nature has a peculiar +affinity for anything petty, mean, and bad. They fly upon it as a +vulture on carrion. Their memory is of that cast, that you have only +to make inquiry of them concerning any of their friends, to hear of +something not at all to the friends' advantage. There are individuals, +after listening to whom you think it would be a refreshing novelty, +almost startling from its strangeness, to hear them say a word in favor +of any human being whatsoever. + +It is not a thing peculiar to immaturity; yet it may be remarked, that, +though it is an unpleasant thing to look back and see that you have said +or done something very foolish, it is a still more unpleasant thing to +be well aware at the time that you are saying or doing something very +foolish. If a man be a fool at all, it is much to be desired that he +should be a very great fool; for then he will not know when he is making +a fool of himself. But it is painful not to have sense enough to know +what you should do in order to be right, but to have sense enough to +know that you are doing wrong. To know that you are talking like an ass, +yet to feel that you cannot help it,--that you must say something, and +can think of nothing better to say,--this is a suffering that comes with +advanced civilization. This is a phenomenon frequently to be seen +at public dinners in country towns, also at the entertainment which +succeeds a wedding. Men at other times rational seem to be stricken into +idiocy when they rise to their feet on such occasions; and the painful +fact is, that it is conscious idiocy. The man's words are asinine, and +he knows they are asinine. His wits have entirely abandoned him: he is +an idiot for the time. Have you sat next a man unused to speaking at a +public dinner? have you seen him nervously rise and utter an incoherent, +ungrammatical, and unintelligible sentence or two, and then sit down +with a ghastly smile? Have you heard him say to his friend on the other +side, in bitterness, "I have made a fool of myself"? And have you seen +him sit moodily through the remainder of the feast, evidently ruminating +on what he said, seeing now what he ought to have said, and trying to +persuade himself that what he said was not so bad after all? Would you +do a kindness to that miserable man? You have just heard his friend +on the other side cordially agreeing with what he had said as to the +badness of the appearance made by him. Enter into conversation with +him; talk of his speech; congratulate him upon it; tell him you were +extremely struck by the freshness and naturalness of what he said,--that +there is something delightful in hearing an unhackneyed speaker,--that +to speak with entire fluency looks professional,--it is like a barrister +or a clergyman. Thus you may lighten the mortification of a disappointed +man; and what you say will receive considerable credence. It is +wonderful how readily people believe anything they would like to be +true. + + * * * * * + +I was walking this afternoon along a certain street, coming home from +visiting certain sick persons, and wondering how I should conclude this +essay, when, standing on the pavement on one side of the street, I saw a +little boy four years old crying in great distress. Various individuals, +who appeared to be Priests and Levites, looked, as they passed, at the +child's distress, and passed on without doing anything to relieve it. I +spoke to the little man, who was in great fear at being spoken to, but +told me he had come away from his home and lost himself, and could not +find his way back. I told him I would take him home, if he could tell me +where he lived; but he was frightened into utter helplessness, and could +only tell that his name was Tom, and that he lived at the top of a +stair. It was a poor neighborhood, in which many people live at the +top of stairs, and the description was vague. I spoke to two humble +decent-looking women who were passing, thinking they might gain the +little thing's confidence better than I; but the poor little man's great +wish was just to get away from us,--though, when he got two yards off, +he could but stand and cry. You may be sure he was not left in his +trouble, but that he was put safely into his father's hands. And as I +was coming home, I thought that here was an illustration of something I +have been thinking of all this afternoon. I thought I saw in the poor +little child's desire to get away from those who wanted to help him, +though not knowing where to go when left to himself, something analogous +to what the immature human being is always disposed to. The whole +teaching of our life is leading us away from our early delusions and +follies, from all those things about us which have been spoken of under +the similitude which need not be again repeated. Yet we push away the +hand that would conduct us to soberer and better things, though, when +left alone, we can but stand and vaguely gaze about us; and we speak +hardly of the growing experience which makes us wiser, and which ought +to make us happier too. Let us not forget that the teaching which takes +something of the gloss from life is an instrument in the kindest Hand of +all; and let us be humbly content, if that kindest Hand shall lead us, +even by rough means, to calm and enduring wisdom,--wisdom by no means +inconsistent with youthful freshness of feeling, and not necessarily +fatal even to youthful gayety of mood,--and at last to that Happy Place +where worn men regain the little child's heart, and old and young are +blest together. + + + + +REMINISCENCES OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. + + +I do not propose to enter upon a discussion of the question that now +agitates the entire population of Brandon township, Vermont,--namely, +whether Douglas was born in the Pomeroy or the Hyatt mansion. It is +enough for our purpose to record the fact that he _was_ born, and +apparently _well_ born,--as, from the statement of Ann De Forrest, his +nurse, he first appeared a stalwart babe of fourteen pounds weight. + +He lived a life of sensations; and that he commenced early is clearly +shown by the fact that he was a subject of newspaper comment when but +two months old. At that age he had the misfortune to lose his father, +who, holding the baby boy in his arms, fell back in his chair and died, +while Stephen, dropping from his embrace, was caught from the fire, +and thus from early death, by a neighbor, John Conant, who opportunely +entered the room at the moment. And here let me say, that for +generations back the ancestors of Douglas were sturdy men, of physical +strength and mental ability. His grandfather was noted for his strong +practical common sense, which, rightly applied, with industry, made him +in middle life the possessor of wealth, and the finest farm on Otter +Creek. This, however, in later years was gradually taken from him, by +means which had better, perhaps, remain unmentioned. The father of +Stephen was a physician of more than ordinary talent and of much +culture. He had attained but to early manhood, when a sudden attack of +heart-disease removed him from life, and compelled his widow, with her +infant boy, to face the world alone. + +A bachelor brother of the Widow Douglas took her and the baby to his +farm, where, for several years, the one mourned the loss of her husband, +while the other grew in strength and muscle. The earlier developments of +the boy were characteristic, and typical of those in later life. He was +very quick, magnetic in his temperament, and full to the brim with wit +and humor. Beyond his uncle's farm ran the far-famed Otter Creek, whose +waters, in my boyhood, were forbidden me, as inevitably leading the +incautious bather to "a life of misery and a premature death." There it +was, however, that Stephen earned his earliest triumphs. It is a long +pull across the Otter Pond, and the schoolmaster's last charge was +always, "Keep this side of the rock in the middle,--don't try to cross"; +but reckless then of life as since in politics, self-confident and +daring as always, Douglas, of all the boys, alone dared disobey the +charge, and succeeded in reaching safely the opposite shore. + +His companions, sons of farmers well to do in the world, were preparing +to enter college; and Douglas, the best scholar in his class, the finest +mathematician in the township, and who without instruction had mastered +the Latin Grammar and "Viri Romae," applied to his uncle for permission +to join them. The uncle, however, never noted for much liberality either +of brain or pocket, having taken to himself a wife and gotten to himself +a boy, was unable to see the necessity of giving the orphan a college +education, and pitilessly bound him to a worthy deacon of the church, +as an apprentice to the highly respectable, but rarely famous, trade of +cabinet-making. In this Douglas did well. It has been stated elsewhere +that "he was not fond of his trade," and that "his spirit pined for +loftier employment." Possibly. But for all that he succeeded in it, and +these lines are being written on a mahogany table made by him while an +apprentice at Brandon. It is a strong, substantial, two-leaved table, +with curiously carved legs terminating in bear's-feet, the claws of +which display an intimate acquaintance on the part of the maker with the +physiological formation of those appendages, and a more than ordinary +amount of dexterity in the handling of tools. It was while in this +occupation that he gained the _sobriquet_ of the "Tough 'Un." He was +nearly seventeen years of age, and, though not handsome, was very +intelligent and bright in his appearance, so that he was able to compete +successfully for the smiles and favors of a young country lass who +reigned the belle of the village. This did not suit the "mittened" ones, +and they determined to draw young Douglas into a controversy which +should result in a fight,--he, of course, to be the defeated party. The +night chosen for the onslaught was the "singing-school night," and the +time the homeward walk of Stephen from the house of the fair object of +contention. The crowd met him at the corner store. From jests to jibes, +from taunts to blows, was then, as ever, an easy path; and in reply to +some unchivalric remark concerning his lady-love, Douglas struck the +slanderer with all his might. Immediately a ring was formed, and kept, +until Douglas rose the victor, and without further ceremony pitched +into one of the lookers-on, and stopped not until he, too, was soundly +thrashed, when, with flashing eye and clenched fist, he said,--"Now, +boys, if that's not enough, come on, and I'll take you all together!" +At this juncture, the good old Deacon, who had been trying cider in +the cellar of the store, came along, and, taking Stephen by the arm, +said,--"Well, Steve, you _are_ a tough 'un! What! whipped two, and want +more? Come home, my boy, come home!" He was allowed ever after to go and +come with his bright-eyed beauty, unmolested, and for years was known +there and in the neighboring townships as the "Tough 'Un." Here, too, he +gained the reputation of being a good fellow, a whole-souled friend, and +a jolly companion. He _would_ read, and his favorite works were those +telling of the triumphs of Napoleon, the conquests of Alexander, and the +wars of Caesar. + +He was still desirous of a collegiate education, and it is undoubtedly +true that constant application to his books, when he should have been +resting from the labors of the day, brought upon him an illness, the +severity of which compelled him to abandon his employment and return +to his uncle's house. There he obtained permission to take a course +of classical studies at the academy, a permission of which he availed +himself with enthusiasm. He was then a fine, well-built youth, foremost +in plays, active in all country excursions, and ever popular with his +elders. Indeed, this last trait followed him through life; and when +those of his own age were at sword's-point with him, he was sure of +finding friends and favor amongst such as were older and wiser than +himself. His mother, about this time, married a lawyer of wealth and +position, residing in the interior of New York, who, appreciating the +talent of the boy, aided him in his laudable endeavors to obtain an +education, and sent him to the academy at Canandaigua in that State. +There Douglas was soon among the first. He was the most popular speaker +of them all, pleasing old and young, and causing the hall of the academy +to be filled with an interested audience whenever it was known that he +was to be the orator of the night. His love of humor and his keen sense +of the ludicrous aided him not a little in the quick repartee, for which +he was then, as since, noted. He was far from idle during the three +years of his life at Canandaigua; for, besides applying himself with +untiring energy and zeal to the pursuit of a classical course at the +academy, he devoted much of his time to reading in the law office of the +Messrs. Hubbell. His examiners for the bar stated that they had never +before met a student who in so short a time made such proficiency; and +while they took pleasure in complimenting him, they also extended to him +the privileges which are accorded by rule only to those who have pursued +a complete collegiate course. This was especially gratifying and +stimulating to Douglas, who remarked to a fellow-student that for the +wealth of a continent he would not have had his "mother die without +hearing that intelligence of her son's progress." + +At the age of twenty, Douglas commenced, with the fairest prospects, the +practice of law in the beautiful village of Cleveland, Ohio. Hardly had +the paint on his "shingle" become dry, when a sudden attack of bilious +fever prostrated him, and confined him to his room for months. He was +thoroughly restless; he pined for action; and when his physician said +to him, "Sir, if you allow yourself to fret in this manner, you will +certainly frustrate my efforts, and die," he replied, "Not now, Doctor; +there's work ahead for me." Upon his recovery, he found himself in +a situation such as would crush the spirit of ninety-nine men in a +hundred. He was weak, with but a few dollars, with no friends, in a +region of country that did not promise him health, and with no knowledge +of other localities. He paid his debts and left the place. He wandered, +literally, from town to town, until his means were gone and his strength +well-nigh exhausted, when, on a bright Wednesday morning in the month of +November, 1833, he reached the village of Winchester, Illinois. + +In his head were his brains, in his pocket his cash resources, namely, +thirty-seven and a half cents, and in a checkered blue handkerchief his +school-books and his wardrobe. He knew no one there, he had no plan of +action, and, foot-sore, with heavy heart, he leaned against a post in +the public square, and for the first time in his life gave way to gloomy +forebodings. He had, however, entered the town where his fortunes were +to mend, his life to receive new vigor, and his successful career to +begin. + +While standing thus, he noticed at the farther end of the square a crowd +of people, and walked towards them. On a platform stood a red-faced, +burly auctioneer, with a straw hat and a loud voice, who was arguing +with some one in the crowd of expectant buyers the impossibility of +proceeding with the sale without a clerk to aid him. He was in the heat +of the discussion, when his eye fell upon the intelligent face and +fragile form of young Douglas, to whom he beckoned,--when the following +dialogue ensued. + +_Auctioneer_. I say, boy, you look like you're smart; can you figure? + +_Douglas_. I can, Sir. + +_Auctioneer_. Will a couple of dollars a day hire you, till we finish +this sale? + +_Douglas_. And board? + +At which reply the crowd laughed, and the auctioneer, who thought he had +found a treasure, said,-- + +"Yes, and board; tumble up and go to work." + +Whereupon, Douglas, whose legs were weak, whose stomach was empty, and +whose head fairly ached with nervous excitement, mounted the platform, +began his work as deputy-auctioneer, and laid the foundations of +a popularity in that section which increased with his years and +strengthened with his success. The sale for which he was hired continued +three days, and attracted the residents of the place and the farmers +from the neighboring towns, all of whom were favorably impressed by the +bright look, the quick, earnest manner, the frequent humorous remarks, +and the unvarying courtesy of the young clerk. In the evenings, when +gathered about the huge iron stove in the bar-room of the hotel, and the +doings, good or bad, of "Old Hickory" were the theme of discussion, one +and all sat quiet, listening with admiration, if not with conviction, +to the conversation of the youthful politician, who at that time was a +great admirer of General Jackson. + +With the same tact and adaptability to circumstances which were +characteristic of him through life, Douglas determined to make use of +these people; and so dexterously did he manage, that, before he had been +with them a week, he had produced upon their minds the impression that +he was of all men the best suited to teach their district school the +ensuing winter. He dined with the minister, rode out with the doctor, +and took tea with the old ladies. He talked politics with the farmers, +recounted adventures to the young men, and, if my informant is +trustworthy, was in no way shy of the young ladies. The zeal with +which he sang on Sunday, and the marked attention which he paid to the +sermonizings of the dominic, advanced him so far in the affections of +the honest people of that rural town, that, had he asked their wealth, +their prayers, or their votes, he would have had no difficulty in +obtaining them. + +There are no reasons for believing, that, as a schoolmaster, he was +particularly well qualified. He did very well however, and satisfied +the entire township, so that, had he been content with that that very +honorable, but somewhat inconspicuous life, he might doubtless have +remained there until this day. Up to this period he had been a strict +temperance man. No intoxicating drink had as yet passed his lips; and an +early experiment with a pipe had so sickened him, that he had resolved +never again to attempt it. It would have been well for him, had he +adhered to that resolve; but, like many other politicians, he thought it +necessary, in the days of his early public life, to mix with the crowd, +to join the bar-room circle, to tell his story and sing his song, to +smoke, and generally to conform to all those demands of pot-house +oracles which have perhaps elevated the few, but without doubt destroyed +the many. His aim then was popularity. He did his best as a teacher, +giving his spare time to the law. Before the Justices' Court he argued +frequently, and commonly with success. There he gained reputation, and +having been elected member of the legislature, he determined to devote +his life thenceforth to what seemed to him kindred pursuits, politics +and law. + +In the latter his successes were frequent. At first he was employed, +naturally, in minor cases; but it was soon discovered that no one at the +bar was his equal in the dexterous management of a knotty point, the +successful defence of a desperate villain, or the game of bluff with +judge, jury, or opposing counsel. His cases were such as developed his +cunning, his ingenuity, and tact, rather than tested his learning or +research; and it is doubtful if he would, in the practice of law alone, +have achieved more than a local distinction, and that not in all +respects a desirable one. In the wording of the State Statutes he was +well read, and he often availed himself of his remarkable memory to +the entire discomfiture of an opponent, whose technical error, quickly +detected by the watchful ear of Douglas, would be turned against him +with great effect. So constant was his success in the defence of +criminal cases, that it was deemed well, by the powers that were, to +elevate him to the position of prosecuting attorney for the first +district of the State. This was done in 1835, when he was but twenty-two +years of age. At that time he was of singularly prepossessing appearance +and popular manners. The _people_ were fond and proud of him; and when +he made his acknowledgments to them for the above-mentioned token of +their confidence, he so excited them by his oratory, that they took him +from the platform, raised him upon their shoulders, and bore him in +triumph about the town, while hundreds followed, shouting, "Hurra for +little Doug!" "Three cheers for the Little Giant!" "We'll put you +through!" and "You'll be President yet!" + +The judges of the Supreme Court thought that a great mistake had been +made; and one of them, who in later years was one of Mr. Douglas's +warmest friends, did not hesitate to say that the election was wrong. +"What business", asked he, "has this boy with such an office? He is no +lawyer, and has no books." Indeed, he met with no little opposition from +his brethren at the bar, but none that in any way impeded his progress +in the affections of the people, or disheartened him in his efforts +after loftier place. Judge Morton relates, that at no time was Douglas +found unprepared. "His indictments were always properly drawn, his +evidence complete, and his arguments logical." Before a jury he was +in his element. There he could indulge in story-telling, in special +pleading, and in all the intricate devices which beguile sober men of +their senses, and prove black white or good evil. From judge to jury, +from the highest practitioner to the lowest pettifogger, there soon came +to be but one impression. He was acknowledged to be the champion of the +Illinois bar. + +His career upon the bench, to which he was soon after elevated, was +brilliant, because energetic, and successful, because he never permitted +contingencies to thwart a predetermination, and because that coolness +and grit which enabled him to whip a second sneering boy while he was +yet a youth had become a settled trait of his character. It was during +the sitting of his court, that the notorious Joe Smith was to be tried +for some offence against the people of the State. Mob-law had taken +matters somewhat under its charge in the West; and the populace, fearing +that Smith, in this particular instance, might manage to slip from the +hands of justice, determined to take him from the court-house and hang +him. They even went so far as to erect a gallows in the yard, and, +having entered the court-room, demanded from the sheriff the person of +the prisoner. Judge Douglas was in his seat; the room was filled with +the infuriated mob and its sympathizers; Smith sat pale and trembling +in his box; while the sheriff, after vainly attempting to quell the +disturbance, fell powerless and half-fainting on the steps. "Sheriff," +shouted the judge, "clear the court!" It was easier said than done. Five +hundred determined men are not to be thwarted by a coward, and such the +sheriff proved. It was a trying moment. The life of Smith _per se_ was +not worth saving, but the dignity of the court must be upheld, and +Douglas saw at a glance that he had but a moment in which to do it. "Mr. +Harris," said he, addressing a huge and sinewy Kentuckian, "I appoint +you sheriff of this court. Select your deputies. Clear this court-house. +Do it, and do it now." He had chosen the right man. Right and left fell +the foremost of the mob; some were pitched from the windows, others +jumped thence of their own accord; and soon the entire crowd, convinced +of the judge's determination to maintain order, rushed pell-mell from +the court-room, while Smith, who had unperceived made his way up to the +feet of the judge, laid his head upon his knee and wept like a child. +"Never," said Douglas, "was I so determined to effect a result as then. +Had Smith been taken from my protection, it would have been only when +I lay dead upon the floor." The fact that he had no right to appoint +a sheriff was not one of the "points of consideration." "How shall I +execute my will?" was probably the only question that suggested itself +to his mind at the time, and the logic of the answer in no way troubled +him. The dignity of the bench was always upheld by Judge Douglas during +the sitting of the court; but he was no stickler for form or ceremony +elsewhere. + +A friend tells an amusing anecdote illustrative of his daring and +somewhat foolhardy spirit, even in mature life. Mr. Douglas, then +a judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois, was one of a number of +passengers who, on the crack steamboat "Andrew Jackson," were going down +the Mississippi. The steamer was detained several hours at Natchez, +where she was supplied with wood and water, and during the delay a huge, +hard-fisted boatman, somewhat the worse for a poor article of strychnine +whiskey, made himself very conspicuous and exceedingly obnoxious by the +continual iteration of his intense desire to fight some one. He +was fearful that he would "ruin," if his pugilistic wants were not +immediately attended to, and in manner more earnest than agreeable +invited one and all to "come ashore and have the conceit taken out" of +them. From the descriptive catalogue he gave of his own merits, the +passengers gathered that he was "a roarer," "a regular bruiser," "half +alligator, half steamboat, half snapping-turtle, with a leetle dash of +chain-lightning thrown in," and were evidently afraid of him; when the +Judge, who had been quietly smoking on the deck, stepped out upon the +quay, and, approaching the bully, said, with a peculiarly dry manner,-- + +"Who might you be, my big chicken, eh?" + +"I'm a high-pressure steamer," roared the astonished boatman. + +"And I'm a snag," replied Douglas, as he pitched into him; and before +the fellow had time to reflect, he lay sprawling in the mud. + +A loud shout, mingled with derisive laughter, burst from the spectators, +all of whom knew the Judge; and while the discomfited braggart limped +sorely off, the passengers carried Douglas to the bar, where, for hours +after, a general series of jollifications ensued, and he who a few days +before had sat the embodiment of judicial dignity on the supreme bench +now vied with a motley crowd of steamboat-passengers in song and story. +As a judge he was as he should be; but he was a judge only while +literally on the bench. + +The decisions of Judge Douglas were recognized always as able and +impartial; but his habit of "log-rolling," or, as the extreme Westerners +call it, "honey-fugling" for votes and support, had so grown upon him, +that his sincere friends feared lest he would sink too low, and in the +end defeat himself. He had ascertained, however, that success was in the +gift of the multitude, and to them he ever remained faithful. + +Had Mr. Douglas been born four months sooner than he was, he would have +been a Senator of the United States in 1842, when his age would have +been thirty years; but owing to the fact that he would not be thirty +until April of the following year, his friends found it would be +unadvisable to elect him. In November, 1843, however, he was elected to +the House, after passing through one of the most exciting canvasses +ever known in the West. Everywhere he met the people on the stump. That +seemed to be his appropriate forum, and the only position in which he +could indulge in his peculiarly popular style of oratory. His greatest +achievement during that Congress was his speech in defence of General +Jackson,--a speech begun when the seats and halls were comparatively +empty, but concluded in the presence of an overwhelming audience. After +the adjournment of Congress, delegations from many of the States were +sent to a monster Jackson Convention held at Nashville, and Mr. Douglas +was a member of the Illinois Committee. By invitation, he stopped at the +Hermitage. Hundreds of others were calling to pay their respects to +the old hero, and to congratulate him upon his triumph, when Douglas +entered. He was short and plain, and attracted little attention, till +presented by Governor Clay of Alabama. On the announcement of his name, +the General raised his still brilliant eyes, and gazed for a moment on +the countenance of the Judge, still retaining his hand. + +"Are you the Mr. Douglas of Illinois who delivered a speech last session +on the subject of the fine imposed on me for declaring martial law at +New Orleans?" he asked. + +"I have delivered a speech in the House on that subject," replied +Douglas. + +"Then stop," said the General; "sit down here beside me; I desire to +return you my thanks for that speech." + +And then, in the presence of that distinguished company, the aged +soldier expressed his gratitude for the words so kindly and justly +spoken, and assured him of his great obligations. At the conclusion +of the interview, Douglas, who was unable to utter a word, grasped +convulsively the aged veteran's hand and left the hall. + +At his death. General Jackson left all his papers to Mr. Blair, the +editor of the Washington "Globe," and among them was a printed copy of +the speech, with this indorsement, written and signed by himself:--"This +speech constitutes my defence: I lay it aside as an inheritance for my +grandchildren." + +In the famous Compromise struggle of 1850, Judge Douglas developed great +strength of will and wonderful executive ability. With Henry Clay he was +on the most friendly terms, and that statesman once said of him, that he +knew of "no man so entirely an embodiment of American ideas and American +institutions as Mr. Douglas." It is well known that to Senator Douglas +belongs the credit of initiating the great "Compromise Bill," and that, +though reported by Mr. Clay as from the Select Committee of the Senate, +it was in reality the California and Territorial Bills drawn up by Mr. +Douglas, united. It was at his own suggestion that this was done; and +when Mr. Clay objected, on the ground that it would be unfair for the +Committee to claim the credit which belonged exclusively to another, he +rebuked him, and asked by what right he (Mr. Clay) jeoparded the peace +and harmony of the nation, in order that this or that man might receive +the credit due for the origin of a bill. Mr. Clay was so struck by the +manner and observation, of Mr. Douglas, that he grasped his hand and +said,--"You are the most generous man living! I _will_ unite the bills, +and report them; but justice shall nevertheless be done to you as the +real author of the measures." It has been. + +Some time after this, he had occasion, to visit Chicago, and his friends +were desirous that he should address the people in defence of the +principle involved in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. On Saturday night he +appeared before his audience in the open square in front of North Market +Hall. His opponents had been more active than his friends. Ten thousand +roughs, determined to make trouble, had assembled there; and when the +speaker appeared, they saluted him with groans, cat-calls, ironical +cheers, and noises of all kinds. That sort of thing in no way annoyed +him. He was used to it. On similar occasions he had by wit and +good-humor succeeded in gaining a respectful and generally an +enthusiastic hearing, and he expected to do so now. He was mistaken. For +four hours the contest raged between them. He entreated, he threatened, +he laughed at them, told stories, bellowed with the entire volume of his +sonorous voice, but without success. They defied and insulted him, until +the clock in a neighboring church-tower tolled forth the midnight hour. +"Gentlemen," said Douglas, taking out his watch, and advancing to the +front of the stand, "it is Sunday morning. I have to bid you farewell. I +am going to church, and you--can go to ----." Whereupon, he retired, and +the crowd followed, hooting, jeering, and screaming, until they left him +at the door of his hotel. + +No man living possessed warmer friends than Mr. Douglas. I saw tears +of sorrow fall from the eyes of hard-featured Western men, when at the +Charleston Convention it became evident that he could not receive the +Presidential nomination. Hard words were spoken and hard blows were +given in his cause there, and subsequently at Baltimore; and it is +doubtful if ever caucusing or struggles for success insured more bitter +or lasting hatreds than were engendered during the prolonged contests at +those places. The result of that strife, the subsequent canvassing of +the country in search of friends and votes, and the ultimate defeat, +worked wonderful changes in him, morally and physically. All that in +years past he had looked for, all he had struggled for, seemed put +forever beyond his reach; and he was from that hour a different man. +Fortunately for him, gloriously for his reputation, the people of the +South saw fit to rebel; and Douglas, espousing the side of the right, +has died a patriot. There had always been a feeling of friendship +existing between Mr. Lincoln and Judge Douglas; and the manner in which +the latter acted just prior to the Inauguration, and the gallant part he +sustained at that time, as well as afterwards, served to increase their +mutual regard and esteem. It was my good-fortune to stand by Mr. Douglas +during the reading of the Inaugural of President Lincoln. Rumors had +been current that there would be trouble at that time, and much anxiety +was felt by the authorities and the friends of Mr. Lincoln as to the +result. "I shall be there," said Douglas, "and if any man attacks +Lincoln, he attacks me, too." As Mr. Lincoln proceeded with his address, +Judge Douglas repeatedly remarked, "Good!" "That's fair!" "No backing +out there!" "That's a good point!" etc.,--indicating his approval of +its tone, as subsequently he congratulated the reader and indorsed the +document. + +At the Inauguration Ball, all were waiting the arrival of the +Presidential party. Much feeling had been created in the city by the +announcement that Washington people did not intend to patronize the +affair, and it was feared that it might fall through. Presently the band +struck up "Hail Columbia," and President Lincoln with his escort entered +the room, followed by Mrs. Lincoln, who was supported by Judge Douglas. +A more significant demonstration of friendship and of personal interest +could not possibly be suggested; and Mr. Douglas, that night, by his +genial manner, his cordial sympathy with the _personnel_ of the new +Administration, and the effectual snubbing which he thereby gave to the +pretentious movers in Washington society, won for himself many friends, +and the gratitude of all the Republicans present. + +About two months since, while in the telegraph office at Washington, +I saw Mr. Douglas. Accosting him, I asked what course he thought the +President should pursue towards the sympathizers with the South who +remained in that city. "Well," replied he, "if I were President, I'd +convert or hang them _all_ within forty-eight hours. However, don't be +in a hurry. I've known Mr. Lincoln a longer time than you have, or than +the country has; he'll come out right, and we will all stand by him." + +The President was, in return, a warm friend of Mr. Douglas. I had +occasion to inquire of him if he had, as was reported in the newspapers, +tendered to Judge Douglas the position of Brigadier-General. "No, Sir," +said Mr. Lincoln, "I have not done so; nor had I thought of doing so +until to-night, when I saw it suggested in the paper. I have no reason +to believe Mr. Douglas would accept it. He has not asked it, nor +have his friends. But I must say, that, if it is well to appoint +brigadier-generals from the civil list, I can imagine few men better +qualified for such a position than Judge Douglas. For myself, I know I +have not much military knowledge, and I think Douglas has. It was he who +first told me I should have trouble at Baltimore, and, pointing on the +map, showed me the route by Perryville, Havre de Grace, and Annapolis, +as the one over which our troops must come. He impressed on my mind the +necessity of absolutely securing Fortress Monroe and Old Point Comfort, +and, in fact, I think he knows all about it." The President continued +at some length to refer to the aid, counsel, and encouragement he had +received from Judge Douglas, intimating that the relations subsisting +between them were of the most amicable and pleasant nature. + +It was evidently the purpose of Mr. Douglas, during the present crisis, +to impress upon the country the fact, that at the outset he had declared +himself a Union man, faithful to the Constitution and the upholding of +its powers. + +Mr. Douglas has left many friends and many opponents, but few enemies. +Careless of money, he died poor. Generous to recklessness, he permitted +his estate to become incumbered and taken from him. Early in life he +aimed at personal popularity, and obtained it. In later years he desired +legal honors, and they were his. Successful in all he undertook, he +raised his ambition to the highest post among his fellows, and its +possession became the sole object of his life. For its attainment +he gave everything, yielded everything, did everything, and became +everything, without success. In all things he was extreme. His loves +and hates were strong. His habits, however they may be estimated, were +apparent to all. His life--was it a failure? + +His death I will but mention. It has plunged a loving family into +sorrow, and taken from a party its leader. Thousands of sentences +gratifying to his friends are written about his greatness, and the +sacredness of his memory; and no word will be uttered here to offend +them. He shall himself close this paper, and I will be the medium of +conveying in his behalf a message to his fellow-countrymen,--a message +which he spoke into the ear of his watchful wife, for the future +guidance of his orphan children:-- + +"Reviving slightly, he turned easily in his bed, and with his eyes +partially closed, and his hand resting in that of Mrs. Douglas, he said, +in slow and measured cadence,-- + +"'TELL THEM TO OBEY THE LAWS AND SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED +STATES.'" + + + + +OUR RIVER. + +(FOR A SUMMER FESTIVAL AT "THE LAURELS" ON THE MERRIMACK.) + + + Once more on yonder laurelled height + The summer flowers have budded; + Once more with summer's golden light + The vales of home are flooded; + And once more, by the grace of Him + Of every good the Giver, + We sing upon its wooded rim + The praises of our river: + + Its pines above, its waves below, + The west wind down it blowing, + As fair as when the young Brissot + Beheld it seaward flowing,-- + And bore its memory o'er the deep + To soothe a martyr's sadness, + And fresco, in his troubled sleep, + His prison-walls with gladness. + + We know the world is rich with streams + Renowned in song and story, + Whose music murmurs through our dreams + Of human love and glory: + We know that Arno's banks are fair, + And Rhine has castled shadows, + And, poet-tuned, the Doon and Ayr + Go singing down their meadows. + + But while, unpictured and unsung + By painter or by poet, + Our river waits the tuneful tongue + And cunning hand to show it,-- + We only know the fond skies lean + Above it, warm with blessing, + And the sweet soul of our Undine + Awakes to our caressing. + + No fickle Sun-God holds the flocks + That graze its shores in keeping; + No icy kiss of Dian mocks + The youth beside it sleeping: + Our Christian river loveth most + The beautiful and human; + The heathen streams of Naiads boast, + But ours of man and woman. + + The miner in his cabin hears + The ripple we are hearing; + It whispers soft to homesick ears + Around the settler's clearing: + In Sacramento's vales of corn, + Or Santee's bloom of cotton, + Our river by its valley-born + Was never yet forgotten. + + The drum rolls loud,--the bugle fills + The summer air with clangor; + The war-storm shakes the solid hills + Beneath its tread of anger: + Young eyes that last year smiled in ours + Now point the rifle's barrel, + And hands then stained with fruits and flowers + Bear redder stains of quarrel. + + But blue skies smile, and flowers bloom on, + And rivers still keep flowing,-- + The dear God still his rain and sun + On good and ill bestowing. + His pine-trees whisper, "Trust and wait!" + His flowers are prophesying + That all we dread of change or fate + His love is underlying. + + And thou, O Mountain-born!--no more + We ask the Wise Allotter + Than for the firmness of thy shore, + The calmness of thy water, + The cheerful lights that overlay + Thy rugged slopes with beauty, + To match our spirits to our day + And make a joy of duty. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE ARTIST MONK. + + +On the evening when Agnes and her grandmother returned from the Convent, +as they were standing after supper looking over the garden parapet into +the gorge, their attention was caught by a man in an ecclesiastical +habit, slowly climbing the rocky pathway towards them. + +"Isn't that brother Antonio?" said Dame Elsie, leaning forward to +observe more narrowly. "Yes, to be sure it is!" + +"Oh, how glad I am!" exclaimed Agnes, springing up with vivacity, and +looking eagerly down the path by which the stranger was approaching. + +A few moments more of clambering, and the stranger met the two women at +the gate with a gesture of benediction. + +He was apparently a little past the middle point of life, and entering +on its shady afternoon. He was tall and well proportioned, and his +features had the spare delicacy of the Italian outline. The round brow, +fully developed in all the perceptive and aesthetic regions,--the keen +eye, shadowed by long, dark lashes,--the thin, flexible lips,--the +sunken cheek, where, on the slightest emotion, there fluttered a +brilliant flush of color,--all were signs telling of the enthusiast in +whom the nervous and spiritual predominated over the animal. + +At times, his eye had a dilating brightness, as if from the flickering +of some inward fire which was slowly consuming the mortal part, and its +expression was brilliant even to the verge of insanity. + +His dress was the simple, coarse, white stuff-gown of the Dominican +friars, over which he wore a darker travelling-garment of coarse cloth, +with a hood, from whose deep shadows his bright mysterious eyes looked +like jewels from a cavern. At his side dangled a great rosary and cross +of black wood, and under his arm he carried a portfolio secured with a +leathern strap, which seemed stuffed to bursting with papers. + +Father Antonio, whom we have thus introduced to the reader, was an +itinerant preaching monk from the Convent of San Marco in Florence, on a +pastoral and artistic tour through Italy. + +Convents in the Middle Ages were the retreats of multitudes of natures +who did not wish to live in a state of perpetual warfare and offence, +and all the elegant arts flourished under their protecting shadows. +Ornamental gardening, pharmacy, drawing, painting, carving in wood, +illumination, and calligraphy were not unfrequent occupations of the +holy fathers, and the convent has given to the illustrious roll of +Italian Art some of its most brilliant names. No institution in modern +Europe had a more established reputation in all these respects than the +Convent of San Marco in Florence. In its best days, it was as near an +approach to an ideal community, associated to unite religion, beauty, +and utility, as ever has existed on earth. It was a retreat from the +commonplace prose of life into an atmosphere at once devotional and +poetic; and prayers and sacred hymns consecrated the elegant labors of +the chisel and the pencil, no less than the more homely ones of the +still and the crucible. San Marco, far from being that kind of sluggish +lagoon often imagined in conventual life, was rather a sheltered hotbed +of ideas,--fervid with intellectual and moral energy, and before the +age in every radical movement. At this period, Savonarola, the poet and +prophet of the Italian religious world of his day, was superior of this +convent, pouring through all the members of the order the fire of his +own impassioned nature, and seeking to lead them back to the fervors of +more primitive and evangelical ages, and in the reaction of a worldly +and corrupt Church was beginning to feel the power of that current which +at last drowned his eloquent voice in the cold waters of martyrdom. +Savonarola was an Italian Luther,--differing from the great Northern +Reformer as the more ethereally strung and nervous Italian differs from +the bluff and burly German; and like Luther he became in his time the +centre of every living thing in society about him. He inspired the +pencils of artists, guided the counsels of statesmen, and, a poet +himself, was an inspiration to poets. Everywhere in Italy the monks of +his order were travelling, restoring the shrines, preaching against +the voluptuous and unworthy pictures with which sensual artists +had desecrated the churches, and calling the people back by their +exhortations to the purity of primitive Christianity. + +Father Antonio was a younger brother of Elsie, and had early become a +member of the San Marco, enthusiastic not less in religion than in Art. +His intercourse with his sister had few points of sympathy, Elsie being +as decided a utilitarian as any old Yankee female born in the granite +hills of New Hampshire, and pursuing with a hard and sharp energy her +narrow plan of life for Agnes. She regarded her brother as a very +properly religious person, considering his calling, but was a little +bored with his exuberant devotion, and absolutely indifferent to his +artistic enthusiasm. Agnes, on the contrary, had from a child attached +herself to her uncle with all the energy of a sympathetic nature, and +his yearly visits had been looked forward to on her part with intense +expectation. To him she could say a thousand things which she +instinctively concealed from her grandmother; and Elsie was well pleased +with the confidence, because it relieved her a little from the vigilant +guardianship that she otherwise held over the girl. When Father Antonio +was near, she had leisure now and then for a little private gossip of +her own, without the constant care of supervising Agnes. + +"Dear uncle, how glad I am to see you once more!" was the eager +salutation with which the young girl received the monk, as he gained the +little garden. "And you have brought your pictures;--oh, I know you have +so many pretty things to show me!" + +"Well, well, child," said Elsie, "don't begin upon that now. A little +talk of bread and cheese will be more in point. Come in, brother, and +wash your feet, and let me beat the dust out of your cloak, and give you +something to stay Nature; for you must be fasting." + +"Thank you, sister," said the monk; "and as for you, pretty one, never +mind what she says. Uncle Antonio will show his little Agnes everything +by-and-by.--A good little thing it is, sister." + +"Yes, yes,--good enough,--and too good," said Elsie, bustling +about;--"roses can't help having thorns, I suppose." + +"Only our ever-blessed Rose of Sharon, the dear mystical Rose of +Paradise, can boast of having no thorns," said the monk, bowing and +crossing himself devoutly. + +Agnes clasped her hands on her bosom and bowed also, while Elsie stopped +with her knife in the middle of a loaf of black bread, and crossed +herself with somewhat of impatience,--like a worldly-minded person of +our day, who is interrupted in the midst of an observation by a grace. + +After the rites of hospitality had been duly observed, the old dame +seated herself contentedly in her door with her distaff, resigned Agnes +to the safe guardianship of her uncle, and had a feeling of security +in seeing them sitting together on the parapet of the garden, with +the portfolio spread out between them,--the warm twilight glow of the +evening sky lighting up their figures as they bent in ardent interest +over its contents. The portfolio showed a fluttering collection of +sketches,--fruits, flowers, animals, insects, faces, figures, shrines, +buildings, trees,--all, in short, that might strike the mind of a man +to whose eye nothing on the face of the earth is without beauty and +significance. + +"Oh, how beautiful!" said the girl, taking up one sketch, in which a +bunch of rosy cyclamen was painted riding out of a bed of moss. + +"Ah, that indeed, my dear!" said the artist, "Would you had seen the +place where I painted it! I stopped there to recite my prayers one +morning; 't was by the side of a beautiful cascade, and all the ground +was covered with these lovely cyclamens, and the air was musky with +their fragrance.--Ah, the bright rose-colored leaves! I can get no color +like them, unless some angel would bring me some from those sunset +clouds yonder." + +"And oh, dear uncle, what lovely primroses!" pursued Agnes, taking up +another paper. + +"Yes, child; but you should have seen them when I was coming down the +south side of the Apennines;--these were everywhere so pale and sweet, +they seemed like the humility of our Most Blessed Mother in her lowly +mortal state. I am minded to make a border of primroses to the leaf in +the Breviary where is the 'Hail, Mary!'--for it seems as if that flower +doth ever say, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord!'" + +"And what will you do with the cyclamen, uncle? does not that mean +something?" + +"Yes, daughter," replied the monk, readily entering into that symbolical +strain which permeated all the heart and mind of the religious of his +day,--"I _can_ see a meaning in it. For you see that the cyclamen +puts forth its leaves in early spring deeply engraven with mystical +characters, and loves cool shadows, and moist, dark places, but comes +at length to wear a royal crown of crimson; and it seems to me like the +saints who dwell in convents and other prayerful places, and have the +word of God graven in their hearts in youth, till these blossom into +fervent love, and they are crowned with royal graces." + +"Ah!" sighed Agnes, "how beautiful and how blessed to be among such!" + +"Thou sayest well, dear child. Blessed are the flowers of God that grow +in cool solitudes, and have never been profaned by the hot sun and dust +of this world!" + +"I should like to be such a one," said Agnes. "I often think, when I +visit the sisters at the Convent, that I long to be one of them." + +"A pretty story!" said Dame Elsie, who had heard the last words,--"go +into a convent and leave your poor grandmother all alone, when she has +toiled night and day for so many years to get a dowry for you and find +you a worthy husband!" + +"I don't want any husband in this world, grandmamma," said Agnes. + +"What talk is this? Not want a good husband to take care of you when +your poor old grandmother is gone? Who will provide for you?" + +"He who took care of the blessed Saint Agnes, grandmamma." + +"Saint Agnes, to be sure! That was a great many years ago, and times +have altered since then;--in these days girls must have husbands. Isn't +it so, brother Antonio?" + +"But if the darling hath a vocation?" said the artist, mildly. + +"Vocation! I'll see to that! She sha'n't have a vocation! Suppose I'm +going to delve, and toil, and spin, and wear myself to the bone, and +have her slip through my fingers at last with a vocation? No, indeed!" + +"Indeed, dear grandmother, don't be angry!" said Agnes. "I will do just +as you say,--only I don't want a husband." + +"Well, well, my little heart,--one thing at a time; you sha'n't have him +till you say yes willingly," said Elsie, in a mollified tone. + +Agnes turned again to the portfolio and busied herself with it, her eyes +dilating as she ran over the sketches. + +"Ah! what pretty, pretty bird is this?" she asked. + +"Knowest thou not that bird, with his little red beak?" said the artist. +"When our dear Lord hung bleeding, and no man pitied him, this bird, +filled with tender love, tried to draw out the nails with his poor +little beak,--so much better were the birds than we hard-hearted +sinners!--hence he hath honor in many pictures. See here,--I shall put +him into the office of the Sacred Heart, in a little nest curiously +built in a running vine of passion-flower. See here, daughter,--I have +a great commission to execute a Breviary for our house, and our holy +Father was pleased to say that the spirit of the blessed Angelico had in +some little humble measure descended on me, and now I am busy day and +night; for not a twig rustles, not a bird flies, nor a flower blossoms, +but I begin to see therein some hint of holy adornment to my blessed +work." + +"Oh, Uncle Antonio, how happy you must be!" said Agnes,--her large eyes +filling with tears. + +"Happy!--child, am I not?" said the monk, looking up and crossing +himself. "Holy Mother, am I not? Do I not walk the earth in a dream of +bliss, and see the footsteps of my Most Blessed Lord and his dear Mother +on every rock and hill? I see the flowers rise up in clouds to adore +them. What am I, unworthy sinner, that such grace is granted me? Often +I fall on my face before the humblest flower where my dear Lord hath +written his name, and confess I am unworthy the honor of copying his +sweet handiwork." + +The artist spoke these words with his hands clasped and his fervid eyes +upraised, like a man in an ecstasy; nor can our more prosaic English +give an idea of the fluent naturalness and grace with which such images +melt into that lovely tongue which seems made to be the natural language +of poetry and enthusiasm. + +Agnes looked up to him with humble awe, as to some celestial being; but +there was a sympathetic glow in her face, and she put her hands on her +bosom, as her manner often was when much moved, and, drawing a deep +sigh, said,-- + +"Would that such gifts were mine!" + +"They are thine, sweet one," said the monk. "In Christ's dear kingdom is +no mine or thine, but all that each hath is the property of the others. +I never rejoice so much in my art as when I think of the communion of +saints, and that all that our Blessed Lord will work through me is the +property of the humblest soul in his kingdom. When I see one flower +rarer than another, or a bird singing on a twig, I take note of the +same, and say, 'This lovely work of God shall be for some shrine, or the +border of a missal, or the foreground of an altar-piece, and thus shall +his saints be comforted.'" + +"But," said Agnes, fervently, "how little can a poor young maiden do! +Ah, I do so long to offer myself up in some way to the dear Lord, who +gave himself for us, and for his Most Blessed Church!" + +As Agnes spoke these words, her cheek, usually so clear and pale, became +suffused with a tremulous color, and her dark eyes had a deep, divine +expression;--a moment after, the color slowly faded, her head drooped, +and her long, dark lashes fell on her cheek, while her hands were folded +on her bosom. The eye of the monk was watching her with an enkindled +glance. + +"Is she not the very presentment of our Blessed Lady in the +Annunciation?" said he to himself. "Surely, this grace is upon her for +this special purpose. My prayers are answered. + +"Daughter," he began, in a gentle tone, "a glorious work has been done +of late in Florence under the preaching of our blessed Superior. Could +you believe it, daughter, in these times of backsliding and rebuke there +have been found painters base enough to paint the pictures of vile, +abandoned women in the character of our Blessed Lady; yea, and princes +have been found wicked enough to buy them and put them up in churches, +so that the people have had the Mother of all Purity presented to them +in the guise of a vile harlot. Is it not dreadful?" + +"How horrible!" said Agnes. + +"Ah, but you should have seen the great procession through Florence, +when all the little children were inspired by the heavenly preaching of +our dear Master. These dear little ones, carrying the blessed cross and +singing the hymns our Master had written for them, went from house to +house and church to church, demanding that everything that was vile and +base should be delivered up to the flames,--and the people, beholding, +thought that the angels had indeed come down, and brought forth all +their loose pictures and vile books, such as Boccaccio's romances and +other defilements, and the children made a splendid bonfire of them in +the Grand Piazza, and so thousands of vile things were consumed and +scattered. And then our blessed Master exhorted the artists to give +pencils to Christ and his Mother, and seek for her image among pious and +holy women living a veiled and secluded life, like that our Lady lived +before the blessed Annunciation. 'Think you,' he said, 'that the blessed +Angelico obtained the grace to set forth our Lady in such heavenly wise +by gazing about the streets on mincing women tricked out in all the +world's bravery?--or did he not find her image in holy solitudes, among +modest and prayerful saints?'" + +"Ah," said Agnes, drawing in her breath with an expression of awe, "what +mortal would dare to sit for the image of our Lady!" + +"Dear child, there be women whom the Lord crowns with beauty when they +know it not, and our dear Mother sheds so much of her spirit into their +hearts that it shines out in their faces; and among such must the +painter look. Dear little child, be not ignorant that our Lord hath shed +this great grace on thee. I have received a light that thou art to be +the model for the 'Hail, Mary!' in my Breviary." + +"Oh, no, no, no! it cannot be!" said Agnes, covering her face with her +hands. + +"My daughter, thou art very beautiful, and this beauty was given thee +not for thyself, but to be laid like a sweet flower on the altar of thy +Lord. Think how blessed, if, through thee, the faithful be reminded of +the modesty and humility of Mary, so that their prayers become more +fervent,--would it not be a great grace?" + +"Dear uncle,"--said Agnes, "I am Christ's child. If it be as you +say,--which I did not know,--give me some days to pray and prepare my +soul, that I may offer myself in all humility." + +During this conversation Elsie had left the garden and gone a little way +down the gorge, to have a few moments of gossip with an old crony. The +light of the evening sky had gradually faded away, and the full moon was +pouring a shower of silver upon the orange-trees. As Agnes sat on the +parapet, with the moonlight streaming down on her young, spiritual face, +now tremulous with deep suppressed emotion, the painter thought he had +never seen any human creature that looked nearer to his conception of a +celestial being. + +They both sat awhile in that kind of quietude which often falls between +two who have stirred some deep fountain of emotion. All was so still +around them, that the drip and trickle of the little stream which fell +from the garden wall into the dark abyss of the gorge could well be +heard as it pattered from one rocky point to another, with a slender, +lulling sound. + +Suddenly the reveries of the two were disturbed by the shadow of a +figure which passed into the moonlight and seemed to rise from the side +of the gorge. A man enveloped in a dark cloak with a peaked hood stepped +across the moss-grown garden parapet, stood a moment irresolute, then +the cloak dropped suddenly from him, and the Cavalier stood in the +moonlight before Agnes. He bore in his hand a tall stalk of white lily, +with open blossoms and buds and tender fluted green leaves, such as one +sees in a thousand pictures of the Annunciation. The moonlight fell full +upon his face, revealing his haughty yet beautiful features, agitated +by some profound emotion. The monk and the girl were both too much +surprised for a moment to utter a sound; and when, after an instant, the +monk made a half-movement as if to address him, the cavalier raised his +right hand with a sudden authoritative gesture which silenced him. Then +turning toward Agnes, he kneeled, and kissing the hem of her robe, and +laying the lily in her lap, "Holiest and dearest," he said, "oh, forget +not to pray for me!" He rose again in a moment, and, throwing his +cloak around him, sprang over the garden wall, and was heard rapidly +descending into the shadows of the gorge. + +All this passed so quickly that it seemed to both the spectators like a +dream. The splendid man, with his jewelled weapons, his haughty bearing, +and air of easy command, bowing with such solemn humility before the +peasant girl, reminded the monk of the barbaric princes in the wonderful +legends he had read, who had been drawn by some heavenly inspiration to +come and render themselves up to the teachings of holy virgins, chosen +of the Lord, in divine solitudes. In the poetical world in which he +lived all such marvels were possible. There were a thousand precedents +for them in that devout dream-land, "The Lives of the Saints." + +"My daughter," he said, after looking vainly down the dark shadows upon +the path of the stranger, "have you ever seen this man before?" + +"Yes, uncle; yesterday evening I saw him for the first time, when +sitting at my stand at the gate of the city. It was at the Ave Maria; he +came up there and asked my prayers, and gave me a diamond ring for the +shrine of Saint Agnes, which I carried to the Convent to-day." + +"Behold, my dear daughter, the confirmation of what I have just said to +thee! It is evident that our Lady hath endowed thee with the great grace +of a beauty which draws the soul upward towards the angels, instead of +downward to sensual things, like the beauty of worldly women. What saith +the blessed poet Dante of the beauty of the holy Beatrice?--that it said +to every man who looked on her, '_Aspire!_'[A] Great is the grace, and +thou must give special praise therefor." + +[Footnote A: I cannot forbear quoting Mr. Norton's beautiful translation +of this sonnet in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for February, 1859:-- + + "So gentle and so modest doth appear + My lady when she giveth her salute, + That every tongue becometh trembling mute, + Nor do the eyes to look upon her dare, + And though she hears her praises, she doth, go + Benignly clothed with humility, + And like a thing come down she seems to be + From heaven to earth, a miracle to show. + So pleaseth she whoever cometh nigh her, + She gives the heart a sweetness through the eyes + Which none can understand who doth not prove. + And from her lip there seems indeed to move + A spirit sweet and in Love's very guise, + Which goeth saying to the soul, '_Aspire!_'"] + +"I would," said Agnes, thoughtfully, "that I knew who this stranger is, +and what is his great trouble and need,--his eyes are so full of sorrow. +Giulietta said he was the King's brother, and was called the Lord +Adrian. What sorrow can he have, or what need for the prayers of a poor +maid like me?" + +"Perhaps the Lord hath pierced him with a longing after the celestial +beauty and heavenly purity of paradise, and wounded him with a divine +sorrow, as happened to Saint Francis and to the blessed Saint Dominic," +said the monk. "Beauty is the Lord's arrow, wherewith he pierceth to the +inmost soul, with a divine longing and languishment which find rest only +in him. Hence thou seest the wounds of love in saints are always painted +by us with holy flames ascending from them. Have good courage, sweet +child, and pray with fervor for this youth; for there be no prayers +sweeter before the throne of God than those of spotless maidens. The +Scripture saith, 'My beloved feedeth among the lilies.'" + +At this moment the sharp, decided tramp of Elsie was heard reëntering +the garden. + +"Come, Agnes," she said, "It is time for you to begin your prayers, or, +the saints know, I shall not get you to bed till midnight. I suppose +prayers are a good thing," she added, seating herself wearily; "but if +one must have so many of them, one must get about them early. There's +reason in all things." + +Agnes, who had been sitting abstractedly on the parapet, with her head +drooped over the lily-spray, now seemed to collect herself. She rose up +in a grave and thoughtful manner, and, going forward to the shrine of +the Madonna, removed the flowers of the morning, and holding the vase +under the spout of the fountain, all feathered with waving maiden-hair, +filled it with fresh water, the drops falling from it in a thousand +little silver rings in the moonlight. + +"I have a thought," said the monk to himself, drawing from his girdle +a pencil and hastily sketching by the moonlight. What he drew was a +fragile maiden form, sitting with clasped hands on a mossy ruin, gazing +on a spray of white lilies which lay before her. He called it, The +Blessed Virgin pondering the Lily of the Annunciation. + +"Hast thou ever reflected," he said to Agnes, "what that lily might be +like which the angel Gabriel brought to our Lady?--for, trust me, it was +no mortal flower, but grew by the river of life. I have often meditated +thereon, that it was like unto living silver with a light in itself, +like the moon,--even as our Lord's garments in the Transfiguration, +which glistened like the snow. I have cast about in myself by what +device a painter might represent so marvellous a flower." + +"Now, brother Antonio," said Elsie, "if you begin to talk to the child +about such matters, our Lady alone knows when we shall get to bed. I am +sure I'm as good a Christian as anybody; but, as I said, there's reason +in all things, and one cannot always be wondering and inquiring into +heavenly matters,--as to every feather in Saint Michael's wings, and as +to our Lady's girdle and shoe-strings and thimble and work-basket; and +when one gets through with our Lady, then one has it all to go over +about her mother, the blessed Saint Anne (may her name be ever +praised!). I mean no disrespect, but I am certain the saints are +reasonable folk and must see that poor folk must live, and, in order to +live, must think of something else now and then besides _them_. That's +my mind, brother." + +"Well, well, sister," said the monk, placidly, "no doubt you are right. +There shall be no quarrelling in the Lord's vineyard; every one hath his +manner and place, and you follow the lead of the blessed Saint Martha, +which is holy and honorable." + +"Honorable! I should think it might be!" said Elsie. "I warrant me, if +everything had been left to Saint Mary's doings, our Blessed Lord and +the Twelve Apostles might have gone supperless. But it's Martha gets all +the work, and Mary all the praise." + +"Quite right, quite right," said the monk, abstractedly, while he stood +out in the moonlight busily sketching the fountain. By just such a +fountain, he thought, our Lady might have washed the clothes of the +Blessed Babe. Doubtless there was some such in the court of her +dwelling, all mossy and with sweet waters forever singing a song of +praise therein. + +Elsie was heard within the house meanwhile making energetic commotion, +rattling pots and pans, and producing decided movements among the simple +furniture of the dwelling, probably with a view to preparing for the +night's repose of the guest. + +Meanwhile Agnes, kneeling before the shrine, was going through with +great feeling and tenderness the various manuals and movements of +nightly devotion which her own religious fervor and the zeal of her +spiritual advisers had enjoined upon her. Christianity, when it entered +Italy, came among a people every act of whose life was colored and +consecrated by symbolic and ritual acts of heathenism. The only possible +way to uproot this was in supplanting it by Christian ritual and +symbolism equally minute and pervading. Besides, in those ages when the +Christian preacher was utterly destitute of all the help which the press +now gives in keeping under the eye of converts the great inspiring +truths of religion, it was one of the first offices of every saint whose +preaching stirred the heart of the people, to devise symbolic forms, +signs, and observances, by which the mobile and fluid heart of the +multitude might crystallize into habits of devout remembrance. The +rosary, the crucifix, the shrine, the banner, the procession, were +catechisms and tracts invented for those who could not read, wherein +the substance of pages was condensed and gave itself to the eye and +the touch. Let us not, from the height of our day, with the better +appliances which a universal press gives us, sneer at the homely rounds +of the ladder by which the first multitudes of the Lord's followers +climbed heavenward. + +If there seemed somewhat mechanical in the number of times which Agnes +repeated the "Hail, Mary!"--in the prescribed number of times she rose +or bowed or crossed herself or laid her forehead in low humility on +the flags of the pavement, it was redeemed by the earnest fervor which +inspired each action. However foreign to the habits of a Northern mind +or education such a mode of prayer may be, these forms to her were all +helpful and significant, her soul was borne by them Godward,--and often, +as she prayed, it seemed to her that she could feel the dissolving of +all earthly things, and the pressing nearer and nearer of the great +cloud of witnesses who ever surround the humblest member of Christ's +mystical body. + + "Sweet loving hearts around her beat, + Sweet helping hands are stirred, + And palpitates the veil between + With breathings almost heard." + +Certain English writers, looking entirely from a worldly and +philosophical standpoint, are utterly at a loss to account for the power +which certain Italian women of obscure birth came to exercise in the +councils of nations merely by the force of a mystical piety; but the +Northern mind of Europe is entirely unfitted to read and appreciate the +psychological religious phenomena of Southern races. The temperament +which in our modern days has been called the mediïstic, and which with +us is only exceptional, is more or less a race-peculiarity of Southern +climates, and gives that objectiveness to the conception of spiritual +things from which grew up a whole ritual and a whole world of religious +Art. The Southern saints and religious artists were seers,--men and +women of that peculiar fineness and delicacy of temperament which made +them especially apt to receive and project outward the truths of the +spiritual life; they were in that state of "divine madness" which is +favorable to the most intense conception of the poet and artist, and +something of this influence descended through all the channels of the +people. + +When Agnes rose from prayer, she had a serene, exalted expression, like +one who walks with some unseen excellence and meditates on some untold +joy. As she was crossing the court to come towards her uncle, her eye +was attracted by the sparkle of something on the ground, and, stooping, +she picked up a heart-shaped locket, curiously made of a large amethyst, +and fastened with a golden arrow. As she pressed upon this, the locket +opened and disclosed to her view a folded paper. Her mood at this moment +was so calm and elevated that she received the incident with no start or +shiver of the nerves. To her it seemed a Providential token, which would +probably bring to her some further knowledge of this mysterious being +who had been so especially confided to her intercessions. + +Agnes had learned of the Superior of the Convent the art of reading +writing, which would never have been the birthright of the peasant-girl +in her times, and the moon had that dazzling clearness which revealed +every letter. She stood by the parapet, one hand lying in the white +blossoming alyssum which filled its marble crevices, while she read and +seriously pondered the contents of the paper. + +TO AGNES. + + Sweet saint, sweet lady, may a sinful soul + Approach thee with an offering of love, + And lay at thy dear feet a weary heart + That loves thee, as it loveth God above! + If blessed Mary may without a stain + Receive the love of sinners most defiled, + If the fair saints that walk with her in white + Refuse not love from earth's most guilty child, + Shouldst thou, sweet lady, then that love deny + Which all-unworthy at thy feet is laid? + Ah, gentlest angel, be not more severe + Than the dear heavens unto a loving prayer! + Howe'er unworthily that prayer be said, + Let thine acceptance be like that on high! + +There might have been times in Agnes's life when the reception of this +note would have astonished and perplexed her; but the whole strain of +thought and conversation this evening had been in exalted and poetical +regions, and the soft stillness of the hour, the wonderful calmness +and clearness of the moonlight, all seemed in unison with the strange +incident that had occurred, and with the still stranger tenor of the +paper. The soft melancholy, half-religious tone of it was in accordance +with the whole undercurrent of her life, and prevented that start of +alarm which any homage of a more worldly form might have excited. It +is not to be wondered at, therefore, that she read it many times with +pauses and intervals of deep thought, and then with a movement of +natural and girlish curiosity examined the rich jewel which had inclosed +it. At last, seeming to collect her thoughts, she folded the paper and +replaced it in its sparkling casket, and, unlocking the door of the +shrine, laid the gem with its inclosure beneath the lily-spray, as +another offering to the Madonna. "Dear Mother," she said, "if indeed it +be so, may he rise from loving me to loving thee and thy dear Son, who +is Lord of all! Amen!" Thus praying, she locked the door and turned +thoughtfully to her repose, leaving the monk pacing up and down in the +moonlit garden. + +Meanwhile the Cavalier was standing on the velvet mossy bridge which +spanned the stream at the bottom of the gorge, watching the play of +moonbeams on layer after layer of tremulous silver foliage in the clefts +of the black, rocky walls on either side. The moon rode so high in the +deep violet-colored sky, that her beams came down almost vertically, +making green and translucent the leaves through which they passed, +and throwing strongly marked shadows here and there on the +flower-embroidered moss of the old bridge. There was that solemn, +plaintive stillness in the air which makes the least sound--the hum +of an insect's wing, the cracking of a twig, the patter of falling +water--so distinct and impressive. + +It needs not to be explained how the Cavalier, following the steps of +Agnes and her grandmother at a distance, had threaded the path by which +they ascended to their little sheltered nook,--how he had lingered +within hearing of Agnes's voice, and, moving among the surrounding rocks +and trees, and drawing nearer and nearer as evening shadows drew on, had +listened to the conversation, hoping that some unexpected chance might +gain him a moment's speech with his enchantress. + +The reader will have gathered from the preceding chapter that the +conception which Agnes had formed as to the real position of her admirer +from the reports of Giulietta was false, and that in reality he was +not Lord Adrian, the brother of the King, but an outcast and landless +representative of one branch of an ancient and noble Roman family, whose +estates had been confiscated and whose relations had been murdered, to +satisfy the boundless rapacity of Caesar Borgia, the infamous favorite +of the notorious Alexander VI. + +The natural temperament of Agostino Sarelli had been rather that of the +poet and artist than of the warrior. In the beautiful gardens of his +ancestral home it had been his delight to muse over the pages of Dante +and Ariosto, to sing to the lute and to write in the facile flowing +rhyme of his native Italian the fancies of the dream-land of his youth. + +He was the younger brother of the family,--the favorite son and +companion of his mother, who, being of a tender and religious nature, +had brought him up in habits of the most implicit reverence and devotion +for the institutions of his fathers. + +The storm which swept over his house, and blasted all his worldly +prospects, blasted, too, and withered all those religious hopes and +beliefs by which alone sensitive and affectionate natures can be healed +of the wounds of adversity without leaving distortion or scar. For his +house had been overthrown, his elder brother cruelly and treacherously +murdered, himself and his retainers robbed and cast out, by a man who +had the entire sanction and support of the Head of the Christian +Church, the Vicar of Christ on Earth. So said the current belief of his +times,--the faith in which his sainted mother died; and the difficulty +with which a man breaks away from such ties is in exact proportion to +the refinement and elevation of his nature. + +In the mind of our young nobleman there was a double current. He was a +Roman, and the traditions of his house went back to the time of Mutius +Scaevola; and his old nurse had often told him that grand story of how +the young hero stood with his right hand in the fire rather than betray +his honor. If the legends of Rome's ancient heroes cause the pulses of +colder climes and alien races to throb with sympathetic heroism, what +must their power be to one who says, "_These were my fathers_"? Agostino +read Plutarch, and thought, "_I_, too, am a Roman!"--and then he looked +on the power that held sway over the Tarpeian Rock and the halls of the +old "Sanctus Senatus," and asked himself, "By what right does it hold +these?" He knew full well that in the popular belief all those hardy +and virtuous old Romans whose deeds of heroism so transported him were +burning in hell for the crime of having been born before Christ; and he +asked himself, as he looked on the horrible and unnatural luxury +and vice which defiled the Papal chair and ran riot through every +ecclesiastical order, whether such men, without faith, without +conscience, and without even decency, were indeed the only authorized +successors of Christ and his Apostles? + +To us, of course, from our modern stand-point, the question has an easy +solution,--but not so in those days, when the Christianity of the known +world was in the Romish Church, and when the choice seemed to be between +that and infidelity. Not yet had Luther flared aloft the bold, cheery +torch which showed the faithful how to disentangle Christianity from +Ecclesiasticism. Luther in those days was a star lying low in the gray +horizon of a yet unawakened dawn. + +All through Italy at this time there was the restless throbbing and +pulsating, the aimless outreach of the popular heart, which marks +the decline of one cycle of religious faith and calls for some great +awakening and renewal. Savonarola, the priest and prophet of this dumb +desire, was beginning to heave a great heart of conflict towards that +mighty struggle with the vices and immoralities of his time in which he +was yet to sink a martyr; and even now his course was beginning to be +obstructed by the full energy of the whole aroused serpent brood which +hissed and knotted in the holy places of Rome. + +Here, then, was our Agostino, with a nature intensely fervent and +poetic, every fibre of whose soul and nervous system had been from +childhood skilfully woven and intertwined with the ritual and faith of +his fathers, yearning towards the grave of his mother, yearning towards +the legends of saints and angels with which she had lulled his cradle +slumbers and sanctified his childhood's pillow, and yet burning with the +indignation of a whole line of old Roman ancestors against an injustice +and oppression wrought under the full approbation of the head of that +religion. Half his nature was all the while battling the other half. +Would he be Roman, or would he be Christian? All the Roman in him said +"No!" when he thought of submission to the patent and open injustice and +fiendish tyranny which had disinherited him, slain his kindred, and held +its impure reign by torture and by blood. He looked on the splendid +snow-crowned mountains whose old silver senate engirdles Rome with an +eternal and silent majesty of presence, and he thought how often in +ancient times they had been a shelter to free blood that would not +endure oppression; and so gathering to his banner the crushed and +scattered retainers of his father's house, and offering refuge and +protection to multitudes of others whom the crimes and rapacities of the +Borgias had stripped of possessions and means of support, he fled to +a fastness in the mountains between Rome and Naples, and became an +independent chieftain, living by his sword. + +The rapacity, cruelty, and misgovernment of the various regular +authorities of Italy at this time made brigandage a respectable and +honored institution in the eyes of the people, though it was ostensibly +banned both by Pope and Prince. Besides, in the multitude of contending +factions which were every day wrangling for supremacy, it soon became +apparent, even to the ruling authorities, that a band of fighting-men +under a gallant leader, advantageously posted in the mountains and +understanding all their passes, was a power of no small importance to +be employed on one side or the other; and therefore it happened, +that, though nominally outlawed or excommunicated, they were secretly +protected on both sides, with a view to securing, their assistance in +critical turns of affairs. + +Among the common people of the towns and villages their relations were +of the most comfortable kind, their depredations being chiefly confined +to the rich and prosperous, who, as they wrung their wealth out of the +people, were not considered particular objects of compassion when the +same kind of high-handed treatment was extended toward themselves. + +The most spirited and brave of the young peasantry, if they wished to +secure the smiles of the girls of their neighborhood, and win hearts +past redemption, found no surer avenue to favor than in joining the +brigands. The leaders of these bands sometimes piqued themselves on +elegant tastes and accomplishments; and one of them is said to have sent +to the poet Tasso, in his misfortunes and exile, an offer of honorable +asylum and protection in his mountain-fortress. + +Agostino Sarelli saw himself, in fact, a powerful chief; and there were +times when the splendid scenery of his mountain-fastness, its inspiring +air, its wild eagle-like grandeur, independence, and security, gave him +a proud contentment, and he looked at his sword and loved it as a bride. +But then again there were moods in which he felt all that yearning and +disquiet of soul which the man of wide and tender moral organization +must feel who has had his faith shaken in the religion of his fathers. +To such a man the quarrel with his childhood's faith is a never-ending +anguish; especially is it so with a religion so objective, so pictorial, +and so interwoven with the whole physical and nervous nature of man, as +that which grew up and flowered in modern Italy. + +Agostino was like a man who lives in an eternal struggle of +self-justification,--his reason forever going over and over with its +plea before his regretful and never-satisfied heart, which was drawn +every hour of the day by some chain of memory towards the faith whose +visible administrators he detested with the whole force of his moral +being. When the vesper-bell, with its plaintive call, rose amid the +purple shadows of the olive-silvered mountains,--when the distant voices +of chanting priest and choir reached him solemnly from afar,--when +he looked into a church with its cloudy pictures of angels, and its +window-panes flaming with venerable forms of saints and martyrs,--it +roused a yearning anguish, a pain and conflict, which all the efforts +of his reason could not subdue. How to be a Christian and yet defy the +authorized Head of the Christian Church, or how to be a Christian +and recognize foul men of obscene and rapacious deeds as Christ's +representatives, was the inextricable Gordian knot, which his sword +could not divide. He dared not approach the Sacrament, he dared not +pray, and sometimes he felt wild impulses to tread down in riotous +despair every fragment of a religious belief which seemed to live in his +heart only to torture him. He had heard priests scoff over the wafer +they consecrated,--he had known them to mingle poison for rivals in the +sacramental wine,--and yet God had kept silence and not struck them +dead; and like the Psalmist of old he said, "Verily, I have cleansed my +heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. Is there a God that +judgeth in the earth?" + +The first time he saw Agnes bending like a flower in the slanting +evening sunbeams by the old gate of Sorrento, while he stood looking +down the kneeling street and striving to hold his own soul in the +sarcastic calm of utter indifference, he felt himself struck to the +heart by an influence he could not define. The sight of that young face, +with its clear, beautiful lines, and its tender fervor, recalled a +thousand influences of the happiest and purest hours of his life, and +drew him with an attraction he vainly strove to hide under an air of +mocking gallantry. + +When she looked him in the face with such grave, surprised eyes of +innocent confidence, and promised to pray for him, he felt a remorseful +tenderness as if he had profaned a shrine. All that was passionate, +poetic, and romantic in his nature was awakened to blend itself in a +strange mingling of despairing sadness and of tender veneration about +this sweet image of perfect purity and faith. Never does love strike so +deep and immediate a root as in a sorrowful and desolated nature; +there it has nothing to dispute the soil, and soon fills it with its +interlacing fibres. + +In this case it was not merely Agnes that he sighed for, but she stood +to him as the fair symbol of that life-peace, that rest of soul which he +had lost, it seemed to him, forever. + +"Behold this pure, believing child," he said to himself,--"a true member +of that blessed Church to which thou art a rebel! How peacefully this +lamb walketh the old ways trodden by saints and martyrs, while thou +art an infidel and unbeliever!" And then a stern voice within him +answered,--"What then? Is the Holy Ghost indeed alone dispensed through +the medium of Alexander and his scarlet crew of cardinals? Hath the +power to bind and loose in Christ's Church been indeed given to whoever +can buy it with the wages of robbery and oppression? Why does every +prayer and pious word of the faithful reproach me? Why is God silent? Or +is there any God? Oh, Agnes, Agnes! dear lily! fair lamb! lead a sinner +into the green pastures where thou restest!" + +So wrestled the strong nature, tempest-tossed in its strength,--so slept +the trustful, blessed in its trust,--then in Italy, as now in all lands. + + + + +MAIL-CLAD STEAMERS. + + +Exposed as we are to treason at home and jealousy abroad, it becomes the +policy as well as the duty of our country to prepare with promptitude +for every contingency by availing itself of all improvements in the +art of war. Superior weapons double the courage and efficiency of our +troops, carry dismay to the foe, and diminish the cost and delays +of warfare. The match-lock and the field-piece in their rudest form +triumphed over the shield, the spear, and the javelin, while the +long-bow, once so formidable, is now rarely drawn, except by those who +cater for sensation-journals. The king's-arm and artillery of the last +war cannot stand before the Minié rifle and Whitworth cannon any more +than the sickle can keep pace with the McCormick reaper, or the slow +coach with the railway-car or the telegraph. Mail-clad steamers, +impervious to shells and red-hot balls, and almost, if not quite, +invulnerable by solid shot and balls from rifled cannon at the distance +of a hundred yards, have been launched upon the deep, and already form +an important part of the navies of France and England. They have been +adopted by Russia, Austria, and Spain; and yet, although our country +furnishes iron which has no superior,--although it has taken the lead in +the steamship, the telegraph, and the railway,--although at this moment +it requires the mail-clad steamer more than any other nation, to relieve +its fortresses, to recover the cotton ports, and to defend its great +cities from foreign aggression, not a single one has yet been launched, +or even been authorized by Congress. For years we have had no more +efficient Secretary of the Navy, or more able and energetic chiefs of +the bureaus, if we may judge from what has already been accomplished; +but it depends on Congress to give the proper authority to construct a +mail-clad navy, and to provide the necessary funds. + +The importance of defensive armor has ever been felt. The warriors of +ancient times went to the field in coats-of-mail, and both Homer and +Virgil dilate upon the exquisite carving of the shield. The hauberk and +corselet were used by the Crusaders, and the chain-armor of Milan was +nearly or quite impervious to the sword and spear. Mexico and Peru were +won in great part by coats-of-mail. They were used until gunpowder +changed the whole course of war,--and the Chevalier Bayard, that knight +"_sans peur et sans reproche_," who had borne himself bravely and almost +without a scar in a hundred battles, in his last Italian campaign, as +he was borne from the field, after being struck down by a cannon-ball, +mourned that the days of Chivalry were ended. And Shakspeare tells us +that this villanous saltpetre had prevented at least one sensitive +gentleman from being a soldier. + +Defensive armor is still used by tribes who are destitute of powder; and +Barth and Barkie, in their African expeditions, found Moorish horsemen +pressing down from the North into the interior of the Soudan, arrayed +in coats-of-mail of the same description with that which figured in the +Crusades. + +In the naval contests of the last century armed ships were inferior in +size to those of modern times, and their tough oak sides were not easily +pierced by the six- and nine-pound balls then in general use, and +twelve-pounders were considered of unusual dimension. During the war +between France and America, a merchantman, armed with nine-pounders, +actually beat off a sloop-of-war and several Spanish privateers; but now +frigates, and even sloops-of-war, are armed with Dahlgren guns of +eight- to eleven-inch bore, which throw balls of sixty to one hundred +pounds,--also with superior rifled cannon. Whitworth and Armstrong guns +are in use that throw shot or shell distances of three to five miles, +which "the wooden walls" of neither England nor America are able to +resist. + +We have recently seen the Freeborn, the Pawnee, and the Harriet Lane, +when assailing the rebel batteries on the James and the Potomac, +compelled to take positions at the distance of two miles, and to keep +constantly moving, and compelled consequently to throw away most of +their costly ammunition in uncertain shots, at the same time that they +were constantly exposed to shots which might destroy their engines and +explode their boilers. There was no lack of courage on the part of their +gallant officers; but, from the insufficiency of the vessels, they were +obliged to use a wise discretion, and to take all reasonable precautions +for the safety of their ships, so important and yet so inadequate to the +service of the country. And when Fort Sumter was about to fall, and when +a single shot-proof gun-boat could have defied the rebel batteries, and +without the loss of a man have conveyed to the fortress stores for six +months and a whole battalion of troops, that single gun-boat,--a mere +gun-boat, which need not have passed within one thousand yards of any +batteries on her way,--could not be commanded by the Government, and the +gallant Anderson was compelled to lower to treason that flag whose fall +has aroused the nation to arms. + +The earliest experiments upon the power of iron plate to resist the +force of cannon-balls appear to have been made in France by M. de +Montgery, an officer in the French navy, as far back as 1810. He +proposed to cover the sides of ships with several plates of iron, of the +aggregate thickness of four inches, which he alleged would resist the +force of any projectile. But Napoleon had not confidence in his navy; he +had lost the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar; ever successful on the +land, his ships had been swept by Nelson from the deep; and he +had neither time nor disposition to investigate new plans for the +restoration of the navy, or even to take up Fulton's new discovery. It +was reserved for the third Napoleon to develop the original idea of a +Frenchman, and thus to place France on the sea nearly or quite upon a +footing with England. + +Some twelve years later, General Paixhans, who gave his name to the +large guns of modern times, (although their prior invention was claimed +by the late Colonel Bomford,) again commended plate-armor for ships to +his Government; but his advice was not then adopted. + +With the improvement of cannon the importance of plate-armor became more +and more apparent; and at length Mr. Stevens, under the sanction of our +Government, instituted a series of experiments upon iron plates, and +soon after commenced building an immense floating battery for the +defence of New York, at Hoboken, which is still unfinished, but which, +it is rumored, will, if Congress appropriates the means, be completed +the present season. + +Stevens was the first to carry out the idea of a mail-clad steamer; and +it is alone due to the apathy of the late Administration, which has +neglected our navy while indulging in its Southern proclivities, that +our nation has not the honor of launching the first steamer in a +coat-of-mail. The frame, however, of such a vessel has been long in +place, the hull is nearly complete, the engines are far advanced, and +the finishing stroke may soon be given. + +Stevens, in the course of his experiments, made the important discovery, +that a single plate of boiler-iron, five-eighths of an inch in +thickness, and weighing less than twenty-five pounds to the superficial +foot[A], when nailed to the side of a ship, was impenetrable by shell +and red-hot shot, the two missiles most dangerous to wooden walls. When +a solid shot strikes the side of a wooden ship, it passes in and usually +stops before it reaches the opposite side. The fibres of the wood yield +and close up behind it, and it often happens, from the reunion of the +fibres, that it is difficult to find the place perforated by the ball, +and if found, it is often easy to remedy the injury by a simple plug. +But if a red-hot shot enter the ship, it may imbed itself in the wood or +coils of cordage or sails, or reach the magazine, and thus destroy the +whole structure, while the shell may explode within the ship and carry +destruction to both men and vessel. If, then, the iron-plate had +answered no other purpose, the discovery by Stevens of its capacity to +resist the two most formidable weapons of his day would alone have been +of great value to the country; but he went farther, and demonstrated by +actual construction the idea of Montgery, that successive plates of iron +would resist the cold spherical shot thrown by the best artillery, and +his floating battery or frigate is protected by plate within plate of +iron armor. + +[Footnote A: Sheet-iron plates of one inch in thickness weigh forty +pounds per superficial foot.] + +While our Government slept upon its unfinished frigate, and forgot +the honor and interest of the country in the lap of the siren of the +South,--of that South which sixty years since broke down the navy of +John Adams, and left us to encounter the embargo and war with England +without a navy, or, at most, with a few frigates which sufficed to show +what the navy of Adams might have effected,--the honor of launching the +first iron-clad steamer, the Gloire, was resigned to the French. The +first Napoleon made the army of France the best in Europe, if not in the +world; the third, while he maintains the standing of the army, aspires +to give the same position to her navy. + +In 1854, Napoleon, who had long studied the art of war, and during his +stay in New York had doubtless seen or heard of the floating battery, +determined to construct two such batteries, and accordingly built the +Lave and Tonnerre. With one of these, the Lave, during the Russian War, +he assailed and destroyed in the brief space of one hour the strong +fortress of Kinburn, near Sebastopol; and in striking contrast to this +success, a large British steamship, heavily armed, but constructed of +wood, was actually captured near Odessa by a small party of Russians +with two or three thirty-two-pounders worked through a gap in an +embankment. + +The invulnerable battery of France anchored close under the fortress. +Before its cannon, granite walls are shivered into fragments most +dangerous to the gunners, while the shells, burying themselves two or +three feet deep in the brickwork, by their explosion shake the walls to +pieces. Iron, protected by iron, triumphed over both bricks and granite, +which had defied the fleet of England. + +The Emperor was not slow to realize the result of the problem he had +solved. He at once proceeded to test the strength of the best kinds of +plate made in his dominions, and found, by actual trial, that plates of +the best iron, but four and three-fourths inches in thickness, were able +to resist repeated shocks of solid balls fired at the distance of twenty +metres (less than four rods) from his sixty-eight-pounders, and from +rifled guns throwing shot of nearly the same calibre,--and this, too, +when the balls were impelled by more than one-fourth their weight of +powder. But ships rarely engage at such close quarters either with +vessels or fortresses, and the effect of the ball is greatly diminished +by distance, a single inch plate sufficing to stop a spherical shot at a +long distance. + +As the result of these experiments, the Emperor proceeded to construct +the Gloire, an iron-clad frigate, which has been completed, has made +several voyages, been tried in a severe gale, for nearly a year has +been the pride of the French navy, and has recently run from Toulon to +Algiers in the brief space of sixty-six hours. + +The Gloire is a steam-frigate cased in five-inch plates; she is two +hundred and fifty feet in length by twenty-one in width, mounts +thirty-eight rifled fifty-pounders, is moved by engines of nine hundred +horse-power, is manned by six hundred men, has a speed of twelve and a +half knots, and a capacity for five days' coal,--a capacity which might +be easily increased by a little more breadth of beam, but which is +sufficient for a passage to Algiers, or along the coast of Spain, +England, or Italy. This vessel is considered invulnerable by balls +discharged from rifled cannon at the distance of four hundred yards. + +Encouraged by his continued success, the Emperor at once ordered the +construction of nine such frigates, several of which are already +finished. He has since ordered ten more iron-cased frigates and +gun-boats, which are now in course of construction. Before the present +season closes, his iron navy will be composed of twenty steamships and +four floating batteries. + +During the contest with Russia, England would not venture to expose her +wooden ships of the line to the close fire of the batteries either +at Cronstadt or Sebastopol, and found it safer to shell them at a +respectful distance and with indifferent success. She was deeply +impressed, however, with the performance of the Lave and Tonnerre at +Kinburn, and seriously disturbed by the completion of the great naval +station at Cherbourg, armed with more than three hundred cannon, and +directly opposite her coast. + +England at first sought to meet the new invention by improved artillery, +and produced the Whitworth and Armstrong cannon, which have a range of +four to five miles. With these she practised at short distances upon +targets of strong oaken plank faced with iron plates of four to five +inches in diameter, but found the plates impervious to balls, and +vulnerable only by steel bolts of small diameter, fired at short +distances from Whitworth and Armstrong cannon,--bolts so small that the +wounds they made in the frames faced with iron usually closed or did +little mischief. A few plates of inferior iron occasionally gave way +after repeated assaults, for English iron is coarsely made and poorly +welded,--a striking illustration of which may be found in a part of +the hull of the ill-fated steamer Connaught, which is preserved at the +ship-yard near Dorchester Point, South Boston. + +England was at length convinced; she determined that she could not +safely permit the Emperor of the French to rule the sea with his iron +navy. She had not forgotten St. Helena. She realized that she had no +fleet that could safely encounter one of his mail-clad warriors, and +found herself obliged to copy the new invention. She commenced last year +ten iron-clad ships of the line, and has nearly or quite finished the +Warrior, Black Prince, Defiance, and Resistance, while others are +progressing. But she could not tamely copy France. Instead of confining +herself to the length of the Gloire, she is constructing vessels of +immense size. The Warrior, recently launched, is four hundred and +twenty-six feet in length, nearly fifty-two feet in depth, has a width +of fifty-eight feet, measures six thousand one hundred and seventy-seven +tons, and is moved by engines of twelve hundred horse-power. She is to +mount thirty-six cannon of the largest class, and her armor weighs nine +hundred tons. + +This vessel will be a formidable antagonist upon the open sea; but her +great depth, with the weight of her armor, causes her to draw thirty +feet, which would prohibit her entrance into most of the seaports upon +our coast. She is vulnerable, too, at each extremity. Her iron plates, +four and a half inches thick, extend but half her length, leaving more +than a hundred feet at each end covered by a plate of only five-eighths +of an inch in thickness; and in case these portions should be injured, +she must rely upon her water-tight compartments. An adroit foe, in a +light craft of greater speed, avoiding her batteries, which are planted +behind her armor, might possibly assail her unprotected ends, and, +although he could not sink her, still, by shot between wind and water, +he might render her more unwieldy and less manageable,--a weight of +water being thus admitted which would bring down the ship so as to +endanger her lower ports and prevent the use of them in action. He might +thus also prevent her approach to shoal water. The Warrior and her +companions are, however, formidable ships, and in deep water, with ample +sea-room, must be most powerful antagonists. + +The importance attached by England to mail-clad steamers may be inferred +from the debates in the House of Lords on the 11th and 14th of June, +1861, in which it was officially stated that the Government had not +authorized the construction of a single wooden three-decker since 1855, +nor one wooden two-decker since 1859, although it had launched a few +upon the stocks for the purpose of clearing the yards,--and that it now +contemplated culling down a number of the largest wooden steamships +of the line for the purpose of plating them with iron, while it was +constructing nothing but iron ships, except a few light despatch +frigates, corvettes, and gun-boats. + +In the same debate it was stated that bolts of steel had been forced by +improved Armstrong cannon through an eight-inch mail composed of iron +bars dovetailed together; but the quality of the iron and the mode of +fastening were both questioned. These experiments did not deter the +Government from constructing mail-clad steamships. Indeed, it must be +obvious that the great cost of Armstrong cannon, fifteen hundred to two +thousand dollars each, together with the cost of steel bolts, combined +with the fact that this description of cannon is easily shattered, if +struck by a ball from the adversary, must long prevent its introduction +into use; and should it eventually succeed, it must prove far more +destructive to wooden walls than to iron-clad vessels. + +It has, however, been urged in England against iron ships of all +descriptions, but more as a theory than as an ascertained fact, that a +solid shot would make a large and irregular aperture, if it entered the +side of a vessel, and a much larger orifice as it passed out on the +opposite side. To this theory, however, there are two answers: first, +that a solid ball can neither enter nor pass out of the sides of a +mail-clad steamer; second, that, when it enters a common iron ship, +there is evidence that it does less damage than would be suffered by +a wooden vessel. Captain Charlewood, of the Royal Navy, who recently +commanded the iron frigate Guadaloupe in the service of Mexico, +testified before a Committee of the British Parliament, that "his ship +was under fire almost daily for four or five months," that "the damage +by shot was considerably less than that usually suffered by a wooden +vessel, and that there was nothing like the number of splinters which +are generally forced out by a shot sent through a wooden vessel's side"; +that "the vessel was hulled once in the midship part at about one +thousand yards," and the effect was "that the shot passed through the +iron, making a round hole in the iron"; "that at two feet below water +another shot passed through the vessel's side and one or two casks of +provisions, and that the hole was simply plugged by the engineer at the +time." He testified also that none of the shot disturbed any rivets. His +evidence is the more valuable as it relates to an inferior vessel, whose +plates were probably not more than half an inch thick. + +The testimony of Captain W.H. Hall, R.N., in command of the iron frigate +Nemesis, in the Chinese war, was still more conclusive in favor of iron. +He stated, "that in one action the Nemesis was hit fourteen times," and +that one shot "went in at one side and came out at the other, and there +were no splinters; in case of that shot, it went through just as if you +put your finger through a piece of paper: nothing could have been more +easily stopped than I could have stopped that shot in the Nemesis"; +that, "several wooden steamers were employed in that service, and they +were invariably obliged to lie up for repairs, whilst I could repair the +Nemesis in twenty-four hours and have her always ready for service." The +Nemesis was a common iron steamer, and not a mail-clad steamship. + +As respects the strength and durability of these steamers, although +accidents have occurred from defective materials, it is in proof that +the Tyne and Great Britain ran ashore and remained for months exposed to +the open sea without going to pieces, and were finally rescued,--that +the Persia struck on an iceberg, filled one of her compartments with +water, and came safe to port,--that the North America and Edinburgh went +at full speed upon the rocks near Cape Race and yet escaped,--and that +the Sarah Sands, while transporting troops to India, took fire, that in +consequence the interior and contents of one of her compartments were +entirely consumed, that her magazine exploded, and that she then +encountered a ten days' gale, and after this exposure to such a series +of calamities she reached her port without losing one of her crew or +passengers. + +The ambition of England to maintain her ascendancy upon the deep has +led her to disregard the advice of her Defence Commissioners, who +recommended a different class of mail-clad steamers, to measure but two +thousand tons and to draw but sixteen feet of water,--a class admirably +adapted to the sea-ports and requirements of the United States. And +singular as it may appear, by some coincidence at a moment when our +country requires this class of steamers, the enterprise of Boston is +completing two iron steamers whose dimensions and draught of water +conform to the recommendation of the British Commissioners,--steamers +which are nearly ready for launching, but which, if they can receive, +before they leave the stocks, additional plates of iron, would doubtless +prove the most useful and efficient mail-clad vessels which have yet +been constructed. + +The stranger who would inspect these beautiful vessels may seat himself +at almost any hour of the day in the cars at the foot of Summer Street, +and in twenty minutes find himself at a point a little north of the +Perkins Asylum for the Blind. A walk of five minutes more will bring him +to a secluded yard sloping gently towards the water, where he will find +extensive offices, and two large buildings which cover the vessels upon +the stocks. + +As he approaches these structures, he will notice many plates of +superior iron from the rolling-mills of Baltimore, combining the +toughness and strength and other excellences of the best Pennsylvania +iron; he will notice, too, immense ribs and beams of iron, and hear the +incessant din of hammers riveting the sides and boilers. + +Under each of these sheds he will find an iron steamship, two hundred +and seventy-five feet in length by twenty-three in depth, exquisitely +proportioned; he will be struck by the fine entrance and run. The +extreme sharpness of the stem and stern, combined with great capacity, +seems to answer every requirement; and he will be surprised to learn +that the draught of these steamers is but sixteen feet when deeply +laden, and that their engines of thirteen hundred horse-power are +expected to give them a speed of fifteen knots per hour. When they reach +their destined element and have received their lading, the height from +the water-line to the deck will be but seven feet; hence it is apparent +that a belt of iron plates carried around them of eight feet four inches +in height would protect them from the deck to a point sixteen inches +below the water-line, or from the bottom of the deck-beams to a point +two feet below the water-line. + +The iron plates which form the sides of these ships range in thickness +from one inch below the water-line to three-fourths of an inch above +it. And if we allow for the superior strength and toughness of American +iron, an additional plate of three inches in thickness would suffice +to give them more strength than that of either the French or English +mail-clad steamers. + +By careful computation we have ascertained that each vessel might be +encircled by such plates, weighing but one hundred and twenty pounds per +superficial foot, and have her bulwarks plated also, without adding more +than three hundred tons to her weight,--actually less than one-third of +the cargo she was designed to carry. With an extra planking within, and +an armament of twenty-four rifled fifty-pounders or Whitworth cannon, +and select crews, such vessels need fear no antagonists upon the deep. +Low in the hull, they would offer but little surface to the fire of the +enemy, and their sides would be impervious to shot and shell. Beneath +the decks they could carry in safety a whole regiment of troops. +Selecting their position by superior speed, they could destroy a fleet +of wooden steamers or ships-of-the-line. Entering any of our large +seaports, they could pass the fortress at the entrance uninjured, and +lay cities under contribution, or destroy their ports, without being, +like Achilles, or the English "Warrior," vulnerable in the heel. + +When such steamers come into general use, we shall hear no more of the +wooden walls of Greece or England, or of those modern platforms which +had not a stick of sound oak timber in them,--nothing, indeed, but +pitch-pine and cypress. Oak, pine, and cypress would fall into the same +category, when contrasted with the imperishable iron. Some new agency of +steel must be invented to cope with the adamantine iron. And it becomes +our Government, both for the armament of our ships and for defence +against iron steamers, to adopt at the earliest moment every improvement +in rifled cannon. + +The Navy Department has recently put under contract seven steamships and +several steam gun-boats. They have intrusted the latter to some of the +ablest ship-builders of the country, and it is well understood that most +of these vessels are to be completed the present season. This measure, +as far as it goes, is eminently wise; but our navy must still be below +the requirements of the nation, and entirely disproportioned to the +extent both of our commerce and of our sea-coast. At a low estimate, our +country requires an additional supply of at least six mail-clad steam +frigates, twelve steam sloops-of-war, and twelve steam gun-boats, +with similar armor. It will require also for long voyages and +distant stations a dozen steam frigates of wood, and as many steam +sloops-of-war, like the best now in our service; and, with the materials +and armament now on hand, an outlay of twenty-five or thirty millions +well applied may suffice for the construction of the whole. With such a +provision we need feel no solicitude as to the intervention of England +or France in our domestic affairs. + +The lighter steamships of wood will answer for long voyages to the +Mediterranean, the coast of Africa, India, and the Pacific, and will +protect our grain, flour, and corn, on their way from the West to +Europe. Our iron steamers will defend our commercial cities from attack +or blockade; they will level all rebel batteries on the waters of the +Chesapeake; they can batter down the fortresses of the Southern coast, +and restore to commerce the ports of Charleston, Savannah, Pensacola, +Mobile, Apalachicola, New Orleans, and Galveston. + +Most fortunately for our country, at a moment when we cannot immediately +command the live oak of Georgia and Florida, the oak plank of Virginia, +or the yellow pine of the Carolinas, we have the most abundant supplies +of iron easily accessible, and now, relieved from the demands of +railways and factories, ready for the construction of our iron navy. The +iron plates of Pennsylvania and Maryland in strength and toughness know +no superior. The iron mountain near St. Louis and the mines on Lake +Champlain furnish also an article of great purity and excellence. But, +choice as are these deposits of iron, they are all surpassed by the more +recent discoveries on Lake Superior, now opened by the ship-canal at the +Straits of St. Mary. There Nature has stored an inexhaustible amount of +the richest iron ore, free from sulphur, phosphorus, arsenic, and other +deleterious substances, protruding above the surface of hillocks and +underlying the country for miles in extent. This ore is of the specular +and magnetic kind, yields sixty-five per cent. of iron of remarkable +purity, is easily mined and transported to the Lake, and is shipped in +vast quantities to the ports of Lake Erie, where it meets the coal of +Ohio. At least ten companies are now engaged in its shipment, which +has progressed thus far with great rapidity, doubling every year. The +shipments from Lake Superior, in 1858, were thirty thousand five hundred +and twenty-seven tons; in 1859, eighty thousand tons; in 1860, one +hundred and fifty thousand tons. So great are the magnetic powers of +this iron, that, buried as it was in the depths of the forest and +beneath the surface of the earth, it disturbed the compasses of the +United States surveyors while engaged in the survey of Northern +Michigan. For a time their needle would not work, and they were obliged +temporarily to suspend their operations. Their embarrassment led to the +discovery of these vast deposits of ore. It is now mingled with the +inferior ore of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and extensively wrought. + +Our nation has strong motives to induce it to construct an iron navy. + +_First._ The adoption of such a navy by the great powers of +Europe,--England and France,--followed by Russia, Austria, and Spain. +Our commerce will be in danger, if they once acquire the power of +assailing us with impunity. + +_Second._ Our urgent want of this class of vessels to recover our +fortresses, repel blockades, and reopen our Southern ports, without +wearisome sieges, costly both in blood and treasure. + +_Third._ Our inability to command our customary supplies of durable +timber. + +_Fourth._ The abundance of iron, unrivalled in any part of the world. + +_Fifth._ The durability of the ships constructed from iron. If well +manned and piloted, they will seldom need repairs; and instead of +failing, as many ships do in the sixth year, and requiring vast +expenditures to discharge and dismantle them for the renewal of the +decaying timber, plank, copper, and other materials, often amounting in +the aggregate to more than their original cost, the mail-clad steamers +built of American iron will outlive successive races of wooden +steamships. The iron such a navy would require will put many idle hands +in motion, which would otherwise be unproductive during war,--the miners +of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, the colliers of Ohio and +Pennsylvania, the mariners of the Lakes, the navigators of canals, and +the operatives of railways, down to the brawny smiths who fashion the +metal into shapes,--until their combined efforts launch it upon the +deep, and send it forth to + + "dare the very elements to strife." + +How much better would it be to create such an iron navy than to expend +million after million on wooden walls that must soon perish by decay or +the shells of the enemy, or to lavish three or four millions upon the +conversion of our superannuated ships-of-the-line into steamships! +These, when converted, will still retain their age and constant tendency +to decay, their models long since abandoned, their original design, +height of decks, and other proportions adapted to the eighteen- and +twenty-four-pounders formerly in use, which are now giving place to +Dahlgren and rifled cannon carrying balls of sixty-four to one hundred +pounds weight. Such an expenditure would be like an essay to convert a +Yankee shingle-palace, such as Irving described half a century ago, into +a modern villa, and reminds one of a proposition made to an assembly +some twenty centuries since, which still has its significance. + +An orator had proposed to convert an old politician into a general; but +a citizen moved an amendment to convert donkeys into horses, and when +the possibility of doing so was questioned, argued that the horses were +necessary for the war, and that his measure was as feasible as the +other. + +To prepare our nation for war, let us select the Enfield rifle, the Colt +revolver, the rifled and cast-steel cannon, the mail-clad steamer, and +not resort to flint arrow-heads and tomahawks, or to any other fossil +remains of antiquity. The policy of creating an iron navy has been +repeatedly urged of late in the foreign journals. It has also been +advocated with signal ability by Donald McKay of Boston, one of our most +eminent naval constructors, who, after building the Great Republic, the +Flying Cloud, and a fleet of other celebrated clippers, has visited the +dockyards of France and England, examined their mail-clad ships upon the +stocks and those already finished. Although himself accustomed to work +on wood, and a candidate for employment as builder of some of our +wooden gun-boats, with great frankness as well as boldness he urges the +construction of mail-clad steamers. We trust Congress will no longer +neglect so important a means of protecting our national prosperity. + + + + +PARTING HYMN. + +"_Dundee_." + + + Father of Mercies, Heavenly Friend, + We seek Thy gracious throne; + To Thee our faltering prayers ascend, + Our fainting hearts are known! + + From blasts that chill, from suns that smite, + From every plague that harms; + In camp and march, in siege and fight, + Protect our men-at-arms! + + Though from our darkened lives they take + What makes our life most dear, + We yield them for their country's sake + With no relenting tear. + + Our blood their flowing veins will shed, + Their wounds our breasts will share; + Oh, save us from the woes we dread, + Or grant us strength to bear! + + Let each unhallowed cause that brings + The stern destroyer cease, + Thy flaming angel fold his wings, + And seraphs whisper Peace! + + Thine are the sceptre and the sword, + Stretch forth Thy mighty hand,-- + Reign Thou our kingless nation's Lord, + Rule Thou our throneless land! + + + + +WHERE WILL THE REBELLION LEAVE US? + + +"The United States are bounded, North, by the British Possessions; +South, by the Gulf of Mexico; East, by the Atlantic Ocean; and West, +by the Pacific." So the school-books told us which we studied in our +childhood; and so, in every school throughout the land, the children +are taught to-day. The armed hosts whose tread resounds through thy +Continent are marching Southward to teach this simple lesson in +geography. They all know it by heart. "This they are ready to verify," +as the lawyers say. Wherever, in any benighted region, this elementary +proposition shall be henceforth denied or doubted, schools for adults +are to be established, and the needful instruction given. By regiments, +battalions, and brigades, with all necessary apparatus, the teachers +go forth to their work. The proposition is a very simple one, easily +expressed and easily understood; but it tells the whole story. It is the +substance of all men's thoughts, and of all men's speech. Mr. Lincoln +states it in his inaugural. Mr. Douglas impresses it upon the Illinois +legislature. Mr. Seward announces it, briefly and with emphasis, to the +governments of Europe. Sentimental talk about "our country, however +bounded," is obsolete; and how the country is bounded is now the point +to be settled, once and forever. "This territory, from the Great Lakes +to the Gulf, belongs to the people of the United States, and they mean +to hold and keep it. We shall neither alter our school-books nor revise +our maps." So say the American people, rising in their wrath. + +The practical question with which Mr. Lincoln's administration had to +deal in the first place was, Whether a popular government is strong +enough to suppress a military rebellion? And that may be regarded as +already settled. But the grounds upon which that rebellion is justified +involve the vital facts of national unity, and even of national +existence. As a people, we have always been extremely tolerant of +theories, however absurd. There is hardly a doctrine of constitutional +law so clear and well settled, that it is not, from time to time, +discussed and disputed among us. But when it comes to reducing +mischievous speculations to practice, the case is altered, and the +practical genius of the people begins to manifest itself. Thus, the +Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of '98 and '99 declared the Federal +Constitution to be merely a compact between sovereign States, created +for a special and limited purpose; and that each party to the compact +was the exclusive and final judge for itself of the construction of the +contract, with a right to determine for itself when it was violated, and +the measure and mode of redress. As a theory, this doctrine has been +very extensively accepted. Great parties have adopted it as their +platform, and elections have been carried upon it. Its value as a +support to the dignity and self-importance of local politicians was +readily apprehended by them; and it was in perfect harmony with the tone +of bluster which pervaded our politics. The thorough refutation which it +always encountered, whenever it was seriously considered, never seemed +to do its popularity any harm. In truth, mere vaporing hurt nobody, and +caused no great alarm. But when the Hartford Convention was suspected +of covering a little actual heat under the smoke of the customary +resolutions and protests, a bucket of cold water was thrown over it. +When, in 1832, South Carolina developed a spark of real fire, the nation +put its foot on it. And now, when the torch of rebellion has been +circulating among very inflammable materials, until a serious +conflagration is threatened, the instinct of self-preservation has +roused the energies of the whole people for its immediate, complete, and +final extinction. + +The present insurrection has been so long meditated, the approaches to +its final consummation have been so steadily made, and the schemes of +the principal traitors have been so well planned and carefully matured, +that they have almost succeeded in making the vocabulary of treason a +part of the vernacular of the country. We all talk of the States which +have seceded or are going to secede,--of a fratricidal war,--of the +measures which this or the other State is determined or likely to adopt; +and a great deal has been said about State sovereignty, and coercion of +a State, and the invasion of the soil of one State and another. There +has been large discussion in times past of the danger of a dissolution +of the Union. Indeed, this danger has been so often held up as a threat +by one section, and so persistently used as a scarecrow by timid or +profligate men in the other, that it has become one of the commonplaces +of political contests. Our ears have hardly ceased to be tormented with +projects of reconstruction, and with suggestions of guaranties, and +pacifications, and mediation, and neutrality, armed or otherwise. +Border-State Conventions are projected, and well-meaning governors have +been arranging interviews or conducting correspondence with governors +who talked of Southern rights, and undertook to say what their States +would or would not permit the United States Government to do. Even a +Cabinet officer, of whom better things might have been expected, and by +whom better things are now nobly said and done, allowed himself to fall +into the error of explaining to the vacillating Governor of Maryland +that the intentions of the National Administration were purely +defensive. While such language is current at home, it is not strange +that foreigners should find themselves in a state of hopeless confusion +about us. Few European writers, except De Tocqueville, have ever shown a +clear comprehension of our political system; and the speeches of British +statesmen on American affairs are perhaps rather to be accounted for and +excused from want of information, than resented as hostile or insulting. +But it is time that this whole pernicious dialect should be exploded, +and the ideas which it represents be eradicated from the minds of +intelligent men everywhere. + +The right of revolution it is needless to discuss. Resistance, in any +practicable method, to intolerable oppression, is the natural right of +every human being, and of course of every community. But such a right +is never included in the framework of organized civil society. From its +nature, it can form no part of a plan of government. The only formula +which embraces it is the famous one of "Monarchy tempered by Regicide"; +and where that prevails, it seems to be adopted as a practical +expedient, rather than recognized as an established constitutional +maxim. But as a question of revolution the issue is not presented. If +it were, it would be easy to deal with. The only embarrassment in our +present condition, so far as reasoning goes, arises from confused +notions of constitutional law, and the inaccuracy of language which +necessarily attends them. In order, therefore, to know what is before +us, let us first see where we stand. + +The London "Times" informs the people of England, that "the resolution +of the North to crush Secession by force involves a denial of the right +of each one of the seceding States to determine the conditions of its +own national existence." Precisely so. It involves all that; but the +whole fact comprehends a great deal more. Not one of the States of the +American Union has any national existence, or ever had any, in the sense +in which the "Times" uses the phrase. Not one of them has any of the +functions or qualities of a nation. In the case of the greater part of +the States in which the rebellion exists, the United States bought and +paid for the territory which they occupy, made States of them under its +own Constitution and laws, upon certain conditions made irrevocable +by the act which created them, and reserved the forts, arsenals, and +custom-houses which their treasonable citizens have since undertaken +to steal. The fundamental idea of the American system is local +self-government for local purposes, and national unity for national +purposes. Our national union is synonymous with our national existence. +When we speak of sovereign and independent States, the phrase has no +other just meaning than that each State is independent of every other in +all matters exclusively appertaining to its own powers and duties, and +sovereign upon all subjects which have not been committed exclusively +to the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. Any encroachment by the +Government of the United States upon the lawful jurisdiction of the +several States would be resisted as a usurpation; but the "reserved +rights" of the States, _ex vi termini_, cannot include any of the +attributes of power which the people of the whole country have conferred +upon the Union. But further,--and this is a point of great practical +importance,--the Federal Government has no relation to the several +States as States, and they have no relations to it, or to each other, +except so far as these relations are expressly defined and specified in +the National Constitution. Beyond these, the authority and jurisdiction +of the nation address themselves and are applied to the individual +citizens of all the States alike. "The king can do no wrong," is the +maxim of English law. A State of the American Union cannot secede, or +commit treason, or make war upon the United States. So the United States +cannot, and do not, make war upon any State. Virginia, for all national +purposes, belongs to the United States,--exactly as it belongs to the +State, for the purposes of local administration. In theory, and in +practice, the State of Virginia is at this moment a peaceful and +faithful member of the American Union. Her Senators and Representatives, +except so far as individuals among them may have disqualified themselves +by resignation, or, what may be held to be equivalent, by deserting +their posts to array themselves in active hostility to their country, +are still entitled to their seats in Congress. The State may be overrun +by armed insurgents, resisting the Federal authority; but so it might be +by a foreign army. The peaceful citizens, who remain faithful to their +constitutional obligations, are entitled to the aid of the national +power to suppress domestic insurrection, whatever proportions that +insurrection may assume. The soldiers of the United States, lawfully +mustered to resist invasion or put down rebellion, have nothing to do +with State lines, and act in perfect harmony with all legitimate State +action. They can no more invade a State than if they were in it to +resist a foreign enemy, or than a United States marshal invades it +when he goes to arrest a counterfeiter. The "Times" would have little +difficulty in understanding a denial of the right of the Isle of Man, or +of Lancashire, or of Ireland, "to determine the conditions of its own +national existence." + +There is another fallacy in speaking of the resolution of the North to +crush Secession by force. It is the resolution of the nation,--of all +that is faithful and loyal in it, wherever found. The people of the +Southern States have not had any fair opportunity to express their +opinions. The military usurpers have allowed nothing to be submitted to +the test of a popular vote, except where they were able to take such +measures of precaution, in the way of hanging, confiscation, banishment, +disarming opponents, and the presence of an armed force which should +overawe dissenters, as might secure the unanimity they desired. There +is undoubtedly much more loyalty in the Northern than in the Southern +States of the Union, as there is less of passion, and more of +intelligence and principle,--although treason has, till very lately, +found more than enough apologists or abettors even in the Free States. +But the spirit which now actuates our people has little that is +sectional in it, and the principles at issue have the same application +to Maine that they have to Florida. + +When we ask, then, where this rebellion will leave us, and what will be +the condition of the United States when the authority of the Government +has been vindicated and reëstablished, the answer must be sought in the +considerations already suggested. The rebellion cannot be ended, until +we have settled as a principle of constitutional law for our own +citizens, and as a fact of which all other nations must take notice, +that this whole country belongs to the people of the United States. No +foreign power shall possess a foot of it. If the majority of the people +of a State can throw off their allegiance to the Union, they can +transfer their allegiance to England or Spain at their pleasure, as +well as to a new confederacy of their own devising. The battles of the +Revolution which secured our independence were fought by the whole +country, and for the whole country, without reference to local +majorities. The accessions to our territory were made by the nation as +a unit, and belong to it as such. We did not acquire Texas, and pay the +millions of its debt, with the reservation that it might sell itself +again the next day to the highest bidder. That no foreign dominion shall +interpose between the Northwest and the Atlantic, or between the Valley +of the Mississippi and the Gulf, is a geographical necessity. But +that, the American Union is indissoluble is essential to our national +existence. If that be not so, we have neither a flag nor a country,--we +can neither contract a debt nor make a treaty,--we have neither honor +abroad nor strength at home,--our experiment of free government is a +blunder and a failure, and for us, "Chaos has come again." + +But the further question remains, In what way is it possible that +harmony shall be restored between the parts of the country through which +the rebellion has spread and those which have remained faithful to the +Constitution and the Union? When we have dispersed the armies of the +rebels, and demolished their batteries, and retaken our forts +and arsenals, our navy-yards and armories, our mints and +custom-houses,--when we have visited their leaders with retributive +justice, and made Richmond and Charleston and New Orleans as submissive +to lawful authority as Baltimore or Washington or Boston,--what then? +Will a people we have subjugated ever live with us again on terms of +equality and friendship? Can the wounded pride of the Ancient Dominion +be so far soothed that she can allow us again to bask in the sunshine +of her favor? Will she ever consent to resume her old superiority, and +furnish our audacious army and navy with officers, our committees with +chairmen, and our departments with clerks? Or must we, for a generation, +hold the States we have subdued by military occupation? Must we make +Territories of them, and blot out those malignant stars from our +glorious and triumphant banner? + +In all seriousness, there seems but one solution to the problem; and +it must be found, if at all, in the proposition already stated, that +treason is an individual act. A State cannot rebel, as it cannot secede. +A governor of a State may rebel, and a majority of a legislature may +join an insurrection, as a governor or legislators may commit larceny +or join a piratical expedition. But whoever arrays himself in armed +opposition to the Government of the United States, or gives aid and +comfort to its enemies, becomes thereby merely a private rebel and +traitor. Whatever office he may fill, with whatever functions of local +government he may be intrusted, by whatever name he may be called, +governor or judge, senator or representative, it is the treason of the +citizen, and not of the officer. And as a State has no legal existence +except as a member of the Union, and has no constitutional powers or +functions or capacities but those which it exercises in harmony with and +subordination to the rightful authority of the Federal Government, so +the loyal and faithful inhabitants of a State, and they only, constitute +the State. Mr. Mason tells the people of Virginia, that those of them +who, in their consciences, cannot vote to separate Virginia from the +United States, if they retain such opinions, must leave the State. We +thank him for teaching us that word. When the tables are turned, it will +form a valuable theme for his private meditation. The unconditional +Union men, who are of and for their country against all comers, who +neither commit treason openly nor disguise their cowardly treachery +under the shallow cover of neutrality, are to wield the power of their +respective States, and to be the only recognized inhabitants. All others +must submit or fly. If the Governor and Legislature of Virginia have +renounced their allegiance to the United States, and undertaken to +establish a foreign jurisdiction in a portion of our territory, their +relation to that State becomes substantially the same as if they had +gone on board a British fleet in the Chesapeake, or enlisted under the +standard of an invading army. They have abdicated their offices, which +thereby become vacant. It was for "having endeavored to subvert the +constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between +king and people, violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn +himself out of the kingdom," that James II. was declared by the House +of Commons to have abdicated the government. Would it have been less an +abdication, if he had remained within the realm, and attempted to hold +it as the viceroy of France? When, in June, 1775, Governor Dunmore and +his Council took refuge on board a British man-of-war, the Virginians of +that day proceeded to meet in convention, and provide new officers to +manage the affairs of their State. Let this historical precedent be +followed now. Wherever, in either of the States which the rebels have +sought to appropriate, the loyal citizens can find a spot in which they +can meet in safety, let them meet by their delegates in convention, and +adopt the necessary measures to elect new officers under their present +constitutions. The only irregularity will be what results from the +fact that treason in such high places and on so large a scale was not +contemplated, nor was a remedy furnished for it, in their frame of +government. It is merely a case not provided for, and the omission must +be supplied in the most practicable way. The new organization should and +undoubtedly would be recognized by the National Government, and by the +other States, as, _de facto_ and _de jure_, the State. It was settled +in the Rhode Island case, under Tyler's administration, that, where +different portions of the people claim to hold and exercise the powers +of a State government, it presents a political question which the +National Executive and Congress must decide; and that judicial +recognition must follow and conform to the political decision. + +When, by such a course, the proper relations and functions of each State +should be resumed, there would no longer be any matter of State pride +to interfere with the absolute assertion of national authority. The new +State governments would be protected against armed assailants at home +and invasion from abroad; they would apply for and obtain assistance to +suppress domestic insurrection; every misguided insurgent would have +opportunity to return to his duty under the protection of his own local +authorities; appropriations for the army and navy could be passed with +the aid of Tennessee and Alabama votes in Congress; and Davis, and +Tyler, and Mason be hung upon the verdict of a jury of the vicinage. + +In Virginia, a movement based upon this principle has been already +inaugurated. From Western Virginia, the progress toward Eastern +Tennessee and Northern Alabama is natural and certain. The worst case to +deal with, unquestionably, is South Carolina. Hers is a peculiar +people, and zealous, though scarcely of good works. That fiery little +Commonwealth is remarkably constituted. The State is inhabited +principally by negroes; and the remaining minority may be divided into +two classes,--whites who are dependent upon negroes for a subsistence, +and whites whose chief distinction in life and great consolation is that +they are not negroes. The former and much the smaller class possess all +the wealth, all the cultivation, and all the political power, which +they are enabled to retain by an ingenious and systematic use of the +prejudices and passions of the latter. They are reputed to have much +earnestness of conviction, and claim an unusual amount of gallantry and +courage for their soldiers; though it is noticeable that their principal +exploits in our time have been the seizure of friendless colored +sailors, and selling them into slavery,--the achievement of that knight +of the bludgeon, the representative whose noble deed his constituents +could hardly admire enough, but the better part of whose valor was +the discretion that preferred to encounter his antagonist sitting and +incapable of resistance,--and lastly, that heroic and bloodless victory +at Fort Sumter, where imperishable glory was won by the ten thousand who +conquered the seventy. They seem now to be united, and substantially +unanimous. What elements a little adversity would develop in them, time +must determine. Whether there is any reserve of patriotism and fidelity, +overawed and silenced now, but which will come forth to serve as the +nucleus of reconstruction when it can find protection and security, or +whether we must wait for a new generation to grow up, remains to be +tried. Their leaders are subtle reasoners, and it has been shrewdly +observed of them that "they never shrink from following their logic to +its consequences because the conclusion is _immoral_." Perhaps they will +find no more difficulty in accepting the arguments we shall address to +them because the conclusion is a little humiliating. In their case, we +shall have little need to concern ourselves about the wishes of a local +majority. The fact that a majority are blacks, to begin with, must +deprive that consideration of all its force, even to their own +apprehension. It will not be the first time that they have received a +benefit which did not agree with the wishes of the greater part of those +upon whom it was bestowed. The men of Rhode Island and Massachusetts who +achieved the independence of South Carolina did not stop to consider +whether a majority of her white inhabitants were Tories. + +When we hear that the colonel of a regiment of Secessionists sends a +flag of truce to Fort Monroe to ask for the return of his fugitive +slaves under the Constitution and laws of the United States, a painful +doubt must be suggested whether such gentlemen really believe themselves +to be so wholly and utterly out of the Union as the theory of Secession +would indicate. And when the novel, but very sensible doctrine with +which that singular demand was met, that slaves are to be regarded as +articles contraband of war, chattels capable of a military use, a kind +of locomotive gun-carriages and intrenching-tools, and as such to be +taken and confiscated when found belonging to armed rebels, shall have +been practically applied for a time, with its natural and obvious +result, it may be that even the Palmetto State will exhibit some general +symptoms of returning reason. + + + + +THEODORE WINTHROP. + + +Theodore Winthrop's life, like a fire long smouldering, suddenly blazed +up into a clear, bright flame, and vanished. Those of us who were his +friends and neighbors, by whose firesides he sat familiarly, and of +whose life upon the pleasant Staten Island, where he lived, he was so +important a part, were so impressed by his intense vitality, that his +death strikes us with peculiar strangeness, like sudden winter-silence +falling upon these humming fields of June. + +As I look along the wooded brook-side by which he used to come, I should +not be surprised, if I saw that knit, wiry, light figure moving with +quick, firm, leopard tread over the grass,--the keen gray eye, the +clustering fair hair, the kind, serious smile, the mien of undaunted +patience. If you did not know him, you would have found his greeting a +little constrained,--not from shyness, but from genuine modesty and +the habit of society. You would have remarked that he was silent and +observant rather than talkative; and whatever he said, however gay +or grave, would have had the reserve of sadness upon which his whole +character was drawn. If it were a woman who saw him for the first time, +she would inevitably see him through a slight cloud of misapprehension; +for the man and his manner were a little at variance. The chance is that +at the end of five minutes she would have thought him conceited. At the +end of five months she would have known him as one of the simplest and +most truly modest of men. + +And he had the heroic sincerity which belongs to such modesty. Of a +noble ambition, and sensitive to applause,--as every delicate nature +veined with genius always is,--he would not provoke the applause by +doing anything which, although it lay easily within his power, was yet +not wholly approved by him as worthy. Many men are ambitious and full +of talent, and when the prize does not fairly come they snatch at it +unfairly. This was precisely what he could not do. He would strive and +deserve; but if the crown were not laid upon his head in the clear light +of day and by confession of absolute merit, he could ride to his place +again and wait, looking with no envy, but in patient wonder and with +critical curiosity upon the victors. It is this which he expresses in +the paper in the July number of this magazine, "Washington as a Camp," +when he says,--"I have heretofore been proud of my individuality, and +resisted, so far as one may, all the world's attempts to merge me in the +mass." + +It was this which made many who knew him much, but not truly, feel +that he was purposeless and restless. They knew his talent, his +opportunities. Why does he not concentrate? Why does he not bring +himself to bear? He did not plead his ill-health; nor would they have +allowed the plea. The difficulty was deeper. He felt that he had shown +his credentials, and they were not accepted. "I can wait, I can wait," +was the answer his life made to the impatience of his friends. + +We are all fond of saying that a man of real gifts will fit himself to +the work of any time; and so he will. But it is not necessarily to the +first thing that offers. There is always latent in civilized society a +certain amount of what may be called Sir Philip Sidney genius, which +will seem elegant and listless and aimless enough until the congenial +chance appears. A plant may grow in a cellar; but it will flower only +under the due sun and warmth. Sir Philip Sidney was but a lovely +possibility, until he went to be Governor of Flushing. What else was our +friend, until he went to the war? + +The age of Elizabeth did not monopolize the heroes, and they are always +essentially the same. When, for instance, I read in a letter of Hubert +Languet's to Sidney, "You are not over-cheerful by nature," or when, in +another, he speaks of the portrait that Paul Veronese painted of Sidney, +and says, "The painter has represented you sad and thoughtful," I can +believe that he is speaking of my neighbor. Or when I remember what +Sidney wrote to his younger brother,--"Being a gentleman born, you +purpose to furnish yourself with the knowledge of such things as may +be serviceable to your country and calling," or what he wrote to +Languet,--"Our Princes are enjoying too deep a slumber: I cannot think +there is any man possessed of common understanding who does not see to +what these rough storms are driving by which all Christendom has been +agitated now these many years,"--I seem to hear my friend, as he used to +talk on the Sunday evenings when he sat in this huge cane-chair at my +side, in which I saw him last, and in which I shall henceforth always +see him. + +Nor is it unfair to remember just here that he bore one of the few +really historic names in this country. He never spoke of it; but we +should all have been sorry not to feel that he was glad to have sprung +straight from that second John Winthrop who was the first Governor of +Connecticut, the younger sister colony of Massachusetts Bay,--the John +Winthrop who obtained the charter of privileges for his colony. How +clearly the quality of the man has been transmitted! How brightly the +old name shines out again! + +He was born in New Haven on the 22d of September, 1828, and was a grave, +delicate, rather precocious child. He was at school only in New Haven, +and entered Yale College just as he was sixteen. The pure, manly +morality which was the substance of his character, and his brilliant +exploits of scholarship, made him the idol of his college, friends, who +saw in him the promise of the splendid career which the fond faith of +students allots to the favorite classmate. He studied for the Clark +scholarship, and gained it; and his name, in the order of time, is first +upon the roll of that foundation. He won the Townshend prize for the +best composition on History. For the Berkeleian scholarship he and +another were judged equal, and, drawing lots, the other gained the +scholarship; but they divided the honor. + +In college his favorite studies were Greek and mental philosophy. He +never lost the scholarly taste and habit. A wide reader, he retained +knowledge with little effort, and often surprised his friends by the +variety of his information. Yet it was not strange, for he was born +a scholar. His mother was the great-granddaughter of old President +Edwards; and among his ancestors upon the maternal side, Winthrop +counted seven Presidents of Yale. Perhaps also in this learned descent +we may find the secret of his early seriousness. Thoughtful and +self-criticizing, he was peculiarly sensible to religious influences, +under which his criticism easily became self-accusation, and his +sensitive seriousness grew sometimes morbid. He would have studied for +the ministry or a professorship, upon leaving college, except for his +failing health. + +In the later days, when I knew him, the feverish ardor of the first +religious impulse was past. It had given place to a faith much too deep +and sacred to talk about, yet holding him always with serene, steady +poise in the purest region of life and feeling. There was no franker or +more sympathetic companion for young men of his own age than he; but his +conversation fell from his lips as unsullied as his soul. + +He graduated in 1848, when he was twenty years old; and for the sake of +his health, which was seriously shattered,--an ill-health that colored +all his life, he set out upon his travels. He went first to England, +spending much time at Oxford, where he made pleasant acquaintances, and +walking through Scotland. He then crossed over to France and Germany, +exploring Switzerland very thoroughly upon foot,--once or twice escaping +great dangers among the mountains,--and pushed on to Italy and Greece, +still walking much of the way. In Italy he made the acquaintance of Mr. +W.H. Aspinwall, of New York, and upon his return became tutor to Mr. +Aspinwall's son. He presently accompanied his pupil and a nephew of Mr. +Aspinwall, who were going to a school in Switzerland; and after a second +short tour of six months in Europe he returned to New York, and entered +Mr. Aspinwall's counting-house. In the employ of the Pacific Steamship +Company he went to Panama and resided for about two years, travelling, +and often ill of the fevers of the country. Before his return he +travelled through California and Oregon,--went to Vancouver's Island, +Puget Sound, and the Hudson Bay Company's station there. At the Dalles +he was smitten with the small-pox, and lay ill for six weeks. He often +spoke with the warmest gratitude of the kind care that was taken of him +there. But when only partially recovered he plunged off again into the +wilderness. At another time he fell very ill upon the Plains, and lay +down, as he supposed, to die; but after some time struggled up and on +again. + +He returned to the counting-room, but, unsated with adventure, joined +the disastrous expedition of Lieutenant Strain, during which his +health was still more weakened, and he came home again in 1854. In the +following year he studied law and was admitted to the bar. In 1856 he +entered heartily into the Fremont campaign, and from the strongest +conviction. He went into some of the dark districts of Pennsylvania and +spoke incessantly. The roving life and its picturesque episodes, with +the earnest conviction which inspired him, made the summer and autumn +exciting and pleasant. The following year he went to St. Louis to +practise law. The climate was unkind to him, and he returned and began +the practice in New York. But he could not be a lawyer. His health was +too uncertain, and his tastes and ambition allured him elsewhere. His +mind was brimming with the results of observation. His fancy was alert +and inventive, and he wrote tales and novels. At the same time he +delighted to haunt the studio of his friend Church, the painter, and +watch day by day the progress of his picture, the Heart of the Andes. It +so fired his imagination that he wrote a description of it, in which, as +if rivalling the tropical and tangled richness of the picture, he threw +together such heaps and masses of gorgeous words that the reader was +dazzled and bewildered. + +The wild campaigning life was always a secret passion with him. His +stories of travel were so graphic and warm, that I remember one evening, +after we had been tracing upon the map a route he had taken, and he had +touched the whole region into life with his description, my younger +brother, who had sat by and listened with wide eyes all the evening, +exclaimed with a sigh of regretful satisfaction, as the door closed upon +our story-teller, "It's as good as Robinson Crusoe!" Yet, with all +his fondness and fitness for that kind of life, or indeed any active +administrative function, his literary ambition seemed to be the deepest +and strongest. + +He had always been writing. In college and upon his travels he kept +diaries; and he has left behind him several novels, tales, sketches of +travel, and journals. The first published writing of his which is well +known is his description, in the June number of this magazine, of the +March of the Seventh Regiment of New York to Washington. It was charming +by its graceful, sparkling, crisp, off-hand dash and ease. But it is +only the practised hand that can "dash off" effectively. Let any other +clever member of the clever regiment, who has never written, try to dash +off the story of a day or a week in the life of the regiment, and he +will see that the writer did that little thing well because he had done +large things carefully. Yet, amid all the hurry and brilliant bustle of +the articles, the author is, as he was in the most bustling moment of +the life they described, a spectator, an artist. He looks on at +himself and the scene of which he is part. He is willing to merge his +individuality; but he does not merge it, for he could not. + +So, wandering, hoping, trying, waiting, thirty-two years of his life +went by, and they left him true, sympathetic, patient. The sharp private +griefs that sting the heart so deeply, and leave a little poison +behind, did not spare him. But he bore everything so bravely, so +silently,--often silent for a whole evening in the midst of pleasant +talkers, but not impertinently sad, nor ever sullen,--that we all loved +him a little more at such times. The ill-health from which he always +suffered, and a flower-like delicacy of temperament, the yearning desire +to be of some service in the world, coupled with the curious, critical +introspection which marks every sensitive and refined nature and +paralyzes action, overcast his life and manner to the common eye with +pensiveness and even sternness. He wrote verses in which his heart +seems to exhale in a sigh of sadness. But he was not in the least a +sentimentalist. The womanly grace of temperament merely enhanced the +unusual manliness of his character and impression. It was like a +delicate carnation upon the cheek of a robust man. For his humor +was exuberant. He seldom laughed loud, but his smile was sweet and +appreciative. Then the range of his sympathies was so large, that he +enjoyed every kind of life and person, and was everywhere at home. In +walking and riding, in skating and running, in games out of doors and +in, no one of us all in the neighborhood was so expert, so agile as he. +For, above all things, he had what we Yankees call faculty,--the knack +of doing everything. If he rode with a neighbor who was a good horseman, +Theodore, who was a Centaur, when he mounted, would put any horse at any +gate or fence; for it did not occur to him that he could not do whatever +was to be done. Often, after writing for a few hours in the morning, he +stepped out of doors, and, from pure love of the fun, leaped and turned +summersaults on the grass, before going up to town. In walking about the +island, he constantly stopped by the roadside fences, and, grasping the +highest rail, swung himself swiftly and neatly over and back again, +resuming the walk and the talk without delay. + +I do not wish to make him too much a hero. "Death," says Bacon, "openeth +the gate to good fame." When a neighbor dies, his form and quality +appear clearly, as if he had been dead a thousand years. Then we see +what we only felt before. Heroes in history seem to us poetic because +they are there. But if we should tell the simple truth of some of our +neighbors, it would sound like poetry. Winthrop was one of the men +who represent the manly and poetic qualities that always exist around +us,--not great genius, which is ever salient, but the fine fibre of +manhood that makes the worth of the race. + +Closely engaged with his literary employments, and more quiet than ever, +he took less active part in the last election. But when the menace of +treason became an aggressive act, he saw very clearly the inevitable +necessity of arms. We all talked of it constantly,--watching the +news,--chafing at the sad necessity of delay, which was sure to confuse +foreign opinion and alienate sympathy, as has proved to be the case. As +matters advanced and the war-cloud rolled up thicker and blacker, he +looked at it with the secret satisfaction that war for such a cause +opened his career both as thinker and actor. The admirable coolness, the +promptness, the cheerful patience, the heroic ardor, the intelligence, +the tough experience of campaigning, the profound conviction that the +cause was in truth "the good old cause," which was now to come to the +death-grapple with its old enemy, Justice against Injustice, Order +against Anarchy,--all these should now have their turn, and the wanderer +and waiter "settle himself" at last. + +We took a long walk together on the Sunday that brought the news of the +capture of Fort Sumter. He was thoroughly alive with a bright, earnest +forecast of his part in the coming work. Returning home with me, he +sat until late in the evening talking with an unwonted spirit, saying +playfully, I remember, that, if his friends would only give him a horse, +he would ride straight to victory. + +Especially he wished that some competent person would keep a careful +record of events as they passed; "for we are making our history," he +said, "hand over hand." He sat quietly in the great chair while he +spoke, and at last rose to go. We went together to the door, and stood +for a little while upon the piazza, where we had sat peacefully through +so many golden summer-hours. The last hour for us had come, but we did +not know it. We shook hands, and he left me, passing rapidly along the +brook-side under the trees, and so in the soft spring starlight vanished +from my sight forever. + +The next morning came the President's proclamation. Winthrop went +immediately to town and enrolled himself in the artillery corps of the +Seventh Regiment. During the two or three following days he was very +busy and very happy. On Friday afternoon, the 19th of April, I stood at +the corner of Courtland Street and saw the regiment as it marched away. +Two days before, I had seen the Massachusetts troops going down the same +street. During the day the news had come that they were already engaged, +that some were already dead in Baltimore. And the Seventh, as they went, +blessed and wept over by a great city, went, as we all believed, to +terrible battle. The setting sun in a clear April sky shone full up +the street. Mothers' eyes glistened at the windows upon the glistening +bayonets of their boys below. I knew that Winthrop and other dear +friends were there, but I did not see them. I saw only a thousand men +marching like one hero. The music beat and rang and clashed in the air. +Marching to death or victory or defeat, it mattered not. They marched +for Justice, and God was their captain. + +From that moment he has told his own story in these pages until he went +to Fortress Monroe, and was made acting military secretary and aid by +General Butler. Before he went, he wrote the most copious and gayest +letters from the camp. He was thoroughly aroused, and all his powers +happily at play. In a letter to me soon after his arrival in Washington, +he says,-- + +"I see no present end of this business. We must conquer the South. +Afterward we must be prepared to do its police in its own behalf, and +in behalf of its black population, whom this war must, without +precipitation, emancipate. We must hold the South as the metropolitan +police holds New York. All this is inevitable. Now I wish to enroll +myself at once in the _Police of the Nation_, and for life, if the +nation will take me. I do not see that I can put myself--experience +and character--to any more useful use..... My experience in this short +campaign with the Seventh assures me that volunteers are for one purpose +and regular soldiers entirely another. We want regular soldiers for the +cause of order in these anarchical countries, and we want men in command +who, though they may be valuable as temporary satraps or proconsuls to +make liberty possible where it is now impossible, will never under any +circumstances be disloyal to _Liberty_, will always oppose any scheme of +any one to constitute a military government, and will be ready, when the +time comes, to imitate Washington. We must think of these things, and +prepare for them..... Love to all the dear friends..... This trip has +been all a lark to an old tramper like myself." + +Later he writes,-- + +"It is the loveliest day of fullest spring. An aspen under the window +whispers to me in a chorus of all its leaves, and when I look out, every +leaf turns a sunbeam at me. I am writing in Viele's quarters in the +villa of Somebody Stone, upon whose place or farm we are encamped. The +man who built and set down these four great granite pillars in front of +his house, for a carriage-porch, had an eye or two for a fine _site_. +This seems to be the finest possible about Washington. It is a terrace +called Meridian Hill, two miles north of Pennsylvania Avenue. The house +commands the vista of the Potomac, all the plain of the city, and a +charming lawn of delicious green, with oaks of first dignity just coming +into leaf. It is lovely Nature, and the spot has snatched a grace +from Art. The grounds are laid out after a fashion, and planted with +shrubbery. The snowballs are at their snowballiest..... Have you heard +or--how many times have you used the simile of some one, Bad-muss or +Cadmus, or another hero, who sowed the dragon's teeth, and they came up +dragoons a hundred-fold and infantry a thousand-fold? _Nil admirari_ +is, of course, my frame of mind; but I own astonishment at the crop of +soldiers. They must ripen awhile, perhaps, before they are to be named +quite soldiers. Ripening takes care of itself; and by the harvest-time +they will be ready to cut down. + +"I find that the men best informed about the South do not anticipate +much severe fighting. Scott's Fabian policy will demoralize their +armies. If the people do not bother the great Cunetator to death before +he is ready to move to assured victory, he will make defeat impossible. +Meanwhile there will be enough outwork going on, like those neat jobs +in Missouri, to keep us all interested...... Know, O comrade, that I +am already a corporal,--an acting corporal, selected by our commanding +officer for my general effect of pipe-clay, my rapidity of heel and toe, +my present arms, etc., but liable to be ousted by suffrage any moment. +_Quod faustum sit_, ... I had already been introduced to the Secretary +of War..... I called at ----'s and saw, with two or three others,---- +on the sofa. Him my prophetic soul named my uncle to be..... But in my +uncle's house are many nephews, and whether nepotism or my transcendent +merit will prevail we shall see. I have fun,--I get experience,--I see +much,--it pays. Ah, yes! But in these fair days of May I miss my Staten +Island. War stirs the pulse, but it wounds a little all the time. + +"Compliment for me Tib [a little dog] and the Wisterias,--also the mares +and the billiard-table. Ask ---- to give you t'other lump of sugar in my +behalf.... Should ---- return, say that I regret not being present +with an unpremeditated compliment, as thus,--'Ah! the first rose of +summer!'.... I will try to get an enemy's button for ----, should the +enemy attack. If the Seventh returns presently, I am afraid I shall +be obliged to return with them for a time. But I mean to see this job +through, somehow." + +In such an airy, sportive vein he wrote, with the firm purpose and the +distinct thought visible under the sparkle. Before the regiment left +Washington, as he has recorded, he said good-bye and went down the bay +to Fortress Monroe. Of his unshrinking and sprightly industry, his good +head, his warm heart, and cool hand, as a soldier, General Butler has +given precious testimony to his family. "I loved him as a brother," the +General writes of his young aid. + +The last days of his life at Fortress Monroe were doubtless also the +happiest. His energy and enthusiasm, and kind, winning ways, and the +deep satisfaction of feeling that all his gifts could now be used as he +would have them, showed him and his friends that his day had at length +dawned. He was especially interested in the condition and fate of the +slaves who escaped from the neighboring region and sought refuge at +the fort. He had never for an instant forgotten the secret root of the +treason which was desolating the land with war; and in his view there +would be no peace until that root was destroyed. In his letters written +from the fort he suggests plans of relief and comfort for the refugees; +and one of his last requests was to a lady in New York for clothes for +these poor pensioners. They were promptly sent, but reached the fort too +late. + +As I look over these last letters, which gush and throb with the fulness +of his activity, and are so tenderly streaked with touches of constant +affection and remembrance, yet are so calm and duly mindful of every +detail, I do not think with an elder friend, in whom the wisdom of +years has only deepened sympathy for all generous youthful impulse, of +Virgil's Marcellus, "_Heu, miserande puer!_" but I recall rather, still +haunted by Philip Sidney, what he wrote, just before his death, to his +father-in-law, Walsingham,--"I think a wise and constant man ought never +to grieve while he doth play, as a man may say, his own part truly." + +The sketches of the campaign in Virginia, which Winthrop had commenced +in this magazine, would have been continued, and have formed an +invaluable memoir of the places, the men, and the operations of which +he was a witness and a part. As a piece of vivid pictorial description, +which gives the spirit as well as the spectacle, his "Washington as a +Camp" is masterly. He knew not only what to see and to describe, but +what to think; so that in his papers you are not at the mercy of a +multitudinous mass of facts, but understand their value and relation. +Immediately upon his arrival at Fort Monroe he had commenced a third +article, which was to have occupied the place of this. It is inserted +here just as he left it, with one brief addition only to make his known +meaning more clear. The part called "Voices of the Contraband" was +written previously, and is not paged in the manuscript. It was to have +been introduced into the article; but it is placed first here, that the +sequence of the paper, as far as the author had written it, may remain +undisturbed. + + +VOICES OF THE CONTRABAND. + + +_Solvuntur risu tabulae_. An epigram abolished slavery in the United +States. Large wisdom, stated in fine wit, was the decision. "Negroes are +contraband of war." "They are property," claim the owners. Very well! As +General Butler takes contraband horses used in transport of munitions of +war, so he takes contraband black creatures who tote the powder to the +carts and flagellate the steeds. As he takes a spade used in hostile +earthworks, so he goes a little farther off and takes the black muscle +that wields the spade. As he takes the rations of the foe, so he takes +the sable Soyer whose skilful hand makes those rations savory to the +palates and digestible by the stomachs of the foe and so puts blood and +nerve into them. As he took the steam-gun, so he now takes what might +become the stoker of the steam part of that machine and the aimer of its +gun part. As he takes the musket, so he seizes the object who in the +Virginia army carries that musket on its shoulder until its master +is ready to reach out a lazy hand, nonchalantly lift the piece, and +carelessly pop a Yankee. + + +The third number of Winthrop's Sketches of the Campaign in Virginia +begins here. + + +PHYSIOGNOMY OF FORTRESS MONROE. + + +The "Adelaide" is a steamer plying between Baltimore and Norfolk. But as +Norfolk has ceased to be a part of the United States, and is nowhere, +the "Adelaide" goes no farther than Fortress Monroe, Old Point Comfort, +the chief somewhere of this region. A lady, no doubt Adelaide herself, +appears in _alto rilievo_ on the paddle-box. She has a short waist, long +skirt _sans_ crinoline, leg-of-mutton sleeves, lofty bearing, and stands +like Ariadne on an island of pedestal size, surrounded by two or more +pre-Raphaelite trees. In the offing comes or goes a steamboat, also +pre-Raphaelite; and if Ariadne Adelaide's Bacchus is on board, he is out +of sight at the bar. + +Such an Adelaide brought me in sight of Fortress Monroe at sunrise, May +29, 1861. The fort, though old enough to be full-grown, has not grown +very tall upon the low sands of Old Point Comfort. It is a big house +with a basement story and a garret. The roof is left off, and the +stories between basement and garret have never been inserted. + +But why not be technical? For basement read a tier of casemates, each +with a black Cyclops of a big gun peering out; while above in the open +air, with not even a parasol over their backs, lie the barbette guns, +staring without a wink over sea and shore. + +In peace, with a hundred or so soldiers here and there, this vast +inclosure might seem a solitude. Now it is a busy city,--a city of one +idea. I seem to recollect that D'Israeli said somewhere that every great +city was founded on one idea and existed to develop it. This city, into +which we have improvised a population, has its idea,--a unit of an idea +with two halves. The east half is the recovery of Norfolk,--the west +half the occupation of Richmond; and the idea complete is the education +of Virginia's unmannerly and disloyal sons. + +Why Secession did not take this great place when its defenders numbered +a squad of officers and three hundred men is mysterious. Floyd and his +gang were treacherous enough. What was it? Were they imbecile? Were they +timid? Was there, till too late, a doubt whether the traitors at home in +Virginia would sustain them in an overt act of such big overture as an +attempt here? But they lost the chance, and with it lost the key of +Virginia, which General Butler now holds, this 30th day of May, and will +presently begin to turn in the lock. + +Three hundred men to guard a mile and a half of ramparts! Three hundred +to protect some sixty-five broad acres within the walls! But the place +was a Thermopylae, and there was a fine old Leonidas at the head of its +three hundred. He was enough to make Spartans of them. Colonel Dimmick +was the man,--a quiet, modest, shrewd, faithful, Christian gentleman; +and he held all Virginia at bay. The traitors knew, that, so long as the +Colonel was here, these black muzzles with their white tompions, like +a black eye with a white pupil, meant mischief. To him and his guns, +flanking the approaches and ready to pile the moat full of Seceders, the +country owes the safety of Fortress Monroe. + +Within the walls are sundry nice old brick houses for officers' +barracks. The jolly bachelors live in the casemates and the men in long +barracks, now not so new or so convenient as they might be. In fact, the +physiognomy of Fortress Monroe is not so neat, well-shorn, and elegant +as a grand military post should be. Perhaps our Floyds, and the like, +thought, if they kept everything in perfect order here, they, as +Virginians, accustomed to general seediness, would not find themselves +at home. But the new _régime_ must change all this, and make this the +biggest, the best equipped, and the model garrison of the country. For, +of course, this must be strongly held for many, many years to come. It +is idle to suppose that the dull louts we find here, not enlightened +even enough to know that loyalty is the best policy, can be allowed +the highest privilege of the moral, the intelligent, and the +progressive,--self-government. Mind is said to march fast in our time; +but mind must put on steam hereabouts to think and act for itself, +without stern schooling, in half a century. + +But no digressing! I have looked far away from the physiognomy of the +fortress. Let us turn to the + + +PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE COUNTRY. + + +The face of this county, Elizabeth City by name, is as flat as a +Chinaman's. I can hardly wonder that the people here have retrograded, +or rather, not advanced. This dull flat would make anybody dull and +flat. I am no longer surprised at John Tyler. He has had a bare blank +brick house, entitled sweetly Margarita Cottage, or some such tender +epithet, at Hampton, a mile and a half from the fort. A summer in this +site would make any man a bore. And as something has done this favor +for His Accidency, I am willing to attribute it to the influence of +locality. + +The country is flat; the soil is fine sifted loam running to dust, as +the air of England runs to fog; the woods are dense and beautiful +and full of trees unknown to the parallel of New York; the roads are +miserable cart-paths; the cattle are scalawags; so are the horses, not +run away; so are the people, black and white, not run away; the crops +are tolerable, where the invaders have not trampled them. + +Altogether the whole concern strikes me as a failure. Captain John Smith +& Co. might as well have stayed at home, if this is the result of the +two hundred and thirty years' occupation. Apparently the colonists +picked out a poor spot; and the longer they stayed, the worse fist they +made of it. Powhattan, Pocahontas, and the others without pantaloons and +petticoats, were really more serviceable colonists. + +The farm-houses are mostly miserably mean habitations. I don't wonder +the tenants were glad to make our arrival the excuse for running off. +Here are men claiming to have been worth forty thousand dollars, half in +biped property, half in all other kinds, and they lived in dens such +as a drayman would have disdained and a hod-carrier only accepted on +compulsion. + + +PHYSIOGNOMY OF WATER. + + +Always beautiful! the sea cannot be spoilt. Our fleet enlivens it +greatly. Here is the flag-ship "Cumberland" _vis-à -vis_ the fort. Off to +the left are the prizes, unlucky schooners, which ought to be carrying +pine wood to the kitchens of New York, and new potatoes and green peas +for the wood to operate upon. This region, by the way, is New York's +watermelon patch for early melons; and if we do not conquer a peace here +pretty soon, the Jersey fruit will have the market to itself. + +Besides stately flag-ships and poor little bumboat schooners, transports +are coming and going with regiments or provisions for the same. Here, +too, are old acquaintances from the bay of New York,--the "Yankee," a +lively tug,--the "Harriet Lane," coquettish and plucky,--the "Catiline," +ready to reverse her name and put down conspiracy. + +On the dock are munitions of war in heaps. Volunteer armies load +themselves with things they do not need, and forget the essentials. +The unlucky army-quartermaster's people, accustomed to the slow and +systematic methods of the by-gone days at Fortress Monroe, fume terribly +over these cargoes. The new men and the new manners of the new army do +not altogether suit the actual men and manners of the obsolete army. The +old men and the new must recombine. What we want now is the vigor of +fresh people to utilize the experience of the experts. The Silver-Gray +Army needs a frisky element interfused. On the other hand, the new army +needs to be taught a lesson in _method_ by the old; and the two combined +will make the grand army of civilization. + + +THE FORCES. + + +When I arrived, Fort Monroe and the neighborhood were occupied by two +armies. + +1. General Butler. + +2. About six thousand men, here and at Newport's News. + +Making together more than twelve thousand men. + +Of the first army, consisting of the General, I will not speak. Let his +past supreme services speak for him, as I doubt not the future will. + +Next to the array of a man comes the army of men. Regulars a few, with +many post officers, among them some very fine and efficient fellows. +These are within the post. Also within is the Third Regiment of +Massachusetts, under Colonel Wardrop, the right kind of man to have, and +commanding a capital regiment of three-months men, neatly uniformed in +gray, with cocked felt hats. + +Without the fort, across the moat, and across the bridge connecting this +peninsula of sand with the nearest side of the mainland, are encamped +three New York regiments. Each is in a wheat field, up to its eyes in +dust. In order of precedence they come One, Two, and Five; in order +of personal splendor of uniform they come Five, One, Two; in order of +exploits they are all in the same negative position at present; and the +Second has done rather the most robbing of hen-roosts. + +The Fifth, Duryea's Zouaves, lighten up the woods brilliantly with their +scarlet legs and scarlet head-pieces. + + * * * * * + +These last words were written upon the day that the attack in which +Winthrop fell was arranged. + +The disastrous day of the 10th of June, at Great Bethel, need not be +described here. It is already written with tears and vain regrets in our +history. It is useless to prolong the debate as to where the blame of +the defeat, if blame there were, should rest. But there is an impression +somewhat prevalent that Winthrop planned the expedition, which is +incorrect. As military secretary of the commanding general, he made a +memorandum of the outline of the plan as it had been finally settled. +Precisely what that memorandum (which has been published) was he +explains in the last letter he wrote, a few hours before leaving the +fort. He says,--"If I come back safe, I will send you my notes of the +plan of attack, part made up from the General's hints, part my own +fancies." This defines exactly his responsibility. His position as aid +and military secretary, his admirable qualities as adviser under the +circumstances, and his personal friendship for the General, brought him +intimately into the council of war. He embarked in the plan all the +interest of a brave soldier contemplating his first battle. He probably +made suggestions some of which were adopted. The expedition was the +first move from Fort Monroe, to which the country had been long looking +in expectation. These were the reasons why he felt so peculiar a +responsibility for its success; and after the melancholy events of the +earlier part of the day, he saw that its fortunes could be retrieved +only by a dash of heroic enthusiasm. Fired himself, he sought to kindle +others. For one moment that brave, inspiring form is plainly visible +to his whole country, rapt and calm, standing upon the log nearest the +enemy's battery, the mark of their sharpshooters, the admiration of +their leaders, waving his sword, cheering his fellow-soldiers with his +bugle voice of victory,--young, brave, beautiful, for one moment erect +and glowing in the wild whirl of battle, the next falling forward toward +the foe, dead, but triumphant. + +On the 19th of April he left the armory-door of the Seventh, with his +hand upon a howitzer; on the 21st of June his body lay upon the same +howitzer at the same door, wrapped in the flag for which he gladly died, +as the symbol of human freedom. And so, drawn by the hands of young men +lately strangers to him, but of whose bravery and loyalty he had been +the laureate, and who fitly mourned him who had honored them, with long, +pealing dirges and muffled drums, he moved forward. + +Yet such was the electric vitality of this friend of ours, that those +of us who followed him could only think of him as approving the funeral +pageant, not the object of it, but still the spectator and critic of +every scene in which he was a part. We did not think of him as dead. We +never shall. In the moist, warm midsummer morning, he was alert, alive, +immortal. + + + + +DIRGE + +FOR ONE WHO FELL IN BATTLE. + + + Room for a Soldier! lay him in the clover; + He loved the fields, and they shall be his cover; + Make his mound with hers who called him once her lover: + Where the rain may rain upon it, + Where the sun may shine upon it, + Where the lamb hath lain upon it, + And the bee will dine upon it. + + Bear him to no dismal tomb under city churches; + Take him to the fragrant fields, by the silver birches, + Where the whippoorwill shall mourn, where the oriole perches: + Make his mound with sunshine on it, + Where the bee will dine upon it, + Where the lamb hath lain upon it, + And the rain will rain upon it. + + Busy as the busy bee, his rest should be the clover; + Gentle as the lamb was he, and the fern should be his cover; + Fern and rosemary shall grow my soldier's pillow over: + Where the rain may rain upon it, + Where the sun may shine upon it, + Where the lamb hath lain upon it, + And the bee will dine upon it. + + Sunshine in his heart, the rain would come full often + Out of those tender eyes which evermore did soften; + He never could look cold, till we saw him in his coffin. + Make his mound with sunshine on it, + Where the wind may sigh upon it, + Where the moon may stream upon it, + And Memory shall dream upon it. + + "Captain or Colonel,"--whatever invocation + Suit our hymn the best, no matter for thy station,-- + On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation! + Long as the sun doth shine upon it + Shall grow the goodly pine upon it, + Long as the stars do gleam upon it + Shall Memory come to dream upon it. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Currents and Counter-Currents in Medical Science._ With other Addresses +and Essays. By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. Boston; Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. + +This volume contains seven occasional addresses and essays, written at +various periods between 1812 and 1860. The subjects of which it treats +are "Homoeopathy, and its Kindred Delusions," "Puerperal Fever, as +a Private Pestilence," "The Position and Prospects of the Medical +Student," "The Duties of the Physician,"--a Valedictory Address to +the Medical Graduates of Harvard University,--"The Mechanism of Vital +Actions," "Some more Recent Views of Homoeopathy," and "Currents +and Counter-Currents in Medical Science." They are characterized by +extensive information, fertile thought, strong convictions, keen wit, +sound sense, and unflinching intellectual courage and self-trust. They +are valuable contributions to the literature of the medical profession, +and at the same time have that peculiar fascination which distinguishes +all the productions of Dr. Holmes's ingenious and opulent mind. The +style is clear, crisp, sparkling, abounding in originalities of verbal +combination and felicities of descriptive phrase. In its movement, it +bears the marks of a kind of mental impatience of the processes of +slower, more dogged, and more cautious intellects, natural to a keen, +bright, and swift intelligence, desirous of flashing the results of its +operation in the briefest and most brilliant expression. The argument, +though founded on premises which have been gathered by careful +observation and study, often disregards the forms of the logic whose +spirit it obeys, and, by its frequent use of analogy and illustration, +may sometimes dazzle and confuse the minds it seeks to convince. In +regard to opponents, it is not content with mere dialectic victory, but +insinuates the subtle sting of wit to vex and irritate the sore places +of defeat and humiliation. + +The reputation which Dr. Holmes enjoys, as one of the most popular poets +and prose-writers of the day, has made the public overlook the fact that +literature has been the recreation of a life of which medical science +has been the business. By far the larger portion of his time, for the +last thirty years, has been devoted to his profession. Perhaps the +value and validity of the conclusions he records in this volume may be +questioned from the very circumstance that he expresses them in the +lucid and vigorous style of an accomplished man of letters. "People," +says Macaulay, "are loath to admit that the same man can unite very +different kinds of excellence. It is soothing to envy to believe that +what is splendid cannot be solid, that what is clear cannot be profound. +Very slowly was the public brought to acknowledge that Mansfield was a +great jurist, and that Burke was a great master of political science. +Montagu was a brilliant rhetorician, and therefore, though he had +ten times Harley's capacity for the driest parts of business, was +represented by detractors as a superficial, prating pretender." Indeed, +that peculiar vital energy which is the characteristic of genius carries +the man of genius cheerfully through masses of drudgery which would +dismay and paralyze the vigor of industrious mediocrity. The present +volume, bright as it is in expression, is full of evidences that the +author has submitted to the austerest requirements of his laborious +profession; and if his opinions generally coincide with those which have +been somewhat reluctantly adopted by the most eminent physicians of the +age, it is certain that he has not jumped to his conclusions, but has +reached them by patient and independent thought, study, and observation. + +The courage which Dr. Holmes displays throughout this volume is of a +refreshing kind. His frank, bold utterance of his convictions not only +subjects him to the adverse criticism of a numerous and powerful body +of able men in his own profession, but brings him into direct hostility +with many persons who, outside of his profession, are among the warmest +lovers of his literary genius. Some of the most intelligent admirers +and appreciators of "The Autocrat" and "The Professor" are adherents of +Homoeopathy; and of Homoeopathy Dr. Holmes is not only a scientific, but +a sarcastic opponent. He both acknowledges and satirizes the fact, that +intellectual men, eminent in all professions but that of medicine, are +champions of the system he derides; but he does not the less spare one +bitter word or cutting fleer against the system itself. By thus daring, +provoking, and defying opposition both to his professional and literary +reputation, he seems to us to indicate a real, if somewhat impatient +love of truth. He valorously invites and courts the malicious sharpness +of the most unfriendly criticism. Some people may call by the name of +conceit this honest and unwithholding devotion of his whole powers to +what he deems the cause of truth; but, we must be allowed to object, +conceit is commonly anxious for the safety of the individual, while +Dr. Holmes intrepidly exposes his individuality to the fire of hostile +cannon, which are prevented from being discharged against each other +only by the lucky thought that they can do more execution by being +converged upon him. Had he appeared as an intelligent, knowing, and +efficient controversialist on the side of the traditions of his +profession, his wholesale denunciation of quackery, vulgar or genteel, +might be referred to conceit; had he turned state's evidence against the +accredited deceptions of his own profession, and gone over entirely to +the enthusiasts who think that medicine is not an experimental science, +but a series of hap-hazard hits at the occult laws of disease, he might +be accused of conceit; but we think the charge is ridiculously false as +directed against a man who boldly puts his professional and literary +fame at risk in order to advance the cause of reason, learning, and +common sense. Nobody can justly appreciate Holmes who does not perceive +an impersonal earnestness and insight beneath the play of his provoking +personal wit. We admit that he makes enemies needlessly; but all fair +minds must still concede that even his petulances of sarcasm are but +eccentric utterances of a love of truth which has its source in the +deepest and gravest sentiments of his nature. + +The object of Dr. Holmes's volume is to bring physicians and the people +over whom they hold dominion into sensible relations with each other. +A beautiful scorn of deception and humbug shines through his clear +exposition of the facts and laws of disease. A high sense of the duties +and dignity of the medical profession animates every precept he enforces +on the attention of those who are to deal with disease. Like all the +advanced thinkers of his profession, he relies, in the art of curing, +more on Nature than on drugs; but in thus assisting to dispel the notion +that the prescriptions either of the regular doctor or the irregular +empiric possess the power to heal, he injures the quack only to aid +the good physician. The strength of the quack consists in the two-fold +ignorance of the sick,--in their ignorance of the superficial character +of their common ailments, and in their ignorance of the deadly nature of +their exceptional diseases. Panaceas, seeming to cure the former, are +eagerly taken for the latter; but it is well known that they do not cure +in either case. Physicians are tempted into quackery by the desire to +dislodge ignorant pretenders from bedsides which it is their proper +function to attend, and in ministering to sick imaginations they are too +apt to pour a needless amount of nauseous medicine into sick bodies. If +people, while in health, would heed the honest advice which Dr. +Holmes gives in this volume, they would force physicians to be less +hypocritical in their management of them when they are ill, and they +would destroy the wide-spread evil of quackery under which the world now +groans. + + +_History of Civilization in England._ By HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE. Vol. II. +From the Second London Edition. To which is added an Alphabetical Index. +New York: D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. + +The present volume of Mr. Buckle's history consists of a deductive +application to the history of Spain and Scotland of certain leading +propositions, which, in his previous volume, he claims to have +inductively established. These are four; "1st, That the progress of +mankind depends on the success with which the laws of phenomena are +investigated, and on the extent to which a knowledge of those laws +is diffused; 2d, That, before investigation can begin, a spirit of +skepticism must arise, which, at first aiding the investigation, is +afterwards aided by it; 3d, That the discoveries thus made increase +the influence of intellectual truths, and diminish, relatively, not +absolutely, the influence of moral truths,--moral truths being more +stationary than intellectual truths, and receiving fewer additions; 4th, +That the great enemy of this movement, and therefore the great enemy of +civilization, is the protective spirit, or the notion that the good of +society depends on its concerns being watched over and protected by a +State that teaches men what to do, and a Church which teaches them what +to believe." + +Mr. Buckle, with great abundance of learning and fulness of thought, +attempts to prove that the history of Spain and Scotland verifies these +propositions. The general causes which, according to him, have sunk +Spain so low in the scale of civilization are loyalty and superstition. +The Church and State have been supreme, and the consequence has been +that the people are profoundly ignorant. Under able rulers, like +Ferdinand, Charles V., and Philip II., the loyal nation attained a great +height of power and glory; under their incompetent successors, the loyal +nation, obedient to crowned sloth and stupidity as to crowned energy and +genius, descended with frightful rapidity from its high estate, thus +proving that the progress which depends on the character of individual +monarchs or statesmen is necessarily unstable. Circumstances similar +to those which made Spain loyal made it superstitious; and loyalty and +superstition early formed an alliance by which all independent energy +of conduct and thought was suppressed. According to Mr. Buckle, the +prosperity of nations, in modern times, "depends on principles to which +the clergy, as a body, are invariably opposed." This proposition is, to +him, true of Protestant as well as Catholic clergymen; and a nation +like Spain, looking to the Government for what it should do, and to the +Church for what it should believe, has necessarily become inefficient +and ignorant. + +Spain has few friends among English readers, and Mr. Buckle's +contemptuous opinion of its civilization may not, therefore, rouse +much opposition that he will be compelled to heed. But it is not so in +respect to Scotland, a caustic survey of whose civilization occupies +three-quarters of the present volume. The position is taken, that +Scotland, of all the countries of Protestant Europe, has been and is +the most superstitious and priest-ridden. The only thing that saved the +people from the fate of Spain was the fact, that their insubordination +to temporal authority was as marked as their slavery to spiritual +authority. They had the good fortune to be rebels as well as fanatics; +but the reforming clergy having, after 1580, allied themselves heartily +with the people against the king and nobles, increased as patriots +the influence they exerted as priests. The love of country being thus +associated with love of the Church, the people were enslaved by the very +religious leaders who aided them in the fight against those forms of +arbitrary power they mutually detested. The tyranny of the Presbyterian +minister was lovingly accepted by the same population by which the +tyranny of bishop and king was abhorred. + +Mr. Buckle, with the malicious delight which only a philosopher in +search of facts to fit his theory can know, has delved in a stratum of +theological literature now covered from the common eye by more important +deposits, in order to prove that in the seventeenth century the people +of Scotland were ruled by a set of petty theological tyrants, as +ignorant and as inhuman as ever disgraced a civilized society, and that +their ignorance and inhumanity were all the more influential from being +called by the name and acting by the authority of religion. + +The author then proceeds to consider the philosophical and scientific +reaction against this ecclesiastical despotism, which occurred in the +eighteenth century. Why did it not emancipate the Scottish intellect? + +Because, says Mr. Buckle, the method of the philosophers, like the +method of the theologians, was deductive, and not inductive; and this, +he thinks, characterizes the operation of the intellect of Scotland in +all departments. Now the deductive method, or reasoning from principles +to facts, does not strike the senses with the force of the inductive, +or reasoning from facts to principles, and it is accordingly less +accessible to the average understanding. The result was, that the +writings of Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and Hume had little effect on the +popular intellect of Scotland, and its people are now the most bigoted +and intolerant of those of any country in Europe, except Spain. This +portion of Mr. Buckle's volume, containing an analytical estimate, not +only of Hutcheson, Hume, and Adam Smith, but of Black, Leslie, Hutton, +Cullen, and John Hunter, is full of original thought and valuable +information, however questionable may be some of its statements. + +Whatever may be thought of the general ideas which Mr. Buckle enforces, +few will be inclined to dispute the extent of his learning, the breadth +of his understanding, the suggestiveness of his generalizations, the +earnestness of his purpose, the mental honesty with which he seeks +truth, the mental hardihood with which he assails what he considers +error. He has not only no intellectual timidity, but no intellectual +reserve, and is indifferent to the opprobrium which may proceed from the +collision of his speculations with the strongest of prejudices and +the most immovable of convictions. But this intrepid sincerity is not +without the alloy of arrogance. He belongs to that school of able, but +dogmatic positivists, who are apt to consider their minds the measure +of the human mind, who are intolerant of those human sentiments and +qualities in which they are deficient, and who, occupying the serene +heights of a purely scientific wisdom, look down with pitying contempt +on all intellects, however powerful, which are not emancipated from the +dominion of theological ideas. Individually, he lacks both the sympathy +and the imaginative insight by which a man pierces to the heart of a +nation, and appreciates its life as distinguished from its opinions. All +readers of those portions of the literature of Spain and Scotland in +which genius exhibits the vital manners and representative character +of those nations will feel how partial and inadequate is Mr. Buckle's +historic sketch. The fundamental idea of his system, that human progress +depends on the success with which the laws of phenomena are investigated +and the extent to which a knowledge of them is diffused, overlooks the +essential element of _movement,_ which is not abstract knowledge, but +vital force. Men and nations move in virtue of their passionate, moral, +and spiritual forces, and these determine the character of their +intellectual development and expression. A nation which knew all the +laws of phenomena, but which was utterly lacking in moral force, would +not only not be civilized, but would hardly be alive. Mr. Buckle insists +that moral truths being relatively stationary, while intellectual truths +are constantly advancing and multiplying, civilization cannot depend +upon them. But even admitting that moral truths are stationary, still +moral life, the conversion of these truths into character, is capable of +indefinite advancement. There are moral truths more universal than any +scientific truths, and it is owing to the fact that these truths have so +imperfectly passed from abstractions into conduct, that civilization +is yet so imperfect, and the achievements of the intellect still so +limited. Out of the heart, and not out of the head, are the issues of +life; and how a mere knowledge of "the laws of phenomena" can regenerate +men from selfishness, ferocity, and malignity, can purify and invigorate +the will, can even of itself stimulate the intellect to a further +investigation of those laws, Mr. Buckle has not shown. Even the +theological abuses of which he gives so exaggerated a representation are +expressions of the passions and character of the people to which the +theology was accommodated, and not of the sense and spirit of the New +Testament, which the theology violated, so far as it was false in its +ideas or inhuman in its teachings. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Uprising of a Great People: The United States in 1861. From the +French of Count Agénor de Gasparin, by Mary L. Booth. New York. Charles +Scribner. 16mo. pp. 263. 75 cts. + +Volunteers' Camp and Field Book, containing useful General Information +on the Art and Science of War. By J.P. Curry. New York. D. Appleton & +Co. 32mo. pp. 146. 25 cts. + +Lloyd's Military Campaign Chart. Pocket Edition. Arranged by E.L. Viele +and Charles Haskins. New York. H.H. Lloyd & Co. 18mo. pp. 12, and Map. +50 cts. + +Hints on the Preservation of Health in Armies, for the Use of Volunteer +Officers and Soldiers. By J. Ordronaux, M.D. New York, D. Appleton & Co. +24mo. pp. 142. 38 cts. + +Tom Brown at Oxford. A Sequel to "School Days at Rugby." By the Author +of "School Days at Rugby," etc. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. 430. +$1.00. + +A Day's Ride, a Life's Romance. By Charles Lever. New York. Harper & +Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 152. 50 cts. + +The North American Review, No. CXCII., for July, 1861. Boston. Crosby, +Nichols, Lee, & Co. 8vo. pp. 300. $1.25. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, +August, 1861, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11157 *** 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..8fcb873 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11157 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11157) diff --git a/old/11157-8.txt b/old/11157-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..778412b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11157-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8725 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, +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, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 19, 2004 [EBook #11157] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 46 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VIII--AUGUST, 1861.--NO. XLVI. + + + + +TREES IN ASSEMBLAGES. + + +The subject of Trees cannot be exhausted by treating them as individuals +or species, even with a full enumeration of their details. Some trees +possess but little interest, except as they are grouped in assemblages +of greater or less extent. A solitary Fir or Spruce, for example, when +standing in an inclosure or by the roadside, is a stiff and disagreeable +object; but a deep forest of Firs is not surpassed in grandeur by one of +any other species. These trees must be assembled in extensive groups to +affect us agreeably; while the Elm, the Oak, and other wide-spreading +trees, are grand objects of sight, when standing alone, or in any other +situation. + +I will not detain the reader with a prolix account of the classification +of trees in assemblages, but simply glance at a few points. The Romans +used four different words to express these distinctions. When they spoke +of a wood with reference to its timber, they used the word _silva_; +_sal[Transcriber's note: remainder of word illegible]_, was a collection +of wild-wood in the mountains; _nemus_, a smaller collection, partaking +of cultivation, and answering to our ideas of a grove; _lucus_ was a +wood, of any description, which was set apart for religious purposes, +or dedicated to some Deity. In the English language we can make these +distinctions intelligible only by the use of adjectives. A _forest_ is +generally understood to be a wild-wood of considerable extent, retaining +all its natural features. A _grove_ is a smaller assemblage of trees, +not crowded together, but possessing very generally their full +proportions, and divested of their undergrowth. Other inferior groups +are designated as _copse_ and _thicket_. The words _park_, _clump_, +_arboretum_, and the like, are mere technical terms, that do not come +into use in a general description of Nature. + +Groves, fragments of forest, and inferior groups only are particularly +interesting in landscape. An unbroken forest of wide extent makes but +a dreary picture and an unattractive journey, on account of its gloomy +uniformity. Hence the primitive state of the earth, before it was +modified by human hands, must have been sadly wanting in those romantic +features that render a scene the most attractive. Nature must be +combined with Art, however simple and rude, and associated with human +life, to become deeply affecting to the imagination. But it is not +necessary that the artificial objects of a landscape should be of a +grand historical description, to produce these agreeable effects: humble +objects, indeed, are the most consonant with Nature's sublime aspects, +because they manifest no seeming endeavor to rival them. In the deep +solitary woods, the sight of a woodman's hut in a clearing, of a +farmer's cottage, or of a mere sheepfold, immediately awakens a tender +interest, and enlivens the scene with a tinge of romance. + +The earth must have been originally covered with forest, like the +American continent in the time of Columbus. This has in all cases +disappeared, as population has increased; and groves, fragments of +wild-wood, small groups, and single trees have taken its place. Great +Britain, once renowned for its extensive woods, now exhibits only +smaller assemblages, chiefly of an artificial character, which are more +interesting to the landscape-gardener than to the lover of Nature's +primitive charms. Parks, belts, arboretums, and clipped hedge-rows, +however useful as contributing to pleasure, convenience, or science, are +not the most interesting features of wood-scenery. But the customs of +the English nobility, while they have artificialized all the fairest +scenes in the country, and ruined them for the eyes of the poet or the +painter, have been the means of preserving some valuable forests, +which under other circumstances would have been utterly destroyed. +A deer-forest belonging to the Duke of Athol comprises four hundred +thousand acres; the forest of Farquharson contains one hundred and +thirty thousand acres; and several others of smaller extent are still +preserved as deer-parks. Thus do the luxuries of the rich tend, in +some instances, to preserve those natural objects of which they are in +general the principal destroyers. + +Immense forests still overspread a great part of Northern Russia, +through which it has been asserted that a squirrel might traverse +hundreds of miles, without touching the ground, by leaping from tree to +tree. Since the general adoption of railroad travelling, however, great +ravages have been made in these forests, and not many years will be +required to reduce them to fragments. In the South of Europe a great +part of the territory is barren of woods, and the climate has suffered +from this cause, which has diminished the bulk of the streams and +increased the severity of droughts. But Nature has established a partial +remedy for the evil arising from the imprudent destruction of forests, +in lofty and precipitous mountains, that serve not only to perpetuate +moisture for the supply of rain to the neighboring countries, but +contribute also to preserve the timber in their inaccessible ravines. +Were it not for this safeguard of mountains, the South of Europe would +ere this have become a desert, from the destruction of its forests, like +Sahara, whose barrenness was anciently produced by the same cause. + +Most of the territory of North America is still comparatively a +wilderness; but in the United States the forests have been so +extensively invaded, that they seldom exhibit any distinct outlines, and +few of them possess the character of unique assemblages. They are but +scattered fragments of the original forest, through which the settlers +have made their irregular progress from east to west, diversifying it +with roads, farms, and villages. The recent clearings are palisaded by +tall trees, exhibiting a naked outline of skeleton timber, without any +attractions. It is in the old States only that we see anything like a +picturesque grouping of woods; and here, the absence of art and design, +in the formation and relative disposition of these groups, gives them +a peculiar interest to the lover of natural scenery. There is a charm, +therefore, in New-England landscape, existing nowhere else in +equal degree; but this is rapidly giving place to those artificial +improvements that are destined to ruin the face of the country, which +owes its present attractions to the spontaneous efforts of Nature, +modified only by the unartistic operations of a simple agriculture. + +Travelling in a forest, though delightful as an occasional recreation, +is, when continued many hours in succession, unless one be engaged +in scientific researches, very monotonous and wearisome. Even the +productions of a forest are not so various as those of a tract in which +all the different conditions of wildness and culture are intermingled. A +view of an unbroken wilderness from an elevation is equally monotonous. +Wood must be blended with other forms of landscape, with pasture and +tillage, with roads, houses, and farms, to convey to the mind the +most agreeable sensations. The monotony of unbroken forest-scenery is +partially relieved in the autumn by the mixed variety of tints belonging +to the different trees; but this does not wholly subdue the prevailing +expression of dreariness and gloom. + +Nothing can surpass the splendor of this autumnal pageantry, as beheld +in the Green Mountains of Vermont and Western Massachusetts, in the +early part of October. This region abounds in Sugar-Maples, which are +very beautifully tinted, and in a sufficient variety of other trees to +delight the eye with every specious hue. A remarkable appearance may +always be observed in Maples. Some trees of this kind are entirely +green, with the exception perhaps of a single bough, which is of a +bright crimson or scarlet. Sometimes the lower half of the foliage will +be green, while the upper part is entirely crimsoned, resembling a spire +of flame rising out of a mass of verdure. In other cases this order is +reversed, and the tree presents the appearance of a green spire +rising out of flame. We see no end to the variety of these apparently +capricious phenomena, which some have explained by supposing the +colored branches to be affected with partial disease that hastens their +maturity: but this can hardly be admitted as the true explanation, +as such appearances exist when no other symptoms of malady can be +discovered. + +So much has been said and written of late in regard to the tints of +autumn leaves, that the writer of this cannot be expected to advance +anything new concerning them. Let me remark, however, that these +beautiful tintings are not due to the action of frost, which is, on +the contrary, highly prejudicial to them, as we may observe on several +different occasions. If, for example, a frost should occur in September +of sufficient intensity to cut down the tender annuals of our +gardens,--after this, when the tints begin to appear, the outer portion +of the foliage that was touched by the frost will exhibit a sullied and +rusty hue. The effects of these early frosts are seldom apparent while +the leaves are green, except on close inspection; for a very intense +frost is required to sear and roll up the leaves. Early autumnal frosts +seldom do more than to injure their capacity to receive a fine tint when +they become mature. + +The next occasion that renders the injurious effects of frost apparent +is later in the season, after the tints are very generally developed. +Every severe frost that happens at this period impairs their lustre, as +we may perceive on any day succeeding a frosty night, when the woods, +which were previously in their gayest splendor, will be faded to a +duller and more uniform shade,--as if the whole mass had been dipped +into a brownish dye, leaving the peculiar tints of each species dimly +conspicuous through this shading. The most brilliant and unsullied hues +are displayed in a cool, but not frosty autumn, succeeding a moderate +summer. Very warm weather in autumn hastens the coloring process, and +renders the hues proportionally transient. I have known Maple woods, +early in October, to be completely embrowned and stripped of their +leaves by two days of summer heat. Cool days and nights, unattended with +frost, are the favorable conditions for producing and preserving the +beauty of autumnal wood-scenery. + +The effects of heat and frost are not so apparent in Oak woods, which +have a more coriaceous and persistent foliage than other deciduous +trees: but Oaks do not attain the perfection of their beauty, until +the Ash, the Maple, and the Tupelo--the glory of the first period of +autumn--have shed a great portion of their leaves. The last-named trees +are in their splendor during a period of about three weeks after the +middle of September, varying with the character of the season. + +Oaks are not generally tinted until October, and are brightest near the +third week of this month, preserving their lustre, in great measure, +until the hard frosts of November destroy the leaves. The colors of the +different Oaks are neither so brilliant nor so variegated as those of +Maples; but they are more enduring, and serve more than those of any +other woods to give character to our autumnal landscapes. + +It would be difficult to convey to the mind of a person who had never +witnessed this brilliant, but solemn pageantry of the dying year, a +clear idea of its magnificence. Nothing else in Nature will compare +with it: for, though flowers are more beautiful than tinted leaves, no +assemblage of flowers, or of flowering trees and shrubs, can produce +such a deeply affecting scene of beauty as the autumn woods. If we would +behold them In their greatest brilliancy and variety, we must journey +during the first period of the Fall of the Leaf in those parts of the +country where the Maple, the Ash, and the Tupelo are the prevailing +timber. If we stand, at this time, on a moderate elevation affording a +view of a wooded swamp rising into upland and melting imperceptibly into +mountain landscape, we obtain a fair sight of the different assemblages +of species, as distinguished by their tints. The Oaks will be marked, at +this early period, chiefly by their unaltered verdure. In the lowland +the scarlet and crimson hues of the Maple and the Tupelo predominate, +mingled with a superb variety of colors from the shrubbery, whose +splendor is always the greatest on the borders of ponds and +water-courses, and frequently surpasses that of the trees. As the plain +rises into the hill-side, the Ash-trees may be distinguished by their +peculiar shades of salmon, mulberry, and purple, and the Hickories by +their invariable yellows. The Elm, the Lime, and the Buttonwood are +always blemished and rusty: they add no brilliancy to the spectacle, +serving only to sober and relieve other parts of the scenery. + +When the second period of the Fall of the Leaf has arrived, the woods +that were first tinted have mostly become leafless. The grouping of +different species is, therefore, very apparent at this time,--some +assemblages presenting the denuded appearance of winter, some remaining +still green, while the Oaks are the principal attraction, with an +intermixture of a few other species, whose foliage has been protected +and the development of their hues retarded by some peculiarity of +situation. Green rows of Willows may also be seen by road-sides in damp +places, and irregular groups of them near the water-courses. The foreign +trees--seldom found in woods--are still unchanged, as we may observe +wherever there is a row of European Elms, Weeping Willows, or a +hedge-row of Privet. + +One might suppose that a Pine wood must look particularly sombre in this +grand spectacle of beauty; but it cannot be denied that in those regions +where there is a considerable proportion of Pines the perfection of this +scenery is witnessed. Something is needful to relieve the eye as it +wanders over such a profusion of brilliant colors. Pine woods provide +this relief, and cause the tinted forest groups to stand out in greater +prominence. In many districts where Pines were the original growth, they +still constitute the larger sylvan assemblages, while the deciduous +trees stand in scattered groups on the edge of the forest, and the +contiguous plain. The verdurous Pine wood forms a picturesque groundwork +to set off the various groups in front of it; and the effect of a +scarlet Oak or Tupelo rising like a spire of flame in the midst of +verdure is far more striking than if it stood where it was unaffected by +contrast. + +The cause of the superior tinting of the American forest, compared with +that of Europe, has never been satisfactorily explained, though it +seems to be somewhat inexplicably connected with the brightness of the +American climate. It is a subject that has not engaged the attention of +scientific travellers, who seem to have regarded it as worthy only of +the describer of scenery. It may, however, deserve more attention as a +scientific fact than has been generally supposed,--particularly as one +of the phenomena that perhaps distinguish the productions of the eastern +from those of the western coasts of the two grand divisions of the +earth. I have observed that the Smoke-tree, which is a Sumach from +China, and the Cydonia Japonica, are as brightly colored in autumn as +any of our indigenous shrubs; while the Silver-Maple, which, though +indigenous in the Western States, probably originated on the western +coast of America, shows none of the fine tinting so remarkable in the +other American Maples. These facts have led me to conjecture that this +superior tinting of the autumnal foliage may be peculiar to the +eastern coasts both of the Old and the New Continent, in the northern +hemisphere. May not this phenomenon bear some relation to the colder +winters and the hotter summers of the eastern compared with the western +coasts? I offer this suggestion as a query, not as a theory, and +with the hope that it may induce travellers to make some particular +observations in reference to it. + +The indigenous trees of America, or rather of the Atlantic side of this +continent, are remarkable not only for their superior autumnal hues, +but also for the shorter period during which the foliage remains on the +trees and retains its verdure. Our fruit-trees, which are all exotics, +retain their foliage long after our forest-trees are leafless; and if +we visit an arboretum in the latter part of October, we may select the +American from the foreign species, by observing that the latter are +still green, while the others are either entirely denuded, or in that +colored array which immediately precedes the fall of the leaf. +The exotics may likewise be distinguished in the spring by their +precocity,--their leaves being out a week or ten days earlier than the +leaves of our trees. Hence, if we take both the spring and autumn into +the account, the foreign, or rather the European species, show a period +of verdure of three or four weeks' greater duration than the American +species. Many of the former, like the Weeping Willow, do not lose +their verdure, nor shed their leaves, until the first wintry blasts of +November freeze them upon their branches and roll them into a crisp. + +In a natural forest there is a very small proportion of perfectly formed +trees; and these occur only in such places as permit some individuals to +stand isolated from the rest, and to spread out their branches to their +full extent. When we walk in a forest, we observe several conditions +which are favorable to this full expansion of their forms. On the +borders of a pond or morass, or of an extensive quarry, the trees +extend their branches into the opening, but, as they are cramped on the +opposite side, they are only half developed. But this expansion takes +place on the side that is exposed to view: hence the incomparable beauty +of a wood on the borders of a pond, or on the banks of a river, as +viewed from the water; also of a wood on the outside of an islet in a +lake or river. + +Fissures or cavities sometimes occur in a large rock, allowing +a solitary tree that has become rooted there to attain its full +proportions. It is in such places, and on sudden eminences that rise +above the forest-level, on a precipice, for example, that overlooks the +surrounding wood, that the forest shows individual trees possessing the +characters of standards, like those we see by the roadsides and in the +open field. We must conclude, therefore, that a primitive forest must +contain but a very small proportion of perfect trees: these are, for +the most part, the occupants of land cleared by cultivation, and may be +found also among the sparse growth of timber that has come up in pasture +land, where the constant browsing of cattle prevents the formation of +any dense assemblages. + +In the opinion of Whately, grandeur is the prevailing character of a +forest, and beauty that of a grove. This distinction may seem to +be correct, when such collections of wood exhibit all their proper +characters: but perfectly unique forms of wood are seldom found in this +country, where almost all the timber is of spontaneous growth. We have +genuine forests; but other forms of wood are of a mixed character, and +we have rather fragments of forest than legitimate groves. In the South +of Europe many of the woods are mere plantations, in which the trees +were first set in rows, with straight avenues, or vistas, passing +directly through them from different points. In an assemblage of this +kind there can be nothing of that interesting variety observed in a +natural forest, and which is manifestly wanting even in woods planted +with direct reference to the attainment of these natural appearances. +"It is curious to see," as Gilpin remarks, "with what richness of +invention, if I may so speak, Nature mixes and intermixes her trees, and +shapes them into such a wonderful variety of groups and beautiful forms. +Art may admire and attempt to plant and to form combinations like hers; +but whoever observes the wild combinations of a forest and compares them +with the attempts of Art has little taste, if he do not acknowledge with +astonishment the superiority of Nature's workmanship." + +When a tract is covered with a dense growth of tall trees, especially of +Pines, which have but little underbrush, the wood represents overhead a +vast canopy of verdure supported by innumerable lofty pillars. No one +could enter these dark solitudes without feeling a deep impression of +sublimity, especially if it be an hour of general stillness of the +winds. The voices of animals and of birds, particularly the hammering +of the woodpecker, serve to magnify our perceptions of grandeur. A very +slight sound, during a calm in one of these deep woods, like the +ticking of a clock in a vast hall, has a distinctness almost startling, +especially if there be but little undergrowth. These feeble sounds +afford one a more vivid sense of the magnitude of the place than louder +sounds, that differ less from those we hear in the open plain. The +canopy of foliage overhead and the absence of undergrowth are favorable +to those reverberations which are so perceptible in a Pine wood. + +In a grove we experience different sensations. Here pleasantness and +cheerfulness are combined, and the feeling of grandeur is excited only +perhaps by the sight of some noble tree. In a grove the trees are +generally well formed, many of them being nearly perfect in their +proportions. Their shadows are cast separately upon the ground, which is +green beneath them as in an orchard. If we look upon them from a near +eminence, we observe a variety of outlines, and may identify the +different species by their shape, while in the forest we see one +unbroken mass of foliage. A wild-wood is frequently converted into a +grove by clearing it of undergrowth and leaving the space a grassy lawn. +It may then yield us shade, coolness, and other agreeable sensations of +a cultivated wood, but the individual trees always retain their gaunt +and imperfect shapes. + +The greater part of the woodland of this country partakes of the +characters of both forest and grove, exhibiting a pleasant admixture of +each, combined with pasture and thicket. In Great Britain the woods are +chiefly groves and parks: a wild-wood of spontaneous growth is now rare +in that country, once renowned for the extent and beauty of its forests. +Most of our American woods are fragments of forest, particularly in +the Western States, where they stand out prominently, and deform +the landscape by presenting a perpendicular front of naked pillars, +unrelieved by any foliage. They remind one of those houses, in the city, +which have been cut asunder to widen a street, leaving the interior +rooms and partition-walls exposed to view. These sections of wood are +the grand picturesque deformity of a country lately cleared. In the +older settlements, a recent growth of wood has in many instances come +up outside of these palisades, serving in a measure to conceal their +baldness. + +The most lovely appearances in landscape are caused by the spontaneous +growth of miscellaneous trees, some in dense assemblages and some in +scattered groups, with here and there a few single trees standing in +open space. Such is the scenery of considerable portions of the Atlantic +States, both North and South. These varied assemblages of wood and +shrubbery are the characteristic features of the landscape in the +older villages of New England, and indeed of all the States that were +established before the Revolution. But the New-England system of +farming--so much abhorred by those who wish to bring agriculture to +such a state of improvement as shall make it profitable exclusively +to capitalists--has been more favorable to the sylvan beauty of the +landscape than that of any other part of the continent. At the South, +especially, where agriculture is carried on in large plantations, we see +wide fields of tillage, and forest groups of corresponding size. But the +small and independent farming of New England--as favorable to general +happiness as it is to beautiful scenery--has produced a charming variety +of wood, pasture, and tillage, so agreeably intermixed that one is never +weary of looking upon it. The varied surface of the landscape, in the +uneven parts which are not mountainous, has increased these advantages, +producing an endless multitude of those limited views which may be +termed picturesque. + +In no other part of the country are the minor inequalities of surface so +frequent as in New England: I allude to that sort of ruggedness which is +unfavorable to any "mammoth" system of agriculture, and plainly evinces +that Nature and Providence have designed this part of the country for +free and independent labor. Here little meadows, of a few acres in +extent, are common, encircled by green pasture hills or by wood. A +rolling surface is more favorable to grandeur of scenery; but nothing +is more beautiful than landscape formed by hills rising suddenly out of +perfect levels. As it is not my present purpose to treat of landscape in +general, I will simply remark that the barrenness of a great part of the +soil of the Eastern States is favorable to picturesque scenery. This may +seem a paradoxical assertion to those who can see no beauty except +in universal fatness; but unvaried luxuriance is fatal to variety of +scenes, though it undoubtedly encourages the development of individual +growth. An agreeable intermixture of various sylvan assemblages is one +of the effects of a barren soil, containing numerous fertile tracts. +Not having in general sufficient strength to produce timber, it covers +itself with diverse groups of vegetation, corresponding with the +varieties of soil and surface. Thus, in a certain degree, we are obliged +to confess that beauty springs out of Nature's deficiencies. + +We live in a latitude and upon a soil, therefore, which are favorable +to the harmonious grouping of vegetation. As we proceed southward, we +witness a constant increase of the number of species gathered together +in a single group. Nature is more addicted at the North to the habit of +classifying her productions and of assembling them in uniform phalanxes. +The painter, on this account, finds more to interest the eye and to +employ his pencil in the picturesque regions of frost and snow; while +the botanist finds more to exercise his observation in the crowded +variety that marks the region of perpetual summer. + +But while vegetation is more generally social in high latitudes, several +families of Northern trees are entirely wanting in this quality. Seldom +is a forest composed chiefly of Elms, Locusts, or Willows. Oaks and +Birches are associated in forests, Elms in groves, and Willows in small +groups following the courses of streams. Those Northern trees which are +most eminently social, including the two just named, are the Beech, the +Maple, the Hickory, the coniferous trees, and some others; and by the +predominance of any one kind the character of the soil may be partially +determined. There is no tree that grows so abundantly in miry land, +both North and South upon this continent, as the Red Maple. It occupies +immense tracts of morass in the Middle States, and is the last tree +which is found in swamps, according to Michaux, as the Birch is the last +we meet in ascending mountains. The Sugar-Maple is confined mostly to +the Northeastern parts of the continent. Poplars are not generally +associated exclusively in forests; but at the point where the Ohio +and the Mississippi mingle their waters are grand forests of Deltoid +Poplars, that stamp upon the features of that region a very peculiar +physiognomy. + +The characteristics of different woods, composed chiefly of one family +of trees, would make an interesting study; but it would be tiresome +to enter minutely into their details. Some are distinguished by a +superfluity, others by a deficiency of undergrowth. In general, Pine and +Fir woods are of the latter description, differing in this respect +from deciduous woods. These differences are most apparent in large +assemblages of wood, which have a flora as well as a fauna of their own. +The same shrubs and herbaceous plants, for example, are not common to +Oak and to Pine woods. There is a difference also in the cleanness and +beauty of their stems. The gnarled habit of the Oak is conspicuous +even in the most crowded forest, and coniferous woods are apt to be +disfigured by dead branches projecting from the bole. The Birch, the +Poplar, and the Beech are remarkable for the straightness, evenness, and +beauty of their shafts, when assembled in a dense wood. + +Some of the most beautiful forests in high latitudes consist of White +Canoe-Birches. We see them in Massachusetts only in occasional groups, +but farther north, upon river-banks, they form woods of considerable +extent and remarkable beauty; and with their tall shafts, and their +smooth white bark, resembling pillars of marble, supporting a canopy of +bright green foliage, on a light feathery spray, they constitute one of +the picturesque attractions of a Northern tour. Nature seems to indicate +the native habitat of this noble tree by causing its exterior to bear +the whiteness of snow, and it would be difficult to estimate its +importance to the aboriginal inhabitants of Northern latitudes. Yellow +Birch woods are not inferior in their attractions: individual trees +of this species are often distinguished among other forest timber by +extending their feathery summits above the level of the other trees. + +The small White Birch is never assembled in large forest groups. Like +the Alder, it seems to be employed by Nature for the shading of her +living pictures, and for producing those gradations which are the charm +of spontaneous wood-scenery. In this part of the continent, a Pitch-Pine +wood is commonly fringed with White Birches, and outside of these with +a lower growth of Hazels, Cornels, and Vacciniums, uniting them +imperceptibly with the herbage of the plain. The importance of this +native embroidery is not sufficiently considered by those industrious +plodders who are constantly destroying wayside shrubbery, as if it were +the pest of the farm,--nor by those "improvers," on the other hand, who +wage an eternal warfare against little spontaneous groups of wood, as +if they thought everything outside of the forest an intruder, if it was +planted by accident, and had not cost money before it was placed there. +Give me an old farm, with its stone-walls draped with Poison-Ivy and +Glycine, and verdurous with a mixed array of Viburnums, Hazels, and +other wild shrubbery, harboring thousands of useful birds, and smiling +over the abundant harvests which they surround, before the finest +artistical landscape in the world! + +Pines are remarkably social in their habit, and cover immense tracts in +high latitudes, extending southward, on this continent, as far as the +very boundary of the tropics, where they are found side by side with the +Dwarf Palm of Florida. But in the region of the true Palms the Pine is +wanting. It is worthy of remark, however, that in the fossil vegetation +of the Eocene world these two vegetable tribes are found associated. +This fact, it seems to me, should be attributed to the mixing of the +mountain Pines with the Palms of the sea-level, during that revulsion of +Nature by which they were hurled into the same chaotic heap. We are not +obliged to infer from their contiguity in these geological remains, that +the two species ever flourished together in the same region. + +Pine woods possess attractions of a peculiar kind: all lovers of Nature +are enraptured with them, and there is a grandeur about them which is +felt at once, when we enter them. Their dark verdure, their deep shade, +their lofty height, and their branches which are ever mysteriously +murmuring, as they are swayed by the wind, render them singularly solemn +and sublime. This expression is increased by the hollow reverberating +interior of the wood, caused by its clearness and freedom from +underbrush. The ground beneath is covered by a matting of fallen leaves, +making a smooth brown carpet, that renders a walk within its precincts +as comfortable as in a garden. The foliage of the Pine is so hard and +durable that in summer we always find the last autumn's crop lying upon +the ground in a state of perfect soundness, and under it that of the +preceding year only partially decayed. The foliage of two summers, +therefore, lies upon the surface, checking the growth of humble +vegetation, and permitting only certain species of plants to flourish +with vigor. + +Mushrooms of various forms and sizes spring out of these decayed leaves, +often rivalling the flowers in elegance. Monotropas, uniting some of +the habits of the Fungi with the botanical characters of the flowering +plants, flourish side by side with the snowy Cypripedium and the +singular Coral-Weed. The evergreen Dewberry, a delicate species of +Rubus, trails its glossy leaves over the turfs, and mingles its beaded +fruit with the scarlet berries of the Mitchella. The Pyrola, named +by the Indians Pipsissewa, and regarded by them as a specific for +consumption, suspends its pale purple flowers in beautiful umbels, as if +to invite the feeble invalid to accept its proffered remedies. Variety, +indeed, may be found in these deep shades; but it exists without +that profusion which in more favored situations often benumbs our +susceptibility to the charms of Nature. + +The edging of a Pine wood depends on the character of the soil. The +Pitch-Pine, that delights in sandy plains, is embroidered at the North +by White Birches; and if a road be cut through a wood of this kind, +these graceful trees immediately spring up in abundance by the wayside. +If a pond occurs in the middle of a Pine wood, its margin is covered +first with low bushes, such as the Andromeda, the Myrica, and the +sweet-scented Azalea, then Alders and Willows rise between them and the +forest. On the side of the pond that is bounded by high gravelly banks, +the margin will be covered by Poplars and Birches. The White Pine, the +most noble and the most beautiful tree of the whole coniferous tribe, +predominates in the New-England forest; though some wide tracts are +covered with the more homely Pitch-Pines, which are the trees that scent +the atmosphere on damp still days with their delightful terebinthine +odors. The woods in the vicinity of Concord, N.H., on the banks of the +Merrimack, known by the poetic appellation of "The Dark Plains", are +of this description. In still higher latitudes the dark, majestic Firs +become the prevailing timber, and are regarded as typical of sub-arctic +regions, where they are accompanied, as if to form a striking and +cheerful contrast with their melancholy grandeur, by groups of graceful +Birches, and lively, tremulous Poplars. + +The Pine-Barrens of the Southern States are celebrated as healthful +retreats for the inhabitants of seaport towns, whither they resort in +summer for security from the prevailing fevers. They are of a mixed +character, consisting of the Northern Pitch-Pine, the Broom-Pine, and +the Cypress, intermixed with Red Maples, Sweet Gums, and other deciduous +trees. The Pines, however, are the dominant growth: but here they do not +grow so compactly as in colder regions, standing widely apart, with a +frequent intervening growth of Willows and shrubbery. The sparseness of +these woods may be in part attributed to the practice of tapping the +trees for their turpentine, which has caused them for a century past to +be gradually thinned by consequent decay. Their tall, gaunt forms and +almost branchless trunks show that they obtained their principal growth +in a dense wood. + +The first time I entered one of these Pine-Barrens was some years since, +in the month of June, when vegetation was in its prime, before the +summer droughts had seared the green herbage, and when the flowering +trees and shrubs were in all their glory. During my botanical rambles in +the wood, I was struck with the multitude of beautiful flowers in its +shady retreats,--seeming the more numerous to me, as I had previously +confined my researches to Northern woods. The Phlox grew here in all its +native grace and delicacy, where it had never known the fostering hand +of Art. Crimson Rhexias, called by the inhabitants Deer-Weed, were +distributed among the grassy knolls, like clusters of Picotees. +Variegated Passion-Flowers were conspicuous on the bare white sand that +checkered the ground, displaying their emblematic forms on their low +repent vines, and reminding the wanderer in these almost trackless +solitudes of that Faith which was founded on humility and crowned with +martyrdom. Here, too, the Spiderwort of our gardens, in a meeker form of +beauty and with a paler radiance, luxuriated under the protection of the +wood. Already I observed the predominance of luxuriant vines, indicating +our nearness to the tropic, wreathed gayly over the tall and branchless +trunks of the trees: some, like the Bignonia, in a full blaze of +crimson; others, like the Climbing Fern, draping the trees in continual +verdure. + +These Pines constitute a great part of the timber of the flat country +between the mountains and the coast, and render a journey through +that region singularly monotonous and gloomy. In the low grounds, a +considerable proportion of the wood consists of the Southern Cypress, a +graceful and magnificent tree, whose appearance would be very lively +and cheerful, were it not for the abundance of long trailing "moss" +(_usnea_) that hangs, like funereal drapery, from its branches, and +darkens the whole forest. This parasitic appendant wreathes the woods +sometimes almost in darkness, especially in those immense tracts on the +borders of the Mexican Gulf that consist entirely of Cypress. There it +has been poetically styled the "Garlands of Death," as significant of +the fevers that prevail wherever it is abundant. + +It is remarkable that the two extremes of climate are distinguished +by the predominance of evergreens in their vegetation. Thus, the +acicular-leaved trees, consisting of Pines and their congeners, mark the +cold-temperate and sub-arctic zones, in north latitude,--while Myrtles, +Magnolias, and other broad-leaved evergreens, mark the equatorial and +tropical regions. The deciduous trees belong properly to the temperate +zones, and constitute, indeed, the most interesting of all arborescent +vegetation. + +With regard to the age of forests, it may be affirmed that there are +some undoubtedly in existence which are coeval with the earliest history +of nations; but no individual trees are of such antiquity. Like nations, +the assemblage may be perpetual, while the members that compose it are +constantly perishing, and leaving their places to be supplied by others +of more recent origin. Probably the earth does not contain forests in +which any tree exceeds a thousand years of age, though the oldest forest +extant may be as ancient as the Chinese Empire; for the oldest trees +are not found in dense assemblages, but are probably such as have grown +singly in isolated situations. As soon as a tree in a forest begins to +feel the infirmities of age, its place is usurped by some young and more +vigorous neighbor, and it is gradually deprived of subsistence in this +unequal contest. The tempests and tornadoes, it may be added, which +occasionally sweep over a country, commonly make the oldest and tallest +trees their victims; for events seem to follow the same course in a +forest as in human society. The most vigorous growers at any period +continue to flourish a certain length of time at the expense of others; +but when they have risen above the common level, they become marks for +destruction,--they fall before certain inimical forces that do not reach +their more humble companions. + +It was the opinion of Humboldt, that, if any tract of wooded country +deserves to be considered a part of the great "primeval forest", it is +"that boundless district which, in the torrid zone of South America, +connects the river-basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco." This tract, +unequalled in extent by any other forest in the world, occupies an area +of more than a thousand miles square. In this vast chaos of teeming +vegetation, trees of the largest dimensions are connected by an +undergrowth of vines and shrubbery which is almost impenetrable. Immense +rivers and their tributaries intersect the forest in all directions, and +constitute the only avenues of commercial intercourse. This impervious +thicket is like a huge wall, separating near neighbors, rendering them, +as it were, inhabitants of distant regions, and obliging them to make +long and circuitous river journeys before they can hold communication. + +Here the leaves of the trees are always green, and flowers appear in +constant succession; but the surface of the ground is without herbage, +for the darkness of the wood is fatal to all humble vegetation. The +small plants are mostly parasites, thousands inserting their roots into +the bark of trees and garlanding them with beauty. Those that take root +in the ground show but few leaves or flowers, until they have clambered +upwards, through the underwood, into the light of heaven. Almost the +only relief afforded the sight, in this vast solitude, comes from the +rivers and other collections of water, over whose expanse the eye revels +with the delight we feel on emerging from the gloom of a cavern. Every +object seems to be struggling to get outside of this chaotic growth, +where it can obtain the genial influence of the sun: for near the +surface of the ground are perpetual shade and hideous entanglement. + +In this primeval forest we must not expect to realize any of our +poetical ideas of the primitive residence of the first human family. +Here are no Arcadian scenes of peace and rural felicity. On all sides we +behold an undying competition for light and life, among both plants +and animals. We are reminded here of life in a crowded city, where +the excessive abundance of supplies for human wants imported from the +surrounding country causes a still greater superfluity of population, +and produces a struggle for a livelihood more severe than in a rural +district of gravel and boulders. The oases of this great wilderness are +those places in which there is an absence of the general fertility: +barrenness in such circumstances is a relief,--because it allows both +freedom and repose. + +This wood is the nursery of all descriptions of monsters, living chiefly +in trees. On their branches and in their tangled recesses, adorned with +all sorts of foliage and flowers, creatures the most terrible and the +most loathsome are seen crowding and crouching in close proximity to +the most beautiful forms of living things. They fill the air with their +discordant utterances, and allow no permanent silence or tranquillity. +Hours of periodical stillness and repose, occurring mostly at noonday, +and affecting one with a sensation of awful grandeur, by contrast with +the preceding disturbances, are followed, especially in the night, by a +tumultuous roar from the legions of contending animals. + + "A universal hubbub wild + Of stunning sounds and voices all confused, + Borne through the hollow dark, assaults the ear + With loudest vehemence." + +Even the notes of insects are a deafening crash, like the rattling of +machinery in a cotton-mill. Except in the hush of noonday, the notes of +singing-birds are drowned amidst the howling of monkeys, the whining of +sapajous, the roar of the jaguar, and the dismal hooting of thousands +of wild animals that riot in these awful solitudes. The sight of the +fairest flowers and the most beautiful insects and birds only renders +one more keenly sensitive to the frightful discords that startle and the +perils that surround him. + +Similar contrasts are observed in the vegetation of this region, where +the giant trees of the forest are chained in the embraces of vines that +contend with them for existence and finally strangle them. Trees and +other plants are crowded together so promiscuously, that Nature seems to +be striving to collect into one space every possible variety of species. +Trees of the most poisonous and deadly qualities grow side by side with +the Bread-Fruit, the Cocoa-Nut, and the beneficent Cinchona. Here +are the poison and its antidote,--the monster tree and its miniature +epiphyte,--the plant that astonishes by its magnitude, and the one that +delights us by its minuteness. Here, if anywhere on the face of the +earth, may we form some conception of the state of our planet during the +Eocene period, before the world had come under the dominion of the human +race. + +But if Nature in this region has manifested an exuberance of animal and +vegetable life, thereby rendering her bounties almost unavailable to +man, there are other parts in which she seems to have provided for his +particular benefit. In these favored regions, we find the Banana, the +Cocoa, and the Date Palm, and other special gifts of Providence to the +inhabitants of the equator. Palms are generally found only in small +groups and plantations, but there are certain species of this family +which are associated in extensive woods, and constitute, in some +respects, one of the most charming descriptions of forest-scenery. The +Dwarf Palms of the sub-tropical regions are chiefly assembled in masses, +of which the Palmetto of Florida and the Chaemerops of the South of +Europe are conspicuous examples. The true Palms are likewise sometimes +associated in forests, though not generally of a social habit. In one +of the most celebrated of these, at the mouth of the Orinoco, composed +chiefly of the Mauritian Palms, the wild Guaranos have established a +national existence. Like monkeys, they live almost wholly in trees, +having their habitations supported either by wooden pillars or by a +matting suspended from tree to tree. In the wet season, when the ground +is inundated, the inhabitants travel about their village in canoes. + +The beauty of a grove of Palms has been a favorite theme of travellers. +Humboldt, who saw Nature with the eye of a painter and the feelings of +a poet, amidst all the dry details of science, regards them as the most +beautiful of vegetable productions. It has always seemed to me, however, +that travellers in general have been led to exaggerate the charms of +Nature in the tropics, by observing the remarkable beauty of a few +individual objects. Their susceptibility to be affected by the scenes +presented to their view is likewise exalted by the confinement of their +voyage; they are enraptured with the novelty of everything about them, +by the voluptuousness of the climate and the abundance of delicious +fruits, and always afterwards recur to the scenes of their tropical +visit with an excited imagination. + +In countries near the equator, many plants which are herbs in our +latitude assume arborescent forms. Such are the Tree-Grasses, which form +impenetrable forests, equalling some of the Fir woods of the North in +extent, if not in beauty and grandeur. In this part of the world we know +the Ferns only as a low herbaceous tribe of plants, consisting of mere +fronds rising out of the ground. We admire them for their beautifully +compounded leaves, and their colors of red, orange, and russet that +variegate our meadows in June, their garlands of verdure upon the rocky +hills in winter, and the profusion of their frondage in the shady glens +in summer. But in certain parts of the equatorial zone the Ferns put +off the humble guise in which they appear at the North. They no longer +associate with the lowly Violet, allowing themselves to be crowded by +the Hellebore and overtopped by the Meadow Rue; but they rear their +branches aloft and assume the dignity and stature of trees. Man, who +looks down upon them in our own latitude, and tramples them under +his feet, looks in that region far above his head, and beholds their +magnificent fronds spread out like a great tent between him and the +heavens. + +Tree-Ferns, though confined principally to the equatorial zone, are +unable to endure the heat of the plains. They occupy an elevation that +affords them the continual temperature of spring, three thousand feet +above the sea,--the region of the lowest stratum of clouds,--where they +receive the benefit of their moisture before it descends to the earth +in showers. Humboldt ranks them with the noblest forms of tropical +vegetation,--less lofty than the Palms, but surpassing them in beauty of +foliage. The arborescent Ferns and Grasses are true specimens of those +plants, of simple organic structure, which are found in the fossil +remains of the early geological periods, and are the only plants now +extant which may be considered the representatives of that epoch, when +the saurians and the mastodons held dominion over the earth, and before +the Angel of Light had descended from heaven to make preparation for a +higher race of beings. + + * * * * * + + +MISS LUCINDA. + + +But that Solomon is out of fashion I should quote him, here and now, to +the effect that there is a time for all things; but Solomon is obsolete, +and never, no, never, will I dare to quote a dead language, "for raisons +I have," as the exiles of Erin say. Yet, in spite of Solomon and Horace, +I may express my own less concise opinion, that even in hard times, and +dull times, and war times, there is yet a little time to laugh, a brief +hour to smile and love and pity, just as through this dreary easterly +storm, bringing clouds and rain, sobbing against casement and door with +the inarticulate wail of tempests, there comes now and then the soft +shine of a sun behind it all, a fleeting glitter, an evanescent aspect +of what has been. + +But if I apologize for a story that is nowise tragic, nor fitted to "the +fashion of these times," possibly somebody will say at its end that I +should also have apologized for its subject, since it is as easy for an +author to treat his readers to high themes as vulgar ones, and velvet +can be thrown into a portrait as cheaply as calico; but of this apology +I wash my hands. I believe nothing in place or circumstance makes +romance. I have the same quick sympathy for Biddy's sorrows with Patrick +that I have for the Empress of France and her august, but rather grim +lord and master. I think words are often no harder to bear than "a blue +bating," and I have a reverence for poor old maids as great as for the +nine Muses. Commonplace people are only commonplace from character, and +no position affects that. So forgive me once more, patient reader, if I +offer to you no tragedy in high life, no sentimental history of fashion +and wealth, but only a little story about a woman who could not be a +heroine. + +Miss Lucinda Jane Ann Manners was a lady of unknown age, who lived in a +place I call Dalton, in a State of these Disuniting States, which I +do not mention for good cause. I have already had so many unconscious +personalities visited on my devoted head that but for lucidity I should +never mention persons or places, inconvenient as it would be. However, +Miss Lucinda did live, and lived by the aid of "means," which, in the +vernacular, is money. Not a great deal, it is true,--five thousand +dollars at lawful interest, and a little wooden house, do not imply many +luxuries even to a single-woman; and it is also true that a little fine +sewing taken in helped Miss Manners to provide herself with a few +small indulgences otherwise beyond her reach. She had one or two +idiosyncrasies, as they are politely called, that were her delight. +Plenty of dish-towels were necessary to her peace of mind; without five +pair of scissors she could not be happy; and Tricopherous was essential +to her well-being: indeed, she often said she would rather give up +coffee than Tricopherous, for her hair was black and wiry and curly, and +caps she abhorred, so that of a winter's day her head presented the most +irrelevant and volatile aspect, each particular hair taking a twist on +its own responsibility, and improvising a wild halo about her unsaintly +face, unless subdued into propriety by the aforesaid fluid. + +I said Miss Lucinda's face was unsaintly,--I mean unlike ancient saints +as depicted by contemporary artists: modern and private saints are after +another fashion. I met one yesterday, whose green eyes, great nose, +thick lips, and sallow wrinkles, under a bonnet of fifteen years' +standing, further clothed upon by a scant merino cloak and cat-skin +tippet, would have cut a sorry figure in the gallery of the Vatican or +the Louvre, and put the tranquil Madonna of San Sisto into a state of +stunning antithesis; but if Saint Agnes or Saint Catharine was half as +good as my saint, I am glad of it! + +No, there was nothing sublime and dolorous about Miss Manners; her face +was round, cheery, and slightly puckered, with two little black eyes +sparking and shining under dark brows, a nose she unblushingly called +pug, and a big mouth with eminently white and regular teeth, which she +said were such a comfort, for they never ached, and never would to the +end of time. Add to this physiognomy a small and rather spare figure, +dressed in the cleanest of calicoes, always made in one style, and +rigidly scorning hoops,--without a symptom of a collar, in whose place +(or it may be over which) she wore a white cambric handkerchief, knotted +about her throat, and the two ends brought into subjection by means of +a little angular-headed gold pin, her sole ornament, and a relic of her +old father's days of widowhood, when buttons were precarious tenures. So +much for her aspect. Her character was even more quaint. + +She was the daughter of a clergyman, one of the old school, the last +whose breeches and knee-buckles adorned the profession, who never +"outlived his usefulness," nor lost his godly simplicity. Parson Manners +held rule over an obscure and quiet village in the wilds of Vermont, +where hard-handed farmers wrestled with rocks and forests for their +daily bread, and looked forward to heaven as a land of green pastures +and still waters, where agriculture should be a pastime, and winter +impossible. Heavy freshets from the mountains that swelled their rushing +brooks into annual torrents, and snow-drifts that covered five-rail +fences a foot above the posts and blocked up the turnpike-road for +weeks, caused this congregation fully to appreciate Parson Manners's +favorite hymns,-- + + "There is a land of pure delight," + +and + + "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand." + +Indeed, one irreverent, but "pretty smart feller," who lived on the top +of a hill known as Drift Hill, where certain adventurous farmers dwelt +for the sake of its smooth sheep-pastures, was heard to say, after a +mighty sermon by Parson Manners about the seven-times heated furnaces +of judgment reserved for the wicked, that "Parson hadn't better try to +skeer Drift-Hillers with a hot place; 't wouldn't more 'n jest warm 'em +through down there, arter a real snappin' winter." + +In this out-of-the-way nook was Lucinda Jane Ann born and bred. Her +mother was like her in many things,--just such a cheery, round-faced +little body, but with no more mind than found ample scope for itself in +superintending the affairs of house and farm, and vigorously "seeing to" +her husband and child. So, while Mrs. Manners baked, and washed, and +ironed, and sewed, and knit, and set the sweetest example of quiet +goodness and industry to all her flock, without knowing she _could_ set +an example, or be followed as one, the Parson amused himself, between +sermons of powerful doctrine and parochial duties of a more human +interest, with educating Lucinda, whose intellect was more like his +own than her mother's. A strange training it was for a young +girl,--mathematics, metaphysics, Latin, theology of the driest sort; +and after an utter failure at Greek and Hebrew, though she had toiled +patiently through seven books of the "Aeneid," Parson Manners mildly +sniffed at the inferiority of the female mind, and betook himself to +teaching her French, which she learned rapidly, and spoke with a pure +American accent, perhaps as pleasing to a Parisian ear as the hiss of +Piedmont or the gutturals of Switzerland. Moreover, the minister had +been brought up, himself, in the most scrupulous refinement of manner; +his mother was a widow, the last of an "old family," and her dainty, +delicate observances were inbred, as it were, in her only son. This sort +of elegance is perhaps the most delicate test of training and descent, +and all these things Lucinda was taught from the grateful recollection +of a son who never forgot his mother, through all the solitary labors +and studies of a long life. So it came to pass, that, after her mother +died, Lucinda grew more and more like her father, and, as she became a +woman, these rare refinements separated her more and more from those +about her, and made her necessarily solitary. As for marriage, the +possibility of such a thing never crossed her mind; there was not a man +in the parish who did not offend her sense of propriety and shock her +taste, whenever she met one; and though her warm, kind heart made her a +blessing to the poor and sick, her mother was yet bitterly regretted at +quiltings and tea-drinkings, where she had been so "sociable-like." + +It is rather unfortunate for such a position as Lucinda's, that, as +Deacon Stowell one day remarked to her father, "Natur' will be Natur' as +much on Drift Hill as down to Bosting"; and when she began to feel that +"strong necessity of loving" that sooner or later assails every woman's +heart, there was nothing for it to overflow on, when her father had +taken his share. Now Lucinda loved the Parson most devoutly. Ever since +the time when she could just remember watching through the dusk his +white stockings, as they glimmered across the road to evening-meeting, +and looked like a supernatural pair of legs taking a walk on their own +responsibility, twilight concealing the black breeches and coat from +mortal view, Lucinda had regarded her father with a certain pleasing +awe. His long abstractions, his profound knowledge, his grave, benign +manners, and the thousand daily refinements of speech and act that +seemed to put him far above the sphere of his pastorate,--all these +things inspired as much reverence as affection; and when she wished with +all her heart and soul she had a sister or a brother to tend and +kiss and pet, it never once occurred to her that any of those tender +familiarities could be expended on her father: she would as soon have +thought of caressing any of the goodly angels whose stout legs, flowing +curls, and impossible draperies sprawled among the pictures in the big +Bible, and who excited her wonder as much by their garments as their +turkey-wings and brandishing arms. So she betook herself to pets, and +growing up to the old-maidenhood of thirty-five before her father fell +asleep, was by that time the centre of a little world of her own,--hens, +chickens, squirrels, cats, dogs, lambs, and sundry transient guests of +stranger kind; so that, when she left her old home, and removed to the +little house in Dalton that had been left her by her mother's aunt, and +had found her small property safely invested by means of an old friend +of her father's, Miss Manners made one more journey to Vermont to bring +in safety to their future dwelling a cat and three kittens, an old blind +crow, a yellow dog of the true cur breed, and a rooster with three hens, +"real creepers," as she often said, "none of your long-legged, screaming +creatures." + +Lucinda missed her father, and mourned him as constantly and faithfully +as ever a daughter could; but her temperament was more cheerful and +buoyant than his, and when once she was quietly settled in her little +house, her garden and her pets gave her such full occupation that she +sometimes blamed herself for not feeling more lonely and unhappy. A +little longer life or a little more experience would have taught her +better: power to be happy is the last thing to regret. Besides, it would +have been hard to be cheerless in that sunny little house, with its +queer old furniture of three-legged tables, high-backed chairs, and +chintz curtains where red mandarins winked at blue pagodas on a +deep-yellow ground, and birds of insane ornithology pecked at insects +that never could have been hatched, or perched themselves on blossoms +totally unknown to any mortal flora. Old engravings of Bartolozzi, from +the stiff elegances of Angelica Kaufman and the mythologies of Reynolds, +adorned the shelf; and the carpet in the parlor was of veritable English +make, older than Lucinda herself, but as bright in its fading and as +firm in its usefulness as she. Up-stairs the tiny chambers were decked +with spotless white dimity, and rush-bottomed chairs stood in each +window, with a strip of the same old carpet by either bedside; and in +the kitchen the blue settle that had stood by the Vermont fireside now +defended this lesser hearth from the draught of the door, and held under +the seat thereof sundry ironing-sheets, the blanket belonging to them, +and good store of ticking and worsted holders. A half-gone set of +egg-shell china stood in the parlor-closet,--cups, and teapot, and +sugar-bowl, rimmed with brown and gold in a square pattern, and a shield +without blazon on the side; the quaint tea-caddy with its stopper stood +over against the pursy little cream-pot, and held up in its lumps of +sparkling sugar the oddest sugar-tongs, also a family relic;--beside +this, six small spoons, three large ones, and a little silver porringer +comprised all the "plate" belonging to Miss Manners, so that no fear of +burglars haunted her, and but for her pets she would have lived a life +of profound and monotonous tranquillity. But this was a vast exception; +in her life her pets were the great item now;--her cat had its own chair +in the parlor and kitchen; her dog, a rug and a basket never to be +meddled with by man or beast; her old crow, its special nest of flannel +and cotton, where it feebly croaked as soon as Miss Lucinda began to +spread the little table for her meals; and the three kittens had their +own playthings and their own saucer as punctiliously as if they had been +children. In fact, Miss Manners had a greater share of kindness +for beasts than for mankind. A strange compound of learning and +unworldliness, of queer simplicity, native penetration, and common +sense, she had read enough books to despise human nature as it develops +itself in history and theology, and she had not known enough people to +love it in its personal development. She had a general idea that all men +were liars, and that she must be on her guard against their propensity +to cheat and annoy a lonely and helpless woman; for, to tell the truth, +in her good father's over-anxiety to defend her from the snares of evil +men after his death, his teachings had given her opinion this bias, and +he had forgotten to tell her how kindly and how true he had found many +of his own parishioners, how few inclined to harm or pain him. So Miss +Lucinda made her entrance into life at Dalton, distrustful, but not +suspicious; and after a few attempts on the part of the women who +were her neighbors to be friendly or intimate, they gave her up as +impracticable: not because she was impolite or unkind: they did not +themselves know why they failed, though she could have told them; for, +old maid as she was, poor and plain and queer, she could not bring +herself to associate familiarly with people who put their teaspoons +into the sugar-bowl, helped themselves with their own knives and forks, +gathered up bits of uneaten butter and returned them to the plate for +next time, or replaced on the dish pieces of cake half eaten or cut with +the knives they had just introduced into their mouths. Miss Lucinda's +code of minor morals would have forbidden her to drink from the same cup +with a queen, and have considered a pitchfork as suitable as a knife to +eat with, nor would she have offered to a servant the least thing she +had touched with her own lips or her own implements of eating; and she +was too delicately bred to look on in comfort where such things were +practised. Of course these women were not ladies; and though many of +them had kind hearts and warm impulses of goodness, yet that did not +make up to her for their social misdemeanors, and she drew herself +more into her own little shell, and cared more for her garden and her +chickens, her cats and her dog, than for all the humanity of Dalton put +together. + +Miss Manners held her flowers next dearest to her pets, and treated them +accordingly. Her garden was the most brilliant bit of ground possible. +It was big enough to hold one flourishing peach-tree, one Siberian crab, +and a solitary egg-plum; while under these fruitful boughs bloomed +moss-roses in profusion, of the dear old-fashioned kind, every deep pink +bud with its clinging garment of green breathing out the richest odor; +close by, the real white rose, which fashion has banished to country +towns, unfolded its cups of pearl flushed with yellow sunrise to the +heart; and by its side its damask sister waved long sprays of bloom +and perfume. Tulips, dark-purple and cream-color, burning scarlet and +deep-maroon, held their gay chalices up to catch the dew; hyacinths, +blue, white, and pink, hung heavy bells beneath them; spiced carnations +of rose and garnet crowded their bed in July and August, heart's-ease +fringed the walks, May honeysuckles clambered over the board-fence, +and monthly honeysuckles overgrew the porch at the back-door, making +perpetual fragrance from their moth-like horns of crimson and +ivory. Nothing inhabited those beds that was not sweet and fair and +old-fashioned. Gray-lavender-bushes sent up purple spikes in the middle +of the garden and were duly housed in winter, but these were the sole +tender plants admitted, and they pleaded their own cause in the breath +of the linen-press and the bureau-drawers that held Miss Lucinda's +clothes. Beyond the flowers, utility blossomed in a row of bean-poles, +a hedge of currant-bushes against the farther fence, carefully tended +cauliflowers, and onions enough to tell of their use as sparing as their +number; a few deep-red beets and golden carrots were all the vegetables +beside: Miss Lucinda never ate potatoes or pork. + +Her housekeeping, but for her pets, would have been the proper +housewifery for a fairy. Out of her fruit she annually conserved +miracles of flavor and transparence,--great plums like those in +Aladdin's garden, of shining topaz,--peaches tinged with the odorous +bitter of their pits, and clear as amber,--crimson crabs floating in +their own ruby sirup, or transmuted into jelly crystal clear, yet +breaking with a grain,--and jelly from the acid currants to garnish her +dinner-table or refresh the fevered lips of a sick neighbor. It was a +study to visit her tiny pantry, where all these "lucent sirops" stood in +tempting array,--where spices, and sugar, and tea, in their small jars, +flanked the sweetmeats, and a jar of glass showed its store of whitest +honey, and another stood filled with crisp cakes. Here always a loaf +or two of home-made bread lay rolled in a snowy cloth, and another was +spread over a dish of butter; pies were not in favor here,--nor milk, +save for the cats; salt fish Miss Manners never could abide,--her +savory taste allowed only a bit of rich old cheese, or thin scraps of +hung beef, with her bread and butter; sauces and spices were few in her +repertory, but she cooked as only a lady can cook, and might have +asked Soyer himself to dinner. For, verily, after much meditation and +experience, I have divined that it takes as much sense and refinement +and talent to cook a dinner, wash and wipe a dish, make a bed as it +should be made, and dust a room as it should be dusted, as goes to the +writing of a novel or shining in high society. + +But because Miss Lucinda Manners was reserved and "unsociable," as the +neighbors pronounced her, I did not, therefore, mean to imply that she +was inhuman. No neighbor of hers, local or Scriptural, fell ill, without +an immediate offer of aid from her: she made the best gruel known to +Dalton invalids, sent the ripest fruit and the sweetest flowers; and if +she could not watch with the sick, because it interfered with her duties +at home in an unpleasant and inconvenient way, she would sit with them +hour after hour in the day-time, and wait on all their caprices with the +patient tenderness of a mother. Children she always eyed with strange +wistfulness, as if she longed to kiss them, but didn't know how; yet no +child was ever invited across her threshold, for the yellow cur hated to +be played with, and children always torment kittens. + +So Miss Lucinda wore on happily toward the farther side of the middle +Ages. One after another of her pets passed away and was replaced, the +yellow cur barked his last currish signal, the cat died and her kittens +came to various ends of time or casualty, the crow fell away to dust and +was too old to stuff, and the garden bloomed and faded ten times over, +before Miss Manners found herself to be forty-six years old, which she +heroically acknowledged one fine day to the census-taker. But it was not +this consciousness, nor its confession, that drew the dark brows so low +over Miss Lucinda's eyes that day; it was quite another trouble, and one +that wore heavily on her mind, as we shall proceed to explain. For Miss +Manners, being, like all the rest of her sex, quite unable to do without +some masculine help, had employed, for some seven years, an old man by +the name of Israel Slater, to do her "chores," as the vernacular hath +it. It is a mortifying thing, and one that strikes at the roots of +Women's Rights terribly sharp blows, but I must even own it, that one +might as well try to live without one's bread-and-butter as without the +aid of the dominant sex. When I see women split wood, unload coal-carts, +move wash-tubs, and roll barrels of flour and apples handily down +cellar-ways or up into carts, then I shall believe in the sublime +theories of the strong-minded sisters; but as long as I see before me +my own forlorn little hands, and sit down on the top stair to recover +breath, and try in vain to lift the water-pitcher at table, just so long +I shall be glad and thankful that there are men in the world, and that +half a dozen of them are my kindest and best friends. It was rather an +affliction to Miss Lucinda to feel this innate dependence, and at first +she resolved to employ only small boys, and never any one of them more +than a week or two. She had an unshaped theory that an old maid was a +match for a small boy, but that a man would cheat and domineer over her. +Experience sadly put to flight these notions for a succession of boys in +this cabinet-ministry for the first three years of her stay in Dalton +would have driven her into a Presbyterian convent, had there been one at +hand. Boy Number One caught the yellow cur out of bounds one day, and +shaved his plumy tail to a bare stick, and Miss Lucinda fairly shed +tears of grief and rage when Pink appeared at the door with the denuded +appendage tucked between his little legs, and his funny yellow eyes +casting sidelong looks of apprehension at his mistress. Boy Number One +was despatched directly. Number Two did pretty well for a month, but his +integrity and his appetite conflicted, and Miss Lucinda found him one +moonlight night perched in her plum-tree devouring the half-ripe fruit. +She shook him down with as little ceremony as if he had been an +apple; and though he lay at Death's door for a week with resulting +cholera-morbus, she relented not. So the experiment went on, till a list +of casualties that numbered in it fatal accidents to three kittens, +two hens and a rooster, and at last Pink himself, who was pent into a +decline by repeated drenchings from the watering-pot, put an end to her +forbearance, and she instituted in her viziership the old man who had +now kept his office so long,--a queer, withered, slow, humorous old +creature, who did "chores" for some six or seven other households, and +got a living by sundry "jobs" of wood-sawing, hoeing corn, and other +like works of labor, if not of skill. Israel was a great comfort to Miss +Lucinda: he was efficient counsel in the maladies of all her pets, had +a sovereign cure for the gapes in chickens, and could stop a cat's fit +with the greatest ease; he kept the tiny garden in perfect order, +and was very honest, and Miss Manners favored him accordingly. She +compounded liniment for his rheumatism, herb-sirup for his colds, +presented him with a set of flannel shirts, and knit him a comforter; so +that Israel expressed himself strongly in favor of "Miss Lucindy," and +she said to herself he really was "quite good for a man." + +But just now, in her forty-seventh year, Miss Lucinda had come to grief, +and all on account of Israel and his attempts to please her. About six +months before this census-taking era, the old man had stepped into Miss +Manners's kitchen with an unusual radiance on his wrinkles and in his +eyes, and began without his usual morning greeting,-- + +"I've got so'thin' for you naow, Miss Lucindy. You're a master-hand for +pets, but I'll bet a red cent you ha'n't an idee what I've got for ye +naow!" + +"I'm sure I can't tell, Israel," said she; "you'll have to let me see +it." + +"Well," said he, lifting up his coat and looking carefully behind him +as he sat down on the settle, lest a stray kitten or chicken should +preoccupy the bench, "you see I was down to Orrin's abaout a week back, +and he hed a litter o' pigs,--eleven on 'em. Well, he couldn't raise +the hull on 'em,--'t a'n't good to raise more 'n nine,--an' so he said, +ef I'd 'a' had a place o' my own, I could 'a' had one on 'em, but, as't +was, he guessed he'd hev to send one to market for a roaster. I went +daown to the barn to see 'em, an' there was one, the cutest little +critter I ever sot eyes on, and I've seen more 'n four pigs in my +day,--'t was a little black-spotted one, as spry as an ant, and the +dreffullest knowin' look out of its eyes! I fellowshipped it right +off, and I said, says I, 'Orrin, ef you'll let me hev that 'ere +little spotted feller, I'll git a place for him, for I do take to him +consarnedly.' So he said I could, and I fetched him hum, and Miss Slater +and me we kinder fed him up for a few days back, till he got sorter +wonted, and I'm a-goin' to fetch him to you." + +"But, Israel, I haven't any place to put him in." + +"Well, that a'n't nothin' to hender. I'll jest fetch out them old boards +out of the wood-shed, and knock up a little sty right off, daown by the +end o' the shed, and you ken keep your swill that I've hed before, and +it'll come handy." + +"But pigs are so dirty!" + +"I don't know as they be; they ha'n't no great conveniences for washin' +ginerally; but I never heerd as they was dirtier 'n other critters, +where they run wild. An' beside, that a'n't goin' to hender, nuther; I +calculate to make it one o' the chores to take keer of him; 't won't +cost no more to you; and I ha'n't no great opportunities to do things +for folks that 's allers a-doin' for me; so't you needn't be afeard, +Miss Lucindy: I love to." + +Miss Lucinda's heart got the better of her judgment. A nature that could +feel so tenderly for its inferiors in the scale could not be deaf to the +tiny voices of humanity, when they reached her solitude; and she thanked +Israel for the pig so heartily that the old man's face brightened still +more, and his voice softened from its cracked harshness, as he said, +clicking up and down the latch of the back-door,-- + +"Well, I'm sure you're as welcome as you are obleeged, and I'll knock up +that 'ere pen right off; he sha'n't pester ye any,--that's a fact." + +Strange to say,--yet perhaps it might have been expected from her +proclivities,--Miss Lucinda took an astonishing fancy to the pig. Very +few people know how intelligent an animal a pig is; but when one is +regarded merely as pork and hams, one's intellect is apt to fall into +neglect: a moral sentiment which applies out of Pigdom. This creature +would not have passed muster at a county fair; no Suffolk blood +compacted and rounded him; he belonged to the "racers," and skipped +about his pen with the alacrity of a large flea, wiggling his curly tail +as expressively as a dog's, and "all but speakin'," as Israel said. He +was always glad to see Miss Lucinda, and established a firm friendship +with her dog Fun, a pretty, sentimental, German spaniel. Besides, he +kept tolerably clean by dint of Israel's care, and thrust his long +nose between the rails of his pen for grass, or fruit, or carrot- and +beet-tops, with a knowing look out of his deep-set eyes that was never +to be resisted by the soft-hearted spinster. Indeed, Miss Lucinda +enjoyed the possession of one pet who could not tyrannize over her. +Pink's place was more than filled by Fun, who was so oppressively +affectionate that he never could leave his mistress alone. If she lay +down on her bed, he leaped up and unlatched the door, and stretched +himself on the white counterpane beside her with a grunt of +satisfaction; if she sat down to knit or sew, he laid his head and +shoulders across her lap, or curled himself up on her knees; if she was +cooking, he whined and coaxed round her till she hardly knew whether she +fried or broiled her steak; and if she turned him out and buttoned the +door, his cries were so pitiful she could never be resolute enough to +keep him in exile five minutes,--for it was a prominent article in her +creed, that animals have feelings that are easily wounded, and are of +"like passions" with men, only incapable of expression. + +Indeed, Miss Lucinda considered it the duty of human beings to atone to +animals for the Lord's injustice in making them dumb and four-legged. +She would have been rather startled at such an enunciation of her +practice, but she was devoted to it as a practice: she would give her +own chair to the cat and sit on the settle herself; get up at midnight, +if a mew or a bark called her, though the thermometer was below zero; +The tenderloin of her steak or the liver of her chicken was saved for a +pining kitten or an ancient and toothless cat; and no disease or wound +daunted her faithful nursing, or disgusted her devoted tenderness. It +was rather hard on humanity, and rather reversive of Providence, that +all this care and pains should be lavished on cats and dogs, while +little morsels of flesh and blood, ragged, hungry, and immortal, +wandered up and down the streets. Perhaps that they were immortal +was their defence from Miss Lucinda; one might have hoped that her +"other-worldliness" accepted that fact as enough to outweigh present +pangs, if she had not openly declared, to Israel Slater's immense +amusement and astonishment, that _she_ believed creatures had +souls,--little ones perhaps, but souls after all, and she did expect to +see Pink again some time or other. + +"Well, I hope he's got his tail feathered out ag'in," said Israel, +dryly. "I do'no' but what hair'd grow as well as feathers in a +sperctooal state, and I never see a pictur' of an angel but what hed +consider'ble many feathers." + +Miss Lucinda looked rather confounded. But humanity had one little +revenge on her in the shape of her cat, a beautiful Maltese, with great +yellow eyes, fur as soft as velvet, and silvery paws as lovely to look +at as they were thistly to touch. Toby certainly pleaded hard for Miss +Lucinda's theory of a soul; but his was no good one: some tricksy and +malign little spirit had lent him his share of intellect, and he used it +to the entire subjugation of Miss Lucinda. When he was hungry, he was as +well-mannered and as amiable as a good child,--he would coax, and purr, +and lick her fingers with his pretty red tongue, like a "perfect love"; +but when he had his fill, and needed no more, then came Miss Lucinda's +time of torment. If she attempted to caress him, he bit and scratched +like a young tiger, he sprang at her from the floor and fastened on her +arm with real fury; if he cried at the window and was not directly let +in, as soon as he had achieved entrance his first manoeuvre was to +dash at her ankles and bite them, if he could, as punishment for her +tardiness. This skirmishing was his favorite mode of attack; if he was +turned out of the closet, or off the pillow up-stairs, he retreated +under the bed and made frantic sallies at her feet, till the poor woman +got actually nervous, and if he was in the room made a flying leap as +far as she could to her bed, to escape those keen claws. Indeed, +old Israel found her more than once sitting in the middle of the +kitchen-floor with Toby crouched for a spring under the table, his +poor mistress afraid to move, for fear of her unlucky ankles. And this +literally cat-ridden woman was hazed about and ruled over by her feline +tyrant to that extent that he occupied the easiest chair, the softest +cushion, the middle of the bed, and the front of the fire, not only +undisturbed, but caressed. This is a veritable history, beloved reader, +and I offer it as a warning and an example: if you will be an old maid, +or if you can't help it, take to petting children, or donkeys, or even a +respectable cow, but beware of domestic tyranny in any shape but man's! + +No wonder Miss Lucinda took kindly to the pig, who had a house of his +own, and a servant, as it were, to the avoidance of all trouble on her +part,--the pig who capered for joy when she or Fun approached, and had +so much expression in his physiognomy that one almost expected to see +him smile. Many a sympathizing conference Miss Lucinda held with Israel +over the perfections of Piggy, as he leaned against the sty and looked +over at his favorite after this last chore was accomplished. + +"I say for 't," exclaimed the old man, one day, "I b'lieve that cre'tur' +knows enough to be professor in a college. Why, he talks! he re'lly +doos: a leetle through his nose, maybe, but no more 'n Dr. Colton allers +does,--'n' I declare he appears to have abaout as much sense. I never +see the equal of him. I thought he'd 'a larfed right out yesterday, when +I gin him that mess o' corn: he got up onto his forelegs on the trough, +an' he winked them knowin' eyes o' his'n, an' waggled his tail, an' then +he set off an' capered round till he come bunt up ag'inst the boards. I +tell _you_,--that sorter sobered him; he gin a growlin' grunt, an' shook +his ears, an' looked sideways at me, and then he put to and eet up that +corn as sober as a judge. I swan! he doos beat the Dutch!" + +But there was one calculation forgotten both by Miss Lucinda and Israel: +the pig would grow,--and in consequence, as I said before, Miss Lucinda +came to grief; for when the census-taker tinkled her sharp little +door-bell, it called her from a laborious occupation at the sty,--no +more and no less than trying to nail up a board that Piggy had torn down +in struggling to get out of his durance. He had grown so large that Miss +Lucinda was afraid of him; his long legs and their vivacious motion +added to the shrewd intelligence of his eyes, and his nose seemed as +formidable to this poor little woman as the tusk of a rhinoceros: but +what should she do with him? One might as well have proposed to her to +kill and cut up Israel as to consign Piggy to the "fate of race." She +could not turn him into the street to starve, for she loved him; and the +old maid suffered from a constancy that might have made some good man +happy, but only embarrassed her with the pig. She could not keep him +forever,--that was evident; she knew enough to be aware that time +would increase his disabilities as a pet, and he was an expensive one +now,--for the corn-swallowing capacities of a pig, one of the "racer" +breed, are almost incredible, and nothing about Miss Lucinda wanted for +food even to fatness. Besides, he was getting too big for his pen, and +so "cute" an animal could not be debarred from all out-door pleasures, +and tantalized by the sight of a green and growing garden before his +eyes continually, without making an effort to partake of its delights. +So, when Miss Lucinda indued herself with her brown linen sack and +sun-bonnet to go and weed her carrot-patch, she was arrested on the way +by a loud grunting and scrambling in Piggy's quarter, and found to her +distress that he had contrived to knock off the upper board from his +pen. She had no hammer at hand; so she seized a large stone that lay +near by and pounded at the board till the twice-tinkling bell recalled +her to the house, and as soon as she had made confession to the +census-taker she went back,--alas, too late! Piggy had redoubled his +efforts, another board had yielded, and he was free! What a thing +freedom is! how objectionable in practice, how splendid in theory! More +people than Miss Lucinda have been put to their wits' end when "Hoggie" +burst his bonds and became rampant instead of couchant. But he enjoyed +it; he made the tour of the garden on a delightful canter, brandishing +his tail with an air of defiance that daunted his mistress at once, and +regarding her with his small bright eyes as if he would before long +taste her and see if she was as crisp as she looked. She retreated +forthwith to the shed and caught up a broom with which she courageously +charged upon Piggy, and was routed entirely; for, being no way alarmed +by her demonstration, the creature capered directly at her, knocked her +down, knocked the broom out of her hand, and capered away again to the +young carrot-patch. + +"Oh, dear!" said Miss Manners, gathering herself up from the +ground,--"if there only was a man here!" + +Suddenly she betook herself to her heels,--for the animal looked at her, +and stopped eating: that was enough to drive Miss Lucinda off the field. +And now, quite desperate, she rushed through the house and out of the +front-door, actually in search of a man! Just down the street she saw +one. Had she been composed, she might have noticed the threadbare +cleanliness of his dress, the odd cap that crowned his iron-gray locks, +and the peculiar manner of his walk; for our little old maid had +stumbled upon no less a person than Monsieur Jean Leclerc, the +dancing-master of Dalton. Not that this accomplishment was much in +vogue in the embryo city; but still there were a few who liked to fit +themselves for firemen's balls and sleighing-party frolics, and quite a +large class of children were learning betimes such graces as children in +New England receive more easily than their elders. Monsieur Leclerc had +just enough scholars to keep his coat threadbare and restrict him to +necessities; but he lived, and was independent. All this Miss Lucinda +was ignorant of; she only saw a man, and, with the instinct of the sex +in trouble or danger, she appealed to him at once. + +"Oh, Sir! won't you step in and help me? My pig has got out, and I can't +catch him, and he is ruining my garden!" + +"Madame, I shall!" replied the Frenchman, bowing low, and assuming the +first position. + +So Monsieur Leclerc followed Miss Manners, and supplied himself with a +mop that was hanging in the shed as his best weapon. Dire was the battle +between the pig and the Frenchman. They skipped past each other and back +again as if they were practising for a cotillon. Piggy had four legs, +which gave him a certain advantage; but the Frenchman had most brain, +and in the long run brain gets the better of legs. A weary dance they +led each other, but after a while the pet was hemmed in a corner, and +Miss Lucinda had run for a rope to tie him, when, just as she returned, +the beast made a desperate charge, upset his opponent, and giving a leap +in the wrong direction, to his manifest astonishment, landed in his own +sty! Miss Lucinda's courage rose; she forgot her prostrate friend in +need, and, running to the pen, caught up hammer and nail-box on her way, +and, with unusual energy, nailed up the bars stronger than ever, and +then bethought herself to thank the stranger. But there he lay quite +still and pale. + +"Dear me!" said Miss Manners, "I hope you haven't hurt yourself, Sir?" + +"I have fear that I am hurt, Madame," said he, trying to smile. "I +cannot to move but it pains me." + +"Where is it? Is it your leg or your arm? Try and move one at a time," +said Miss Lucinda, promptly. + +The left leg was helpless, it could not answer to the effort, and the +stranger lay back on the ground pale with the pain. Miss Lucinda took +her lavender-bottle out of her pocket and softly bathed his head and +face; then she took off her sack and folded it up under his head, and +put the lavender beside him. She was good at an emergency, and she +showed it. + +"You must lie quite still," said she; "you must not try to move till I +come back with help, or your leg will be hurt more." + +With that she went away, and presently returned with two strong men +and the long shutter of a shop-window. To this extempore litter she +carefully moved the Frenchman, and then her neighbors lifted him and +carried him into the parlor, where Miss Lucinda's chintz lounge was +already spread with a tight-pinned sheet to receive the poor man, and +while her helpers put him to bed she put on her bonnet and ran for the +doctor. + +Doctor Colton did his best for his patient, but pronounced it an +impossibility to remove him till the bone should be joined firmly, as a +thorough cure was all-essential to his professional prospects. And now, +indeed, Miss Lucinda had her hands full. A nurse could not be afforded, +but Monsieur Leclerc was added to the list of old Israel's "chores," and +what other nursing he needed Miss Lucinda was glad to do; for her kind +heart was full of self-reproaches to think it was her pig that had +knocked down the poor man, and her mop-handle that had twisted itself +across and under his leg, and aided, if not caused, its breakage. So +Israel came in four or five times a day to do what he could, and Miss +Lucinda played nurse at other times to the best of her ability. Such +flavorous gruels and porridges as she concocted! such _tisanes_ after +her guest's instructions! such dainty soups, and sweetbreads, and +cutlets, served with such neatness! After his experience of a +second-rate boarding-house, Monsieur Leclerc thought himself in a +gastronomic paradise. Moreover, these tiny meals were garnished with +flowers, which his French taste for color and decoration appreciated: +two or three stems of lilies-of-the-valley in their folded green leaves, +cool and fragrant; a moss-rosebud and a spire of purple-gray lavender +bound together with ribbon-grass; or three carnations set in glittering +myrtle-sprays, the last acquisition of the garden. + +Miss Lucinda enjoyed nursing thoroughly, and a kindlier patient no woman +ever had. Her bright needle flew faster than ever through the cold linen +and flaccid cambric of the shirts and cravats she fashioned, while he +told her, in his odd idioms, stories of his life in France, and the +curious customs both of society and _cuisinerie_, with which last he +showed a surprising acquaintance. Truth to tell, when Monsieur Leclerc +said he had been a member of the Duc de Montmorenci's household, +he withheld the other half of this truth,--that he had been his +_valet-de-chambre_: but it was an hereditary service, and seemed to him +as different a thing from common servitude as a peer's office in the +bedchamber differs from a lackey's. Indeed, Monsieur Leclerc was a +gentleman in his own way,--not of blood, but of breeding; and while he +had faithfully served the "aristocrats," as his father had done before +him, he did not limit that service to their prosperity, but in their +greatest need descended to menial offices, and forgot that he could +dance and ride and fence almost as well as his young master. But a +bullet from a barricade put an end to his duty there, and he hated +utterly the democratic rule that had overturned for him both past +and future, so he escaped, and came to America, the grand resort of +refugees, where he had labored, as he best knew how, for his own +support, and kept to himself his disgust at the manners and customs of +the barbarians. Now, for the first time, he was at home and happy. Miss +Lucinda's delicate fashions suited him exactly; he adored her taste for +the beautiful, which she was unconscious of; he enjoyed her cookery, and +though he groaned within himself at the amount of debt he was incurring, +yet he took courage from her kindness to believe she would not be a hard +creditor, and, being naturally cheerful, put aside his anxieties and +amused himself as well as her with his stories, his quavering songs, his +recipes for _pot-au-feu_, _tísane_, and _pâtés_, at once economical and +savory. Never had a leg of lamb or a piece of roast beef gone so far +in her domestic experience, a chicken seemed almost to outlive its +usefulness in its various forms of reappearance, and the salads he +devised were as wonderful as the omelets he superintended, or the gay +dances he played on his beloved violin, as soon as he could sit up +enough to manage it. Moreover,--I should say _mostover_, if the word +were admissible,--Monsieur Leclerc lifted a great weight before long +from Miss Lucinda's mind. He began by subduing Fun to his proper place +by a mild determination that completely won the dog's heart. "Women and +spaniels," the world knows, "like kicking"; and though kicks were no +part of the good man's Rareyfaction of Fun, he certainly used a certain +amount of coercion, and the dog's lawful owner admired the skill of the +teacher and enjoyed the better manners of the pupil thoroughly; she +could do twice as much sewing now, and never were her nights disturbed +by a bark, for the dog crouched by his new friend's bed in the parlor +and lay quiet there. Toby was next undertaken, and proved less amenable +to discipline; he stood in some slight awe of the man who tried to teach +him, but still continued to sally out at Miss Lucinda's feet, to spring +at her caressing hand when he felt ill-humored, and to claw Fun's +patient nose and his approaching paws when his misplaced sentimentality +led him to caress the cat; but after a while a few well-timed slaps +administered with vigor cured Toby of his worst tricks, though every +blow made Miss Lucinda wince, and almost shook her good opinion of +Monsieur Leclerc: for in these long weeks he had wrought out a good +opinion of himself in her mind, much to her own surprise; she could not +have believed a man could be so polite, so gentle, so patient, and above +all so capable of ruling without tyranny. Miss Lucinda was puzzled. + +One day, as Monsieur Leclerc was getting better, just able to go about +on crutches, Israel came into the kitchen, and Miss Manners went out to +see him. She left the door open, and along with the odor of a pot of +raspberry-jam scalding over the fire, sending its steams of leaf- +and insect-fragrance through the little house, there came in also the +following conversation. + +"Israel," said Miss Lucinda, in a hesitating and rather forlorn tone, "I +have been thinking,--I don't know what to do with Piggy. He is quite too +big for me to keep. I'm afraid of him, if he gets out; and he eats up +the garden." + +"Well, that _is_ a consider'ble swaller for a pig, Miss Lucindy; but +I b'lieve you're abaout right abaout keepin' on him. He _is_ too +big,--that's a fact; but he's so like a human cre'tur', I'd jest +abaout as lieves slarter Orrin. I declare, I don't know no more 'n a +taown-haouse goose what to do with him!" + +"If I gave him away, I suppose he would be fatted and killed, of +course?" + +"I guess he'd be killed, likely; but as for fattenin' on him, I'd jest +as soon undertake to fatten a salt codfish. He's one o' the racers, an' +they're as holler as hogsheads: you can fill 'em up to their noses, ef +you're a mind to spend your corn, and they'll caper it all off their +bones in twenty-four haours. I b'lieve, ef they was tied neck an' heels +an' stuffed, they'd wiggle thin betwixt feedin'-times. Why, Orrin, he +raised nine on 'em, and every darned critter's as poor as Job's turkey, +to-day: they a'n't no good. I'd as lieves ha' had nine chestnut +rails,--an' a little lieveser, 'cause they don't eat nothin'." + +"You don't know of any poor person who'd like to have a pig, do you?" +said Miss Lucinda, wistfully. + +"Well, the poorer they was, the quicker they'd eat him up, I guess,--ef +they could eat such a razor-back." + +"Oh, I don't like to think of his being eaten! I wish he could be got +rid of some other way. Don't you think he might be killed in his sleep, +Israel?" + +This was a little too much for Israel. An irresistible flicker of +laughter twitched his wrinkles and bubbled in his throat. + +"I think it's likely 'twould wake him up," said he, demurely. "Killin's +killin', and a cre'tur' can't sleep over it 's though 't was the +stomach-ache. I guess he'd kick some, ef he _was_ asleep,--and screech +some, too!" + +"Dear me!" said Miss Lucinda, horrified at the idea. "I wish he could +be sent out to run in the woods. Are there any good woods near here, +Israel?" + +"I don't know but what he'd as lieves be slartered to once as to starve, +an' be hunted down out in the lots. Besides, there a'n't nobody as I +knows of would like a hog to be a-rootin' round amongst their turnips +and young wheat." + +"Well, what I shall do with him I don't know!" despairingly exclaimed +Miss Lucinda. "He was such a dear little thing when you brought him, +Israel! Do you remember how pink his pretty little nose was,--just like +a rosebud,--and how bright his eyes looked, and his cunning legs? And +now he's grown so big and fierce! But I can't help liking him, either." + +"He's a cute critter, that's sartain; but he does too much rootin' to +have a pink nose now, I expect;--there's consider'ble on't, so I guess +it looks as well to have it gray. But I don't know no more 'n you do +what to do abaout it." + +"If I could only get rid of him without knowing what became of him!" +exclaimed Miss Lucinda, squeezing her forefinger with great earnestness, +and looking both puzzled and pained. + +"If Mees Lucinda would pairmit?" said a voice behind her. + +She turned round to see Monsieur Leclerc on his crutches, just in the +parlor-door. + +"I shall, Mees, myself dispose of Piggee, if it please. I can. I shall +have no sound; he shall to go away like a silent snow, to trouble you no +more, never!" + +"Oh, Sir! if you could! But I don't see how!" + +"If Mees was to see, it would not be to save her pain. I shall have him +to go by _magique_ to fiery land." + +Fairy-land, probably! But Miss Lucinda did not perceive the _équivoque_. + +"Nor yet shall I trouble Meester Israyel. I shall have the aid of myself +and one good friend that I have; and some night when you rise of the +morning, he shall not be there." + +Miss Lucinda breathed a deep sigh of relief. + +"I am greatly obliged,--I shall be, I mean," said she. + +"Well, I'm glad enough to wash my hands on't," said Israel. "I shall +hanker arter the critter some, but he's a-gettin' too big to be handy; +'n' it's one comfort abaout critters, you ken get rid on 'em somehaow +when they're more plague than profit. But folks has got to be let alone, +excep' the Lord takes 'em; an' He don't allers see fit." + +What added point and weight to these final remarks of old Israel was +the well-known fact that he suffered at home from the most pecking and +worrying of wives, and had been heard to say in some moment of unusual +frankness that he "didn't see how't could be sinful to wish Miss Slater +was in heaven, for she'd be lots better off, and other folks too!" + +Miss Lucinda never knew what befell her pig one fine September night; +she did not even guess that a visit paid to Monsieur by one of his +pupils, a farmer's daughter just out of Dalton, had anything to do with +this _enlèvement_; she was sound asleep in her bed up-stairs, when +her guest shod his crutches with old gloves, and limped out to the +garden-gate by dawn, where he and the farmer tolled the animal out of +his sty and far down the street by tempting red apples, and then Farmer +Steele took possession of him, and he was seen no more. No, the first +thing Miss Lucinda knew of her riddance was when Israel put his head +into the back-door that same morning, some four hours afterward, and +said, with a significant nod,-- + +"He's gone!" + +After all his other chores were done, Israel had a conference with +Monsieur Leclerc, and the two sallied into the garden, and in an hour +had dismantled the low dwelling, cleared away the wreck, levelled and +smoothed its site, and Monsieur, having previously provided himself with +an Isabella-grape-vine, planted it on this forsaken spot, and trained +it carefully against the end of the shed: strange to say, though it was +against all precedent to transplant a grape in September, it lived and +flourished. Miss Lucinda's gratitude to Monsieur Leclerc was altogether +disproportioned, as he thought, to his slight service. He could not +understand fully her devotion to her pets, but he respected it, and +aided it whenever he could, though he never surmised the motive that +adorned Miss Lucinda's table with such delicate superabundance after +the late departure, and laid bundles of lavender-flowers in his tiny +portmanteau till the very leather seemed to gather fragrance. + +Before long, Monsieur Leclerc was well enough to resume his classes, +and return to his boarding-house; but the latter was filled, and only +offered a prospect of vacancy in some three weeks after his application; +so he returned home somewhat dejected, and as he sat by the little +parlor-fire after tea, he said to his hostess, in a reluctant tone,-- + +"Mees Lucinda, you have been of the kindest to the poor alien. I have it +in my mind to relieve you of this care very rapidly, but it is not in +the Fates that I do. I have gone to my house of lodgings, and they +cannot to give me a chamber as yet I have fear that I must yet rely me +on your goodness for some time more, if you can to entertain me so much +more of time?" + +"Why, I shall like to, Sir," replied the kindly, simple-hearted old +maid. "I'm sure you are not a mite of trouble, and I never can forget +what you did for my pig." + +A smile flitted across the Frenchman's thin, dark face, and he watched +her glittering needles a few minutes in silence before he spoke again. + +"But I have other things to say of the most unpleasant to me, Mees +Lucinda. I have a great debt for the goodness and care you to me have +lavished. To the angels of the good God we must submit to be debtors, +but there are also of mortal obligations. I have lodged in your mansion +for more of ten weeks, and to you I pay yet no silver, but it is that I +have it not at present--I must ask of your goodness to wait." + +The old maid's shining black eyes grew soft as she looked at him. + +"Why!" said she, "I don't think you owe me much of anything, Mr. +Leclerc. I never knew things last as they have since you came. I really +think you brought a blessing. I wish you would please to think you don't +owe me anything." + +The Frenchman's great brown eyes shone with suspicious dew. + +"I cannot to forget that I owe to you far more than any silver of man +repays; but I should not think to forget that I also owe to you silver, +or I should not be worthy of a man's name. No, Mees! I have two hands +and legs. I will not let a woman most solitary spend for me her good +self." + +"Well," said Miss Lucinda, "if you will be uneasy till you pay me, I +would rather have another kind of pay than money. I should like to know +how to dance. I never did learn, when I was a girl, and I think it would +be good exercise." + +Miss Lucinda supported this pious fiction through with a simplicity that +quite deceived the Frenchman. He did not think it so incongruous as it +was. He had seen women of sixty, rouged, and jewelled, and furbelowed, +foot it deftly in the halls of the Faubourg St. Germain in his earliest +youth; and this cheery, healthy woman, with lingering blooms on either +cheek, and uncapped head of curly black hair but slightly strewn with +silver, seemed quite as fit a subject for the accomplishment. Besides, +he was poor,--and this offered so easy a way of paying the debt he had +so dreaded! Well said Solomon,--"The destruction of the poor is their +poverty!" For whose moral sense, delicate sensitivenesses, generous +longings, will not sometimes give way to the stringent need of food and +clothing, the gall of indebtedness, and the sinking consciousness of an +empty purse and threatening possibilities? + +Monsieur Leclerc's face brightened. + +"Ah! with what grand pleasure shall I teach you the dance!" + +But it fell dark again as he proceeded,-- + +"Though not one, nor two, nor three, nor four quarters shall be of value +sufficient to achieve my payment." + +"Then, if that troubles you, why, I should like to take some French +lessons in the evening, when you don't have classes. I learned French +when I was quite a girl, but not to speak it very easily; and if I could +get some practice and the right way to speak, I should be glad." + +"And I shall give you the real _Parisien_ tone, Mees Lucinda!" said he, +proudly. "I shall be as if it were no more an exile when I repeat my +tongue to you!" + +And so it was settled. Why Miss Lucinda should learn French any more +than dancing was not a question in Monsieur Leclerc's mind. It is true, +that Chaldaic would, in all probability, be as useful to our friend as +French; and the flying over poles and hanging by toes and fingers, so +eloquently described by the Apostle of the Body in these "Atlantic" +pages, would have been as well adapted to her style and capacity as +dancing;--but his own language, and his own profession! what man would +not have regarded these as indispensable to improvement, particularly +when they paid his board? + +During the latter three weeks of Monsieur Leclerc's stay with Miss +Lucinda he made himself surprisingly useful. He listed the doors against +approaching winter breezes,--he weeded in the garden,--trimmed, tied, +trained, wherever either good office was needed,--mended china with an +infallible cement, and rickety chairs with the skill of a cabinet-maker; +and whatever hard or dirty work he did, he always presented himself at +table in a state of scrupulous neatness: his long brown hands showed no +trace of labor; his iron-gray hair was reduced to smoothest order; +his coat speckless, if threadbare; and he ate like a gentleman, an +accomplishment not always to be found in the "best society," as the +phrase goes,--whether the best in fact ever lacks it is another thing. +Miss Lucinda appreciated these traits,--they set her at ease; and a +pleasanter home-life could scarce be painted than now enlivened the +little wooden house. But three weeks pass away rapidly; and when the +rusty portmanteau was gone from her spare chamber, and the well-worn +boots from the kitchen-corner, and the hat from its nail, Miss Lucinda +began to find herself wonderfully lonely. She missed the armfuls of wood +in her wood-box, that she had to fill laboriously, two sticks at a time; +she missed the other plate at her tiny round table, the other chair +beside her fire; she missed that dark, thin, sensitive face, with its +rare and sweet smile; she wanted her story-teller, her yarn-winder, +her protector, back again. Good gracious! to think of an old lady of +forty-seven entertaining such sentiments for a man! + +Presently the dancing-lessons commenced. It was thought advisable that +Miss Manners should enter a class, and, in the fervency of her good +intentions, she did not demur. But gratitude and respect had to strangle +with persistent hands the little serpents of the ridiculous in Monsieur +Leclerc's soul, when he beheld his pupil's first appearance. What reason +was it, O rose of seventeen, adorning thyself with cloudy films of lace +and sparks of jewelry before the mirror that reflects youth and beauty, +that made Miss Lucinda array herself in a brand-new dress of yellow +muslin-de-laine strewed with round green spots, and displace her +customary hand-kerchief for a huge tamboured collar, on this eventful +occasion? Why, oh, why did she tie up the roots of her black hair with +an unconcealable scarlet string? And most of all, why was her dress +so short, her slipper-strings so big and broad, her thick slippers so +shapeless by reason of the corns and bunions that pertained to the feet +within? The "instantaneous rush of several guardian angels" that once +stood dear old Hepzibah Pynchon in good stead was wanting here,--or +perhaps they stood by all-invisible, their calm eyes softened with love +deeper than tears, at this spectacle so ludicrous to man, beholding in +the grotesque dress and adornments only the budding of life's divinest +blossom, and in the strange skips and hops of her first attempts at +dancing only the buoyancy of those inner wings that goodness and +generosity and pure self-devotion were shaping for a future strong and +stately flight upward. However, men, women, and children do not see +with angelic eyes, and the titterings of her fellow-pupils were +irrepressible; one bouncing girl nearly choked herself with her +hand-kerchief trying not to laugh, and two or three did not even try. +Monsieur Leclerc could not blame them,--at first he could scarce control +his own facial muscles; but a sense of remorse smote him, as he saw how +unconscious and earnest the little woman was, and remembered how often +those knotty hands and knobbed feet had waited on his need or his +comfort. Presently he tapped on his violin for a few moments' respite, +and approached Miss Lucinda as respectfully as if she had been a queen. + +"You are ver' tired, Mees Lucinda?" said he. + +"I am a little, Sir," said she, out of breath. "I am not used to +dancing; it's quite an exertion." + +"It is that truly. If you are too much tired, is it better to wait? +I shall finish for you the lesson till I come to-night for a French +conversation?" + +"I guess I will go home," said the simple little lady. "I am some afraid +of getting rheumatism; but use makes perfect, and I shall stay through +next time, no doubt." + +"So I believe," said Monsieur, with his best bow, as Miss Lucinda +departed and went home, pondering all the way what special delicacy she +should provide for tea. + +"My dear young friends," said Monsieur Leclerc, pausing with the +uplifted bow in his hand, before he recommenced his lesson, "I have +observe that my new pupil does make you much to laugh. I am not so +surprise, for you do not know all, and the good God does not robe all +angels in one manner; but she have taken me to her mansion with a leg +broken, and have nursed me like a saint of the blessed, nor with any pay +of silver except that I teach her the dance and the French. They are +pay for the meat and the drink, but she will have no more for her good +patience and care. I like to teach you the dance, but she could teach +you the saints' ways, which are better. I think you will no more to +laugh." + +"No! I guess we _won't_!" said the bouncing girl with great emphasis, +and the color rose over more than one young face. + +After that day Miss Lucinda received many a kind smile and hearty +welcome, and never did anybody venture even a grimace at her expense. +But it must be acknowledged that her dancing was at least peculiar. +With a sanitary view of the matter, she meant to make it exercise, +and fearful was the skipping that ensued. She chassed on tiptoe, and +balanced with an indescribable hopping twirl, that made one think of a +chickadee pursuing its quest of food on new-ploughed ground; and some +late-awakened feminine instinct of dress, restrained, too, by due +economy, indued her with the oddest decorations that woman ever devised. +The French lessons went on more smoothly. If Monsieur Leclerc's Parisian +ear was tortured by the barbarous accent of Vermont, at least he bore it +with heroism, since there was nobody else to hear; and very pleasant, +both to our little lady and her master, were these long winter evenings, +when they diligently waded through Racine, and even got as far as the +golden periods of Chateaubriand. The pets fared badly for petting in +these days; they were fed and waited on, but not with the old devotion; +it began to dawn on Miss Lucinda's mind that something to talk to was +preferable, as a companion, even to Fun, and that there might be a +stranger sweetness in receiving care and protection than in giving it. + +Spring came at last. Its softer skies were as blue over Dalton as in +the wide fields without, and its footsteps as bloom-bringing in Miss +Lucinda's garden as in mead or forest. Now Monsieur Leclerc came to +her aid again at odd minutes, and set her flower-beds with mignonette +borders, and her vegetable-garden with salad herbs of new and +flourishing kinds. Yet not even the sweet season seemed to hurry the +catastrophe that we hope, dearest reader, thy tender eyes have long seen +impending. No, for this quaint alliance a quainter Cupid waited,--the +chubby little fellow with a big head and a little arrow, who waits on +youth and loveliness, was not wanted here. Lucinda's God of Love wore a +lank, hard-featured, grizzly shape, no less than that of Israel Slater, +who marched into the garden one fine June morning, earlier than +usual, to find Monsieur in his blouse, hard at work weeding the +cauliflower-bed. + +"Good mornin', Sir! good mornin'!" said Israel, in answer to the +Frenchman's greeting. "This is a real slick little garden-spot as ever I +see, and a pootty house, and a real clever woman too. I'll be skwitched, +ef it a'n't a fust-rate consarn, the hull on't. Be you ever a-goin' back +to France, Mister?" + +"No, my goot friend. I have nobody there. I stay here; I have friend +here: but there,--_oh, non! je ne reviendrai pas! ah, jamais! jamais!_" + +"Pa's dead, eh? or shamming? Well, I don't understand your lingo; but ef +you're a-goin' to stay here, I don't see why you don't hitch hosses with +Miss Lucindy." + +Monsieur Leclerc looked up astonished. + +"Horses, my friend? I have no horse!" + +"Thunder 'n' dry trees! I didn't say you hed, did I? But that comes o' +usin' what Parson Hyde calls figgurs, I s'pose. I wish't he'd use one +kind o' figgurin' a leetle more; he'd pay me for that wood-sawin'. I +didn't mean nothin' about hosses. I sot out fur to say, Why don't ye +marry Miss Lucindy?" + +"I?" gasped Monsieur,--"I, the foreign, the poor? I could not to presume +so!" + +"Well, I don't see 's it's sech drefful presumption. Ef you're poor, +she's a woman, and real lonesome too; she ha'n't got nuther chick nor +child belongin' to her, and you're the only man she ever took any kind +of a notion to. I guess 't would be jest as much for her good as yourn." + +"Hush, good Is-ray-el! it is good to stop there. She would not to marry +after such years of goodness: she is a saint of the blessed." + +"Well, I guess saints sometimes fellerships with sinners; I've heerd +tell they did; and ef I was you, I'd make trial for 't. Nothin' ventur', +nothin' have." + +Whereupon Israel walked off, whistling. + +Monsieur Leclerc's soul was perturbed within him by these suggestions; +he pulled up two young cauliflowers and reset their places with +pigweeds; he hoed the nicely sloped border of the bed flat to the path, +and then flung the hoe across the walk, and went off to his daily +occupation with a new idea in his head. Nor was it an unpleasant one. +The idea of a transition from his squalid and pinching boarding-house to +the delicate comfort of Miss Lucinda's _ménage_, the prospect of so kind +and good a wife to care for his hitherto dreaded future,--all this was +pleasant. I cannot honestly say he was in love with our friend; I must +even confess that whatever element of that nature existed between the +two was now all on Miss Lucinda's side, little as she knew it. Certain +it is, that, when she appeared that day at the dancing-class in a new +green calico flowered with purple, and bows on her slippers big enough +for a bonnet, it occurred to Monsieur Leclerc, that, if they were +married, she would take no more lessons! However, let us not blame him; +he was a man, and a poor one; one must not expect too much from men, or +from poverty; if they are tolerably good, let us canonize them even, it +is so hard for the poor creatures! And to do Monsieur Leclerc justice, +he had a very thorough respect and admiration for Miss Lucinda. Years +ago, in his stormy youth-time, there had been a pair of soft-fringed +eyes that looked into his as none would ever look again,--and they +murdered her, those mad wild beasts of Paris, in the chapel where she +knelt at her pure prayers,--murdered her because she knelt beside an +aristocrat, her best friend, the Duchess of Montmorenci, who had taken +the pretty peasant from her own estate to bring her up for her maid. +Jean Leclerc had lifted that pale shape from the pavement and buried it +himself; what else he buried with it was invisible; but now he recalled +the hour with a long, shuddering sigh, and, hiding his face in his +hands, said softly, "The violet is dead,--there is no spring for her. I +will have now an amaranth,--it is good for the tomb." + +Whether Miss Lucinda's winter dress suggested this floral metaphor let +us not inquire. Sacred be sentiment,--when there is even a shadow of +reality about it!--when it becomes a profession, and confounds itself +with millinery and shades of mourning, it is--"bosh," as the Turkeys +say. + +So that very evening Monsieur Leclerc arrayed himself in his best, to +give another lesson to Miss Lucinda. But, somehow or other, the lesson +was long in beginning; the little parlor looked so home-like and so +pleasant, with its bright lamp and gay bunch of roses on the table, that +it was irresistible temptation to lounge and linger. Miss Lucinda had +the volume of Florian in her hands, and was wondering why he did not +begin, when the book was drawn away, and a hand laid on both of hers. + +"Lucinda!" he began, "I give you no lesson to-night. I have to ask. Dear +Mees, will you to marry your poor slave?" + +"Oh, dear!" said Miss Lucinda. + +Don't laugh at her, Miss Tender-eyes! You will feel just so yourself +some day, when Alexander Augustus says, "Will you be mine, loveliest of +jour sex?" only you won't feel it half so strongly, for you are young, +and love is Nature to youth, but it is a heavenly surprise to age. + +Monsieur Leclerc said nothing. He had a heart after all, and it was +touched now by the deep emotion that flushed Miss Lucinda's face, and +made her tremble so violently,--but presently he spoke. + +"Do not!" said he. "I am wrong. I presume. Forgive the stranger!" + +"Oh, dear!" said poor Lucinda again,--"oh, you know it isn't that! but +how can you like _me_?" + +There, Mademoiselle! there's humility for you! _you_ will never say that +to Alexander Augustus! + +Monsieur Leclerc soothed this frightened, happy, incredulous little +woman into quiet before very long; and if he really began to feel a true +affection for her from the moment he perceived her humble and entire +devotion to him, who shall blame him? Not I. If we were all heroes, who +would be _valet-de-chambre_? if we were all women, who would be men? He +was very good as far as he went; and if you expect the chivalries of +grace out of Nature, you "may expect," as old Fuller saith. So it was +peacefully settled that they should be married, with a due amount of +tears and smiles on Lucinda's part, and a great deal of tender sincerity +on Monsieur's. She missed her dancing-lesson next day, and when Monsieur +Leclerc came in the evening he found a shade on her happy face. + +"Oh, dear!" said she, as he entered. + +"Oh, dear!" was Lucinda's favorite aspiration. Had she thought of it as +an Anglicizing of "_O Dieu_!" perhaps she would have dropped it; but +this time she went on headlong, with a valorous despair,-- + +"I have thought of something! I'm afraid I can't! Monsieur, aren't you a +Romanist?" + +"What is that?" said he, surprised. + +"A Papist,--a Catholic!" + +"Ah!" he returned, sighing, "once I was _bon Catholique_,--once in my +gone youth; after then I was nothing but the poor man who bats for his +life; now I am of the religion that shelters the stranger and binds up +the broken poor." + +Monsieur was a diplomatist. This melted Miss Lucinda's orthodoxy right +down; she only said,-- + +"Then you will go to church with me?" + +"And to the skies above, I pray," said Monsieur, kissing her knotty hand +like a lover. + +So in the earliest autumn they were married, Monsieur having previously +presented Miss Lucinda with a delicate plaided gray silk for her wedding +attire, in which she looked almost young; and old Israel was present +at the ceremony, which was briefly performed by Parson Hyde in Miss +Manners's parlor. They did not go to Niagara, nor to Newport; but that +afternoon Monsieur Leclerc brought a hired rockaway to the door, and +took his bride a drive into the country. They stopped beside a pair of +bars, where Monsieur hitched his horse, and, taking Lucinda by the +hand, led her into Farmer Steele's orchard, to the foot of his biggest +apple-tree. There she beheld a little mound, at the head and foot of +which stood a daily rose-bush shedding its latest wreaths of bloom, and +upon the mound itself was laid a board on which she read, + +"Here lie the bones of poor Piggy." + +Mrs. Lucinda burst into tears, and Monsieur, picking a bud from the +bush, placed it in her hand, and led her tenderly back to the rockaway. + +That evening Mrs. Lucinda was telling the affair to old Israel with so +much feeling that she did not perceive at all the odd commotion in his +face, till, as she repeated the epitaph to him, he burst out with,--"He +didn't say what become o' the flesh, did he?"--and therewith fled +through the kitchen-door. For years afterward Israel would entertain a +few favored auditors with his opinion of the matter, screaming till the +tears rolled down his cheeks,-- + +"That was the beateree of all the weddin'-towers I ever heerd tell on. +Goodness! it's enough to make the Wanderin' Jew die o' larfin'!" + + * * * * * + + +A SOLDIER'S ANCESTRY. + + + When Nadir asked a princess for his son, + And Delhi's throne required his pedigree, + He stared upon the messenger as one + Who should have known his birth of bravery. + + "Go back," he cried, in undissembled scorn, + "And bear this answer to your waiting lord:-- + 'My child is noble! for, though lowly born, + He is the son and grandson of the _Sword_!'" + + + + +FIBRILIA. + + +There are not a few timid souls who imagine that England is falling into +decay. Our Cousin John is apt to complain. He has been accustomed to +enlarge upon his debts, his church-rates and poor-rates, his taxes on +air, light, motion, "everything, from the ribbons of the bride to the +brass nails of the coffin," upon the wages of his servants both on the +land and the water, upon his Irish famine and exodus, and his vast +expenses at home and abroad. And when we consider how small is his +homestead, a few islands in a high latitude inferior to those of Japan +in size and climate, and how many of his family have left him to better +their condition, one might easily conclude that he had passed his +meridian, and that his prospects were as cloudy as his atmosphere. + +But our Cousin John, with a strong constitution, is in a green old age, +and still knows how to manage his property. + +Within the last two years he has quietly extinguished sixty millions of +his debts in terminable annuities. He has improved his outlying lands +of Scotland and Ireland, ransacked the battle-fields of Europe for +bone-dust and the isles of the Pacific for guano, and imported enough to +fertilize four millions of acres, and, not content with the produce of +his home-farm, imports the present year more than four millions of tons +of grain and corn to feed nineteen millions of his people. + +He has carried his annual exports up to six hundred and thirty millions +of dollars, and importing more than he exports still leaves the world +his debtor. He has a strong fancy for new possessions, and selects the +most productive spots for his plantations. When he desired muslin, +calico, and camel's-hair shawls for his family, he put his finger on +India; and when he called for those great staples of commerce, indigo, +saltpetre, jute, flax, and linseed, India sent them at his bidding. When +he required coffee, he found Ceylon a Spice Island, and at his demand +it furnished him with an annual supply of sixty millions of pounds. He +required more sugar for his coffee, and by shipping a few coolies from +Calcutta and Bombay to the Mauritius, once the Isle of France, it yields +him annually two hundred and forty million pounds of sugar, more than +St. Domingo ever yielded in the palmy days of slavery. He wanted wool, +and his flocks soon overspread the plains of Australia, tendering him +the finest fleeces, and his shepherds improved their leisure not in +playing like Tityrus on the reed, but in opening for him mines of copper +and gold. He had his eye on California, but Fremont was too quick for +him, and he now contents himself with pocketing a large proportion of +her gold, to say nothing of the silver of Mexico and Peru. + +Wherever there is a canal to be excavated, a railway to be built, or a +line of steamers to be established, our Cousin John is ready with a full +purse to favor the enterprise. He turns even his sailors and soldiers to +good account: the other day he subdued one hundred and fifty millions of +rebels in the Indies, and then we find him dictating a treaty of +peace and a tribute to the Emperor of China from the ruins of his +summer-palace and the walls of Pekin. Although generally well disposed, +especially towards his kith and kin this side the water, he is choleric, +and if his best customers treat him ill, he does not hesitate to knock +them down. Although dependent on Russia for his hemp and naval +stores, and on China for his raw silk and teas, he suffers no such +considerations to deter him from fighting, and usually gets some +advantage when he comes to terms. He is belting the world with colonies, +and forming agencies for his children wherever he can send the +messengers of his commerce. At this very moment he is considering +whether he shall transport coolies from China to Australia, Natal, or +the Feegee Islands, to raise his cotton and help put down Secession and +export-duties, or whether he shall give a new stimulus to India cotton +by railways and irrigation. He seems to prosper in all his business; +for the "Edinburgh Review" reports him worth six thousand millions of +pounds, at least,--a very comfortable provision for his family. + +The wealth and power of Great Britain are supposed to rest upon her +mines of iron and coal. These undoubtedly help to sustain the fabric. +With her iron and coal, she fashions and propels the winged Mercuries +of her commerce; with these and the clay that underlies her soil, she +erects her factories and workshops; these form the Briarean arms by +which she fabricates her tissues. But it is by more minute columns than +these, it is by the hollow tubes revealed by the microscope, the fibres +of silk, wool, and flax, hemp, jute, and cotton, that she sustains the +great structure of her wealth. These she spins, weaves, and prints into +draperies which exact a tribute from the world. During the year 1860 +Great Britain imported or produced a million tons of such fibres, an +amount equal to five million bales of cotton, more than one-half of +which were in cotton alone. These fibres it is our purpose to examine. + + * * * * * + +The thread of the silk-worm came early into use. The Chinese ascribe its +introduction to the wife of one of their emperors, to whom divine honors +were subsequently paid. Until the Christian era silk was little known in +Europe or Western Asia. It is mentioned but three times in the common +version of the Old Testament, and in each case the accuracy of the +translation is questioned by German critics. It is, however, distinctly +alluded to by St. John, by Aristotle, and by the poets who flourished at +the court of Augustus, Virgil, Horace, and Tibullus, and is referred to +by the writers of the first four centuries. Tertullian, in his homily on +Female Attire, tells the ladies,--"Clothe yourselves with the silk of +truth, with the fine linen of sanctity, and the purple of modesty." The +golden-mouthed St. Chrisostom writes in his Homilies,--"Does the rich +man wear silken shawls? His soul is in tatters." "Silken shawls are +beautiful, but they are the production of worms." + +The silken thread was early introduced. Galen recommends it for tying +blood-vessels in surgical operations, and remarks that the rich ladies +in the cities of the Roman Empire generally possessed such thread; he +alludes also to shawls interwoven with gold, the material of which is +brought from a distance, and is called _Sericum_, or silk. Down to the +time of the Emperor Aurelian silk was of great value, and used only by +the rich. His biographer informs us that Aurelian neither had himself +in his wardrobe a garment composed wholly of silk, nor presented any to +others, and when his own wife begged him to allow her a single shawl +of purple silk, he replied,--"Far be it from me to permit thread to be +balanced with its weight in gold!"--for a pound of gold was then the +price of a pound of silk. + +Silk is mentioned in some very ancient Arabic inscriptions; but down to +the reign of the Emperor Justinian was imported into Europe from the +country of the Seres, a people of Eastern Asia, supposed to be the +Chinese, from, whom it derived its name. During the reign of Justinian +two monks brought the eggs of the silkworm to Byzantium from Serinda in +India, and the manufacture of silk became a royal monopoly of the Roman +Empire. + +From Greece the culture of silk was gradually carried into Italy and +Spain, and English abbots and bishops often returned from Rome with +vestments of silk and gold. Silken threads are attached to the covers of +ancient English manuscripts. Silk in the form of velvet may be seen on +some of the ancient armor in the Tower of London; and portions of silk +garments were found in 1827 in the Cathedral of Durham, on opening the +tomb of St. Cuthbert. The use of silk, however, was so rare in England +down to the time of the Tudors, that a pair of silk hose formed an +acceptable present to Queen Elizabeth. + +The principal supply of raw silk is now derived from China, where silks +are much worn, and there Marco Polo several centuries since found silk +robes in very general use. Japan also abounds in silk, and the late +Japanese embassy and suite were arrayed in garments of that material. + +The annual consumption of raw silk in Great Britain now averages seven +millions of pounds, and the value of the annual export of silk fabrics +is not far from ten millions of dollars. + +The manufacture of silk was introduced into England by the French +Protestants who were driven into exile on the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes. Their descendants are still found in London and Coventry, where +the silk-trade has been long established, and is now going through the +ordeal to which it has been exposed by the new treaty with France. + +The French undoubtedly take the lead in silk fabrics, for which they are +admirably qualified by exquisite taste and great artistic skill; but +the silk manufacture in England is now so interwoven, in many of its +branches, with the manufacture of wool and cotton, and aided by improved +machinery, that it may be considered as firmly established. + +Our own climate is well adapted to the silk-worm, and we have had our +_Morus-multicaulis_ fever; but so light is the freight on silk compared +with its value, that we must defer our hope of any extended growth until +the price of labor in Europe approaches nearer to our own, or until the +excess of production in other branches shall divert genius into this +channel, in which it will eventually cheapen production by machinery as +it has done in other enterprises. + + * * * * * + +We read in the classics of the Colchian and Milesian fleeces, of the +soft wools of Italy, and of the transfer of sheep from Italy to Bastica, +in Spain. Italy and Spain were both adapted to sheep husbandry. Virgil +writes,-- + + "Hic gelidi fontes, hie mollia prata, Lycori"; + +while Spain, with her alternations of hill and dale and her varying +climate, was eminently fitted for the pasturage of sheep. Even in +ancient times Spain furnished wool of great fineness and of various +colors, and cloths like the modern plaids were woven there from wool of +different shades. Sometimes the Spanish sheep was immersed alive in the +Tyrian purple. + +In modern times, the sheep of Spain have been introduced into France +and Germany, and from them have sprung the French merino and Saxony +varieties. These again have been exported to Natal and Australia. + +Before the American Revolution, the sheep of this country furnished a +wool so coarse that English travellers reported that America could never +compete with England in broadcloth. But when the French armies overran +Spain, the vast flocks of merinos which annually traversed the country +in search of fresh pasturage were driven into Portugal, and by the +enterprise of Messrs. Jarvis, Derby, and Humphrey, large numbers of them +were imported into our Northern States. These have improved our wool, +until now it surpasses the English in fineness. + +The fine-wool sheep thrive most in a dry climate and elevated country. +We learn from Strabo, Columella, and Martial, that the fine wool +of Italy was raised principally among the Apennines; and in Spain, +Estremadura, a part of the ancient Baetica, is still famous for its +wool. There the Spanish flocks winter, and thence in spring are sent to +pasture in the mountains of Leon and Asturias. Other flocks are led +in the same season from great distances to the heights of the Sierra +Morena, where the vegetation is remarkably favorable to improvement of +the wool. + +In this country, the elevated lands of Texas and New Mexico are +admirably adapted to the fine-wool sheep; and upon the head-waters of +the Missouri and the Yellowstone is another district much resembling the +Spanish sheep-walks, where the mountain-sheep and the antelope still +predominate. + +When Caesar invaded England he found there great numbers of flocks, and +for many centuries wool was the great staple of English exports; but +during the reign of Queen Elizabeth numerous artisans were driven from +Brabant and Flanders by the Duke of Alva, and the manufacture of wool, +which had enriched the Low Countries, was permanently established in +England. + +With the progress of agriculture, the turnip-culture enabled Great +Britain to increase the number of her sheep; but they were raised more +for the market than for their fleeces, which were rarely fine, and the +demand for wool soon exceeded the supply. England then opened her ports +to the free importation of wool from every region, and now annually +manufactures two hundred millions of pounds, twice the amount +manufactured in this country, of which two-thirds are drawn from distant +lands, and her export of woollens for 1860 exceeded one hundred millions +of dollars. + +The same policy which has built up this vast manufacture, namely, the +free importation of the raw material and of every article used in its +manufacture, with a moderate duty on foreign cloths, will enable us to +compete with England. Our farmers' wives prefer the sheep-husbandry to +the care of the dairy; much of our land furnishes cheap pasturage, and +the prices of mutton are remunerative; but many of the low grades of +wool come from abroad, and the mill-owner will not embark largely in +the manufacture, unless he can purchase his materials as cheaply as his +foreign competitor. + + * * * * * + +Cotton is mentioned by Herodotus five centuries before the Christian +era. He alludes to the cotton-trees of India, and describes a cuirass +sent from Egypt to the King of Sparta embellished with gold and with +fleeces from trees. Theophrastus, the disciple of Aristotle, notices +the growth of cotton both in India and Arabia, and observes that the +cotton-plants of India have a leaf like the black mulberry, and are set +on the plains in rows, resembling vines in the distance. On the Persian +Gulf he noticed that they bore no fruit, but a capsule about the size of +a quince, which, when ripe, expanded so as to set free the wool, which +was woven into cloth of various kinds, both very cheap and of great +value. + +The cotton-plant was observed by the Greeks who accompanied Alexander +in his march to India: and his officers have left a description of the +cotton dress and turban which formed the costume of the natives at that +remote period. + +Cotton early found its way into Egypt, then the seat of arts and of +commerce; for Pliny in his "Natural History" informs us that "in Upper +Egypt, towards Arabia, there grows a shrub which some call _Gossypion_ +and others _Xylon_. It is small, and bears a fruit resembling the +filbert, within which is a downy wool that is spun into thread. There +is nothing to be preferred to these stuffs for whiteness or softness. +Beautiful garments are made from them for the priests of Egypt." + +The troops of Anthony wore cotton when he visited Cleopatra, and she +was arrayed in vestments of fine muslin. It was soon after used for the +sails of vessels, and the Romans employed it for awnings in the Forum +and the Amphitheatres. + +It was cultivated at an early period in the Levant, whence it was +gradually introduced into Sicily, France, and England. + +Arabian travellers who reached China in the ninth century did not +observe the cotton-plant in that country, but found the natives clad in +silk. + +The cotton-plant, although indigenous in India, has also been found +growing spontaneously in many parts of Africa. It was discovered by +Columbus in Hispaniola, and among the presents sent by Cortés to Charles +V. were cotton mantles, vests, and carpets of various figures, and in +the conquest of Mexico the Indian allies wore armor of quilted cotton, +impervious to arrows. + +The plant of India resembles that of America in most particulars. It +is there often placed in alternate rows with rice, and after the +rice-harvest is over puts forth a beautiful yellow flower with a crimson +eye in each petal; this is succeeded by a green pod filled with a white +pulp, which as it ripens turns brown, and then separates into several +divisions containing the cotton. A luxuriant field, says Forbes in his +"Oriental Memoirs," "exhibits at the same time the expanding blossom, +the bursting capsule, and the snowy fleeces of pure cotton, and is one +of the most beautiful objects in the agriculture of Hindostan." + +The manufacture of cotton in India, with very simple machinery, was +early brought to high perfection. Travellers in the ninth century +describe muslins in India which were of such fineness that they might be +drawn through a ring of moderate size; and Tavernier speaks of turbans, +composed of thirty-five ells of the cloth, which would weigh but four +ounces. Muslin has been sold in India for five hundred rupees the piece, +so fine, that, when laid upon the grass after the dew had fallen, it +was no longer visible. The patience, the nice sense of touch, and the +flexible fingers of the Hindoos have with the simplest means achieved +results in this branch of manufacture which have not been surpassed by +any people. + +But this manufacture is now breathing its last; the cotton-gin, the +spinning-frame, the mule with its countless spindles, and the power-loom +are fearful competitors; and although British India still produces quite +as much cotton as our Southern States, and while she exports at least +eight hundred thousand bales annually to England and China, continues at +the same time to make the larger part of her own clothing, flourishing +cities, like Dacca and Delhi, once the seat of manufactures, are going +to decay, and a large proportion of her people, willing to toil at six +cents per day in occupations that have been transmitted for centuries +in the same families, are either driven to the culture of the fields or +compelled to spin and weave for a pittance the jute which is converted +into gunny-cloth. + +When India muslins and calicoes were first imported into England, they +met with a formidable opposition. They had suddenly become fashionable, +and threatened to supersede the long-established woollens; and the +nation, in its wisdom, first prohibited the importation of these +fabrics, and then subjected them to a duty of sixpence per yard. In +France, Amiens, Rouen, and Paris protested against cotton as ruinous +to the country. But it has surmounted all these obstacles, is firmly +established in both nations, and now its manufacture gives support to +one-seventh part of the population of Great Britain, employs there +thirty-four millions of spindles, consumes annually two and a half +million bales of the raw material, and sends abroad, in addition to +thread and yarn, twenty-eight hundred million yards of fabrics, of the +aggregate value of two hundred and thirty millions of dollars. + +In 1856, Great Britain derived her supply of cotton from the following +countries, namely:-- + + From the United States 71 per cent. + " the East Indies 19 " " + " Brazil 5 " " + " Egypt 4-1/2 " " + " the West Indies 1/2 " " + +But while her supply from India in the twelve years from 1845 to 1857 +increased nearly two hundred per cent, namely, from two hundred thousand +to six hundred thousand bales, she has increased her exports of cotton +fabrics to that country to such an extent, that, for every pound she +imports, she returns a pound of thread and cloth enhanced at least +fourfold in value, while she returns to the United States in cotton +fabrics less than three per cent, of the cotton she receives from them. +And since 1857 such improvements have been made in the cotton-mills of +New England, that we now consume more than a million of bales annually, +and our production and export are rapidly increasing. + +Some curious alternations have attended the growth and manufacture of +cotton. As machinery has improved and the cost of goods diminished, the +price of cotton has advanced and a strong stimulus been given to its +production. + +New States have consequently been opened to its culture, and the +alluvial lands of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas +have been devoted to the plant. Slaves have thus been attracted from the +Middle States and diverted from the less profitable culture of wheat and +tobacco to the cotton-fields. Half a century since, the Middle States +contained two-thirds of the negroes of the Union; but under the census +of 1860 two millions and a half of slaves are now found south of North +Carolina, and but a million and a half north of the Cotton States. In +the Cotton States the negroes nearly equal the white population; in the +Border States the whites are at least four to one. In the Cotton States +the slaves and the culture of cotton are increasing at the rate of at +least five per cent.; in the Border States the slave population is +either stationary or retrograde, and the future of those States is +clearly indicated. Down to a recent period the march of the planter and +his forces across the Cotton States has been like that of an invading +army. Vast forests of heavy timber have been felled, land rapidly +exhausted and abandoned, and new fields opened and soon deserted for a +virgin soil. + +But with the increased demand of the last seven years for cotton, and +with the enhanced price of the slave, which rises at least one hundred +dollars with each advance of a cent per pound on cotton, more permanent +improvements have been made, railways have been opened, and at least +fifty thousand tons of guano and cotton-seed have been annually applied +to the exhausted cotton-fields of the Carolinas and Georgia. Under +these appliances the crops of the United States have kept pace with +the manufacture, and in 1859 rose to the amount of twenty-one hundred +millions of pounds, thus replenishing the markets that had been recently +exhausted, and actually exceeding the entire consumption for the same +year of both Europe and America. + +But the crops fluctuate from year to year, and a less favorable season +for 1860, accompanied by an increase of at least ten per cent. in +spindles, leaves the supply barely equal to the demand, while the +diminished crop, and the cry of Secession at the South, with the +introduction of an export-duty, have alarmed the spinners of England and +led them to consider the effects of a deficiency and to seek new sources +of supply. + +With the progress of trade the price of the middling cotton of America +for the last fifteen years has varied at Liverpool from fourpence to +ninepence per pound, and now stands at seven and a halfpence by the last +quotations. As the stock accumulates or the sale of goods is checked, +the price naturally declines, and a check is given to production. As +the stock declines or goods advance, an impetus is given to prices, the +culture is extended, and cotton flows in from Egypt and India. When the +cotton of Bombay commands more than fivepence per pound at Liverpool, +it flows in a strong current from India to Manchester. Should the +export-duty be levied in the Cotton States, it may well be presumed +that the burden will fall principally upon the planter, and give an +additional stimulus to the growth of India, and a new incentive to the +British Government to start the culture in other colonies. + +The gentlemen of the South sometimes imagine that Old England, as well +as New England, is entirely dependent upon cotton, and that society +there would be disintegrated, if the crop in the Cotton States should +be withheld for a single year. But the Northern mills have usually six +months' supply; and Great Britain holds upon an average enough for three +months in her ports, for two months at her mills, and as much more +upon the ocean. The English spinner, too, can not only reduce his time +one-fourth without stopping, but can reduce his consumption another +fourth by raising his numbers and increasing the fineness of his cloth; +and as he draws one-fourth of his supply from other countries, it is +obvious that he might hold out for nearly two years without a bale from +America. + +Could the cotton-planter hold out any longer? Let it not be forgotten +that the Embargo was voted to bring England to terms by withholding +rice, cotton, wheat, and naval stores, but proved a signal failure. We +reaped from it no harvests, and were put back by it at least six years +in our national progress; while England enjoyed the carrying-trade of +the world, which we had abandoned, and drew her supplies from Russia and +India while our crops perished in our own warehouses. + +The vast export of cotton goods from Great Britain to India has now +liberated at least half a million bales of cotton for the supply of +England in addition to what India previously furnished; and as the +export of goods to India and China continues to increase, the surplus of +cotton must rise with it. But India is able to treble her production. It +is true that the staple of her cotton suffers from the dry summers, that +her land is but half tilled by ploughs consisting of a simple beam of +wood with two prongs and a single handle, that she has been destitute +of roads and facilities for transportation, that her lands are held at +oppressive rents, that American planters there have failed to make good +cotton, and that the annual yield of her soil is as small as that of the +exhausted fields of South Carolina. But still she produces at least four +million bales of cotton, and great changes are now in progress: railways +are pervading the country; canals are being dug for irrigating, and +irrigation quadruples the crop, while it improves the staple; and the +diversion of a few districts from the ordinary crops, with improved +tillage, will increase the production to an indefinite extent. + +The latest intelligence from India apprises us that in one large cotton +district the American planters have at length succeeded, and American +cotton is now growing there on one hundred and forty-six thousand acres. + +IN DARWAR. + + _In American Cotton. In Native Kupas. Total._ + 1851 31,688 acres 223,314 acres 255,002 + 1860 146,320 " 230,677 " 377,003 + +In Africa, also, the export of cotton is on the increase; and Egypt is +erecting new works to retain and direct the overflow of the Nile, which +will augment her exports. + +There is a belt around the earth's surface of at least sixty degrees in +width, adapted in great part to the culture of cotton. Great Britain now +commands capital, while China and India overflow with labor. Let Great +Britain divert a few millions of this capital and but half a million of +coolies to any fertile area of five thousand square miles within this +belt, and she can in a few years double her supply of cotton, and +command the residue of her importation at reasonable prices. + +Among these spots none is more promising than Central America, where the +cotton-plant is perennial, and a single acre, as we are assured by Mr. +Squier, yields semiannually a bale of superior cotton. But let us hope +that the South may abandon her dream of a Southern Empire, and the +chimera which now haunts her, that the Northerner is hostile to the +Southerner, when in reality he has no such feeling, but merely recoils +from institutions which he believes to be at variance with moral and +material progress. + +Hemp, or _Cannabis sativa_, from which we possibly derive the modern +term canvas, was known to the ancients and used by them for rope and +cordage and occasionally for cloth. It was found early in Thrace, in +Caria, and upon the Rhone. Herodotus says that garments were made of it +by the Thracians "so much like linen that none but an experienced person +could tell whether they were made of hemp or of flax." + +Moschion, who flourished two centuries before the Christian era, states +that the celebrated ship Syracusia built by Hiero II. was provided with +rope made from the hemp of the Rhone. Although the plant is indigenous +in Northern India, where it is cultivated for its narcotic qualities, it +is adapted to a southern climate; and we may safely infer that it was +not a native of either Italy, Greece, or Asia Minor, but was doubtless +introduced into Caria by the active trade between the Euxine and +Miletus. Cloth of hemp is still worn by boatmen upon the Danube; but +although its fibre is nearly as delicate as that of flax and cotton, it +is used principally for cordage, for which purpose it is imported from +the interior of Russia into England and the United States. In 1858 the +entire importation into Great Britain was forty-four thousand tons. +A large amount is now raised in Missouri and Kentucky, whose soil is +admirably adapted to the hemp-plant. Hemp grows freely in Bologna, +Romagna, and Naples, and the Italians have a saying, that "it may be +grown everywhere, but cannot be produced fit for use in heaven or on +earth without manure." The Italian hemp is aided by irrigation. + +The plant is annual, and attains a height of three to ten feet, +according to the soil and climate. Its stalk is hollow, filled with a +soft pith, and surrounded by a cellular texture coated with a delicate +membrane which runs parallel to the stalk and is covered by a thin +cuticle. In Russia the seed is sown in June and gathered in September. + +The Manila hemp (_Musa textilis_) does not appear to have been known to +the ancients, and is now found in the Philippine Islands, the Indian +Archipelago, and Japan, regions unexplored by the ancients. It is also +found at the base of the Himalaya Mountains. It is a large herbaceous +plant, which requires a warm climate, and is cut after a growth of +eighteen months. The outer layers or fibres of the plant are called the +_bandola_, which is used in the fabrication of cordage; the inner layers +have a more delicate fibre called the _lupis_, which is woven into fine +fabrics; while the intermediate layers, termed _tupoz_, are made into +cloth of different degrees of fineness. + +The filaments, after they are gathered, are separated by a knife, and +rendered soft and pliable by beating them with a mallet; their ends are +then gummed together, after which they are wound into balls, and the +finer qualities are woven without going through the process of spinning. +With the produce of this plant the natives pay their tribute, purchase +the necessaries of life, and provide themselves with clothing. + +The imports of this article into Great Britain in 1859 were very +considerable, while the United States also imported a very large amount. +It is used for cordage by the ships of both countries. In one respect +it differs from wool, cotton, and hemp, the fibres of all of which are +found by the microscope to consist of tubes, while the filaments of +the _Musa textilis_, although often fine, are in no case hollow, and +consequently are less flexible and divisible than other fibres. + +Within the last twenty years, a new export from India, in the shape of +Jute and its fabrics, has grown up from insignificance into commercial +importance, and is now among the chief exports of the country. This +article demands our particular attention, as it requires but four months +for its production, furnishes a very large supply of textile material, +is raised at one-fifth the expense of cotton, and has been sold in India +as low as one cent per pound. + +Jute is generally grown as an after-crop in India upon high ground, and +flourishes best in a hot and rainy season. The seed is sown broadcast in +April or May, when there is sufficient rain to moisten the ground. When +the plant is a foot and a half high it is weeded. It rises on good soil +to the height of twelve feet, and flowers between August and September. +The stems are usually three-fourths of an inch in diameter. The leaves +have long foot-stalks, the flowers are small and yellow, and the +capsules short and globose, containing five cells for the seed. The +fruit ripens in September and October. The average yield in fibre to +the acre is from four hundred to seven hundred pounds. When the crop is +ripe, the stems are cut close to the root, made up into bundles, and +deposited for a week in some neighboring pond or stream. + +The process of separating the fibre from the stem is thus described by +Mr. Healy in the "Journal of Agriculture for India";-- + +"The native operator, standing up to his middle in water, takes as many +of the sticks in his hands as he can grasp, and removing a small portion +of the bark from the end next the roots, and grasping them together, he +with a little management strips off the whole from end to end, without +breaking either stem or fibre. He then, swinging the bark around his +head, dashes it repeatedly against the surface of the water, drawing it +towards him to wash off the impurities." + +The filaments are then hung up to dry in the sun, often in lengths of +twelve feet, and when dried the jute is ready for the market. + +The color at first is a pure white, but gradually changes to yellow. The +fibre, which is fine and delicate, is tubular, like that of flax and +cotton, and is easily wrought; but its tenacity is not equal to that of +other textile materials, although it is substituted in many fabrics +for wool, flax, and cotton. A large portion of the crop, which already +exceeds two hundred thousand tons, is exported to England as it comes +from the field, and is there used in the manufacture both of wool and +cotton to cheapen the fabric. The vigilant eye will often detect it in +woollen manufactures, in shawls, and even in sail-cloths; but when spun +with cotton or wool, it is very difficult to discover its presence. + +A few years since, there was a great reduction in the price of plaid +shawls from England, which took the dealers by surprise, as the cost +was previously supposed to have reached the lowest point; but a close +examination of the threads elicited the fact that the manufacturer had +adroitly twisted in with his wool a liberal allowance of jute, costing +but two or three cents a pound when wool cost thirty, and thus reduced +the price of the fabric. + +By the use of shoddy in the manufacture of woollens, and of jute in both +cotton and woollen fabrics, the English artisan saves many millions +of pounds both of wool and cotton. In those districts of India where +British skill and commercial enterprise have checked the manufacture of +muslin and calicoes, the Hindoos of all classes find in the culture and +manufacture of jute employment for all, "from the palanquin-bearer and +husbandman down to the Hindoo widow, saved by the interposition of +England from the funeral pile, but condemned by custom for the residue +of her days literally to sackcloth and ashes." The fine and long-stapled +jute is reserved for the export trade, for which it bears a +comparatively high price; the residue is spun and woven by these classes +as a domestic manufacture; it is made into gunny-cloth, which is +circulated through the globe, forms the bagging for our corn, wheat, +and cotton on their voyage to distant ports, and finally makes its last +appearance as paper. + +The long stems of the jute are highly esteemed in India; they resemble +willow wands, are useful for basket-work and fencing, for trellis-work +and the support of vines, and to make a charcoal which is valued for the +manufacture of gunpowder. + +The export of jute from India to England for 1859 was sixty thousand +tons. The export of gunny-cloth from India to the United States in the +same year amounted to several millions of pieces. + +Why should not this valuable plant be introduced into America? It +requires the same season and soil as our Indian corn, and would +doubtless flourish in the rich alluvial lands of the West, and furnish a +very cheap and useful domestic manufacture for our Western farmers. + +The term Linen is doubtless derived from _Linum_, the classic and +botanic name of flax. In Holy Writ, Moses called down the hail upon the +growing flax of Lower Egypt, and Isaiah speaks of those "that work in +fine flax." According to Herodotus, the ancient Egyptians wore linen. +Plutarch informs us that the priests of Isis wore linen on account of +its purity, and mentions a tradition that flax was used for clothing +"because the color of its blossom resembles the ethereal blue which +surrounds the world"; and he adds, that the priests of Isis were buried +in their sacred vestments. An eminent cotton-spinner, who subjected four +hundred specimens of mummy-cloth to the microscope, has ascertained that +they were all linen; and even now, when aspiring cotton has contested +its superiority, and claimed to be more healthful and more beneficial +to the human frame, the choicest drapery of our tables and couches, and +many of our most costly and elegant articles of dress, are fabricated +from flax. + +Flax is sown in the spring and harvested in the summer, and requires but +three months for its growth. While cotton grows in hot climates only, +flax grows both under the tropics and in temperate climates, and as far +north as Russia, Ireland, and Canada; and while at the South it runs +mostly to seed, the best varieties are produced in Normandy, Belgium, +and Poland. + +In another particular flax has the advantage over cotton. While the +latter, under the ordinary course of cultivation in South Carolina, +yields but one bale to four acres, and in virgin soil rarely more than +one bale to two acres, flax yields in good soil from five to eight +hundred pounds of fibre to the acre, which may be converted into +flax-cotton by modern machinery; and as the product has but three per +cent. waste, while cotton loses eleven per cent. in its manufacture, the +flax-cotton which is produced from a single acre is the equivalent of +one to two bales of cotton. + +With these important advantages, namely, its adaptation to a northern +climate where the white man can labor, and a capacity for yielding so +large an amount of fibre, flax holds a high place in the list of textile +materials. + +Flax can be raised with very moderate expense up to the time of harvest. +If the soil is free from weeds, it requires little more preparation, +care, or expense for its culture than wheat or barley. But from this +point onward a large expenditure of labor is requisite, which greatly +enhances the cost, carrying it up as high as ten to twenty cents per +pound, according to the degree of fineness; for the filaments must be +separated from the stem by immersion in water, must be kept in parallel +lines, and prepared for the spindle by skilful and long-continued labor. + +To insure the best quality, it must be pulled and bound in bundles +before it is entirely ripe, thus impairing the value of the seed, while +the edible and nutritious portion of the stalk is lost or injured in the +water. + +For many years it was spun on the little wheel, but of late years +improved machinery has been applied at Belfast, Leeds, Dundee, and other +cities of Great Britain; yet nearly a third of the value is lost in the +broken filaments, which are reduced to tow in its preparation for the +spindle. With a fibre at least as fine and delicate as that of cotton, +its full value to the world will not be demonstrated until it is +effectually cottonized. + +In its present state, however, it has come into very extensive use. More +than eighty thousand tons were, in 1859, imported into Great Britain, +and many acres are there devoted to its culture. The consumption in that +country is estimated to exceed one hundred and sixty thousand tons, +a quantity equivalent to eight hundred thousand bales of cotton. In +addition to this, ten millions of bushels of flax-seed are annually +crushed in Great Britain, a large portion of which is drawn from India. + +The culture of flax was introduced into this country early in the last +century by the Scotch, who crossed over to Ireland under Elizabeth and +Cromwell, and soon after the siege of Derry transferred their arts and +their industry to this country. Several colonies of these were planted +in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and a large colony was established at +Natfield, New Hampshire, upon a tract twelve miles square, one of the +best sections of the State, situate in the area between Manchester, +Lowell, Lawrence, and Exeter. Here every farmer cultivated his field of +barley and flax, here every woman had her little wheel, and the +article formed the currency of the place;--notes were given payable in +spinning-wheels. Girls were seen beetling the linen on the grass; +and when the harvest over, the men mounted their horses, and with +well-filled saddle-bags threaded the by-roads of the forest to find +a market in Boston, Lynn, Salem, or Newburyport. Fortunes were thus +accumulated and a flourishing academy and two Presbyterian societies are +now sustained by funds thus acquired by the Pinkerton family. But as the +wages of girls gradually rose from two shillings to two dollars per +week with the invention of the cotton-gin, the power-loom, and the +spinning-jenny, the culture of flax was gradually abandoned, the seat +of manufactures removed from the hills to the waterfalls, and the +flax-fields converted into market-gardens or milk-farms. The town +of Derry, once the great seat of New-England manufactures, is now +principally distinguished for the Stark, Rogers, and Reed it gave to the +French War and the Revolution, for the Bells, Dinsmores, Wilsons, and +Pattersons it has given to the halls of legislation, and the McKeens, +McGregors, Morisons, and Nesmiths it has furnished to commerce or the +Church. + +At the present rates of labor, the culture of flax cannot be revived in +this region until the mode of curing and dressing it is cheapened; and +there is reason to hope that this revolution is at hand. + +At the present moment flax is raised both in India and Ohio for the seed +alone. An acre of ripened flax yields from ten to twenty bushels +of seed, and each bushel affords nearly or quite two gallons of +linseed-oil. The well-ripened seed is most prolific in oil. + +It has been supposed by some that flax exhausts the soil. It is +undoubtedly true that it does best under a rotation of crops, and +that the ingredients it withdraws from the soil should be restored to +preserve its fertility. But the reduction of the plant to ashes shows +that its chemical components can be restored at a cost of three dollars +per acre, while the properties withdrawn by the seed can be easily +supplied by returning in other fertilizers the equivalent for half a ton +of flax-seed. If the oil-cake be consumed upon the farm, little more +than the above and its product in manure will be required. + +The ashes of the flax-plant have been analyzed. Dr. Royle, of England, a +distinguished writer upon fibrous plants, assures us that the following +compound will supply to one acre all that the plant requires, and leave +the land as fertile as before the flax was gathered:-- + + _lbs. s. d._ + Muriate of Potash 30 cost 2 6 + Common Salt 28 " 0 3 + Burned Plaster of Paris 34 " 0 6 + Bone-Dust 54 " 3 3 + Epsom Salts 56 " 4 0 + 10 6 + +It has been ascertained by the microscope that wool, cotton, hemp, jute, +and flax are composed of minute fibres, each of which forms a hollow +tube, and there is a close resemblance between the tubes of each,--the +tube of the cotton, however, collapsing as it ripens. These tubes in the +jute and flax are closely cemented together, and the term _Fibrilia_ has +been applied to fibres of the plant when reduced to a short staple +like cotton. The process for effecting this result is very accurately +described in a work just published, entitled "Fibrilia." The patentees +of this invention claim that their process, in the space of twenty-four +hours, converts the flax and tow, as they come from the threshing-mill, +into an article which may be spun and woven by the same machinery as +cotton. The article produced and lately exhibited at public meetings +resembles cotton in its appearance and qualities, with the advantage +that it wastes less in the manufacture, has more lustre, and receives a +superior color. The patentees and their friends further claim that this +cotton can be raised in all temperate latitudes, at the rate of four to +eight hundred pounds per acre, and profess within the past year to have +manufactured twelve thousand pounds. + +These statements have been confidently made at public meetings in +the State House of Massachusetts, and it is understood that a mill +containing one hundred looms, half of which are now in operation, has +been erected at Roxbury, under the direction of gentlemen who are +familiar with the manufacture. Should the same results be obtained on a +large scale which have attended the manufacture of the first few bales, +the first step in a great revolution will be effected. + +By the process of Mr. S.M. Allen of Boston, the great outlay of labor +which has usually attended the culture and preparation of flax is +avoided. When the plant has attained its full height of twenty to thirty +inches, and its seed is ripened, it is harvested like grass with a +mowing-machine, dried like hay or oats in the field, and then carried +to the threshing-mill. After the seed is separated, the stalk is +transferred to a patent brake, moved by two or four horses, and costing +from three to four hundred dollars. This machine is composed of several +sets of fluted iron rollers, between which the stalk passes from one set +to another, the rollers gradually diminishing in size, but increasing in +rapidity of motion, by means of which the woody texture of the plant is +effectually broken and separated. The filaments are then carried through +a coarse card or picker. The shives are thus separated, and two tons of +stalks reduced to half a ton of linten, which may be either taken at +once to the retort or baled for shipment. When the flax is thus reduced +by the farmer to linten, the article is reputed to be worth to the +manufacturer four cents a pound, or at least twenty dollars for the +product of an acre yielding a single ton of flax-straw. + +According to this statement the farmer would realize from his crop at +least as follows:-- + + Estimated value of seed, 14 bushels, + at $1.25 $17.50 + Estimated value of 500 lbs. of linten, + at 4 cts. 20.00 + Estimated value of 3/4 of a ton of shives + from unrotted stems, valuable for + cattle, at $8.00 per ton 6.00 + + Produce of an acre $43.50 + +And this produce would be realized with little more labor than a crop +of oats or wheat, returning less than twenty-five dollars to the acre. +Unless the soil should be foul, no weeding would be required, while the +breaking would cost little more than a second threshing, and a second +crop of turnips can be taken from the same soil. + +From the patent brake and the picker the linten is carried to a retort, +which may hold from five hundred to three thousand pounds of fibre,--the +capacity of one hundred cubic feet being required for each thousand +pounds; and the retort, which may be made from boiler-plates, costs from +three hundred to fifteen hundred dollars. Here the linten is put into +a hot bath of air forced through heated water, and thus charged with +moisture, which softens the filaments and diminishes the cohesion of +the fibres. After this air-bath, pure water of the temperature of one +hundred and forty to one hundred and sixty degrees is admitted into the +retort, and the linten is immersed in it for five or six hours. + +After this steeping process is completed, the water is let off from +below, and pure water admitted from above under pressure, until the +color begins to change; the fibre is then steeped for three or four +hours in a weak solution of soda-ash; the alkali is washed out by the +admission of pure water alternating with steam, and, if necessary to +complete the bleaching, a weak solution of chlorine is applied. All this +may be effected without removing the linten from the retort. The product +is then dried as in ordinary drying-rooms. + +When dried, it is carried again through a set of cards, and a piece of +machinery termed a railway-head, with positive draught, which can be set +so as to give any length of staple, and to present the flax-cotton thus +produced in any form required for spinning, either separately or mixed +with cotton or wool, and thus adapted to the machinery used in the +manufacture of either of these articles. The cost of this process, from +the brake to the final production of the cotton, is set by the patentee, +after leaving him a fair profit, at three cents per pound of cotton; +and if we add this to the cost of the linten, and allow for freight and +storage, the entire cost of the fibrilia is but eight cents per pound, +or two-thirds of the present price of middling cotton. + +The idea of modifying the filaments of flax and hemp so as to convert +them into cotton is by no means a new one. As long ago as 1747 it was +proposed to convert flax into cotton by boiling it in a solution of +caustic potash, and subsequently washing it with soap; and in 1775 Lady +Moira, aided by T.B. Bailey, actually converted some refuse flax into +cotton by boiling it in alkali. The result was, that the fibres seemed +to be set at liberty from each other; after which it was carded on +cotton cards, spun, and woven as cotton. + +The Chevalier Claussen, as recently as 1850, claimed to have discovered +the process, and actually took out a patent; but his invention, which +consisted in boiling the cut and crushed stems of the flax in a solution +of caustic soda, turned out a failure,--the cutting, crushing, and +boiling processes proving alike defective. + +New discoveries are the result of repeated trials; perseverance usually +prevails; and if States are to secede at pleasure and withhold their +cotton, and no other good uses can be found for flax or hemp, why should +not their fibres secede also,--be set at liberty and resolve themselves +into a cotton state? + +We might pass from the fibrous plants, and the metamorphosis of flax +into cotton, to the _Pinna_, whose fibres grow in the sea on the coast +of Italy, and anchor the huge shell-fish to the rock or the sand. These +fibres are brought up by divers, and woven into beautiful fabrics. We +might repeat the tale of the crab which lives with this shell-fish, +and apprises his blind housekeeper of the approach of danger,--a tale +confirmed by ancient and modern naturalists,--for there are strange +doings in the sea as well as upon the land. We might also dilate upon +China grass, which is manufactured in the East into delicate fabrics. +But our limits compel us to defer these topics. + + + + +NAT TURNER'S INSURRECTION. + + +During the year 1831, up to the twenty-third of August, the Virginia +newspapers were absorbed in the momentous problems which then occupied +the minds of intelligent American citizens:--What General Jackson should +do with the scolds, and what with the disreputables,--Should South +Carolina be allowed to nullify? and would the wives of Cabinet Ministers +call on Mrs. Eaton? It is an unfailing opiate, to turn over the drowsy +files of the "Richmond Enquirer", until the moment when those dry and +dusty pages are suddenly kindled into flame by the torch of Nat Turner. +Then the terror flares on increasing, until the remotest Southern States +are found shuddering at nightly rumors of insurrection,--until far-off +European colonies, Antigua, Martinique, Caraccas, Tortola, recognize by +some secret sympathy the same epidemic alarms,--until the very boldest +words of freedom are reported as uttered in the Virginia House of +Delegates with unclosed doors,--until an obscure young man named +Garrison is indicted at Common Law in North Carolina, and has a price +set upon his head by the Legislature of Georgia. The insurrection +revived in one agonizing reminiscence all the distresses of Gabriel's +Revolt, thirty years before; and its memory endures still fresh, now +that thirty added years have brought the more formidable presence of +General Butler. It is by no means impossible that the very children or +even confederates of Nat Turner may be included at this moment among the +contraband articles of Fort Monroe. + +Near the southeastern border of Virginia, in Southampton County, there +is a neighborhood known as "The Cross Keys". It lies fifteen miles from +Jerusalem, the county-town or "court-house", seventy miles from Norfolk, +and about as far from Richmond. It is some ten or fifteen miles from +Murfreesboro in North Carolina, and about twenty-five from the Great +Dismal Swamp. Up to Sunday, the twenty-first of August, 1831, there was +nothing to distinguish it from any other rural, lethargic, slipshod +Virginia neighborhood, with the due allotment of mansion-houses and +log-huts, tobacco-fields and "old-fields", horses, dogs, negroes, "poor +white folks", so called, and other white folks, poor without being +called so. One of these last was Joseph Travis, who had recently married +the widow of one Putnam Moore, and had unfortunately wedded to himself +her negroes also. + +In the woods on the plantation of Joseph Travis, upon the Sunday just +named, six slaves met at noon for what is called in the Northern States +a picnic and in the Southern a barbecue. The bill of fare was to be +simple: one brought a pig, and another some brandy, giving to the +meeting an aspect so cheaply convivial that no one would have imagined +it to be the final consummation of a conspiracy which had been for six +months in preparation. In this plot four of the men had been already +initiated,--Henry, Hark or Hercules, Nelson, and Sam. Two others were +novices, Will and Jack by name. The party had remained together from +twelve to three o'clock, when a seventh man joined them,--a short, +stout, powerfully built person, of dark mulatto complexion and +strongly-marked African features, but with a face full of expression and +resolution. This was Nat Turner. + +He was at this time nearly thirty-one years old, having been born on +the second of October, 1800. He had belonged originally to Benjamin +Turner,--whence his last name, slaves having usually no patronymic,--had +then been transferred to Putnam Moore, and then to his present owner. +He had, by his own account, felt himself singled out from childhood for +some great work; and he had some peculiar marks on his person, which, +joined to his great mental precocity, were enough to occasion, among his +youthful companions, a superstitious faith in his gifts and destiny. +He had great mechanical ingenuity also, experimentalized very early in +making paper, gunpowder, pottery, and in other arts which in later life +he was found thoroughly to understand. His moral faculties were very +strong, so that white witnesses admitted that he had never been known to +swear an oath, to drink a drop of spirits, or to commit a theft. And in +general, so marked were his early peculiarities, that people said "he +had too much sense to be raised, and if he was, he would never be of +any use as a slave." This impression of personal destiny grew with his +growth;--he fasted, prayed, preached, read the Bible, heard voices when +he walked behind his plough, and communicated his revelations to the +awe-struck slaves. They told him in return, that, "if they had his +sense, they would not serve any master in the world." + +The biographies of slaves can hardly be individualized; they belong to +the class. We know bare facts; it is only the general experience of +human beings in like condition which can clothe them with life. The +outlines are certain, the details are inferential. Thus, for instance, +we know that Nat Turner's young wife was a slave; we know that she +belonged to a different master from himself; we know little more than +this, but this is much. For this is equivalent to saying that by day or +by night that husband had no more power to protect her than the man who +lies bound upon a plundered vessel's deck has power to protect his wife +on board the pirate-schooner disappearing in the horizon; she may be +reverenced, she may be outraged; it is in the powerlessness that the +agony lies. There is, indeed, one thing more which we do know of this +young woman: the Virginia newspapers state that she was tortured under +the lash, after her husband's execution, to make her produce his papers: +this is all. + +What his private experiences and special privileges or wrongs may have +been, it is therefore now impossible to say. Travis was declared to be +"more humane and fatherly to his slaves than any man in the county"; but +it is astonishing how often this phenomenon occurs in the contemporary +annals of slave insurrections. The chairman of the county court also +stated, in pronouncing sentence, that Nat Turner had spoken of his +master as "only too indulgent"; but this, for some reason, does not +appear in his printed Confession, which only says, "He was a kind +master, and placed the greatest confidence in me." It is very possible +that it may have been so, but the printed accounts of Nat Turner's +person look suspicious: he is described in Governor Floyd's proclamation +as having a scar on one of his temples, also one on the back of his +neck, and a large knot on one of the bones of his right arm, produced by +a blow; and although these were explained away in Virginia newspapers +as being produced by fights with his companions, yet such affrays are +entirely foreign to the admitted habits of the man. It must, therefore, +remain an open question, whether the scars and the knot were produced by +black hands or by white. + +Whatever Nat Turner's experiences of slavery might have been, it is +certain that his plans were not suddenly adopted, but that he had +brooded over them for years. To this day there are traditions among the +Virginia slaves of the keen devices of "Prophet Nat". If he was +caught with lime and lamp-black in hand, conning over a half-finished +county-map on the barn-door, he was always "planning what to do, if he +were blind", or "studying how to get to Mr. Francis's house." When he +had called a meeting of slaves, and some poor whites came eavesdropping, +the poor whites at once became the subjects for discussion; he +incidentally mentioned that the masters had been heard threatening to +drive them away; one slave had been ordered to shoot Mr. Jones's pigs, +another to tear down Mr. Johnson's fences. The poor whites, Johnson and +Jones, ran home to see to their homesteads, and were better friends than +ever to Prophet Nat. + +He never was a Baptist preacher, though such vocation has often been +attributed to him. The impression arose from his having immersed +himself, during one of his periods of special enthusiasm, together with +a poor white man named Brantley. "About this time", he says in his +Confession, "I told these things to a white man, on whom it had a +wonderful effect, and he ceased from his wickedness, and was attacked +immediately with a cutaneous eruption, and the blood oozed from the +pores of his skin, and after praying and fasting nine days he was +healed. And the Spirit appeared to me again, and said, as the Saviour +had been baptized, so should we be also; and when the white people +would not let us be baptized by the Church, we went down into the water +together, in the sight of many who reviled us, and were baptized by the +Spirit. After this I rejoiced greatly and gave thanks to God." + +The religious hallucinations narrated in his Confession seem to have +been as genuine as the average of such things, and are very well +expressed. It reads quite like Jacob Behmen. He saw white spirits and +black spirits contending in the skies, the sun was darkened, the thunder +rolled. "And the Holy Ghost was with me, and said, 'Behold me as I stand +in the heavens!' And I looked and saw the forms of men in different +attitudes. And there were lights in the sky, to which the children of +darkness gave other names than what they really were; for they were the +lights of the Saviour's hands, stretched forth from east to west, even +as they were extended on the cross on Calvary, for the redemption of +sinners." He saw drops of blood on the corn: this was Christ's blood, +shed for man. He saw on the leaves in the woods letters and numbers and +figures of men,--the same symbols which he had seen in the skies. On May +12, 1828, the Holy Spirit appeared to him and proclaimed that the yoke +of Jesus must fall on him, and he must fight against the Serpent when +the sign appeared. Then came an eclipse of the sun in February, 1831: +this was the sign; then he must arise and prepare himself, and slay his +enemies with their own weapons; then also the seal was removed from his +lips, and then he confided his plans to four associates. + +When he came, therefore, to the barbecue on the appointed Sunday, and +found, not these four only, but two others, his first question to the +intruders was, How they came thither. To this Will answered manfully, +that his life was worth no more than the others, and "his liberty was as +dear to him." This admitted him to confidence, and as Jack was known to +be entirely under Hark's influence, the strangers were no bar to their +discussion. Eleven hours they remained there, in anxious consultation: +one can imagine those terrible dusky faces, beneath the funereal woods, +and amid the flickering of pine-knot torches, preparing that stern +revenge whose shuddering echoes should ring through the land so long. +Two things were at last decided: to begin their work that night, and to +begin it with a massacre so swift and irresistible as to create in a +few days more terror than many battles, and so spare the need of future +bloodshed. "It was agreed that we should commence at home on that night, +and, until we had armed and equipped ourselves and gained sufficient +force, neither age nor sex was to be spared: which was invariably +adhered to." + +John Brown invaded Virginia with nineteen men, and with the avowed +resolution to take no life but in self-defence. Nat Turner attacked +Virginia from within, with six men, and with the determination to spare +no life until his power was established. John Brown intended to pass +rapidly through Virginia, and then retreat to the mountains. Nat Turner +intended to "conquer Southampton County as the white men did in the +Revolution, and then retreat, if necessary, to the Dismal Swamp." Each +plan was deliberately matured; each was in its way practicable; but each +was defeated by a single false step, as will soon appear. + +We must pass over the details of horror, as they occurred during the +next twenty-four hours. Swift and stealthy as Indians, the black men +passed from house to house,--not pausing, not hesitating, as their +terrible work went on. In one thing they were humaner than Indians +or than white men fighting against Indians,--there was no gratuitous +outrage beyond the death-blow itself, no insult, no mutilation; but +in every house they entered, that blow fell on man, woman, and +child,--nothing that had a white skin was spared. From every house they +took arms and ammunition, and from a few, money; on every plantation +they found recruits: those dusky slaves, so obsequious to their master +the day before, so prompt to sing and dance before his Northern +visitors, were all swift to transform themselves into fiends of +retribution now; show them sword or musket and they grasped it, though +it were an heirloom from Washington himself. The troop increased from +house to house,--first to fifteen, then to forty, then to sixty. Some +were armed with muskets, some with axes, some with scythes; some came on +their masters' horses. As the numbers increased, they could be divided, +and the awful work was carried on more rapidly still. The plan then was +for an advanced guard of horsemen to approach each house at a gallop, +and surround it till the others came up. Meanwhile what agonies of +terror must have taken place within, shared alike by innocent and by +guilty! what memories of wrongs inflicted on those dusky creatures, by +some,--what innocent participation, by others, in the penance! The +outbreak lasted for but forty-eight hours; but during that period +fifty-five whites were slain, without the loss of a single slave. + +One fear was needless, which to many a husband and father must have +intensified the last struggle. These negroes had been systematically +brutalized from childhood; they had been allowed no legalized +or permanent marriage; they had beheld around them an habitual +licentiousness, such as can scarcely exist except in a Slave State; some +of them had seen their wives and sisters habitually polluted by the +husbands and the brothers of these fair white women who were now +absolutely in their power. Yet I have looked through the Virginia +newspapers of that time in vain for one charge of an indecent outrage +on a woman against these triumphant and terrible slaves. Wherever they +went, there went death, and that was all. Compare this with ordinary +wars; compare it with the annals of the French Revolution. No one, +perhaps, has yet painted the wrongs of the French populace so terribly +as Dickens in his "Tale of Two Cities"; yet what man, conversant with +slave-biographies, can read that narrative without feeling it weak +beside the provocations to which fugitive slaves testify? It is +something for human nature that these desperate insurgents revenged such +wrongs by death alone. Even that fearful penalty was to be inflicted +only till the object was won. It was admitted in the "Richmond Enquirer" +of the time, that "indiscriminate massacre was not their intention, +after they obtained foothold, and was resorted to in the first instance +to strike terror and alarm. Women and children would afterwards have +been spared, and men also who ceased to resist." + +It is reported by some of the contemporary newspapers, that a portion +of this abstinence was the result of deliberate consultation among the +insurrectionists; that some of them were resolved on taking the white +women for wives, but were overruled by Nat Turner. If so, he is the only +American slave-leader of whom we know certainly that he rose above the +ordinary level of slave vengeance, and Mrs. Stowe's picture of Dred's +purposes is then precisely typical of his. "Whom the Lord saith unto us, +'Smite,' them will we smite. We will not torment them with the scourge +and fire, nor defile their women as they have done with ours. But we +will slay them utterly, and consume them from off the face of the +earth." + +When the number of adherents had increased to fifty or sixty, Nat Turner +judged it time to strike at the county-seat, Jerusalem. Thither a +few white fugitives had already fled, and couriers might thence +be despatched for aid to Richmond and Petersburg, unless promptly +intercepted. Besides, he could there find arms, ammunition, and money; +though they had already obtained, it is dubiously reported, from eight +hundred to one thousand dollars. On the way it was necessary to pass the +plantation of Mr. Parker, three miles from Jerusalem. Some of the +men wished to stop here and enlist some of their friends. Nat Turner +objected, as the delay might prove dangerous; he yielded at last, and it +proved fatal. + +He remained at the gate with six or eight men; thirty or forty went to +the house, half a mile distant. They remained too long, and he went +alone to hasten them. During his absence a party of eighteen white men +came up suddenly, dispersing the small guard left at the gate; and when +the main body of slaves emerged from the house, they encountered, for +the first time, their armed masters. The blacks halted, the whites +advanced cautiously within a hundred yards and fired a volley; on its +being returned, they broke into disorder, and hurriedly retreated, +leaving some wounded on the ground. The retreating whites were pursued, +and were saved only by falling in with another band of fresh men from +Jerusalem, with whose aid they turned upon the slaves, who in their turn +fell into confusion. Turner, Hark, and about twenty men on horseback +retreated in some order; the rest were scattered. The leader still +planned to reach Jerusalem by a private way, thus evading pursuit; +but at last decided to stop for the night, in the hope of enlisting +additional recruits. + +During the night the number increased again to forty, and they +encamped on Major Ridley's plantation. An alarm took place during the +darkness,--whether real or imaginary does not appear,--and the men +became scattered again. Proceeding to make fresh enlistments with the +daylight, they were resisted at Dr. Blunt's house, where his slaves, +under his orders, fired upon them, and this, with a later attack from a +party of white men near Captain Harris's, so broke up the whole force +that they never reunited. The few who remained together agreed to +separate for a few hours to see if anything could be done to revive the +insurrection, and meet again that evening at their original rendezvous. +But they never reached it. + +Sadly came Nat Turner at nightfall into those gloomy woods where +forty-eight hours before he had revealed the details of his terrible +plot to his companions. At the outset all his plans had succeeded; +everything was as he predicted: the slaves had come readily at his call, +the masters had proved perfectly defenceless. Had he not been persuaded +to pause at Parker's plantation, he would have been master before now +of the arms and ammunition at Jerusalem; and with these to aid, and the +Dismal Swamp for a refuge, he might have sustained himself indefinitely +against his pursuers. + +Now the blood was shed, the risk was incurred, his friends were killed +or captured, and all for what? Lasting memories of terror, to be sure, +for his oppressors; but on the other hand, hopeless failure for the +insurrection, and certain death for him. What a watch he must have kept +that night! To that excited imagination, which had always seen spirits +in the sky and blood-drops on the corn and hieroglyphic marks on the dry +leaves, how full the lonely forest must have been of signs and solemn +warnings! Alone with the fox's bark, the rabbit's rustle, and the +screech-owl's scream, the self-appointed prophet brooded over his +despair. Once creeping to the edge of the wood, he saw men stealthily +approach on horseback. He fancied them some of his companions; but +before he dared to whisper their ominous names, "Hark" or "Dred,"--for +the latter was the name, since famous, of one of his more recent +recruits,--he saw them to be white men, and shrank back stealthily +beneath his covert. + +There he waited two weary days and two melancholy nights,--long +enough to satisfy himself that no one would rejoin him, and that the +insurrection had hopelessly failed. The determined, desperate spirits +who had shared his plans were scattered forever, and longer delay would +be destruction for him also. He found a spot which he judged safe, dug +a hole under a pile of fence-rails in a field, and lay there for six +weeks, only leaving it for a few moments at midnight to obtain water +from a neighboring spring. Food he had previously provided, without +discovery, from a house near by. + +Meanwhile an unbounded variety of rumors went flying through the State. +The express which first reached the Governor announced that the militia +were retreating before the slaves. An express to Petersburg further +fixed the number of militia at three hundred, and of blacks at eight +hundred, and invented a convenient shower of rain to explain the +dampened ardor of the whites. Later reports described the slaves as +making three desperate attempts to cross the bridge over the Nottoway +between Cross Keys and Jerusalem, and stated that the leader had been +shot in the attempt. Other accounts put the number of negroes at three +hundred, all well mounted and armed, with two or three white men as +leaders. Their intention was supposed to be to reach the Dismal Swamp, +and they must be hemmed in from that side. + +Indeed, the most formidable weapon in the hands of slave-insurgents is +always this blind panic they create, and the wild exaggerations which +follow. The worst being possible, every one takes the worst for granted. +Undoubtedly a dozen armed men could have stifled this insurrection, even +after it had commenced operations; but it is the fatal weakness of a +slaveholding community, that it can never furnish men promptly for such +a purpose, "My first intention was," says one of the most intelligent +newspaper narrators of the affair, "to have attacked them with thirty or +forty men; but those who had families here were strongly opposed to it." + +As usual, each man was pinioned to his own hearth-stone. As usual, aid +had to be summoned from a distance, and, as usual, the United States +troops were the chief reliance. Colonel House, commanding at +Fort Monroe, sent at once three companies of artillery under +Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, and embarked them on board the steamer Hampton +for Suffolk. These were joined by detachments from the United States +ships Warren and Natchez, the whole amounting to nearly eight hundred +men. Two volunteer companies went from Richmond, four from Petersburg, +one from Norfolk, one from Portsmouth, and several from North Carolina. +The militia of Norfolk, Nansemond, and Princess Anne Counties, and the +United States troops at Old Point Comfort, were ordered to scour the +Dismal Swamp, where it was believed that two or three thousand fugitives +were preparing to join the insurgents. It was even proposed to send two +companies from New York and one from New London to the same point. + +When these various forces reached Southampton County, they found +all labor paralyzed and whole plantations abandoned. A letter from +Jerusalem, dated August 24th, says, "The oldest inhabitant of our county +has never experienced such a distressing time as we have had since +Sunday night last..... Every house, room, and corner in this place is +full of women and children, driven from home, who had to take the woods +until they could get to this place." "For many miles around their +track," says another, "the county is deserted by women and children." +Still another writes, "Jerusalem is full of women, most of them from +the other side of the river,--about two hundred at Vix's." Then follow +descriptions of the sufferings of these persons, many of whom had lain +night after night in the woods. But the immediate danger was at an end, +the short-lived insurrection was finished, and now the work of +vengeance was to begin. In the frank phrase of a North Carolina +correspondent,--"The massacre of the whites was over, and the white +people had commenced the destruction of the negroes, which was continued +after our men got there, from time to time, as they could fall in with +them, all day yesterday." A postscript adds, that "passengers by the +Fayetteville stage say, that, by the latest accounts, one hundred and +twenty negroes had been killed,"--this being little more than one day's +work. + +These murders were defended as Nat Turner defended his: a fearful blow +must be struck. In shuddering at the horrors of the insurrection, we +have forgotten the far greater horrors of its suppression. + +The newspapers of the day contain many indignant protests against the +cruelties which took place. "It is with pain," says a correspondent +of the "National Intelligencer," September 7, 1831, "that we speak of +another feature of the Southampton Rebellion; for we have been most +unwilling to have our sympathies for the sufferers diminished or +affected by their misconduct. We allude to the slaughter of many blacks +without trial and under circumstances of great barbarity..... We met +with an individual of intelligence who told us that he himself had +killed between ten and fifteen..... We [the Richmond troop] witnessed +with surprise the sanguinary temper of the population, who evinced a +strong disposition to inflict immediate death on every prisoner." + +There is a remarkable official document from General Eppes, the officer +in command, to be found in the "Richmond Enquirer" for September 6, +1831. It is an indignant denunciation of precisely these outrages; and +though he refuses to give details, he supplies their place by epithets: +"revolting,"--"inhuman and not to be justified,"--"acts of barbarity and +cruelty,"--"acts of atrocity,"--"this course of proceeding dignifies the +rebel and the assassin with the sanctity of martyrdom." And he ends by +threatening martial law upon all future transgressors. Such general +orders are not issued except in rather extreme cases. And in the +parallel columns of the newspaper the innocent editor prints equally +indignant descriptions of Russian atrocities in Lithuania, where the +Poles were engaged in active insurrection, amid profuse sympathy from +Virginia. + +The truth is, it was a Reign of Terror. Volunteer patrols rode in all +directions, visiting plantations. "It was with the greatest difficulty," +said General Brodnax before the House of Delegates, "and at the hazard +of personal popularity and esteem, that the coolest and most +judicious among us could exert an influence sufficient to restrain an +indiscriminate slaughter of the blacks who were suspected." A letter +from the Rev. G.W. Powell declares, "There are thousands of troops +searching in every direction, and many negroes are killed every day: the +exact number will never be ascertained." Petition after petition was +subsequently presented to the legislature, asking compensation for +slaves thus assassinated without trial. + +Men were tortured to death, burned, maimed, and subjected to nameless +atrocities. The overseers were called on to point out any slaves whom +they distrusted, and if any tried to escape, they were shot down. Nay, +worse than this. "A party of horsemen started from Richmond with the +intention of killing every colored person they saw in Southampton +County. They stopped opposite the cabin of a free colored man, who +was hoeing in his little field. They called out, 'Is this Southampton +County?' He replied, 'Yes, Sir, you have just crossed the line, by +yonder tree.' They shot him dead and rode on." This is from the +narrative of the editor of the "Richmond Whig," who was then on duty in +the militia, and protested manfully against these outrages. "Some +of these scenes," he adds, "are hardly inferior in barbarity to the +atrocities of the insurgents." + +These were the masters' stones. If even these conceded so much, it would +be interesting to hear what the slaves had to report. I am indebted to +my honored friend, Lydia Maria Child, for some vivid recollections of +this terrible period, as noted down from the lips of an old colored +woman, once well known in New York, Charity Bower. "At the time of the +old Prophet Nat," she said, "the colored folks was afraid to pray loud; +for the whites threatened to punish 'em dreadfully, if the least noise +was heard. The patrols was low drunken whites, and in Nat's time, if +they heard any of the colored folks praying or singing a hymn, they +would fall upon 'em and abuse 'em, and sometimes kill 'em, afore master +or missis could get to 'em. The brightest and best was killed in Nat's +time. The whites always suspect such ones. They killed a great many at +a place called Duplon. They killed Antonio, a slave of Mr. J. Stanley, +whom they shot; then they pointed their guns at him, and told him to +confess about the insurrection. He told 'em he didn't know anything +about any insurrection. They shot several balls through him, quartered +him, and put his head on a pole at the fork of the road leading to the +court." (This is no exaggeration, if the Virginia newspapers may be +taken as evidence.) "It was there but a short time. He had no trial. +They never do. In Nat's time, the patrols would tie up the free colored +people, flog 'em, and try to make 'em lie against one another, and +often killed them before anybody could interfere. Mr. James Cole, High +Sheriff, said, if any of the patrols came on his plantation, he would +lose his life in defence of his people. One day he heard a patroller +boasting how many niggers he had killed. Mr. Cole said, 'If you don't +pack up, as quick as God Almighty will let you, and get out of this +town, and never be seen in it again, I'll put you where dogs won't bark +at you.' He went off, and wasn't seen in them parts again." + +These outrages were not limited to the colored population; but other +instances occurred which strikingly remind one of more recent times. An +Englishman, named Robinson, was engaged in selling books at Petersburg. +An alarm being given, one night, that five hundred blacks were marching +towards the town, he stood guard, with others, on the bridge. After the +panic had a little subsided, he happened to remark, that "the blacks, as +men, were entitled to their freedom, and ought to be emancipated." +This led to great excitement, and he was warned to leave town. He took +passage in the stage, but the stage was intercepted. He then fled to a +friend's house; the house was broken open, and he was dragged forth. +The civil authorities, being applied to, refused to interfere. The mob +stripped him, gave him a great number of lashes, and sent him on foot, +naked, under a hot sun, to Richmond, whence he with difficulty found a +passage to New York. + +Of the capture or escape of most of that small band who met with Nat +Turner in the woods upon the Travis plantation little can now be known. +All appear among the list of convicted, except Henry and Will. General +Moore, who occasionally figures as second in command, in the newspaper +narratives of that day, was probably the Hark or Hercules before +mentioned; as no other of the confederates had belonged to Mrs. Travis, +or would have been likely to bear her previous name of Moore. As usual, +the newspapers state that most, if not all the slaves, were "the +property of kind and indulgent masters." Whether in any case they were +also the sons of those masters is a point ignored; but from the fact +that three out of the seven were at first reported as being white men by +several different witnesses,--the whole number being correctly given, +and the statement therefore probably authentic,--one must suppose that +there was an admixture of patrician blood in some of these conspirators. + +The subordinate insurgents sought safety as they could. A free colored +man, named Will Artist, shot himself in the woods, where his hat was +found on a stake and his pistol lying by him; another was found drowned; +others were traced to the Dismal Swamp; others returned to their homes, +and tried to conceal their share in the insurrection, assuring their +masters that they had been forced, against their will, to join,--the +usual defence in such cases. The number shot down at random must, by +all accounts, have amounted to many hundreds, but it is past all human +registration now. The number who had a formal trial, such as it was, is +officially stated at fifty-five; of these, seventeen were convicted and +hanged, twelve convicted and transported, twenty acquitted, and four +free colored men sent on for further trial and finally acquitted. "Not +one of those known to be concerned escaped." Of those executed, one only +was a woman: "Lucy, slave of John T. Barrow": that is all her epitaph, +shorter even than that of Wordsworth's more famous Lucy;--but whether +this one was old or young, pure or wicked, lovely or repulsive, octroon +or negro, a Cassy, an Emily, or a Topsy, no information appears; she was +a woman, she was a slave, and she died. + +There is one touching story, in connection with these terrible +retaliations, which rests on good authority, that of the Rev. M.B. Cox, +a Liberian missionary, then in Virginia. In the hunt which followed the +massacre, a slaveholder went into the woods, accompanied by a +faithful slave, who had been the means of saving his life during the +insurrection. When they had reached a retired place in the forest, the +man handed his gun to his master, informing him that he could not live a +slave any longer, and requesting him either to free him or shoot him on +the spot. The master took the gun, in some trepidation, levelled it at +the faithful negro, and shot him through the heart. It is probable that +this slaveholder was a Dr. Blunt,--his being the only plantation where +the slaves were reported as thus defending their masters. "If this +be true," said the "Richmond Enquirer," when it first narrated this +instance of loyalty, "great will be the desert of these noble minded +Africans." This "noble-minded African," at least, estimated his own +desert at a high standard: he demanded freedom,--and obtained it. + +Meanwhile the panic of the whites continued; for, though all others +might be disposed of, Nat Turner was still at large. We have positive +evidence of the extent of the alarm, although great efforts were +afterwards made to represent it as a trifling affair. A distinguished +citizen of Virginia wrote three months later to the Hon. W.B. Seabrook +of South Carolina,--"From all that has come to my knowledge during and +since that affair, I am convinced most fully that every black preacher +in the country east of the Blue Ridge was in the secret." "There is much +reason to believe," says the Governor's message on December 6th, "that +the spirit of insurrection was not confined to Southampton. Many +convictions have taken place elsewhere, and some few in distant +counties." The withdrawal of the United States troops, after some ten +days' service, was a signal for fresh excitement, and an address, +numerously signed, was presented to the United States Government, +imploring their continued stay. More than three weeks after the first +alarm, the Governor sent a supply of arms into Prince William, Fauquier, +and Orange Counties. "From examinations which have taken place in other +counties," says one of the best newspaper historians of the affair, +(in the "Richmond Enquirer" of September 6th,) "I fear that the scheme +embraced a wider sphere than I at first supposed." Nat Turner himself, +intentionally or otherwise, increased the confusion by denying all +knowledge of the North Carolina outbreak, and declaring that he had +communicated his plans to his four confederates within six months; +while, on the other hand, a slave-girl, sixteen or seventeen years old, +belonging to Solomon Parker, notified that she had heard the subject +discussed for eighteen months, and that at a meeting held during the +previous May some eight or ten had joined the plot. + +It is astonishing to discover, by laborious comparison of newspaper +files, how vast was the immediate range of these insurrectionary alarms. +Every Southern State seems to have borne its harvest of terror. On the +Eastern shore of Maryland great alarm was at once manifested, especially +in the neighborhood of Easton and Snowhill; and the houses of colored +men were searched for arms even in Baltimore. In Delaware, there were +similar rumors through Sussex and Dover Counties; there were arrests and +executions; and in Somerset County great public meetings were held, to +demand additional safeguards. On election-day, in Seaford, Del., some +young men, going out to hunt rabbits, discharged their guns in sport; +the men being absent, all the women in the vicinity took to flight; the +alarm spread like the "Ipswich Fright"; soon Seaford was thronged with +armed men; and when the boys returned from hunting, they found cannon +drawn out to receive them. + +In North Carolina, Raleigh and Fayetteville were put under military +defence, and women and children concealed themselves in the swamps for +many days. The rebel organization was supposed to include two thousand. +Forty-six slaves were imprisoned in Union County, twenty-five in Sampson +County, and twenty-three at least in Duplin County, some of whom were +executed. The panic also extended into Wayne, New Hanover, and Lenoir +Counties. Four men were shot without trial in Wilmington,--Nimrod, +Abraham, Prince, and "Dan the Drayman," the latter a man of +seventy,--and their heads placed on poles at the four corners of the +town. Nearly two months afterwards the trials were still continuing; and +at a still later day, the Governor in his proclamation recommended the +formation of companies of volunteers in every county. + +In South Carolina, General Hayne issued a proclamation "to prove the +groundlessness of the existing alarms,"--thus implying that serious +alarms existed. In Macon, Georgia, the whole population were roused from +their beds at midnight by a report of a large force of armed negroes +five miles off. In an hour, every woman and child was deposited in the +largest building of the town, and a military force hastily collected in +front. The editor of the Macon "Messenger" excused the poor condition of +his paper, a few days afterwards, by the absorption of his workmen in +patrol duties, and describes "dismay and terror" as the condition of the +people, of "all ages and sexes." In Jones, Twiggs, and Monroe Counties, +the same alarms were reported; and in one place "several slaves were +tied to a tree, while a militia captain hacked at them with his sword." + +In Alabama, at Columbus and Fort Mitchell, a rumor was spread of a joint +conspiracy of Indians and negroes. At Claiborne the panic was still +greater; the slaves were said to be thoroughly organized through that +part of the State, and multitudes were imprisoned; the whole alarm being +apparently founded on one stray copy of the "Liberator." + +In Tennessee, the Shelbyville "Freeman" announced that an +insurrectionary plot had just been discovered, barely in time for +its defeat, through the treachery of a female slave. In Louisville, +Kentucky, a similar organization was discovered or imagined, and arrests +were made in consequence. "The papers, from motives of policy, do +not notice the disturbance," wrote one correspondent to the Portland +"Courier." "Pity us!" he added. + +But the greatest bubble burst in Louisiana. Captain Alexander, an +English tourist, arriving in New Orleans at the beginning of September, +found the whole city in tumult. Handbills had been issued, appealing to +the slaves to rise against their masters, saying that all men were born +equal, declaring that Hannibal was a black man, and that they also might +have great leaders among them. Twelve hundred stand of weapons were said +to have been found in a black man's house; five hundred citizens were +under arms, and four companies of regulars were ordered to the city, +whose barracks Alexander himself visited. + +If such were the alarm in New Orleans, the story, of course, lost +nothing by transmission to other Slave States. A rumor reached +Frankfort, Kentucky, that the slaves already had possession of the +coast, both above and below New Orleans. But the most remarkable +circumstance is, that all this seems to have been a mere revival of an +old terror, once before excited and exploded. The following paragraph +had appeared in the Jacksonville (Georgia) "Observer," during the spring +previous:-- + +"FEARFUL DISCOVERY. We were favored, by yesterday's mail, with a letter +from New Orleans, of May 1st, in which we find that an important +discovery had been made a few days previous in that city. The following +is an extract:--'Four days ago, as some planters were digging under +ground, they found a square room containing eleven thousand stand of +arms and fifteen thousand cartridges, each of the cartridges containing +a bullet.' It is said the negroes intended to rise as soon as the sickly +season began, and obtain possession of the city by massacring the white +population. The same letter states that the mayor had prohibited the +opening of Sunday-schools for the instruction of blacks, under a penalty +of five hundred dollars for the first offence, and for the second, +death." + +Such were the terrors that came back from nine other Slave States, as +the echo of the voice of Nat Turner; and when it is also known that the +subject was at once taken up by the legislatures of other States, where +there was no public panic, as in Missouri and Tennessee,--and when, +finally, it is added that reports of insurrection had been arriving all +that year from Rio Janeiro, Martinique, St. Jago, Antigua, Caraccas, and +Tortola, it is easy to see with what prolonged distress the accumulated +terror must have weighed down upon Virginia, during the two months that +Nat Turner lay hid. + +True, there were a thousand men in arms in Southampton County, to +inspire security. But the blow had been struck by only seven men before; +and unless there were an armed guard in every house, who could tell but +any house might at any moment be the scene of new horrors? They might +kill or imprison unresisting negroes by day, but could they resist their +avengers by night? "The half cannot be told," wrote a lady from another +part of Virginia, at this time, "of the distresses of the people. In +Southampton County, the scene of the insurrection, the distress beggars +description. A gentleman who has been there says that even here, where +there has been great alarm, we have no idea of the situation of those in +that county.... I do not hesitate to believe that many negroes around us +would join in a massacre as horrible as that which has taken place, if +an opportunity should offer." + +Meanwhile the cause of all this terror was made the object of desperate +search. On September 17th the Governor offered a reward of five hundred +dollars for his capture, and there were other rewards swelling the +amount to eleven hundred dollars,--but in vain. No one could track or +trap him. On September 30th a minute account of his capture appeared +in the newspapers, but it was wholly false. On October 7th there was +another, and on October 18th another; yet all without foundation. Worn +out by confinement in his little cave, Nat Turner grew more adventurous, +and began to move about stealthily by night, afraid to speak to any +human being, but hoping to obtain some information that might aid his +escape. Returning regularly to his retreat before daybreak, he might +possibly have continued this mode of life until pursuit had ceased, had +not a dog succeeded where men had failed. The creature accidentally +smelt out the provisions hid in the cave, and finally led thither his +masters, two negroes, one of whom was named Nelson. On discovering the +terrible fugitive, they fled precipitately, when he hastened to retreat +in an opposite direction. This was on October 15th, and from this moment +the neighborhood was all alive with excitement, and five or six hundred +men undertook the pursuit. + +It shows a more than Indian adroitness in Nat Turner to have escaped +capture any longer. The cave, the arms, the provisions were found; and +lying among them the notched stick of this miserable Robinson Crusoe, +marked with five weary weeks and six days. But the man was gone. For ten +days more he concealed himself among the wheat-stacks on Mr. Francis's +plantation, and during this time was reduced almost to despair. Once he +decided to surrender himself, and walked by night within two miles of +Jerusalem before his purpose failed him. Three times he tried to get out +of that neighborhood, but in vain: travelling by day was, of course, +out of the question, and by night he found it impossible to elude the +patrol. Again and again, therefore, he returned to his hiding-place, +and during his whole two months' liberty never went five miles from the +Cross Keys. On the 25th of October, he was at last discovered by Mr. +Francis, as he was emerging from a stack. A load of buckshot was +instantly discharged at him, twelve of which passed through his hat +as he fell to the ground. He escaped even then, but his pursuers were +rapidly concentrating upon him, and it is perfectly astonishing that he +could have eluded them for five days more. + +On Sunday, October 30th, a man named Benjamin Phipps, going out for the +first time on patrol duty, was passing at noon a clearing in the woods +where a number of pine-trees had long since been felled. There was a +motion among their boughs; he stopped to watch it; and through a gap in +the branches he saw, emerging from a hole in the earth beneath, the +face of Nat Turner. Aiming his gun instantly, Phipps called on him +to surrender. The fugitive, exhausted with watching and privation, +entangled in the branches, armed only with a sword, had nothing to do +but to yield; sagaciously reflecting, also, as he afterwards explained, +that the woods were full of armed men, and that he had better trust +fortune for some later chance of escape, instead of desperately +attempting it then. He was correct in the first impression, since there +were fifty armed scouts within a circuit of two miles. His insurrection +ended where it began; for this spot was only a mile and a half from the +house of Joseph Travis. + +Torn, emaciated, ragged, "a mere scarecrow," still wearing the hat +perforated with buckshot, with his arms bound to his sides, he was +driven before the levelled gun to the nearest house, that of a Mr. +Edwards. He was confined there that night; but the news had spread so +rapidly that within an hour after his arrival a hundred persons had +collected, and the excitement became so intense "that it was with +difficulty he could be conveyed alive to Jerusalem." The enthusiasm +spread instantly through Virginia; Mr. Trezvant, the Jerusalem +postmaster, sent notices of it far and near; and Governor Floyd himself +wrote a letter to the "Richmond Enquirer" to give official announcement +of the momentous capture. + +When Nat Turner was asked by Mr. T.R. Gray, the counsel assigned him, +whether, although defeated, he still believed in his own Providential +mission, he answered, as simply as one who came thirty years after him, +"Was not Christ crucified?" In the same spirit, when arraigned before +the court, "he answered, 'Not guilty,' saying to his counsel that he did +not feel so." But apparently no argument was made in his favor by his +counsel, nor were any witnesses called,--he being convicted on the +testimony of Levi Waller, and upon his own confession, which was put in +by Mr. Gray, and acknowledged by the prisoner before the six justices +composing the court, as being "full, free, and voluntary." He was +therefore placed in the paradoxical position of conviction by his own +confession, under a plea of "Not guilty." The arrest took place on the +thirtieth of October, 1831, the confession on the first of November, the +trial and conviction on the fifth, and the execution on the following +Friday, the eleventh of November, precisely at noon. He met his death +with perfect composure, declined addressing the multitude assembled, and +told the sheriff in a firm voice that he was ready. Another account says +that he "betrayed no emotion, and even hurried the executioner in the +performance of his duty." "Not a limb nor a muscle was observed to +move. His body, after his death, was given over to the surgeons for +dissection." + +This last statement merits remark. There would he no evidence that this +formidable man was not favored during his imprisonment with that full +measure of luxury which slave-jails afford to slaves, but for a rumor +which arose after the execution, that he was compelled to sell his body +in advance, for purposes of dissection, in exchange for food. But it +does not appear probable, from the known habits of Southern anatomists, +that any such bargain could have been needed. For in the circular of the +South Carolina Medical School for that very year I find this remarkable +suggestion:--"Some advantages of a peculiar character are connected +with this institution. No place in the United States affords so great +opportunities for the acquisition of medical knowledge, subjects being +obtained among the colored population in sufficient number for every +purpose, and proper dissections carried on without offending any +individual." What a convenience, to possess for scientific purposes a +class of population sufficiently human to be dissected, but not human +enough to be supposed to take offence at it! And as the same arrangement +may be supposed to have existed in Virginia, Nat Turner would hardly +have gone through the formality of selling his body for food to those +who claimed its control at any rate. + +The Confession of the captive was published under authority of Mr. Gray, +in a pamphlet, at Baltimore. Fifty thousand copies of it are said to +have been printed, and it was "embellished with an accurate likeness +of the brigand, taken by Mr. John Crawley. portrait-painter, and +lithographed by Endicott & Swett, at Baltimore." The newly published +"Liberator" said of it, at the time, that it would "only serve to rouse +up other leaders, and hasten other insurrections," and advised grand +juries to indict Mr. Gray. I have never seen a copy of the original +pamphlet, it is not to be found in any of our public libraries, and I +have heard of but one as still existing, although the Confession itself +has been repeatedly reprinted. Another small pamphlet, containing the +main features of the outbreak, was published at New York during the same +year, and this is in my possession. But the greater part of the facts +which I have given were gleaned from the contemporary newspapers. + +Who now shall go back thirty years and read the heart of this +extraordinary man, who, by the admission of his captors, "never was +known to swear an oath or drink a drop of spirits,"--who, on the same +authority, "for natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension was +surpassed by few men," "with a mind capable of attaining anything,"--who +knew no book but his Bible, and that by heart,--who devoted himself +soul and body to the cause of his race, without a trace of personal hope +or fear,--who laid his plans so shrewdly that they came at last with +less warning than any earthquake on the doomed community around,--and +who, when that time arrived, took the life of man, woman, and child, +without a throb of compunction, a word of exultation, or an act of +superfluous outrage? Mrs. Stowe's "Dred" seems dim and melodramatic +beside the actual Nat Turner. De Quincey's "Avenger" is his only +parallel in imaginative literature: similar wrongs, similar retribution. +Mr. Gray, his self-appointed confessor, rises into a sort of bewildered +enthusiasm, with the prisoner before him. "I shall not attempt to +describe the effect of his narrative, as told and commented on by +himself, in the condemned-hole of the prison. The calm, deliberate +composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the +expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, still +bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him, clothed +with rags and covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled +hands to heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man,--I +looked on him, and the blood curdled in my veins." + +But the more remarkable the personal character of Nat Turner, the +greater the amazement felt that he should not have appreciated the +extreme felicity of his position as a slave. In all insurrections, the +standing wonder seems to be that the slaves most trusted and best used +should be most deeply involved. So in this case, as usual, they resorted +to the most astonishing theories of the origin of the affair. One +attributed it to Free-Masonry, and another to free whiskey,--liberty +appearing dangerous, even in these forms. The poor whites charged it +upon the free colored people, and urged their expulsion, forgetting that +in North Carolina the plot was betrayed by one of this class, and that +in Virginia there were but two engaged, both of whom had slave-wives. +The slaveholding clergymen traced it to want of knowledge of the Bible, +forgetting that Nat Turner knew scarcely anything else. On the other +hand, "a distinguished citizen of Virginia" combined in one sweeping +denunciation "Northern incendiaries, tracts, Sunday-schools, religion, +reading, and writing." + +But whether the theories of its origin were wise or foolish, +the insurrection made its mark, and the famous band of Virginia +emancipationists who all that winter made the House of Delegates ring +with unavailing eloquence--till the rise of slave-exportation to +new cotton regions stopped their voices--were but the unconscious +mouth-pieces of Nat Turner. In January, 1832, in reply to a member who +had called the outbreak a "petty affair," the eloquent James McDowell +thus described the impression it left behind:-- + +"Now, Sir, I ask you, I ask gentlemen, in conscience to say, was that +a 'petty affair' which startled the feelings of your whole +population,--which threw a portion of it into alarm, a portion of it +into panic,--which wrung out from an affrighted people the thrilling +cry, day after day, conveyed to your executive, '_We are in peril of our +lives; send us an army for defence_'? Was that a 'petty affair' which +drove families from their homes,--which assembled women and children in +crowds, without shelter, at places of common refuge, in every condition +of weakness and infirmity, under every suffering which want and terror +could inflict, yet willing to endure all, willing to meet death from +famine, death from climate, death from hardships, preferring anything +rather than the horrors of meeting it from a domestic assassin? Was that +a 'petty affair' which erected a peaceful and confiding portion of the +State into a military camp,--which outlawed from pity the unfortunate +beings whose brothers had offended,--which barred every door, penetrated +every bosom with fear or suspicion,--which so banished every sense of +security from every man's dwelling, that, let but a hoof or horn break +upon the silence of the night, and an aching throb would be driven to +the heart, the husband would look to his weapon, and the mother would +shudder and weep upon her cradle? Was it the fear of Nat Turner, and his +deluded, drunken handful of followers, which produced such effects? +Was it this that induced distant counties, where the very name of +Southampton was strange, to arm and equip for a struggle? No, Sir, +it was the suspicion eternally attached to the slave himself,--the +suspicion that a Nat Turner might be in every family,--that the same +bloody deed might be acted over at any time and in any place,--that the +materials for it were spread through the land, and were always ready for +a like explosion. Nothing but the force of this withering apprehension, +--nothing but the paralyzing and deadening weight with which it falls +upon and prostrates the heart of every man who has helpless dependents +to protect,--nothing but this could have thrown a brave people +into consternation, or could have made any portion of this powerful +Commonwealth, for a single instant, to have quailed and trembled." + +While these things were going on, the enthusiasm for the Polish +Revolution was rising to its height. The nation was ringing with a peal +of joy, on hearing that at Frankfort the Poles had killed fourteen +thousand Russians. "The Southern Religious Telegraph" was publishing an +impassioned address to Kosciusko; standards were being consecrated for +Poland in the larger cities; heroes, like Skrzynecki, Czartoryski, +Rozyski, Kaminski, were choking the trump of Fame with their complicated +patronymics. These are all forgotten now; and this poor negro, who did +not even possess a name, beyond one abrupt monosyllable,--for even the +name of Turner was the master's property,--still lives a memory of +terror and a symbol of retribution triumphant. + + + + +CONCERNING VEAL: + +A DISCOURSE OF IMMATURITY. + + +The man who, in his progress through life, has listened with attention +to the conversation of human beings, who has carefully read the writings +of the best English authors, who has made himself well acquainted with +the history and usages of his native land, and who has meditated much on +all he has seen and read, must have been led to the firm conviction that +by VEAL those who speak the English language intend to denote the flesh +of calves, and that by a calf is intended an immature ox or cow. A calf +is a creature in a temporary and progressive stage of its being. It will +not always be a calf; if it live long enough, it will assuredly cease to +be a calf. And if impatient man, arresting the creature at that stage, +should consign it to the hands of him whose business it is to convert +the sentient animal into the impassive and unconscious meat, the +nutriment which the creature will afford will be nothing more than +immature beef. There may be many qualities of Veal; the calf which +yields it may die at very different stages in its physical and moral +development; but provided only it die as a calf,--provided only that its +meat can fitly be styled Veal,--_this_ will be characteristic of +it, that the meat shall be immature meat. It may be very good, very +nutritious and palatable; some people may like it better than Beef, and +may feed upon it with the liveliest satisfaction; but when it is fairly +and deliberately put to us, it must be admitted, even by such as like +Veal the best, that Veal is but an immature production of Nature. I take +Veal, therefore, as the emblem of IMMATURITY,--of that which is now in +a stage out of which it must grow,--of that which, as time goes on, +will grow older, will probably grow better, will certainly grow very +different. _That_ is what I mean by Veal. + +And now, my reader and friend, you will discern the subject about which +I trust we are to have some pleasant and not unprofitable thought +together. You will readily believe that my subject is not that material +Veal which may be beheld and purchased in the butchers' shops. I am not +now to treat of its varied qualities, of the sustenance which it yields, +of the price at which it may be procured, or of the laws according to +which that price rises and falls. I am not going to take you to the +green fields in which the creature which yielded the Veal was fed, or to +discourse of the blossoming hawthorn hedges from whose midst it was reft +away. Neither shall I speak of the rustic life, the toils, cares, and +fancies of the farm-house near which it spent its brief lifetime. The +Veal of which I intend to speak is Moral Veal, or (to speak with +entire accuracy) Veal Intellectual, Moral, and Aesthetical. By Veal +I understand the immature productions of the human mind,--immature +compositions, immature opinions, feelings, and tastes. I wish to think +of the work, the views, the fancies, the emotions, which are yielded by +the human soul in its immature stages,--while the calf (so to speak) +is only growing into the ox,--while the clever boy, with his absurd +opinions and feverish feelings and fancies, is developing into the +mature and sober-minded man. And if I could but rightly set out the +thoughts which have at many different times occurred to me on this +matter, if one could catch and fix the vague glimpses and passing +intuitions of solid unchanging truth, if the subject on which one has +thought long and felt deeply were always that on which one could write +best, and could bring out to the sympathy of others what a man himself +has felt, what an excellent essay this would be! But it will not be so; +for, as I try to grasp the thoughts I would set out, they melt away and +elude me. It is like trying to catch and keep the rainbow hues you have +seen the sunshine cast upon the spray of a waterfall, when you try to +catch the tone, the thoughts, the feelings, the atmosphere of early +youth. + +There can be no question at all as to the fact, that clever young men +and women, when their minds begin to open, when they begin to think for +themselves, do pass through a stage of mental development which they +by-and-by quite outgrow, and entertain opinions and beliefs, and +feel emotions, on which afterwards they look back with no sympathy or +approval. This is a fact as certain as that a calf grows into an ox, or +that veal, if spared to grow, will become beef. But no analogy between +the material and the moral must be pushed too far. There are points of +difference between material and moral Veal. A calf knows it is a calf. +It may think itself bigger and wiser than an ox, but it knows it is not +an ox. And if it be a reasonable calf, modest, and free from prejudice, +it is well aware that the joints it will yield after its demise will be +very different from those of the stately and well-consolidated ox which +ruminates in the rich pasture near it. But the human boy often thinks he +is a man, and even more than a man. He fancies that his mental stature +is as big and as solid as it will ever become. He fancies that his +mental productions--the poems and essays he writes, the political +and social views he forms, the moods of feeling with which he regards +things--are just what they may always be, just what they ought always to +be. If spared in this world, and if he be one of those whom years make +wiser, the day comes when he looks back with amazement and shame on +those early mental productions. He discerns now how immature, absurd, +and extravagant they were,--in brief, how Vealy. But at the time, he +had not the least idea that they were so. He had entire confidence in +himself,--not a misgiving as to his own ability and wisdom. You, clever +young student of eighteen years old, when you wrote your prize essay, +fancied that in thought and style it was very like Macaulay,--and not +Macaulay in that stage of Vealy brilliancy in which he wrote his essay +on Milton, not Macaulay the fairest and most promising of calves, but +Macaulay the stateliest and most beautiful of oxen. Well, read over your +essay now at thirty, and tell us what you think of it. And you, clever, +warm-hearted, enthusiastic young preacher of twenty-four, wrote your +sermon; it was very ingenious, very brilliant in style, and you never +thought but that it would be felt by mature-minded Christian people as +suiting their case, as true to their inmost experience. You could not +see why you might not preach as well as a man of forty. And if people in +middle age had complained, that, eloquent as your preaching was, they +found it suited them better and profited them more to listen to the +plainer instructions of some good man with gray hair, you would not have +understood their feeling, and you might perhaps have attributed it to +many motives rather than the true one. But now at five-and-thirty, +find out the yellow manuscript, and read it carefully over; and I will +venture to say, that, if you were a really clever and eloquent young +man, writing in an ambitious and rhetorical style, and prompted to do +so by the spontaneous fervor of your heart and readiness of your +imagination, you will feel now little sympathy even with the literary +style of that early composition,--you will see extravagance and +bombast, where once you saw only eloquence and graphic power. And as for +the graver and more important matter of the thought of the discourse, +I think you will be aware of a certain undefinable shallowness and +crudity. Your growing experience has borne you beyond it. Somehow you +feel it does not come home to you, and suit you as you would wish it +should. It will not do. That old sermon you cannot preach now, till you +have entirely recast and rewritten it. But you had no such notion when +you wrote the sermon. You were satisfied with it. You thought it even +better than the discourses of men as clever as yourself, and ten or +fifteen years older. Your case was as though the youthful calf should +walk beside the sturdy ox, and think itself rather bigger. + +Let no clever young reader fancy, from what has been said, that I +am about to make an onslaught upon clever young men. I remember too +distinctly how bitter, and indeed ferocious, I used to feel, about +eleven or twelve years ago, when I heard men of more than middle age and +less than middling ability speak with contemptuous depreciation of the +productions and doings of men considerably their juniors, and vastly +their superiors,--describing them as _boys_, and as _clever lads_, with +looks of dark malignity. There are few more disgusting sights than +the envy and jealousy of their juniors, which may be seen in various +malicious, commonplace old men; as there is hardly a more beautiful and +pleasing sight than the old man hailing and counselling and encouraging +the youthful genius which he knows far surpasses his own. And I, my +young friend of two-and-twenty, who, relatively to you, may be regarded +as old, am going to assume no preposterous airs of superiority. I do not +claim to be a bit wiser than you; all I claim is to be older. I have +outgrown your stage; but I was once such as you, and all my sympathies +are with you yet. But it is a difficulty in the way of the essayist, +and, indeed, of all who set out opinions which they wish to be received +and acted on by their fellow-creatures, that they seem, by the very act +of offering advice to others, to claim to be wiser and better than those +whom they advise. But in reality it is not so. The opinions of the +essayist or of the preacher, if deserving of notice at all, are so +because of their inherent truth, and not because he expresses them. +Estimate them for yourself, and give them the weight which you think +their due. And be sure of this, that the writer, if earnest and sincere, +addressed all he said to himself as much as to any one else. This is the +thing which redeems all didactic writing or speaking from the charge of +offensive assumption and self-assertion. It is not for the preacher, +whether of moral or religious truth, to address his fellows as outside +sinners, worse than himself, and needing to be reminded of that of which +he does not need to be reminded. No, the earnest preacher preaches to +himself as much as to any in the congregation; it is from the picture +ever before him in his own weak and wayward heart that he learns to +reach and describe the hearts of others, if, indeed, he do so at all. +And it is the same with lesser things. + +It is curious and it is instructive to remark how heartily men, as they +grow towards middle age, despise themselves as they were a few years +since. It is a bitter thing for a man to confess that he is a fool; but +it costs little effort to declare that he was a fool, a good while ago. +Indeed, a tacit compliment to his present self is involved in the latter +confession: it suggests the reflection, what progress he has made, and +how vastly he has improved, since then. When a man informs us that he +was a very silly fellow in the year 1851, it is assumed that he is not a +very silly fellow in the year 1861. It is as when the merchant with ten +thousand a year, sitting at his sumptuous table, and sipping his '41 +claret, tells you how, when he came as a raw lad from the country, he +used often to have to go without his dinner. He knows that the plate, +the wine, the massively elegant apartment, the silent servants, so +alert, yet so impassive, will appear to join in chorus with the obvious +suggestion, "You see he has not to go without his dinner now!" Did you +ever, when twenty years old, look back at the diary you kept when +you were sixteen,--or when twenty-five, at the diary you kept when +twenty,--or at thirty, at the diary you kept when twenty-five? Was not +your feeling a singular mixture of humiliation and self-complacency? +What extravagant, silly stuff it seemed that you had thus written five +years before! What Veal! and, oh, what a calf he must have been who +wrote it! It is a difficult question, to which the answer cannot be +elicited, Who is the greatest fool in this world? But every candid and +sensible man of middle age knows thoroughly well the answer to the +question, Who was the greatest fool that he himself ever knew? And after +all, it is your diary, especially if you were wont to introduce into it +poetical remarks and moral reflections, that will mainly help you to +the humiliating conclusion. Other things, some of which I have already +named, will point in the same direction. Look at the prize essays you +wrote when you were a boy at school; look even at your earlier prize +essays written at college (though of these last I have something to say +hereafter); look at the letters you wrote home when away at school or +even at college, especially if you were a clever boy, trying to write +in a graphic and witty fashion; and if you have reached sense at last, +(which some, it may be remarked, never do,) I think you will blush even +through the unblushing front of manhood, and think what a terrific, +unutterable, conceited, intolerable blockhead you were. It is not till +people attain somewhat mature years that they can rightly understand +the wonderful forbearance their parents must have shown in listening +patiently to the frightful nonsense they talked and wrote. I have +already spoken of sermons. If you go early into the Church, say at +twenty-three or twenty-four, and write sermons regularly and diligently, +you know what landmarks they will be of your mental progress. The first +runnings of the stream are turbid, but it clears itself into sense and +taste month by month and year by year. You wrote many sermons in your +first year or two; you preached them with entire confidence in them, +and they did really keep up the attention of the congregation in a +remarkable way. You accumulate in a box a store of that valuable +literature and theology, and when by-and-by you go to another parish, +you have a comfortable feeling that you have a capital stock to go on +with. You think that any Monday morning, when you have the prospect of +a very busy week, or when you feel very weary, you may resolve that you +shall write no sermon that week, but just go and draw forth one from the +box. I have already said what you will probably find, even if you draw +forth a discourse which cost much labor. You cannot use it as it stands. +Possibly it may be structural and essential Veal: the whole framework of +thought may be immature. Possibly it may be Veal only in style; and by +cutting out a turgid sentence here and there, and, above all, by cutting +out all the passages which you thought particularly eloquent, the +discourse may do yet. But even then you cannot give it with much +confidence. Your mind can yield something better than that now. I +imagine how a fine old orange-tree, that bears oranges with the thinnest +possible skin and with no pips, juicy and rich, might feel that it has +outgrown the fruit of its first years, when the skin was half an inch +thick, the pips innumerable, and the eatable portion small and poor. It +is with a feeling such as _that_ that you read over your early +sermon. Still, mingling with the sense of shame, there is a certain +satisfaction. You have not been standing still; you have been getting +on. And we always like to think _that_. + +What is it that makes intellectual Veal? What are the things about a +composition which stamp it as such? Well, it is a certain character in +thought and style hard to define, but strongly felt by such as discern +its presence at all. It is strongly felt by professors reading the +compositions of their students, especially the compositions of the +cleverest students. It is strongly felt by educated folk of middle age, +in listening to the sermons of young pulpit orators, especially of +such as think for themselves, of such as aim at a high standard of +excellence, of such as have in them the makings of striking and eloquent +preachers. Dull and stupid fellows never deviate into the extravagance +and absurdity which I specially understand by Veal. They plod along in +a humdrum manner; there is no poetry in their soul,--none of those +ambitious stirrings which lead the man who has in him the true spark of +genius to try for grand things and incur severe and ignominious tumbles. +A heavy dray-horse, walking along the road, may possibly advance at a +very lagging pace, or may even stand still; but whatever he may do, he +is not likely to jump violently over the hedge, or to gallop off at +twenty-five miles an hour. It must be a thoroughbred who will go wrong +in that grand fashion. And there are intellectual absurdities and +extravagances which hold out hopeful promise of noble doings yet: the +eagle, which will breast the hurricane yet, may meet various awkward +tumbles before he learns the fashion in which to use those iron wings. +But the substantial goose, which probably escapes those tumbles in +trying to fly, will never do anything very magnificent in the way of +flying. The man who in his early days writes in a very inflated and +bombastic style will gradually sober down into good sense and accurate +taste, still retaining something of liveliness and eloquence. But expect +little of the man who as a boy was always sensible, and never bombastic. +He will grow awfully dry. He is sure to fall into the unpardonable sin +of tiresomeness. The rule has exceptions; but the earliest productions +of a man of real genius are almost always crude, flippant, and +affectedly smart, or else turgid and extravagant in a high degree. +Witness Mr. Disraeli; witness Sir E.B. Lytton; witness even Macaulay. +The man who as mere boy writes something very sound and sensible will +probably never become more than a dull, sensible, commonplace man. +Many people can say, as they bethink themselves of their old college +companions, that those who wrote with good sense and good taste at +twenty have mostly settled down into the dullest and baldest of prosers; +while such as dealt in bombastic flourishes and absurd ambitiousness of +style have learned, as time went on, to prune their early luxuriances, +while still retaining something of raciness, interest, and ornament. + +I have been speaking very generally of the characteristics of Veal in +composition. It is difficult to give any accurate description of it that +shall go into minuter details. Of course it is easy to think of little +external marks of the beast,--that is, the calf. It is Veal in style, +when people, writing prose, think it a fine thing to write _o'er_ +instead of _over_, _ne'er_ instead of _never_, _poesie_ instead of +_poetry_, and _methinks_ under any circumstances whatsoever. References +to the heart are generally of the nature of Veal; also allusions to the +mysterious throbbings and yearnings of our nature. The word _grand_ has +of late come to excite a strong suspicion of Veal; and when I read the +other day in a certain poem something about a _great grand man_, I +concluded that the writer of that poem was meanwhile a great grand calf. +The only case in which the words may properly be used together is in +speaking of your great-grandfather. To talk about _mine_ affections, +meaning _my_ affections, is Veal; and _mine bonnie love_ was decided +Veal, though it was written by Charlotte Bronté. _Wife mine_ is Veal, +though it stands in "The Caxtons." I should rather like to see the man +who in actual life is accustomed to address his spouse in that fashion. +To say _Not, oh, never_ shall we do so and so is outrageous Veal. +_Sylvan grove_ or _sylvan vale_ in ordinary conversation is Veal. The +word _glorious_ should be used with caution; when applied to trees, +mountains, or the like, there is a strong suspicion of Veal about it. +But one feels that in saying these things we are not getting at the +essence of Veal. Veal in thought is essential Veal, and it is very hard +to define. Beyond extravagant language, beyond absurd fine things, it +lies in a certain lack of reality and sobriety of sense and view,--in a +certain indefinable jejuneness in the mental fare provided, which makes +mature men feel that somehow it does not satisfy their cravings. You +know what I mean better than I can express it. You have seen and heard +a young preacher, with a rosy face and an unlined brow, preaching about +the cares and trials of life. Well, you just feel at once he knows +nothing about them. You feel that all this is at second-hand. He is +saying all this because he supposes it is the right thing to say. Give +me the pilot to direct me who has sailed through the difficult channel +many a time himself. Give me the friend to sympathize with me in sorrow +who has felt the like. There is a hollowness, a certain want, in the +talk about much tribulation of the very cleverest man who has never felt +any great sorrow at all. The great force and value of all teaching lie +in the amount of personal experience which is embodied in it. You feel +the difference between the production of a wonderfully clever boy and of +a mature man, when you read the first canto of "Childe Harold," and then +read "Philip van Artevelde." I do not say but that the boy's production +may have a liveliness and interest beyond the man's. Veal is in certain +respects superior to Beef, though Beef is best on the whole. I have +heard Vealy preachers whose sermons kept up breathless attention. From +the first word to the last of a sermon which was unquestionable Veal, I +have witnessed an entire congregation listen with that audible hush you +know. It was very different, indeed, from the state of matters when a +humdrum old gentleman was preaching, every word spoken by whom was the +maturest sense, expressed in words to which the most fastidious taste +could have taken no exception; but then the whole thing was sleepy: it +was a terrible effort to attend. In the case of the Veal there was no +effort at all. I defy you to help attending. But then you sat in pain. +Every second sentence there was some outrageous offence against good +taste; every third statement was absurd, or overdrawn, or almost +profane. You felt occasional thrills of pure disgust and horror, and you +were in terror what might come next. One thing which tended to carry all +this off was the manifest confidence and earnestness of the speaker. +_He_ did not think it Veal that he was saying. And though great +consternation was depicted on the faces of some of the better-educated +people in church, you could see that a very considerable part of the +congregation did not think it Veal either. There can be no doubt, my +middle-aged friend, if you could but give your early sermons now with +the confidence and fire of the time when you wrote them, they would make +a deep impression on many people yet. But it is simply impossible for +you to give them; and if you should force yourself some rainy Sunday to +preach one of them, you would give it with such a sense of its errors, +and with such an absence of corresponding feeling, that it would fall +very flat and dead. Your views are maturing; your taste is growing +fastidious; the strong things you once said you could not bring yourself +to say now. If you _could_ preach those old sermons, there is no doubt +they would go down with the mass of uncultivated folk,--go down better +than your mature and reasonable ones. We have all known such cases as +that of a young preacher who, at twenty-five, in his days of Veal, drew +great crowds to the church at which he preached, and who at thirty-five, +being a good deal tamed and sobered, and in the judgment of competent +judges vastly improved, attracted no more than a respectable +congregation. A very great and eloquent preacher lately lamented to me +the uselessness of his store of early discourses. If he could but get +rid of his present standard of what is right and good in thought and +language, and preach them with the enchaining fire with which he +preached them once! For many hearers remain immature, though the +preacher has matured. Young people are growing up, and there are people +whose taste never ripens beyond the enjoyment of Veal. There is a period +in the mental development of those who will be ablest and maturest, at +which Vealy thought and language are accepted as the best. Veal will be +highly appreciated by sympathetic calves; and the greatest men, with +rare exceptions, are calves in youth, while many human beings are calves +forever. And here I may remark, as something which has afforded me +consolation on various occasions within the last year, that it seems +unquestionable that sermons which are utterly revolting to people of +taste and sense have done much good to large masses of those people in +whom common sense is most imperfectly developed, and in whom taste is +not developed at all; and accordingly, wherever one is convinced of the +sincerity of the individuals, however foolish and uneducated, who go +about pouring forth those violent, exaggerated, and all but blasphemous +discourses of which I have read accounts in the newspapers, one would +humbly hope that a Power which works by many means would bring about +good even through an instrumentality which it is hard to contemplate +without some measure of horror. The impression produced by most things +in this world is relative to the minds on which the impression is +produced. A coarse ballad, deficient in rhyme and rhythm, and only half +decent, will keep up the attention of a rustic group to whom you might +read from "In Memoriam" in vain. A waistcoat of glaring scarlet will be +esteemed by a country bumpkin a garment every way preferable to one of +aspect more subdued. A nigger melody will charm many a one who would +yawn at Beethoven. You must have rough means to move rough people. +The outrageous revival-orator may do good to people to whom Bishop +Wilberforce or Dr. Caird might preach to no purpose; and if real good be +done, by whatever means, all right-minded people should rejoice to hear +of it. + + * * * * * + +And this leads to an important practical question, on which men at +different periods of life will never agree. _When_ shall thought be +regarded as mature? Is there a standard by which we may ascertain beyond +question whether a composition be Veal or Beef? I sigh for fixity and +assurance in matters aesthetical. It is vexatious that what I think very +good my friend Smith thinks very bad. It is vexatious that what strikes +me as supreme and unapproachable excellence strikes another person, at +least as competent to form an opinion, as poor. And I am angry with +myself when I feel that I honestly regard as inflated commonplace and +mystical jargon what a man as old and (let us say) nearly as wise +as myself thinks the utterance of a prophet. You know how, when +you contemplate the purchase of a horse, you lead him up to the +measuring-bar, and there ascertain the precise number of hands and +inches which he stands. How have I longed for the means of subjecting +the mental stature of human beings to an analogous process of +measurement! Oh for some recognized and unerring gauge of mental +calibre! It would be a grand thing, if somewhere in a very conspicuous +position--say on the site of the National Gallery at Charing +Cross--there were a pillar erected, graduated by some new Fahrenheit, +on which we could measure the height of a man's mind. How delightful it +would be to drag up some pompous pretender who passes off at once upon +himself and others as a profound and able man, and make him measure his +height upon that pillar, and understand beyond all cavil what a pigmy +he is! And how pleasant, too, it would be to bring up some man of +unacknowledged genius, and make the world see the reach of _his_ +intellectual stature! The mass of educated people, even, are so +incapable of forming any estimate of a man's ability, that it would be +a blessing, if men could be sent out into the world with the stamp upon +them, telling what are their weight and value, plain for every one to +see. But of course there are many ways in which a book, sermon, or essay +may be bad without being Vealy. It may be dull, stupid, illogical, +and the like, and yet have nothing of boyishness about it. It may be +insufferably bad, yet quite mature. Beef may be bad, and yet undoubtedly +Beef. And the question now is, not so much whether there be a standard +of what is in a literary sense good or bad, as whether there be a +standard of what is Veal and what is Beef. And there is a great +difficulty here. Is a thing to be regarded as mature, when it suits your +present taste, when it is approved by your present deliberate judgment? +For your taste is always changing: your standard is not the same for +three successive years of your early youth. The Veal you now despise you +thought Beef when you wrote it. And so, too, with the productions of +other men. You cannot read now without amazement the books which used +to enchant you as a child. I remember when I used to read Hervey's +"Meditations" with great delight. That was when I was about five years +old. A year or two later I greatly affected Macpherson's translation of +Ossian. It is not so very long since I felt the liveliest interest in +Tupper's "Proverbial Philosophy." Let me confess that I retain a kindly +feeling towards it yet; and that I am glad to see that some hundreds +of thousands of readers appear to be still in the stage out of which I +passed some years since. Yes, as you grow older, your taste changes: it +becomes more fastidious; and especially you come to have always less +toleration for sentimental feeling and for flights of fancy. And besides +this gradual and constant progression, which holds on uniformly year +after year, there are changes in mood and taste sometimes from day to +day and from hour to hour. The man who did a very silly thing thought +it was a wise thing when he did it. He sees the matter differently in a +little while. On the evening after the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of +Wellington wrote a certain letter. History does not record its matter or +style. But history does record, that some years afterwards the Duke paid +a hundred guineas to get it back again,--and that, on getting it, he +instantly burned it, exclaiming, that, when he wrote it, he must have +been the greatest idiot on the face of the earth. Doubtless, if we had +seen that letter, we should have heartily coincided in the sentiment of +the hero. He _was_ an idiot when he wrote it, but he did not think that +he was one. I think, however, that there is a standard of sense and +folly, and that there is a point at which Veal is Veal no more. But I do +not believe that thought can justly be called mature only when it has +become such as to suit the taste of some desperately dry old gentleman, +with as much feeling as a log of wood, and as much imagination as an +oyster. I know how intolerant some dull old fogies are of youthful +fire and fancy. I shall not be convinced that any discourse is puerile +because it is pronounced such by the venerable Dr. Dryasdust. I remember +that the venerable man has written many pages, possibly abundant in +sound sense, but which no mortal could read, and to which no mortal +could listen. I remember, that, though that not very amiable individual +has outlived such wits as he once had, he has not outlived the +unbecoming emotions of envy and jealousy; and he retains a strong +tendency to evil-speaking and slandering. You told me, unamiable +individual, how disgusted you were at hearing a friend of mine, who is +one of the best preachers in Britain, preach one of his finest sermons. +Perhaps you really were disgusted: there is such a thing as casting +pearls before swine, who will not appreciate them highly. But you went +on to give an account of what the great preacher said; and though I +know you are extremely stupid, you are not quite so stupid as to have +actually fancied that the great preacher said what you reported that he +said: you were well aware that you were grossly misrepresenting him. And +when I find malice and insincerity in one respect, I am ready to suspect +them in another: and I venture to doubt whether you were disgusted. +Possibly you were only ferocious at finding yourself so unspeakably +excelled. But even if you had been really disgusted, and even if you +were a clever man, and even if you were above the suspicion of jealousy, +I should not think that my friend's noble discourse was puerile because +you thought it so. It is not when the warm feelings of earlier days are +dried up into a cold, time-worn cynicism, that I think a man has become +the best judge of the products of the human brain and heart. It is +a noble thing when a man grows old retaining something of youthful +freshness and fervor. It is a fine thing to ripen without shrivelling,-- +to reach the calmness of age, yet keep the warm heart and ready sympathy +of youth. Show me such a man as _that_, and I shall be content to bow to +_his_ decision whether a thing be Veal or not. But as such men are not +found very frequently, I should suggest it as an approximation to a +safe criterion, that a thing may be regarded as mature when it is +deliberately and dispassionately approved by an educated man of good +ability and above thirty years of age. No doubt a man of fifty may +hold that fifty is the age of sound taste and sense; and a youth of +twenty-three may maintain that he is as good a judge of human doings +now as he will ever be. I do not claim to have proposed an infallible +standard. I give you my present belief, being well aware that it is very +likely to alter. + +It is not desirable that one's taste should become too fastidious, or +that natural feeling should be refined away. And a cynical young man is +bad, but a cynical old one is a great deal worse. The cynical young +man is probably shamming; he is a humbug, not a cynic. But the old man +probably _is_ a cynic, as heartless as he seems. And without thinking +of cynicism, real or affected, let us remember, that, though the taste +ought to be refined, and daily refining, it ought not to be refined +beyond being practically serviceable. Let things be good, but not too +good to be workable. It is expedient that a cart for conveying coals +should be of neat and decent appearance. Let the shafts be symmetrical, +the boards well-planed, the whole strong, yet not clumsy; and over the +whole let the painter's skill induce a hue rosy as beauty's cheek, or +dark-blue as her eye. All _that_ is well; and while the cart will carry +its coals satisfactorily, it will stand a good deal of rough usage, and +it will please the eye of the rustic who sits in it on an empty sack and +whistles as it moves along. But it would be highly inexpedient to make +that cart of walnut of the finest grain and marking, and to have it +French-polished. It would be too fine to be of use; and its possessor +would fear to scratch it, and would preserve it as a show, seeking some +plainer vehicle to carry his coals. In like manner, do not refine too +much either the products of the mind, or the sensibilities of the taste +which is to appreciate them. I know an amiable professor very different +from Dr. Dryasdust. He was a country clergyman,--a very interesting +plain preacher. But when he got his chair, he had to preach a good deal +in the college chapel; and by way of accommodating his discourses to an +academic audience, he rewrote them carefully, rubbed off all the salient +points, cooled down whatever warmth was in them to frigid accuracy, +toned down everything striking. The result was that his sermons became +eminently classical and elegant; only they became impossible to attend +to, and impossible to remember; and when you heard the good man preach, +you sighed for the rough and striking heartiness of former days. And +we have all heard of such a thing as taste refined to that painful +sensitiveness, that it became a source of torment,--that is, unfitted +for common enjoyments and even for common duties. There was once a great +man, let us say at Melipotamus, who never went to church. A clergyman +once, in speaking to a friend of the great man, lamented that the great +man set so bad an example before his humbler neighbors. "How _can_ that +man go to church?" was the reply; "his taste, and his entire critical +faculty, are sharpened, to that degree, that, in listening to any +ordinary preacher, he feels outraged and shocked at every fourth +sentence he hears, by its inelegance or its want of logic; and the +entire sermon torments him by its unsymmetrical structure, its want of +perspective in the presentment of details, and its general literary +badness." I quite believe that there was a moderate proportion of truth +in the excuse thus urged; and you will probably judge that it would have +been better, had the great man's mind not been brought to so painful a +polish. + +The mention of dried-up old gentlemen reminds one of a question which +has sometimes perplexed me. Is it Vealy to feel or to show keen emotion? +Is it a precious result and indication of the maturity of the human mind +to look as if you felt nothing at all? I have often looked with wonder, +and with a moderate amount of veneration, at a few old gentlemen whom I +know well, who are leading members of a certain legislative and judicial +council held in great respect in a country of which no more need be +said. I have beheld these old gentlemen sitting apparently quite +unmoved, when discussions were going on in which I knew they felt a very +deep interest, and when the tide of debate was setting strongly against +their peculiar views. There they sat, impassive as a Red Indian at the +stake. I think of a certain man who, while a smart speech on the other +side is being made, retains a countenance expressing actually nothing; +he looks as if he heard nothing, felt nothing, cared for nothing. But +when the other man sits down, he rises to reply. He speaks slowly at +first, but every weighty word goes home and tells: he gathers warmth and +rapidity as he goes on, and in a little you become aware that for a few +hundred pounds a year you may sometimes get a man who would have made +an Attorney-General or a Lord-Chancellor; you discern, that, under +the appearance of almost stolidity, there was the sharpest attention +watching every word of the argument of the other speaker, and ready to +come down on every weak point in it; and the other speaker is (in a +logical sense) pounded to jelly by a succession of straight-handed hits. +Yes, it is a wonderful thing to find a combination of coolness and +earnestness. But I am inclined to believe that the reason why some old +gentlemen look as if they did not care is that in fact they don't care. +And there is no particular merit in looking cool while a question is +being discussed, if you really do not mind a rush which way it may be +decided. A keen, unvarying, engrossing regard for one's self is a great +safeguard against over-excitement in regard to all the questions of the +day, political, social, and religious. + + * * * * * + +It is a curious, but certain fact, that clever young men, at that period +of their life when their own likings tend towards Veal, know quite +well the difference between Veal and Beef, and are quite able, when +necessary, to produce the latter. The tendency to boyishness of thought +and style may be repressed, when you know you are writing for the +perusal of readers with whom _that_ will not go down. A student of +twenty, who has in him great talent, no matter how undue a supremacy his +imagination may meanwhile have, if he be set to producing an essay in +Metaphysics to be read by professors of philosophy, will produce a +composition singularly free from any trace of immaturity. For such a +clever youth, though he may have a strong bent towards Veal, has in him +an instinctive perception that it _is_ Veal, and a keen sense of what +will and will not do for the particular readers he has to please. Go, +you essayist who carried off a host of university honors, and read over +now the prize essays you wrote at twenty-one or twenty-two. I think +the thing that will mainly strike you will be, how very mature these +compositions are,--how ingenious, how judicious, how free from +extravagance, how quietly and accurately and even felicitously +expressed. _They_ are not Veal. And yet you know that several years +after you wrote them you were still writing a great deal which was Veal +beyond all question. But then a clever youth can produce material to any +given standard; and you wrote the essays not to suit your own taste, but +to suit what you intuitively knew was the taste of the grave and even +smoke-dried professors who were to read them and sit in judgment on +them. + +And though it is very fit and right that the academic standard should be +an understood one, and quite different from the popular standard, still +it is not enough that a young man should be able to write to a standard +against which he in his heart rebels and protests. It is yet more +important that you should get him to approve and adopt a standard which +is accurate, if not severe. It is quite extraordinary what bombastic +and immature sermons are preached in their first years in the Church by +young clergymen who wrote many academic compositions in a style the +most classical. It seems to be essential that a man of feeling and +imagination should be allowed fairly to run himself out. The course +apparently is, that the tree should send out its rank shoots, and then +that you should prune them, rather than that by some repressive means +you should prevent the rank shoots coming forth at all. The way to get a +high-spirited horse to be content to stay peaceably in its stall is to +allow it to have a tearing gallop, and thus get out its superfluous +nervous excitement and vital spirit. Let the boiler blow off its steam. +All repression is dangerous. And some injudicious folk, instead of +encouraging the highly-charged mind and heart to relieve themselves +by blowing off in excited verse and extravagant bombast, would (so to +speak) sit on the safety-valve. Let the bursting spring flow! It will +run turbid at first; but it will clear itself day by day. Let a young +man write a vast deal: the more he writes, the sooner will the Veal be +done with. But if a man write very little, the bombast is not blown off; +and it may remain till advanced years. It seems as if a certain quantity +of fustian must be blown off before you reach the good material. I have +heard a mercantile man of fifty read a paper he had written on a social +subject. He had written very little save business letters all his life. +And I assure you that his paper was bombastic to a degree that you would +have said was barely tolerable in a youth of twenty. I have seldom +listened to Veal so outrageous. You see he had not worked through it in +his youth; and so here it was now. I have witnessed the like phenomenon +in a man who went into the Church at five-and-forty. I heard him preach +one of his earliest sermons, and I have hardly ever heard such boyish +rhodomontade. The imaginations of some men last out in liveliness longer +than those of others; and the taste of some men never becomes perfect; +and it is no doubt owing to these things that you find some men +producing Veal so much later in life than others. You will find men who +are very turgid and magniloquent at five-and-thirty, at forty, at fifty. +But I attribute the phenomenon in no small measure to the fact that such +men had not the opportunity of blowing off their steam in youth. Give +a man at four-and-twenty two sermons to write a week, and he will +very soon work through his Veal. It is probably because ladies write +comparatively so little, that you find them writing at fifty poetry and +prose of the most awfully romantic and sentimental strain. + + * * * * * + +We have been thinking, my friend, as you have doubtless observed, almost +exclusively of intellectual and aesthetical immaturity, and of its +products in composition, spoken or written. But combining with that +immaturity, and going very much to affect the character of that Veal, +there is moral immaturity, resulting in views, feelings, and conduct +which may be described as Moral Veal. But, indeed, it is very difficult +to distinguish between the different kinds of immaturity, and to say +exactly what in the moods and doings of youth proceeds from each. It is +safest to rest in the general proposition, that, even as the calf yields +Veal, so does the immature human mind yield immature productions. It +is a stage which you outgrow, and therefore a stage of comparative +immaturity, in which you read a vast deal of poetry, and repeat much +poetry to yourself when alone, working yourself up thereby to an +enthusiastic excitement. And very like a calf you look, when some one +suddenly enters the room in which you are wildly gesticulating or +moodily laughing, and thinking yourself poetical, and, indeed, sublime. +The person probably takes you for a fool; and the best, you can say for +yourself is that you are not so great a fool as you seem to be. Vealy is +the period of life in which you filled a great volume with the verses +you loved, and in which you stored your memory, by frequent reading, +with many thousands of lines. All that you outgrow. Fancy a man of fifty +having his commonplace book of poetry! And it will be instructive to +turn over the ancient volume, and to see how year by year the verses +copied grew fewer, and finally ceased entirely. I do not say that all +growth is progress: sometimes it is like that of the muscle, which once +advanced into manly vigor and usefulness, but is now ossifying into +rigidity. It is well to have fancy and feeling under command: it is not +well to have feeling and fancy dead. That season of life is Vealy in +which you are charmed by the melody of verse, quite apart from its +meaning. And there is a season in which that is so. And it is curious +to remark what verses they are that have charmed many men; for they are +often verses in which no one else could have discerned that singular +fascination. You may remember how Robert Burns has recorded that in +youth he was enchanted by the melody of two lines of Addison's,-- + + "For though in dreadful whirls we hung, + High on the broken wave." + +Sir Walter Scott felt the like fascination in youth (and he tells us it +was not entirely gone even in age) in Mickle's stanza,-- + + "The dews of summer night did fall; + The moon, sweet regent of the sky, + Silvered the walls of Cumnor Hall, + And many an oak that grew thereby." + +Not a remarkable verse, I think. However, it at least presents a +pleasant picture. But I remember well the enchantment which, when +twelve years old, I felt in a verse by Mrs. Hemans, which I can now see +presents an excessively disagreeable picture. I saw it not then; and +when I used to repeat that verse, I know it was without the slightest +perception of its meaning. You know the beautiful poem called the +"Battle of Morgarten." At least I remember it as beautiful; and I am not +going to spoil my recollection by reading it now. Here is the verse:-- + + "Oh! the sun in heaven fierce havoc viewed, + When the Austrian turned to fly: + And the brave, in the trampling multitude, + Had a fearful death to die!" + +As I write that verse, (at which the critical reader will smile,) I am +aware that Veal has its hold of me yet. I see nothing of the miserable +scene the poet describes; but I hear the waves murmuring on a distant +beach, and I see the hills across the sea, the first sea I ever beheld; +I see the school to which I went daily; I see the class-room, and the +place where I used to sit; I see the faces and hear the voices of my old +companions, some dead, one sleeping in the middle of the great Atlantic, +many scattered over distant parts of the world, almost all far away. +Yes, I feel that I have not quite cast off the witchery of the "Battle +of Morgarten." Early associations can give to verse a charm and a hold +upon one's heart which no literary excellence, however high, ever could. +Look at the first hymns you learned to repeat, and which you used to say +at your mother's knee; look at the psalms and hymns you remember hearing +sung at church when you were a child: you know how impossible it is for +you to estimate these upon their literary merits. They may be almost +doggerel; but not Mr. Tennyson can touch you like them! The most +effective eloquence is that which is mainly done by the mind to which +it is addressed: it is _that_ which touches chords which of themselves +yield matchless music; it is _that_ which wakens up trains of old +remembrance, and which wafts around you the fragrance of the hawthorn +that blossomed and withered many long years since. An English stranger +would not think much of the hymns we sing in our Scotch churches: he +could not know what many of them are to us. There is a magic about +the words. I can discern, indeed, that some of them are mawkish in +sentiment, faulty in rhyme, and, on the whole, what you would call +extremely unfitted to be sung in public worship, if you were judging of +them as new things: but a crowd of associations which are beautiful and +touching gathers round the lines which have no great beauty or pathos in +themselves. + +You were in an extremely Vealy condition, when, having attained the age +of fourteen, you sent some verses to the county newspaper, and with +simple-hearted elation read them in the corner devoted to what was +termed "Original Poetry." It is a pity you did not preserve the +newspapers in which you first saw yourself in print, and experienced the +peculiar sensation which accompanies that sight. No doubt your +verses expressed the gloomiest views of life, and told of the bitter +disappointments you had met in your long intercourse with mankind, and +especially with womankind. And though you were in a flutter of anxiety +and excitement to see whether or not your verses would be printed, your +verses probably declared that you had used up life and seen through +it,--that your heart was no longer to be stirred by aught on earth,--and +that, in short, you cared nothing for anything. You could see nothing +fine then in being good, cheerful, and happy; but you thought it a grand +thing to be a gloomy man, of a very dark complexion, with blood on your +conscience, upwards of six feet high, and accustomed to wander from land +to land, like Childe Harold. You were extremely Vealy when you used to +fancy that you were sure to be a very great man, and to think how proud +your relations would some day be of you, and how you would come back and +excite a great commotion at the place where you used to be a school-boy. +And it is because the world has still left some impressionable spot in +your hearts, my readers, that you still have so many fond associations +with "the school-boy spot we ne'er forget, though we are there +forgot." They were Vealy days, though pleasant to remember, my old +school-companions, in which you used to go to the dancing-school, (it +was in a gloomy theatre, seldom entered by actors,) in which you fell +in love with several young ladies about eleven years old, and (being +permitted occasionally to select your own partners) made frantic rushes +to obtain the hand of one of the beauties of that small society. Those +were the days in which you thought, that, when you grew up, it would +be a very fine thing to be a pirate, bandit, or corsair, rather than a +clergyman, barrister, or the like; even a cheerful outlaw like Robin +Hood did not come up to your views; you would rather have been a man +like Captain Kyd, stained with various crimes of extreme atrocity, which +would entirely preclude the possibility of returning to respectable +society, and given to moody laughter in solitary moments. Oh, what truly +asinine developments the human being must go through, before arriving at +the stage of common sense! You were very Vealy, too, when you used +to think it a fine thing to astonish people by expressing awful +sentiments,--such as that you thought Mahometans better than Christians, +that you would like to be dissected after death, that you did not care +what you got for dinner, that you liked learning your lessons better +than going out to play, that you would rather read Euclid than +"Ivanhoe," and the like. It may be remarked, that this peculiar +Vealiness is not confined to youth; I have seen it appearing very +strongly in men with gray hair. Another manifestation of Vealiness, +which appears both in age and youth, is the entertaining a strong belief +that kings, noblemen, and baronets are always in a condition of ecstatic +happiness. I have known people pretty far advanced in life, who not only +believed that monarchs must be perfectly happy, but that all who were +permitted to continue in their presence would catch a considerable +degree of the mysterious bliss which was their portion. I have heard a +sane man, rather acute and clever in many things, seriously say, "If a +man cannot be happy in the presence of his Sovereign, where can he be +happy?" + +And yet, absurd and foolish as is Moral Vealiness, there is something +fine about it. Many of the old and dear associations most cherished in +human hearts are of the nature of Veal. It is sad to think that most +of the romance of life is unquestionably so. All spooniness, all the +preposterous idolization of some one who is just like anybody else, +all love, (in the narrow sense in which the word is understood by +novel-readers,) you feel, when you look back, are Veal. The young lad +and the young girl, whom at a picnic party you have discerned stealing +off under frivolous pretexts from the main body of guests, and sitting +on the grass by the river-side, enraptured in the prosecution of a +conversation which is intellectually of the emptiest, and fancying that +they two make all the world, and investing that spot with remembrances +which will continue till they are gray, are (it must in sober sadness be +admitted) of the nature of calves. For it is beyond doubt that they are +at a stage which they will outgrow, and on which they may possibly look +back with something of shame. All these things, beautiful as they are, +are no more than Veal. Yet they are fitting and excellent in their time. +No, let us not call them Veal; they are rather like Lamb, which is +excellent, though immature. No doubt, youth is immaturity; and as you +outgrow it, you are growing better and wiser: still youth is a fine +thing; and most people would be young again, if they could. How cheerful +and light-hearted is immaturity! How cheerful and lively are the little +children even of silent and gloomy men! It is sad, and it is unnatural, +when they are not so. I remember yet, when I was at school, with what +interest and wonder I used to look at two or three boys, about twelve or +thirteen years old, who were always dull, sullen, and unhappy-looking. +In those days, as a general rule, you are never sorrowful without +knowing the reason why. You are never conscious of the dull atmosphere, +of the gloomy spirits, of after-time. The youthful machine, bodily and +mental, plays smoothly; the young being is cheery. Even a kitten is very +different from a grave old cat, and a young colt from a horse sobered by +the cares and toils of years. And you picture fine things to yourself in +your youthful dreams. I remember a beautiful dwelling I used often to +see, as if from the brow of a great hill. I see the rich valley below, +with magnificent woods and glades, and a broad river reflecting the +sunset; and in the midst of the valley, the vast Saracenic pile, with +gilded minarets blazing in the golden light. I have since then seen many +splendid habitations, but none in the least equal to that. I cannot even +yet discard the idea that somewhere in this world there stands that +noble palace, and that some day I shall find it out. You remember also +the intense delight with which you read the books that charmed you then: +how you carried off the poem or the tale to some solitary place,--how +you sat up far into the night to read it,--how heartily you believed +in all the story, and sympathized with the people it told of. I wish I +could feel now the veneration for the man who has written a book which I +used once to feel. Oh that one could read the old volumes with the +old feeling! Perhaps you have some of them yet, and you remember the +peculiar expression of the type in which they were printed: the pages +look at you with the face of an old friend. If you were then of an +observant nature, you will understand how much of the effect of any +composition upon the human mind depends upon the printing, upon the +placing of the points, even upon the position of the sentences on the +page. A grand, high-flown, and sentimental climax ought always to +conclude at the bottom of a page. It will look ridiculous, if it ends +four or five lines down from the top of the next page. Somehow there is +a feeling as of the difference between the night before and the next +morning. It is as though the crushed ball-dress and the dishevelled +locks of the close of the evening reappeared, the same, before +breakfast. Let us have homely sense at the top of the page, pathos +at the foot of it. What a force in the bad type of the shabby little +"Childe Harold" you used to read so often! You turn it over in a grand +illustrated edition, and it seems like another poem. Let it here be +said, that occasionally you look with something like indignation on the +volume which enchained you in your boyish days. For now you have burst +the chain. And you have somewhat of the feeling of the prisoner towards +the jailer who held him in unjust bondage. What right had that bombastic +rubbish to touch and thrill you as it used to do? Well, remember that +it suits successive generations at their enthusiastic stage. There are +poets whose great admirers are for the most part under twenty years +old; but probably almost every clever young person regards them at some +period in his life as among the noblest of mortals. And it is no ignoble +ambition to win the ardent appreciation of even immature tastes and +hearts. Its brief endurance is compensated by its intensity. You sit by +the fireside and read your leisurely "Times," and you feel a tranquil +enjoyment. You like it better than the "Sorrows of Werter," but you do +not like it a twentieth part as much as you once liked the "Sorrows +of Werter." You would be interested in meeting the man who wrote that +brilliant and slashing leader; but you would not regard him with +speechless awe, as something more than human. Yet, remembering all the +weaknesses out of which men grow, and on which they look back with a +smile or sigh, who does not feel that there is a charm which will not +depart about early youth? Longfellow knew that he would reach the hearts +of most men, when he wrote such a verse as this:-- + + "The green trees whispered low and mild; + It was a sound of joy! + They were my playmates when a child, + And rocked me in their arms so wild; + Still they looked at me and smiled, + As if I were a boy!" + +Such, readers as are young men will understand what has already been +said as to the bitter indignation with which the writer, some years ago, +listened to self-conceited elderly persons who put aside the arguments +and the doings of younger men with the remark that these younger men +were _boys_. There are few terms of reproach which I have heard uttered +with looks of such deadly ferocity. And there are not many which excite +feelings of greater wrath in the souls of clever young men. I remember +how in those days I determined to write an essay which should scorch up +and finally destroy all these carping and malicious critics. It was to +be called "A Chapter on Boys." After an introduction of a sarcastic and +magnificent character, setting out views substantially the same as those +contained in the speech of Lord Chatham in reply to Walpole, which boys +are taught to recite at school, that essay was to go on to show that +a great part of English literature was written by very young men. +Unfortunately, on proceeding to investigate the matter carefully, it +appeared that the best part of English literature, even in the range of +poetry, was in fact written by men of even more than middle age. So the +essay was never finished, though a good deal of it was sketched out. +Yesterday I took out the old manuscript; and after reading a bit of it, +it appeared so remarkably Vealy, that I put it with indignation into the +fire. Still I observed various facts of interest as to great things done +by young men, and some by young men who never lived to be old. Beaumont +the dramatist died at twenty-nine. Christopher Marlowe wrote "Faustus" +at twenty-five, and died at thirty. Sir Philip Sidney wrote his +"Arcadia" at twenty-six. Otway wrote "The Orphan" at twenty-eight, +and "Venice Preserved" at thirty. Thomson wrote the "Seasons" at +twenty-seven. Bishop Berkeley had devised his Ideal System at +twenty-nine; and Clarke at the same age published his great work on "The +Being and Attributes of God." Then there is Pitt, of course. But these +cases are exceptional; and besides, men at twenty-eight and thirty are +not in any way to be regarded as boys. What I wanted was proof of the +great things that had been done by young fellows about two-and-twenty; +and such proof was not to be found. A man is simply a boy grown up to +his best; and of course what is done by men must be better than what is +done by boys. Unless in very peculiar cases, a man at thirty will be +every way superior to what he was at twenty; and at forty to what he was +at thirty. Not, indeed, physically,--let _that_ be granted; not always +morally; but surely intellectually and aesthetically. + + * * * * * + +Yes, my readers, we have all been Calves. A great part of all our doings +has been, what the writer, in figurative language, has described as +Veal. We have not said, written, or done very much on which we can now +look back with entire approval; and we have said, written, and done a +very great deal on which we cannot look back but with burning shame +and confusion. Very many things, which, when we did them, we thought +remarkably good, and much better than the doings of ordinary men, we now +discern, on calmly looking back, to have been extremely bad. That time, +you know, my friend, when you talked in a very fluent and animated +manner after dinner at a certain house, and thought you were making a +great impression on the assembled guests, most of them entire strangers, +you are now fully aware that you were only making a fool of yourself. +And let this hint of one public manifestation of Vealiness suffice to +suggest to each of us scores of similar cases. But though we feel, in +our secret souls, what Calves we have been, and though it is well for us +that we should feel it deeply, and thus learn humility and caution, we +do not like to be reminded of it by anybody else. Some people have a +wonderful memory for the Vealy sayings and doings of their friends. +They may be very bad hands at remembering anything else; but they never +forget the silly speeches and actions on which one would like to shut +down the leaf. You may find people a great part of whose conversation +consists of repeating and exaggerating their neighbors' Veal; and though +that Veal may be immature enough and silly enough, it will go hard but +your friend Mr. Snarling will represent it as a good deal worse than the +fact. You will find men, who while at college were students of large +ambition, but slender abilities, revenging themselves in this fashion +upon the clever men who beat them. It is easy, very easy, to remember +foolish things that were said and done even by the senior wrangler or +the man who took a double first-class; and candid folk will think +that such foolish things were not fair samples of the men,--and will +remember, too, that the men have grown out of these, have grown mature +and wise, and for many a year past would not have said or done such +things. But if you were to judge from the conversation of Mr. Limejuice, +(who wrote many prize essays, but, through the malice and stupidity of +the judges, never got any prizes,) you would conclude that every word +uttered by his successful rivals was one that stamped them as essential +fools, and calves which would never grow into oxen. I do not think it +is a pleasing or magnanimous feature in any man's character, that he is +ever eager to rake up these early follies. I would not be ready to throw +in the teeth of a pretty butterfly that it was an ugly caterpillar once, +unless I understood that the butterfly liked to remember the fact. I +would not suggest to this fair sheet of paper on which I am writing, +that not long ago it was dusty rags and afterwards dirty pulp. You +cannot be an ox without previously having been a calf; you acquire taste +and sense gradually, and in acquiring them you pass through stages +in which you have very little of either. It is a poor burden for the +memory, to collect and shovel into it the silly sayings and doings in +youth of people who have become great and eminent. I read with much +disgust a biography of Mr. Disraeli which recorded, no doubt accurately, +all the sore points in that statesman's history. I remember with great +approval what Lord John Manners said in Parliament in reply to Mr. +Bright, who had quoted a well-known and very silly passage from Lord +John's early poetry. "I would rather," said Lord John, "have been the +man who in his youth wrote those silly verses than the man who in mature +years would rake them up." And with even greater indignation I regard +the individual who, when a man is doing creditably and Christianly +the work of life, is ever ready to relate and aggravate the moral +delinquencies of his school-boy and student days, long since repented of +and corrected. "Remember not," said a man who knew human nature well, +"the sins of my youth." But there are men whose nature has a peculiar +affinity for anything petty, mean, and bad. They fly upon it as a +vulture on carrion. Their memory is of that cast, that you have only +to make inquiry of them concerning any of their friends, to hear of +something not at all to the friends' advantage. There are individuals, +after listening to whom you think it would be a refreshing novelty, +almost startling from its strangeness, to hear them say a word in favor +of any human being whatsoever. + +It is not a thing peculiar to immaturity; yet it may be remarked, that, +though it is an unpleasant thing to look back and see that you have said +or done something very foolish, it is a still more unpleasant thing to +be well aware at the time that you are saying or doing something very +foolish. If a man be a fool at all, it is much to be desired that he +should be a very great fool; for then he will not know when he is making +a fool of himself. But it is painful not to have sense enough to know +what you should do in order to be right, but to have sense enough to +know that you are doing wrong. To know that you are talking like an ass, +yet to feel that you cannot help it,--that you must say something, and +can think of nothing better to say,--this is a suffering that comes with +advanced civilization. This is a phenomenon frequently to be seen +at public dinners in country towns, also at the entertainment which +succeeds a wedding. Men at other times rational seem to be stricken into +idiocy when they rise to their feet on such occasions; and the painful +fact is, that it is conscious idiocy. The man's words are asinine, and +he knows they are asinine. His wits have entirely abandoned him: he is +an idiot for the time. Have you sat next a man unused to speaking at a +public dinner? have you seen him nervously rise and utter an incoherent, +ungrammatical, and unintelligible sentence or two, and then sit down +with a ghastly smile? Have you heard him say to his friend on the other +side, in bitterness, "I have made a fool of myself"? And have you seen +him sit moodily through the remainder of the feast, evidently ruminating +on what he said, seeing now what he ought to have said, and trying to +persuade himself that what he said was not so bad after all? Would you +do a kindness to that miserable man? You have just heard his friend +on the other side cordially agreeing with what he had said as to the +badness of the appearance made by him. Enter into conversation with +him; talk of his speech; congratulate him upon it; tell him you were +extremely struck by the freshness and naturalness of what he said,--that +there is something delightful in hearing an unhackneyed speaker,--that +to speak with entire fluency looks professional,--it is like a barrister +or a clergyman. Thus you may lighten the mortification of a disappointed +man; and what you say will receive considerable credence. It is +wonderful how readily people believe anything they would like to be +true. + + * * * * * + +I was walking this afternoon along a certain street, coming home from +visiting certain sick persons, and wondering how I should conclude this +essay, when, standing on the pavement on one side of the street, I saw a +little boy four years old crying in great distress. Various individuals, +who appeared to be Priests and Levites, looked, as they passed, at the +child's distress, and passed on without doing anything to relieve it. I +spoke to the little man, who was in great fear at being spoken to, but +told me he had come away from his home and lost himself, and could not +find his way back. I told him I would take him home, if he could tell me +where he lived; but he was frightened into utter helplessness, and could +only tell that his name was Tom, and that he lived at the top of a +stair. It was a poor neighborhood, in which many people live at the +top of stairs, and the description was vague. I spoke to two humble +decent-looking women who were passing, thinking they might gain the +little thing's confidence better than I; but the poor little man's great +wish was just to get away from us,--though, when he got two yards off, +he could but stand and cry. You may be sure he was not left in his +trouble, but that he was put safely into his father's hands. And as I +was coming home, I thought that here was an illustration of something I +have been thinking of all this afternoon. I thought I saw in the poor +little child's desire to get away from those who wanted to help him, +though not knowing where to go when left to himself, something analogous +to what the immature human being is always disposed to. The whole +teaching of our life is leading us away from our early delusions and +follies, from all those things about us which have been spoken of under +the similitude which need not be again repeated. Yet we push away the +hand that would conduct us to soberer and better things, though, when +left alone, we can but stand and vaguely gaze about us; and we speak +hardly of the growing experience which makes us wiser, and which ought +to make us happier too. Let us not forget that the teaching which takes +something of the gloss from life is an instrument in the kindest Hand of +all; and let us be humbly content, if that kindest Hand shall lead us, +even by rough means, to calm and enduring wisdom,--wisdom by no means +inconsistent with youthful freshness of feeling, and not necessarily +fatal even to youthful gayety of mood,--and at last to that Happy Place +where worn men regain the little child's heart, and old and young are +blest together. + + + + +REMINISCENCES OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. + + +I do not propose to enter upon a discussion of the question that now +agitates the entire population of Brandon township, Vermont,--namely, +whether Douglas was born in the Pomeroy or the Hyatt mansion. It is +enough for our purpose to record the fact that he _was_ born, and +apparently _well_ born,--as, from the statement of Ann De Forrest, his +nurse, he first appeared a stalwart babe of fourteen pounds weight. + +He lived a life of sensations; and that he commenced early is clearly +shown by the fact that he was a subject of newspaper comment when but +two months old. At that age he had the misfortune to lose his father, +who, holding the baby boy in his arms, fell back in his chair and died, +while Stephen, dropping from his embrace, was caught from the fire, +and thus from early death, by a neighbor, John Conant, who opportunely +entered the room at the moment. And here let me say, that for +generations back the ancestors of Douglas were sturdy men, of physical +strength and mental ability. His grandfather was noted for his strong +practical common sense, which, rightly applied, with industry, made him +in middle life the possessor of wealth, and the finest farm on Otter +Creek. This, however, in later years was gradually taken from him, by +means which had better, perhaps, remain unmentioned. The father of +Stephen was a physician of more than ordinary talent and of much +culture. He had attained but to early manhood, when a sudden attack of +heart-disease removed him from life, and compelled his widow, with her +infant boy, to face the world alone. + +A bachelor brother of the Widow Douglas took her and the baby to his +farm, where, for several years, the one mourned the loss of her husband, +while the other grew in strength and muscle. The earlier developments of +the boy were characteristic, and typical of those in later life. He was +very quick, magnetic in his temperament, and full to the brim with wit +and humor. Beyond his uncle's farm ran the far-famed Otter Creek, whose +waters, in my boyhood, were forbidden me, as inevitably leading the +incautious bather to "a life of misery and a premature death." There it +was, however, that Stephen earned his earliest triumphs. It is a long +pull across the Otter Pond, and the schoolmaster's last charge was +always, "Keep this side of the rock in the middle,--don't try to cross"; +but reckless then of life as since in politics, self-confident and +daring as always, Douglas, of all the boys, alone dared disobey the +charge, and succeeded in reaching safely the opposite shore. + +His companions, sons of farmers well to do in the world, were preparing +to enter college; and Douglas, the best scholar in his class, the finest +mathematician in the township, and who without instruction had mastered +the Latin Grammar and "Viri Romae," applied to his uncle for permission +to join them. The uncle, however, never noted for much liberality either +of brain or pocket, having taken to himself a wife and gotten to himself +a boy, was unable to see the necessity of giving the orphan a college +education, and pitilessly bound him to a worthy deacon of the church, +as an apprentice to the highly respectable, but rarely famous, trade of +cabinet-making. In this Douglas did well. It has been stated elsewhere +that "he was not fond of his trade," and that "his spirit pined for +loftier employment." Possibly. But for all that he succeeded in it, and +these lines are being written on a mahogany table made by him while an +apprentice at Brandon. It is a strong, substantial, two-leaved table, +with curiously carved legs terminating in bear's-feet, the claws of +which display an intimate acquaintance on the part of the maker with the +physiological formation of those appendages, and a more than ordinary +amount of dexterity in the handling of tools. It was while in this +occupation that he gained the _sobriquet_ of the "Tough 'Un." He was +nearly seventeen years of age, and, though not handsome, was very +intelligent and bright in his appearance, so that he was able to compete +successfully for the smiles and favors of a young country lass who +reigned the belle of the village. This did not suit the "mittened" ones, +and they determined to draw young Douglas into a controversy which +should result in a fight,--he, of course, to be the defeated party. The +night chosen for the onslaught was the "singing-school night," and the +time the homeward walk of Stephen from the house of the fair object of +contention. The crowd met him at the corner store. From jests to jibes, +from taunts to blows, was then, as ever, an easy path; and in reply to +some unchivalric remark concerning his lady-love, Douglas struck the +slanderer with all his might. Immediately a ring was formed, and kept, +until Douglas rose the victor, and without further ceremony pitched +into one of the lookers-on, and stopped not until he, too, was soundly +thrashed, when, with flashing eye and clenched fist, he said,--"Now, +boys, if that's not enough, come on, and I'll take you all together!" +At this juncture, the good old Deacon, who had been trying cider in +the cellar of the store, came along, and, taking Stephen by the arm, +said,--"Well, Steve, you _are_ a tough 'un! What! whipped two, and want +more? Come home, my boy, come home!" He was allowed ever after to go and +come with his bright-eyed beauty, unmolested, and for years was known +there and in the neighboring townships as the "Tough 'Un." Here, too, he +gained the reputation of being a good fellow, a whole-souled friend, and +a jolly companion. He _would_ read, and his favorite works were those +telling of the triumphs of Napoleon, the conquests of Alexander, and the +wars of Caesar. + +He was still desirous of a collegiate education, and it is undoubtedly +true that constant application to his books, when he should have been +resting from the labors of the day, brought upon him an illness, the +severity of which compelled him to abandon his employment and return +to his uncle's house. There he obtained permission to take a course +of classical studies at the academy, a permission of which he availed +himself with enthusiasm. He was then a fine, well-built youth, foremost +in plays, active in all country excursions, and ever popular with his +elders. Indeed, this last trait followed him through life; and when +those of his own age were at sword's-point with him, he was sure of +finding friends and favor amongst such as were older and wiser than +himself. His mother, about this time, married a lawyer of wealth and +position, residing in the interior of New York, who, appreciating the +talent of the boy, aided him in his laudable endeavors to obtain an +education, and sent him to the academy at Canandaigua in that State. +There Douglas was soon among the first. He was the most popular speaker +of them all, pleasing old and young, and causing the hall of the academy +to be filled with an interested audience whenever it was known that he +was to be the orator of the night. His love of humor and his keen sense +of the ludicrous aided him not a little in the quick repartee, for which +he was then, as since, noted. He was far from idle during the three +years of his life at Canandaigua; for, besides applying himself with +untiring energy and zeal to the pursuit of a classical course at the +academy, he devoted much of his time to reading in the law office of the +Messrs. Hubbell. His examiners for the bar stated that they had never +before met a student who in so short a time made such proficiency; and +while they took pleasure in complimenting him, they also extended to him +the privileges which are accorded by rule only to those who have pursued +a complete collegiate course. This was especially gratifying and +stimulating to Douglas, who remarked to a fellow-student that for the +wealth of a continent he would not have had his "mother die without +hearing that intelligence of her son's progress." + +At the age of twenty, Douglas commenced, with the fairest prospects, the +practice of law in the beautiful village of Cleveland, Ohio. Hardly had +the paint on his "shingle" become dry, when a sudden attack of bilious +fever prostrated him, and confined him to his room for months. He was +thoroughly restless; he pined for action; and when his physician said +to him, "Sir, if you allow yourself to fret in this manner, you will +certainly frustrate my efforts, and die," he replied, "Not now, Doctor; +there's work ahead for me." Upon his recovery, he found himself in +a situation such as would crush the spirit of ninety-nine men in a +hundred. He was weak, with but a few dollars, with no friends, in a +region of country that did not promise him health, and with no knowledge +of other localities. He paid his debts and left the place. He wandered, +literally, from town to town, until his means were gone and his strength +well-nigh exhausted, when, on a bright Wednesday morning in the month of +November, 1833, he reached the village of Winchester, Illinois. + +In his head were his brains, in his pocket his cash resources, namely, +thirty-seven and a half cents, and in a checkered blue handkerchief his +school-books and his wardrobe. He knew no one there, he had no plan of +action, and, foot-sore, with heavy heart, he leaned against a post in +the public square, and for the first time in his life gave way to gloomy +forebodings. He had, however, entered the town where his fortunes were +to mend, his life to receive new vigor, and his successful career to +begin. + +While standing thus, he noticed at the farther end of the square a crowd +of people, and walked towards them. On a platform stood a red-faced, +burly auctioneer, with a straw hat and a loud voice, who was arguing +with some one in the crowd of expectant buyers the impossibility of +proceeding with the sale without a clerk to aid him. He was in the heat +of the discussion, when his eye fell upon the intelligent face and +fragile form of young Douglas, to whom he beckoned,--when the following +dialogue ensued. + +_Auctioneer_. I say, boy, you look like you're smart; can you figure? + +_Douglas_. I can, Sir. + +_Auctioneer_. Will a couple of dollars a day hire you, till we finish +this sale? + +_Douglas_. And board? + +At which reply the crowd laughed, and the auctioneer, who thought he had +found a treasure, said,-- + +"Yes, and board; tumble up and go to work." + +Whereupon, Douglas, whose legs were weak, whose stomach was empty, and +whose head fairly ached with nervous excitement, mounted the platform, +began his work as deputy-auctioneer, and laid the foundations of +a popularity in that section which increased with his years and +strengthened with his success. The sale for which he was hired continued +three days, and attracted the residents of the place and the farmers +from the neighboring towns, all of whom were favorably impressed by the +bright look, the quick, earnest manner, the frequent humorous remarks, +and the unvarying courtesy of the young clerk. In the evenings, when +gathered about the huge iron stove in the bar-room of the hotel, and the +doings, good or bad, of "Old Hickory" were the theme of discussion, one +and all sat quiet, listening with admiration, if not with conviction, +to the conversation of the youthful politician, who at that time was a +great admirer of General Jackson. + +With the same tact and adaptability to circumstances which were +characteristic of him through life, Douglas determined to make use of +these people; and so dexterously did he manage, that, before he had been +with them a week, he had produced upon their minds the impression that +he was of all men the best suited to teach their district school the +ensuing winter. He dined with the minister, rode out with the doctor, +and took tea with the old ladies. He talked politics with the farmers, +recounted adventures to the young men, and, if my informant is +trustworthy, was in no way shy of the young ladies. The zeal with +which he sang on Sunday, and the marked attention which he paid to the +sermonizings of the dominic, advanced him so far in the affections of +the honest people of that rural town, that, had he asked their wealth, +their prayers, or their votes, he would have had no difficulty in +obtaining them. + +There are no reasons for believing, that, as a schoolmaster, he was +particularly well qualified. He did very well however, and satisfied +the entire township, so that, had he been content with that that very +honorable, but somewhat inconspicuous life, he might doubtless have +remained there until this day. Up to this period he had been a strict +temperance man. No intoxicating drink had as yet passed his lips; and an +early experiment with a pipe had so sickened him, that he had resolved +never again to attempt it. It would have been well for him, had he +adhered to that resolve; but, like many other politicians, he thought it +necessary, in the days of his early public life, to mix with the crowd, +to join the bar-room circle, to tell his story and sing his song, to +smoke, and generally to conform to all those demands of pot-house +oracles which have perhaps elevated the few, but without doubt destroyed +the many. His aim then was popularity. He did his best as a teacher, +giving his spare time to the law. Before the Justices' Court he argued +frequently, and commonly with success. There he gained reputation, and +having been elected member of the legislature, he determined to devote +his life thenceforth to what seemed to him kindred pursuits, politics +and law. + +In the latter his successes were frequent. At first he was employed, +naturally, in minor cases; but it was soon discovered that no one at the +bar was his equal in the dexterous management of a knotty point, the +successful defence of a desperate villain, or the game of bluff with +judge, jury, or opposing counsel. His cases were such as developed his +cunning, his ingenuity, and tact, rather than tested his learning or +research; and it is doubtful if he would, in the practice of law alone, +have achieved more than a local distinction, and that not in all +respects a desirable one. In the wording of the State Statutes he was +well read, and he often availed himself of his remarkable memory to +the entire discomfiture of an opponent, whose technical error, quickly +detected by the watchful ear of Douglas, would be turned against him +with great effect. So constant was his success in the defence of +criminal cases, that it was deemed well, by the powers that were, to +elevate him to the position of prosecuting attorney for the first +district of the State. This was done in 1835, when he was but twenty-two +years of age. At that time he was of singularly prepossessing appearance +and popular manners. The _people_ were fond and proud of him; and when +he made his acknowledgments to them for the above-mentioned token of +their confidence, he so excited them by his oratory, that they took him +from the platform, raised him upon their shoulders, and bore him in +triumph about the town, while hundreds followed, shouting, "Hurra for +little Doug!" "Three cheers for the Little Giant!" "We'll put you +through!" and "You'll be President yet!" + +The judges of the Supreme Court thought that a great mistake had been +made; and one of them, who in later years was one of Mr. Douglas's +warmest friends, did not hesitate to say that the election was wrong. +"What business", asked he, "has this boy with such an office? He is no +lawyer, and has no books." Indeed, he met with no little opposition from +his brethren at the bar, but none that in any way impeded his progress +in the affections of the people, or disheartened him in his efforts +after loftier place. Judge Morton relates, that at no time was Douglas +found unprepared. "His indictments were always properly drawn, his +evidence complete, and his arguments logical." Before a jury he was +in his element. There he could indulge in story-telling, in special +pleading, and in all the intricate devices which beguile sober men of +their senses, and prove black white or good evil. From judge to jury, +from the highest practitioner to the lowest pettifogger, there soon came +to be but one impression. He was acknowledged to be the champion of the +Illinois bar. + +His career upon the bench, to which he was soon after elevated, was +brilliant, because energetic, and successful, because he never permitted +contingencies to thwart a predetermination, and because that coolness +and grit which enabled him to whip a second sneering boy while he was +yet a youth had become a settled trait of his character. It was during +the sitting of his court, that the notorious Joe Smith was to be tried +for some offence against the people of the State. Mob-law had taken +matters somewhat under its charge in the West; and the populace, fearing +that Smith, in this particular instance, might manage to slip from the +hands of justice, determined to take him from the court-house and hang +him. They even went so far as to erect a gallows in the yard, and, +having entered the court-room, demanded from the sheriff the person of +the prisoner. Judge Douglas was in his seat; the room was filled with +the infuriated mob and its sympathizers; Smith sat pale and trembling +in his box; while the sheriff, after vainly attempting to quell the +disturbance, fell powerless and half-fainting on the steps. "Sheriff," +shouted the judge, "clear the court!" It was easier said than done. Five +hundred determined men are not to be thwarted by a coward, and such the +sheriff proved. It was a trying moment. The life of Smith _per se_ was +not worth saving, but the dignity of the court must be upheld, and +Douglas saw at a glance that he had but a moment in which to do it. "Mr. +Harris," said he, addressing a huge and sinewy Kentuckian, "I appoint +you sheriff of this court. Select your deputies. Clear this court-house. +Do it, and do it now." He had chosen the right man. Right and left fell +the foremost of the mob; some were pitched from the windows, others +jumped thence of their own accord; and soon the entire crowd, convinced +of the judge's determination to maintain order, rushed pell-mell from +the court-room, while Smith, who had unperceived made his way up to the +feet of the judge, laid his head upon his knee and wept like a child. +"Never," said Douglas, "was I so determined to effect a result as then. +Had Smith been taken from my protection, it would have been only when +I lay dead upon the floor." The fact that he had no right to appoint +a sheriff was not one of the "points of consideration." "How shall I +execute my will?" was probably the only question that suggested itself +to his mind at the time, and the logic of the answer in no way troubled +him. The dignity of the bench was always upheld by Judge Douglas during +the sitting of the court; but he was no stickler for form or ceremony +elsewhere. + +A friend tells an amusing anecdote illustrative of his daring and +somewhat foolhardy spirit, even in mature life. Mr. Douglas, then +a judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois, was one of a number of +passengers who, on the crack steamboat "Andrew Jackson," were going down +the Mississippi. The steamer was detained several hours at Natchez, +where she was supplied with wood and water, and during the delay a huge, +hard-fisted boatman, somewhat the worse for a poor article of strychnine +whiskey, made himself very conspicuous and exceedingly obnoxious by the +continual iteration of his intense desire to fight some one. He +was fearful that he would "ruin," if his pugilistic wants were not +immediately attended to, and in manner more earnest than agreeable +invited one and all to "come ashore and have the conceit taken out" of +them. From the descriptive catalogue he gave of his own merits, the +passengers gathered that he was "a roarer," "a regular bruiser," "half +alligator, half steamboat, half snapping-turtle, with a leetle dash of +chain-lightning thrown in," and were evidently afraid of him; when the +Judge, who had been quietly smoking on the deck, stepped out upon the +quay, and, approaching the bully, said, with a peculiarly dry manner,-- + +"Who might you be, my big chicken, eh?" + +"I'm a high-pressure steamer," roared the astonished boatman. + +"And I'm a snag," replied Douglas, as he pitched into him; and before +the fellow had time to reflect, he lay sprawling in the mud. + +A loud shout, mingled with derisive laughter, burst from the spectators, +all of whom knew the Judge; and while the discomfited braggart limped +sorely off, the passengers carried Douglas to the bar, where, for hours +after, a general series of jollifications ensued, and he who a few days +before had sat the embodiment of judicial dignity on the supreme bench +now vied with a motley crowd of steamboat-passengers in song and story. +As a judge he was as he should be; but he was a judge only while +literally on the bench. + +The decisions of Judge Douglas were recognized always as able and +impartial; but his habit of "log-rolling," or, as the extreme Westerners +call it, "honey-fugling" for votes and support, had so grown upon him, +that his sincere friends feared lest he would sink too low, and in the +end defeat himself. He had ascertained, however, that success was in the +gift of the multitude, and to them he ever remained faithful. + +Had Mr. Douglas been born four months sooner than he was, he would have +been a Senator of the United States in 1842, when his age would have +been thirty years; but owing to the fact that he would not be thirty +until April of the following year, his friends found it would be +unadvisable to elect him. In November, 1843, however, he was elected to +the House, after passing through one of the most exciting canvasses +ever known in the West. Everywhere he met the people on the stump. That +seemed to be his appropriate forum, and the only position in which he +could indulge in his peculiarly popular style of oratory. His greatest +achievement during that Congress was his speech in defence of General +Jackson,--a speech begun when the seats and halls were comparatively +empty, but concluded in the presence of an overwhelming audience. After +the adjournment of Congress, delegations from many of the States were +sent to a monster Jackson Convention held at Nashville, and Mr. Douglas +was a member of the Illinois Committee. By invitation, he stopped at the +Hermitage. Hundreds of others were calling to pay their respects to +the old hero, and to congratulate him upon his triumph, when Douglas +entered. He was short and plain, and attracted little attention, till +presented by Governor Clay of Alabama. On the announcement of his name, +the General raised his still brilliant eyes, and gazed for a moment on +the countenance of the Judge, still retaining his hand. + +"Are you the Mr. Douglas of Illinois who delivered a speech last session +on the subject of the fine imposed on me for declaring martial law at +New Orleans?" he asked. + +"I have delivered a speech in the House on that subject," replied +Douglas. + +"Then stop," said the General; "sit down here beside me; I desire to +return you my thanks for that speech." + +And then, in the presence of that distinguished company, the aged +soldier expressed his gratitude for the words so kindly and justly +spoken, and assured him of his great obligations. At the conclusion +of the interview, Douglas, who was unable to utter a word, grasped +convulsively the aged veteran's hand and left the hall. + +At his death. General Jackson left all his papers to Mr. Blair, the +editor of the Washington "Globe," and among them was a printed copy of +the speech, with this indorsement, written and signed by himself:--"This +speech constitutes my defence: I lay it aside as an inheritance for my +grandchildren." + +In the famous Compromise struggle of 1850, Judge Douglas developed great +strength of will and wonderful executive ability. With Henry Clay he was +on the most friendly terms, and that statesman once said of him, that he +knew of "no man so entirely an embodiment of American ideas and American +institutions as Mr. Douglas." It is well known that to Senator Douglas +belongs the credit of initiating the great "Compromise Bill," and that, +though reported by Mr. Clay as from the Select Committee of the Senate, +it was in reality the California and Territorial Bills drawn up by Mr. +Douglas, united. It was at his own suggestion that this was done; and +when Mr. Clay objected, on the ground that it would be unfair for the +Committee to claim the credit which belonged exclusively to another, he +rebuked him, and asked by what right he (Mr. Clay) jeoparded the peace +and harmony of the nation, in order that this or that man might receive +the credit due for the origin of a bill. Mr. Clay was so struck by the +manner and observation, of Mr. Douglas, that he grasped his hand and +said,--"You are the most generous man living! I _will_ unite the bills, +and report them; but justice shall nevertheless be done to you as the +real author of the measures." It has been. + +Some time after this, he had occasion, to visit Chicago, and his friends +were desirous that he should address the people in defence of the +principle involved in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. On Saturday night he +appeared before his audience in the open square in front of North Market +Hall. His opponents had been more active than his friends. Ten thousand +roughs, determined to make trouble, had assembled there; and when the +speaker appeared, they saluted him with groans, cat-calls, ironical +cheers, and noises of all kinds. That sort of thing in no way annoyed +him. He was used to it. On similar occasions he had by wit and +good-humor succeeded in gaining a respectful and generally an +enthusiastic hearing, and he expected to do so now. He was mistaken. For +four hours the contest raged between them. He entreated, he threatened, +he laughed at them, told stories, bellowed with the entire volume of his +sonorous voice, but without success. They defied and insulted him, until +the clock in a neighboring church-tower tolled forth the midnight hour. +"Gentlemen," said Douglas, taking out his watch, and advancing to the +front of the stand, "it is Sunday morning. I have to bid you farewell. I +am going to church, and you--can go to ----." Whereupon, he retired, and +the crowd followed, hooting, jeering, and screaming, until they left him +at the door of his hotel. + +No man living possessed warmer friends than Mr. Douglas. I saw tears +of sorrow fall from the eyes of hard-featured Western men, when at the +Charleston Convention it became evident that he could not receive the +Presidential nomination. Hard words were spoken and hard blows were +given in his cause there, and subsequently at Baltimore; and it is +doubtful if ever caucusing or struggles for success insured more bitter +or lasting hatreds than were engendered during the prolonged contests at +those places. The result of that strife, the subsequent canvassing of +the country in search of friends and votes, and the ultimate defeat, +worked wonderful changes in him, morally and physically. All that in +years past he had looked for, all he had struggled for, seemed put +forever beyond his reach; and he was from that hour a different man. +Fortunately for him, gloriously for his reputation, the people of the +South saw fit to rebel; and Douglas, espousing the side of the right, +has died a patriot. There had always been a feeling of friendship +existing between Mr. Lincoln and Judge Douglas; and the manner in which +the latter acted just prior to the Inauguration, and the gallant part he +sustained at that time, as well as afterwards, served to increase their +mutual regard and esteem. It was my good-fortune to stand by Mr. Douglas +during the reading of the Inaugural of President Lincoln. Rumors had +been current that there would be trouble at that time, and much anxiety +was felt by the authorities and the friends of Mr. Lincoln as to the +result. "I shall be there," said Douglas, "and if any man attacks +Lincoln, he attacks me, too." As Mr. Lincoln proceeded with his address, +Judge Douglas repeatedly remarked, "Good!" "That's fair!" "No backing +out there!" "That's a good point!" etc.,--indicating his approval of +its tone, as subsequently he congratulated the reader and indorsed the +document. + +At the Inauguration Ball, all were waiting the arrival of the +Presidential party. Much feeling had been created in the city by the +announcement that Washington people did not intend to patronize the +affair, and it was feared that it might fall through. Presently the band +struck up "Hail Columbia," and President Lincoln with his escort entered +the room, followed by Mrs. Lincoln, who was supported by Judge Douglas. +A more significant demonstration of friendship and of personal interest +could not possibly be suggested; and Mr. Douglas, that night, by his +genial manner, his cordial sympathy with the _personnel_ of the new +Administration, and the effectual snubbing which he thereby gave to the +pretentious movers in Washington society, won for himself many friends, +and the gratitude of all the Republicans present. + +About two months since, while in the telegraph office at Washington, +I saw Mr. Douglas. Accosting him, I asked what course he thought the +President should pursue towards the sympathizers with the South who +remained in that city. "Well," replied he, "if I were President, I'd +convert or hang them _all_ within forty-eight hours. However, don't be +in a hurry. I've known Mr. Lincoln a longer time than you have, or than +the country has; he'll come out right, and we will all stand by him." + +The President was, in return, a warm friend of Mr. Douglas. I had +occasion to inquire of him if he had, as was reported in the newspapers, +tendered to Judge Douglas the position of Brigadier-General. "No, Sir," +said Mr. Lincoln, "I have not done so; nor had I thought of doing so +until to-night, when I saw it suggested in the paper. I have no reason +to believe Mr. Douglas would accept it. He has not asked it, nor +have his friends. But I must say, that, if it is well to appoint +brigadier-generals from the civil list, I can imagine few men better +qualified for such a position than Judge Douglas. For myself, I know I +have not much military knowledge, and I think Douglas has. It was he who +first told me I should have trouble at Baltimore, and, pointing on the +map, showed me the route by Perryville, Havre de Grace, and Annapolis, +as the one over which our troops must come. He impressed on my mind the +necessity of absolutely securing Fortress Monroe and Old Point Comfort, +and, in fact, I think he knows all about it." The President continued +at some length to refer to the aid, counsel, and encouragement he had +received from Judge Douglas, intimating that the relations subsisting +between them were of the most amicable and pleasant nature. + +It was evidently the purpose of Mr. Douglas, during the present crisis, +to impress upon the country the fact, that at the outset he had declared +himself a Union man, faithful to the Constitution and the upholding of +its powers. + +Mr. Douglas has left many friends and many opponents, but few enemies. +Careless of money, he died poor. Generous to recklessness, he permitted +his estate to become incumbered and taken from him. Early in life he +aimed at personal popularity, and obtained it. In later years he desired +legal honors, and they were his. Successful in all he undertook, he +raised his ambition to the highest post among his fellows, and its +possession became the sole object of his life. For its attainment +he gave everything, yielded everything, did everything, and became +everything, without success. In all things he was extreme. His loves +and hates were strong. His habits, however they may be estimated, were +apparent to all. His life--was it a failure? + +His death I will but mention. It has plunged a loving family into +sorrow, and taken from a party its leader. Thousands of sentences +gratifying to his friends are written about his greatness, and the +sacredness of his memory; and no word will be uttered here to offend +them. He shall himself close this paper, and I will be the medium of +conveying in his behalf a message to his fellow-countrymen,--a message +which he spoke into the ear of his watchful wife, for the future +guidance of his orphan children:-- + +"Reviving slightly, he turned easily in his bed, and with his eyes +partially closed, and his hand resting in that of Mrs. Douglas, he said, +in slow and measured cadence,-- + +"'TELL THEM TO OBEY THE LAWS AND SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED +STATES.'" + + + + +OUR RIVER. + +(FOR A SUMMER FESTIVAL AT "THE LAURELS" ON THE MERRIMACK.) + + + Once more on yonder laurelled height + The summer flowers have budded; + Once more with summer's golden light + The vales of home are flooded; + And once more, by the grace of Him + Of every good the Giver, + We sing upon its wooded rim + The praises of our river: + + Its pines above, its waves below, + The west wind down it blowing, + As fair as when the young Brissot + Beheld it seaward flowing,-- + And bore its memory o'er the deep + To soothe a martyr's sadness, + And fresco, in his troubled sleep, + His prison-walls with gladness. + + We know the world is rich with streams + Renowned in song and story, + Whose music murmurs through our dreams + Of human love and glory: + We know that Arno's banks are fair, + And Rhine has castled shadows, + And, poet-tuned, the Doon and Ayr + Go singing down their meadows. + + But while, unpictured and unsung + By painter or by poet, + Our river waits the tuneful tongue + And cunning hand to show it,-- + We only know the fond skies lean + Above it, warm with blessing, + And the sweet soul of our Undine + Awakes to our caressing. + + No fickle Sun-God holds the flocks + That graze its shores in keeping; + No icy kiss of Dian mocks + The youth beside it sleeping: + Our Christian river loveth most + The beautiful and human; + The heathen streams of Naiads boast, + But ours of man and woman. + + The miner in his cabin hears + The ripple we are hearing; + It whispers soft to homesick ears + Around the settler's clearing: + In Sacramento's vales of corn, + Or Santee's bloom of cotton, + Our river by its valley-born + Was never yet forgotten. + + The drum rolls loud,--the bugle fills + The summer air with clangor; + The war-storm shakes the solid hills + Beneath its tread of anger: + Young eyes that last year smiled in ours + Now point the rifle's barrel, + And hands then stained with fruits and flowers + Bear redder stains of quarrel. + + But blue skies smile, and flowers bloom on, + And rivers still keep flowing,-- + The dear God still his rain and sun + On good and ill bestowing. + His pine-trees whisper, "Trust and wait!" + His flowers are prophesying + That all we dread of change or fate + His love is underlying. + + And thou, O Mountain-born!--no more + We ask the Wise Allotter + Than for the firmness of thy shore, + The calmness of thy water, + The cheerful lights that overlay + Thy rugged slopes with beauty, + To match our spirits to our day + And make a joy of duty. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE ARTIST MONK. + + +On the evening when Agnes and her grandmother returned from the Convent, +as they were standing after supper looking over the garden parapet into +the gorge, their attention was caught by a man in an ecclesiastical +habit, slowly climbing the rocky pathway towards them. + +"Isn't that brother Antonio?" said Dame Elsie, leaning forward to +observe more narrowly. "Yes, to be sure it is!" + +"Oh, how glad I am!" exclaimed Agnes, springing up with vivacity, and +looking eagerly down the path by which the stranger was approaching. + +A few moments more of clambering, and the stranger met the two women at +the gate with a gesture of benediction. + +He was apparently a little past the middle point of life, and entering +on its shady afternoon. He was tall and well proportioned, and his +features had the spare delicacy of the Italian outline. The round brow, +fully developed in all the perceptive and aesthetic regions,--the keen +eye, shadowed by long, dark lashes,--the thin, flexible lips,--the +sunken cheek, where, on the slightest emotion, there fluttered a +brilliant flush of color,--all were signs telling of the enthusiast in +whom the nervous and spiritual predominated over the animal. + +At times, his eye had a dilating brightness, as if from the flickering +of some inward fire which was slowly consuming the mortal part, and its +expression was brilliant even to the verge of insanity. + +His dress was the simple, coarse, white stuff-gown of the Dominican +friars, over which he wore a darker travelling-garment of coarse cloth, +with a hood, from whose deep shadows his bright mysterious eyes looked +like jewels from a cavern. At his side dangled a great rosary and cross +of black wood, and under his arm he carried a portfolio secured with a +leathern strap, which seemed stuffed to bursting with papers. + +Father Antonio, whom we have thus introduced to the reader, was an +itinerant preaching monk from the Convent of San Marco in Florence, on a +pastoral and artistic tour through Italy. + +Convents in the Middle Ages were the retreats of multitudes of natures +who did not wish to live in a state of perpetual warfare and offence, +and all the elegant arts flourished under their protecting shadows. +Ornamental gardening, pharmacy, drawing, painting, carving in wood, +illumination, and calligraphy were not unfrequent occupations of the +holy fathers, and the convent has given to the illustrious roll of +Italian Art some of its most brilliant names. No institution in modern +Europe had a more established reputation in all these respects than the +Convent of San Marco in Florence. In its best days, it was as near an +approach to an ideal community, associated to unite religion, beauty, +and utility, as ever has existed on earth. It was a retreat from the +commonplace prose of life into an atmosphere at once devotional and +poetic; and prayers and sacred hymns consecrated the elegant labors of +the chisel and the pencil, no less than the more homely ones of the +still and the crucible. San Marco, far from being that kind of sluggish +lagoon often imagined in conventual life, was rather a sheltered hotbed +of ideas,--fervid with intellectual and moral energy, and before the +age in every radical movement. At this period, Savonarola, the poet and +prophet of the Italian religious world of his day, was superior of this +convent, pouring through all the members of the order the fire of his +own impassioned nature, and seeking to lead them back to the fervors of +more primitive and evangelical ages, and in the reaction of a worldly +and corrupt Church was beginning to feel the power of that current which +at last drowned his eloquent voice in the cold waters of martyrdom. +Savonarola was an Italian Luther,--differing from the great Northern +Reformer as the more ethereally strung and nervous Italian differs from +the bluff and burly German; and like Luther he became in his time the +centre of every living thing in society about him. He inspired the +pencils of artists, guided the counsels of statesmen, and, a poet +himself, was an inspiration to poets. Everywhere in Italy the monks of +his order were travelling, restoring the shrines, preaching against +the voluptuous and unworthy pictures with which sensual artists +had desecrated the churches, and calling the people back by their +exhortations to the purity of primitive Christianity. + +Father Antonio was a younger brother of Elsie, and had early become a +member of the San Marco, enthusiastic not less in religion than in Art. +His intercourse with his sister had few points of sympathy, Elsie being +as decided a utilitarian as any old Yankee female born in the granite +hills of New Hampshire, and pursuing with a hard and sharp energy her +narrow plan of life for Agnes. She regarded her brother as a very +properly religious person, considering his calling, but was a little +bored with his exuberant devotion, and absolutely indifferent to his +artistic enthusiasm. Agnes, on the contrary, had from a child attached +herself to her uncle with all the energy of a sympathetic nature, and +his yearly visits had been looked forward to on her part with intense +expectation. To him she could say a thousand things which she +instinctively concealed from her grandmother; and Elsie was well pleased +with the confidence, because it relieved her a little from the vigilant +guardianship that she otherwise held over the girl. When Father Antonio +was near, she had leisure now and then for a little private gossip of +her own, without the constant care of supervising Agnes. + +"Dear uncle, how glad I am to see you once more!" was the eager +salutation with which the young girl received the monk, as he gained the +little garden. "And you have brought your pictures;--oh, I know you have +so many pretty things to show me!" + +"Well, well, child," said Elsie, "don't begin upon that now. A little +talk of bread and cheese will be more in point. Come in, brother, and +wash your feet, and let me beat the dust out of your cloak, and give you +something to stay Nature; for you must be fasting." + +"Thank you, sister," said the monk; "and as for you, pretty one, never +mind what she says. Uncle Antonio will show his little Agnes everything +by-and-by.--A good little thing it is, sister." + +"Yes, yes,--good enough,--and too good," said Elsie, bustling +about;--"roses can't help having thorns, I suppose." + +"Only our ever-blessed Rose of Sharon, the dear mystical Rose of +Paradise, can boast of having no thorns," said the monk, bowing and +crossing himself devoutly. + +Agnes clasped her hands on her bosom and bowed also, while Elsie stopped +with her knife in the middle of a loaf of black bread, and crossed +herself with somewhat of impatience,--like a worldly-minded person of +our day, who is interrupted in the midst of an observation by a grace. + +After the rites of hospitality had been duly observed, the old dame +seated herself contentedly in her door with her distaff, resigned Agnes +to the safe guardianship of her uncle, and had a feeling of security +in seeing them sitting together on the parapet of the garden, with +the portfolio spread out between them,--the warm twilight glow of the +evening sky lighting up their figures as they bent in ardent interest +over its contents. The portfolio showed a fluttering collection of +sketches,--fruits, flowers, animals, insects, faces, figures, shrines, +buildings, trees,--all, in short, that might strike the mind of a man +to whose eye nothing on the face of the earth is without beauty and +significance. + +"Oh, how beautiful!" said the girl, taking up one sketch, in which a +bunch of rosy cyclamen was painted riding out of a bed of moss. + +"Ah, that indeed, my dear!" said the artist, "Would you had seen the +place where I painted it! I stopped there to recite my prayers one +morning; 't was by the side of a beautiful cascade, and all the ground +was covered with these lovely cyclamens, and the air was musky with +their fragrance.--Ah, the bright rose-colored leaves! I can get no color +like them, unless some angel would bring me some from those sunset +clouds yonder." + +"And oh, dear uncle, what lovely primroses!" pursued Agnes, taking up +another paper. + +"Yes, child; but you should have seen them when I was coming down the +south side of the Apennines;--these were everywhere so pale and sweet, +they seemed like the humility of our Most Blessed Mother in her lowly +mortal state. I am minded to make a border of primroses to the leaf in +the Breviary where is the 'Hail, Mary!'--for it seems as if that flower +doth ever say, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord!'" + +"And what will you do with the cyclamen, uncle? does not that mean +something?" + +"Yes, daughter," replied the monk, readily entering into that symbolical +strain which permeated all the heart and mind of the religious of his +day,--"I _can_ see a meaning in it. For you see that the cyclamen +puts forth its leaves in early spring deeply engraven with mystical +characters, and loves cool shadows, and moist, dark places, but comes +at length to wear a royal crown of crimson; and it seems to me like the +saints who dwell in convents and other prayerful places, and have the +word of God graven in their hearts in youth, till these blossom into +fervent love, and they are crowned with royal graces." + +"Ah!" sighed Agnes, "how beautiful and how blessed to be among such!" + +"Thou sayest well, dear child. Blessed are the flowers of God that grow +in cool solitudes, and have never been profaned by the hot sun and dust +of this world!" + +"I should like to be such a one," said Agnes. "I often think, when I +visit the sisters at the Convent, that I long to be one of them." + +"A pretty story!" said Dame Elsie, who had heard the last words,--"go +into a convent and leave your poor grandmother all alone, when she has +toiled night and day for so many years to get a dowry for you and find +you a worthy husband!" + +"I don't want any husband in this world, grandmamma," said Agnes. + +"What talk is this? Not want a good husband to take care of you when +your poor old grandmother is gone? Who will provide for you?" + +"He who took care of the blessed Saint Agnes, grandmamma." + +"Saint Agnes, to be sure! That was a great many years ago, and times +have altered since then;--in these days girls must have husbands. Isn't +it so, brother Antonio?" + +"But if the darling hath a vocation?" said the artist, mildly. + +"Vocation! I'll see to that! She sha'n't have a vocation! Suppose I'm +going to delve, and toil, and spin, and wear myself to the bone, and +have her slip through my fingers at last with a vocation? No, indeed!" + +"Indeed, dear grandmother, don't be angry!" said Agnes. "I will do just +as you say,--only I don't want a husband." + +"Well, well, my little heart,--one thing at a time; you sha'n't have him +till you say yes willingly," said Elsie, in a mollified tone. + +Agnes turned again to the portfolio and busied herself with it, her eyes +dilating as she ran over the sketches. + +"Ah! what pretty, pretty bird is this?" she asked. + +"Knowest thou not that bird, with his little red beak?" said the artist. +"When our dear Lord hung bleeding, and no man pitied him, this bird, +filled with tender love, tried to draw out the nails with his poor +little beak,--so much better were the birds than we hard-hearted +sinners!--hence he hath honor in many pictures. See here,--I shall put +him into the office of the Sacred Heart, in a little nest curiously +built in a running vine of passion-flower. See here, daughter,--I have +a great commission to execute a Breviary for our house, and our holy +Father was pleased to say that the spirit of the blessed Angelico had in +some little humble measure descended on me, and now I am busy day and +night; for not a twig rustles, not a bird flies, nor a flower blossoms, +but I begin to see therein some hint of holy adornment to my blessed +work." + +"Oh, Uncle Antonio, how happy you must be!" said Agnes,--her large eyes +filling with tears. + +"Happy!--child, am I not?" said the monk, looking up and crossing +himself. "Holy Mother, am I not? Do I not walk the earth in a dream of +bliss, and see the footsteps of my Most Blessed Lord and his dear Mother +on every rock and hill? I see the flowers rise up in clouds to adore +them. What am I, unworthy sinner, that such grace is granted me? Often +I fall on my face before the humblest flower where my dear Lord hath +written his name, and confess I am unworthy the honor of copying his +sweet handiwork." + +The artist spoke these words with his hands clasped and his fervid eyes +upraised, like a man in an ecstasy; nor can our more prosaic English +give an idea of the fluent naturalness and grace with which such images +melt into that lovely tongue which seems made to be the natural language +of poetry and enthusiasm. + +Agnes looked up to him with humble awe, as to some celestial being; but +there was a sympathetic glow in her face, and she put her hands on her +bosom, as her manner often was when much moved, and, drawing a deep +sigh, said,-- + +"Would that such gifts were mine!" + +"They are thine, sweet one," said the monk. "In Christ's dear kingdom is +no mine or thine, but all that each hath is the property of the others. +I never rejoice so much in my art as when I think of the communion of +saints, and that all that our Blessed Lord will work through me is the +property of the humblest soul in his kingdom. When I see one flower +rarer than another, or a bird singing on a twig, I take note of the +same, and say, 'This lovely work of God shall be for some shrine, or the +border of a missal, or the foreground of an altar-piece, and thus shall +his saints be comforted.'" + +"But," said Agnes, fervently, "how little can a poor young maiden do! +Ah, I do so long to offer myself up in some way to the dear Lord, who +gave himself for us, and for his Most Blessed Church!" + +As Agnes spoke these words, her cheek, usually so clear and pale, became +suffused with a tremulous color, and her dark eyes had a deep, divine +expression;--a moment after, the color slowly faded, her head drooped, +and her long, dark lashes fell on her cheek, while her hands were folded +on her bosom. The eye of the monk was watching her with an enkindled +glance. + +"Is she not the very presentment of our Blessed Lady in the +Annunciation?" said he to himself. "Surely, this grace is upon her for +this special purpose. My prayers are answered. + +"Daughter," he began, in a gentle tone, "a glorious work has been done +of late in Florence under the preaching of our blessed Superior. Could +you believe it, daughter, in these times of backsliding and rebuke there +have been found painters base enough to paint the pictures of vile, +abandoned women in the character of our Blessed Lady; yea, and princes +have been found wicked enough to buy them and put them up in churches, +so that the people have had the Mother of all Purity presented to them +in the guise of a vile harlot. Is it not dreadful?" + +"How horrible!" said Agnes. + +"Ah, but you should have seen the great procession through Florence, +when all the little children were inspired by the heavenly preaching of +our dear Master. These dear little ones, carrying the blessed cross and +singing the hymns our Master had written for them, went from house to +house and church to church, demanding that everything that was vile and +base should be delivered up to the flames,--and the people, beholding, +thought that the angels had indeed come down, and brought forth all +their loose pictures and vile books, such as Boccaccio's romances and +other defilements, and the children made a splendid bonfire of them in +the Grand Piazza, and so thousands of vile things were consumed and +scattered. And then our blessed Master exhorted the artists to give +pencils to Christ and his Mother, and seek for her image among pious and +holy women living a veiled and secluded life, like that our Lady lived +before the blessed Annunciation. 'Think you,' he said, 'that the blessed +Angelico obtained the grace to set forth our Lady in such heavenly wise +by gazing about the streets on mincing women tricked out in all the +world's bravery?--or did he not find her image in holy solitudes, among +modest and prayerful saints?'" + +"Ah," said Agnes, drawing in her breath with an expression of awe, "what +mortal would dare to sit for the image of our Lady!" + +"Dear child, there be women whom the Lord crowns with beauty when they +know it not, and our dear Mother sheds so much of her spirit into their +hearts that it shines out in their faces; and among such must the +painter look. Dear little child, be not ignorant that our Lord hath shed +this great grace on thee. I have received a light that thou art to be +the model for the 'Hail, Mary!' in my Breviary." + +"Oh, no, no, no! it cannot be!" said Agnes, covering her face with her +hands. + +"My daughter, thou art very beautiful, and this beauty was given thee +not for thyself, but to be laid like a sweet flower on the altar of thy +Lord. Think how blessed, if, through thee, the faithful be reminded of +the modesty and humility of Mary, so that their prayers become more +fervent,--would it not be a great grace?" + +"Dear uncle,"--said Agnes, "I am Christ's child. If it be as you +say,--which I did not know,--give me some days to pray and prepare my +soul, that I may offer myself in all humility." + +During this conversation Elsie had left the garden and gone a little way +down the gorge, to have a few moments of gossip with an old crony. The +light of the evening sky had gradually faded away, and the full moon was +pouring a shower of silver upon the orange-trees. As Agnes sat on the +parapet, with the moonlight streaming down on her young, spiritual face, +now tremulous with deep suppressed emotion, the painter thought he had +never seen any human creature that looked nearer to his conception of a +celestial being. + +They both sat awhile in that kind of quietude which often falls between +two who have stirred some deep fountain of emotion. All was so still +around them, that the drip and trickle of the little stream which fell +from the garden wall into the dark abyss of the gorge could well be +heard as it pattered from one rocky point to another, with a slender, +lulling sound. + +Suddenly the reveries of the two were disturbed by the shadow of a +figure which passed into the moonlight and seemed to rise from the side +of the gorge. A man enveloped in a dark cloak with a peaked hood stepped +across the moss-grown garden parapet, stood a moment irresolute, then +the cloak dropped suddenly from him, and the Cavalier stood in the +moonlight before Agnes. He bore in his hand a tall stalk of white lily, +with open blossoms and buds and tender fluted green leaves, such as one +sees in a thousand pictures of the Annunciation. The moonlight fell full +upon his face, revealing his haughty yet beautiful features, agitated +by some profound emotion. The monk and the girl were both too much +surprised for a moment to utter a sound; and when, after an instant, the +monk made a half-movement as if to address him, the cavalier raised his +right hand with a sudden authoritative gesture which silenced him. Then +turning toward Agnes, he kneeled, and kissing the hem of her robe, and +laying the lily in her lap, "Holiest and dearest," he said, "oh, forget +not to pray for me!" He rose again in a moment, and, throwing his +cloak around him, sprang over the garden wall, and was heard rapidly +descending into the shadows of the gorge. + +All this passed so quickly that it seemed to both the spectators like a +dream. The splendid man, with his jewelled weapons, his haughty bearing, +and air of easy command, bowing with such solemn humility before the +peasant girl, reminded the monk of the barbaric princes in the wonderful +legends he had read, who had been drawn by some heavenly inspiration to +come and render themselves up to the teachings of holy virgins, chosen +of the Lord, in divine solitudes. In the poetical world in which he +lived all such marvels were possible. There were a thousand precedents +for them in that devout dream-land, "The Lives of the Saints." + +"My daughter," he said, after looking vainly down the dark shadows upon +the path of the stranger, "have you ever seen this man before?" + +"Yes, uncle; yesterday evening I saw him for the first time, when +sitting at my stand at the gate of the city. It was at the Ave Maria; he +came up there and asked my prayers, and gave me a diamond ring for the +shrine of Saint Agnes, which I carried to the Convent to-day." + +"Behold, my dear daughter, the confirmation of what I have just said to +thee! It is evident that our Lady hath endowed thee with the great grace +of a beauty which draws the soul upward towards the angels, instead of +downward to sensual things, like the beauty of worldly women. What saith +the blessed poet Dante of the beauty of the holy Beatrice?--that it said +to every man who looked on her, '_Aspire!_'[A] Great is the grace, and +thou must give special praise therefor." + +[Footnote A: I cannot forbear quoting Mr. Norton's beautiful translation +of this sonnet in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for February, 1859:-- + + "So gentle and so modest doth appear + My lady when she giveth her salute, + That every tongue becometh trembling mute, + Nor do the eyes to look upon her dare, + And though she hears her praises, she doth, go + Benignly clothed with humility, + And like a thing come down she seems to be + From heaven to earth, a miracle to show. + So pleaseth she whoever cometh nigh her, + She gives the heart a sweetness through the eyes + Which none can understand who doth not prove. + And from her lip there seems indeed to move + A spirit sweet and in Love's very guise, + Which goeth saying to the soul, '_Aspire!_'"] + +"I would," said Agnes, thoughtfully, "that I knew who this stranger is, +and what is his great trouble and need,--his eyes are so full of sorrow. +Giulietta said he was the King's brother, and was called the Lord +Adrian. What sorrow can he have, or what need for the prayers of a poor +maid like me?" + +"Perhaps the Lord hath pierced him with a longing after the celestial +beauty and heavenly purity of paradise, and wounded him with a divine +sorrow, as happened to Saint Francis and to the blessed Saint Dominic," +said the monk. "Beauty is the Lord's arrow, wherewith he pierceth to the +inmost soul, with a divine longing and languishment which find rest only +in him. Hence thou seest the wounds of love in saints are always painted +by us with holy flames ascending from them. Have good courage, sweet +child, and pray with fervor for this youth; for there be no prayers +sweeter before the throne of God than those of spotless maidens. The +Scripture saith, 'My beloved feedeth among the lilies.'" + +At this moment the sharp, decided tramp of Elsie was heard reëntering +the garden. + +"Come, Agnes," she said, "It is time for you to begin your prayers, or, +the saints know, I shall not get you to bed till midnight. I suppose +prayers are a good thing," she added, seating herself wearily; "but if +one must have so many of them, one must get about them early. There's +reason in all things." + +Agnes, who had been sitting abstractedly on the parapet, with her head +drooped over the lily-spray, now seemed to collect herself. She rose up +in a grave and thoughtful manner, and, going forward to the shrine of +the Madonna, removed the flowers of the morning, and holding the vase +under the spout of the fountain, all feathered with waving maiden-hair, +filled it with fresh water, the drops falling from it in a thousand +little silver rings in the moonlight. + +"I have a thought," said the monk to himself, drawing from his girdle +a pencil and hastily sketching by the moonlight. What he drew was a +fragile maiden form, sitting with clasped hands on a mossy ruin, gazing +on a spray of white lilies which lay before her. He called it, The +Blessed Virgin pondering the Lily of the Annunciation. + +"Hast thou ever reflected," he said to Agnes, "what that lily might be +like which the angel Gabriel brought to our Lady?--for, trust me, it was +no mortal flower, but grew by the river of life. I have often meditated +thereon, that it was like unto living silver with a light in itself, +like the moon,--even as our Lord's garments in the Transfiguration, +which glistened like the snow. I have cast about in myself by what +device a painter might represent so marvellous a flower." + +"Now, brother Antonio," said Elsie, "if you begin to talk to the child +about such matters, our Lady alone knows when we shall get to bed. I am +sure I'm as good a Christian as anybody; but, as I said, there's reason +in all things, and one cannot always be wondering and inquiring into +heavenly matters,--as to every feather in Saint Michael's wings, and as +to our Lady's girdle and shoe-strings and thimble and work-basket; and +when one gets through with our Lady, then one has it all to go over +about her mother, the blessed Saint Anne (may her name be ever +praised!). I mean no disrespect, but I am certain the saints are +reasonable folk and must see that poor folk must live, and, in order to +live, must think of something else now and then besides _them_. That's +my mind, brother." + +"Well, well, sister," said the monk, placidly, "no doubt you are right. +There shall be no quarrelling in the Lord's vineyard; every one hath his +manner and place, and you follow the lead of the blessed Saint Martha, +which is holy and honorable." + +"Honorable! I should think it might be!" said Elsie. "I warrant me, if +everything had been left to Saint Mary's doings, our Blessed Lord and +the Twelve Apostles might have gone supperless. But it's Martha gets all +the work, and Mary all the praise." + +"Quite right, quite right," said the monk, abstractedly, while he stood +out in the moonlight busily sketching the fountain. By just such a +fountain, he thought, our Lady might have washed the clothes of the +Blessed Babe. Doubtless there was some such in the court of her +dwelling, all mossy and with sweet waters forever singing a song of +praise therein. + +Elsie was heard within the house meanwhile making energetic commotion, +rattling pots and pans, and producing decided movements among the simple +furniture of the dwelling, probably with a view to preparing for the +night's repose of the guest. + +Meanwhile Agnes, kneeling before the shrine, was going through with +great feeling and tenderness the various manuals and movements of +nightly devotion which her own religious fervor and the zeal of her +spiritual advisers had enjoined upon her. Christianity, when it entered +Italy, came among a people every act of whose life was colored and +consecrated by symbolic and ritual acts of heathenism. The only possible +way to uproot this was in supplanting it by Christian ritual and +symbolism equally minute and pervading. Besides, in those ages when the +Christian preacher was utterly destitute of all the help which the press +now gives in keeping under the eye of converts the great inspiring +truths of religion, it was one of the first offices of every saint whose +preaching stirred the heart of the people, to devise symbolic forms, +signs, and observances, by which the mobile and fluid heart of the +multitude might crystallize into habits of devout remembrance. The +rosary, the crucifix, the shrine, the banner, the procession, were +catechisms and tracts invented for those who could not read, wherein +the substance of pages was condensed and gave itself to the eye and +the touch. Let us not, from the height of our day, with the better +appliances which a universal press gives us, sneer at the homely rounds +of the ladder by which the first multitudes of the Lord's followers +climbed heavenward. + +If there seemed somewhat mechanical in the number of times which Agnes +repeated the "Hail, Mary!"--in the prescribed number of times she rose +or bowed or crossed herself or laid her forehead in low humility on +the flags of the pavement, it was redeemed by the earnest fervor which +inspired each action. However foreign to the habits of a Northern mind +or education such a mode of prayer may be, these forms to her were all +helpful and significant, her soul was borne by them Godward,--and often, +as she prayed, it seemed to her that she could feel the dissolving of +all earthly things, and the pressing nearer and nearer of the great +cloud of witnesses who ever surround the humblest member of Christ's +mystical body. + + "Sweet loving hearts around her beat, + Sweet helping hands are stirred, + And palpitates the veil between + With breathings almost heard." + +Certain English writers, looking entirely from a worldly and +philosophical standpoint, are utterly at a loss to account for the power +which certain Italian women of obscure birth came to exercise in the +councils of nations merely by the force of a mystical piety; but the +Northern mind of Europe is entirely unfitted to read and appreciate the +psychological religious phenomena of Southern races. The temperament +which in our modern days has been called the mediïstic, and which with +us is only exceptional, is more or less a race-peculiarity of Southern +climates, and gives that objectiveness to the conception of spiritual +things from which grew up a whole ritual and a whole world of religious +Art. The Southern saints and religious artists were seers,--men and +women of that peculiar fineness and delicacy of temperament which made +them especially apt to receive and project outward the truths of the +spiritual life; they were in that state of "divine madness" which is +favorable to the most intense conception of the poet and artist, and +something of this influence descended through all the channels of the +people. + +When Agnes rose from prayer, she had a serene, exalted expression, like +one who walks with some unseen excellence and meditates on some untold +joy. As she was crossing the court to come towards her uncle, her eye +was attracted by the sparkle of something on the ground, and, stooping, +she picked up a heart-shaped locket, curiously made of a large amethyst, +and fastened with a golden arrow. As she pressed upon this, the locket +opened and disclosed to her view a folded paper. Her mood at this moment +was so calm and elevated that she received the incident with no start or +shiver of the nerves. To her it seemed a Providential token, which would +probably bring to her some further knowledge of this mysterious being +who had been so especially confided to her intercessions. + +Agnes had learned of the Superior of the Convent the art of reading +writing, which would never have been the birthright of the peasant-girl +in her times, and the moon had that dazzling clearness which revealed +every letter. She stood by the parapet, one hand lying in the white +blossoming alyssum which filled its marble crevices, while she read and +seriously pondered the contents of the paper. + +TO AGNES. + + Sweet saint, sweet lady, may a sinful soul + Approach thee with an offering of love, + And lay at thy dear feet a weary heart + That loves thee, as it loveth God above! + If blessed Mary may without a stain + Receive the love of sinners most defiled, + If the fair saints that walk with her in white + Refuse not love from earth's most guilty child, + Shouldst thou, sweet lady, then that love deny + Which all-unworthy at thy feet is laid? + Ah, gentlest angel, be not more severe + Than the dear heavens unto a loving prayer! + Howe'er unworthily that prayer be said, + Let thine acceptance be like that on high! + +There might have been times in Agnes's life when the reception of this +note would have astonished and perplexed her; but the whole strain of +thought and conversation this evening had been in exalted and poetical +regions, and the soft stillness of the hour, the wonderful calmness +and clearness of the moonlight, all seemed in unison with the strange +incident that had occurred, and with the still stranger tenor of the +paper. The soft melancholy, half-religious tone of it was in accordance +with the whole undercurrent of her life, and prevented that start of +alarm which any homage of a more worldly form might have excited. It +is not to be wondered at, therefore, that she read it many times with +pauses and intervals of deep thought, and then with a movement of +natural and girlish curiosity examined the rich jewel which had inclosed +it. At last, seeming to collect her thoughts, she folded the paper and +replaced it in its sparkling casket, and, unlocking the door of the +shrine, laid the gem with its inclosure beneath the lily-spray, as +another offering to the Madonna. "Dear Mother," she said, "if indeed it +be so, may he rise from loving me to loving thee and thy dear Son, who +is Lord of all! Amen!" Thus praying, she locked the door and turned +thoughtfully to her repose, leaving the monk pacing up and down in the +moonlit garden. + +Meanwhile the Cavalier was standing on the velvet mossy bridge which +spanned the stream at the bottom of the gorge, watching the play of +moonbeams on layer after layer of tremulous silver foliage in the clefts +of the black, rocky walls on either side. The moon rode so high in the +deep violet-colored sky, that her beams came down almost vertically, +making green and translucent the leaves through which they passed, +and throwing strongly marked shadows here and there on the +flower-embroidered moss of the old bridge. There was that solemn, +plaintive stillness in the air which makes the least sound--the hum +of an insect's wing, the cracking of a twig, the patter of falling +water--so distinct and impressive. + +It needs not to be explained how the Cavalier, following the steps of +Agnes and her grandmother at a distance, had threaded the path by which +they ascended to their little sheltered nook,--how he had lingered +within hearing of Agnes's voice, and, moving among the surrounding rocks +and trees, and drawing nearer and nearer as evening shadows drew on, had +listened to the conversation, hoping that some unexpected chance might +gain him a moment's speech with his enchantress. + +The reader will have gathered from the preceding chapter that the +conception which Agnes had formed as to the real position of her admirer +from the reports of Giulietta was false, and that in reality he was +not Lord Adrian, the brother of the King, but an outcast and landless +representative of one branch of an ancient and noble Roman family, whose +estates had been confiscated and whose relations had been murdered, to +satisfy the boundless rapacity of Caesar Borgia, the infamous favorite +of the notorious Alexander VI. + +The natural temperament of Agostino Sarelli had been rather that of the +poet and artist than of the warrior. In the beautiful gardens of his +ancestral home it had been his delight to muse over the pages of Dante +and Ariosto, to sing to the lute and to write in the facile flowing +rhyme of his native Italian the fancies of the dream-land of his youth. + +He was the younger brother of the family,--the favorite son and +companion of his mother, who, being of a tender and religious nature, +had brought him up in habits of the most implicit reverence and devotion +for the institutions of his fathers. + +The storm which swept over his house, and blasted all his worldly +prospects, blasted, too, and withered all those religious hopes and +beliefs by which alone sensitive and affectionate natures can be healed +of the wounds of adversity without leaving distortion or scar. For his +house had been overthrown, his elder brother cruelly and treacherously +murdered, himself and his retainers robbed and cast out, by a man who +had the entire sanction and support of the Head of the Christian +Church, the Vicar of Christ on Earth. So said the current belief of his +times,--the faith in which his sainted mother died; and the difficulty +with which a man breaks away from such ties is in exact proportion to +the refinement and elevation of his nature. + +In the mind of our young nobleman there was a double current. He was a +Roman, and the traditions of his house went back to the time of Mutius +Scaevola; and his old nurse had often told him that grand story of how +the young hero stood with his right hand in the fire rather than betray +his honor. If the legends of Rome's ancient heroes cause the pulses of +colder climes and alien races to throb with sympathetic heroism, what +must their power be to one who says, "_These were my fathers_"? Agostino +read Plutarch, and thought, "_I_, too, am a Roman!"--and then he looked +on the power that held sway over the Tarpeian Rock and the halls of the +old "Sanctus Senatus," and asked himself, "By what right does it hold +these?" He knew full well that in the popular belief all those hardy +and virtuous old Romans whose deeds of heroism so transported him were +burning in hell for the crime of having been born before Christ; and he +asked himself, as he looked on the horrible and unnatural luxury +and vice which defiled the Papal chair and ran riot through every +ecclesiastical order, whether such men, without faith, without +conscience, and without even decency, were indeed the only authorized +successors of Christ and his Apostles? + +To us, of course, from our modern stand-point, the question has an easy +solution,--but not so in those days, when the Christianity of the known +world was in the Romish Church, and when the choice seemed to be between +that and infidelity. Not yet had Luther flared aloft the bold, cheery +torch which showed the faithful how to disentangle Christianity from +Ecclesiasticism. Luther in those days was a star lying low in the gray +horizon of a yet unawakened dawn. + +All through Italy at this time there was the restless throbbing and +pulsating, the aimless outreach of the popular heart, which marks +the decline of one cycle of religious faith and calls for some great +awakening and renewal. Savonarola, the priest and prophet of this dumb +desire, was beginning to heave a great heart of conflict towards that +mighty struggle with the vices and immoralities of his time in which he +was yet to sink a martyr; and even now his course was beginning to be +obstructed by the full energy of the whole aroused serpent brood which +hissed and knotted in the holy places of Rome. + +Here, then, was our Agostino, with a nature intensely fervent and +poetic, every fibre of whose soul and nervous system had been from +childhood skilfully woven and intertwined with the ritual and faith of +his fathers, yearning towards the grave of his mother, yearning towards +the legends of saints and angels with which she had lulled his cradle +slumbers and sanctified his childhood's pillow, and yet burning with the +indignation of a whole line of old Roman ancestors against an injustice +and oppression wrought under the full approbation of the head of that +religion. Half his nature was all the while battling the other half. +Would he be Roman, or would he be Christian? All the Roman in him said +"No!" when he thought of submission to the patent and open injustice and +fiendish tyranny which had disinherited him, slain his kindred, and held +its impure reign by torture and by blood. He looked on the splendid +snow-crowned mountains whose old silver senate engirdles Rome with an +eternal and silent majesty of presence, and he thought how often in +ancient times they had been a shelter to free blood that would not +endure oppression; and so gathering to his banner the crushed and +scattered retainers of his father's house, and offering refuge and +protection to multitudes of others whom the crimes and rapacities of the +Borgias had stripped of possessions and means of support, he fled to +a fastness in the mountains between Rome and Naples, and became an +independent chieftain, living by his sword. + +The rapacity, cruelty, and misgovernment of the various regular +authorities of Italy at this time made brigandage a respectable and +honored institution in the eyes of the people, though it was ostensibly +banned both by Pope and Prince. Besides, in the multitude of contending +factions which were every day wrangling for supremacy, it soon became +apparent, even to the ruling authorities, that a band of fighting-men +under a gallant leader, advantageously posted in the mountains and +understanding all their passes, was a power of no small importance to +be employed on one side or the other; and therefore it happened, +that, though nominally outlawed or excommunicated, they were secretly +protected on both sides, with a view to securing, their assistance in +critical turns of affairs. + +Among the common people of the towns and villages their relations were +of the most comfortable kind, their depredations being chiefly confined +to the rich and prosperous, who, as they wrung their wealth out of the +people, were not considered particular objects of compassion when the +same kind of high-handed treatment was extended toward themselves. + +The most spirited and brave of the young peasantry, if they wished to +secure the smiles of the girls of their neighborhood, and win hearts +past redemption, found no surer avenue to favor than in joining the +brigands. The leaders of these bands sometimes piqued themselves on +elegant tastes and accomplishments; and one of them is said to have sent +to the poet Tasso, in his misfortunes and exile, an offer of honorable +asylum and protection in his mountain-fortress. + +Agostino Sarelli saw himself, in fact, a powerful chief; and there were +times when the splendid scenery of his mountain-fastness, its inspiring +air, its wild eagle-like grandeur, independence, and security, gave him +a proud contentment, and he looked at his sword and loved it as a bride. +But then again there were moods in which he felt all that yearning and +disquiet of soul which the man of wide and tender moral organization +must feel who has had his faith shaken in the religion of his fathers. +To such a man the quarrel with his childhood's faith is a never-ending +anguish; especially is it so with a religion so objective, so pictorial, +and so interwoven with the whole physical and nervous nature of man, as +that which grew up and flowered in modern Italy. + +Agostino was like a man who lives in an eternal struggle of +self-justification,--his reason forever going over and over with its +plea before his regretful and never-satisfied heart, which was drawn +every hour of the day by some chain of memory towards the faith whose +visible administrators he detested with the whole force of his moral +being. When the vesper-bell, with its plaintive call, rose amid the +purple shadows of the olive-silvered mountains,--when the distant voices +of chanting priest and choir reached him solemnly from afar,--when +he looked into a church with its cloudy pictures of angels, and its +window-panes flaming with venerable forms of saints and martyrs,--it +roused a yearning anguish, a pain and conflict, which all the efforts +of his reason could not subdue. How to be a Christian and yet defy the +authorized Head of the Christian Church, or how to be a Christian +and recognize foul men of obscene and rapacious deeds as Christ's +representatives, was the inextricable Gordian knot, which his sword +could not divide. He dared not approach the Sacrament, he dared not +pray, and sometimes he felt wild impulses to tread down in riotous +despair every fragment of a religious belief which seemed to live in his +heart only to torture him. He had heard priests scoff over the wafer +they consecrated,--he had known them to mingle poison for rivals in the +sacramental wine,--and yet God had kept silence and not struck them +dead; and like the Psalmist of old he said, "Verily, I have cleansed my +heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. Is there a God that +judgeth in the earth?" + +The first time he saw Agnes bending like a flower in the slanting +evening sunbeams by the old gate of Sorrento, while he stood looking +down the kneeling street and striving to hold his own soul in the +sarcastic calm of utter indifference, he felt himself struck to the +heart by an influence he could not define. The sight of that young face, +with its clear, beautiful lines, and its tender fervor, recalled a +thousand influences of the happiest and purest hours of his life, and +drew him with an attraction he vainly strove to hide under an air of +mocking gallantry. + +When she looked him in the face with such grave, surprised eyes of +innocent confidence, and promised to pray for him, he felt a remorseful +tenderness as if he had profaned a shrine. All that was passionate, +poetic, and romantic in his nature was awakened to blend itself in a +strange mingling of despairing sadness and of tender veneration about +this sweet image of perfect purity and faith. Never does love strike so +deep and immediate a root as in a sorrowful and desolated nature; +there it has nothing to dispute the soil, and soon fills it with its +interlacing fibres. + +In this case it was not merely Agnes that he sighed for, but she stood +to him as the fair symbol of that life-peace, that rest of soul which he +had lost, it seemed to him, forever. + +"Behold this pure, believing child," he said to himself,--"a true member +of that blessed Church to which thou art a rebel! How peacefully this +lamb walketh the old ways trodden by saints and martyrs, while thou +art an infidel and unbeliever!" And then a stern voice within him +answered,--"What then? Is the Holy Ghost indeed alone dispensed through +the medium of Alexander and his scarlet crew of cardinals? Hath the +power to bind and loose in Christ's Church been indeed given to whoever +can buy it with the wages of robbery and oppression? Why does every +prayer and pious word of the faithful reproach me? Why is God silent? Or +is there any God? Oh, Agnes, Agnes! dear lily! fair lamb! lead a sinner +into the green pastures where thou restest!" + +So wrestled the strong nature, tempest-tossed in its strength,--so slept +the trustful, blessed in its trust,--then in Italy, as now in all lands. + + + + +MAIL-CLAD STEAMERS. + + +Exposed as we are to treason at home and jealousy abroad, it becomes the +policy as well as the duty of our country to prepare with promptitude +for every contingency by availing itself of all improvements in the +art of war. Superior weapons double the courage and efficiency of our +troops, carry dismay to the foe, and diminish the cost and delays +of warfare. The match-lock and the field-piece in their rudest form +triumphed over the shield, the spear, and the javelin, while the +long-bow, once so formidable, is now rarely drawn, except by those who +cater for sensation-journals. The king's-arm and artillery of the last +war cannot stand before the Minié rifle and Whitworth cannon any more +than the sickle can keep pace with the McCormick reaper, or the slow +coach with the railway-car or the telegraph. Mail-clad steamers, +impervious to shells and red-hot balls, and almost, if not quite, +invulnerable by solid shot and balls from rifled cannon at the distance +of a hundred yards, have been launched upon the deep, and already form +an important part of the navies of France and England. They have been +adopted by Russia, Austria, and Spain; and yet, although our country +furnishes iron which has no superior,--although it has taken the lead in +the steamship, the telegraph, and the railway,--although at this moment +it requires the mail-clad steamer more than any other nation, to relieve +its fortresses, to recover the cotton ports, and to defend its great +cities from foreign aggression, not a single one has yet been launched, +or even been authorized by Congress. For years we have had no more +efficient Secretary of the Navy, or more able and energetic chiefs of +the bureaus, if we may judge from what has already been accomplished; +but it depends on Congress to give the proper authority to construct a +mail-clad navy, and to provide the necessary funds. + +The importance of defensive armor has ever been felt. The warriors of +ancient times went to the field in coats-of-mail, and both Homer and +Virgil dilate upon the exquisite carving of the shield. The hauberk and +corselet were used by the Crusaders, and the chain-armor of Milan was +nearly or quite impervious to the sword and spear. Mexico and Peru were +won in great part by coats-of-mail. They were used until gunpowder +changed the whole course of war,--and the Chevalier Bayard, that knight +"_sans peur et sans reproche_," who had borne himself bravely and almost +without a scar in a hundred battles, in his last Italian campaign, as +he was borne from the field, after being struck down by a cannon-ball, +mourned that the days of Chivalry were ended. And Shakspeare tells us +that this villanous saltpetre had prevented at least one sensitive +gentleman from being a soldier. + +Defensive armor is still used by tribes who are destitute of powder; and +Barth and Barkie, in their African expeditions, found Moorish horsemen +pressing down from the North into the interior of the Soudan, arrayed +in coats-of-mail of the same description with that which figured in the +Crusades. + +In the naval contests of the last century armed ships were inferior in +size to those of modern times, and their tough oak sides were not easily +pierced by the six- and nine-pound balls then in general use, and +twelve-pounders were considered of unusual dimension. During the war +between France and America, a merchantman, armed with nine-pounders, +actually beat off a sloop-of-war and several Spanish privateers; but now +frigates, and even sloops-of-war, are armed with Dahlgren guns of +eight- to eleven-inch bore, which throw balls of sixty to one hundred +pounds,--also with superior rifled cannon. Whitworth and Armstrong guns +are in use that throw shot or shell distances of three to five miles, +which "the wooden walls" of neither England nor America are able to +resist. + +We have recently seen the Freeborn, the Pawnee, and the Harriet Lane, +when assailing the rebel batteries on the James and the Potomac, +compelled to take positions at the distance of two miles, and to keep +constantly moving, and compelled consequently to throw away most of +their costly ammunition in uncertain shots, at the same time that they +were constantly exposed to shots which might destroy their engines and +explode their boilers. There was no lack of courage on the part of their +gallant officers; but, from the insufficiency of the vessels, they were +obliged to use a wise discretion, and to take all reasonable precautions +for the safety of their ships, so important and yet so inadequate to the +service of the country. And when Fort Sumter was about to fall, and when +a single shot-proof gun-boat could have defied the rebel batteries, and +without the loss of a man have conveyed to the fortress stores for six +months and a whole battalion of troops, that single gun-boat,--a mere +gun-boat, which need not have passed within one thousand yards of any +batteries on her way,--could not be commanded by the Government, and the +gallant Anderson was compelled to lower to treason that flag whose fall +has aroused the nation to arms. + +The earliest experiments upon the power of iron plate to resist the +force of cannon-balls appear to have been made in France by M. de +Montgery, an officer in the French navy, as far back as 1810. He +proposed to cover the sides of ships with several plates of iron, of the +aggregate thickness of four inches, which he alleged would resist the +force of any projectile. But Napoleon had not confidence in his navy; he +had lost the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar; ever successful on the +land, his ships had been swept by Nelson from the deep; and he +had neither time nor disposition to investigate new plans for the +restoration of the navy, or even to take up Fulton's new discovery. It +was reserved for the third Napoleon to develop the original idea of a +Frenchman, and thus to place France on the sea nearly or quite upon a +footing with England. + +Some twelve years later, General Paixhans, who gave his name to the +large guns of modern times, (although their prior invention was claimed +by the late Colonel Bomford,) again commended plate-armor for ships to +his Government; but his advice was not then adopted. + +With the improvement of cannon the importance of plate-armor became more +and more apparent; and at length Mr. Stevens, under the sanction of our +Government, instituted a series of experiments upon iron plates, and +soon after commenced building an immense floating battery for the +defence of New York, at Hoboken, which is still unfinished, but which, +it is rumored, will, if Congress appropriates the means, be completed +the present season. + +Stevens was the first to carry out the idea of a mail-clad steamer; and +it is alone due to the apathy of the late Administration, which has +neglected our navy while indulging in its Southern proclivities, that +our nation has not the honor of launching the first steamer in a +coat-of-mail. The frame, however, of such a vessel has been long in +place, the hull is nearly complete, the engines are far advanced, and +the finishing stroke may soon be given. + +Stevens, in the course of his experiments, made the important discovery, +that a single plate of boiler-iron, five-eighths of an inch in +thickness, and weighing less than twenty-five pounds to the superficial +foot[A], when nailed to the side of a ship, was impenetrable by shell +and red-hot shot, the two missiles most dangerous to wooden walls. When +a solid shot strikes the side of a wooden ship, it passes in and usually +stops before it reaches the opposite side. The fibres of the wood yield +and close up behind it, and it often happens, from the reunion of the +fibres, that it is difficult to find the place perforated by the ball, +and if found, it is often easy to remedy the injury by a simple plug. +But if a red-hot shot enter the ship, it may imbed itself in the wood or +coils of cordage or sails, or reach the magazine, and thus destroy the +whole structure, while the shell may explode within the ship and carry +destruction to both men and vessel. If, then, the iron-plate had +answered no other purpose, the discovery by Stevens of its capacity to +resist the two most formidable weapons of his day would alone have been +of great value to the country; but he went farther, and demonstrated by +actual construction the idea of Montgery, that successive plates of iron +would resist the cold spherical shot thrown by the best artillery, and +his floating battery or frigate is protected by plate within plate of +iron armor. + +[Footnote A: Sheet-iron plates of one inch in thickness weigh forty +pounds per superficial foot.] + +While our Government slept upon its unfinished frigate, and forgot +the honor and interest of the country in the lap of the siren of the +South,--of that South which sixty years since broke down the navy of +John Adams, and left us to encounter the embargo and war with England +without a navy, or, at most, with a few frigates which sufficed to show +what the navy of Adams might have effected,--the honor of launching the +first iron-clad steamer, the Gloire, was resigned to the French. The +first Napoleon made the army of France the best in Europe, if not in the +world; the third, while he maintains the standing of the army, aspires +to give the same position to her navy. + +In 1854, Napoleon, who had long studied the art of war, and during his +stay in New York had doubtless seen or heard of the floating battery, +determined to construct two such batteries, and accordingly built the +Lave and Tonnerre. With one of these, the Lave, during the Russian War, +he assailed and destroyed in the brief space of one hour the strong +fortress of Kinburn, near Sebastopol; and in striking contrast to this +success, a large British steamship, heavily armed, but constructed of +wood, was actually captured near Odessa by a small party of Russians +with two or three thirty-two-pounders worked through a gap in an +embankment. + +The invulnerable battery of France anchored close under the fortress. +Before its cannon, granite walls are shivered into fragments most +dangerous to the gunners, while the shells, burying themselves two or +three feet deep in the brickwork, by their explosion shake the walls to +pieces. Iron, protected by iron, triumphed over both bricks and granite, +which had defied the fleet of England. + +The Emperor was not slow to realize the result of the problem he had +solved. He at once proceeded to test the strength of the best kinds of +plate made in his dominions, and found, by actual trial, that plates of +the best iron, but four and three-fourths inches in thickness, were able +to resist repeated shocks of solid balls fired at the distance of twenty +metres (less than four rods) from his sixty-eight-pounders, and from +rifled guns throwing shot of nearly the same calibre,--and this, too, +when the balls were impelled by more than one-fourth their weight of +powder. But ships rarely engage at such close quarters either with +vessels or fortresses, and the effect of the ball is greatly diminished +by distance, a single inch plate sufficing to stop a spherical shot at a +long distance. + +As the result of these experiments, the Emperor proceeded to construct +the Gloire, an iron-clad frigate, which has been completed, has made +several voyages, been tried in a severe gale, for nearly a year has +been the pride of the French navy, and has recently run from Toulon to +Algiers in the brief space of sixty-six hours. + +The Gloire is a steam-frigate cased in five-inch plates; she is two +hundred and fifty feet in length by twenty-one in width, mounts +thirty-eight rifled fifty-pounders, is moved by engines of nine hundred +horse-power, is manned by six hundred men, has a speed of twelve and a +half knots, and a capacity for five days' coal,--a capacity which might +be easily increased by a little more breadth of beam, but which is +sufficient for a passage to Algiers, or along the coast of Spain, +England, or Italy. This vessel is considered invulnerable by balls +discharged from rifled cannon at the distance of four hundred yards. + +Encouraged by his continued success, the Emperor at once ordered the +construction of nine such frigates, several of which are already +finished. He has since ordered ten more iron-cased frigates and +gun-boats, which are now in course of construction. Before the present +season closes, his iron navy will be composed of twenty steamships and +four floating batteries. + +During the contest with Russia, England would not venture to expose her +wooden ships of the line to the close fire of the batteries either +at Cronstadt or Sebastopol, and found it safer to shell them at a +respectful distance and with indifferent success. She was deeply +impressed, however, with the performance of the Lave and Tonnerre at +Kinburn, and seriously disturbed by the completion of the great naval +station at Cherbourg, armed with more than three hundred cannon, and +directly opposite her coast. + +England at first sought to meet the new invention by improved artillery, +and produced the Whitworth and Armstrong cannon, which have a range of +four to five miles. With these she practised at short distances upon +targets of strong oaken plank faced with iron plates of four to five +inches in diameter, but found the plates impervious to balls, and +vulnerable only by steel bolts of small diameter, fired at short +distances from Whitworth and Armstrong cannon,--bolts so small that the +wounds they made in the frames faced with iron usually closed or did +little mischief. A few plates of inferior iron occasionally gave way +after repeated assaults, for English iron is coarsely made and poorly +welded,--a striking illustration of which may be found in a part of +the hull of the ill-fated steamer Connaught, which is preserved at the +ship-yard near Dorchester Point, South Boston. + +England was at length convinced; she determined that she could not +safely permit the Emperor of the French to rule the sea with his iron +navy. She had not forgotten St. Helena. She realized that she had no +fleet that could safely encounter one of his mail-clad warriors, and +found herself obliged to copy the new invention. She commenced last year +ten iron-clad ships of the line, and has nearly or quite finished the +Warrior, Black Prince, Defiance, and Resistance, while others are +progressing. But she could not tamely copy France. Instead of confining +herself to the length of the Gloire, she is constructing vessels of +immense size. The Warrior, recently launched, is four hundred and +twenty-six feet in length, nearly fifty-two feet in depth, has a width +of fifty-eight feet, measures six thousand one hundred and seventy-seven +tons, and is moved by engines of twelve hundred horse-power. She is to +mount thirty-six cannon of the largest class, and her armor weighs nine +hundred tons. + +This vessel will be a formidable antagonist upon the open sea; but her +great depth, with the weight of her armor, causes her to draw thirty +feet, which would prohibit her entrance into most of the seaports upon +our coast. She is vulnerable, too, at each extremity. Her iron plates, +four and a half inches thick, extend but half her length, leaving more +than a hundred feet at each end covered by a plate of only five-eighths +of an inch in thickness; and in case these portions should be injured, +she must rely upon her water-tight compartments. An adroit foe, in a +light craft of greater speed, avoiding her batteries, which are planted +behind her armor, might possibly assail her unprotected ends, and, +although he could not sink her, still, by shot between wind and water, +he might render her more unwieldy and less manageable,--a weight of +water being thus admitted which would bring down the ship so as to +endanger her lower ports and prevent the use of them in action. He might +thus also prevent her approach to shoal water. The Warrior and her +companions are, however, formidable ships, and in deep water, with ample +sea-room, must be most powerful antagonists. + +The importance attached by England to mail-clad steamers may be inferred +from the debates in the House of Lords on the 11th and 14th of June, +1861, in which it was officially stated that the Government had not +authorized the construction of a single wooden three-decker since 1855, +nor one wooden two-decker since 1859, although it had launched a few +upon the stocks for the purpose of clearing the yards,--and that it now +contemplated culling down a number of the largest wooden steamships +of the line for the purpose of plating them with iron, while it was +constructing nothing but iron ships, except a few light despatch +frigates, corvettes, and gun-boats. + +In the same debate it was stated that bolts of steel had been forced by +improved Armstrong cannon through an eight-inch mail composed of iron +bars dovetailed together; but the quality of the iron and the mode of +fastening were both questioned. These experiments did not deter the +Government from constructing mail-clad steamships. Indeed, it must be +obvious that the great cost of Armstrong cannon, fifteen hundred to two +thousand dollars each, together with the cost of steel bolts, combined +with the fact that this description of cannon is easily shattered, if +struck by a ball from the adversary, must long prevent its introduction +into use; and should it eventually succeed, it must prove far more +destructive to wooden walls than to iron-clad vessels. + +It has, however, been urged in England against iron ships of all +descriptions, but more as a theory than as an ascertained fact, that a +solid shot would make a large and irregular aperture, if it entered the +side of a vessel, and a much larger orifice as it passed out on the +opposite side. To this theory, however, there are two answers: first, +that a solid ball can neither enter nor pass out of the sides of a +mail-clad steamer; second, that, when it enters a common iron ship, +there is evidence that it does less damage than would be suffered by +a wooden vessel. Captain Charlewood, of the Royal Navy, who recently +commanded the iron frigate Guadaloupe in the service of Mexico, +testified before a Committee of the British Parliament, that "his ship +was under fire almost daily for four or five months," that "the damage +by shot was considerably less than that usually suffered by a wooden +vessel, and that there was nothing like the number of splinters which +are generally forced out by a shot sent through a wooden vessel's side"; +that "the vessel was hulled once in the midship part at about one +thousand yards," and the effect was "that the shot passed through the +iron, making a round hole in the iron"; "that at two feet below water +another shot passed through the vessel's side and one or two casks of +provisions, and that the hole was simply plugged by the engineer at the +time." He testified also that none of the shot disturbed any rivets. His +evidence is the more valuable as it relates to an inferior vessel, whose +plates were probably not more than half an inch thick. + +The testimony of Captain W.H. Hall, R.N., in command of the iron frigate +Nemesis, in the Chinese war, was still more conclusive in favor of iron. +He stated, "that in one action the Nemesis was hit fourteen times," and +that one shot "went in at one side and came out at the other, and there +were no splinters; in case of that shot, it went through just as if you +put your finger through a piece of paper: nothing could have been more +easily stopped than I could have stopped that shot in the Nemesis"; +that, "several wooden steamers were employed in that service, and they +were invariably obliged to lie up for repairs, whilst I could repair the +Nemesis in twenty-four hours and have her always ready for service." The +Nemesis was a common iron steamer, and not a mail-clad steamship. + +As respects the strength and durability of these steamers, although +accidents have occurred from defective materials, it is in proof that +the Tyne and Great Britain ran ashore and remained for months exposed to +the open sea without going to pieces, and were finally rescued,--that +the Persia struck on an iceberg, filled one of her compartments with +water, and came safe to port,--that the North America and Edinburgh went +at full speed upon the rocks near Cape Race and yet escaped,--and that +the Sarah Sands, while transporting troops to India, took fire, that in +consequence the interior and contents of one of her compartments were +entirely consumed, that her magazine exploded, and that she then +encountered a ten days' gale, and after this exposure to such a series +of calamities she reached her port without losing one of her crew or +passengers. + +The ambition of England to maintain her ascendancy upon the deep has +led her to disregard the advice of her Defence Commissioners, who +recommended a different class of mail-clad steamers, to measure but two +thousand tons and to draw but sixteen feet of water,--a class admirably +adapted to the sea-ports and requirements of the United States. And +singular as it may appear, by some coincidence at a moment when our +country requires this class of steamers, the enterprise of Boston is +completing two iron steamers whose dimensions and draught of water +conform to the recommendation of the British Commissioners,--steamers +which are nearly ready for launching, but which, if they can receive, +before they leave the stocks, additional plates of iron, would doubtless +prove the most useful and efficient mail-clad vessels which have yet +been constructed. + +The stranger who would inspect these beautiful vessels may seat himself +at almost any hour of the day in the cars at the foot of Summer Street, +and in twenty minutes find himself at a point a little north of the +Perkins Asylum for the Blind. A walk of five minutes more will bring him +to a secluded yard sloping gently towards the water, where he will find +extensive offices, and two large buildings which cover the vessels upon +the stocks. + +As he approaches these structures, he will notice many plates of +superior iron from the rolling-mills of Baltimore, combining the +toughness and strength and other excellences of the best Pennsylvania +iron; he will notice, too, immense ribs and beams of iron, and hear the +incessant din of hammers riveting the sides and boilers. + +Under each of these sheds he will find an iron steamship, two hundred +and seventy-five feet in length by twenty-three in depth, exquisitely +proportioned; he will be struck by the fine entrance and run. The +extreme sharpness of the stem and stern, combined with great capacity, +seems to answer every requirement; and he will be surprised to learn +that the draught of these steamers is but sixteen feet when deeply +laden, and that their engines of thirteen hundred horse-power are +expected to give them a speed of fifteen knots per hour. When they reach +their destined element and have received their lading, the height from +the water-line to the deck will be but seven feet; hence it is apparent +that a belt of iron plates carried around them of eight feet four inches +in height would protect them from the deck to a point sixteen inches +below the water-line, or from the bottom of the deck-beams to a point +two feet below the water-line. + +The iron plates which form the sides of these ships range in thickness +from one inch below the water-line to three-fourths of an inch above +it. And if we allow for the superior strength and toughness of American +iron, an additional plate of three inches in thickness would suffice +to give them more strength than that of either the French or English +mail-clad steamers. + +By careful computation we have ascertained that each vessel might be +encircled by such plates, weighing but one hundred and twenty pounds per +superficial foot, and have her bulwarks plated also, without adding more +than three hundred tons to her weight,--actually less than one-third of +the cargo she was designed to carry. With an extra planking within, and +an armament of twenty-four rifled fifty-pounders or Whitworth cannon, +and select crews, such vessels need fear no antagonists upon the deep. +Low in the hull, they would offer but little surface to the fire of the +enemy, and their sides would be impervious to shot and shell. Beneath +the decks they could carry in safety a whole regiment of troops. +Selecting their position by superior speed, they could destroy a fleet +of wooden steamers or ships-of-the-line. Entering any of our large +seaports, they could pass the fortress at the entrance uninjured, and +lay cities under contribution, or destroy their ports, without being, +like Achilles, or the English "Warrior," vulnerable in the heel. + +When such steamers come into general use, we shall hear no more of the +wooden walls of Greece or England, or of those modern platforms which +had not a stick of sound oak timber in them,--nothing, indeed, but +pitch-pine and cypress. Oak, pine, and cypress would fall into the same +category, when contrasted with the imperishable iron. Some new agency of +steel must be invented to cope with the adamantine iron. And it becomes +our Government, both for the armament of our ships and for defence +against iron steamers, to adopt at the earliest moment every improvement +in rifled cannon. + +The Navy Department has recently put under contract seven steamships and +several steam gun-boats. They have intrusted the latter to some of the +ablest ship-builders of the country, and it is well understood that most +of these vessels are to be completed the present season. This measure, +as far as it goes, is eminently wise; but our navy must still be below +the requirements of the nation, and entirely disproportioned to the +extent both of our commerce and of our sea-coast. At a low estimate, our +country requires an additional supply of at least six mail-clad steam +frigates, twelve steam sloops-of-war, and twelve steam gun-boats, +with similar armor. It will require also for long voyages and +distant stations a dozen steam frigates of wood, and as many steam +sloops-of-war, like the best now in our service; and, with the materials +and armament now on hand, an outlay of twenty-five or thirty millions +well applied may suffice for the construction of the whole. With such a +provision we need feel no solicitude as to the intervention of England +or France in our domestic affairs. + +The lighter steamships of wood will answer for long voyages to the +Mediterranean, the coast of Africa, India, and the Pacific, and will +protect our grain, flour, and corn, on their way from the West to +Europe. Our iron steamers will defend our commercial cities from attack +or blockade; they will level all rebel batteries on the waters of the +Chesapeake; they can batter down the fortresses of the Southern coast, +and restore to commerce the ports of Charleston, Savannah, Pensacola, +Mobile, Apalachicola, New Orleans, and Galveston. + +Most fortunately for our country, at a moment when we cannot immediately +command the live oak of Georgia and Florida, the oak plank of Virginia, +or the yellow pine of the Carolinas, we have the most abundant supplies +of iron easily accessible, and now, relieved from the demands of +railways and factories, ready for the construction of our iron navy. The +iron plates of Pennsylvania and Maryland in strength and toughness know +no superior. The iron mountain near St. Louis and the mines on Lake +Champlain furnish also an article of great purity and excellence. But, +choice as are these deposits of iron, they are all surpassed by the more +recent discoveries on Lake Superior, now opened by the ship-canal at the +Straits of St. Mary. There Nature has stored an inexhaustible amount of +the richest iron ore, free from sulphur, phosphorus, arsenic, and other +deleterious substances, protruding above the surface of hillocks and +underlying the country for miles in extent. This ore is of the specular +and magnetic kind, yields sixty-five per cent. of iron of remarkable +purity, is easily mined and transported to the Lake, and is shipped in +vast quantities to the ports of Lake Erie, where it meets the coal of +Ohio. At least ten companies are now engaged in its shipment, which +has progressed thus far with great rapidity, doubling every year. The +shipments from Lake Superior, in 1858, were thirty thousand five hundred +and twenty-seven tons; in 1859, eighty thousand tons; in 1860, one +hundred and fifty thousand tons. So great are the magnetic powers of +this iron, that, buried as it was in the depths of the forest and +beneath the surface of the earth, it disturbed the compasses of the +United States surveyors while engaged in the survey of Northern +Michigan. For a time their needle would not work, and they were obliged +temporarily to suspend their operations. Their embarrassment led to the +discovery of these vast deposits of ore. It is now mingled with the +inferior ore of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and extensively wrought. + +Our nation has strong motives to induce it to construct an iron navy. + +_First._ The adoption of such a navy by the great powers of +Europe,--England and France,--followed by Russia, Austria, and Spain. +Our commerce will be in danger, if they once acquire the power of +assailing us with impunity. + +_Second._ Our urgent want of this class of vessels to recover our +fortresses, repel blockades, and reopen our Southern ports, without +wearisome sieges, costly both in blood and treasure. + +_Third._ Our inability to command our customary supplies of durable +timber. + +_Fourth._ The abundance of iron, unrivalled in any part of the world. + +_Fifth._ The durability of the ships constructed from iron. If well +manned and piloted, they will seldom need repairs; and instead of +failing, as many ships do in the sixth year, and requiring vast +expenditures to discharge and dismantle them for the renewal of the +decaying timber, plank, copper, and other materials, often amounting in +the aggregate to more than their original cost, the mail-clad steamers +built of American iron will outlive successive races of wooden +steamships. The iron such a navy would require will put many idle hands +in motion, which would otherwise be unproductive during war,--the miners +of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, the colliers of Ohio and +Pennsylvania, the mariners of the Lakes, the navigators of canals, and +the operatives of railways, down to the brawny smiths who fashion the +metal into shapes,--until their combined efforts launch it upon the +deep, and send it forth to + + "dare the very elements to strife." + +How much better would it be to create such an iron navy than to expend +million after million on wooden walls that must soon perish by decay or +the shells of the enemy, or to lavish three or four millions upon the +conversion of our superannuated ships-of-the-line into steamships! +These, when converted, will still retain their age and constant tendency +to decay, their models long since abandoned, their original design, +height of decks, and other proportions adapted to the eighteen- and +twenty-four-pounders formerly in use, which are now giving place to +Dahlgren and rifled cannon carrying balls of sixty-four to one hundred +pounds weight. Such an expenditure would be like an essay to convert a +Yankee shingle-palace, such as Irving described half a century ago, into +a modern villa, and reminds one of a proposition made to an assembly +some twenty centuries since, which still has its significance. + +An orator had proposed to convert an old politician into a general; but +a citizen moved an amendment to convert donkeys into horses, and when +the possibility of doing so was questioned, argued that the horses were +necessary for the war, and that his measure was as feasible as the +other. + +To prepare our nation for war, let us select the Enfield rifle, the Colt +revolver, the rifled and cast-steel cannon, the mail-clad steamer, and +not resort to flint arrow-heads and tomahawks, or to any other fossil +remains of antiquity. The policy of creating an iron navy has been +repeatedly urged of late in the foreign journals. It has also been +advocated with signal ability by Donald McKay of Boston, one of our most +eminent naval constructors, who, after building the Great Republic, the +Flying Cloud, and a fleet of other celebrated clippers, has visited the +dockyards of France and England, examined their mail-clad ships upon the +stocks and those already finished. Although himself accustomed to work +on wood, and a candidate for employment as builder of some of our +wooden gun-boats, with great frankness as well as boldness he urges the +construction of mail-clad steamers. We trust Congress will no longer +neglect so important a means of protecting our national prosperity. + + + + +PARTING HYMN. + +"_Dundee_." + + + Father of Mercies, Heavenly Friend, + We seek Thy gracious throne; + To Thee our faltering prayers ascend, + Our fainting hearts are known! + + From blasts that chill, from suns that smite, + From every plague that harms; + In camp and march, in siege and fight, + Protect our men-at-arms! + + Though from our darkened lives they take + What makes our life most dear, + We yield them for their country's sake + With no relenting tear. + + Our blood their flowing veins will shed, + Their wounds our breasts will share; + Oh, save us from the woes we dread, + Or grant us strength to bear! + + Let each unhallowed cause that brings + The stern destroyer cease, + Thy flaming angel fold his wings, + And seraphs whisper Peace! + + Thine are the sceptre and the sword, + Stretch forth Thy mighty hand,-- + Reign Thou our kingless nation's Lord, + Rule Thou our throneless land! + + + + +WHERE WILL THE REBELLION LEAVE US? + + +"The United States are bounded, North, by the British Possessions; +South, by the Gulf of Mexico; East, by the Atlantic Ocean; and West, +by the Pacific." So the school-books told us which we studied in our +childhood; and so, in every school throughout the land, the children +are taught to-day. The armed hosts whose tread resounds through thy +Continent are marching Southward to teach this simple lesson in +geography. They all know it by heart. "This they are ready to verify," +as the lawyers say. Wherever, in any benighted region, this elementary +proposition shall be henceforth denied or doubted, schools for adults +are to be established, and the needful instruction given. By regiments, +battalions, and brigades, with all necessary apparatus, the teachers +go forth to their work. The proposition is a very simple one, easily +expressed and easily understood; but it tells the whole story. It is the +substance of all men's thoughts, and of all men's speech. Mr. Lincoln +states it in his inaugural. Mr. Douglas impresses it upon the Illinois +legislature. Mr. Seward announces it, briefly and with emphasis, to the +governments of Europe. Sentimental talk about "our country, however +bounded," is obsolete; and how the country is bounded is now the point +to be settled, once and forever. "This territory, from the Great Lakes +to the Gulf, belongs to the people of the United States, and they mean +to hold and keep it. We shall neither alter our school-books nor revise +our maps." So say the American people, rising in their wrath. + +The practical question with which Mr. Lincoln's administration had to +deal in the first place was, Whether a popular government is strong +enough to suppress a military rebellion? And that may be regarded as +already settled. But the grounds upon which that rebellion is justified +involve the vital facts of national unity, and even of national +existence. As a people, we have always been extremely tolerant of +theories, however absurd. There is hardly a doctrine of constitutional +law so clear and well settled, that it is not, from time to time, +discussed and disputed among us. But when it comes to reducing +mischievous speculations to practice, the case is altered, and the +practical genius of the people begins to manifest itself. Thus, the +Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of '98 and '99 declared the Federal +Constitution to be merely a compact between sovereign States, created +for a special and limited purpose; and that each party to the compact +was the exclusive and final judge for itself of the construction of the +contract, with a right to determine for itself when it was violated, and +the measure and mode of redress. As a theory, this doctrine has been +very extensively accepted. Great parties have adopted it as their +platform, and elections have been carried upon it. Its value as a +support to the dignity and self-importance of local politicians was +readily apprehended by them; and it was in perfect harmony with the tone +of bluster which pervaded our politics. The thorough refutation which it +always encountered, whenever it was seriously considered, never seemed +to do its popularity any harm. In truth, mere vaporing hurt nobody, and +caused no great alarm. But when the Hartford Convention was suspected +of covering a little actual heat under the smoke of the customary +resolutions and protests, a bucket of cold water was thrown over it. +When, in 1832, South Carolina developed a spark of real fire, the nation +put its foot on it. And now, when the torch of rebellion has been +circulating among very inflammable materials, until a serious +conflagration is threatened, the instinct of self-preservation has +roused the energies of the whole people for its immediate, complete, and +final extinction. + +The present insurrection has been so long meditated, the approaches to +its final consummation have been so steadily made, and the schemes of +the principal traitors have been so well planned and carefully matured, +that they have almost succeeded in making the vocabulary of treason a +part of the vernacular of the country. We all talk of the States which +have seceded or are going to secede,--of a fratricidal war,--of the +measures which this or the other State is determined or likely to adopt; +and a great deal has been said about State sovereignty, and coercion of +a State, and the invasion of the soil of one State and another. There +has been large discussion in times past of the danger of a dissolution +of the Union. Indeed, this danger has been so often held up as a threat +by one section, and so persistently used as a scarecrow by timid or +profligate men in the other, that it has become one of the commonplaces +of political contests. Our ears have hardly ceased to be tormented with +projects of reconstruction, and with suggestions of guaranties, and +pacifications, and mediation, and neutrality, armed or otherwise. +Border-State Conventions are projected, and well-meaning governors have +been arranging interviews or conducting correspondence with governors +who talked of Southern rights, and undertook to say what their States +would or would not permit the United States Government to do. Even a +Cabinet officer, of whom better things might have been expected, and by +whom better things are now nobly said and done, allowed himself to fall +into the error of explaining to the vacillating Governor of Maryland +that the intentions of the National Administration were purely +defensive. While such language is current at home, it is not strange +that foreigners should find themselves in a state of hopeless confusion +about us. Few European writers, except De Tocqueville, have ever shown a +clear comprehension of our political system; and the speeches of British +statesmen on American affairs are perhaps rather to be accounted for and +excused from want of information, than resented as hostile or insulting. +But it is time that this whole pernicious dialect should be exploded, +and the ideas which it represents be eradicated from the minds of +intelligent men everywhere. + +The right of revolution it is needless to discuss. Resistance, in any +practicable method, to intolerable oppression, is the natural right of +every human being, and of course of every community. But such a right +is never included in the framework of organized civil society. From its +nature, it can form no part of a plan of government. The only formula +which embraces it is the famous one of "Monarchy tempered by Regicide"; +and where that prevails, it seems to be adopted as a practical +expedient, rather than recognized as an established constitutional +maxim. But as a question of revolution the issue is not presented. If +it were, it would be easy to deal with. The only embarrassment in our +present condition, so far as reasoning goes, arises from confused +notions of constitutional law, and the inaccuracy of language which +necessarily attends them. In order, therefore, to know what is before +us, let us first see where we stand. + +The London "Times" informs the people of England, that "the resolution +of the North to crush Secession by force involves a denial of the right +of each one of the seceding States to determine the conditions of its +own national existence." Precisely so. It involves all that; but the +whole fact comprehends a great deal more. Not one of the States of the +American Union has any national existence, or ever had any, in the sense +in which the "Times" uses the phrase. Not one of them has any of the +functions or qualities of a nation. In the case of the greater part of +the States in which the rebellion exists, the United States bought and +paid for the territory which they occupy, made States of them under its +own Constitution and laws, upon certain conditions made irrevocable +by the act which created them, and reserved the forts, arsenals, and +custom-houses which their treasonable citizens have since undertaken +to steal. The fundamental idea of the American system is local +self-government for local purposes, and national unity for national +purposes. Our national union is synonymous with our national existence. +When we speak of sovereign and independent States, the phrase has no +other just meaning than that each State is independent of every other in +all matters exclusively appertaining to its own powers and duties, and +sovereign upon all subjects which have not been committed exclusively +to the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. Any encroachment by the +Government of the United States upon the lawful jurisdiction of the +several States would be resisted as a usurpation; but the "reserved +rights" of the States, _ex vi termini_, cannot include any of the +attributes of power which the people of the whole country have conferred +upon the Union. But further,--and this is a point of great practical +importance,--the Federal Government has no relation to the several +States as States, and they have no relations to it, or to each other, +except so far as these relations are expressly defined and specified in +the National Constitution. Beyond these, the authority and jurisdiction +of the nation address themselves and are applied to the individual +citizens of all the States alike. "The king can do no wrong," is the +maxim of English law. A State of the American Union cannot secede, or +commit treason, or make war upon the United States. So the United States +cannot, and do not, make war upon any State. Virginia, for all national +purposes, belongs to the United States,--exactly as it belongs to the +State, for the purposes of local administration. In theory, and in +practice, the State of Virginia is at this moment a peaceful and +faithful member of the American Union. Her Senators and Representatives, +except so far as individuals among them may have disqualified themselves +by resignation, or, what may be held to be equivalent, by deserting +their posts to array themselves in active hostility to their country, +are still entitled to their seats in Congress. The State may be overrun +by armed insurgents, resisting the Federal authority; but so it might be +by a foreign army. The peaceful citizens, who remain faithful to their +constitutional obligations, are entitled to the aid of the national +power to suppress domestic insurrection, whatever proportions that +insurrection may assume. The soldiers of the United States, lawfully +mustered to resist invasion or put down rebellion, have nothing to do +with State lines, and act in perfect harmony with all legitimate State +action. They can no more invade a State than if they were in it to +resist a foreign enemy, or than a United States marshal invades it +when he goes to arrest a counterfeiter. The "Times" would have little +difficulty in understanding a denial of the right of the Isle of Man, or +of Lancashire, or of Ireland, "to determine the conditions of its own +national existence." + +There is another fallacy in speaking of the resolution of the North to +crush Secession by force. It is the resolution of the nation,--of all +that is faithful and loyal in it, wherever found. The people of the +Southern States have not had any fair opportunity to express their +opinions. The military usurpers have allowed nothing to be submitted to +the test of a popular vote, except where they were able to take such +measures of precaution, in the way of hanging, confiscation, banishment, +disarming opponents, and the presence of an armed force which should +overawe dissenters, as might secure the unanimity they desired. There +is undoubtedly much more loyalty in the Northern than in the Southern +States of the Union, as there is less of passion, and more of +intelligence and principle,--although treason has, till very lately, +found more than enough apologists or abettors even in the Free States. +But the spirit which now actuates our people has little that is +sectional in it, and the principles at issue have the same application +to Maine that they have to Florida. + +When we ask, then, where this rebellion will leave us, and what will be +the condition of the United States when the authority of the Government +has been vindicated and reëstablished, the answer must be sought in the +considerations already suggested. The rebellion cannot be ended, until +we have settled as a principle of constitutional law for our own +citizens, and as a fact of which all other nations must take notice, +that this whole country belongs to the people of the United States. No +foreign power shall possess a foot of it. If the majority of the people +of a State can throw off their allegiance to the Union, they can +transfer their allegiance to England or Spain at their pleasure, as +well as to a new confederacy of their own devising. The battles of the +Revolution which secured our independence were fought by the whole +country, and for the whole country, without reference to local +majorities. The accessions to our territory were made by the nation as +a unit, and belong to it as such. We did not acquire Texas, and pay the +millions of its debt, with the reservation that it might sell itself +again the next day to the highest bidder. That no foreign dominion shall +interpose between the Northwest and the Atlantic, or between the Valley +of the Mississippi and the Gulf, is a geographical necessity. But +that, the American Union is indissoluble is essential to our national +existence. If that be not so, we have neither a flag nor a country,--we +can neither contract a debt nor make a treaty,--we have neither honor +abroad nor strength at home,--our experiment of free government is a +blunder and a failure, and for us, "Chaos has come again." + +But the further question remains, In what way is it possible that +harmony shall be restored between the parts of the country through which +the rebellion has spread and those which have remained faithful to the +Constitution and the Union? When we have dispersed the armies of the +rebels, and demolished their batteries, and retaken our forts +and arsenals, our navy-yards and armories, our mints and +custom-houses,--when we have visited their leaders with retributive +justice, and made Richmond and Charleston and New Orleans as submissive +to lawful authority as Baltimore or Washington or Boston,--what then? +Will a people we have subjugated ever live with us again on terms of +equality and friendship? Can the wounded pride of the Ancient Dominion +be so far soothed that she can allow us again to bask in the sunshine +of her favor? Will she ever consent to resume her old superiority, and +furnish our audacious army and navy with officers, our committees with +chairmen, and our departments with clerks? Or must we, for a generation, +hold the States we have subdued by military occupation? Must we make +Territories of them, and blot out those malignant stars from our +glorious and triumphant banner? + +In all seriousness, there seems but one solution to the problem; and +it must be found, if at all, in the proposition already stated, that +treason is an individual act. A State cannot rebel, as it cannot secede. +A governor of a State may rebel, and a majority of a legislature may +join an insurrection, as a governor or legislators may commit larceny +or join a piratical expedition. But whoever arrays himself in armed +opposition to the Government of the United States, or gives aid and +comfort to its enemies, becomes thereby merely a private rebel and +traitor. Whatever office he may fill, with whatever functions of local +government he may be intrusted, by whatever name he may be called, +governor or judge, senator or representative, it is the treason of the +citizen, and not of the officer. And as a State has no legal existence +except as a member of the Union, and has no constitutional powers or +functions or capacities but those which it exercises in harmony with and +subordination to the rightful authority of the Federal Government, so +the loyal and faithful inhabitants of a State, and they only, constitute +the State. Mr. Mason tells the people of Virginia, that those of them +who, in their consciences, cannot vote to separate Virginia from the +United States, if they retain such opinions, must leave the State. We +thank him for teaching us that word. When the tables are turned, it will +form a valuable theme for his private meditation. The unconditional +Union men, who are of and for their country against all comers, who +neither commit treason openly nor disguise their cowardly treachery +under the shallow cover of neutrality, are to wield the power of their +respective States, and to be the only recognized inhabitants. All others +must submit or fly. If the Governor and Legislature of Virginia have +renounced their allegiance to the United States, and undertaken to +establish a foreign jurisdiction in a portion of our territory, their +relation to that State becomes substantially the same as if they had +gone on board a British fleet in the Chesapeake, or enlisted under the +standard of an invading army. They have abdicated their offices, which +thereby become vacant. It was for "having endeavored to subvert the +constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between +king and people, violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn +himself out of the kingdom," that James II. was declared by the House +of Commons to have abdicated the government. Would it have been less an +abdication, if he had remained within the realm, and attempted to hold +it as the viceroy of France? When, in June, 1775, Governor Dunmore and +his Council took refuge on board a British man-of-war, the Virginians of +that day proceeded to meet in convention, and provide new officers to +manage the affairs of their State. Let this historical precedent be +followed now. Wherever, in either of the States which the rebels have +sought to appropriate, the loyal citizens can find a spot in which they +can meet in safety, let them meet by their delegates in convention, and +adopt the necessary measures to elect new officers under their present +constitutions. The only irregularity will be what results from the +fact that treason in such high places and on so large a scale was not +contemplated, nor was a remedy furnished for it, in their frame of +government. It is merely a case not provided for, and the omission must +be supplied in the most practicable way. The new organization should and +undoubtedly would be recognized by the National Government, and by the +other States, as, _de facto_ and _de jure_, the State. It was settled +in the Rhode Island case, under Tyler's administration, that, where +different portions of the people claim to hold and exercise the powers +of a State government, it presents a political question which the +National Executive and Congress must decide; and that judicial +recognition must follow and conform to the political decision. + +When, by such a course, the proper relations and functions of each State +should be resumed, there would no longer be any matter of State pride +to interfere with the absolute assertion of national authority. The new +State governments would be protected against armed assailants at home +and invasion from abroad; they would apply for and obtain assistance to +suppress domestic insurrection; every misguided insurgent would have +opportunity to return to his duty under the protection of his own local +authorities; appropriations for the army and navy could be passed with +the aid of Tennessee and Alabama votes in Congress; and Davis, and +Tyler, and Mason be hung upon the verdict of a jury of the vicinage. + +In Virginia, a movement based upon this principle has been already +inaugurated. From Western Virginia, the progress toward Eastern +Tennessee and Northern Alabama is natural and certain. The worst case to +deal with, unquestionably, is South Carolina. Hers is a peculiar +people, and zealous, though scarcely of good works. That fiery little +Commonwealth is remarkably constituted. The State is inhabited +principally by negroes; and the remaining minority may be divided into +two classes,--whites who are dependent upon negroes for a subsistence, +and whites whose chief distinction in life and great consolation is that +they are not negroes. The former and much the smaller class possess all +the wealth, all the cultivation, and all the political power, which +they are enabled to retain by an ingenious and systematic use of the +prejudices and passions of the latter. They are reputed to have much +earnestness of conviction, and claim an unusual amount of gallantry and +courage for their soldiers; though it is noticeable that their principal +exploits in our time have been the seizure of friendless colored +sailors, and selling them into slavery,--the achievement of that knight +of the bludgeon, the representative whose noble deed his constituents +could hardly admire enough, but the better part of whose valor was +the discretion that preferred to encounter his antagonist sitting and +incapable of resistance,--and lastly, that heroic and bloodless victory +at Fort Sumter, where imperishable glory was won by the ten thousand who +conquered the seventy. They seem now to be united, and substantially +unanimous. What elements a little adversity would develop in them, time +must determine. Whether there is any reserve of patriotism and fidelity, +overawed and silenced now, but which will come forth to serve as the +nucleus of reconstruction when it can find protection and security, or +whether we must wait for a new generation to grow up, remains to be +tried. Their leaders are subtle reasoners, and it has been shrewdly +observed of them that "they never shrink from following their logic to +its consequences because the conclusion is _immoral_." Perhaps they will +find no more difficulty in accepting the arguments we shall address to +them because the conclusion is a little humiliating. In their case, we +shall have little need to concern ourselves about the wishes of a local +majority. The fact that a majority are blacks, to begin with, must +deprive that consideration of all its force, even to their own +apprehension. It will not be the first time that they have received a +benefit which did not agree with the wishes of the greater part of those +upon whom it was bestowed. The men of Rhode Island and Massachusetts who +achieved the independence of South Carolina did not stop to consider +whether a majority of her white inhabitants were Tories. + +When we hear that the colonel of a regiment of Secessionists sends a +flag of truce to Fort Monroe to ask for the return of his fugitive +slaves under the Constitution and laws of the United States, a painful +doubt must be suggested whether such gentlemen really believe themselves +to be so wholly and utterly out of the Union as the theory of Secession +would indicate. And when the novel, but very sensible doctrine with +which that singular demand was met, that slaves are to be regarded as +articles contraband of war, chattels capable of a military use, a kind +of locomotive gun-carriages and intrenching-tools, and as such to be +taken and confiscated when found belonging to armed rebels, shall have +been practically applied for a time, with its natural and obvious +result, it may be that even the Palmetto State will exhibit some general +symptoms of returning reason. + + + + +THEODORE WINTHROP. + + +Theodore Winthrop's life, like a fire long smouldering, suddenly blazed +up into a clear, bright flame, and vanished. Those of us who were his +friends and neighbors, by whose firesides he sat familiarly, and of +whose life upon the pleasant Staten Island, where he lived, he was so +important a part, were so impressed by his intense vitality, that his +death strikes us with peculiar strangeness, like sudden winter-silence +falling upon these humming fields of June. + +As I look along the wooded brook-side by which he used to come, I should +not be surprised, if I saw that knit, wiry, light figure moving with +quick, firm, leopard tread over the grass,--the keen gray eye, the +clustering fair hair, the kind, serious smile, the mien of undaunted +patience. If you did not know him, you would have found his greeting a +little constrained,--not from shyness, but from genuine modesty and +the habit of society. You would have remarked that he was silent and +observant rather than talkative; and whatever he said, however gay +or grave, would have had the reserve of sadness upon which his whole +character was drawn. If it were a woman who saw him for the first time, +she would inevitably see him through a slight cloud of misapprehension; +for the man and his manner were a little at variance. The chance is that +at the end of five minutes she would have thought him conceited. At the +end of five months she would have known him as one of the simplest and +most truly modest of men. + +And he had the heroic sincerity which belongs to such modesty. Of a +noble ambition, and sensitive to applause,--as every delicate nature +veined with genius always is,--he would not provoke the applause by +doing anything which, although it lay easily within his power, was yet +not wholly approved by him as worthy. Many men are ambitious and full +of talent, and when the prize does not fairly come they snatch at it +unfairly. This was precisely what he could not do. He would strive and +deserve; but if the crown were not laid upon his head in the clear light +of day and by confession of absolute merit, he could ride to his place +again and wait, looking with no envy, but in patient wonder and with +critical curiosity upon the victors. It is this which he expresses in +the paper in the July number of this magazine, "Washington as a Camp," +when he says,--"I have heretofore been proud of my individuality, and +resisted, so far as one may, all the world's attempts to merge me in the +mass." + +It was this which made many who knew him much, but not truly, feel +that he was purposeless and restless. They knew his talent, his +opportunities. Why does he not concentrate? Why does he not bring +himself to bear? He did not plead his ill-health; nor would they have +allowed the plea. The difficulty was deeper. He felt that he had shown +his credentials, and they were not accepted. "I can wait, I can wait," +was the answer his life made to the impatience of his friends. + +We are all fond of saying that a man of real gifts will fit himself to +the work of any time; and so he will. But it is not necessarily to the +first thing that offers. There is always latent in civilized society a +certain amount of what may be called Sir Philip Sidney genius, which +will seem elegant and listless and aimless enough until the congenial +chance appears. A plant may grow in a cellar; but it will flower only +under the due sun and warmth. Sir Philip Sidney was but a lovely +possibility, until he went to be Governor of Flushing. What else was our +friend, until he went to the war? + +The age of Elizabeth did not monopolize the heroes, and they are always +essentially the same. When, for instance, I read in a letter of Hubert +Languet's to Sidney, "You are not over-cheerful by nature," or when, in +another, he speaks of the portrait that Paul Veronese painted of Sidney, +and says, "The painter has represented you sad and thoughtful," I can +believe that he is speaking of my neighbor. Or when I remember what +Sidney wrote to his younger brother,--"Being a gentleman born, you +purpose to furnish yourself with the knowledge of such things as may +be serviceable to your country and calling," or what he wrote to +Languet,--"Our Princes are enjoying too deep a slumber: I cannot think +there is any man possessed of common understanding who does not see to +what these rough storms are driving by which all Christendom has been +agitated now these many years,"--I seem to hear my friend, as he used to +talk on the Sunday evenings when he sat in this huge cane-chair at my +side, in which I saw him last, and in which I shall henceforth always +see him. + +Nor is it unfair to remember just here that he bore one of the few +really historic names in this country. He never spoke of it; but we +should all have been sorry not to feel that he was glad to have sprung +straight from that second John Winthrop who was the first Governor of +Connecticut, the younger sister colony of Massachusetts Bay,--the John +Winthrop who obtained the charter of privileges for his colony. How +clearly the quality of the man has been transmitted! How brightly the +old name shines out again! + +He was born in New Haven on the 22d of September, 1828, and was a grave, +delicate, rather precocious child. He was at school only in New Haven, +and entered Yale College just as he was sixteen. The pure, manly +morality which was the substance of his character, and his brilliant +exploits of scholarship, made him the idol of his college, friends, who +saw in him the promise of the splendid career which the fond faith of +students allots to the favorite classmate. He studied for the Clark +scholarship, and gained it; and his name, in the order of time, is first +upon the roll of that foundation. He won the Townshend prize for the +best composition on History. For the Berkeleian scholarship he and +another were judged equal, and, drawing lots, the other gained the +scholarship; but they divided the honor. + +In college his favorite studies were Greek and mental philosophy. He +never lost the scholarly taste and habit. A wide reader, he retained +knowledge with little effort, and often surprised his friends by the +variety of his information. Yet it was not strange, for he was born +a scholar. His mother was the great-granddaughter of old President +Edwards; and among his ancestors upon the maternal side, Winthrop +counted seven Presidents of Yale. Perhaps also in this learned descent +we may find the secret of his early seriousness. Thoughtful and +self-criticizing, he was peculiarly sensible to religious influences, +under which his criticism easily became self-accusation, and his +sensitive seriousness grew sometimes morbid. He would have studied for +the ministry or a professorship, upon leaving college, except for his +failing health. + +In the later days, when I knew him, the feverish ardor of the first +religious impulse was past. It had given place to a faith much too deep +and sacred to talk about, yet holding him always with serene, steady +poise in the purest region of life and feeling. There was no franker or +more sympathetic companion for young men of his own age than he; but his +conversation fell from his lips as unsullied as his soul. + +He graduated in 1848, when he was twenty years old; and for the sake of +his health, which was seriously shattered,--an ill-health that colored +all his life, he set out upon his travels. He went first to England, +spending much time at Oxford, where he made pleasant acquaintances, and +walking through Scotland. He then crossed over to France and Germany, +exploring Switzerland very thoroughly upon foot,--once or twice escaping +great dangers among the mountains,--and pushed on to Italy and Greece, +still walking much of the way. In Italy he made the acquaintance of Mr. +W.H. Aspinwall, of New York, and upon his return became tutor to Mr. +Aspinwall's son. He presently accompanied his pupil and a nephew of Mr. +Aspinwall, who were going to a school in Switzerland; and after a second +short tour of six months in Europe he returned to New York, and entered +Mr. Aspinwall's counting-house. In the employ of the Pacific Steamship +Company he went to Panama and resided for about two years, travelling, +and often ill of the fevers of the country. Before his return he +travelled through California and Oregon,--went to Vancouver's Island, +Puget Sound, and the Hudson Bay Company's station there. At the Dalles +he was smitten with the small-pox, and lay ill for six weeks. He often +spoke with the warmest gratitude of the kind care that was taken of him +there. But when only partially recovered he plunged off again into the +wilderness. At another time he fell very ill upon the Plains, and lay +down, as he supposed, to die; but after some time struggled up and on +again. + +He returned to the counting-room, but, unsated with adventure, joined +the disastrous expedition of Lieutenant Strain, during which his +health was still more weakened, and he came home again in 1854. In the +following year he studied law and was admitted to the bar. In 1856 he +entered heartily into the Fremont campaign, and from the strongest +conviction. He went into some of the dark districts of Pennsylvania and +spoke incessantly. The roving life and its picturesque episodes, with +the earnest conviction which inspired him, made the summer and autumn +exciting and pleasant. The following year he went to St. Louis to +practise law. The climate was unkind to him, and he returned and began +the practice in New York. But he could not be a lawyer. His health was +too uncertain, and his tastes and ambition allured him elsewhere. His +mind was brimming with the results of observation. His fancy was alert +and inventive, and he wrote tales and novels. At the same time he +delighted to haunt the studio of his friend Church, the painter, and +watch day by day the progress of his picture, the Heart of the Andes. It +so fired his imagination that he wrote a description of it, in which, as +if rivalling the tropical and tangled richness of the picture, he threw +together such heaps and masses of gorgeous words that the reader was +dazzled and bewildered. + +The wild campaigning life was always a secret passion with him. His +stories of travel were so graphic and warm, that I remember one evening, +after we had been tracing upon the map a route he had taken, and he had +touched the whole region into life with his description, my younger +brother, who had sat by and listened with wide eyes all the evening, +exclaimed with a sigh of regretful satisfaction, as the door closed upon +our story-teller, "It's as good as Robinson Crusoe!" Yet, with all +his fondness and fitness for that kind of life, or indeed any active +administrative function, his literary ambition seemed to be the deepest +and strongest. + +He had always been writing. In college and upon his travels he kept +diaries; and he has left behind him several novels, tales, sketches of +travel, and journals. The first published writing of his which is well +known is his description, in the June number of this magazine, of the +March of the Seventh Regiment of New York to Washington. It was charming +by its graceful, sparkling, crisp, off-hand dash and ease. But it is +only the practised hand that can "dash off" effectively. Let any other +clever member of the clever regiment, who has never written, try to dash +off the story of a day or a week in the life of the regiment, and he +will see that the writer did that little thing well because he had done +large things carefully. Yet, amid all the hurry and brilliant bustle of +the articles, the author is, as he was in the most bustling moment of +the life they described, a spectator, an artist. He looks on at +himself and the scene of which he is part. He is willing to merge his +individuality; but he does not merge it, for he could not. + +So, wandering, hoping, trying, waiting, thirty-two years of his life +went by, and they left him true, sympathetic, patient. The sharp private +griefs that sting the heart so deeply, and leave a little poison +behind, did not spare him. But he bore everything so bravely, so +silently,--often silent for a whole evening in the midst of pleasant +talkers, but not impertinently sad, nor ever sullen,--that we all loved +him a little more at such times. The ill-health from which he always +suffered, and a flower-like delicacy of temperament, the yearning desire +to be of some service in the world, coupled with the curious, critical +introspection which marks every sensitive and refined nature and +paralyzes action, overcast his life and manner to the common eye with +pensiveness and even sternness. He wrote verses in which his heart +seems to exhale in a sigh of sadness. But he was not in the least a +sentimentalist. The womanly grace of temperament merely enhanced the +unusual manliness of his character and impression. It was like a +delicate carnation upon the cheek of a robust man. For his humor +was exuberant. He seldom laughed loud, but his smile was sweet and +appreciative. Then the range of his sympathies was so large, that he +enjoyed every kind of life and person, and was everywhere at home. In +walking and riding, in skating and running, in games out of doors and +in, no one of us all in the neighborhood was so expert, so agile as he. +For, above all things, he had what we Yankees call faculty,--the knack +of doing everything. If he rode with a neighbor who was a good horseman, +Theodore, who was a Centaur, when he mounted, would put any horse at any +gate or fence; for it did not occur to him that he could not do whatever +was to be done. Often, after writing for a few hours in the morning, he +stepped out of doors, and, from pure love of the fun, leaped and turned +summersaults on the grass, before going up to town. In walking about the +island, he constantly stopped by the roadside fences, and, grasping the +highest rail, swung himself swiftly and neatly over and back again, +resuming the walk and the talk without delay. + +I do not wish to make him too much a hero. "Death," says Bacon, "openeth +the gate to good fame." When a neighbor dies, his form and quality +appear clearly, as if he had been dead a thousand years. Then we see +what we only felt before. Heroes in history seem to us poetic because +they are there. But if we should tell the simple truth of some of our +neighbors, it would sound like poetry. Winthrop was one of the men +who represent the manly and poetic qualities that always exist around +us,--not great genius, which is ever salient, but the fine fibre of +manhood that makes the worth of the race. + +Closely engaged with his literary employments, and more quiet than ever, +he took less active part in the last election. But when the menace of +treason became an aggressive act, he saw very clearly the inevitable +necessity of arms. We all talked of it constantly,--watching the +news,--chafing at the sad necessity of delay, which was sure to confuse +foreign opinion and alienate sympathy, as has proved to be the case. As +matters advanced and the war-cloud rolled up thicker and blacker, he +looked at it with the secret satisfaction that war for such a cause +opened his career both as thinker and actor. The admirable coolness, the +promptness, the cheerful patience, the heroic ardor, the intelligence, +the tough experience of campaigning, the profound conviction that the +cause was in truth "the good old cause," which was now to come to the +death-grapple with its old enemy, Justice against Injustice, Order +against Anarchy,--all these should now have their turn, and the wanderer +and waiter "settle himself" at last. + +We took a long walk together on the Sunday that brought the news of the +capture of Fort Sumter. He was thoroughly alive with a bright, earnest +forecast of his part in the coming work. Returning home with me, he +sat until late in the evening talking with an unwonted spirit, saying +playfully, I remember, that, if his friends would only give him a horse, +he would ride straight to victory. + +Especially he wished that some competent person would keep a careful +record of events as they passed; "for we are making our history," he +said, "hand over hand." He sat quietly in the great chair while he +spoke, and at last rose to go. We went together to the door, and stood +for a little while upon the piazza, where we had sat peacefully through +so many golden summer-hours. The last hour for us had come, but we did +not know it. We shook hands, and he left me, passing rapidly along the +brook-side under the trees, and so in the soft spring starlight vanished +from my sight forever. + +The next morning came the President's proclamation. Winthrop went +immediately to town and enrolled himself in the artillery corps of the +Seventh Regiment. During the two or three following days he was very +busy and very happy. On Friday afternoon, the 19th of April, I stood at +the corner of Courtland Street and saw the regiment as it marched away. +Two days before, I had seen the Massachusetts troops going down the same +street. During the day the news had come that they were already engaged, +that some were already dead in Baltimore. And the Seventh, as they went, +blessed and wept over by a great city, went, as we all believed, to +terrible battle. The setting sun in a clear April sky shone full up +the street. Mothers' eyes glistened at the windows upon the glistening +bayonets of their boys below. I knew that Winthrop and other dear +friends were there, but I did not see them. I saw only a thousand men +marching like one hero. The music beat and rang and clashed in the air. +Marching to death or victory or defeat, it mattered not. They marched +for Justice, and God was their captain. + +From that moment he has told his own story in these pages until he went +to Fortress Monroe, and was made acting military secretary and aid by +General Butler. Before he went, he wrote the most copious and gayest +letters from the camp. He was thoroughly aroused, and all his powers +happily at play. In a letter to me soon after his arrival in Washington, +he says,-- + +"I see no present end of this business. We must conquer the South. +Afterward we must be prepared to do its police in its own behalf, and +in behalf of its black population, whom this war must, without +precipitation, emancipate. We must hold the South as the metropolitan +police holds New York. All this is inevitable. Now I wish to enroll +myself at once in the _Police of the Nation_, and for life, if the +nation will take me. I do not see that I can put myself--experience +and character--to any more useful use..... My experience in this short +campaign with the Seventh assures me that volunteers are for one purpose +and regular soldiers entirely another. We want regular soldiers for the +cause of order in these anarchical countries, and we want men in command +who, though they may be valuable as temporary satraps or proconsuls to +make liberty possible where it is now impossible, will never under any +circumstances be disloyal to _Liberty_, will always oppose any scheme of +any one to constitute a military government, and will be ready, when the +time comes, to imitate Washington. We must think of these things, and +prepare for them..... Love to all the dear friends..... This trip has +been all a lark to an old tramper like myself." + +Later he writes,-- + +"It is the loveliest day of fullest spring. An aspen under the window +whispers to me in a chorus of all its leaves, and when I look out, every +leaf turns a sunbeam at me. I am writing in Viele's quarters in the +villa of Somebody Stone, upon whose place or farm we are encamped. The +man who built and set down these four great granite pillars in front of +his house, for a carriage-porch, had an eye or two for a fine _site_. +This seems to be the finest possible about Washington. It is a terrace +called Meridian Hill, two miles north of Pennsylvania Avenue. The house +commands the vista of the Potomac, all the plain of the city, and a +charming lawn of delicious green, with oaks of first dignity just coming +into leaf. It is lovely Nature, and the spot has snatched a grace +from Art. The grounds are laid out after a fashion, and planted with +shrubbery. The snowballs are at their snowballiest..... Have you heard +or--how many times have you used the simile of some one, Bad-muss or +Cadmus, or another hero, who sowed the dragon's teeth, and they came up +dragoons a hundred-fold and infantry a thousand-fold? _Nil admirari_ +is, of course, my frame of mind; but I own astonishment at the crop of +soldiers. They must ripen awhile, perhaps, before they are to be named +quite soldiers. Ripening takes care of itself; and by the harvest-time +they will be ready to cut down. + +"I find that the men best informed about the South do not anticipate +much severe fighting. Scott's Fabian policy will demoralize their +armies. If the people do not bother the great Cunetator to death before +he is ready to move to assured victory, he will make defeat impossible. +Meanwhile there will be enough outwork going on, like those neat jobs +in Missouri, to keep us all interested...... Know, O comrade, that I +am already a corporal,--an acting corporal, selected by our commanding +officer for my general effect of pipe-clay, my rapidity of heel and toe, +my present arms, etc., but liable to be ousted by suffrage any moment. +_Quod faustum sit_, ... I had already been introduced to the Secretary +of War..... I called at ----'s and saw, with two or three others,---- +on the sofa. Him my prophetic soul named my uncle to be..... But in my +uncle's house are many nephews, and whether nepotism or my transcendent +merit will prevail we shall see. I have fun,--I get experience,--I see +much,--it pays. Ah, yes! But in these fair days of May I miss my Staten +Island. War stirs the pulse, but it wounds a little all the time. + +"Compliment for me Tib [a little dog] and the Wisterias,--also the mares +and the billiard-table. Ask ---- to give you t'other lump of sugar in my +behalf.... Should ---- return, say that I regret not being present +with an unpremeditated compliment, as thus,--'Ah! the first rose of +summer!'.... I will try to get an enemy's button for ----, should the +enemy attack. If the Seventh returns presently, I am afraid I shall +be obliged to return with them for a time. But I mean to see this job +through, somehow." + +In such an airy, sportive vein he wrote, with the firm purpose and the +distinct thought visible under the sparkle. Before the regiment left +Washington, as he has recorded, he said good-bye and went down the bay +to Fortress Monroe. Of his unshrinking and sprightly industry, his good +head, his warm heart, and cool hand, as a soldier, General Butler has +given precious testimony to his family. "I loved him as a brother," the +General writes of his young aid. + +The last days of his life at Fortress Monroe were doubtless also the +happiest. His energy and enthusiasm, and kind, winning ways, and the +deep satisfaction of feeling that all his gifts could now be used as he +would have them, showed him and his friends that his day had at length +dawned. He was especially interested in the condition and fate of the +slaves who escaped from the neighboring region and sought refuge at +the fort. He had never for an instant forgotten the secret root of the +treason which was desolating the land with war; and in his view there +would be no peace until that root was destroyed. In his letters written +from the fort he suggests plans of relief and comfort for the refugees; +and one of his last requests was to a lady in New York for clothes for +these poor pensioners. They were promptly sent, but reached the fort too +late. + +As I look over these last letters, which gush and throb with the fulness +of his activity, and are so tenderly streaked with touches of constant +affection and remembrance, yet are so calm and duly mindful of every +detail, I do not think with an elder friend, in whom the wisdom of +years has only deepened sympathy for all generous youthful impulse, of +Virgil's Marcellus, "_Heu, miserande puer!_" but I recall rather, still +haunted by Philip Sidney, what he wrote, just before his death, to his +father-in-law, Walsingham,--"I think a wise and constant man ought never +to grieve while he doth play, as a man may say, his own part truly." + +The sketches of the campaign in Virginia, which Winthrop had commenced +in this magazine, would have been continued, and have formed an +invaluable memoir of the places, the men, and the operations of which +he was a witness and a part. As a piece of vivid pictorial description, +which gives the spirit as well as the spectacle, his "Washington as a +Camp" is masterly. He knew not only what to see and to describe, but +what to think; so that in his papers you are not at the mercy of a +multitudinous mass of facts, but understand their value and relation. +Immediately upon his arrival at Fort Monroe he had commenced a third +article, which was to have occupied the place of this. It is inserted +here just as he left it, with one brief addition only to make his known +meaning more clear. The part called "Voices of the Contraband" was +written previously, and is not paged in the manuscript. It was to have +been introduced into the article; but it is placed first here, that the +sequence of the paper, as far as the author had written it, may remain +undisturbed. + + +VOICES OF THE CONTRABAND. + + +_Solvuntur risu tabulae_. An epigram abolished slavery in the United +States. Large wisdom, stated in fine wit, was the decision. "Negroes are +contraband of war." "They are property," claim the owners. Very well! As +General Butler takes contraband horses used in transport of munitions of +war, so he takes contraband black creatures who tote the powder to the +carts and flagellate the steeds. As he takes a spade used in hostile +earthworks, so he goes a little farther off and takes the black muscle +that wields the spade. As he takes the rations of the foe, so he takes +the sable Soyer whose skilful hand makes those rations savory to the +palates and digestible by the stomachs of the foe and so puts blood and +nerve into them. As he took the steam-gun, so he now takes what might +become the stoker of the steam part of that machine and the aimer of its +gun part. As he takes the musket, so he seizes the object who in the +Virginia army carries that musket on its shoulder until its master +is ready to reach out a lazy hand, nonchalantly lift the piece, and +carelessly pop a Yankee. + + +The third number of Winthrop's Sketches of the Campaign in Virginia +begins here. + + +PHYSIOGNOMY OF FORTRESS MONROE. + + +The "Adelaide" is a steamer plying between Baltimore and Norfolk. But as +Norfolk has ceased to be a part of the United States, and is nowhere, +the "Adelaide" goes no farther than Fortress Monroe, Old Point Comfort, +the chief somewhere of this region. A lady, no doubt Adelaide herself, +appears in _alto rilievo_ on the paddle-box. She has a short waist, long +skirt _sans_ crinoline, leg-of-mutton sleeves, lofty bearing, and stands +like Ariadne on an island of pedestal size, surrounded by two or more +pre-Raphaelite trees. In the offing comes or goes a steamboat, also +pre-Raphaelite; and if Ariadne Adelaide's Bacchus is on board, he is out +of sight at the bar. + +Such an Adelaide brought me in sight of Fortress Monroe at sunrise, May +29, 1861. The fort, though old enough to be full-grown, has not grown +very tall upon the low sands of Old Point Comfort. It is a big house +with a basement story and a garret. The roof is left off, and the +stories between basement and garret have never been inserted. + +But why not be technical? For basement read a tier of casemates, each +with a black Cyclops of a big gun peering out; while above in the open +air, with not even a parasol over their backs, lie the barbette guns, +staring without a wink over sea and shore. + +In peace, with a hundred or so soldiers here and there, this vast +inclosure might seem a solitude. Now it is a busy city,--a city of one +idea. I seem to recollect that D'Israeli said somewhere that every great +city was founded on one idea and existed to develop it. This city, into +which we have improvised a population, has its idea,--a unit of an idea +with two halves. The east half is the recovery of Norfolk,--the west +half the occupation of Richmond; and the idea complete is the education +of Virginia's unmannerly and disloyal sons. + +Why Secession did not take this great place when its defenders numbered +a squad of officers and three hundred men is mysterious. Floyd and his +gang were treacherous enough. What was it? Were they imbecile? Were they +timid? Was there, till too late, a doubt whether the traitors at home in +Virginia would sustain them in an overt act of such big overture as an +attempt here? But they lost the chance, and with it lost the key of +Virginia, which General Butler now holds, this 30th day of May, and will +presently begin to turn in the lock. + +Three hundred men to guard a mile and a half of ramparts! Three hundred +to protect some sixty-five broad acres within the walls! But the place +was a Thermopylae, and there was a fine old Leonidas at the head of its +three hundred. He was enough to make Spartans of them. Colonel Dimmick +was the man,--a quiet, modest, shrewd, faithful, Christian gentleman; +and he held all Virginia at bay. The traitors knew, that, so long as the +Colonel was here, these black muzzles with their white tompions, like +a black eye with a white pupil, meant mischief. To him and his guns, +flanking the approaches and ready to pile the moat full of Seceders, the +country owes the safety of Fortress Monroe. + +Within the walls are sundry nice old brick houses for officers' +barracks. The jolly bachelors live in the casemates and the men in long +barracks, now not so new or so convenient as they might be. In fact, the +physiognomy of Fortress Monroe is not so neat, well-shorn, and elegant +as a grand military post should be. Perhaps our Floyds, and the like, +thought, if they kept everything in perfect order here, they, as +Virginians, accustomed to general seediness, would not find themselves +at home. But the new _régime_ must change all this, and make this the +biggest, the best equipped, and the model garrison of the country. For, +of course, this must be strongly held for many, many years to come. It +is idle to suppose that the dull louts we find here, not enlightened +even enough to know that loyalty is the best policy, can be allowed +the highest privilege of the moral, the intelligent, and the +progressive,--self-government. Mind is said to march fast in our time; +but mind must put on steam hereabouts to think and act for itself, +without stern schooling, in half a century. + +But no digressing! I have looked far away from the physiognomy of the +fortress. Let us turn to the + + +PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE COUNTRY. + + +The face of this county, Elizabeth City by name, is as flat as a +Chinaman's. I can hardly wonder that the people here have retrograded, +or rather, not advanced. This dull flat would make anybody dull and +flat. I am no longer surprised at John Tyler. He has had a bare blank +brick house, entitled sweetly Margarita Cottage, or some such tender +epithet, at Hampton, a mile and a half from the fort. A summer in this +site would make any man a bore. And as something has done this favor +for His Accidency, I am willing to attribute it to the influence of +locality. + +The country is flat; the soil is fine sifted loam running to dust, as +the air of England runs to fog; the woods are dense and beautiful +and full of trees unknown to the parallel of New York; the roads are +miserable cart-paths; the cattle are scalawags; so are the horses, not +run away; so are the people, black and white, not run away; the crops +are tolerable, where the invaders have not trampled them. + +Altogether the whole concern strikes me as a failure. Captain John Smith +& Co. might as well have stayed at home, if this is the result of the +two hundred and thirty years' occupation. Apparently the colonists +picked out a poor spot; and the longer they stayed, the worse fist they +made of it. Powhattan, Pocahontas, and the others without pantaloons and +petticoats, were really more serviceable colonists. + +The farm-houses are mostly miserably mean habitations. I don't wonder +the tenants were glad to make our arrival the excuse for running off. +Here are men claiming to have been worth forty thousand dollars, half in +biped property, half in all other kinds, and they lived in dens such +as a drayman would have disdained and a hod-carrier only accepted on +compulsion. + + +PHYSIOGNOMY OF WATER. + + +Always beautiful! the sea cannot be spoilt. Our fleet enlivens it +greatly. Here is the flag-ship "Cumberland" _vis-à-vis_ the fort. Off to +the left are the prizes, unlucky schooners, which ought to be carrying +pine wood to the kitchens of New York, and new potatoes and green peas +for the wood to operate upon. This region, by the way, is New York's +watermelon patch for early melons; and if we do not conquer a peace here +pretty soon, the Jersey fruit will have the market to itself. + +Besides stately flag-ships and poor little bumboat schooners, transports +are coming and going with regiments or provisions for the same. Here, +too, are old acquaintances from the bay of New York,--the "Yankee," a +lively tug,--the "Harriet Lane," coquettish and plucky,--the "Catiline," +ready to reverse her name and put down conspiracy. + +On the dock are munitions of war in heaps. Volunteer armies load +themselves with things they do not need, and forget the essentials. +The unlucky army-quartermaster's people, accustomed to the slow and +systematic methods of the by-gone days at Fortress Monroe, fume terribly +over these cargoes. The new men and the new manners of the new army do +not altogether suit the actual men and manners of the obsolete army. The +old men and the new must recombine. What we want now is the vigor of +fresh people to utilize the experience of the experts. The Silver-Gray +Army needs a frisky element interfused. On the other hand, the new army +needs to be taught a lesson in _method_ by the old; and the two combined +will make the grand army of civilization. + + +THE FORCES. + + +When I arrived, Fort Monroe and the neighborhood were occupied by two +armies. + +1. General Butler. + +2. About six thousand men, here and at Newport's News. + +Making together more than twelve thousand men. + +Of the first army, consisting of the General, I will not speak. Let his +past supreme services speak for him, as I doubt not the future will. + +Next to the array of a man comes the army of men. Regulars a few, with +many post officers, among them some very fine and efficient fellows. +These are within the post. Also within is the Third Regiment of +Massachusetts, under Colonel Wardrop, the right kind of man to have, and +commanding a capital regiment of three-months men, neatly uniformed in +gray, with cocked felt hats. + +Without the fort, across the moat, and across the bridge connecting this +peninsula of sand with the nearest side of the mainland, are encamped +three New York regiments. Each is in a wheat field, up to its eyes in +dust. In order of precedence they come One, Two, and Five; in order +of personal splendor of uniform they come Five, One, Two; in order of +exploits they are all in the same negative position at present; and the +Second has done rather the most robbing of hen-roosts. + +The Fifth, Duryea's Zouaves, lighten up the woods brilliantly with their +scarlet legs and scarlet head-pieces. + + * * * * * + +These last words were written upon the day that the attack in which +Winthrop fell was arranged. + +The disastrous day of the 10th of June, at Great Bethel, need not be +described here. It is already written with tears and vain regrets in our +history. It is useless to prolong the debate as to where the blame of +the defeat, if blame there were, should rest. But there is an impression +somewhat prevalent that Winthrop planned the expedition, which is +incorrect. As military secretary of the commanding general, he made a +memorandum of the outline of the plan as it had been finally settled. +Precisely what that memorandum (which has been published) was he +explains in the last letter he wrote, a few hours before leaving the +fort. He says,--"If I come back safe, I will send you my notes of the +plan of attack, part made up from the General's hints, part my own +fancies." This defines exactly his responsibility. His position as aid +and military secretary, his admirable qualities as adviser under the +circumstances, and his personal friendship for the General, brought him +intimately into the council of war. He embarked in the plan all the +interest of a brave soldier contemplating his first battle. He probably +made suggestions some of which were adopted. The expedition was the +first move from Fort Monroe, to which the country had been long looking +in expectation. These were the reasons why he felt so peculiar a +responsibility for its success; and after the melancholy events of the +earlier part of the day, he saw that its fortunes could be retrieved +only by a dash of heroic enthusiasm. Fired himself, he sought to kindle +others. For one moment that brave, inspiring form is plainly visible +to his whole country, rapt and calm, standing upon the log nearest the +enemy's battery, the mark of their sharpshooters, the admiration of +their leaders, waving his sword, cheering his fellow-soldiers with his +bugle voice of victory,--young, brave, beautiful, for one moment erect +and glowing in the wild whirl of battle, the next falling forward toward +the foe, dead, but triumphant. + +On the 19th of April he left the armory-door of the Seventh, with his +hand upon a howitzer; on the 21st of June his body lay upon the same +howitzer at the same door, wrapped in the flag for which he gladly died, +as the symbol of human freedom. And so, drawn by the hands of young men +lately strangers to him, but of whose bravery and loyalty he had been +the laureate, and who fitly mourned him who had honored them, with long, +pealing dirges and muffled drums, he moved forward. + +Yet such was the electric vitality of this friend of ours, that those +of us who followed him could only think of him as approving the funeral +pageant, not the object of it, but still the spectator and critic of +every scene in which he was a part. We did not think of him as dead. We +never shall. In the moist, warm midsummer morning, he was alert, alive, +immortal. + + + + +DIRGE + +FOR ONE WHO FELL IN BATTLE. + + + Room for a Soldier! lay him in the clover; + He loved the fields, and they shall be his cover; + Make his mound with hers who called him once her lover: + Where the rain may rain upon it, + Where the sun may shine upon it, + Where the lamb hath lain upon it, + And the bee will dine upon it. + + Bear him to no dismal tomb under city churches; + Take him to the fragrant fields, by the silver birches, + Where the whippoorwill shall mourn, where the oriole perches: + Make his mound with sunshine on it, + Where the bee will dine upon it, + Where the lamb hath lain upon it, + And the rain will rain upon it. + + Busy as the busy bee, his rest should be the clover; + Gentle as the lamb was he, and the fern should be his cover; + Fern and rosemary shall grow my soldier's pillow over: + Where the rain may rain upon it, + Where the sun may shine upon it, + Where the lamb hath lain upon it, + And the bee will dine upon it. + + Sunshine in his heart, the rain would come full often + Out of those tender eyes which evermore did soften; + He never could look cold, till we saw him in his coffin. + Make his mound with sunshine on it, + Where the wind may sigh upon it, + Where the moon may stream upon it, + And Memory shall dream upon it. + + "Captain or Colonel,"--whatever invocation + Suit our hymn the best, no matter for thy station,-- + On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation! + Long as the sun doth shine upon it + Shall grow the goodly pine upon it, + Long as the stars do gleam upon it + Shall Memory come to dream upon it. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Currents and Counter-Currents in Medical Science._ With other Addresses +and Essays. By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. Boston; Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. + +This volume contains seven occasional addresses and essays, written at +various periods between 1812 and 1860. The subjects of which it treats +are "Homoeopathy, and its Kindred Delusions," "Puerperal Fever, as +a Private Pestilence," "The Position and Prospects of the Medical +Student," "The Duties of the Physician,"--a Valedictory Address to +the Medical Graduates of Harvard University,--"The Mechanism of Vital +Actions," "Some more Recent Views of Homoeopathy," and "Currents +and Counter-Currents in Medical Science." They are characterized by +extensive information, fertile thought, strong convictions, keen wit, +sound sense, and unflinching intellectual courage and self-trust. They +are valuable contributions to the literature of the medical profession, +and at the same time have that peculiar fascination which distinguishes +all the productions of Dr. Holmes's ingenious and opulent mind. The +style is clear, crisp, sparkling, abounding in originalities of verbal +combination and felicities of descriptive phrase. In its movement, it +bears the marks of a kind of mental impatience of the processes of +slower, more dogged, and more cautious intellects, natural to a keen, +bright, and swift intelligence, desirous of flashing the results of its +operation in the briefest and most brilliant expression. The argument, +though founded on premises which have been gathered by careful +observation and study, often disregards the forms of the logic whose +spirit it obeys, and, by its frequent use of analogy and illustration, +may sometimes dazzle and confuse the minds it seeks to convince. In +regard to opponents, it is not content with mere dialectic victory, but +insinuates the subtle sting of wit to vex and irritate the sore places +of defeat and humiliation. + +The reputation which Dr. Holmes enjoys, as one of the most popular poets +and prose-writers of the day, has made the public overlook the fact that +literature has been the recreation of a life of which medical science +has been the business. By far the larger portion of his time, for the +last thirty years, has been devoted to his profession. Perhaps the +value and validity of the conclusions he records in this volume may be +questioned from the very circumstance that he expresses them in the +lucid and vigorous style of an accomplished man of letters. "People," +says Macaulay, "are loath to admit that the same man can unite very +different kinds of excellence. It is soothing to envy to believe that +what is splendid cannot be solid, that what is clear cannot be profound. +Very slowly was the public brought to acknowledge that Mansfield was a +great jurist, and that Burke was a great master of political science. +Montagu was a brilliant rhetorician, and therefore, though he had +ten times Harley's capacity for the driest parts of business, was +represented by detractors as a superficial, prating pretender." Indeed, +that peculiar vital energy which is the characteristic of genius carries +the man of genius cheerfully through masses of drudgery which would +dismay and paralyze the vigor of industrious mediocrity. The present +volume, bright as it is in expression, is full of evidences that the +author has submitted to the austerest requirements of his laborious +profession; and if his opinions generally coincide with those which have +been somewhat reluctantly adopted by the most eminent physicians of the +age, it is certain that he has not jumped to his conclusions, but has +reached them by patient and independent thought, study, and observation. + +The courage which Dr. Holmes displays throughout this volume is of a +refreshing kind. His frank, bold utterance of his convictions not only +subjects him to the adverse criticism of a numerous and powerful body +of able men in his own profession, but brings him into direct hostility +with many persons who, outside of his profession, are among the warmest +lovers of his literary genius. Some of the most intelligent admirers +and appreciators of "The Autocrat" and "The Professor" are adherents of +Homoeopathy; and of Homoeopathy Dr. Holmes is not only a scientific, but +a sarcastic opponent. He both acknowledges and satirizes the fact, that +intellectual men, eminent in all professions but that of medicine, are +champions of the system he derides; but he does not the less spare one +bitter word or cutting fleer against the system itself. By thus daring, +provoking, and defying opposition both to his professional and literary +reputation, he seems to us to indicate a real, if somewhat impatient +love of truth. He valorously invites and courts the malicious sharpness +of the most unfriendly criticism. Some people may call by the name of +conceit this honest and unwithholding devotion of his whole powers to +what he deems the cause of truth; but, we must be allowed to object, +conceit is commonly anxious for the safety of the individual, while +Dr. Holmes intrepidly exposes his individuality to the fire of hostile +cannon, which are prevented from being discharged against each other +only by the lucky thought that they can do more execution by being +converged upon him. Had he appeared as an intelligent, knowing, and +efficient controversialist on the side of the traditions of his +profession, his wholesale denunciation of quackery, vulgar or genteel, +might be referred to conceit; had he turned state's evidence against the +accredited deceptions of his own profession, and gone over entirely to +the enthusiasts who think that medicine is not an experimental science, +but a series of hap-hazard hits at the occult laws of disease, he might +be accused of conceit; but we think the charge is ridiculously false as +directed against a man who boldly puts his professional and literary +fame at risk in order to advance the cause of reason, learning, and +common sense. Nobody can justly appreciate Holmes who does not perceive +an impersonal earnestness and insight beneath the play of his provoking +personal wit. We admit that he makes enemies needlessly; but all fair +minds must still concede that even his petulances of sarcasm are but +eccentric utterances of a love of truth which has its source in the +deepest and gravest sentiments of his nature. + +The object of Dr. Holmes's volume is to bring physicians and the people +over whom they hold dominion into sensible relations with each other. +A beautiful scorn of deception and humbug shines through his clear +exposition of the facts and laws of disease. A high sense of the duties +and dignity of the medical profession animates every precept he enforces +on the attention of those who are to deal with disease. Like all the +advanced thinkers of his profession, he relies, in the art of curing, +more on Nature than on drugs; but in thus assisting to dispel the notion +that the prescriptions either of the regular doctor or the irregular +empiric possess the power to heal, he injures the quack only to aid +the good physician. The strength of the quack consists in the two-fold +ignorance of the sick,--in their ignorance of the superficial character +of their common ailments, and in their ignorance of the deadly nature of +their exceptional diseases. Panaceas, seeming to cure the former, are +eagerly taken for the latter; but it is well known that they do not cure +in either case. Physicians are tempted into quackery by the desire to +dislodge ignorant pretenders from bedsides which it is their proper +function to attend, and in ministering to sick imaginations they are too +apt to pour a needless amount of nauseous medicine into sick bodies. If +people, while in health, would heed the honest advice which Dr. +Holmes gives in this volume, they would force physicians to be less +hypocritical in their management of them when they are ill, and they +would destroy the wide-spread evil of quackery under which the world now +groans. + + +_History of Civilization in England._ By HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE. Vol. II. +From the Second London Edition. To which is added an Alphabetical Index. +New York: D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. + +The present volume of Mr. Buckle's history consists of a deductive +application to the history of Spain and Scotland of certain leading +propositions, which, in his previous volume, he claims to have +inductively established. These are four; "1st, That the progress of +mankind depends on the success with which the laws of phenomena are +investigated, and on the extent to which a knowledge of those laws +is diffused; 2d, That, before investigation can begin, a spirit of +skepticism must arise, which, at first aiding the investigation, is +afterwards aided by it; 3d, That the discoveries thus made increase +the influence of intellectual truths, and diminish, relatively, not +absolutely, the influence of moral truths,--moral truths being more +stationary than intellectual truths, and receiving fewer additions; 4th, +That the great enemy of this movement, and therefore the great enemy of +civilization, is the protective spirit, or the notion that the good of +society depends on its concerns being watched over and protected by a +State that teaches men what to do, and a Church which teaches them what +to believe." + +Mr. Buckle, with great abundance of learning and fulness of thought, +attempts to prove that the history of Spain and Scotland verifies these +propositions. The general causes which, according to him, have sunk +Spain so low in the scale of civilization are loyalty and superstition. +The Church and State have been supreme, and the consequence has been +that the people are profoundly ignorant. Under able rulers, like +Ferdinand, Charles V., and Philip II., the loyal nation attained a great +height of power and glory; under their incompetent successors, the loyal +nation, obedient to crowned sloth and stupidity as to crowned energy and +genius, descended with frightful rapidity from its high estate, thus +proving that the progress which depends on the character of individual +monarchs or statesmen is necessarily unstable. Circumstances similar +to those which made Spain loyal made it superstitious; and loyalty and +superstition early formed an alliance by which all independent energy +of conduct and thought was suppressed. According to Mr. Buckle, the +prosperity of nations, in modern times, "depends on principles to which +the clergy, as a body, are invariably opposed." This proposition is, to +him, true of Protestant as well as Catholic clergymen; and a nation +like Spain, looking to the Government for what it should do, and to the +Church for what it should believe, has necessarily become inefficient +and ignorant. + +Spain has few friends among English readers, and Mr. Buckle's +contemptuous opinion of its civilization may not, therefore, rouse +much opposition that he will be compelled to heed. But it is not so in +respect to Scotland, a caustic survey of whose civilization occupies +three-quarters of the present volume. The position is taken, that +Scotland, of all the countries of Protestant Europe, has been and is +the most superstitious and priest-ridden. The only thing that saved the +people from the fate of Spain was the fact, that their insubordination +to temporal authority was as marked as their slavery to spiritual +authority. They had the good fortune to be rebels as well as fanatics; +but the reforming clergy having, after 1580, allied themselves heartily +with the people against the king and nobles, increased as patriots +the influence they exerted as priests. The love of country being thus +associated with love of the Church, the people were enslaved by the very +religious leaders who aided them in the fight against those forms of +arbitrary power they mutually detested. The tyranny of the Presbyterian +minister was lovingly accepted by the same population by which the +tyranny of bishop and king was abhorred. + +Mr. Buckle, with the malicious delight which only a philosopher in +search of facts to fit his theory can know, has delved in a stratum of +theological literature now covered from the common eye by more important +deposits, in order to prove that in the seventeenth century the people +of Scotland were ruled by a set of petty theological tyrants, as +ignorant and as inhuman as ever disgraced a civilized society, and that +their ignorance and inhumanity were all the more influential from being +called by the name and acting by the authority of religion. + +The author then proceeds to consider the philosophical and scientific +reaction against this ecclesiastical despotism, which occurred in the +eighteenth century. Why did it not emancipate the Scottish intellect? + +Because, says Mr. Buckle, the method of the philosophers, like the +method of the theologians, was deductive, and not inductive; and this, +he thinks, characterizes the operation of the intellect of Scotland in +all departments. Now the deductive method, or reasoning from principles +to facts, does not strike the senses with the force of the inductive, +or reasoning from facts to principles, and it is accordingly less +accessible to the average understanding. The result was, that the +writings of Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and Hume had little effect on the +popular intellect of Scotland, and its people are now the most bigoted +and intolerant of those of any country in Europe, except Spain. This +portion of Mr. Buckle's volume, containing an analytical estimate, not +only of Hutcheson, Hume, and Adam Smith, but of Black, Leslie, Hutton, +Cullen, and John Hunter, is full of original thought and valuable +information, however questionable may be some of its statements. + +Whatever may be thought of the general ideas which Mr. Buckle enforces, +few will be inclined to dispute the extent of his learning, the breadth +of his understanding, the suggestiveness of his generalizations, the +earnestness of his purpose, the mental honesty with which he seeks +truth, the mental hardihood with which he assails what he considers +error. He has not only no intellectual timidity, but no intellectual +reserve, and is indifferent to the opprobrium which may proceed from the +collision of his speculations with the strongest of prejudices and +the most immovable of convictions. But this intrepid sincerity is not +without the alloy of arrogance. He belongs to that school of able, but +dogmatic positivists, who are apt to consider their minds the measure +of the human mind, who are intolerant of those human sentiments and +qualities in which they are deficient, and who, occupying the serene +heights of a purely scientific wisdom, look down with pitying contempt +on all intellects, however powerful, which are not emancipated from the +dominion of theological ideas. Individually, he lacks both the sympathy +and the imaginative insight by which a man pierces to the heart of a +nation, and appreciates its life as distinguished from its opinions. All +readers of those portions of the literature of Spain and Scotland in +which genius exhibits the vital manners and representative character +of those nations will feel how partial and inadequate is Mr. Buckle's +historic sketch. The fundamental idea of his system, that human progress +depends on the success with which the laws of phenomena are investigated +and the extent to which a knowledge of them is diffused, overlooks the +essential element of _movement,_ which is not abstract knowledge, but +vital force. Men and nations move in virtue of their passionate, moral, +and spiritual forces, and these determine the character of their +intellectual development and expression. A nation which knew all the +laws of phenomena, but which was utterly lacking in moral force, would +not only not be civilized, but would hardly be alive. Mr. Buckle insists +that moral truths being relatively stationary, while intellectual truths +are constantly advancing and multiplying, civilization cannot depend +upon them. But even admitting that moral truths are stationary, still +moral life, the conversion of these truths into character, is capable of +indefinite advancement. There are moral truths more universal than any +scientific truths, and it is owing to the fact that these truths have so +imperfectly passed from abstractions into conduct, that civilization +is yet so imperfect, and the achievements of the intellect still so +limited. Out of the heart, and not out of the head, are the issues of +life; and how a mere knowledge of "the laws of phenomena" can regenerate +men from selfishness, ferocity, and malignity, can purify and invigorate +the will, can even of itself stimulate the intellect to a further +investigation of those laws, Mr. Buckle has not shown. Even the +theological abuses of which he gives so exaggerated a representation are +expressions of the passions and character of the people to which the +theology was accommodated, and not of the sense and spirit of the New +Testament, which the theology violated, so far as it was false in its +ideas or inhuman in its teachings. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Uprising of a Great People: The United States in 1861. From the +French of Count Agénor de Gasparin, by Mary L. Booth. New York. Charles +Scribner. 16mo. pp. 263. 75 cts. + +Volunteers' Camp and Field Book, containing useful General Information +on the Art and Science of War. By J.P. Curry. New York. D. Appleton & +Co. 32mo. pp. 146. 25 cts. + +Lloyd's Military Campaign Chart. Pocket Edition. Arranged by E.L. Viele +and Charles Haskins. New York. H.H. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 19, 2004 [EBook #11157] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 46 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VIII--AUGUST, 1861.--NO. XLVI. + + + + +TREES IN ASSEMBLAGES. + + +The subject of Trees cannot be exhausted by treating them as individuals +or species, even with a full enumeration of their details. Some trees +possess but little interest, except as they are grouped in assemblages +of greater or less extent. A solitary Fir or Spruce, for example, when +standing in an inclosure or by the roadside, is a stiff and disagreeable +object; but a deep forest of Firs is not surpassed in grandeur by one of +any other species. These trees must be assembled in extensive groups to +affect us agreeably; while the Elm, the Oak, and other wide-spreading +trees, are grand objects of sight, when standing alone, or in any other +situation. + +I will not detain the reader with a prolix account of the classification +of trees in assemblages, but simply glance at a few points. The Romans +used four different words to express these distinctions. When they spoke +of a wood with reference to its timber, they used the word _silva_; +_sal[Transcriber's note: remainder of word illegible]_, was a collection +of wild-wood in the mountains; _nemus_, a smaller collection, partaking +of cultivation, and answering to our ideas of a grove; _lucus_ was a +wood, of any description, which was set apart for religious purposes, +or dedicated to some Deity. In the English language we can make these +distinctions intelligible only by the use of adjectives. A _forest_ is +generally understood to be a wild-wood of considerable extent, retaining +all its natural features. A _grove_ is a smaller assemblage of trees, +not crowded together, but possessing very generally their full +proportions, and divested of their undergrowth. Other inferior groups +are designated as _copse_ and _thicket_. The words _park_, _clump_, +_arboretum_, and the like, are mere technical terms, that do not come +into use in a general description of Nature. + +Groves, fragments of forest, and inferior groups only are particularly +interesting in landscape. An unbroken forest of wide extent makes but +a dreary picture and an unattractive journey, on account of its gloomy +uniformity. Hence the primitive state of the earth, before it was +modified by human hands, must have been sadly wanting in those romantic +features that render a scene the most attractive. Nature must be +combined with Art, however simple and rude, and associated with human +life, to become deeply affecting to the imagination. But it is not +necessary that the artificial objects of a landscape should be of a +grand historical description, to produce these agreeable effects: humble +objects, indeed, are the most consonant with Nature's sublime aspects, +because they manifest no seeming endeavor to rival them. In the deep +solitary woods, the sight of a woodman's hut in a clearing, of a +farmer's cottage, or of a mere sheepfold, immediately awakens a tender +interest, and enlivens the scene with a tinge of romance. + +The earth must have been originally covered with forest, like the +American continent in the time of Columbus. This has in all cases +disappeared, as population has increased; and groves, fragments of +wild-wood, small groups, and single trees have taken its place. Great +Britain, once renowned for its extensive woods, now exhibits only +smaller assemblages, chiefly of an artificial character, which are more +interesting to the landscape-gardener than to the lover of Nature's +primitive charms. Parks, belts, arboretums, and clipped hedge-rows, +however useful as contributing to pleasure, convenience, or science, are +not the most interesting features of wood-scenery. But the customs of +the English nobility, while they have artificialized all the fairest +scenes in the country, and ruined them for the eyes of the poet or the +painter, have been the means of preserving some valuable forests, +which under other circumstances would have been utterly destroyed. +A deer-forest belonging to the Duke of Athol comprises four hundred +thousand acres; the forest of Farquharson contains one hundred and +thirty thousand acres; and several others of smaller extent are still +preserved as deer-parks. Thus do the luxuries of the rich tend, in +some instances, to preserve those natural objects of which they are in +general the principal destroyers. + +Immense forests still overspread a great part of Northern Russia, +through which it has been asserted that a squirrel might traverse +hundreds of miles, without touching the ground, by leaping from tree to +tree. Since the general adoption of railroad travelling, however, great +ravages have been made in these forests, and not many years will be +required to reduce them to fragments. In the South of Europe a great +part of the territory is barren of woods, and the climate has suffered +from this cause, which has diminished the bulk of the streams and +increased the severity of droughts. But Nature has established a partial +remedy for the evil arising from the imprudent destruction of forests, +in lofty and precipitous mountains, that serve not only to perpetuate +moisture for the supply of rain to the neighboring countries, but +contribute also to preserve the timber in their inaccessible ravines. +Were it not for this safeguard of mountains, the South of Europe would +ere this have become a desert, from the destruction of its forests, like +Sahara, whose barrenness was anciently produced by the same cause. + +Most of the territory of North America is still comparatively a +wilderness; but in the United States the forests have been so +extensively invaded, that they seldom exhibit any distinct outlines, and +few of them possess the character of unique assemblages. They are but +scattered fragments of the original forest, through which the settlers +have made their irregular progress from east to west, diversifying it +with roads, farms, and villages. The recent clearings are palisaded by +tall trees, exhibiting a naked outline of skeleton timber, without any +attractions. It is in the old States only that we see anything like a +picturesque grouping of woods; and here, the absence of art and design, +in the formation and relative disposition of these groups, gives them +a peculiar interest to the lover of natural scenery. There is a charm, +therefore, in New-England landscape, existing nowhere else in +equal degree; but this is rapidly giving place to those artificial +improvements that are destined to ruin the face of the country, which +owes its present attractions to the spontaneous efforts of Nature, +modified only by the unartistic operations of a simple agriculture. + +Travelling in a forest, though delightful as an occasional recreation, +is, when continued many hours in succession, unless one be engaged +in scientific researches, very monotonous and wearisome. Even the +productions of a forest are not so various as those of a tract in which +all the different conditions of wildness and culture are intermingled. A +view of an unbroken wilderness from an elevation is equally monotonous. +Wood must be blended with other forms of landscape, with pasture and +tillage, with roads, houses, and farms, to convey to the mind the +most agreeable sensations. The monotony of unbroken forest-scenery is +partially relieved in the autumn by the mixed variety of tints belonging +to the different trees; but this does not wholly subdue the prevailing +expression of dreariness and gloom. + +Nothing can surpass the splendor of this autumnal pageantry, as beheld +in the Green Mountains of Vermont and Western Massachusetts, in the +early part of October. This region abounds in Sugar-Maples, which are +very beautifully tinted, and in a sufficient variety of other trees to +delight the eye with every specious hue. A remarkable appearance may +always be observed in Maples. Some trees of this kind are entirely +green, with the exception perhaps of a single bough, which is of a +bright crimson or scarlet. Sometimes the lower half of the foliage will +be green, while the upper part is entirely crimsoned, resembling a spire +of flame rising out of a mass of verdure. In other cases this order is +reversed, and the tree presents the appearance of a green spire +rising out of flame. We see no end to the variety of these apparently +capricious phenomena, which some have explained by supposing the +colored branches to be affected with partial disease that hastens their +maturity: but this can hardly be admitted as the true explanation, +as such appearances exist when no other symptoms of malady can be +discovered. + +So much has been said and written of late in regard to the tints of +autumn leaves, that the writer of this cannot be expected to advance +anything new concerning them. Let me remark, however, that these +beautiful tintings are not due to the action of frost, which is, on +the contrary, highly prejudicial to them, as we may observe on several +different occasions. If, for example, a frost should occur in September +of sufficient intensity to cut down the tender annuals of our +gardens,--after this, when the tints begin to appear, the outer portion +of the foliage that was touched by the frost will exhibit a sullied and +rusty hue. The effects of these early frosts are seldom apparent while +the leaves are green, except on close inspection; for a very intense +frost is required to sear and roll up the leaves. Early autumnal frosts +seldom do more than to injure their capacity to receive a fine tint when +they become mature. + +The next occasion that renders the injurious effects of frost apparent +is later in the season, after the tints are very generally developed. +Every severe frost that happens at this period impairs their lustre, as +we may perceive on any day succeeding a frosty night, when the woods, +which were previously in their gayest splendor, will be faded to a +duller and more uniform shade,--as if the whole mass had been dipped +into a brownish dye, leaving the peculiar tints of each species dimly +conspicuous through this shading. The most brilliant and unsullied hues +are displayed in a cool, but not frosty autumn, succeeding a moderate +summer. Very warm weather in autumn hastens the coloring process, and +renders the hues proportionally transient. I have known Maple woods, +early in October, to be completely embrowned and stripped of their +leaves by two days of summer heat. Cool days and nights, unattended with +frost, are the favorable conditions for producing and preserving the +beauty of autumnal wood-scenery. + +The effects of heat and frost are not so apparent in Oak woods, which +have a more coriaceous and persistent foliage than other deciduous +trees: but Oaks do not attain the perfection of their beauty, until +the Ash, the Maple, and the Tupelo--the glory of the first period of +autumn--have shed a great portion of their leaves. The last-named trees +are in their splendor during a period of about three weeks after the +middle of September, varying with the character of the season. + +Oaks are not generally tinted until October, and are brightest near the +third week of this month, preserving their lustre, in great measure, +until the hard frosts of November destroy the leaves. The colors of the +different Oaks are neither so brilliant nor so variegated as those of +Maples; but they are more enduring, and serve more than those of any +other woods to give character to our autumnal landscapes. + +It would be difficult to convey to the mind of a person who had never +witnessed this brilliant, but solemn pageantry of the dying year, a +clear idea of its magnificence. Nothing else in Nature will compare +with it: for, though flowers are more beautiful than tinted leaves, no +assemblage of flowers, or of flowering trees and shrubs, can produce +such a deeply affecting scene of beauty as the autumn woods. If we would +behold them In their greatest brilliancy and variety, we must journey +during the first period of the Fall of the Leaf in those parts of the +country where the Maple, the Ash, and the Tupelo are the prevailing +timber. If we stand, at this time, on a moderate elevation affording a +view of a wooded swamp rising into upland and melting imperceptibly into +mountain landscape, we obtain a fair sight of the different assemblages +of species, as distinguished by their tints. The Oaks will be marked, at +this early period, chiefly by their unaltered verdure. In the lowland +the scarlet and crimson hues of the Maple and the Tupelo predominate, +mingled with a superb variety of colors from the shrubbery, whose +splendor is always the greatest on the borders of ponds and +water-courses, and frequently surpasses that of the trees. As the plain +rises into the hill-side, the Ash-trees may be distinguished by their +peculiar shades of salmon, mulberry, and purple, and the Hickories by +their invariable yellows. The Elm, the Lime, and the Buttonwood are +always blemished and rusty: they add no brilliancy to the spectacle, +serving only to sober and relieve other parts of the scenery. + +When the second period of the Fall of the Leaf has arrived, the woods +that were first tinted have mostly become leafless. The grouping of +different species is, therefore, very apparent at this time,--some +assemblages presenting the denuded appearance of winter, some remaining +still green, while the Oaks are the principal attraction, with an +intermixture of a few other species, whose foliage has been protected +and the development of their hues retarded by some peculiarity of +situation. Green rows of Willows may also be seen by road-sides in damp +places, and irregular groups of them near the water-courses. The foreign +trees--seldom found in woods--are still unchanged, as we may observe +wherever there is a row of European Elms, Weeping Willows, or a +hedge-row of Privet. + +One might suppose that a Pine wood must look particularly sombre in this +grand spectacle of beauty; but it cannot be denied that in those regions +where there is a considerable proportion of Pines the perfection of this +scenery is witnessed. Something is needful to relieve the eye as it +wanders over such a profusion of brilliant colors. Pine woods provide +this relief, and cause the tinted forest groups to stand out in greater +prominence. In many districts where Pines were the original growth, they +still constitute the larger sylvan assemblages, while the deciduous +trees stand in scattered groups on the edge of the forest, and the +contiguous plain. The verdurous Pine wood forms a picturesque groundwork +to set off the various groups in front of it; and the effect of a +scarlet Oak or Tupelo rising like a spire of flame in the midst of +verdure is far more striking than if it stood where it was unaffected by +contrast. + +The cause of the superior tinting of the American forest, compared with +that of Europe, has never been satisfactorily explained, though it +seems to be somewhat inexplicably connected with the brightness of the +American climate. It is a subject that has not engaged the attention of +scientific travellers, who seem to have regarded it as worthy only of +the describer of scenery. It may, however, deserve more attention as a +scientific fact than has been generally supposed,--particularly as one +of the phenomena that perhaps distinguish the productions of the eastern +from those of the western coasts of the two grand divisions of the +earth. I have observed that the Smoke-tree, which is a Sumach from +China, and the Cydonia Japonica, are as brightly colored in autumn as +any of our indigenous shrubs; while the Silver-Maple, which, though +indigenous in the Western States, probably originated on the western +coast of America, shows none of the fine tinting so remarkable in the +other American Maples. These facts have led me to conjecture that this +superior tinting of the autumnal foliage may be peculiar to the +eastern coasts both of the Old and the New Continent, in the northern +hemisphere. May not this phenomenon bear some relation to the colder +winters and the hotter summers of the eastern compared with the western +coasts? I offer this suggestion as a query, not as a theory, and +with the hope that it may induce travellers to make some particular +observations in reference to it. + +The indigenous trees of America, or rather of the Atlantic side of this +continent, are remarkable not only for their superior autumnal hues, +but also for the shorter period during which the foliage remains on the +trees and retains its verdure. Our fruit-trees, which are all exotics, +retain their foliage long after our forest-trees are leafless; and if +we visit an arboretum in the latter part of October, we may select the +American from the foreign species, by observing that the latter are +still green, while the others are either entirely denuded, or in that +colored array which immediately precedes the fall of the leaf. +The exotics may likewise be distinguished in the spring by their +precocity,--their leaves being out a week or ten days earlier than the +leaves of our trees. Hence, if we take both the spring and autumn into +the account, the foreign, or rather the European species, show a period +of verdure of three or four weeks' greater duration than the American +species. Many of the former, like the Weeping Willow, do not lose +their verdure, nor shed their leaves, until the first wintry blasts of +November freeze them upon their branches and roll them into a crisp. + +In a natural forest there is a very small proportion of perfectly formed +trees; and these occur only in such places as permit some individuals to +stand isolated from the rest, and to spread out their branches to their +full extent. When we walk in a forest, we observe several conditions +which are favorable to this full expansion of their forms. On the +borders of a pond or morass, or of an extensive quarry, the trees +extend their branches into the opening, but, as they are cramped on the +opposite side, they are only half developed. But this expansion takes +place on the side that is exposed to view: hence the incomparable beauty +of a wood on the borders of a pond, or on the banks of a river, as +viewed from the water; also of a wood on the outside of an islet in a +lake or river. + +Fissures or cavities sometimes occur in a large rock, allowing +a solitary tree that has become rooted there to attain its full +proportions. It is in such places, and on sudden eminences that rise +above the forest-level, on a precipice, for example, that overlooks the +surrounding wood, that the forest shows individual trees possessing the +characters of standards, like those we see by the roadsides and in the +open field. We must conclude, therefore, that a primitive forest must +contain but a very small proportion of perfect trees: these are, for +the most part, the occupants of land cleared by cultivation, and may be +found also among the sparse growth of timber that has come up in pasture +land, where the constant browsing of cattle prevents the formation of +any dense assemblages. + +In the opinion of Whately, grandeur is the prevailing character of a +forest, and beauty that of a grove. This distinction may seem to +be correct, when such collections of wood exhibit all their proper +characters: but perfectly unique forms of wood are seldom found in this +country, where almost all the timber is of spontaneous growth. We have +genuine forests; but other forms of wood are of a mixed character, and +we have rather fragments of forest than legitimate groves. In the South +of Europe many of the woods are mere plantations, in which the trees +were first set in rows, with straight avenues, or vistas, passing +directly through them from different points. In an assemblage of this +kind there can be nothing of that interesting variety observed in a +natural forest, and which is manifestly wanting even in woods planted +with direct reference to the attainment of these natural appearances. +"It is curious to see," as Gilpin remarks, "with what richness of +invention, if I may so speak, Nature mixes and intermixes her trees, and +shapes them into such a wonderful variety of groups and beautiful forms. +Art may admire and attempt to plant and to form combinations like hers; +but whoever observes the wild combinations of a forest and compares them +with the attempts of Art has little taste, if he do not acknowledge with +astonishment the superiority of Nature's workmanship." + +When a tract is covered with a dense growth of tall trees, especially of +Pines, which have but little underbrush, the wood represents overhead a +vast canopy of verdure supported by innumerable lofty pillars. No one +could enter these dark solitudes without feeling a deep impression of +sublimity, especially if it be an hour of general stillness of the +winds. The voices of animals and of birds, particularly the hammering +of the woodpecker, serve to magnify our perceptions of grandeur. A very +slight sound, during a calm in one of these deep woods, like the +ticking of a clock in a vast hall, has a distinctness almost startling, +especially if there be but little undergrowth. These feeble sounds +afford one a more vivid sense of the magnitude of the place than louder +sounds, that differ less from those we hear in the open plain. The +canopy of foliage overhead and the absence of undergrowth are favorable +to those reverberations which are so perceptible in a Pine wood. + +In a grove we experience different sensations. Here pleasantness and +cheerfulness are combined, and the feeling of grandeur is excited only +perhaps by the sight of some noble tree. In a grove the trees are +generally well formed, many of them being nearly perfect in their +proportions. Their shadows are cast separately upon the ground, which is +green beneath them as in an orchard. If we look upon them from a near +eminence, we observe a variety of outlines, and may identify the +different species by their shape, while in the forest we see one +unbroken mass of foliage. A wild-wood is frequently converted into a +grove by clearing it of undergrowth and leaving the space a grassy lawn. +It may then yield us shade, coolness, and other agreeable sensations of +a cultivated wood, but the individual trees always retain their gaunt +and imperfect shapes. + +The greater part of the woodland of this country partakes of the +characters of both forest and grove, exhibiting a pleasant admixture of +each, combined with pasture and thicket. In Great Britain the woods are +chiefly groves and parks: a wild-wood of spontaneous growth is now rare +in that country, once renowned for the extent and beauty of its forests. +Most of our American woods are fragments of forest, particularly in +the Western States, where they stand out prominently, and deform +the landscape by presenting a perpendicular front of naked pillars, +unrelieved by any foliage. They remind one of those houses, in the city, +which have been cut asunder to widen a street, leaving the interior +rooms and partition-walls exposed to view. These sections of wood are +the grand picturesque deformity of a country lately cleared. In the +older settlements, a recent growth of wood has in many instances come +up outside of these palisades, serving in a measure to conceal their +baldness. + +The most lovely appearances in landscape are caused by the spontaneous +growth of miscellaneous trees, some in dense assemblages and some in +scattered groups, with here and there a few single trees standing in +open space. Such is the scenery of considerable portions of the Atlantic +States, both North and South. These varied assemblages of wood and +shrubbery are the characteristic features of the landscape in the +older villages of New England, and indeed of all the States that were +established before the Revolution. But the New-England system of +farming--so much abhorred by those who wish to bring agriculture to +such a state of improvement as shall make it profitable exclusively +to capitalists--has been more favorable to the sylvan beauty of the +landscape than that of any other part of the continent. At the South, +especially, where agriculture is carried on in large plantations, we see +wide fields of tillage, and forest groups of corresponding size. But the +small and independent farming of New England--as favorable to general +happiness as it is to beautiful scenery--has produced a charming variety +of wood, pasture, and tillage, so agreeably intermixed that one is never +weary of looking upon it. The varied surface of the landscape, in the +uneven parts which are not mountainous, has increased these advantages, +producing an endless multitude of those limited views which may be +termed picturesque. + +In no other part of the country are the minor inequalities of surface so +frequent as in New England: I allude to that sort of ruggedness which is +unfavorable to any "mammoth" system of agriculture, and plainly evinces +that Nature and Providence have designed this part of the country for +free and independent labor. Here little meadows, of a few acres in +extent, are common, encircled by green pasture hills or by wood. A +rolling surface is more favorable to grandeur of scenery; but nothing +is more beautiful than landscape formed by hills rising suddenly out of +perfect levels. As it is not my present purpose to treat of landscape in +general, I will simply remark that the barrenness of a great part of the +soil of the Eastern States is favorable to picturesque scenery. This may +seem a paradoxical assertion to those who can see no beauty except +in universal fatness; but unvaried luxuriance is fatal to variety of +scenes, though it undoubtedly encourages the development of individual +growth. An agreeable intermixture of various sylvan assemblages is one +of the effects of a barren soil, containing numerous fertile tracts. +Not having in general sufficient strength to produce timber, it covers +itself with diverse groups of vegetation, corresponding with the +varieties of soil and surface. Thus, in a certain degree, we are obliged +to confess that beauty springs out of Nature's deficiencies. + +We live in a latitude and upon a soil, therefore, which are favorable +to the harmonious grouping of vegetation. As we proceed southward, we +witness a constant increase of the number of species gathered together +in a single group. Nature is more addicted at the North to the habit of +classifying her productions and of assembling them in uniform phalanxes. +The painter, on this account, finds more to interest the eye and to +employ his pencil in the picturesque regions of frost and snow; while +the botanist finds more to exercise his observation in the crowded +variety that marks the region of perpetual summer. + +But while vegetation is more generally social in high latitudes, several +families of Northern trees are entirely wanting in this quality. Seldom +is a forest composed chiefly of Elms, Locusts, or Willows. Oaks and +Birches are associated in forests, Elms in groves, and Willows in small +groups following the courses of streams. Those Northern trees which are +most eminently social, including the two just named, are the Beech, the +Maple, the Hickory, the coniferous trees, and some others; and by the +predominance of any one kind the character of the soil may be partially +determined. There is no tree that grows so abundantly in miry land, +both North and South upon this continent, as the Red Maple. It occupies +immense tracts of morass in the Middle States, and is the last tree +which is found in swamps, according to Michaux, as the Birch is the last +we meet in ascending mountains. The Sugar-Maple is confined mostly to +the Northeastern parts of the continent. Poplars are not generally +associated exclusively in forests; but at the point where the Ohio +and the Mississippi mingle their waters are grand forests of Deltoid +Poplars, that stamp upon the features of that region a very peculiar +physiognomy. + +The characteristics of different woods, composed chiefly of one family +of trees, would make an interesting study; but it would be tiresome +to enter minutely into their details. Some are distinguished by a +superfluity, others by a deficiency of undergrowth. In general, Pine and +Fir woods are of the latter description, differing in this respect +from deciduous woods. These differences are most apparent in large +assemblages of wood, which have a flora as well as a fauna of their own. +The same shrubs and herbaceous plants, for example, are not common to +Oak and to Pine woods. There is a difference also in the cleanness and +beauty of their stems. The gnarled habit of the Oak is conspicuous +even in the most crowded forest, and coniferous woods are apt to be +disfigured by dead branches projecting from the bole. The Birch, the +Poplar, and the Beech are remarkable for the straightness, evenness, and +beauty of their shafts, when assembled in a dense wood. + +Some of the most beautiful forests in high latitudes consist of White +Canoe-Birches. We see them in Massachusetts only in occasional groups, +but farther north, upon river-banks, they form woods of considerable +extent and remarkable beauty; and with their tall shafts, and their +smooth white bark, resembling pillars of marble, supporting a canopy of +bright green foliage, on a light feathery spray, they constitute one of +the picturesque attractions of a Northern tour. Nature seems to indicate +the native habitat of this noble tree by causing its exterior to bear +the whiteness of snow, and it would be difficult to estimate its +importance to the aboriginal inhabitants of Northern latitudes. Yellow +Birch woods are not inferior in their attractions: individual trees +of this species are often distinguished among other forest timber by +extending their feathery summits above the level of the other trees. + +The small White Birch is never assembled in large forest groups. Like +the Alder, it seems to be employed by Nature for the shading of her +living pictures, and for producing those gradations which are the charm +of spontaneous wood-scenery. In this part of the continent, a Pitch-Pine +wood is commonly fringed with White Birches, and outside of these with +a lower growth of Hazels, Cornels, and Vacciniums, uniting them +imperceptibly with the herbage of the plain. The importance of this +native embroidery is not sufficiently considered by those industrious +plodders who are constantly destroying wayside shrubbery, as if it were +the pest of the farm,--nor by those "improvers," on the other hand, who +wage an eternal warfare against little spontaneous groups of wood, as +if they thought everything outside of the forest an intruder, if it was +planted by accident, and had not cost money before it was placed there. +Give me an old farm, with its stone-walls draped with Poison-Ivy and +Glycine, and verdurous with a mixed array of Viburnums, Hazels, and +other wild shrubbery, harboring thousands of useful birds, and smiling +over the abundant harvests which they surround, before the finest +artistical landscape in the world! + +Pines are remarkably social in their habit, and cover immense tracts in +high latitudes, extending southward, on this continent, as far as the +very boundary of the tropics, where they are found side by side with the +Dwarf Palm of Florida. But in the region of the true Palms the Pine is +wanting. It is worthy of remark, however, that in the fossil vegetation +of the Eocene world these two vegetable tribes are found associated. +This fact, it seems to me, should be attributed to the mixing of the +mountain Pines with the Palms of the sea-level, during that revulsion of +Nature by which they were hurled into the same chaotic heap. We are not +obliged to infer from their contiguity in these geological remains, that +the two species ever flourished together in the same region. + +Pine woods possess attractions of a peculiar kind: all lovers of Nature +are enraptured with them, and there is a grandeur about them which is +felt at once, when we enter them. Their dark verdure, their deep shade, +their lofty height, and their branches which are ever mysteriously +murmuring, as they are swayed by the wind, render them singularly solemn +and sublime. This expression is increased by the hollow reverberating +interior of the wood, caused by its clearness and freedom from +underbrush. The ground beneath is covered by a matting of fallen leaves, +making a smooth brown carpet, that renders a walk within its precincts +as comfortable as in a garden. The foliage of the Pine is so hard and +durable that in summer we always find the last autumn's crop lying upon +the ground in a state of perfect soundness, and under it that of the +preceding year only partially decayed. The foliage of two summers, +therefore, lies upon the surface, checking the growth of humble +vegetation, and permitting only certain species of plants to flourish +with vigor. + +Mushrooms of various forms and sizes spring out of these decayed leaves, +often rivalling the flowers in elegance. Monotropas, uniting some of +the habits of the Fungi with the botanical characters of the flowering +plants, flourish side by side with the snowy Cypripedium and the +singular Coral-Weed. The evergreen Dewberry, a delicate species of +Rubus, trails its glossy leaves over the turfs, and mingles its beaded +fruit with the scarlet berries of the Mitchella. The Pyrola, named +by the Indians Pipsissewa, and regarded by them as a specific for +consumption, suspends its pale purple flowers in beautiful umbels, as if +to invite the feeble invalid to accept its proffered remedies. Variety, +indeed, may be found in these deep shades; but it exists without +that profusion which in more favored situations often benumbs our +susceptibility to the charms of Nature. + +The edging of a Pine wood depends on the character of the soil. The +Pitch-Pine, that delights in sandy plains, is embroidered at the North +by White Birches; and if a road be cut through a wood of this kind, +these graceful trees immediately spring up in abundance by the wayside. +If a pond occurs in the middle of a Pine wood, its margin is covered +first with low bushes, such as the Andromeda, the Myrica, and the +sweet-scented Azalea, then Alders and Willows rise between them and the +forest. On the side of the pond that is bounded by high gravelly banks, +the margin will be covered by Poplars and Birches. The White Pine, the +most noble and the most beautiful tree of the whole coniferous tribe, +predominates in the New-England forest; though some wide tracts are +covered with the more homely Pitch-Pines, which are the trees that scent +the atmosphere on damp still days with their delightful terebinthine +odors. The woods in the vicinity of Concord, N.H., on the banks of the +Merrimack, known by the poetic appellation of "The Dark Plains", are +of this description. In still higher latitudes the dark, majestic Firs +become the prevailing timber, and are regarded as typical of sub-arctic +regions, where they are accompanied, as if to form a striking and +cheerful contrast with their melancholy grandeur, by groups of graceful +Birches, and lively, tremulous Poplars. + +The Pine-Barrens of the Southern States are celebrated as healthful +retreats for the inhabitants of seaport towns, whither they resort in +summer for security from the prevailing fevers. They are of a mixed +character, consisting of the Northern Pitch-Pine, the Broom-Pine, and +the Cypress, intermixed with Red Maples, Sweet Gums, and other deciduous +trees. The Pines, however, are the dominant growth: but here they do not +grow so compactly as in colder regions, standing widely apart, with a +frequent intervening growth of Willows and shrubbery. The sparseness of +these woods may be in part attributed to the practice of tapping the +trees for their turpentine, which has caused them for a century past to +be gradually thinned by consequent decay. Their tall, gaunt forms and +almost branchless trunks show that they obtained their principal growth +in a dense wood. + +The first time I entered one of these Pine-Barrens was some years since, +in the month of June, when vegetation was in its prime, before the +summer droughts had seared the green herbage, and when the flowering +trees and shrubs were in all their glory. During my botanical rambles in +the wood, I was struck with the multitude of beautiful flowers in its +shady retreats,--seeming the more numerous to me, as I had previously +confined my researches to Northern woods. The Phlox grew here in all its +native grace and delicacy, where it had never known the fostering hand +of Art. Crimson Rhexias, called by the inhabitants Deer-Weed, were +distributed among the grassy knolls, like clusters of Picotees. +Variegated Passion-Flowers were conspicuous on the bare white sand that +checkered the ground, displaying their emblematic forms on their low +repent vines, and reminding the wanderer in these almost trackless +solitudes of that Faith which was founded on humility and crowned with +martyrdom. Here, too, the Spiderwort of our gardens, in a meeker form of +beauty and with a paler radiance, luxuriated under the protection of the +wood. Already I observed the predominance of luxuriant vines, indicating +our nearness to the tropic, wreathed gayly over the tall and branchless +trunks of the trees: some, like the Bignonia, in a full blaze of +crimson; others, like the Climbing Fern, draping the trees in continual +verdure. + +These Pines constitute a great part of the timber of the flat country +between the mountains and the coast, and render a journey through +that region singularly monotonous and gloomy. In the low grounds, a +considerable proportion of the wood consists of the Southern Cypress, a +graceful and magnificent tree, whose appearance would be very lively +and cheerful, were it not for the abundance of long trailing "moss" +(_usnea_) that hangs, like funereal drapery, from its branches, and +darkens the whole forest. This parasitic appendant wreathes the woods +sometimes almost in darkness, especially in those immense tracts on the +borders of the Mexican Gulf that consist entirely of Cypress. There it +has been poetically styled the "Garlands of Death," as significant of +the fevers that prevail wherever it is abundant. + +It is remarkable that the two extremes of climate are distinguished +by the predominance of evergreens in their vegetation. Thus, the +acicular-leaved trees, consisting of Pines and their congeners, mark the +cold-temperate and sub-arctic zones, in north latitude,--while Myrtles, +Magnolias, and other broad-leaved evergreens, mark the equatorial and +tropical regions. The deciduous trees belong properly to the temperate +zones, and constitute, indeed, the most interesting of all arborescent +vegetation. + +With regard to the age of forests, it may be affirmed that there are +some undoubtedly in existence which are coeval with the earliest history +of nations; but no individual trees are of such antiquity. Like nations, +the assemblage may be perpetual, while the members that compose it are +constantly perishing, and leaving their places to be supplied by others +of more recent origin. Probably the earth does not contain forests in +which any tree exceeds a thousand years of age, though the oldest forest +extant may be as ancient as the Chinese Empire; for the oldest trees +are not found in dense assemblages, but are probably such as have grown +singly in isolated situations. As soon as a tree in a forest begins to +feel the infirmities of age, its place is usurped by some young and more +vigorous neighbor, and it is gradually deprived of subsistence in this +unequal contest. The tempests and tornadoes, it may be added, which +occasionally sweep over a country, commonly make the oldest and tallest +trees their victims; for events seem to follow the same course in a +forest as in human society. The most vigorous growers at any period +continue to flourish a certain length of time at the expense of others; +but when they have risen above the common level, they become marks for +destruction,--they fall before certain inimical forces that do not reach +their more humble companions. + +It was the opinion of Humboldt, that, if any tract of wooded country +deserves to be considered a part of the great "primeval forest", it is +"that boundless district which, in the torrid zone of South America, +connects the river-basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco." This tract, +unequalled in extent by any other forest in the world, occupies an area +of more than a thousand miles square. In this vast chaos of teeming +vegetation, trees of the largest dimensions are connected by an +undergrowth of vines and shrubbery which is almost impenetrable. Immense +rivers and their tributaries intersect the forest in all directions, and +constitute the only avenues of commercial intercourse. This impervious +thicket is like a huge wall, separating near neighbors, rendering them, +as it were, inhabitants of distant regions, and obliging them to make +long and circuitous river journeys before they can hold communication. + +Here the leaves of the trees are always green, and flowers appear in +constant succession; but the surface of the ground is without herbage, +for the darkness of the wood is fatal to all humble vegetation. The +small plants are mostly parasites, thousands inserting their roots into +the bark of trees and garlanding them with beauty. Those that take root +in the ground show but few leaves or flowers, until they have clambered +upwards, through the underwood, into the light of heaven. Almost the +only relief afforded the sight, in this vast solitude, comes from the +rivers and other collections of water, over whose expanse the eye revels +with the delight we feel on emerging from the gloom of a cavern. Every +object seems to be struggling to get outside of this chaotic growth, +where it can obtain the genial influence of the sun: for near the +surface of the ground are perpetual shade and hideous entanglement. + +In this primeval forest we must not expect to realize any of our +poetical ideas of the primitive residence of the first human family. +Here are no Arcadian scenes of peace and rural felicity. On all sides we +behold an undying competition for light and life, among both plants +and animals. We are reminded here of life in a crowded city, where +the excessive abundance of supplies for human wants imported from the +surrounding country causes a still greater superfluity of population, +and produces a struggle for a livelihood more severe than in a rural +district of gravel and boulders. The oases of this great wilderness are +those places in which there is an absence of the general fertility: +barrenness in such circumstances is a relief,--because it allows both +freedom and repose. + +This wood is the nursery of all descriptions of monsters, living chiefly +in trees. On their branches and in their tangled recesses, adorned with +all sorts of foliage and flowers, creatures the most terrible and the +most loathsome are seen crowding and crouching in close proximity to +the most beautiful forms of living things. They fill the air with their +discordant utterances, and allow no permanent silence or tranquillity. +Hours of periodical stillness and repose, occurring mostly at noonday, +and affecting one with a sensation of awful grandeur, by contrast with +the preceding disturbances, are followed, especially in the night, by a +tumultuous roar from the legions of contending animals. + + "A universal hubbub wild + Of stunning sounds and voices all confused, + Borne through the hollow dark, assaults the ear + With loudest vehemence." + +Even the notes of insects are a deafening crash, like the rattling of +machinery in a cotton-mill. Except in the hush of noonday, the notes of +singing-birds are drowned amidst the howling of monkeys, the whining of +sapajous, the roar of the jaguar, and the dismal hooting of thousands +of wild animals that riot in these awful solitudes. The sight of the +fairest flowers and the most beautiful insects and birds only renders +one more keenly sensitive to the frightful discords that startle and the +perils that surround him. + +Similar contrasts are observed in the vegetation of this region, where +the giant trees of the forest are chained in the embraces of vines that +contend with them for existence and finally strangle them. Trees and +other plants are crowded together so promiscuously, that Nature seems to +be striving to collect into one space every possible variety of species. +Trees of the most poisonous and deadly qualities grow side by side with +the Bread-Fruit, the Cocoa-Nut, and the beneficent Cinchona. Here +are the poison and its antidote,--the monster tree and its miniature +epiphyte,--the plant that astonishes by its magnitude, and the one that +delights us by its minuteness. Here, if anywhere on the face of the +earth, may we form some conception of the state of our planet during the +Eocene period, before the world had come under the dominion of the human +race. + +But if Nature in this region has manifested an exuberance of animal and +vegetable life, thereby rendering her bounties almost unavailable to +man, there are other parts in which she seems to have provided for his +particular benefit. In these favored regions, we find the Banana, the +Cocoa, and the Date Palm, and other special gifts of Providence to the +inhabitants of the equator. Palms are generally found only in small +groups and plantations, but there are certain species of this family +which are associated in extensive woods, and constitute, in some +respects, one of the most charming descriptions of forest-scenery. The +Dwarf Palms of the sub-tropical regions are chiefly assembled in masses, +of which the Palmetto of Florida and the Chaemerops of the South of +Europe are conspicuous examples. The true Palms are likewise sometimes +associated in forests, though not generally of a social habit. In one +of the most celebrated of these, at the mouth of the Orinoco, composed +chiefly of the Mauritian Palms, the wild Guaranos have established a +national existence. Like monkeys, they live almost wholly in trees, +having their habitations supported either by wooden pillars or by a +matting suspended from tree to tree. In the wet season, when the ground +is inundated, the inhabitants travel about their village in canoes. + +The beauty of a grove of Palms has been a favorite theme of travellers. +Humboldt, who saw Nature with the eye of a painter and the feelings of +a poet, amidst all the dry details of science, regards them as the most +beautiful of vegetable productions. It has always seemed to me, however, +that travellers in general have been led to exaggerate the charms of +Nature in the tropics, by observing the remarkable beauty of a few +individual objects. Their susceptibility to be affected by the scenes +presented to their view is likewise exalted by the confinement of their +voyage; they are enraptured with the novelty of everything about them, +by the voluptuousness of the climate and the abundance of delicious +fruits, and always afterwards recur to the scenes of their tropical +visit with an excited imagination. + +In countries near the equator, many plants which are herbs in our +latitude assume arborescent forms. Such are the Tree-Grasses, which form +impenetrable forests, equalling some of the Fir woods of the North in +extent, if not in beauty and grandeur. In this part of the world we know +the Ferns only as a low herbaceous tribe of plants, consisting of mere +fronds rising out of the ground. We admire them for their beautifully +compounded leaves, and their colors of red, orange, and russet that +variegate our meadows in June, their garlands of verdure upon the rocky +hills in winter, and the profusion of their frondage in the shady glens +in summer. But in certain parts of the equatorial zone the Ferns put +off the humble guise in which they appear at the North. They no longer +associate with the lowly Violet, allowing themselves to be crowded by +the Hellebore and overtopped by the Meadow Rue; but they rear their +branches aloft and assume the dignity and stature of trees. Man, who +looks down upon them in our own latitude, and tramples them under +his feet, looks in that region far above his head, and beholds their +magnificent fronds spread out like a great tent between him and the +heavens. + +Tree-Ferns, though confined principally to the equatorial zone, are +unable to endure the heat of the plains. They occupy an elevation that +affords them the continual temperature of spring, three thousand feet +above the sea,--the region of the lowest stratum of clouds,--where they +receive the benefit of their moisture before it descends to the earth +in showers. Humboldt ranks them with the noblest forms of tropical +vegetation,--less lofty than the Palms, but surpassing them in beauty of +foliage. The arborescent Ferns and Grasses are true specimens of those +plants, of simple organic structure, which are found in the fossil +remains of the early geological periods, and are the only plants now +extant which may be considered the representatives of that epoch, when +the saurians and the mastodons held dominion over the earth, and before +the Angel of Light had descended from heaven to make preparation for a +higher race of beings. + + * * * * * + + +MISS LUCINDA. + + +But that Solomon is out of fashion I should quote him, here and now, to +the effect that there is a time for all things; but Solomon is obsolete, +and never, no, never, will I dare to quote a dead language, "for raisons +I have," as the exiles of Erin say. Yet, in spite of Solomon and Horace, +I may express my own less concise opinion, that even in hard times, and +dull times, and war times, there is yet a little time to laugh, a brief +hour to smile and love and pity, just as through this dreary easterly +storm, bringing clouds and rain, sobbing against casement and door with +the inarticulate wail of tempests, there comes now and then the soft +shine of a sun behind it all, a fleeting glitter, an evanescent aspect +of what has been. + +But if I apologize for a story that is nowise tragic, nor fitted to "the +fashion of these times," possibly somebody will say at its end that I +should also have apologized for its subject, since it is as easy for an +author to treat his readers to high themes as vulgar ones, and velvet +can be thrown into a portrait as cheaply as calico; but of this apology +I wash my hands. I believe nothing in place or circumstance makes +romance. I have the same quick sympathy for Biddy's sorrows with Patrick +that I have for the Empress of France and her august, but rather grim +lord and master. I think words are often no harder to bear than "a blue +bating," and I have a reverence for poor old maids as great as for the +nine Muses. Commonplace people are only commonplace from character, and +no position affects that. So forgive me once more, patient reader, if I +offer to you no tragedy in high life, no sentimental history of fashion +and wealth, but only a little story about a woman who could not be a +heroine. + +Miss Lucinda Jane Ann Manners was a lady of unknown age, who lived in a +place I call Dalton, in a State of these Disuniting States, which I +do not mention for good cause. I have already had so many unconscious +personalities visited on my devoted head that but for lucidity I should +never mention persons or places, inconvenient as it would be. However, +Miss Lucinda did live, and lived by the aid of "means," which, in the +vernacular, is money. Not a great deal, it is true,--five thousand +dollars at lawful interest, and a little wooden house, do not imply many +luxuries even to a single-woman; and it is also true that a little fine +sewing taken in helped Miss Manners to provide herself with a few +small indulgences otherwise beyond her reach. She had one or two +idiosyncrasies, as they are politely called, that were her delight. +Plenty of dish-towels were necessary to her peace of mind; without five +pair of scissors she could not be happy; and Tricopherous was essential +to her well-being: indeed, she often said she would rather give up +coffee than Tricopherous, for her hair was black and wiry and curly, and +caps she abhorred, so that of a winter's day her head presented the most +irrelevant and volatile aspect, each particular hair taking a twist on +its own responsibility, and improvising a wild halo about her unsaintly +face, unless subdued into propriety by the aforesaid fluid. + +I said Miss Lucinda's face was unsaintly,--I mean unlike ancient saints +as depicted by contemporary artists: modern and private saints are after +another fashion. I met one yesterday, whose green eyes, great nose, +thick lips, and sallow wrinkles, under a bonnet of fifteen years' +standing, further clothed upon by a scant merino cloak and cat-skin +tippet, would have cut a sorry figure in the gallery of the Vatican or +the Louvre, and put the tranquil Madonna of San Sisto into a state of +stunning antithesis; but if Saint Agnes or Saint Catharine was half as +good as my saint, I am glad of it! + +No, there was nothing sublime and dolorous about Miss Manners; her face +was round, cheery, and slightly puckered, with two little black eyes +sparking and shining under dark brows, a nose she unblushingly called +pug, and a big mouth with eminently white and regular teeth, which she +said were such a comfort, for they never ached, and never would to the +end of time. Add to this physiognomy a small and rather spare figure, +dressed in the cleanest of calicoes, always made in one style, and +rigidly scorning hoops,--without a symptom of a collar, in whose place +(or it may be over which) she wore a white cambric handkerchief, knotted +about her throat, and the two ends brought into subjection by means of +a little angular-headed gold pin, her sole ornament, and a relic of her +old father's days of widowhood, when buttons were precarious tenures. So +much for her aspect. Her character was even more quaint. + +She was the daughter of a clergyman, one of the old school, the last +whose breeches and knee-buckles adorned the profession, who never +"outlived his usefulness," nor lost his godly simplicity. Parson Manners +held rule over an obscure and quiet village in the wilds of Vermont, +where hard-handed farmers wrestled with rocks and forests for their +daily bread, and looked forward to heaven as a land of green pastures +and still waters, where agriculture should be a pastime, and winter +impossible. Heavy freshets from the mountains that swelled their rushing +brooks into annual torrents, and snow-drifts that covered five-rail +fences a foot above the posts and blocked up the turnpike-road for +weeks, caused this congregation fully to appreciate Parson Manners's +favorite hymns,-- + + "There is a land of pure delight," + +and + + "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand." + +Indeed, one irreverent, but "pretty smart feller," who lived on the top +of a hill known as Drift Hill, where certain adventurous farmers dwelt +for the sake of its smooth sheep-pastures, was heard to say, after a +mighty sermon by Parson Manners about the seven-times heated furnaces +of judgment reserved for the wicked, that "Parson hadn't better try to +skeer Drift-Hillers with a hot place; 't wouldn't more 'n jest warm 'em +through down there, arter a real snappin' winter." + +In this out-of-the-way nook was Lucinda Jane Ann born and bred. Her +mother was like her in many things,--just such a cheery, round-faced +little body, but with no more mind than found ample scope for itself in +superintending the affairs of house and farm, and vigorously "seeing to" +her husband and child. So, while Mrs. Manners baked, and washed, and +ironed, and sewed, and knit, and set the sweetest example of quiet +goodness and industry to all her flock, without knowing she _could_ set +an example, or be followed as one, the Parson amused himself, between +sermons of powerful doctrine and parochial duties of a more human +interest, with educating Lucinda, whose intellect was more like his +own than her mother's. A strange training it was for a young +girl,--mathematics, metaphysics, Latin, theology of the driest sort; +and after an utter failure at Greek and Hebrew, though she had toiled +patiently through seven books of the "Aeneid," Parson Manners mildly +sniffed at the inferiority of the female mind, and betook himself to +teaching her French, which she learned rapidly, and spoke with a pure +American accent, perhaps as pleasing to a Parisian ear as the hiss of +Piedmont or the gutturals of Switzerland. Moreover, the minister had +been brought up, himself, in the most scrupulous refinement of manner; +his mother was a widow, the last of an "old family," and her dainty, +delicate observances were inbred, as it were, in her only son. This sort +of elegance is perhaps the most delicate test of training and descent, +and all these things Lucinda was taught from the grateful recollection +of a son who never forgot his mother, through all the solitary labors +and studies of a long life. So it came to pass, that, after her mother +died, Lucinda grew more and more like her father, and, as she became a +woman, these rare refinements separated her more and more from those +about her, and made her necessarily solitary. As for marriage, the +possibility of such a thing never crossed her mind; there was not a man +in the parish who did not offend her sense of propriety and shock her +taste, whenever she met one; and though her warm, kind heart made her a +blessing to the poor and sick, her mother was yet bitterly regretted at +quiltings and tea-drinkings, where she had been so "sociable-like." + +It is rather unfortunate for such a position as Lucinda's, that, as +Deacon Stowell one day remarked to her father, "Natur' will be Natur' as +much on Drift Hill as down to Bosting"; and when she began to feel that +"strong necessity of loving" that sooner or later assails every woman's +heart, there was nothing for it to overflow on, when her father had +taken his share. Now Lucinda loved the Parson most devoutly. Ever since +the time when she could just remember watching through the dusk his +white stockings, as they glimmered across the road to evening-meeting, +and looked like a supernatural pair of legs taking a walk on their own +responsibility, twilight concealing the black breeches and coat from +mortal view, Lucinda had regarded her father with a certain pleasing +awe. His long abstractions, his profound knowledge, his grave, benign +manners, and the thousand daily refinements of speech and act that +seemed to put him far above the sphere of his pastorate,--all these +things inspired as much reverence as affection; and when she wished with +all her heart and soul she had a sister or a brother to tend and +kiss and pet, it never once occurred to her that any of those tender +familiarities could be expended on her father: she would as soon have +thought of caressing any of the goodly angels whose stout legs, flowing +curls, and impossible draperies sprawled among the pictures in the big +Bible, and who excited her wonder as much by their garments as their +turkey-wings and brandishing arms. So she betook herself to pets, and +growing up to the old-maidenhood of thirty-five before her father fell +asleep, was by that time the centre of a little world of her own,--hens, +chickens, squirrels, cats, dogs, lambs, and sundry transient guests of +stranger kind; so that, when she left her old home, and removed to the +little house in Dalton that had been left her by her mother's aunt, and +had found her small property safely invested by means of an old friend +of her father's, Miss Manners made one more journey to Vermont to bring +in safety to their future dwelling a cat and three kittens, an old blind +crow, a yellow dog of the true cur breed, and a rooster with three hens, +"real creepers," as she often said, "none of your long-legged, screaming +creatures." + +Lucinda missed her father, and mourned him as constantly and faithfully +as ever a daughter could; but her temperament was more cheerful and +buoyant than his, and when once she was quietly settled in her little +house, her garden and her pets gave her such full occupation that she +sometimes blamed herself for not feeling more lonely and unhappy. A +little longer life or a little more experience would have taught her +better: power to be happy is the last thing to regret. Besides, it would +have been hard to be cheerless in that sunny little house, with its +queer old furniture of three-legged tables, high-backed chairs, and +chintz curtains where red mandarins winked at blue pagodas on a +deep-yellow ground, and birds of insane ornithology pecked at insects +that never could have been hatched, or perched themselves on blossoms +totally unknown to any mortal flora. Old engravings of Bartolozzi, from +the stiff elegances of Angelica Kaufman and the mythologies of Reynolds, +adorned the shelf; and the carpet in the parlor was of veritable English +make, older than Lucinda herself, but as bright in its fading and as +firm in its usefulness as she. Up-stairs the tiny chambers were decked +with spotless white dimity, and rush-bottomed chairs stood in each +window, with a strip of the same old carpet by either bedside; and in +the kitchen the blue settle that had stood by the Vermont fireside now +defended this lesser hearth from the draught of the door, and held under +the seat thereof sundry ironing-sheets, the blanket belonging to them, +and good store of ticking and worsted holders. A half-gone set of +egg-shell china stood in the parlor-closet,--cups, and teapot, and +sugar-bowl, rimmed with brown and gold in a square pattern, and a shield +without blazon on the side; the quaint tea-caddy with its stopper stood +over against the pursy little cream-pot, and held up in its lumps of +sparkling sugar the oddest sugar-tongs, also a family relic;--beside +this, six small spoons, three large ones, and a little silver porringer +comprised all the "plate" belonging to Miss Manners, so that no fear of +burglars haunted her, and but for her pets she would have lived a life +of profound and monotonous tranquillity. But this was a vast exception; +in her life her pets were the great item now;--her cat had its own chair +in the parlor and kitchen; her dog, a rug and a basket never to be +meddled with by man or beast; her old crow, its special nest of flannel +and cotton, where it feebly croaked as soon as Miss Lucinda began to +spread the little table for her meals; and the three kittens had their +own playthings and their own saucer as punctiliously as if they had been +children. In fact, Miss Manners had a greater share of kindness +for beasts than for mankind. A strange compound of learning and +unworldliness, of queer simplicity, native penetration, and common +sense, she had read enough books to despise human nature as it develops +itself in history and theology, and she had not known enough people to +love it in its personal development. She had a general idea that all men +were liars, and that she must be on her guard against their propensity +to cheat and annoy a lonely and helpless woman; for, to tell the truth, +in her good father's over-anxiety to defend her from the snares of evil +men after his death, his teachings had given her opinion this bias, and +he had forgotten to tell her how kindly and how true he had found many +of his own parishioners, how few inclined to harm or pain him. So Miss +Lucinda made her entrance into life at Dalton, distrustful, but not +suspicious; and after a few attempts on the part of the women who +were her neighbors to be friendly or intimate, they gave her up as +impracticable: not because she was impolite or unkind: they did not +themselves know why they failed, though she could have told them; for, +old maid as she was, poor and plain and queer, she could not bring +herself to associate familiarly with people who put their teaspoons +into the sugar-bowl, helped themselves with their own knives and forks, +gathered up bits of uneaten butter and returned them to the plate for +next time, or replaced on the dish pieces of cake half eaten or cut with +the knives they had just introduced into their mouths. Miss Lucinda's +code of minor morals would have forbidden her to drink from the same cup +with a queen, and have considered a pitchfork as suitable as a knife to +eat with, nor would she have offered to a servant the least thing she +had touched with her own lips or her own implements of eating; and she +was too delicately bred to look on in comfort where such things were +practised. Of course these women were not ladies; and though many of +them had kind hearts and warm impulses of goodness, yet that did not +make up to her for their social misdemeanors, and she drew herself +more into her own little shell, and cared more for her garden and her +chickens, her cats and her dog, than for all the humanity of Dalton put +together. + +Miss Manners held her flowers next dearest to her pets, and treated them +accordingly. Her garden was the most brilliant bit of ground possible. +It was big enough to hold one flourishing peach-tree, one Siberian crab, +and a solitary egg-plum; while under these fruitful boughs bloomed +moss-roses in profusion, of the dear old-fashioned kind, every deep pink +bud with its clinging garment of green breathing out the richest odor; +close by, the real white rose, which fashion has banished to country +towns, unfolded its cups of pearl flushed with yellow sunrise to the +heart; and by its side its damask sister waved long sprays of bloom +and perfume. Tulips, dark-purple and cream-color, burning scarlet and +deep-maroon, held their gay chalices up to catch the dew; hyacinths, +blue, white, and pink, hung heavy bells beneath them; spiced carnations +of rose and garnet crowded their bed in July and August, heart's-ease +fringed the walks, May honeysuckles clambered over the board-fence, +and monthly honeysuckles overgrew the porch at the back-door, making +perpetual fragrance from their moth-like horns of crimson and +ivory. Nothing inhabited those beds that was not sweet and fair and +old-fashioned. Gray-lavender-bushes sent up purple spikes in the middle +of the garden and were duly housed in winter, but these were the sole +tender plants admitted, and they pleaded their own cause in the breath +of the linen-press and the bureau-drawers that held Miss Lucinda's +clothes. Beyond the flowers, utility blossomed in a row of bean-poles, +a hedge of currant-bushes against the farther fence, carefully tended +cauliflowers, and onions enough to tell of their use as sparing as their +number; a few deep-red beets and golden carrots were all the vegetables +beside: Miss Lucinda never ate potatoes or pork. + +Her housekeeping, but for her pets, would have been the proper +housewifery for a fairy. Out of her fruit she annually conserved +miracles of flavor and transparence,--great plums like those in +Aladdin's garden, of shining topaz,--peaches tinged with the odorous +bitter of their pits, and clear as amber,--crimson crabs floating in +their own ruby sirup, or transmuted into jelly crystal clear, yet +breaking with a grain,--and jelly from the acid currants to garnish her +dinner-table or refresh the fevered lips of a sick neighbor. It was a +study to visit her tiny pantry, where all these "lucent sirops" stood in +tempting array,--where spices, and sugar, and tea, in their small jars, +flanked the sweetmeats, and a jar of glass showed its store of whitest +honey, and another stood filled with crisp cakes. Here always a loaf +or two of home-made bread lay rolled in a snowy cloth, and another was +spread over a dish of butter; pies were not in favor here,--nor milk, +save for the cats; salt fish Miss Manners never could abide,--her +savory taste allowed only a bit of rich old cheese, or thin scraps of +hung beef, with her bread and butter; sauces and spices were few in her +repertory, but she cooked as only a lady can cook, and might have +asked Soyer himself to dinner. For, verily, after much meditation and +experience, I have divined that it takes as much sense and refinement +and talent to cook a dinner, wash and wipe a dish, make a bed as it +should be made, and dust a room as it should be dusted, as goes to the +writing of a novel or shining in high society. + +But because Miss Lucinda Manners was reserved and "unsociable," as the +neighbors pronounced her, I did not, therefore, mean to imply that she +was inhuman. No neighbor of hers, local or Scriptural, fell ill, without +an immediate offer of aid from her: she made the best gruel known to +Dalton invalids, sent the ripest fruit and the sweetest flowers; and if +she could not watch with the sick, because it interfered with her duties +at home in an unpleasant and inconvenient way, she would sit with them +hour after hour in the day-time, and wait on all their caprices with the +patient tenderness of a mother. Children she always eyed with strange +wistfulness, as if she longed to kiss them, but didn't know how; yet no +child was ever invited across her threshold, for the yellow cur hated to +be played with, and children always torment kittens. + +So Miss Lucinda wore on happily toward the farther side of the middle +Ages. One after another of her pets passed away and was replaced, the +yellow cur barked his last currish signal, the cat died and her kittens +came to various ends of time or casualty, the crow fell away to dust and +was too old to stuff, and the garden bloomed and faded ten times over, +before Miss Manners found herself to be forty-six years old, which she +heroically acknowledged one fine day to the census-taker. But it was not +this consciousness, nor its confession, that drew the dark brows so low +over Miss Lucinda's eyes that day; it was quite another trouble, and one +that wore heavily on her mind, as we shall proceed to explain. For Miss +Manners, being, like all the rest of her sex, quite unable to do without +some masculine help, had employed, for some seven years, an old man by +the name of Israel Slater, to do her "chores," as the vernacular hath +it. It is a mortifying thing, and one that strikes at the roots of +Women's Rights terribly sharp blows, but I must even own it, that one +might as well try to live without one's bread-and-butter as without the +aid of the dominant sex. When I see women split wood, unload coal-carts, +move wash-tubs, and roll barrels of flour and apples handily down +cellar-ways or up into carts, then I shall believe in the sublime +theories of the strong-minded sisters; but as long as I see before me +my own forlorn little hands, and sit down on the top stair to recover +breath, and try in vain to lift the water-pitcher at table, just so long +I shall be glad and thankful that there are men in the world, and that +half a dozen of them are my kindest and best friends. It was rather an +affliction to Miss Lucinda to feel this innate dependence, and at first +she resolved to employ only small boys, and never any one of them more +than a week or two. She had an unshaped theory that an old maid was a +match for a small boy, but that a man would cheat and domineer over her. +Experience sadly put to flight these notions for a succession of boys in +this cabinet-ministry for the first three years of her stay in Dalton +would have driven her into a Presbyterian convent, had there been one at +hand. Boy Number One caught the yellow cur out of bounds one day, and +shaved his plumy tail to a bare stick, and Miss Lucinda fairly shed +tears of grief and rage when Pink appeared at the door with the denuded +appendage tucked between his little legs, and his funny yellow eyes +casting sidelong looks of apprehension at his mistress. Boy Number One +was despatched directly. Number Two did pretty well for a month, but his +integrity and his appetite conflicted, and Miss Lucinda found him one +moonlight night perched in her plum-tree devouring the half-ripe fruit. +She shook him down with as little ceremony as if he had been an +apple; and though he lay at Death's door for a week with resulting +cholera-morbus, she relented not. So the experiment went on, till a list +of casualties that numbered in it fatal accidents to three kittens, +two hens and a rooster, and at last Pink himself, who was pent into a +decline by repeated drenchings from the watering-pot, put an end to her +forbearance, and she instituted in her viziership the old man who had +now kept his office so long,--a queer, withered, slow, humorous old +creature, who did "chores" for some six or seven other households, and +got a living by sundry "jobs" of wood-sawing, hoeing corn, and other +like works of labor, if not of skill. Israel was a great comfort to Miss +Lucinda: he was efficient counsel in the maladies of all her pets, had +a sovereign cure for the gapes in chickens, and could stop a cat's fit +with the greatest ease; he kept the tiny garden in perfect order, +and was very honest, and Miss Manners favored him accordingly. She +compounded liniment for his rheumatism, herb-sirup for his colds, +presented him with a set of flannel shirts, and knit him a comforter; so +that Israel expressed himself strongly in favor of "Miss Lucindy," and +she said to herself he really was "quite good for a man." + +But just now, in her forty-seventh year, Miss Lucinda had come to grief, +and all on account of Israel and his attempts to please her. About six +months before this census-taking era, the old man had stepped into Miss +Manners's kitchen with an unusual radiance on his wrinkles and in his +eyes, and began without his usual morning greeting,-- + +"I've got so'thin' for you naow, Miss Lucindy. You're a master-hand for +pets, but I'll bet a red cent you ha'n't an idee what I've got for ye +naow!" + +"I'm sure I can't tell, Israel," said she; "you'll have to let me see +it." + +"Well," said he, lifting up his coat and looking carefully behind him +as he sat down on the settle, lest a stray kitten or chicken should +preoccupy the bench, "you see I was down to Orrin's abaout a week back, +and he hed a litter o' pigs,--eleven on 'em. Well, he couldn't raise +the hull on 'em,--'t a'n't good to raise more 'n nine,--an' so he said, +ef I'd 'a' had a place o' my own, I could 'a' had one on 'em, but, as't +was, he guessed he'd hev to send one to market for a roaster. I went +daown to the barn to see 'em, an' there was one, the cutest little +critter I ever sot eyes on, and I've seen more 'n four pigs in my +day,--'t was a little black-spotted one, as spry as an ant, and the +dreffullest knowin' look out of its eyes! I fellowshipped it right +off, and I said, says I, 'Orrin, ef you'll let me hev that 'ere +little spotted feller, I'll git a place for him, for I do take to him +consarnedly.' So he said I could, and I fetched him hum, and Miss Slater +and me we kinder fed him up for a few days back, till he got sorter +wonted, and I'm a-goin' to fetch him to you." + +"But, Israel, I haven't any place to put him in." + +"Well, that a'n't nothin' to hender. I'll jest fetch out them old boards +out of the wood-shed, and knock up a little sty right off, daown by the +end o' the shed, and you ken keep your swill that I've hed before, and +it'll come handy." + +"But pigs are so dirty!" + +"I don't know as they be; they ha'n't no great conveniences for washin' +ginerally; but I never heerd as they was dirtier 'n other critters, +where they run wild. An' beside, that a'n't goin' to hender, nuther; I +calculate to make it one o' the chores to take keer of him; 't won't +cost no more to you; and I ha'n't no great opportunities to do things +for folks that 's allers a-doin' for me; so't you needn't be afeard, +Miss Lucindy: I love to." + +Miss Lucinda's heart got the better of her judgment. A nature that could +feel so tenderly for its inferiors in the scale could not be deaf to the +tiny voices of humanity, when they reached her solitude; and she thanked +Israel for the pig so heartily that the old man's face brightened still +more, and his voice softened from its cracked harshness, as he said, +clicking up and down the latch of the back-door,-- + +"Well, I'm sure you're as welcome as you are obleeged, and I'll knock up +that 'ere pen right off; he sha'n't pester ye any,--that's a fact." + +Strange to say,--yet perhaps it might have been expected from her +proclivities,--Miss Lucinda took an astonishing fancy to the pig. Very +few people know how intelligent an animal a pig is; but when one is +regarded merely as pork and hams, one's intellect is apt to fall into +neglect: a moral sentiment which applies out of Pigdom. This creature +would not have passed muster at a county fair; no Suffolk blood +compacted and rounded him; he belonged to the "racers," and skipped +about his pen with the alacrity of a large flea, wiggling his curly tail +as expressively as a dog's, and "all but speakin'," as Israel said. He +was always glad to see Miss Lucinda, and established a firm friendship +with her dog Fun, a pretty, sentimental, German spaniel. Besides, he +kept tolerably clean by dint of Israel's care, and thrust his long +nose between the rails of his pen for grass, or fruit, or carrot- and +beet-tops, with a knowing look out of his deep-set eyes that was never +to be resisted by the soft-hearted spinster. Indeed, Miss Lucinda +enjoyed the possession of one pet who could not tyrannize over her. +Pink's place was more than filled by Fun, who was so oppressively +affectionate that he never could leave his mistress alone. If she lay +down on her bed, he leaped up and unlatched the door, and stretched +himself on the white counterpane beside her with a grunt of +satisfaction; if she sat down to knit or sew, he laid his head and +shoulders across her lap, or curled himself up on her knees; if she was +cooking, he whined and coaxed round her till she hardly knew whether she +fried or broiled her steak; and if she turned him out and buttoned the +door, his cries were so pitiful she could never be resolute enough to +keep him in exile five minutes,--for it was a prominent article in her +creed, that animals have feelings that are easily wounded, and are of +"like passions" with men, only incapable of expression. + +Indeed, Miss Lucinda considered it the duty of human beings to atone to +animals for the Lord's injustice in making them dumb and four-legged. +She would have been rather startled at such an enunciation of her +practice, but she was devoted to it as a practice: she would give her +own chair to the cat and sit on the settle herself; get up at midnight, +if a mew or a bark called her, though the thermometer was below zero; +The tenderloin of her steak or the liver of her chicken was saved for a +pining kitten or an ancient and toothless cat; and no disease or wound +daunted her faithful nursing, or disgusted her devoted tenderness. It +was rather hard on humanity, and rather reversive of Providence, that +all this care and pains should be lavished on cats and dogs, while +little morsels of flesh and blood, ragged, hungry, and immortal, +wandered up and down the streets. Perhaps that they were immortal +was their defence from Miss Lucinda; one might have hoped that her +"other-worldliness" accepted that fact as enough to outweigh present +pangs, if she had not openly declared, to Israel Slater's immense +amusement and astonishment, that _she_ believed creatures had +souls,--little ones perhaps, but souls after all, and she did expect to +see Pink again some time or other. + +"Well, I hope he's got his tail feathered out ag'in," said Israel, +dryly. "I do'no' but what hair'd grow as well as feathers in a +sperctooal state, and I never see a pictur' of an angel but what hed +consider'ble many feathers." + +Miss Lucinda looked rather confounded. But humanity had one little +revenge on her in the shape of her cat, a beautiful Maltese, with great +yellow eyes, fur as soft as velvet, and silvery paws as lovely to look +at as they were thistly to touch. Toby certainly pleaded hard for Miss +Lucinda's theory of a soul; but his was no good one: some tricksy and +malign little spirit had lent him his share of intellect, and he used it +to the entire subjugation of Miss Lucinda. When he was hungry, he was as +well-mannered and as amiable as a good child,--he would coax, and purr, +and lick her fingers with his pretty red tongue, like a "perfect love"; +but when he had his fill, and needed no more, then came Miss Lucinda's +time of torment. If she attempted to caress him, he bit and scratched +like a young tiger, he sprang at her from the floor and fastened on her +arm with real fury; if he cried at the window and was not directly let +in, as soon as he had achieved entrance his first manoeuvre was to +dash at her ankles and bite them, if he could, as punishment for her +tardiness. This skirmishing was his favorite mode of attack; if he was +turned out of the closet, or off the pillow up-stairs, he retreated +under the bed and made frantic sallies at her feet, till the poor woman +got actually nervous, and if he was in the room made a flying leap as +far as she could to her bed, to escape those keen claws. Indeed, +old Israel found her more than once sitting in the middle of the +kitchen-floor with Toby crouched for a spring under the table, his +poor mistress afraid to move, for fear of her unlucky ankles. And this +literally cat-ridden woman was hazed about and ruled over by her feline +tyrant to that extent that he occupied the easiest chair, the softest +cushion, the middle of the bed, and the front of the fire, not only +undisturbed, but caressed. This is a veritable history, beloved reader, +and I offer it as a warning and an example: if you will be an old maid, +or if you can't help it, take to petting children, or donkeys, or even a +respectable cow, but beware of domestic tyranny in any shape but man's! + +No wonder Miss Lucinda took kindly to the pig, who had a house of his +own, and a servant, as it were, to the avoidance of all trouble on her +part,--the pig who capered for joy when she or Fun approached, and had +so much expression in his physiognomy that one almost expected to see +him smile. Many a sympathizing conference Miss Lucinda held with Israel +over the perfections of Piggy, as he leaned against the sty and looked +over at his favorite after this last chore was accomplished. + +"I say for 't," exclaimed the old man, one day, "I b'lieve that cre'tur' +knows enough to be professor in a college. Why, he talks! he re'lly +doos: a leetle through his nose, maybe, but no more 'n Dr. Colton allers +does,--'n' I declare he appears to have abaout as much sense. I never +see the equal of him. I thought he'd 'a larfed right out yesterday, when +I gin him that mess o' corn: he got up onto his forelegs on the trough, +an' he winked them knowin' eyes o' his'n, an' waggled his tail, an' then +he set off an' capered round till he come bunt up ag'inst the boards. I +tell _you_,--that sorter sobered him; he gin a growlin' grunt, an' shook +his ears, an' looked sideways at me, and then he put to and eet up that +corn as sober as a judge. I swan! he doos beat the Dutch!" + +But there was one calculation forgotten both by Miss Lucinda and Israel: +the pig would grow,--and in consequence, as I said before, Miss Lucinda +came to grief; for when the census-taker tinkled her sharp little +door-bell, it called her from a laborious occupation at the sty,--no +more and no less than trying to nail up a board that Piggy had torn down +in struggling to get out of his durance. He had grown so large that Miss +Lucinda was afraid of him; his long legs and their vivacious motion +added to the shrewd intelligence of his eyes, and his nose seemed as +formidable to this poor little woman as the tusk of a rhinoceros: but +what should she do with him? One might as well have proposed to her to +kill and cut up Israel as to consign Piggy to the "fate of race." She +could not turn him into the street to starve, for she loved him; and the +old maid suffered from a constancy that might have made some good man +happy, but only embarrassed her with the pig. She could not keep him +forever,--that was evident; she knew enough to be aware that time +would increase his disabilities as a pet, and he was an expensive one +now,--for the corn-swallowing capacities of a pig, one of the "racer" +breed, are almost incredible, and nothing about Miss Lucinda wanted for +food even to fatness. Besides, he was getting too big for his pen, and +so "cute" an animal could not be debarred from all out-door pleasures, +and tantalized by the sight of a green and growing garden before his +eyes continually, without making an effort to partake of its delights. +So, when Miss Lucinda indued herself with her brown linen sack and +sun-bonnet to go and weed her carrot-patch, she was arrested on the way +by a loud grunting and scrambling in Piggy's quarter, and found to her +distress that he had contrived to knock off the upper board from his +pen. She had no hammer at hand; so she seized a large stone that lay +near by and pounded at the board till the twice-tinkling bell recalled +her to the house, and as soon as she had made confession to the +census-taker she went back,--alas, too late! Piggy had redoubled his +efforts, another board had yielded, and he was free! What a thing +freedom is! how objectionable in practice, how splendid in theory! More +people than Miss Lucinda have been put to their wits' end when "Hoggie" +burst his bonds and became rampant instead of couchant. But he enjoyed +it; he made the tour of the garden on a delightful canter, brandishing +his tail with an air of defiance that daunted his mistress at once, and +regarding her with his small bright eyes as if he would before long +taste her and see if she was as crisp as she looked. She retreated +forthwith to the shed and caught up a broom with which she courageously +charged upon Piggy, and was routed entirely; for, being no way alarmed +by her demonstration, the creature capered directly at her, knocked her +down, knocked the broom out of her hand, and capered away again to the +young carrot-patch. + +"Oh, dear!" said Miss Manners, gathering herself up from the +ground,--"if there only was a man here!" + +Suddenly she betook herself to her heels,--for the animal looked at her, +and stopped eating: that was enough to drive Miss Lucinda off the field. +And now, quite desperate, she rushed through the house and out of the +front-door, actually in search of a man! Just down the street she saw +one. Had she been composed, she might have noticed the threadbare +cleanliness of his dress, the odd cap that crowned his iron-gray locks, +and the peculiar manner of his walk; for our little old maid had +stumbled upon no less a person than Monsieur Jean Leclerc, the +dancing-master of Dalton. Not that this accomplishment was much in +vogue in the embryo city; but still there were a few who liked to fit +themselves for firemen's balls and sleighing-party frolics, and quite a +large class of children were learning betimes such graces as children in +New England receive more easily than their elders. Monsieur Leclerc had +just enough scholars to keep his coat threadbare and restrict him to +necessities; but he lived, and was independent. All this Miss Lucinda +was ignorant of; she only saw a man, and, with the instinct of the sex +in trouble or danger, she appealed to him at once. + +"Oh, Sir! won't you step in and help me? My pig has got out, and I can't +catch him, and he is ruining my garden!" + +"Madame, I shall!" replied the Frenchman, bowing low, and assuming the +first position. + +So Monsieur Leclerc followed Miss Manners, and supplied himself with a +mop that was hanging in the shed as his best weapon. Dire was the battle +between the pig and the Frenchman. They skipped past each other and back +again as if they were practising for a cotillon. Piggy had four legs, +which gave him a certain advantage; but the Frenchman had most brain, +and in the long run brain gets the better of legs. A weary dance they +led each other, but after a while the pet was hemmed in a corner, and +Miss Lucinda had run for a rope to tie him, when, just as she returned, +the beast made a desperate charge, upset his opponent, and giving a leap +in the wrong direction, to his manifest astonishment, landed in his own +sty! Miss Lucinda's courage rose; she forgot her prostrate friend in +need, and, running to the pen, caught up hammer and nail-box on her way, +and, with unusual energy, nailed up the bars stronger than ever, and +then bethought herself to thank the stranger. But there he lay quite +still and pale. + +"Dear me!" said Miss Manners, "I hope you haven't hurt yourself, Sir?" + +"I have fear that I am hurt, Madame," said he, trying to smile. "I +cannot to move but it pains me." + +"Where is it? Is it your leg or your arm? Try and move one at a time," +said Miss Lucinda, promptly. + +The left leg was helpless, it could not answer to the effort, and the +stranger lay back on the ground pale with the pain. Miss Lucinda took +her lavender-bottle out of her pocket and softly bathed his head and +face; then she took off her sack and folded it up under his head, and +put the lavender beside him. She was good at an emergency, and she +showed it. + +"You must lie quite still," said she; "you must not try to move till I +come back with help, or your leg will be hurt more." + +With that she went away, and presently returned with two strong men +and the long shutter of a shop-window. To this extempore litter she +carefully moved the Frenchman, and then her neighbors lifted him and +carried him into the parlor, where Miss Lucinda's chintz lounge was +already spread with a tight-pinned sheet to receive the poor man, and +while her helpers put him to bed she put on her bonnet and ran for the +doctor. + +Doctor Colton did his best for his patient, but pronounced it an +impossibility to remove him till the bone should be joined firmly, as a +thorough cure was all-essential to his professional prospects. And now, +indeed, Miss Lucinda had her hands full. A nurse could not be afforded, +but Monsieur Leclerc was added to the list of old Israel's "chores," and +what other nursing he needed Miss Lucinda was glad to do; for her kind +heart was full of self-reproaches to think it was her pig that had +knocked down the poor man, and her mop-handle that had twisted itself +across and under his leg, and aided, if not caused, its breakage. So +Israel came in four or five times a day to do what he could, and Miss +Lucinda played nurse at other times to the best of her ability. Such +flavorous gruels and porridges as she concocted! such _tisanes_ after +her guest's instructions! such dainty soups, and sweetbreads, and +cutlets, served with such neatness! After his experience of a +second-rate boarding-house, Monsieur Leclerc thought himself in a +gastronomic paradise. Moreover, these tiny meals were garnished with +flowers, which his French taste for color and decoration appreciated: +two or three stems of lilies-of-the-valley in their folded green leaves, +cool and fragrant; a moss-rosebud and a spire of purple-gray lavender +bound together with ribbon-grass; or three carnations set in glittering +myrtle-sprays, the last acquisition of the garden. + +Miss Lucinda enjoyed nursing thoroughly, and a kindlier patient no woman +ever had. Her bright needle flew faster than ever through the cold linen +and flaccid cambric of the shirts and cravats she fashioned, while he +told her, in his odd idioms, stories of his life in France, and the +curious customs both of society and _cuisinerie_, with which last he +showed a surprising acquaintance. Truth to tell, when Monsieur Leclerc +said he had been a member of the Duc de Montmorenci's household, +he withheld the other half of this truth,--that he had been his +_valet-de-chambre_: but it was an hereditary service, and seemed to him +as different a thing from common servitude as a peer's office in the +bedchamber differs from a lackey's. Indeed, Monsieur Leclerc was a +gentleman in his own way,--not of blood, but of breeding; and while he +had faithfully served the "aristocrats," as his father had done before +him, he did not limit that service to their prosperity, but in their +greatest need descended to menial offices, and forgot that he could +dance and ride and fence almost as well as his young master. But a +bullet from a barricade put an end to his duty there, and he hated +utterly the democratic rule that had overturned for him both past +and future, so he escaped, and came to America, the grand resort of +refugees, where he had labored, as he best knew how, for his own +support, and kept to himself his disgust at the manners and customs of +the barbarians. Now, for the first time, he was at home and happy. Miss +Lucinda's delicate fashions suited him exactly; he adored her taste for +the beautiful, which she was unconscious of; he enjoyed her cookery, and +though he groaned within himself at the amount of debt he was incurring, +yet he took courage from her kindness to believe she would not be a hard +creditor, and, being naturally cheerful, put aside his anxieties and +amused himself as well as her with his stories, his quavering songs, his +recipes for _pot-au-feu_, _tisane_, and _pates_, at once economical and +savory. Never had a leg of lamb or a piece of roast beef gone so far +in her domestic experience, a chicken seemed almost to outlive its +usefulness in its various forms of reappearance, and the salads he +devised were as wonderful as the omelets he superintended, or the gay +dances he played on his beloved violin, as soon as he could sit up +enough to manage it. Moreover,--I should say _mostover_, if the word +were admissible,--Monsieur Leclerc lifted a great weight before long +from Miss Lucinda's mind. He began by subduing Fun to his proper place +by a mild determination that completely won the dog's heart. "Women and +spaniels," the world knows, "like kicking"; and though kicks were no +part of the good man's Rareyfaction of Fun, he certainly used a certain +amount of coercion, and the dog's lawful owner admired the skill of the +teacher and enjoyed the better manners of the pupil thoroughly; she +could do twice as much sewing now, and never were her nights disturbed +by a bark, for the dog crouched by his new friend's bed in the parlor +and lay quiet there. Toby was next undertaken, and proved less amenable +to discipline; he stood in some slight awe of the man who tried to teach +him, but still continued to sally out at Miss Lucinda's feet, to spring +at her caressing hand when he felt ill-humored, and to claw Fun's +patient nose and his approaching paws when his misplaced sentimentality +led him to caress the cat; but after a while a few well-timed slaps +administered with vigor cured Toby of his worst tricks, though every +blow made Miss Lucinda wince, and almost shook her good opinion of +Monsieur Leclerc: for in these long weeks he had wrought out a good +opinion of himself in her mind, much to her own surprise; she could not +have believed a man could be so polite, so gentle, so patient, and above +all so capable of ruling without tyranny. Miss Lucinda was puzzled. + +One day, as Monsieur Leclerc was getting better, just able to go about +on crutches, Israel came into the kitchen, and Miss Manners went out to +see him. She left the door open, and along with the odor of a pot of +raspberry-jam scalding over the fire, sending its steams of leaf- +and insect-fragrance through the little house, there came in also the +following conversation. + +"Israel," said Miss Lucinda, in a hesitating and rather forlorn tone, "I +have been thinking,--I don't know what to do with Piggy. He is quite too +big for me to keep. I'm afraid of him, if he gets out; and he eats up +the garden." + +"Well, that _is_ a consider'ble swaller for a pig, Miss Lucindy; but +I b'lieve you're abaout right abaout keepin' on him. He _is_ too +big,--that's a fact; but he's so like a human cre'tur', I'd jest +abaout as lieves slarter Orrin. I declare, I don't know no more 'n a +taown-haouse goose what to do with him!" + +"If I gave him away, I suppose he would be fatted and killed, of +course?" + +"I guess he'd be killed, likely; but as for fattenin' on him, I'd jest +as soon undertake to fatten a salt codfish. He's one o' the racers, an' +they're as holler as hogsheads: you can fill 'em up to their noses, ef +you're a mind to spend your corn, and they'll caper it all off their +bones in twenty-four haours. I b'lieve, ef they was tied neck an' heels +an' stuffed, they'd wiggle thin betwixt feedin'-times. Why, Orrin, he +raised nine on 'em, and every darned critter's as poor as Job's turkey, +to-day: they a'n't no good. I'd as lieves ha' had nine chestnut +rails,--an' a little lieveser, 'cause they don't eat nothin'." + +"You don't know of any poor person who'd like to have a pig, do you?" +said Miss Lucinda, wistfully. + +"Well, the poorer they was, the quicker they'd eat him up, I guess,--ef +they could eat such a razor-back." + +"Oh, I don't like to think of his being eaten! I wish he could be got +rid of some other way. Don't you think he might be killed in his sleep, +Israel?" + +This was a little too much for Israel. An irresistible flicker of +laughter twitched his wrinkles and bubbled in his throat. + +"I think it's likely 'twould wake him up," said he, demurely. "Killin's +killin', and a cre'tur' can't sleep over it 's though 't was the +stomach-ache. I guess he'd kick some, ef he _was_ asleep,--and screech +some, too!" + +"Dear me!" said Miss Lucinda, horrified at the idea. "I wish he could +be sent out to run in the woods. Are there any good woods near here, +Israel?" + +"I don't know but what he'd as lieves be slartered to once as to starve, +an' be hunted down out in the lots. Besides, there a'n't nobody as I +knows of would like a hog to be a-rootin' round amongst their turnips +and young wheat." + +"Well, what I shall do with him I don't know!" despairingly exclaimed +Miss Lucinda. "He was such a dear little thing when you brought him, +Israel! Do you remember how pink his pretty little nose was,--just like +a rosebud,--and how bright his eyes looked, and his cunning legs? And +now he's grown so big and fierce! But I can't help liking him, either." + +"He's a cute critter, that's sartain; but he does too much rootin' to +have a pink nose now, I expect;--there's consider'ble on't, so I guess +it looks as well to have it gray. But I don't know no more 'n you do +what to do abaout it." + +"If I could only get rid of him without knowing what became of him!" +exclaimed Miss Lucinda, squeezing her forefinger with great earnestness, +and looking both puzzled and pained. + +"If Mees Lucinda would pairmit?" said a voice behind her. + +She turned round to see Monsieur Leclerc on his crutches, just in the +parlor-door. + +"I shall, Mees, myself dispose of Piggee, if it please. I can. I shall +have no sound; he shall to go away like a silent snow, to trouble you no +more, never!" + +"Oh, Sir! if you could! But I don't see how!" + +"If Mees was to see, it would not be to save her pain. I shall have him +to go by _magique_ to fiery land." + +Fairy-land, probably! But Miss Lucinda did not perceive the _equivoque_. + +"Nor yet shall I trouble Meester Israyel. I shall have the aid of myself +and one good friend that I have; and some night when you rise of the +morning, he shall not be there." + +Miss Lucinda breathed a deep sigh of relief. + +"I am greatly obliged,--I shall be, I mean," said she. + +"Well, I'm glad enough to wash my hands on't," said Israel. "I shall +hanker arter the critter some, but he's a-gettin' too big to be handy; +'n' it's one comfort abaout critters, you ken get rid on 'em somehaow +when they're more plague than profit. But folks has got to be let alone, +excep' the Lord takes 'em; an' He don't allers see fit." + +What added point and weight to these final remarks of old Israel was +the well-known fact that he suffered at home from the most pecking and +worrying of wives, and had been heard to say in some moment of unusual +frankness that he "didn't see how't could be sinful to wish Miss Slater +was in heaven, for she'd be lots better off, and other folks too!" + +Miss Lucinda never knew what befell her pig one fine September night; +she did not even guess that a visit paid to Monsieur by one of his +pupils, a farmer's daughter just out of Dalton, had anything to do with +this _enlevement_; she was sound asleep in her bed up-stairs, when +her guest shod his crutches with old gloves, and limped out to the +garden-gate by dawn, where he and the farmer tolled the animal out of +his sty and far down the street by tempting red apples, and then Farmer +Steele took possession of him, and he was seen no more. No, the first +thing Miss Lucinda knew of her riddance was when Israel put his head +into the back-door that same morning, some four hours afterward, and +said, with a significant nod,-- + +"He's gone!" + +After all his other chores were done, Israel had a conference with +Monsieur Leclerc, and the two sallied into the garden, and in an hour +had dismantled the low dwelling, cleared away the wreck, levelled and +smoothed its site, and Monsieur, having previously provided himself with +an Isabella-grape-vine, planted it on this forsaken spot, and trained +it carefully against the end of the shed: strange to say, though it was +against all precedent to transplant a grape in September, it lived and +flourished. Miss Lucinda's gratitude to Monsieur Leclerc was altogether +disproportioned, as he thought, to his slight service. He could not +understand fully her devotion to her pets, but he respected it, and +aided it whenever he could, though he never surmised the motive that +adorned Miss Lucinda's table with such delicate superabundance after +the late departure, and laid bundles of lavender-flowers in his tiny +portmanteau till the very leather seemed to gather fragrance. + +Before long, Monsieur Leclerc was well enough to resume his classes, +and return to his boarding-house; but the latter was filled, and only +offered a prospect of vacancy in some three weeks after his application; +so he returned home somewhat dejected, and as he sat by the little +parlor-fire after tea, he said to his hostess, in a reluctant tone,-- + +"Mees Lucinda, you have been of the kindest to the poor alien. I have it +in my mind to relieve you of this care very rapidly, but it is not in +the Fates that I do. I have gone to my house of lodgings, and they +cannot to give me a chamber as yet I have fear that I must yet rely me +on your goodness for some time more, if you can to entertain me so much +more of time?" + +"Why, I shall like to, Sir," replied the kindly, simple-hearted old +maid. "I'm sure you are not a mite of trouble, and I never can forget +what you did for my pig." + +A smile flitted across the Frenchman's thin, dark face, and he watched +her glittering needles a few minutes in silence before he spoke again. + +"But I have other things to say of the most unpleasant to me, Mees +Lucinda. I have a great debt for the goodness and care you to me have +lavished. To the angels of the good God we must submit to be debtors, +but there are also of mortal obligations. I have lodged in your mansion +for more of ten weeks, and to you I pay yet no silver, but it is that I +have it not at present--I must ask of your goodness to wait." + +The old maid's shining black eyes grew soft as she looked at him. + +"Why!" said she, "I don't think you owe me much of anything, Mr. +Leclerc. I never knew things last as they have since you came. I really +think you brought a blessing. I wish you would please to think you don't +owe me anything." + +The Frenchman's great brown eyes shone with suspicious dew. + +"I cannot to forget that I owe to you far more than any silver of man +repays; but I should not think to forget that I also owe to you silver, +or I should not be worthy of a man's name. No, Mees! I have two hands +and legs. I will not let a woman most solitary spend for me her good +self." + +"Well," said Miss Lucinda, "if you will be uneasy till you pay me, I +would rather have another kind of pay than money. I should like to know +how to dance. I never did learn, when I was a girl, and I think it would +be good exercise." + +Miss Lucinda supported this pious fiction through with a simplicity that +quite deceived the Frenchman. He did not think it so incongruous as it +was. He had seen women of sixty, rouged, and jewelled, and furbelowed, +foot it deftly in the halls of the Faubourg St. Germain in his earliest +youth; and this cheery, healthy woman, with lingering blooms on either +cheek, and uncapped head of curly black hair but slightly strewn with +silver, seemed quite as fit a subject for the accomplishment. Besides, +he was poor,--and this offered so easy a way of paying the debt he had +so dreaded! Well said Solomon,--"The destruction of the poor is their +poverty!" For whose moral sense, delicate sensitivenesses, generous +longings, will not sometimes give way to the stringent need of food and +clothing, the gall of indebtedness, and the sinking consciousness of an +empty purse and threatening possibilities? + +Monsieur Leclerc's face brightened. + +"Ah! with what grand pleasure shall I teach you the dance!" + +But it fell dark again as he proceeded,-- + +"Though not one, nor two, nor three, nor four quarters shall be of value +sufficient to achieve my payment." + +"Then, if that troubles you, why, I should like to take some French +lessons in the evening, when you don't have classes. I learned French +when I was quite a girl, but not to speak it very easily; and if I could +get some practice and the right way to speak, I should be glad." + +"And I shall give you the real _Parisien_ tone, Mees Lucinda!" said he, +proudly. "I shall be as if it were no more an exile when I repeat my +tongue to you!" + +And so it was settled. Why Miss Lucinda should learn French any more +than dancing was not a question in Monsieur Leclerc's mind. It is true, +that Chaldaic would, in all probability, be as useful to our friend as +French; and the flying over poles and hanging by toes and fingers, so +eloquently described by the Apostle of the Body in these "Atlantic" +pages, would have been as well adapted to her style and capacity as +dancing;--but his own language, and his own profession! what man would +not have regarded these as indispensable to improvement, particularly +when they paid his board? + +During the latter three weeks of Monsieur Leclerc's stay with Miss +Lucinda he made himself surprisingly useful. He listed the doors against +approaching winter breezes,--he weeded in the garden,--trimmed, tied, +trained, wherever either good office was needed,--mended china with an +infallible cement, and rickety chairs with the skill of a cabinet-maker; +and whatever hard or dirty work he did, he always presented himself at +table in a state of scrupulous neatness: his long brown hands showed no +trace of labor; his iron-gray hair was reduced to smoothest order; +his coat speckless, if threadbare; and he ate like a gentleman, an +accomplishment not always to be found in the "best society," as the +phrase goes,--whether the best in fact ever lacks it is another thing. +Miss Lucinda appreciated these traits,--they set her at ease; and a +pleasanter home-life could scarce be painted than now enlivened the +little wooden house. But three weeks pass away rapidly; and when the +rusty portmanteau was gone from her spare chamber, and the well-worn +boots from the kitchen-corner, and the hat from its nail, Miss Lucinda +began to find herself wonderfully lonely. She missed the armfuls of wood +in her wood-box, that she had to fill laboriously, two sticks at a time; +she missed the other plate at her tiny round table, the other chair +beside her fire; she missed that dark, thin, sensitive face, with its +rare and sweet smile; she wanted her story-teller, her yarn-winder, +her protector, back again. Good gracious! to think of an old lady of +forty-seven entertaining such sentiments for a man! + +Presently the dancing-lessons commenced. It was thought advisable that +Miss Manners should enter a class, and, in the fervency of her good +intentions, she did not demur. But gratitude and respect had to strangle +with persistent hands the little serpents of the ridiculous in Monsieur +Leclerc's soul, when he beheld his pupil's first appearance. What reason +was it, O rose of seventeen, adorning thyself with cloudy films of lace +and sparks of jewelry before the mirror that reflects youth and beauty, +that made Miss Lucinda array herself in a brand-new dress of yellow +muslin-de-laine strewed with round green spots, and displace her +customary hand-kerchief for a huge tamboured collar, on this eventful +occasion? Why, oh, why did she tie up the roots of her black hair with +an unconcealable scarlet string? And most of all, why was her dress +so short, her slipper-strings so big and broad, her thick slippers so +shapeless by reason of the corns and bunions that pertained to the feet +within? The "instantaneous rush of several guardian angels" that once +stood dear old Hepzibah Pynchon in good stead was wanting here,--or +perhaps they stood by all-invisible, their calm eyes softened with love +deeper than tears, at this spectacle so ludicrous to man, beholding in +the grotesque dress and adornments only the budding of life's divinest +blossom, and in the strange skips and hops of her first attempts at +dancing only the buoyancy of those inner wings that goodness and +generosity and pure self-devotion were shaping for a future strong and +stately flight upward. However, men, women, and children do not see +with angelic eyes, and the titterings of her fellow-pupils were +irrepressible; one bouncing girl nearly choked herself with her +hand-kerchief trying not to laugh, and two or three did not even try. +Monsieur Leclerc could not blame them,--at first he could scarce control +his own facial muscles; but a sense of remorse smote him, as he saw how +unconscious and earnest the little woman was, and remembered how often +those knotty hands and knobbed feet had waited on his need or his +comfort. Presently he tapped on his violin for a few moments' respite, +and approached Miss Lucinda as respectfully as if she had been a queen. + +"You are ver' tired, Mees Lucinda?" said he. + +"I am a little, Sir," said she, out of breath. "I am not used to +dancing; it's quite an exertion." + +"It is that truly. If you are too much tired, is it better to wait? +I shall finish for you the lesson till I come to-night for a French +conversation?" + +"I guess I will go home," said the simple little lady. "I am some afraid +of getting rheumatism; but use makes perfect, and I shall stay through +next time, no doubt." + +"So I believe," said Monsieur, with his best bow, as Miss Lucinda +departed and went home, pondering all the way what special delicacy she +should provide for tea. + +"My dear young friends," said Monsieur Leclerc, pausing with the +uplifted bow in his hand, before he recommenced his lesson, "I have +observe that my new pupil does make you much to laugh. I am not so +surprise, for you do not know all, and the good God does not robe all +angels in one manner; but she have taken me to her mansion with a leg +broken, and have nursed me like a saint of the blessed, nor with any pay +of silver except that I teach her the dance and the French. They are +pay for the meat and the drink, but she will have no more for her good +patience and care. I like to teach you the dance, but she could teach +you the saints' ways, which are better. I think you will no more to +laugh." + +"No! I guess we _won't_!" said the bouncing girl with great emphasis, +and the color rose over more than one young face. + +After that day Miss Lucinda received many a kind smile and hearty +welcome, and never did anybody venture even a grimace at her expense. +But it must be acknowledged that her dancing was at least peculiar. +With a sanitary view of the matter, she meant to make it exercise, +and fearful was the skipping that ensued. She chassed on tiptoe, and +balanced with an indescribable hopping twirl, that made one think of a +chickadee pursuing its quest of food on new-ploughed ground; and some +late-awakened feminine instinct of dress, restrained, too, by due +economy, indued her with the oddest decorations that woman ever devised. +The French lessons went on more smoothly. If Monsieur Leclerc's Parisian +ear was tortured by the barbarous accent of Vermont, at least he bore it +with heroism, since there was nobody else to hear; and very pleasant, +both to our little lady and her master, were these long winter evenings, +when they diligently waded through Racine, and even got as far as the +golden periods of Chateaubriand. The pets fared badly for petting in +these days; they were fed and waited on, but not with the old devotion; +it began to dawn on Miss Lucinda's mind that something to talk to was +preferable, as a companion, even to Fun, and that there might be a +stranger sweetness in receiving care and protection than in giving it. + +Spring came at last. Its softer skies were as blue over Dalton as in +the wide fields without, and its footsteps as bloom-bringing in Miss +Lucinda's garden as in mead or forest. Now Monsieur Leclerc came to +her aid again at odd minutes, and set her flower-beds with mignonette +borders, and her vegetable-garden with salad herbs of new and +flourishing kinds. Yet not even the sweet season seemed to hurry the +catastrophe that we hope, dearest reader, thy tender eyes have long seen +impending. No, for this quaint alliance a quainter Cupid waited,--the +chubby little fellow with a big head and a little arrow, who waits on +youth and loveliness, was not wanted here. Lucinda's God of Love wore a +lank, hard-featured, grizzly shape, no less than that of Israel Slater, +who marched into the garden one fine June morning, earlier than +usual, to find Monsieur in his blouse, hard at work weeding the +cauliflower-bed. + +"Good mornin', Sir! good mornin'!" said Israel, in answer to the +Frenchman's greeting. "This is a real slick little garden-spot as ever I +see, and a pootty house, and a real clever woman too. I'll be skwitched, +ef it a'n't a fust-rate consarn, the hull on't. Be you ever a-goin' back +to France, Mister?" + +"No, my goot friend. I have nobody there. I stay here; I have friend +here: but there,--_oh, non! je ne reviendrai pas! ah, jamais! jamais!_" + +"Pa's dead, eh? or shamming? Well, I don't understand your lingo; but ef +you're a-goin' to stay here, I don't see why you don't hitch hosses with +Miss Lucindy." + +Monsieur Leclerc looked up astonished. + +"Horses, my friend? I have no horse!" + +"Thunder 'n' dry trees! I didn't say you hed, did I? But that comes o' +usin' what Parson Hyde calls figgurs, I s'pose. I wish't he'd use one +kind o' figgurin' a leetle more; he'd pay me for that wood-sawin'. I +didn't mean nothin' about hosses. I sot out fur to say, Why don't ye +marry Miss Lucindy?" + +"I?" gasped Monsieur,--"I, the foreign, the poor? I could not to presume +so!" + +"Well, I don't see 's it's sech drefful presumption. Ef you're poor, +she's a woman, and real lonesome too; she ha'n't got nuther chick nor +child belongin' to her, and you're the only man she ever took any kind +of a notion to. I guess 't would be jest as much for her good as yourn." + +"Hush, good Is-ray-el! it is good to stop there. She would not to marry +after such years of goodness: she is a saint of the blessed." + +"Well, I guess saints sometimes fellerships with sinners; I've heerd +tell they did; and ef I was you, I'd make trial for 't. Nothin' ventur', +nothin' have." + +Whereupon Israel walked off, whistling. + +Monsieur Leclerc's soul was perturbed within him by these suggestions; +he pulled up two young cauliflowers and reset their places with +pigweeds; he hoed the nicely sloped border of the bed flat to the path, +and then flung the hoe across the walk, and went off to his daily +occupation with a new idea in his head. Nor was it an unpleasant one. +The idea of a transition from his squalid and pinching boarding-house to +the delicate comfort of Miss Lucinda's _menage_, the prospect of so kind +and good a wife to care for his hitherto dreaded future,--all this was +pleasant. I cannot honestly say he was in love with our friend; I must +even confess that whatever element of that nature existed between the +two was now all on Miss Lucinda's side, little as she knew it. Certain +it is, that, when she appeared that day at the dancing-class in a new +green calico flowered with purple, and bows on her slippers big enough +for a bonnet, it occurred to Monsieur Leclerc, that, if they were +married, she would take no more lessons! However, let us not blame him; +he was a man, and a poor one; one must not expect too much from men, or +from poverty; if they are tolerably good, let us canonize them even, it +is so hard for the poor creatures! And to do Monsieur Leclerc justice, +he had a very thorough respect and admiration for Miss Lucinda. Years +ago, in his stormy youth-time, there had been a pair of soft-fringed +eyes that looked into his as none would ever look again,--and they +murdered her, those mad wild beasts of Paris, in the chapel where she +knelt at her pure prayers,--murdered her because she knelt beside an +aristocrat, her best friend, the Duchess of Montmorenci, who had taken +the pretty peasant from her own estate to bring her up for her maid. +Jean Leclerc had lifted that pale shape from the pavement and buried it +himself; what else he buried with it was invisible; but now he recalled +the hour with a long, shuddering sigh, and, hiding his face in his +hands, said softly, "The violet is dead,--there is no spring for her. I +will have now an amaranth,--it is good for the tomb." + +Whether Miss Lucinda's winter dress suggested this floral metaphor let +us not inquire. Sacred be sentiment,--when there is even a shadow of +reality about it!--when it becomes a profession, and confounds itself +with millinery and shades of mourning, it is--"bosh," as the Turkeys +say. + +So that very evening Monsieur Leclerc arrayed himself in his best, to +give another lesson to Miss Lucinda. But, somehow or other, the lesson +was long in beginning; the little parlor looked so home-like and so +pleasant, with its bright lamp and gay bunch of roses on the table, that +it was irresistible temptation to lounge and linger. Miss Lucinda had +the volume of Florian in her hands, and was wondering why he did not +begin, when the book was drawn away, and a hand laid on both of hers. + +"Lucinda!" he began, "I give you no lesson to-night. I have to ask. Dear +Mees, will you to marry your poor slave?" + +"Oh, dear!" said Miss Lucinda. + +Don't laugh at her, Miss Tender-eyes! You will feel just so yourself +some day, when Alexander Augustus says, "Will you be mine, loveliest of +jour sex?" only you won't feel it half so strongly, for you are young, +and love is Nature to youth, but it is a heavenly surprise to age. + +Monsieur Leclerc said nothing. He had a heart after all, and it was +touched now by the deep emotion that flushed Miss Lucinda's face, and +made her tremble so violently,--but presently he spoke. + +"Do not!" said he. "I am wrong. I presume. Forgive the stranger!" + +"Oh, dear!" said poor Lucinda again,--"oh, you know it isn't that! but +how can you like _me_?" + +There, Mademoiselle! there's humility for you! _you_ will never say that +to Alexander Augustus! + +Monsieur Leclerc soothed this frightened, happy, incredulous little +woman into quiet before very long; and if he really began to feel a true +affection for her from the moment he perceived her humble and entire +devotion to him, who shall blame him? Not I. If we were all heroes, who +would be _valet-de-chambre_? if we were all women, who would be men? He +was very good as far as he went; and if you expect the chivalries of +grace out of Nature, you "may expect," as old Fuller saith. So it was +peacefully settled that they should be married, with a due amount of +tears and smiles on Lucinda's part, and a great deal of tender sincerity +on Monsieur's. She missed her dancing-lesson next day, and when Monsieur +Leclerc came in the evening he found a shade on her happy face. + +"Oh, dear!" said she, as he entered. + +"Oh, dear!" was Lucinda's favorite aspiration. Had she thought of it as +an Anglicizing of "_O Dieu_!" perhaps she would have dropped it; but +this time she went on headlong, with a valorous despair,-- + +"I have thought of something! I'm afraid I can't! Monsieur, aren't you a +Romanist?" + +"What is that?" said he, surprised. + +"A Papist,--a Catholic!" + +"Ah!" he returned, sighing, "once I was _bon Catholique_,--once in my +gone youth; after then I was nothing but the poor man who bats for his +life; now I am of the religion that shelters the stranger and binds up +the broken poor." + +Monsieur was a diplomatist. This melted Miss Lucinda's orthodoxy right +down; she only said,-- + +"Then you will go to church with me?" + +"And to the skies above, I pray," said Monsieur, kissing her knotty hand +like a lover. + +So in the earliest autumn they were married, Monsieur having previously +presented Miss Lucinda with a delicate plaided gray silk for her wedding +attire, in which she looked almost young; and old Israel was present +at the ceremony, which was briefly performed by Parson Hyde in Miss +Manners's parlor. They did not go to Niagara, nor to Newport; but that +afternoon Monsieur Leclerc brought a hired rockaway to the door, and +took his bride a drive into the country. They stopped beside a pair of +bars, where Monsieur hitched his horse, and, taking Lucinda by the +hand, led her into Farmer Steele's orchard, to the foot of his biggest +apple-tree. There she beheld a little mound, at the head and foot of +which stood a daily rose-bush shedding its latest wreaths of bloom, and +upon the mound itself was laid a board on which she read, + +"Here lie the bones of poor Piggy." + +Mrs. Lucinda burst into tears, and Monsieur, picking a bud from the +bush, placed it in her hand, and led her tenderly back to the rockaway. + +That evening Mrs. Lucinda was telling the affair to old Israel with so +much feeling that she did not perceive at all the odd commotion in his +face, till, as she repeated the epitaph to him, he burst out with,--"He +didn't say what become o' the flesh, did he?"--and therewith fled +through the kitchen-door. For years afterward Israel would entertain a +few favored auditors with his opinion of the matter, screaming till the +tears rolled down his cheeks,-- + +"That was the beateree of all the weddin'-towers I ever heerd tell on. +Goodness! it's enough to make the Wanderin' Jew die o' larfin'!" + + * * * * * + + +A SOLDIER'S ANCESTRY. + + + When Nadir asked a princess for his son, + And Delhi's throne required his pedigree, + He stared upon the messenger as one + Who should have known his birth of bravery. + + "Go back," he cried, in undissembled scorn, + "And bear this answer to your waiting lord:-- + 'My child is noble! for, though lowly born, + He is the son and grandson of the _Sword_!'" + + + + +FIBRILIA. + + +There are not a few timid souls who imagine that England is falling into +decay. Our Cousin John is apt to complain. He has been accustomed to +enlarge upon his debts, his church-rates and poor-rates, his taxes on +air, light, motion, "everything, from the ribbons of the bride to the +brass nails of the coffin," upon the wages of his servants both on the +land and the water, upon his Irish famine and exodus, and his vast +expenses at home and abroad. And when we consider how small is his +homestead, a few islands in a high latitude inferior to those of Japan +in size and climate, and how many of his family have left him to better +their condition, one might easily conclude that he had passed his +meridian, and that his prospects were as cloudy as his atmosphere. + +But our Cousin John, with a strong constitution, is in a green old age, +and still knows how to manage his property. + +Within the last two years he has quietly extinguished sixty millions of +his debts in terminable annuities. He has improved his outlying lands +of Scotland and Ireland, ransacked the battle-fields of Europe for +bone-dust and the isles of the Pacific for guano, and imported enough to +fertilize four millions of acres, and, not content with the produce of +his home-farm, imports the present year more than four millions of tons +of grain and corn to feed nineteen millions of his people. + +He has carried his annual exports up to six hundred and thirty millions +of dollars, and importing more than he exports still leaves the world +his debtor. He has a strong fancy for new possessions, and selects the +most productive spots for his plantations. When he desired muslin, +calico, and camel's-hair shawls for his family, he put his finger on +India; and when he called for those great staples of commerce, indigo, +saltpetre, jute, flax, and linseed, India sent them at his bidding. When +he required coffee, he found Ceylon a Spice Island, and at his demand +it furnished him with an annual supply of sixty millions of pounds. He +required more sugar for his coffee, and by shipping a few coolies from +Calcutta and Bombay to the Mauritius, once the Isle of France, it yields +him annually two hundred and forty million pounds of sugar, more than +St. Domingo ever yielded in the palmy days of slavery. He wanted wool, +and his flocks soon overspread the plains of Australia, tendering him +the finest fleeces, and his shepherds improved their leisure not in +playing like Tityrus on the reed, but in opening for him mines of copper +and gold. He had his eye on California, but Fremont was too quick for +him, and he now contents himself with pocketing a large proportion of +her gold, to say nothing of the silver of Mexico and Peru. + +Wherever there is a canal to be excavated, a railway to be built, or a +line of steamers to be established, our Cousin John is ready with a full +purse to favor the enterprise. He turns even his sailors and soldiers to +good account: the other day he subdued one hundred and fifty millions of +rebels in the Indies, and then we find him dictating a treaty of +peace and a tribute to the Emperor of China from the ruins of his +summer-palace and the walls of Pekin. Although generally well disposed, +especially towards his kith and kin this side the water, he is choleric, +and if his best customers treat him ill, he does not hesitate to knock +them down. Although dependent on Russia for his hemp and naval +stores, and on China for his raw silk and teas, he suffers no such +considerations to deter him from fighting, and usually gets some +advantage when he comes to terms. He is belting the world with colonies, +and forming agencies for his children wherever he can send the +messengers of his commerce. At this very moment he is considering +whether he shall transport coolies from China to Australia, Natal, or +the Feegee Islands, to raise his cotton and help put down Secession and +export-duties, or whether he shall give a new stimulus to India cotton +by railways and irrigation. He seems to prosper in all his business; +for the "Edinburgh Review" reports him worth six thousand millions of +pounds, at least,--a very comfortable provision for his family. + +The wealth and power of Great Britain are supposed to rest upon her +mines of iron and coal. These undoubtedly help to sustain the fabric. +With her iron and coal, she fashions and propels the winged Mercuries +of her commerce; with these and the clay that underlies her soil, she +erects her factories and workshops; these form the Briarean arms by +which she fabricates her tissues. But it is by more minute columns than +these, it is by the hollow tubes revealed by the microscope, the fibres +of silk, wool, and flax, hemp, jute, and cotton, that she sustains the +great structure of her wealth. These she spins, weaves, and prints into +draperies which exact a tribute from the world. During the year 1860 +Great Britain imported or produced a million tons of such fibres, an +amount equal to five million bales of cotton, more than one-half of +which were in cotton alone. These fibres it is our purpose to examine. + + * * * * * + +The thread of the silk-worm came early into use. The Chinese ascribe its +introduction to the wife of one of their emperors, to whom divine honors +were subsequently paid. Until the Christian era silk was little known in +Europe or Western Asia. It is mentioned but three times in the common +version of the Old Testament, and in each case the accuracy of the +translation is questioned by German critics. It is, however, distinctly +alluded to by St. John, by Aristotle, and by the poets who flourished at +the court of Augustus, Virgil, Horace, and Tibullus, and is referred to +by the writers of the first four centuries. Tertullian, in his homily on +Female Attire, tells the ladies,--"Clothe yourselves with the silk of +truth, with the fine linen of sanctity, and the purple of modesty." The +golden-mouthed St. Chrisostom writes in his Homilies,--"Does the rich +man wear silken shawls? His soul is in tatters." "Silken shawls are +beautiful, but they are the production of worms." + +The silken thread was early introduced. Galen recommends it for tying +blood-vessels in surgical operations, and remarks that the rich ladies +in the cities of the Roman Empire generally possessed such thread; he +alludes also to shawls interwoven with gold, the material of which is +brought from a distance, and is called _Sericum_, or silk. Down to the +time of the Emperor Aurelian silk was of great value, and used only by +the rich. His biographer informs us that Aurelian neither had himself +in his wardrobe a garment composed wholly of silk, nor presented any to +others, and when his own wife begged him to allow her a single shawl +of purple silk, he replied,--"Far be it from me to permit thread to be +balanced with its weight in gold!"--for a pound of gold was then the +price of a pound of silk. + +Silk is mentioned in some very ancient Arabic inscriptions; but down to +the reign of the Emperor Justinian was imported into Europe from the +country of the Seres, a people of Eastern Asia, supposed to be the +Chinese, from, whom it derived its name. During the reign of Justinian +two monks brought the eggs of the silkworm to Byzantium from Serinda in +India, and the manufacture of silk became a royal monopoly of the Roman +Empire. + +From Greece the culture of silk was gradually carried into Italy and +Spain, and English abbots and bishops often returned from Rome with +vestments of silk and gold. Silken threads are attached to the covers of +ancient English manuscripts. Silk in the form of velvet may be seen on +some of the ancient armor in the Tower of London; and portions of silk +garments were found in 1827 in the Cathedral of Durham, on opening the +tomb of St. Cuthbert. The use of silk, however, was so rare in England +down to the time of the Tudors, that a pair of silk hose formed an +acceptable present to Queen Elizabeth. + +The principal supply of raw silk is now derived from China, where silks +are much worn, and there Marco Polo several centuries since found silk +robes in very general use. Japan also abounds in silk, and the late +Japanese embassy and suite were arrayed in garments of that material. + +The annual consumption of raw silk in Great Britain now averages seven +millions of pounds, and the value of the annual export of silk fabrics +is not far from ten millions of dollars. + +The manufacture of silk was introduced into England by the French +Protestants who were driven into exile on the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes. Their descendants are still found in London and Coventry, where +the silk-trade has been long established, and is now going through the +ordeal to which it has been exposed by the new treaty with France. + +The French undoubtedly take the lead in silk fabrics, for which they are +admirably qualified by exquisite taste and great artistic skill; but +the silk manufacture in England is now so interwoven, in many of its +branches, with the manufacture of wool and cotton, and aided by improved +machinery, that it may be considered as firmly established. + +Our own climate is well adapted to the silk-worm, and we have had our +_Morus-multicaulis_ fever; but so light is the freight on silk compared +with its value, that we must defer our hope of any extended growth until +the price of labor in Europe approaches nearer to our own, or until the +excess of production in other branches shall divert genius into this +channel, in which it will eventually cheapen production by machinery as +it has done in other enterprises. + + * * * * * + +We read in the classics of the Colchian and Milesian fleeces, of the +soft wools of Italy, and of the transfer of sheep from Italy to Bastica, +in Spain. Italy and Spain were both adapted to sheep husbandry. Virgil +writes,-- + + "Hic gelidi fontes, hie mollia prata, Lycori"; + +while Spain, with her alternations of hill and dale and her varying +climate, was eminently fitted for the pasturage of sheep. Even in +ancient times Spain furnished wool of great fineness and of various +colors, and cloths like the modern plaids were woven there from wool of +different shades. Sometimes the Spanish sheep was immersed alive in the +Tyrian purple. + +In modern times, the sheep of Spain have been introduced into France +and Germany, and from them have sprung the French merino and Saxony +varieties. These again have been exported to Natal and Australia. + +Before the American Revolution, the sheep of this country furnished a +wool so coarse that English travellers reported that America could never +compete with England in broadcloth. But when the French armies overran +Spain, the vast flocks of merinos which annually traversed the country +in search of fresh pasturage were driven into Portugal, and by the +enterprise of Messrs. Jarvis, Derby, and Humphrey, large numbers of them +were imported into our Northern States. These have improved our wool, +until now it surpasses the English in fineness. + +The fine-wool sheep thrive most in a dry climate and elevated country. +We learn from Strabo, Columella, and Martial, that the fine wool +of Italy was raised principally among the Apennines; and in Spain, +Estremadura, a part of the ancient Baetica, is still famous for its +wool. There the Spanish flocks winter, and thence in spring are sent to +pasture in the mountains of Leon and Asturias. Other flocks are led +in the same season from great distances to the heights of the Sierra +Morena, where the vegetation is remarkably favorable to improvement of +the wool. + +In this country, the elevated lands of Texas and New Mexico are +admirably adapted to the fine-wool sheep; and upon the head-waters of +the Missouri and the Yellowstone is another district much resembling the +Spanish sheep-walks, where the mountain-sheep and the antelope still +predominate. + +When Caesar invaded England he found there great numbers of flocks, and +for many centuries wool was the great staple of English exports; but +during the reign of Queen Elizabeth numerous artisans were driven from +Brabant and Flanders by the Duke of Alva, and the manufacture of wool, +which had enriched the Low Countries, was permanently established in +England. + +With the progress of agriculture, the turnip-culture enabled Great +Britain to increase the number of her sheep; but they were raised more +for the market than for their fleeces, which were rarely fine, and the +demand for wool soon exceeded the supply. England then opened her ports +to the free importation of wool from every region, and now annually +manufactures two hundred millions of pounds, twice the amount +manufactured in this country, of which two-thirds are drawn from distant +lands, and her export of woollens for 1860 exceeded one hundred millions +of dollars. + +The same policy which has built up this vast manufacture, namely, the +free importation of the raw material and of every article used in its +manufacture, with a moderate duty on foreign cloths, will enable us to +compete with England. Our farmers' wives prefer the sheep-husbandry to +the care of the dairy; much of our land furnishes cheap pasturage, and +the prices of mutton are remunerative; but many of the low grades of +wool come from abroad, and the mill-owner will not embark largely in +the manufacture, unless he can purchase his materials as cheaply as his +foreign competitor. + + * * * * * + +Cotton is mentioned by Herodotus five centuries before the Christian +era. He alludes to the cotton-trees of India, and describes a cuirass +sent from Egypt to the King of Sparta embellished with gold and with +fleeces from trees. Theophrastus, the disciple of Aristotle, notices +the growth of cotton both in India and Arabia, and observes that the +cotton-plants of India have a leaf like the black mulberry, and are set +on the plains in rows, resembling vines in the distance. On the Persian +Gulf he noticed that they bore no fruit, but a capsule about the size of +a quince, which, when ripe, expanded so as to set free the wool, which +was woven into cloth of various kinds, both very cheap and of great +value. + +The cotton-plant was observed by the Greeks who accompanied Alexander +in his march to India: and his officers have left a description of the +cotton dress and turban which formed the costume of the natives at that +remote period. + +Cotton early found its way into Egypt, then the seat of arts and of +commerce; for Pliny in his "Natural History" informs us that "in Upper +Egypt, towards Arabia, there grows a shrub which some call _Gossypion_ +and others _Xylon_. It is small, and bears a fruit resembling the +filbert, within which is a downy wool that is spun into thread. There +is nothing to be preferred to these stuffs for whiteness or softness. +Beautiful garments are made from them for the priests of Egypt." + +The troops of Anthony wore cotton when he visited Cleopatra, and she +was arrayed in vestments of fine muslin. It was soon after used for the +sails of vessels, and the Romans employed it for awnings in the Forum +and the Amphitheatres. + +It was cultivated at an early period in the Levant, whence it was +gradually introduced into Sicily, France, and England. + +Arabian travellers who reached China in the ninth century did not +observe the cotton-plant in that country, but found the natives clad in +silk. + +The cotton-plant, although indigenous in India, has also been found +growing spontaneously in many parts of Africa. It was discovered by +Columbus in Hispaniola, and among the presents sent by Cortes to Charles +V. were cotton mantles, vests, and carpets of various figures, and in +the conquest of Mexico the Indian allies wore armor of quilted cotton, +impervious to arrows. + +The plant of India resembles that of America in most particulars. It +is there often placed in alternate rows with rice, and after the +rice-harvest is over puts forth a beautiful yellow flower with a crimson +eye in each petal; this is succeeded by a green pod filled with a white +pulp, which as it ripens turns brown, and then separates into several +divisions containing the cotton. A luxuriant field, says Forbes in his +"Oriental Memoirs," "exhibits at the same time the expanding blossom, +the bursting capsule, and the snowy fleeces of pure cotton, and is one +of the most beautiful objects in the agriculture of Hindostan." + +The manufacture of cotton in India, with very simple machinery, was +early brought to high perfection. Travellers in the ninth century +describe muslins in India which were of such fineness that they might be +drawn through a ring of moderate size; and Tavernier speaks of turbans, +composed of thirty-five ells of the cloth, which would weigh but four +ounces. Muslin has been sold in India for five hundred rupees the piece, +so fine, that, when laid upon the grass after the dew had fallen, it +was no longer visible. The patience, the nice sense of touch, and the +flexible fingers of the Hindoos have with the simplest means achieved +results in this branch of manufacture which have not been surpassed by +any people. + +But this manufacture is now breathing its last; the cotton-gin, the +spinning-frame, the mule with its countless spindles, and the power-loom +are fearful competitors; and although British India still produces quite +as much cotton as our Southern States, and while she exports at least +eight hundred thousand bales annually to England and China, continues at +the same time to make the larger part of her own clothing, flourishing +cities, like Dacca and Delhi, once the seat of manufactures, are going +to decay, and a large proportion of her people, willing to toil at six +cents per day in occupations that have been transmitted for centuries +in the same families, are either driven to the culture of the fields or +compelled to spin and weave for a pittance the jute which is converted +into gunny-cloth. + +When India muslins and calicoes were first imported into England, they +met with a formidable opposition. They had suddenly become fashionable, +and threatened to supersede the long-established woollens; and the +nation, in its wisdom, first prohibited the importation of these +fabrics, and then subjected them to a duty of sixpence per yard. In +France, Amiens, Rouen, and Paris protested against cotton as ruinous +to the country. But it has surmounted all these obstacles, is firmly +established in both nations, and now its manufacture gives support to +one-seventh part of the population of Great Britain, employs there +thirty-four millions of spindles, consumes annually two and a half +million bales of the raw material, and sends abroad, in addition to +thread and yarn, twenty-eight hundred million yards of fabrics, of the +aggregate value of two hundred and thirty millions of dollars. + +In 1856, Great Britain derived her supply of cotton from the following +countries, namely:-- + + From the United States 71 per cent. + " the East Indies 19 " " + " Brazil 5 " " + " Egypt 4-1/2 " " + " the West Indies 1/2 " " + +But while her supply from India in the twelve years from 1845 to 1857 +increased nearly two hundred per cent, namely, from two hundred thousand +to six hundred thousand bales, she has increased her exports of cotton +fabrics to that country to such an extent, that, for every pound she +imports, she returns a pound of thread and cloth enhanced at least +fourfold in value, while she returns to the United States in cotton +fabrics less than three per cent, of the cotton she receives from them. +And since 1857 such improvements have been made in the cotton-mills of +New England, that we now consume more than a million of bales annually, +and our production and export are rapidly increasing. + +Some curious alternations have attended the growth and manufacture of +cotton. As machinery has improved and the cost of goods diminished, the +price of cotton has advanced and a strong stimulus been given to its +production. + +New States have consequently been opened to its culture, and the +alluvial lands of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas +have been devoted to the plant. Slaves have thus been attracted from the +Middle States and diverted from the less profitable culture of wheat and +tobacco to the cotton-fields. Half a century since, the Middle States +contained two-thirds of the negroes of the Union; but under the census +of 1860 two millions and a half of slaves are now found south of North +Carolina, and but a million and a half north of the Cotton States. In +the Cotton States the negroes nearly equal the white population; in the +Border States the whites are at least four to one. In the Cotton States +the slaves and the culture of cotton are increasing at the rate of at +least five per cent.; in the Border States the slave population is +either stationary or retrograde, and the future of those States is +clearly indicated. Down to a recent period the march of the planter and +his forces across the Cotton States has been like that of an invading +army. Vast forests of heavy timber have been felled, land rapidly +exhausted and abandoned, and new fields opened and soon deserted for a +virgin soil. + +But with the increased demand of the last seven years for cotton, and +with the enhanced price of the slave, which rises at least one hundred +dollars with each advance of a cent per pound on cotton, more permanent +improvements have been made, railways have been opened, and at least +fifty thousand tons of guano and cotton-seed have been annually applied +to the exhausted cotton-fields of the Carolinas and Georgia. Under +these appliances the crops of the United States have kept pace with +the manufacture, and in 1859 rose to the amount of twenty-one hundred +millions of pounds, thus replenishing the markets that had been recently +exhausted, and actually exceeding the entire consumption for the same +year of both Europe and America. + +But the crops fluctuate from year to year, and a less favorable season +for 1860, accompanied by an increase of at least ten per cent. in +spindles, leaves the supply barely equal to the demand, while the +diminished crop, and the cry of Secession at the South, with the +introduction of an export-duty, have alarmed the spinners of England and +led them to consider the effects of a deficiency and to seek new sources +of supply. + +With the progress of trade the price of the middling cotton of America +for the last fifteen years has varied at Liverpool from fourpence to +ninepence per pound, and now stands at seven and a halfpence by the last +quotations. As the stock accumulates or the sale of goods is checked, +the price naturally declines, and a check is given to production. As +the stock declines or goods advance, an impetus is given to prices, the +culture is extended, and cotton flows in from Egypt and India. When the +cotton of Bombay commands more than fivepence per pound at Liverpool, +it flows in a strong current from India to Manchester. Should the +export-duty be levied in the Cotton States, it may well be presumed +that the burden will fall principally upon the planter, and give an +additional stimulus to the growth of India, and a new incentive to the +British Government to start the culture in other colonies. + +The gentlemen of the South sometimes imagine that Old England, as well +as New England, is entirely dependent upon cotton, and that society +there would be disintegrated, if the crop in the Cotton States should +be withheld for a single year. But the Northern mills have usually six +months' supply; and Great Britain holds upon an average enough for three +months in her ports, for two months at her mills, and as much more +upon the ocean. The English spinner, too, can not only reduce his time +one-fourth without stopping, but can reduce his consumption another +fourth by raising his numbers and increasing the fineness of his cloth; +and as he draws one-fourth of his supply from other countries, it is +obvious that he might hold out for nearly two years without a bale from +America. + +Could the cotton-planter hold out any longer? Let it not be forgotten +that the Embargo was voted to bring England to terms by withholding +rice, cotton, wheat, and naval stores, but proved a signal failure. We +reaped from it no harvests, and were put back by it at least six years +in our national progress; while England enjoyed the carrying-trade of +the world, which we had abandoned, and drew her supplies from Russia and +India while our crops perished in our own warehouses. + +The vast export of cotton goods from Great Britain to India has now +liberated at least half a million bales of cotton for the supply of +England in addition to what India previously furnished; and as the +export of goods to India and China continues to increase, the surplus of +cotton must rise with it. But India is able to treble her production. It +is true that the staple of her cotton suffers from the dry summers, that +her land is but half tilled by ploughs consisting of a simple beam of +wood with two prongs and a single handle, that she has been destitute +of roads and facilities for transportation, that her lands are held at +oppressive rents, that American planters there have failed to make good +cotton, and that the annual yield of her soil is as small as that of the +exhausted fields of South Carolina. But still she produces at least four +million bales of cotton, and great changes are now in progress: railways +are pervading the country; canals are being dug for irrigating, and +irrigation quadruples the crop, while it improves the staple; and the +diversion of a few districts from the ordinary crops, with improved +tillage, will increase the production to an indefinite extent. + +The latest intelligence from India apprises us that in one large cotton +district the American planters have at length succeeded, and American +cotton is now growing there on one hundred and forty-six thousand acres. + +IN DARWAR. + + _In American Cotton. In Native Kupas. Total._ + 1851 31,688 acres 223,314 acres 255,002 + 1860 146,320 " 230,677 " 377,003 + +In Africa, also, the export of cotton is on the increase; and Egypt is +erecting new works to retain and direct the overflow of the Nile, which +will augment her exports. + +There is a belt around the earth's surface of at least sixty degrees in +width, adapted in great part to the culture of cotton. Great Britain now +commands capital, while China and India overflow with labor. Let Great +Britain divert a few millions of this capital and but half a million of +coolies to any fertile area of five thousand square miles within this +belt, and she can in a few years double her supply of cotton, and +command the residue of her importation at reasonable prices. + +Among these spots none is more promising than Central America, where the +cotton-plant is perennial, and a single acre, as we are assured by Mr. +Squier, yields semiannually a bale of superior cotton. But let us hope +that the South may abandon her dream of a Southern Empire, and the +chimera which now haunts her, that the Northerner is hostile to the +Southerner, when in reality he has no such feeling, but merely recoils +from institutions which he believes to be at variance with moral and +material progress. + +Hemp, or _Cannabis sativa_, from which we possibly derive the modern +term canvas, was known to the ancients and used by them for rope and +cordage and occasionally for cloth. It was found early in Thrace, in +Caria, and upon the Rhone. Herodotus says that garments were made of it +by the Thracians "so much like linen that none but an experienced person +could tell whether they were made of hemp or of flax." + +Moschion, who flourished two centuries before the Christian era, states +that the celebrated ship Syracusia built by Hiero II. was provided with +rope made from the hemp of the Rhone. Although the plant is indigenous +in Northern India, where it is cultivated for its narcotic qualities, it +is adapted to a southern climate; and we may safely infer that it was +not a native of either Italy, Greece, or Asia Minor, but was doubtless +introduced into Caria by the active trade between the Euxine and +Miletus. Cloth of hemp is still worn by boatmen upon the Danube; but +although its fibre is nearly as delicate as that of flax and cotton, it +is used principally for cordage, for which purpose it is imported from +the interior of Russia into England and the United States. In 1858 the +entire importation into Great Britain was forty-four thousand tons. +A large amount is now raised in Missouri and Kentucky, whose soil is +admirably adapted to the hemp-plant. Hemp grows freely in Bologna, +Romagna, and Naples, and the Italians have a saying, that "it may be +grown everywhere, but cannot be produced fit for use in heaven or on +earth without manure." The Italian hemp is aided by irrigation. + +The plant is annual, and attains a height of three to ten feet, +according to the soil and climate. Its stalk is hollow, filled with a +soft pith, and surrounded by a cellular texture coated with a delicate +membrane which runs parallel to the stalk and is covered by a thin +cuticle. In Russia the seed is sown in June and gathered in September. + +The Manila hemp (_Musa textilis_) does not appear to have been known to +the ancients, and is now found in the Philippine Islands, the Indian +Archipelago, and Japan, regions unexplored by the ancients. It is also +found at the base of the Himalaya Mountains. It is a large herbaceous +plant, which requires a warm climate, and is cut after a growth of +eighteen months. The outer layers or fibres of the plant are called the +_bandola_, which is used in the fabrication of cordage; the inner layers +have a more delicate fibre called the _lupis_, which is woven into fine +fabrics; while the intermediate layers, termed _tupoz_, are made into +cloth of different degrees of fineness. + +The filaments, after they are gathered, are separated by a knife, and +rendered soft and pliable by beating them with a mallet; their ends are +then gummed together, after which they are wound into balls, and the +finer qualities are woven without going through the process of spinning. +With the produce of this plant the natives pay their tribute, purchase +the necessaries of life, and provide themselves with clothing. + +The imports of this article into Great Britain in 1859 were very +considerable, while the United States also imported a very large amount. +It is used for cordage by the ships of both countries. In one respect +it differs from wool, cotton, and hemp, the fibres of all of which are +found by the microscope to consist of tubes, while the filaments of +the _Musa textilis_, although often fine, are in no case hollow, and +consequently are less flexible and divisible than other fibres. + +Within the last twenty years, a new export from India, in the shape of +Jute and its fabrics, has grown up from insignificance into commercial +importance, and is now among the chief exports of the country. This +article demands our particular attention, as it requires but four months +for its production, furnishes a very large supply of textile material, +is raised at one-fifth the expense of cotton, and has been sold in India +as low as one cent per pound. + +Jute is generally grown as an after-crop in India upon high ground, and +flourishes best in a hot and rainy season. The seed is sown broadcast in +April or May, when there is sufficient rain to moisten the ground. When +the plant is a foot and a half high it is weeded. It rises on good soil +to the height of twelve feet, and flowers between August and September. +The stems are usually three-fourths of an inch in diameter. The leaves +have long foot-stalks, the flowers are small and yellow, and the +capsules short and globose, containing five cells for the seed. The +fruit ripens in September and October. The average yield in fibre to +the acre is from four hundred to seven hundred pounds. When the crop is +ripe, the stems are cut close to the root, made up into bundles, and +deposited for a week in some neighboring pond or stream. + +The process of separating the fibre from the stem is thus described by +Mr. Healy in the "Journal of Agriculture for India";-- + +"The native operator, standing up to his middle in water, takes as many +of the sticks in his hands as he can grasp, and removing a small portion +of the bark from the end next the roots, and grasping them together, he +with a little management strips off the whole from end to end, without +breaking either stem or fibre. He then, swinging the bark around his +head, dashes it repeatedly against the surface of the water, drawing it +towards him to wash off the impurities." + +The filaments are then hung up to dry in the sun, often in lengths of +twelve feet, and when dried the jute is ready for the market. + +The color at first is a pure white, but gradually changes to yellow. The +fibre, which is fine and delicate, is tubular, like that of flax and +cotton, and is easily wrought; but its tenacity is not equal to that of +other textile materials, although it is substituted in many fabrics +for wool, flax, and cotton. A large portion of the crop, which already +exceeds two hundred thousand tons, is exported to England as it comes +from the field, and is there used in the manufacture both of wool and +cotton to cheapen the fabric. The vigilant eye will often detect it in +woollen manufactures, in shawls, and even in sail-cloths; but when spun +with cotton or wool, it is very difficult to discover its presence. + +A few years since, there was a great reduction in the price of plaid +shawls from England, which took the dealers by surprise, as the cost +was previously supposed to have reached the lowest point; but a close +examination of the threads elicited the fact that the manufacturer had +adroitly twisted in with his wool a liberal allowance of jute, costing +but two or three cents a pound when wool cost thirty, and thus reduced +the price of the fabric. + +By the use of shoddy in the manufacture of woollens, and of jute in both +cotton and woollen fabrics, the English artisan saves many millions +of pounds both of wool and cotton. In those districts of India where +British skill and commercial enterprise have checked the manufacture of +muslin and calicoes, the Hindoos of all classes find in the culture and +manufacture of jute employment for all, "from the palanquin-bearer and +husbandman down to the Hindoo widow, saved by the interposition of +England from the funeral pile, but condemned by custom for the residue +of her days literally to sackcloth and ashes." The fine and long-stapled +jute is reserved for the export trade, for which it bears a +comparatively high price; the residue is spun and woven by these classes +as a domestic manufacture; it is made into gunny-cloth, which is +circulated through the globe, forms the bagging for our corn, wheat, +and cotton on their voyage to distant ports, and finally makes its last +appearance as paper. + +The long stems of the jute are highly esteemed in India; they resemble +willow wands, are useful for basket-work and fencing, for trellis-work +and the support of vines, and to make a charcoal which is valued for the +manufacture of gunpowder. + +The export of jute from India to England for 1859 was sixty thousand +tons. The export of gunny-cloth from India to the United States in the +same year amounted to several millions of pieces. + +Why should not this valuable plant be introduced into America? It +requires the same season and soil as our Indian corn, and would +doubtless flourish in the rich alluvial lands of the West, and furnish a +very cheap and useful domestic manufacture for our Western farmers. + +The term Linen is doubtless derived from _Linum_, the classic and +botanic name of flax. In Holy Writ, Moses called down the hail upon the +growing flax of Lower Egypt, and Isaiah speaks of those "that work in +fine flax." According to Herodotus, the ancient Egyptians wore linen. +Plutarch informs us that the priests of Isis wore linen on account of +its purity, and mentions a tradition that flax was used for clothing +"because the color of its blossom resembles the ethereal blue which +surrounds the world"; and he adds, that the priests of Isis were buried +in their sacred vestments. An eminent cotton-spinner, who subjected four +hundred specimens of mummy-cloth to the microscope, has ascertained that +they were all linen; and even now, when aspiring cotton has contested +its superiority, and claimed to be more healthful and more beneficial +to the human frame, the choicest drapery of our tables and couches, and +many of our most costly and elegant articles of dress, are fabricated +from flax. + +Flax is sown in the spring and harvested in the summer, and requires but +three months for its growth. While cotton grows in hot climates only, +flax grows both under the tropics and in temperate climates, and as far +north as Russia, Ireland, and Canada; and while at the South it runs +mostly to seed, the best varieties are produced in Normandy, Belgium, +and Poland. + +In another particular flax has the advantage over cotton. While the +latter, under the ordinary course of cultivation in South Carolina, +yields but one bale to four acres, and in virgin soil rarely more than +one bale to two acres, flax yields in good soil from five to eight +hundred pounds of fibre to the acre, which may be converted into +flax-cotton by modern machinery; and as the product has but three per +cent. waste, while cotton loses eleven per cent. in its manufacture, the +flax-cotton which is produced from a single acre is the equivalent of +one to two bales of cotton. + +With these important advantages, namely, its adaptation to a northern +climate where the white man can labor, and a capacity for yielding so +large an amount of fibre, flax holds a high place in the list of textile +materials. + +Flax can be raised with very moderate expense up to the time of harvest. +If the soil is free from weeds, it requires little more preparation, +care, or expense for its culture than wheat or barley. But from this +point onward a large expenditure of labor is requisite, which greatly +enhances the cost, carrying it up as high as ten to twenty cents per +pound, according to the degree of fineness; for the filaments must be +separated from the stem by immersion in water, must be kept in parallel +lines, and prepared for the spindle by skilful and long-continued labor. + +To insure the best quality, it must be pulled and bound in bundles +before it is entirely ripe, thus impairing the value of the seed, while +the edible and nutritious portion of the stalk is lost or injured in the +water. + +For many years it was spun on the little wheel, but of late years +improved machinery has been applied at Belfast, Leeds, Dundee, and other +cities of Great Britain; yet nearly a third of the value is lost in the +broken filaments, which are reduced to tow in its preparation for the +spindle. With a fibre at least as fine and delicate as that of cotton, +its full value to the world will not be demonstrated until it is +effectually cottonized. + +In its present state, however, it has come into very extensive use. More +than eighty thousand tons were, in 1859, imported into Great Britain, +and many acres are there devoted to its culture. The consumption in that +country is estimated to exceed one hundred and sixty thousand tons, +a quantity equivalent to eight hundred thousand bales of cotton. In +addition to this, ten millions of bushels of flax-seed are annually +crushed in Great Britain, a large portion of which is drawn from India. + +The culture of flax was introduced into this country early in the last +century by the Scotch, who crossed over to Ireland under Elizabeth and +Cromwell, and soon after the siege of Derry transferred their arts and +their industry to this country. Several colonies of these were planted +in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and a large colony was established at +Natfield, New Hampshire, upon a tract twelve miles square, one of the +best sections of the State, situate in the area between Manchester, +Lowell, Lawrence, and Exeter. Here every farmer cultivated his field of +barley and flax, here every woman had her little wheel, and the +article formed the currency of the place;--notes were given payable in +spinning-wheels. Girls were seen beetling the linen on the grass; +and when the harvest over, the men mounted their horses, and with +well-filled saddle-bags threaded the by-roads of the forest to find +a market in Boston, Lynn, Salem, or Newburyport. Fortunes were thus +accumulated and a flourishing academy and two Presbyterian societies are +now sustained by funds thus acquired by the Pinkerton family. But as the +wages of girls gradually rose from two shillings to two dollars per +week with the invention of the cotton-gin, the power-loom, and the +spinning-jenny, the culture of flax was gradually abandoned, the seat +of manufactures removed from the hills to the waterfalls, and the +flax-fields converted into market-gardens or milk-farms. The town +of Derry, once the great seat of New-England manufactures, is now +principally distinguished for the Stark, Rogers, and Reed it gave to the +French War and the Revolution, for the Bells, Dinsmores, Wilsons, and +Pattersons it has given to the halls of legislation, and the McKeens, +McGregors, Morisons, and Nesmiths it has furnished to commerce or the +Church. + +At the present rates of labor, the culture of flax cannot be revived in +this region until the mode of curing and dressing it is cheapened; and +there is reason to hope that this revolution is at hand. + +At the present moment flax is raised both in India and Ohio for the seed +alone. An acre of ripened flax yields from ten to twenty bushels +of seed, and each bushel affords nearly or quite two gallons of +linseed-oil. The well-ripened seed is most prolific in oil. + +It has been supposed by some that flax exhausts the soil. It is +undoubtedly true that it does best under a rotation of crops, and +that the ingredients it withdraws from the soil should be restored to +preserve its fertility. But the reduction of the plant to ashes shows +that its chemical components can be restored at a cost of three dollars +per acre, while the properties withdrawn by the seed can be easily +supplied by returning in other fertilizers the equivalent for half a ton +of flax-seed. If the oil-cake be consumed upon the farm, little more +than the above and its product in manure will be required. + +The ashes of the flax-plant have been analyzed. Dr. Royle, of England, a +distinguished writer upon fibrous plants, assures us that the following +compound will supply to one acre all that the plant requires, and leave +the land as fertile as before the flax was gathered:-- + + _lbs. s. d._ + Muriate of Potash 30 cost 2 6 + Common Salt 28 " 0 3 + Burned Plaster of Paris 34 " 0 6 + Bone-Dust 54 " 3 3 + Epsom Salts 56 " 4 0 + 10 6 + +It has been ascertained by the microscope that wool, cotton, hemp, jute, +and flax are composed of minute fibres, each of which forms a hollow +tube, and there is a close resemblance between the tubes of each,--the +tube of the cotton, however, collapsing as it ripens. These tubes in the +jute and flax are closely cemented together, and the term _Fibrilia_ has +been applied to fibres of the plant when reduced to a short staple +like cotton. The process for effecting this result is very accurately +described in a work just published, entitled "Fibrilia." The patentees +of this invention claim that their process, in the space of twenty-four +hours, converts the flax and tow, as they come from the threshing-mill, +into an article which may be spun and woven by the same machinery as +cotton. The article produced and lately exhibited at public meetings +resembles cotton in its appearance and qualities, with the advantage +that it wastes less in the manufacture, has more lustre, and receives a +superior color. The patentees and their friends further claim that this +cotton can be raised in all temperate latitudes, at the rate of four to +eight hundred pounds per acre, and profess within the past year to have +manufactured twelve thousand pounds. + +These statements have been confidently made at public meetings in +the State House of Massachusetts, and it is understood that a mill +containing one hundred looms, half of which are now in operation, has +been erected at Roxbury, under the direction of gentlemen who are +familiar with the manufacture. Should the same results be obtained on a +large scale which have attended the manufacture of the first few bales, +the first step in a great revolution will be effected. + +By the process of Mr. S.M. Allen of Boston, the great outlay of labor +which has usually attended the culture and preparation of flax is +avoided. When the plant has attained its full height of twenty to thirty +inches, and its seed is ripened, it is harvested like grass with a +mowing-machine, dried like hay or oats in the field, and then carried +to the threshing-mill. After the seed is separated, the stalk is +transferred to a patent brake, moved by two or four horses, and costing +from three to four hundred dollars. This machine is composed of several +sets of fluted iron rollers, between which the stalk passes from one set +to another, the rollers gradually diminishing in size, but increasing in +rapidity of motion, by means of which the woody texture of the plant is +effectually broken and separated. The filaments are then carried through +a coarse card or picker. The shives are thus separated, and two tons of +stalks reduced to half a ton of linten, which may be either taken at +once to the retort or baled for shipment. When the flax is thus reduced +by the farmer to linten, the article is reputed to be worth to the +manufacturer four cents a pound, or at least twenty dollars for the +product of an acre yielding a single ton of flax-straw. + +According to this statement the farmer would realize from his crop at +least as follows:-- + + Estimated value of seed, 14 bushels, + at $1.25 $17.50 + Estimated value of 500 lbs. of linten, + at 4 cts. 20.00 + Estimated value of 3/4 of a ton of shives + from unrotted stems, valuable for + cattle, at $8.00 per ton 6.00 + + Produce of an acre $43.50 + +And this produce would be realized with little more labor than a crop +of oats or wheat, returning less than twenty-five dollars to the acre. +Unless the soil should be foul, no weeding would be required, while the +breaking would cost little more than a second threshing, and a second +crop of turnips can be taken from the same soil. + +From the patent brake and the picker the linten is carried to a retort, +which may hold from five hundred to three thousand pounds of fibre,--the +capacity of one hundred cubic feet being required for each thousand +pounds; and the retort, which may be made from boiler-plates, costs from +three hundred to fifteen hundred dollars. Here the linten is put into +a hot bath of air forced through heated water, and thus charged with +moisture, which softens the filaments and diminishes the cohesion of +the fibres. After this air-bath, pure water of the temperature of one +hundred and forty to one hundred and sixty degrees is admitted into the +retort, and the linten is immersed in it for five or six hours. + +After this steeping process is completed, the water is let off from +below, and pure water admitted from above under pressure, until the +color begins to change; the fibre is then steeped for three or four +hours in a weak solution of soda-ash; the alkali is washed out by the +admission of pure water alternating with steam, and, if necessary to +complete the bleaching, a weak solution of chlorine is applied. All this +may be effected without removing the linten from the retort. The product +is then dried as in ordinary drying-rooms. + +When dried, it is carried again through a set of cards, and a piece of +machinery termed a railway-head, with positive draught, which can be set +so as to give any length of staple, and to present the flax-cotton thus +produced in any form required for spinning, either separately or mixed +with cotton or wool, and thus adapted to the machinery used in the +manufacture of either of these articles. The cost of this process, from +the brake to the final production of the cotton, is set by the patentee, +after leaving him a fair profit, at three cents per pound of cotton; +and if we add this to the cost of the linten, and allow for freight and +storage, the entire cost of the fibrilia is but eight cents per pound, +or two-thirds of the present price of middling cotton. + +The idea of modifying the filaments of flax and hemp so as to convert +them into cotton is by no means a new one. As long ago as 1747 it was +proposed to convert flax into cotton by boiling it in a solution of +caustic potash, and subsequently washing it with soap; and in 1775 Lady +Moira, aided by T.B. Bailey, actually converted some refuse flax into +cotton by boiling it in alkali. The result was, that the fibres seemed +to be set at liberty from each other; after which it was carded on +cotton cards, spun, and woven as cotton. + +The Chevalier Claussen, as recently as 1850, claimed to have discovered +the process, and actually took out a patent; but his invention, which +consisted in boiling the cut and crushed stems of the flax in a solution +of caustic soda, turned out a failure,--the cutting, crushing, and +boiling processes proving alike defective. + +New discoveries are the result of repeated trials; perseverance usually +prevails; and if States are to secede at pleasure and withhold their +cotton, and no other good uses can be found for flax or hemp, why should +not their fibres secede also,--be set at liberty and resolve themselves +into a cotton state? + +We might pass from the fibrous plants, and the metamorphosis of flax +into cotton, to the _Pinna_, whose fibres grow in the sea on the coast +of Italy, and anchor the huge shell-fish to the rock or the sand. These +fibres are brought up by divers, and woven into beautiful fabrics. We +might repeat the tale of the crab which lives with this shell-fish, +and apprises his blind housekeeper of the approach of danger,--a tale +confirmed by ancient and modern naturalists,--for there are strange +doings in the sea as well as upon the land. We might also dilate upon +China grass, which is manufactured in the East into delicate fabrics. +But our limits compel us to defer these topics. + + + + +NAT TURNER'S INSURRECTION. + + +During the year 1831, up to the twenty-third of August, the Virginia +newspapers were absorbed in the momentous problems which then occupied +the minds of intelligent American citizens:--What General Jackson should +do with the scolds, and what with the disreputables,--Should South +Carolina be allowed to nullify? and would the wives of Cabinet Ministers +call on Mrs. Eaton? It is an unfailing opiate, to turn over the drowsy +files of the "Richmond Enquirer", until the moment when those dry and +dusty pages are suddenly kindled into flame by the torch of Nat Turner. +Then the terror flares on increasing, until the remotest Southern States +are found shuddering at nightly rumors of insurrection,--until far-off +European colonies, Antigua, Martinique, Caraccas, Tortola, recognize by +some secret sympathy the same epidemic alarms,--until the very boldest +words of freedom are reported as uttered in the Virginia House of +Delegates with unclosed doors,--until an obscure young man named +Garrison is indicted at Common Law in North Carolina, and has a price +set upon his head by the Legislature of Georgia. The insurrection +revived in one agonizing reminiscence all the distresses of Gabriel's +Revolt, thirty years before; and its memory endures still fresh, now +that thirty added years have brought the more formidable presence of +General Butler. It is by no means impossible that the very children or +even confederates of Nat Turner may be included at this moment among the +contraband articles of Fort Monroe. + +Near the southeastern border of Virginia, in Southampton County, there +is a neighborhood known as "The Cross Keys". It lies fifteen miles from +Jerusalem, the county-town or "court-house", seventy miles from Norfolk, +and about as far from Richmond. It is some ten or fifteen miles from +Murfreesboro in North Carolina, and about twenty-five from the Great +Dismal Swamp. Up to Sunday, the twenty-first of August, 1831, there was +nothing to distinguish it from any other rural, lethargic, slipshod +Virginia neighborhood, with the due allotment of mansion-houses and +log-huts, tobacco-fields and "old-fields", horses, dogs, negroes, "poor +white folks", so called, and other white folks, poor without being +called so. One of these last was Joseph Travis, who had recently married +the widow of one Putnam Moore, and had unfortunately wedded to himself +her negroes also. + +In the woods on the plantation of Joseph Travis, upon the Sunday just +named, six slaves met at noon for what is called in the Northern States +a picnic and in the Southern a barbecue. The bill of fare was to be +simple: one brought a pig, and another some brandy, giving to the +meeting an aspect so cheaply convivial that no one would have imagined +it to be the final consummation of a conspiracy which had been for six +months in preparation. In this plot four of the men had been already +initiated,--Henry, Hark or Hercules, Nelson, and Sam. Two others were +novices, Will and Jack by name. The party had remained together from +twelve to three o'clock, when a seventh man joined them,--a short, +stout, powerfully built person, of dark mulatto complexion and +strongly-marked African features, but with a face full of expression and +resolution. This was Nat Turner. + +He was at this time nearly thirty-one years old, having been born on +the second of October, 1800. He had belonged originally to Benjamin +Turner,--whence his last name, slaves having usually no patronymic,--had +then been transferred to Putnam Moore, and then to his present owner. +He had, by his own account, felt himself singled out from childhood for +some great work; and he had some peculiar marks on his person, which, +joined to his great mental precocity, were enough to occasion, among his +youthful companions, a superstitious faith in his gifts and destiny. +He had great mechanical ingenuity also, experimentalized very early in +making paper, gunpowder, pottery, and in other arts which in later life +he was found thoroughly to understand. His moral faculties were very +strong, so that white witnesses admitted that he had never been known to +swear an oath, to drink a drop of spirits, or to commit a theft. And in +general, so marked were his early peculiarities, that people said "he +had too much sense to be raised, and if he was, he would never be of +any use as a slave." This impression of personal destiny grew with his +growth;--he fasted, prayed, preached, read the Bible, heard voices when +he walked behind his plough, and communicated his revelations to the +awe-struck slaves. They told him in return, that, "if they had his +sense, they would not serve any master in the world." + +The biographies of slaves can hardly be individualized; they belong to +the class. We know bare facts; it is only the general experience of +human beings in like condition which can clothe them with life. The +outlines are certain, the details are inferential. Thus, for instance, +we know that Nat Turner's young wife was a slave; we know that she +belonged to a different master from himself; we know little more than +this, but this is much. For this is equivalent to saying that by day or +by night that husband had no more power to protect her than the man who +lies bound upon a plundered vessel's deck has power to protect his wife +on board the pirate-schooner disappearing in the horizon; she may be +reverenced, she may be outraged; it is in the powerlessness that the +agony lies. There is, indeed, one thing more which we do know of this +young woman: the Virginia newspapers state that she was tortured under +the lash, after her husband's execution, to make her produce his papers: +this is all. + +What his private experiences and special privileges or wrongs may have +been, it is therefore now impossible to say. Travis was declared to be +"more humane and fatherly to his slaves than any man in the county"; but +it is astonishing how often this phenomenon occurs in the contemporary +annals of slave insurrections. The chairman of the county court also +stated, in pronouncing sentence, that Nat Turner had spoken of his +master as "only too indulgent"; but this, for some reason, does not +appear in his printed Confession, which only says, "He was a kind +master, and placed the greatest confidence in me." It is very possible +that it may have been so, but the printed accounts of Nat Turner's +person look suspicious: he is described in Governor Floyd's proclamation +as having a scar on one of his temples, also one on the back of his +neck, and a large knot on one of the bones of his right arm, produced by +a blow; and although these were explained away in Virginia newspapers +as being produced by fights with his companions, yet such affrays are +entirely foreign to the admitted habits of the man. It must, therefore, +remain an open question, whether the scars and the knot were produced by +black hands or by white. + +Whatever Nat Turner's experiences of slavery might have been, it is +certain that his plans were not suddenly adopted, but that he had +brooded over them for years. To this day there are traditions among the +Virginia slaves of the keen devices of "Prophet Nat". If he was +caught with lime and lamp-black in hand, conning over a half-finished +county-map on the barn-door, he was always "planning what to do, if he +were blind", or "studying how to get to Mr. Francis's house." When he +had called a meeting of slaves, and some poor whites came eavesdropping, +the poor whites at once became the subjects for discussion; he +incidentally mentioned that the masters had been heard threatening to +drive them away; one slave had been ordered to shoot Mr. Jones's pigs, +another to tear down Mr. Johnson's fences. The poor whites, Johnson and +Jones, ran home to see to their homesteads, and were better friends than +ever to Prophet Nat. + +He never was a Baptist preacher, though such vocation has often been +attributed to him. The impression arose from his having immersed +himself, during one of his periods of special enthusiasm, together with +a poor white man named Brantley. "About this time", he says in his +Confession, "I told these things to a white man, on whom it had a +wonderful effect, and he ceased from his wickedness, and was attacked +immediately with a cutaneous eruption, and the blood oozed from the +pores of his skin, and after praying and fasting nine days he was +healed. And the Spirit appeared to me again, and said, as the Saviour +had been baptized, so should we be also; and when the white people +would not let us be baptized by the Church, we went down into the water +together, in the sight of many who reviled us, and were baptized by the +Spirit. After this I rejoiced greatly and gave thanks to God." + +The religious hallucinations narrated in his Confession seem to have +been as genuine as the average of such things, and are very well +expressed. It reads quite like Jacob Behmen. He saw white spirits and +black spirits contending in the skies, the sun was darkened, the thunder +rolled. "And the Holy Ghost was with me, and said, 'Behold me as I stand +in the heavens!' And I looked and saw the forms of men in different +attitudes. And there were lights in the sky, to which the children of +darkness gave other names than what they really were; for they were the +lights of the Saviour's hands, stretched forth from east to west, even +as they were extended on the cross on Calvary, for the redemption of +sinners." He saw drops of blood on the corn: this was Christ's blood, +shed for man. He saw on the leaves in the woods letters and numbers and +figures of men,--the same symbols which he had seen in the skies. On May +12, 1828, the Holy Spirit appeared to him and proclaimed that the yoke +of Jesus must fall on him, and he must fight against the Serpent when +the sign appeared. Then came an eclipse of the sun in February, 1831: +this was the sign; then he must arise and prepare himself, and slay his +enemies with their own weapons; then also the seal was removed from his +lips, and then he confided his plans to four associates. + +When he came, therefore, to the barbecue on the appointed Sunday, and +found, not these four only, but two others, his first question to the +intruders was, How they came thither. To this Will answered manfully, +that his life was worth no more than the others, and "his liberty was as +dear to him." This admitted him to confidence, and as Jack was known to +be entirely under Hark's influence, the strangers were no bar to their +discussion. Eleven hours they remained there, in anxious consultation: +one can imagine those terrible dusky faces, beneath the funereal woods, +and amid the flickering of pine-knot torches, preparing that stern +revenge whose shuddering echoes should ring through the land so long. +Two things were at last decided: to begin their work that night, and to +begin it with a massacre so swift and irresistible as to create in a +few days more terror than many battles, and so spare the need of future +bloodshed. "It was agreed that we should commence at home on that night, +and, until we had armed and equipped ourselves and gained sufficient +force, neither age nor sex was to be spared: which was invariably +adhered to." + +John Brown invaded Virginia with nineteen men, and with the avowed +resolution to take no life but in self-defence. Nat Turner attacked +Virginia from within, with six men, and with the determination to spare +no life until his power was established. John Brown intended to pass +rapidly through Virginia, and then retreat to the mountains. Nat Turner +intended to "conquer Southampton County as the white men did in the +Revolution, and then retreat, if necessary, to the Dismal Swamp." Each +plan was deliberately matured; each was in its way practicable; but each +was defeated by a single false step, as will soon appear. + +We must pass over the details of horror, as they occurred during the +next twenty-four hours. Swift and stealthy as Indians, the black men +passed from house to house,--not pausing, not hesitating, as their +terrible work went on. In one thing they were humaner than Indians +or than white men fighting against Indians,--there was no gratuitous +outrage beyond the death-blow itself, no insult, no mutilation; but +in every house they entered, that blow fell on man, woman, and +child,--nothing that had a white skin was spared. From every house they +took arms and ammunition, and from a few, money; on every plantation +they found recruits: those dusky slaves, so obsequious to their master +the day before, so prompt to sing and dance before his Northern +visitors, were all swift to transform themselves into fiends of +retribution now; show them sword or musket and they grasped it, though +it were an heirloom from Washington himself. The troop increased from +house to house,--first to fifteen, then to forty, then to sixty. Some +were armed with muskets, some with axes, some with scythes; some came on +their masters' horses. As the numbers increased, they could be divided, +and the awful work was carried on more rapidly still. The plan then was +for an advanced guard of horsemen to approach each house at a gallop, +and surround it till the others came up. Meanwhile what agonies of +terror must have taken place within, shared alike by innocent and by +guilty! what memories of wrongs inflicted on those dusky creatures, by +some,--what innocent participation, by others, in the penance! The +outbreak lasted for but forty-eight hours; but during that period +fifty-five whites were slain, without the loss of a single slave. + +One fear was needless, which to many a husband and father must have +intensified the last struggle. These negroes had been systematically +brutalized from childhood; they had been allowed no legalized +or permanent marriage; they had beheld around them an habitual +licentiousness, such as can scarcely exist except in a Slave State; some +of them had seen their wives and sisters habitually polluted by the +husbands and the brothers of these fair white women who were now +absolutely in their power. Yet I have looked through the Virginia +newspapers of that time in vain for one charge of an indecent outrage +on a woman against these triumphant and terrible slaves. Wherever they +went, there went death, and that was all. Compare this with ordinary +wars; compare it with the annals of the French Revolution. No one, +perhaps, has yet painted the wrongs of the French populace so terribly +as Dickens in his "Tale of Two Cities"; yet what man, conversant with +slave-biographies, can read that narrative without feeling it weak +beside the provocations to which fugitive slaves testify? It is +something for human nature that these desperate insurgents revenged such +wrongs by death alone. Even that fearful penalty was to be inflicted +only till the object was won. It was admitted in the "Richmond Enquirer" +of the time, that "indiscriminate massacre was not their intention, +after they obtained foothold, and was resorted to in the first instance +to strike terror and alarm. Women and children would afterwards have +been spared, and men also who ceased to resist." + +It is reported by some of the contemporary newspapers, that a portion +of this abstinence was the result of deliberate consultation among the +insurrectionists; that some of them were resolved on taking the white +women for wives, but were overruled by Nat Turner. If so, he is the only +American slave-leader of whom we know certainly that he rose above the +ordinary level of slave vengeance, and Mrs. Stowe's picture of Dred's +purposes is then precisely typical of his. "Whom the Lord saith unto us, +'Smite,' them will we smite. We will not torment them with the scourge +and fire, nor defile their women as they have done with ours. But we +will slay them utterly, and consume them from off the face of the +earth." + +When the number of adherents had increased to fifty or sixty, Nat Turner +judged it time to strike at the county-seat, Jerusalem. Thither a +few white fugitives had already fled, and couriers might thence +be despatched for aid to Richmond and Petersburg, unless promptly +intercepted. Besides, he could there find arms, ammunition, and money; +though they had already obtained, it is dubiously reported, from eight +hundred to one thousand dollars. On the way it was necessary to pass the +plantation of Mr. Parker, three miles from Jerusalem. Some of the +men wished to stop here and enlist some of their friends. Nat Turner +objected, as the delay might prove dangerous; he yielded at last, and it +proved fatal. + +He remained at the gate with six or eight men; thirty or forty went to +the house, half a mile distant. They remained too long, and he went +alone to hasten them. During his absence a party of eighteen white men +came up suddenly, dispersing the small guard left at the gate; and when +the main body of slaves emerged from the house, they encountered, for +the first time, their armed masters. The blacks halted, the whites +advanced cautiously within a hundred yards and fired a volley; on its +being returned, they broke into disorder, and hurriedly retreated, +leaving some wounded on the ground. The retreating whites were pursued, +and were saved only by falling in with another band of fresh men from +Jerusalem, with whose aid they turned upon the slaves, who in their turn +fell into confusion. Turner, Hark, and about twenty men on horseback +retreated in some order; the rest were scattered. The leader still +planned to reach Jerusalem by a private way, thus evading pursuit; +but at last decided to stop for the night, in the hope of enlisting +additional recruits. + +During the night the number increased again to forty, and they +encamped on Major Ridley's plantation. An alarm took place during the +darkness,--whether real or imaginary does not appear,--and the men +became scattered again. Proceeding to make fresh enlistments with the +daylight, they were resisted at Dr. Blunt's house, where his slaves, +under his orders, fired upon them, and this, with a later attack from a +party of white men near Captain Harris's, so broke up the whole force +that they never reunited. The few who remained together agreed to +separate for a few hours to see if anything could be done to revive the +insurrection, and meet again that evening at their original rendezvous. +But they never reached it. + +Sadly came Nat Turner at nightfall into those gloomy woods where +forty-eight hours before he had revealed the details of his terrible +plot to his companions. At the outset all his plans had succeeded; +everything was as he predicted: the slaves had come readily at his call, +the masters had proved perfectly defenceless. Had he not been persuaded +to pause at Parker's plantation, he would have been master before now +of the arms and ammunition at Jerusalem; and with these to aid, and the +Dismal Swamp for a refuge, he might have sustained himself indefinitely +against his pursuers. + +Now the blood was shed, the risk was incurred, his friends were killed +or captured, and all for what? Lasting memories of terror, to be sure, +for his oppressors; but on the other hand, hopeless failure for the +insurrection, and certain death for him. What a watch he must have kept +that night! To that excited imagination, which had always seen spirits +in the sky and blood-drops on the corn and hieroglyphic marks on the dry +leaves, how full the lonely forest must have been of signs and solemn +warnings! Alone with the fox's bark, the rabbit's rustle, and the +screech-owl's scream, the self-appointed prophet brooded over his +despair. Once creeping to the edge of the wood, he saw men stealthily +approach on horseback. He fancied them some of his companions; but +before he dared to whisper their ominous names, "Hark" or "Dred,"--for +the latter was the name, since famous, of one of his more recent +recruits,--he saw them to be white men, and shrank back stealthily +beneath his covert. + +There he waited two weary days and two melancholy nights,--long +enough to satisfy himself that no one would rejoin him, and that the +insurrection had hopelessly failed. The determined, desperate spirits +who had shared his plans were scattered forever, and longer delay would +be destruction for him also. He found a spot which he judged safe, dug +a hole under a pile of fence-rails in a field, and lay there for six +weeks, only leaving it for a few moments at midnight to obtain water +from a neighboring spring. Food he had previously provided, without +discovery, from a house near by. + +Meanwhile an unbounded variety of rumors went flying through the State. +The express which first reached the Governor announced that the militia +were retreating before the slaves. An express to Petersburg further +fixed the number of militia at three hundred, and of blacks at eight +hundred, and invented a convenient shower of rain to explain the +dampened ardor of the whites. Later reports described the slaves as +making three desperate attempts to cross the bridge over the Nottoway +between Cross Keys and Jerusalem, and stated that the leader had been +shot in the attempt. Other accounts put the number of negroes at three +hundred, all well mounted and armed, with two or three white men as +leaders. Their intention was supposed to be to reach the Dismal Swamp, +and they must be hemmed in from that side. + +Indeed, the most formidable weapon in the hands of slave-insurgents is +always this blind panic they create, and the wild exaggerations which +follow. The worst being possible, every one takes the worst for granted. +Undoubtedly a dozen armed men could have stifled this insurrection, even +after it had commenced operations; but it is the fatal weakness of a +slaveholding community, that it can never furnish men promptly for such +a purpose, "My first intention was," says one of the most intelligent +newspaper narrators of the affair, "to have attacked them with thirty or +forty men; but those who had families here were strongly opposed to it." + +As usual, each man was pinioned to his own hearth-stone. As usual, aid +had to be summoned from a distance, and, as usual, the United States +troops were the chief reliance. Colonel House, commanding at +Fort Monroe, sent at once three companies of artillery under +Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, and embarked them on board the steamer Hampton +for Suffolk. These were joined by detachments from the United States +ships Warren and Natchez, the whole amounting to nearly eight hundred +men. Two volunteer companies went from Richmond, four from Petersburg, +one from Norfolk, one from Portsmouth, and several from North Carolina. +The militia of Norfolk, Nansemond, and Princess Anne Counties, and the +United States troops at Old Point Comfort, were ordered to scour the +Dismal Swamp, where it was believed that two or three thousand fugitives +were preparing to join the insurgents. It was even proposed to send two +companies from New York and one from New London to the same point. + +When these various forces reached Southampton County, they found +all labor paralyzed and whole plantations abandoned. A letter from +Jerusalem, dated August 24th, says, "The oldest inhabitant of our county +has never experienced such a distressing time as we have had since +Sunday night last..... Every house, room, and corner in this place is +full of women and children, driven from home, who had to take the woods +until they could get to this place." "For many miles around their +track," says another, "the county is deserted by women and children." +Still another writes, "Jerusalem is full of women, most of them from +the other side of the river,--about two hundred at Vix's." Then follow +descriptions of the sufferings of these persons, many of whom had lain +night after night in the woods. But the immediate danger was at an end, +the short-lived insurrection was finished, and now the work of +vengeance was to begin. In the frank phrase of a North Carolina +correspondent,--"The massacre of the whites was over, and the white +people had commenced the destruction of the negroes, which was continued +after our men got there, from time to time, as they could fall in with +them, all day yesterday." A postscript adds, that "passengers by the +Fayetteville stage say, that, by the latest accounts, one hundred and +twenty negroes had been killed,"--this being little more than one day's +work. + +These murders were defended as Nat Turner defended his: a fearful blow +must be struck. In shuddering at the horrors of the insurrection, we +have forgotten the far greater horrors of its suppression. + +The newspapers of the day contain many indignant protests against the +cruelties which took place. "It is with pain," says a correspondent +of the "National Intelligencer," September 7, 1831, "that we speak of +another feature of the Southampton Rebellion; for we have been most +unwilling to have our sympathies for the sufferers diminished or +affected by their misconduct. We allude to the slaughter of many blacks +without trial and under circumstances of great barbarity..... We met +with an individual of intelligence who told us that he himself had +killed between ten and fifteen..... We [the Richmond troop] witnessed +with surprise the sanguinary temper of the population, who evinced a +strong disposition to inflict immediate death on every prisoner." + +There is a remarkable official document from General Eppes, the officer +in command, to be found in the "Richmond Enquirer" for September 6, +1831. It is an indignant denunciation of precisely these outrages; and +though he refuses to give details, he supplies their place by epithets: +"revolting,"--"inhuman and not to be justified,"--"acts of barbarity and +cruelty,"--"acts of atrocity,"--"this course of proceeding dignifies the +rebel and the assassin with the sanctity of martyrdom." And he ends by +threatening martial law upon all future transgressors. Such general +orders are not issued except in rather extreme cases. And in the +parallel columns of the newspaper the innocent editor prints equally +indignant descriptions of Russian atrocities in Lithuania, where the +Poles were engaged in active insurrection, amid profuse sympathy from +Virginia. + +The truth is, it was a Reign of Terror. Volunteer patrols rode in all +directions, visiting plantations. "It was with the greatest difficulty," +said General Brodnax before the House of Delegates, "and at the hazard +of personal popularity and esteem, that the coolest and most +judicious among us could exert an influence sufficient to restrain an +indiscriminate slaughter of the blacks who were suspected." A letter +from the Rev. G.W. Powell declares, "There are thousands of troops +searching in every direction, and many negroes are killed every day: the +exact number will never be ascertained." Petition after petition was +subsequently presented to the legislature, asking compensation for +slaves thus assassinated without trial. + +Men were tortured to death, burned, maimed, and subjected to nameless +atrocities. The overseers were called on to point out any slaves whom +they distrusted, and if any tried to escape, they were shot down. Nay, +worse than this. "A party of horsemen started from Richmond with the +intention of killing every colored person they saw in Southampton +County. They stopped opposite the cabin of a free colored man, who +was hoeing in his little field. They called out, 'Is this Southampton +County?' He replied, 'Yes, Sir, you have just crossed the line, by +yonder tree.' They shot him dead and rode on." This is from the +narrative of the editor of the "Richmond Whig," who was then on duty in +the militia, and protested manfully against these outrages. "Some +of these scenes," he adds, "are hardly inferior in barbarity to the +atrocities of the insurgents." + +These were the masters' stones. If even these conceded so much, it would +be interesting to hear what the slaves had to report. I am indebted to +my honored friend, Lydia Maria Child, for some vivid recollections of +this terrible period, as noted down from the lips of an old colored +woman, once well known in New York, Charity Bower. "At the time of the +old Prophet Nat," she said, "the colored folks was afraid to pray loud; +for the whites threatened to punish 'em dreadfully, if the least noise +was heard. The patrols was low drunken whites, and in Nat's time, if +they heard any of the colored folks praying or singing a hymn, they +would fall upon 'em and abuse 'em, and sometimes kill 'em, afore master +or missis could get to 'em. The brightest and best was killed in Nat's +time. The whites always suspect such ones. They killed a great many at +a place called Duplon. They killed Antonio, a slave of Mr. J. Stanley, +whom they shot; then they pointed their guns at him, and told him to +confess about the insurrection. He told 'em he didn't know anything +about any insurrection. They shot several balls through him, quartered +him, and put his head on a pole at the fork of the road leading to the +court." (This is no exaggeration, if the Virginia newspapers may be +taken as evidence.) "It was there but a short time. He had no trial. +They never do. In Nat's time, the patrols would tie up the free colored +people, flog 'em, and try to make 'em lie against one another, and +often killed them before anybody could interfere. Mr. James Cole, High +Sheriff, said, if any of the patrols came on his plantation, he would +lose his life in defence of his people. One day he heard a patroller +boasting how many niggers he had killed. Mr. Cole said, 'If you don't +pack up, as quick as God Almighty will let you, and get out of this +town, and never be seen in it again, I'll put you where dogs won't bark +at you.' He went off, and wasn't seen in them parts again." + +These outrages were not limited to the colored population; but other +instances occurred which strikingly remind one of more recent times. An +Englishman, named Robinson, was engaged in selling books at Petersburg. +An alarm being given, one night, that five hundred blacks were marching +towards the town, he stood guard, with others, on the bridge. After the +panic had a little subsided, he happened to remark, that "the blacks, as +men, were entitled to their freedom, and ought to be emancipated." +This led to great excitement, and he was warned to leave town. He took +passage in the stage, but the stage was intercepted. He then fled to a +friend's house; the house was broken open, and he was dragged forth. +The civil authorities, being applied to, refused to interfere. The mob +stripped him, gave him a great number of lashes, and sent him on foot, +naked, under a hot sun, to Richmond, whence he with difficulty found a +passage to New York. + +Of the capture or escape of most of that small band who met with Nat +Turner in the woods upon the Travis plantation little can now be known. +All appear among the list of convicted, except Henry and Will. General +Moore, who occasionally figures as second in command, in the newspaper +narratives of that day, was probably the Hark or Hercules before +mentioned; as no other of the confederates had belonged to Mrs. Travis, +or would have been likely to bear her previous name of Moore. As usual, +the newspapers state that most, if not all the slaves, were "the +property of kind and indulgent masters." Whether in any case they were +also the sons of those masters is a point ignored; but from the fact +that three out of the seven were at first reported as being white men by +several different witnesses,--the whole number being correctly given, +and the statement therefore probably authentic,--one must suppose that +there was an admixture of patrician blood in some of these conspirators. + +The subordinate insurgents sought safety as they could. A free colored +man, named Will Artist, shot himself in the woods, where his hat was +found on a stake and his pistol lying by him; another was found drowned; +others were traced to the Dismal Swamp; others returned to their homes, +and tried to conceal their share in the insurrection, assuring their +masters that they had been forced, against their will, to join,--the +usual defence in such cases. The number shot down at random must, by +all accounts, have amounted to many hundreds, but it is past all human +registration now. The number who had a formal trial, such as it was, is +officially stated at fifty-five; of these, seventeen were convicted and +hanged, twelve convicted and transported, twenty acquitted, and four +free colored men sent on for further trial and finally acquitted. "Not +one of those known to be concerned escaped." Of those executed, one only +was a woman: "Lucy, slave of John T. Barrow": that is all her epitaph, +shorter even than that of Wordsworth's more famous Lucy;--but whether +this one was old or young, pure or wicked, lovely or repulsive, octroon +or negro, a Cassy, an Emily, or a Topsy, no information appears; she was +a woman, she was a slave, and she died. + +There is one touching story, in connection with these terrible +retaliations, which rests on good authority, that of the Rev. M.B. Cox, +a Liberian missionary, then in Virginia. In the hunt which followed the +massacre, a slaveholder went into the woods, accompanied by a +faithful slave, who had been the means of saving his life during the +insurrection. When they had reached a retired place in the forest, the +man handed his gun to his master, informing him that he could not live a +slave any longer, and requesting him either to free him or shoot him on +the spot. The master took the gun, in some trepidation, levelled it at +the faithful negro, and shot him through the heart. It is probable that +this slaveholder was a Dr. Blunt,--his being the only plantation where +the slaves were reported as thus defending their masters. "If this +be true," said the "Richmond Enquirer," when it first narrated this +instance of loyalty, "great will be the desert of these noble minded +Africans." This "noble-minded African," at least, estimated his own +desert at a high standard: he demanded freedom,--and obtained it. + +Meanwhile the panic of the whites continued; for, though all others +might be disposed of, Nat Turner was still at large. We have positive +evidence of the extent of the alarm, although great efforts were +afterwards made to represent it as a trifling affair. A distinguished +citizen of Virginia wrote three months later to the Hon. W.B. Seabrook +of South Carolina,--"From all that has come to my knowledge during and +since that affair, I am convinced most fully that every black preacher +in the country east of the Blue Ridge was in the secret." "There is much +reason to believe," says the Governor's message on December 6th, "that +the spirit of insurrection was not confined to Southampton. Many +convictions have taken place elsewhere, and some few in distant +counties." The withdrawal of the United States troops, after some ten +days' service, was a signal for fresh excitement, and an address, +numerously signed, was presented to the United States Government, +imploring their continued stay. More than three weeks after the first +alarm, the Governor sent a supply of arms into Prince William, Fauquier, +and Orange Counties. "From examinations which have taken place in other +counties," says one of the best newspaper historians of the affair, +(in the "Richmond Enquirer" of September 6th,) "I fear that the scheme +embraced a wider sphere than I at first supposed." Nat Turner himself, +intentionally or otherwise, increased the confusion by denying all +knowledge of the North Carolina outbreak, and declaring that he had +communicated his plans to his four confederates within six months; +while, on the other hand, a slave-girl, sixteen or seventeen years old, +belonging to Solomon Parker, notified that she had heard the subject +discussed for eighteen months, and that at a meeting held during the +previous May some eight or ten had joined the plot. + +It is astonishing to discover, by laborious comparison of newspaper +files, how vast was the immediate range of these insurrectionary alarms. +Every Southern State seems to have borne its harvest of terror. On the +Eastern shore of Maryland great alarm was at once manifested, especially +in the neighborhood of Easton and Snowhill; and the houses of colored +men were searched for arms even in Baltimore. In Delaware, there were +similar rumors through Sussex and Dover Counties; there were arrests and +executions; and in Somerset County great public meetings were held, to +demand additional safeguards. On election-day, in Seaford, Del., some +young men, going out to hunt rabbits, discharged their guns in sport; +the men being absent, all the women in the vicinity took to flight; the +alarm spread like the "Ipswich Fright"; soon Seaford was thronged with +armed men; and when the boys returned from hunting, they found cannon +drawn out to receive them. + +In North Carolina, Raleigh and Fayetteville were put under military +defence, and women and children concealed themselves in the swamps for +many days. The rebel organization was supposed to include two thousand. +Forty-six slaves were imprisoned in Union County, twenty-five in Sampson +County, and twenty-three at least in Duplin County, some of whom were +executed. The panic also extended into Wayne, New Hanover, and Lenoir +Counties. Four men were shot without trial in Wilmington,--Nimrod, +Abraham, Prince, and "Dan the Drayman," the latter a man of +seventy,--and their heads placed on poles at the four corners of the +town. Nearly two months afterwards the trials were still continuing; and +at a still later day, the Governor in his proclamation recommended the +formation of companies of volunteers in every county. + +In South Carolina, General Hayne issued a proclamation "to prove the +groundlessness of the existing alarms,"--thus implying that serious +alarms existed. In Macon, Georgia, the whole population were roused from +their beds at midnight by a report of a large force of armed negroes +five miles off. In an hour, every woman and child was deposited in the +largest building of the town, and a military force hastily collected in +front. The editor of the Macon "Messenger" excused the poor condition of +his paper, a few days afterwards, by the absorption of his workmen in +patrol duties, and describes "dismay and terror" as the condition of the +people, of "all ages and sexes." In Jones, Twiggs, and Monroe Counties, +the same alarms were reported; and in one place "several slaves were +tied to a tree, while a militia captain hacked at them with his sword." + +In Alabama, at Columbus and Fort Mitchell, a rumor was spread of a joint +conspiracy of Indians and negroes. At Claiborne the panic was still +greater; the slaves were said to be thoroughly organized through that +part of the State, and multitudes were imprisoned; the whole alarm being +apparently founded on one stray copy of the "Liberator." + +In Tennessee, the Shelbyville "Freeman" announced that an +insurrectionary plot had just been discovered, barely in time for +its defeat, through the treachery of a female slave. In Louisville, +Kentucky, a similar organization was discovered or imagined, and arrests +were made in consequence. "The papers, from motives of policy, do +not notice the disturbance," wrote one correspondent to the Portland +"Courier." "Pity us!" he added. + +But the greatest bubble burst in Louisiana. Captain Alexander, an +English tourist, arriving in New Orleans at the beginning of September, +found the whole city in tumult. Handbills had been issued, appealing to +the slaves to rise against their masters, saying that all men were born +equal, declaring that Hannibal was a black man, and that they also might +have great leaders among them. Twelve hundred stand of weapons were said +to have been found in a black man's house; five hundred citizens were +under arms, and four companies of regulars were ordered to the city, +whose barracks Alexander himself visited. + +If such were the alarm in New Orleans, the story, of course, lost +nothing by transmission to other Slave States. A rumor reached +Frankfort, Kentucky, that the slaves already had possession of the +coast, both above and below New Orleans. But the most remarkable +circumstance is, that all this seems to have been a mere revival of an +old terror, once before excited and exploded. The following paragraph +had appeared in the Jacksonville (Georgia) "Observer," during the spring +previous:-- + +"FEARFUL DISCOVERY. We were favored, by yesterday's mail, with a letter +from New Orleans, of May 1st, in which we find that an important +discovery had been made a few days previous in that city. The following +is an extract:--'Four days ago, as some planters were digging under +ground, they found a square room containing eleven thousand stand of +arms and fifteen thousand cartridges, each of the cartridges containing +a bullet.' It is said the negroes intended to rise as soon as the sickly +season began, and obtain possession of the city by massacring the white +population. The same letter states that the mayor had prohibited the +opening of Sunday-schools for the instruction of blacks, under a penalty +of five hundred dollars for the first offence, and for the second, +death." + +Such were the terrors that came back from nine other Slave States, as +the echo of the voice of Nat Turner; and when it is also known that the +subject was at once taken up by the legislatures of other States, where +there was no public panic, as in Missouri and Tennessee,--and when, +finally, it is added that reports of insurrection had been arriving all +that year from Rio Janeiro, Martinique, St. Jago, Antigua, Caraccas, and +Tortola, it is easy to see with what prolonged distress the accumulated +terror must have weighed down upon Virginia, during the two months that +Nat Turner lay hid. + +True, there were a thousand men in arms in Southampton County, to +inspire security. But the blow had been struck by only seven men before; +and unless there were an armed guard in every house, who could tell but +any house might at any moment be the scene of new horrors? They might +kill or imprison unresisting negroes by day, but could they resist their +avengers by night? "The half cannot be told," wrote a lady from another +part of Virginia, at this time, "of the distresses of the people. In +Southampton County, the scene of the insurrection, the distress beggars +description. A gentleman who has been there says that even here, where +there has been great alarm, we have no idea of the situation of those in +that county.... I do not hesitate to believe that many negroes around us +would join in a massacre as horrible as that which has taken place, if +an opportunity should offer." + +Meanwhile the cause of all this terror was made the object of desperate +search. On September 17th the Governor offered a reward of five hundred +dollars for his capture, and there were other rewards swelling the +amount to eleven hundred dollars,--but in vain. No one could track or +trap him. On September 30th a minute account of his capture appeared +in the newspapers, but it was wholly false. On October 7th there was +another, and on October 18th another; yet all without foundation. Worn +out by confinement in his little cave, Nat Turner grew more adventurous, +and began to move about stealthily by night, afraid to speak to any +human being, but hoping to obtain some information that might aid his +escape. Returning regularly to his retreat before daybreak, he might +possibly have continued this mode of life until pursuit had ceased, had +not a dog succeeded where men had failed. The creature accidentally +smelt out the provisions hid in the cave, and finally led thither his +masters, two negroes, one of whom was named Nelson. On discovering the +terrible fugitive, they fled precipitately, when he hastened to retreat +in an opposite direction. This was on October 15th, and from this moment +the neighborhood was all alive with excitement, and five or six hundred +men undertook the pursuit. + +It shows a more than Indian adroitness in Nat Turner to have escaped +capture any longer. The cave, the arms, the provisions were found; and +lying among them the notched stick of this miserable Robinson Crusoe, +marked with five weary weeks and six days. But the man was gone. For ten +days more he concealed himself among the wheat-stacks on Mr. Francis's +plantation, and during this time was reduced almost to despair. Once he +decided to surrender himself, and walked by night within two miles of +Jerusalem before his purpose failed him. Three times he tried to get out +of that neighborhood, but in vain: travelling by day was, of course, +out of the question, and by night he found it impossible to elude the +patrol. Again and again, therefore, he returned to his hiding-place, +and during his whole two months' liberty never went five miles from the +Cross Keys. On the 25th of October, he was at last discovered by Mr. +Francis, as he was emerging from a stack. A load of buckshot was +instantly discharged at him, twelve of which passed through his hat +as he fell to the ground. He escaped even then, but his pursuers were +rapidly concentrating upon him, and it is perfectly astonishing that he +could have eluded them for five days more. + +On Sunday, October 30th, a man named Benjamin Phipps, going out for the +first time on patrol duty, was passing at noon a clearing in the woods +where a number of pine-trees had long since been felled. There was a +motion among their boughs; he stopped to watch it; and through a gap in +the branches he saw, emerging from a hole in the earth beneath, the +face of Nat Turner. Aiming his gun instantly, Phipps called on him +to surrender. The fugitive, exhausted with watching and privation, +entangled in the branches, armed only with a sword, had nothing to do +but to yield; sagaciously reflecting, also, as he afterwards explained, +that the woods were full of armed men, and that he had better trust +fortune for some later chance of escape, instead of desperately +attempting it then. He was correct in the first impression, since there +were fifty armed scouts within a circuit of two miles. His insurrection +ended where it began; for this spot was only a mile and a half from the +house of Joseph Travis. + +Torn, emaciated, ragged, "a mere scarecrow," still wearing the hat +perforated with buckshot, with his arms bound to his sides, he was +driven before the levelled gun to the nearest house, that of a Mr. +Edwards. He was confined there that night; but the news had spread so +rapidly that within an hour after his arrival a hundred persons had +collected, and the excitement became so intense "that it was with +difficulty he could be conveyed alive to Jerusalem." The enthusiasm +spread instantly through Virginia; Mr. Trezvant, the Jerusalem +postmaster, sent notices of it far and near; and Governor Floyd himself +wrote a letter to the "Richmond Enquirer" to give official announcement +of the momentous capture. + +When Nat Turner was asked by Mr. T.R. Gray, the counsel assigned him, +whether, although defeated, he still believed in his own Providential +mission, he answered, as simply as one who came thirty years after him, +"Was not Christ crucified?" In the same spirit, when arraigned before +the court, "he answered, 'Not guilty,' saying to his counsel that he did +not feel so." But apparently no argument was made in his favor by his +counsel, nor were any witnesses called,--he being convicted on the +testimony of Levi Waller, and upon his own confession, which was put in +by Mr. Gray, and acknowledged by the prisoner before the six justices +composing the court, as being "full, free, and voluntary." He was +therefore placed in the paradoxical position of conviction by his own +confession, under a plea of "Not guilty." The arrest took place on the +thirtieth of October, 1831, the confession on the first of November, the +trial and conviction on the fifth, and the execution on the following +Friday, the eleventh of November, precisely at noon. He met his death +with perfect composure, declined addressing the multitude assembled, and +told the sheriff in a firm voice that he was ready. Another account says +that he "betrayed no emotion, and even hurried the executioner in the +performance of his duty." "Not a limb nor a muscle was observed to +move. His body, after his death, was given over to the surgeons for +dissection." + +This last statement merits remark. There would he no evidence that this +formidable man was not favored during his imprisonment with that full +measure of luxury which slave-jails afford to slaves, but for a rumor +which arose after the execution, that he was compelled to sell his body +in advance, for purposes of dissection, in exchange for food. But it +does not appear probable, from the known habits of Southern anatomists, +that any such bargain could have been needed. For in the circular of the +South Carolina Medical School for that very year I find this remarkable +suggestion:--"Some advantages of a peculiar character are connected +with this institution. No place in the United States affords so great +opportunities for the acquisition of medical knowledge, subjects being +obtained among the colored population in sufficient number for every +purpose, and proper dissections carried on without offending any +individual." What a convenience, to possess for scientific purposes a +class of population sufficiently human to be dissected, but not human +enough to be supposed to take offence at it! And as the same arrangement +may be supposed to have existed in Virginia, Nat Turner would hardly +have gone through the formality of selling his body for food to those +who claimed its control at any rate. + +The Confession of the captive was published under authority of Mr. Gray, +in a pamphlet, at Baltimore. Fifty thousand copies of it are said to +have been printed, and it was "embellished with an accurate likeness +of the brigand, taken by Mr. John Crawley. portrait-painter, and +lithographed by Endicott & Swett, at Baltimore." The newly published +"Liberator" said of it, at the time, that it would "only serve to rouse +up other leaders, and hasten other insurrections," and advised grand +juries to indict Mr. Gray. I have never seen a copy of the original +pamphlet, it is not to be found in any of our public libraries, and I +have heard of but one as still existing, although the Confession itself +has been repeatedly reprinted. Another small pamphlet, containing the +main features of the outbreak, was published at New York during the same +year, and this is in my possession. But the greater part of the facts +which I have given were gleaned from the contemporary newspapers. + +Who now shall go back thirty years and read the heart of this +extraordinary man, who, by the admission of his captors, "never was +known to swear an oath or drink a drop of spirits,"--who, on the same +authority, "for natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension was +surpassed by few men," "with a mind capable of attaining anything,"--who +knew no book but his Bible, and that by heart,--who devoted himself +soul and body to the cause of his race, without a trace of personal hope +or fear,--who laid his plans so shrewdly that they came at last with +less warning than any earthquake on the doomed community around,--and +who, when that time arrived, took the life of man, woman, and child, +without a throb of compunction, a word of exultation, or an act of +superfluous outrage? Mrs. Stowe's "Dred" seems dim and melodramatic +beside the actual Nat Turner. De Quincey's "Avenger" is his only +parallel in imaginative literature: similar wrongs, similar retribution. +Mr. Gray, his self-appointed confessor, rises into a sort of bewildered +enthusiasm, with the prisoner before him. "I shall not attempt to +describe the effect of his narrative, as told and commented on by +himself, in the condemned-hole of the prison. The calm, deliberate +composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the +expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, still +bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him, clothed +with rags and covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled +hands to heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man,--I +looked on him, and the blood curdled in my veins." + +But the more remarkable the personal character of Nat Turner, the +greater the amazement felt that he should not have appreciated the +extreme felicity of his position as a slave. In all insurrections, the +standing wonder seems to be that the slaves most trusted and best used +should be most deeply involved. So in this case, as usual, they resorted +to the most astonishing theories of the origin of the affair. One +attributed it to Free-Masonry, and another to free whiskey,--liberty +appearing dangerous, even in these forms. The poor whites charged it +upon the free colored people, and urged their expulsion, forgetting that +in North Carolina the plot was betrayed by one of this class, and that +in Virginia there were but two engaged, both of whom had slave-wives. +The slaveholding clergymen traced it to want of knowledge of the Bible, +forgetting that Nat Turner knew scarcely anything else. On the other +hand, "a distinguished citizen of Virginia" combined in one sweeping +denunciation "Northern incendiaries, tracts, Sunday-schools, religion, +reading, and writing." + +But whether the theories of its origin were wise or foolish, +the insurrection made its mark, and the famous band of Virginia +emancipationists who all that winter made the House of Delegates ring +with unavailing eloquence--till the rise of slave-exportation to +new cotton regions stopped their voices--were but the unconscious +mouth-pieces of Nat Turner. In January, 1832, in reply to a member who +had called the outbreak a "petty affair," the eloquent James McDowell +thus described the impression it left behind:-- + +"Now, Sir, I ask you, I ask gentlemen, in conscience to say, was that +a 'petty affair' which startled the feelings of your whole +population,--which threw a portion of it into alarm, a portion of it +into panic,--which wrung out from an affrighted people the thrilling +cry, day after day, conveyed to your executive, '_We are in peril of our +lives; send us an army for defence_'? Was that a 'petty affair' which +drove families from their homes,--which assembled women and children in +crowds, without shelter, at places of common refuge, in every condition +of weakness and infirmity, under every suffering which want and terror +could inflict, yet willing to endure all, willing to meet death from +famine, death from climate, death from hardships, preferring anything +rather than the horrors of meeting it from a domestic assassin? Was that +a 'petty affair' which erected a peaceful and confiding portion of the +State into a military camp,--which outlawed from pity the unfortunate +beings whose brothers had offended,--which barred every door, penetrated +every bosom with fear or suspicion,--which so banished every sense of +security from every man's dwelling, that, let but a hoof or horn break +upon the silence of the night, and an aching throb would be driven to +the heart, the husband would look to his weapon, and the mother would +shudder and weep upon her cradle? Was it the fear of Nat Turner, and his +deluded, drunken handful of followers, which produced such effects? +Was it this that induced distant counties, where the very name of +Southampton was strange, to arm and equip for a struggle? No, Sir, +it was the suspicion eternally attached to the slave himself,--the +suspicion that a Nat Turner might be in every family,--that the same +bloody deed might be acted over at any time and in any place,--that the +materials for it were spread through the land, and were always ready for +a like explosion. Nothing but the force of this withering apprehension, +--nothing but the paralyzing and deadening weight with which it falls +upon and prostrates the heart of every man who has helpless dependents +to protect,--nothing but this could have thrown a brave people +into consternation, or could have made any portion of this powerful +Commonwealth, for a single instant, to have quailed and trembled." + +While these things were going on, the enthusiasm for the Polish +Revolution was rising to its height. The nation was ringing with a peal +of joy, on hearing that at Frankfort the Poles had killed fourteen +thousand Russians. "The Southern Religious Telegraph" was publishing an +impassioned address to Kosciusko; standards were being consecrated for +Poland in the larger cities; heroes, like Skrzynecki, Czartoryski, +Rozyski, Kaminski, were choking the trump of Fame with their complicated +patronymics. These are all forgotten now; and this poor negro, who did +not even possess a name, beyond one abrupt monosyllable,--for even the +name of Turner was the master's property,--still lives a memory of +terror and a symbol of retribution triumphant. + + + + +CONCERNING VEAL: + +A DISCOURSE OF IMMATURITY. + + +The man who, in his progress through life, has listened with attention +to the conversation of human beings, who has carefully read the writings +of the best English authors, who has made himself well acquainted with +the history and usages of his native land, and who has meditated much on +all he has seen and read, must have been led to the firm conviction that +by VEAL those who speak the English language intend to denote the flesh +of calves, and that by a calf is intended an immature ox or cow. A calf +is a creature in a temporary and progressive stage of its being. It will +not always be a calf; if it live long enough, it will assuredly cease to +be a calf. And if impatient man, arresting the creature at that stage, +should consign it to the hands of him whose business it is to convert +the sentient animal into the impassive and unconscious meat, the +nutriment which the creature will afford will be nothing more than +immature beef. There may be many qualities of Veal; the calf which +yields it may die at very different stages in its physical and moral +development; but provided only it die as a calf,--provided only that its +meat can fitly be styled Veal,--_this_ will be characteristic of +it, that the meat shall be immature meat. It may be very good, very +nutritious and palatable; some people may like it better than Beef, and +may feed upon it with the liveliest satisfaction; but when it is fairly +and deliberately put to us, it must be admitted, even by such as like +Veal the best, that Veal is but an immature production of Nature. I take +Veal, therefore, as the emblem of IMMATURITY,--of that which is now in +a stage out of which it must grow,--of that which, as time goes on, +will grow older, will probably grow better, will certainly grow very +different. _That_ is what I mean by Veal. + +And now, my reader and friend, you will discern the subject about which +I trust we are to have some pleasant and not unprofitable thought +together. You will readily believe that my subject is not that material +Veal which may be beheld and purchased in the butchers' shops. I am not +now to treat of its varied qualities, of the sustenance which it yields, +of the price at which it may be procured, or of the laws according to +which that price rises and falls. I am not going to take you to the +green fields in which the creature which yielded the Veal was fed, or to +discourse of the blossoming hawthorn hedges from whose midst it was reft +away. Neither shall I speak of the rustic life, the toils, cares, and +fancies of the farm-house near which it spent its brief lifetime. The +Veal of which I intend to speak is Moral Veal, or (to speak with +entire accuracy) Veal Intellectual, Moral, and Aesthetical. By Veal +I understand the immature productions of the human mind,--immature +compositions, immature opinions, feelings, and tastes. I wish to think +of the work, the views, the fancies, the emotions, which are yielded by +the human soul in its immature stages,--while the calf (so to speak) +is only growing into the ox,--while the clever boy, with his absurd +opinions and feverish feelings and fancies, is developing into the +mature and sober-minded man. And if I could but rightly set out the +thoughts which have at many different times occurred to me on this +matter, if one could catch and fix the vague glimpses and passing +intuitions of solid unchanging truth, if the subject on which one has +thought long and felt deeply were always that on which one could write +best, and could bring out to the sympathy of others what a man himself +has felt, what an excellent essay this would be! But it will not be so; +for, as I try to grasp the thoughts I would set out, they melt away and +elude me. It is like trying to catch and keep the rainbow hues you have +seen the sunshine cast upon the spray of a waterfall, when you try to +catch the tone, the thoughts, the feelings, the atmosphere of early +youth. + +There can be no question at all as to the fact, that clever young men +and women, when their minds begin to open, when they begin to think for +themselves, do pass through a stage of mental development which they +by-and-by quite outgrow, and entertain opinions and beliefs, and +feel emotions, on which afterwards they look back with no sympathy or +approval. This is a fact as certain as that a calf grows into an ox, or +that veal, if spared to grow, will become beef. But no analogy between +the material and the moral must be pushed too far. There are points of +difference between material and moral Veal. A calf knows it is a calf. +It may think itself bigger and wiser than an ox, but it knows it is not +an ox. And if it be a reasonable calf, modest, and free from prejudice, +it is well aware that the joints it will yield after its demise will be +very different from those of the stately and well-consolidated ox which +ruminates in the rich pasture near it. But the human boy often thinks he +is a man, and even more than a man. He fancies that his mental stature +is as big and as solid as it will ever become. He fancies that his +mental productions--the poems and essays he writes, the political +and social views he forms, the moods of feeling with which he regards +things--are just what they may always be, just what they ought always to +be. If spared in this world, and if he be one of those whom years make +wiser, the day comes when he looks back with amazement and shame on +those early mental productions. He discerns now how immature, absurd, +and extravagant they were,--in brief, how Vealy. But at the time, he +had not the least idea that they were so. He had entire confidence in +himself,--not a misgiving as to his own ability and wisdom. You, clever +young student of eighteen years old, when you wrote your prize essay, +fancied that in thought and style it was very like Macaulay,--and not +Macaulay in that stage of Vealy brilliancy in which he wrote his essay +on Milton, not Macaulay the fairest and most promising of calves, but +Macaulay the stateliest and most beautiful of oxen. Well, read over your +essay now at thirty, and tell us what you think of it. And you, clever, +warm-hearted, enthusiastic young preacher of twenty-four, wrote your +sermon; it was very ingenious, very brilliant in style, and you never +thought but that it would be felt by mature-minded Christian people as +suiting their case, as true to their inmost experience. You could not +see why you might not preach as well as a man of forty. And if people in +middle age had complained, that, eloquent as your preaching was, they +found it suited them better and profited them more to listen to the +plainer instructions of some good man with gray hair, you would not have +understood their feeling, and you might perhaps have attributed it to +many motives rather than the true one. But now at five-and-thirty, +find out the yellow manuscript, and read it carefully over; and I will +venture to say, that, if you were a really clever and eloquent young +man, writing in an ambitious and rhetorical style, and prompted to do +so by the spontaneous fervor of your heart and readiness of your +imagination, you will feel now little sympathy even with the literary +style of that early composition,--you will see extravagance and +bombast, where once you saw only eloquence and graphic power. And as for +the graver and more important matter of the thought of the discourse, +I think you will be aware of a certain undefinable shallowness and +crudity. Your growing experience has borne you beyond it. Somehow you +feel it does not come home to you, and suit you as you would wish it +should. It will not do. That old sermon you cannot preach now, till you +have entirely recast and rewritten it. But you had no such notion when +you wrote the sermon. You were satisfied with it. You thought it even +better than the discourses of men as clever as yourself, and ten or +fifteen years older. Your case was as though the youthful calf should +walk beside the sturdy ox, and think itself rather bigger. + +Let no clever young reader fancy, from what has been said, that I +am about to make an onslaught upon clever young men. I remember too +distinctly how bitter, and indeed ferocious, I used to feel, about +eleven or twelve years ago, when I heard men of more than middle age and +less than middling ability speak with contemptuous depreciation of the +productions and doings of men considerably their juniors, and vastly +their superiors,--describing them as _boys_, and as _clever lads_, with +looks of dark malignity. There are few more disgusting sights than +the envy and jealousy of their juniors, which may be seen in various +malicious, commonplace old men; as there is hardly a more beautiful and +pleasing sight than the old man hailing and counselling and encouraging +the youthful genius which he knows far surpasses his own. And I, my +young friend of two-and-twenty, who, relatively to you, may be regarded +as old, am going to assume no preposterous airs of superiority. I do not +claim to be a bit wiser than you; all I claim is to be older. I have +outgrown your stage; but I was once such as you, and all my sympathies +are with you yet. But it is a difficulty in the way of the essayist, +and, indeed, of all who set out opinions which they wish to be received +and acted on by their fellow-creatures, that they seem, by the very act +of offering advice to others, to claim to be wiser and better than those +whom they advise. But in reality it is not so. The opinions of the +essayist or of the preacher, if deserving of notice at all, are so +because of their inherent truth, and not because he expresses them. +Estimate them for yourself, and give them the weight which you think +their due. And be sure of this, that the writer, if earnest and sincere, +addressed all he said to himself as much as to any one else. This is the +thing which redeems all didactic writing or speaking from the charge of +offensive assumption and self-assertion. It is not for the preacher, +whether of moral or religious truth, to address his fellows as outside +sinners, worse than himself, and needing to be reminded of that of which +he does not need to be reminded. No, the earnest preacher preaches to +himself as much as to any in the congregation; it is from the picture +ever before him in his own weak and wayward heart that he learns to +reach and describe the hearts of others, if, indeed, he do so at all. +And it is the same with lesser things. + +It is curious and it is instructive to remark how heartily men, as they +grow towards middle age, despise themselves as they were a few years +since. It is a bitter thing for a man to confess that he is a fool; but +it costs little effort to declare that he was a fool, a good while ago. +Indeed, a tacit compliment to his present self is involved in the latter +confession: it suggests the reflection, what progress he has made, and +how vastly he has improved, since then. When a man informs us that he +was a very silly fellow in the year 1851, it is assumed that he is not a +very silly fellow in the year 1861. It is as when the merchant with ten +thousand a year, sitting at his sumptuous table, and sipping his '41 +claret, tells you how, when he came as a raw lad from the country, he +used often to have to go without his dinner. He knows that the plate, +the wine, the massively elegant apartment, the silent servants, so +alert, yet so impassive, will appear to join in chorus with the obvious +suggestion, "You see he has not to go without his dinner now!" Did you +ever, when twenty years old, look back at the diary you kept when +you were sixteen,--or when twenty-five, at the diary you kept when +twenty,--or at thirty, at the diary you kept when twenty-five? Was not +your feeling a singular mixture of humiliation and self-complacency? +What extravagant, silly stuff it seemed that you had thus written five +years before! What Veal! and, oh, what a calf he must have been who +wrote it! It is a difficult question, to which the answer cannot be +elicited, Who is the greatest fool in this world? But every candid and +sensible man of middle age knows thoroughly well the answer to the +question, Who was the greatest fool that he himself ever knew? And after +all, it is your diary, especially if you were wont to introduce into it +poetical remarks and moral reflections, that will mainly help you to +the humiliating conclusion. Other things, some of which I have already +named, will point in the same direction. Look at the prize essays you +wrote when you were a boy at school; look even at your earlier prize +essays written at college (though of these last I have something to say +hereafter); look at the letters you wrote home when away at school or +even at college, especially if you were a clever boy, trying to write +in a graphic and witty fashion; and if you have reached sense at last, +(which some, it may be remarked, never do,) I think you will blush even +through the unblushing front of manhood, and think what a terrific, +unutterable, conceited, intolerable blockhead you were. It is not till +people attain somewhat mature years that they can rightly understand +the wonderful forbearance their parents must have shown in listening +patiently to the frightful nonsense they talked and wrote. I have +already spoken of sermons. If you go early into the Church, say at +twenty-three or twenty-four, and write sermons regularly and diligently, +you know what landmarks they will be of your mental progress. The first +runnings of the stream are turbid, but it clears itself into sense and +taste month by month and year by year. You wrote many sermons in your +first year or two; you preached them with entire confidence in them, +and they did really keep up the attention of the congregation in a +remarkable way. You accumulate in a box a store of that valuable +literature and theology, and when by-and-by you go to another parish, +you have a comfortable feeling that you have a capital stock to go on +with. You think that any Monday morning, when you have the prospect of +a very busy week, or when you feel very weary, you may resolve that you +shall write no sermon that week, but just go and draw forth one from the +box. I have already said what you will probably find, even if you draw +forth a discourse which cost much labor. You cannot use it as it stands. +Possibly it may be structural and essential Veal: the whole framework of +thought may be immature. Possibly it may be Veal only in style; and by +cutting out a turgid sentence here and there, and, above all, by cutting +out all the passages which you thought particularly eloquent, the +discourse may do yet. But even then you cannot give it with much +confidence. Your mind can yield something better than that now. I +imagine how a fine old orange-tree, that bears oranges with the thinnest +possible skin and with no pips, juicy and rich, might feel that it has +outgrown the fruit of its first years, when the skin was half an inch +thick, the pips innumerable, and the eatable portion small and poor. It +is with a feeling such as _that_ that you read over your early +sermon. Still, mingling with the sense of shame, there is a certain +satisfaction. You have not been standing still; you have been getting +on. And we always like to think _that_. + +What is it that makes intellectual Veal? What are the things about a +composition which stamp it as such? Well, it is a certain character in +thought and style hard to define, but strongly felt by such as discern +its presence at all. It is strongly felt by professors reading the +compositions of their students, especially the compositions of the +cleverest students. It is strongly felt by educated folk of middle age, +in listening to the sermons of young pulpit orators, especially of +such as think for themselves, of such as aim at a high standard of +excellence, of such as have in them the makings of striking and eloquent +preachers. Dull and stupid fellows never deviate into the extravagance +and absurdity which I specially understand by Veal. They plod along in +a humdrum manner; there is no poetry in their soul,--none of those +ambitious stirrings which lead the man who has in him the true spark of +genius to try for grand things and incur severe and ignominious tumbles. +A heavy dray-horse, walking along the road, may possibly advance at a +very lagging pace, or may even stand still; but whatever he may do, he +is not likely to jump violently over the hedge, or to gallop off at +twenty-five miles an hour. It must be a thoroughbred who will go wrong +in that grand fashion. And there are intellectual absurdities and +extravagances which hold out hopeful promise of noble doings yet: the +eagle, which will breast the hurricane yet, may meet various awkward +tumbles before he learns the fashion in which to use those iron wings. +But the substantial goose, which probably escapes those tumbles in +trying to fly, will never do anything very magnificent in the way of +flying. The man who in his early days writes in a very inflated and +bombastic style will gradually sober down into good sense and accurate +taste, still retaining something of liveliness and eloquence. But expect +little of the man who as a boy was always sensible, and never bombastic. +He will grow awfully dry. He is sure to fall into the unpardonable sin +of tiresomeness. The rule has exceptions; but the earliest productions +of a man of real genius are almost always crude, flippant, and +affectedly smart, or else turgid and extravagant in a high degree. +Witness Mr. Disraeli; witness Sir E.B. Lytton; witness even Macaulay. +The man who as mere boy writes something very sound and sensible will +probably never become more than a dull, sensible, commonplace man. +Many people can say, as they bethink themselves of their old college +companions, that those who wrote with good sense and good taste at +twenty have mostly settled down into the dullest and baldest of prosers; +while such as dealt in bombastic flourishes and absurd ambitiousness of +style have learned, as time went on, to prune their early luxuriances, +while still retaining something of raciness, interest, and ornament. + +I have been speaking very generally of the characteristics of Veal in +composition. It is difficult to give any accurate description of it that +shall go into minuter details. Of course it is easy to think of little +external marks of the beast,--that is, the calf. It is Veal in style, +when people, writing prose, think it a fine thing to write _o'er_ +instead of _over_, _ne'er_ instead of _never_, _poesie_ instead of +_poetry_, and _methinks_ under any circumstances whatsoever. References +to the heart are generally of the nature of Veal; also allusions to the +mysterious throbbings and yearnings of our nature. The word _grand_ has +of late come to excite a strong suspicion of Veal; and when I read the +other day in a certain poem something about a _great grand man_, I +concluded that the writer of that poem was meanwhile a great grand calf. +The only case in which the words may properly be used together is in +speaking of your great-grandfather. To talk about _mine_ affections, +meaning _my_ affections, is Veal; and _mine bonnie love_ was decided +Veal, though it was written by Charlotte Bronte. _Wife mine_ is Veal, +though it stands in "The Caxtons." I should rather like to see the man +who in actual life is accustomed to address his spouse in that fashion. +To say _Not, oh, never_ shall we do so and so is outrageous Veal. +_Sylvan grove_ or _sylvan vale_ in ordinary conversation is Veal. The +word _glorious_ should be used with caution; when applied to trees, +mountains, or the like, there is a strong suspicion of Veal about it. +But one feels that in saying these things we are not getting at the +essence of Veal. Veal in thought is essential Veal, and it is very hard +to define. Beyond extravagant language, beyond absurd fine things, it +lies in a certain lack of reality and sobriety of sense and view,--in a +certain indefinable jejuneness in the mental fare provided, which makes +mature men feel that somehow it does not satisfy their cravings. You +know what I mean better than I can express it. You have seen and heard +a young preacher, with a rosy face and an unlined brow, preaching about +the cares and trials of life. Well, you just feel at once he knows +nothing about them. You feel that all this is at second-hand. He is +saying all this because he supposes it is the right thing to say. Give +me the pilot to direct me who has sailed through the difficult channel +many a time himself. Give me the friend to sympathize with me in sorrow +who has felt the like. There is a hollowness, a certain want, in the +talk about much tribulation of the very cleverest man who has never felt +any great sorrow at all. The great force and value of all teaching lie +in the amount of personal experience which is embodied in it. You feel +the difference between the production of a wonderfully clever boy and of +a mature man, when you read the first canto of "Childe Harold," and then +read "Philip van Artevelde." I do not say but that the boy's production +may have a liveliness and interest beyond the man's. Veal is in certain +respects superior to Beef, though Beef is best on the whole. I have +heard Vealy preachers whose sermons kept up breathless attention. From +the first word to the last of a sermon which was unquestionable Veal, I +have witnessed an entire congregation listen with that audible hush you +know. It was very different, indeed, from the state of matters when a +humdrum old gentleman was preaching, every word spoken by whom was the +maturest sense, expressed in words to which the most fastidious taste +could have taken no exception; but then the whole thing was sleepy: it +was a terrible effort to attend. In the case of the Veal there was no +effort at all. I defy you to help attending. But then you sat in pain. +Every second sentence there was some outrageous offence against good +taste; every third statement was absurd, or overdrawn, or almost +profane. You felt occasional thrills of pure disgust and horror, and you +were in terror what might come next. One thing which tended to carry all +this off was the manifest confidence and earnestness of the speaker. +_He_ did not think it Veal that he was saying. And though great +consternation was depicted on the faces of some of the better-educated +people in church, you could see that a very considerable part of the +congregation did not think it Veal either. There can be no doubt, my +middle-aged friend, if you could but give your early sermons now with +the confidence and fire of the time when you wrote them, they would make +a deep impression on many people yet. But it is simply impossible for +you to give them; and if you should force yourself some rainy Sunday to +preach one of them, you would give it with such a sense of its errors, +and with such an absence of corresponding feeling, that it would fall +very flat and dead. Your views are maturing; your taste is growing +fastidious; the strong things you once said you could not bring yourself +to say now. If you _could_ preach those old sermons, there is no doubt +they would go down with the mass of uncultivated folk,--go down better +than your mature and reasonable ones. We have all known such cases as +that of a young preacher who, at twenty-five, in his days of Veal, drew +great crowds to the church at which he preached, and who at thirty-five, +being a good deal tamed and sobered, and in the judgment of competent +judges vastly improved, attracted no more than a respectable +congregation. A very great and eloquent preacher lately lamented to me +the uselessness of his store of early discourses. If he could but get +rid of his present standard of what is right and good in thought and +language, and preach them with the enchaining fire with which he +preached them once! For many hearers remain immature, though the +preacher has matured. Young people are growing up, and there are people +whose taste never ripens beyond the enjoyment of Veal. There is a period +in the mental development of those who will be ablest and maturest, at +which Vealy thought and language are accepted as the best. Veal will be +highly appreciated by sympathetic calves; and the greatest men, with +rare exceptions, are calves in youth, while many human beings are calves +forever. And here I may remark, as something which has afforded me +consolation on various occasions within the last year, that it seems +unquestionable that sermons which are utterly revolting to people of +taste and sense have done much good to large masses of those people in +whom common sense is most imperfectly developed, and in whom taste is +not developed at all; and accordingly, wherever one is convinced of the +sincerity of the individuals, however foolish and uneducated, who go +about pouring forth those violent, exaggerated, and all but blasphemous +discourses of which I have read accounts in the newspapers, one would +humbly hope that a Power which works by many means would bring about +good even through an instrumentality which it is hard to contemplate +without some measure of horror. The impression produced by most things +in this world is relative to the minds on which the impression is +produced. A coarse ballad, deficient in rhyme and rhythm, and only half +decent, will keep up the attention of a rustic group to whom you might +read from "In Memoriam" in vain. A waistcoat of glaring scarlet will be +esteemed by a country bumpkin a garment every way preferable to one of +aspect more subdued. A nigger melody will charm many a one who would +yawn at Beethoven. You must have rough means to move rough people. +The outrageous revival-orator may do good to people to whom Bishop +Wilberforce or Dr. Caird might preach to no purpose; and if real good be +done, by whatever means, all right-minded people should rejoice to hear +of it. + + * * * * * + +And this leads to an important practical question, on which men at +different periods of life will never agree. _When_ shall thought be +regarded as mature? Is there a standard by which we may ascertain beyond +question whether a composition be Veal or Beef? I sigh for fixity and +assurance in matters aesthetical. It is vexatious that what I think very +good my friend Smith thinks very bad. It is vexatious that what strikes +me as supreme and unapproachable excellence strikes another person, at +least as competent to form an opinion, as poor. And I am angry with +myself when I feel that I honestly regard as inflated commonplace and +mystical jargon what a man as old and (let us say) nearly as wise +as myself thinks the utterance of a prophet. You know how, when +you contemplate the purchase of a horse, you lead him up to the +measuring-bar, and there ascertain the precise number of hands and +inches which he stands. How have I longed for the means of subjecting +the mental stature of human beings to an analogous process of +measurement! Oh for some recognized and unerring gauge of mental +calibre! It would be a grand thing, if somewhere in a very conspicuous +position--say on the site of the National Gallery at Charing +Cross--there were a pillar erected, graduated by some new Fahrenheit, +on which we could measure the height of a man's mind. How delightful it +would be to drag up some pompous pretender who passes off at once upon +himself and others as a profound and able man, and make him measure his +height upon that pillar, and understand beyond all cavil what a pigmy +he is! And how pleasant, too, it would be to bring up some man of +unacknowledged genius, and make the world see the reach of _his_ +intellectual stature! The mass of educated people, even, are so +incapable of forming any estimate of a man's ability, that it would be +a blessing, if men could be sent out into the world with the stamp upon +them, telling what are their weight and value, plain for every one to +see. But of course there are many ways in which a book, sermon, or essay +may be bad without being Vealy. It may be dull, stupid, illogical, +and the like, and yet have nothing of boyishness about it. It may be +insufferably bad, yet quite mature. Beef may be bad, and yet undoubtedly +Beef. And the question now is, not so much whether there be a standard +of what is in a literary sense good or bad, as whether there be a +standard of what is Veal and what is Beef. And there is a great +difficulty here. Is a thing to be regarded as mature, when it suits your +present taste, when it is approved by your present deliberate judgment? +For your taste is always changing: your standard is not the same for +three successive years of your early youth. The Veal you now despise you +thought Beef when you wrote it. And so, too, with the productions of +other men. You cannot read now without amazement the books which used +to enchant you as a child. I remember when I used to read Hervey's +"Meditations" with great delight. That was when I was about five years +old. A year or two later I greatly affected Macpherson's translation of +Ossian. It is not so very long since I felt the liveliest interest in +Tupper's "Proverbial Philosophy." Let me confess that I retain a kindly +feeling towards it yet; and that I am glad to see that some hundreds +of thousands of readers appear to be still in the stage out of which I +passed some years since. Yes, as you grow older, your taste changes: it +becomes more fastidious; and especially you come to have always less +toleration for sentimental feeling and for flights of fancy. And besides +this gradual and constant progression, which holds on uniformly year +after year, there are changes in mood and taste sometimes from day to +day and from hour to hour. The man who did a very silly thing thought +it was a wise thing when he did it. He sees the matter differently in a +little while. On the evening after the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of +Wellington wrote a certain letter. History does not record its matter or +style. But history does record, that some years afterwards the Duke paid +a hundred guineas to get it back again,--and that, on getting it, he +instantly burned it, exclaiming, that, when he wrote it, he must have +been the greatest idiot on the face of the earth. Doubtless, if we had +seen that letter, we should have heartily coincided in the sentiment of +the hero. He _was_ an idiot when he wrote it, but he did not think that +he was one. I think, however, that there is a standard of sense and +folly, and that there is a point at which Veal is Veal no more. But I do +not believe that thought can justly be called mature only when it has +become such as to suit the taste of some desperately dry old gentleman, +with as much feeling as a log of wood, and as much imagination as an +oyster. I know how intolerant some dull old fogies are of youthful +fire and fancy. I shall not be convinced that any discourse is puerile +because it is pronounced such by the venerable Dr. Dryasdust. I remember +that the venerable man has written many pages, possibly abundant in +sound sense, but which no mortal could read, and to which no mortal +could listen. I remember, that, though that not very amiable individual +has outlived such wits as he once had, he has not outlived the +unbecoming emotions of envy and jealousy; and he retains a strong +tendency to evil-speaking and slandering. You told me, unamiable +individual, how disgusted you were at hearing a friend of mine, who is +one of the best preachers in Britain, preach one of his finest sermons. +Perhaps you really were disgusted: there is such a thing as casting +pearls before swine, who will not appreciate them highly. But you went +on to give an account of what the great preacher said; and though I +know you are extremely stupid, you are not quite so stupid as to have +actually fancied that the great preacher said what you reported that he +said: you were well aware that you were grossly misrepresenting him. And +when I find malice and insincerity in one respect, I am ready to suspect +them in another: and I venture to doubt whether you were disgusted. +Possibly you were only ferocious at finding yourself so unspeakably +excelled. But even if you had been really disgusted, and even if you +were a clever man, and even if you were above the suspicion of jealousy, +I should not think that my friend's noble discourse was puerile because +you thought it so. It is not when the warm feelings of earlier days are +dried up into a cold, time-worn cynicism, that I think a man has become +the best judge of the products of the human brain and heart. It is +a noble thing when a man grows old retaining something of youthful +freshness and fervor. It is a fine thing to ripen without shrivelling,-- +to reach the calmness of age, yet keep the warm heart and ready sympathy +of youth. Show me such a man as _that_, and I shall be content to bow to +_his_ decision whether a thing be Veal or not. But as such men are not +found very frequently, I should suggest it as an approximation to a +safe criterion, that a thing may be regarded as mature when it is +deliberately and dispassionately approved by an educated man of good +ability and above thirty years of age. No doubt a man of fifty may +hold that fifty is the age of sound taste and sense; and a youth of +twenty-three may maintain that he is as good a judge of human doings +now as he will ever be. I do not claim to have proposed an infallible +standard. I give you my present belief, being well aware that it is very +likely to alter. + +It is not desirable that one's taste should become too fastidious, or +that natural feeling should be refined away. And a cynical young man is +bad, but a cynical old one is a great deal worse. The cynical young +man is probably shamming; he is a humbug, not a cynic. But the old man +probably _is_ a cynic, as heartless as he seems. And without thinking +of cynicism, real or affected, let us remember, that, though the taste +ought to be refined, and daily refining, it ought not to be refined +beyond being practically serviceable. Let things be good, but not too +good to be workable. It is expedient that a cart for conveying coals +should be of neat and decent appearance. Let the shafts be symmetrical, +the boards well-planed, the whole strong, yet not clumsy; and over the +whole let the painter's skill induce a hue rosy as beauty's cheek, or +dark-blue as her eye. All _that_ is well; and while the cart will carry +its coals satisfactorily, it will stand a good deal of rough usage, and +it will please the eye of the rustic who sits in it on an empty sack and +whistles as it moves along. But it would be highly inexpedient to make +that cart of walnut of the finest grain and marking, and to have it +French-polished. It would be too fine to be of use; and its possessor +would fear to scratch it, and would preserve it as a show, seeking some +plainer vehicle to carry his coals. In like manner, do not refine too +much either the products of the mind, or the sensibilities of the taste +which is to appreciate them. I know an amiable professor very different +from Dr. Dryasdust. He was a country clergyman,--a very interesting +plain preacher. But when he got his chair, he had to preach a good deal +in the college chapel; and by way of accommodating his discourses to an +academic audience, he rewrote them carefully, rubbed off all the salient +points, cooled down whatever warmth was in them to frigid accuracy, +toned down everything striking. The result was that his sermons became +eminently classical and elegant; only they became impossible to attend +to, and impossible to remember; and when you heard the good man preach, +you sighed for the rough and striking heartiness of former days. And +we have all heard of such a thing as taste refined to that painful +sensitiveness, that it became a source of torment,--that is, unfitted +for common enjoyments and even for common duties. There was once a great +man, let us say at Melipotamus, who never went to church. A clergyman +once, in speaking to a friend of the great man, lamented that the great +man set so bad an example before his humbler neighbors. "How _can_ that +man go to church?" was the reply; "his taste, and his entire critical +faculty, are sharpened, to that degree, that, in listening to any +ordinary preacher, he feels outraged and shocked at every fourth +sentence he hears, by its inelegance or its want of logic; and the +entire sermon torments him by its unsymmetrical structure, its want of +perspective in the presentment of details, and its general literary +badness." I quite believe that there was a moderate proportion of truth +in the excuse thus urged; and you will probably judge that it would have +been better, had the great man's mind not been brought to so painful a +polish. + +The mention of dried-up old gentlemen reminds one of a question which +has sometimes perplexed me. Is it Vealy to feel or to show keen emotion? +Is it a precious result and indication of the maturity of the human mind +to look as if you felt nothing at all? I have often looked with wonder, +and with a moderate amount of veneration, at a few old gentlemen whom I +know well, who are leading members of a certain legislative and judicial +council held in great respect in a country of which no more need be +said. I have beheld these old gentlemen sitting apparently quite +unmoved, when discussions were going on in which I knew they felt a very +deep interest, and when the tide of debate was setting strongly against +their peculiar views. There they sat, impassive as a Red Indian at the +stake. I think of a certain man who, while a smart speech on the other +side is being made, retains a countenance expressing actually nothing; +he looks as if he heard nothing, felt nothing, cared for nothing. But +when the other man sits down, he rises to reply. He speaks slowly at +first, but every weighty word goes home and tells: he gathers warmth and +rapidity as he goes on, and in a little you become aware that for a few +hundred pounds a year you may sometimes get a man who would have made +an Attorney-General or a Lord-Chancellor; you discern, that, under +the appearance of almost stolidity, there was the sharpest attention +watching every word of the argument of the other speaker, and ready to +come down on every weak point in it; and the other speaker is (in a +logical sense) pounded to jelly by a succession of straight-handed hits. +Yes, it is a wonderful thing to find a combination of coolness and +earnestness. But I am inclined to believe that the reason why some old +gentlemen look as if they did not care is that in fact they don't care. +And there is no particular merit in looking cool while a question is +being discussed, if you really do not mind a rush which way it may be +decided. A keen, unvarying, engrossing regard for one's self is a great +safeguard against over-excitement in regard to all the questions of the +day, political, social, and religious. + + * * * * * + +It is a curious, but certain fact, that clever young men, at that period +of their life when their own likings tend towards Veal, know quite +well the difference between Veal and Beef, and are quite able, when +necessary, to produce the latter. The tendency to boyishness of thought +and style may be repressed, when you know you are writing for the +perusal of readers with whom _that_ will not go down. A student of +twenty, who has in him great talent, no matter how undue a supremacy his +imagination may meanwhile have, if he be set to producing an essay in +Metaphysics to be read by professors of philosophy, will produce a +composition singularly free from any trace of immaturity. For such a +clever youth, though he may have a strong bent towards Veal, has in him +an instinctive perception that it _is_ Veal, and a keen sense of what +will and will not do for the particular readers he has to please. Go, +you essayist who carried off a host of university honors, and read over +now the prize essays you wrote at twenty-one or twenty-two. I think +the thing that will mainly strike you will be, how very mature these +compositions are,--how ingenious, how judicious, how free from +extravagance, how quietly and accurately and even felicitously +expressed. _They_ are not Veal. And yet you know that several years +after you wrote them you were still writing a great deal which was Veal +beyond all question. But then a clever youth can produce material to any +given standard; and you wrote the essays not to suit your own taste, but +to suit what you intuitively knew was the taste of the grave and even +smoke-dried professors who were to read them and sit in judgment on +them. + +And though it is very fit and right that the academic standard should be +an understood one, and quite different from the popular standard, still +it is not enough that a young man should be able to write to a standard +against which he in his heart rebels and protests. It is yet more +important that you should get him to approve and adopt a standard which +is accurate, if not severe. It is quite extraordinary what bombastic +and immature sermons are preached in their first years in the Church by +young clergymen who wrote many academic compositions in a style the +most classical. It seems to be essential that a man of feeling and +imagination should be allowed fairly to run himself out. The course +apparently is, that the tree should send out its rank shoots, and then +that you should prune them, rather than that by some repressive means +you should prevent the rank shoots coming forth at all. The way to get a +high-spirited horse to be content to stay peaceably in its stall is to +allow it to have a tearing gallop, and thus get out its superfluous +nervous excitement and vital spirit. Let the boiler blow off its steam. +All repression is dangerous. And some injudicious folk, instead of +encouraging the highly-charged mind and heart to relieve themselves +by blowing off in excited verse and extravagant bombast, would (so to +speak) sit on the safety-valve. Let the bursting spring flow! It will +run turbid at first; but it will clear itself day by day. Let a young +man write a vast deal: the more he writes, the sooner will the Veal be +done with. But if a man write very little, the bombast is not blown off; +and it may remain till advanced years. It seems as if a certain quantity +of fustian must be blown off before you reach the good material. I have +heard a mercantile man of fifty read a paper he had written on a social +subject. He had written very little save business letters all his life. +And I assure you that his paper was bombastic to a degree that you would +have said was barely tolerable in a youth of twenty. I have seldom +listened to Veal so outrageous. You see he had not worked through it in +his youth; and so here it was now. I have witnessed the like phenomenon +in a man who went into the Church at five-and-forty. I heard him preach +one of his earliest sermons, and I have hardly ever heard such boyish +rhodomontade. The imaginations of some men last out in liveliness longer +than those of others; and the taste of some men never becomes perfect; +and it is no doubt owing to these things that you find some men +producing Veal so much later in life than others. You will find men who +are very turgid and magniloquent at five-and-thirty, at forty, at fifty. +But I attribute the phenomenon in no small measure to the fact that such +men had not the opportunity of blowing off their steam in youth. Give +a man at four-and-twenty two sermons to write a week, and he will +very soon work through his Veal. It is probably because ladies write +comparatively so little, that you find them writing at fifty poetry and +prose of the most awfully romantic and sentimental strain. + + * * * * * + +We have been thinking, my friend, as you have doubtless observed, almost +exclusively of intellectual and aesthetical immaturity, and of its +products in composition, spoken or written. But combining with that +immaturity, and going very much to affect the character of that Veal, +there is moral immaturity, resulting in views, feelings, and conduct +which may be described as Moral Veal. But, indeed, it is very difficult +to distinguish between the different kinds of immaturity, and to say +exactly what in the moods and doings of youth proceeds from each. It is +safest to rest in the general proposition, that, even as the calf yields +Veal, so does the immature human mind yield immature productions. It +is a stage which you outgrow, and therefore a stage of comparative +immaturity, in which you read a vast deal of poetry, and repeat much +poetry to yourself when alone, working yourself up thereby to an +enthusiastic excitement. And very like a calf you look, when some one +suddenly enters the room in which you are wildly gesticulating or +moodily laughing, and thinking yourself poetical, and, indeed, sublime. +The person probably takes you for a fool; and the best, you can say for +yourself is that you are not so great a fool as you seem to be. Vealy is +the period of life in which you filled a great volume with the verses +you loved, and in which you stored your memory, by frequent reading, +with many thousands of lines. All that you outgrow. Fancy a man of fifty +having his commonplace book of poetry! And it will be instructive to +turn over the ancient volume, and to see how year by year the verses +copied grew fewer, and finally ceased entirely. I do not say that all +growth is progress: sometimes it is like that of the muscle, which once +advanced into manly vigor and usefulness, but is now ossifying into +rigidity. It is well to have fancy and feeling under command: it is not +well to have feeling and fancy dead. That season of life is Vealy in +which you are charmed by the melody of verse, quite apart from its +meaning. And there is a season in which that is so. And it is curious +to remark what verses they are that have charmed many men; for they are +often verses in which no one else could have discerned that singular +fascination. You may remember how Robert Burns has recorded that in +youth he was enchanted by the melody of two lines of Addison's,-- + + "For though in dreadful whirls we hung, + High on the broken wave." + +Sir Walter Scott felt the like fascination in youth (and he tells us it +was not entirely gone even in age) in Mickle's stanza,-- + + "The dews of summer night did fall; + The moon, sweet regent of the sky, + Silvered the walls of Cumnor Hall, + And many an oak that grew thereby." + +Not a remarkable verse, I think. However, it at least presents a +pleasant picture. But I remember well the enchantment which, when +twelve years old, I felt in a verse by Mrs. Hemans, which I can now see +presents an excessively disagreeable picture. I saw it not then; and +when I used to repeat that verse, I know it was without the slightest +perception of its meaning. You know the beautiful poem called the +"Battle of Morgarten." At least I remember it as beautiful; and I am not +going to spoil my recollection by reading it now. Here is the verse:-- + + "Oh! the sun in heaven fierce havoc viewed, + When the Austrian turned to fly: + And the brave, in the trampling multitude, + Had a fearful death to die!" + +As I write that verse, (at which the critical reader will smile,) I am +aware that Veal has its hold of me yet. I see nothing of the miserable +scene the poet describes; but I hear the waves murmuring on a distant +beach, and I see the hills across the sea, the first sea I ever beheld; +I see the school to which I went daily; I see the class-room, and the +place where I used to sit; I see the faces and hear the voices of my old +companions, some dead, one sleeping in the middle of the great Atlantic, +many scattered over distant parts of the world, almost all far away. +Yes, I feel that I have not quite cast off the witchery of the "Battle +of Morgarten." Early associations can give to verse a charm and a hold +upon one's heart which no literary excellence, however high, ever could. +Look at the first hymns you learned to repeat, and which you used to say +at your mother's knee; look at the psalms and hymns you remember hearing +sung at church when you were a child: you know how impossible it is for +you to estimate these upon their literary merits. They may be almost +doggerel; but not Mr. Tennyson can touch you like them! The most +effective eloquence is that which is mainly done by the mind to which +it is addressed: it is _that_ which touches chords which of themselves +yield matchless music; it is _that_ which wakens up trains of old +remembrance, and which wafts around you the fragrance of the hawthorn +that blossomed and withered many long years since. An English stranger +would not think much of the hymns we sing in our Scotch churches: he +could not know what many of them are to us. There is a magic about +the words. I can discern, indeed, that some of them are mawkish in +sentiment, faulty in rhyme, and, on the whole, what you would call +extremely unfitted to be sung in public worship, if you were judging of +them as new things: but a crowd of associations which are beautiful and +touching gathers round the lines which have no great beauty or pathos in +themselves. + +You were in an extremely Vealy condition, when, having attained the age +of fourteen, you sent some verses to the county newspaper, and with +simple-hearted elation read them in the corner devoted to what was +termed "Original Poetry." It is a pity you did not preserve the +newspapers in which you first saw yourself in print, and experienced the +peculiar sensation which accompanies that sight. No doubt your +verses expressed the gloomiest views of life, and told of the bitter +disappointments you had met in your long intercourse with mankind, and +especially with womankind. And though you were in a flutter of anxiety +and excitement to see whether or not your verses would be printed, your +verses probably declared that you had used up life and seen through +it,--that your heart was no longer to be stirred by aught on earth,--and +that, in short, you cared nothing for anything. You could see nothing +fine then in being good, cheerful, and happy; but you thought it a grand +thing to be a gloomy man, of a very dark complexion, with blood on your +conscience, upwards of six feet high, and accustomed to wander from land +to land, like Childe Harold. You were extremely Vealy when you used to +fancy that you were sure to be a very great man, and to think how proud +your relations would some day be of you, and how you would come back and +excite a great commotion at the place where you used to be a school-boy. +And it is because the world has still left some impressionable spot in +your hearts, my readers, that you still have so many fond associations +with "the school-boy spot we ne'er forget, though we are there +forgot." They were Vealy days, though pleasant to remember, my old +school-companions, in which you used to go to the dancing-school, (it +was in a gloomy theatre, seldom entered by actors,) in which you fell +in love with several young ladies about eleven years old, and (being +permitted occasionally to select your own partners) made frantic rushes +to obtain the hand of one of the beauties of that small society. Those +were the days in which you thought, that, when you grew up, it would +be a very fine thing to be a pirate, bandit, or corsair, rather than a +clergyman, barrister, or the like; even a cheerful outlaw like Robin +Hood did not come up to your views; you would rather have been a man +like Captain Kyd, stained with various crimes of extreme atrocity, which +would entirely preclude the possibility of returning to respectable +society, and given to moody laughter in solitary moments. Oh, what truly +asinine developments the human being must go through, before arriving at +the stage of common sense! You were very Vealy, too, when you used +to think it a fine thing to astonish people by expressing awful +sentiments,--such as that you thought Mahometans better than Christians, +that you would like to be dissected after death, that you did not care +what you got for dinner, that you liked learning your lessons better +than going out to play, that you would rather read Euclid than +"Ivanhoe," and the like. It may be remarked, that this peculiar +Vealiness is not confined to youth; I have seen it appearing very +strongly in men with gray hair. Another manifestation of Vealiness, +which appears both in age and youth, is the entertaining a strong belief +that kings, noblemen, and baronets are always in a condition of ecstatic +happiness. I have known people pretty far advanced in life, who not only +believed that monarchs must be perfectly happy, but that all who were +permitted to continue in their presence would catch a considerable +degree of the mysterious bliss which was their portion. I have heard a +sane man, rather acute and clever in many things, seriously say, "If a +man cannot be happy in the presence of his Sovereign, where can he be +happy?" + +And yet, absurd and foolish as is Moral Vealiness, there is something +fine about it. Many of the old and dear associations most cherished in +human hearts are of the nature of Veal. It is sad to think that most +of the romance of life is unquestionably so. All spooniness, all the +preposterous idolization of some one who is just like anybody else, +all love, (in the narrow sense in which the word is understood by +novel-readers,) you feel, when you look back, are Veal. The young lad +and the young girl, whom at a picnic party you have discerned stealing +off under frivolous pretexts from the main body of guests, and sitting +on the grass by the river-side, enraptured in the prosecution of a +conversation which is intellectually of the emptiest, and fancying that +they two make all the world, and investing that spot with remembrances +which will continue till they are gray, are (it must in sober sadness be +admitted) of the nature of calves. For it is beyond doubt that they are +at a stage which they will outgrow, and on which they may possibly look +back with something of shame. All these things, beautiful as they are, +are no more than Veal. Yet they are fitting and excellent in their time. +No, let us not call them Veal; they are rather like Lamb, which is +excellent, though immature. No doubt, youth is immaturity; and as you +outgrow it, you are growing better and wiser: still youth is a fine +thing; and most people would be young again, if they could. How cheerful +and light-hearted is immaturity! How cheerful and lively are the little +children even of silent and gloomy men! It is sad, and it is unnatural, +when they are not so. I remember yet, when I was at school, with what +interest and wonder I used to look at two or three boys, about twelve or +thirteen years old, who were always dull, sullen, and unhappy-looking. +In those days, as a general rule, you are never sorrowful without +knowing the reason why. You are never conscious of the dull atmosphere, +of the gloomy spirits, of after-time. The youthful machine, bodily and +mental, plays smoothly; the young being is cheery. Even a kitten is very +different from a grave old cat, and a young colt from a horse sobered by +the cares and toils of years. And you picture fine things to yourself in +your youthful dreams. I remember a beautiful dwelling I used often to +see, as if from the brow of a great hill. I see the rich valley below, +with magnificent woods and glades, and a broad river reflecting the +sunset; and in the midst of the valley, the vast Saracenic pile, with +gilded minarets blazing in the golden light. I have since then seen many +splendid habitations, but none in the least equal to that. I cannot even +yet discard the idea that somewhere in this world there stands that +noble palace, and that some day I shall find it out. You remember also +the intense delight with which you read the books that charmed you then: +how you carried off the poem or the tale to some solitary place,--how +you sat up far into the night to read it,--how heartily you believed +in all the story, and sympathized with the people it told of. I wish I +could feel now the veneration for the man who has written a book which I +used once to feel. Oh that one could read the old volumes with the +old feeling! Perhaps you have some of them yet, and you remember the +peculiar expression of the type in which they were printed: the pages +look at you with the face of an old friend. If you were then of an +observant nature, you will understand how much of the effect of any +composition upon the human mind depends upon the printing, upon the +placing of the points, even upon the position of the sentences on the +page. A grand, high-flown, and sentimental climax ought always to +conclude at the bottom of a page. It will look ridiculous, if it ends +four or five lines down from the top of the next page. Somehow there is +a feeling as of the difference between the night before and the next +morning. It is as though the crushed ball-dress and the dishevelled +locks of the close of the evening reappeared, the same, before +breakfast. Let us have homely sense at the top of the page, pathos +at the foot of it. What a force in the bad type of the shabby little +"Childe Harold" you used to read so often! You turn it over in a grand +illustrated edition, and it seems like another poem. Let it here be +said, that occasionally you look with something like indignation on the +volume which enchained you in your boyish days. For now you have burst +the chain. And you have somewhat of the feeling of the prisoner towards +the jailer who held him in unjust bondage. What right had that bombastic +rubbish to touch and thrill you as it used to do? Well, remember that +it suits successive generations at their enthusiastic stage. There are +poets whose great admirers are for the most part under twenty years +old; but probably almost every clever young person regards them at some +period in his life as among the noblest of mortals. And it is no ignoble +ambition to win the ardent appreciation of even immature tastes and +hearts. Its brief endurance is compensated by its intensity. You sit by +the fireside and read your leisurely "Times," and you feel a tranquil +enjoyment. You like it better than the "Sorrows of Werter," but you do +not like it a twentieth part as much as you once liked the "Sorrows +of Werter." You would be interested in meeting the man who wrote that +brilliant and slashing leader; but you would not regard him with +speechless awe, as something more than human. Yet, remembering all the +weaknesses out of which men grow, and on which they look back with a +smile or sigh, who does not feel that there is a charm which will not +depart about early youth? Longfellow knew that he would reach the hearts +of most men, when he wrote such a verse as this:-- + + "The green trees whispered low and mild; + It was a sound of joy! + They were my playmates when a child, + And rocked me in their arms so wild; + Still they looked at me and smiled, + As if I were a boy!" + +Such, readers as are young men will understand what has already been +said as to the bitter indignation with which the writer, some years ago, +listened to self-conceited elderly persons who put aside the arguments +and the doings of younger men with the remark that these younger men +were _boys_. There are few terms of reproach which I have heard uttered +with looks of such deadly ferocity. And there are not many which excite +feelings of greater wrath in the souls of clever young men. I remember +how in those days I determined to write an essay which should scorch up +and finally destroy all these carping and malicious critics. It was to +be called "A Chapter on Boys." After an introduction of a sarcastic and +magnificent character, setting out views substantially the same as those +contained in the speech of Lord Chatham in reply to Walpole, which boys +are taught to recite at school, that essay was to go on to show that +a great part of English literature was written by very young men. +Unfortunately, on proceeding to investigate the matter carefully, it +appeared that the best part of English literature, even in the range of +poetry, was in fact written by men of even more than middle age. So the +essay was never finished, though a good deal of it was sketched out. +Yesterday I took out the old manuscript; and after reading a bit of it, +it appeared so remarkably Vealy, that I put it with indignation into the +fire. Still I observed various facts of interest as to great things done +by young men, and some by young men who never lived to be old. Beaumont +the dramatist died at twenty-nine. Christopher Marlowe wrote "Faustus" +at twenty-five, and died at thirty. Sir Philip Sidney wrote his +"Arcadia" at twenty-six. Otway wrote "The Orphan" at twenty-eight, +and "Venice Preserved" at thirty. Thomson wrote the "Seasons" at +twenty-seven. Bishop Berkeley had devised his Ideal System at +twenty-nine; and Clarke at the same age published his great work on "The +Being and Attributes of God." Then there is Pitt, of course. But these +cases are exceptional; and besides, men at twenty-eight and thirty are +not in any way to be regarded as boys. What I wanted was proof of the +great things that had been done by young fellows about two-and-twenty; +and such proof was not to be found. A man is simply a boy grown up to +his best; and of course what is done by men must be better than what is +done by boys. Unless in very peculiar cases, a man at thirty will be +every way superior to what he was at twenty; and at forty to what he was +at thirty. Not, indeed, physically,--let _that_ be granted; not always +morally; but surely intellectually and aesthetically. + + * * * * * + +Yes, my readers, we have all been Calves. A great part of all our doings +has been, what the writer, in figurative language, has described as +Veal. We have not said, written, or done very much on which we can now +look back with entire approval; and we have said, written, and done a +very great deal on which we cannot look back but with burning shame +and confusion. Very many things, which, when we did them, we thought +remarkably good, and much better than the doings of ordinary men, we now +discern, on calmly looking back, to have been extremely bad. That time, +you know, my friend, when you talked in a very fluent and animated +manner after dinner at a certain house, and thought you were making a +great impression on the assembled guests, most of them entire strangers, +you are now fully aware that you were only making a fool of yourself. +And let this hint of one public manifestation of Vealiness suffice to +suggest to each of us scores of similar cases. But though we feel, in +our secret souls, what Calves we have been, and though it is well for us +that we should feel it deeply, and thus learn humility and caution, we +do not like to be reminded of it by anybody else. Some people have a +wonderful memory for the Vealy sayings and doings of their friends. +They may be very bad hands at remembering anything else; but they never +forget the silly speeches and actions on which one would like to shut +down the leaf. You may find people a great part of whose conversation +consists of repeating and exaggerating their neighbors' Veal; and though +that Veal may be immature enough and silly enough, it will go hard but +your friend Mr. Snarling will represent it as a good deal worse than the +fact. You will find men, who while at college were students of large +ambition, but slender abilities, revenging themselves in this fashion +upon the clever men who beat them. It is easy, very easy, to remember +foolish things that were said and done even by the senior wrangler or +the man who took a double first-class; and candid folk will think +that such foolish things were not fair samples of the men,--and will +remember, too, that the men have grown out of these, have grown mature +and wise, and for many a year past would not have said or done such +things. But if you were to judge from the conversation of Mr. Limejuice, +(who wrote many prize essays, but, through the malice and stupidity of +the judges, never got any prizes,) you would conclude that every word +uttered by his successful rivals was one that stamped them as essential +fools, and calves which would never grow into oxen. I do not think it +is a pleasing or magnanimous feature in any man's character, that he is +ever eager to rake up these early follies. I would not be ready to throw +in the teeth of a pretty butterfly that it was an ugly caterpillar once, +unless I understood that the butterfly liked to remember the fact. I +would not suggest to this fair sheet of paper on which I am writing, +that not long ago it was dusty rags and afterwards dirty pulp. You +cannot be an ox without previously having been a calf; you acquire taste +and sense gradually, and in acquiring them you pass through stages +in which you have very little of either. It is a poor burden for the +memory, to collect and shovel into it the silly sayings and doings in +youth of people who have become great and eminent. I read with much +disgust a biography of Mr. Disraeli which recorded, no doubt accurately, +all the sore points in that statesman's history. I remember with great +approval what Lord John Manners said in Parliament in reply to Mr. +Bright, who had quoted a well-known and very silly passage from Lord +John's early poetry. "I would rather," said Lord John, "have been the +man who in his youth wrote those silly verses than the man who in mature +years would rake them up." And with even greater indignation I regard +the individual who, when a man is doing creditably and Christianly +the work of life, is ever ready to relate and aggravate the moral +delinquencies of his school-boy and student days, long since repented of +and corrected. "Remember not," said a man who knew human nature well, +"the sins of my youth." But there are men whose nature has a peculiar +affinity for anything petty, mean, and bad. They fly upon it as a +vulture on carrion. Their memory is of that cast, that you have only +to make inquiry of them concerning any of their friends, to hear of +something not at all to the friends' advantage. There are individuals, +after listening to whom you think it would be a refreshing novelty, +almost startling from its strangeness, to hear them say a word in favor +of any human being whatsoever. + +It is not a thing peculiar to immaturity; yet it may be remarked, that, +though it is an unpleasant thing to look back and see that you have said +or done something very foolish, it is a still more unpleasant thing to +be well aware at the time that you are saying or doing something very +foolish. If a man be a fool at all, it is much to be desired that he +should be a very great fool; for then he will not know when he is making +a fool of himself. But it is painful not to have sense enough to know +what you should do in order to be right, but to have sense enough to +know that you are doing wrong. To know that you are talking like an ass, +yet to feel that you cannot help it,--that you must say something, and +can think of nothing better to say,--this is a suffering that comes with +advanced civilization. This is a phenomenon frequently to be seen +at public dinners in country towns, also at the entertainment which +succeeds a wedding. Men at other times rational seem to be stricken into +idiocy when they rise to their feet on such occasions; and the painful +fact is, that it is conscious idiocy. The man's words are asinine, and +he knows they are asinine. His wits have entirely abandoned him: he is +an idiot for the time. Have you sat next a man unused to speaking at a +public dinner? have you seen him nervously rise and utter an incoherent, +ungrammatical, and unintelligible sentence or two, and then sit down +with a ghastly smile? Have you heard him say to his friend on the other +side, in bitterness, "I have made a fool of myself"? And have you seen +him sit moodily through the remainder of the feast, evidently ruminating +on what he said, seeing now what he ought to have said, and trying to +persuade himself that what he said was not so bad after all? Would you +do a kindness to that miserable man? You have just heard his friend +on the other side cordially agreeing with what he had said as to the +badness of the appearance made by him. Enter into conversation with +him; talk of his speech; congratulate him upon it; tell him you were +extremely struck by the freshness and naturalness of what he said,--that +there is something delightful in hearing an unhackneyed speaker,--that +to speak with entire fluency looks professional,--it is like a barrister +or a clergyman. Thus you may lighten the mortification of a disappointed +man; and what you say will receive considerable credence. It is +wonderful how readily people believe anything they would like to be +true. + + * * * * * + +I was walking this afternoon along a certain street, coming home from +visiting certain sick persons, and wondering how I should conclude this +essay, when, standing on the pavement on one side of the street, I saw a +little boy four years old crying in great distress. Various individuals, +who appeared to be Priests and Levites, looked, as they passed, at the +child's distress, and passed on without doing anything to relieve it. I +spoke to the little man, who was in great fear at being spoken to, but +told me he had come away from his home and lost himself, and could not +find his way back. I told him I would take him home, if he could tell me +where he lived; but he was frightened into utter helplessness, and could +only tell that his name was Tom, and that he lived at the top of a +stair. It was a poor neighborhood, in which many people live at the +top of stairs, and the description was vague. I spoke to two humble +decent-looking women who were passing, thinking they might gain the +little thing's confidence better than I; but the poor little man's great +wish was just to get away from us,--though, when he got two yards off, +he could but stand and cry. You may be sure he was not left in his +trouble, but that he was put safely into his father's hands. And as I +was coming home, I thought that here was an illustration of something I +have been thinking of all this afternoon. I thought I saw in the poor +little child's desire to get away from those who wanted to help him, +though not knowing where to go when left to himself, something analogous +to what the immature human being is always disposed to. The whole +teaching of our life is leading us away from our early delusions and +follies, from all those things about us which have been spoken of under +the similitude which need not be again repeated. Yet we push away the +hand that would conduct us to soberer and better things, though, when +left alone, we can but stand and vaguely gaze about us; and we speak +hardly of the growing experience which makes us wiser, and which ought +to make us happier too. Let us not forget that the teaching which takes +something of the gloss from life is an instrument in the kindest Hand of +all; and let us be humbly content, if that kindest Hand shall lead us, +even by rough means, to calm and enduring wisdom,--wisdom by no means +inconsistent with youthful freshness of feeling, and not necessarily +fatal even to youthful gayety of mood,--and at last to that Happy Place +where worn men regain the little child's heart, and old and young are +blest together. + + + + +REMINISCENCES OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. + + +I do not propose to enter upon a discussion of the question that now +agitates the entire population of Brandon township, Vermont,--namely, +whether Douglas was born in the Pomeroy or the Hyatt mansion. It is +enough for our purpose to record the fact that he _was_ born, and +apparently _well_ born,--as, from the statement of Ann De Forrest, his +nurse, he first appeared a stalwart babe of fourteen pounds weight. + +He lived a life of sensations; and that he commenced early is clearly +shown by the fact that he was a subject of newspaper comment when but +two months old. At that age he had the misfortune to lose his father, +who, holding the baby boy in his arms, fell back in his chair and died, +while Stephen, dropping from his embrace, was caught from the fire, +and thus from early death, by a neighbor, John Conant, who opportunely +entered the room at the moment. And here let me say, that for +generations back the ancestors of Douglas were sturdy men, of physical +strength and mental ability. His grandfather was noted for his strong +practical common sense, which, rightly applied, with industry, made him +in middle life the possessor of wealth, and the finest farm on Otter +Creek. This, however, in later years was gradually taken from him, by +means which had better, perhaps, remain unmentioned. The father of +Stephen was a physician of more than ordinary talent and of much +culture. He had attained but to early manhood, when a sudden attack of +heart-disease removed him from life, and compelled his widow, with her +infant boy, to face the world alone. + +A bachelor brother of the Widow Douglas took her and the baby to his +farm, where, for several years, the one mourned the loss of her husband, +while the other grew in strength and muscle. The earlier developments of +the boy were characteristic, and typical of those in later life. He was +very quick, magnetic in his temperament, and full to the brim with wit +and humor. Beyond his uncle's farm ran the far-famed Otter Creek, whose +waters, in my boyhood, were forbidden me, as inevitably leading the +incautious bather to "a life of misery and a premature death." There it +was, however, that Stephen earned his earliest triumphs. It is a long +pull across the Otter Pond, and the schoolmaster's last charge was +always, "Keep this side of the rock in the middle,--don't try to cross"; +but reckless then of life as since in politics, self-confident and +daring as always, Douglas, of all the boys, alone dared disobey the +charge, and succeeded in reaching safely the opposite shore. + +His companions, sons of farmers well to do in the world, were preparing +to enter college; and Douglas, the best scholar in his class, the finest +mathematician in the township, and who without instruction had mastered +the Latin Grammar and "Viri Romae," applied to his uncle for permission +to join them. The uncle, however, never noted for much liberality either +of brain or pocket, having taken to himself a wife and gotten to himself +a boy, was unable to see the necessity of giving the orphan a college +education, and pitilessly bound him to a worthy deacon of the church, +as an apprentice to the highly respectable, but rarely famous, trade of +cabinet-making. In this Douglas did well. It has been stated elsewhere +that "he was not fond of his trade," and that "his spirit pined for +loftier employment." Possibly. But for all that he succeeded in it, and +these lines are being written on a mahogany table made by him while an +apprentice at Brandon. It is a strong, substantial, two-leaved table, +with curiously carved legs terminating in bear's-feet, the claws of +which display an intimate acquaintance on the part of the maker with the +physiological formation of those appendages, and a more than ordinary +amount of dexterity in the handling of tools. It was while in this +occupation that he gained the _sobriquet_ of the "Tough 'Un." He was +nearly seventeen years of age, and, though not handsome, was very +intelligent and bright in his appearance, so that he was able to compete +successfully for the smiles and favors of a young country lass who +reigned the belle of the village. This did not suit the "mittened" ones, +and they determined to draw young Douglas into a controversy which +should result in a fight,--he, of course, to be the defeated party. The +night chosen for the onslaught was the "singing-school night," and the +time the homeward walk of Stephen from the house of the fair object of +contention. The crowd met him at the corner store. From jests to jibes, +from taunts to blows, was then, as ever, an easy path; and in reply to +some unchivalric remark concerning his lady-love, Douglas struck the +slanderer with all his might. Immediately a ring was formed, and kept, +until Douglas rose the victor, and without further ceremony pitched +into one of the lookers-on, and stopped not until he, too, was soundly +thrashed, when, with flashing eye and clenched fist, he said,--"Now, +boys, if that's not enough, come on, and I'll take you all together!" +At this juncture, the good old Deacon, who had been trying cider in +the cellar of the store, came along, and, taking Stephen by the arm, +said,--"Well, Steve, you _are_ a tough 'un! What! whipped two, and want +more? Come home, my boy, come home!" He was allowed ever after to go and +come with his bright-eyed beauty, unmolested, and for years was known +there and in the neighboring townships as the "Tough 'Un." Here, too, he +gained the reputation of being a good fellow, a whole-souled friend, and +a jolly companion. He _would_ read, and his favorite works were those +telling of the triumphs of Napoleon, the conquests of Alexander, and the +wars of Caesar. + +He was still desirous of a collegiate education, and it is undoubtedly +true that constant application to his books, when he should have been +resting from the labors of the day, brought upon him an illness, the +severity of which compelled him to abandon his employment and return +to his uncle's house. There he obtained permission to take a course +of classical studies at the academy, a permission of which he availed +himself with enthusiasm. He was then a fine, well-built youth, foremost +in plays, active in all country excursions, and ever popular with his +elders. Indeed, this last trait followed him through life; and when +those of his own age were at sword's-point with him, he was sure of +finding friends and favor amongst such as were older and wiser than +himself. His mother, about this time, married a lawyer of wealth and +position, residing in the interior of New York, who, appreciating the +talent of the boy, aided him in his laudable endeavors to obtain an +education, and sent him to the academy at Canandaigua in that State. +There Douglas was soon among the first. He was the most popular speaker +of them all, pleasing old and young, and causing the hall of the academy +to be filled with an interested audience whenever it was known that he +was to be the orator of the night. His love of humor and his keen sense +of the ludicrous aided him not a little in the quick repartee, for which +he was then, as since, noted. He was far from idle during the three +years of his life at Canandaigua; for, besides applying himself with +untiring energy and zeal to the pursuit of a classical course at the +academy, he devoted much of his time to reading in the law office of the +Messrs. Hubbell. His examiners for the bar stated that they had never +before met a student who in so short a time made such proficiency; and +while they took pleasure in complimenting him, they also extended to him +the privileges which are accorded by rule only to those who have pursued +a complete collegiate course. This was especially gratifying and +stimulating to Douglas, who remarked to a fellow-student that for the +wealth of a continent he would not have had his "mother die without +hearing that intelligence of her son's progress." + +At the age of twenty, Douglas commenced, with the fairest prospects, the +practice of law in the beautiful village of Cleveland, Ohio. Hardly had +the paint on his "shingle" become dry, when a sudden attack of bilious +fever prostrated him, and confined him to his room for months. He was +thoroughly restless; he pined for action; and when his physician said +to him, "Sir, if you allow yourself to fret in this manner, you will +certainly frustrate my efforts, and die," he replied, "Not now, Doctor; +there's work ahead for me." Upon his recovery, he found himself in +a situation such as would crush the spirit of ninety-nine men in a +hundred. He was weak, with but a few dollars, with no friends, in a +region of country that did not promise him health, and with no knowledge +of other localities. He paid his debts and left the place. He wandered, +literally, from town to town, until his means were gone and his strength +well-nigh exhausted, when, on a bright Wednesday morning in the month of +November, 1833, he reached the village of Winchester, Illinois. + +In his head were his brains, in his pocket his cash resources, namely, +thirty-seven and a half cents, and in a checkered blue handkerchief his +school-books and his wardrobe. He knew no one there, he had no plan of +action, and, foot-sore, with heavy heart, he leaned against a post in +the public square, and for the first time in his life gave way to gloomy +forebodings. He had, however, entered the town where his fortunes were +to mend, his life to receive new vigor, and his successful career to +begin. + +While standing thus, he noticed at the farther end of the square a crowd +of people, and walked towards them. On a platform stood a red-faced, +burly auctioneer, with a straw hat and a loud voice, who was arguing +with some one in the crowd of expectant buyers the impossibility of +proceeding with the sale without a clerk to aid him. He was in the heat +of the discussion, when his eye fell upon the intelligent face and +fragile form of young Douglas, to whom he beckoned,--when the following +dialogue ensued. + +_Auctioneer_. I say, boy, you look like you're smart; can you figure? + +_Douglas_. I can, Sir. + +_Auctioneer_. Will a couple of dollars a day hire you, till we finish +this sale? + +_Douglas_. And board? + +At which reply the crowd laughed, and the auctioneer, who thought he had +found a treasure, said,-- + +"Yes, and board; tumble up and go to work." + +Whereupon, Douglas, whose legs were weak, whose stomach was empty, and +whose head fairly ached with nervous excitement, mounted the platform, +began his work as deputy-auctioneer, and laid the foundations of +a popularity in that section which increased with his years and +strengthened with his success. The sale for which he was hired continued +three days, and attracted the residents of the place and the farmers +from the neighboring towns, all of whom were favorably impressed by the +bright look, the quick, earnest manner, the frequent humorous remarks, +and the unvarying courtesy of the young clerk. In the evenings, when +gathered about the huge iron stove in the bar-room of the hotel, and the +doings, good or bad, of "Old Hickory" were the theme of discussion, one +and all sat quiet, listening with admiration, if not with conviction, +to the conversation of the youthful politician, who at that time was a +great admirer of General Jackson. + +With the same tact and adaptability to circumstances which were +characteristic of him through life, Douglas determined to make use of +these people; and so dexterously did he manage, that, before he had been +with them a week, he had produced upon their minds the impression that +he was of all men the best suited to teach their district school the +ensuing winter. He dined with the minister, rode out with the doctor, +and took tea with the old ladies. He talked politics with the farmers, +recounted adventures to the young men, and, if my informant is +trustworthy, was in no way shy of the young ladies. The zeal with +which he sang on Sunday, and the marked attention which he paid to the +sermonizings of the dominic, advanced him so far in the affections of +the honest people of that rural town, that, had he asked their wealth, +their prayers, or their votes, he would have had no difficulty in +obtaining them. + +There are no reasons for believing, that, as a schoolmaster, he was +particularly well qualified. He did very well however, and satisfied +the entire township, so that, had he been content with that that very +honorable, but somewhat inconspicuous life, he might doubtless have +remained there until this day. Up to this period he had been a strict +temperance man. No intoxicating drink had as yet passed his lips; and an +early experiment with a pipe had so sickened him, that he had resolved +never again to attempt it. It would have been well for him, had he +adhered to that resolve; but, like many other politicians, he thought it +necessary, in the days of his early public life, to mix with the crowd, +to join the bar-room circle, to tell his story and sing his song, to +smoke, and generally to conform to all those demands of pot-house +oracles which have perhaps elevated the few, but without doubt destroyed +the many. His aim then was popularity. He did his best as a teacher, +giving his spare time to the law. Before the Justices' Court he argued +frequently, and commonly with success. There he gained reputation, and +having been elected member of the legislature, he determined to devote +his life thenceforth to what seemed to him kindred pursuits, politics +and law. + +In the latter his successes were frequent. At first he was employed, +naturally, in minor cases; but it was soon discovered that no one at the +bar was his equal in the dexterous management of a knotty point, the +successful defence of a desperate villain, or the game of bluff with +judge, jury, or opposing counsel. His cases were such as developed his +cunning, his ingenuity, and tact, rather than tested his learning or +research; and it is doubtful if he would, in the practice of law alone, +have achieved more than a local distinction, and that not in all +respects a desirable one. In the wording of the State Statutes he was +well read, and he often availed himself of his remarkable memory to +the entire discomfiture of an opponent, whose technical error, quickly +detected by the watchful ear of Douglas, would be turned against him +with great effect. So constant was his success in the defence of +criminal cases, that it was deemed well, by the powers that were, to +elevate him to the position of prosecuting attorney for the first +district of the State. This was done in 1835, when he was but twenty-two +years of age. At that time he was of singularly prepossessing appearance +and popular manners. The _people_ were fond and proud of him; and when +he made his acknowledgments to them for the above-mentioned token of +their confidence, he so excited them by his oratory, that they took him +from the platform, raised him upon their shoulders, and bore him in +triumph about the town, while hundreds followed, shouting, "Hurra for +little Doug!" "Three cheers for the Little Giant!" "We'll put you +through!" and "You'll be President yet!" + +The judges of the Supreme Court thought that a great mistake had been +made; and one of them, who in later years was one of Mr. Douglas's +warmest friends, did not hesitate to say that the election was wrong. +"What business", asked he, "has this boy with such an office? He is no +lawyer, and has no books." Indeed, he met with no little opposition from +his brethren at the bar, but none that in any way impeded his progress +in the affections of the people, or disheartened him in his efforts +after loftier place. Judge Morton relates, that at no time was Douglas +found unprepared. "His indictments were always properly drawn, his +evidence complete, and his arguments logical." Before a jury he was +in his element. There he could indulge in story-telling, in special +pleading, and in all the intricate devices which beguile sober men of +their senses, and prove black white or good evil. From judge to jury, +from the highest practitioner to the lowest pettifogger, there soon came +to be but one impression. He was acknowledged to be the champion of the +Illinois bar. + +His career upon the bench, to which he was soon after elevated, was +brilliant, because energetic, and successful, because he never permitted +contingencies to thwart a predetermination, and because that coolness +and grit which enabled him to whip a second sneering boy while he was +yet a youth had become a settled trait of his character. It was during +the sitting of his court, that the notorious Joe Smith was to be tried +for some offence against the people of the State. Mob-law had taken +matters somewhat under its charge in the West; and the populace, fearing +that Smith, in this particular instance, might manage to slip from the +hands of justice, determined to take him from the court-house and hang +him. They even went so far as to erect a gallows in the yard, and, +having entered the court-room, demanded from the sheriff the person of +the prisoner. Judge Douglas was in his seat; the room was filled with +the infuriated mob and its sympathizers; Smith sat pale and trembling +in his box; while the sheriff, after vainly attempting to quell the +disturbance, fell powerless and half-fainting on the steps. "Sheriff," +shouted the judge, "clear the court!" It was easier said than done. Five +hundred determined men are not to be thwarted by a coward, and such the +sheriff proved. It was a trying moment. The life of Smith _per se_ was +not worth saving, but the dignity of the court must be upheld, and +Douglas saw at a glance that he had but a moment in which to do it. "Mr. +Harris," said he, addressing a huge and sinewy Kentuckian, "I appoint +you sheriff of this court. Select your deputies. Clear this court-house. +Do it, and do it now." He had chosen the right man. Right and left fell +the foremost of the mob; some were pitched from the windows, others +jumped thence of their own accord; and soon the entire crowd, convinced +of the judge's determination to maintain order, rushed pell-mell from +the court-room, while Smith, who had unperceived made his way up to the +feet of the judge, laid his head upon his knee and wept like a child. +"Never," said Douglas, "was I so determined to effect a result as then. +Had Smith been taken from my protection, it would have been only when +I lay dead upon the floor." The fact that he had no right to appoint +a sheriff was not one of the "points of consideration." "How shall I +execute my will?" was probably the only question that suggested itself +to his mind at the time, and the logic of the answer in no way troubled +him. The dignity of the bench was always upheld by Judge Douglas during +the sitting of the court; but he was no stickler for form or ceremony +elsewhere. + +A friend tells an amusing anecdote illustrative of his daring and +somewhat foolhardy spirit, even in mature life. Mr. Douglas, then +a judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois, was one of a number of +passengers who, on the crack steamboat "Andrew Jackson," were going down +the Mississippi. The steamer was detained several hours at Natchez, +where she was supplied with wood and water, and during the delay a huge, +hard-fisted boatman, somewhat the worse for a poor article of strychnine +whiskey, made himself very conspicuous and exceedingly obnoxious by the +continual iteration of his intense desire to fight some one. He +was fearful that he would "ruin," if his pugilistic wants were not +immediately attended to, and in manner more earnest than agreeable +invited one and all to "come ashore and have the conceit taken out" of +them. From the descriptive catalogue he gave of his own merits, the +passengers gathered that he was "a roarer," "a regular bruiser," "half +alligator, half steamboat, half snapping-turtle, with a leetle dash of +chain-lightning thrown in," and were evidently afraid of him; when the +Judge, who had been quietly smoking on the deck, stepped out upon the +quay, and, approaching the bully, said, with a peculiarly dry manner,-- + +"Who might you be, my big chicken, eh?" + +"I'm a high-pressure steamer," roared the astonished boatman. + +"And I'm a snag," replied Douglas, as he pitched into him; and before +the fellow had time to reflect, he lay sprawling in the mud. + +A loud shout, mingled with derisive laughter, burst from the spectators, +all of whom knew the Judge; and while the discomfited braggart limped +sorely off, the passengers carried Douglas to the bar, where, for hours +after, a general series of jollifications ensued, and he who a few days +before had sat the embodiment of judicial dignity on the supreme bench +now vied with a motley crowd of steamboat-passengers in song and story. +As a judge he was as he should be; but he was a judge only while +literally on the bench. + +The decisions of Judge Douglas were recognized always as able and +impartial; but his habit of "log-rolling," or, as the extreme Westerners +call it, "honey-fugling" for votes and support, had so grown upon him, +that his sincere friends feared lest he would sink too low, and in the +end defeat himself. He had ascertained, however, that success was in the +gift of the multitude, and to them he ever remained faithful. + +Had Mr. Douglas been born four months sooner than he was, he would have +been a Senator of the United States in 1842, when his age would have +been thirty years; but owing to the fact that he would not be thirty +until April of the following year, his friends found it would be +unadvisable to elect him. In November, 1843, however, he was elected to +the House, after passing through one of the most exciting canvasses +ever known in the West. Everywhere he met the people on the stump. That +seemed to be his appropriate forum, and the only position in which he +could indulge in his peculiarly popular style of oratory. His greatest +achievement during that Congress was his speech in defence of General +Jackson,--a speech begun when the seats and halls were comparatively +empty, but concluded in the presence of an overwhelming audience. After +the adjournment of Congress, delegations from many of the States were +sent to a monster Jackson Convention held at Nashville, and Mr. Douglas +was a member of the Illinois Committee. By invitation, he stopped at the +Hermitage. Hundreds of others were calling to pay their respects to +the old hero, and to congratulate him upon his triumph, when Douglas +entered. He was short and plain, and attracted little attention, till +presented by Governor Clay of Alabama. On the announcement of his name, +the General raised his still brilliant eyes, and gazed for a moment on +the countenance of the Judge, still retaining his hand. + +"Are you the Mr. Douglas of Illinois who delivered a speech last session +on the subject of the fine imposed on me for declaring martial law at +New Orleans?" he asked. + +"I have delivered a speech in the House on that subject," replied +Douglas. + +"Then stop," said the General; "sit down here beside me; I desire to +return you my thanks for that speech." + +And then, in the presence of that distinguished company, the aged +soldier expressed his gratitude for the words so kindly and justly +spoken, and assured him of his great obligations. At the conclusion +of the interview, Douglas, who was unable to utter a word, grasped +convulsively the aged veteran's hand and left the hall. + +At his death. General Jackson left all his papers to Mr. Blair, the +editor of the Washington "Globe," and among them was a printed copy of +the speech, with this indorsement, written and signed by himself:--"This +speech constitutes my defence: I lay it aside as an inheritance for my +grandchildren." + +In the famous Compromise struggle of 1850, Judge Douglas developed great +strength of will and wonderful executive ability. With Henry Clay he was +on the most friendly terms, and that statesman once said of him, that he +knew of "no man so entirely an embodiment of American ideas and American +institutions as Mr. Douglas." It is well known that to Senator Douglas +belongs the credit of initiating the great "Compromise Bill," and that, +though reported by Mr. Clay as from the Select Committee of the Senate, +it was in reality the California and Territorial Bills drawn up by Mr. +Douglas, united. It was at his own suggestion that this was done; and +when Mr. Clay objected, on the ground that it would be unfair for the +Committee to claim the credit which belonged exclusively to another, he +rebuked him, and asked by what right he (Mr. Clay) jeoparded the peace +and harmony of the nation, in order that this or that man might receive +the credit due for the origin of a bill. Mr. Clay was so struck by the +manner and observation, of Mr. Douglas, that he grasped his hand and +said,--"You are the most generous man living! I _will_ unite the bills, +and report them; but justice shall nevertheless be done to you as the +real author of the measures." It has been. + +Some time after this, he had occasion, to visit Chicago, and his friends +were desirous that he should address the people in defence of the +principle involved in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. On Saturday night he +appeared before his audience in the open square in front of North Market +Hall. His opponents had been more active than his friends. Ten thousand +roughs, determined to make trouble, had assembled there; and when the +speaker appeared, they saluted him with groans, cat-calls, ironical +cheers, and noises of all kinds. That sort of thing in no way annoyed +him. He was used to it. On similar occasions he had by wit and +good-humor succeeded in gaining a respectful and generally an +enthusiastic hearing, and he expected to do so now. He was mistaken. For +four hours the contest raged between them. He entreated, he threatened, +he laughed at them, told stories, bellowed with the entire volume of his +sonorous voice, but without success. They defied and insulted him, until +the clock in a neighboring church-tower tolled forth the midnight hour. +"Gentlemen," said Douglas, taking out his watch, and advancing to the +front of the stand, "it is Sunday morning. I have to bid you farewell. I +am going to church, and you--can go to ----." Whereupon, he retired, and +the crowd followed, hooting, jeering, and screaming, until they left him +at the door of his hotel. + +No man living possessed warmer friends than Mr. Douglas. I saw tears +of sorrow fall from the eyes of hard-featured Western men, when at the +Charleston Convention it became evident that he could not receive the +Presidential nomination. Hard words were spoken and hard blows were +given in his cause there, and subsequently at Baltimore; and it is +doubtful if ever caucusing or struggles for success insured more bitter +or lasting hatreds than were engendered during the prolonged contests at +those places. The result of that strife, the subsequent canvassing of +the country in search of friends and votes, and the ultimate defeat, +worked wonderful changes in him, morally and physically. All that in +years past he had looked for, all he had struggled for, seemed put +forever beyond his reach; and he was from that hour a different man. +Fortunately for him, gloriously for his reputation, the people of the +South saw fit to rebel; and Douglas, espousing the side of the right, +has died a patriot. There had always been a feeling of friendship +existing between Mr. Lincoln and Judge Douglas; and the manner in which +the latter acted just prior to the Inauguration, and the gallant part he +sustained at that time, as well as afterwards, served to increase their +mutual regard and esteem. It was my good-fortune to stand by Mr. Douglas +during the reading of the Inaugural of President Lincoln. Rumors had +been current that there would be trouble at that time, and much anxiety +was felt by the authorities and the friends of Mr. Lincoln as to the +result. "I shall be there," said Douglas, "and if any man attacks +Lincoln, he attacks me, too." As Mr. Lincoln proceeded with his address, +Judge Douglas repeatedly remarked, "Good!" "That's fair!" "No backing +out there!" "That's a good point!" etc.,--indicating his approval of +its tone, as subsequently he congratulated the reader and indorsed the +document. + +At the Inauguration Ball, all were waiting the arrival of the +Presidential party. Much feeling had been created in the city by the +announcement that Washington people did not intend to patronize the +affair, and it was feared that it might fall through. Presently the band +struck up "Hail Columbia," and President Lincoln with his escort entered +the room, followed by Mrs. Lincoln, who was supported by Judge Douglas. +A more significant demonstration of friendship and of personal interest +could not possibly be suggested; and Mr. Douglas, that night, by his +genial manner, his cordial sympathy with the _personnel_ of the new +Administration, and the effectual snubbing which he thereby gave to the +pretentious movers in Washington society, won for himself many friends, +and the gratitude of all the Republicans present. + +About two months since, while in the telegraph office at Washington, +I saw Mr. Douglas. Accosting him, I asked what course he thought the +President should pursue towards the sympathizers with the South who +remained in that city. "Well," replied he, "if I were President, I'd +convert or hang them _all_ within forty-eight hours. However, don't be +in a hurry. I've known Mr. Lincoln a longer time than you have, or than +the country has; he'll come out right, and we will all stand by him." + +The President was, in return, a warm friend of Mr. Douglas. I had +occasion to inquire of him if he had, as was reported in the newspapers, +tendered to Judge Douglas the position of Brigadier-General. "No, Sir," +said Mr. Lincoln, "I have not done so; nor had I thought of doing so +until to-night, when I saw it suggested in the paper. I have no reason +to believe Mr. Douglas would accept it. He has not asked it, nor +have his friends. But I must say, that, if it is well to appoint +brigadier-generals from the civil list, I can imagine few men better +qualified for such a position than Judge Douglas. For myself, I know I +have not much military knowledge, and I think Douglas has. It was he who +first told me I should have trouble at Baltimore, and, pointing on the +map, showed me the route by Perryville, Havre de Grace, and Annapolis, +as the one over which our troops must come. He impressed on my mind the +necessity of absolutely securing Fortress Monroe and Old Point Comfort, +and, in fact, I think he knows all about it." The President continued +at some length to refer to the aid, counsel, and encouragement he had +received from Judge Douglas, intimating that the relations subsisting +between them were of the most amicable and pleasant nature. + +It was evidently the purpose of Mr. Douglas, during the present crisis, +to impress upon the country the fact, that at the outset he had declared +himself a Union man, faithful to the Constitution and the upholding of +its powers. + +Mr. Douglas has left many friends and many opponents, but few enemies. +Careless of money, he died poor. Generous to recklessness, he permitted +his estate to become incumbered and taken from him. Early in life he +aimed at personal popularity, and obtained it. In later years he desired +legal honors, and they were his. Successful in all he undertook, he +raised his ambition to the highest post among his fellows, and its +possession became the sole object of his life. For its attainment +he gave everything, yielded everything, did everything, and became +everything, without success. In all things he was extreme. His loves +and hates were strong. His habits, however they may be estimated, were +apparent to all. His life--was it a failure? + +His death I will but mention. It has plunged a loving family into +sorrow, and taken from a party its leader. Thousands of sentences +gratifying to his friends are written about his greatness, and the +sacredness of his memory; and no word will be uttered here to offend +them. He shall himself close this paper, and I will be the medium of +conveying in his behalf a message to his fellow-countrymen,--a message +which he spoke into the ear of his watchful wife, for the future +guidance of his orphan children:-- + +"Reviving slightly, he turned easily in his bed, and with his eyes +partially closed, and his hand resting in that of Mrs. Douglas, he said, +in slow and measured cadence,-- + +"'TELL THEM TO OBEY THE LAWS AND SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED +STATES.'" + + + + +OUR RIVER. + +(FOR A SUMMER FESTIVAL AT "THE LAURELS" ON THE MERRIMACK.) + + + Once more on yonder laurelled height + The summer flowers have budded; + Once more with summer's golden light + The vales of home are flooded; + And once more, by the grace of Him + Of every good the Giver, + We sing upon its wooded rim + The praises of our river: + + Its pines above, its waves below, + The west wind down it blowing, + As fair as when the young Brissot + Beheld it seaward flowing,-- + And bore its memory o'er the deep + To soothe a martyr's sadness, + And fresco, in his troubled sleep, + His prison-walls with gladness. + + We know the world is rich with streams + Renowned in song and story, + Whose music murmurs through our dreams + Of human love and glory: + We know that Arno's banks are fair, + And Rhine has castled shadows, + And, poet-tuned, the Doon and Ayr + Go singing down their meadows. + + But while, unpictured and unsung + By painter or by poet, + Our river waits the tuneful tongue + And cunning hand to show it,-- + We only know the fond skies lean + Above it, warm with blessing, + And the sweet soul of our Undine + Awakes to our caressing. + + No fickle Sun-God holds the flocks + That graze its shores in keeping; + No icy kiss of Dian mocks + The youth beside it sleeping: + Our Christian river loveth most + The beautiful and human; + The heathen streams of Naiads boast, + But ours of man and woman. + + The miner in his cabin hears + The ripple we are hearing; + It whispers soft to homesick ears + Around the settler's clearing: + In Sacramento's vales of corn, + Or Santee's bloom of cotton, + Our river by its valley-born + Was never yet forgotten. + + The drum rolls loud,--the bugle fills + The summer air with clangor; + The war-storm shakes the solid hills + Beneath its tread of anger: + Young eyes that last year smiled in ours + Now point the rifle's barrel, + And hands then stained with fruits and flowers + Bear redder stains of quarrel. + + But blue skies smile, and flowers bloom on, + And rivers still keep flowing,-- + The dear God still his rain and sun + On good and ill bestowing. + His pine-trees whisper, "Trust and wait!" + His flowers are prophesying + That all we dread of change or fate + His love is underlying. + + And thou, O Mountain-born!--no more + We ask the Wise Allotter + Than for the firmness of thy shore, + The calmness of thy water, + The cheerful lights that overlay + Thy rugged slopes with beauty, + To match our spirits to our day + And make a joy of duty. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE ARTIST MONK. + + +On the evening when Agnes and her grandmother returned from the Convent, +as they were standing after supper looking over the garden parapet into +the gorge, their attention was caught by a man in an ecclesiastical +habit, slowly climbing the rocky pathway towards them. + +"Isn't that brother Antonio?" said Dame Elsie, leaning forward to +observe more narrowly. "Yes, to be sure it is!" + +"Oh, how glad I am!" exclaimed Agnes, springing up with vivacity, and +looking eagerly down the path by which the stranger was approaching. + +A few moments more of clambering, and the stranger met the two women at +the gate with a gesture of benediction. + +He was apparently a little past the middle point of life, and entering +on its shady afternoon. He was tall and well proportioned, and his +features had the spare delicacy of the Italian outline. The round brow, +fully developed in all the perceptive and aesthetic regions,--the keen +eye, shadowed by long, dark lashes,--the thin, flexible lips,--the +sunken cheek, where, on the slightest emotion, there fluttered a +brilliant flush of color,--all were signs telling of the enthusiast in +whom the nervous and spiritual predominated over the animal. + +At times, his eye had a dilating brightness, as if from the flickering +of some inward fire which was slowly consuming the mortal part, and its +expression was brilliant even to the verge of insanity. + +His dress was the simple, coarse, white stuff-gown of the Dominican +friars, over which he wore a darker travelling-garment of coarse cloth, +with a hood, from whose deep shadows his bright mysterious eyes looked +like jewels from a cavern. At his side dangled a great rosary and cross +of black wood, and under his arm he carried a portfolio secured with a +leathern strap, which seemed stuffed to bursting with papers. + +Father Antonio, whom we have thus introduced to the reader, was an +itinerant preaching monk from the Convent of San Marco in Florence, on a +pastoral and artistic tour through Italy. + +Convents in the Middle Ages were the retreats of multitudes of natures +who did not wish to live in a state of perpetual warfare and offence, +and all the elegant arts flourished under their protecting shadows. +Ornamental gardening, pharmacy, drawing, painting, carving in wood, +illumination, and calligraphy were not unfrequent occupations of the +holy fathers, and the convent has given to the illustrious roll of +Italian Art some of its most brilliant names. No institution in modern +Europe had a more established reputation in all these respects than the +Convent of San Marco in Florence. In its best days, it was as near an +approach to an ideal community, associated to unite religion, beauty, +and utility, as ever has existed on earth. It was a retreat from the +commonplace prose of life into an atmosphere at once devotional and +poetic; and prayers and sacred hymns consecrated the elegant labors of +the chisel and the pencil, no less than the more homely ones of the +still and the crucible. San Marco, far from being that kind of sluggish +lagoon often imagined in conventual life, was rather a sheltered hotbed +of ideas,--fervid with intellectual and moral energy, and before the +age in every radical movement. At this period, Savonarola, the poet and +prophet of the Italian religious world of his day, was superior of this +convent, pouring through all the members of the order the fire of his +own impassioned nature, and seeking to lead them back to the fervors of +more primitive and evangelical ages, and in the reaction of a worldly +and corrupt Church was beginning to feel the power of that current which +at last drowned his eloquent voice in the cold waters of martyrdom. +Savonarola was an Italian Luther,--differing from the great Northern +Reformer as the more ethereally strung and nervous Italian differs from +the bluff and burly German; and like Luther he became in his time the +centre of every living thing in society about him. He inspired the +pencils of artists, guided the counsels of statesmen, and, a poet +himself, was an inspiration to poets. Everywhere in Italy the monks of +his order were travelling, restoring the shrines, preaching against +the voluptuous and unworthy pictures with which sensual artists +had desecrated the churches, and calling the people back by their +exhortations to the purity of primitive Christianity. + +Father Antonio was a younger brother of Elsie, and had early become a +member of the San Marco, enthusiastic not less in religion than in Art. +His intercourse with his sister had few points of sympathy, Elsie being +as decided a utilitarian as any old Yankee female born in the granite +hills of New Hampshire, and pursuing with a hard and sharp energy her +narrow plan of life for Agnes. She regarded her brother as a very +properly religious person, considering his calling, but was a little +bored with his exuberant devotion, and absolutely indifferent to his +artistic enthusiasm. Agnes, on the contrary, had from a child attached +herself to her uncle with all the energy of a sympathetic nature, and +his yearly visits had been looked forward to on her part with intense +expectation. To him she could say a thousand things which she +instinctively concealed from her grandmother; and Elsie was well pleased +with the confidence, because it relieved her a little from the vigilant +guardianship that she otherwise held over the girl. When Father Antonio +was near, she had leisure now and then for a little private gossip of +her own, without the constant care of supervising Agnes. + +"Dear uncle, how glad I am to see you once more!" was the eager +salutation with which the young girl received the monk, as he gained the +little garden. "And you have brought your pictures;--oh, I know you have +so many pretty things to show me!" + +"Well, well, child," said Elsie, "don't begin upon that now. A little +talk of bread and cheese will be more in point. Come in, brother, and +wash your feet, and let me beat the dust out of your cloak, and give you +something to stay Nature; for you must be fasting." + +"Thank you, sister," said the monk; "and as for you, pretty one, never +mind what she says. Uncle Antonio will show his little Agnes everything +by-and-by.--A good little thing it is, sister." + +"Yes, yes,--good enough,--and too good," said Elsie, bustling +about;--"roses can't help having thorns, I suppose." + +"Only our ever-blessed Rose of Sharon, the dear mystical Rose of +Paradise, can boast of having no thorns," said the monk, bowing and +crossing himself devoutly. + +Agnes clasped her hands on her bosom and bowed also, while Elsie stopped +with her knife in the middle of a loaf of black bread, and crossed +herself with somewhat of impatience,--like a worldly-minded person of +our day, who is interrupted in the midst of an observation by a grace. + +After the rites of hospitality had been duly observed, the old dame +seated herself contentedly in her door with her distaff, resigned Agnes +to the safe guardianship of her uncle, and had a feeling of security +in seeing them sitting together on the parapet of the garden, with +the portfolio spread out between them,--the warm twilight glow of the +evening sky lighting up their figures as they bent in ardent interest +over its contents. The portfolio showed a fluttering collection of +sketches,--fruits, flowers, animals, insects, faces, figures, shrines, +buildings, trees,--all, in short, that might strike the mind of a man +to whose eye nothing on the face of the earth is without beauty and +significance. + +"Oh, how beautiful!" said the girl, taking up one sketch, in which a +bunch of rosy cyclamen was painted riding out of a bed of moss. + +"Ah, that indeed, my dear!" said the artist, "Would you had seen the +place where I painted it! I stopped there to recite my prayers one +morning; 't was by the side of a beautiful cascade, and all the ground +was covered with these lovely cyclamens, and the air was musky with +their fragrance.--Ah, the bright rose-colored leaves! I can get no color +like them, unless some angel would bring me some from those sunset +clouds yonder." + +"And oh, dear uncle, what lovely primroses!" pursued Agnes, taking up +another paper. + +"Yes, child; but you should have seen them when I was coming down the +south side of the Apennines;--these were everywhere so pale and sweet, +they seemed like the humility of our Most Blessed Mother in her lowly +mortal state. I am minded to make a border of primroses to the leaf in +the Breviary where is the 'Hail, Mary!'--for it seems as if that flower +doth ever say, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord!'" + +"And what will you do with the cyclamen, uncle? does not that mean +something?" + +"Yes, daughter," replied the monk, readily entering into that symbolical +strain which permeated all the heart and mind of the religious of his +day,--"I _can_ see a meaning in it. For you see that the cyclamen +puts forth its leaves in early spring deeply engraven with mystical +characters, and loves cool shadows, and moist, dark places, but comes +at length to wear a royal crown of crimson; and it seems to me like the +saints who dwell in convents and other prayerful places, and have the +word of God graven in their hearts in youth, till these blossom into +fervent love, and they are crowned with royal graces." + +"Ah!" sighed Agnes, "how beautiful and how blessed to be among such!" + +"Thou sayest well, dear child. Blessed are the flowers of God that grow +in cool solitudes, and have never been profaned by the hot sun and dust +of this world!" + +"I should like to be such a one," said Agnes. "I often think, when I +visit the sisters at the Convent, that I long to be one of them." + +"A pretty story!" said Dame Elsie, who had heard the last words,--"go +into a convent and leave your poor grandmother all alone, when she has +toiled night and day for so many years to get a dowry for you and find +you a worthy husband!" + +"I don't want any husband in this world, grandmamma," said Agnes. + +"What talk is this? Not want a good husband to take care of you when +your poor old grandmother is gone? Who will provide for you?" + +"He who took care of the blessed Saint Agnes, grandmamma." + +"Saint Agnes, to be sure! That was a great many years ago, and times +have altered since then;--in these days girls must have husbands. Isn't +it so, brother Antonio?" + +"But if the darling hath a vocation?" said the artist, mildly. + +"Vocation! I'll see to that! She sha'n't have a vocation! Suppose I'm +going to delve, and toil, and spin, and wear myself to the bone, and +have her slip through my fingers at last with a vocation? No, indeed!" + +"Indeed, dear grandmother, don't be angry!" said Agnes. "I will do just +as you say,--only I don't want a husband." + +"Well, well, my little heart,--one thing at a time; you sha'n't have him +till you say yes willingly," said Elsie, in a mollified tone. + +Agnes turned again to the portfolio and busied herself with it, her eyes +dilating as she ran over the sketches. + +"Ah! what pretty, pretty bird is this?" she asked. + +"Knowest thou not that bird, with his little red beak?" said the artist. +"When our dear Lord hung bleeding, and no man pitied him, this bird, +filled with tender love, tried to draw out the nails with his poor +little beak,--so much better were the birds than we hard-hearted +sinners!--hence he hath honor in many pictures. See here,--I shall put +him into the office of the Sacred Heart, in a little nest curiously +built in a running vine of passion-flower. See here, daughter,--I have +a great commission to execute a Breviary for our house, and our holy +Father was pleased to say that the spirit of the blessed Angelico had in +some little humble measure descended on me, and now I am busy day and +night; for not a twig rustles, not a bird flies, nor a flower blossoms, +but I begin to see therein some hint of holy adornment to my blessed +work." + +"Oh, Uncle Antonio, how happy you must be!" said Agnes,--her large eyes +filling with tears. + +"Happy!--child, am I not?" said the monk, looking up and crossing +himself. "Holy Mother, am I not? Do I not walk the earth in a dream of +bliss, and see the footsteps of my Most Blessed Lord and his dear Mother +on every rock and hill? I see the flowers rise up in clouds to adore +them. What am I, unworthy sinner, that such grace is granted me? Often +I fall on my face before the humblest flower where my dear Lord hath +written his name, and confess I am unworthy the honor of copying his +sweet handiwork." + +The artist spoke these words with his hands clasped and his fervid eyes +upraised, like a man in an ecstasy; nor can our more prosaic English +give an idea of the fluent naturalness and grace with which such images +melt into that lovely tongue which seems made to be the natural language +of poetry and enthusiasm. + +Agnes looked up to him with humble awe, as to some celestial being; but +there was a sympathetic glow in her face, and she put her hands on her +bosom, as her manner often was when much moved, and, drawing a deep +sigh, said,-- + +"Would that such gifts were mine!" + +"They are thine, sweet one," said the monk. "In Christ's dear kingdom is +no mine or thine, but all that each hath is the property of the others. +I never rejoice so much in my art as when I think of the communion of +saints, and that all that our Blessed Lord will work through me is the +property of the humblest soul in his kingdom. When I see one flower +rarer than another, or a bird singing on a twig, I take note of the +same, and say, 'This lovely work of God shall be for some shrine, or the +border of a missal, or the foreground of an altar-piece, and thus shall +his saints be comforted.'" + +"But," said Agnes, fervently, "how little can a poor young maiden do! +Ah, I do so long to offer myself up in some way to the dear Lord, who +gave himself for us, and for his Most Blessed Church!" + +As Agnes spoke these words, her cheek, usually so clear and pale, became +suffused with a tremulous color, and her dark eyes had a deep, divine +expression;--a moment after, the color slowly faded, her head drooped, +and her long, dark lashes fell on her cheek, while her hands were folded +on her bosom. The eye of the monk was watching her with an enkindled +glance. + +"Is she not the very presentment of our Blessed Lady in the +Annunciation?" said he to himself. "Surely, this grace is upon her for +this special purpose. My prayers are answered. + +"Daughter," he began, in a gentle tone, "a glorious work has been done +of late in Florence under the preaching of our blessed Superior. Could +you believe it, daughter, in these times of backsliding and rebuke there +have been found painters base enough to paint the pictures of vile, +abandoned women in the character of our Blessed Lady; yea, and princes +have been found wicked enough to buy them and put them up in churches, +so that the people have had the Mother of all Purity presented to them +in the guise of a vile harlot. Is it not dreadful?" + +"How horrible!" said Agnes. + +"Ah, but you should have seen the great procession through Florence, +when all the little children were inspired by the heavenly preaching of +our dear Master. These dear little ones, carrying the blessed cross and +singing the hymns our Master had written for them, went from house to +house and church to church, demanding that everything that was vile and +base should be delivered up to the flames,--and the people, beholding, +thought that the angels had indeed come down, and brought forth all +their loose pictures and vile books, such as Boccaccio's romances and +other defilements, and the children made a splendid bonfire of them in +the Grand Piazza, and so thousands of vile things were consumed and +scattered. And then our blessed Master exhorted the artists to give +pencils to Christ and his Mother, and seek for her image among pious and +holy women living a veiled and secluded life, like that our Lady lived +before the blessed Annunciation. 'Think you,' he said, 'that the blessed +Angelico obtained the grace to set forth our Lady in such heavenly wise +by gazing about the streets on mincing women tricked out in all the +world's bravery?--or did he not find her image in holy solitudes, among +modest and prayerful saints?'" + +"Ah," said Agnes, drawing in her breath with an expression of awe, "what +mortal would dare to sit for the image of our Lady!" + +"Dear child, there be women whom the Lord crowns with beauty when they +know it not, and our dear Mother sheds so much of her spirit into their +hearts that it shines out in their faces; and among such must the +painter look. Dear little child, be not ignorant that our Lord hath shed +this great grace on thee. I have received a light that thou art to be +the model for the 'Hail, Mary!' in my Breviary." + +"Oh, no, no, no! it cannot be!" said Agnes, covering her face with her +hands. + +"My daughter, thou art very beautiful, and this beauty was given thee +not for thyself, but to be laid like a sweet flower on the altar of thy +Lord. Think how blessed, if, through thee, the faithful be reminded of +the modesty and humility of Mary, so that their prayers become more +fervent,--would it not be a great grace?" + +"Dear uncle,"--said Agnes, "I am Christ's child. If it be as you +say,--which I did not know,--give me some days to pray and prepare my +soul, that I may offer myself in all humility." + +During this conversation Elsie had left the garden and gone a little way +down the gorge, to have a few moments of gossip with an old crony. The +light of the evening sky had gradually faded away, and the full moon was +pouring a shower of silver upon the orange-trees. As Agnes sat on the +parapet, with the moonlight streaming down on her young, spiritual face, +now tremulous with deep suppressed emotion, the painter thought he had +never seen any human creature that looked nearer to his conception of a +celestial being. + +They both sat awhile in that kind of quietude which often falls between +two who have stirred some deep fountain of emotion. All was so still +around them, that the drip and trickle of the little stream which fell +from the garden wall into the dark abyss of the gorge could well be +heard as it pattered from one rocky point to another, with a slender, +lulling sound. + +Suddenly the reveries of the two were disturbed by the shadow of a +figure which passed into the moonlight and seemed to rise from the side +of the gorge. A man enveloped in a dark cloak with a peaked hood stepped +across the moss-grown garden parapet, stood a moment irresolute, then +the cloak dropped suddenly from him, and the Cavalier stood in the +moonlight before Agnes. He bore in his hand a tall stalk of white lily, +with open blossoms and buds and tender fluted green leaves, such as one +sees in a thousand pictures of the Annunciation. The moonlight fell full +upon his face, revealing his haughty yet beautiful features, agitated +by some profound emotion. The monk and the girl were both too much +surprised for a moment to utter a sound; and when, after an instant, the +monk made a half-movement as if to address him, the cavalier raised his +right hand with a sudden authoritative gesture which silenced him. Then +turning toward Agnes, he kneeled, and kissing the hem of her robe, and +laying the lily in her lap, "Holiest and dearest," he said, "oh, forget +not to pray for me!" He rose again in a moment, and, throwing his +cloak around him, sprang over the garden wall, and was heard rapidly +descending into the shadows of the gorge. + +All this passed so quickly that it seemed to both the spectators like a +dream. The splendid man, with his jewelled weapons, his haughty bearing, +and air of easy command, bowing with such solemn humility before the +peasant girl, reminded the monk of the barbaric princes in the wonderful +legends he had read, who had been drawn by some heavenly inspiration to +come and render themselves up to the teachings of holy virgins, chosen +of the Lord, in divine solitudes. In the poetical world in which he +lived all such marvels were possible. There were a thousand precedents +for them in that devout dream-land, "The Lives of the Saints." + +"My daughter," he said, after looking vainly down the dark shadows upon +the path of the stranger, "have you ever seen this man before?" + +"Yes, uncle; yesterday evening I saw him for the first time, when +sitting at my stand at the gate of the city. It was at the Ave Maria; he +came up there and asked my prayers, and gave me a diamond ring for the +shrine of Saint Agnes, which I carried to the Convent to-day." + +"Behold, my dear daughter, the confirmation of what I have just said to +thee! It is evident that our Lady hath endowed thee with the great grace +of a beauty which draws the soul upward towards the angels, instead of +downward to sensual things, like the beauty of worldly women. What saith +the blessed poet Dante of the beauty of the holy Beatrice?--that it said +to every man who looked on her, '_Aspire!_'[A] Great is the grace, and +thou must give special praise therefor." + +[Footnote A: I cannot forbear quoting Mr. Norton's beautiful translation +of this sonnet in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for February, 1859:-- + + "So gentle and so modest doth appear + My lady when she giveth her salute, + That every tongue becometh trembling mute, + Nor do the eyes to look upon her dare, + And though she hears her praises, she doth, go + Benignly clothed with humility, + And like a thing come down she seems to be + From heaven to earth, a miracle to show. + So pleaseth she whoever cometh nigh her, + She gives the heart a sweetness through the eyes + Which none can understand who doth not prove. + And from her lip there seems indeed to move + A spirit sweet and in Love's very guise, + Which goeth saying to the soul, '_Aspire!_'"] + +"I would," said Agnes, thoughtfully, "that I knew who this stranger is, +and what is his great trouble and need,--his eyes are so full of sorrow. +Giulietta said he was the King's brother, and was called the Lord +Adrian. What sorrow can he have, or what need for the prayers of a poor +maid like me?" + +"Perhaps the Lord hath pierced him with a longing after the celestial +beauty and heavenly purity of paradise, and wounded him with a divine +sorrow, as happened to Saint Francis and to the blessed Saint Dominic," +said the monk. "Beauty is the Lord's arrow, wherewith he pierceth to the +inmost soul, with a divine longing and languishment which find rest only +in him. Hence thou seest the wounds of love in saints are always painted +by us with holy flames ascending from them. Have good courage, sweet +child, and pray with fervor for this youth; for there be no prayers +sweeter before the throne of God than those of spotless maidens. The +Scripture saith, 'My beloved feedeth among the lilies.'" + +At this moment the sharp, decided tramp of Elsie was heard reentering +the garden. + +"Come, Agnes," she said, "It is time for you to begin your prayers, or, +the saints know, I shall not get you to bed till midnight. I suppose +prayers are a good thing," she added, seating herself wearily; "but if +one must have so many of them, one must get about them early. There's +reason in all things." + +Agnes, who had been sitting abstractedly on the parapet, with her head +drooped over the lily-spray, now seemed to collect herself. She rose up +in a grave and thoughtful manner, and, going forward to the shrine of +the Madonna, removed the flowers of the morning, and holding the vase +under the spout of the fountain, all feathered with waving maiden-hair, +filled it with fresh water, the drops falling from it in a thousand +little silver rings in the moonlight. + +"I have a thought," said the monk to himself, drawing from his girdle +a pencil and hastily sketching by the moonlight. What he drew was a +fragile maiden form, sitting with clasped hands on a mossy ruin, gazing +on a spray of white lilies which lay before her. He called it, The +Blessed Virgin pondering the Lily of the Annunciation. + +"Hast thou ever reflected," he said to Agnes, "what that lily might be +like which the angel Gabriel brought to our Lady?--for, trust me, it was +no mortal flower, but grew by the river of life. I have often meditated +thereon, that it was like unto living silver with a light in itself, +like the moon,--even as our Lord's garments in the Transfiguration, +which glistened like the snow. I have cast about in myself by what +device a painter might represent so marvellous a flower." + +"Now, brother Antonio," said Elsie, "if you begin to talk to the child +about such matters, our Lady alone knows when we shall get to bed. I am +sure I'm as good a Christian as anybody; but, as I said, there's reason +in all things, and one cannot always be wondering and inquiring into +heavenly matters,--as to every feather in Saint Michael's wings, and as +to our Lady's girdle and shoe-strings and thimble and work-basket; and +when one gets through with our Lady, then one has it all to go over +about her mother, the blessed Saint Anne (may her name be ever +praised!). I mean no disrespect, but I am certain the saints are +reasonable folk and must see that poor folk must live, and, in order to +live, must think of something else now and then besides _them_. That's +my mind, brother." + +"Well, well, sister," said the monk, placidly, "no doubt you are right. +There shall be no quarrelling in the Lord's vineyard; every one hath his +manner and place, and you follow the lead of the blessed Saint Martha, +which is holy and honorable." + +"Honorable! I should think it might be!" said Elsie. "I warrant me, if +everything had been left to Saint Mary's doings, our Blessed Lord and +the Twelve Apostles might have gone supperless. But it's Martha gets all +the work, and Mary all the praise." + +"Quite right, quite right," said the monk, abstractedly, while he stood +out in the moonlight busily sketching the fountain. By just such a +fountain, he thought, our Lady might have washed the clothes of the +Blessed Babe. Doubtless there was some such in the court of her +dwelling, all mossy and with sweet waters forever singing a song of +praise therein. + +Elsie was heard within the house meanwhile making energetic commotion, +rattling pots and pans, and producing decided movements among the simple +furniture of the dwelling, probably with a view to preparing for the +night's repose of the guest. + +Meanwhile Agnes, kneeling before the shrine, was going through with +great feeling and tenderness the various manuals and movements of +nightly devotion which her own religious fervor and the zeal of her +spiritual advisers had enjoined upon her. Christianity, when it entered +Italy, came among a people every act of whose life was colored and +consecrated by symbolic and ritual acts of heathenism. The only possible +way to uproot this was in supplanting it by Christian ritual and +symbolism equally minute and pervading. Besides, in those ages when the +Christian preacher was utterly destitute of all the help which the press +now gives in keeping under the eye of converts the great inspiring +truths of religion, it was one of the first offices of every saint whose +preaching stirred the heart of the people, to devise symbolic forms, +signs, and observances, by which the mobile and fluid heart of the +multitude might crystallize into habits of devout remembrance. The +rosary, the crucifix, the shrine, the banner, the procession, were +catechisms and tracts invented for those who could not read, wherein +the substance of pages was condensed and gave itself to the eye and +the touch. Let us not, from the height of our day, with the better +appliances which a universal press gives us, sneer at the homely rounds +of the ladder by which the first multitudes of the Lord's followers +climbed heavenward. + +If there seemed somewhat mechanical in the number of times which Agnes +repeated the "Hail, Mary!"--in the prescribed number of times she rose +or bowed or crossed herself or laid her forehead in low humility on +the flags of the pavement, it was redeemed by the earnest fervor which +inspired each action. However foreign to the habits of a Northern mind +or education such a mode of prayer may be, these forms to her were all +helpful and significant, her soul was borne by them Godward,--and often, +as she prayed, it seemed to her that she could feel the dissolving of +all earthly things, and the pressing nearer and nearer of the great +cloud of witnesses who ever surround the humblest member of Christ's +mystical body. + + "Sweet loving hearts around her beat, + Sweet helping hands are stirred, + And palpitates the veil between + With breathings almost heard." + +Certain English writers, looking entirely from a worldly and +philosophical standpoint, are utterly at a loss to account for the power +which certain Italian women of obscure birth came to exercise in the +councils of nations merely by the force of a mystical piety; but the +Northern mind of Europe is entirely unfitted to read and appreciate the +psychological religious phenomena of Southern races. The temperament +which in our modern days has been called the mediistic, and which with +us is only exceptional, is more or less a race-peculiarity of Southern +climates, and gives that objectiveness to the conception of spiritual +things from which grew up a whole ritual and a whole world of religious +Art. The Southern saints and religious artists were seers,--men and +women of that peculiar fineness and delicacy of temperament which made +them especially apt to receive and project outward the truths of the +spiritual life; they were in that state of "divine madness" which is +favorable to the most intense conception of the poet and artist, and +something of this influence descended through all the channels of the +people. + +When Agnes rose from prayer, she had a serene, exalted expression, like +one who walks with some unseen excellence and meditates on some untold +joy. As she was crossing the court to come towards her uncle, her eye +was attracted by the sparkle of something on the ground, and, stooping, +she picked up a heart-shaped locket, curiously made of a large amethyst, +and fastened with a golden arrow. As she pressed upon this, the locket +opened and disclosed to her view a folded paper. Her mood at this moment +was so calm and elevated that she received the incident with no start or +shiver of the nerves. To her it seemed a Providential token, which would +probably bring to her some further knowledge of this mysterious being +who had been so especially confided to her intercessions. + +Agnes had learned of the Superior of the Convent the art of reading +writing, which would never have been the birthright of the peasant-girl +in her times, and the moon had that dazzling clearness which revealed +every letter. She stood by the parapet, one hand lying in the white +blossoming alyssum which filled its marble crevices, while she read and +seriously pondered the contents of the paper. + +TO AGNES. + + Sweet saint, sweet lady, may a sinful soul + Approach thee with an offering of love, + And lay at thy dear feet a weary heart + That loves thee, as it loveth God above! + If blessed Mary may without a stain + Receive the love of sinners most defiled, + If the fair saints that walk with her in white + Refuse not love from earth's most guilty child, + Shouldst thou, sweet lady, then that love deny + Which all-unworthy at thy feet is laid? + Ah, gentlest angel, be not more severe + Than the dear heavens unto a loving prayer! + Howe'er unworthily that prayer be said, + Let thine acceptance be like that on high! + +There might have been times in Agnes's life when the reception of this +note would have astonished and perplexed her; but the whole strain of +thought and conversation this evening had been in exalted and poetical +regions, and the soft stillness of the hour, the wonderful calmness +and clearness of the moonlight, all seemed in unison with the strange +incident that had occurred, and with the still stranger tenor of the +paper. The soft melancholy, half-religious tone of it was in accordance +with the whole undercurrent of her life, and prevented that start of +alarm which any homage of a more worldly form might have excited. It +is not to be wondered at, therefore, that she read it many times with +pauses and intervals of deep thought, and then with a movement of +natural and girlish curiosity examined the rich jewel which had inclosed +it. At last, seeming to collect her thoughts, she folded the paper and +replaced it in its sparkling casket, and, unlocking the door of the +shrine, laid the gem with its inclosure beneath the lily-spray, as +another offering to the Madonna. "Dear Mother," she said, "if indeed it +be so, may he rise from loving me to loving thee and thy dear Son, who +is Lord of all! Amen!" Thus praying, she locked the door and turned +thoughtfully to her repose, leaving the monk pacing up and down in the +moonlit garden. + +Meanwhile the Cavalier was standing on the velvet mossy bridge which +spanned the stream at the bottom of the gorge, watching the play of +moonbeams on layer after layer of tremulous silver foliage in the clefts +of the black, rocky walls on either side. The moon rode so high in the +deep violet-colored sky, that her beams came down almost vertically, +making green and translucent the leaves through which they passed, +and throwing strongly marked shadows here and there on the +flower-embroidered moss of the old bridge. There was that solemn, +plaintive stillness in the air which makes the least sound--the hum +of an insect's wing, the cracking of a twig, the patter of falling +water--so distinct and impressive. + +It needs not to be explained how the Cavalier, following the steps of +Agnes and her grandmother at a distance, had threaded the path by which +they ascended to their little sheltered nook,--how he had lingered +within hearing of Agnes's voice, and, moving among the surrounding rocks +and trees, and drawing nearer and nearer as evening shadows drew on, had +listened to the conversation, hoping that some unexpected chance might +gain him a moment's speech with his enchantress. + +The reader will have gathered from the preceding chapter that the +conception which Agnes had formed as to the real position of her admirer +from the reports of Giulietta was false, and that in reality he was +not Lord Adrian, the brother of the King, but an outcast and landless +representative of one branch of an ancient and noble Roman family, whose +estates had been confiscated and whose relations had been murdered, to +satisfy the boundless rapacity of Caesar Borgia, the infamous favorite +of the notorious Alexander VI. + +The natural temperament of Agostino Sarelli had been rather that of the +poet and artist than of the warrior. In the beautiful gardens of his +ancestral home it had been his delight to muse over the pages of Dante +and Ariosto, to sing to the lute and to write in the facile flowing +rhyme of his native Italian the fancies of the dream-land of his youth. + +He was the younger brother of the family,--the favorite son and +companion of his mother, who, being of a tender and religious nature, +had brought him up in habits of the most implicit reverence and devotion +for the institutions of his fathers. + +The storm which swept over his house, and blasted all his worldly +prospects, blasted, too, and withered all those religious hopes and +beliefs by which alone sensitive and affectionate natures can be healed +of the wounds of adversity without leaving distortion or scar. For his +house had been overthrown, his elder brother cruelly and treacherously +murdered, himself and his retainers robbed and cast out, by a man who +had the entire sanction and support of the Head of the Christian +Church, the Vicar of Christ on Earth. So said the current belief of his +times,--the faith in which his sainted mother died; and the difficulty +with which a man breaks away from such ties is in exact proportion to +the refinement and elevation of his nature. + +In the mind of our young nobleman there was a double current. He was a +Roman, and the traditions of his house went back to the time of Mutius +Scaevola; and his old nurse had often told him that grand story of how +the young hero stood with his right hand in the fire rather than betray +his honor. If the legends of Rome's ancient heroes cause the pulses of +colder climes and alien races to throb with sympathetic heroism, what +must their power be to one who says, "_These were my fathers_"? Agostino +read Plutarch, and thought, "_I_, too, am a Roman!"--and then he looked +on the power that held sway over the Tarpeian Rock and the halls of the +old "Sanctus Senatus," and asked himself, "By what right does it hold +these?" He knew full well that in the popular belief all those hardy +and virtuous old Romans whose deeds of heroism so transported him were +burning in hell for the crime of having been born before Christ; and he +asked himself, as he looked on the horrible and unnatural luxury +and vice which defiled the Papal chair and ran riot through every +ecclesiastical order, whether such men, without faith, without +conscience, and without even decency, were indeed the only authorized +successors of Christ and his Apostles? + +To us, of course, from our modern stand-point, the question has an easy +solution,--but not so in those days, when the Christianity of the known +world was in the Romish Church, and when the choice seemed to be between +that and infidelity. Not yet had Luther flared aloft the bold, cheery +torch which showed the faithful how to disentangle Christianity from +Ecclesiasticism. Luther in those days was a star lying low in the gray +horizon of a yet unawakened dawn. + +All through Italy at this time there was the restless throbbing and +pulsating, the aimless outreach of the popular heart, which marks +the decline of one cycle of religious faith and calls for some great +awakening and renewal. Savonarola, the priest and prophet of this dumb +desire, was beginning to heave a great heart of conflict towards that +mighty struggle with the vices and immoralities of his time in which he +was yet to sink a martyr; and even now his course was beginning to be +obstructed by the full energy of the whole aroused serpent brood which +hissed and knotted in the holy places of Rome. + +Here, then, was our Agostino, with a nature intensely fervent and +poetic, every fibre of whose soul and nervous system had been from +childhood skilfully woven and intertwined with the ritual and faith of +his fathers, yearning towards the grave of his mother, yearning towards +the legends of saints and angels with which she had lulled his cradle +slumbers and sanctified his childhood's pillow, and yet burning with the +indignation of a whole line of old Roman ancestors against an injustice +and oppression wrought under the full approbation of the head of that +religion. Half his nature was all the while battling the other half. +Would he be Roman, or would he be Christian? All the Roman in him said +"No!" when he thought of submission to the patent and open injustice and +fiendish tyranny which had disinherited him, slain his kindred, and held +its impure reign by torture and by blood. He looked on the splendid +snow-crowned mountains whose old silver senate engirdles Rome with an +eternal and silent majesty of presence, and he thought how often in +ancient times they had been a shelter to free blood that would not +endure oppression; and so gathering to his banner the crushed and +scattered retainers of his father's house, and offering refuge and +protection to multitudes of others whom the crimes and rapacities of the +Borgias had stripped of possessions and means of support, he fled to +a fastness in the mountains between Rome and Naples, and became an +independent chieftain, living by his sword. + +The rapacity, cruelty, and misgovernment of the various regular +authorities of Italy at this time made brigandage a respectable and +honored institution in the eyes of the people, though it was ostensibly +banned both by Pope and Prince. Besides, in the multitude of contending +factions which were every day wrangling for supremacy, it soon became +apparent, even to the ruling authorities, that a band of fighting-men +under a gallant leader, advantageously posted in the mountains and +understanding all their passes, was a power of no small importance to +be employed on one side or the other; and therefore it happened, +that, though nominally outlawed or excommunicated, they were secretly +protected on both sides, with a view to securing, their assistance in +critical turns of affairs. + +Among the common people of the towns and villages their relations were +of the most comfortable kind, their depredations being chiefly confined +to the rich and prosperous, who, as they wrung their wealth out of the +people, were not considered particular objects of compassion when the +same kind of high-handed treatment was extended toward themselves. + +The most spirited and brave of the young peasantry, if they wished to +secure the smiles of the girls of their neighborhood, and win hearts +past redemption, found no surer avenue to favor than in joining the +brigands. The leaders of these bands sometimes piqued themselves on +elegant tastes and accomplishments; and one of them is said to have sent +to the poet Tasso, in his misfortunes and exile, an offer of honorable +asylum and protection in his mountain-fortress. + +Agostino Sarelli saw himself, in fact, a powerful chief; and there were +times when the splendid scenery of his mountain-fastness, its inspiring +air, its wild eagle-like grandeur, independence, and security, gave him +a proud contentment, and he looked at his sword and loved it as a bride. +But then again there were moods in which he felt all that yearning and +disquiet of soul which the man of wide and tender moral organization +must feel who has had his faith shaken in the religion of his fathers. +To such a man the quarrel with his childhood's faith is a never-ending +anguish; especially is it so with a religion so objective, so pictorial, +and so interwoven with the whole physical and nervous nature of man, as +that which grew up and flowered in modern Italy. + +Agostino was like a man who lives in an eternal struggle of +self-justification,--his reason forever going over and over with its +plea before his regretful and never-satisfied heart, which was drawn +every hour of the day by some chain of memory towards the faith whose +visible administrators he detested with the whole force of his moral +being. When the vesper-bell, with its plaintive call, rose amid the +purple shadows of the olive-silvered mountains,--when the distant voices +of chanting priest and choir reached him solemnly from afar,--when +he looked into a church with its cloudy pictures of angels, and its +window-panes flaming with venerable forms of saints and martyrs,--it +roused a yearning anguish, a pain and conflict, which all the efforts +of his reason could not subdue. How to be a Christian and yet defy the +authorized Head of the Christian Church, or how to be a Christian +and recognize foul men of obscene and rapacious deeds as Christ's +representatives, was the inextricable Gordian knot, which his sword +could not divide. He dared not approach the Sacrament, he dared not +pray, and sometimes he felt wild impulses to tread down in riotous +despair every fragment of a religious belief which seemed to live in his +heart only to torture him. He had heard priests scoff over the wafer +they consecrated,--he had known them to mingle poison for rivals in the +sacramental wine,--and yet God had kept silence and not struck them +dead; and like the Psalmist of old he said, "Verily, I have cleansed my +heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. Is there a God that +judgeth in the earth?" + +The first time he saw Agnes bending like a flower in the slanting +evening sunbeams by the old gate of Sorrento, while he stood looking +down the kneeling street and striving to hold his own soul in the +sarcastic calm of utter indifference, he felt himself struck to the +heart by an influence he could not define. The sight of that young face, +with its clear, beautiful lines, and its tender fervor, recalled a +thousand influences of the happiest and purest hours of his life, and +drew him with an attraction he vainly strove to hide under an air of +mocking gallantry. + +When she looked him in the face with such grave, surprised eyes of +innocent confidence, and promised to pray for him, he felt a remorseful +tenderness as if he had profaned a shrine. All that was passionate, +poetic, and romantic in his nature was awakened to blend itself in a +strange mingling of despairing sadness and of tender veneration about +this sweet image of perfect purity and faith. Never does love strike so +deep and immediate a root as in a sorrowful and desolated nature; +there it has nothing to dispute the soil, and soon fills it with its +interlacing fibres. + +In this case it was not merely Agnes that he sighed for, but she stood +to him as the fair symbol of that life-peace, that rest of soul which he +had lost, it seemed to him, forever. + +"Behold this pure, believing child," he said to himself,--"a true member +of that blessed Church to which thou art a rebel! How peacefully this +lamb walketh the old ways trodden by saints and martyrs, while thou +art an infidel and unbeliever!" And then a stern voice within him +answered,--"What then? Is the Holy Ghost indeed alone dispensed through +the medium of Alexander and his scarlet crew of cardinals? Hath the +power to bind and loose in Christ's Church been indeed given to whoever +can buy it with the wages of robbery and oppression? Why does every +prayer and pious word of the faithful reproach me? Why is God silent? Or +is there any God? Oh, Agnes, Agnes! dear lily! fair lamb! lead a sinner +into the green pastures where thou restest!" + +So wrestled the strong nature, tempest-tossed in its strength,--so slept +the trustful, blessed in its trust,--then in Italy, as now in all lands. + + + + +MAIL-CLAD STEAMERS. + + +Exposed as we are to treason at home and jealousy abroad, it becomes the +policy as well as the duty of our country to prepare with promptitude +for every contingency by availing itself of all improvements in the +art of war. Superior weapons double the courage and efficiency of our +troops, carry dismay to the foe, and diminish the cost and delays +of warfare. The match-lock and the field-piece in their rudest form +triumphed over the shield, the spear, and the javelin, while the +long-bow, once so formidable, is now rarely drawn, except by those who +cater for sensation-journals. The king's-arm and artillery of the last +war cannot stand before the Minie rifle and Whitworth cannon any more +than the sickle can keep pace with the McCormick reaper, or the slow +coach with the railway-car or the telegraph. Mail-clad steamers, +impervious to shells and red-hot balls, and almost, if not quite, +invulnerable by solid shot and balls from rifled cannon at the distance +of a hundred yards, have been launched upon the deep, and already form +an important part of the navies of France and England. They have been +adopted by Russia, Austria, and Spain; and yet, although our country +furnishes iron which has no superior,--although it has taken the lead in +the steamship, the telegraph, and the railway,--although at this moment +it requires the mail-clad steamer more than any other nation, to relieve +its fortresses, to recover the cotton ports, and to defend its great +cities from foreign aggression, not a single one has yet been launched, +or even been authorized by Congress. For years we have had no more +efficient Secretary of the Navy, or more able and energetic chiefs of +the bureaus, if we may judge from what has already been accomplished; +but it depends on Congress to give the proper authority to construct a +mail-clad navy, and to provide the necessary funds. + +The importance of defensive armor has ever been felt. The warriors of +ancient times went to the field in coats-of-mail, and both Homer and +Virgil dilate upon the exquisite carving of the shield. The hauberk and +corselet were used by the Crusaders, and the chain-armor of Milan was +nearly or quite impervious to the sword and spear. Mexico and Peru were +won in great part by coats-of-mail. They were used until gunpowder +changed the whole course of war,--and the Chevalier Bayard, that knight +"_sans peur et sans reproche_," who had borne himself bravely and almost +without a scar in a hundred battles, in his last Italian campaign, as +he was borne from the field, after being struck down by a cannon-ball, +mourned that the days of Chivalry were ended. And Shakspeare tells us +that this villanous saltpetre had prevented at least one sensitive +gentleman from being a soldier. + +Defensive armor is still used by tribes who are destitute of powder; and +Barth and Barkie, in their African expeditions, found Moorish horsemen +pressing down from the North into the interior of the Soudan, arrayed +in coats-of-mail of the same description with that which figured in the +Crusades. + +In the naval contests of the last century armed ships were inferior in +size to those of modern times, and their tough oak sides were not easily +pierced by the six- and nine-pound balls then in general use, and +twelve-pounders were considered of unusual dimension. During the war +between France and America, a merchantman, armed with nine-pounders, +actually beat off a sloop-of-war and several Spanish privateers; but now +frigates, and even sloops-of-war, are armed with Dahlgren guns of +eight- to eleven-inch bore, which throw balls of sixty to one hundred +pounds,--also with superior rifled cannon. Whitworth and Armstrong guns +are in use that throw shot or shell distances of three to five miles, +which "the wooden walls" of neither England nor America are able to +resist. + +We have recently seen the Freeborn, the Pawnee, and the Harriet Lane, +when assailing the rebel batteries on the James and the Potomac, +compelled to take positions at the distance of two miles, and to keep +constantly moving, and compelled consequently to throw away most of +their costly ammunition in uncertain shots, at the same time that they +were constantly exposed to shots which might destroy their engines and +explode their boilers. There was no lack of courage on the part of their +gallant officers; but, from the insufficiency of the vessels, they were +obliged to use a wise discretion, and to take all reasonable precautions +for the safety of their ships, so important and yet so inadequate to the +service of the country. And when Fort Sumter was about to fall, and when +a single shot-proof gun-boat could have defied the rebel batteries, and +without the loss of a man have conveyed to the fortress stores for six +months and a whole battalion of troops, that single gun-boat,--a mere +gun-boat, which need not have passed within one thousand yards of any +batteries on her way,--could not be commanded by the Government, and the +gallant Anderson was compelled to lower to treason that flag whose fall +has aroused the nation to arms. + +The earliest experiments upon the power of iron plate to resist the +force of cannon-balls appear to have been made in France by M. de +Montgery, an officer in the French navy, as far back as 1810. He +proposed to cover the sides of ships with several plates of iron, of the +aggregate thickness of four inches, which he alleged would resist the +force of any projectile. But Napoleon had not confidence in his navy; he +had lost the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar; ever successful on the +land, his ships had been swept by Nelson from the deep; and he +had neither time nor disposition to investigate new plans for the +restoration of the navy, or even to take up Fulton's new discovery. It +was reserved for the third Napoleon to develop the original idea of a +Frenchman, and thus to place France on the sea nearly or quite upon a +footing with England. + +Some twelve years later, General Paixhans, who gave his name to the +large guns of modern times, (although their prior invention was claimed +by the late Colonel Bomford,) again commended plate-armor for ships to +his Government; but his advice was not then adopted. + +With the improvement of cannon the importance of plate-armor became more +and more apparent; and at length Mr. Stevens, under the sanction of our +Government, instituted a series of experiments upon iron plates, and +soon after commenced building an immense floating battery for the +defence of New York, at Hoboken, which is still unfinished, but which, +it is rumored, will, if Congress appropriates the means, be completed +the present season. + +Stevens was the first to carry out the idea of a mail-clad steamer; and +it is alone due to the apathy of the late Administration, which has +neglected our navy while indulging in its Southern proclivities, that +our nation has not the honor of launching the first steamer in a +coat-of-mail. The frame, however, of such a vessel has been long in +place, the hull is nearly complete, the engines are far advanced, and +the finishing stroke may soon be given. + +Stevens, in the course of his experiments, made the important discovery, +that a single plate of boiler-iron, five-eighths of an inch in +thickness, and weighing less than twenty-five pounds to the superficial +foot[A], when nailed to the side of a ship, was impenetrable by shell +and red-hot shot, the two missiles most dangerous to wooden walls. When +a solid shot strikes the side of a wooden ship, it passes in and usually +stops before it reaches the opposite side. The fibres of the wood yield +and close up behind it, and it often happens, from the reunion of the +fibres, that it is difficult to find the place perforated by the ball, +and if found, it is often easy to remedy the injury by a simple plug. +But if a red-hot shot enter the ship, it may imbed itself in the wood or +coils of cordage or sails, or reach the magazine, and thus destroy the +whole structure, while the shell may explode within the ship and carry +destruction to both men and vessel. If, then, the iron-plate had +answered no other purpose, the discovery by Stevens of its capacity to +resist the two most formidable weapons of his day would alone have been +of great value to the country; but he went farther, and demonstrated by +actual construction the idea of Montgery, that successive plates of iron +would resist the cold spherical shot thrown by the best artillery, and +his floating battery or frigate is protected by plate within plate of +iron armor. + +[Footnote A: Sheet-iron plates of one inch in thickness weigh forty +pounds per superficial foot.] + +While our Government slept upon its unfinished frigate, and forgot +the honor and interest of the country in the lap of the siren of the +South,--of that South which sixty years since broke down the navy of +John Adams, and left us to encounter the embargo and war with England +without a navy, or, at most, with a few frigates which sufficed to show +what the navy of Adams might have effected,--the honor of launching the +first iron-clad steamer, the Gloire, was resigned to the French. The +first Napoleon made the army of France the best in Europe, if not in the +world; the third, while he maintains the standing of the army, aspires +to give the same position to her navy. + +In 1854, Napoleon, who had long studied the art of war, and during his +stay in New York had doubtless seen or heard of the floating battery, +determined to construct two such batteries, and accordingly built the +Lave and Tonnerre. With one of these, the Lave, during the Russian War, +he assailed and destroyed in the brief space of one hour the strong +fortress of Kinburn, near Sebastopol; and in striking contrast to this +success, a large British steamship, heavily armed, but constructed of +wood, was actually captured near Odessa by a small party of Russians +with two or three thirty-two-pounders worked through a gap in an +embankment. + +The invulnerable battery of France anchored close under the fortress. +Before its cannon, granite walls are shivered into fragments most +dangerous to the gunners, while the shells, burying themselves two or +three feet deep in the brickwork, by their explosion shake the walls to +pieces. Iron, protected by iron, triumphed over both bricks and granite, +which had defied the fleet of England. + +The Emperor was not slow to realize the result of the problem he had +solved. He at once proceeded to test the strength of the best kinds of +plate made in his dominions, and found, by actual trial, that plates of +the best iron, but four and three-fourths inches in thickness, were able +to resist repeated shocks of solid balls fired at the distance of twenty +metres (less than four rods) from his sixty-eight-pounders, and from +rifled guns throwing shot of nearly the same calibre,--and this, too, +when the balls were impelled by more than one-fourth their weight of +powder. But ships rarely engage at such close quarters either with +vessels or fortresses, and the effect of the ball is greatly diminished +by distance, a single inch plate sufficing to stop a spherical shot at a +long distance. + +As the result of these experiments, the Emperor proceeded to construct +the Gloire, an iron-clad frigate, which has been completed, has made +several voyages, been tried in a severe gale, for nearly a year has +been the pride of the French navy, and has recently run from Toulon to +Algiers in the brief space of sixty-six hours. + +The Gloire is a steam-frigate cased in five-inch plates; she is two +hundred and fifty feet in length by twenty-one in width, mounts +thirty-eight rifled fifty-pounders, is moved by engines of nine hundred +horse-power, is manned by six hundred men, has a speed of twelve and a +half knots, and a capacity for five days' coal,--a capacity which might +be easily increased by a little more breadth of beam, but which is +sufficient for a passage to Algiers, or along the coast of Spain, +England, or Italy. This vessel is considered invulnerable by balls +discharged from rifled cannon at the distance of four hundred yards. + +Encouraged by his continued success, the Emperor at once ordered the +construction of nine such frigates, several of which are already +finished. He has since ordered ten more iron-cased frigates and +gun-boats, which are now in course of construction. Before the present +season closes, his iron navy will be composed of twenty steamships and +four floating batteries. + +During the contest with Russia, England would not venture to expose her +wooden ships of the line to the close fire of the batteries either +at Cronstadt or Sebastopol, and found it safer to shell them at a +respectful distance and with indifferent success. She was deeply +impressed, however, with the performance of the Lave and Tonnerre at +Kinburn, and seriously disturbed by the completion of the great naval +station at Cherbourg, armed with more than three hundred cannon, and +directly opposite her coast. + +England at first sought to meet the new invention by improved artillery, +and produced the Whitworth and Armstrong cannon, which have a range of +four to five miles. With these she practised at short distances upon +targets of strong oaken plank faced with iron plates of four to five +inches in diameter, but found the plates impervious to balls, and +vulnerable only by steel bolts of small diameter, fired at short +distances from Whitworth and Armstrong cannon,--bolts so small that the +wounds they made in the frames faced with iron usually closed or did +little mischief. A few plates of inferior iron occasionally gave way +after repeated assaults, for English iron is coarsely made and poorly +welded,--a striking illustration of which may be found in a part of +the hull of the ill-fated steamer Connaught, which is preserved at the +ship-yard near Dorchester Point, South Boston. + +England was at length convinced; she determined that she could not +safely permit the Emperor of the French to rule the sea with his iron +navy. She had not forgotten St. Helena. She realized that she had no +fleet that could safely encounter one of his mail-clad warriors, and +found herself obliged to copy the new invention. She commenced last year +ten iron-clad ships of the line, and has nearly or quite finished the +Warrior, Black Prince, Defiance, and Resistance, while others are +progressing. But she could not tamely copy France. Instead of confining +herself to the length of the Gloire, she is constructing vessels of +immense size. The Warrior, recently launched, is four hundred and +twenty-six feet in length, nearly fifty-two feet in depth, has a width +of fifty-eight feet, measures six thousand one hundred and seventy-seven +tons, and is moved by engines of twelve hundred horse-power. She is to +mount thirty-six cannon of the largest class, and her armor weighs nine +hundred tons. + +This vessel will be a formidable antagonist upon the open sea; but her +great depth, with the weight of her armor, causes her to draw thirty +feet, which would prohibit her entrance into most of the seaports upon +our coast. She is vulnerable, too, at each extremity. Her iron plates, +four and a half inches thick, extend but half her length, leaving more +than a hundred feet at each end covered by a plate of only five-eighths +of an inch in thickness; and in case these portions should be injured, +she must rely upon her water-tight compartments. An adroit foe, in a +light craft of greater speed, avoiding her batteries, which are planted +behind her armor, might possibly assail her unprotected ends, and, +although he could not sink her, still, by shot between wind and water, +he might render her more unwieldy and less manageable,--a weight of +water being thus admitted which would bring down the ship so as to +endanger her lower ports and prevent the use of them in action. He might +thus also prevent her approach to shoal water. The Warrior and her +companions are, however, formidable ships, and in deep water, with ample +sea-room, must be most powerful antagonists. + +The importance attached by England to mail-clad steamers may be inferred +from the debates in the House of Lords on the 11th and 14th of June, +1861, in which it was officially stated that the Government had not +authorized the construction of a single wooden three-decker since 1855, +nor one wooden two-decker since 1859, although it had launched a few +upon the stocks for the purpose of clearing the yards,--and that it now +contemplated culling down a number of the largest wooden steamships +of the line for the purpose of plating them with iron, while it was +constructing nothing but iron ships, except a few light despatch +frigates, corvettes, and gun-boats. + +In the same debate it was stated that bolts of steel had been forced by +improved Armstrong cannon through an eight-inch mail composed of iron +bars dovetailed together; but the quality of the iron and the mode of +fastening were both questioned. These experiments did not deter the +Government from constructing mail-clad steamships. Indeed, it must be +obvious that the great cost of Armstrong cannon, fifteen hundred to two +thousand dollars each, together with the cost of steel bolts, combined +with the fact that this description of cannon is easily shattered, if +struck by a ball from the adversary, must long prevent its introduction +into use; and should it eventually succeed, it must prove far more +destructive to wooden walls than to iron-clad vessels. + +It has, however, been urged in England against iron ships of all +descriptions, but more as a theory than as an ascertained fact, that a +solid shot would make a large and irregular aperture, if it entered the +side of a vessel, and a much larger orifice as it passed out on the +opposite side. To this theory, however, there are two answers: first, +that a solid ball can neither enter nor pass out of the sides of a +mail-clad steamer; second, that, when it enters a common iron ship, +there is evidence that it does less damage than would be suffered by +a wooden vessel. Captain Charlewood, of the Royal Navy, who recently +commanded the iron frigate Guadaloupe in the service of Mexico, +testified before a Committee of the British Parliament, that "his ship +was under fire almost daily for four or five months," that "the damage +by shot was considerably less than that usually suffered by a wooden +vessel, and that there was nothing like the number of splinters which +are generally forced out by a shot sent through a wooden vessel's side"; +that "the vessel was hulled once in the midship part at about one +thousand yards," and the effect was "that the shot passed through the +iron, making a round hole in the iron"; "that at two feet below water +another shot passed through the vessel's side and one or two casks of +provisions, and that the hole was simply plugged by the engineer at the +time." He testified also that none of the shot disturbed any rivets. His +evidence is the more valuable as it relates to an inferior vessel, whose +plates were probably not more than half an inch thick. + +The testimony of Captain W.H. Hall, R.N., in command of the iron frigate +Nemesis, in the Chinese war, was still more conclusive in favor of iron. +He stated, "that in one action the Nemesis was hit fourteen times," and +that one shot "went in at one side and came out at the other, and there +were no splinters; in case of that shot, it went through just as if you +put your finger through a piece of paper: nothing could have been more +easily stopped than I could have stopped that shot in the Nemesis"; +that, "several wooden steamers were employed in that service, and they +were invariably obliged to lie up for repairs, whilst I could repair the +Nemesis in twenty-four hours and have her always ready for service." The +Nemesis was a common iron steamer, and not a mail-clad steamship. + +As respects the strength and durability of these steamers, although +accidents have occurred from defective materials, it is in proof that +the Tyne and Great Britain ran ashore and remained for months exposed to +the open sea without going to pieces, and were finally rescued,--that +the Persia struck on an iceberg, filled one of her compartments with +water, and came safe to port,--that the North America and Edinburgh went +at full speed upon the rocks near Cape Race and yet escaped,--and that +the Sarah Sands, while transporting troops to India, took fire, that in +consequence the interior and contents of one of her compartments were +entirely consumed, that her magazine exploded, and that she then +encountered a ten days' gale, and after this exposure to such a series +of calamities she reached her port without losing one of her crew or +passengers. + +The ambition of England to maintain her ascendancy upon the deep has +led her to disregard the advice of her Defence Commissioners, who +recommended a different class of mail-clad steamers, to measure but two +thousand tons and to draw but sixteen feet of water,--a class admirably +adapted to the sea-ports and requirements of the United States. And +singular as it may appear, by some coincidence at a moment when our +country requires this class of steamers, the enterprise of Boston is +completing two iron steamers whose dimensions and draught of water +conform to the recommendation of the British Commissioners,--steamers +which are nearly ready for launching, but which, if they can receive, +before they leave the stocks, additional plates of iron, would doubtless +prove the most useful and efficient mail-clad vessels which have yet +been constructed. + +The stranger who would inspect these beautiful vessels may seat himself +at almost any hour of the day in the cars at the foot of Summer Street, +and in twenty minutes find himself at a point a little north of the +Perkins Asylum for the Blind. A walk of five minutes more will bring him +to a secluded yard sloping gently towards the water, where he will find +extensive offices, and two large buildings which cover the vessels upon +the stocks. + +As he approaches these structures, he will notice many plates of +superior iron from the rolling-mills of Baltimore, combining the +toughness and strength and other excellences of the best Pennsylvania +iron; he will notice, too, immense ribs and beams of iron, and hear the +incessant din of hammers riveting the sides and boilers. + +Under each of these sheds he will find an iron steamship, two hundred +and seventy-five feet in length by twenty-three in depth, exquisitely +proportioned; he will be struck by the fine entrance and run. The +extreme sharpness of the stem and stern, combined with great capacity, +seems to answer every requirement; and he will be surprised to learn +that the draught of these steamers is but sixteen feet when deeply +laden, and that their engines of thirteen hundred horse-power are +expected to give them a speed of fifteen knots per hour. When they reach +their destined element and have received their lading, the height from +the water-line to the deck will be but seven feet; hence it is apparent +that a belt of iron plates carried around them of eight feet four inches +in height would protect them from the deck to a point sixteen inches +below the water-line, or from the bottom of the deck-beams to a point +two feet below the water-line. + +The iron plates which form the sides of these ships range in thickness +from one inch below the water-line to three-fourths of an inch above +it. And if we allow for the superior strength and toughness of American +iron, an additional plate of three inches in thickness would suffice +to give them more strength than that of either the French or English +mail-clad steamers. + +By careful computation we have ascertained that each vessel might be +encircled by such plates, weighing but one hundred and twenty pounds per +superficial foot, and have her bulwarks plated also, without adding more +than three hundred tons to her weight,--actually less than one-third of +the cargo she was designed to carry. With an extra planking within, and +an armament of twenty-four rifled fifty-pounders or Whitworth cannon, +and select crews, such vessels need fear no antagonists upon the deep. +Low in the hull, they would offer but little surface to the fire of the +enemy, and their sides would be impervious to shot and shell. Beneath +the decks they could carry in safety a whole regiment of troops. +Selecting their position by superior speed, they could destroy a fleet +of wooden steamers or ships-of-the-line. Entering any of our large +seaports, they could pass the fortress at the entrance uninjured, and +lay cities under contribution, or destroy their ports, without being, +like Achilles, or the English "Warrior," vulnerable in the heel. + +When such steamers come into general use, we shall hear no more of the +wooden walls of Greece or England, or of those modern platforms which +had not a stick of sound oak timber in them,--nothing, indeed, but +pitch-pine and cypress. Oak, pine, and cypress would fall into the same +category, when contrasted with the imperishable iron. Some new agency of +steel must be invented to cope with the adamantine iron. And it becomes +our Government, both for the armament of our ships and for defence +against iron steamers, to adopt at the earliest moment every improvement +in rifled cannon. + +The Navy Department has recently put under contract seven steamships and +several steam gun-boats. They have intrusted the latter to some of the +ablest ship-builders of the country, and it is well understood that most +of these vessels are to be completed the present season. This measure, +as far as it goes, is eminently wise; but our navy must still be below +the requirements of the nation, and entirely disproportioned to the +extent both of our commerce and of our sea-coast. At a low estimate, our +country requires an additional supply of at least six mail-clad steam +frigates, twelve steam sloops-of-war, and twelve steam gun-boats, +with similar armor. It will require also for long voyages and +distant stations a dozen steam frigates of wood, and as many steam +sloops-of-war, like the best now in our service; and, with the materials +and armament now on hand, an outlay of twenty-five or thirty millions +well applied may suffice for the construction of the whole. With such a +provision we need feel no solicitude as to the intervention of England +or France in our domestic affairs. + +The lighter steamships of wood will answer for long voyages to the +Mediterranean, the coast of Africa, India, and the Pacific, and will +protect our grain, flour, and corn, on their way from the West to +Europe. Our iron steamers will defend our commercial cities from attack +or blockade; they will level all rebel batteries on the waters of the +Chesapeake; they can batter down the fortresses of the Southern coast, +and restore to commerce the ports of Charleston, Savannah, Pensacola, +Mobile, Apalachicola, New Orleans, and Galveston. + +Most fortunately for our country, at a moment when we cannot immediately +command the live oak of Georgia and Florida, the oak plank of Virginia, +or the yellow pine of the Carolinas, we have the most abundant supplies +of iron easily accessible, and now, relieved from the demands of +railways and factories, ready for the construction of our iron navy. The +iron plates of Pennsylvania and Maryland in strength and toughness know +no superior. The iron mountain near St. Louis and the mines on Lake +Champlain furnish also an article of great purity and excellence. But, +choice as are these deposits of iron, they are all surpassed by the more +recent discoveries on Lake Superior, now opened by the ship-canal at the +Straits of St. Mary. There Nature has stored an inexhaustible amount of +the richest iron ore, free from sulphur, phosphorus, arsenic, and other +deleterious substances, protruding above the surface of hillocks and +underlying the country for miles in extent. This ore is of the specular +and magnetic kind, yields sixty-five per cent. of iron of remarkable +purity, is easily mined and transported to the Lake, and is shipped in +vast quantities to the ports of Lake Erie, where it meets the coal of +Ohio. At least ten companies are now engaged in its shipment, which +has progressed thus far with great rapidity, doubling every year. The +shipments from Lake Superior, in 1858, were thirty thousand five hundred +and twenty-seven tons; in 1859, eighty thousand tons; in 1860, one +hundred and fifty thousand tons. So great are the magnetic powers of +this iron, that, buried as it was in the depths of the forest and +beneath the surface of the earth, it disturbed the compasses of the +United States surveyors while engaged in the survey of Northern +Michigan. For a time their needle would not work, and they were obliged +temporarily to suspend their operations. Their embarrassment led to the +discovery of these vast deposits of ore. It is now mingled with the +inferior ore of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and extensively wrought. + +Our nation has strong motives to induce it to construct an iron navy. + +_First._ The adoption of such a navy by the great powers of +Europe,--England and France,--followed by Russia, Austria, and Spain. +Our commerce will be in danger, if they once acquire the power of +assailing us with impunity. + +_Second._ Our urgent want of this class of vessels to recover our +fortresses, repel blockades, and reopen our Southern ports, without +wearisome sieges, costly both in blood and treasure. + +_Third._ Our inability to command our customary supplies of durable +timber. + +_Fourth._ The abundance of iron, unrivalled in any part of the world. + +_Fifth._ The durability of the ships constructed from iron. If well +manned and piloted, they will seldom need repairs; and instead of +failing, as many ships do in the sixth year, and requiring vast +expenditures to discharge and dismantle them for the renewal of the +decaying timber, plank, copper, and other materials, often amounting in +the aggregate to more than their original cost, the mail-clad steamers +built of American iron will outlive successive races of wooden +steamships. The iron such a navy would require will put many idle hands +in motion, which would otherwise be unproductive during war,--the miners +of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, the colliers of Ohio and +Pennsylvania, the mariners of the Lakes, the navigators of canals, and +the operatives of railways, down to the brawny smiths who fashion the +metal into shapes,--until their combined efforts launch it upon the +deep, and send it forth to + + "dare the very elements to strife." + +How much better would it be to create such an iron navy than to expend +million after million on wooden walls that must soon perish by decay or +the shells of the enemy, or to lavish three or four millions upon the +conversion of our superannuated ships-of-the-line into steamships! +These, when converted, will still retain their age and constant tendency +to decay, their models long since abandoned, their original design, +height of decks, and other proportions adapted to the eighteen- and +twenty-four-pounders formerly in use, which are now giving place to +Dahlgren and rifled cannon carrying balls of sixty-four to one hundred +pounds weight. Such an expenditure would be like an essay to convert a +Yankee shingle-palace, such as Irving described half a century ago, into +a modern villa, and reminds one of a proposition made to an assembly +some twenty centuries since, which still has its significance. + +An orator had proposed to convert an old politician into a general; but +a citizen moved an amendment to convert donkeys into horses, and when +the possibility of doing so was questioned, argued that the horses were +necessary for the war, and that his measure was as feasible as the +other. + +To prepare our nation for war, let us select the Enfield rifle, the Colt +revolver, the rifled and cast-steel cannon, the mail-clad steamer, and +not resort to flint arrow-heads and tomahawks, or to any other fossil +remains of antiquity. The policy of creating an iron navy has been +repeatedly urged of late in the foreign journals. It has also been +advocated with signal ability by Donald McKay of Boston, one of our most +eminent naval constructors, who, after building the Great Republic, the +Flying Cloud, and a fleet of other celebrated clippers, has visited the +dockyards of France and England, examined their mail-clad ships upon the +stocks and those already finished. Although himself accustomed to work +on wood, and a candidate for employment as builder of some of our +wooden gun-boats, with great frankness as well as boldness he urges the +construction of mail-clad steamers. We trust Congress will no longer +neglect so important a means of protecting our national prosperity. + + + + +PARTING HYMN. + +"_Dundee_." + + + Father of Mercies, Heavenly Friend, + We seek Thy gracious throne; + To Thee our faltering prayers ascend, + Our fainting hearts are known! + + From blasts that chill, from suns that smite, + From every plague that harms; + In camp and march, in siege and fight, + Protect our men-at-arms! + + Though from our darkened lives they take + What makes our life most dear, + We yield them for their country's sake + With no relenting tear. + + Our blood their flowing veins will shed, + Their wounds our breasts will share; + Oh, save us from the woes we dread, + Or grant us strength to bear! + + Let each unhallowed cause that brings + The stern destroyer cease, + Thy flaming angel fold his wings, + And seraphs whisper Peace! + + Thine are the sceptre and the sword, + Stretch forth Thy mighty hand,-- + Reign Thou our kingless nation's Lord, + Rule Thou our throneless land! + + + + +WHERE WILL THE REBELLION LEAVE US? + + +"The United States are bounded, North, by the British Possessions; +South, by the Gulf of Mexico; East, by the Atlantic Ocean; and West, +by the Pacific." So the school-books told us which we studied in our +childhood; and so, in every school throughout the land, the children +are taught to-day. The armed hosts whose tread resounds through thy +Continent are marching Southward to teach this simple lesson in +geography. They all know it by heart. "This they are ready to verify," +as the lawyers say. Wherever, in any benighted region, this elementary +proposition shall be henceforth denied or doubted, schools for adults +are to be established, and the needful instruction given. By regiments, +battalions, and brigades, with all necessary apparatus, the teachers +go forth to their work. The proposition is a very simple one, easily +expressed and easily understood; but it tells the whole story. It is the +substance of all men's thoughts, and of all men's speech. Mr. Lincoln +states it in his inaugural. Mr. Douglas impresses it upon the Illinois +legislature. Mr. Seward announces it, briefly and with emphasis, to the +governments of Europe. Sentimental talk about "our country, however +bounded," is obsolete; and how the country is bounded is now the point +to be settled, once and forever. "This territory, from the Great Lakes +to the Gulf, belongs to the people of the United States, and they mean +to hold and keep it. We shall neither alter our school-books nor revise +our maps." So say the American people, rising in their wrath. + +The practical question with which Mr. Lincoln's administration had to +deal in the first place was, Whether a popular government is strong +enough to suppress a military rebellion? And that may be regarded as +already settled. But the grounds upon which that rebellion is justified +involve the vital facts of national unity, and even of national +existence. As a people, we have always been extremely tolerant of +theories, however absurd. There is hardly a doctrine of constitutional +law so clear and well settled, that it is not, from time to time, +discussed and disputed among us. But when it comes to reducing +mischievous speculations to practice, the case is altered, and the +practical genius of the people begins to manifest itself. Thus, the +Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of '98 and '99 declared the Federal +Constitution to be merely a compact between sovereign States, created +for a special and limited purpose; and that each party to the compact +was the exclusive and final judge for itself of the construction of the +contract, with a right to determine for itself when it was violated, and +the measure and mode of redress. As a theory, this doctrine has been +very extensively accepted. Great parties have adopted it as their +platform, and elections have been carried upon it. Its value as a +support to the dignity and self-importance of local politicians was +readily apprehended by them; and it was in perfect harmony with the tone +of bluster which pervaded our politics. The thorough refutation which it +always encountered, whenever it was seriously considered, never seemed +to do its popularity any harm. In truth, mere vaporing hurt nobody, and +caused no great alarm. But when the Hartford Convention was suspected +of covering a little actual heat under the smoke of the customary +resolutions and protests, a bucket of cold water was thrown over it. +When, in 1832, South Carolina developed a spark of real fire, the nation +put its foot on it. And now, when the torch of rebellion has been +circulating among very inflammable materials, until a serious +conflagration is threatened, the instinct of self-preservation has +roused the energies of the whole people for its immediate, complete, and +final extinction. + +The present insurrection has been so long meditated, the approaches to +its final consummation have been so steadily made, and the schemes of +the principal traitors have been so well planned and carefully matured, +that they have almost succeeded in making the vocabulary of treason a +part of the vernacular of the country. We all talk of the States which +have seceded or are going to secede,--of a fratricidal war,--of the +measures which this or the other State is determined or likely to adopt; +and a great deal has been said about State sovereignty, and coercion of +a State, and the invasion of the soil of one State and another. There +has been large discussion in times past of the danger of a dissolution +of the Union. Indeed, this danger has been so often held up as a threat +by one section, and so persistently used as a scarecrow by timid or +profligate men in the other, that it has become one of the commonplaces +of political contests. Our ears have hardly ceased to be tormented with +projects of reconstruction, and with suggestions of guaranties, and +pacifications, and mediation, and neutrality, armed or otherwise. +Border-State Conventions are projected, and well-meaning governors have +been arranging interviews or conducting correspondence with governors +who talked of Southern rights, and undertook to say what their States +would or would not permit the United States Government to do. Even a +Cabinet officer, of whom better things might have been expected, and by +whom better things are now nobly said and done, allowed himself to fall +into the error of explaining to the vacillating Governor of Maryland +that the intentions of the National Administration were purely +defensive. While such language is current at home, it is not strange +that foreigners should find themselves in a state of hopeless confusion +about us. Few European writers, except De Tocqueville, have ever shown a +clear comprehension of our political system; and the speeches of British +statesmen on American affairs are perhaps rather to be accounted for and +excused from want of information, than resented as hostile or insulting. +But it is time that this whole pernicious dialect should be exploded, +and the ideas which it represents be eradicated from the minds of +intelligent men everywhere. + +The right of revolution it is needless to discuss. Resistance, in any +practicable method, to intolerable oppression, is the natural right of +every human being, and of course of every community. But such a right +is never included in the framework of organized civil society. From its +nature, it can form no part of a plan of government. The only formula +which embraces it is the famous one of "Monarchy tempered by Regicide"; +and where that prevails, it seems to be adopted as a practical +expedient, rather than recognized as an established constitutional +maxim. But as a question of revolution the issue is not presented. If +it were, it would be easy to deal with. The only embarrassment in our +present condition, so far as reasoning goes, arises from confused +notions of constitutional law, and the inaccuracy of language which +necessarily attends them. In order, therefore, to know what is before +us, let us first see where we stand. + +The London "Times" informs the people of England, that "the resolution +of the North to crush Secession by force involves a denial of the right +of each one of the seceding States to determine the conditions of its +own national existence." Precisely so. It involves all that; but the +whole fact comprehends a great deal more. Not one of the States of the +American Union has any national existence, or ever had any, in the sense +in which the "Times" uses the phrase. Not one of them has any of the +functions or qualities of a nation. In the case of the greater part of +the States in which the rebellion exists, the United States bought and +paid for the territory which they occupy, made States of them under its +own Constitution and laws, upon certain conditions made irrevocable +by the act which created them, and reserved the forts, arsenals, and +custom-houses which their treasonable citizens have since undertaken +to steal. The fundamental idea of the American system is local +self-government for local purposes, and national unity for national +purposes. Our national union is synonymous with our national existence. +When we speak of sovereign and independent States, the phrase has no +other just meaning than that each State is independent of every other in +all matters exclusively appertaining to its own powers and duties, and +sovereign upon all subjects which have not been committed exclusively +to the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. Any encroachment by the +Government of the United States upon the lawful jurisdiction of the +several States would be resisted as a usurpation; but the "reserved +rights" of the States, _ex vi termini_, cannot include any of the +attributes of power which the people of the whole country have conferred +upon the Union. But further,--and this is a point of great practical +importance,--the Federal Government has no relation to the several +States as States, and they have no relations to it, or to each other, +except so far as these relations are expressly defined and specified in +the National Constitution. Beyond these, the authority and jurisdiction +of the nation address themselves and are applied to the individual +citizens of all the States alike. "The king can do no wrong," is the +maxim of English law. A State of the American Union cannot secede, or +commit treason, or make war upon the United States. So the United States +cannot, and do not, make war upon any State. Virginia, for all national +purposes, belongs to the United States,--exactly as it belongs to the +State, for the purposes of local administration. In theory, and in +practice, the State of Virginia is at this moment a peaceful and +faithful member of the American Union. Her Senators and Representatives, +except so far as individuals among them may have disqualified themselves +by resignation, or, what may be held to be equivalent, by deserting +their posts to array themselves in active hostility to their country, +are still entitled to their seats in Congress. The State may be overrun +by armed insurgents, resisting the Federal authority; but so it might be +by a foreign army. The peaceful citizens, who remain faithful to their +constitutional obligations, are entitled to the aid of the national +power to suppress domestic insurrection, whatever proportions that +insurrection may assume. The soldiers of the United States, lawfully +mustered to resist invasion or put down rebellion, have nothing to do +with State lines, and act in perfect harmony with all legitimate State +action. They can no more invade a State than if they were in it to +resist a foreign enemy, or than a United States marshal invades it +when he goes to arrest a counterfeiter. The "Times" would have little +difficulty in understanding a denial of the right of the Isle of Man, or +of Lancashire, or of Ireland, "to determine the conditions of its own +national existence." + +There is another fallacy in speaking of the resolution of the North to +crush Secession by force. It is the resolution of the nation,--of all +that is faithful and loyal in it, wherever found. The people of the +Southern States have not had any fair opportunity to express their +opinions. The military usurpers have allowed nothing to be submitted to +the test of a popular vote, except where they were able to take such +measures of precaution, in the way of hanging, confiscation, banishment, +disarming opponents, and the presence of an armed force which should +overawe dissenters, as might secure the unanimity they desired. There +is undoubtedly much more loyalty in the Northern than in the Southern +States of the Union, as there is less of passion, and more of +intelligence and principle,--although treason has, till very lately, +found more than enough apologists or abettors even in the Free States. +But the spirit which now actuates our people has little that is +sectional in it, and the principles at issue have the same application +to Maine that they have to Florida. + +When we ask, then, where this rebellion will leave us, and what will be +the condition of the United States when the authority of the Government +has been vindicated and reestablished, the answer must be sought in the +considerations already suggested. The rebellion cannot be ended, until +we have settled as a principle of constitutional law for our own +citizens, and as a fact of which all other nations must take notice, +that this whole country belongs to the people of the United States. No +foreign power shall possess a foot of it. If the majority of the people +of a State can throw off their allegiance to the Union, they can +transfer their allegiance to England or Spain at their pleasure, as +well as to a new confederacy of their own devising. The battles of the +Revolution which secured our independence were fought by the whole +country, and for the whole country, without reference to local +majorities. The accessions to our territory were made by the nation as +a unit, and belong to it as such. We did not acquire Texas, and pay the +millions of its debt, with the reservation that it might sell itself +again the next day to the highest bidder. That no foreign dominion shall +interpose between the Northwest and the Atlantic, or between the Valley +of the Mississippi and the Gulf, is a geographical necessity. But +that, the American Union is indissoluble is essential to our national +existence. If that be not so, we have neither a flag nor a country,--we +can neither contract a debt nor make a treaty,--we have neither honor +abroad nor strength at home,--our experiment of free government is a +blunder and a failure, and for us, "Chaos has come again." + +But the further question remains, In what way is it possible that +harmony shall be restored between the parts of the country through which +the rebellion has spread and those which have remained faithful to the +Constitution and the Union? When we have dispersed the armies of the +rebels, and demolished their batteries, and retaken our forts +and arsenals, our navy-yards and armories, our mints and +custom-houses,--when we have visited their leaders with retributive +justice, and made Richmond and Charleston and New Orleans as submissive +to lawful authority as Baltimore or Washington or Boston,--what then? +Will a people we have subjugated ever live with us again on terms of +equality and friendship? Can the wounded pride of the Ancient Dominion +be so far soothed that she can allow us again to bask in the sunshine +of her favor? Will she ever consent to resume her old superiority, and +furnish our audacious army and navy with officers, our committees with +chairmen, and our departments with clerks? Or must we, for a generation, +hold the States we have subdued by military occupation? Must we make +Territories of them, and blot out those malignant stars from our +glorious and triumphant banner? + +In all seriousness, there seems but one solution to the problem; and +it must be found, if at all, in the proposition already stated, that +treason is an individual act. A State cannot rebel, as it cannot secede. +A governor of a State may rebel, and a majority of a legislature may +join an insurrection, as a governor or legislators may commit larceny +or join a piratical expedition. But whoever arrays himself in armed +opposition to the Government of the United States, or gives aid and +comfort to its enemies, becomes thereby merely a private rebel and +traitor. Whatever office he may fill, with whatever functions of local +government he may be intrusted, by whatever name he may be called, +governor or judge, senator or representative, it is the treason of the +citizen, and not of the officer. And as a State has no legal existence +except as a member of the Union, and has no constitutional powers or +functions or capacities but those which it exercises in harmony with and +subordination to the rightful authority of the Federal Government, so +the loyal and faithful inhabitants of a State, and they only, constitute +the State. Mr. Mason tells the people of Virginia, that those of them +who, in their consciences, cannot vote to separate Virginia from the +United States, if they retain such opinions, must leave the State. We +thank him for teaching us that word. When the tables are turned, it will +form a valuable theme for his private meditation. The unconditional +Union men, who are of and for their country against all comers, who +neither commit treason openly nor disguise their cowardly treachery +under the shallow cover of neutrality, are to wield the power of their +respective States, and to be the only recognized inhabitants. All others +must submit or fly. If the Governor and Legislature of Virginia have +renounced their allegiance to the United States, and undertaken to +establish a foreign jurisdiction in a portion of our territory, their +relation to that State becomes substantially the same as if they had +gone on board a British fleet in the Chesapeake, or enlisted under the +standard of an invading army. They have abdicated their offices, which +thereby become vacant. It was for "having endeavored to subvert the +constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between +king and people, violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn +himself out of the kingdom," that James II. was declared by the House +of Commons to have abdicated the government. Would it have been less an +abdication, if he had remained within the realm, and attempted to hold +it as the viceroy of France? When, in June, 1775, Governor Dunmore and +his Council took refuge on board a British man-of-war, the Virginians of +that day proceeded to meet in convention, and provide new officers to +manage the affairs of their State. Let this historical precedent be +followed now. Wherever, in either of the States which the rebels have +sought to appropriate, the loyal citizens can find a spot in which they +can meet in safety, let them meet by their delegates in convention, and +adopt the necessary measures to elect new officers under their present +constitutions. The only irregularity will be what results from the +fact that treason in such high places and on so large a scale was not +contemplated, nor was a remedy furnished for it, in their frame of +government. It is merely a case not provided for, and the omission must +be supplied in the most practicable way. The new organization should and +undoubtedly would be recognized by the National Government, and by the +other States, as, _de facto_ and _de jure_, the State. It was settled +in the Rhode Island case, under Tyler's administration, that, where +different portions of the people claim to hold and exercise the powers +of a State government, it presents a political question which the +National Executive and Congress must decide; and that judicial +recognition must follow and conform to the political decision. + +When, by such a course, the proper relations and functions of each State +should be resumed, there would no longer be any matter of State pride +to interfere with the absolute assertion of national authority. The new +State governments would be protected against armed assailants at home +and invasion from abroad; they would apply for and obtain assistance to +suppress domestic insurrection; every misguided insurgent would have +opportunity to return to his duty under the protection of his own local +authorities; appropriations for the army and navy could be passed with +the aid of Tennessee and Alabama votes in Congress; and Davis, and +Tyler, and Mason be hung upon the verdict of a jury of the vicinage. + +In Virginia, a movement based upon this principle has been already +inaugurated. From Western Virginia, the progress toward Eastern +Tennessee and Northern Alabama is natural and certain. The worst case to +deal with, unquestionably, is South Carolina. Hers is a peculiar +people, and zealous, though scarcely of good works. That fiery little +Commonwealth is remarkably constituted. The State is inhabited +principally by negroes; and the remaining minority may be divided into +two classes,--whites who are dependent upon negroes for a subsistence, +and whites whose chief distinction in life and great consolation is that +they are not negroes. The former and much the smaller class possess all +the wealth, all the cultivation, and all the political power, which +they are enabled to retain by an ingenious and systematic use of the +prejudices and passions of the latter. They are reputed to have much +earnestness of conviction, and claim an unusual amount of gallantry and +courage for their soldiers; though it is noticeable that their principal +exploits in our time have been the seizure of friendless colored +sailors, and selling them into slavery,--the achievement of that knight +of the bludgeon, the representative whose noble deed his constituents +could hardly admire enough, but the better part of whose valor was +the discretion that preferred to encounter his antagonist sitting and +incapable of resistance,--and lastly, that heroic and bloodless victory +at Fort Sumter, where imperishable glory was won by the ten thousand who +conquered the seventy. They seem now to be united, and substantially +unanimous. What elements a little adversity would develop in them, time +must determine. Whether there is any reserve of patriotism and fidelity, +overawed and silenced now, but which will come forth to serve as the +nucleus of reconstruction when it can find protection and security, or +whether we must wait for a new generation to grow up, remains to be +tried. Their leaders are subtle reasoners, and it has been shrewdly +observed of them that "they never shrink from following their logic to +its consequences because the conclusion is _immoral_." Perhaps they will +find no more difficulty in accepting the arguments we shall address to +them because the conclusion is a little humiliating. In their case, we +shall have little need to concern ourselves about the wishes of a local +majority. The fact that a majority are blacks, to begin with, must +deprive that consideration of all its force, even to their own +apprehension. It will not be the first time that they have received a +benefit which did not agree with the wishes of the greater part of those +upon whom it was bestowed. The men of Rhode Island and Massachusetts who +achieved the independence of South Carolina did not stop to consider +whether a majority of her white inhabitants were Tories. + +When we hear that the colonel of a regiment of Secessionists sends a +flag of truce to Fort Monroe to ask for the return of his fugitive +slaves under the Constitution and laws of the United States, a painful +doubt must be suggested whether such gentlemen really believe themselves +to be so wholly and utterly out of the Union as the theory of Secession +would indicate. And when the novel, but very sensible doctrine with +which that singular demand was met, that slaves are to be regarded as +articles contraband of war, chattels capable of a military use, a kind +of locomotive gun-carriages and intrenching-tools, and as such to be +taken and confiscated when found belonging to armed rebels, shall have +been practically applied for a time, with its natural and obvious +result, it may be that even the Palmetto State will exhibit some general +symptoms of returning reason. + + + + +THEODORE WINTHROP. + + +Theodore Winthrop's life, like a fire long smouldering, suddenly blazed +up into a clear, bright flame, and vanished. Those of us who were his +friends and neighbors, by whose firesides he sat familiarly, and of +whose life upon the pleasant Staten Island, where he lived, he was so +important a part, were so impressed by his intense vitality, that his +death strikes us with peculiar strangeness, like sudden winter-silence +falling upon these humming fields of June. + +As I look along the wooded brook-side by which he used to come, I should +not be surprised, if I saw that knit, wiry, light figure moving with +quick, firm, leopard tread over the grass,--the keen gray eye, the +clustering fair hair, the kind, serious smile, the mien of undaunted +patience. If you did not know him, you would have found his greeting a +little constrained,--not from shyness, but from genuine modesty and +the habit of society. You would have remarked that he was silent and +observant rather than talkative; and whatever he said, however gay +or grave, would have had the reserve of sadness upon which his whole +character was drawn. If it were a woman who saw him for the first time, +she would inevitably see him through a slight cloud of misapprehension; +for the man and his manner were a little at variance. The chance is that +at the end of five minutes she would have thought him conceited. At the +end of five months she would have known him as one of the simplest and +most truly modest of men. + +And he had the heroic sincerity which belongs to such modesty. Of a +noble ambition, and sensitive to applause,--as every delicate nature +veined with genius always is,--he would not provoke the applause by +doing anything which, although it lay easily within his power, was yet +not wholly approved by him as worthy. Many men are ambitious and full +of talent, and when the prize does not fairly come they snatch at it +unfairly. This was precisely what he could not do. He would strive and +deserve; but if the crown were not laid upon his head in the clear light +of day and by confession of absolute merit, he could ride to his place +again and wait, looking with no envy, but in patient wonder and with +critical curiosity upon the victors. It is this which he expresses in +the paper in the July number of this magazine, "Washington as a Camp," +when he says,--"I have heretofore been proud of my individuality, and +resisted, so far as one may, all the world's attempts to merge me in the +mass." + +It was this which made many who knew him much, but not truly, feel +that he was purposeless and restless. They knew his talent, his +opportunities. Why does he not concentrate? Why does he not bring +himself to bear? He did not plead his ill-health; nor would they have +allowed the plea. The difficulty was deeper. He felt that he had shown +his credentials, and they were not accepted. "I can wait, I can wait," +was the answer his life made to the impatience of his friends. + +We are all fond of saying that a man of real gifts will fit himself to +the work of any time; and so he will. But it is not necessarily to the +first thing that offers. There is always latent in civilized society a +certain amount of what may be called Sir Philip Sidney genius, which +will seem elegant and listless and aimless enough until the congenial +chance appears. A plant may grow in a cellar; but it will flower only +under the due sun and warmth. Sir Philip Sidney was but a lovely +possibility, until he went to be Governor of Flushing. What else was our +friend, until he went to the war? + +The age of Elizabeth did not monopolize the heroes, and they are always +essentially the same. When, for instance, I read in a letter of Hubert +Languet's to Sidney, "You are not over-cheerful by nature," or when, in +another, he speaks of the portrait that Paul Veronese painted of Sidney, +and says, "The painter has represented you sad and thoughtful," I can +believe that he is speaking of my neighbor. Or when I remember what +Sidney wrote to his younger brother,--"Being a gentleman born, you +purpose to furnish yourself with the knowledge of such things as may +be serviceable to your country and calling," or what he wrote to +Languet,--"Our Princes are enjoying too deep a slumber: I cannot think +there is any man possessed of common understanding who does not see to +what these rough storms are driving by which all Christendom has been +agitated now these many years,"--I seem to hear my friend, as he used to +talk on the Sunday evenings when he sat in this huge cane-chair at my +side, in which I saw him last, and in which I shall henceforth always +see him. + +Nor is it unfair to remember just here that he bore one of the few +really historic names in this country. He never spoke of it; but we +should all have been sorry not to feel that he was glad to have sprung +straight from that second John Winthrop who was the first Governor of +Connecticut, the younger sister colony of Massachusetts Bay,--the John +Winthrop who obtained the charter of privileges for his colony. How +clearly the quality of the man has been transmitted! How brightly the +old name shines out again! + +He was born in New Haven on the 22d of September, 1828, and was a grave, +delicate, rather precocious child. He was at school only in New Haven, +and entered Yale College just as he was sixteen. The pure, manly +morality which was the substance of his character, and his brilliant +exploits of scholarship, made him the idol of his college, friends, who +saw in him the promise of the splendid career which the fond faith of +students allots to the favorite classmate. He studied for the Clark +scholarship, and gained it; and his name, in the order of time, is first +upon the roll of that foundation. He won the Townshend prize for the +best composition on History. For the Berkeleian scholarship he and +another were judged equal, and, drawing lots, the other gained the +scholarship; but they divided the honor. + +In college his favorite studies were Greek and mental philosophy. He +never lost the scholarly taste and habit. A wide reader, he retained +knowledge with little effort, and often surprised his friends by the +variety of his information. Yet it was not strange, for he was born +a scholar. His mother was the great-granddaughter of old President +Edwards; and among his ancestors upon the maternal side, Winthrop +counted seven Presidents of Yale. Perhaps also in this learned descent +we may find the secret of his early seriousness. Thoughtful and +self-criticizing, he was peculiarly sensible to religious influences, +under which his criticism easily became self-accusation, and his +sensitive seriousness grew sometimes morbid. He would have studied for +the ministry or a professorship, upon leaving college, except for his +failing health. + +In the later days, when I knew him, the feverish ardor of the first +religious impulse was past. It had given place to a faith much too deep +and sacred to talk about, yet holding him always with serene, steady +poise in the purest region of life and feeling. There was no franker or +more sympathetic companion for young men of his own age than he; but his +conversation fell from his lips as unsullied as his soul. + +He graduated in 1848, when he was twenty years old; and for the sake of +his health, which was seriously shattered,--an ill-health that colored +all his life, he set out upon his travels. He went first to England, +spending much time at Oxford, where he made pleasant acquaintances, and +walking through Scotland. He then crossed over to France and Germany, +exploring Switzerland very thoroughly upon foot,--once or twice escaping +great dangers among the mountains,--and pushed on to Italy and Greece, +still walking much of the way. In Italy he made the acquaintance of Mr. +W.H. Aspinwall, of New York, and upon his return became tutor to Mr. +Aspinwall's son. He presently accompanied his pupil and a nephew of Mr. +Aspinwall, who were going to a school in Switzerland; and after a second +short tour of six months in Europe he returned to New York, and entered +Mr. Aspinwall's counting-house. In the employ of the Pacific Steamship +Company he went to Panama and resided for about two years, travelling, +and often ill of the fevers of the country. Before his return he +travelled through California and Oregon,--went to Vancouver's Island, +Puget Sound, and the Hudson Bay Company's station there. At the Dalles +he was smitten with the small-pox, and lay ill for six weeks. He often +spoke with the warmest gratitude of the kind care that was taken of him +there. But when only partially recovered he plunged off again into the +wilderness. At another time he fell very ill upon the Plains, and lay +down, as he supposed, to die; but after some time struggled up and on +again. + +He returned to the counting-room, but, unsated with adventure, joined +the disastrous expedition of Lieutenant Strain, during which his +health was still more weakened, and he came home again in 1854. In the +following year he studied law and was admitted to the bar. In 1856 he +entered heartily into the Fremont campaign, and from the strongest +conviction. He went into some of the dark districts of Pennsylvania and +spoke incessantly. The roving life and its picturesque episodes, with +the earnest conviction which inspired him, made the summer and autumn +exciting and pleasant. The following year he went to St. Louis to +practise law. The climate was unkind to him, and he returned and began +the practice in New York. But he could not be a lawyer. His health was +too uncertain, and his tastes and ambition allured him elsewhere. His +mind was brimming with the results of observation. His fancy was alert +and inventive, and he wrote tales and novels. At the same time he +delighted to haunt the studio of his friend Church, the painter, and +watch day by day the progress of his picture, the Heart of the Andes. It +so fired his imagination that he wrote a description of it, in which, as +if rivalling the tropical and tangled richness of the picture, he threw +together such heaps and masses of gorgeous words that the reader was +dazzled and bewildered. + +The wild campaigning life was always a secret passion with him. His +stories of travel were so graphic and warm, that I remember one evening, +after we had been tracing upon the map a route he had taken, and he had +touched the whole region into life with his description, my younger +brother, who had sat by and listened with wide eyes all the evening, +exclaimed with a sigh of regretful satisfaction, as the door closed upon +our story-teller, "It's as good as Robinson Crusoe!" Yet, with all +his fondness and fitness for that kind of life, or indeed any active +administrative function, his literary ambition seemed to be the deepest +and strongest. + +He had always been writing. In college and upon his travels he kept +diaries; and he has left behind him several novels, tales, sketches of +travel, and journals. The first published writing of his which is well +known is his description, in the June number of this magazine, of the +March of the Seventh Regiment of New York to Washington. It was charming +by its graceful, sparkling, crisp, off-hand dash and ease. But it is +only the practised hand that can "dash off" effectively. Let any other +clever member of the clever regiment, who has never written, try to dash +off the story of a day or a week in the life of the regiment, and he +will see that the writer did that little thing well because he had done +large things carefully. Yet, amid all the hurry and brilliant bustle of +the articles, the author is, as he was in the most bustling moment of +the life they described, a spectator, an artist. He looks on at +himself and the scene of which he is part. He is willing to merge his +individuality; but he does not merge it, for he could not. + +So, wandering, hoping, trying, waiting, thirty-two years of his life +went by, and they left him true, sympathetic, patient. The sharp private +griefs that sting the heart so deeply, and leave a little poison +behind, did not spare him. But he bore everything so bravely, so +silently,--often silent for a whole evening in the midst of pleasant +talkers, but not impertinently sad, nor ever sullen,--that we all loved +him a little more at such times. The ill-health from which he always +suffered, and a flower-like delicacy of temperament, the yearning desire +to be of some service in the world, coupled with the curious, critical +introspection which marks every sensitive and refined nature and +paralyzes action, overcast his life and manner to the common eye with +pensiveness and even sternness. He wrote verses in which his heart +seems to exhale in a sigh of sadness. But he was not in the least a +sentimentalist. The womanly grace of temperament merely enhanced the +unusual manliness of his character and impression. It was like a +delicate carnation upon the cheek of a robust man. For his humor +was exuberant. He seldom laughed loud, but his smile was sweet and +appreciative. Then the range of his sympathies was so large, that he +enjoyed every kind of life and person, and was everywhere at home. In +walking and riding, in skating and running, in games out of doors and +in, no one of us all in the neighborhood was so expert, so agile as he. +For, above all things, he had what we Yankees call faculty,--the knack +of doing everything. If he rode with a neighbor who was a good horseman, +Theodore, who was a Centaur, when he mounted, would put any horse at any +gate or fence; for it did not occur to him that he could not do whatever +was to be done. Often, after writing for a few hours in the morning, he +stepped out of doors, and, from pure love of the fun, leaped and turned +summersaults on the grass, before going up to town. In walking about the +island, he constantly stopped by the roadside fences, and, grasping the +highest rail, swung himself swiftly and neatly over and back again, +resuming the walk and the talk without delay. + +I do not wish to make him too much a hero. "Death," says Bacon, "openeth +the gate to good fame." When a neighbor dies, his form and quality +appear clearly, as if he had been dead a thousand years. Then we see +what we only felt before. Heroes in history seem to us poetic because +they are there. But if we should tell the simple truth of some of our +neighbors, it would sound like poetry. Winthrop was one of the men +who represent the manly and poetic qualities that always exist around +us,--not great genius, which is ever salient, but the fine fibre of +manhood that makes the worth of the race. + +Closely engaged with his literary employments, and more quiet than ever, +he took less active part in the last election. But when the menace of +treason became an aggressive act, he saw very clearly the inevitable +necessity of arms. We all talked of it constantly,--watching the +news,--chafing at the sad necessity of delay, which was sure to confuse +foreign opinion and alienate sympathy, as has proved to be the case. As +matters advanced and the war-cloud rolled up thicker and blacker, he +looked at it with the secret satisfaction that war for such a cause +opened his career both as thinker and actor. The admirable coolness, the +promptness, the cheerful patience, the heroic ardor, the intelligence, +the tough experience of campaigning, the profound conviction that the +cause was in truth "the good old cause," which was now to come to the +death-grapple with its old enemy, Justice against Injustice, Order +against Anarchy,--all these should now have their turn, and the wanderer +and waiter "settle himself" at last. + +We took a long walk together on the Sunday that brought the news of the +capture of Fort Sumter. He was thoroughly alive with a bright, earnest +forecast of his part in the coming work. Returning home with me, he +sat until late in the evening talking with an unwonted spirit, saying +playfully, I remember, that, if his friends would only give him a horse, +he would ride straight to victory. + +Especially he wished that some competent person would keep a careful +record of events as they passed; "for we are making our history," he +said, "hand over hand." He sat quietly in the great chair while he +spoke, and at last rose to go. We went together to the door, and stood +for a little while upon the piazza, where we had sat peacefully through +so many golden summer-hours. The last hour for us had come, but we did +not know it. We shook hands, and he left me, passing rapidly along the +brook-side under the trees, and so in the soft spring starlight vanished +from my sight forever. + +The next morning came the President's proclamation. Winthrop went +immediately to town and enrolled himself in the artillery corps of the +Seventh Regiment. During the two or three following days he was very +busy and very happy. On Friday afternoon, the 19th of April, I stood at +the corner of Courtland Street and saw the regiment as it marched away. +Two days before, I had seen the Massachusetts troops going down the same +street. During the day the news had come that they were already engaged, +that some were already dead in Baltimore. And the Seventh, as they went, +blessed and wept over by a great city, went, as we all believed, to +terrible battle. The setting sun in a clear April sky shone full up +the street. Mothers' eyes glistened at the windows upon the glistening +bayonets of their boys below. I knew that Winthrop and other dear +friends were there, but I did not see them. I saw only a thousand men +marching like one hero. The music beat and rang and clashed in the air. +Marching to death or victory or defeat, it mattered not. They marched +for Justice, and God was their captain. + +From that moment he has told his own story in these pages until he went +to Fortress Monroe, and was made acting military secretary and aid by +General Butler. Before he went, he wrote the most copious and gayest +letters from the camp. He was thoroughly aroused, and all his powers +happily at play. In a letter to me soon after his arrival in Washington, +he says,-- + +"I see no present end of this business. We must conquer the South. +Afterward we must be prepared to do its police in its own behalf, and +in behalf of its black population, whom this war must, without +precipitation, emancipate. We must hold the South as the metropolitan +police holds New York. All this is inevitable. Now I wish to enroll +myself at once in the _Police of the Nation_, and for life, if the +nation will take me. I do not see that I can put myself--experience +and character--to any more useful use..... My experience in this short +campaign with the Seventh assures me that volunteers are for one purpose +and regular soldiers entirely another. We want regular soldiers for the +cause of order in these anarchical countries, and we want men in command +who, though they may be valuable as temporary satraps or proconsuls to +make liberty possible where it is now impossible, will never under any +circumstances be disloyal to _Liberty_, will always oppose any scheme of +any one to constitute a military government, and will be ready, when the +time comes, to imitate Washington. We must think of these things, and +prepare for them..... Love to all the dear friends..... This trip has +been all a lark to an old tramper like myself." + +Later he writes,-- + +"It is the loveliest day of fullest spring. An aspen under the window +whispers to me in a chorus of all its leaves, and when I look out, every +leaf turns a sunbeam at me. I am writing in Viele's quarters in the +villa of Somebody Stone, upon whose place or farm we are encamped. The +man who built and set down these four great granite pillars in front of +his house, for a carriage-porch, had an eye or two for a fine _site_. +This seems to be the finest possible about Washington. It is a terrace +called Meridian Hill, two miles north of Pennsylvania Avenue. The house +commands the vista of the Potomac, all the plain of the city, and a +charming lawn of delicious green, with oaks of first dignity just coming +into leaf. It is lovely Nature, and the spot has snatched a grace +from Art. The grounds are laid out after a fashion, and planted with +shrubbery. The snowballs are at their snowballiest..... Have you heard +or--how many times have you used the simile of some one, Bad-muss or +Cadmus, or another hero, who sowed the dragon's teeth, and they came up +dragoons a hundred-fold and infantry a thousand-fold? _Nil admirari_ +is, of course, my frame of mind; but I own astonishment at the crop of +soldiers. They must ripen awhile, perhaps, before they are to be named +quite soldiers. Ripening takes care of itself; and by the harvest-time +they will be ready to cut down. + +"I find that the men best informed about the South do not anticipate +much severe fighting. Scott's Fabian policy will demoralize their +armies. If the people do not bother the great Cunetator to death before +he is ready to move to assured victory, he will make defeat impossible. +Meanwhile there will be enough outwork going on, like those neat jobs +in Missouri, to keep us all interested...... Know, O comrade, that I +am already a corporal,--an acting corporal, selected by our commanding +officer for my general effect of pipe-clay, my rapidity of heel and toe, +my present arms, etc., but liable to be ousted by suffrage any moment. +_Quod faustum sit_, ... I had already been introduced to the Secretary +of War..... I called at ----'s and saw, with two or three others,---- +on the sofa. Him my prophetic soul named my uncle to be..... But in my +uncle's house are many nephews, and whether nepotism or my transcendent +merit will prevail we shall see. I have fun,--I get experience,--I see +much,--it pays. Ah, yes! But in these fair days of May I miss my Staten +Island. War stirs the pulse, but it wounds a little all the time. + +"Compliment for me Tib [a little dog] and the Wisterias,--also the mares +and the billiard-table. Ask ---- to give you t'other lump of sugar in my +behalf.... Should ---- return, say that I regret not being present +with an unpremeditated compliment, as thus,--'Ah! the first rose of +summer!'.... I will try to get an enemy's button for ----, should the +enemy attack. If the Seventh returns presently, I am afraid I shall +be obliged to return with them for a time. But I mean to see this job +through, somehow." + +In such an airy, sportive vein he wrote, with the firm purpose and the +distinct thought visible under the sparkle. Before the regiment left +Washington, as he has recorded, he said good-bye and went down the bay +to Fortress Monroe. Of his unshrinking and sprightly industry, his good +head, his warm heart, and cool hand, as a soldier, General Butler has +given precious testimony to his family. "I loved him as a brother," the +General writes of his young aid. + +The last days of his life at Fortress Monroe were doubtless also the +happiest. His energy and enthusiasm, and kind, winning ways, and the +deep satisfaction of feeling that all his gifts could now be used as he +would have them, showed him and his friends that his day had at length +dawned. He was especially interested in the condition and fate of the +slaves who escaped from the neighboring region and sought refuge at +the fort. He had never for an instant forgotten the secret root of the +treason which was desolating the land with war; and in his view there +would be no peace until that root was destroyed. In his letters written +from the fort he suggests plans of relief and comfort for the refugees; +and one of his last requests was to a lady in New York for clothes for +these poor pensioners. They were promptly sent, but reached the fort too +late. + +As I look over these last letters, which gush and throb with the fulness +of his activity, and are so tenderly streaked with touches of constant +affection and remembrance, yet are so calm and duly mindful of every +detail, I do not think with an elder friend, in whom the wisdom of +years has only deepened sympathy for all generous youthful impulse, of +Virgil's Marcellus, "_Heu, miserande puer!_" but I recall rather, still +haunted by Philip Sidney, what he wrote, just before his death, to his +father-in-law, Walsingham,--"I think a wise and constant man ought never +to grieve while he doth play, as a man may say, his own part truly." + +The sketches of the campaign in Virginia, which Winthrop had commenced +in this magazine, would have been continued, and have formed an +invaluable memoir of the places, the men, and the operations of which +he was a witness and a part. As a piece of vivid pictorial description, +which gives the spirit as well as the spectacle, his "Washington as a +Camp" is masterly. He knew not only what to see and to describe, but +what to think; so that in his papers you are not at the mercy of a +multitudinous mass of facts, but understand their value and relation. +Immediately upon his arrival at Fort Monroe he had commenced a third +article, which was to have occupied the place of this. It is inserted +here just as he left it, with one brief addition only to make his known +meaning more clear. The part called "Voices of the Contraband" was +written previously, and is not paged in the manuscript. It was to have +been introduced into the article; but it is placed first here, that the +sequence of the paper, as far as the author had written it, may remain +undisturbed. + + +VOICES OF THE CONTRABAND. + + +_Solvuntur risu tabulae_. An epigram abolished slavery in the United +States. Large wisdom, stated in fine wit, was the decision. "Negroes are +contraband of war." "They are property," claim the owners. Very well! As +General Butler takes contraband horses used in transport of munitions of +war, so he takes contraband black creatures who tote the powder to the +carts and flagellate the steeds. As he takes a spade used in hostile +earthworks, so he goes a little farther off and takes the black muscle +that wields the spade. As he takes the rations of the foe, so he takes +the sable Soyer whose skilful hand makes those rations savory to the +palates and digestible by the stomachs of the foe and so puts blood and +nerve into them. As he took the steam-gun, so he now takes what might +become the stoker of the steam part of that machine and the aimer of its +gun part. As he takes the musket, so he seizes the object who in the +Virginia army carries that musket on its shoulder until its master +is ready to reach out a lazy hand, nonchalantly lift the piece, and +carelessly pop a Yankee. + + +The third number of Winthrop's Sketches of the Campaign in Virginia +begins here. + + +PHYSIOGNOMY OF FORTRESS MONROE. + + +The "Adelaide" is a steamer plying between Baltimore and Norfolk. But as +Norfolk has ceased to be a part of the United States, and is nowhere, +the "Adelaide" goes no farther than Fortress Monroe, Old Point Comfort, +the chief somewhere of this region. A lady, no doubt Adelaide herself, +appears in _alto rilievo_ on the paddle-box. She has a short waist, long +skirt _sans_ crinoline, leg-of-mutton sleeves, lofty bearing, and stands +like Ariadne on an island of pedestal size, surrounded by two or more +pre-Raphaelite trees. In the offing comes or goes a steamboat, also +pre-Raphaelite; and if Ariadne Adelaide's Bacchus is on board, he is out +of sight at the bar. + +Such an Adelaide brought me in sight of Fortress Monroe at sunrise, May +29, 1861. The fort, though old enough to be full-grown, has not grown +very tall upon the low sands of Old Point Comfort. It is a big house +with a basement story and a garret. The roof is left off, and the +stories between basement and garret have never been inserted. + +But why not be technical? For basement read a tier of casemates, each +with a black Cyclops of a big gun peering out; while above in the open +air, with not even a parasol over their backs, lie the barbette guns, +staring without a wink over sea and shore. + +In peace, with a hundred or so soldiers here and there, this vast +inclosure might seem a solitude. Now it is a busy city,--a city of one +idea. I seem to recollect that D'Israeli said somewhere that every great +city was founded on one idea and existed to develop it. This city, into +which we have improvised a population, has its idea,--a unit of an idea +with two halves. The east half is the recovery of Norfolk,--the west +half the occupation of Richmond; and the idea complete is the education +of Virginia's unmannerly and disloyal sons. + +Why Secession did not take this great place when its defenders numbered +a squad of officers and three hundred men is mysterious. Floyd and his +gang were treacherous enough. What was it? Were they imbecile? Were they +timid? Was there, till too late, a doubt whether the traitors at home in +Virginia would sustain them in an overt act of such big overture as an +attempt here? But they lost the chance, and with it lost the key of +Virginia, which General Butler now holds, this 30th day of May, and will +presently begin to turn in the lock. + +Three hundred men to guard a mile and a half of ramparts! Three hundred +to protect some sixty-five broad acres within the walls! But the place +was a Thermopylae, and there was a fine old Leonidas at the head of its +three hundred. He was enough to make Spartans of them. Colonel Dimmick +was the man,--a quiet, modest, shrewd, faithful, Christian gentleman; +and he held all Virginia at bay. The traitors knew, that, so long as the +Colonel was here, these black muzzles with their white tompions, like +a black eye with a white pupil, meant mischief. To him and his guns, +flanking the approaches and ready to pile the moat full of Seceders, the +country owes the safety of Fortress Monroe. + +Within the walls are sundry nice old brick houses for officers' +barracks. The jolly bachelors live in the casemates and the men in long +barracks, now not so new or so convenient as they might be. In fact, the +physiognomy of Fortress Monroe is not so neat, well-shorn, and elegant +as a grand military post should be. Perhaps our Floyds, and the like, +thought, if they kept everything in perfect order here, they, as +Virginians, accustomed to general seediness, would not find themselves +at home. But the new _regime_ must change all this, and make this the +biggest, the best equipped, and the model garrison of the country. For, +of course, this must be strongly held for many, many years to come. It +is idle to suppose that the dull louts we find here, not enlightened +even enough to know that loyalty is the best policy, can be allowed +the highest privilege of the moral, the intelligent, and the +progressive,--self-government. Mind is said to march fast in our time; +but mind must put on steam hereabouts to think and act for itself, +without stern schooling, in half a century. + +But no digressing! I have looked far away from the physiognomy of the +fortress. Let us turn to the + + +PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE COUNTRY. + + +The face of this county, Elizabeth City by name, is as flat as a +Chinaman's. I can hardly wonder that the people here have retrograded, +or rather, not advanced. This dull flat would make anybody dull and +flat. I am no longer surprised at John Tyler. He has had a bare blank +brick house, entitled sweetly Margarita Cottage, or some such tender +epithet, at Hampton, a mile and a half from the fort. A summer in this +site would make any man a bore. And as something has done this favor +for His Accidency, I am willing to attribute it to the influence of +locality. + +The country is flat; the soil is fine sifted loam running to dust, as +the air of England runs to fog; the woods are dense and beautiful +and full of trees unknown to the parallel of New York; the roads are +miserable cart-paths; the cattle are scalawags; so are the horses, not +run away; so are the people, black and white, not run away; the crops +are tolerable, where the invaders have not trampled them. + +Altogether the whole concern strikes me as a failure. Captain John Smith +& Co. might as well have stayed at home, if this is the result of the +two hundred and thirty years' occupation. Apparently the colonists +picked out a poor spot; and the longer they stayed, the worse fist they +made of it. Powhattan, Pocahontas, and the others without pantaloons and +petticoats, were really more serviceable colonists. + +The farm-houses are mostly miserably mean habitations. I don't wonder +the tenants were glad to make our arrival the excuse for running off. +Here are men claiming to have been worth forty thousand dollars, half in +biped property, half in all other kinds, and they lived in dens such +as a drayman would have disdained and a hod-carrier only accepted on +compulsion. + + +PHYSIOGNOMY OF WATER. + + +Always beautiful! the sea cannot be spoilt. Our fleet enlivens it +greatly. Here is the flag-ship "Cumberland" _vis-a-vis_ the fort. Off to +the left are the prizes, unlucky schooners, which ought to be carrying +pine wood to the kitchens of New York, and new potatoes and green peas +for the wood to operate upon. This region, by the way, is New York's +watermelon patch for early melons; and if we do not conquer a peace here +pretty soon, the Jersey fruit will have the market to itself. + +Besides stately flag-ships and poor little bumboat schooners, transports +are coming and going with regiments or provisions for the same. Here, +too, are old acquaintances from the bay of New York,--the "Yankee," a +lively tug,--the "Harriet Lane," coquettish and plucky,--the "Catiline," +ready to reverse her name and put down conspiracy. + +On the dock are munitions of war in heaps. Volunteer armies load +themselves with things they do not need, and forget the essentials. +The unlucky army-quartermaster's people, accustomed to the slow and +systematic methods of the by-gone days at Fortress Monroe, fume terribly +over these cargoes. The new men and the new manners of the new army do +not altogether suit the actual men and manners of the obsolete army. The +old men and the new must recombine. What we want now is the vigor of +fresh people to utilize the experience of the experts. The Silver-Gray +Army needs a frisky element interfused. On the other hand, the new army +needs to be taught a lesson in _method_ by the old; and the two combined +will make the grand army of civilization. + + +THE FORCES. + + +When I arrived, Fort Monroe and the neighborhood were occupied by two +armies. + +1. General Butler. + +2. About six thousand men, here and at Newport's News. + +Making together more than twelve thousand men. + +Of the first army, consisting of the General, I will not speak. Let his +past supreme services speak for him, as I doubt not the future will. + +Next to the array of a man comes the army of men. Regulars a few, with +many post officers, among them some very fine and efficient fellows. +These are within the post. Also within is the Third Regiment of +Massachusetts, under Colonel Wardrop, the right kind of man to have, and +commanding a capital regiment of three-months men, neatly uniformed in +gray, with cocked felt hats. + +Without the fort, across the moat, and across the bridge connecting this +peninsula of sand with the nearest side of the mainland, are encamped +three New York regiments. Each is in a wheat field, up to its eyes in +dust. In order of precedence they come One, Two, and Five; in order +of personal splendor of uniform they come Five, One, Two; in order of +exploits they are all in the same negative position at present; and the +Second has done rather the most robbing of hen-roosts. + +The Fifth, Duryea's Zouaves, lighten up the woods brilliantly with their +scarlet legs and scarlet head-pieces. + + * * * * * + +These last words were written upon the day that the attack in which +Winthrop fell was arranged. + +The disastrous day of the 10th of June, at Great Bethel, need not be +described here. It is already written with tears and vain regrets in our +history. It is useless to prolong the debate as to where the blame of +the defeat, if blame there were, should rest. But there is an impression +somewhat prevalent that Winthrop planned the expedition, which is +incorrect. As military secretary of the commanding general, he made a +memorandum of the outline of the plan as it had been finally settled. +Precisely what that memorandum (which has been published) was he +explains in the last letter he wrote, a few hours before leaving the +fort. He says,--"If I come back safe, I will send you my notes of the +plan of attack, part made up from the General's hints, part my own +fancies." This defines exactly his responsibility. His position as aid +and military secretary, his admirable qualities as adviser under the +circumstances, and his personal friendship for the General, brought him +intimately into the council of war. He embarked in the plan all the +interest of a brave soldier contemplating his first battle. He probably +made suggestions some of which were adopted. The expedition was the +first move from Fort Monroe, to which the country had been long looking +in expectation. These were the reasons why he felt so peculiar a +responsibility for its success; and after the melancholy events of the +earlier part of the day, he saw that its fortunes could be retrieved +only by a dash of heroic enthusiasm. Fired himself, he sought to kindle +others. For one moment that brave, inspiring form is plainly visible +to his whole country, rapt and calm, standing upon the log nearest the +enemy's battery, the mark of their sharpshooters, the admiration of +their leaders, waving his sword, cheering his fellow-soldiers with his +bugle voice of victory,--young, brave, beautiful, for one moment erect +and glowing in the wild whirl of battle, the next falling forward toward +the foe, dead, but triumphant. + +On the 19th of April he left the armory-door of the Seventh, with his +hand upon a howitzer; on the 21st of June his body lay upon the same +howitzer at the same door, wrapped in the flag for which he gladly died, +as the symbol of human freedom. And so, drawn by the hands of young men +lately strangers to him, but of whose bravery and loyalty he had been +the laureate, and who fitly mourned him who had honored them, with long, +pealing dirges and muffled drums, he moved forward. + +Yet such was the electric vitality of this friend of ours, that those +of us who followed him could only think of him as approving the funeral +pageant, not the object of it, but still the spectator and critic of +every scene in which he was a part. We did not think of him as dead. We +never shall. In the moist, warm midsummer morning, he was alert, alive, +immortal. + + + + +DIRGE + +FOR ONE WHO FELL IN BATTLE. + + + Room for a Soldier! lay him in the clover; + He loved the fields, and they shall be his cover; + Make his mound with hers who called him once her lover: + Where the rain may rain upon it, + Where the sun may shine upon it, + Where the lamb hath lain upon it, + And the bee will dine upon it. + + Bear him to no dismal tomb under city churches; + Take him to the fragrant fields, by the silver birches, + Where the whippoorwill shall mourn, where the oriole perches: + Make his mound with sunshine on it, + Where the bee will dine upon it, + Where the lamb hath lain upon it, + And the rain will rain upon it. + + Busy as the busy bee, his rest should be the clover; + Gentle as the lamb was he, and the fern should be his cover; + Fern and rosemary shall grow my soldier's pillow over: + Where the rain may rain upon it, + Where the sun may shine upon it, + Where the lamb hath lain upon it, + And the bee will dine upon it. + + Sunshine in his heart, the rain would come full often + Out of those tender eyes which evermore did soften; + He never could look cold, till we saw him in his coffin. + Make his mound with sunshine on it, + Where the wind may sigh upon it, + Where the moon may stream upon it, + And Memory shall dream upon it. + + "Captain or Colonel,"--whatever invocation + Suit our hymn the best, no matter for thy station,-- + On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation! + Long as the sun doth shine upon it + Shall grow the goodly pine upon it, + Long as the stars do gleam upon it + Shall Memory come to dream upon it. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Currents and Counter-Currents in Medical Science._ With other Addresses +and Essays. By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. Boston; Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. + +This volume contains seven occasional addresses and essays, written at +various periods between 1812 and 1860. The subjects of which it treats +are "Homoeopathy, and its Kindred Delusions," "Puerperal Fever, as +a Private Pestilence," "The Position and Prospects of the Medical +Student," "The Duties of the Physician,"--a Valedictory Address to +the Medical Graduates of Harvard University,--"The Mechanism of Vital +Actions," "Some more Recent Views of Homoeopathy," and "Currents +and Counter-Currents in Medical Science." They are characterized by +extensive information, fertile thought, strong convictions, keen wit, +sound sense, and unflinching intellectual courage and self-trust. They +are valuable contributions to the literature of the medical profession, +and at the same time have that peculiar fascination which distinguishes +all the productions of Dr. Holmes's ingenious and opulent mind. The +style is clear, crisp, sparkling, abounding in originalities of verbal +combination and felicities of descriptive phrase. In its movement, it +bears the marks of a kind of mental impatience of the processes of +slower, more dogged, and more cautious intellects, natural to a keen, +bright, and swift intelligence, desirous of flashing the results of its +operation in the briefest and most brilliant expression. The argument, +though founded on premises which have been gathered by careful +observation and study, often disregards the forms of the logic whose +spirit it obeys, and, by its frequent use of analogy and illustration, +may sometimes dazzle and confuse the minds it seeks to convince. In +regard to opponents, it is not content with mere dialectic victory, but +insinuates the subtle sting of wit to vex and irritate the sore places +of defeat and humiliation. + +The reputation which Dr. Holmes enjoys, as one of the most popular poets +and prose-writers of the day, has made the public overlook the fact that +literature has been the recreation of a life of which medical science +has been the business. By far the larger portion of his time, for the +last thirty years, has been devoted to his profession. Perhaps the +value and validity of the conclusions he records in this volume may be +questioned from the very circumstance that he expresses them in the +lucid and vigorous style of an accomplished man of letters. "People," +says Macaulay, "are loath to admit that the same man can unite very +different kinds of excellence. It is soothing to envy to believe that +what is splendid cannot be solid, that what is clear cannot be profound. +Very slowly was the public brought to acknowledge that Mansfield was a +great jurist, and that Burke was a great master of political science. +Montagu was a brilliant rhetorician, and therefore, though he had +ten times Harley's capacity for the driest parts of business, was +represented by detractors as a superficial, prating pretender." Indeed, +that peculiar vital energy which is the characteristic of genius carries +the man of genius cheerfully through masses of drudgery which would +dismay and paralyze the vigor of industrious mediocrity. The present +volume, bright as it is in expression, is full of evidences that the +author has submitted to the austerest requirements of his laborious +profession; and if his opinions generally coincide with those which have +been somewhat reluctantly adopted by the most eminent physicians of the +age, it is certain that he has not jumped to his conclusions, but has +reached them by patient and independent thought, study, and observation. + +The courage which Dr. Holmes displays throughout this volume is of a +refreshing kind. His frank, bold utterance of his convictions not only +subjects him to the adverse criticism of a numerous and powerful body +of able men in his own profession, but brings him into direct hostility +with many persons who, outside of his profession, are among the warmest +lovers of his literary genius. Some of the most intelligent admirers +and appreciators of "The Autocrat" and "The Professor" are adherents of +Homoeopathy; and of Homoeopathy Dr. Holmes is not only a scientific, but +a sarcastic opponent. He both acknowledges and satirizes the fact, that +intellectual men, eminent in all professions but that of medicine, are +champions of the system he derides; but he does not the less spare one +bitter word or cutting fleer against the system itself. By thus daring, +provoking, and defying opposition both to his professional and literary +reputation, he seems to us to indicate a real, if somewhat impatient +love of truth. He valorously invites and courts the malicious sharpness +of the most unfriendly criticism. Some people may call by the name of +conceit this honest and unwithholding devotion of his whole powers to +what he deems the cause of truth; but, we must be allowed to object, +conceit is commonly anxious for the safety of the individual, while +Dr. Holmes intrepidly exposes his individuality to the fire of hostile +cannon, which are prevented from being discharged against each other +only by the lucky thought that they can do more execution by being +converged upon him. Had he appeared as an intelligent, knowing, and +efficient controversialist on the side of the traditions of his +profession, his wholesale denunciation of quackery, vulgar or genteel, +might be referred to conceit; had he turned state's evidence against the +accredited deceptions of his own profession, and gone over entirely to +the enthusiasts who think that medicine is not an experimental science, +but a series of hap-hazard hits at the occult laws of disease, he might +be accused of conceit; but we think the charge is ridiculously false as +directed against a man who boldly puts his professional and literary +fame at risk in order to advance the cause of reason, learning, and +common sense. Nobody can justly appreciate Holmes who does not perceive +an impersonal earnestness and insight beneath the play of his provoking +personal wit. We admit that he makes enemies needlessly; but all fair +minds must still concede that even his petulances of sarcasm are but +eccentric utterances of a love of truth which has its source in the +deepest and gravest sentiments of his nature. + +The object of Dr. Holmes's volume is to bring physicians and the people +over whom they hold dominion into sensible relations with each other. +A beautiful scorn of deception and humbug shines through his clear +exposition of the facts and laws of disease. A high sense of the duties +and dignity of the medical profession animates every precept he enforces +on the attention of those who are to deal with disease. Like all the +advanced thinkers of his profession, he relies, in the art of curing, +more on Nature than on drugs; but in thus assisting to dispel the notion +that the prescriptions either of the regular doctor or the irregular +empiric possess the power to heal, he injures the quack only to aid +the good physician. The strength of the quack consists in the two-fold +ignorance of the sick,--in their ignorance of the superficial character +of their common ailments, and in their ignorance of the deadly nature of +their exceptional diseases. Panaceas, seeming to cure the former, are +eagerly taken for the latter; but it is well known that they do not cure +in either case. Physicians are tempted into quackery by the desire to +dislodge ignorant pretenders from bedsides which it is their proper +function to attend, and in ministering to sick imaginations they are too +apt to pour a needless amount of nauseous medicine into sick bodies. If +people, while in health, would heed the honest advice which Dr. +Holmes gives in this volume, they would force physicians to be less +hypocritical in their management of them when they are ill, and they +would destroy the wide-spread evil of quackery under which the world now +groans. + + +_History of Civilization in England._ By HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE. Vol. II. +From the Second London Edition. To which is added an Alphabetical Index. +New York: D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. + +The present volume of Mr. Buckle's history consists of a deductive +application to the history of Spain and Scotland of certain leading +propositions, which, in his previous volume, he claims to have +inductively established. These are four; "1st, That the progress of +mankind depends on the success with which the laws of phenomena are +investigated, and on the extent to which a knowledge of those laws +is diffused; 2d, That, before investigation can begin, a spirit of +skepticism must arise, which, at first aiding the investigation, is +afterwards aided by it; 3d, That the discoveries thus made increase +the influence of intellectual truths, and diminish, relatively, not +absolutely, the influence of moral truths,--moral truths being more +stationary than intellectual truths, and receiving fewer additions; 4th, +That the great enemy of this movement, and therefore the great enemy of +civilization, is the protective spirit, or the notion that the good of +society depends on its concerns being watched over and protected by a +State that teaches men what to do, and a Church which teaches them what +to believe." + +Mr. Buckle, with great abundance of learning and fulness of thought, +attempts to prove that the history of Spain and Scotland verifies these +propositions. The general causes which, according to him, have sunk +Spain so low in the scale of civilization are loyalty and superstition. +The Church and State have been supreme, and the consequence has been +that the people are profoundly ignorant. Under able rulers, like +Ferdinand, Charles V., and Philip II., the loyal nation attained a great +height of power and glory; under their incompetent successors, the loyal +nation, obedient to crowned sloth and stupidity as to crowned energy and +genius, descended with frightful rapidity from its high estate, thus +proving that the progress which depends on the character of individual +monarchs or statesmen is necessarily unstable. Circumstances similar +to those which made Spain loyal made it superstitious; and loyalty and +superstition early formed an alliance by which all independent energy +of conduct and thought was suppressed. According to Mr. Buckle, the +prosperity of nations, in modern times, "depends on principles to which +the clergy, as a body, are invariably opposed." This proposition is, to +him, true of Protestant as well as Catholic clergymen; and a nation +like Spain, looking to the Government for what it should do, and to the +Church for what it should believe, has necessarily become inefficient +and ignorant. + +Spain has few friends among English readers, and Mr. Buckle's +contemptuous opinion of its civilization may not, therefore, rouse +much opposition that he will be compelled to heed. But it is not so in +respect to Scotland, a caustic survey of whose civilization occupies +three-quarters of the present volume. The position is taken, that +Scotland, of all the countries of Protestant Europe, has been and is +the most superstitious and priest-ridden. The only thing that saved the +people from the fate of Spain was the fact, that their insubordination +to temporal authority was as marked as their slavery to spiritual +authority. They had the good fortune to be rebels as well as fanatics; +but the reforming clergy having, after 1580, allied themselves heartily +with the people against the king and nobles, increased as patriots +the influence they exerted as priests. The love of country being thus +associated with love of the Church, the people were enslaved by the very +religious leaders who aided them in the fight against those forms of +arbitrary power they mutually detested. The tyranny of the Presbyterian +minister was lovingly accepted by the same population by which the +tyranny of bishop and king was abhorred. + +Mr. Buckle, with the malicious delight which only a philosopher in +search of facts to fit his theory can know, has delved in a stratum of +theological literature now covered from the common eye by more important +deposits, in order to prove that in the seventeenth century the people +of Scotland were ruled by a set of petty theological tyrants, as +ignorant and as inhuman as ever disgraced a civilized society, and that +their ignorance and inhumanity were all the more influential from being +called by the name and acting by the authority of religion. + +The author then proceeds to consider the philosophical and scientific +reaction against this ecclesiastical despotism, which occurred in the +eighteenth century. Why did it not emancipate the Scottish intellect? + +Because, says Mr. Buckle, the method of the philosophers, like the +method of the theologians, was deductive, and not inductive; and this, +he thinks, characterizes the operation of the intellect of Scotland in +all departments. Now the deductive method, or reasoning from principles +to facts, does not strike the senses with the force of the inductive, +or reasoning from facts to principles, and it is accordingly less +accessible to the average understanding. The result was, that the +writings of Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and Hume had little effect on the +popular intellect of Scotland, and its people are now the most bigoted +and intolerant of those of any country in Europe, except Spain. This +portion of Mr. Buckle's volume, containing an analytical estimate, not +only of Hutcheson, Hume, and Adam Smith, but of Black, Leslie, Hutton, +Cullen, and John Hunter, is full of original thought and valuable +information, however questionable may be some of its statements. + +Whatever may be thought of the general ideas which Mr. Buckle enforces, +few will be inclined to dispute the extent of his learning, the breadth +of his understanding, the suggestiveness of his generalizations, the +earnestness of his purpose, the mental honesty with which he seeks +truth, the mental hardihood with which he assails what he considers +error. He has not only no intellectual timidity, but no intellectual +reserve, and is indifferent to the opprobrium which may proceed from the +collision of his speculations with the strongest of prejudices and +the most immovable of convictions. But this intrepid sincerity is not +without the alloy of arrogance. He belongs to that school of able, but +dogmatic positivists, who are apt to consider their minds the measure +of the human mind, who are intolerant of those human sentiments and +qualities in which they are deficient, and who, occupying the serene +heights of a purely scientific wisdom, look down with pitying contempt +on all intellects, however powerful, which are not emancipated from the +dominion of theological ideas. Individually, he lacks both the sympathy +and the imaginative insight by which a man pierces to the heart of a +nation, and appreciates its life as distinguished from its opinions. All +readers of those portions of the literature of Spain and Scotland in +which genius exhibits the vital manners and representative character +of those nations will feel how partial and inadequate is Mr. Buckle's +historic sketch. The fundamental idea of his system, that human progress +depends on the success with which the laws of phenomena are investigated +and the extent to which a knowledge of them is diffused, overlooks the +essential element of _movement,_ which is not abstract knowledge, but +vital force. Men and nations move in virtue of their passionate, moral, +and spiritual forces, and these determine the character of their +intellectual development and expression. A nation which knew all the +laws of phenomena, but which was utterly lacking in moral force, would +not only not be civilized, but would hardly be alive. Mr. Buckle insists +that moral truths being relatively stationary, while intellectual truths +are constantly advancing and multiplying, civilization cannot depend +upon them. But even admitting that moral truths are stationary, still +moral life, the conversion of these truths into character, is capable of +indefinite advancement. There are moral truths more universal than any +scientific truths, and it is owing to the fact that these truths have so +imperfectly passed from abstractions into conduct, that civilization +is yet so imperfect, and the achievements of the intellect still so +limited. Out of the heart, and not out of the head, are the issues of +life; and how a mere knowledge of "the laws of phenomena" can regenerate +men from selfishness, ferocity, and malignity, can purify and invigorate +the will, can even of itself stimulate the intellect to a further +investigation of those laws, Mr. Buckle has not shown. Even the +theological abuses of which he gives so exaggerated a representation are +expressions of the passions and character of the people to which the +theology was accommodated, and not of the sense and spirit of the New +Testament, which the theology violated, so far as it was false in its +ideas or inhuman in its teachings. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Uprising of a Great People: The United States in 1861. From the +French of Count Agenor de Gasparin, by Mary L. Booth. New York. Charles +Scribner. 16mo. pp. 263. 75 cts. + +Volunteers' Camp and Field Book, containing useful General Information +on the Art and Science of War. By J.P. Curry. New York. D. Appleton & +Co. 32mo. pp. 146. 25 cts. + +Lloyd's Military Campaign Chart. Pocket Edition. Arranged by E.L. Viele +and Charles Haskins. New York. H.H. 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