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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:53 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:53 -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/11415-0.txt b/11415-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f370c78 --- /dev/null +++ b/11415-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8864 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11415 *** + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VIII.--NOVEMBER, 1861.--NO. XLIX. + + + + + + + +GEORGE SAND. + + "Deduci superbo + Non humilis mulier triumpho." + + +These words are applied by Horace to the great Cleopatra, whose heroic +end he celebrates, even while exulting in her overthrow. We apply them +to another woman of royal soul, who, capitulating with the world of her +contemporaries, does not allow them the ignoble triumph of plundering +the secrets of her life. They have long clamored at its gates, long +shouted at its windows, in defamation and in glorification. Ready now +for their admission, she lets the eager public in; but what they were +most intent to find still eludes them. In the "Histoire de ma Vie" are +the records of her parentage, birth, education. Here are detailed the +subtile influences that aided or hindered Nature in one of her most +lavish pieces of work; here are study, religion, marriage, maternity, +authorship, friendship, travel, litigation: but the passionate loving +woman, and whom she loved, are not here. To the world's triumph they +belong not, and we honor the decency and self-respect which consign them +to oblivion. Nor shall we endeavor to lift the veil which she has thus +thrown over the most intimate portion of her private life. We will not +ask any _Chronique Scandaleuse_, of which there are plenty, to supply +any hiatus in the _dramatis personae_ of her life. We shall take her as +she gives herself to us, bringing out the full significance of what she +says, but not interpolating with it what other people say. For she has +been generous in telling us all that it imports us most to know. +The itching curiosity of the spiteful or the vicious must seek its +gratification at other hands than ours: we will not be its ministers. +With all this, we are not obliged to shut our eyes to the true +significance of what she tells us, or to assume that in the account +she gives us of herself there is necessarily less self-deception than +self-judgment generally exhibits. If she mistakes the selfish for the +heroic, exalts a gratification into a duty, and preaches to her sex as +from the standpoint of a morality superior to theirs, we shall set it +down as it seems to us. But, for the sake of manhood as well as of +womanhood, we would not that any mean or malignant hand should endeavor +to show where she failed, and how. + +Was she not to all of us, in our early years, a name of doubt, dread, +and enchantment? Did not all of us feel, in our young admiration for +her, something of the world's great struggle between conservative +discipline and revolutionary inspiration? We knew our parents would not +have us read her, _if they knew_. We knew they were right. Yet we read +her at stolen hours, with waning and still entreated light; and as we +read, in a dreary wintry room, with the flickering candle warning us +of late hours and confiding expectations, the atmosphere grew warm and +glorious about us,--a true human company, a living sympathy crept near +us,--the very world seemed not the same world after as before. She had +given us a real gift; no criticism could take it away. The hands might +be sinful, but the box they broke contained an exceeding precious +ointment. + +At a later day we saw these things rather differently. The electric +intoxication over, which book or being gives but once to the same +person, its elements were viewed with some distrust. Passing from ideal +to real life, as all pass, who live on, we shook our heads over the +books, sighed, ceased to read them. Grown mothers ourselves, we quietly +removed them as far as possible from the young hands about us, and would +rather have deprived them of the noble French language altogether than +have allowed it to bring them such lessons as Jacques and Valentine. +Yet we retain the old love for her; the world of literature still seems +brighter for her footsteps; and should we live to learn her death, tears +must follow it, and the sense of void left by the loss of a true friend, +noble and loyal-hearted, if mistaken. With this confession of sympathy +with the woman, we begin the critical consideration of the memoirs of +herself she has given to the world. + +These memoirs begin at the earliest possible period, including the lives +of her parents and grandparents. The latter were illustrious on +one side, obscure on the other. She tells us that by her paternal +grandmother she was allied to the kings of France, and by her maternal +grandfather to the lowest of the people. The grandmother in question +was the natural daughter of the famous Maréchal de Saxe, recognized and +educated, but finally left with slender resources, and married to M. +Dupin de Francueil, an accomplished person of good family and fortune, +greatly her senior. To him she bore one child, a son named Maurice, +after the great soldier. As might have been expected, her widowhood was +early and long, for her aged partner soon dropped from her side, beloved +and regretted. George tells us that her grandmother was wont to insist +that an old man can be more agreeable in the marital relation than a +young one, and that M. Dupin de Francueil, elegant, accomplished, +and devoted to her happiness, had in his life left nothing for her +imagination to desire or her heart to regret. + +As this lady is one of the heroines of the "Histoire de ma Vie," we +cannot do it justice without lingering a little over her portraiture. +She is described as tall, fair, and of a Saxon type of beauty. Her +manners would seem to have been _de haute école_, and her culture was +on a large and noble scale. Austere in her morals, her faith was the +deistic philosophy of the ante-revolutionary period; but, like other +people of noble mind, instead of making doubt a pretext for license, she +brought up virtue to justify the latitude of her creed, that the solid +results of conscience should entitle her to the free interpretation of +doctrine. She was chaste, benevolent, and sincere. Her mother had been a +singer of merit and celebrity, and she, the daughter, had both inherited +her musical talent, and had received one of those thorough musical +educations which alone make the possession of the art a pleasure and +resource. It must often occur to those who hear our young ladies sing +and play, that the accomplishment is little valued by them, save as an +outward social adornment. + +Hence those ambitious and perfectly uninteresting performances with +which we are constantly bored in the fashionable musical world. It is +self-love which gives us those flat, empty _adagios_, those cold, +keen runs and embellishments. Love of the art has more modesty in the +undertaking, and more warmth in the execution. George says that she +has heard all the greatest singers of modern times, but that her +grandmother, in her old age, singing fragments of the operas of her own +time in a cracked and trembling voice, and accompanying herself on an +old harpsichord with three fingers of a palsied hand, always remained to +her a type of art above all others. + +The first volume of these memoirs gives interesting notice of the +friendships which surrounded Madame Dupin during her married life. These +embraced various celebrities, historical and literary. Her husband was +the congenial friend of the best minds of the day, and was able, among +other things, to procure her the difficult pleasure of an interview +with Jean Jacques Rousseau, then living near her in great spleen and +retirement. We cannot do better than to give the relation of this in +her own words, as preserved by her grand-daughter. It is highly +characteristic of the parties and of the times. + +"Before I had seen Rousseau, I had read the 'Nouvelle Héloïse' in one +breath, and at the last pages I found myself so overcome that I wept and +sobbed. My husband gently rallied me for this; but that day I could only +cry from morning till evening. During this, M. de Francueil, with the +address and the grace which he knew how to put into everything, ran to +find Jean Jacques. I do not know how he managed it, but he carried him +off, he brought him, without having communicated to me his intention. + +"I, unconscious of all this, was not hastening my toilet. I was with +Madame d'Esparbès de Lussan, my friend, the most amiable woman in +the world, and the prettiest, _though she squinted a little, and was +slightly deformed._ M. de Francueil had come several times to see if I +was ready. I did not observe any marks of haste in my husband, and did +not hurry myself, never suspecting that he was there, the sublime Bear, +in my parlor. He had entered, looking partly foolish and partly cross, +and had seated himself in a corner, showing no other impatience than +that about dinner, in order to get away very soon. + +"Finally, my toilet finished, and my eyes still red and swollen, I go +to the parlor. I see a little man, ill-dressed and scowling, who rose +clumsily, who _chewed out_ some confused words. I look, and I guess who +it is,--I try to speak,--I burst into tears. Francueil tries to put +us in tune by a pleasantry, and bursts into tears. We could not say +anything to each other. Rousseau pressed my hand without addressing me a +single word. We tried to dine, to cut short all these sobs. But I could +eat nothing. M. de Francueil could not be witty that day, and +Rousseau escaped directly on leaving the table, without having said a +word,--displeased, perhaps, with having found a new contradiction to +his claim of being the most persecuted, the most hated, and the most +calumniated of men." + +The simplicity of this narration justifies its quotation here, as +illustrative of the taste and manners that prevailed a hundred years +ago. The lively emotion provoked by the "Nouvelle Héloïse" is scarcely +more foreign to our ideas and experience than the triangular fit of +weeping in the parlor, and the dinner, silent through excess of feeling, +that followed it. + +M. Dupin de Francueil lived with great, but generous extravagance, and, +as his widow averred, "ruined himself in the most amiable manner in the +world." He died, leaving large estates in great confusion, from which +his widow and young son were compelled to "accept the poverty" of +seventy-five thousand livres of annual income,--a sum which the +Revolution, at a later day, greatly reduced. Till its outbreak, Madame +Dupin lived in peace and affluence, though not on the grand scale of +earlier days,--devoting herself chiefly to the care and education of her +son, Maurice, in which latter task she secured the services of a young +abbé, who afterwards prudently became the _Citizen_ Deschartres, and who +continued in the service of the family during the rest of a tolerably +long life. This personage plays too important a part in the memoirs to +be passed over without special notice. He continued to be the faithful +teacher and companion of Maurice, until the exigencies of military life +removed the latter from his control. He was also the man of business of +Madame Dupin, and, at a later day, the preceptor of George herself, who, +with childish petulance, bestowed on him the sobriquet of _grand homme_, +in consequence, she tells us, of his _omnicompétence_ and his air of +importance. "My grandmother," she says, "had no presentiment, that, in +confiding to him the education of her son, she was securing the tyrant, +the saviour, and the friend of her whole remaining life." We would +gladly give here in full George's portrait of her tutor; but if we +should stop to sketch all the admirable photography of this work, our +review would become a volume. We can only borrow a trait or two, and +pass on to the consideration of other matters. + +"He had been good-looking; but I am sure that no one, even in his best +days, could have looked at him without laughing, so clearly was the word +_pedant_ written in all the lines of his face and in every movement of +his person. To be complete, he should have been ignorant, _gourmand_, +and cowardly. But, far from this, he was very learned, temperate, and +madly courageous. He had all the great qualities of the soul, joined +to an insufferable disposition, and a self-satisfaction which amounted +almost to delirium. But what devotion, what zeal, what a tender and +generous soul!" + +In the intervals of his necessary occupations he studied medicine and +surgery, in the latter of which he attained considerable skill. In the +many subsequent years of his country life, he made these accomplishments +very useful to the village folk. No stress of weather or +unseasonableness of hours could detain him from attending the sick, when +summoned; but being obliged, as George says, to be ridiculous as well as +sublime in all things, he was wont to beat his patients when they were +bold enough to offer him money for their cure, and even made missile +weapons of the poultry and game which they brought him in acknowledgment +of his services, assailing them with blows and harder words, till they +fled, amused or angry. Maurice, his first pupil, was a delicate and +indolent child, and showed little robustness of character till his early +manhood, when the necessity of a career forced him into the ranks of the +great army. + +The first threatenings of the Revolution found in Madame Dupin an +unalarmed observer. As a disciple of Voltaire and Rousseau, she could +not but detest the abuses of the Court; she shared, too, the general +personal alienation of the aristocracy from the _German woman_, as they +called Marie Antoinette. She admired, in turn, the probity of Necker and +the genius of Mirabeau; but the current of disorder finally found its +way to her, and swept away her household peace among the innumerable +wrecks that marked its passage. Implicated as the depository of some +papers supposed to be of treasonable character, she was arrested and +imprisoned in Paris, her son and Deschartres being officially separated +from her and detained at Passy. The imprisonment lasted some months, and +its tedium was beguiled by the most fervent love-letters between the boy +of sixteen and his mother. The sorrow of this separation, George says, +metamorphosed the sickly, spoiled child into a fervent and resolute +youth, whose subsequent career was full of courage and self-denial. Of +the Revolution she writes:-- + +"In my eyes, it is one of the phases of evangelical life: a tumultuous, +bloody life, terrible at certain moments, full of convulsions, of +delirium, and of sobbing. It is the violent contest of the principle of +equality preached by Jesus, and passing, now like a radiant light, now +like a burning torch, from hand to hand, to our own days, against the +old pagan world, which is not destroyed, which will not be for a long +time yet, in spite of the mission of Christ, and so many other divine +missions, in spite of so many stakes, scaffolds, and martyrs. What is +there, then, to astonish us in the vertigo which seized all minds at +the period of the inextricable _mêlée_ into which France precipitated +herself in '93? When everything went by retaliation, when every one +became, by deed or intention, victim and executioner in turn, and when +between the oppression endured and the oppression exercised there was +no time for reflection or liberty of choice, how could passion have +abstracted itself in action, or impartiality have dictated quiet +judgments? Passionate souls were judged by others as passionate, and the +human race cried out as in the time of the ancient Hussites,--'This is a +time of mourning, of zeal, and of fury.'" + +The tone of our author concerning this and subsequent revolutions which +have come within her own observation is throughout temperate, hopeful, +and charitable. The noblest side of womanhood comes out in this; and +however her fiery youth might have counselled, in the pages now under +consideration she appears as the apologist of humankind, the world's +peacemaker. + +George loves to linger over the details of her father's early life. +They are, indeed, all she possesses of him, as she was still in early +childhood when he died. So much and such charming narrations has she +to give us of his military life, his musical ability, his courage and +disinterestedness, that she herself does not manage to get born until +nearly the end of the third volume, and that through a series of +concatenations which we must hastily review. + +The imprisonment of Madame Dupin was not long; after some months of +detention, she was allowed to rejoin her son at Passy, and the whole +family-party speedily removed to Nohant, in the heart of Berry, which +henceforth figures as the homestead in the pages of these volumes. But +Maurice is soon obliged to adopt a profession. His mother's revenues +have been considerably diminished by the political troubles. He feels in +himself the power, the determination, to carve out a career for +himself, and gallantly enters, as a simple soldier, the armies of the +Republic,--Napoleon Bonaparte being First Consul. Although he soon saw +service, his promotion seems to have been slow and difficult. He was +full of military ardor, and laborious in acquiring the science of his +profession; but there were already so many candidates for every smallest +distinction, and Maurice was no courtier, to help out his deserts with a +little fortunate flattery. He complains in his letters that the tide has +already turned, and that even in the army diplomacy fares better than +real bravery. Still, he soon rose from the ranks, served with honor on +the Rhine and in Italy, and became finally attached to the _personnel_ +of Murat, during the occupation of the Peninsula. His title of grandson +of the Maréchal de Saxe was sometimes helpful, sometimes hurtful. In the +eyes of his comrades it won him honor; but Napoleon, on hearing his high +descent urged as a claim to consideration, is said to have replied, +brusquely,--"I don't want any of those people." In his letters to +his mother, he recounts his adventures, military and amorous, with +frankness, but without boasting; but his confidences soon become very +partial, and before she knows it the poor mother has a dangerous rival. +We will let him give his own account of the origin of this new relation. + +"You know that I was in love in Milan. You guessed it, because I did not +tell you of it. At times I fancied myself beloved in return, and then I +saw, or thought I saw, that I was not. I wished to divert my thoughts; I +went away, desiring to think no more of it. + +"This charming woman is here, and we have hardly spoken to each other. +We scarcely exchanged a look. I felt a little vexation, though that is +scarcely in my nature. She was proud towards me, although her heart is +tender and passionate. This morning, during breakfast, we heard distant +cannon. The General ordered me to mount at once, and go to see what it +was. I rise, take the staircase in two bounds, and run to the stable. +At the very moment of mounting my horse I turned and saw behind me this +dear woman, blushing, embarrassed, and casting on me a lingering look, +expressive of fear, interest, love." + +This fatal look, as the experienced will readily conceive, did the +business. The young soldier dreamed only of a love affair like twenty +others which had made the pastime of his oft-changing quarters; but this +"dear woman," Sophie Victoire Antoinette Delaborde, daughter of an old +bird-fancier, was destined to become his wife, and the mother of his +daughter, Aurore Dupin, whom the world knows as George Sand. The +circumstances of her youth had been untoward. She was at this period +already the mother of one child, born out of marriage, and seems to have +been making the campaign of Italy under the so-called protection of some +rich man, whose name is not given us. This protection she hastened to +leave, following thenceforward with devotion the precarious fortunes +of the young soldier, and gaining her own subsistence, until their +marriage, by the toil of the needle, to which she had been bred. Of +course, Maurice's confidences to his mother under this head soon cease. +An amour with a person in Victoire's position could be admitted; but +a serious, solid affection, leading to marriage, this would break his +mother's heart, and indeed not without reason. The reader must remember +that this is a chapter out of French society, on which account we +suppress all hysterical comment upon a state of things universally +received and acknowledged therein. Maurice's trivial, and _we_ should +say, unprincipled pursuit of Victoire would be considered perfectly +legitimate in the sphere which made the world to him. The sequel, +perhaps, would not have been considered differently here and there; for, +however we may recognize the sacredness of true affection, a marriage +so unequal and with such sinister antecedents would be regarded in all +society with little approbation, or hope of good. His mother soon grew +alarmed, as various symptoms of an enduring and carefully concealed +attachment became evident to her keen observation. In the years that +followed, she left no means untried to break off this dangerous +connection;--her remonstrances were by turns tender and violent,--her +reasonings, no doubt, in great part just; but Maurice defended the woman +of his choice from all accusations, from every annoyance, on the ground +of her devoted and honorable attachment to him. After four years of +continued trouble and irresolution, in which, George tells us, he had +again and again made the endeavor to sacrifice Victoire to his mother's +happiness, and after the birth of several children, who soon ceased +to live, he wedded her by civil rite. The birth of his daughter soon +followed. "And thus it was," says George, "that I was born legitimate." + +"My mother had on a pretty pink dress that day, and my father was +playing some _contredanses_ on his faithful Cremona (I have it yet, that +old instrument by the sound of which I first saw the light). My mother +left the dance and passed into her own room. As she went out very +quietly, the dance continued. At the last _chassez all round_, my Aunt +Lucy went into my mother's room, and immediately cried,-- + +"Come, come here, Maurice! You have a daughter!" + +"She shall be named Aurore, for my poor mother, who is not here to bless +her, but who will bless her one day," said my father, receiving me in +his arms. + +"She was born in music and in pink," said my aunt. "She will be happy." + +Not eminent, perhaps, has been the realization of this augury. + +The young couple were so poor, at this moment of their marriage, that a +slender thread of gold was forced to serve for the nuptial ring; it was +not until some days later that they were able to expend six francs in +the purchase of that indispensable ornament. The act once consummated, +Maurice gave himself up to some hours of bitter suffering, made +inevitable by what he considered a grave act of disobedience against the +best of mothers. His conscience, however, on the whole, justified +him. He had obeyed the Scripture precept, forsaking the old for the +inevitable new relation, and surrounding her who was really his wife +with the immunities of civil recognition. The marriage was concealed for +some months from his mother,--who at a subsequent period left no stone +unturned to prove its nullity. The religious ceremony, which Catholicism +considers as the indissoluble tie, had not yet been performed, and +Mme. Dupin hoped to prove some informality in the civil rite. In +this, however, she did not succeed, and after long resistance, and +ill-concealed displeasure, she concluded by acknowledging the unwelcome +alliance. It was the little Aurore herself whose unconscious hand +severed the Gordian knot of the family difficulties. Introduced by a +stratagem into her grandmother's presence, and seated in her lap as the +child of a stranger, the family traits were suddenly recognized, and the +little one (eight months old) effected a change of heart which neither +lawyer nor priest could have induced. St. Childhood is fortunately +always in the world, working ever these miracles of reconciliation. + +George speaks with admirable candor of the inevitable relations between +these two women. She does full justice to the legitimacy of the +grandmother's objections to the marriage, and her fears for its result, +which were founded much more on moral than on social considerations. At +the same time she nobly asserts her mother's claim to rehabilitation +through a passionate and disinterested attachment, a faithful devotion +to the duties of marriage and maternity, and a widowhood whose sorrow +ended only with her life. She says,--"The doctrine of redemption is the +symbol of the principle of expiation and of rehabilitation"; but she +adds,--"Our society recognizes this principle in religious theory, +but not in practice; it is too great, too beautiful for us." She says +farther,--"There still exists a pretended aristocracy of virtue, which, +proud of its privileges, does not admit that the errors of youth are +susceptible of atonement. This condemnation is the more absurd, because, +for what is called the World, it is hypocritical. It is not only women +of really irreproachable life, nor matrons truly respected, who are +called upon to decide upon the merits of their misled sisters. It is not +the company of the excellent of the earth who make opinion. That is all +a dream. The great majority of women of the world is really a majority +of _lost women_." We must understand these remarks as applying to French +society, in respect even of which we are not inclined to admit their +truth. Yet there is a certain justice in the inference that women +are often most severely condemned by those who are no better than +themselves; and this insincerity of uncharity is far more to be dreaded +than the over-zeal of virtuous hearts, which oftenest helps and heals +where it has been obliged to wound. + +At the risk of unduly multiplying quotations, we will quote here what +George says of her mother in this, the flower of her days. At a later +day, the ill-regulated character suffered and made others suffer with +its own discords, which education and moral training had done nothing to +reconcile. The manly support, too, of the nobler nature was wanting, +and the best half of her future and its possibilities was buried in the +untimely grave of her husband. Here is what she was when she was at her +best:-- + +"My mother never felt herself either humiliated or honored by the +company of people who might have considered themselves her superiors. +She ridiculed keenly the pride of fools, the vanity of _parvenus_, and, +feeling herself of the people to her very finger-ends, she thought +herself more noble than all the patricians and aristocrats of the earth. +She was wont to say that those of her race had redder blood and larger +veins than others,--which I incline to believe; for, if moral and +physical energy constitute in reality the excellence of races, we cannot +deny that this energy is compelled to diminish in those who lose the +habit of labor and the courage of endurance. This aphorism is certainly +not without exception, and we may add that excess of labor and of +endurance enervates the organization as much as the excess of luxury and +idleness. But it is certain, in general, that life rises from the bottom +of society, and loses itself in measure as it rises to the top, like the +sap in plants. + +"My mother was not one of those bold _intrigantes_ whose secret passion +is to struggle against the prejudices of their time, and who think to +make themselves greater by clinging, at the risk of a thousand affronts, +to the false greatness of the world. She was far too proud to expose +herself even to coldness. Her attitude was so reserved that she passed +for a timid person; but if one attempted to encourage her by airs of +protection, she became more than reserved, she showed herself cold and +taciturn. With people who inspired her with respect, she was amiable and +charming; but her real disposition was gay, petulant, active, and, above +all, opposed to constraint. Great dinners, long _soirées_, commonplace +visits, balls themselves, were odious to her. She was the woman of the +fireside or of the rapid and frolicking walk; but in her interior, as in +her goings abroad, intimacy, confidence, relations of entire sincerity, +absolute freedom in her habits and the employment of her time, were +indispensable to her. She, therefore, always lived in a retired manner, +more anxious to avoid unpleasant acquaintances than eager to make +advantageous ones. Such, too, was the foundation of my father's +character, and in this respect never was couple better assorted. They +were never happy out of their little household. And they have bequeathed +me this secret _sauvagerie_, which has always rendered the [fashionable] +world insupportable to me, and home indispensable." + +In referring back to these volumes, we are led into continual loiterings +by the way. The style of our heroine is so magical, that we are +constantly tempted to let her tell her own story, and to give to the +gems of hers which we insert in these pages the slightest possible +setting of our own. But it is not our business to anticipate for any one +a reading from which no student of modern literature, or, indeed, of +modern mind, will excuse himself. We must give only so much as shall +make it sure that others will seek more at the fountain-head; but for +this purpose we must turn less to the book, and trust for our narration +to a sufficiently recent perusal still vividly remembered. + +Aurore could scarcely have passed out of her third year when she +accompanied her mother to Madrid, where her father was already in +attendance upon Murat. She remembers their quarters in the palace, +magnificently furnished, and the half-broken toys of the royal +children, whose destruction she was allowed to complete. To please his +commander-in-chief, her father caused her to assume a miniature uniform, +like those of the Prince's aide-de-camps, whose splendid discomfort she +still recalls. This would seem a sort of prophecy of that assuming +of male attire in later years which was to constitute a capital +circumstance in her life. The return from the Peninsula was weary and +painful to the mother and child, and made more so by the disgust with +which the Spanish roadside bill-of-fare inspired the more civilized +French stomach. They were forced to make a part of the journey in wagons +with the common soldiery and camp-retainers, and Aurore in this manner +took the itch, to her mother's great mortification. Arrived at Nohant, +however, the care of Deschartres, joined to a self-imposed _régime_ of +green lemons, which the little girl devoured, skins, seeds, and all, +soon healed the ignominious eruption. Here the whole family passed some +months of happy repose, too soon interrupted by the tragical death of +Maurice. He had brought back from Spain a formidable horse, which he had +christened the _terrible_ Leopardo, and which, brave cavalier as he was, +he never mounted without a certain indefinable misgiving. He often said, +"I ride him badly, because I am afraid of him, and he knows it." +Dining with some friends in the neighborhood, one day, he was late in +returning. His wife and mother passed the evening together, the first +jealous and displeased at his protracted absence, the second occupied in +calming the irritation and rebuking the suspicions of her companion. The +wife at last yielded, and retired to rest. But the mother's heart, more +anxious, watched and watched. Towards midnight, a slight confusion in +the house augmented her alarm. She started at once, alone and thinly +dressed, to go and meet her son. The night was dark and rainy; the +terrible Leopardo had fulfilled the prophetic forebodings of his rider. +The poor lady, brought up in habits of extreme inactivity, had taken but +two walks in all her life. The first had been to surprise her son at +Passy, when released from the Revolutionary prison. The second was to +meet and escort back his lifeless body, found senseless by the roadside. + +We have done now with Aurore's ancestry, and must occupy our remaining +pages with accounts of herself. Much time is given by her to the record +of her early childhood, and the explanation of its various phases. She +loves children; it is perhaps for this reason that she dwells longest on +this period of her life, describing its minutest incidents with all the +poetry that is in her. One would think that her childhood seemed to +her that actual flower of her life which it is to few in their own +consciousness. Despite the loss of her father, and the vexed relations +between her mother and grandmother which followed his death, her +infancy was joyous and companionable, passed mostly with the country +surroundings and out-door influences which act so magically on the +young. It soon became evident that she was to be confided chiefly to her +grandmother's care; and this, which was at first a fear, soon came to be +a sorrow. Still her mother was often with her, and her time was divided +between the plays of her village-friends and the dreams of romantic +incident which early formed the main feature of her inner life. Already +at a very early age her mother used to say to those who laughed at the +little romancer,--"Let her alone; it is only when she is making her +novels between four chairs that I can work in peace." This habit of +mind grew with her growth. Her very dolls played grandiose parts in her +child-drama. The paper on the wall became animated to her at night, and +in her dreams she witnessed strange adventures between its Satyrs and +Bacchantes. Soon she imagined for herself a sort of angel-companion, +whose name was Corambé. His presence grew to be more real to her than +reality itself, and in her quiet moments she wove out the mythology of +his existence, as Bhavadgheetas and Mahabraatus have been dreamed. In +process of time, she built, or rather entwisted, for him a little shrine +in the woods. All pretty things the child could gather were brought +together there, to give him pleasure. But one day the foot of a little +playmate profaned this sanctuary, and Aurore sought it no more, while +still Corambé was with her everywhere. + +Although she seems to have always suffered from her mother's +inequalities of temper, yet for many years she clung to her, and to the +thought of her, with jealous affection. The great difference of age +which separated her from her grandmother inspired fear, and the grand +manners and careful breeding of the elder lady increased this effect. +When left with her, the child fell into a state of melancholy, with +passionate reactions against the chilling, penetrating influence, +which yet, having reason on its side, was destined to subdue her. "Her +chamber, dark and perfumed, gave me the headache, and fits of spasmodic +yawning. When she said to me, '_Amuse yourself quietly_,' it seemed +to me as if she shut me up in a great box with her." What sympathetic +remembrances must this phrase evoke in all who remember the _gêne_ of +similar constraints! George draws from this inferences of the wisdom of +Nature in confiding the duties of maternity to young creatures, whose +pulses have not yet lost the impatient leap of early pleasure and +energy, and to whom repose and reflection have not yet become the primal +necessities of life. This want of the nearness and sympathy of age +she was to experience more, as, by the consent of both parties, +her education was to be conducted under the superintendence of her +grandmother, from whom the mother derived her pension, and whose estate +the child was to inherit. The separation from her mother, gradually +effected, was the great sorrow of her childhood. She revolted from it +sometimes openly, sometimes in secret; and the project of escaping and +joining her mother in Paris, where, with her half-sister Caroline, +they would support themselves by needle-work, was soon formed and +long cherished. For the expenses of this intended journey, the child +carefully gathered and kept her little treasures, a coral comb, a ring +with a tiny brilliant, etc., etc. In contemplating these, she consoled +many a heartache; as who is there of us who has not often effectually +beguiled _ennui_ and privation by dreams of joys that never were to have +any other reality? The mother seems to have entered into this plan only +for the moment; it soon escaped her remembrance altogether, and the +little girl waited and waited to be sent for, till finally the whole +vision faded into a dream. + +Deschartres, the tutor of Maurice, and of Hippolyte, his illegitimate +son, became also the instructor of the little Aurore. With all her +passion for out-door life, she felt always, she tells us, an invincible +necessity of mental cultivation, and perpetually astonished those +who had charge of her by her ardor alike in work and in play. Her +grandmother soon found that the child was never ill, so long as +sufficient freedom of exercise was permitted; so she was soon allowed to +run at will, dividing her time pretty equally between the study and the +fields. Thus she grew in mind and body from seven to twelve, promising +to be tall and handsome, though not in after-years fulfilling this +promise; for of her stature she tells us that it did not exceed that of +her mother, whom she calls a _petite femme_,--and of her appearance +she simply says that in her youth "with eyes, hair, and a robust +organization," she was neither handsome nor ugly. At the age of twelve, +a social necessity compelled her to go through the form of confession +and the first communion. Her grandmother was divided between the +convictions of her own liberalism, and the desire not to place her +cherished charge in direct opposition to the imperious demands of a +Catholic community. The laxity of the period allowed the compromise to +be managed in a merely formal and superficial manner. The grandmother +tried to give the rite a certain significance, at the same time +imploring the child "not to suppose that she was about to _eat her +Creator_." The confessor asked none of those questions which our author +simply qualifies as infamous, and, with a very mild course of catechism +and slight dose of devotion, that Rubicon of maturity was passed. Not +far beyond it waited a terrible trial, perhaps as great a sorrow as the +whole life was to bring. Aurore's diligence in her studies was marred +by the secret intention, long cherished, of escaping to her mother, and +adopting with her her former profession of dress-maker. Having one day +answered reproof with a petulant assertion of her desire to rejoin her +mother at all hazards, the grandmother determined to put an end to such +projects by a severe measure. Aurore was banished from her presence +during a certain number of days. Neither friend nor servant spoke to +her. She describes naturally enough this lonely, uncomforted condition, +in which, more than ever, she meditated upon the wished-for return to +her mother, and the beginning with her of a new life of industry and +privation. Summoned at last to her grandmother's bedside, and kneeling +to ask for reconciliation, she is forced to stay there, and to listen +to the most cruel and literal account of her mother's life, its early +errors, and their inevitable consequences. + +"All that she narrated was true in point of fact, and attested by +circumstances whose detail admitted of no doubt. But this terrible +history might have been unveiled to me without injury to my respect +and love for my mother, and, thus told, it would have been much more +probable and more true. It would have sufficed to tell all the causes of +her misfortunes,--loneliness and poverty from the age of fourteen years, +the corruption of the rich, who are there to lie in wait for hunger and +to blight the flower of innocence, the pitiless rigorism of opinion, +which allows no return and accepts no expiation. They should also have +told me how my mother had redeemed the past, how faithfully she had +loved my father, how, since his death, she had lived humble, sad, and +retired. Finally, my poor grandmother let fall the fatal word. My mother +was a lost woman, and I a blind child rushing towards a precipice." + +The horror of this disclosure did not work the miracle anticipated. +Aurore submitted indeed outwardly, but a spell of hardness and +hopelessness was drawn around her young heart, which neither tears nor +tenderness could break. The blow struck at the very roots of life and +hope in her. Self-respect was wounded in its core. If the mother who +bore her was vile, then she was vile also. All object in life seemed +gone. She tried to live from day to day without interest, without hope. +From her dark thoughts she found refuge only in extravagant gayety, +which brought physical weariness, but no repose of mind. She, who +had been on the whole a docile, manageable child, became so riotous, +unreasonable, and insupportable, that the only alternative of utter +waste of character seemed to be the discipline and seclusion of +the convent. She was accordingly taken to Paris, and received as a +_pensionnaire_ in the Convent des Anglaises, which had been, in the +Revolution, her grandmother's prison. To Aurore it was rather a place of +refuge than a place of detention. The chords of life had been cruelly +jarred in her bosom, and the discords in her character thence resulting +agonized her more than they displeased others. As for the extraordinary +communication which had led to this disorder of mind, we do not +hesitate, under the circumstances, to pronounce it an act of gratuitous +cruelty. Of all pangs that can assail a human heart, none transcends +that of learning the worthlessness of those we love; and to lay this +burden, which has crushed and crazed the strongest natures, upon the +tender heart of a child, was little less than murderous. Nor can +the motive assigned justify an act so cruel; since modern morality +increasingly teaches that the means must justify themselves, as well as +the end. In spite of these odious revelations, the child felt that her +love for her mother was undiminished, and a pitying comprehension of the +natural differences between the two nearest to her on earth slowly arose +in her mind, allowing her to do justice to the intentions of both. + +Aurore wandered at first about the convent with only a vague feeling +of loneliness. The young girls, French and English, who composed its +classes, surveyed her in the beginning with distrust. Soon the youngest +and wildest set, called _Diables_, accorded her affiliation, and in +their company she managed to increase tolerably the anxieties and +troubles of the under-mistresses. + +She was early initiated into the _great secret_, the traditionary legend +of the convent. This pointed at the existence, in some subterranean +dungeon, of a wretched prisoner, or perhaps of several, cut off from +liberty and light; and to _deliver the victim_ became the object of a +hundred wild expeditions, by day and by night, through the uninhabited +rooms and extensive vaults of the ancient edifice. The little ladies +hoarded with care their candle-ends,--they tumbled up and down ruinous +staircases, listened for groans and complaints, tried to undermine walls +and partitions, fortunately with little success. The victim was never +found, but her story was bequeathed from class to class, and her +deliverance was always the object and excuse of the _Diables_. + +After much time wasted in these pursuits, attended by a mediocre +progress in the ordinary course of study and what the French call +_leçons d'agrément_, and we accomplishments, a critical moment came for +Aurore. She was weary of frolic and mischief,--she had tormented the +nuns to her heart's content. She knew not what new comedy to invent. She +thought of putting ink in the holy water,--it had been done already; of +hanging the parrot of the under-mistress,--but they had given her so +many frights, there would be nothing new in that. She saw, one +evening, the door of the little chapel open;--its quiet, its exquisite +cleanliness and simplicity attracted her. She had followed thither to +mock at the awkward motions of a little hunch-backed sister at her +devotions,--but once within she forgot this object. A veiled nun was +kneeling in her stall at prayer,--a single lamp feebly illuminated the +white walls,--a star looked in at her through the dim window. The nun +slowly rose and departed. Aurore was left alone. A calm, such as she had +never known, took possession of her,--a sudden light seemed to envelop +her,--she heard the mystical sentence vouchsafed to Saint Augustin: +"_Toile, lege!_" Turning to see who whispered it, she found herself +alone. + +"I cherished no vain illusion. I did not believe in a miraculous voice. +I understood perfectly the sort of hallucination into which I had +fallen. I was neither elated nor frightened at it. Only, I felt that +Faith was taking possession of me, as I had wished, through the heart. I +was so grateful, in such delight, that a torrent of tears inundated my +face. 'Yes, yes, the veil is torn!' I said, 'I see the light of heaven! +I will go! But, before all, let me render thanks. To whom? how? What is +thy name?' said I to the unknown God who called me to him. 'How shall I +pray to thee? What language worthy of thee and capable of expressing +its love can my soul speak to thee? I know not; but thou readest my +heart,--thou seest that I love thee!'" + +From this moment, Aurore gave herself up to the passion of devotion, +which, in natures like hers, is often the first to unclose. There are +all sorts of religious experiences,--some poor and shallow, some rich +and deep, with every variety of shade between. But wherever Love is +capable of being heroic, Religion will also find room to work its larger +miracles. Aurore's devotion was not likely to be a frigid recognition of +doctrine, nor to consist in the minute care of an infinitesimal soul, +whose salvation could be of small avail to any save its possessor. Her +religion could only be a sympathetic and contagious flame, running from +soul to soul, as beacon-fires catch at night and illuminate a whole +tract of country. From this time she became patient, thorough, and +laborious in all the duties of her age and place. A closer sympathy now +drew her to the nuns, with several of whom she formed happy and intimate +relations. The convent life became for the time her ideal of existence, +and she formed the plan, so common among young girls educated in this +manner, of taking the veil herself, when such a step should become +possible. This hidden purpose she carried with her, when, at the age of +sixteen, she quitted the convent with bitter regret, fearing the strange +world, fearing a conventional marriage, and looking back to the pleasant +restraints of tutelage, whose thorn hedges are always in blossom when we +view them from the dusty ways and traffic of real, responsible life. + +Aurore exchanged her convent for a life of equal retirement; for her +grandmother, fearing lest the pietistic influences to which she had been +subjected should awake too dominant a chord in the passionate nature of +her pupil, brought her to Nohant at once, where, for a few days, she +realized the delight of a greater freedom from rule and surveillance. It +was pleasant for once, she says, to sleep into _la grasse matinée_, to +wear a bright gingham instead of her dress of purple serge, and to comb +her hair without being reminded that it was indecent for a young girl to +uncover her temples. The projects of marriage which had alarmed her were +abandoned for the present, and she was left to enjoy, unmolested, the +pleasure of finding again the friends and playmates of her youth. It +soon appeared, however, that the convent education had left many a +_lacune_, and the grandmother felt that the result of the three years' +claustration in nowise corresponded to its expense. Aurore set +herself to work to fill up, in secret, the many blanks left by her +preceptresses,--wishing, as she says, to conceal, as far as she could, +their want of faith or of thoroughness. She sat at her books half the +night, being gifted, according to her own account, with a marvellous +power of sacrificing sleep to any other necessity. At this time she +learned to ride on horseback, her first exploit being to tame a colt of +four years, the after-companion of many a wild scramble, who grew old +and died in her service. Her grandmother becoming soon after disabled by +a paralytic stroke, the alternation of this new exercise enabled Aurore +to bear the fatigues of the sick-room without serious inconvenience. Of +this period of her life our heroine speaks as follows:-- + +"Had my destiny caused me to pass immediately from my grandmother's +control to that of a husband, or of a convent, it is possible that, +subjected always to influences already accepted, I should never have +been myself. But it was decided by Fate that at the age of seventeen +years I should experience a suspension of external authority, and that I +should belong wholly to myself for nearly a year, to become, for good or +evil, what I was to be for nearly all the rest of my life." + +Passing much of her time at the bedside of the invalid, now incapable of +giving any further direction to the young life so dear to her, Aurore +plunged into many studies which opened to her new worlds of thought +and observation. She read Châteaubriand with delight. The "Genie du +Christianisme" proved to her rather an intellectual than a religious +stimulant, and under its impulse she proceeded, as she says, to +encounter without ceremony the French and other authors most quoted +at that time, to wit: Locke, Bacon, Montesquieu, Leibnitz, Pascal, La +Bruyère, Pope, Milton, Dante, and others not below these in difficulty. +She studied them in a crude and hurried manner; but that wonderful +alembic of youth, with its fiery heat of ardor, enabled her to compose +these far and hastily gathered ingredients into a certain homogeneity of +knowledge. "The brain was young," she says, "the memory always fugitive; +but the sentiment was quick, and the will ever tense." From these +pursuits, interrupted by the cares of nursing, she broke loose only to +mount her favorite Colette, and accompany Deschartres in his hunting +expeditions. She attempted also to acquire some knowledge of Natural +History, Mineralogy, and so on; but science was always less congenial to +her than literature, and of Leibnitz, the "Théodicée" is the only work +of which she speaks with any familiarity. For convenience in riding and +hunting, she adopted, on occasion, the dress of a boy, a blouse, +cap, and trousers, to the great scandal of the neighborhood, already +indisposed towards her by reason of her eccentric reputation; since, as +one can imagine, a small French province is the last place in the world +where a young girl can display the lone-star banner of individuality +with impunity. + +Aurore had promised her aged relative that she would not read Voltaire +before the age of thirty; but her literary wanderings soon brought her +across the path of Rousseau. + +The French make the reading of the "Nouvelle Héloïse" one of the epochs +in the life of woman. According to its motto, "The mother will not +allow the daughter to read it," this critical act is by common consent +adjourned till after marriage, when, we suppose, it appears something in +the light of a Bill of Rights, a coming to the knowledge of what women +can do, if they will. But as all Julie's _divagations_ occur before +marriage, and as her subsequent life becomes a model of Puritanic duty +and piety, one does not understand the applicability of her example to +French life, in which this progress is reversed. In this, as in all +works of true genius, people of the most opposite ways of thinking +take what is congenial to themselves,--the ardent and passionate fling +themselves on the swollen stream of Saint Preux's stormy love, the +older and colder justify Julie's repentance, and the slow but certain +rehabilitation of her character. With all its magnificences, and even +with the added zest of a forbidden book, the "Nouvelle Héloïse" would be +very slow reading for our youth of today. Its perpetual balloon voyage +of sentiment was suited to other times, or finds sympathy to-day +with other races. With all this, there is a great depth of truth and +eloquence in its pages,--and its moral, which at first sight would seem +to be, that the blossom of vice necessarily contains the germ of virtue, +proves to be this wiser one, that you can tell the tree only by its +fruits, which slowly ripen with length of life. As a novel, it is out of +fashion,--for novels have fashion; as a development of the individuality +of passion, it has perhaps no equal. Be sure that Aurore saw in it its +fullest significance. It was strange reading for the disciple of the +convent, but she had laid her bold hand upon the tree of the knowledge +of good and of evil. She was not to be saved like a woman, through +ignorance, but like a man, through the wisdom which has its heavenly and +its earthly side. "Émile," the "Contrat Social," and the rest of the +series succeeded each other in her studies; but she does not speak of +the "Confessions," a book most cruel to those who love the merits of the +author, and to whom the nauseating vulgarity of his personal character +is a disgust scarcely to be recovered from. Taken at his best, however, +Rousseau was the Saint John of the Revolutionary Gospel, though the +bloody complement of its Apocalypse was left for other hands than his to +trace. To Aurore, stumbling almost unaided through fragmentary studies +of science and philosophy, his glowing, broad, synthetic statement was +indeed a revelation. It made an epoch in her life. She compared him to +Mozart. "In politics," she says, "I became the ardent disciple of this +master, and I followed him long without restriction. As to religion, +he seemed to me the most Christian of all the writers of his time. I +pardoned his abjuration of Catholicism the more easily because its +sacraments and title had been given to him in an irreligious manner, +well calculated to disgust him with them." But with Aurore, too, the day +of Catholicism was over,--its rites were become "heavy and unhealthy" to +her. Her faith in things divine was unshaken; but the confessional was +empty, the mass dull, the ceremonial ridiculous to her. She was glad to +pray alone, and in her own words. Hers was a nature beyond forms. By +a rapid intuition, she saw and appropriated what is intrinsic in all +religions,--faith in God and love to man. However wild and volcanic may +have been her creed in other matters, she has never lost sight of these +two cardinal points, which have been the consolation of her life and its +redemption. The year comprising these studies and this new freedom ended +sadly with the death of her grandmother. + +And now, her real protectress being removed, the discords of life broke +in upon her, and asserted themselves. Scarcely was the beloved form +cold, when Aurore's mother arrived, to wake the echoes of the chateau +with wild abuse of its late mistress. By testamentary disposition, +Madame Dupin had made Aurore her heir, and had named two of her own +relatives as guardians; but the mother now insisted on her own rights, +and, after much acrimonious dispute and comment, carried Aurore from her +beloved solitudes to her own quarters in Paris,--a journey of sorrow, +and the beginning of sorrows. In her childhood Aurore had often longed +for this mother's breast as her natural refuge, and the true home of her +childish affections. But it "was one of those characters of self-will +and passion which deteriorate in later life, and in which no new moral +beauties spring up to replace the impulsive graces of youth. Regarding +Aurore now as the work of another's hands, she made her the victim of +ceaseless and causeless petulance. Her gross abuse of her mother-in-law +gave Aurore many tears to shed in private, while her persecution of poor +Deschartres drove her daughter to the expedient of shielding him--with +a lie. The poor tutor had administered the affairs of Nohant for some +time. He was now called to account for every farthing with the most +malignant accuracy, and a sum of money, lost by ill-management, not +being satisfactorily accounted for, his new tormentor threatened him +with prison and trial. As he muttered to his late pupil that he would +not survive this disgrace, she stepped forward and shielded him after +the fashion of Consuelo. + +"I have received this money," said she. + +"You? Impossible! What have you done with it?" + +"No matter, I have received it." + +Deschartres was saved, and Aurore had only availed herself of the first +of a Frenchwoman's privileges. Nor will we reckon with her too harshly +for this lie, so benevolent in intention, so merciful in effect. A lie +sometimes seems the only refuge of the oppressed; but there is always +something better than a lie, if we could only find it out. Here is her +account of the scene itself:-- + +"To have gone through a series of lies and of false explanations would +not, perhaps, have been possible for me. But from the moment that it was +only necessary to persist in a 'yes' to save Deschartres, I thought that +I ought not to hesitate. My mother insisted:-- + +"'If M. Deschartres has paid you eighteen thousand francs, we can +easily find it out. You would not give your word of honor?' + +"I felt a shudder, and I saw Deschartres ready to speak out. + +"'I would give it!' I cried out + +"'Give it, then,' said my aunt. + +"'No, Mademoiselle,' said my mother's lawyer, 'don't give it.' + +"'She shall give it!' cried my mother, to whom I could scarcely pardon +this infliction of torture. + +"'I give it,' I replied;' and God is with me against you in this +matter.' + +"'She has lied! she lies!' cried my mother. 'A bigot, a +_philosophailleuse.' She is lying and defrauding herself.' + +"'Oh, as to that,' said the lawyer, laughing, 'she has the right to do +it, since she robs only herself.' + +"'I will take her with her Deschartres before the justice of the peace,' +said my mother. 'I will make her take oath by Christ, by the Gospel!' + +"'No, Madame,' said the lawyer, 'you will go no further in this matter; +and as for you, Mademoiselle, I beg your pardon for the annoyance I have +given you. Charged with your interests, I felt obliged to do so.'" + +Eternal shame to those who make use of any authority to force the +secrets of a generous heart, cutting off from it every alternative but +that of a loathed deceit, or still more hateful, and scarcely less +guilty, betrayal! + +Aurore now found herself in the hands of a woman of the people, ennobled +for a time by beauty and a true affection, but sinking, her good +inspiration gone, into the bitterest ill-temper and most vulgar +uncharity. Detesting her superiors in rank and position, she soon +managed to cut off Aurore from all intercourse with her father's family, +and thus to frustrate every prospect of her marriage in the sphere for +which she had been so carefully educated. She was even forbidden to +visit her old friends at the convent, and was eventually placed by her +mother with a family nearly unknown to both, whose pity had been excited +by her friendless condition and unhappy countenance. Aurore's mother +seems to us, _du reste_, the perfect type of a Parisian lorette, the +sort of woman so keenly attractive with the bloom of youth and the +eloquence of passion,--but when these have passed their day, the most +detestable of mistresses, the most undesirable of companions. Men of all +ranks and ages acknowledge their attraction, endure their tyranny, and +curse the misery it inflicts. Marriage and competency had protected this +one from the deteriorations which almost inevitably await those of +her class, but they could not save her from the natural process of an +undisciplined mind, an ungoverned temper, and a caprice verging on +insanity. This self-torment of caprice could be assuaged only by +constant change of circumstance and surroundings; her only resource was +to metamorphose things about her as often and as rapidly as possible. +She changed her lodgings, her furniture, her clothes, retrimmed her +bonnets continually, always finding them worse than before. Finally, she +grew weary of her black hair, and wore a blond periwig, which disgusting +her in turn, she finished by appearing in a different head of hair every +day in the week. + +Aurore's new friends proved congenial to her, and the influence of their +happy family-life dispersed, she says, her last dreams of the beatitudes +of the convent. It was in their company that she first met the man +destined to become her husband. Most of us would like to know the +impression he made upon her at first sight. We will give it in her own +words. + +"We were eating ices at Tortoni's, after the theatre, when my mother +Angèle [her new friend] said to her husband,--'See, there is Casimir.' + +"A slender young man, rather elegant, with a gay aspect and military +bearing, came to shake hands with them. He seated himself by Madame +Angèle, and asked her in a low voice who I was. + +"'It is my daughter,' she replied. + +"'Then,' whispered he, 'she is my wife. You know that you have promised +me the hand of your eldest daughter. I thought it would have been +Wilfrid; but as this one seems of an age more suitable to mine, I accept +her, if you will give her to me.' + +"Madame Angèle laughed at this, but the pleasantry proved a prediction." + +Aurore had given her new protectors the titles of Mother Angèle and +Father James, and they in turn called her their daughter. The period of +her residence with them at Plessis appears in her souvenirs as an +ideal interval of happiness and repose, a renewal of the freedom and +_insousiance_ of childhood, with the added knowledge of their value, a +suspension of the terrible demands and interests of life. Would that +this ideal period could be prolonged for women!--but the exigencies +of the race, or perhaps the fears of society, do not permit it. +The two-faced spectre of marriage awaits her, for good or ill. The +_aphelion_ of a woman's liberty is soon reached, the dark organic forces +bind her to tread the narrow orbit of her sex, and if, at the farthest +bound of her individual progress, the attraction could fail, and let her +slip from the eternal circle, chaos would be the result. + +Uninvited, therefore, but unrepulsed, Hymen approached our heroine in +the form of Casimir Dudevant, the illegitimate, but acknowledged son and +heir of Colonel Dudevant, an officer of good standing and reasonable +fortune. The only feeling he seems to have inspired in the bosom of his +future wife was one of mild good-will. His only recommendation was a +decent degree of suitableness in outward circumstances. For the true +wants of her nature he had neither fitness nor sympathy; but she did not +know herself then,--she was not yet George Sand. From the stand-point of +her later development, her marriage would seem to us a low one; but we +must remember that she started only from the plane, and not the highest +plane, of French society, in which a marriage of some sort is the +first necessity of a woman's life, and not the crowning point of her +experience. To compensate the rigor of such a requisition, a French +marriage, though civilly indissoluble, has yet a hundred modifications +which remove it far from the Puritan ideal which we of the Protestant +faith cherish. Hence the French novel, whose strained sentiment and +deeply logical immorality have wakened strange echoes among us of the +stricter rule and graver usage. + +Without passion, then, or tender affection on either side, but with a +tolerable harmony of views for the moment, and after long and causeless +opposition on the part of Aurore's mother, this marriage took place. +Aurore was but eighteen; her bridegroom was of suitable age. With dreams +of a peaceful family existence, and looking forward to maternity as the +great joy and office of the coming years, she brought her husband to +Nohant, whose inheritance had been settled by contract upon the children +of this marriage. + +But these dreams were not to be realized. Aurore was not born to be the +companion of a dull, narrow man, nor the Lady Bountiful of a little +village in the heart of France. Would she not have had it so? She tells +us that she would; and as honesty is one of her strong points, we may +believe her. She knew not the stormy ocean of life, nor the precious +freight she carried, when she committed the vessel of her fortunes to so +careless a hand as that of M. Dudevant. She throws no special blame or +odium upon him, nor does he probably deserve any. + +The recital of the events spoken of above brings us well into the eighth +volume of the "Histoire de ma Vie"; and as there are but ten in all, the +treatment of the things that follow is pursued with much less +detail, and with many a gap, which the malevolent among our author's +contemporaries would assure us that they know well how to fill up. +Between the extreme reserve of the last two volumes and the wild +assertions of so many we would gladly keep the _juste milieu_, if +we could; but we wish only truth, and it is not at the hands of the +scandalmongers of any society--is it?--that we seek that commodity. The +decree of the court which at a later day gave her the guardianship +of her children, and the friendship of many illustrious and of some +irreproachable men, must be accepted in favor of her of whom we +write,--and the known fanaticism of slander, and the love of the +marvellous, which craves, in stories of good or evil, such monstrous +forms for its gratification, cause us, on the other side, to deduct +a large average from the narrations current against her. But we +anticipate. + +Aurore, at first, was neither happy nor unhappy in her marriage. Her +surroundings were friendly and pleasant, and the birth of a son, a third +Maurice, soon brought to her experience the keenest joy of womanhood. +Before this child numbered two years, however, she began to feel a +certain blank in her household existence, an emptiness, a discouragement +as to all things, whose cause she could not understand. In this _ennui_, +she tells us, her husband sympathized, and by common consent they strove +to remedy it by frequent changes of abode. They visited Paris, Plessis, +returned to Nohant, made a journey in the Pyrenees, a visit to Guillery, +the château of Colonel Dudevant. Still the dark guest pursued them. +Aurore does not pretend that there was any special cause for her +suffering. It was but the void which her passionate nature found in a +conventional and limited existence, and for which as yet she knew no +remedy. The fervor of Catholic devotion had, as we have seen, long +forsaken her; her studies did not satisfy her; her children--she had by +this time a daughter--were yet in infancy; her husband was not unkind, +but indifferent, and the object of indifference. She occupied herself +with the business of her estate, and with the wants of the neighboring +poor; but she was unsuccessful in administering her expenses, and her +narrow revenue did not allow her to give large satisfaction to her +charitable impulses. After some years of seclusion and effort, she began +to dream of liberty, of wealth,--in a word, of trying her fortunes in +Paris. She felt a power within her for which she had found no adequate +task. She speaks vaguely, too, of a _Being_ platonically loved, and +loving in like manner, absent for most of the year, and seen only for +a few days at long intervals, whose correspondence had added a new +influence to her life. This attenuated relation was, however, broken +before she made her essay of a new life. Her half-brother, Hippolyte, +brought to Nohant a habit of joviality which soon degenerated into +chronic intemperance; and though she does not accuse her husband of +participation in this vice, or, indeed, of any wrong towards her, she +yet makes us understand that an occasional escape from Nohant became to +her almost a matter of necessity. She, therefore, made arrangements, +with her husband's free consent, to pass alternately three months in +Paris and three months at home, for an indefinite period; and leaving +Maurice in good hands, and the little Solange, her daughter, for a +short time only, she came to Paris in the winter with the intention of +writing. + +Her hopes and pretensions were at first very modest. It had been agreed +that her husband should pay her an annual pension of fifteen hundred +francs. She would have been well satisfied to earn a like sum by her +literary efforts. She established herself in a small _mansarde_, a sort +of garret, and managed by great economy to furnish it so that Solange +could be made comfortable. She washed and ironed her fine linen with +her own hands. Not finding literary employment at once, and her slender +salary running very low, she adopted male attire for a while, as she +says, because she was too poor to dress herself suitably in any other. +The fashion of the period was favorable to her design. Men wore long +square-skirted overcoats, down to the heels. With one of these, and +trousers to match, with a gray hat and large woollen cravat, she might +easily pass for a young student. + +"I cannot express the pleasure my boots gave me. I would gladly have +slept with them on. With these little iron-shod heels, I stood firm on +the pavement. I flew from one end of Paris to the other. I could have +made the circuit of the world, thus attired. Besides, my clothes did not +fear spoiling. I ran about in all weathers, I came back at all hours, +I went to the pit of every theatre. No one paid me any attention, or +suspected my disguise. Besides that, I wore it with ease; the entire +want of coquetry in my costume and physiognomy disarmed all suspicion. +I was too ill-dressed, and my manner was too simple, to attract or fix +attention. Women know little how to disguise themselves, even upon the +stage. They are unwilling to sacrifice the slenderness of their waists, +the smallness of their feet, the prettiness of their movements, the +brilliancy of their eyes; and it is by all these, nevertheless, it is +especially by the look, that they might avoid easy detection. There is a +way of gliding in everywhere without causing any one to turn round, and +of speaking in a low, unmodulated tone which does not sound like a +flute in the ears which may hear you. For the rest, in order not to +be remarked _as a man_, you must already have the habit of not making +yourself remarked _as a woman_." + +This travesty, our heroine tells us, was of short duration;--it answered +the convenience of some months of poverty and obscurity. Its traditions +did not pass away so soon;--ten years later, her son, in his beardless +adolescence, was often taken for her, and sometimes amused himself +by indulging the error in those who accosted him. But in the greatly +changed circumstances in which she soon found herself, the disguise +became useless and unavailing. Its economy was no longer needed, and the +face of its wearer was soon too well known to be concealed by hat or +coat-collar. + +We would not be understood as relaxing in any degree the rigor of +repudiation which such an act deserved. Yet it is imaginable, even to an +undepraved mind, that a woman might sometimes like to be on the other +side of the fence, to view the mad bull of publicity in its own pasture, +and feel that it cannot gore her. Poor George! running about in the +little boots, and wearing a great ugly coat and woollen choker,--it was +not through vanity that you did this. Strange sights you must have seen +in Paris!--none, perhaps, stranger than yourself! The would-be nun of +the English convent walking the streets in male attire, and even, as you +tell us, with your hands in your pockets! Yet when little Solange came +to live with you, as we understand, you put on your weeds of weakness +again;--your little daughter made you once more a woman! + +For she was George Sand now. Aurore Dupin was civilly dead, Aurore +Dudevant was uncivilly effaced. She had taken half a name from Jules +Sandeau,--she had wrought the glory of that name herself. Yes, a glory, +say what you will. Elizabeth Browning's hands were not too pure to +soothe that forehead, chiding while they soothed; and these hands, +not illustrious as hers, shall soil themselves with no mud flung at a +sister's crowned head. + +Every one knows the story of the name: how she and Jules Sandeau wrote a +novel together, and sought a _nom de plume_ which should represent their +literary union,--how soon she found that she could do much better alone, +and the weak work of Carl Sand was forgotten in the strong personality +of George Sand. Of Jules Sandeau she speaks only as of the associate of +a literary enterprise;--the world accords him a much nearer relation to +her; but upon this point she cannot, naturally, be either explicit or +implicit. One thing is certain: she was a hard worker, and did with +her might what her hand found to do. She wrote "Indiana," "Lelia," +"Valentine," and had fame and money at will. Neither, however, gave +her unmixed pleasure. The _éclat_ of her reputation soon destroyed her +_incognito_, while the sums of money she was supposed to receive for her +works attracted to her innumerable beggars and adventurers of all +sorts. To ascertain the real wants and character of those who in every +imaginable way claimed her assistance became one of the added labors of +her life. She visited wretched garrets or cellars, and saw miserable +families,--discovering often, too late, that both garret and family had +been hired for the occasion. It was now that she first saw the real +plagues and ulcers of society. Her convent had not shown her these, nor +her life amid the peasantry of Berry. Only great cities produce those +unhealthy and unnatural human growths whose monstrosities are their +stock in trade, whose power of life lies in their depravation. She tells +us that these horrors weighed upon her, and caused her to try various +solutions of the ills that are, and are permitted to be. She was never +tempted to become an atheist, never lost sight of the Divine in life, +yet the necessity of a terrible fatalism seemed to envelop her. With her +numerous friends, she sought escape from the dilemma through various +theories of social development; and they often sat or walked half +through the night, discussing the fortunes of the race, and the +intentions of God. With her most intimate set, this sometimes led to a +jest, and "It is time to settle the social question" became the formula +of announcing dinner. These considerations led the way to her adoption +of socialistic theories in later years, of which she herself informs +us, but hints at the same time at many important reservations in her +acceptance of them. + +In process of time she visited Italy with Alfred de Musset. The fever +seized on her at Genoa, and she saw the wonders of the fair land through +half-shut eyes, alternately shivering and burning. In the languor of +disease, she allowed the tossing of a coin to decide whether she should +visit Rome or Venice. Venice came uppermost ten times, and she chose to +consider it an affair of destiny. Her long stay in this city suggested +the themes of several of her romances, and the "Lettres d'un Voyageur" +might almost be pages from her own journal. Her companion was here +seized with a terrible illness. She nursed him day and night through all +its length, being so greatly fatigued at the time of his recovery that +she saw every object double, through want of sleep. Yet De Musset went +forth from his sick-room with a heart changed towards her. Hatred +had taken the place of love. Some say that this cruel change was the +punishment of as cruel a deception; others call it a mania of the fever, +perpetuating itself thenceforth in a brain sound as to all else. The +world does not know about this, and she herself tells us nothing. In +the "Lettres d'un Voyageur," however, she gives us to understand that +constancy is not her _forte_, and a sigh escapes with this confession, +"_Prie pour moi, ô Marguerite Le Conte!_" + +George Sand was now launched,--with brilliant success, in the world of +letters, unheeding the conventional restraints of domestic life. The +choicest spirits of the day gathered round her. She was the luminous +centre of a circle of light. She did not hold a _salon_, the mimic court +of every Frenchwoman of distinction,--nor were the worldly wits of +fashion her vain and supercilious satellites. But De Lamennais climbed +to her _mansarde_, and unfolded therein his theories of saintly and +visionary philosophy. Liszt and Chopin bound her in the enchantment +of their wonderful melodies. De Balzac feasted her in his fantastic +lodgings, and lighted her across the square with a silver-gilt flambeau, +himself attired in a flounced satin dressing-gown, of which he was +extremely proud. Pierre Leroux instructed her in the old and the new +religions, and taught her the history of secret societies. Louis Blanc, +Cavaignac, and Pauline Garcia were bound to her by ties of intimacy. +She knew Lablache, Quinet, Miekiewiez, whom she calls the equal of Lord +Byron. Her intimates in her own province were men of high character and +intelligence, nor were friends wanting among her own sex. Good-will +and sympathy, therefore, not ill-will and antipathy, inspired her best +works. Her views of parties were charitable and conciliatory, and her +revolutionism more reconstructive than destructive. Yet, with all this +array of good company, we cannot accord her a miraculous immunity from +the fatalities of her situation. Of the guilt we are not here called +upon to judge; of the suffering many pages in this record of her +life bear witness. Little as we know, however, of her own power of +self-protection against the tyranny of the selfish and the sensual, we +yet feel as if the really base could never have held her in other than +the briefest thraldom, and as if her nobler nature must have continually +asserted and reasserted itself, with a constant tendency towards that +higher liberty which she had sought in the abandonment of outward +restraints, but which can never be thus attained. Some great moral +safeguards she had in her tireless industry, her love of art, her +honesty and geniality of nature, and, above all, in her passionate love +for her children. Happily, these deep and solid forces of Nature are +calculated to outlast the heyday of the blood, and to redeem its errors. + +In connection with her domestic life, she gives some explanations which +must not be overlooked. She did not at first quit her husband's roof +with an intention of permanent absence, but with the intention of a +periodical return thither. In time, however, her presence there became +unwelcome, and she found those arrangements of which, as she says, she +had no right to complain, but which she could not recognize. Friends +intervened, advising an effectual reintegration of the broken marriage; +but against this, she says, her conscience, no less than her heart, +rebelled. There existed, indeed, no virtual bond between herself and +her late husband. Whatever may have been the beginning of their +estrangement, it seems certain that he acquiesced in her independence +with easy satisfaction. He wrote to her,--"I shall not put up at your +lodgings when I come to Paris, because I wish as little to be in your +way as I wish to have you in mine." At the same time, by visiting +her there, and appearing with her in public, he had given a certain +recognition to her position. There was, therefore, no room for penitence +on the one side, for forgiveness on the other, and, through these, for +a renewable moral relation between the two. The law took cognizance of +these facts, when, some years later, M. Dudevant brought an action +for civil divorce, wishing to recover possession of his children. His +complicity in what had taken place, and the amicable nature of the +separation, were so fully established, that the court, recognizing in +the parties neither husband nor wife, followed the pleadings of Nature, +and bestowed the children where, in the present instance, they were +likely to find the warmest cherishing. Under this decision, she gave +up the estate of Nohant to M. Dudevant, who, becoming weary of its +management, returned it to her, by a later compromise, in exchange for +other property, and the home of her childhood now shelters her declining +years. + +For the history draws near its close; more travels, more novels, more +successes, more sorrows, much fond talk of her friends, many of whom +death has endeared to her, a shadowy sketch of her seven years' intimacy +with Chopin, a sob over the untimely grave of her married daughter, and +the wonderful book is ended. Surely, it tells its own moral; and we, +who have woven into short measure the tissue of its relations, need not +appear either as the apologist of a very exceptional woman, or as the +vindicator of laws inevitable and universal, the mischief of whose +violation no human knowledge can justly fathom. The world knows that the +life before us is no example for women to follow; but it also knows, +we think, that she who led it was on the whole an earnest and sincere +person, of ardent imagination and large heart, loving the good as well +as the beautiful, even if often mistaken in both,--and above all, honest +in her errors and their acknowledgment. Gross injustice has, no doubt, +been done her. The creations of her powerful fancy have been taken for +images of herself, and the popular mind, delighting to elevate all +things beyond the bounds of Nature, has made her a monster. It is clear, +we think, that those who have represented her as plunged headlong in a +career of vice and dissipation, the companion of all that is low and +trivial, have slandered alike her acts and her intentions. Like the +rest of us, she is the child of her antecedents and surroundings. Her +education was as exceptional as her character. Her marriage brought no +moral influence to bear upon her. Her separation opened before her a new +and strange way, never to be trodden by any with impunity. Yet we do not +believe, that, in the most undesirable circumstances of her life, she +ever long lost sight of its ideal object. We do not doubt that her zeal +for human progress, her sympathy for the wrongs of the race, and her +distrust of existing institutions were deep and sincere. We do not doubt +that she was devoted in friendship, disinterested in love, ardent in +philanthropy. She has seen the poverty and insincerity of society; she +has quarrelled with what she calls the shams of sacred things, the +merely conventional marriage, the God of bigotry and hypocrisy, the +government of oppression and fraud; but she ends by recognizing and +demanding the marriage of heart, the God of enlightened faith, the +government of order and progress. Responding to the dominant chord +of the nineteenth century, she strove to exalt individuality above +sociality, and passion above decorum and usage. Nor would she allow any +World's Congress of morals to settle the delicate limits between these +opposing vital forces, between what we owe to ourselves and what we owe +to others. If there be a divine of passion for which it is noble to +suffer and sacrifice, there is also a deeper divine of duty, far +transcending the other both in sacrifice and in reward. To this divine, +too often obscured to all of us, her later life increasingly renders +homage; and to its gentle redemption, our loving, pitying hearts--the +more loving, the more pitying for her story--are glad to leave her. + +Ave, thou long laborious! Ave, thou worker of wonders, thou embalmer of +things most fleeting, most precious, so sealed in thy amber, + + "That Nature yet remembers + What was so fugitive!" + +Thou hast wrought many a picture of wild and guilty passion,--yet +methinks thou didst always paint the mean as mean, the generous as +generous. Nobler stories, too, thou hast told, and thy Consuelo is as +pure as holy charity and lofty art could make her. They complain, that, +in the world of thy creations, women are sublime and men weak; may not +these things, then, be seen and judged for once through woman's eyes? +Much harm hast thou done? Nay, that can only God know. They misquote +thee, who veil a life of low intrigue with high-flown _dicta_ borrowed +from thy works. Thou art not of their sort,--or, if it be indeed _thee_ +they seek to imitate, + + "Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile." + +Thy faults have attracted them, not the virtues that redeem them. Shake +thyself free of such, and with those who have loved much, and to whom +much has been forgiven, go in peace! The shades of the Poets will greet +thee as they greeted Dante and Virgil, when, thyself a shade, thou goest +towards them. The heart that fainted at Francesca's sorrows will not +refuse a throb to thine. For there is a gallery of great women, great +with and without sin, where thou must sit, between Sappho and Cleopatra, +the Magdalen thy neighbor,--nor yet removed wholly out of sight the +Mother of the Great Forgiveness of God. + + * * * * * + + +HAIR-CHAINS. + + +It was really a magnificent ball! The host had determined that his +entertainment should minister to all the senses of his guests, and had +succeeded so well that there was only room to regret there were but five +senses to be gratified. Only five gates in the fortified wall within +which the shy soul intrenches itself, where an attack may be made. And +even when these are all carried by storm, there are sometimes inner +citadels, impregnable to the magic torrent streaming through the +Beautiful Gates, where she may survey intruders with calm disdain. In +vain floods of delicious intoxication beat against her lofty retreat: +she calmly analyzes the sweet poison, (as she thinks it,) separates and +retains the solid fact whose solution had enriched the otherwise barren +stream, and indifferently suffers the rest to flow by. These are the +souls of philosophers and wise men, who never are drowned, never +surprised. But the bountiful host had not cared only for these grand +super-sensual people, but had striven perfectly to satisfy the eyes, the +ears, the noses, the palates of the more numerous throng of weaker folk, +whose inner fortifications were not so well defended. Hundreds of wax +candles illuminated the far-reaching saloons with soft lustre. The walls +were tinted with the most delicate hues, that afforded a pleasant cool +background to the blazing rooms, and relieved the rich colors of the +pictures. In all the pictures adorning the walls, the eye revelled in +the luxurious coloring, careless of the absence of distinctness of form +and grand pure outline. Scenes in the dark heart of tropical forests, +the dense green foliage here and there startlingly relieved by a bright +scarlet flower or the brilliant plumage of a songless bird,--gorgeous +sunsets on American prairies, where the rolling purple ground contrasted +with the crimson and golden glories of eventide,--vivid sketches along +the Mediterranean, the blue sea embracing the twin sky,--vineyards +ripening under the mellow Italian sun,--fields of yellow wheat bending +to the sickles of English reapers,--and sometimes, half hidden by the +folds of a heavy crimson curtain, one was startled to discover the +solemn icebergs and everlasting snows of the Arctic regions. The +wood-work of all the rooms was of dark oak, so that each appeared with +its brilliantly dressed company to be a flashing gem set in a rich +casket. A shadow of music wandered through the air, sometimes blended +with the sound of the falling fountain in the green-house, sometimes +almost absorbed in the fragrance of the flowers. + +For two hours the carriages had been steadily streaming under the +archway, and pouring their fair occupants, gauzy as summer, into the +blazing saloons. The flashing candelabra drew the poor little moths from +the outermost corners into the central vortex of light. Dazzled by the +hot radiance, they strove to retreat again into the cool conservatories +and side-rooms; but at that moment threads of music that had been +carelessly winding through the crowd were caught up by an unseen hand +and knotted,--and behold! already the moths found themselves imprisoned +in a strong net-work of sound, whose intricate meshes entangled the +rooms and the company, and the very light itself. The light, however, +was too subtile for long confinement; it slipped along the melodious +mazes, and melted into the rich odor that exhaled from the roses and +jessamines in the conservatory. The light was a welcome visitor to the +hyacinths and roses, obliged to hide in torturing silence in the still +green-house, pouring out their passionate dumb life in intensity of +fragrance. A life just hovering on the borders of the world, and yet +forbidden to enter! But, bathed in the glowing effulgence of the light, +this invisible fragrance could be born, and enter the visible world as +color. For the fragrance is the unborn soul of the flower; color, that +soul arrested in its restless wanderings,--_embodied_ fragrance. Then +the colors upon the purple hyacinths and white jessamines, and the +flashing gems that rested on white bosoms like glittering drops of ice +upon a snow-wreath, and the sheen of rustling silks, and the gilded +picture-frames, and the florid carpets, and the twinkling feet on the +carpets' roses, and the flushing of roses in the dancers' cheeks, and +the radiant heads of the white-robed girls, ran into one another, +blending into an intensity of color that dimmed itself. And the music +still kept spinning and spinning, and finally wove in the color and +fragrance and light with its subtile self; and the background of the +woof was the hum and murmur of voices, and the continual rustling of +feet. No wonder the poor moths were ensnared in such bewilderment! + +Do you pity the captives? But it is a delicious imprisonment, and its +fullest delights cannot be realized except by prisoners. In the vast +halls of Intellect and Reason one may indeed be master, marching (a +little chilled perhaps) with firm step and head erect. But on these +enchanted grounds there is no medium between a wretched clearness of +insight that reduces every curve to a number of straight lines, all +clouds to precipitated vapor, all rainbows to an oblique coincidence +between a sunbeam and a drop of water, and a total surrender of self to +the influences of the flitting moment. + +Away with these fellows, who would force their miserable microscopes +before the eyes of these happy gauzy moths!--to-night is only the time +for spinning cobwebs. Hold your breath, philosopher, lest you sweep them +away too rudely! Alas for the airy cobwebs! In that cool anteroom is a +philosopher's broom, hard at work, brushing them remorselessly into a +perplexing dilemma,--the frightful increase of the human race. + +"If," said the philosopher, emphatically, "if there were any prospect +of emigrating to the moon, there would be some hope; but in the present +state of affairs we shall soon be eating our own heads off, as the +proverb says. Europe is almost exhausted, the _ultima Thule_ of arable +territory in America has been reached, Asia barely supports her own +immense population; nothing is left but Africa, and she presents a +merely hopeful prospect for the future. In a hundred years, what will +society do for breadstuffs?" + +"Live on rice and potatoes," suggested Anthrops. + +"Rash boy, and check the advance of civilization! Have you not reflected +that the culture of wheat has been an inseparable adjunct to progress +and refinement? The difficulties required to be overcome in preparing +the ground and sowing the grain promote prudence, foresight, and care." + +"It is certainly hard work enough to dig potatoes," quoth Anthrops. + +The philosopher passed over the interruption with a dignified wave of +the hand, and continued:-- + +"The watching and waiting, during its progress to maturity, necessarily +produce that patience which is so essential to all scientific effort; +and the graceful loveliness of the plant in its various stages of growth +materially assists in developing that love for the beautiful which is a +necessary element in all harmonious individual or social character. Now +what aesthetic culture can you evolve from that stubbed, straggling weed +you call the potato?" + +The discomfited pupil meekly suggested that he had been considering the +dietetic, not the aesthetic properties of the despised vegetable. + +"Impossible to separate them, Sir!" cried the philosopher. "If, indeed, +you could fill the stomach without the intervention of any process of +brain or hand, they might be considered apart. But consider the position +of the stomach. Like a Persian monarch, it occupies the centre of the +system; despotic from its remote situation and the absolute power it +exercises, all parts of the external organism are its ministers: the +feet must run for its daily food, the hands must prepare that food with +cunning devices, the brain must direct the operations of feet and hands. +Now, unlearned youth, wilt thou contend that the degree of refinement +evinced by attention or indifference to the niceties of cooking, and so +forth, has no bearing upon the character of the man and the race? Take +as a standard the method of immediately conveying the food to the mouth, +as it has progressed from barbarism. First, fingers; then, pieces of +bark; then, rough wooden spoons, knives, two-pronged steel forks; +and lastly, an epitome of civilization in each one that is used, +five-pronged silver forks, evincing both the increased complexity of the +nature that devises the extra prongs, and the refinement of taste that +insists upon the silver. It is impossible to use wheat in any of its +preparations," ("With five-pronged forks," murmured his attentive pupil +parenthetically,) "without at least a piece of bark, for mixing and +cooking, if not for eating. But in devouring potatoes, we are--I shudder +to think of it--each moment upon the brink of being reduced to the +absolute savageness of fingers. No, Sir! the moon and wheat both failing +us, there is but one method of escaping universal famine,--peremptory +reduction of the population." + +Anthrops started; in that country murder was a capital offence. + +"I do not mean," continued the philosopher, serenely, "by any forcible +diminution of the existing populace: unfortunately, the vulgar +prejudices in favor of life are so strong, owing to the miserable +preponderance of the Egoistic over the Altruistic instincts, that such +an expedient would be unadvisable. I refer to the"-- + +"What splendid hair!" suddenly exclaimed his young companion, starting +forward with great animation to gain a nearer glimpse of its beauties. +The owner had stopped for a moment in passing the secluded couple, +and the rich chestnut head was presented in clear relief against the +confused mass of color and light that streamed through the doorway of +the saloon. The billows of hair rose from purple depths of shadow into +gleaming crests of golden light, and fell away again in long undulations +into the whirlpool of the knot. + +While Anthrops was feasting his rapt eyes on the lovely picture, some +treacherous fastening gave way, and the whole wavy mass overflowed upon +the white shoulders. Then there was bustling and officious assistance, +then there was flitting of maidens and crowding of men. They did not +care that the hair of the Naiads in the waterfall outside of the city +floated all day long over the glittering green waters, or that the +soughing grass in the marsh stream lazily swayed to and fro always in +sleepy ripples, or that the waving tresses of the weeping-willows were +even then sweeping dreamily through the colored air: they cared for none +of these things; but how eager and anxious were they to gain one glimpse +of her,--fairer in her blushing confusion than before in her stately +loveliness! She wound up the long tresses in her hand, and was +retreating to the dressing-room, when the music, which had paused for a +moment, renewed itself in an inspiriting waltz. Anthrops, forgetful of +wheat, potatoes, and universal famine, rushed forward to claim her hand +for the dance. The lady sighed, the waltz was so lovely, the young +man so attractive, but--her hair? She really must arrange that before +anything could be determined in any other direction. And she started +backwards in her embarrassment to reach the stairs, and slipped into a +little anteroom by mistake. There was but one door; so, when Anthrops +followed her in, she could not get out, without at least hearing an +additional reason for dancing. + +"The waltz will be finished," urged Anthrops. "Take this little dagger, +and wind your hair around that; it will be a fitting ornament for you." + +As he spoke, he drew from his pocket a small dagger, a toy, but richly +carved at the hilt, and offered it to the maiden. He had bought it that +day for a little nephew, and had happened to leave it in his pocket. +Doubtless, had the waltz been less enticing, or the youth less handsome, +or the little anteroom less secluded, Haguna would have rejected the odd +assistance. But, as it was, she accepted the jewelled toy, and in a few +minutes had dexterously hidden the tiny blade with the thick coils of +hair, just leaving the curiously carved face on the hilt to emerge from +its shadowy nestling-place. + +With the readjustment of her tresses, Haguna recovered the marvellously +defensive self-possession that had been momentarily disturbed. So +subtile and indefinable was the curious atmosphere that surrounded her, +that, while it could be almost destroyed by the consciousness of a +disordered toilet, yet the keenest eye could not penetrate beneath it, +the most confident demeanor could not impress it, once reestablished. + +Anthrops did not notice the change that had taken place in her aspect. +Was it not enjoyment enough to whirl through the maddening mazes of the +dance, into still deeper entanglements in the mysterious web that now +had immeshed the saloons, borne irresistibly along the rapid torrent of +music, through crowds swept in eddying circles by fresh gusts of sound, +like leaves blown about by the west wind,--at first in low, wide, slow +rounds, then whirling faster and faster, higher and higher, until the +spiral coil suddenly terminated, and the music and motion fell exhausted +together? + +It was quite another thing to return to his friend the philosopher, who +was now in a very bad humor. + +"Such fooling!" he cried, when Anthrops came back much exhilarated. +"That woman is the plague of my life! See," he continued, sarcastically, +"I picked up one of the ugly little pins that she fastens her hair with; +perhaps you might like it for a keepsake." + +Anthrops snatched eagerly at the little black thing his old friend held +contemptuously balanced on his fingers, but dropped it immediately. Such +a miserable thing to hold those glorious tresses! His dagger was better. +The recollection that it was his dagger that now confined them dispelled +the chill which the irate philosopher had thrown over his glowing +excitement; he submissively proposed a return to potatoes, piling up +famine and wheat over the one little thought that diffused such a +delicious warmth through his breast; as charcoal-burners heap dead ashes +over their fire, to hide it from the rough intrusion of chilling winds. + +The nest day Haguna sent back the dagger, with a little note, thanking +the owner in graceful terms. + +"Your graceful politeness last evening, Herr Anthrops, saved me much +perplexity, and procured me a delightful waltz. One should indeed be +well protected by fortune, to find so readily such a courteous little +sword," ("She does not know the difference between a sword and a +dagger," thought Anthrops, and he was pleased at her ignorance,) "to +supply one's awkward deficiencies." (Anthrops slightly winced as he +thought of the little black pins.) "The old man on the hilt is really +charming. I actually was obliged to kiss him at parting, he looked so +kindly and pleasantly at me. Besides, he was my true benefactor; and +my grandmother has often told me, that in her day maidens were very +properly more expressive in their gratitude than now." (Anthrops +fervently longed for a retrogression in the calendar.) "And I really +think my old friend must have been alive then, and have been changed +into wood, on purpose to preserve his looks till I could see him. It +would be a right pleasant destiny, when one begins to grow old and ugly, +to be transformed into wood, and carved as one would wish to appear +perpetually. And happier fate still, like Philemon and Baucis, to change +into living trees, and flourish for hundreds of years in youth and +vigor. There are willow-trees growing on the banks of the river that may +easily have been girls who wept themselves into trees, because their +hair would soon be gray, and they have exchanged it for tresses of +green. Near those willow-trees the princely stranger who has lately +occupied the castle will next week give a boating _fête_, to which I +am invited; I suppose you also, courteous Sir, will be present, a +knight-errant for distressed damsels? + +"HAGUNA." + +Anthrops kissed the little old man on the dagger's hilt again and again, +and made two equally firm, but entirely disconnected resolutions, +simultaneously: namely, never to give his nephew the intended present, +and by all means to be at the boat-_fête_ the following week. + +The day of the _fête_ arrived,--a clear, lovely day in early June. The +host had provided for the accommodation of his guests a number of boats +of different sizes, holding two, three, or a dozen people, according to +the fancy of the voyagers. Anthrops, descending the flight of steps that +led to the river, came unexpectedly upon his old friend the philosopher, +apparently emerging from the side of the hill. + +"I expected you here," said he; "are you going on the river?" + +Anthrops replied in the affirmative. + +"Haguna is here, and I have come to exact a promise that you will not +sail with her. You will repent it, if you do." + +"Better than starvation is a feast and repentance," cried the young man, +gayly. "What harm is there in the girl? Though, to be sure, I had no +particular intention of sailing with her." + +"It would be of no use to warn you explicitly," said his friend; "you +would not believe me. But you must not go." + +"Nay, good father," returned the youth, a little vexed,--"it is +altogether too unreasonable to expect me to obey like a child; give me +one good reason why I should avoid her as if she had the plague, and I +promise to be guided by you." + +"All women have some plague-spot," said the philosopher, sententiously. + +"Well, then, I may as well be infected by her as by any one," cried +Anthrops, lightly, and was rushing down the steps again, when the +philosopher caught him by the arm. + +"Follow me," he said; "you will not believe, but still you may see." + +He led the way down to the river, and, the youth still following, +entered one of the gayly trimmed row-boats and pushed from shore. The +boat seemed possessed by the will of its master, and, needing no other +guide or impetus, floated swiftly into the centre of the channel. +Obeying the same invisible helmsman, it there paused and rocked gently +backwards and forwards as over an unseen anchor. The philosopher drew +from his pocket a small cup and dipped up a little water. He then +handed it to the youth, and bade him look at it through a strong +magnifying-glass, which he also gave him. Anthrops was surprised to find +a white dust in the bottom of the cup. + +"Ah!" said his companion, answering his look of inquiry, "it is +bone-dust; and now you may see where it comes from." + +Anthrops looked through the magnifying-glass, as he was directed, at the +river itself, and found he could clearly see the sand at the bottom. +He was horrified at seeing the yellow surface strewn with human bones, +bleached by long exposure to the running water. + +"Alas!" he exclaimed, sorrowfully, "have so many noble youths perished +in these treacherous waters? That golden sand might be ruddy with the +blood of its numerous victims!" + +"Don't be blaming the innocent waters, simple boy!" half sneered +the philosopher. "Lay the blame where it is due, upon the artful +river-nixes. Since the creation of the world, the stream has flowed +tranquilly between these banks; and during that time do you not suppose +that these fair alluring sprites have had opportunity to entice such +silly boys as you into the cool green water there below?" + +Anthrops gazed long into the still, cruel depths of the river, held +spell-bound by a horrible fascination; at last he raised his head, and, +drawing a long sigh of relief, exclaimed,-- + +"Thank fortune, Haguna is no water-nix!" + +"What!" cried the angry philosopher, "your mind still running upon that +silly witch? Can you learn no wisdom from the fate of other generations +of fools, but must yourself add another to the catalogue? She is more +dangerous than the nixes: the snares which they laid for their victims +were cobwebs, compared to the one she is weaving for you. You admire her +hair, forsooth! The silk of the Indian corn is a fairer color, spiders' +webs are finer, and the back of the earth-mole is softer; yet in your +eyes nothing will compare with it." + +"The silk of the Indian corn is golden, but coarse and rough; the +threads of the spider's web are fine, but dull and gray; the satin hair +of the blind mole is lifeless and stiff. Let me go, old man! I care +nothing for your fancied dangers. I shall row her to-day; that is +pleasure enough." And he attempted to seize the unused oar. + +"Once more, pause! Reflect upon what you are leaving: the pleasures of +tranquil meditation, the keen excitements of science, the entrancing +delights of philosophy. All these you must abandon, if you leave me +now." + +Anthrops hesitated a moment. + +"How so?" he asked. + +"He who is devoted to philosophy must share his soul with no other +mistress. No restlessness, no longing after an unseen face, no feverish +anxiety for the love or approval of an earthly maiden must disturb the +balanced calm of his absorbed mind"-- + +"Herr Anthrops, Herr Anthrops, how you have forgotten your engagement!" + +She was in a boat that had pushed up close to them unawares. Some girls +and young men occupied the bows. Haguna was leaning over the stern and +waving her hand to Anthrops. So suddenly had she appeared, that it was +as if she had risen out of the rippling river, and the ripples still +seemed to undulate on her sunny hair and laughing dimpled face: so fresh +and bright and fair she seemed in that glad June morning. What did it +matter whether he reasoned rightly on any subject? + +"Let me go!" he exclaimed to his companion. "Farewell, philosophy! +farewell, science! I have chosen." + +To his surprise, he discovered that he was suddenly quite alone in the +boat. The philosopher had disappeared,--whether by waxen wings, or an +invisible cap, or any of the other numerous contrivances of many-wiled +philosophers, he did not stop to consider, but hastened to join Haguna +and her companions. + +"You are a welcome addition to our company," said Haguna, graciously +reaching out her white hand; "but you choose strange companions. An old +gray owl flew out of your boat a moment ago, scared to find himself +abroad in such a pleasant sunlight. I confess I don't altogether +admire your taste, not being an orni"-- + +She appealed in pretty perplexity to the student to help her out of the +difficulty into which she had fallen by her rash attempt at large words. + +--"Thologist," added Anthrops, much wondering at these new tricks of +the philosopher,--and then again he so much the more applauded his own +wisdom in exchanging for her society the company of an old owl. + +So all the day long he stayed by her, all the day long he followed her, +rowing or walking or dancing, or sitting by her under the willows on the +banks of the river. The soft breeze routed her shining hair from its +compact masses; it touched his cheek as he knelt beside her to pull +up the tough-rooted columbine that resisted her fingers; her fragrant +breath mingled with the odor of the sweet-scented violets that he +plucked for her; the trailing tresses of the mournful willow, swaying in +the breeze, brushed them both; the murmuring water at their feet heard a +new tale as it flowed past her, and babbled it to him, adding delicious +nonsense of its own, endless variations upon the same sweet theme. How +happy he was that day! It came to an end, of course; but its death +scattered the seeds of other days, that sprang up in gracious profusion, +yielding dear delights of flower and fruit. All over his garden these +bright plants grew, gradually triumphing over and expelling the coarser +and ruder vegetables. + +Nothing but flowers would he cultivate now,--and cared not even that +they should be perennials, if only the present blooming were gay and +gladsome. + +One June day, Anthrops joined a pleasure-seeking equestrian party, who +rode from the town to spend the day in the woods. What a lovely day it +was! The pure, fresh air seemed to contain the very essence of the life +it inspired, life drained of all impurity and sadness and foulness +by the early summer rains, the springing joyous life of the delicate +wood-flowers. The strong trees in the leafy woods trembled with +happiness in their boughs and tender sprays; the carolling birds poured +forth their brimming songs from full hearts. And upon the interlacing +greenery of the shrubbery, and the lichens upon the trees, and the soft +moss covering with jealous tenderness the bare places in the ground, +the slant sunbeams glittered in the early morning dew. As Anthrops rode +along silently by the side of Haguna, an inexpressible joyfulness filled +his heart; the light, round, white clouds nestling in the deep bosom of +the sky, the faint, delicious odor of the woods, the rustling, murmuring +presence that forever dwelt there, all made him unspeakably glad and +light-hearted. As he rode, he began to sing a little song that he had +learned awhile before. + + We rushed from the mountain, + The streamlet and I, + Restless, unquiet, + We scarcely knew why,-- + Till we met a dear maiden, + Whose beauty divine + Stilled with great quiet + This wild heart of mine; + And awed and astonished + To peacefulness sweet, + The fierce mountain-torrent + Lay still at her feet." + +"A right rare power for beauty to possess!" laughed Haguna. "Are you so +restless that you need this soothing, fair Sir?" + +A deep, sweet smile gushed out from his eyes and illumined his face. +He stretched out his arms lovingly into the warm air, as if he thus +infolded some rich joy, and answered, musingly,-- + +"In ordinary action, thought, and feeling,--we are too conscious of +ourselves, we are perplexed with the miserable little 'I,' that, by +claiming deed and thought for its own work, makes it little and mean. +But the wondrous Beautiful comes to us entirely from outside; our very +contemplation of it does not belong to us; we are overpowered +and conquered by the vast idea that broods over us. And so that +contemplation is pure happiness." + +Haguna laughed a little, and a little wondered what he meant; then +observed, lightly,-- + +"You must value yourself very modestly, to consider your greatest +happiness to consist in losing your self-consciousness,--unless, +indeed, like Polycrates, you hope to insure future prosperity by +sacrificing your most valuable possession." + +"If so, I, like Polycrates, am the gainer by my own precaution; for, in +your presence, dear lady, do I first truly find my right consciousness." + +She clapped her hands gleefully, wilfully misunderstanding his meaning. + +"Most complimentary of monarchs! So I am the haggard old fisherman who +replaced the lost bawble in the royal treasury! Pray, Sire, remember the +pension with which I should be rewarded!" And she bowed low, in mock +courtesy to her companion. + +"Nay," rejoined Anthrops, vexed that his earnest compliment should be so +mishandled,--"blame your own perversity for such an interpretation. At +your side I forget that I live for any other purpose than to look at +you, and lavish my whole soul in an intensity of gazing; and then the +presumptuous thought, that you like to have me near you, nay, are +sometimes even pleased to talk to me, gives my poor self a value in my +own eyes, for the kindness you show me." + +"I know all that well enough," said Haguna, quietly. "But in the mean +while, dear Anthrops, you must remember that it is really impolite to +stare so much." + +By this time they had ridden deep into the still woods. Following the +light current of their talking, they wound in and out among the green +trees, under their broad arching boughs,--now following the path, now +beating a new track over the short grass mixed with the crisp gray moss. +The sunlight glanced shyly through the fluttering leaves, weaving with +their delicate shadows a rare tracery on the grass. The pattern was so +intricate and yet so suggestive, they were sure that some strange legend +was written there in mysterious characters,--something holding a fateful +reason for their ride together in the green woods. But just as they had +almost deciphered the secret, the broidered shadow disappeared under a +bush, leaving them in new perplexity. They looked for the story in the +windings of the checkerberry-vine and blue-eyed periwinkle, on the +lichens curiously growing on the boles of aged trees; but for all these +they had no dictionary. So they strayed on and on, in the endless +mazes of the forest, till they became entirely separated from their +companions, and lost all clue for recovering the path. + +Anthrops looked in some perplexity at Haguna, to see if she were alarmed +at this position of affairs. He was rather surprised to find, that, far +from being discouraged, she seemed highly to enjoy the dilemma. She +leaned forward a little on her horse, her one gloved hand, dropping the +reins on his neck, nestled carelessly in his mane, while the forefinger +of the other hand rested on her lip, with a comical expression of mock +anxiety, as she looked inquiringly at Anthrops. + +"I think," finally exclaimed Anthrops, "that we had better push straight +through the woods. We cannot go far without discovering some road that +will lead us back to the city." + +"Nobly resolved, courageous Sir! But first tell me how we shall pass +this first barrier that besets our onward march." + +And she pointed the end of the riding-whip that hung at her wrist to a +mass of brambles which formed an impenetrable wall immediately in their +path. Anthrops rubbed his eyes, for he could scarce believe that this +thicket had been there before; it seemed to have grown up suddenly while +he turned his head. He then tried to retrace his steps, but was thrown +into fresh perplexity by discovering that the trees seemed to have +closed in around them, so that he could find no opening for a horse. + +"It seems evident to me," said Haguna, "that we must dismount, and find +our way on foot. If now we could have deciphered the hieroglyphs of the +shadows, we might have avoided this misfortune." + +As cool water upon the brow of a fevered man, fell the clear tones +of her voice upon Anthrops, bewildered and confused by the sudden +enchantment. She, indeed, called it a misfortune, but so cheerily and +gayly that her voice belied the term; and Anthrops insensibly plucked up +heart, and shook off somewhat of that paralyzing astonishment. + +He assisted her to dismount, and, leaving the horses to their fate, +they together hunted for some opening in the dense thicket. After much +search, Anthrops succeeded in discovering a small gap in the brambles, +through which he and Haguna crept, but only into fresh perplexity. They +gained a path, but with it no prospect of rejoining their companions; +for it wound an intricate course between ramparts of vine-covered +shrubbery, that shut it in on either side and intercepted all extended +view. The way was too narrow to admit of more than one person passing at +a time; and as Haguna happened to have emerged first from the thicket, +she boldly took the lead, following the path until they emerged into a +more open part of the forest, where the undulating ground was entirely +free from underbrush, and the eye roamed at pleasure through the wide +glades. Haguna followed some unseen waymarks with sure step, still +tacitly compelling Anthrops to follow her without inquiry. As she sped +lightly over the turf, she began to hum a little song:-- + + "Nodding flowers, and tender grass, + Bend and let the lady pass! + Lighter than the south-wind straying, + In the spring, o'er leaves decaying, + Seeking for his ardent kisses + One small flower that he misses, + Will I press your snowy bosoms, + Dainty, darling little blossoms!" + +Singing thus, she descended a little hill, and, gliding round its base, +disappeared under a thick grape-vine that swung across it from two lofty +elms on either side. A spider in conscious security had woven his web +across the archway formed by the drooping festoons of the vine; the +untrodden path was overgrown with moss. Haguna lifted up the vine +and passed under, beckoning Anthrops to follow. He heard her still +singing,-- + + "Quick unclasp your tendrils clinging, + Stealthily the trees enringing! + I have learnt your wily secret: + I will use it, I shall keep it! + Cunning spider, cease your spinning! + My web boasts the best beginning. + Yours is wan and pale and ashen: + After no such lifeless fashion + Mine is woven. Golden sunbeams + Prisoned in its meshes, light gleams + From its shadowest recesses. + Tell me, spider, made you ever + Web so strong no knife could sever + Woven of a maiden's tresses?" + +On the other side of the viny curtain, Anthrops discovered the entrance +to a large cavern hollowed out in a rock. The cavern was carpeted with +the softest moss of the most variegated shades, ranging from faintest +green to a rich golden brown. The rocky walls were of considerable +height, and curved gracefully around the ample space,--a woodland +apartment. But the most remarkable feature in the grotto was a +rose-colored cloud, that seemed to have been imprisoned in the farther +end, and, in its futile efforts to escape, shifted perpetually into +strange, fantastic figures. Now, the massive form of the Israelitish +giant appeared lying at the feet of the Philistine damsel; anon, the +kingly shoulders of the swift-footed Achilles towered helplessly above +the heads of the island girls. The noble head of Marcus Antoninus bowed +in disgraceful homage before his wife; the gaunt figure of the stern +Florentine trembled at the footsteps of the light Beatrice; the sister +of Honorius, from the throne of half the world, saluted the sister +of Theodosius, grasping the sceptre of the other half in her slender +fingers. Every instance of weak compliance with the whims, of devoted +subjection to the power, of destructive attention to the caprices of +women by men, since Eve ruined her lord with the fatal apple, was +whimsically represented by the rapid configurations of this strange +vapor. + +Anthrops presently discovered Haguna half reclining on a raised +moss-seat, and dreamily running her white fingers through her hair, +which now fell unchecked to her feet. He had lost sight of her but a +few minutes, yet in that short time a strange change had come over her. +Perhaps it was because her rippling hair, which, slightly stirred by the +faint air of the cavern, rose and fell around her in long undulations, +made her appear as if floating in a golden brown haze. Perhaps it was +the familiarity with which she had taken possession of the grotto, as if +it had been a palace that she had expected, prepared for her reception. +But for some reason she appeared a great way off,--no longer a simple +maiden, involved with him in a woodland adventure, but a subtle +enchantress, who, through all the seeming accidents of the day, had +been pursuing a deep-laid plot, and now was awaiting its triumphant +consummation. She did not at first notice Anthrops as he stood in +curious astonishment in the doorway; but presently, looking up, she +motioned him to another place beside herself. + +"This is a pleasant place to rest in for a while before we rejoin our +companions," she said; "we are fortunate in finding so pretty a spot." + +The natural tone of her frank, girlish voice somewhat dissipated +Anthrops's vague bewilderment, and he accepted the proffered seat at +her side. He for the first time looked attentively at Haguna, as he had +until now been gazing at the shifting diorama behind her. He noticed, to +his surprise, a number of bright shining points, somewhat like stars, +glistening in her hair, and with some hesitation inquired their +nature. Haguna laughed, a low musical laugh, yet with an indescribable +impersonality in it,--as if a spring brook had just then leaped over a +little hill, and were laughing mockingly to itself at its exploit. + +"They are souls," she said. + +"Dear me!" exclaimed Anthrops; "are souls no bigger than that?" + +"How do you know how large they are?" laughed Haguna, beginning to weave +her hair into a curiously intricate braid. "These are but the vital +germs of souls; but I hold them bound as surely by imprisoning these." + +"But surely every soul is not so weak; all cannot be so cruelly +imprisoned." + +Again she laughed, that strange laugh. + +"Strong and weak are merely relative terms. There is nothing you know +of so strong that it may not yield to a stronger, and anything can be +captured that is once well laid hold of. I will sing you a song by which +you may learn some of the ways in which other things beside souls are +caught." + +Still continuing her busy weaving, Haguna began to sing. Except the song +she had hummed in the woods that afternoon, he had never heard her voice +but in speaking, and was astonished at its richness and power; yet it +was a simple chant she sang, that seemed to follow the gliding motion of +her fingers. + + "Running waters swiftly flowing, + On the banks fair lilies growing + Watch the dancing sunbeams quiver, + Watch their faces in the river. + Round their long roots, in and out, + The supple river winds about,-- + Wily, oily, deep designing, + Their foundations undermining. + Fall the lilies in the river, + Smoothly glides the stream forever." + +The subtle song crept into Anthrops's brain, and seemed to spin a web +over it, which, though of lightest gossamer, confined him helplessly in +its meshes. Again she sang:-- + + "From the swamp the mist is creeping; + Fly the startled sunbeams weeping, + Up the mountain feebly flying, + Paling, waning, fainting, dying. + All their cheerful work undoing, + Crawls the cruel mist pursuing. + Shrouded in a purple dimness, + Quenched the sunlight is in shadow; + Over hill and wood and meadow + Broads the mist in sullen grimness." + +She had already woven a great deal of her shining hair into a curious +braid, so broad and intricate as to be almost a golden web. A strange +fascination held Anthrops spell-bound; it was as if her song were +weaving her web, and her fingers chanting her song, and as if both song +and web were made of the wavering cloud that still shifted into endless +dioramas. Once more she sang:-- + + "Drop by drop the charmed ear tingling, + Rills of music intermingling, + Murmuring in their mazy winding, + All the steeped senses blinding, + Their intricate courses wending, + Closer still the streams are blending. + Down the rapid channel rushing, + Floods of melody are gushing; + Flush the tender rills with gladness, + Drown the listener in sweet madness. + Onward sweeps the eddying singing, + Ever new enchantment bringing. + Break the bubbles on the river, + Faints the wearied sound in darkness; + But, as one that always hearkens, + Floats the charmed soul forever." + +As she finished the song, she arose, and threw over the youth the web +of her fatal hair. The charmed song had so incorporated itself with the +odorous air of the cavern, that every breath he drew seemed to be laden +with the subtle music. It oppressed, stifled him; he strove in vain to +escape its influence; and as he felt the soft hair brush his cheek, he +swooned upon the ground. + +The philosopher's study was a very different place from the green +wood,--perched up, as it was, on the summit of a bare, bleak mountain. +The room was fitted up with the frugality demanded by philosophic +indifference to luxury, and the abundance necessitated by a wide range +of study. The walls were hung with a number of pictures, in whose +subjects an observer might detect a remarkable similarity. A satirical +pencil had been engaged in depicting some of the most striking instances +of successful manly resistance to female tyranny, of manly contempt for +feminine weakness, of manly endurance of woman-inflicted injury. The +unfortunate Longinus turned with contemptuous pity from the trembling +Zenobia; the valiant Thomas Aquinas hurled his protesting firebrand +against the too charming interruption of his scholastic pursuits; the +redoubtable Conqueror beat his rebellious sweetheart into matrimony. +The flickering light of a wood fire served not merely to illuminate +the actual portraits, but almost to discover the sarcastic face of the +anonymous artist, smiling in triumph from the background. On the hearth +in front of the fire stood the philosopher in earnest conversation with +a venerable friend. + +"I am provoked beyond measure," exclaimed our friend, in an exceedingly +vexed tone. "So much as I had hoped from the boy,--that he, too, could +not keep from the silly snare! It is shameful, abominable;--she is +always in my way, upsetting all my plans, interfering with everything I +undertake. Would you believe it? at the death of one of her sisters, the +fools were not content with giving her a funeral good enough for a man, +but they must place her _hair_ in the sky for a constellation!" + +"That was indeed an insult to Orion," said his sympathizing friend, +soothingly. + +"My hands are absolutely tied," continued the irate philosopher. "I +bestow upon the boys the most careful education, enlarge their minds +by the study of the history and destiny of man, of the world, of the +stellar system, till I may hope that in the contemplation of the +vast universe they have lost their little prejudices and personal +preferences. I strengthen their judgment, assiduously exercise their +powers of ratiocination, fortify their minds with philosophy, train them +to habits of accuracy, patience, and perseverance by long scientific +research; and at the moment when I ought to find them useful as +philosophers, as seekers after eternal Truth, as lovers of imperishable +Wisdom, they degenerate into seekers after eyes and hair and cheeks, and +I know not what nonsense, lovers of frail, perishable women, who appear +to preserve an astonishing longevity on purpose to plague and thwart +rational people." + +His friend pondered deeply upon the vexatious problem. + +"You say," he remarked, "that this unfortunate attraction exists in +spite of philosophical training,--that it is exerted towards the +antipodes of their previous associations; that, as they have been +trained to yield only to well-grounded syllogisms, it is the illogical +mode of assault that vanquishes them unguarded; that their reasonable +minds have nothing to say to such, perfectly unreasonable fascinations; +that, in short, the enemy succeeds by supplying a vacuum, as the walls +of Visibis gave way under the pressure of the dammed-up river?" + +"Alas, friend, your observations are too true!" + +"Then my way becomes clearer. It surely cannot be unknown to you, sagest +of students, that in physical science we oppose a plenum to a vacuum, +in medicine we supply a deficiency of saline secretions by the common +expedient of salt. Wherefore not apply our knowledge painfully gleaned +from lower science to the study of these more complicated phenomena? The +coward who would flee the fire of the enemy may be kept at his post by +the equal dread of death from his commander. Open a double fire upon +these wayward youths. Make the Barbarians enlist in the Roman legions. +In short, teach Haguna and the others philosophy. There will then no +longer be an opposing force of entirely different nature, but merely an +influence of the same kind as he has been accustomed to, though vastly +inferior in power." + +The philosopher started,--the idea was so new to him. + +"But, my friend," he urged, doubtfully, "do you not remember, +that, after the Romans had painfully learnt ship-building from the +Carthaginians, they vanquished them with their own weapons? Might not +some such danger be apprehended in this case?" + +His companion reddened with indignation, then spoke in a tone of mildly +severe rebuke. + +"Are the girls Romans? Do you suppose that in ship-building the silly +little things would ever advance beyond scows? We shall have the double +advantage of the plenum, by their minds being turned in the same +direction as those of our students,--and of the defeat and shipwreck, +through fighting in unseaworthy vessels." + +"I have another idea also," observed the philosopher. "Even supposing, +as I must confess there seems to me a possibility, that in a +philosophical tournament, or trial of wits, they should occasionally +come off victorious," (his friend shook his head angrily,) "the effect +of separation that we desire would still be obtained. Haguna would no +longer be able to entangle silly boys in her treacherous hair. Your +suggestion is good; I will act upon it." + +After some deliberation, they agreed upon the method of procedure, which +the philosopher immediately began to put into practice. + +Shortly after this conversation, invitations were sent to a select +number of the inhabitants of the city to a new kind of entertainment to +be given by the recluse philosopher of the mountain. The entertainment +was to consist of astronomical and chemical exhibitions; the infinitely +great and infinitesimally little were to be conjoined to form an +evening's amusement. Such was the programme; and the eager curiosity +of the select few who were invited brought them punctually to the +philosopher's eyry. Haguna of course was there,--as unconsciously lovely +as if the disappearance of the unfortunate Anthrops were as much +a mystery to her as to the rest of the wondering citizens. The +philosopher, laying aside the brusqueness acquired in his solitude, +devoted himself with the utmost courtesy to the amusement of his guests, +--opened for them dusty cases of butterflies, shells, and rare stones, +which he had collected in his pursuit of the various sciences that +made them a specialty,--placed ponderous tomes open at some curious +or amusing story of otherwise forgotten ages, to arrest the fancy +of elegant literati,--exhibited rare and grotesque curiosities, the +glittering mica that he had picked up in his long researches, as toys +for these idlers of taste. + +The flashing gems and gay dresses of the brilliant assemblage +illuminated the dusky old study; the rustling of silks, and the merry +laughter, only a trifle subdued by the novelty of the circumstances, the +eager chattering, the tripping sound of girlish feet darting in and +out of every quaint nook and corner, the varied flow of sprightly +conversation, scared the solemn quiet of the library. Looming down +grimly from the shelves that lined the walls, stood ponderous volumes, +monuments over the graves in which their authors were buried. Oh, the +life's blood that had been wrung into those forgotten pages! Oh, the +eager hope and sickening disappointment, the vehement aspirations, +the intense longings, the bitter hatred, the scorn, the greater than +angelic, the human love and benevolence, the fortitude, the courage, the +whole strange life of hundreds of dead men, that burned between those +thick covers! Often books do not reveal their authors until many years +after their death. They are read at first for the mite of fuel that they +bring to some blazing controversy; the man is entirely forgotten in his +work. But when years, centuries, have passed away, and the fire that +threatened to consume the world has died out as quietly as any common +bonfire, then the "spirits of the mighty dead" come back calmly to their +world-work,--now doubtless seeing its little worth as clearly as their +modern critics, but also hallowing their mighty labors with regal +authority, as the living garment of a human soul. The marble tombs in +graveyards hold empty dust; the real men lie buried alive in quiet +libraries. + +The philosopher entertained his guests well. But underneath all the +polite suavity of his manner could be detected a curious satisfaction at +the contrast between the deep sea of still thought usually embosoming +his library, and this sparkling, shallow little stream now flowing into +it. The prominent popular tricks of science he played off for their +amusement, exhibited the standard stars, enlarged upon the most +wonder-striking and easily understood facts in the sublime science, and +bewildered them with a pleasant enthusiasm of acquisition, by a series +of brilliant chemical experiments. The labors of a lifetime were +concentrated on a few dazzling results: the long tedium of the +means, the painful training, the hard mathematical preparation, the +brain-sickness and heart-sickness of these years of solitude were +quietly ignored. + +But it was round Haguna that he plied the most subtle enchantments,--to +her he exhibited the most glittering decoys of Knowledge. She was +completely fascinated. Her cheeks grew pale, her large dark eyes deeper +and darker, with intense interest. She hung upon every word that fell +from the philosopher's lips, pored over the elegant trifles the scholar +had collected for the wondering ignorant, and stood abashed before the +studied unconsciousness of power,--the power of vast learning, that she +felt for the first time. When the guests were departing, she was still +reluctant to go,--she timidly followed the watchful philosopher to the +mighty telescope that had brought down stars for their playthings that +evening. + +"My ignorance and weakness overwhelm me," she exclaimed; "would that I +could spend my life in this awful library!" + +The philosopher repressed his exultation at this confession, and +replied,-- + +"Nothing is easier, Madam, than the gratification of your laudable +desire. I am in the habit of receiving pupils, and should be most happy +to admit you to my class." + +An eager light leaped into her lovely face as she earnestly thanked him +for his condescension, and engaged to begin the lessons on the very next +day. So, when the guests had all gone, and the scared quiet ventured to +brood again over its ancient nestling-place, the wily philosopher +threw himself back into his great chair, and laughed a long while with +solitary enjoyment. + +The next day Haguna wended her lonely way to the bleak hill. It was so +stony and bare and treeless,--jutting out against the gray cold sky +like a giant sentinel stripped naked, yet still with dogged obstinacy +clinging to his post. The hard path pushed up over jagged stones that +cut her tender feet, and they left bleeding waymarks on the difficult +ascent. Woe, woe to poor trembling Haguna! Uncouth birds whizzed in +circles round her head, clanging and clamoring with their shrill voices, +striving to beat her back with their flapping wings. The faint sweet +fragrance of brier-roses clustering at the foot of the mountain wafted +reproachfully upon the chill air an entreaty to return. Once, turning at +a sudden bend in the road, she spied a merry party of girls and children +crowning each other with quickly fading wreaths of clover-blossoms. A +rosy-cheeked child in the centre of the group, enjoying the glory of his +first coronation, accidentally pointed his fat fore-finger at her, as +if in derision of her undertaking. It was strange, that, although she +presently pressed forward eagerly again, she felt glad that none of +those laughing girls would leave the sunny valley to follow her example. +She had flung her whole soul into the scheme, as is the fashion with +girls, and could not recover it again now. It seemed absolutely +necessary that somewhere some woman like herself should be compelled +to scale this ascent, and she--one of those girls in the valley, for +instance, might not be nearly so well able as herself to face this +bleakness. Thus she might preserve those sportive triflers in their +everlasting childhood by the warning of her sad devotion. Faint shadows +of gigantic tasks to be conquered when the hill was surmounted swam +through her mind. And somewhat whimsically associated with these, a +portrait of the learned Hooker occurred vividly to her imagination,--his +face disfigured through his devotion to sedentary pursuits. +Involuntarily she smoothed her soft cheek with her little hand. It was +still round and velvet as an August peach. Nevertheless she threw this +possibility into the burden she was going to assume for humanity, +and felt happier as the burden waxed heavier. The innate hunger for +sacrifice was gratified, with only the definite prospect of suffering +from loss of complexion; a concrete living shape was given to the vague +longing that possessed her; and she cheerfully marched on, strong in the +hope of the love and reverence she was sure her devotion would gain. Ah, +sweet Haguna, Haguna! Sweating enough and toil enough already! Go back, +dear child, from a work thou canst not understand, and imprison sunbeams +for the panting world in flowery valleys! + +By this time she had reached the philosophic hermitage. Her future +master met her at the door, and, saluting her with grave courtesy, led +the way to a small unfurnished apartment, from whose windows nothing +could be seen but the distant sea and sky,--always a solemn monotone of +sea and sky. + +"And so," he said, with mild irony, "even the maidens must dim their +bright eyes with philosophy! Can they leave their dolls so long?" + +The hot blood rushed into Haguna's face, as she exclaimed, with intense +eagerness,-- + +"Is it my fault that I am a girl? I come to you to learn, to satisfy +the insatiable thirst for knowledge which you have awakened,--and you +reproach me with my ignorance! I have just discovered that the one thing +I have secretly needed always was to learn to exercise my mind cramped +with inaction, to share with you labor and toil." + +"Poor child," sighed the philosopher, excited to sudden pity by her +ardor, "you know little of the sweat of brain-toil! Do you know that it +takes years of painful study to arrive at a single valuable result? that +for a distant, doubtful advantage, all your bright, unfettered life must +be sacrificed? Each enjoyment must be stinted and weighed,--each day +valued only as another step to be climbed in the endless ladder,--all +simple, sweet enjoyment of earth and air and sky, the careless, golden +halo of each free day, must be given up. Everything must be squared +according to an inexorable plan; self must be despised, passions +restrained and clarified, till the life becomes thin and attenuated +through careful discipline,--all hopes and fears laid aside till the +soul becomes accustomed to its chilly atmosphere. Then body and mind +must be trained to endure a fearful weariness, to pass the days under +such a stern pressure of toil that all loving, graceful interests shall +be rooted out of the stony soil. You must be prepared to lose precious +truths in a gulf of delusion,--to leave all your old beacon-lights and +wander forth in an eternal dark. The troubles that beset weak souls +may be dissipated, but new strength brings dreadful trials. Tremendous +conflicts, undreamt-of in your innocence, will agitate your adventurous +Intellect, penetrating into vast regions of Doubt, where the mind made +for belief often reels into madness, goaded by harassing anxiety. +Often the lonely night-hours must be spent in sore battle with fearful +spectres revived by the roaming soul from their frequent graves. +All this and more must he dare who aspires to the lofty service of +philosophy." + +"All this and more would I gladly suffer," cried Haguna. "There is a +fire now in my brain; you have kindled it, and it must be fed. And, +moreover, I wish to endure this trial for its own sake; for it is not +fitting that men should suffer more than women. Perhaps, too,--am I +presumptuous in thinking so?--two workers may so lessen the toil of one +that this lonely trial maybe greatly helped by even my assistance." + +And her bosom heaved, and glorious tears welled up into her deep blue +eyes. The repentant philosopher placed his hand on her lovely head, and +lifted a tress of her soft hair. + +"Ah, child, child, you know little about it! What! will you sacrifice +these glorious tresses to a hard and joyless course of study? For none +can study Euclid with me with hair like this." + +"Willingly! willingly!" cried Haguna, impetuously, and pulled a pair of +scissors from her pocket to immediately make the beautiful offering. + +The reluctant philosopher arrested her hand. + +"Rash girl! consider yet a moment. You are exchanging a treasure whose +value you know for--you know not what. You will bitterly repent." + +But Haguna, would not consider. She impatiently tore away her hand, and +in a few minutes had closely shorn her head, and the neglected hair lay +in rich profusion on the floor. As it lay there, the warm golden brown +color faded and faded, and some glittering things entangled in its +abundant masses beamed forth for a moment like tiny stars, and then +disappeared. And had Haguna stepped into a cloud, that so great a change +had come over her? The fine contour of head and forehead, the soft +outline of face, the delicate moulding of the chin were the same +still,--the dark eyes glowed with even new lustre; but the graceful +throat and white arm were hidden in a dark muffling cloak, the delicious +blush had faded from the cheek, whose color was now firm and tranquil, +the well-cut lips had settled into almost too harsh lines, an air of +indescribably voluptuous grace had forever fled. Ah, hapless Haguna! + +The philosopher made no further remonstrance, but led her immediately +to the library, and, seating her at the table, opened a worn copy of +Euclid, and began at "Two straight lines," and so forth. + +A few moments after, Anthrops, released from his imprisonment, opened +the door of the upper room, walked quietly down-stairs, and returned to +the city, much to the joy of his friends and relations, who had long +mourned him as lost. + +About a year after this, Anthrops strolled into the philosopher's study, +to inquire the solution of a certain problem. + +"I will refer you," said his old instructor, "to my accomplished pupil"; +then raising his voice,--"Haguna!" + +Anthrops, startled at hearing her name in such a connection, awaited her +entrance with anxious curiosity. She speedily came in obedience to +the summons, bowed with an air of grave abstraction to Anthrops, and, +seating herself, composedly awaited the commands of her master. Her +former captive asked himself, wondering, if this could be the airy, +laughing, winsome maiden with whom in days past he had ridden into the +green forest. The billows of hair had ebbed away; the short, ungraceful, +and somewhat thin remnant was meant for use in covering the head, not +for luxurious beauty. All falling laces, all fluttering ribbons, all +sparkling jewels were discarded from the severe simplicity of the +scholastic gown; and with them had disappeared the glancing ripple that +before had sunnily flowed around her, like wavy undulations through a +field of corn. Very clear and still were the violet eyes, but their dewy +lustre had long ago dried up. Like a flowering tree whose blossoms have +been prematurely swept off by a cold wind was the maiden, as she sat +there, abstractedly drawing geometrical diagrams with her pencil. + +"Now, Sir," said the philosopher, "if you will state your difficulty, I +have no doubt my pupil can afford you assistance." + +So saying, he withdrew into a corner, that the discussion might have +free scope. + +Haguna now looking inquiringly at Anthrops. He cleared his throat with a +somewhat dictatorial "hem!" and began. + +"These circumstances, Madam, are really so unusual, that you must excuse +me, if I"-- + +"Proceed, Sir, to the point." + +"When, avoiding the barbarous edict of Justinian, which condemned to a +perpetual silence the philosophic loquacity of the Athenian schools, the +second heptacle of wise men undertook a perilous journey to implore the +protection of Persia, they undoubtedly must at some stages of their +travels have passed the night on the road. In this case, the method of +so passing the time becomes an interesting object of research. Did the +last of the Greeks provide themselves with tents,--effeminately impede +their progress with luggage? Did they, skirting the north of the Arabian +desert, repose under the scattered palm-trees,--or rather, wandering +among the mountains of Assyria, find surer and colder shade? The +importance of this inquiry becomes evident upon reflecting that the +characters of the great are revealed by their behavior in the incidental +events of their lives." + +"It is evident to my mind," returned Haguna, thoughtfully, "that the +seven sages, joyfully escaping from the frivolous necessities of +society, would return to the privileges of the children of eternal +Nature, and sleep confidingly under the blue welkin." + +"Rheumatism," suggested Anthrops. + +"Rheumatism!" echoed Haguna, disdainfully. "What is rheumatism? What are +any mere pains of the flesh, to the glorious content of the unshackled +spirit revelling in the freedom of its own nature? Thus the cultivated +Reason returns, with a touching appreciation of the Beautiful and the +Fit, to the simple couch of childish spontaneity. Mankind, after +long confinement in marble palaces, sepulchres of their inner being, +retrograde to the golden age. The wisdom of the world lies down to sleep +under the open sky. Such a beautiful comparison! It must be true." + +"Really, Madam, your conclusions, although attained with great rapidity +of reasoning, are hardly deducible from the premises. Let me remark"-- + +"Reduce Camenes to Celarent, and the argument is plainly irrefragable. +It requires a mind deeply toned to sympathy with the inner significance +of all things to"-- + +"Contemporary testimony is absolutely necessary, if not suspiciously +sullied by credulity or deceit,--in which case, the nearest trustworthy +historian, if not more than a hundred years from the specified time, is +incomparably preferable. But"-- + +Haguna again interrupted, her voice a little raised with excitement. The +dispute waxed warm, on either side authorities were quoted and rejected, +and how it terminated has never been recorded. But the philosopher in +the corner rubbed his hands with satisfaction, exclaiming,-- + +"Thank fortune, we may now have a little peace!" + + + + +THE FLOWER OF LIBERTY. + + + What flower is this that greets the morn, + Its hues from heaven so freshly born? + With burning star and flaming band + It kindles all the sunset land;-- + O, tell us what its name may be! + Is this the Flower of Liberty? + It is the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + In savage Nature's far abode + Its tender seed our fathers sowed; + The storm-winds rocked its swelling bud, + Its opening leaves were streaked with blood, + Till, lo! earth's tyrants shook to see + The full-blown Flower of Liberty! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + Behold its streaming rays unite + One mingling flood of braided light,-- + The red that fires the Southern rose, + With spotless white from Northern snows, + And, spangled o'er its azure, see + The sister Stars of Liberty! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + The blades of heroes fence it round; + Where'er it springs is holy ground; + From tower and dome its glories spread; + It waves where lonely sentries tread; + It makes the land as ocean free, + And plants an empire on the sea! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + Thy sacred leaves, fair Freedom's flower, + Shall ever float on dome and tower, + To all their heavenly colors true, + In blackening frost or crimson dew,-- + And GOD love us as we love thee, + Thrice holy Flower of Liberty! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry FLOWER OF LIBERTY! + + + + +ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE. + + +The memory of Alexis de Tocqueville belongs scarcely less to America +than to France. His book on "Democracy in America" was the foundation of +his fame. As a successful investigation by a foreigner of the nature and +working of institutions dissimilar from those of his own country, and +in many essential respects different from any which were elsewhere +established, it stands quite alone in political literature. It is still +further remarkable as the work of a very young man. Its merits were at +once acknowledged; and though twenty-six years have passed since it +appeared, it has been superseded by no later work. The book has a double +character, which has given to it an equal authority on both sides of +the Atlantic. For while it is a profound and sagacious analysis of the +spirit and methods of the American social and political system, it +is intended at the same time--more, however, by implied than open +comparison--to exhibit the relations of the principles established +here to the development of modern society and government in France and +elsewhere in Europe. It is a manual alike for the political theorist +and the practical statesman; and whatever changes our institutions may +undergo, its value will remain undiminished. + +The volumes of Tocqueville's Inedited Works and Correspondence, with a +Memoir by his friend M. Gustave de Beaumont, which have lately appeared +in Paris, have, therefore, a special claim to the attention of American +readers. Their intrinsic interest is great as illustrating the life and +character not only of one of the most original and independent thinkers +of this generation, but also of a man not less distinguished by the +elevation and integrity of his character than by the power of his +intellect. The race of such men has seemed of late years to be dying out +in France. In the long list of her public characters during the past +thirty years, there are few names which can share the honor with +Tocqueville's of being those neither of apostates nor of schemers. Men +who hold to their principles in the midst of revolutions, who for the +sake of honor resist the temptations of power, who have faith in liberty +and in progress even when their hopes are overthrown, are rare at all +times and in all lands. "France no longer produces such men," said the +Duke de Broglie, when he heard of Tocqueville's death. + +No book has been published of more importance than this in its +exhibition of the condition of thought and of society in France during +recent years. None has given more convincing evidence of the suppression +of intellectual liberty under the new Imperial rule. The reserves and +the omissions to which M. de Beaumont has been forced in the performance +of his work as editor display the oppressive nature of the censorship to +which the writings of the most honest and superior men are liable, +and the burdensome restraints by which such men are controlled and +disheartened. M. de Beaumont's notice of the life of Tocqueville, and +Tocqueville's own later correspondence, appear to a thoughtful reader as +accusations against Imperial despotism, as protests against the wrongs +from which freedom is now suffering in France. There is in them a +pervading tone of sadness, and, here and there, an expression of +bitterness of feeling, all the more effective for being conveyed in +restrained and unimpassioned words. There is no place for such men as +these in a system like that by which Louis Napoleon governs France. +The men of strong character, of incorruptible integrity, of thoughtful +moderation, and of fixed principles are more dangerous to the permanence +of despotic rule than the Victor Hugos, the Ledru Rollins, or the +Orsinis. It is the men with whom the love of liberty is founded upon +intellectual and moral convictions, not those with whom it is a hot and +reckless passion, that are the most to be feared by a ruler whose power +is based on the ignorance, the fears, the selfish ambitions, and the +material interests of the people whom he flatters and corrupts. + +Tocqueville was born a thinker. His physical organization was delicate, +but he had an energy of spirit which led him often to overtask his +bodily forces in long-continued mental exertions. Without brilliancy +of imagination and with little liveliness of fancy, he possessed the +faculty of acute and discriminating observation, and early acquired the +rare power of deep and continuous reflection. His mind was large and +calm. The candor of his intellect was never stained by passion. He had +not the faculties of an original discoverer in the domain of abstract +truth, but, as an investigator of the causes of political and social +conditions, of the relation between particular facts and general +theories, of the influence of systems and institutions upon the life of +communities, he has rarely been surpassed. His book on "Democracy in +America," and still more his later work on "The Old Régime and the +Revolution," display in a remarkable degree the union of philosophic +insight and practical good sense, of clearness of thought and +condensation of statement. + +But, however great the value of his writings may be, a still greater +value attaches to the character of the man himself, as it is displayed +in these volumes. M. de Beaumont's brief and affectionate memoir of his +friend, and Tocqueville's own letters, are not so much narratives of +events as evidences of character. His life was, indeed, not marked with +extraordinary incidents. It was the life of a man whose career was +limited both by his own temperament and by the public circumstances of +his times; of one who set more value upon ideas than upon events; who +sought intellectual satisfactions and distinctions rather than personal +advancement; who affected his contemporaries by his thought and his +integrity of principle more than by power of commanding position or +energy of resolute will. Although for many years in public life, he made +little mark on public affairs. But his influence, though indirect, +was perhaps not the less strong or permanent. The course of political +affairs is in the long run greatly modified, if not completely guided, +by the thinkers of a nation. Tocqueville's convictions kept him for the +most part in opposition to the successive governments of France during +the period of his public life. But his reputation and the weight of his +authority are continually increasing, and of the Frenchmen of the last +generation few have done so much as he to extend by his writings the +knowledge, and to strengthen by his example the love of those principles +by which liberty is maintained and secured, and upon which the real +advancement of society depends. The leading facts of his life may be +briefly told. + +Born in 1805, at Paris, of an old and honorable family, his early years +were passed at home. As a youth, he was for some time at the college of +Metz; but his education was irregular, and he was not distinguished for +scholarship. In 1826 and 1827 he travelled with one of his brothers in +Italy and Sicily, and on his return to France was attached to the Court +of Justice at Versailles, where his father, the Count de Tocqueville, +was then Prefect, in the quality of _Juge-Auditeur_, an office to which +there is none correspondent in our courts. It was at this time that his +friendship with M. Gustave de Beaumont began. + +For more than two years he performed the duties of this place with +marked fidelity and ability. But at the same time he pursued studies +less narrow and technical than the law, investigating with ardor the +general questions of politics, and laying the foundation of those +principles and opinions which he afterward developed in his writings and +his public life. He witnessed the Revolution of 1830 with regret, not +because he was personally attached to the elder branch of the Bourbons, +but because he dreaded the effect of a sudden and violent change of +dynasty upon the stability of those constitutional institutions which +were of too recent establishment to be firmly rooted in France, but to +which he looked as the safeguard of liberty. He gave his adhesion to the +new government without hesitation, but without enthusiasm; and having +little hope of advancement in his career as magistrate, he applied to +the Ministry of the Interior early in 1831 for an official mission to +America to examine the system of our prisons, which at that time was +exciting attention in France. But the real motive which led him +to desire to visit America was his wish to study the democratic +institutions of the United States with reference to their bearing upon +the political and social questions which underlay the violent changes +and revolutions of government in France, and of which a correct +appreciation was of continually increasing importance. It was plain that +the dominating principle in the modern development of society was that +of democratic equality; and this being the case, the question of prime +importance presenting itself for solution was, How is liberty to be +reconciled with equality and saved from the inevitable dangers to which +it is exposed? or in other words, Can equality, which, by dividing +men and reducing the mass to a common level, smooths the way for the +establishment of a despotism, either of an individual or of the mob, be +made to promote and secure liberty? For the study of this question, +and of others naturally connected with it, the United States afforded +opportunities nowhere else to be found. + +Accompanied by M. de Beaumont, Tocqueville passed a year in this +country, and the chief results of his visit appeared in the first two +volumes of his "Democracy in America," which were published in January, +1835. The success of the book was instant and extraordinary. His +publisher, who had undertaken it with reluctance, had ventured on a +first edition of but five hundred copies; and in one of his letters, +shortly after its publication, Tocqueville tells pleasantly of the +bookseller's ingenuous surprise at the interest which the work had +excited. "I went yesterday morning to Gosselin's [the publisher]; he +received me with the most beaming face in the world, saying to me, +'Well, now, so it seems you have made a _chef-d'oeuvre_.' Does not +that expression paint the complete man of business? I sat down, and we +talked of our second edition." + +From this time Tocqueville was famous. In the autumn of the same year, +1835, he married an English lady, Miss Mottley, who had long resided in +France, and the happiness of his private life was secured at the very +moment when he was entering upon the cares and anxieties of a public +career. In 1836 the French Academy decreed for his book an extraordinary +prize; in 1838 he was elected a member of the Institute; and in 1841, +a year after the publication of the last volumes of his work, he was +chosen member of the Academy. From 1839 to 1848, Tocqueville, elected +and reëlected from Valognes, sat without interruption in the Chamber of +Deputies, where he constantly voted with the constitutional opposition. +His nature was too sensitive and his health too delicate to enable him +to hold a foremost place as orator in the debates of this period. His +habits of mind were, moreover, those of a writer rather than of a public +speaker. But the firmness and moderation of his principles and the +clearness and justice of his opinions secured for him a general respect, +and gave weight and influence to his counsels. "In 1839, having been +named reporter on the proposition relative to the abolition of slavery +in the colonies, he succeeded," says his biographer, "not only in +tracing with an able and sure hand the great principles of justice and +of humanity which should lead on the triumph of this holy cause, but +also, by words full of respect for existing interests and acquired +rights, in preparing the government and the public mind for a +concession, and the colonists for a compromise." He was frequently +intrusted with the duty of reporting on other projects of the first +importance; but special labors of this sort did not prevent him from +taking broad and large views of the political and moral tendencies of +the time, and of forecasting with clear insight the results of the +measures of the government and of the influences at work upon the +people. On the 27th of January, 1848, he announced the Revolution, which +he saw to be at hand. A passage from his speech on this occasion is +given by M. de Beaumont. It is striking, when read by the light of +subsequent events, for the truth of its inferences, the force of its +statements, and its prophetic warnings. After speaking of the opinions +and ideas prevalent among the working classes, he said, "When such +opinions take root, when they spread themselves so widely, when they +strike down deeply into the masses, they must bring about, sooner or +later, I do not know when, I do not know how, but they must bring about, +sooner or later, the most formidable revolutions.... I believe that at +this moment we are asleep upon a volcano. (_Dissent_.) I am profoundly +convinced of it." + +Tocqueville, thus anticipating the Revolution, was more afflicted and +disappointed than surprised, when it overthrew the monarchy in February. +He had comprehended beforehand that its character was to be rather +social than simply political. He had determined to accept it as a +necessary evil. He measured from the first the risk to which the +principles to the maintenance of which he was devoted were exposed, the +peril which, threatened liberty itself. Believing that the Republic now +afforded the only and perhaps the last chance of liberty in France, and +that its downfall would result in throwing power into the hands of an +individual ruler, he determined to give all his support to the new +government, and to endeavor to work out the good of his country by means +which gave little encouragement or hope of success. He took part in the +Constituent Assembly, was one of the committee to form the Constitution, +and in the autumn of 1848 represented France as plenipotentiary at the +Conference held at Brussels, which had for its object the mediation of +France and England between Austria and Sardinia. The next year, having +just been elected a member of the Legislative Assembly, he was invited +by the President of the Republic to take the portfolio of Foreign +Affairs in the ministry of M. Barrot. He did not hold office long. +The ministry was too honest and too firm to suit the designs of the +President, and on the 31st of October Louis Napoleon announced, in a +message which took the Assembly by surprise, that it had been dismissed, +and a new set of ministers appointed. The President endeavored to retain +Tocqueville, and to win him over to his party; but Tocqueville already +presaged the fall of the Republic, and witnessed with anxiety and +discouragement the approach of the Empire. He remained a member of the +Assembly to the last. He was one of the deputies arrested on the 2d of +December, 1851, and was confined for a time at Vincennes. "Here ended +his political life. It ended with liberty in France." + +The remaining years of Tocqueville's life were spent in a retirement +which might have been happy, had he not felt too deeply for happiness +the despotism which weighed upon France. He engaged in the studies that +resulted in his masterly work on "The Old Régime and the Revolution"; +but these studies, instead of diverting him from the contemplation +of what France had lost, gave poignancy to the sorrow excited by her +present condition. All his hopes for the prevalence of the principles +which he had sought during life to confirm and establish, all his +personal ambitions as a public man, were completely broken down. But, +though thus defeated in hope and in desire, he was not overcome in +spirit. And the record of the closing years of his life shows, more than +that of any other portion of it, the firmness, the strength, and the +sweetness of his character. + +His health, which had never been vigorous, became from year to year more +and more uncertain, and the labor which he gave to the historical work +to which he now devoted himself was frequently followed by exhaustion. +He passed some time in England, where be had many warm friends, in +examining the collections in the British Museum concerning the French +Revolution; and in 1855 he made a visit of considerable length to +Germany for the purpose of studying the social institutions of the +country, so far as they might illustrate the condition of France under +the old regime. At the beginning of 1856 the first part of his great +work was published. The impression produced by it was extraordinary. It +was, as it were, a key that opened to men the secrets of a history with +the events of which they were so familiar that it had seemed to them +nothing more was to be learned concerning it. The book is one which, +though unfinished, is, so far as it advances, complete. It will retain +its place as an historical essay of the highest value; for it is a study +of the past, undertaken not merely with the intention of elucidating the +facts of a particular period of history, but also with the design of +investigating and establishing the general principles in politics and +government of which facts and events are but the external indications. +Tocqueville was too honest to write according to any predetermined +theory; but he also penetrated too deeply into the causes of things not +to arrive, at length, at definite conclusions as to the meaning and +teachings of history. + +Tocqueville had now reached the summit of fame as an author. He enjoyed +the harvest of success, and his ambition was urged by it to new +exertion. But in the summer of 1858 he had an alarming attack of +bleeding at the lungs, accompanied with a general prostration of +strength. In the autumn, his physicians ordered him to the South, and +early in November he arrived at Cannes, where he was to spend the +winter. But neither change of climate nor tender nursing was sufficient +to prevent his disease from progressing. He suffered much, but he still +hoped. He became worse as the spring came on, and on the 16th of April, +1859, he died. He was fifty-four years old, but he had lived a long +life, if life be measured by thought and moral progress. + +In his domestic life Tocqueville had been most happy, and it was in his +own home that his character appeared in its most delightful aspect. In +society he was a converser of extraordinary brilliancy. Few men were his +rivals in this art, so well practised in Paris. His flow of ideas was +not more remarkable than the choiceness and vigor of his expression. But +he was not a tyrant in talk, and he was as ready to listen as to seek +for listeners. His social powers were at the service of his friends. He +was not of a gay temper, but he had a peculiar thoughtfulness for others +which gave a charm to his manners far superior to that of careless +vivacity. M. de Beaumont speaks of him in his relations to his friends +in words full of feeling:-- + +"I have said that he had many friends; but he experienced a still +greater happiness, that of never losing one of them. He had also another +happiness: it was the knowing how to love them all so well, that none +ever complained of the share he received, even while seeing that of the +others. He was as ingenious as he was sincere in his attachments; and +never, perhaps, did example prove better than his how many charms +good-wit adds to good-will (_combien l'esprit ajoute de charmes à la +bonté_). + +"Good as he was," continues M. de Beaumont, "he aspired without ceasing +to become better; and it is certain that each day he drew nearer to that +moral perfection which seemed to him the only end worthy of man.... +Each day he brought into all his sentiments and all his actions +something of deeper piety, and stronger gratitude to God.... He was +more patient, more laborious, more watchful to lose nothing of that life +which he loved so well, and which he had the right to find beautiful, +he who made of it so noble a use! Finally, it may be said to his honor, +that at an epoch in which each man tends to concentrate his regard upon +himself, he had no other aim than that of seeking for truths useful to +his fellows, no other passion than that of increasing their well-being +and their dignity."--Vol. I. p. 124. + +The correspondence of a man about whom such--words may be said without +exaggeration has more than a merely literary interest. This book is +one of which the literary critic is not the final judge. Tocqueville's +letters, like every genuine series of letters written without thought +of publication, have the charm and more than the simplicity of +autobiography. Their merit lies not so much in grace of style, +picturesqueness of description, or familiar freedom of composition, +as in their exhibition of power of thought combined with delicacy +and refinement of feeling, and in the frequent expression of ardent +patriotism and strong personal sympathies with public or with private +interests. They are the letters of a man who took a grave view of life, +regarding it "as an affair with which we are charged, which must be +carried through and ended with honor to ourselves." They are the letters +also of a man of strong and faithful affections; and the long series of +them addressed during twenty-five years to the Count Louis de Kergorlay +has, in addition to its interest from its variety of topics, a special +moral value as the record of a close and confidential friendship +maintained in spite of the widest divergence of political opinion during +a period of unusual political excitement. Few men have the temper or the +sentiment requisite for the support of intimate relations under +such conditions. But his friendships occupied a very large place in +Tocqueville's life. In them he found happiness and repose. To one of his +friends he writes in 1844, "The remembrance of you is the more precious +to me because it calms in me all those troubles of the soul that +politics engender." And thus in the most trying passages of his life, +and especially in the discouragement of his later years, the thought +of his friends seems to have been constantly with him, and his +correspondence with them became almost a necessity for his spirit. +His letters, or rather that portion of them which M. de Beaumont has +published, and which must some day be succeeded by a fuller collection, +have thus a double character: they contain the judgments of a wide and +profound thinker on the subjects which interested him, while they show +him in the most amiable and attractive light as a generous and constant +friend. They are not to be compared in wit or elaborate finish with the +brilliant letters of Courier; they have not the striking originality and +terse vigor of those of De Maistre, but they have the grace of simple +and pure feeling, and the worth of clear, manly, high-toned thought. No +one capable of appreciating them can read them without learning to +feel toward their author not merely respect, but also a strong personal +regard. The two following extracts have a special appropriateness to +the present condition of our own country, while at the same time they +display the qualities most characteristic of Tocqueville's intellect. +They are both from letters addressed to one of the most distinguished +correspondents of his later years, Madame de Swetchine. + +"There are, it seems to me, two distinct divisions in morals, one as +important as the other in the eyes of God, but in which in our days his +ministers instruct us with very unequal ardor. One belongs to private +life: it embraces the relative duties of mankind as fathers, as sons, as +wives, as husbands. The other regards public life: the duties of every +citizen toward his country, and toward that human society of which he +forms a special part. Am I deceived in believing that the clergy of our +time are very much occupied with the first portion of morals, and very +little with the second? This appears to me especially observable in the +manner in which women think and feel. I see a great number of them who +have a thousand private virtues in which the direct and beneficent +action of religion manifests itself,--who, thanks to it, are most +faithful wives and excellent mothers, who show themselves just and +indulgent toward their domestics, charitable to the poor. But as to that +portion of duties which is connected with public life, they do not +seem to have even the idea of it. Not only they do not practise them +themselves, which is natural enough, but they do not seem even to have +the thought of inculcating them on those over whom they have influence. +It is a side of education that is, as it were, invisible to them. It +was not so under that old regime which, in the midst of many vices, +developed proud and manly virtues. I have often heard it told, that +my grandmother, who was a very religious (_très sainte_) woman, after +impressing upon her young son the exercise of all the duties of private +life, failed not to add,--'And then, my child, never forget that a man +owes himself above all to his country; that there is no sacrifice that +he ought not to make for her; that he cannot remain indifferent to her +fate; that God requires of him that he be always ready to consecrate, +if need be, his time, his fortune, even his life, to the service of the +State and of the king."--Vol. II. p. 341. + +"I do not ask of the priests to require of the men whose education is +committed to them, or over whom they exercise influence, I do not ask of +them to require of these men, as a duty of conscience, to support the +republic or the monarchy; but I avow that I desire that they should +oftener tell them, that, as they are Christians, so they belong to one +of those great human associations which God has established, without +doubt in order to render more visible and more sensible the bonds which +ought to unite individuals to each other,--associations which are named +the people, and whose territory is called the country. I desire that +they should cause the fact to penetrate more deeply into the souls of +men, that each man owes himself to this collective existence before +belonging to himself; that in regard to this existence no man is allowed +to be indifferent, still less to make of indifference a sort of feeble +virtue which enervates many of the most noble instincts that have been +given to us; that all are responsible for what happens to it, and that +all, according to their light, are bound to labor constantly for its +prosperity, to take care that it be submitted only to beneficent, +respectable, and lawful authorities.... This is what I wish should be +inculcated on men, and especially on women. Nothing has more struck me, +in an experience now of considerable length in public affairs, than the +influence that women always exercise in this matter,--influence so much +the greater as it is indirect. I do not doubt that it is they above all +who give to every nation a certain moral temperament, which shows itself +afterwards in politics."--Vol. II. p. 348. Tocqueville's services to +France, to liberty, did not end with his life. The example, no less than +the writings of such a man, bears fruit in later times. It belongs to no +one land. Wherever men are striving in thought or in action to support +the cause of freedom and of law, to strengthen institutions founded +on principles of equal justice, to secure established liberties by +defending the government in which they are embodied, his teachings will +be prized, and his memory be honored. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE MONK'S STRUGGLE. + + +The golden sunshine of the spring morning was deadened to a sombre tone +in the shadowy courts of the Capuchin convent. The reddish brown of the +walls was flecked with gold and orange spots of lichen; and here +and there, in crevices, tufts of grass, or even a little bunch of +gold-blooming flowers, looked hardily forth into the shadowy air. A +covered walk, with stone arches, inclosed a square filled with dusky +shrubbery. There were tall funereal cypresses, whose immense height and +scraggy profusion of decaying branches showed their extreme old age. +There were gaunt, gnarled olives, with trunks twisted in immense +serpent folds, and boughs wreathed and knotted into wild, unnatural +contractions, as if their growth had been a series of spasmodic +convulsions, instead of a calm and gentle development of Nature. There +were overgrown clumps of aloes, with the bare skeletons of former +flower-stalks standing erect among their dusky horns or lying rotting on +the ground beside them. The place had evidently been intended for the +culture of shrubbery and flowers, but the growth of the trees had long +since so intercepted the sunlight and fresh air that not even grass +could find root beneath their branches. The ground was covered with a +damp green mould, strewn here and there with dead boughs, or patched +with tufts of fern and lycopodium, throwing out their green hairy roots +into the moist soil. A few half-dead roses and jasmines, remnants of +former days of flowers, still maintained a struggling existence, but +looked wan and discouraged in the effort, and seemed to stretch and pine +vaguely for a freer air. In fact, the whole garden might be looked upon +as a sort of symbol of the life by which it was surrounded,--a life +stagnant, unnatural, and unhealthy, cut off from all those thousand +stimulants to wholesome development which are afforded by the open plain +of human existence, where strong natures grow distorted in unnatural +efforts, though weaker ones find in its lowly shadows a congenial +refuge. + +We have given the brighter side of conventual life in the days we are +describing: we have shown it as often a needed shelter of woman's +helplessness during ages of political uncertainty and revolution; we +have shown it as the congenial retreat where the artist, the poet, the +student, and the man devoted to ideas found leisure undisturbed to +develop themselves under the consecrating protection of religion. The +picture would be unjust to truth, did we not recognize, what, from our +knowledge of human nature, we must expect, a conventual life of far less +elevated and refined order. We should expect that institutions which +guarantied to each individual a livelihood, without the necessity of +physical labor or the responsibility of supporting a family, might in +time come to be incumbered with many votaries in whom indolence and +improvidence were the only impelling motives. In all ages of the world +the unspiritual are the majority,--the spiritual the exceptions. It was +to the multitude that Jesus said, "Ye seek me, not because ye saw the +miracles, but because ye did eat and were filled,"--and the multitude +has been much of the same mind from that day to this. + +The convent of which we speak had been for some years under the lenient +rule of the jolly Brother Girolamo,--an easy, wide-spread, loosely +organized body, whose views of the purpose of human existence were +decidedly Anacreontic. Fasts he abominated; night-prayers he found +unfavorable to his constitution; but he was a judge of olives and good +wine, and often threw out valuable hints in his pastoral visits on the +cooking of maccaroni, for which he had himself elaborated a savory +recipe; and the cellar and larder of the convent, during his pastorate, +presented so many urgent solicitations to conventual repose, as to +threaten an inconvenient increase in the number of brothers. The monks +in his time lounged in all the sunny places of the convent like so many +loose sacks of meal, enjoying to the full the _dolce far niente_ which +seems to be the universal rule of Southern climates. They ate and drank +and slept and snored; they made pastoral visits through the surrounding +community which were far from edifying; they gambled, and tippled, and +sang most unspiritual songs; and keeping all the while their own private +pass-key to Paradise tucked under their girdles, were about as jolly +a set of sailors to Eternity as the world had to show. In fact, the +climate of Southern Italy and its gorgeous scenery are more favorable +to voluptuous ecstasy than to the severe and grave warfare of the true +Christian soldier. The sunny plains of Capua demoralized the soldiers of +Hannibal, and it was not without a reason that ancient poets made those +lovely regions the abode of Sirens whose song maddened by its sweetness, +and of a Circe who made men drunk with her sensual fascinations, till +they became sunk to the form of brutes. Here, if anywhere, is the +lotos-eater's paradise,--the purple skies, the enchanted shores, the +soothing gales, the dreamy mists, which all conspire to melt the energy +of the will, and to make existence either a half-doze of dreamy apathy +or an awaking of mad delirium. + +It was not from dreamy, voluptuous Southern Italy that the religious +progress of the Italian race received any vigorous impulses. These came +from more northern and more mountainous regions, from the severe, clear +heights of Florence, Perugia, and Assisi, where the intellectual and the +moral both had somewhat of the old Etruscan earnestness and gloom. + +One may easily imagine the stupid alarm and helpless confusion of these +easy-going monks, when their new Superior came down among them hissing +with a white heat from the very hottest furnace-fires of a new religious +experience, burning and quivering with the terrors of the world to +come,--pale, thin, eager, tremulous, and yet with all the martial +vigor of the former warrior, and all the habits of command of a former +princely station. His reforms gave no quarter to right or left; sleepy +monks were dragged out to midnight-prayers, and their devotions +enlivened with vivid pictures of hell-fire and ingenuities of eternal +torment enough to stir the blood of the most torpid. There was to be +no more gormandizing, no more wine-bibbing; the choice old wines were +placed under lock and key for the use of the sick and poor in the +vicinity; and every fast of the Church, and every obsolete rule of the +order, were revived with unsparing rigor. It is true, they hated their +new Superior with all the energy which laziness and good living had left +them, but they every soul of them shook in their sandals before him; for +there is a true and established order of mastery among human beings, and +when a man of enkindled energy and intense will comes among a flock of +irresolute commonplace individuals, he subjects them to himself by a +sort of moral paralysis similar to what a great, vigorous gymnotus +distributes among a fry of inferior fishes. The bolder ones, who made +motions of rebellion, were so energetically swooped upon, and consigned +to the discipline of dungeon and bread-and-water, that less courageous +natures made a merit of siding with the more powerful party, mentally +resolving to carry by fraud the points which they despaired of +accomplishing by force. + +On the morning we speak of, two monks might have been seen lounging on +a stone bench by one of the arches, looking listlessly into the sombre +garden-patch we have described. The first of these, Father Anselmo, was +a corpulent fellow, with an easy swing of gait, heavy animal features, +and an eye of shrewd and stealthy cunning: the whole air of the man +expressed the cautious, careful voluptuary. The other, Father Johannes, +was thin, wiry, and elastic, with hands like birds' claws, and an eye +that reminded one of the crafty cunning of a serpent. His smile was a +curious blending of shrewdness and malignity. He regarded his companion +from time to time obliquely from the corners of his eyes, to see what +impression his words were making, and had a habit of jerking himself up +in the middle of a sentence and looking warily round to see if any one +were listening, which indicated habitual distrust. + +"Our holy Superior is out a good while this morning," he said, at +length. + +The observation was made in the smoothest and most silken tones, but +they carried with them such a singular suggestion of doubt and inquiry +that they seemed like an accusation. + +"Ah?" replied the other, perceiving evidently some intended undertone of +suspicion lurking in the words, but apparently resolved not to commit +himself to his companion. + +"Yes," said the first; "the zeal of the house of the Lord consumes him, +the blessed man!" + +"Blessed man!" echoed the second, rolling up his eyes, and giving a deep +sigh, which shook his portly proportions so that they quivered like +jelly. + +"If he goes on in this way much longer," continued Father Johannes, +"there will soon be very little mortal left of him; the saints will +claim him." + +Father Anselmo gave something resembling a pious groan, but darted +meanwhile a shrewd observant glance at the speaker. + +"What would become of the convent, were he gone?" said Father Johannes. +"All these blessed reforms which he has brought about would fall back; +for our nature is fearfully corrupt, and ever tends to wallow in the +mire of sin and pollution. What changes hath he wrought in us all! To be +sure, the means were sometimes severe. I remember, brother, when he had +you under ground for more than ten days. My heart was pained for you; +but I suppose you know that it was necessary, in order to bring you to +that eminent state of sanctity where you now stand." + +The heavy, sensual features of Father Anselmo flushed up with some +emotion, whether of anger or of fear it was hard to tell; but he gave +one hasty glance at his companion, which, if a glance could kill, would +have struck him dead, and then there fell over his countenance, like a +veil, an expression of sanctimonious humility, as he replied,-- + +"Thank you for your sympathy, dearest brother. I remember, too, how I +felt for you that week when you were fed only on bread and water, and +had to take it on your knees off the floor, while the rest of us sat at +table. How blessed it must be to have one's pride brought down in that +way! When our dear, blessed Superior first came, brother, you were as a +bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, but now what a blessed change! It must +give you so much peace! How you must love him!" + +"I think we love him about equally," said Father Johannes, his dark, +thin features expressing the concentration of malignity. "His labors +have been blessed among us. Not often does a faithful shepherd meet so +loving a flock. I have been told that the great Peter Abelard found far +less gratitude. They tried to poison him in the most holy wine." + +"How absurd!" interrupted Father Anselmo, hastily; "as if the blood of +the Lord, as if our Lord himself, could be made poison!" + +"Brother, it is a fact," insisted the former, in tones silvery with +humility and sweetness. + +"A fact that the most holy blood can be poisoned?" replied the other, +with horror evidently genuine. + +"I grieve to say, brother," said Father Johannes, "that in my profane +and worldly days I tried that experiment on a dog, and the poor brute +died in five minutes. Ah, brother," he added, observing that his obese +companion was now thoroughly roused, "you see before you the chief of +sinners! Judas was nothing to me; and yet, such are the triumphs +of grace, I am an unworthy member of this most blessed and pious +brotherhood; but I do penance daily in sackcloth and ashes for my +offence." + +"But, Brother Johannes, was it really so? did it really happen?" +inquired Father Anselmo, looking puzzled. "Where, then, is our faith?" + +"Doth our faith rest on human reason, or on the evidence of our senses, +Brother Anselmo? I bless God that I have arrived at that state where I +can adoringly say, 'I believe, because it is impossible.' Yea, brother, +I know it to be a fact that the ungodly have sometimes destroyed holy +men, like our Superior, who could not be induced to taste wine for +any worldly purpose, by drugging the blessed cup; so dreadful are the +ragings of Satan in our corrupt nature!" + +"I can't see into that," said Father Anselmo, still looking confused. + +"Brother," answered Father Johannes, "permit an unworthy sinner to +remind you that you must not try to see into anything; all that is +wanted of you in our most holy religion is to shut your eyes and +believe; all things are possible to the eye of faith. Now, humanly +speaking," he added, with a peculiarly meaning look, "who would believe +that you kept all the fasts of our order, and all the extraordinary ones +which it hath pleased our blessed Superior to lay upon us, as you surely +do? A worldling might swear, to look at you, that such flesh and color +must come in some way from good meat and good wine; but we remember how +the three children throve on the pulse and rejected the meat from the +king's table." + +The countenance of Father Anselmo expressed both anger and alarm at +this home-thrust, and the changes did not escape the keen eye of Father +Johannes, who went on. + +"I directed the eyes of our holy father upon you as a striking example +of the benefits of abstemious living, showing that the days of miracles +are not yet past in the Church, as some skeptics would have us believe. +He seemed to study you attentively. I have no doubt he will honor you +with some more particular inquiries,--the blessed saint!" + +Father Anselmo turned uneasily on his seat and stealthily eyed his +companion, to see, if possible, how much real knowledge was expressed by +his words, and then answered on quite another topic. + +"How this garden has fallen to decay! We miss old Father Angelo +sorely, who was always trimming and cleansing it. Our Superior is too +heavenly-minded to have much thought for earthly things, and so it +goes." + +Father Johannes watched this attempt at diversion with a glitter of +stealthy malice, and, seeming to be absorbed in contemplation, broke out +again exactly where he had left off on the unwelcome subject. + +"I mind me now, Brother Anselmo, that, when you came out of your cell to +prayers, the other night, your utterance was thick, and your eyes heavy +and watery, and your gait uncertain. One would swear that you had been +drunken with new wine; but we knew it was all the effect of fasting and +devout contemplation, which inebriates the soul with holy raptures, as +happened to the blessed Apostles on the day of Pentecost. I remarked the +same to our holy father, and he seemed to give it earnest heed, for +I saw him watching you through all the services. How blessed is such +watchfulness!" + +"The Devil take him!" said Father Anselmo, suddenly thrown off his +guard; but checking himself, he added, confusedly,--"I mean"-- + +"I understand you, brother," said Father Johannes; "it is a motion of +the old nature not yet entirely subdued. A little more of the discipline +of the lower vaults, which you have found so precious, will set all that +right." + +"You would not inform against me?" said Father Anselmo, with an +expression of alarm. + +"It would be my duty, I suppose," said Father Johannes, with a sigh; +"but, sinner that I am, I never could bring my mind to such proceedings +with the vigor of our blessed father. Had I been Superior of the +convent, as was talked of, bow differently might things have proceeded! +I should have erred by a sinful laxness. How fortunate that it was he, +instead of such a miserable sinner as myself!" + +"Well, tell me, then, Father Johannes,--for your eyes are shrewd as a +lynx's,--is our good Superior so perfect as he seems? or does he have +his little private comforts sometimes, like the rest of us? Nobody, +you know, can stand it to be always on the top round of the ladder to +Paradise. For my part, between you and me, I never believed all that +story they read to us so often about Saint Simon Stylites, who passed so +many years on the top of a pillar and never came down. Trust me, the old +boy found his way down sometimes, when all the world was asleep, and got +somebody to do duty for him meantime, while he took a little something +comfortable. Is it not so?" + +"I am told to believe, and I do believe," said Father Johannes, casting +down his eyes, piously; "and, dear brother, it ill befits a sinner like +me to reprove; but it seemeth to me as if you make too much use of the +eyes of carnal inquiry. Touching the life of our holy father, I cannot +believe the most scrupulous watch can detect anything in his walk or +conversation other than appears in his profession. His food is next to +nothing,--a little chopped spinach or some bitter herb cooked without +salt for ordinary days, and on fast days he mingles this with ashes, +according to a saintly rule. As for sleep, I believe he does without +it; for at no time of the night, when I have knocked at the door of +his cell, have I found him sleeping. He is always at his prayers or +breviary. His cell hath only a rough, hard board for a bed, with a log +of rough wood for a pillow; yet he complains of that as tempting to +indolence." + +Father Anselmo shrugged his fat shoulders, ruefully. + +"It's all well enough," he said, "for those that want to take this hard +road to Paradise; but why need they drive the flock up with them?" + +"True enough, Brother Anselmo," said Father Johannes; "but the flock +will rejoice in it in the end, doubtless. I understand he is purposing +to draw yet stricter the reins of discipline. We ought to be thankful." + +"Thankful? We can't wink but six times a week now," said Father Anselmo; +"and by-and-by he won't let us wink at all." + +"Hist! hush! here he comes," said Father Johannes, "What ails him? he +looks wild, like a man distraught." + +In a moment more, in fact, Father Francesco strode hastily through the +corridor, with his deep-set eyes dilated and glittering, and a vivid +hectic flush on his hollow cheeks. He paid no regard to the salutation +of the obsequious monks; in fact, he seemed scarcely to see them, but +hurried in a disordered manner through the passages and gained the room +of his cell, which he shut and locked with a violent clang. + +"What has come over him now?" said Father Anselmo. + +Father Johannes stealthily followed some distance, and then stood with +his lean neck outstretched and his head turned in the direction where +the Superior had disappeared. The whole attitude of the man, with +his acute glittering eye, might remind one of a serpent making an +observation before darting after his prey. + +"Something is working him," he said to himself; "what may it be?" + +Meanwhile that heavy oaken door had closed on a narrow cell,--bare of +everything which could be supposed to be a matter of convenience in +the abode of a human being. A table of the rudest and most primitive +construction was garnished with a skull, whose empty eyeholes and +grinning teeth were the most conspicuous objects in the room. Behind +this stood a large crucifix, manifestly the work of no common master, +and bearing evident traces in its workmanship of Florentine art: it was, +perhaps, one of the relics of the former wealth of the nobleman who +had buried his name and worldly possessions in this living sepulchre. A +splendid manuscript breviary, richly illuminated, lay open on the table; +and the fair fancy of its flowery letters, the lustre of gold and silver +on its pages, formed a singular contrast to the squalid nakedness of +everything else in the room. This book, too, had been a family heirloom; +some lingering shred of human and domestic affection sheltered itself +under the protection of religion in making it the companion of his +self-imposed life of penance and renunciation. + +Father Francesco had just returned from the scene in the confessional we +have already described. That day had brought to him one of those pungent +and vivid inward revelations which sometimes overset in a moment some +delusion that has been the cherished growth of years. Henceforth the +reign of self-deception was past,--there was no more self-concealment, +no more evasion. He loved Agnes,--he knew it,--he said it over and over +again to himself with a stormy intensity of energy; and in this hour +the whole of his nature seemed to rise in rebellion against the awful +barriers which hemmed in and threatened this passion. He now saw clearly +that all that he had been calling fatherly tenderness, pastoral zeal, +Christian unity, and a thousand other evangelical names, was nothing +more nor less than a passion that had gone to the roots of existence and +absorbed into itself all that there was of him. Where was he to look for +refuge? What hymn, what prayer had he not blent with her image? It was +this that he had given to her as a holy lesson,--it was that that she +had spoken of to him as the best expression of her feelings. This prayer +he had explained to her,--he remembered just the beautiful light in her +eyes, which were fixed on his so trustingly. How dear to him had been +that unquestioning devotion, that tender, innocent humility!--how dear, +and how dangerous! + +We have read of flowing rivulets wandering peacefully without ripple or +commotion, so long as no barrier stayed their course, suddenly chafing +in angry fury when an impassable dam was thrown across their waters. So +any affection, however genial and gentle in its own nature, may become +an ungovernable, ferocious passion, by the intervention of fatal +obstacles in its course. In the case of Father Francesco, the sense of +guilt and degradation fell like a blight over all the past that had been +so ignorantly happy. He thought he had been living on manna, but found +it poison. Satan had been fooling him, leading him on blindfold, and +laughing at his simplicity, and now mocked at his captivity. And how +nearly had he been hurried by a sudden and overwhelming influence to the +very brink of disgrace! He felt himself shiver and grow cold to think of +it. A moment more and he had blasted that pure ear with forbidden words +of passion; and even now he remembered, with horror, the look of grave +and troubled surprise in those confiding eyes, that had always looked +up to him trustingly, as to God. A moment more and he had betrayed the +faith he taught her, shattered her trust in the holy ministry, and +perhaps imperilled her salvation. He breathed a sigh of relief when he +thought of it,--he had not betrayed himself, he had not fallen in her +esteem, he still stood on that sacred vantage-ground where his power +over her was so great, and where at least he possessed her confidence +and veneration. There was still time for recollection, for self-control, +for a vehement struggle which should set all right again: but, alas! how +shall a man struggle who finds his whole inner nature boiling in furious +rebellion against the dictates of his conscience,--self against self? + +It is true, also, that no passions are deeper in their hold, more +pervading and more vital to the whole human being, than those that make +their first entrance through the higher nature, and, beginning with a +religious and poetic ideality, gradually work their way through the +whole fabric of the human existence. + +From grosser passions, whose roots lie in the senses, there is always a +refuge in man's loftier nature. He can cast them aside with contempt, +and leave them as one whose lower story is flooded can remove to a +higher loft, and live serenely with a purer air and wider prospect. But +to love that is born of ideality, of intellectual sympathy, of harmonies +of the spiritual and Immortal nature, of the very poetry and purity of +the soul, if it be placed where reason and religion forbid its exercise +and expression, what refuge but the grave,--what hope but that wide +eternity where all human barriers fall, all human relations end, and +love ceases to be a crime? A man of the world may struggle by change of +scene, place, and employment. He may put oceans between himself and the +things that speak of what he desires to forget. He may fill the void in +his life with the stirring excitement of the battlefield, or the whirl +of travel from city to city, or the press of business and care. But what +help is there for him whose life is tied down to the narrow sphere of +the convent,--to the monotony of a bare cell, to the endless repetition +of the same prayers, the same chants, the same prostrations, especially +when all that ever redeemed it from monotony has been that image and +that sympathy which conscience now bids him forget? + +When Father Francesco precipitated himself into his cell and locked +the door, it was with the desperation of a man who flies from a mortal +enemy. It seemed to him that all eyes saw just what was boiling within +him,--that the wild thoughts that seemed to scream their turbulent +importunities in his ears were speaking so loud that all the world would +hear. He should disgrace himself before the brethren whom he had so +long been striving to bring to order and to teach the lessons of holy +self-control. He saw himself pointed at, hissed at, degraded, by the +very men who had quailed before his own reproofs; and scarcely, when he +had bolted the door behind him, did he feel himself safe. Panting and +breathless, he fell on his knees before the crucifix, and, bowing his +head in his hands, fell forward upon the floor. As a spent wave melts at +the foot of a rock, so all his strength passed away, and he lay awhile +in a kind of insensibility,--a state in which, though consciously +existing, he had no further control over his thoughts and feelings. In +that state of dreamy exhaustion his mind seemed like a mirror, which, +without vitality or will of its own, simply lies still and reflects the +objects that may pass over it. As clouds sailing in the heavens cast +their images, one after another, on the glassy floor of a waveless sea, +so the scenes of his former life drifted in vivid pictures athwart his +memory. He saw his father's palace,--the wide, cool, marble halls,--the +gardens resounding with the voices of falling waters. He saw the fair +face of his mother, and played with the jewels upon her hands. He saw +again the picture of himself, in all the flush of youth and health, +clattering on horseback through the streets of Florence with troops of +gay young friends, now dead to him as he to them. He saw himself in the +bowers of gay ladies, whose golden hair, lustrous eyes, and siren wiles +came back shivering and trembling in the waters of memory in a thousand +undulating reflections. There were wild revels,--orgies such as Florence +remembers with shame to this day. There was intermingled the turbulent +din of arms,--the haughty passion, the sudden provocation, the swift +revenge. And then came the awful hour of conviction, the face of that +wonderful man whose preaching had stirred all souls,--and then those +fearful days of penance,--that darkness of the tomb,--that dying to the +world,--those solemn vows, and the fearful struggles by which they had +been followed. + +"Oh, my God!" he cried, "is it all in vain?--so many prayers? so many +struggles?--and shall I fail of salvation at last?" + +He seemed to himself as a swimmer, who, having exhausted his last gasp +of strength in reaching the shore, is suddenly lifted up on a cruel wave +and drawn back into the deep. There seemed nothing for him but to fold +his arms and sink. + +For he felt no strength now to resist,--he felt no wish to conquer,--he +only prayed that he might lie there and die. It seemed to him that +the love which possessed him and tyrannized over his very being was a +doom,--a curse sent upon him by some malignant fate with whose power it +was vain to struggle. He detested his work,--he detested his duties,--he +loathed his vows,--and there was not a thing in his whole future to +which he looked forward otherwise than with the extreme of aversion, +except one to which he clung with a bitter and defiant tenacity,--the +spiritual guidance of Agnes. Guidance!--he laughed aloud, in the +bitterness of his soul, as he thought of this. He was her guide,--her +confessor,--to him she was bound to reveal every change of feeling; +and this love that he too well perceived rising in her heart for +another,--he would wring from her own confessions the means to repress +and circumvent it. If she could not be his, he might at least prevent +her from belonging to any other,--he might at least keep her always +within the sphere of his spiritual authority. Had he not a right to do +this?--had he not a right to cherish an evident vocation,--a right to +reclaim her from the embrace of an excommunicated infidel, and present +her as a chaste bride at the altar of the Lord? Perhaps, when that +was done, when an irrevocable barrier should separate her from all +possibility of earthly love, when the awful marriage-vow should have +been spoken which should seal her heart for heaven alone, he might +recover some of the blessed calm which her influence once brought over +him, and these wild desires might cease, and these feverish pulses be +still. + +Such were the vague images and dreams of the past and future that +floated over his mind, as he lay in a heavy sort of lethargy on the +floor of his cell, and hour after hour passed away. It grew afternoon, +and the radiance of evening came on. The window of the cell overlooked +the broad Mediterranean, all one blue glitter of smiles and sparkles. +The white-winged boats were flitting lightly to and fro, like +gauzy-winged insects in the summer air,--the song of the fishermen +drawing their nets on the beach floated cheerily upward. Capri lay like +a half-dissolved opal in shimmering clouds of mist, and Naples +gleamed out pearly clear in the purple distance. Vesuvius, with its +cloud-spotted sides, its garlanded villas and villages, its silvery +crown of vapor, seemed a warm-hearted and genial old giant lying down +in his gorgeous repose and holding all things on his heaving bosom in a +kindly embrace. + +So was the earth flooded with light and glory, that the tide poured into +the cell, giving the richness of an old Venetian painting to its bare +and squalid furniture. The crucifix glowed along all its sculptured +lines with rich golden hues. The breviary, whose many-colored leaves +fluttered as the wind from the sea drew inward, was yet brighter in its +gorgeous tints. It seemed a sort of devotional butterfly perched before +the grinning skull, which was bronzed by the enchanted light into warmer +tones of color, as if some remembrance of what once it saw and felt came +back upon it. So also the bare, miserable board which served for +the bed, and its rude pillow, were glorified. A stray sunbeam, too, +fluttered down on the floor like a pitying spirit, to light up that +pale, thin face, whose classic outlines had now a sharp, yellow setness, +like that of swooning or death; it seemed to linger compassionately on +the sunken, wasted cheeks, on the long black lashes that fell over the +deep hollows beneath the eyes like a funereal veil. Poor man! lying +crushed and torn, like a piece of rockweed wrenched from its rock by a +storm and thrown up withered upon the beach! + +From the leaves of the breviary there depends, by a fragment of gold +braid, a sparkling something that wavers and glitters in the evening +light. It is a cross of the cheapest and simplest material, that once +belonged to Agnes. She lost it from her rosary at the confessional, and +Father Francesco saw it fall, yet would not warn her of the loss, for he +longed to posses something that had belonged to her. He made it a mark +to one of her favorite hymns; but she never knew where it had gone. +Little could she dream, in her simplicity, what a power she held over +the man who seemed to her an object of such awful veneration. Little did +she dream that the poor little tinsel cross had such a mighty charm with +it, and that she herself, in her childlike simplicity, her ignorant +innocence, her peaceful tenderness and trust, was raising such a +turbulent storm of passion in the heart which she supposed to be above +the reach of all human changes. + +And now, through the golden air, the Ave Maria is sounding from the +convent-bells, and answered by a thousand tones and echoes from the +churches of the old town, and all Christendom gives a moment's adoring +pause to celebrate the moment when an angel addressed to a mortal maiden +words that had been wept and prayed for during thousands of years. Dimly +they sounded through his ear, in that half-deadly trance,--not with +plaintive sweetness and motherly tenderness, but like notes of doom and +vengeance. He felt rebellious impulses within, which rose up in hatred +against them, and all that recalled to his mind the faith which seemed +a tyranny, and the vows which appeared to him such a hopeless and +miserable failure. + +But now there came other sounds nearer and more earthly. His quickened +senses perceive a busy patter of sandalled feet outside his cell, and a +whispering of consultation,--and then the silvery, snaky tones of Father +Johannes, which had that oily, penetrative quality which passes through +all substances with such distinctness. + +"Brethren," he said, "I feel bound in conscience to knock. Our blessed +Superior carries his mortifications altogether too far. His faithful +sons must beset him with filial inquiries." + +The condition in which Father Francesco was lying, like many abnormal +states of extreme exhaustion, seemed to be attended with a mysterious +quickening of the magnetic forces and intuitive perceptions. He felt +the hypocrisy of those tones, and they sounded in his ear like the +suppressed hiss of a deadly serpent. He had always suspected that this +man hated him to the death; and he felt now that he was come with his +stealthy-tread and his almost supernatural power of prying observation, +to read the very inmost secrets of his heart. He knew that he longed for +nothing so much as the power to hurl him from his place and to reign in +his stead; and the instinct of self-defence roused him. He started up +as one starts from a dream, waked by a whisper in the ear, and, raising +himself on his elbow, looked towards the door. + +A cautious rap was heard, and then a pause. Father Francesco smiled with +a peculiar and bitter expression. The rap became louder, more energetic, +stormy at last, intermingled with vehement calls on his name. + +Father Francesco rose at length, settled his garments, passed his +hands over his brow, and then, composing himself to an expression of +deliberate gravity, opened the door and stood before them. + +"Holy father," said Father Johannes, "the hearts of your sons have +been saddened. A whole day have you withdrawn your presence from our +devotions. We feared you might have fainted, your pious austerities so +often transcend the powers of Nature." + +"I grieve to have saddened the hearts of such affectionate sons," said +the Superior, fixing his eye keenly on Father Johannes; "but I have +been performing a peculiar office of prayer to-day for a soul in deadly +peril, and have been so absorbed therein that I have known nothing that +passed. There is a soul among us, brethren," he added, "that stands at +this moment so near to damnation that even the most blessed Mother of +God is in doubt for its salvation, and whether it can be saved at all +God only knows." + +These words, rising up from a tremendous groundswell of repressed +feeling, had a fearful, almost supernatural earnestness that made the +body of the monks tremble. Most of them were conscious of living but a +shabby, shambling, dissembling life, evading in every possible way the +efforts of their Superior to bring them up to the requirements of their +profession; and therefore, when these words were bolted out among them +with such a glowing intensity, every one of them began mentally feeling +for the key of his own private and interior skeleton-closet, and +wondering which of their ghastly occupants was coming to light now. + +Father Johannes alone was unmoved, because he had long since ceased to +have a conscience. A throb of moral pulsation had for years been an +impossibility to the dried and hardened fibre of his inner nature. He +was one of those real, genuine, thorough unbelievers in all religion and +all faith and all spirituality, whose unbelief grows only more callous +by the constant handling of sacred things. Ambition was the ruling +motive of his life, and every faculty was sharpened into such +acuteness under its action that his penetration seemed at times almost +preternatural. + + +While he stood with downcast eyes and hands crossed upon his breast, +listening to the burning words which remorse and despair wrung from his +Superior, he was calmly and warily studying to see what could be made of +the evident interior conflict that convulsed him. Was there some secret +sin? Had that sanctity at last found the temptation that was more than a +match for it? And what could it be? + +To a nature with any strong combative force there is no tonic like the +presence of a secret and powerful enemy, and the stealthy glances +of Father Johannes's serpent eye did more towards restoring Father +Francesco to self-mastery than the most conscientious struggles could +have done. He grew calm, resolved, determined. Self-respect was dear to +him,--and dear to him no less that reflection of self-respect which a +man reads in other eyes. He would not forfeit his conventual honor, or +bring a stain on his order, or, least of all, expose himself to the +scoffing eye of a triumphant enemy. Such were the motives that now came +to his aid, while as yet the whole of his inner nature rebelled at the +thought that he must tear up by the roots and wholly extirpate this love +that seemed to have sent its fine fibres through every nerve of his +being. "No!" he said to himself, with a fierce interior rebellion, +"_that_ I will not do! Right or wrong, come heaven, come hell, I _will_ +love her; and if lost I must be, lost I will be!" And while this +determination lasted, prayer seemed to him a mockery. He dared not pray +alone now, when most he needed prayer; but he moved forward with dignity +towards the convent-chapel to lead the vesper devotions of his brethren. +Outwardly he was calm and rigid as a statue; but as he commenced the +service, his utterance had a terrible meaning and earnestness that were +felt even by the most drowsy and leaden of his flock. It is singular +how the dumb, imprisoned soul, locked within the walls of the body, +sometimes gives such a piercing power to the tones of the voice during +the access of a great agony. The effect is entirely involuntary, and +often against the most strenuous opposition of the will; but one +sometimes hears another reading or repeating words with an intense +vitality, a living force, which tells of some inward anguish or conflict +of which the language itself gives no expression. + +Never were the long-drawn intonations of the chants and prayers of the +Church pervaded by a more terrible, wild fervor than the Superior that +night breathed into them. They seemed to wail, to supplicate, to combat, +to menace, to sink in despairing pauses of helpless anguish, and anon to +rise in stormy agonies of passionate importunity; and the monks quailed +and trembled, they scarce knew why, with forebodings of coming wrath and +judgment. + +In the evening exhortation, which it had been the Superior's custom to +add to the prayers of the vesper-hour, he dwelt with a terrible and +ghastly eloquence on the loss of the soul. + +"Brethren," he said, "believe me, the very first hour of a damned spirit +in hell will outweigh all the prosperities of the most prosperous life. +If you could gain the whole world, that one hour of hell would outweigh +it all; how much more such miserable, pitiful scraps and fragments of +the world as they gain who for the sake of a little fleshly ease neglect +the duties of a holy profession! There is a broad way to hell through a +convent, my brothers, where miserable wretches go who have neither the +spirit to serve the Devil wholly, nor the patience to serve God; there +be many shaven crowns that gnash their teeth in hell to-night,--many a +monk's robe is burning on its owner in living fire, and the devils call +him a fool for choosing to be damned in so hard a way. 'Could you not +come here by some easier road than a cloister?' they ask. 'If you must +sell your soul, why did you not get something for it?' Brethren, there +be devils waiting for some of us; they are laughing at your paltry +shifts and evasions, at your efforts to make things easy,--for they know +how it will all end at last. Rouse yourselves! Awake! Salvation is no +easy matter,--nothing to be got between sleeping and waking. Watch, +pray, scourge the flesh, fast, weep, bow down in sackcloth, mingle your +bread with ashes, if by any means ye may escape the everlasting fire!" + +"Bless me!" said Father Anselmo, when the services were over, casting +a half-scared glance after the retreating figure of the Superior as he +left the chapel, and drawing a long breath; "it's enough to make one +sweat to hear him go on. What has come over him? Anyhow, I'll give +myself a hundred lashes this very night: something must be done." + +"Well," said another, "I confess I did hide a cold wing of fowl in the +sleeve of my gown last fast-day. My old aunt gave it to me, and I was +forced to take it for relation's sake; but I'll do so no more, as I'm a +living sinner. I'll do a penance this very night." + +Father Johannes stood under one of the arches that looked into the +gloomy garden, and, with his hands crossed upon his breast, and his +cold, glittering eye fixed stealthily now on one and now on another, +listened with an ill-disguised sneer to these hasty evidences of fear +and remorse in the monks, as they thronged the corridor on the way to +their cells. Suddenly turning to a young brother who had lately joined +the convent, he said to him,-- + +"And what of the pretty Clarice, my brother?" + +The blood flushed deep into the pale cheek of the young monk, and his +frame shook with some interior emotion, as he answered,-- + +"She is recovering." + +"And she sent for thee to shrive her?" + +"My God!" said the young man, with an imploring, wild expression in his +dark eyes, "she did; but I would not go." + +"Then Nature is still strong," said Father Johannes, pitilessly eying +the young man. + +"When will it ever die?" said the stripling, with a despairing gesture; +"it heeds neither heaven nor hell." + +"Well, patience, boy! if you have lost an earthly bride, you have gained +a heavenly one. The Church is our espoused in white linen. Bless the +Lord, without ceasing, for the exchange." + +There was an inexpressible mocking irony in the tones in which this was +said, that made itself felt to the finely vitalized spirit of the youth, +though to all the rest it sounded like the accredited average pious talk +which is more or less the current coin of religious organizations. + +Now no one knows through what wanton deviltry Father Johannes broached +this painful topic with the poor youth; but he had a peculiar faculty, +with his smooth tones and his sanctimonious smiles, of thrusting red-hot +needles into any wounds which he either knew or suspected under the +coarse woollen robes of his brethren. He appeared to do it in all +coolness, in a way of psychological investigation. + +He smiled, as the youth turned away, and a moment after started as if a +thought had suddenly struck him. + +"I have it!" he said to himself. "There may be a woman at the bottom +of this discomposure of our holy father; for he is wrought upon by +something to the very bottom of his soul. I have not studied human +nature so many years for nothing. Father Francesco hath been much in the +guidance of women. His preaching hath wrought upon them, and perchance +among them.--Aha!" he said to himself, as he paced up and down, "I have +it! I'll try an experiment upon him!" + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE SERPENT'S EXPERIMENT. + + +Father Francesco sat leaning his head on his hand by the window of his +cell, looking out upon the sea as it rose and fell, with the reflections +of the fast coming stars glittering like so many jewels on its breast. +The glow of evening had almost faded, but there was a wan, tremulous +light from the moon, and a clearness, produced by the reflection of such +an expanse of water, which still rendered objects in his cell quite +discernible. + +In the terrible denunciations and warnings just uttered, he had been +preaching to himself, striving to bring a force on his own soul by which +he might reduce its interior rebellion to submission; but, alas! when +was ever love cast out by fear? He knew not as yet the only remedy +for such sorrow,--that there is a love celestial and divine, of which +earthly love in its purest form is only the sacramental symbol and +emblem, and that this divine love can by God's power so outflood human +affections as to bear the soul above all earthly idols to its only +immortal rest. This great truth rises like a rock amid stormy seas, and +many is the sailor struggling in salt and bitter waters who cannot yet +believe it is to be found. A few saints like Saint Augustin had reached +it,--but through what buffetings, what anguish! + +At this moment, however, there was in the heart of the father one of +those collapses which follow the crisis of some mortal struggle. He +leaned on the windowsill, exhausted and helpless. + +Suddenly, a kind of illusion of the senses came over him, such as is not +infrequent to sensitive natures in severe crises of mental anguish. He +thought he heard Agnes singing, as he had sometimes heard her when he +had called in his pastoral ministrations at the little garden and paused +awhile outside that he might hear her finish a favorite hymn, which, +like a shy bird, she sang all the more sweetly for thinking herself +alone. + +Quite as if they were sung in his ear, and in her very tones, he heard +the words of Saint Bernard, which we have introduced to our reader:-- + + Jesu dulcis memoria, + Dans vera cordi gaudia: + Sed super mel et omnia + Ejus dulcis praesentia. + + "Jesu, spes poenitentibus, + Quam pius es petentibus, + Quam bonus te quaerentibus, + Sed quis invenientibus!" + +Soft and sweet and solemn was the illusion, as if some spirit breathed +them with a breath of tenderness over his soul; and he threw himself +with a burst of tears before the crucifix. + +"O Jesus, where, then, art Thou? Why must I thus suffer? She is not the +one altogether lovely; it is Thou,--Thou, her Creator and mine! Why, +why cannot I find Thee? Oh, take from my heart all other love but Thine +alone!" + +Yet even this very prayer, this very hymn, were blent with the +remembrance of Agnes; for was it not she who first had taught him the +lesson of heavenly love? Was not she the first one who had taught him to +look upward to Jesus other than as an avenging judge? Michel Angelo has +embodied in a fearful painting, which now deforms the Sistine Chapel, +that image of stormy vengeance which a religion debased by force +and fear had substituted for the tender, good shepherd of earlier +Christianity. It was only in the heart of a lowly maiden that Christ had +been made manifest to the eye of the monk, as of old he was revealed to +the world through a virgin. And how could he, then, forget her, or cease +to love her, when every prayer and hymn, every sacred round of the +ladder by which he must climb, was so full of memorials of her? While +crying and panting for the supreme, the divine, the invisible love, he +found his heart still craving the visible one,--the one so well known, +revealing itself to the senses, and bringing with it the certainty of +visible companionship. + +As he was thus kneeling and wrestling with himself, a sudden knock at +his door startled him. He had made it a point, never, at any hour of the +day or night, to deny himself to a brother who sought him for counsel, +however disagreeable the person and however unreasonable the visit. He +therefore rose and unbolted the door, and saw Father Johannes standing +with folded arms and downcast head, in an attitude of composed humility. + +"What would you with me, brother?" he asked, calmly. + +"My father, I have a wrestling of mind for one of our brethren whose +case I would present to you." + +"Come in, my brother," said the Superior. At the same time he lighted a +little iron lamp, of antique form, such as are still in common use in +that region, and, seating himself on the board which served for his +couch, made a motion to Father Johannes to be seated also. + +The latter sat down, eying, as he did so, the whole interior of the +apartment, so far as it was revealed by the glimmer of the taper. + +"Well, my son," said Father Francesco, "what is it?" + +"I have my doubts of the spiritual safety of Brother Bernard," said +Father Johannes. + +"Wherefore?" asked the Superior, briefly. + +"Holy father, you are aware of the history of the brother, and of the +worldly affliction that drove him to this blessed profession?" + +"I am," replied the Superior, with the same brevity. + +"He narrated it to me fully," said Father Johannes. "The maiden he was +betrothed to was married to another in his absence on a long journey, +being craftily made to suppose him dead." + +"I tell you I know the circumstances," said the Superior. + +"I merely recalled them, because, moved doubtless by your sermon, he +dropped words to me to-night which led me to suppose that this sinful, +earthly love was not yet extirpated from his soul. Of late the woman was +sick and nigh unto death, and sent for him." + +"But he did not go?" interposed Father Francesco. + +"No, he did not,--grace was given him thus far,--but he dropped words +to me to the effect, that in secret he still cherished the love of this +woman; and the awful words your Reverence has been, speaking to us +to-night have moved me with fear for the youth's soul, of the which I, +as an elder brother, have had some charge, and I came to consult with +you as to what help there might be for him." + +Father Francesco turned away his head a moment and there was a pause; +at last he said, in a tone that seemed like the throb of some deep, +interior anguish,-- + +"The Lord help him!" + +"Amen!" said Father Johannes, taking keen note of the apparent emotion. + +"You must have experience in these matters, my father," he added, after +a pause,--"so many hearts have been laid open to you. I would crave to +know of you what you think is the safest and most certain cure for this +love of woman, if once it hath got possession of the heart." + +"Death!" said Father Francesco, after a solemn pause. + +"I do not understand you," said Father Johannes. + +"My son," said Father Francesco, rising up with an air of authority, +"you do not understand,--there is nothing in you by which you should +understand. This unhappy brother hath opened his case to me, and I have +counselled him all I know of prayer and fastings and watchings and +mortifications. Let him persevere in the same; and if all these fail, +the good Lord will send the other in His own time. There is an end to +all things in this life, and that end shall certainly come at last. Bid +him persevere and hope in this.--And now, brother," added the Superior, +with dignity, "if you have no other query, time flies and eternity comes +on,--go, watch and pray, and leave me to my prayers also." + +He raised his hand with a gesture of benediction, and Father Johannes, +awed in spite of himself, felt impelled to leave the apartment. + +"Is it so, or is it not?" he said. "I cannot tell. He did seem to wince +and turn away his head when I proposed the case; but then he made fight +at last. I cannot tell whether I have got any advantage or not; but +patience! we shall see!" + + * * * * * + + +HEALTH IN THE CAMP. + + +All the world has heard a great deal of the sufferings and mortality +of the English and French armies in the late Russian war; and in most +countries the story has been heard to some purpose. Reforms and new +methods have been instituted in almost every country in Europe,--so +strong has been the effect of the mere outline of the case, which is all +that has been furnished to the public. The broad facts of the singular +mortality first, and the singular healthfulness of the British army +afterwards, on the same spot and under the same military circumstances +as before, have interested all rulers of armies, and brought about great +benefits to the soldier, throughout the length and breadth of Europe. +Within these broad outlines there was a multitude of details which were +never recorded in a systematic way, or which, for good and sufficient +reasons, could not be made public at the time; and these details are the +part of the story most interesting to soldiers actually in the field +or likely to be called there soon. They are also deeply interesting to +every order of persons concerned in a civil war; for such a war summons +forth a citizen soldiery to form a system for themselves in regard to +the life of the march and the camp, and to do the best they can for that +life and health which they have devoted to their country. Under such +circumstances it cannot but be interesting to the patriots in the camp +and to their families at home to know some facts which they cannot have +heard before of the mistakes made at the beginning of the last Russian +war, and the repair of those mistakes before the end of it. The prompt +and anxious care exercised by the American Sanitary Commission, and the +benevolent diligence bestowed on the organization of hospitals for the +Federal forces, show that the lesson of the Crimean campaign has been +studied in the United States; and this is an encouragement to afford +further illustrations of the case, when new material is at command. + +I am thinking most of the volunteer forces at this moment, for the +obvious reason that their health is in greater danger than that of the +professional soldier. The regular troops live under a system which is +always at work to feed, clothe, lodge, and entertain them: whereas +the volunteers are quitting one mode of life for another, all the +circumstances of which had to be created at the shortest notice. To them +their first campaign must be very like what it was to British soldiers +who had never seen war to be sent to Turkey first, and then to the +Crimea, to live a new kind of life, and meet discomforts and dangers +which they had never dreamed of. I shall therefore select my details +with a view to the volunteers and their friends in the first place. + +The enthusiasm which started the volunteers of every Northern State on +their new path of duty could hardly exceed that by which the British +troops were escorted from their barrack-gates to the margin of the sea. +The war was universally approved (except by a clique of peace-men); and +there was a universal confidence that the troops would do their duty +well, though not one man in a thousand of them had ever seen war. As +they marched down to their ships, in the best mood, and with every +appearance of health and spirit, nobody formed any conception of what +would happen. Parliament had fulfilled the wishes of the people +by voting liberal sums for the due support of the troops; the +Administration desired and ordered that everything should be done for +the soldier's welfare; and as far as orders and arrangements went, the +scheme was thoroughly well intended and generous. Who could anticipate, +that, while the enemy never once gained a battle or obtained an +advantage over British or French, two-thirds of that fine stout British +force would perish in a few months? Of the twenty-five thousand who went +out, eighteen thousand were dead in a year; and the enemy was answerable +for a very small proportion of those deaths. Before me lie the returns +of six months of those twelve, showing the fate of the troops for that +time; and it furnishes the key to the whole story. + +In those six months, the admissions into hospital in the Crimea +(exclusive of the Santari Hospital) were 52,548. The number shows that +many must have entered the hospitals more than once, as well as that the +place of the dead was supplied by new comers from England. Of these, +nearly fifty thousand were absolutely untouched by the Russians. Only +3,806 of the whole number were wounded. Even this is not the most +striking circumstance. It is more impressive that three-fourths of the +sick suffered unnecessarily. Seventy-five per cent. of them suffered +from preventable diseases. That is, the naturally sick were 12,563; +while the needlessly sick were 36,179. When we look at the deaths from +this number, the case appears still more striking. The deaths were +5,359; and of these scarcely more than the odd hundreds were from +wounds,--that is, 373. Of the remainder, little more than one-tenth were +unavoidable deaths. The natural deaths, as we may call them, were only +521; while the preventable deaths were 4,465. Very different would have +been the spirit of the parting in England, if the soldiers' friends had +imagined that so small a number would fall by Russian gun or bayonet, or +by natural sickness, while the mortality from mismanagement would at one +season of the next year exceed that of London in the worst days of the +Great Plague. + +That the case was really what is here represented was proved by the +actual prevention of this needless sickness during the last year of the +war. In the same camp, and under the same circumstances of warfare, the +mortality was reduced, by good management, to a degree unhoped for by +all but those who achieved it. The deaths for the last half year were +one-third fewer than at home! And yet the army that died was composed of +fine, well-trained troops; while the army that lived and flourished was +of a far inferior material when it came out,--raw, untravelled, and +unhardened to the military life. + +How did these things happen? There can be no more important question for +Americans at this time. + +I will not go into the history of the weaknesses and faults of the +administration of departments at home. They have been abundantly +published already; and we may hope that they bear no relation to the +American case. It is more interesting to look into the circumstances of +the march and the camp, for illustration of what makes the health or the +sickness of the soldier. + +Wherever the men were to provide themselves with anything to eat or to +wear out of their pay, they were found to suffer. There is no natural +market, with fair prices, in the neighborhood of warfare; and, on the +one hand, a man cannot often get what he wishes, and, on the other, +he is tempted to buy something not so good for him. If there are +commissariat stores opened, there is an endless accumulation of +business,--a mass of accounts to keep of the stoppages from the men's +pay. On all accounts it is found better for all parties that the wants +of the soldier should be altogether supplied in the form of rations of +varied food and drink, and of clothing varying with climate and season. + +In regard to food, which comes first in importance of the five heads of +the soldier's wants, the English soldier was remarkably helpless till +he learned better. The Russians cut that matter very short. Every man +carried a certain portion of black rye bread and some spirit. No cooking +was required, and the men were very independent. But the diet is bad; +and the Russian regiments were composed of sallow-faced men, who died +"like flies" under frequently recurring epidemics. The Turks were in +their own country, and used their accustomed diet. The French are the +most apt, the most practised, and the most economical managers of food +of any of the parties engaged in the war. Their campaigns in Algeria had +taught them how to help themselves; and they could obtain a decent meal +where an Englishman would have eaten nothing, or something utterly +unwholesome. The Sardinians came next, and it was edifying to see how +they could build a fire-place and obtain a fire in a few minutes to boil +their pot. In other ways both French and Sardinians suffered miserably +when the British had surmounted their misfortunes. The mortality from +cholera and dysentery in the French force, during the last year, was +uncalculated and unreported. It was so excessive as, in fact, to close +the war too soon. The Sardinians were ravaged by disease from their huts +being made partly under ground. But, so far as the preparation of their +food went, both had the advantage of the British, in a way which will +never happen again. I believe the Americans and the English are bad +cooks in about the same degree; and the warning afforded by the one may +be accepted by the other. + +At the end of a day, in Bulgaria or the Crimea, what happened was this. + +The soldiers who did not understand cooking or messing had to satisfy +their hunger any way they could. They were so exhausted that they were +sure to drink up their allowance of grog the first moment they could lay +hands on it. Then there was hard biscuit, a lump of very salt pork or +beef, as hard as a board, and some coffee, raw. Those who had no touch +of scurvy (and they were few) munched their biscuit while they poked +about everywhere with a knife, digging up roots or cutting green wood to +make a fire. Each made a hole in the ground, unless there was a bank +or great stone at hand, and there he tried, for one half-hour after +another, to kindle a fire. When he got up a flame, there was his salt +meat to cook: it ought to have been soaked and stewed for hours; but he +could not wait; and he pulled it to pieces, and gnawed what he could of +it, when it was barely warm. Then he had to roast his coffee, which he +did in the lid of his camp-kettle, burning it black, and breaking it as +small as he could, with stones or anyhow. Such coffee as it would make +could hardly be worth the trouble. It was called by one of the doctors +charcoal and water. Such a supper could not fit a man for outpost duty +for the night, nor give him good sleep after the toils of the day. + +The Sardinians, meantime, united in companies, some members of which +were usually on the spot to prepare supper for the rest. They knew how +to look for or provide a shelter for their fire, if only a foot high; +and how to cut three or four little trenches, converging at the fire, so +as to afford a good draught which would kindle even bad fuel. They had +good stews and porridge and coffee ready when wanted. The French always +had fresh bread. They carried portable ovens and good bakers. The +British had flour, after a time, but they did not know how to make +bread; and if men volunteered for the office, day after day, it usually +turned out that they had a mind for a holiday, and knew nothing of +baking; and their bread came out of the oven too heavy, or sour, or +sticky, or burnt, to be eaten. As scurvy spread and deepened, the +doctors made eager demands on Government for lime-juice, and more +lime-juice. Government had sent plenty of lime-juice; but it was somehow +neglected among the stores for twenty-four days when it was most wanted, +as was the supply of rice for six weeks when dysentery was raging. All +the time, the truth was, as was acknowledged afterwards, that the thing +really wanted was good food. The lime-juice was a medicine, a specific; +but it could be of no real use till the frame was nourished with proper +food. + +When flour, and preserved vegetables, and fresh meat were served out, +and there were coffee-mills all through the camp, the men were still +unable to benefit by the change as their allies did. They could grind +and make their coffee; but they were still without good fresh bread and +soup. They despised the preserved vegetables, not believing that those +little cakes could do them any good. When they learned at last how two +ounces of those little cakes were equal, when well cooked, to eight +ounces of fresh vegetables, and just as profitable for a stew or with +their meat, they duly prized them, and during the final healthy period +those pressed vegetables were regarded in the camp as a necessary of +life. By that time, Soyer's zeal had introduced good cookery into the +camp. Roads were made by which supplies were continually arriving. Fresh +meat abounded; and it was brought in on its own legs, so that it was +certain that beef was beef, and mutton mutton, instead of goat's flesh +being substituted, as in Bulgaria. By that time it was discovered that +the most lavish orders at home and the profusest expenditure by the +commissariat will not feed and clothe an army in a foreign country, +unless there is some agency, working between the commissariat and the +soldiers, to take care that the food is actually in their hands in an +eatable form, and the clothes on their backs. + +It is for American soldiers to judge how much of this applies to their +case. The great majority of the volunteers must be handy, self-helping +men; and bands of citizens from the same towns or villages must be +disposed and accustomed to concerted action; but cooking is probably the +last thing they have any of them turned their hand to. Much depends on +the source of their food-supply. I fear they live on the country they +are in,--at least, when in the enemy's country. This is very easy +living, certainly. To shoot pigs or fowls in road or yard is one way of +getting fresh meat, as ravaging gardens is a short way of feasting on +vegetables. But supposing the forces fed from a regular commissariat +department, is there anything to be learned from the Crimean campaigns? + +The British are better supplied with the food of the country, wherever +they are, than the French, because it is their theory and practice to +pay as they go; whereas it is the French, or at least the Bonapartist +theory and practice, to "make the war support itself," that is, to live +upon the people of the country. In the Peninsular War, the French often +found themselves in a desert where they could not stay; whereas, when +Wellington and his troops followed upon their steps, the peasants +reappeared from all quarters, bringing materials for a daily market. In +the Crimea, the faithful and ready payments of the English commissariat +insured plenty of food material, in the form of cattle and flour, +biscuit and vegetables. The defect was in means of transport for +bringing provisions to the camp. The men were trying to eat hard salt +meat and biscuit, when scurvy made all eating difficult, while herds +of cattle were waiting to be slaughtered, and ship-loads of flour were +lying seven miles off. Whole deck-loads of cabbages and onions were +thrown into the sea, while the men in camp were pining for vegetable +food. An impracticable track lay between; and the poor fellows died by +thousands before the road could be made good, and transport-animals +obtained, and the food distributed among the tents and huts. Experience +taught the officers that the food should be taken entire charge of by +departments of the army till it was actually smoking in the men's hands. +There were agents, of course, in all the countries round, to buy up the +cattle, flour, and vegetables needed. The animals should be delivered +at appointed spots, alive and in good condition, that there might be no +smuggling in of joints of doubtful character. There should be a regular +arrangement of shambles, at a proper distance from the tents, and +provided with a special drainage, and means of disposing instantly of +the offal. Each company in the camp should have its kitchen, and one +or two skilled cooks,--one to serve on each day, with perhaps two +assistants from the company. After the regular establishment of the +kitchens, there was always food ready and coffee procurable for the +tired men who came in from the trenches or outpost duty; and it was a +man's own fault, if he went without a meal when off duty. + +It was found to be a grave mistake to feed the soldiers on navy salt +beef and pork. Corned beef and pork salted for a fortnight have far more +nourishment and make much less waste in the preparation than meat which +is salted for a voyage of months. After a time, very little of the hard +salted meat was used at all. When it was, it was considered essential +to serve out peas with the pork, and flour, raisins, and suet, for a +pudding, on salt-beef days. In course of time there were additions +which made considerable variety: as rice, preserved potatoes, pressed +vegetables, cheese, dried fruits and suet for puddings, sugar, coffee +properly roasted, and malt liquor. Beer and porter answer much better +than any kind of spirit, and are worth pains and cost to obtain. With +such variety as this, with portable kitchens in the place of the +cumbersome camp-kettle per man, with fresh bread, well-cooked meat and +vegetables, and well-made coffee, the soldiers will have every chance +of health that diet can afford. Whereas hard and long-kept salt meat, +insufficiently soaked and cooked, and hastily broiled meat or fowls, +just killed, and swallowed by hungry men unskilled in preparing food, +help on diseases of the alimentary system as effectually as that +intemperance in melons and cucumbers and unripe grapes and apples which +has destroyed more soldiers than all the weapons of all enemies. + +So much for the food. Next in order come the clothing, and care of the +person. + +The newspapers have a great deal to say, as we have all seen, about the +badness of much of the clothing furnished to the Federal troops. There +is no need to denounce the conduct of faithless contractors in such a +case; and the glorious zeal of the women, and of all who can help to +make up clothing for the army, shows that the volunteers at least will +be well clad, if the good-will of society can effect it. Whatever the +form of dress, it is the height of imprudence to use flimsy material for +it. + +It seems to be everywhere agreed, in a general way, that the soldier's +dress should be of an easy fit, in the first place; light enough for hot +weather and noon service, with resources of warmth for cold weather and +night duty. In Europe, the blouse or loose tunic is preferred to every +other form of coat, and knickerbockers or gaiters to any form of +trousers. The shoe or boot is the weak point of almost all military +forces. The French are getting over it; and the English are learning +from them. The number of sizes and proportions is, I think, five to one +of what it used to be in the early part of the century, so that any +soldier can get fitted. The Duke of Wellington wrote home from the +Peninsula in those days,--"If you don't send shoes, the army can't +march." The enemy marched away to a long distance before the shoes +arrived; and when they came, they were all too small. Such things do not +happen now; but it often does happen that hundreds are made footsore, +and thrown out of the march, by being ill-shod; and there seems reason +to believe that much of the lagging and apparent desertion of stragglers +in the marches of the volunteers of the Federal army is owing to the +difficulty of keeping up with men who walk at ease. If the Southern +troops are in such want of shoes as is reported, that circumstance alone +is almost enough to turn the scale, provided the Northern regiments +attain the full use of their feet by being accurately fitted with stout +shoes or boots. During the darkest days in the Crimea, those who had +boots which would stick on ceased to take them off. They slept in them, +wet or dry, knowing, that, once off, they could never be got on again. +Such things cannot happen in the Northern States, where the stoppage of +the trade in shoes to the South leaves leather, skill, and time for the +proper shoeing of the army; but it may not yet be thoroughly understood +how far the practical value of every soldier depends on the welfare of +his feet, and how many sizes and proportions of shoe are needed for duly +fitting a thousand men. + +As for the rest, the conclusion after the Crimean campaign was that +flannel shirts answer better than cotton on the whole. If the shirt is +cotton, there must be a flannel waistcoat; and the flannel shirt answers +the purpose of both, while it is as easily washed as any material. Every +man should have a flannel bandage for the body, in case of illness, or +unusual fatigue, or sudden changes of temperature. The make and pressure +of the knapsack are very important, so that the weight may be thrown on +the shoulders, without pressure on the chest or interference with the +arms. The main object is the avoidance of pressure everywhere, from the +toe-joints to the crown of the head. For this the head-covering should +be studied, that it may afford shelter and shade from heat and light, +and keep on, against the wind, without pressure on the temples or +forehead. For this the neck-tie should he studied, and the cut of the +coat-chest and sleeve, when coats must be worn: and every man must have +some sort of overcoat, for chilly and damp hours of duty. There is great +danger in the wearing of water-proof fabrics, unless they are so loose +as to admit of a free circulation of air between them and the body. + +With the clothing is generally connected the care of the person. It +is often made a question, With whom rests the responsibility of the +personal cleanliness of the soldier? The medical men declare that they +do what they can, but that there is nothing to be said when the men are +unsupplied with water; and all persuasions are thrown away when the poor +fellows are in tatters, and sleeping on dirty straw or the bare ground. +The indolent ones, at least, go on from day to day without undressing, +combing, or washing, till they are swarming with vermin; and then they +have lost self-respect. But if, before it is too late, there is an issue +of new shirts, boots, stockings, comforters, or woollen gloves, the +event puts spirit into them; they will strip and wash, and throw out +dirt and rags from their sleeping-places, and feel respectable again. + +Perhaps the first consideration should be on the part of the +quartermaster, whose business it is to see to the supply of water; and +the sanitary officer has next to take care that every man gets his eight +or ten gallons per day. If the soldiers are posted near a stream which +can be used for bathing and washing clothes, there ought to be no +difficulty; and every man may fairly be required to be as thoroughly +washed from head to foot every days and as clean in his inner clothing, +as his own little children at home. If on high and dry ground, where the +water-supply is restricted, some method and order are needed; but no +pains should be spared to afford each man his eight or ten gallons. + +This cannot be done, unless the source of supply is properly guarded. +When unrestrained access is afforded to a spring-head or pond, the water +is fatally wasted and spoiled. In the Crimea, the English officers +had to build round the spring-heads, and establish a regular order in +getting supplied. Where there is crowding, dirt gets thrown in, the +water is muddied, or animals are brought to drink at the source. This +ruins everything; for animals will not drink below, when the mouth +of horse, mule, or cow has touched the water above. The way is for +guardians to take possession, and board over the source, and make a +reservoir with taps, allowing water to be taken first for drinking and +washing purposes, a flow being otherwise provided by spout and troughs +for the animals, and for cleansing the camp. The difference on the same +spot was enormous between the time when a British sergeant wrote that he +was not so well as at home, and could not expect it, not having had his +shoes or any of his clothes off for five months, and the same time the +next year, when every respectable soldier was fresh and tidy, with his +blood flowing healthfully under a clean skin. The poor sergeant said, in +his days of discomfort: "I wonder what our sweethearts would think of +us, if they were to see us now,--unshaved, unwashed, and quite old men!" +Cut in a year, those who survived had grown young again,--not shaven, +perhaps, for their beards were a great natural comfort on winter duty, +but brushed and washed, in vigorous health, and gay spirits. + +The next consideration is the soldier's abode,--whether tent, or hut, or +quarters. + +I have shown certain British doctors demanding lime-juice when food was +necessary first. In the same way, there was a cry from the same quarter +for peat charcoal, instead of preventing the need of disinfectants. +Wherever men are congregated in large numbers,--in a caravan, at a +fair in the East or a protracted camp-meeting in the far West, or as a +military force anywhere, there is always animal refuse which should +not be permitted to lie about for a day or an hour. Dead camels among +Oriental merchants, dead horses among Western soldiers, are the cause of +plague. It is to be hoped that there will never be a military encampment +again without the appointment of officers whose business it shall be to +see that all carrion, offal, and dirt of every kind is put away into +its proper place instantly. For those receptacles, and for stables and +shambles, peat charcoal is a great blessing; but it ought not to be +needed in or about the abodes of the men. The case is different in +different armies. The French have a showy orderliness in their way of +settling themselves on new ground,--forming their camp into streets, +with names painted up, and opening post-office, _cafés_, and bazaars of +camp-followers; but they are not radically neat in their ways. In a few +days or weeks their settlement is a place of stench, turning to disease; +and thus it was, that, notwithstanding their fresh bread, and good +cookery, and clever arrangements, they were swept away by cholera and +dysentery, to an extent unrevealed to this day, while the British force, +once well fed and clothed, had actually only five per cent sick from all +causes, in their whole force. + +The Sardinians suffered, as I have already observed, from their way of +making their huts. They excavated a space, to the depth of three or four +feet, and used the earth they threw out to embank the walls raised upon +the edge of the excavation. This procured warmth in winter and coolness +in hot weather; but the interior was damp and ill-ventilated; and as +soon as there was any collection of refuse within, cholera and fever +broke out. It is essential to health that the dwelling should be above +ground, admitting the circulation of air from the base to the ridge of +the roof, where there should be an escape for it at all hours of the day +and night. + +Among volunteer troops in America, the difficulty would naturally seem +to be the newness of the discipline, the strangeness of the requisite +obedience. Something must be true of all that is said of the scattering +about of food, and other things which have no business to lie about on +the ground. A soldier is out of his duty who throws away a crust of +bread or meat, or casts bones to dogs, or in any way helps to taint the +air or obstruct the watercourses or drains. It may be troublesome to +obey the requisitions of the sanitary authorities; but it is the only +chance for escaping camp-disease. + +On the other hand, in fixing on a spot for encampment, it is due to +the soldier to avoid all boggy places, and all places where the air is +stagnant from inclosure by woods, or near burial-grounds, or where the +soil is unfavorable to drainage. The military officer must admit the +advice of the sanitary officer in the case, though he may not be +always able to adopt it. When no overwhelming military considerations +interfere, the soldiers have a right to be placed on the most dry and +pervious soil that may offer, in an airy situation, removed from swamps +and dense woods, and admitting of easy drainage. Wood and water used to +be the quartermaster's sole demands; now, good soil and air are added, +and a suitable slope of the ground, and other minor requisites. + +It depends on the character of the country whether quarters in towns and +villages are best, or huts or tents. In Europe, town quarters are found +particularly fatal; and the state of health of the inmates of tents and +huts depends much on the structure and placing of either. Precisely the +same kind of hut in the Crimea held a little company of men in perfect +health, or a set of invalids, carried out one after another to their +graves. Nay, the same hut bore these different characters, according to +its position at the top of a slope, or half-way down, so as to collect +under its floor the drainage from a spring. American soldiers, however, +are hardly likely to be hutted, I suppose; so I need say no more than +that in huts and tents alike it is indispensable to health that there +should be air-holes,--large spaces, sheltered from rain,--in the highest +part of the structure, whether the entrance below be open or closed. The +sanitary officers no doubt have it in charge to see that every man has +his due allowance of cubic feet of fresh air,--in other words, to take +care that each tent or other apartment is well ventilated, and not +crowded. The men's affair is to establish such rules among comrades as +that no one shall stop up air-holes, or overcrowd the place with guests, +or taint the air with unwholesome fumes. In the British army, bell-tents +are not allowed at all as hospital tents. Active, healthy men may use +them in their resting hours; but their condemnation as abodes for the +sick shows how pressing is the duty of ventilating them for the use of +the strongest and healthiest. + +A sound and airy tent being provided, the next consideration is of +bedding. + +The surgeons of the British force were always on the lookout for straw +and hay, after being informed at the outset that the men could not have +bedding, though it was hoped there was enough for the hospitals. A few +nights in the dust, among the old bones and rubbish of Gallipoli, and +then in the Bulgarian marshes, showed that it would be better to bestow +the bedding before the men went into hospital, and sheets of material +were obtained for some of them to lie upon. A zealous surgeon pointed +out to the proper officer that this bedding consisted in fact of double +ticking, evidently intended as _paillasses_, to be stuffed with straw. +The straw not being granted, he actually set to work to make hay; and, +being well aided by the soldiers, he soon saw them sleeping on +good mattresses. It was understood in England, and believed by the +Government, that every soldier in camp had three blankets; and after a +time, this came true: but in the interval, during the damp autumn and +bitter winter, they had but one. Lying on wet ground, with one damp and +dirty blanket over them, prepared hundreds for the hospital and the +grave. The mischief was owing to the jealousy of some of the medical +authorities, in the first place, who would not see, believe, or allow to +be reported, the fact that the men were in any way ill-supplied, because +these same doctors had specified the stores that would be wanted,--and +next, to the absence of a department for the actual distribution of +existing stores. With the bedding the case was the same as with the +lime-juice and the rice: there was plenty; but it was not served out +till too late. When the huts were inhabited, in the Crimea, and the +wooden platforms had a dry soil beneath, and every man had a bed of some +sort and three blankets, there was no more cholera or fever. + +The American case is radically unlike that of any of the combatants in +the Crimean War, because they are on the soil of their own country, +within reach of their own railways, and always in the midst of the +ordinary commodities of life. In such a position, they can with the +utmost ease be supplied with whatever they really want,--so profuse as +are the funds placed at the command of the authorities. Considering +this, and the well-known handiness of Americans, there need surely be no +disease and death from privation. This may be confidently said while we +have before us the case of the British in the Crimea during the second +winter of the war. A sanitary commission had been sent out; and +under their authority, and by the help of experience, everything was +rectified. The healthy were stronger than ever; there was scarcely any +sickness; and the wounded recovered without drawback. As the British +ended, the Americans ought to begin. + +On the last two heads of the soldier's case there is little to be said +here, because the American troops are at home, and not in a perilous +foreign climate, and on the shores of a remote sea. Their drill can +hardly be appointed for wrong hours, or otherwise mismanaged. In regard +to transport, they have not the embarrassment of crowds of sick and +wounded, far away in the Black Sea, without any adequate supply of +mules and carriages, after the horses had died off, and without any +organization of hospital ships at all equal to the demand. Neither do +they depend for clothing and medicines on the arrival of successive +ships through the storms of the Euxine; and they will never see the +dreary spectacle of the foundering of a noble vessel just arriving, in +November, with ample stores of winter clothing, medicines, and comforts, +which six hours more would have placed in safety. Under the head of +transport, they ought to have nothing to suffer. + +Having gone through the separate items, and looking at the case as a +whole, we may easily perceive that in America, as in England and France +and every other country, the responsibility of the soldier's health in +camp is shared thus. + +The authorities are bound so to arrange their work as that there shall +be no hitch through which disaster shall reach the soldiery. The +relations between the military and medical authorities must be so +settled and made clear as that no professional jealousy among the +doctors shall keep the commanding officers in the dark as to the +needs--of their men, and that no self-will or ignorance in commanding +officers shall neutralize the counsels of the medical men. The military +authorities must not depend on the report of any doctor who may be +incompetent as to the provision made for the men's health, and the +doctor must be authorized to represent the dangers of a bad encampment +without being liable to a recommendation to keep his opinion to himself +till he is asked for it. These particular dangers are best obviated by +the appointment of sanitary officers, to attend the forces, and take +charge of the health of the army, as the physicians and surgeons take +charge of its sickness. If, besides, there is a separate department +between the commissariat and the soldiery, to see that the comforts +provided are actually brought within every man's grasp, the authorities +will have done their part. + +The rest is the soldier's own concern. When cruelly pressed by hardship, +the soldiers in Turkey and the Crimea took to drinking; and what they +drank was poison. The vile raid with which they intoxicated themselves +carried hundreds to the grave as surely as arsenic would have done. +When, at last, they were well fed, warm, clean, and comfortable, and +well amused in the coffee-houses opened for them, there was an end, or +a vast diminution, of the evil of drunkenness. Good coffee and harmless +luxuries were sold to them at cost price; and books and magazines and +newspapers, chess, draughts, and other games, were at their command. The +American soldiery are a more cultivated set of men than these, and are +in proportion more inexcusable for any resort to intemperance. They +ought to have neither the external discomfort nor the internal vacuity +which have caused drunkenness in other armies. The resort to strong +drinks so prevalent in the Americans is an ever-lasting mystery to +Europeans, who recognize in them a self-governing people, universally +educated up to a capacity for intellectual interests such as are +elsewhere found to be a safeguard against intemperance in drink. If the +precautions instituted by the authorities are well supported by the +volunteers themselves, the most fatal of all perils will be got rid of. +If not, the army will perish by a veritable suicide. But such a fate +cannot be in store for such an army. + +There is something else almost as indispensable to the health of +soldiers as sobriety, and that is subordination. The true, magnanimous, +patriotic spirit of subordination is not more necessary to military +achievement than it is to the personal composure and the trustworthiness +of nerve of the individual soldier. A strong desire and fixed habit of +obedience to command relieve a man of all internal conflict between +self-will and circumstance, and give him possession of his full powers +of action and endurance. If absolute reliance on authority is a +necessity to the great majority of mankind, (which it is,) it is to the +few wisest and strongest a keen enjoyment when they can righteously +indulge in it; and the occasion on which it is supremely a duty--in the +case of military or naval service--is one of privilege. Americans are +less accustomed than others to prompt and exact obedience, being a +self-governing and unmilitary nation: and they may require some time to +become aware of the privileges of subordination to command. But time +will satisfy them of the truth; and those who learn the lesson most +quickly will be the most sensible of the advantage to health of body, +through ease of mind. The abdication of self-will in regard to the +ordering of affairs, the repose of reliance upon the responsible +parties, the exercise of silent endurance about hardships and fatigues, +the self-respect which relishes the honor of cooperation through +obedience, the sense of patriotic devotedness which glows through every +act of submission to command,--all these elevated feelings tend to +composure of the nerves, to the fortifying of brain and limb, and the +genial repose and exaltation of all the powers of mind and body. I +need not contrast with this the case of the discontented and turbulent +volunteer, questioning commands which he is not qualified to judge of, +and complaining of troubles which cannot be helped. It is needless to +show what wear-and-tear is caused by such a spirit, and how nerve and +strength must, in such a case, fail in the hour of effort or of crisis, +and give way at once before the assault of disease. By the aid of +sobriety and the calm and cheerful subordination of the true military +character, the health of the Federal army may be equal to its high +mission: and all friends of human freedom, in all lands, must heartily +pray that it may be so. + +There is another department of the subject which I propose to treat of +another month: "Health in the Military Hospital." + + + + +"THE STORMY PETREL." + + + Where the gray crags beat back the northern main, + And all around, the ever restless waves, + Like white sea-wolves, howl on the lonely sands, + Clings a low roof, close by the sounding surge. + If, in your summer rambles by the shore, + His spray-tost cottage you may chance espy, + Enter and greet the blind old mariner. + + Full sixty winters he has watched beside + The turbulent ocean, with one purpose warmed: + To rescue drowning men. And round the coast-- + For so his comrades named him in his youth-- + They know him as "The Stormy Petrel" still. + + Once he was lightning-swift, and strong; his eyes + Peered through the dark, and far discerned the wreck + Plunged on the reef. Then with bold speed he flew, + The life-boat launched, and dared the smiting rocks. + + 'T is said by those long dwelling near his door, + That hundreds have been storm-saved by his arm; + That never was he known to sleep, or lag + In-doors, when danger swept the seas. His life + Was given to toil, his strength to perilous blasts. + In freezing floods when tempests hurled the deep, + And battling winds clashed in their icy caves, + Scared housewives, waking, thought of him, and said, + "'The Stormy Petrel' is abroad to-night, + And watches from the cliffs." + + He could not rest + When shipwrecked forms might gasp amid the waves, + And not a cry be answered from the shore. + + Now Heaven has quenched his sight; but when he hears + By his lone hearth the sullen sea-winds clang, + Or listens, in the mad, wild, drowning night, + As younger footsteps hurry o'er the beach + To pluck the sailor from his sharp-fanged death,-- + The old man starts, with generous impulse thrilled, + And, with the natural habit of his heart, + Calls to his neighbors in a cheery tone, + Tells them he'll pilot toward the signal guns, + And then, remembering all his weight of years, + Sinks on his couch, and weeps that he is blind. + + + + +A STORY OF TO-DAY. + + +Margaret stood looking down in her quiet way at the sloping moors and +fog. She, too, had her place and work. She thought that night she saw it +clearly, and kept her eyes fixed on it, as I said. They plodded steadily +down the wide years opening before her. Whatever slow, unending work +lay in them, whatever hungry loneliness they held for her heart, or +coarseness of deed, she saw it all, shrinking from nothing. She +looked at the tense blue-corded veins in her wrist, full of fine +pure blood,--gauged herself coolly, her lease of life, her power of +endurance,--measured it out against the work waiting for her. The work +would be long, she knew. She would be old before it was finished, quite +an old woman, hard, mechanical, worn out. But the day would be so +bright, when it came, it would atone for all: the day would be bright, +the home warm again; it would hold all that life had promised her of +good. + +All? Oh, Margaret, Margaret! Was there no sullen doubt in the brave +resolve? Was there no shadow rose just then, dark, ironical, blotting +out father and mother and home, coming nearer, less alien to your soul +than these, than even your God? + +If any such cold, masterful shadow rose out of years gone, and clutched +at the truest life of her heart, she stifled it, and thrust it down. +And yet, leaning on the gate, and thinking drearily, vacantly, she +remembered a time when God came nearer to her than He did now, and came +through that shadow,--when, by the help of that dead hope, He of whom +she read to-night came close, an infinitely tender Helper, who, with the +human love that was in her heart to-day, had loved his mother and John +and Mary. Now, struggle as she would for healthy hopes and warmth, the +world was gray and silent. Her defeated woman's nature called it so, +bitterly. Christ was a dim ideal power, heaven far-off. She doubted if +it held anything as real as that which she had lost. + +As if to bring back the old times more vividly to her, there happened +one of those curious little coincidences with which Fate, we think, has +nothing to do. She heard a quick step along the clay road, and a muddy +little terrier jumped up, barking, beside her. She stopped with a +suddenness strange in her slow movements. _"Tiger!"_ she said, stroking +its head with passionate eagerness. The dog licked her hand, smelt her +clothes to know if she were the same: it was two years since he had seen +her. She sat there, softly stroking him. Presently there was a sound of +wheels jogging down the road, and a voice singing snatches of some song, +one of those cheery street-songs that the boys whistle. It was a low, +weak voice, but very pleasant. Margaret heard it through the dark; she +kissed the dog with a strange paleness on her face, and stood up, quiet, +attentive as before. Tiger still kept licking her hand, as it hung by +her side: it was cold, and trembled as he touched it. She waited a +moment, then pushed the dog from her, as if his touch, even, caused her +to break some vow. He whined, but she hurried away, not waiting to know +how he came, or with whom. Perhaps, if Dr. Knowles had seen her face as +she looked back at him, he would have thought there were depths in her +nature which his probing eyes had never reached. + +The wheels came close, and directly a cart stopped at the gate. It was +one of those little wagons that hucksters drive; only this seemed to be +a home-made affair, patched up with wicker-work and bits of board. It +was piled up with baskets of vegetables, eggs, and chickens, and on a +broken bench in the middle sat the driver, a woman. You could not +help laughing, when you looked at the whole turn-out, it had such a +make-shift look altogether. + +The reins were twisted rope, the wheels uneven. It went jolting along in +such a careless, jolly way, as if it would not care in the least, should +it go to pieces any minute just there in the road. The donkey that drew +it was bony and blind of one eye; but he winked the other knowingly at +you, as if to ask if you saw the joke of the thing. Even the voice of +the owner of the establishment, chirruping some idle song, as I told +you, was one of the cheeriest sounds you ever heard. Joel, up at the +barn, forgot his dignity to salute it with a prolonged "Hillo!" and +presently appeared at the gate. + +"I'm late, Joel," said the weak voice. It sounded like a child's near at +hand. + +"We can trade in the dark, Lois, both bein' honest," he responded, +graciously, hoisting a basket of tomatoes into the cart, and taking out +a jug of vinegar. + +"Is that Lois?" said Mrs. Howth, coming to the gate. "Sit still, child. +Don't get down." + +But the child, as she called her, had scrambled off the cart, and stood +beside her, leaning on the wheel, for she was helplessly crippled. + +"I thought you would be down tonight. I put some coffee on the stove. +Bring it out, Joel." + +Mrs. Howth never put up the shield between herself and this member of +"the class,"--because, perhaps, she was so wretchedly low in the social +scale. However, I suppose she never gave a reason for it even to +herself. Nobody could help being kind to Lois, even if he tried. Joel +brought the coffee with more readiness than he would have waited on Mrs. +Howth. + +"Barney will be jealous," he said, patting the bare ribs of the old +donkey, and glancing wistfully at his mistress. + +"Give him his supper, surely," she said, taking the hint. + +It was a real treat to see how Lois enjoyed her supper, sipping and +tasting the warm coffee, her face in a glow, like an epicure over some +rare Falernian. You would be sure, from, just that little thing, that no +sparkle of warmth or pleasure in the world slipped by her which she did +not catch and enjoy and be thankful for to the uttermost. You would +think, perhaps, pitifully, that not much pleasure or warmth would ever +go down so low, within her reach. Now that she stood on the ground, she +scarcely came up to the level of the wheel; some deformity of her legs +made her walk with a curious rolling jerk, very comical to see. She +laughed at it, when other people did; if it vexed her at all, she never +showed it. She had turned back her calico sun-bonnet, and stood looking +up at Mrs. Howth and Joel, laughing as they talked--with her. The face +would have startled you on so old and stunted a body. It was a child's +face, quick, eager, with that pitiful beauty you always see in deformed +people. Her eyes, I think, were the kindliest, the hopefullest I ever +saw. Nothing but the pale thickness of her skin betrayed the fact that +set Lois apart from even the poorest poor,--the taint in her veins of +black blood. + +"Whoy! be n't this Tiger?" said Joel, as the dog ran yelping about him. +"How comed yoh with him, Lois?" + +"Tiger an' his master's good friends o' mine,--you remember they allus +was. An' he's back now, Mr. Holmes,--been back for a month." + +Margaret, walking in the porch with her father, stopped. + +"Are you tired, father? It is late." + +"And you are worn out, poor child! It was selfish in me to forget. +Good-night, dear!" + +Margaret kissed him, laughing cheerfully, as she led him to his +room-door. He lingered, holding her dress. + +"Perhaps it will be easier for you tomorrow than it was to-day?" +hesitating. + +"I am sure it will. To-morrow will be sure to be better than to-day." + +She left him, and went away with a slow step that did not echo the +promise of her words. + +Joel, meanwhile, consulted apart with his mistress. + +"Of course," she said, emphatically.--"You must stay until morning, +Lois. It is too late. Joel will toss you up a bed in the loft." + +The queer little body hesitated. + +"I can stay," she said, at last. "It's his watch at the mill to-night." + +"Whose watch?" demanded Joel. + +Her face brightened. + +"Father's. He's back, mum." + +Joel caught himself in a whistle. + +"He's very stiddy, Joel,--as stiddy as yuh." + +"I am very glad he has come back, Lois," said Mrs. Howth, gravely. + +At every place where Lois had been that day she had told her bit of good +news, and at every place it had been met with the same kindly smile and +"I'm glad he's back, Lois." + +Yet Joe Yare, fresh from two years in the penitentiary, was not exactly +the person whom society usually welcomes with open arms. Lois had a +vague suspicion of this, perhaps; for, as she hobbled along the path, +she added to her own assurance of his "stiddiness" earnest explanations +to Joel of how he had a place in the Croft Street woollen-mills, and +how Dr. Knowles had said he was as ready a stoker as any in the +furnace-rooms. + +The sound of her weak, eager voice was silent presently, and nothing +broke the quiet and cold of the night. Even the morning, when it came +long after, came quiet and cool,--the warm red dawn helplessly smothered +under great waves of gray cloud. Margaret, looking out into the thick +fog, lay down wearily again, closing her eyes. What was the day to her? + +Very slowly the night was driven back. An hour after, when she lifted +her head again, the stars were still glittering through the foggy arch, +like sparks of brassy blue, and the sky and hills and valleys were one +drifting, slow-heaving mass of ashy damp. Off in the east a stifled red +film groped through. It was another day coming; she might as well get +up, and live the rest of her life out;--what else had she to do? + +Whatever this night had been to the girl, it left one thought sharp, +alive, in the exhausted quiet of her brain: a cowardly dread of the +trial of the day, when she would see him again. Was the old struggle of +years before coming back? Was it all to go over again? She was worn out. +She had been quiet in these--two years: what had gone before she never +looked back upon; but it made her thankful for even this stupid quiet. +And now, when she had planned her life, busy and useful and contented, +why need God have sent the old thought to taunt her? A wild, sickening +sense of what might have been struggled up: she thrust it down,--she had +kept it down all night; the old pain should not come back,--it should +not. She did not think of the love she had given up as a dream, as +verse-makers or sham people do; she knew it to be the reality of her +life. She cried for it even now, with all the fierce strength of her +nature; it was the best she knew; through it she came nearest to God. +Thinking of the day when she had given it up, she remembered it with a +vague consciousness of having fought a deadly struggle with her fate, +and that she had been conquered,--never had lived again. Let it be; she +could not bear the struggle again. + +She went on dressing herself in a dreary, mechanical way. Once, a bitter +laugh came on her face, as she looked into the glass, and saw the dead, +dull eyes, and the wrinkle on her forehead. Was that the face to be +crowned with delicate caresses and love? She scorned herself for the +moment, grew sick of herself, balked, thwarted in her true life as she +was. Other women whom God has loved enough to probe to the depths of +their nature have done the same,--saw themselves as others saw them: +their strength drying up within them, jeered at, utterly alone. It is +a trial we laugh at. I think the quick fagots at the stake were fitter +subjects for laughter than the slow gnawing hunger in the heart of many +a slighted woman or a selfish man. They come out of the trial as out of +martyrdom, according to their faith: you see its marks sometimes in a +frivolous old age going down with tawdry hopes and starved eyes to the +grave; you see its victory in the freshest, fullest lives in the earth. +This woman had accepted her trial, but she took it up as an inflexible +fate which she did not understand; it was new to her; its solitude, its +hopeless thirst were freshly bitter. She loathed herself as one whom God +had thought unworthy of every woman's right,--to love and be loved. + +She went to the window, looking blankly out into the gray cold. Any +one with keen analytic eye, noting the thin muscles of this woman, the +childish, scarlet lips, the eyes deep, concealing, would have foretold +that she would conquer in the trial, that she would force her soul +down,--but that the forcing down would leave the weak, flaccid body +spent and dead. One thing was certain: no curious eyes would see the +struggle; the body might be nerveless or sickly, but it had the great +power of reticence; the calm with which she faced the closest gaze was +natural to her,--no mask. When she left her room and went down, the +same unaltered quiet that had baffled Knowles steadied her step and +cooled her eyes. + +After you have made a sacrifice of yourself for others, did you ever +notice how apt you were to doubt, as soon as the deed was irrevocable, +whether, after all, it were worth while to have done it? How poor seems +the good gained! How new and unimagined the agony of empty hands and +stifled wish! Very slow the angels are, sometimes, that are sent to +minister! + +Margaret, going down the stairs that morning, found none of the +chivalric unselfish glow of the night before in her home. It was an old, +bare house in the midst of dreary moors, in which her life was slowly to +be worn out: that was all. It did not matter; life was short: she could +thank God for that at least. + +She opened the house-door. A draught of cold morning air struck her +face, sweeping from the west; it had driven the fog in great gray banks +upon the hills, or in shimmering broken swamps into the cleft hollows: +a vague twilight filled the space left bare. Tiger, asleep in the hall, +rushed out into the meadow, barking, wild with the freshness and cold, +then back again to tear round her for a noisy good-morning. The touch of +the dog seemed to bring her closer to his master; she put him away; she +dared not suffer even that treachery to her purpose: because, in fact, +the very circumstances that had forced her to give him up made it weak +cowardice to turn again. It was a simple story, yet one which she dared +not tell to herself; for it was not altogether for her father's sake she +had made the sacrifice. She knew, that, though she might be near to +this man Holmes as his own soul, she was a clog on him,--stood in his +way,--kept him back. So she had quietly stood aside, taken up her own +solitary burden, and left him with his clear self-reliant life,--with +his Self, dearer to him than she had ever been. Why should it not be? +she thought,--remembering the man as he was, a master among men. He was +back again; she must see him. So she stood there with this persistent +dread running through her brain. + +Suddenly, in the lane by the house, she heard a voice talking to +Joel,--the huckster-girl. What a weak, cheery sound it was in the cold +and fog! It touched her curiously: broke through her morbid thought as +anything true and healthy would have done. "Poor Lois!" she thought, +with an eager pity, forgetting her own intolerable future for the +moment, as she gathered up some breakfast and went with it down the +lane. Morning had come; great heavy bars of light fell from behind the +hills athwart the banks of gray and black fog; there was shifting, +uneasy, obstinate tumult among the shadows; they did not mean to yield +to the coming dawn. The hills, the massed woods, the mist opposed their +immovable front, scornfully. Margaret did not notice the silent contest +until she reached the lane. The girl Lois, sitting in her cart, was +looking, quiet, attentive, at the slow surge of the shadows, and the +slower lifting of the slanted rays. + +"T' mornin' comes grand here, Miss Marg'et!" she said, lowering her +voice. + +Margaret said nothing in reply; the morning, she thought, was gray +and cold, as her own life. She stood leaning on the low cart; +some strange sympathy drew her to this poor wretch, dwarfed, +alone in the world,--some tie of equality, which the odd childish +face, nor the quaint air of content about the creature, did +not lessen. Even when Lois shook down the patched skirt of her flannel +frock straight, and settled the heaps of corn and tomatoes about her, +preparatory for a start, Margaret kept her hand on the side of the cart, +and walked slowly by it down the road. Once, looking at the girl, she +thought with a half smile how oddly clean she was. The flannel skirt she +arranged so complacently had been washed until the colors had run madly +into each other in sheer desperation; her hair was knotted with a +relentless tightness into a comb such as old women wear. The very cart, +patched as it was, had a snug, cozy look; the masses of vegetables, +green and crimson and scarlet, were heaped with a certain reference to +the glow of color, Margaret noticed, wondering if it were accidental. +Looking up, she saw the girl's brown eyes fixed on her face. They were +singularly soft, brooding brown. + +"Ye'r' goin' to th' mill, Miss Marg'et?" she asked, in a half whisper. + +"Yes. You never go there now, Lois?" + +"No, 'm." + +The girl shuddered, and then tried to hide it in a laugh. Margaret +walked on beside her, her hand on the cart's edge. Somehow this +creature, that Nature had thrown impatiently aside as a failure, so +marred, imperfect, that even the dogs were kind to her, came strangely +near to her, claimed recognition by some subtile instinct. + +Partly for this, and partly striving to forget herself, she glanced +furtively at the childish face of the distorted little body, wondering +what impression the shifting dawn made on the unfinished soul that was +looking out so intently through the brown eyes. What artist sense had +she,--what could she know--the ignorant huckster--of the eternal laws +of beauty or grandeur? Nothing. Yet something in the girl's face made +her think that these hills, this air and sky, were in fact alive to +her,--real; that her soul, being lower, it might be, than ours, lay +closer to Nature, knew the language of the changing day, of these +earnest-faced hills, of the very worms crawling through the brown mould. +It was an idle fancy; Margaret laughed at herself for it, and turned +to watch the slow morning-struggle which Lois followed with such eager +eyes. + +The light was conquering, growing stronger. Up the gray arch the soft, +dewy blue crept gently, deepening, broadening; below it, the level bars +of light struck full on the sullen black of the west, and worked there +undaunted, tinging it with crimson and imperial purple. Two or three +coy mist-clouds, soon converted to the new allegiance, drifted giddily +about, mere flakes of rosy blushes. The victory of the day came slowly, +but sure, and then the full morning flushed out, fresh with moisture and +light and delicate perfume. The bars of sunlight fell on the lower earth +from the steep hills like pointed swords; the foggy swamp of wet vapor +trembled and broke, so touched, rose at last, leaving patches of damp +brilliance on the fields, and floated majestically up in radiant victor +clouds, led by the conquering wind. Victory: it was in the cold, pure +ether filling the heavens, in the solemn gladness of the hills. The +great forests thrilling in the soft light, the very sleepy river +wakening under the mist, chorded in with a grave bass to the rising +anthem of welcome to the new life which God had freshly given to the +world. From the sun himself, come forth as a bridegroom from his +chamber, to the flickering raindrops on the road-side mullein, the world +seemed to rejoice exultant in victory. Homely, cheerier sounds broke the +outlined grandeur of the morning, on which Margaret looked wearily. Lois +lost none of them; no morbid shadow of her own balked life kept their +meaning from her. + +The light played on the heaped vegetables in the old cart; the bony legs +of the donkey trotted on with fresh vigor. There was not a lowing cow in +the distant barns, nor a chirping swallow on the fence-bushes, that +did not seem to include the eager face of the little huckster in their +morning greetings. Not a golden dandelion on the road-side, not a gurgle +of the plashing brown water from the well-troughs, which did not give +a quicker pleasure to the glowing face. Its curious content stung the +woman walking by her side. What secret of recompense had this poor +wretch found? + +"Your father is here, Lois," she said carelessly, to break the silence. +"I saw him at the mill yesterday." + +Her face kindled instantly. + +"He's home, Miss Marg'et,--yes. An' it's all right wid him. Things allus +do come right, some time," she added, in a reflective tone, brushing a +fly off Sawney's ear. + +Margaret smiled. + +"Always? Who brings them right for you, Lois?" + +"The Master," she said, turning with an answering smile. + +Margaret was touched. The owner of the mill was not a more real +verity to this girl than the Master of whom she spoke with such quiet +knowledge. + +"Are things right in the mill?" she said, testing her. + +A shadow came on her face; her eyes wandered uncertainly, as if her weak +brain were confused,--only for a moment. + +"They'll come right!" she said, bravely. "The Master'll see to it!" + +But the light was gone from her eyes; some old pain seemed to be surging +through her narrow thought; and when she began to talk, it was in a +bewildered, doubtful way. + +"It's a black place, th' mill," she said, in a low voice. "It was a good +while I was there: frum seven year old till sixteen. 'T seemed longer t' +me 'n 't was. 'T seemed as if I'd been there allus,--jes' forever, yoh +know. 'Fore I went in, I had the rickets, they say: that's what ails me. +'T hurt my head, they've told me,--made me different frum other folks." + +She stopped a moment, with a dumb, hungry look in her eyes. After a +while she looked at Margaret furtively, with a pitiful eagerness. + +"Miss Marg'et, I think there _is_ something wrong in my head. Did yoh +ever notice it?" + +Margaret put her hand kindly on the broad, misshapen forehead. + +"Something is wrong everywhere, Lois," she said, absently. + +She did not see the slow sigh with which the girl smothered down +whatever hope had risen just then, nor the wistful look of the brown +eyes that brightened into bravery after a while. + +"It'll come right," she said, steadily, though her voice was lower than +before. + +"But the mill,"--Margaret recalled her. + +"Th' mill,--yes. There was three of us,--father 'n' mother 'n' me,--'n' +pay was poor. They said times was hard. They _was_ hard times, Miss +Marg'et!" she said, with a nervous laugh, the brown eyes strangely +wandering. + +"Yes, hard,"--she soothed her, gently. + +"Pay was poor, 'n' many things tuk money." (Remembering the girl's +mother, Margaret knew gin would have covered the "many things.") "Worst +to me was th' mill. I kind o' grew into that place in them years: seemed +to me like as I was part o' th' engines, somehow. Th' air used to be +thick in my mouth, black wi' smoke 'n' wool 'n' smells. It 's better +now there. I got stunted then, yoh know. 'N' th' air in th' alleys was +worse, where we slep'. I think mebbe as 't was then I went wrong in my +head. Miss Marg'et!" + +Her voice went lower. + +"'T isn't easy to think o' th' Master--down _there_, in them cellars. +Things comes right--slow there,--slow." + +Her eyes grew stupid, as if looking down into some dreary darkness. + +"But the mill?" + +The girl roused herself with a sharp sigh. + +"In them years I got dazed in my head, I think. 'T was th' air 'n' th' +work. I was weak allus. 'T got so that th' noise o' th' looms went on in +my head night 'n' day,--allus thud, thud. 'N' hot days, when th' hands +was chaffin' 'n' singin', th' black wheels 'n' rollers was alive, +starin' down at me, 'n' th' shadders o' th' looms was like snakes +creepin',--creepin' anear all th' time. They was very good to me, th' +hands was,--very good. Ther' 's lots o' th' Master's people down there, +out o' sight, that's so low they never heard His name: preachers don't +go there. But He'll see to't. He'll not min' their cursin' o' Him, +seein' they don't know His face, 'n' thinkin' He belongs to th' gentry. +I knew it wud come right wi' me, when times was th' most bad. I knew"-- + +The girl was trembling now with excitement, her hands working together, +her eyes set, all the slow years of ruin that had eaten into her brain +rising before her, all the tainted blood in her veins of centuries of +slavery and heathenism struggling to drag her down. But above all, the +Hope rose clear, simple: the trust in the Master: and shone in her +scarred face,--through her marred senses. + +"I knew it wud come right, allus. I was alone then: mother was dead, and +father was gone, 'n' th' Lord thought 't was time to see to me,--special +as th' overseer was gettin' me an enter to th' poorhouse. So He sent Mr. +Holmes along. Then it come right!" + +Margaret did not speak. Even this mill-girl could talk of him, pray for +him; but she never must take his name on her lips! + +"He got th' cart fur me, 'n' this blessed old donkey, 'n' my room. Did +yoh ever see my room, Miss Marg'et?" + +Her face lighted suddenly with its peculiar childlike smile. + +"No? Yoh'll come some day, surely? It's a pore place, yoh'll think; but +it's got th' air,--th' air." + +She stopped to breathe the cold morning wind, as if she thought to find +in its fierce freshness the life and brains she had lost. + +"Ther' 's places in them alleys 'n' dark holes, Miss Marg'et, like th' +openin's to hell, with th' thick smells 'n' th' sights yoh'd see." + +She went back with a terrible clinging pity to the Gehenna from which +she had escaped. The ill of life was real enough to her,--a hungry devil +down in those alleys and dens. Margaret listened, waking to the sense +of a different pain in the world from her own,--lower deeps from which +women like herself draw delicately back, lifting their gauzy dresses. + +"Openin's to hell, they're like. People as come down to preach in them +think that, 'pears to me,--'n' think we've but a little way to go, bein' +born so near. It's easy to tell they thinks it,--shows in their looks. +Miss Marg'et!" + +Her face flashed. + +"Well, Lois?" + +"Th' Master has His people 'mong them very lowest, that's not for such +as yoh to speak to. He knows 'em: men 'n' women starved 'n' drunk into +jails 'n' work-houses, that'd scorn to be cowardly or mean,--that shows +God's kindness, through th' whiskey 'n' thievin', to th' orphints +or--such as me. Ther 's things th' Master likes in them, 'n' it'll +come right," she sobbed, "it'll come right at last; they'll have a +chance--somewhere." + +Margaret did not speak; let the poor girl sob herself into quiet. What +had she to do with this gulf of pain and wrong? Her own higher life was +starved, thwarted. Could it be that the blood of these her brothers +called against _her_ from the ground? No wonder that the huckster-girl +sobbed, she thought, or talked heresy. It was not an easy thing to see +a mother drink herself into the grave. And yet--was she to blame? Her +Virginian blood was cool, high-bred; she had learned conservatism in her +cradle. Her life in the West had not yet quickened her pulse. So she put +aside whatever social mystery or wrong faced her in this girl, just as +you or I would have done. She had her own pain to bear. Was she her +brother's keeper? It was true, there was wrong; this woman's soul lay +shattered by it; it was the fault of her blood, of her birth, and +Society had finished the work. Where was the help? She was free,--and +liberty, Dr. Knowles said, was the cure for all the soul's diseases, +and---- + +Well, Lois was quiet now,--ready with her childish smile to be drawn +into a dissertation on Barney's vices and virtues, or a description of +her room, where "th' air was so strong, 'n' the fruit 'n' vegetables +allus stayed fresh,--best in _this_ town," she said, with a bustling +pride. + +They went on down the road, through the corn-fields sometimes, or on +the riverbank, or sometimes skirting the orchards or barn-yards of the +farms. The fences were well built, she noticed,--the barns wide and +snug-looking: for this county in Indiana is settled by New England +people, as a general thing, or Pennsylvanians. They both leave their +mark on barns or fields, I can tell you! The two women were talking all +the way. In all his life Dr. Knowles had never heard from this silent +girl words as open and eager as she gave to the huckster about paltry, +common things,--partly, as I said, from a hope to forget herself, and +partly from a vague curiosity to know the strange world which opened +before her in this disjointed talk. There were no morbid shadows in this +Lois's life, she saw. Her pains and pleasures were intensely real, like +those of her class. If there were latent powers in her distorted brain, +smothered by hereditary vice of blood, or foul air and life, she knew +nothing of it. She never probed her own soul with fierce self-scorn, +as this quiet woman by her side did;--accepted, instead, the passing +moment, with keen enjoyment. For the rest, childishly trusted "the +Master." + +This very drive, now, for instance,--although she and the cart and +Barney went through the same routine every day, you would have thought +it was a new treat for a special holiday, if you had seen the perfect +_abandon_ with which they all threw themselves into the fun of the +thing. Not only did the very heaps of ruby tomatoes, and corn in +delicate green casings, tremble and shine as though they enjoyed the +fresh light and dew, but the old donkey cocked his ears, and curved his +scraggy neck, and tried to look as like a high-spirited charger as he +could. Then everybody along the road knew Lois, and she knew everybody, +and there was a mutual liking and perpetual joking, not very refined, +perhaps, but hearty and kind. It was a new side of life for Margaret. +She had no time for thoughts of self-sacrifice, or chivalry, ancient or +modern, watching it. It was a very busy ride,--something to do at every +farmhouse: a basket of eggs to be taken in, or some egg-plants, maybe, +which Lois laid side by side, Margaret noticed,--the pearly white balls +close to the heap of royal purple. No matter how small the basket was +that she stopped for, it brought out two or three to put it in; for Lois +and her cart were the event of the day for the lonely farm-houses. The +wife would come out, her face ablaze from the oven, with an anxious +charge about that butter; the old man would hail her from the barn to +know "ef she'd thought toh look in th' mail yes'rday"; and one or the +other was sure to add, "Jes' time for breakfast, Lois." If she had no +baskets to stop for, she had "a bit o' business," which turned out to be +a paper she had brought for the grandfather, or some fresh mint for the +baby, or "jes' to inquire fur th' fam'ly." + +As to the amount that cart carried, it was a perpetual mystery to Lois. +Every day since she and the cart went into partnership, she had gone +into town with a dead certainty in the minds of lookers-on that it +would break down in five minutes, and a triumphant faith in hers in its +unlimited endurance. "This cart'll be right side up fur years to come," +she would assert, shaking her head. "It's got no more notion o' givin' +up than me nor Barney,--not a bit." Margaret had her doubts,--and so +would you, if you had heard how it creaked under the load,--how they +piled in great straw panniers of apples: black apples with yellow +hearts,--scarlet veined, golden pippin apples, that held the warmth and +light longest,--russet apples with a hot blush on their rough brown +skins,--plums shining coldly in their delicate purple bloom,--peaches +with the crimson velvet of their cheeks aglow with the prisoned heat of +a hundred summer days. + +I wish with all my heart some artist would paint me Lois and her cart! +Mr. Kitts, the artist in the city then, used to see it going past his +room out by the coal-pits every day, and thought about it seriously. But +he had his grand battle-piece on hand then,--and after that he went the +way of all geniuses, and died down into colorer for a photographer. He +met them, that day, out by the stone quarry, and touched his hat as he +returned Lois's "Good-morning," and took a couple of great papaws from +her. She was a woman, you see, and he had some of the schoolmaster's +old-fashioned notions about women. He was a sickly-looking soul. One day +Lois had heard him say that there were papaws on his mother's place in +Ohio; so after that she always brought him some every day. She was one +of those people who must give, if it is nothing better than a Kentucky +banana. + +After they passed the stone quarry, they left the country behind them, +going down the stubble-covered hills that fenced in the town. Even in +the narrow streets, and through the warehouses, the strong, dewy air had +quite blown down and off the fog and dust. Morning (town morning, to be +sure, but still morning) was shining in the red window-panes, in the +tossing smoke up in the frosty air, in the very glowing faces of people +hurrying from market with their noses nipped blue and their eyes +watering with cold. Lois and her cart, fresh with country breath hanging +about them, were not so out of place, after all. House-maids left the +steps half-scrubbed, and helped her measure out the corn and beans, +gossiping eagerly; the newsboys "Hi-d!" at her in a friendly, +patronizing way; women in rusty black, with sharp, pale faces, hoisted +their baskets, in which usually lay a scraggy bit of flitch, on to the +wheel, their whispered bargaining ending oftenest in a low "Thank ye, +Lois!"--for she sold cheaper to some people than they did in the market. + +Lois was Lois in town or country. Some subtile power lay in the coarse, +distorted body, in the pleading child's face, to rouse, wherever they +went, the same curious, kindly smile. Not, I think, that dumb, pathetic +eye, common to deformity, that cries, "Have mercy upon me, O my friend, +for the hand of God hath touched me!"--a deeper, mightier charm, rather: +a trust down in the fouled fragments of her brain, even in the bitterest +hour of her bare, wretched life,--a faith, faith in God, faith in her +fellow-man, faith in herself. No human soul refused to answer its +summons. Down in the dark alleys, in the very vilest of the black and +white wretches that crowded sometimes about her cart, there was an +undefined sense of pride in protecting this wretch whose portion of life +was more meagre and low than theirs. Something in them struggled up to +meet the trust in the pitiful eyes,--something which scorned to betray +the trust,--some Christ-like power, smothered, dying, under the filth of +their life and the terror of hell. Not lost. If the Great Spirit of love +and trust lives, not lost! + +Even in the cold and quiet of the woman walking by her side the homely +power of the poor huckster was not weak to warm or to strengthen. +Margaret left her, turning into the crowded street leading to the part +of the town where the factories lay. The throng of anxious-faced men and +women jostled and pushed, but she passed through them with a different +heart from yesterday's. Somehow, the morbid fancies were gone; she was +keenly alive; the homely real life of this huckster had fired her, +touched her blood with a more vital stimulus than any tale of crusader. +As she went down the crooked maze of dingy lanes, she could hear Lois's +little cracked bell far off: it sounded like a Christmas song to her. +She half smiled, remembering how sometimes in her distempered brain +the world had seemed a gray, dismal Dance of Death. How actual it +was to-day,--hearty, vigorous, alive with honest work and tears and +pleasure! A broad, good world to live and work in, to suffer or die, if +God so willed it,--God, the good! She entered the vast, dingy factory; +the woollen dust, the clammy air of copperas were easier to breathe in; +the cramped, sordid office, the work, mere trifles to laugh at; and she +bent over the ledger with its hard lines in earnest good-will, +through the slow creeping hours of the long day. She noticed that the +unfortunate chicken was making its heart glad over a piece of fresh +earth covered with damp moss. Dr. Knowles stopped to look at it when he +came, passing her with a surly nod. + +"So your master's not forgotten you," he snarled, while the blind old +hen cocked her one eye up at him. + +Pike, the manager, had brought in some bills. + +"Who's its master?" he said, curiously, stopping by the door. + +"Holmes,--he feeds it every morning." + +The Doctor drawled out the words with a covert sneer, watching the +quiet, cold face bending over the desk, meantime. + +Pike laughed. + +"Bah! it's the first thing he ever fed, then, besides himself. Chickens +must lie nearer his heart than men." + +Knowles scowled at him; he had no fancy for Pike's scurrilous gossip. + +The quiet face was unmoved. When he heard the manager's foot on the +ladder without, he tested it again. He had a vague suspicion which he +was determined to verify. + +"Holmes," he said, carelessly, "has an affinity for animals. No wonder. +Adam must have been some such man as he, when the Lord gave him +'dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air.'" + +The hand paused courteously a moment, then resumed its quick, cool +movement over the page. He was not baffled. + +"If there were such a reality as mastership, that man was born to rule. +Pike will find him harder to cheat than me, when he takes possession +here." + +She looked up now, attentive. + +"He came here to take my place in the mills,--buy me out,--articles will +be signed in a day or two. I know what you think,--no,--not worth +a dollar. Only brains and a soul, and he's sold them at a high +figure,--threw his heart in,--the purchaser being a lady. It was light, +I fancy,--starved out, long ago." + +The old man's words were spurted out in the bitterness of scorn. The +girl listened with a cool incredulity in her eyes, and went back to her +work. + +"Miss Herne is the lady,--my partner's daughter. Herne and Holmes +they'll call the firm. He is here every day, counting future profit." + +Nothing could be read on the cold still face; so he left her, cursing, +as he went, men who put themselves up at auction,--worse than Orleans +slaves. Margaret laughed to herself at his passion; as for the story he +hinted, it was absurd. She forgot it in a moment. + +Two or three gentlemen down in one of the counting-rooms, just then, +looked at the story from another point of view. They were talking low, +out of hearing from the clerks. + +"It's a good thing for Holmes," said one, a burly, farmer-like man, who +was choosing specimens of wool. + +"Cheap. And long credit. Just half the concern he takes." + +"There is a lady in the case?" suggested a young doctor, who, by virtue +of having spent six months in the South, dropped his _r_-s, and talked +of "niggahs" in a way to make a Georgian's hair stand on end. + +"A lady in the case?" + +"Of course. Only child of Herne's. _He_ comes down with the dust as +dowry. Good thing for Holmes. 'Stonishin' how he's made his way up. If +money's what he wants in this world, he's making a long stride now to +'t." + +The young doctor lighted his cigar, asserting that-- + +"Ba George, some low people did get on, re-markably! Mary Herne, now, +was best catch in town." + +"Do you think money is what he wants?" said a quiet little man, sitting +lazily on a barrel,--a clergyman, whom his clerical brothers shook their +heads when they named, but never argued with, and bowed to with uncommon +deference. + +The wool-buyer hesitated with a puzzled look. + +"No," he said, slowly; "Stephen Holmes is not miserly. I've knowed him +since a boy. To buy place, power, perhaps, eh? Yet not that, neither," +he added, hastily. "We think a sight of him out our way, (self-made, you +see,) and would have had him the best office in the State before this, +only he was so cursedly indifferent." + +"Indifferent, yes. No man cares much for stepping-stones in themselves," +said the clergyman, half to himself. + +"Great fault of American society, especially in West," said the young +aristocrat. "Stepping-stones lie low, as my reverend friend suggests; +impudence ascends; merit and refinement scorn such dirty paths,"--with a +mournful remembrance of the last dime in his waistcoat-pocket. + +"But do you," exclaimed the farmer, with sudden solemnity, "do you +understand this scheme of Knowles's? Every dollar he owns is in this +mill, and every dollar of it is going into some castle in the air that +no sane man can comprehend." + +"Mad as a March hare," contemptuously muttered the doctor. + +His reverend friend gave him a look,--after which he was silent. + +"I wish to the Lord some one would persuade him out of it," persisted +the wool-man, earnestly looking at the quiet face of his listener. "We +can't spare old Knowles's brain or heart while he ruins himself. It's +something of a Communist fraternity: I don't know the name, but I know +the thing." + +Very hard common-sense shone out of his eyes just then at the clergyman, +whom he suspected of being one of Knowles's abettors. + +"There's two ways for 'em to end. If they're made out of the top of +society, they get so refined, so idealized, that every particle flies +off on its own special path to the sun, and the Community's broke; and +if they're made of the lower mud, they keep going down, down together, +--they live to drink and eat, and make themselves as near the brutes as +they can. It isn't easy to believe, Sir, but it's true. I have seen it. +I've seen every one of them the United States can produce. It's _facts_, +Sir; and facts, as Lord Bacon says, are the basis of every sound +speculation.'" + +The last sentence was slowly brought out, as quotations were not exactly +his _forte_, but, as he said afterwards,--"You see, that nailed the +parson." + +The parson nodded gravely. + +"You'll find no such experiment in the Bible," threw in the young +doctor, alluding to "serious things" as a peace-offering to his reverend +friend. + +"One, I believe," dryly. + +"Well," broke in the farmer, folding up his wool, "that's neither here +nor there. This experiment of Knowles's is like nothing known since +the Creation. Plan of his own. He spends his days now hunting out the +gallows-birds out of the dens in town here, and they're all to be +transported into the country to start a new Arcadia. A few men and women +like himself, but the bulk is from the dens, I tell you. All start fair, +level ground, perpetual celibacy, mutual trust, honor, rise according to +the stuff that's in them,--pah! it makes me sick!" + +"Knowles's inclination to that sort of people is easily explained," +spitefully lisped the doctor. "Blood, Sir. His mother was a half-breed +Creek, with all the propensities of the redskins to fire-water and +'itching palms.' Blood will out." + +"Here he is," maliciously whispered the wool-man. "No, it's Holmes," he +added, after the doctor had started into a more respectful posture, and +glanced around frightened. + +He, the doctor, rose to meet Holmes's coming footstep,--"a low fellah, +but always sure to be the upper dog in the fight, goin' to marry the +best catch," etc., etc. The others, on the contrary, put on their hats +and sauntered away into the street. + +So the day broadened hotly; the shadows of the Lombardy poplars curdling +up into a sluggish pool of black at their roots along the dry gutters. +The old schoolmaster in the shade of the great horse-chestnuts (brought +from the homestead in the Piedmont country, every one) husked corn for +his wife, composing, meanwhile, a page of his essay on the "Sirventes +de Bertrand de Born." The day passed for him as did his life, half in +simple-hearted deed, half in vague visions of a dead world, never to be +real again. Joel, up in the barn by himself, worked through the long day +in the old fashion,--pondering gravely (being of a religious turn) upon +a sermon by the Reverend Mr. Clinche, reported in the "Gazette"; wherein +that disciple of the meek Teacher invoked, as he did once a week, the +curses of the law upon his political opponents, praying the Lord to +sweep them immediately from the face of the earth. Which rendering of +Christian doctrine was so much relished by Joel, and the other leading +members of Mr. Clinche's church, that they hinted to him it might be as +well to continue choosing his texts from Moses and the Prophets +until the excitement of the day was over. The New Testament +was,--well,--hardly suited for the emergency; did not, somehow, chime in +with the lesson of the hour. I may remark, in passing, that this course +of conduct so disgusted the High-Church rector of the parish, that he +not only ignored all new devils, (as Mr. Carlyle might have called +them,) but talked as if the millennium, were _un fait accompli_, and he +had leisure to go and hammer at the poor dead old troubles of Luther's +time. One thing, though, about Joel: while he was joining in Mr. +Clinche's prayer for the "wiping out" of some few thousands, he was +using up all the fragments of the hot day in fixing a stall for a +half-dead old horse he had found by the road-side. Let us hope, that, +even if the listening angel did not grant the prayer, he marked down the +stall at least, as a something done for eternity. + +Margaret, through the heat and stifling air, worked steadily alone in +the dusty office, the cold, homely face bent over the books, never +changing but once. It was a trifle then; yet, when she looked back +afterwards, the trifle was all that gave the day a name. The room shook, +as I said, with the thunderous, incessant sound of the engines and the +looms; she scarcely heard it, being used to it. Once, however, another +sound came between,--a slow, quiet tread, passing through the long +wooden corridor,--so firm and measured that it sounded like the +monotonous beatings of a clock. She heard it through the noise in the +far distance; it came slowly nearer, up to the door without,--passed it, +going down the echoing plank walk. The girl sat quietly, looking out at +the dead brick wall. The slow step fell on her brain like the sceptre of +her master; if Knowles had looked in her face then, he would have seen +bared the secret of her life. Holmes had gone by, unconscious of who was +within the door. She had not seen him; it was nothing but a step she +heard. Yet a power, the power of the girl's life, shook off all outward +masks, all surface cloudy fancies, and stood up in her with a terrible +passion at the sound; her blood burned fiercely; her soul looked out +from her face, her soul as it was, as God knew it,--God and this man. No +longer a cold, clear face; you would have thought, looking at it, what a +strong spirit the soul of this woman would be, if set free in heaven +or in hell. The man who held it in his power went on carelessly, not +knowing that the mere sound of his step had raised it as from the +dead. She, and her right, and her pain, were nothing to him now, she +remembered, staring out at the taunting hot sky. Yet so vacant was the +sudden life opened before her when he was gone, that, in the desperation +of her weakness, her mad longing to see him but once again, she would +have thrown herself at his feet, and let the cold, heavy step crush her +life out,--as he would have done, she thought, choking down the icy +smother in her throat, if it had served his purpose, though it cost his +own heart's life to do it. He would trample her down, if she kept him +back from his end; but be false to her, false to himself, that he would +never be! + +So the hot, long day wore on,--the red bricks, the dusty desk covered +with wool, the miserable chicken peering out, growing sharper and more +real in the glare. Life was no morbid nightmare now; her weak woman's +heart found it actual and near. There was not a pain nor a want, from +the dumb hunger in the dog's eyes that passed her on the street, to her +father's hopeless fancies, that did not touch her sharply through her +own loss, with a keen pity, a wild wish to help to do something to save +others with this poor life left in her hands. + +So the hot day wore on in the town and country; the old sun glaring down +like some fierce old judge, intolerant of weakness or shams,--baking the +hard earth in the streets harder for the horses' feet, drying up the +bits of grass that grew between the boulders of the gutter, scaling off +the paint from the brazen faces of the interminable brick houses. He +looked down in that city as in every American town, as in these where +you and I live, on the same countless maze of human faces going day by +day through the same monotonous routine. Knowles, passing through the +restless crowds, read with keen eye among them strange meanings by this +common light of the sun,--meanings such as you and I might read, if our +eyes were clear as his,--or morbid, it may be. A commonplace crowd +like this in the street without: women with cold, fastidious faces, +heavy-brained, bilious men, dapper 'prentices, draymen, prize-fighters, +negroes. Knowles looked about him as into a seething caldron, in which +the people I tell you of were atoms, where the blood of uncounted races +was fused, but not mingled,--where creeds, philosophies, centuries old, +grappled hand to hand in their death-struggle,--where innumerable aims +and beliefs and powers of intellect, smothered rights and triumphant +wrongs, warred together, struggling for victory. + +Vulgar American life? He thought it a life more potent, more tragic in +its history and prophecy, than any that has gone before. People called +him a fanatic. It may be that he was one: yet the uncouth old man, sick +in soul from some gnawing pain of his own life, looked into the depths +of human loss with a mad desire to set it right. On the very faces +of those who sneered at him he found some traces of failure or pain, +something that his heart carried up to God with a loud and exceeding +bitter cry. The voice of the world, he thought, went up to heaven a +discord, unintelligible, hopeless,--the great blind world, astray since +the first ages! Was there no hope, no help? + +The hot sun shone down, as it had done for six thousand years; it shone +on open problems in the lives of these men and women who walked the +streets, problems whose end and beginning no eye could read. There were +places where it did not shine: down in the fetid cellars, in the slimy +cells of the prison yonder: what riddles of human life lay there he +dared not think of. God knows how the man groped for the light,--for any +voice to make earth and heaven clear to him. + +So the hot, long day wore on, for all of them. There was another light +by which the world was seen that day, rarer than the sunshine, purer. It +fell on the dense crowds,--upon the just and the unjust. It went into +the fogs of the fetid dens from which the coarser light was barred, into +the deepest mires where a human soul could wallow, and made them clear. +It lighted the depths of the hearts whose outer pain and passion men +were keen to read in the unpitying sunshine, and bared in those depths +the feeble gropings for the right, the loving hope, the unuttered +prayer. No kindly thought, no pure desire, no weakest faith in a God and +heaven somewhere could be so smothered under guilt that this subtile +light did not search it out, glow about it, shine through it, hold it up +in full view of God and the angels,--lighting the world other than the +sun had done for six thousand years. We have no name for the light: it +has a name,--yonder. Not many eyes were clear to see its shining that +day; and if they did, it was as through a glass, darkly. Yet it belonged +to us also, in the old time, the time when men could "hear the voice of +the Lord God in the garden in the cool of the day." It is God's light +now alone. + +Yet poor Lois caught faint glimpses, I think, sometimes, of its heavenly +clearness. I think it was this light that made the burning of Christmas +fires warmer for her than for others, that showed her all the love and +outspoken honesty and hearty frolic which her eyes saw perpetually in +the old warm-hearted world. That evening, as she sat on the step of her +brown frame shanty, knitting at a great blue stocking, her scarred face +and misshapen body very pitiful to the passers-by, it was this light +that gave to her face its homely, cheery smile. It made her eyes quick +to know the message in the depths of color in the evening sky, or even +the flickering tints of the green creeper on the wall with its crimson +cornucopias filled with hot sunshine. She liked clear, vital colors, +this girl,--the crimsons and blues. They answered her, somehow. They +could speak. There were things in the world that like herself were +marred,--did not understand,--were hungry to know: the gray sky, the +mud swamps, the tawny lichens. She cried sometimes, looking at them, +hardly knowing why: she could not help it, with a vague sense of loss. +It seemed at those times so dreary for them to be alive,--or for her. +Other things her eyes were quicker to see than ours: delicate or grand +lines, which she perpetually sought for unconsciously,--in the homeliest +things, the very soft curling of the woollen yarn in her fingers, as +in the eternal sculpture of the mountains. Was it the disease of her +injured brain that made all things alive to her,--that made her watch, +in her ignorant way, the grave hills, the flashing, victorious rivers, +look pitifully into the face of some dingy mushroom trodden in the mud +before it scarce had lived, just as we should look into human faces to +know what they would say to us? Was it the weakness and ignorance that +made everything she saw or touched nearer, more human to her than to you +or me? She never got used to living as other people do; these sights and +sounds did not come to her common, hackneyed. Why, sometimes, out in the +hills, in the torrid quiet of summer noons, she had knelt by the +shaded pools, and buried her hands in the great slumberous beds of +water-lilies, her blood curdling in a feverish languor, a passioned +trance, from which she roused herself, weak and tired. + +She had no self-poised artist sense, this Lois,--knew nothing of +Nature's laws. Yet sometimes, watching the dun sea of the prairie rise +and fall in the crimson light of early morning, or, in the farms, +breathing the blue air trembling up to heaven exultant with the life of +bird and forest, she forgot the poor coarse thing she was, some coarse +weight fell off, and something within, not the sickly Lois of the town, +went out, free, like an exile dreaming of home. + +You tell me, that, doubtless, in the wreck of the creature's brain, +there were fragments of some artistic insight that made her thus rise +above the level of her daily life, drunk with the mere beauty of form +and color. I do not know,--not knowing how sham or real a thing you mean +by artistic insight. But I do know that the clear light I told you of +shone for this girl dimly through this beauty of form and color; and +ignorant, with no words for her thoughts, she believed in it as the +Highest that she knew. I think it came to her thus an imperfect +language, (not an outward show of tints and lines, as to some +artists,)--a language, the same that Moses heard when he stood alone, +with nothing between his naked soul and God, but the desert and the +mountain and the bush that burned with fire. I think the weak soul +of the girl staggered from its dungeon, and groped through these +heavy-browed hills, these color-dreams, through even the homely kind +faces on the street, to find the God that lay behind. So the light +showed her the world, and, making its beauty and warmth divine and near +to her, the warmth and beauty became real in her, found their homely +shadows in her daily life. So it showed her, too, through her vague +childish knowledge, the Master in whom she believed,--showed Him to her +in everything that lived, more real than all beside. The waiting earth, +the prophetic sky, the coarsest or fairest atom that she touched was but +a part of Him, something sent to tell of Him,--she dimly felt; though, +as I said, she had no words for such a thought. Yet even more real than +this. There was no pain nor temptation down in those dark cellars where +she went that He had not borne,--not one. Nor was there the least +pleasure came to her or the others, not even a cheerful fire, or kind +words, or a warm, hearty laugh, that she did not know He sent it and was +glad to do it. She knew that well! So it was that He took part in her +humble daily life, and became more real to her day by day. Very homely +shadows her life gave of His light, for it was His: homely, because of +her poor way of living, and of the depth to which the heavy foot of the +world had crushed her. Yet they were there all the time, in her cheery +patience, if nothing more. To-night, for instance, how differently the +surging crowd seemed to her from what it did to Knowles! She looked down +on it from her high wood-steps with an eager interest, ready with her +weak, timid laugh to answer every friendly call from below. She had no +power to see them as types of great classes; they were just so many +living people, whom she knew, and who, most of them, had been kind to +her. Whatever good there was in the vilest face, (and there was always +something,) she was sure to see it. The light made her poor eyes strong +for that. + +She liked to sit there in the evenings, being alone, yet never growing +lonesome; there was so much that was pleasant to watch and listen to, as +the cool brown twilight came on. If, as Knowles thought, the world was +a dreary discord, she knew nothing of it. People were going from their +work now,--they had time to talk and joke by the way,--stopping, or +walking slowly down the cool shadows of the pavement; while here and +there a lingering red sunbeam burnished a window, or struck athwart the +gray boulder-paved street. From the houses near you could catch a faint +smell of supper: very friendly people those were in these houses; she +knew them all well. The children came out with their faces washed, to +play, now the sun was down: the oldest of them generally came to sit +with her and hear a story. + +After it grew darker, you would see the girls in their neat blue +calicoes go sauntering down the street with their sweethearts for +a walk. There was old Polston and his son Sam coming home from the +coal-pits, as black as ink, with their little tin lanterns on their +caps. After a while Sam would come out in his suit of Kentucky jean, his +face shining with the soap, and go sheepishly down to Jenny Ball's, and +the old man would bring his pipe and chair out on the pavement, and his +wife would sit on the steps. Most likely they would call Lois down, +or come over themselves, for they were the most sociable, coziest old +couple you ever knew. There was a great stopping at Lois's door, as +the girls walked past, for a bunch of the flowers she brought from the +country, or posies, as they called them, (Sam never would take any to +Jenny but "old man" and pinks,) and she always had them ready in broken +jugs inside. They were good, kind girls, every one of them,--had taken +it in turn to sit up with Lois last winter all the time she had the +rheumatism. She never forgot that time,--never once. + +Later in the evening you would see an old man coming along, close by the +wall, with his head down,--a very dark man, with gray, thin hair,--Joe +Yare, Lois's old father. No one spoke to him,--people always were +looking away as he passed; and if old Mr. or Mrs. Polston were on the +steps when he came up, they would say, "Good-evening, Mr. Yare," very +formally, and go away presently. It hurt Lois more than anything else +they could have done. But she bustled about noisily, so that he would +not notice it. If they saw the marks of the ill life he had lived on his +old face, she did not; his sad, uncertain eyes may have been dishonest +to them, but they were nothing but kind to the misshapen little soul +that he kissed so warmly with a "Why, Lo, my little girl!" Nobody else +in the world ever called her by a pet name. + +Sometimes he was gloomy and silent, but generally he told her of all +that had happened in the mill, particularly any little word of notice or +praise he might have received, watching her anxiously until she laughed +at it, and then rubbing his hands cheerfully. He need not have doubted +Lois's faith in him. Whatever the rest did, she believed in him; she +always had believed in him, through all the dark, dark years, when he +was at home, and in the penitentiary. They were gone now, never to come +back. It had come right. She, at least, thought his repentance sincere. +If the others wronged him, and it hurt her bitterly that they did, that +would come right some day too, she would think, as she looked at the +tired, sullen face of the old man bent to the window-pane, afraid to go +out. They had very cheerful little suppers there by themselves in the +odd, bare little room, as homely and clean as Lois herself. + +Sometimes, late at night, when he had gone to bed, she sat alone in the +door, while the moonlight fell in broad patches over the quiet square, +and the great poplars stood like giants whispering together. Still the +far sounds of the town came up cheerfully, while she folded up her +knitting, it being dark, thinking how happy an ending this was to a +happy day. When it grew quiet, she could hear the solemn whisper of the +poplars, and sometimes broken strains of music from the cathedral in the +city floated through the cold and moonlight past her, far off into the +blue beyond the hills. All the keen pleasure of the day, the warm, +bright sights and sounds, coarse and homely though they were, seemed to +fade into the deep music, and make a part of it. + +Yet, sitting there, looking out into the listening night, the poor +child's face grew slowly pale as she heard it. It humbled her. It made +her meanness, her low, weak life so real to her! There was no pain nor +hunger she had known that did not find a voice in its inarticulate cry. +She! what was she? All the pain and wants of the world must be going up +to God in that sound, she thought. There was something more in it,--an +unknown meaning that her shattered brain struggled to grasp. She could +not. Her heart ached with a wild, restless longing. She had no words +for the vague, insatiate hunger to understand. It was because she was +ignorant and low, perhaps; others could know. She thought her Master was +speaking. She thought the unknown meaning linked all earth and heaven +together, and made it plain. So she hid her face in her hands, and +listened while the low harmony shivered through the air, unheeded by +others, with the message of God to man. Not comprehending, it may +be,--the poor girl,--hungry still to know. Yet, when she looked up, +there were warm tears in her eyes, and her scarred face was bright with +a sad, deep content and love. + +So the hot, long day was over for them all,--passed as thousands of days +have done for us, gone down, forgotten: as that long, hot day we call +life will be over some time, and go down into the gray and cold. Surely, +whatever of sorrow or pain may have made darkness in that day for you or +me, there were countless openings where we might have seen glimpses of +that other light than sunshine: the light of the great Tomorrow, of the +land where all wrongs shall be righted. If we had but chosen to see +it,--if we only had chosen! + + + + +CONCERNING PEOPLE WHO CARRIED WEIGHT IN LIFE. + +WITH SOME THOUGHTS ON THOSE WHO NEVER HAD A CHANCE. + + +You drive out, let us suppose, upon a certain day. To your surprise and +mortification, your horse, usually lively and frisky, is quite dull +and sluggish. He does not get over the ground as he is wont to do. The +slightest touch of whip-cord, on other days, suffices to make him dart +forward with redoubled speed; but upon this day, after two or three +miles, he needs positive whipping, and he runs very sulkily with it +all. By-and-by his coat, usually smooth and glossy and dry through all +reasonable work, begins to stream like a water-cart. This will not do. +There is something wrong. You investigate; and you discover that your +horse's work, though seemingly the same as usual, is in fact immensely +greater. The blockheads who oiled your wheels yesterday have screwed up +your patent axles too tightly; the friction is enormous; the hotter +the metal gets, the greater grows the friction; your horse's work is +quadrupled. You drive slowly home, and severely upbraid the blockheads. + +There are many people who have to go through life at an analogous +disadvantage. There is something in their constitution of body or mind, +there is something in their circumstances, which adds incalculably to +the exertion they must go through to attain their ends, and which holds +them back from doing what they might otherwise have done. Very probably +that malign something exerted its influence unperceived by those around +them. They did not get credit for the struggle they were going through. +No one knew what a brave fight they were making with a broken right arm; +no one remarked that they were running the race, and keeping a fair +place in it, too, with their legs tied together. All they do, they do at +a disadvantage. It is as when a noble race-horse is beaten by a sorry +hack; because the race-horse, as you might see, if you look at the list, +is carrying twelve pounds additional. But such men, by a desperate +effort, often made silently and sorrowfully, may (so to speak) run in +the race, and do well in it, though you little think with how heavy a +foot and how heavy a heart. There are others who have no chance at all. +_They_ are like a horse set to run a race, tied by a strong rope to a +tree, or weighted with ten tons of extra burden. _That_ horse cannot run +even poorly. The difference between their case and that of the men who +are placed at a disadvantage is like the difference between setting a +very near-sighted man to keep a sharp look-out and setting a man who is +quite blind to keep that sharp look-out. Many can do the work of life +with difficulty; some cannot do it at all. In short, there are PEOPLE +WHO CARRY WEIGHT IN LIFE, and there are some WHO NEVER HAVE A CHANCE. + +And you, my friend, who are doing the work of life well and +creditably,--you who are running in the front rank, and likely to do so +to the end, think kindly and charitably of those who have broken down +in the race. Think kindly of him who, sadly overweighted, is struggling +onwards away half a mile behind you; think more kindly yet, if that be +possible, of him who, tethered to a ton of granite, is struggling hard +and making no way at all, or who has even sat down and given up the +struggle in dumb despair. You feel, I know, the weakness in yourself +which would have made you break down, if sorely tried like others. You +know there is in your armor the unprotected place at which a well-aimed +or a random blow would have gone home and brought you down. Yes, you are +nearing the winning-post, and you are among the first; but six pounds +more on your back, and you might have been nowhere. You feel, by your +weak heart and weary frame, that, if you had been sent to the Crimea in +that dreadful first winter, you would certainly have died. And you feel, +too, by your lack of moral stamina, by your feebleness of resolution, +that it has been your preservation from you know not what depths of +shame and misery, that you never were pressed very hard by temptation. +Do not range yourself with those who found fault with a certain great +and good Teacher of former days, because he went to be guest with a man +that was a sinner. As if He could have gone to be guest with any man who +was not! + + * * * * * + +There is no reckoning up the manifold _impedimenta_ by which human +beings are weighted for the race of life; but all may be classified +under the two heads of unfavorable influences arising out of the mental +or physical nature of the human beings themselves, and unfavorable +influences arising out of the circumstances in which the human beings +are placed. You have known men who, setting out from a very humble +position, have attained to a respectable standing, but who would have +reached a very much higher place but for their being weighted with a +vulgar, violent, wrong-headed, and rude-spoken wife. You have known men +of lowly origin who had in them the makings of gentlemen, but whom this +single malign influence has condemned to coarse manners and a frowzy, +repulsive home for life. You have known many men whose powers are +crippled and their nature soured by poverty, by the heavy necessity +for calculating how far each shilling will go, by a certain sense of +degradation that comes of sordid shifts. How can a poor parson write an +eloquent or spirited sermon when his mind all the while is running upon +the thought how he is to pay the baker or how he is to get shoes for his +children? It will be but a dull discourse which, under that weight, will +be produced even by a man who, favorably placed, could have done very +considerable things. It is only a great genius here and there who can do +great things, who can do his best, no matter at what disadvantage he may +be placed; the great mass of ordinary men can make little headway with +wind and tide dead against them. Not many trees would grow well, if +watered daily (let us say) with vitriol. Yet a tree which would +speedily die under that nurture might do very fairly, might even do +magnificently, if it had fair play, if it got its chance of common +sunshine and shower. Some men, indeed, though always hampered by +circumstances, have accomplished much; but then you cannot help thinking +how much more they might have accomplished, had they been placed more +happily. Pugin, the great Gothic architect, designed various noble +buildings; but I believe he complained that he never had fair play with +his finest,--that he was always weighted by considerations of expense, +or by the nature of the ground he had to build on, or by the number +of people it was essential the building should accommodate. And so he +regarded his noblest edifices as no more than hints of what he could +have done. He made grand running in the race; but, oh, what running he +could have made, if you had taken off those twelve additional pounds! I +dare say you have known men who labored to make a pretty country-house +on a site which had some one great drawback. They were always battling +with that drawback, and trying to conquer it; but they never could quite +succeed. And it remained a real worry and vexation. Their house was on +the north side of a high hill, and never could have its due share of +sunshine. Or you could not reach it but by climbing a very steep ascent; +or you could not in any way get water into the landscape. When Sir +Walter was at length able to call his own a little estate on the banks +of the Tweed he loved so well, it was the ugliest, bleakest, and least +interesting spot upon the course of that beautiful river; and the public +road ran within a few yards of his door. The noble-hearted man made a +charming dwelling at last; but he was fighting against Nature in the +matter of the landscape round it; and you can see yet, many a year after +he left it, the poor little trees of his beloved plantations contrasting +with the magnificent timber of various grand old places above and below +Abbotsford. There is something sadder in the sight of men who carried +weight within themselves, and who, in aiming at usefulness or at +happiness, were hampered and held back by their own nature. There are +many men who are weighted with a hasty temper; weighted with a nervous, +anxious constitution; weighted with an envious, jealous disposition; +weighted with a strong tendency to evil speaking, lying, and slandering; +weighted with a grumbling, sour, discontented spirit; weighted with a +disposition to vaporing and boasting; weighted with a great want of +common sense; weighted with an undue regard to what other people may be +thinking or saying of them; weighted with many like things, of which +more will be said by-and-by. When that good missionary, Henry Martyn, +was in India, he was weighted with an irresistible drowsiness. He could +hardly keep himself awake. And it must have been a burning earnestness +that impelled him to ceaseless labor, in the presence of such a +drag-weight as that. I am not thinking or saying, my friend, that it is +wholly bad for us to carry weight,--that great good may not come of the +abatement of our power and spirit which may be made by that weight. I +remember a greater missionary than even the sainted Martyn, to whom the +Wisest and Kindest appointed that he should carry weight, and that he +should fight at a sad disadvantage. And the greater missionary tells us +that he knew why that weight was appointed him to carry; and that he +felt he needed it all to save him from a strong tendency to undue +self-conceit. No one knows, now, what the burden was which he bore; but +it was heavy and painful; it was "a thorn in the flesh." Three times +he earnestly asked that it might be taken away; but the answer he got +implied that he needed it yet, and that his Master thought it a better +plan to strengthen the back than to lighten the burden. Yes, the blessed +Redeemer appointed that St. Paul should carry weight in life; and I +think, friendly reader, that we shall believe that it is wisely and +kindly meant, if the like should come to you and me. + +We all understand what is meant, when we hear it said that a man is +doing very well, or has done very well, _considering_. I do not know +whether it is a Scotticism to stop short at that point of the sentence. +We do it, constantly, in this country. The sentence would be completed +by saying, _considering the weight he has to carry_, or _the +disadvantage at which he works_. And things which are _very good, +considering_, may range very far up and down the scale of actual merit. +A thing which is _very good, considering_, may be very bad, or may be +tolerably good. It never can be absolutely very good; for, if it +were, you would cease to use the word _considering_. A thing which is +absolutely very good, if it have been done under extremely unfavorable +circumstances, would not be described as _very good, considering_; it +would be described as _quite wonderful, considering_, or as _miraculous, +considering_. And it is curious how people take a pride in accumulating +unfavorable circumstances, that they may overcome them, and gain the +glory of having overcome them. Thus, if a man wishes to sign his name, +he might write the letters with his right hand; and though he write them +very clearly and well and rapidly, nobody would think of giving him any +credit. But if he write his name rather badly with his left hand, people +would say it was a remarkable signature, considering; and if he write +his name very ill indeed with his foot, people would say the writing was +quite wonderful, considering. If a man desire to walk from one end of a +long building to the other, he might do so by walking along the floor; +and though he did so steadily, swiftly, and gracefully, no one would +remark that he had done anything worth notice. But if he choose for his +path a thick rope, extended from one end of the building to the other, +at a height of a hundred feet, and if he walk rather slowly and +awkwardly along it, he will be esteemed as having done something very +extraordinary: while if, in addition to this, he is blindfolded, and has +his feet placed in large baskets instead of shoes, he will, if in any +way he can get over the distance between the ends of the building, be +held as one of the most remarkable men of the age. Yes, load yourself +with weight which no one asks you to carry; accumulate disadvantages +which you need not face, unless you choose; then carry the weight in any +fashion, and overcome the disadvantages in any fashion; and you are a +great man, considering: that is, considering the disadvantages and the +weight. Let this be remembered: if a man is so placed that he cannot do +his work, except in the face of special difficulties, then let him be +praised, if he vanquish these in some decent measure, and if he do his +work tolerably well. But a man deserves no praise at all for work which +he has done tolerably or done rather badly, because he chose to do it +under disadvantageous circumstances, under which there was no earthly +call upon him to do it. In this case he probably is a self-conceited +man, or a man of wrong-headed independence of disposition; and in this +case, if his work be bad absolutely, don't tell him that it is good, +considering. Refuse to consider. He has no right to expect that you +should. There was a man who built a house entirely with his own hands. +He had never learned either mason-work or carpentry: he could quite well +have afforded to pay skilled workmen to do the work he wanted; but he +did not choose to do so. He did the whole work himself. The house was +finished; its aspect was peculiar. The walls were off the perpendicular +considerably, and the windows were singular in shape; the doors fitted +badly, and the floors were far from level. In short, it was a very bad +and awkward-looking house: but it was a wonderful house, considering. +And people said that it was so, who saw nothing wonderful in the +beautiful house next it, perfect in symmetry and finish and comfort, but +built by men whose business it was to build. Now I should have declined +to admire that odd house, or to express the least sympathy with its +builder. He chose to run with a needless hundred-weight on his back: he +chose to walk in baskets instead of in shoes. And if, in consequence +of his own perversity, he did his work badly, I should have refused +to recognize it as anything but bad work. It was quite different with +Robinson Crusoe, who made his dwelling and his furniture for himself, +because there was no one else to make them for him. I dare say his cave +was anything but exactly square; and his chairs and table were cumbrous +enough; but they were wonderful, considering certain facts which he was +quite entitled to expect us to consider. Southey's _Cottonian Library_ +was all quite right; and you would have said that the books were very +nicely bound, considering; for Southey could not afford to pay the +regular binder's charges; and it was better that his books should be +done up in cotton of various hues by the members of his own family than +that they should remain not bound at all. You will think, too, of the +poor old parson who wrote a book which he thought of great value, but +which no publisher would bring out. He was determined that all his +labor should not be lost to posterity. So he bought types and a +printing-press, and printed his precious work, poor man: he and his +man-servant did it all. It made a great many volumes; and the task +took up many years. Then he bound the volumes with his own hands; and +carrying them to London, he placed a copy of his work in each of the +public libraries. I dare say he might have saved himself his labor. How +many of my readers could tell what was the title of the work, or what +was the name of its author? Still, _there_ was a man who accomplished +his design, in the face of every disadvantage. + +There is a great point of difference between our feeling towards the +human being who runs his race much overweighted and our feeling towards +the inferior animal that does the like. If you saw a poor horse gamely +struggling in a race, with a weight of a ton extra, you would pity it. +Your sympathies would all be with the creature that was making the best +of unfavorable circumstances. But it is a sorrowful fact, that the +drag-weight of human beings not unfrequently consists of things which +make us angry rather than sympathetic. You have seen a man carrying +heavy weight in life, perhaps in the form of inveterate wrong-headedness +and suspiciousness; but instead of pitying him, our impulse would rather +be to beat him upon that perverted head. We pity physical malformation +or unhealthiness; but our bent is to be angry with intellectual and +moral malformation or unhealthiness. We feel for the deformed man, who +must struggle on at that sad disadvantage; feeling it, too, much more +acutely than you would readily believe. But we have only indignation for +the man weighted with far worse things, and things which, in some cases +at least, he can just as little help. You have known men whose extra +pounds, or even extra ton, was a hasty temper, flying out of a sudden +into ungovernable bursts: or a moral cowardice leading to trickery and +falsehood: or a special disposition to envy and evil-speaking: or a +very strong tendency to morbid complaining about their misfortunes and +troubles: or an invincible bent to be always talking of their sufferings +through the derangement of their digestive organs. Now, you grow angry +at these things. You cannot stand them. And there is a substratum of +truth to that angry feeling. A man _can_ form his mind more than he can +form his body. If a man be well-made, physically, he will, in ordinary +cases, remain so: but he may, in a moral sense, raise a great hunchback +where Nature made none. He may foster a malignant temper, a grumbling, +fretful spirit, which by manful resistance might be much abated, if not +quite put down. But still, there should often be pity, where we are +prone only to blame. We find a person in whom a truly disgusting +character has been formed: well, if you knew all, you would know that +the person had hardly a chance of being otherwise: the man could not +help it. You have known people who were awfully unamiable and repulsive: +you may have been told how very different they once were,--sweet-tempered +and cheerful. And surely the change is a far sadder one than +that which has passed upon the wrinkled old woman who was once (as you +are told) the loveliest girl of her time. Yet many a one who will look +with interest upon the withered face and the dimmed eyes, and try to +trace in them the vestiges of radiant beauty gone, will never think of +puzzling out in violent spurts of petulance the perversion of a quick +and kind heart; or in curious oddities and pettinesses the result of +long and lonely years of toil in which no one sympathized; or in cynical +bitterness and misanthropy an old disappointment never got over. There +is a hard knot in the wood, where a green young branch was lopped away. +I have a great pity for old bachelors. Those I have known have for the +most part been old fools. But the more foolish and absurd they are, the +more pity is due them. I believe there is something to be said for even +the most unamiable creatures. The shark is an unamiable creature. It +is voracious. It will snap a man in two. Yet it is not unworthy of +sympathy. Its organization is such that it is always suffering the most +ravenous hunger. You can hardly imagine the state of intolerable famine +in which that unhappy animal roams the ocean. People talk of its awful +teeth and its vindictive eye. I suppose it is well ascertained that the +extremity of physical want, as reached on rafts at sea, has driven human +beings to deeds as barbarous as ever shark was accused of. The worse a +human being is, the more he deserves our pity. Hang him, if _that_ be +needful for the welfare of society; but pity him even as you hang. Many +a poor creature has gradually become hardened and inveterate in guilt +who would have shuddered at first, had the excess of it ultimately +reached been at first presented to view. But the precipice was sloped +off: the descent was made step by step. And there is many a human being +who never had a chance of being good: many who have been trained, and +even compelled, to evil from very infancy. Who that knows anything of +our great cities, but knows how the poor little child, the toddling +innocent, is sometimes sent out day by day to steal, and received in his +wretched home with blows and curses, if he fail to bring back enough? +Who has not heard of such poor little things, unsuccessful in their +sorry work, sleeping all night in some wintry stair, because they durst +not venture back to their drunken, miserable, desperate parents? I could +tell things at which angels might shed tears, with much better reason +for doing so than seems to me to exist in some of those more imposing +occasions on which bombastic writers are wont to describe them as +weeping. Ah, there is One who knows where the responsibility for all +this rests! Not wholly with the wretched parents: far from _that_. +_They_, too, have gone through the like: they had as little chance as +their children. _They_ deserve our deepest pity, too. Perhaps the deeper +pity is not due to the shivering, starving child, with the bitter wind +cutting through its thin rags, and its blue feet on the frozen pavement, +holding out a hand that is like the claw of some beast; but rather to +the brutalized mother who could thus send out the infant she bore. +Surely the mother's condition, if we look at the case aright, is the +more deplorable. Would not you, my reader, rather endure any degree of +cold and hunger than come to this? Doubtless, there is blame somewhere, +that such things should be: but we all know that the blame of the +most miserable practical evils and failures can hardly be traced to +particular individuals. It is through the incapacity of scores of public +servants that an army is starved. It is through the fault of millions of +people that our great towns are what they are: and it must be confessed +that the actual responsibility is spread so thinly over so great a +surface that it is hard to say it rests very blackly upon any one spot. +Oh that we could but know whom to hang, when we find some flagrant, +crying evil! Unluckily, hasty people are ready to be content, if they +can but hang anybody, without minding much whether that individual be +more to blame than many beside. Laws and kings have something to do +here: but management and foresight on the part of the poorer classes +have a great deal more to do. And no laws can make many persons managing +or provident. I do not hesitate to say, from what I have myself seen +of the poor, that the same short-sighted extravagance, the same +recklessness of consequences, which are frequently found in them, would +cause quite as much misery, if they prevailed in a like degree among +people with a thousand a year. But it seems as if only the tolerably +well-to-do have the heart to be provident and self-denying. A man with a +few hundreds annually does not marry, unless he thinks he can afford it: +but the workman with fifteen shillings a week is profoundly indifferent +to any such calculation. I firmly believe that the sternest of all +self-denial is that practised by those who, when we divide mankind into +rich and poor, must be classed (I suppose) with the rich. But I turn +away from a miserable subject, through which I cannot see my way +clearly, and on which I cannot think but with unutterable pain. It is an +easy way of cutting the knot, to declare that the rich are the cause of +all the sufferings of the poor; but when we look at the case in all its +bearings, we shall see that that is rank nonsense. And on the other +hand, it is unquestionable that the rich are bound to do something. But +what? I should feel deeply indebted to any one who would write out, in +a few short and intelligible sentences, the practical results that are +aimed at in the "Song of the Shirt." The misery and evil are manifest: +but tell us whom to hang; tell us what to do! + +One heavy burden with which many men are weighted for the race of life +is depression of spirits. I wonder whether this used to be as common in +former days as it is now. There was, indeed, the man in Homer who walked +by the seashore in a very gloomy mood; but his case seems to have been +thought remarkable. What is it in our modern mode of life and our +infinity of cares, what little thing is it about the matter of the brain +or the flow of the blood, that makes the difference between buoyant +cheerfulness and deep depression? I begin to think that almost all +educated people, and especially all whose work is mental rather than +physical, suffer more or less from this indescribable gloom. And +although a certain amount of sentimental sadness may possibly help the +poet, or the imaginative writer, to produce material which may be very +attractive to the young and inexperienced, I suppose it will be admitted +by all that cheerfulness and hopefulness are noble and healthful +stimulants to worthy effort, and that depression of spirits does (so to +speak) cut the sinews with which the average man must do the work of +life. You know how lightly the buoyant heart carries people through +entanglements and labors under which the desponding would break down, +or which they never would face. Yet, in thinking of the commonness of +depressed spirits, even where the mind is otherwise very free from +anything morbid, we should remember that there is a strong temptation to +believe that this depression is more common and more prevalent than it +truly is. Sometimes there is a gloom which overcasts all life, like +that in which James Watt lived and worked, and served his race so +nobly,--like that from which the gentle, amiable poet, James Montgomery, +suffered through his whole career. But in ordinary cases the gloom is +temporary and transient. Even the most depressed are not always so. +Like, we know, suggests like powerfully. If you are placed in some +peculiar conjuncture of circumstances, or if you pass through some +remarkable scene, the present scene or conjuncture will call up before +you, in a way that startles you, something like itself which you had +long forgotten, and which you would never have remembered but for this +touch of some mysterious spring. And accordingly, a man depressed in +spirits thinks that he is always so, or at least fancies that such +depression has given the color to his life in a very much greater +degree than it actually has done so. For this dark season wakens up the +remembrance of many similar dark seasons which in more cheerful days are +quite forgot; and these cheerful days drop out of memory for the time. +Hearing such a man speak, if he speak out his heart to you, you think +him inconsistent, perhaps you think him insincere. You think he is +saying more than he truly feels. It is not so; he feels and believes +it all at the time. But he is taking a one-sided view of things; he is +undergoing the misery of it acutely for the time, but by-and-by he will +see things from quite a different point. A very eminent man (there can +be no harm in referring to a case which he himself made so public) +wrote and published something about his _miserable home_. He was quite +sincere, I do not doubt. He thought so at the time. He _was_ miserable +just then; and so, looking back on past years, he could see nothing but +misery. But the case was not really so, one could feel sure. There +had been a vast deal of enjoyment about his home and his lot; it was +forgotten then. A man in very low spirits, reading over his diary, +somehow lights upon and dwells upon all the sad and wounding things; he +involuntarily skips the rest, or reads them with but faint perception +of their meaning. In reading the very Bible, he does the like thing. +He chances upon that which is in unison with his present mood. I think +there is no respect in which this great law of the association of ideas +holds more strictly true than in the power of a present state of mind, +or a present state of outward circumstances, to bring up vividly before +us all such states in our past history. We are depressed, we are +worried; and when we look back, all our departed days of worry and +depression appear to start up and press themselves upon our view to the +exclusion of anything else; so that we are ready to think that we have +never been otherwise than depressed and worried all our life. But when +more cheerful times come, they suggest only such times of cheerfulness, +and no effort will bring back the depression vividly as when we felt +it. It is not selfishness or heartlessness, it is the result of an +inevitable law of mind, that people in happy circumstances should +resolutely believe that it is a happy world after all; for, looking +back, and looking around, the mind refuses to take distinct note of +anything that is not somewhat akin to its present state. And so, if any +ordinary man, who is not a distempered genius or a great fool, tells you +that he is always miserable, don't believe him. He feels so now, but he +does not always feel so. There are periods of brightening in the darkest +lot. Very, very few live in unvarying gloom. Not but that there is +something very pitiful (by which I mean deserving of pity) in what +may be termed the Micawber style of mind,--in the stage of hysteric +oscillations between joy and misery. Thoughtless readers of "David +Copperfield" laugh at Mr. Micawber, and his rapid passages from the +depth of despair to the summit of happiness, and back again. But if you +have seen or experienced that morbid condition, you would know that +there is more reason to mourn over it than to laugh at it. There +is acute misery felt now and then; and there is a pervading, +never-departing sense of the hollowness of the morbid mirth. It is but +a very few degrees better than "moody madness, laughing wild, amid +severest woe." By depression of spirits I understand a dejection without +any cause that could be stated, or from causes which in a healthy mind +would produce no such degree of dejection. No doubt, many men can +remember seasons of dejection which was not imaginary, and of anxiety +and misery whose causes were only too real. You can remember, perhaps, +the dark time in which you knew quite well what it was that made it so +dark. Well, better days have come. That sorrowful, wearing time, which +exhausted the springs of life faster than ordinary living would have +done, which aged you in heart and frame before your day, dragged over, +and it is gone. You carried heavy weight, indeed, while it lasted. It +was but poor running you made, poor work you did, with that feeble, +anxious, disappointed, miserable heart. And you would many a time have +been thankful to creep into a quiet grave. Perhaps that season did you +good. Perhaps it was the discipline you needed. Perhaps it took out your +self-conceit, and made you humble. Perhaps it disposed you to feel for +the griefs and cares of others, and made you sympathetic. Perhaps, +looking back now, you can discern the end it served. And now that it has +done its work, and that it only stings you when you look back, let that +time be quite forgotten! + + * * * * * + +There are men, and very clever men, who do the work of life at a +disadvantage, through _this_, that their mind is a machine fitted for +doing well only one kind of work,--or that their mind is a machine +which, though doing many things well, does some one thing, perhaps a +conspicuous thing, very poorly. You find it hard to give a man credit +for being possessed of sense and talent, if you hear him make a speech +at a public dinner, which speech approaches the idiotic for its +silliness and confusion. And the vulgar mind readily concludes that he +who does one thing extremely ill can do nothing well, and that he who is +ignorant on one point is ignorant on all. A friend of mine, a country +parson, on first going to his parish, resolved to farm his glebe for +himself. A neighboring farmer kindly offered the parson to plough one +of his fields. The farmer said that he would send his man John with a +plough and a pair of horses, on a certain day. "If ye're goin' about," +said the farmer to the clergyman, "John will be unco' weel pleased, if +you speak to him, and say it's a fine day, or the like o' that; but +dinna," said the farmer, with much solemnity, "dinna say onything to him +aboot ploughin' and sawin'; for John," he added, "is a stupid body, but +he has been ploughin' and sawin' all his life, and he'll see in a minute +that _ye_ ken naething aboot ploughin' and sawin'. And then," said the +sagacious old farmer, with extreme earnestness, "if he comes to think +that ye ken naething aboot ploughin' and sawin', he'll think that ye ken +naething aboot onything!" Yes, it is natural to us all to think, that, +if the machine breaks down at that work in which we are competent to +test it, then the machine cannot do any work at all. + +If you have a strong current of water, you may turn it into any channel +you please, and make it do any work you please. With equal energy and +success it will flow north or south; it will turn a corn-mill, or a +threshing-machine, or a grindstone. Many people live under a vague +impression that the human mind is like that. They think,--Here is so +much ability, so much energy, which may be turned in any direction, and +made to do any work; and they are surprised to find that the power, +available and great for one kind of work, is worth nothing for another. +A man very clever at one thing is positively weak and stupid at another +thing. A very good judge may be a wretchedly bad joker; and he must go +through his career at this disadvantage, that people, finding him silly +at the thing they are able to estimate, find it hard to believe that he +is not silly at everything. I know, for myself, that it would not be +right that the Premier should request me to look out for a suitable +Chancellor. I am not competent to appreciate the depth of a man's +knowledge of equity; by which I do not mean justice, but chancery law. +But, though quite unable to understand how great a Chancellor Lord Eldon +was, I am quite able to estimate how great a poet he was, also how great +a wit. Here is a poem by that eminent person. Doubtless he regarded it +as a wonder of happy versification, as well as instinct with the most +convulsing fun. It is intended to set out in a metrical form the career +of a certain judge, who went up as a poor lad from Scotland to England, +but did well at the bar, and ultimately found his place upon the bench. +Here is Lord Chancellor Eldon's humorous poem:-- + + "James Allan Parke + Came naked stark + From Scotland: + But he got clothes, + Like other beaux, + In England!" + +Now the fact that Lord Eldon wrote that poem, and valued it highly, +would lead some folk to suppose that Lord Eldon was next door to an +idiot. And a good many other things which that Chancellor did, such as +his quotations from Scripture in the House of Commons, and his attempts +to convince that assemblage (when Attorney-General) that Napoleon I. was +the Apocalyptic Beast or the Little Horn, certainly point towards the +same conclusion. But the conclusion, as a general one, would be +wrong. No doubt, Lord Eldon was a wise and sagacious man as judge and +statesman, though as wit and poet he was almost an idiot. So with other +great men. It is easy to remember occasions on which great men have +done very foolish things. There never was a truer hero nor a greater +commander than Lord Nelson; but in some things he was merely an awkward, +overgrown midshipman. But then, let us remember that a locomotive +engine, though excellent at running, would be a poor hand at flying. +_That_ is not its vocation. The engine will draw fifteen heavy carriages +fifty miles in an hour; and _that_ remains as a noble feat, even though +it be ascertained that the engine could not jump over a brook which +would be cleared easily by the veriest screw. We all see this. + +But many of us have a confused idea that a great and clever man is (so +to speak) a locomotive that can fly; and when it is proved that he +cannot fly, then we begin to doubt whether he can even run. We think he +should be good at everything, whether in his own line or not. And he is +set at a disadvantage, particularly in the judgment of vulgar and stupid +people, when it is clearly ascertained that at some things he is very +inferior. I have heard of a very eminent preacher who sunk considerably +(even as regards his preaching) in the estimation of a certain family, +because it appeared that he played very badly at bowls. And we all know +that occasionally the Premier already mentioned reverses the vulgar +error, and in appointing men to great places is guided by an axiom which +amounts to just this: this locomotive can run well, therefore it will +fly well. This man has filled a certain position well, therefore let us +appoint him to a position entirely different; no doubt, he will do +well there too. Here is a clergyman who has edited certain Greek plays +admirably; let us make him a bishop. + +It may be remarked here, that the men who have attained the greatest +success in the race of life have generally carried weight. _Nitor in +adversum_ might be the motto of many a man besides Burke. It seems to +be almost a general rule, that the raw material out of which the finest +fabrics are made should look very little like these, to start with. It +was a stammerer, of uncommanding mien, who became the greatest orator +of graceful Greece. I believe it is admitted that Chalmers was the most +effective preacher, perhaps the most telling speaker, that Britain has +seen for at least a century; yet his aspect was not commanding, his +gestures were awkward, his voice was bad, and his accent frightful. He +talked of an _oppning_ when be meant an _opening_, and he read out the +text of one of his noblest sermons, "He that is fulthy, let him be +fulthy stall." Yet who ever thought of these things after hearing the +good man for ten minutes? Ay, load Eclipse with what extra pounds you +might, Eclipse would always be first! And, to descend to the race-horse, +_he_ had four white legs, white to the knees; and he ran more awkwardly +than racer ever did, with his head between his forelegs, close to the +ground, like a pig. Alexander, Napoleon, and Wellington were all little +men, in places where a commanding presence would have been of no small +value. A most disagreeably affected manner has not prevented a barrister +with no special advantages from rising with general approval to the +highest places which a barrister can fill. A hideous little wretch has +appeared for trial in a criminal court, having succeeded in marrying +seven wives at once. A painful hesitation has not hindered a certain +eminent person from being one of the principal speakers in the British +Parliament for many years. Yes, even disadvantages never overcome +have not sufficed to hold in obscurity men who were at once able and +fortunate. But sometimes the disadvantage was thoroughly overcome. +Sometimes it served no other end than to draw to one point the attention +and the efforts of a determined will; and that matter in regard to which +Nature seemed to have said that a man should fall short became the thing +in which he attained unrivalled perfection. + +A heavy drag-weight upon the powers of some men is the uncertainty of +their powers. The man has not his powers at command. His mind is a +capricious thing, that works when it pleases, and will not work except +when it pleases. I am not thinking now of what to many is a sad +disadvantage: that nervous trepidation which cannot be reasoned away, +and which often deprives them of the full use of their mental abilities +just when they are most needed. It is a vast thing in a man's favor, +that whatever he can do he should be able to do at any time, and to +do at once. For want of coolness of mind, and that readiness which +generally goes with it, many a man cannot do himself justice; and in a +deliberative assembly he may be entirely beaten by some flippant person +who has all his money (so to speak) in his pocket, while the other must +send to the bank for his. How many people can think next day, or even +a few minutes after, of the precise thing they ought to have said, but +which would not come at the time! But very frequently the thing is of no +value, unless it come at the time when it is wanted. Coming next day, it +is like the offer of a thick fur great-coat on a sweltering day in July. +You look at the wrap, and say, "Oh, if I could but have had you on the +December night when I went to London by the limited mail, and was nearly +starved to death!" But it seems as if the mind must be, to a certain +extent, capricious in its action. Caprice, or what looks like it, +appears of necessity to go with complicated machinery, even material. +The more complicated a machine is, the liker it grows to mind, in the +matter of uncertainty and apparent caprice of action. The simplest +machine--say a pipe for conveying water--will always act in precisely +the same way. And two such pipes, if of the same dimensions, and +subjected to the same pressure, will always convey the self-same +quantities. But go to more advanced machines. Take two clocks or two +locomotive engines, and though these are made in all respects exactly +alike, they will act (I can answer at least for the locomotive engines) +quite differently. One locomotive will swallow a vast quantity of water +at once; another must be fed by driblets; no one can say why. One engine +is a _fac-simile_ of the other; yet each has its character and its +peculiarities as truly as a man has. You need to know your engine's +temper before driving it, just as much as you need to know that of your +horse, or that of your friend. I know, of course, there is a mechanical +reason for this seeming caprice, if you could trace the reason. But not +one man in a thousand could trace out the reason. And the phenomenon, as +it presses itself upon us, really amounts to this: that very complicated +machinery appears to have a will of its own,--appears to exercise +something of the nature of choice. But there is no machine so capricious +as the human mind. The great poet who wrote those beautiful verses could +not do _that_ every day. A good deal more of what he writes is poor +enough; and many days he could not write at all. By long habit the mind +may be made capable of being put in harness daily for the humbler task +of producing prose; but you cannot say, when you harness it in the +morning, how far or at what rate it will run that day. + +Go and see a great organ of which you have been told. Touch it, and you +hear the noble tones at once. The organ can produce them at any time. +But go and see a great man; touch _him_,--that is, get him to begin to +talk. You will be much disappointed, if you expect, certainly, to hear +anything like his book or his poem. A great man is not a man who is +always saying great things, or who is always able to say great things. +He is a man who on a few occasions has said great things; who on the +coming of a sufficient occasion may possibly say great things again; +but the staple of his talk is commonplace enough. Here is a point of +difference from machinery, with all machinery's apparent caprice. You +could not say, as you pointed to a steam-engine, "The usual power of +that engine is two hundred horses; but once or twice it has surprised us +all by working up to two thousand." No; the engine is always of nearly +the power of two thousand horses, if it ever is. But what we have been +supposing as to the engine is just what many men have done. Poe wrote +"The Raven"; he was working then up to two thousand horse power. But +he wrote abundance of poor stuff, working at about twenty-five. Read +straight through the volumes of Wordsworth, and I think you will find +traces of the engine having worked at many different powers, varying +from twenty-five horses or less up two thousand or more. Go and hear a +really great preacher, when he is preaching in his own church upon a +common Sunday, and possibly you may hear a very ordinary sermon. I have +heard Mr. Melvill preach very poorly. You must not expect to find people +always at their best. It is a very unusual thing that even the ablest +men should be like Burke, who could not talk with an intelligent +stranger for five minutes without convincing the stranger that he had +talked for five minutes with a great man. And it is an awful thing, when +some clever youth is introduced to some local poet who has been told how +greatly the clever youth admires him, and what vast expectations +the clever youth has formed of his conversation, and when the local +celebrity makes a desperate effort to talk up to the expectations formed +of him. I have witnessed such a scene; and I can sincerely say that I +could not previously have believed that the local celebrity could have +made such a fool of himself. He was resolved to show that he deserved +his fame, and to show that the mind which had produced those lovely +verses in the country newspaper could not stoop to commonplace things. + + * * * * * + +Undue sensitiveness, and a too lowly estimate of their own powers, hang +heavily upon some men,--probably upon more men than one would imagine. +I believe that many a man whom you would take to be ambitious, +pushing, and self-complacent, is ever pressed with a sad conviction of +inferiority, and wishes nothing more than quietly to slip through life. +It would please and satisfy him, if he could but be assured that he is +just like other people. You may remember a touch of nature (that is, of +some people's nature) in Burns; you remember the simple exultation of +the peasant mother, when her daughter gets a sweetheart: she is "well +pleased to see _her_ bairn respeckit _like the lave_," that is, like the +other girls round. And undue humility, perhaps even befitting humility, +holds back sadly in the race of life. It is recorded that a weaver in a +certain village in Scotland was wont daily to offer a singular petition; +he prayed daily and fervently for a better opinion of himself. Yes, a +firm conviction of one's own importance is a great help in life. It +gives dignity of bearing; it does (so to speak) lift the horse over many +a fence at which one with a less confident heart would have broken down. +But the man who estimates himself and his place humbly and justly will +be ready to shrink aside, and let men of greater impudence and not +greater desert step before him. I have often seen, with a sad heart, in +the case of working people that manner, difficult to describe, which +comes of being what we in Scotland sometimes call _sair hadden down_. I +have seen the like in educated people, too. And not very many will take +the trouble to seek out and to draw out the modest merit that keeps +itself in the shade. The energetic, successful people of this world are +too busy in pushing each for himself to have time to do _that_. You will +find that people with abundant confidence, people who assume a good +deal, are not unfrequently taken at their own estimate of themselves. I +have seen a Queen's Counsel walk into court, after the case in which he +was engaged had been conducted so far by his junior, and conducted +as well as mortal could conduct it. But it was easy to see that the +complacent air of superior strength with which the Queen's Counsel took +the management out of his junior's hands conveyed to the jury, (a common +jury,) the belief that things were now to be managed in quite different +and vastly better style. And have you not known such a thing as that a +family, not a whit better, wealthier, or more respectable than all +the rest in the little country town or the country parish, do yet, by +carrying their heads higher, (no mortal could say why,) gradually elbow +themselves into a place of admitted social superiority? Everybody knows +exactly what they are, and from what they have sprung; but somehow, +by resolute assumption, by a quiet air of being better than their +neighbors, they draw ahead of them, and attain the glorious advantage +of one step higher on the delicately graduated social ladder of the +district. Now it is manifest, that, if such people had sense to see +their true position, and the absurdity of their pretensions, they would +assuredly not have gained that advantage, whatever it may be worth. + +But sense and feeling are sometimes burdens in the race of life; that +is, they sometimes hold a man back from grasping material advantages +which he might have grasped, had he not been prevented by the possession +of a certain measure of common sense and right feeling. I doubt not, my +friend, that you have acquaintances who can do things which you could +not do for your life, and who by doing these things push their way in +life. They ask for what they want, and never let a chance go by them. +And though they may meet many rebuffs, they sometimes make a successful +venture. Impudence sometimes attains to a pitch of sublimity; and at +that point it has produced a very great impression upon many men. The +incapable person who started for a professorship has sometimes got it. +The man who, amid the derision of the county, published his address to +the electors, has occasionally got into the House of Commons. The vulgar +half-educated preacher, who without any introduction asked a patron for +a vacant living in the Church, has now and then got the living. And +however unfit you may be for a place, and however discreditable may have +been the means by which you got it, once you have actually held it for +two or three years people come to acquiesce in your holding it. They +accept the fact that you are there, just as we accept the fact that any +other evil exists in this world, without asking why, except on very +special occasions. I believe, too, that, in the matter of worldly +preferment, there is too much fatalism in many good men. They have a +vague trust that Providence will do more than it has promised. They are +ready to think, that, if it is God's will that they are to gain such a +prize, it will be sure to come their way without their pushing. That is +a mistake. Suppose you apply the same reasoning to your dinner. Suppose +you sit still in your study and say, "If I am to have dinner to-day, it +will come without effort of mine; and if I am not to have dinner to-day, +it will not come by any effort of mine; so here I sit still and do +nothing." Is not _that_ absurd? Yet that is what many a wise and good +man practically says about the place in life which would suit him, and +which would make him happy. Not Turks and Hindoos alone have a tendency +to believe in their _Kismet_. It is human to believe in that. And we +grasp at every event that seems to favor the belief. The other evening, +in the twilight, I passed two respectable-looking women who seemed like +domestic servants; and I caught one sentence which one said to the other +with great apparent faith. "You see," she said, "if a thing's to come +your way, it'll no gang by ye!" It was in a crowded street; but if +it had been in my country parish, where everyone knew me, I should +certainly have stopped the women, and told them, that, though what they +said was quite true, I feared they were understanding it wrongly, and +that the firm belief we all hold in God's Providence which reaches to +all events, and in His sovereignty which orders all things, should be +used to help us to be resigned, after we have done our best and failed, +but should never be used as an excuse for not doing our best. When we +have set our mind on any honest end, let us seek to compass it by every +honest means; and if we fail after having used every honest means, +_then_ let us fall back on the comfortable belief that things are +ordered by the Wisest and Kindest; _then_ is the time for the _Fiat +Voluntas Tua_. + +You would not wish, my friend, to be deprived of common sense and of +delicate feeling, even though you could be quite sure that once _that_ +drag-weight was taken off, you would spring forward to the van, and make +such running in the race of life as you never made before. Still, you +cannot help looking with a certain interest upon those people who, by +the want of these hindering influences, are enabled to do things and +say things which you never could. I have sometimes looked with no small +curiosity upon the kind of man who will come uninvited, and without +warning of his approach, to stay at another man's house: who will stay +on, quite comfortable and unmoved, though seeing plainly he is not +wanted: who will announce, on arriving, that his visit is to be for +three days, and who will then, without farther remark, and without +invitation of any kind, remain for a month or six weeks: and all +the while sit down to dinner every day with a perfectly easy and +unembarrassed manner. You and I, my reader, would rather live on much +less than sixpence a day than do all this. We _could not_ do it. But +some people not merely can do it, but can do it without any appearance +of effort. Oh, if the people who are victimized by these horse-leeches +of society could but gain a little of the thickness of skin which +characterizes the horse-leeches, and bid them be off, and not return +again till they are invited! To the same pachydermatous class belong +those individuals who will put all sorts of questions as to the private +affairs of other people, but carefully shy off from any similar +confidence as to their own affairs: also those individuals who borrow +small sums of money and never repay them, but go on borrowing till the +small sums amount to a good deal. To the same class may be referred +the persona who lay themselves out for saying disagreeable things, the +"candid friends" of Canning, the "people who speak their mind," who form +such pests of society. To find fault is to right-feeling men a very +painful thing; but some take to the work with avidity and delight. And +while people of cultivation shrink, with a delicate intuition, from +saying any thing which may give pain or cause uneasiness to others, +there are others who are ever painfully treading upon the moral corns of +all around them. Sometimes this is done designedly: as by Mr. Snarling, +who by long practice has attained the power of hinting and insinuating, +in the course of a forenoon call, as many unpleasant things as may +germinate into a crop of ill-tempers and worries which shall make the +house at which he called uncomfortable all that day. Sometimes it +is done unawares, as by Mr. Boor, who, through pure ignorance and +coarseness, is always bellowing out things which it is disagreeable +to some one, or to several, to hear. Which was it, I wonder, Boor or +Snarling, who once reached the dignity of the mitre, and who at prayers +in his house uttered this supplication on behalf of a lady visitor who +was kneeling beside him: "Bless our friend, Mrs. ----: give her a little +more common sense; and teach her to dress a little less like a tragedy +queen than she does at present"? + + * * * * * + +But who shall reckon up the countless circumstances which lie like a +depressing burden on the energies of men, and make them work at that +disadvantage which we have thought of under the figure of _carrying +weight in life?_ There are men who carry weight in a damp, marshy +neighborhood, who, amid bracing mountain air might have done things +which now they will never do. There are men who carry weight in an +uncomfortable house: in smoky chimneys: in a study with a dismal +look-out: in distance from a railway-station: in ten miles between them +and a bookseller's shop. Give another hundred a year of income, and the +poor struggling parson who preaches dull sermons will astonish you +by the talent he will exhibit when his mind is freed from the dismal +depressing influence of ceaseless scheming to keep the wolf from the +door. Let the poor little sick child grow strong and well, and with +how much better heart will its father face the work of life! Let the +clergyman who preached, in a spiritless enough way, to a handful of +uneducated rustics, be placed in a charge where weekly he has to address +a large cultivated congregation, and, with the new stimulus, latent +powers may manifest themselves which no one fancied he possessed, and he +may prove quite an eloquent and attractive preacher. A dull, quiet +man, whom you esteemed as a blockhead, may suddenly be valued very +differently when circumstances unexpectedly call out the solid qualities +he possesses, unsuspected before. A man devoid of brilliancy may on +occasion show that he possesses great good sense, or that he has the +power of sticking to his task in spite of discouragement. Let a man be +placed where dogged perseverance will stand him in stead, and you may +see what he can do when he has but a chance. The especial weight which +has held some men back, the thing which kept them from doing great +things and attaining great fame, has been just this: that they were not +able to say or to write what they have thought and felt. And, indeed, +a great poet is nothing more than the one man in a million who has the +gift to express that which has been in the mind and heart of multitudes. +If even the most commonplace of human beings could write all the poetry +he has felt, he would produce something that would go straight to the +hearts of many. + +It is touching to witness the indications and vestiges of sweet and +admirable things which have been subjected to a weight which has +entirely crushed them down,--things which would have come out into +beauty and excellence, if they had been allowed a chance. You may +witness one of the saddest of all the losses of Nature in various old +maids. What kind hearts are there running to waste! What pure and gentle +affections blossom to be blighted! I dare say you have heard a young +lady of more than forty sing, and you have seen her eyes fill with tears +at the pathos of a very commonplace verse. Have you not thought that +there was the indication of a tender heart which might have made some +good man happy, and, in doing so, made herself happy, too? But it was +not to be. Still, it is sad to think that sometimes upon cats and dogs +there should be wasted the affection of a kindly human being! And you +know, too, how often the fairest promise of human excellence is never +suffered to come to fruit. You must look upon gravestones to find the +names of those who promised to be the best and noblest specimens of +the race. They died in early youth,--perhaps in early childhood. Their +pleasant faces, their singular words and ways, remain, not often talked +of, in the memories of subdued parents, or of brothers and sisters now +grown old, but never forgetting how _that_ one of the family, that +was as the flower of the flock, was the first to fade. It has been a +proverbial saying, you know, even from heathen ages, that those whom the +gods love die young. It is but an inferior order of human beings that +makes the living succession to carry on the human race. + + * * * * * + + +WHY HAS THE NORTH FELT AGGRIEVED WITH ENGLAND? + + +We have chosen a guarded and passionless wording for a topic on which +we wish to offer a few frankly spoken, but equally passionless remarks. +With the bitterness and venom and exaggeration of statement which both +English and American papers have interchanged in reference to matters of +opinion and matters of feeling connected with our national troubles we +do not now intermeddle. We would not imitate it: we regret it, and +on our own side we are ashamed of it. We have read editorials and +communications in our own papers so grossly vituperative and stinging in +the rancor of their spirit, that it would not have surprised us, if some +Englishmen, of a certain class, had organized a hostile association +against us in revenge for our truculent defiance. The real spirit of +bullyism, of the cockpit and the pugilistic ring, has been exhibited in +this interchange of newspaper opinion. The more is the reason why we +should not overlook or be blind to the real grievances in the case, nor +fail to give expression to them in the strongest way of which their +emphatic, but unembittered, statement will admit. Whether the London +"Times" is or is not an authoritative vehicle for the utterance of +average English opinion, and an index, in its general tone, of the +prevailing sentiment of that people, is a question which, so far from +wishing to decide, we must decline to entertain, as mainly irrelevant to +our present purpose. As a matter of fact, however, if we did accept that +print as an authority and a standard in English opinion, we should throw +more of temper than we hope to prevent escaping through our words into +the remarks which are to follow. That paper evidently represents the +opinion of one class, perhaps of more than one class of Englishmen. An +intelligent American reader of its comments on our affairs can always +read it, as even the best-informed Englishman cannot, with the skill and +ability to discern its spirit, often covertly mean, and to detect its +misrepresentations, some of the grossest of which are made the basis of +its arguments and inferences. From the very opening of our strife to the +last issue of that print which has crossed the water, its comments and +records relating to our affairs have presented a most ingenious and +mischievous combination of everything false, ill-tempered, malignant, +and irritating. It is at present exercising itself upon the financial +arrangements of our Government, and uttering prophecies, falsified +before they have come to our knowledge, about the inability or the +unwillingness of our loyal people to furnish the necessary money. + +But enough of the London "Times." We have in view matters not identified +with the spirit and comments of a single newspaper, however influential. +We have in view graver and more comprehensive facts,--facts, too, more +significant of feelings and opinion. Stating our point in general terms, +which we shall reduce to some particulars before we close, we affirm +frankly and emphatically, that the North, we might even say this Nation, +as a government standing in solemn treaty relations with Great Britain, +has just cause of complaint and offence at the prevailing tone and +spirit of the English people, and press, and mercantile classes, towards +us, in view of the rebellion which is convulsing our land. That tone +and spirit have not been characterized by justice, magnanimity, or +true sympathy with a noble and imperilled cause; they have not been in +keeping with the professions and avowed principles of that people; they +have not been consistent with the former intimations of English opinion +towards us, as regards our position and our duty; and they have sadly +disappointed the hopes on whose cheering support we had relied when the +dark hours which English influence had helped to prepare for us should +come. + +Before we proceed to our specifications, let us meet the suggestion +often thrown out, that we have been unduly and morbidly sensitive to +English opinion in this matter; and let us gratefully allow for the +exceptions that may require to be recognized in the application of our +charges against the English people or press as a whole. It has been +said that we have shown a timid and almost craven sensitiveness to the +opinions pronounced abroad upon our national struggle, especially those +pronounced by our own kinsfolk of England. It is urged, that a strong +and prosperous and united people, if conscious of only a rightful cause, +and professing the ability to maintain it, should be self-reliant, +independent of foreign judgment, and ready to trust to time and the sure +candor and fulness of the expositions which it brings with it, to set us +right before the eyes of the world. But what if another nation, supposed +to be friendly, known even to have recommended and urged upon us +the very cause for which we are contending, represents it in such a +contumelious and disheartening way as to show us that we have not even +her sympathy? Further, what if there is a spirit and a tone of treatment +towards us which suggests the possibility that at some critical moment +she may interfere in a way that will embarrass us and encourage our +enemies? The sensitiveness of a people to the possible power of mischief +that may lie against them in the hands of a jealous neighbor, ready to +be used at the will or caprice of its possessor, may indicate timidity +or weakness. But Great Britain, knowing very well what the feeling is, +ought to understand that it may consist with real strength, courage, and +right purposes. It is notorious now to all the civilized world, as +a fact often ludicrously and sometimes lugubriously set forth, that +millions of sturdy English folk have lived for many years, and live at +this hour, in a state of quaking trepidation as to the designs of a +single man of "ideas" across their Channel. What bulletin have the +English people ever read from day to day with such an intermittent pulse +as that with which they peruse quotations from the "Moniteur"? The +English people, whatever might have been true of them once, are now +the last people in the world--matched and overawed as they are by the +French--to charge upon another people a timid sensitiveness for even the +slightest intimations of foreign feeling and possible intentions. + +We must allow also for exceptions to the sweep of the specific charges +under which we shall express our grievances at the general course of +English treatment towards us. There have been messages in many private +letters from Englishmen and Englishwomen of high public and of dignified +private station, there have been editorials and communications in a few +English papers, there have been brief utterances in Parliament, and +from leading speakers at political, mercantile, literary, and religious +assemblies, which have shown a full appreciation of the import of our +present strife, and have conveyed to us in words of most precious and +grateful encouragement the assurance that many hearts are beating with +ours across the sea. That the truculence and venom of some of our own +papers may have repressed the feeling and the utterance of this same +sympathy in many individuals and ways where it might otherwise have +manifested itself is not unnatural, and is very probable. We acknowledge +most gratefully the cheer and the inspiration which have come to us from +every word, wish, and act from abroad that has recognized the stake of +our conflict; and we will take for granted the real existence and the +glowing heartiness of much of the same which has not been expressed, or +has not reached us. Farther even than this we will go in tempering or +qualifying the utterance of our grievances. We will take for granted +that very much of the coldness, or antipathy, or contemptuousness, or +misrepresentation which we have recognized in the general treatment of +us and our cause by Englishmen is to be accounted to actual ignorance +or a very partial understanding of our real circumstances and of the +conditions of the conflict, and of the relations of parties to it. De +Tocqueville is universally regarded among us as the only foreigner +who ever divined the theoretical and the practical method of our +institutions. Englishmen, English statesmen even, have never penetrated +to the mystery of them. Many intelligent British travellers have seemed +to wish to do so, and to have tried to do so. But the study bothers +them, the secret baffles them. They give it up with a gruff impatience +which writes on their features the sentence, "You have no right to have +such complicated and unintelligible arrangements in your governments, +State and Federal: they are quite un-English." Our foreign kinsfolk seem +unwilling to realize the extent of our domain, and the size of some +of our States as compared with their own island, and incapable of +understanding how different institutions, forms, limitations, and +governmental arrangements may exist in the several States, independently +of, or in subordination to, the province and administration of the +Federal Government. Nearly every English journal which undertakes +to refer to our affairs will make ludicrous or serious blunders, +if venturing to enter into details. The "Edinburgh Review" kindly +volunteered to be the champion of American institutions and products in +opposition to the extreme Toryism of the "Quarterly." Sydney Smith took +us, our authors and early enterprises, under his special patronage, +and he wrote many favorable articles of that character. One would have +supposed, that, in the necessary preparation for such labors, he would +have acquired some geographical, statistical, and other rudimentary +knowledge about us, enough to have kept him from gross blunders. +Unluckily, for him and for us, for the sake of getting here on his money +double the interest which he could get at home, and not considering +that the greater the promised profit the greater the risk, he made +investments in some of our stock companies and bonds. When these +investments proved disastrous, he raved and fumed, calling upon our +Government--which had nothing more to do with the matter than had the +English Parliament--to make good his losses. + +We are tempted for a moment to drop the graver thread of our theme to +relate an anecdote in illustration of our present point. It happened a +few years ago that we had as a household guest for two or three weeks an +English gentleman, well-informed, courteous, and excellent, who had been +for several years the editor of a London paper. On the day after his +domestication with us, which was within the first week of his arrival +at New York, sitting where we are now writing, after breakfast, he +announced that "he had a commission to execute for a friend, with a +person residing in Springfield." Opening his note-book, he handed us a +slip of paper bearing the gentleman's name and address, "Springfield, +Ohio." Furnishing him with writing-materials, we were about turning to +our own occupation, when, suddenly, with a quick exclamation, as if +recalling something, he said, "Sure, I have been in Springfield. I +remember a short, a very short time was allowed for dinner, as I came +from New York." We explained, or tried to explain to him, that the +Springfield through which he had passed and the Springfield to which he +was writing were in different States widely separated, and that there +were also several other "Springfields." To this he demurred, protesting +that it made matters quite confusing to foreigners to have the same +names repeated in different parts of the Country. In vain did we suggest +that all confusion was avoided by adding the abbreviated name of the +State. No! "It was very confusing." Suddenly, a thought occurred to +us, and, refreshing our memory by a glance at the Index of our English +"Road-Book," we suggested triumphantly that names were repeated for +different localities in England: thus, there are four Ashfords, two +Dorchesters, six Hortons, seven Newports, etc., etc. Our guest, with an +air and vehemence that quite outvied our triumph, exclaimed,--"Oh! but +they are in different shi_rrr_hes, in different shi_rrr_hes!" Sure +enough, one of his own _shires_ is a larger thing to an Englishman than +one of our States. He lives on an island which is to him larger than all +the rest of the world, though any one starting from the centre of it, on +a fast horse, unless he crossed the border into Scotland, could scarcely +ride in any direction twenty-four hours without getting overboard. + +To the actual ignorance or obfuscation of mind of the majority of the +English people, as regards our country and its institutions, we are +doubtless to refer much of the ill-toned and seemingly unfriendly +comments made upon our affairs in their organs. Thus, it is intimated +to us by many English writers, that they regard the North now as +simply undertaking to patch up a Union founded and sustained by mean +compromises, an object which has already led us into many humiliating +concessions,--and that the moment we announce that we are striking a +blow for Liberty, we shall have their sympathy without stint or measure. +No Englishman who really understood our affairs would talk in that way. +One of the chief lures which instigated and encouraged the Southern +rebellion was the assurance, adroitly insinuated by the leading traitors +into their duped followers, that opposition by the rest of the country +to their schemes would take the form of an anti-slavery crusade, in +which form the opposition would be put down by the combined force of +those who did not belong to the Republican party. They were deceived. +Opposition to them took the form of a rallying by all parties to the +defence of the Constitution, the maintenance of the Union. For any +anti-slavery zeal to have attempted to divert the aroused patriotism of +the land to a breach of one of its fundamental constitutional provisions +would have been treacherous and futile. The majority of our enlisted +patriotic soldiers would have laid down their arms. If the leadings of +Providence shall direct the thickening strife into an exterminating +crusade against slavery, doubtless our patriots will wait on Providence. +But we could not have started in our stern work avowing that as an +object of our own. And as to the meanness of our concessions and +compromises for Union, we have to consider what woes and wrongs that +Union has averted. Has England no discreditable passages in her own +Parliamentary history? Have her attempts at governing large masses of +men, Christian and heathen, Roman Catholic and Protestant, and of all +sects, privileged and oppressed, never led her into any truckling or +tyrannical legislation, any concessions or compromises of ideal or +abstract right? + +But we must come to our specifications, introducing them with but a +single other needful suggestion. We have not to complain of any acts or +formal measures of the English Government against us,--nor even of the +omission of any possible public manifestation which might have turned +to our encouragement or service. But it will be admitted that we have +grievances to complain of, if the tone and the strain of English opinion +and sentiment have been such as to inspirit the South and to dispirit +the North. If English comments have palliated or justified the original +and the incidental measures of the Rebellion,--if they have been zealous +to find or to exaggerate excuses for it, to overstate the apparent or +professed grounds of it, to wink at the meannesses and outrages by which +it has thriven,--if they have perverted or misrepresented the real +issue, have ridiculed or discouraged the purposes of its patriotic +opponents, have embarrassed or impeded their hopes of success, or have +prejudged or foreclosed the probable result,--it will be admitted, we +say, that we have grievances against those who have so dealt by us in +the hour of our dismay and trial. And it is an enormous aggravation of +the disappointment or the wrong which we are bearing, that it is visited +upon us by England just as we have initiated measures for at least +restraining and abating the dominant power of that evil institution for +our complicity in the support of which she has long been our unsparing +censor. We complain generally of the unsympathizing and contemptuous +tone of England towards us,--of the mercurial standard by which she +judges our strife,--of the scarcely qualified delight with which she +parades our occasional ill-successes and discomfitures,--of the baste +which she has made to find tokens of a rising despotism or a military +dictatorship in those measures of our Government which are needful +and consistent with the exigencies of a state of warfare, such as the +suspension, on occasions, of the _habeas corpus_, the suppression of +disloyal publications, the employment of spies, and the requisition of +passports,--and finally, of the contemptible service to which England +has tried to put our last tariff, and of her evident unwillingness to +have us find or furnish the finances of our war. Not to deal, however, +with generalities, we proceed to make three distinct points of an +argument that crowds us with materials. + +Foremost among the grievances which we at the North may allege against +our brethren across the water--foremost, both in time and in the harmful +influence of its working--we may specify this fact, that the English +press, with scarce an exception, made haste, in the very earliest stages +of the Southern Rebellion, to judge and announce the hopeless partition +of our Union, as an event accomplished and irrevocable. The way in which +this judgment was reached and pronounced, the time and circumstances of +its utterance, and the foregone conclusions which were drawn from it, +gave to it a threatening and mischievous agency, only less prejudicial +to our cause, we verily believe, than would have been an open alliance +between England and the enemies of the Republic. This haste to announce +the positive and accomplished dissolution of our National Union was +forced most painfully upon our notice in the darkest days of our opening +strife. Those who undertook to guide and instruct English opinion in +the matter had easy means of informing themselves about the strangely +fortuitous and deplorable, though most opportune and favoring +combination of circumstances under which "Secession" was initiated and +strengthened. They knew that the Administration, then in its last days +of power, was half-covertly, half-avowedly in sympathy and in active +cooperation with the cause of rebellion. The famous "Ostend Conference" +had had its doings and designs so thoroughly aired in the columns of the +English press, that we cannot suppose either the editors or the readers +ignorant of the spirit or intentions of those who controlled the policy +of that Administration. Early information likewise crossed the water to +them of the discreditable and infamous doings and plottings of members +of the Cabinet, evidently in league with the fomenting treachery. They +knew that the head of the Navy Department had either scattered our +ships of war to the ends of the earth, or had moored them in helpless +disability at our dockyards,--that the head of the War Department had +been plundering the arsenals of loyal States to furnish weapons for +intended rebellion,--that the head of the Treasury Department was +purloining its funds,--and that the President himself, while allowing +national forts to be environed by hostile batteries, had formally +announced that both Secession itself and all attempts to resist it were +alike unconstitutional,--the effect of which grave opinion was to +let Secession have its way till _Coercion_ would seem to be not only +unconstitutional, but unavailing. Our English kinsfolk also knew that +our prominent diplomatic agents abroad, representing solemn treaty +relations with them of this nation as a unit, under sacred oaths of +loyalty to it, and living on generous grants from its Treasury, were +also in more or less of active sympathy with traitorous schemes. So far, +it must be owned, there was little in the promise of whatever might grow +from these combined enormities to engage the confidence or the good +wishes of true-hearted persons on either side of the water. + +But whatever power of mischief lay in this marvellous combination of +evil forces, so malignly working together, the Administration in which +they found their life and whose agencies they employed was soon to yield +up its fearfully desecrated trust. A new order of things, representing +at least the spirit and purpose of that philanthropy and public +righteousness to which our English brethren had for years been prompting +us, was to come in with a new Administration, already constitutionally +recognized, but not as yet put into power. It was asking but little of +intelligent foreigners of our own blood and language, that they should +make due allowance for that recurring period in the terms of our +Government--as easily turned to mischievous influences as is an +interregnum in a monarchy--by which there is a lapse of four months +between the election and the inauguration of our Chief Magistrate. A +retiring functionary may work and plan and provide an immense amount of +disabling, annoying, and damaging experience to be encountered by his +successor. That successor may at a distance, or close at hand, be an +observer of all this influence; but whether it be simply of a partisan +or of a malignant character, he is powerless to resist it, and good +taste and the proprieties of his position seem to suggest that he make +no public recognition of it. Every Chief Magistrate of this Republic, +before its present head, acceded to office with its powers and dignities +and facilities and trusts unimpaired by his predecessor. We have thought +that among the thorns of the pillow on which a certain "old public +functionary" lays his head, as he watches the dismal working of elements +which he had more power than any other to have dispelled, not the +least sharp one must be that which pierces him with the thought of the +difference between the position which his predecessors prepared for him +and that which he prepared for his successor. Not among the least of +the claims which that successor has upon the profound and respectful +sympathy of all good men everywhere is the fact that there has been no +public utterance of complaining or reproachful words from his lips, +reflecting upon his predecessor, or even asking indulgence on the score +of the shattered and almost wrecked fabric of which we have put him in +charge. We confess that we have looked through the English papers for +months for some magnanimous and high-souled tribute of this sort to the +Man who thus nobly represents a sacred and imperilled cause. If such +tribute has been rendered, it has escaped our notice. + +Now, as we are reflecting upon the tone and spirit of the English press +at the opening of the Rebellion, we have to recall to the minds of our +readers the fact, that in all its early stages, even down to and almost +after the proclamation of the President summoning a volunteer force to +resist it, we ourselves, at the North, utterly refused to consider the +Seceders as in earnest. We may have been stupid, besotted, infatuated +even, in our blindness and incredulity. But none the less did we, that +is, the great majority of us, regard all the threats and measures of the +South as something less formidable and actual than open war and probable +or threatening revolution. We were persuaded that the people of the +South had been wrought up by artful and ambitious leaders to wild alarm +that the new Administration would visit outrages upon them and try to +turn them into a state of vassalage. Utterly unconscious as we were of +any purpose to trespass upon or reduce their fullest constitutional +rights, we knew how grossly our intentions were misrepresented to them. +We applied the same measure to the distance between their threats and +the probability that they would carry them out which we knew ought to be +applied to the difference between our supposed and our real +intentions. In a word,--for this is the simple truth,--we regarded the +manifestations of the seceding and rebelling States--or rather of the +leaders and their followers in them--as in part bluster and in part a +warning of what might ensue, though it would not be likely to ensue when +their eyes were open to the truth. We were met by bold defiance, by +outrageous abuse, and with an almost overwhelming venting of falsehoods. +There was boastfulness, arrogance, assured claims of sufficient +strength, and daring prophecies of success, enough to have made any +cause triumphant, if triumph comes through such means. Still we were +incredulous, perhaps foolishly and culpably so,--but incredulous, and +unintimidated, and confident, none the less. We believed that wise, +forbearing, and temperate measures of the new Administration would +remove all real grievances, dispel all false alarms, and at least leave +open the way to bloodless methods of preserving the Union. Part of our +infatuation consisted in our seeing so plainly the infatuation of the +South, while we did not allow for the lengths of wild and reckless folly +into which it might drive them. We could see most plainly that either +success in their schemes, or failure through a struggle to accomplish +them, would be alike ruinous to them; that no cause standing on the +basis and contemplating the objects recognized by them could possibly +prosper, so long as the throne of heaven had a sovereign seated upon it. +Full as much, then, from our conviction that the South would not insist +upon doing itself such harm as from any fear of what might happen to +us, did we refuse to regard Secession as a fixed fact. At the period of +which we are speaking, there was probably not a single man at the North, +of well-furnished and well-balanced mind--who stood clear in heart +and pocket of all secret or interested bias toward the South--that +deliberately recognized the probability of the dissolution of the Union. +Very few such men will, indeed, recognize that possibility now, except +as they recognize the possibility of the destruction of an edifice of +solid blocks and stately columns by the grinding to powder of each large +mass of the fabric, so that no rebuilding could restore it. + +This was the state of mind and feeling with which we, who had so much at +stake and could watch every pulsation of the excitement, contemplated +the aspect of our opening strife. But with the first echo from abroad of +its earliest announcements here came the most positive averments in the +English papers, with scarcely a single exception, that the knell of this +Union had struck. We had fallen asunder, our bond was broken, we had +repudiated our former league or fellowship, and henceforth what had been +a unit was to be two or more fragments, in peaceful or hostile relations +as the case might be, but never again One. It would but revive for us +the first really sharp and irritating pangs of this dismal experience, +to go over the files of papers for those extracts which were like +vinegar to our eyes as we first read them. Their substance is repeated +to us in the sheets which come by every steamer. There were, of course, +variations of tone and spirit in these evil prognostications and these +raven-like croaks. Sometimes there was a vein of pity, and of that kind +of sorrow which we feel and of that other kind which we express for +other people's troubles. Sometimes there was a start of surprise, an +ejaculation of amazement, or even profound dismay, at the calamity which +had come upon us. In others of these newspaper comments there was +that unmistakable superciliousness, that goading contemptuousness +of self-conceit and puffy disdain, which John Bull visits on all +"un-English" things, especially when they happen under their unfortunate +aspects. In not a few of these same comments there was a tone of +exultation, malignant and almost diabolical, as at the discomfiture of +a hated and dangerous rival. We have read at least three English +newspapers for each week that has passed since our troubles began; we +have been readers of these papers for a score of years. In not one of +them have we met the sentence or the line which pronounces hopefully, +with bold assurance, for the renewed life of our Union. In by far the +most of them there is reiterated the most positive and dogged averment +that there is no future for us. We are not unmindful of the manliness +and stout cheer with which a very few of them have avowed their wish and +faith that the Rebels may be utterly discomfited and held up before the +world in their shame and friendlessness, and have coupled with these +utterances words of warm sympathy and approval for the North. But these +ill-wishes for the one party and these good wishes for the other +party are independent of anything but utter hopelessness as to the +preservation or the restoration of the Union. + +Now some may suggest that we make altogether too much of what so far +is but the expression of an opinion, and, at worst, of an unfavorable +opinion,--an opinion, too, which may yet prove to be correct. But the +giving of an opinion on some matters has all the effect of taking a +side, and often helps much to decide the stake. On very many accounts, +this expression of English opinion, at the time it was uttered and with +such emphasis, was most unwarranted and most mischievous. It is very +easy to distribute its harmful influence upon our interests and +prospects into three very different methods, all of which combined to +injure or obstruct the Northern cause,--the National cause. Thus, this +opinion of the hopelessness of our resistance of the men of our +Union was of great value to the Rebels as an encouragement under any +misgivings they might have; it was calculated to prejudice our position +in the eyes of the world; and it had a tendency to dispirit many among +ourselves. A word upon each of these points.--How quickening must it +have been to the flagging hopes or determination of the Rebels to read +in the English journals that they were sure of success, that the result +was already registered, that they had gained their purpose simply by +proposing it! Nor was it possible to regard this opinion as not carrying +with it some implication that the cause of the Rebels was a just one, +and was sure of success, if for other reasons, for this, too, among +them, namely, that it was just. Why else were the Rebels so sure of a +triumph? Was it because of their superior strength or resources? A very +little inquiry would have set aside that suggestion. Was it because +of the nobleness of their cause? A very frank avowal from the +Vice-President of the assumed Confederacy announced to liberty-loving +Englishmen that that cause was identified with a slavocracy. Or was +the Rebel cause to succeed through the dignity and purity of the means +enlisted in its service? It was equally well known on both sides of the +water by what means and appliances of fraud, perfidy, treachery, and +other outrages, the schemes of the Rebellion were initiated and pursued. +If, in spite of all these negatives, the English press prophesies +success to the Rebels, was not the prophecy a great comfort and spur +to them?--Again, this prophecy of our sure discomfiture prejudiced us +before the world. It gave a public character and aspect of hopelessness +to our cause; it invited coldness of treatment towards us; it seemed to +warn off all nations from giving us aid or comfort; and it virtually +affirmed that any outlay of means or life by us in a cause seen to be +impracticable would be reckless, sanguinary, cruel, and inhuman.--And, +once more, to those among ourselves who are influenced by evil +prognostications, it was most dispiriting to be told, as if by cool, +unprejudiced observers from outside, that no uprising of patriotism, no +heroism of sacrifice, no combination of wisdom and power would be of any +avail to resist a foreordained catastrophe.--In these three harmful +ways of influence, the ill-omened opinion reiterated from abroad had +a tendency to fulfil itself. The whole plea of justification offered +abroad for the opinion is given in the assertion that those who have +once been bitterly alienated can never be brought into true harmony +again, and that it is impossible to govern the unwilling as equals. +England has but to read the record of her own strifes and battles and +infuriated passages with Scotland and Ireland,--between whom and herself +alienations of tradition, prejudice, and religion seemed to make harmony +as impossible as the promise of it is to these warring States,--England +has only to refresh her memory on these points, in order to relieve us +of the charge of folly in attempting an impossibility. So much for the +first grievance we allege against our English brethren. + +Another of our specifications of wrong is involved in that already +considered. If English opinion decided that our nationality must +henceforth be divided, it seemed also to imply that we ought to divide +according to terms dictated by the Seceders. This was a precious +judgment to be pronounced against us by a sister Government which +was standing in solemn treaty relations with us as a unit in our +nationality! What did England suppose had become of our Northern +manhood, of the spirit of which she herself once felt the force? There +was something alike humiliating and exasperating in this implied advice +from her, that we should tamely and unresistingly submit to a division +of continent, bays, and rivers, according to terms defiantly and +insultingly proposed by those who had a joint ownership with ourselves. +How would England receive such advice from us under like circumstances? +But we must cut short the utterance of our feelings on this point, that +we may make another specification,-- + +Which is, that our English critics see only, or chiefly, in the fearful +and momentous conflict in which we are engaged, "a bursting of the +bubble of Democracy"! Shall we challenge now the intelligence or the +moral principle, the lack of one or the other of which is betrayed +in this sneering and malignant representation--this utter +misrepresentation--of the catastrophe which has befallen our nation? +Intelligent Englishmen know full well that the issue raised among us +does not necessarily touch or involve at a single point the principles +of Democracy, but stands wide apart and distinct from them. We might +with as much propriety have said that the Irish Rebellion and the Indian +Mutiny showed "the bursting of the bubble of Monarchy." The principles +of Democracy stand as firm and find our people as loyal to them in every +little town-meeting and in every legislature of each loyal State in the +Union as they did in the days of our first enthusiastic and successful +trial of them. Supposing even that the main assumption on which so many +Englishmen have prematurely vented their scorn were a fact; we cannot +but ask if the nation nearest akin to us, and professing to be guided +in this century by feelings which forbid a rejoicing over others' great +griefs, has no words of high moral sympathy, no expressions of regretful +disappointment in our calamities? Is it the first or the most emphatic +thing which it is most fitting for Christian Englishmen to say over the +supposed wreck of a recently noble and promising country, the prospered +home of thirty millions of God's children,--that "a bubble has burst"? +We might interchange with our foreign "comforters" a discussion by +arguments and facts as to whether a monarchy or a democracy has about it +more of the qualities of a bubble, but the debate would be irrelevant +to our present purpose. We believe that Democracy in its noblest and +all-essential and well-proved principles will survive the shock which +has struck upon our nation, whatever the result of that shock may yet +prove to be. We believe, further, that the principles of Democracy will +come out of the struggle which is trying, not themselves, but something +quite distinct from them, with a new affirmation and vindication. But +let that be as it may, we are as much ashamed for England's sake as +we are aggrieved on our own account that from the vehicles of public +sentiment in "the foremost realm in the world for all true culture, +advanced progress, and the glorious triumphs of liberty and religion," +what should be a profoundly plaintive lament over our supposed ruin +is, in reality, a mocking taunt and a hateful gibe over our failure in +daring to try an "un-English" experiment.[A] + +[Footnote A: The following precious utterances of John Bull moralizing, +which might have been spoken of the Thugs in India, or some provincial +Chinese enterprise, are extracted from the cotton circular of Messrs. +Neill, Brothers, addressed to their correspondents, and dated, +Manchester, Aug. 21. We find the circular copied in a _religious_ +newspaper published in London, without any rebuke. "The North will have +to learn the limited extent of her powers as compared with the +gigantic task she has undertaken. One and perhaps two defeats will be +insufficient to reverse the false education of a lifetime. Many lessons +will probably be necessary, and, meantime, any success the Northern +troops may obtain will again inflame the national vanity, and the +lessons of adversity will need to be learned over again. More effect +will probably be produced by sufferings at home, by the ruin of the +higher classes and pauperization of the lower, and by the general +absorption of the floating capital of the country"! There, good reader, +what think you of the cotton moralizing of a comfortable factor, +dwelling in immaculate England, dealing with us in cotton, and with the +Chinese in opium?] + +The stately "Quarterly Review," in its number for July, uses a little +more of dignity in wording the title of an article upon our affairs +thus,--"Democracy on its Trial"; but it makes up for the waste of +refinement upon its text by a lavish indulgence in scurrility and +falsehood in its comments. As a specimen, take the following. Living +here in this goodly city of Boston, and knowing and loving well its +ways and people, we are asked to credit the following story, which the +Reviewer says he heard from "a well-known traveller." The substance of +the story is, that a Boston merchant proposed to gild the lamp over his +street-door, but was dissuaded from so doing by the suggestion of a +friend, that by savoring of aristocracy the ornamented gas-burner would +offend the tyrannical people and provoke violence against it! This, the +latest joke in the solemn Quarterly, has led many of its readers here to +recall the days of Madame Trollope and the Reverend Mr. Fiddler, those +veracious and "well-known travellers." There are, we are sorry to say, +many gilded street-lamps, burnished and blazing every night, in Boston. +But instead of standing before the houses of our merchants, they +designate quite a different class of edifices. Our merchants, as a +general thing, would object, both on the score of good taste and on +grounds of disagreeable association with the signal, to raise such an +ornament before the doors of their comfortable homes. The common people, +however, so far from taking umbrage at the spectacle, would be rather +gratified by the generosity of our grandees in being willing to show +some of their finery out of doors. This would be the feeling especially +of that part of our population which is composed of foreigners, who have +been used to the sight of such demonstrations in their native countries, +which are not democracies. In fact, we suspect that the reason why +English "flunkeys" hate American "flunkeyism," with its laced coachmen, +etc., is because mere money, by aping the insignia of rank, its gewgaws +and trumpery, shows too plainly how much of the rank itself depends upon +the fabrics and demonstrations through which it sets itself forth. We +can conceive that an English nobleman travelling in this country, who +might chance in one of our cities to see a turn-out with its outriders, +tassels, and crests, almost or quite as fine as his own, if he were +informed that it belonged to a plebeian who had grown vastly rich +through some coarse traffic, might resolve to reduce all the display +of his own equipage the moment he reached home. The labored and +mean-spirited purpose of the writer of the aforesaid article in the +Quarterly, and of other writers of like essays, is to find in our +democracy the material and occasion of everything of a discreditable +sort which occurs in our land. Now we apprehend, not without some means +of observation and inquiry, that the state and features of society in +Great Britain and in all our Northern regions are almost identically the +same, or run in parallelisms, by which we might match every phenomenon, +incident, prejudice, and folly, every good and every bad trait and +manifestation in the one place with something exactly like it in the +other. During a whole score of years, as we have read the English +journals and our own, the thought has over and over again suggested +itself to us that any one who had leisure and taste for the task might +cut out from each series of papers respectively, for a huge commonplace +book, matters of a precisely parallel nature in both countries. A simple +difference in the names of men and of places would be all that would +appear or exist. Every noble and every mean and every mixed exhibition +of character,--every act of munificence and of baseness,--every +narrative of thrilling or romantic interest,--every instance and example +of popular delusion, humbug, man-worship, breach of trust, domestic +infelicity, and of cunning or astounding depravity and hypocrisy,--every +religious, social, and political excitement,--every panic,--and every +accident even, from carelessness or want of skill,--each and all these +have their exact parallels, generally within the same year of time in +Great Britain and in our own country. The crimes and the catastrophes, +in each locality, have seemed almost repetitions of the same things on +either continent. Munificent endowments of charitable institutions, zeal +in reformatory enterprises and in the correction of abuses, have shown +that the people of both regions stand upon the same plane of humanity +and practical Christian culture. The same great frauds have indicated +in each the same amount of rottenness in men occupying places of trust. +Both regions have had the same sort of unprincipled "railway kings" and +bankers, similar railroad disasters, similar cases of the tumbling +down of insecure walls, and of wife-poisoning. A Chartist insurrection +enlists a volunteer police in London, and an apprehended riot among +foreigners is met by a similar precaution in one of our cities. An +intermittent controversy goes on in England about the interference of +religion with common education, and Boston or New York is agitated at +the same time with the question about the use of the Bible in the public +schools. Boston rowdies mob an English intermeddler with the ticklish +matters of our national policy, and English rowdies mob an Austrian +Haynau. England goes into ecstasies over the visit of a Continental +Prince, and our Northern States repeat the demonstration over the visit +of a British Prince. The Duke of Wellington alarms his fellow-subjects +by suggesting that their national defences would all prove insufficient +against the assaults of a certain terrible Frenchman, and an American +cabinet official echoes the suggestion that England may, perhaps, try +her strength in turn against us. There are evidently a great many +bubbles in this world, and, for all that we know to the contrary, they +are all equally liable to burst. Some famous ones, bright in royal +hues, have burst within the century. Some more of the same may, not +impossibly, suffer a collapse before the century has closed. So that, +for this matter, "the bubble of Democracy" must take its chance with the +rest. + +We have one more specification to make under our general statement +of reasons why the North feels aggrieved with the prevailing tone of +sentiment and comment in the English journals in reference to our great +calamity. We protest against the verdict which finds expression in all +sorts of ways and with various aggravations, that, in attempting to +rupture our Union, and to withdraw from it on their own terms, at their +own pleasure, the seceding States are but repeating the course of the +old Thirteen Colonies in declaring themselves independent, and sundering +their ties to the mother country. There is evidently the rankling of an +old smart in this plea for rebels, which, while it is not intended to +justify rebellion in itself, is devised as a vindication of rebels +against rebels. There is manifest satisfaction and a high zest, and +something of the morally awful and solemnly remonstrative, in the way in +which the past is evoked to visit its ghostly retribution upon us. The +old sting rankles in the English breast. She is looking on now to see us +hoist by our own petard. These pamphlet pages, with their circumscribed +limits and their less ambitious aims, do not invite an elaborate dealing +with the facts of the case, which would expose the sophistical, if not +the vengeful spirit of this English plea, as for rebels against rebels. +A thorough exposition of the relations which the present Insurrection +bears to the former Revolution would demand an essay. The relations +between them, however, whether stated briefly or at length, would be +found to be simply relations of difference, without one single point +of resemblance, much less of coincidence. We can make but the briefest +reference to the points of contrast and unlikeness between the two +things, after asserting that they have no one common feature. It might +seem evasive in us to suggest to our English critics that they should +refresh their memories about the causes and the justification of our +Revolution by reading the pages of their own Burke. We are content to +rest our case on his argument, simply affirming that on no one point +will it cover the alleged parallelism of the Southern Rebellion. + +The relations of our States to each other and to the Union are quite +unlike those in which the Colonies stood to England. England claimed by +right of discovery and exploration the soil on which her Colonies here +were planted, though she had rival claimants from the very first. A +large number of the Colonists never had any original connection with +England, and owed her no allegiance. Holland, Sweden, and other +countries furnished much of the first stock of our settlers, who thought +they were occupying a wild part of God's earth rather than a portion of +the English dominions. The Colonies were not planted at public charge, +by Government cost or enterprise. The English exiles, with but slender +grounds of grateful remembrance of the land they had left, brought with +them their own private means, subdued a wilderness, extinguished the +aboriginal titles, and slowly and wearily developed the resources of the +country. Often in their direst straits did they decline to ask aid from +England, lest they might thereby furnish a plea for her interference +with their internal affairs. Several of the Colonies from the first +acted upon their presumed independence, and resolved on the frank +assertion of it as soon as they might dare the venture. That time for +daring happened to be contemporaneous with a tyrannical demand upon them +for tribute without representation. Thus the relations of the Colonies +to England were of a hap-hazard, abnormal, incidental, and always +unsettled character. They might be modified or changed without any +breach of contract. They might be sundered without perjury or perfidy. + +How unlike in all respects are the relations of these States to each +other and to the Union! Drawn together after dark days and severe +trials,--solemnly pledged to each other by the people whom the Union +raised to a full citizenship in the Republic,--bound by a compact +designed to be without limitation of time,--lifted by their +consolidation to a place and fame and prosperity which they would never +else have reached,--mutually necessary to each other's thrift and +protection,--making a nation adapted by its organic constitution to the +region of the earth which it occupies,--and now, by previous memories +and traditions, by millions of social and domestic alliances, knit by +heart-strings the sundering of which will be followed by a flow of the +life-blood till all is spent,--these terms are but a feeble setting +forth of the relations of these States to each other and to the Union. +Some of these States which have been voted out of the Union by lawless +Conventions owe their creation to the Union. Their very soil has been +paid for out of the public treasury. Indeed, the Union is still in debt +under obligations incurred by their purchase. + +How striking, too, is the contrast between the character and method of +the proceedings which originated and now sustain the Rebellion, and +those which initiated and carried through the Revolution! The Rebellion +exhibits to us a complete inversion of the course of measures which +inaugurated the Revolution. "Secession" was the invention of ambitious +leaders, who overrode the forms of law, and have not dared to submit +their votes and their doings to primary meetings of the people whom +they have driven with a despotic tyranny. In the Revolution the +people themselves were the prime movers. Each little country town and +municipality of the original Colonies, that has a hundred years of +history to be written, will point us boastfully to entries in its +records showing how it _instructed_ its representatives first to +remonstrate against tyranny, and then to resist it by successive +measures, each of which, with its limitations and its increasing +boldness, was dictated by the same people. The people of Virginia, +remembering the ancient precedent which won them their renown, +_intended_ to follow it in an early stage of our present strife. They +allowed a Convention to assemble, under the express and rigid condition, +that, if it should see fit to advise any measure which would affect the +relations of their State to the Union, a reference should be made of it, +prior to any action, to the will of the people. The Convention covertly +and treacherously abused its trust. In secret session it authorized +measures on the strength of which the Governor of the State proceeded +to put it into hostile relations with the Union. When the foregone +conclusion was at last farcically submitted to the people, a perjured +Senator of the National Congress notified such of them as would not +ratify the will of the Convention, that they must leave the State. + +Once more, in our Revolution, holders of office and of lucrative trusts +in the interest of England were to a man loyal to the Home Government, +and our independence was effected without any base appliances. In the +work of secession and rebellion, the very officials and sworn guardians +of our Government have been the foremost plotters. They have used their +opportunities and their trusts for the most perfidious purposes. Nothing +but perjury in the very highest places could have initiated secession +and rebellion, and to this very moment they derive all their vigor in +the council-chamber and on the field from forsworn men, most of whom +have been trained from their childhood, nurtured, instructed, and fed, +and all of whom have been fostered in their manhood, and gifted with +their whole power for harming her, by the kindly mother whose life they +are assailing. If the Man with the Withered Hand had used the first +thrill of life and vigor coming into it by the word of the Great +Physician to aim a blow at his benefactor, his ingratitude would have +needed to stand recorded only until this year of our Lord, to have been +matched by deeds of men who have thrown this dear land of ours into +universal mourning. Yet our English brethren would try to persuade +us that these men are but repeating the course and the deeds of the +American Revolution! + + * * * * * + + +THE WILD ENDIVE. + + + Only the dusty common road, + The glaring weary heat; + Only a man with a soldier's load, + And the sound of tired feet. + + Only the lonely creaking hum + Of the Cicada's song; + Only a fence where tall weeds come + With spikèd fingers strong. + + Only a drop of the heaven's blue + Left in a way-side cup; + Only a joy for the plodding few + And eyes that look not up. + + Only a weed to the passer-by, + Growing among the rest;-- + Yet something clear as the light of the sky + It lodges in my breast. + + + + +THE CONTRABANDS AT FORTRESS MONROE. + + +In the month of August, 1620, a Dutch man-of-war from Guinea entered +James River and sold "twenty negars." Such is the brief record left by +John Rolfe, whose name is honorably associated with that of Pocahontas. +This was the first importation of the kind into the country, and the +source of existing strifes. It was fitting that the system which from +that slave-ship had been spreading over the continent for nearly two +centuries and a half should yield for the first time to the logic of +military law almost upon the spot of its origin. The coincidence may not +inappropriately introduce what of experience and reflection the writer +has to relate of a three-months' soldier's life in Virginia. + +On the morning of the 22d of May last, Major-General Butler, welcomed +with a military salute, arrived at Fortress Monroe, and assumed the +command of the Department of Virginia. Hitherto we had been hemmed up in +the peninsula of which the fort occupies the main part, and cut off from +communication with the surrounding country. Until within a few days our +forces consisted of about one thousand men belonging to the Third and +Fourth Regiments of Massachusetts militia, and three hundred regulars. +The only movement since our arrival on the 20th of April had been +the expedition to Norfolk of the Third Regiment, in which it was +my privilege to serve as a private. The fort communicates with the +main-land by a dike or causeway about half a mile long, and a wooden +bridge, perhaps three hundred feet long, and then there spreads out a +tract of country, well wooded and dotted over with farms. Passing from +this bridge for a distance of two miles northwestward, you reach a creek +or arm of the bay spanned by another wooden bridge, and crossing it you +are at once in the ancient village of Hampton, having a population +of some fifteen hundred inhabitants. The peninsula on which the fort +stands, the causeway, and the first bridge described, are the property +of the United States. Nevertheless, a small picket-guard of the +Secessionists had been accustomed to occupy a part of the bridge, +sometimes coming even to the centre, and a Secession flag waved in sight +of the fort. On the 13th of May, the Rebel picket-guard was driven from +the bridge, and all the Government property was taken possession of by a +detachment of two companies from the Fourth Regiment, accompanied by a +dozen regulars with a field-piece, acting under the orders of Colonel +Dimick, the commander of the post. They retired, denouncing vengeance +on Massachusetts troops for the invasion of Virginia. Our pickets then +occupied the entire bridge and a small strip of the main-land beyond, +covering a valuable well; but still there was no occupation in force of +any but Government property. The creation of a new military department, +to the command of which a major-general was assigned, was soon to +terminate this isolation. On the 13th of May the First Vermont Regiment +arrived, on the 24th the Second New York, and two weeks later our forces +numbered nearly ten thousand. + +On the 23d of May General Butler ordered the first reconnoitring +expedition, which consisted of a part of the Vermont Regiment, and +proceeded under the command of Colonel Phelps over the dike and bridge +towards Hampton. They were anticipated, and when in sight of the second +bridge saw that it had been set on fire, and, hastening forward, +extinguished the flames. The detachment then marched into the village. A +parley was held with a Secession officer, who represented that the men +in arms in Hampton were only a domestic police. Meanwhile the white +inhabitants, particularly the women, had generally disappeared. The +negroes gathered around our men, and their evident exhilaration was +particularly noted, some of them saying, "Glad to see you, Massa," +and betraying the fact, that, on the approach of the detachment, a +field-piece stationed at the bridge had been thrown into the sea. This +was the first communication between our army and the negroes in this +department. + +The reconnoissance of the day had more important results than were +anticipated. Three negroes, owned by Colonel Mallory, a lawyer of +Hampton and a Rebel officer, taking advantage of the terror prevailing +among the white inhabitants, escaped from their master, skulked during +the afternoon, and in the night came to our pickets. The next morning, +May 24th, they were brought to General Butler, and there, for the first +time, stood the Major-General and the fugitive slave face to face. Being +carefully interrogated, it appeared that they were field-hands, the +slaves of an officer in the Rebel service, who purposed taking them to +Carolina to be employed in military operations there. Two of them +had wives in Hampton, one a free colored woman, and they had several +children in the neighborhood. Here was a new question, and a grave one, +on which the Government had as yet developed no policy. In the absence +of precedents or instructions, an analogy drawn from international +law was applied. Under that law, contraband goods, which are directly +auxiliary to military operations, cannot in time of war be imported by +neutrals into an enemy's country, and may be seized as lawful prize when +the attempt is made so to import them. It will be seen, that, accurately +speaking, the term applies exclusively to the relation between a +belligerent and a neutral, and not to the relation between belligerents. +Under the strict law of nations, all the property of an enemy may be +seized. Under the Common Law, the property of traitors is forfeit. The +humaner usage of modern times favors the waiving of these strict rights, +but allows,--without question, the seizure and confiscation of all +such goods as are immediately auxiliary to military purposes. These +able-bodied negroes, held as slaves, were to be employed to build +breastworks, to transport or store provisions, to serve as cooks or +waiters, and even to bear arms. Regarded as property, according to their +master's claim, they could be efficiently used by the Rebels for the +purposes of the Rebellion, and most efficiently by the Government in +suppressing it. Regarded as persons, they had escaped from communities +where a triumphant rebellion had trampled on the laws, and only the +rights of human nature remained, and they now asked the protection of +the Government, to which, in prevailing treason, they were still loyal, +and which they were ready to serve as best they could. + +The three negroes, being held contraband of war, were at once set to +work to aid the masons in constructing a new bakehouse within the fort. +Thenceforward the term "contraband" bore a new signification, with which +it will pass into history, designating the negroes who had been held as +slaves, now adopted under the protection of the Government. It was used +in official communications at the fort. It was applied familiarly to the +negroes, who stared somewhat, inquiring, "What d' ye call us that +for?" Not having Wheaton's "Elements" at hand, we did not attempt an +explanation. The contraband notion was adopted by Congress in the Act +of July 6th, which confiscates slaves used in aiding the Insurrection. +There is often great virtue in such technical phrases in shaping public +opinion. They commend practical action to a class of minds little +developed in the direction of the sentiments, which would be repelled by +formulas of a broader and nobler import. The venerable gentleman, +who wears gold spectacles and reads a conservative daily, prefers +confiscation to emancipation. He is reluctant to have slaves declared +freemen, but has no objection to their being declared contrabands. His +whole nature rises in insurrection when Beecher preaches in a sermon +that a thing ought to be done because it is a duty, but he yields +gracefully when Butler issues an order commanding it to be done because +it is a military necessity. + +On the next day, Major John B. Cary, another Rebel officer, late +principal of an academy in Hampton, a delegate to the Charleston +Convention, and a seceder with General Butler from the Convention at +Baltimore, came to the fort with a flag of truce, and, claiming to act +as the representative of Colonel Mallory, demanded the fugitives. +He reminded General Butler of his obligations under the Federal +Constitution, under which he claimed to act. The ready reply was, that +the Fugitive-Slave Act could not be invoked for the reclamation of +fugitives from a foreign State, which Virginia claimed to be, and she +must count it among the infelicities of her position, if so far at least +she was taken at her word. + +The three pioneer negroes were not long to be isolated from their race. +There was no known channel of communication between them and their old +comrades, and yet those comrades knew, or believed with the certainty of +knowledge, how they had been received. If inquired of whether more were +coming, their reply was, that, if they were not sent back, others would +understand that they were among friends, and more would come the next +day. Such is the mysterious spiritual telegraph which runs through the +slave population. Proclaim an edict of emancipation in the hearing of a +single slave on the Potomac, and in a few days it will be known by his +brethren on the Gulf. So, on the night of the Big Bethel affair, a squad +of negroes, meeting our soldiers, inquired anxiously the way to "the +freedom fort." + +The means of communicating with the fort from the open country became +more easy, when, on the 24th of May, (the same day on which the first +movement was made from Washington into Virginia,) the Second New York +Regiment made its encampment on the Segar farm, lying near the bridge +which connected the fort with the main-land, an encampment soon enlarged +by the First Vermont and other New York regiments. On Sunday morning, +May 26th, eight negroes stood before the quarters of General Butler, +waiting for an audience. + +They were examined in part by the Hon. Mr. Ashley, M.C. from Ohio, then +a visitor at the fort. On May 27th, forty-seven negroes of both sexes +and all ages, from three months to eighty-five years, among whom were +half a dozen entire families, came in one squad. Another lot of a dozen +good field-hands arrived the same day; and then they continued to come +by twenties, thirties, and forties. They were assigned buildings outside +of the fort or tents within. They were set to work as servants to +officers, or to store provisions landed from vessels,--thus relieving +us of the fatigue duty which we had previously done, except that of +dragging and mounting columbiads on the ramparts of the fort, a service +which some very warm days have impressed on my memory. + +On the 27th of May, the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, the First +Vermont, and some New York regiments made an advance movement and +occupied Newport News, (a promontory named for Captain Christopher +Newport, the early explorer,) so as more effectually to enforce the +blockade of James River. There, too, negroes came in, who were employed +as servants to the officers. One of them, when we left the fort, more +fortunate than his comrades, and aided by a benevolent captain, eluded +the vigilance of the Provost Marshal, and is now the curiosity of a +village in the neighborhood of Boston. + +It was now time to call upon the Government for a policy in dealing with +slave society thus disrupted and disorganized. Elsewhere, even under +the shadow of the Capitol, the action of military officers had been +irregular, and in some cases in palpable violation of personal rights. +An order of General McDowell excluded all slaves from the lines. +Sometimes officers assumed to decide the question whether a negro was a +slave, and deliver him to a claimant, when, certainly in the absence of +martial law, they had no authority in the premises, under the Act of +Congress,--that power being confided to commissioners and marshals. As +well might a member of Congress or a State sheriff usurp the function. +Worse yet, in defiance of the Common Law, they made color a presumptive +proof of bondage. In one case a free negro was delivered to a claimant +under this process, more summary than any which the Fugitive-Slave Act +provides. The colonel of a Massachusetts regiment showed some practical +humor in dealing with a pertinacious claimant who asserted title to a +negro found within his lines, and had brought a policeman along with +him to aid in enforcing it. The shrewd colonel, (a Democrat he is,) +retaining the policeman, put both the claimant and claimed outside of +the lines together to try their fleetness. The negro proved to be the +better gymnast and was heard of no more. This capricious treatment of +the subject was fraught with serious difficulties as well as personal +injuries, and it needed to be displaced by an authorized system. + +On the 27th of May, General Butler, having in a previous communication +reported his interview with Major Cary, called the attention of the War +Department to the subject in a formal despatch,--indicating the hostile +purposes for which the negroes had been or might be successfully used, +stating the course he had pursued in employing them and recording +expenses and services, and suggesting pertinent military, political, and +humane considerations. The Secretary of War, under date of the 30th of +May, replied, cautiously approving the course of General Butler, and +intimating distinctions between interfering with the relations of +persons held to service and refusing to surrender them to their alleged +masters, which it is not easy to reconcile with well-defined views of +the new exigency, or at least with a desire to express them. The note +was characterized by diplomatic reserve which it will probably be found +difficult long to maintain. + +The ever-recurring question continued to press for solution. On the 6th +of July the Act of Congress was approved, declaring that any person +claiming the labor of another to be due to him, and permitting such +party to be employed in any military or naval service whatsoever against +the Government of the United States, shall forfeit his claim to such +labor, and proof of such employment shall thereafter be a full answer +to the claim. This act was designed for the direction of the civil +magistrate, and not for the limitation of powers derived from military +law. That law, founded on _salus republicae_, transcends all codes, +and lies outside of forms and statutes. John Quincy Adams, almost +prophesying as he expounded, declared, in 1842, that under it slavery +might be abolished. Under it, therefore, Major-General Fremont, in a +recent proclamation, declared the slaves of all persons within his +department, who were in arms against the Government, to be freemen, and +under it has given title-deeds of manumission. Subsequently President +Lincoln limited the proclamation to such slaves as are included in the +Act of Congress, namely, the slaves of Rebels used in directly hostile +service. The country had called for Jacksonian courage, and its first +exhibition was promptly suppressed. If the revocation was made in +deference to protests from Kentucky, it seems, that, while the loyal +citizens of Missouri appeared to approve the decisive measure, they were +overruled by the more potential voice of other communities who professed +to understand their affairs better than they did themselves. But if, as +is admitted, the commanding officer, in the plenitude of military power, +was authorized to make the order within his department, all human beings +included in the proclamation thereby acquired a vested title to their +freedom, of which neither Congress nor President could dispossess them. +No conclusive behests of law necessitating the limitation, it cannot +rest on any safe reasons of military policy. The one slave who carries +his master's knapsack on a march contributes far less to the efficiency +of the Rebel army than the one hundred slaves who hoe corn on his +plantation with which to replenish its commissariat. We have not yet +emerged from the fine-drawn distinctions of peaceful times. We may +imprison or slaughter a Rebel, but we may not unloose his hold on a +person he has claimed as a slave. We may seize all his other property +without question, lands, houses, cattle, jewels; but his asserted +property in man is more sacred than the gold which overlay the Ark of +the Covenant, and we may not profane it. This reverence for things +assumed to be sacred, which are not so, cannot long continue. The +Government can well turn away from the enthusiast, however generous his +impulses, who asks the abolition of slavery on general principles of +philanthropy, for the reason that it already has work enough on its +hands. It may not change the objects of the war, but it must of +necessity at times shift its tactics and its instruments, as the +exigency demands. Its solemn and imperative duty is to look every +issue, however grave and transcendent, firmly in the face; and having +ascertained upon mature and conscientious reflection what is necessary +to suppress the Rebellion, it must then proceed with inexorable purpose +to inflict the blows where Rebellion is the weakest and under which it +must inevitably fall. + +On the 30th of July, General Butler, being still unprovided with +adequate instructions,--the number of contrabands having now reached +nine hundred,--applied to the War Department for further directions. His +inquiries, inspired by good sense and humanity alike, were of the most +fundamental character, and when they shall have received a full answer +the war will be near its end. Assuming the slaves to have been the +property of masters, he considers them waifs abandoned by their +owners, in which the Government as a finder cannot, however, acquire a +proprietary interest, and they have therefore reverted to the normal +condition of those made in God's image, "if not free-born, yet +free-manumitted, sent forth from the hand that held them, never to +return." The author of that document may never win a victor's laurels +on any renowned field, but, depositing it in the archives of the +Government, he leaves a record in history which will outlast the +traditions of battle or siege. It is proper to add, that the answer of +the War Department, so far as its meaning is clear, leaves the General +uninstructed as to all slaves not confiscated by the Act of Congress. + +The documentary history being now completed, the personal narrative of +affairs at Fortress Monroe is resumed. + +The encampment of Federal troops beyond the peninsula of the fort and in +the vicinity of the village of Hampton was immediately followed by an +hegira of its white inhabitants, burning, as they fled, as much of the +bridge as they could. On the 28th of May, a detachment of troops entered +the village and hoisted the stars and stripes on the house of Colonel +Mallory. Picket-guards occupied it intermittently during the month of +June. It was not until the first day of July that a permanent encampment +was made there, consisting of the Third Massachusetts Regiment, which +moved from the fort, the Fourth, which moved from Newport News, and the +Naval Brigade, all under the command of Brigadier-General Pierce,--the +camp being informally called Camp Greble, in honor of the lieutenant of +that name who fell bravely in the disastrous affair of Big Bethel. +Here we remained until July 16th, when, our term of enlistment having +expired, we bade adieu to Hampton, its ancient relics, its deserted +houses, its venerable church, its trees and gardens, its contrabands, +all so soon to be wasted and scattered by the torch of Virginia Vandals. +We passed over the bridge, the rebuilding of which was completed the day +before, marched to the fort, exchanged our rifle muskets for an older +pattern, listened to a farewell address from General Butler, bade +good-bye to Colonel Dimick, and embarked for Boston. It was during this +encampment at Hampton, and two previous visits, somewhat hurried, while +as yet it was without a permanent guard, that my personal knowledge of +the negroes, of their feelings, desires, aspirations, capacities, and +habits of life was mainly obtained. + +A few words of local history and description may illustrate the +narrative. Hampton is a town of considerable historic interest. First +among civilized men the illustrious adventurer Captain John Smith with +his comrades visited its site in 1607, while exploring the mouth of +James River to find a home for the first colonists. Here they smoked the +calumet of peace with an Indian tribe. To the neighboring promontory, +where they found good anchorage and hospitality, they gave the name of +Point Comfort, which it still bears. Hampton, though a settlement was +commenced there in 1610, did not become a town until 1705. Hostile +fleets have twice appeared before it. The first time was in October, +1775, when some tenders sent by Lord Dunmore to destroy it were repulsed +by the citizens, aided by the Culpepper riflemen. Then and there was the +first battle of the Revolution in Virginia. Again in June, 1813, it was +attacked by Admiral Cockburn and General Beckwith, and scenes of pillage +followed, dishonorable to the British soldiery. Jackson, in his address +to his army just before the Battle of New Orleans, conjured his soldiers +to remember Hampton. Until the recent conflagration, it abounded in +ancient relics. Among them was St. John's Church, the main body of which +was of imported brick, and built at the beginning of the eighteenth +century. The fury of Secession irreverently destroyed this memorial of +antiquity and religion, which even a foreign soldiery had spared. One +inscription in the graveyard surrounding the church is as early as 1701, +and even earlier dates are found on tombstones in the fields a mile +distant. The Court-House, a clumsy old structure, in which was the +law-office of Colonel Mallory, contained judicial records of a very +early colonial period. Some, which I examined, bore date of 1634. +Several old houses, with spacious rooms and high ornamented ceilings, +gave evidence that at one time they had been occupied by citizens of +considerable taste and rank. A friend of mine found among the rubbish of +a deserted house an English illustrated edition of "Paradise Lost," +of the date of 1725, and Boyle's Oxford edition of "The Epistles of +Phalaris," famous in classical controversy, printed in 1718. The +proximity of Fortress Monroe, of the fashionable watering-place of Old +Point, and of the anchorage of Hampton Roads, has contributed to the +interest of the town. To this region came in summer-time public men +weary of their cares, army and navy officers on furlough or retired, and +the gay daughters of Virginia. In front of the fort, looking seaward, +was the summer residence of Floyd; between the fort and the town was +that of John Tyler. President Jackson sought refuge from care and +solicitation at the Rip Raps, whither he was followed by his devoted +friend, Mr. Blair. So at least a contraband informed me, who said he had +often seen them both there. + +Nevertheless, the town bore no evidence of thrift. It looked as though +it were sleepy and indolent in the best of times, having oysters for its +chief merchandise. The streets were paved, but the pavements were of +large irregular stones, and unevenly laid. Few houses were new, and, +excepting St. John's Church, the public edifices were mean. All these +have been swept away by the recent conflagration, a waste of property +indefensible on any military principles. The buildings might have +furnished winter-quarters for our troops, but in that climate they were +not necessary for that purpose, perhaps not desirable, or, if required, +could be easily replaced by temporary habitations constructed of +lumber imported from the North by sea. But the Rebel chiefs had thrown +themselves into heroic attitudes, and while playing the part of +incendiaries, they fancied their action to be as sublime as that of the +Russians at Moscow. With such a precedent of Vandalism, no ravages of +our own troops can hereafter be complained of. + +The prevailing exodus, leaving less than a dozen white men behind, +testifies the political feelings of the people. Only two votes were +thrown against the ordinance of Secession. Whatever of Union sentiment +existed there had been swept away by such demagogues as Mallory, Cary, +Magruder, Shiels, and Hope. Hastily as they left, they removed in most +cases all their furniture, leaving only the old Virginia sideboard, too +heavy to be taken away. In a few exceptional cases, from the absence of +the owner or other cause, the house was still furnished; but generally +nothing but old letters, torn books, newspapers, cast-off clothing, +strewed the floors. Rarely have I enjoyed the hours more than when +roaming from cellar to garret these tenantless houses. A deserted +dwelling! How the imagination is fascinated by what may have there +transpired of human joy or sorrow,--the solitary struggles of the soul +for better things, the dawn and the fruition of love, the separations +and reunions of families, the hearth-stone consecrated by affection and +prayer, the bridal throng, the birth of new lives, the farewells to the +world, the funeral train. + +But more interesting and instructive were the features of slave-life +which here opened to us. The negroes who remained, of whom there may +have been three hundred of all ages, lived in small wooden shanties, +generally in the rear of the master's house, rarely having more than one +room on the lower floor, and that containing an open fireplace where the +cooking for the master's family was done, tables, chairs, dishes, and +the miscellaneous utensils of household life. The masters had taken with +them, generally, their waiting-maids and house-servants, and had +desired to carry all their slaves with them. But in the hasty +preparations,--particularly where the slaves were living away from +their master's close, or had a family,--it was difficult to remove them +against their will, as they could skulk for a few hours and then go +where they pleased. Some voluntarily left their slaves behind, not +having the means to provide for them, or, anticipating a return at no +distant day, desired them to stay and guard the property. The slaves who +remained lived upon the little pork and corn-meal that were left and the +growing vegetables. They had but little to do. The women looked after +their meagre household concerns, but the men were generally idle, +standing in groups, or sitting in front of the shanties talking with the +women. Some began to serve our officers as soon as we were quartered in +the town,--while a few others set up cake-stands upon the street. + +It was necessary for the protection of the post that some breastworks +should be thrown up, and a line was planned extending from the old +cemetery northward to the new one, a quarter of a mile distant. Our own +troops were disinclined to the labor, their time being nearly expired, +and they claiming that they had done their share of fatigue duty both +at the fort and at Newport News. A member of Brigadier-General Pierce's +staff--an efficient officer and a humane gentleman--suggested the +employment of the contrabands and the furnishing of them with rations, +an expedient best for them and agreeable to us. He at once dictated +a telegram to General Butler in these words:--"Shall we put the +contrabands to work on the intrenchments, and will you furnish them with +rations?" An affirmative answer was promptly received on Monday morning, +July 8th, and that was the first day in the course of the war in which +the negro was employed upon the military works of our army. It therefore +marks a distinct epoch in its progress and in its relations to the +colored population. The writer--and henceforth his narrative must +indulge in the frequent use of the first person--was specially detailed +from his post as private in Company L of the Third Regiment to collect +the contrabands, record their names, ages, and the names of their +masters, provide their tools, superintend their labor, and procure their +rations. My comrades smiled, as I undertook the novel duty, enjoying +the spectacle of a Massachusetts Republican converted into a Virginia +slave-master. To me it seemed rather an opportunity to lead them from +the house of bondage never to return. For, whatever may be the general +duty to this race, to all such as we have in any way employed to aid our +armies our national faith and our personal honor are pledged. The +code of a gentleman, to say nothing of a higher law of rectitude, +necessitates protection to this extent. Abandoning one of these faithful +allies, who, if delivered up, would be reduced to severer servitude +because of the education he had received and the services he had +performed, probably to be transported to the remotest slave region as +now too dangerous to remain near its borders, we should be accursed +among the nations of the earth. I felt assured that from that hour, +whatsoever the fortunes of the war, every one of those enrolled +defenders of the Union had vindicated beyond all future question, for +himself, his wife, and their issue, a title to American citizenship, and +become heir to all the immunities of Magna Charta, the Declaration of +Independence, and the Constitution of the United States. + +Passing through the principal streets, I told the contrabands that when +they heard the court-house bell, which would ring soon, they must go to +the court-house yard, where a communication would be made to them. In +the mean time I secured the valuable services of some fellow-privates, +one for a quarter-master, two others to aid in superintending at the +trenches, and the orderly-sergeant of my own company, whose expertness +in the drill was equalled only by his general good sense and business +capacity. Upon the ringing of the bell, about forty contrabands came to +the yard. A second exploration added to the number some twenty or +more, who had not heard the original summons. They then came into the +building, where they were called to order and addressed. I had argued to +judges and juries, but I had never spoken to such auditors before in a +court-room. I told them that the colored men had been employed on the +breastworks of the Rebels, and we needed their aid,--that they would +be required to do only such labor as we ourselves had done,--that they +should be treated kindly, and no one should be obliged to work beyond +his capacity, or if unwell,--and that they should be furnished in a day +or two with full soldiers' rations. I told them that their masters +had said they were an indolent people,--that I did not believe the +charge,--that I was going home to Massachusetts soon and should be glad +to report that they were as industrious as the whites. They generally +showed no displeasure, some even saying, that, not having done much for +some time, it was the best thing for them to be now employed. Four or +five men over fifty years old said that they suffered from rheumatism, +and could not work without injury. Being confirmed by the by-standers, +they were dismissed. Other old men said they would do what they could, +and they were assured that no more would be required of them. Two of +them, provided with a bucket and dipper, were detailed to carry water +all the time along the line of laborers. Two young men fretted a little, +and claimed to be disabled in some way. They were told to resume their +seats, and try first and see what they could do,--to the evident +amusement of the rest, who knew them to be indolent and disposed to +shirk. A few showed some sulkiness, but it all passed away after the +first day, when they found that they were to be used kindly. One +well-dressed young man, a carpenter, feeling a little better than his +associates, did not wear a pleasant face at first. Finding out his +trade, we set him to sawing the posts for the intrenchments, and he was +entirely reconciled. Free colored men were not required to work; but +one volunteered, wishing, as he said, to do his part. The contrabands +complained that the free colored men ought to be required to work on the +intrenchments as well as they. I thought so too, but followed my orders. +A few expressed some concern lest their masters should punish them for +serving us, if they ever returned. One inquired suspiciously why we took +the name of his master. My reply was, that it was taken in order to +identify them,--an explanation with which he was more satisfied than I +was myself. Several were without shoes, and said that they could not +drive the shovel into the earth. They were told to use the picks. The +rest of the forenoon being occupied in registering their names and ages, +and the names of their masters, they were dismissed to come together on +the ringing of the bell, at two, P.M. + +It had been expressly understood that I was to have the exclusive +control and supervision of the negroes, directing their hours of labor +and their rests, without interference from any one. The work itself was +to be planned and superintended by the officers of the Third and Fourth +Regiments. This exclusive control of the men was necessarily confided +to one, as different lieutenants detailed each day could not feel a +responsibility for their welfare. One or two of these, when rests were +allowed the negroes, were somewhat disgusted, saying that negroes +could dig all the time as well as not. I had had some years before an +experience with the use of the shovel under a warm sun, and knew better, +and I wished I could superintend a corps of lieutenants and apply their +own theory to themselves. + +At two, P.M., the contrabands came together, answered to their names, +and, each taking a shovel, a spade, or a pick, began to work upon the +breastworks farthest from the village and close to the new cemetery. The +afternoon was very warm, the warmest we had in Hampton. Some, used only +to household or other light work, wilted under the heat, and they were +told to go into the cemetery and lie down. I remember distinctly a +corpulent colored man, down whose cheeks the perspiration rolled and who +said he felt badly. He also was told to go away and rest until he was +better. He soon came back relieved, and there was no more faithful +laborer among them all during the rest of the time. Twice or three times +in the afternoon an intermission of fifteen minutes was allowed to all. +Thus they worked until six in the evening, when they were dismissed for +the day. They deposited their tools in the court-house, where each one +of his own accord carefully put his pick or shovel where he could find +it again,--sometimes behind a door and sometimes in a sly corner or +under a seat, preferring to keep his own tool. They were then informed +that they must come together on the ringing of the bell the next morning +at four o'clock. They thought that too early, but they were assured +that the system best for their health would be adopted, and they would +afterwards be consulted about changing it. The next morning we did not +rise quite so early as four, and the bell was not rung till some minutes +later. The contrabands were prompt, their names had been called, and +they had marched to the trenches, a quarter of a mile distant, and were +fairly at work by half-past four or a quarter before five. They did +excellent service during the morning hours, and at seven were dismissed +till eight. The roll was then called again, absences, if any, noted, +and by half-past eight they were at their post. They continued at the +trenches till eleven, being allowed rests, and were then dismissed until +three, P.M., being relieved four hours in the middle of the day, when, +the bell being rung and the roll called, they resumed their work and +continued till six, when they were dismissed for the day. Such were the +hours and usual course of their labor. Their number was increased some +half dozen by fugitives from the back-country, who came in and asked to +be allowed to serve on the intrenchments. + +The contrabands worked well, and in no instance was it found necessary +for the superintendents to urge them. There was a public opinion among +them against idleness, which answered for discipline. Some days they +worked with our soldiers, and it was found that they did more work, and +did the nicer parts--the facings and dressings--better. Colonels Packard +and Wardrop, under whose direction the breastworks were constructed, and +General Butler, who visited them, expressed satisfaction at the work +which the contrabands had done. On the 14th of July, Mr. Russell, of the +London "Times," and Dr. Bellows, of the Sanitary Commission, came to +Hampton and manifested much interest at the success of the experiment. +The result was, indeed, pleasing. A subaltern officer, to whom I had +insisted that the contrabands should be treated with kindness, had +sneered at the idea of applying philanthropic notions in time of war. It +was found then, as always, that decent persons will accomplish more when +treated at least like human beings. The same principle, if we will but +credit our own experience and Mr. Rarey, too, may with advantage be +extended to our relations with the beasts that serve us. + +Three days after the contrabands commenced their work, five days' +rations were served to them,--a soldier's ration for each laborer, and +half a ration for each dependant. The allowance was liberal,--as a +soldier's ration, if properly cooked, is more than he generally needs, +and the dependant for whom a half-ration was received might be a wife +or a half-grown child. It consisted of salt beef or pork, hard bread, +beans, rice, coffee, sugar, soap, and candles, and where the family was +large it made a considerable pile. The recipients went home, appearing +perfectly satisfied, and feeling assured that our promises to them would +be performed. On Sunday fresh meat was served to them in the same manner +as to the troops. + +There was one striking feature in the contrabands which must not be +omitted. I did not hear a profane or vulgar word spoken by them during +my superintendence, a remark which it will be difficult to make of any +sixty-four white men taken together anywhere in our army. Indeed, the +greatest discomfort of a soldier, who desires to remain a gentleman in +the camp, is the perpetual reiteration of language which no decent lips +would utter in a sister's presence. But the negroes, so dogmatically +pronounced unfit for freedom, were in this respect models for those who +make high boasts of civility of manners and Christian culture. Out of +the sixty-four who worked for us, all but half a dozen were members of +the Church, generally the Baptist. Although without a pastor, they held +religious meetings on the Sundays which we passed in Hampton, which were +attended by about sixty colored persons and three hundred soldiers. The +devotions were decorously conducted, bating some loud shouting by one +or two excitable brethren, which the better sense of the rest could not +suppress. Their prayers and exhortations were fervent, and marked by a +simplicity which is not infrequently the richest eloquence. The soldiers +behaved with entire propriety, and two exhorted them with pious unction, +as children of one Father, ransomed by the same Redeemer. + +To this general propriety of conduct among the contrabands intrusted to +me there was only one exception, and that was in the case of Joe ----; +his surname I have forgotten. He was of a vagrant disposition, and an +inveterate shirk. He had a plausible speech and a distorted imagination, +and might be called a demagogue among darkies. He bore an ill +physiognomy,--that of one "fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils." He +was disliked by the other contrabands, and had been refused admission to +their Church, which he wished to join in order to get up a character. +Last, but not least, among his sins, he was accustomed to boat his wife, +of which she accused him in my presence; whereupon he justified himself +on the brazen assumption that all husbands did the same. There was no +good reason to believe that he had already been tampered with by Rebels; +but his price could not be more than five dollars. He would be a +disturbing element among the laborers on the breastworks, and he was a +dangerous person to be so near the lines; we therefore sent him to the +fort. The last I heard of him, he was at the Rip Raps, bemoaning his +isolation, and the butt of our soldiers there, who charged him with +being a "Secesh," and confounded him by gravely asserting that they were +such themselves and had seen him with the "Secesh" at Yorktown. This was +the single goat among the sheep. + +On Monday evening, July 15th, when the contrabands deposited their tools +in the court-house, I requested them to stop a moment in the yard. I +made each a present of some tobacco, which all the men and most of the +women use. As they gathered in a circle around me, head peering over +head, I spoke to them briefly, thanking them for their cordial work and +complimenting their behavior, remarking that I had heard no profane or +vulgar word from them, in which they were an example to us,--adding that +it was the last time I should meet them, as we were to march homeward in +the morning, and that I should bear to my people a good report of their +industry and morals. There was another word that I could not leave +without speaking. Never before in our history had a Northern man, +believing in the divine right of all men to their liberty, had an +opportunity to address an audience of sixty-four slaves and say what the +Spirit moved him to utter,--and I should have been false to all that is +true and sacred, if I had let it pass. I said to them that there was one +more word for me to add, and that was, that every one of them was as +much entitled to his freedom as I was to mine, and I hoped they would +all now secure it. "Believe you, boss," was the general response, and +each one with his rough gravelly hand grasped mine, and with tearful +eyes and broken utterances said, "God bless you!" "May we meet in +Heaven!" "My name is Jack Allen, don't forget me!" "Remember me, Kent +Anderson!" and so on. No,--I may forget the playfellows of my childhood, +my college classmates, my professional associates, my comrades in arms, +but I will remember you and your benedictions until I cease to breathe! +Farewell, honest hearts, longing to be free! and may the kind Providence +which for-gets not the sparrow shelter and protect you! + +During our encampment at Hampton, I occupied much of my leisure time +in conversations with the contrabands, both at their work and in their +shanties, endeavoring to collect their currents of thought and feeling. +It remains for me to give the results, so far as any could be arrived +at. + +There were more negroes of unmixed African blood than we expected +to find. But many were entirely bleached. One man, working on the +breastworks, owned by his cousin, whose name he bore, was no darker than +white laborers exposed by their occupation to the sun, and could not be +distinguished as of negro descent. Opposite our quarters was a young +slave woman who had been three times a mother without ever having been +a wife. You could not discern in her three daughters, either in color, +feature, or texture of hair, the slightest trace of African lineage. +They were as light-faced and fair-haired as the Saxon slaves whom the +Roman Pontiff, Gregory the Great, met in the markets of Rome. If they +were to be brought here and their pedigree concealed, they could readily +mingle with our population and marry white men, who would never suspect +that they were not pure Caucasians. + +From the best knowledge I could obtain, the negroes in Hampton had +rarely been severely whipped. A locust-tree in front of the jail had +been used for a whipping-post, and they were very desirous that it +should be cut down. It was used, however, only for what are known +there as flagrant offences, like running away. Their masters, when in +ill-temper, had used rough language and inflicted chance blows, but no +one ever told me that he had suffered from systematic cruelty or been +severely whipped, except Joe, whose character I have given. Many of them +bore testimony to the great kindness of their masters and mistresses. + +Separations of families had been frequent. Of this I obtained definite +knowledge. When I was registering the number of dependants, preparatory +to the requisition for rations, the answer occasionally was, "Yes, I +have a wife, but she is not here." "Where is she?" "She was sold off two +years ago, and I have not heard of her since." The husband of the woman +who took care of the quarters of General Pierce had been sold away from +her some years before. Such separations are regarded as death, and the +slaves re-marry. In some cases the bereft one--so an intelligent negro +assured me--pines under his bereavement and loses his value; but so +elastic is human nature that this did not appear to be generally the +case. The same answer was given about children,--that they had been sold +away. This, in a slave-breeding country, is done when they are about +eight years old. Can that be a mild system of servitude which permits +such enforced separations? Providence may, indeed, sunder forever those +dearest to each other, and the stricken soul accepts the blow as the +righteous discipline of a Higher Power; but when the bereavement is +the arbitrary dictate of human will, there are no such consolations to +sanctify grief and assuage agony. + +There is a universal desire among the slaves to be free. Upon this point +my inquiries were particular, and always with the same result. When +we said to them, "You don't want to be free,--your masters say you +don't,"--they manifested much indignation, answering, "We do want to be +free,--we want to be for ourselves." We inquired further, "Do the house +slaves who wear their master's clothes want to be free?" "We never heard +of one who did not," was the instant reply. There might be, they said, +some half-crazy one who did not care to be free, but they had never seen +one. Even old men and women, with crooked backs, who could hardly walk +or see, shared the same feeling. An intelligent Secessionist, Lowry by +name, who was examined at head-quarters, admitted that a majority of the +slaves wanted to be free. The more intelligent the slave and the better +he had been used, the stronger this desire seemed to be. I remember one +such particularly, the most intelligent one in Hampton, known as "an, +influential darky" ("darky" being the familiar term applied by the +contrabands to themselves). He could read, was an exhorter in the +Church, and officiated in the absence of the minister. He would have +made a competent juryman. His mistress, he said, had been kind to him, +and had never spoken so harshly to him as a captain's orderly in the +Naval Brigade had done, who assumed one day to give him orders. She had +let him work where he pleased, and he was to bring her a fixed sum, and +appropriate the surplus to his own use. She pleaded with him to go away +with her from Hampton at the time of the exodus, but she would not force +him to leave his family. Still he hated to be a slave, and he talked +like a philosopher about his rights. No captive in the galleys of +Algiers, not Lafayette in an Austrian dungeon, ever pined more for free +air. He had saved eighteen hundred dollars of his surplus earnings in +attending on visitors at Old Point, and had spent it all in litigation +to secure the freedom of his wife and children, belonging to another +master, whose will had emancipated them, but was contested on the ground +of the insanity of the testator. He had won a verdict, but his lawyers +told him they could not obtain a judgment upon it, as the judge was +unfavorable to freedom. + +The most frequent question asked of one who has had any means of +communication with the contrabands during the war is in relation to +their knowledge of its cause and purposes, and their interest in it. One +thing was evident,--indeed, you could not talk with a slave who did not +without prompting give the same testimony,--that their masters had been +most industrious in their attempts to persuade them that the Yankees +were coming down there only to get the land,--that they would kill the +negroes and manure the ground with them, or carry them off to Cuba or +Hayti and sell them. An intelligent man who had belonged to Colonel +Joseph Segar--almost the only Union man at heart in that region, and who +for that reason, being in Washington at the time the war began, had not +dared to return to Hampton--served the staff of General Pierce. He bore +the highest testimony to the kindness of his master, who, he said, told +him to remain,--that the Yankees were the friends of his people, and +would use them well. "But," said David,--for that was his name,--"I +never heard of any other master who talked that way, but they all told +the worst stories about the Yankees, and the mistresses were more +furious even than the masters." David, I may add, spite of his good +master, longed to be free. + +The masters, in their desperation, had within a few months resorted +to another device to secure the loyalty of their slaves. The colored +Baptist minister had been something of a pet among the whites, and had +obtained subscriptions from some benevolent citizens to secure the +freedom of a handsome daughter of his who was exposed to sale on an +auction block, where her beauty inspired competition. Some leading +Secessionists, Lawyer Hope for one, working somewhat upon his gratitude +and somewhat upon his vanity, persuaded him to offer the services of +himself and his sons, in a published communication, to the cause of +Virginia and the Confederate States. The artifice did not succeed. He +lost his hold on his congregation, and could not have safely remained +after the whites left. He felt uneasy about his betrayal, and tried to +restore himself to favor by saying that he meant no harm to his people; +but his protestations were in vain. His was the deserved fate of those +in all ages who, victims of folly or bribes, turn their backs on their +fellows. + +Notwithstanding all these attempts, the negroes, with rare exceptions, +still believed that the Yankees were their friends. They had learned +something in Presidential elections, and they thought their masters +could not hate us as they did, unless we were their friends. They +believed that the troubles would somehow or other help them, although +they did not understand all that was going on. They may be pardoned +for their want of apprehension, when some of our public men, almost +venerable, and reputed to be very wise and philosophical, are bewildered +and grope blindly. They were somewhat perplexed by the contradictory +statements of our soldiers, some of whom, according to their wishes, +said the contest was for them, and others that it did not concern them +at all and they would remain as before. If it was explained to them, +that Lincoln was chosen by a party who were opposed to extending +slavery, but who were also opposed to interfering with it in +Virginia,--that Virginia and the South had rebelled, and we had come to +suppress the rebellion,--and although the object of the war was not to +emancipate them, yet that might be its result,--they answered, that they +understood the statement perfectly. They did not seem inclined to fight, +although willing to work. More could not be expected of them while +nothing is promised to them. What latent inspirations they may have +remains to be seen. They had at first a mysterious dread of fire-arms, +but familiarity is rapidly removing that. + +The religious element of their life has been noticed. They said they +had prayed for this day, and God had sent Lincoln in answer to their +prayers. We used to overhear their family devotions, somewhat loud +according to their manner, in which they prayed earnestly for our +troops. They built their hopes of freedom on Scriptural examples, +regarding the deliverance of Daniel from the lions' den, and of the +Three Children from the furnace, as symbolic of their coming freedom. +One said to me, that masters, before they died, by their wills sometimes +freed their slaves, and he thought that a _type_ that they should become +free. + +One Saturday evening one of them asked me to call and see him at his +home the next morning. I did so, and he handed me a Bible belonging +to his mistress, who had died a few days before, and whose bier I had +helped to carry to the family vault. He wanted me to read to him the +eleventh chapter of Daniel. It seemed, that, as one of the means of +keeping them quiet, the white clergymen during the winter and spring +had read them some verses from it to show that the South would prevail, +enforcing passages which ascribed great dominion to "the king of the +South," and suppressing those which subsequently give the supremacy to +"the king of the North." A colored man who could read had found the +latter passages and made them known. The chapter is dark with mystery, +and my auditor, quite perplexed as I read on, remarked, "The Bible is a +very mysterious book." I read to him also the thirty-fourth chapter of +Jeremiah, wherein the sad prophet of Israel records the denunciations +by Jehovah of sword, pestilence, and famine against the Jews for not +proclaiming liberty to their servants and handmaids. He had not known +before that there were such passages in the Bible. + +The conversations of the contrabands on their title to be regarded as +freemen showed reflection. When asked if they thought themselves fit for +freedom, and if the darkies were not lazy, their answer was, "Who +but the darkies cleared all the land round here? Yes, there are lazy +darkies, but there are more lazy whites." When told that the free blacks +had not succeeded, they answered that the free blacks have not had a +fair chance under the laws,--that they don't dare to enforce their +claims against white men,--that a free colored blacksmith had a thousand +dollars due to him from white men, but he was afraid to sue for any +portion of it. One man, when asked why he ought to be free, replied,--"I +feed and clothe myself and pay my master one hundred and twenty dollars +a year; and the one hundred and twenty dollars is just so much taken +from me, which ought to be used to make me and my children comfortable." +Indeed, broken as was their speech and limited as was their knowledge, +they reasoned abstractly on their rights as well as white men. Locke or +Channing might have fortified the argument for universal liberty from +their simple talk. So true is it that the best thoughts which the human +intellect has produced have come, not from affluent learning or ornate +speech, but from the original elements of our nature, common to all +races of men and all conditions in life; and genius the highest and most +cultured may bend with profit to catch the lowliest of human utterances. + +There was a very general desire among the contrabands to know how to +read. A few had learned; and these, in every instance where we inquired +as to their teacher, had been taught on the sly in their childhood by +their white playmates. Others knew their letters, but could not "put +them together," as they said. I remember of a summer's afternoon seeing +a young married woman, perhaps twenty-five years old, seated on a +door-step with her primer before her, trying to make progress. + +In natural tact and the faculty of getting a livelihood the contrabands +are inferior to the Yankees, but quite equal to the mass of the Southern +population. It is not easy to see why they would be less industrious, if +free, than the whites, particularly as they would have the encouragement +of wages. There would be transient difficulties at the outset, but no +more than a bad system lasting for ages might be expected to leave +behind. The first generation might be unfitted for the active duties and +responsibilities of citizenship; but this difficulty, under generous +provisions for education, would not pass to the next. Even now they are +not so much behind the masses of the whites. Of the Virginians who took +the oath of allegiance at Hampton, not more than one in fifteen could +write his name, and the rolls captured at Hatteras disclose an equally +deplorable ignorance. The contrabands might be less addicted than the +now dominant race to bowie-knives and duels, think less of the value +of bludgeons as forensic arguments, be less inhospitable to innocent +sojourners from Free States, and have far inferior skill in robbing +forts and arsenals, plundering the Treasury, and betraying the country +at whose crib they had fattened; but mankind would forgive them for not +acquiring these accomplishments of modern treason. As a race, they may +be less vigorous and thrifty than the Saxon, but they are more social, +docile, and affectionate, fulfilling the theory which Channing held in +relation to them, if advanced to freedom and civilization. + +If in the progress of the war they should be called to bear arms, there +need be no reasonable apprehension that they would exhibit the ferocity +of savage races. Unlike such, they have been subordinated to civilized +life. They are by nature a religious people. They have received an +education in the Christian faith from devout teachers of their own and +of the dominant race. Some have been taught (let us believe it) by +the precepts of Christian masters, and some by the children of those +masters, repeating the lessons of the Sabbath-school. The slaveholders +assure us that they have all been well treated. If that be so, they have +no wrongs to avenge. Associated with our army, they would conform to +the stronger and more disciplined race. Nor is this view disproved by +servile insurrections. In those cases, the insurgents, without arms, +without allies, without discipline, but throwing themselves against +society, against government, against everything, saw no other escape +than to devastate and destroy without mercy in order to get a foothold. +If they exterminated, it was because extermination was threatened +against them. In the Revolution, in the army at Cambridge, from the +beginning to the close of the war, against the protests of South +Carolina by the voice of Edward Rutledge, but with the express sanction +of Washington,--ever just, ever grateful for patriotism, whencesoever +it came,--the negroes fought in the ranks with the white men, and they +never dishonored the patriot cause. So also at the defence of New +Orleans they received from General Jackson a noble tribute to their +fidelity and soldier-like bearing. Weighing the question historically +and reflectively, and anticipating the capture of Richmond and New +Orleans, there need be more serious apprehension of the conduct of +some of our own troops recruited in large cities than of a regiment of +contrabands officered and disciplined by white men. + +But as events travel faster than laws or proclamations, already in +this war with Rebellion the two races have served together. The same +breastworks have been built by their common toil. True and valiant, they +stood side by side in the din of cannonade, and they shared as comrades +in the victory of Hatteras. History will not fail to record that on the +28th day of August, 1861, when the Rebel forts were bombarded by the +Federal army and navy, under the command of Major-General Butler and +Commodore Stringham, fourteen negroes, lately Virginia slaves, now +contraband of war, faithfully and without panic worked the after-gun of +the upper deck of the Minnesota, and hailed with a victor's pride the +Stars and Stripes as they again waved on the soil of the Carolinas. + + + + + +THE WASHERS OF THE SHROUD. + + + Along a river-side, I know not where, + I walked last night in mystery of dream; + A chill creeps curdling yet beneath my hair, + To think what chanced me by the pallid gleam + Of a moon-wraith that waned through haunted air. + + Pale fire-flies pulsed within the meadow mist + Their halos, wavering thistle-downs of light; + The loon, that seemed to mock some goblin tryst, + Laughed; and the echoes, huddling in affright, + Like Odin's hounds, fled baying down the night. + + Then all was silent, till there smote my ear + A movement in the stream that checked my breath: + Was it the slow plash of a wading deer? + But something said, "This water is of Death! + The Sisters wash a Shroud,--ill thing to hear!" + + I, looking then, beheld the ancient Three, + Known to the Greek's and to the Norseman's creed, + That sit in shadow of the mystic Tree, + Still crooning, as they weave their endless brede, + One song: "Time was, Time is, and Time shall be." + + No wrinkled crones were they, as I had deemed, + But fair as yesterday, to-day, to-morrow, + To mourner, lover, poet, ever seemed; + Something too deep for joy, too high for sorrow, + Thrilled in their tones and from their faces gleamed. + + "Still men and nations reap as they have strawn,"-- + So sang they, working at their task the while,-- + "The fatal raiment must be cleansed ere dawn: + For Austria? Italy? the Sea-Queen's Isle? + O'er what quenched grandeur must our shroud be drawn? + + "Or is it for a younger, fairer corse, + That gathered States for children round his knees, + That tamed the wave to be his posting-horse, + The forest-feller, linker of the seas, + Bridge-builder, hammerer, youngest son of Thor's? + + "What make we, murmur'st thou, and what are we? + When empires must be wound, we bring the shroud, + The time-old web of the implacable Three: + Is it too coarse for him, the young and proud? + Earth's mightiest deigned to wear it; why not he?" + + "Is there no hope?" I moaned. "So strong, so fair! + Our Fowler, whose proud bird would brook erewhile + No rival's swoop in all our western air! + Gather the ravens, then, in funeral file, + For him, life's morn-gold bright yet in his hair? + + "Leave me not hopeless, ye unpitying dames! + I see, half-seeing. Tell me, ye who scanned + The stars, Earth's elders, still must noblest aims + Be traced upon oblivious ocean-sands? + Must Hesper join the wailing ghosts of names?" + + "When grass-blades stiffen with red battle-dew, + Ye deem we choose the victors and the slain: + Say, choose we them that shall be leal and true + To the heart's longing, the high faith of brain? + Yet here the victory is, if ye but knew. + + "Three roots bear up Dominion: Knowledge, Will,-- + These two are strong, but stronger yet the third,-- + Obedience, the great tap-root, that still, + Knit round the rock of Duty, is not stirred, + Though the storm's ploughshare spend its utmost skill. + + "Is the doom sealed for Hesper? 'T is not we + Denounce it, but the Law before all time: + The brave makes danger opportunity; + The waverer, paltering with the chance sublime, + Dwarfs it to peril: which shall Hesper be? + + "Hath he let vultures climb his eagle's seat + To make Jove's bolts purveyors of their maw? + Hath he the Many's plaudits found more sweet + Than wisdom? held Opinion's wind for law? + Then let him hearken for the headsman's feet! + + "Rough are the steps, slow-hewn in flintiest rock, + States climb to power by; slippery those with gold + Down which they stumble to eternal mock: + No chafferer's hand shall long the sceptre hold, + Who, given a Fate to shape, would sell the block. + + "We sing old sagas, songs of weal and woe, + Mystic because too cheaply understood; + Dark sayings are not ours; men hear and know, + See Evil weak, see only strong the Good, + Yet hope to balk Doom's fire with walls of tow. + + "Time Was unlocks the riddle of Time Is, + That offers choice of glory and of gloom; + The solver makes Time Shall Be surely his.-- + But hasten, Sisters! for even now the tomb + Grates its slow hinge and calls from the abyss." + + "But not for him," I cried, "not yet for him, + Whose large horizon, westering, star by star + Wins from the void to where on ocean's rim + The sunset shuts the world with golden bar,-- + Not yet his thews shall fail, his eye grow dim! + + "His shall be larger manhood, saved for those + That walk unblenching through the trial-fires; + Not suffering, but faint heart is worst of woes, + And he no base-born son of craven sires, + Whose eye need droop, confronted with his foes. + + "Tears may be ours, but proud, for those who win + Death's royal purple in the enemy's lines: + Peace, too, brings tears; and 'mid the battle-din, + The wiser ear some text of God divines; + For the sheathed blade may rust with darker sin. + + "God, give us peace!--not such as lulls to sleep, + But sword on thigh, and brow with purpose knit! + And let our Ship of State to harbor sweep, + Her ports all up, her battle-lanterns lit, + And her leashed thunders gathering for their leap!" + + So said I, with clenched hands and passionate pain, + Thinking of dear ones by Potomac's side: + Again the loon laughed, mocking; and again + The echoes bayed far down the night, and died, + While waking I recalled my wandering brain. + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Sermons preached in the Chapel of Harvard College._ By JAMES WALKER, +D.D. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. + +The great reputation which Dr. Walker has long enjoyed, as one of the +most impressive pulpit orators of the country, will suffer little +diminution by the publication of these specimens of his rare powers of +statement, argument, and illustration. To the general reader, they are, +to be sure, deprived of the fascination of his voice and manner; but +as the peculiarities of his elocution have their source in the +peculiarities of his mental and moral organization, it will be found +that the style and structure of these printed sermons suggest the mule +of their delivery, which is simply the emphatic utterance of emphatic +thought. The Italicized words, with which the volume abounds, palpably +mark the results of thinking, and arrest attention because they are not +less emphasized by the intellect than by the type. In reflecting Dr. +Walker's mind, the work at the same time reflects his manner. + +Every reader of these sermons will be struck by their thorough +reasonableness,--a reasonableness which does not exclude, but includes, +the deepest and warmest religious sensibility. Moral and religious +feeling pervades every statement; but the feeling is still confined +within a flexible framework of argument, which, while it enlarges with +every access of emotion, is always an outlying boundary of thought, +beyond which passion does not pass. Light continually asserts itself as +more comprehensive in its reach than heat; and the noblest spiritual +instincts and impulses are never allowed unchecked expression as +sentiments, but have to submit to the restraints imposed by principles. +Even in the remarkable sermon entitled, "The Heart more than the Head," +it will be found that it is the head which legitimates the action of +the heart. The sentiments are exalted above the intellect by a process +purely intellectual, and the inferiority of the reason is shown to be +a principle essentially reasonable. Thus, throughout the volume, the +author's mental insight into the complex phenomena of our spiritual +nature is always accompanied by a mental oversight of its actual and +possible aberrations. A sound, large, "round-about" common sense, keen, +eager, vigilant, sagacious, encompasses all the emotional elements of +his thought. He has a subtile sense of mystery, but he is not a mystic. +The most marvellous workings of the Divine Spirit he apprehends under +the conditions of Law, and even in the raptures of devotion he never +forgets the relation of cause and effect. + +The style of these sermons is what might be expected from the character +of the mind it expresses. If Dr. Walker were not a thinker, it is plain +that he could never have been a rhetorician. He has no power at all as +a writer, if writing be considered an accomplishment which can be +separated from earnest thinking. Words are, with him, the mere +instruments for the expression of things; and he hits on felicitous +words only under that impatient stress of thought which demands exact +expression for definite ideas. All his words, simple as they are, are +therefore fairly earned, and he gives to them a force and significance +which they do not bear in the dictionary. The mind of the writer is felt +beating and burning beneath his phraseology, stamping every word with +the image of a thought. Largeness of intellect, acute discrimination, +clear and explicit statement, masterly arrangement of matter, an +unmistakable performance of the real business of expression,--these +qualities make every reader of the sermons conscious that a mind of +great vigor, breadth, and pungency is brought into direct contact +with his own. The almost ostentatious absence of "fine writing" only +increases the effect of the plain and sinewy words. + +If we pass from the form to the substance of Dr. Walker's teachings, we +shall find that his sermons are especially characterized by practical +wisdom. A scholar, a moralist, a metaphysician, a theologian, learned +in all the lore and trained in the best methods of the schools, he is +distinguished from most scholars by his broad grasp of every-day life. +It is this quality which has given him his wide influence as a preacher, +and this is a prominent charm of his printed sermons. He brings +principles to the test of facts, and connects thoughts with things. The +conscience which can easily elude the threats, the monitions, and the +appeals of ordinary sermonizers, finds itself mastered by his mingled +fervor, logic, and practical knowledge. Every sermon in the present +volume is good for use, and furnishes both inducements and aids to the +formation of manly Christian character. There is much, of course, to +lift the depressed and inspire the weak; but the great peculiarity of +the discourses is the resolute energy with which they grapple with the +worldliness and sin of the proud and the strong. + + +_The Monks of the West, from St. Benedict to St. Bernard_. By the COUNT +DE MONTALEMBERT, Member of the French Academy. Authorized Translation. +Volumes I. and II. Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons. 1861. 8vo. +pp. xii. and 515, 549. + +These volumes form the first instalment of a work in which one of the +great lights of the Romish Church in our day proposes to recount the +glories of Western Monasticism, and to narrate the lives of some of the +remarkable men who successively passed from the cloister to the Papal +throne, or in positions scarcely less conspicuous permanently affected +the history of the Church. His original design, however, does not appear +to have extended beyond writing the life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, +which he intended to make in some measure a complement to his life of +St. Elizabeth of Hungary. But he judged rightly, that, in order to +exhibit the character and influence of that remarkable man under all +their various aspects, it was needful at the outset to retrace the early +history of monastic institutions in the West, and to show how far +they tended to prepare the way for such a man. Only a part of this +preliminary task has been accomplished as yet; but enough has been done +to show in what spirit the historian has approached his subject, how +thoroughly he has explored the original sources of information, and +what will probably be the real worth of his labors. For such a +work Montalembert possesses adequate and in some respects peculiar +qualifications. His learning, eloquence, and candor will be conceded by +every one who is familiar with his previous writings or with his public +life; and at the same time he unites a passionate love of liberty, +everywhere apparent in his book, with a zeal for the Church, worthy of +any of the monks whom he commemorates. While his narrative is always +animated and picturesque, and often rises into passages of fervid +eloquence, he has conducted his researches with the unwearied +perseverance of a mere antiquary, and has exhausted every source of +information. "Every word which I have written," he says, "has been drawn +from original and contemporary sources; and if I have quoted facts +or expressions from second-hand authors, it has never been without +attentively verifying the original or completing the text. A single +date, quotation, or note, apparently insignificant, has often cost me +hours and sometimes days of labor. I have never contented myself with +being approximately right, nor resigned myself to doubt until every +chance of arriving at certainty was exhausted." To the spirit and temper +in which the book is written no well-founded exception can be taken; but +considerable abatement must be made from the author's estimate of +the services rendered by the monks to Christian civilization, and no +Protestant will accept his views as to the permanent worth of monastic +institutions. With this qualification, and with some allowance for +needless repetitions, we cannot but regard his work as a most attractive +and eloquent contribution to ecclesiastical history. + +About half of the first volume is devoted to a General Introduction, +explanatory of the origin and design of the work, but mainly intended to +paint the character of monastic institutions, to describe the happiness +of a religious life, and to examine the charges brought against the +monks. These topics are considered in ten chapters, filled with curious +details, and written with an eloquence and an earnestness which it is +difficult for the reader to resist. Following this we have a short and +brilliant sketch of the social and political condition of the Roman +Empire after the conversion of Constantine, exhibiting by a few masterly +touches its wide-spread corruption, the feebleness of its rulers, and +the utter degradation of the people. The next two books treat of the +Monastic Precursors in the East as well as in the West, and present a +series of brief biographical sketches of the most famous monks, from +St. Anthony, the father of Eastern monasticism, to St. Benedict, +the earliest legislator for the monasteries of the West. Among the +illustrious men who pass before us in this review, and all of whom are +skilfully delineated, are Basil of Caesarea and his friend Gregory +Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, Athanasius, Martin of Tours, +and the numerous company of saints and doctors nurtured in the great +monastery of Lerins. And though an account of the saintly women who have +led lives of seclusion would scarcely seem to be included under the +title of Montalembert's work, he does not neglect to add sketches of the +most conspicuous of them,--Euphrosyne, Pelagia, Marcella, Furia, and +others. These preliminary sketches fill the last half of the first +volume. + +The Fourth Book comprises an account of the Life and Rule of St. +Benedict, and properly opens the history which Montalembert proposes +to narrate. It presents a sufficiently minute sketch of the personal +history of Benedict and his immediate followers; but its chief merit is +in its very ample and satisfactory exposition of the Benedictine Rule. +The next book traces the history of monastic institutions in Italy and +Spain during the sixth and seventh centuries, and includes biographical +notices of Cassiodorus, the founder of the once famous monastery of +Viviers in Calabria, of St. Gregory the Great, of Leander, Bishop of +Seville, and his brother Isidore, of Ildefonso of Toledo, and of many +others of scarcely less renown in the early monastic records. The Sixth +Book is devoted to the monks under the first Merovingians, and is +divided into five sections, treating respectively of the conquest +of Gaul by the Franks, of the arrival of St. Maur in Anjou and the +propagation of the Benedictine rule there, of the relations previously +existing between the monks and the Merovingians, of St. Radegund and her +followers, and of the services of the monks in clearing the forests +and opening the way for the advance of civilization. The Seventh Book +records the life of St. Columbanus, and describes at much length his +labors in Gaul, as well as those of his disciples, both in the great +monastery of Luxeuil and in the numerous colonies which issued from it +and spread over the whole neighborhood, bringing the narrative down +to the close of the seventh century. At this point the portion of +Montalembert's work now published terminates, leaving, we presume, +several additional volumes to follow. For their appearance we shall look +with much interest. If the remainder is executed in the same spirit as +the portion now before us, and is marked by the same diligent study of +the original authorities and the same persuasive eloquence, it will form +one of the most valuable of the many attractive monographs which we +owe to the French historians of our time, and will be read with equal +interest by Catholics and Protestants. + + +_Eighty Years' Progress of the United States, showing the Various +Channels of Industry and Education through which the People of the +United States have arisen from a British Colony to their Present +National Importance_. Illustrated with over Two Hundred Engravings. New +York: 51 John Street. Worcester: L. Stebbins. Two Volumes. 8vo. + +A vast amount of useful information is treasured up in these two +national volumes. Agriculture, commerce and trade, the cultivation of +cotton, education, the arts of design, banking, mining, steam, the +fur-trade, etc., are subjects of interest everywhere, and the present +writers seem to be specially competent for the task they have assumed. +If the household library should possess such books more frequently, less +ignorance would prevail on topics concerning which every American ought +to be well-informed. Woful silence usually prevails when a foreigner +asks for statistics on any point connected with our industrial progress, +and very few take the trouble to get at facts which are easy enough +to be had with a little painstaking. We are glad to see so much good +material brought together as we find in these two well-filled volumes. + + +_Electro-Physiology and Electro-Therapeutics: Showing the Rules and +Methods for the Employment of Galvanism in Nervous Diseases_, etc. +Second Edition, with Additions. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1861. + +At a time when the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile of the medical +world is pretty thoroughly breached, if not thrown down, and quackery +and imposture are tolerated as necessary evils, it is agreeable to meet +with a real work of science, emanating from the labors of a regular +physician, concerning the influences exerted by electricity on the human +body, both in health and disease. + +Electricity is one of the great powers of Nature, pervading all matter, +existing in all mineral, vegetable, and animal bodies, not only acting +in the combinations of the elements and molecules, but also serving as a +means for their separation from each other. This imponderable fluid or +power, whatever it may be, whether one or two, or a polarization of one +force into the states + and -, is one of the most active agencies known +to man, and although not capable of being weighed in the balance, is not +found wanting anywhere in Nature. It courses in great currents beneath +our feet, in the solid rocks of the earth, penetrating to the very +interior of the globe, while it also rushes through our atmosphere in +lurid flashes, and startles us with the crash and roar of heaven's +artillery. It gives magnetic polarity to the earth, and directs the +needle by its influence; for magnetic attraction is only an effect of +the earth's thermo-electricity, excited by the sun's rays acting in +a continuous course. Both animal and vegetable life are dependent on +electric forces for their development; and many of their functions, +directly or indirectly, result from their agency. + +If this force controls to a great degree the living functions of our +organs in their healthy action, it must be that it is concerned in those +derangements and lesions which constitute disease and abnormal actions +or disorders. It must have a remedial and the opposite effect, according +as it is applied. + +Is such a gigantic power to be left in the hands of charlatans, or shall +it be reserved for application by scientific physicians? This is a +question we must meet and answer practically. + +It may be asked why a force of this nature has been so long neglected by +practising physicians. The answer is very simple, and will be recognized +as true by all middle-aged physicians in this country. + +For the past fifty years it has been customary to state in lectures in +our medical colleges, that "chemistry has nothing to do with medicine"; +and since our teachers knew nothing of the subject themselves, they +denounced such knowledge as unnecessary to the physician. Electricity, +the great moving power in all chemical actions, shared the fate of +chemistry in general, and met with condemnation without trial. A young +physician did not dare to meddle with chemicals or with any branch of +natural or experimental science for fear of losing his chance of medical +employment by sinking the doctor among his gallipots. + +Electricity, thus neglected, fell into the hands of irregular +practitioners, and was as often used injuriously as beneficially, and +more frequently without any effect. The absurd pretensions of galvanic +baths for the extraction of mercury from the system will be remembered +by most of our citizens, and the shocking practice of others is not +forgotten. + +It was therefore earnestly desired by medical practitioners who +themselves were not by education competent to manage electric and +galvanic machinery, that some medical man of good standing, who had +made a special study of this subject, should undertake the treatment of +diseases requiring the use of electricity. Dr. Garratt was induced +to undertake this important duty, and he has prepared a work on this +practice which embraces all that has appeared in the writings of others, +both in this country and Europe, while he has, from his own researches +and rich experience, added much new matter of great practical value. +Among his original contributions we note,-- + +1st. A definite, systematic method for the application of Galvanic and +Faradaic currents of electricity to the human organism, for curing or +aiding in the cure of given classes of diseases. (See pages 475, 479, +and 669 to 706; also Chap. 5, p. 280.) + +2d. Improvements in the methods of applying electricity, as stated on +pages 293 to 296, and 300, 329, and 332, which we have not room to copy. + +3d. He has introduced the term Faradaic current to represent the induced +current, first discovered by Professor Henry, and so much extended in +application by Faraday. + +4th. The determination of several definite points in sentient and +mixed nerves, often the seats of neuralgic pain,--thus correcting Dr. +Valleix's painful points. + +5th. The treatment of uterine, and some other female disorders, by means +of the induced galvanic current (pages 612 to 621). + +A careful examination of this book shows it to contain a very full +_résumé_ of the best which have been written on the subjects embraced +under the medical applications of electricity in its various modes of +development, and a careful analysis of the doctrines of others; while +the author has given frankly an account of cases in which he has failed, +as of those in which he has been successful. He does not offer electric +treatment as a panacea for "all the ills which flesh is heir to," but +shows how far and in what cases it proves beneficial. He has shown that +there is a right and a wrong way of operating, and that mischief may be +done by an unskilful hand, while one who is well qualified by scientific +knowledge and practical experience may do much good, and in many +diseases,--more especially in those of the nerves, such as neuralgia +and partial paralysis, in which remarkable cures have been effected. We +commend this work to the attention of medical gentlemen, and especially +to students of medicine who wish to be posted up in the novel methods +of treating diseases. It is also a book which all scientific men may +consult with advantage, and which will gratify the curiosity of the +general scholar. + + +_Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S., Late Regius Professor of Natural +History in the University of Edinburgh_. By GEORGE WILSON, M.D., +F.R.S.E., and ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S.E., etc. Cambridge and London: +MacMillan & Co. + +Dr. Wilson did not live to finish the memoir which he so ably began. +The great naturalist, Edward Forbes, deserved the best from his +contemporaries, and we are glad to have the combined labors of such +distinguished men as Wilson and Geikie put forth in commemoration of +him. The chair of Natural History at Edinburgh was honored by him +whose biography is now before us. His advent to that eminent post was +everywhere hailed with a unanimity that augured well for his career, and +no one could have been chosen to succeed the illustrious Jameson for +whom there could have been more enthusiasm. His admitted genius and the +range of his acquirements fully entitled him to the office, and all who +know him looked forward to brilliant accomplishments in his varied paths +of science. Death closed the brief years of this earnest student at the +early age of thirty-nine. Cut off in the prime of his days, with his +powers and purposes but partially unfolded, he yet shows grandly among +the best men of his time. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Laws of Massachusetts relating to Individual Rights and Liabilities, +compiled from the General Statutes. Boston. Benj. B. Russell. 16mo. +paper. pp. 131. 25 cts. + +Chambers's Encyclopedia. A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the +People. Part XXXIV. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. +47. 15 cts. + +A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle; to which +is added a Lecture on Platinum. By Michael Faraday. New York. Harper & +Brothers. 24mo. pp. 217. 50 cts. + +Great Expectations. By Charles Dickens. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & +Brothers. 8vo. pp. 266. $1.50. + +Latin Accidence and Primary Lesson-Book, containing a full Exhibition of +the Forms of Words, and First Lessons in Reading. By George W. Collord, +A.M. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 348. $1.00. + +Life and Adventures in the South Pacific. By a Roving Printer. New York. +Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 354. $1.25. + +The Southern Rebellion, and The War for the Union. A History of the Rise +and Progress of the Rebellion, and Consecutive Narrative of Events and +Incidents. New York. James D. Torrey. 8vo. paper. pp. 32. 10 cts. + +Positive Facts without a Shadow of Doubt. By Michael George Duignan. New +York. Printed for the Publisher. 8vo. pp. 1103. $2.50. + +The House on the Moor. By the Author of "Margaret Maitland," etc. New +York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 405. $1.00. + +Learning to Read, to Write, and to Compose,--all at the Same Time. By +J.A. Jacobs, A.M. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 18mo. pp. 330. 50 cts. + +First Lessons in Greek: the Beginner's Companion-Book to Hadley's +Grammar. By James Morris Whiton. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. +120. 75 cts. + +Precaution. A Novel. By J. Fenimore Cooper. With a Discourse on the +Life, Genius, and Writings of the Author, by William Cullen Bryant. +Illustrated from Drawings by F.O.C. Darley. New York. W.A. Townsend & +Co. 12mo. pp. 485. $1.50. + +Eighty Years' Progress of the United States, showing the Various +Channels of Industry and Education through which the People of the +United States have arisen from a British Colony to their Present +National Importance. Illustrated with over Two Hundred Engravings. New +York and Worcester. L. Stebbins. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 457, 455. $5.00. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11415 *** 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..8041e4d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11415 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11415) diff --git a/old/11415-8.txt b/old/11415-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15a040f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11415-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9292 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, Issue 49, +November, 1861, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, Issue 49, November, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 3, 2004 [eBook #11415] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 8, ISSUE +49, NOVEMBER, 1861*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VIII.--NOVEMBER, 1861.--NO. XLIX. + + + + + + + +GEORGE SAND. + + "Deduci superbo + Non humilis mulier triumpho." + + +These words are applied by Horace to the great Cleopatra, whose heroic +end he celebrates, even while exulting in her overthrow. We apply them +to another woman of royal soul, who, capitulating with the world of her +contemporaries, does not allow them the ignoble triumph of plundering +the secrets of her life. They have long clamored at its gates, long +shouted at its windows, in defamation and in glorification. Ready now +for their admission, she lets the eager public in; but what they were +most intent to find still eludes them. In the "Histoire de ma Vie" are +the records of her parentage, birth, education. Here are detailed the +subtile influences that aided or hindered Nature in one of her most +lavish pieces of work; here are study, religion, marriage, maternity, +authorship, friendship, travel, litigation: but the passionate loving +woman, and whom she loved, are not here. To the world's triumph they +belong not, and we honor the decency and self-respect which consign them +to oblivion. Nor shall we endeavor to lift the veil which she has thus +thrown over the most intimate portion of her private life. We will not +ask any _Chronique Scandaleuse_, of which there are plenty, to supply +any hiatus in the _dramatis personae_ of her life. We shall take her as +she gives herself to us, bringing out the full significance of what she +says, but not interpolating with it what other people say. For she has +been generous in telling us all that it imports us most to know. +The itching curiosity of the spiteful or the vicious must seek its +gratification at other hands than ours: we will not be its ministers. +With all this, we are not obliged to shut our eyes to the true +significance of what she tells us, or to assume that in the account +she gives us of herself there is necessarily less self-deception than +self-judgment generally exhibits. If she mistakes the selfish for the +heroic, exalts a gratification into a duty, and preaches to her sex as +from the standpoint of a morality superior to theirs, we shall set it +down as it seems to us. But, for the sake of manhood as well as of +womanhood, we would not that any mean or malignant hand should endeavor +to show where she failed, and how. + +Was she not to all of us, in our early years, a name of doubt, dread, +and enchantment? Did not all of us feel, in our young admiration for +her, something of the world's great struggle between conservative +discipline and revolutionary inspiration? We knew our parents would not +have us read her, _if they knew_. We knew they were right. Yet we read +her at stolen hours, with waning and still entreated light; and as we +read, in a dreary wintry room, with the flickering candle warning us +of late hours and confiding expectations, the atmosphere grew warm and +glorious about us,--a true human company, a living sympathy crept near +us,--the very world seemed not the same world after as before. She had +given us a real gift; no criticism could take it away. The hands might +be sinful, but the box they broke contained an exceeding precious +ointment. + +At a later day we saw these things rather differently. The electric +intoxication over, which book or being gives but once to the same +person, its elements were viewed with some distrust. Passing from ideal +to real life, as all pass, who live on, we shook our heads over the +books, sighed, ceased to read them. Grown mothers ourselves, we quietly +removed them as far as possible from the young hands about us, and would +rather have deprived them of the noble French language altogether than +have allowed it to bring them such lessons as Jacques and Valentine. +Yet we retain the old love for her; the world of literature still seems +brighter for her footsteps; and should we live to learn her death, tears +must follow it, and the sense of void left by the loss of a true friend, +noble and loyal-hearted, if mistaken. With this confession of sympathy +with the woman, we begin the critical consideration of the memoirs of +herself she has given to the world. + +These memoirs begin at the earliest possible period, including the lives +of her parents and grandparents. The latter were illustrious on +one side, obscure on the other. She tells us that by her paternal +grandmother she was allied to the kings of France, and by her maternal +grandfather to the lowest of the people. The grandmother in question +was the natural daughter of the famous Maréchal de Saxe, recognized and +educated, but finally left with slender resources, and married to M. +Dupin de Francueil, an accomplished person of good family and fortune, +greatly her senior. To him she bore one child, a son named Maurice, +after the great soldier. As might have been expected, her widowhood was +early and long, for her aged partner soon dropped from her side, beloved +and regretted. George tells us that her grandmother was wont to insist +that an old man can be more agreeable in the marital relation than a +young one, and that M. Dupin de Francueil, elegant, accomplished, +and devoted to her happiness, had in his life left nothing for her +imagination to desire or her heart to regret. + +As this lady is one of the heroines of the "Histoire de ma Vie," we +cannot do it justice without lingering a little over her portraiture. +She is described as tall, fair, and of a Saxon type of beauty. Her +manners would seem to have been _de haute école_, and her culture was +on a large and noble scale. Austere in her morals, her faith was the +deistic philosophy of the ante-revolutionary period; but, like other +people of noble mind, instead of making doubt a pretext for license, she +brought up virtue to justify the latitude of her creed, that the solid +results of conscience should entitle her to the free interpretation of +doctrine. She was chaste, benevolent, and sincere. Her mother had been a +singer of merit and celebrity, and she, the daughter, had both inherited +her musical talent, and had received one of those thorough musical +educations which alone make the possession of the art a pleasure and +resource. It must often occur to those who hear our young ladies sing +and play, that the accomplishment is little valued by them, save as an +outward social adornment. + +Hence those ambitious and perfectly uninteresting performances with +which we are constantly bored in the fashionable musical world. It is +self-love which gives us those flat, empty _adagios_, those cold, +keen runs and embellishments. Love of the art has more modesty in the +undertaking, and more warmth in the execution. George says that she +has heard all the greatest singers of modern times, but that her +grandmother, in her old age, singing fragments of the operas of her own +time in a cracked and trembling voice, and accompanying herself on an +old harpsichord with three fingers of a palsied hand, always remained to +her a type of art above all others. + +The first volume of these memoirs gives interesting notice of the +friendships which surrounded Madame Dupin during her married life. These +embraced various celebrities, historical and literary. Her husband was +the congenial friend of the best minds of the day, and was able, among +other things, to procure her the difficult pleasure of an interview +with Jean Jacques Rousseau, then living near her in great spleen and +retirement. We cannot do better than to give the relation of this in +her own words, as preserved by her grand-daughter. It is highly +characteristic of the parties and of the times. + +"Before I had seen Rousseau, I had read the 'Nouvelle Héloïse' in one +breath, and at the last pages I found myself so overcome that I wept and +sobbed. My husband gently rallied me for this; but that day I could only +cry from morning till evening. During this, M. de Francueil, with the +address and the grace which he knew how to put into everything, ran to +find Jean Jacques. I do not know how he managed it, but he carried him +off, he brought him, without having communicated to me his intention. + +"I, unconscious of all this, was not hastening my toilet. I was with +Madame d'Esparbès de Lussan, my friend, the most amiable woman in +the world, and the prettiest, _though she squinted a little, and was +slightly deformed._ M. de Francueil had come several times to see if I +was ready. I did not observe any marks of haste in my husband, and did +not hurry myself, never suspecting that he was there, the sublime Bear, +in my parlor. He had entered, looking partly foolish and partly cross, +and had seated himself in a corner, showing no other impatience than +that about dinner, in order to get away very soon. + +"Finally, my toilet finished, and my eyes still red and swollen, I go +to the parlor. I see a little man, ill-dressed and scowling, who rose +clumsily, who _chewed out_ some confused words. I look, and I guess who +it is,--I try to speak,--I burst into tears. Francueil tries to put +us in tune by a pleasantry, and bursts into tears. We could not say +anything to each other. Rousseau pressed my hand without addressing me a +single word. We tried to dine, to cut short all these sobs. But I could +eat nothing. M. de Francueil could not be witty that day, and +Rousseau escaped directly on leaving the table, without having said a +word,--displeased, perhaps, with having found a new contradiction to +his claim of being the most persecuted, the most hated, and the most +calumniated of men." + +The simplicity of this narration justifies its quotation here, as +illustrative of the taste and manners that prevailed a hundred years +ago. The lively emotion provoked by the "Nouvelle Héloïse" is scarcely +more foreign to our ideas and experience than the triangular fit of +weeping in the parlor, and the dinner, silent through excess of feeling, +that followed it. + +M. Dupin de Francueil lived with great, but generous extravagance, and, +as his widow averred, "ruined himself in the most amiable manner in the +world." He died, leaving large estates in great confusion, from which +his widow and young son were compelled to "accept the poverty" of +seventy-five thousand livres of annual income,--a sum which the +Revolution, at a later day, greatly reduced. Till its outbreak, Madame +Dupin lived in peace and affluence, though not on the grand scale of +earlier days,--devoting herself chiefly to the care and education of her +son, Maurice, in which latter task she secured the services of a young +abbé, who afterwards prudently became the _Citizen_ Deschartres, and who +continued in the service of the family during the rest of a tolerably +long life. This personage plays too important a part in the memoirs to +be passed over without special notice. He continued to be the faithful +teacher and companion of Maurice, until the exigencies of military life +removed the latter from his control. He was also the man of business of +Madame Dupin, and, at a later day, the preceptor of George herself, who, +with childish petulance, bestowed on him the sobriquet of _grand homme_, +in consequence, she tells us, of his _omnicompétence_ and his air of +importance. "My grandmother," she says, "had no presentiment, that, in +confiding to him the education of her son, she was securing the tyrant, +the saviour, and the friend of her whole remaining life." We would +gladly give here in full George's portrait of her tutor; but if we +should stop to sketch all the admirable photography of this work, our +review would become a volume. We can only borrow a trait or two, and +pass on to the consideration of other matters. + +"He had been good-looking; but I am sure that no one, even in his best +days, could have looked at him without laughing, so clearly was the word +_pedant_ written in all the lines of his face and in every movement of +his person. To be complete, he should have been ignorant, _gourmand_, +and cowardly. But, far from this, he was very learned, temperate, and +madly courageous. He had all the great qualities of the soul, joined +to an insufferable disposition, and a self-satisfaction which amounted +almost to delirium. But what devotion, what zeal, what a tender and +generous soul!" + +In the intervals of his necessary occupations he studied medicine and +surgery, in the latter of which he attained considerable skill. In the +many subsequent years of his country life, he made these accomplishments +very useful to the village folk. No stress of weather or +unseasonableness of hours could detain him from attending the sick, when +summoned; but being obliged, as George says, to be ridiculous as well as +sublime in all things, he was wont to beat his patients when they were +bold enough to offer him money for their cure, and even made missile +weapons of the poultry and game which they brought him in acknowledgment +of his services, assailing them with blows and harder words, till they +fled, amused or angry. Maurice, his first pupil, was a delicate and +indolent child, and showed little robustness of character till his early +manhood, when the necessity of a career forced him into the ranks of the +great army. + +The first threatenings of the Revolution found in Madame Dupin an +unalarmed observer. As a disciple of Voltaire and Rousseau, she could +not but detest the abuses of the Court; she shared, too, the general +personal alienation of the aristocracy from the _German woman_, as they +called Marie Antoinette. She admired, in turn, the probity of Necker and +the genius of Mirabeau; but the current of disorder finally found its +way to her, and swept away her household peace among the innumerable +wrecks that marked its passage. Implicated as the depository of some +papers supposed to be of treasonable character, she was arrested and +imprisoned in Paris, her son and Deschartres being officially separated +from her and detained at Passy. The imprisonment lasted some months, and +its tedium was beguiled by the most fervent love-letters between the boy +of sixteen and his mother. The sorrow of this separation, George says, +metamorphosed the sickly, spoiled child into a fervent and resolute +youth, whose subsequent career was full of courage and self-denial. Of +the Revolution she writes:-- + +"In my eyes, it is one of the phases of evangelical life: a tumultuous, +bloody life, terrible at certain moments, full of convulsions, of +delirium, and of sobbing. It is the violent contest of the principle of +equality preached by Jesus, and passing, now like a radiant light, now +like a burning torch, from hand to hand, to our own days, against the +old pagan world, which is not destroyed, which will not be for a long +time yet, in spite of the mission of Christ, and so many other divine +missions, in spite of so many stakes, scaffolds, and martyrs. What is +there, then, to astonish us in the vertigo which seized all minds at +the period of the inextricable _mêlée_ into which France precipitated +herself in '93? When everything went by retaliation, when every one +became, by deed or intention, victim and executioner in turn, and when +between the oppression endured and the oppression exercised there was +no time for reflection or liberty of choice, how could passion have +abstracted itself in action, or impartiality have dictated quiet +judgments? Passionate souls were judged by others as passionate, and the +human race cried out as in the time of the ancient Hussites,--'This is a +time of mourning, of zeal, and of fury.'" + +The tone of our author concerning this and subsequent revolutions which +have come within her own observation is throughout temperate, hopeful, +and charitable. The noblest side of womanhood comes out in this; and +however her fiery youth might have counselled, in the pages now under +consideration she appears as the apologist of humankind, the world's +peacemaker. + +George loves to linger over the details of her father's early life. +They are, indeed, all she possesses of him, as she was still in early +childhood when he died. So much and such charming narrations has she +to give us of his military life, his musical ability, his courage and +disinterestedness, that she herself does not manage to get born until +nearly the end of the third volume, and that through a series of +concatenations which we must hastily review. + +The imprisonment of Madame Dupin was not long; after some months of +detention, she was allowed to rejoin her son at Passy, and the whole +family-party speedily removed to Nohant, in the heart of Berry, which +henceforth figures as the homestead in the pages of these volumes. But +Maurice is soon obliged to adopt a profession. His mother's revenues +have been considerably diminished by the political troubles. He feels in +himself the power, the determination, to carve out a career for +himself, and gallantly enters, as a simple soldier, the armies of the +Republic,--Napoleon Bonaparte being First Consul. Although he soon saw +service, his promotion seems to have been slow and difficult. He was +full of military ardor, and laborious in acquiring the science of his +profession; but there were already so many candidates for every smallest +distinction, and Maurice was no courtier, to help out his deserts with a +little fortunate flattery. He complains in his letters that the tide has +already turned, and that even in the army diplomacy fares better than +real bravery. Still, he soon rose from the ranks, served with honor on +the Rhine and in Italy, and became finally attached to the _personnel_ +of Murat, during the occupation of the Peninsula. His title of grandson +of the Maréchal de Saxe was sometimes helpful, sometimes hurtful. In the +eyes of his comrades it won him honor; but Napoleon, on hearing his high +descent urged as a claim to consideration, is said to have replied, +brusquely,--"I don't want any of those people." In his letters to +his mother, he recounts his adventures, military and amorous, with +frankness, but without boasting; but his confidences soon become very +partial, and before she knows it the poor mother has a dangerous rival. +We will let him give his own account of the origin of this new relation. + +"You know that I was in love in Milan. You guessed it, because I did not +tell you of it. At times I fancied myself beloved in return, and then I +saw, or thought I saw, that I was not. I wished to divert my thoughts; I +went away, desiring to think no more of it. + +"This charming woman is here, and we have hardly spoken to each other. +We scarcely exchanged a look. I felt a little vexation, though that is +scarcely in my nature. She was proud towards me, although her heart is +tender and passionate. This morning, during breakfast, we heard distant +cannon. The General ordered me to mount at once, and go to see what it +was. I rise, take the staircase in two bounds, and run to the stable. +At the very moment of mounting my horse I turned and saw behind me this +dear woman, blushing, embarrassed, and casting on me a lingering look, +expressive of fear, interest, love." + +This fatal look, as the experienced will readily conceive, did the +business. The young soldier dreamed only of a love affair like twenty +others which had made the pastime of his oft-changing quarters; but this +"dear woman," Sophie Victoire Antoinette Delaborde, daughter of an old +bird-fancier, was destined to become his wife, and the mother of his +daughter, Aurore Dupin, whom the world knows as George Sand. The +circumstances of her youth had been untoward. She was at this period +already the mother of one child, born out of marriage, and seems to have +been making the campaign of Italy under the so-called protection of some +rich man, whose name is not given us. This protection she hastened to +leave, following thenceforward with devotion the precarious fortunes +of the young soldier, and gaining her own subsistence, until their +marriage, by the toil of the needle, to which she had been bred. Of +course, Maurice's confidences to his mother under this head soon cease. +An amour with a person in Victoire's position could be admitted; but +a serious, solid affection, leading to marriage, this would break his +mother's heart, and indeed not without reason. The reader must remember +that this is a chapter out of French society, on which account we +suppress all hysterical comment upon a state of things universally +received and acknowledged therein. Maurice's trivial, and _we_ should +say, unprincipled pursuit of Victoire would be considered perfectly +legitimate in the sphere which made the world to him. The sequel, +perhaps, would not have been considered differently here and there; for, +however we may recognize the sacredness of true affection, a marriage +so unequal and with such sinister antecedents would be regarded in all +society with little approbation, or hope of good. His mother soon grew +alarmed, as various symptoms of an enduring and carefully concealed +attachment became evident to her keen observation. In the years that +followed, she left no means untried to break off this dangerous +connection;--her remonstrances were by turns tender and violent,--her +reasonings, no doubt, in great part just; but Maurice defended the woman +of his choice from all accusations, from every annoyance, on the ground +of her devoted and honorable attachment to him. After four years of +continued trouble and irresolution, in which, George tells us, he had +again and again made the endeavor to sacrifice Victoire to his mother's +happiness, and after the birth of several children, who soon ceased +to live, he wedded her by civil rite. The birth of his daughter soon +followed. "And thus it was," says George, "that I was born legitimate." + +"My mother had on a pretty pink dress that day, and my father was +playing some _contredanses_ on his faithful Cremona (I have it yet, that +old instrument by the sound of which I first saw the light). My mother +left the dance and passed into her own room. As she went out very +quietly, the dance continued. At the last _chassez all round_, my Aunt +Lucy went into my mother's room, and immediately cried,-- + +"Come, come here, Maurice! You have a daughter!" + +"She shall be named Aurore, for my poor mother, who is not here to bless +her, but who will bless her one day," said my father, receiving me in +his arms. + +"She was born in music and in pink," said my aunt. "She will be happy." + +Not eminent, perhaps, has been the realization of this augury. + +The young couple were so poor, at this moment of their marriage, that a +slender thread of gold was forced to serve for the nuptial ring; it was +not until some days later that they were able to expend six francs in +the purchase of that indispensable ornament. The act once consummated, +Maurice gave himself up to some hours of bitter suffering, made +inevitable by what he considered a grave act of disobedience against the +best of mothers. His conscience, however, on the whole, justified +him. He had obeyed the Scripture precept, forsaking the old for the +inevitable new relation, and surrounding her who was really his wife +with the immunities of civil recognition. The marriage was concealed for +some months from his mother,--who at a subsequent period left no stone +unturned to prove its nullity. The religious ceremony, which Catholicism +considers as the indissoluble tie, had not yet been performed, and +Mme. Dupin hoped to prove some informality in the civil rite. In +this, however, she did not succeed, and after long resistance, and +ill-concealed displeasure, she concluded by acknowledging the unwelcome +alliance. It was the little Aurore herself whose unconscious hand +severed the Gordian knot of the family difficulties. Introduced by a +stratagem into her grandmother's presence, and seated in her lap as the +child of a stranger, the family traits were suddenly recognized, and the +little one (eight months old) effected a change of heart which neither +lawyer nor priest could have induced. St. Childhood is fortunately +always in the world, working ever these miracles of reconciliation. + +George speaks with admirable candor of the inevitable relations between +these two women. She does full justice to the legitimacy of the +grandmother's objections to the marriage, and her fears for its result, +which were founded much more on moral than on social considerations. At +the same time she nobly asserts her mother's claim to rehabilitation +through a passionate and disinterested attachment, a faithful devotion +to the duties of marriage and maternity, and a widowhood whose sorrow +ended only with her life. She says,--"The doctrine of redemption is the +symbol of the principle of expiation and of rehabilitation"; but she +adds,--"Our society recognizes this principle in religious theory, +but not in practice; it is too great, too beautiful for us." She says +farther,--"There still exists a pretended aristocracy of virtue, which, +proud of its privileges, does not admit that the errors of youth are +susceptible of atonement. This condemnation is the more absurd, because, +for what is called the World, it is hypocritical. It is not only women +of really irreproachable life, nor matrons truly respected, who are +called upon to decide upon the merits of their misled sisters. It is not +the company of the excellent of the earth who make opinion. That is all +a dream. The great majority of women of the world is really a majority +of _lost women_." We must understand these remarks as applying to French +society, in respect even of which we are not inclined to admit their +truth. Yet there is a certain justice in the inference that women +are often most severely condemned by those who are no better than +themselves; and this insincerity of uncharity is far more to be dreaded +than the over-zeal of virtuous hearts, which oftenest helps and heals +where it has been obliged to wound. + +At the risk of unduly multiplying quotations, we will quote here what +George says of her mother in this, the flower of her days. At a later +day, the ill-regulated character suffered and made others suffer with +its own discords, which education and moral training had done nothing to +reconcile. The manly support, too, of the nobler nature was wanting, +and the best half of her future and its possibilities was buried in the +untimely grave of her husband. Here is what she was when she was at her +best:-- + +"My mother never felt herself either humiliated or honored by the +company of people who might have considered themselves her superiors. +She ridiculed keenly the pride of fools, the vanity of _parvenus_, and, +feeling herself of the people to her very finger-ends, she thought +herself more noble than all the patricians and aristocrats of the earth. +She was wont to say that those of her race had redder blood and larger +veins than others,--which I incline to believe; for, if moral and +physical energy constitute in reality the excellence of races, we cannot +deny that this energy is compelled to diminish in those who lose the +habit of labor and the courage of endurance. This aphorism is certainly +not without exception, and we may add that excess of labor and of +endurance enervates the organization as much as the excess of luxury and +idleness. But it is certain, in general, that life rises from the bottom +of society, and loses itself in measure as it rises to the top, like the +sap in plants. + +"My mother was not one of those bold _intrigantes_ whose secret passion +is to struggle against the prejudices of their time, and who think to +make themselves greater by clinging, at the risk of a thousand affronts, +to the false greatness of the world. She was far too proud to expose +herself even to coldness. Her attitude was so reserved that she passed +for a timid person; but if one attempted to encourage her by airs of +protection, she became more than reserved, she showed herself cold and +taciturn. With people who inspired her with respect, she was amiable and +charming; but her real disposition was gay, petulant, active, and, above +all, opposed to constraint. Great dinners, long _soirées_, commonplace +visits, balls themselves, were odious to her. She was the woman of the +fireside or of the rapid and frolicking walk; but in her interior, as in +her goings abroad, intimacy, confidence, relations of entire sincerity, +absolute freedom in her habits and the employment of her time, were +indispensable to her. She, therefore, always lived in a retired manner, +more anxious to avoid unpleasant acquaintances than eager to make +advantageous ones. Such, too, was the foundation of my father's +character, and in this respect never was couple better assorted. They +were never happy out of their little household. And they have bequeathed +me this secret _sauvagerie_, which has always rendered the [fashionable] +world insupportable to me, and home indispensable." + +In referring back to these volumes, we are led into continual loiterings +by the way. The style of our heroine is so magical, that we are +constantly tempted to let her tell her own story, and to give to the +gems of hers which we insert in these pages the slightest possible +setting of our own. But it is not our business to anticipate for any one +a reading from which no student of modern literature, or, indeed, of +modern mind, will excuse himself. We must give only so much as shall +make it sure that others will seek more at the fountain-head; but for +this purpose we must turn less to the book, and trust for our narration +to a sufficiently recent perusal still vividly remembered. + +Aurore could scarcely have passed out of her third year when she +accompanied her mother to Madrid, where her father was already in +attendance upon Murat. She remembers their quarters in the palace, +magnificently furnished, and the half-broken toys of the royal +children, whose destruction she was allowed to complete. To please his +commander-in-chief, her father caused her to assume a miniature uniform, +like those of the Prince's aide-de-camps, whose splendid discomfort she +still recalls. This would seem a sort of prophecy of that assuming +of male attire in later years which was to constitute a capital +circumstance in her life. The return from the Peninsula was weary and +painful to the mother and child, and made more so by the disgust with +which the Spanish roadside bill-of-fare inspired the more civilized +French stomach. They were forced to make a part of the journey in wagons +with the common soldiery and camp-retainers, and Aurore in this manner +took the itch, to her mother's great mortification. Arrived at Nohant, +however, the care of Deschartres, joined to a self-imposed _régime_ of +green lemons, which the little girl devoured, skins, seeds, and all, +soon healed the ignominious eruption. Here the whole family passed some +months of happy repose, too soon interrupted by the tragical death of +Maurice. He had brought back from Spain a formidable horse, which he had +christened the _terrible_ Leopardo, and which, brave cavalier as he was, +he never mounted without a certain indefinable misgiving. He often said, +"I ride him badly, because I am afraid of him, and he knows it." +Dining with some friends in the neighborhood, one day, he was late in +returning. His wife and mother passed the evening together, the first +jealous and displeased at his protracted absence, the second occupied in +calming the irritation and rebuking the suspicions of her companion. The +wife at last yielded, and retired to rest. But the mother's heart, more +anxious, watched and watched. Towards midnight, a slight confusion in +the house augmented her alarm. She started at once, alone and thinly +dressed, to go and meet her son. The night was dark and rainy; the +terrible Leopardo had fulfilled the prophetic forebodings of his rider. +The poor lady, brought up in habits of extreme inactivity, had taken but +two walks in all her life. The first had been to surprise her son at +Passy, when released from the Revolutionary prison. The second was to +meet and escort back his lifeless body, found senseless by the roadside. + +We have done now with Aurore's ancestry, and must occupy our remaining +pages with accounts of herself. Much time is given by her to the record +of her early childhood, and the explanation of its various phases. She +loves children; it is perhaps for this reason that she dwells longest on +this period of her life, describing its minutest incidents with all the +poetry that is in her. One would think that her childhood seemed to +her that actual flower of her life which it is to few in their own +consciousness. Despite the loss of her father, and the vexed relations +between her mother and grandmother which followed his death, her +infancy was joyous and companionable, passed mostly with the country +surroundings and out-door influences which act so magically on the +young. It soon became evident that she was to be confided chiefly to her +grandmother's care; and this, which was at first a fear, soon came to be +a sorrow. Still her mother was often with her, and her time was divided +between the plays of her village-friends and the dreams of romantic +incident which early formed the main feature of her inner life. Already +at a very early age her mother used to say to those who laughed at the +little romancer,--"Let her alone; it is only when she is making her +novels between four chairs that I can work in peace." This habit of +mind grew with her growth. Her very dolls played grandiose parts in her +child-drama. The paper on the wall became animated to her at night, and +in her dreams she witnessed strange adventures between its Satyrs and +Bacchantes. Soon she imagined for herself a sort of angel-companion, +whose name was Corambé. His presence grew to be more real to her than +reality itself, and in her quiet moments she wove out the mythology of +his existence, as Bhavadgheetas and Mahabraatus have been dreamed. In +process of time, she built, or rather entwisted, for him a little shrine +in the woods. All pretty things the child could gather were brought +together there, to give him pleasure. But one day the foot of a little +playmate profaned this sanctuary, and Aurore sought it no more, while +still Corambé was with her everywhere. + +Although she seems to have always suffered from her mother's +inequalities of temper, yet for many years she clung to her, and to the +thought of her, with jealous affection. The great difference of age +which separated her from her grandmother inspired fear, and the grand +manners and careful breeding of the elder lady increased this effect. +When left with her, the child fell into a state of melancholy, with +passionate reactions against the chilling, penetrating influence, +which yet, having reason on its side, was destined to subdue her. "Her +chamber, dark and perfumed, gave me the headache, and fits of spasmodic +yawning. When she said to me, '_Amuse yourself quietly_,' it seemed +to me as if she shut me up in a great box with her." What sympathetic +remembrances must this phrase evoke in all who remember the _gêne_ of +similar constraints! George draws from this inferences of the wisdom of +Nature in confiding the duties of maternity to young creatures, whose +pulses have not yet lost the impatient leap of early pleasure and +energy, and to whom repose and reflection have not yet become the primal +necessities of life. This want of the nearness and sympathy of age +she was to experience more, as, by the consent of both parties, +her education was to be conducted under the superintendence of her +grandmother, from whom the mother derived her pension, and whose estate +the child was to inherit. The separation from her mother, gradually +effected, was the great sorrow of her childhood. She revolted from it +sometimes openly, sometimes in secret; and the project of escaping and +joining her mother in Paris, where, with her half-sister Caroline, +they would support themselves by needle-work, was soon formed and +long cherished. For the expenses of this intended journey, the child +carefully gathered and kept her little treasures, a coral comb, a ring +with a tiny brilliant, etc., etc. In contemplating these, she consoled +many a heartache; as who is there of us who has not often effectually +beguiled _ennui_ and privation by dreams of joys that never were to have +any other reality? The mother seems to have entered into this plan only +for the moment; it soon escaped her remembrance altogether, and the +little girl waited and waited to be sent for, till finally the whole +vision faded into a dream. + +Deschartres, the tutor of Maurice, and of Hippolyte, his illegitimate +son, became also the instructor of the little Aurore. With all her +passion for out-door life, she felt always, she tells us, an invincible +necessity of mental cultivation, and perpetually astonished those +who had charge of her by her ardor alike in work and in play. Her +grandmother soon found that the child was never ill, so long as +sufficient freedom of exercise was permitted; so she was soon allowed to +run at will, dividing her time pretty equally between the study and the +fields. Thus she grew in mind and body from seven to twelve, promising +to be tall and handsome, though not in after-years fulfilling this +promise; for of her stature she tells us that it did not exceed that of +her mother, whom she calls a _petite femme_,--and of her appearance +she simply says that in her youth "with eyes, hair, and a robust +organization," she was neither handsome nor ugly. At the age of twelve, +a social necessity compelled her to go through the form of confession +and the first communion. Her grandmother was divided between the +convictions of her own liberalism, and the desire not to place her +cherished charge in direct opposition to the imperious demands of a +Catholic community. The laxity of the period allowed the compromise to +be managed in a merely formal and superficial manner. The grandmother +tried to give the rite a certain significance, at the same time +imploring the child "not to suppose that she was about to _eat her +Creator_." The confessor asked none of those questions which our author +simply qualifies as infamous, and, with a very mild course of catechism +and slight dose of devotion, that Rubicon of maturity was passed. Not +far beyond it waited a terrible trial, perhaps as great a sorrow as the +whole life was to bring. Aurore's diligence in her studies was marred +by the secret intention, long cherished, of escaping to her mother, and +adopting with her her former profession of dress-maker. Having one day +answered reproof with a petulant assertion of her desire to rejoin her +mother at all hazards, the grandmother determined to put an end to such +projects by a severe measure. Aurore was banished from her presence +during a certain number of days. Neither friend nor servant spoke to +her. She describes naturally enough this lonely, uncomforted condition, +in which, more than ever, she meditated upon the wished-for return to +her mother, and the beginning with her of a new life of industry and +privation. Summoned at last to her grandmother's bedside, and kneeling +to ask for reconciliation, she is forced to stay there, and to listen +to the most cruel and literal account of her mother's life, its early +errors, and their inevitable consequences. + +"All that she narrated was true in point of fact, and attested by +circumstances whose detail admitted of no doubt. But this terrible +history might have been unveiled to me without injury to my respect +and love for my mother, and, thus told, it would have been much more +probable and more true. It would have sufficed to tell all the causes of +her misfortunes,--loneliness and poverty from the age of fourteen years, +the corruption of the rich, who are there to lie in wait for hunger and +to blight the flower of innocence, the pitiless rigorism of opinion, +which allows no return and accepts no expiation. They should also have +told me how my mother had redeemed the past, how faithfully she had +loved my father, how, since his death, she had lived humble, sad, and +retired. Finally, my poor grandmother let fall the fatal word. My mother +was a lost woman, and I a blind child rushing towards a precipice." + +The horror of this disclosure did not work the miracle anticipated. +Aurore submitted indeed outwardly, but a spell of hardness and +hopelessness was drawn around her young heart, which neither tears nor +tenderness could break. The blow struck at the very roots of life and +hope in her. Self-respect was wounded in its core. If the mother who +bore her was vile, then she was vile also. All object in life seemed +gone. She tried to live from day to day without interest, without hope. +From her dark thoughts she found refuge only in extravagant gayety, +which brought physical weariness, but no repose of mind. She, who +had been on the whole a docile, manageable child, became so riotous, +unreasonable, and insupportable, that the only alternative of utter +waste of character seemed to be the discipline and seclusion of +the convent. She was accordingly taken to Paris, and received as a +_pensionnaire_ in the Convent des Anglaises, which had been, in the +Revolution, her grandmother's prison. To Aurore it was rather a place of +refuge than a place of detention. The chords of life had been cruelly +jarred in her bosom, and the discords in her character thence resulting +agonized her more than they displeased others. As for the extraordinary +communication which had led to this disorder of mind, we do not +hesitate, under the circumstances, to pronounce it an act of gratuitous +cruelty. Of all pangs that can assail a human heart, none transcends +that of learning the worthlessness of those we love; and to lay this +burden, which has crushed and crazed the strongest natures, upon the +tender heart of a child, was little less than murderous. Nor can +the motive assigned justify an act so cruel; since modern morality +increasingly teaches that the means must justify themselves, as well as +the end. In spite of these odious revelations, the child felt that her +love for her mother was undiminished, and a pitying comprehension of the +natural differences between the two nearest to her on earth slowly arose +in her mind, allowing her to do justice to the intentions of both. + +Aurore wandered at first about the convent with only a vague feeling +of loneliness. The young girls, French and English, who composed its +classes, surveyed her in the beginning with distrust. Soon the youngest +and wildest set, called _Diables_, accorded her affiliation, and in +their company she managed to increase tolerably the anxieties and +troubles of the under-mistresses. + +She was early initiated into the _great secret_, the traditionary legend +of the convent. This pointed at the existence, in some subterranean +dungeon, of a wretched prisoner, or perhaps of several, cut off from +liberty and light; and to _deliver the victim_ became the object of a +hundred wild expeditions, by day and by night, through the uninhabited +rooms and extensive vaults of the ancient edifice. The little ladies +hoarded with care their candle-ends,--they tumbled up and down ruinous +staircases, listened for groans and complaints, tried to undermine walls +and partitions, fortunately with little success. The victim was never +found, but her story was bequeathed from class to class, and her +deliverance was always the object and excuse of the _Diables_. + +After much time wasted in these pursuits, attended by a mediocre +progress in the ordinary course of study and what the French call +_leçons d'agrément_, and we accomplishments, a critical moment came for +Aurore. She was weary of frolic and mischief,--she had tormented the +nuns to her heart's content. She knew not what new comedy to invent. She +thought of putting ink in the holy water,--it had been done already; of +hanging the parrot of the under-mistress,--but they had given her so +many frights, there would be nothing new in that. She saw, one +evening, the door of the little chapel open;--its quiet, its exquisite +cleanliness and simplicity attracted her. She had followed thither to +mock at the awkward motions of a little hunch-backed sister at her +devotions,--but once within she forgot this object. A veiled nun was +kneeling in her stall at prayer,--a single lamp feebly illuminated the +white walls,--a star looked in at her through the dim window. The nun +slowly rose and departed. Aurore was left alone. A calm, such as she had +never known, took possession of her,--a sudden light seemed to envelop +her,--she heard the mystical sentence vouchsafed to Saint Augustin: +"_Toile, lege!_" Turning to see who whispered it, she found herself +alone. + +"I cherished no vain illusion. I did not believe in a miraculous voice. +I understood perfectly the sort of hallucination into which I had +fallen. I was neither elated nor frightened at it. Only, I felt that +Faith was taking possession of me, as I had wished, through the heart. I +was so grateful, in such delight, that a torrent of tears inundated my +face. 'Yes, yes, the veil is torn!' I said, 'I see the light of heaven! +I will go! But, before all, let me render thanks. To whom? how? What is +thy name?' said I to the unknown God who called me to him. 'How shall I +pray to thee? What language worthy of thee and capable of expressing +its love can my soul speak to thee? I know not; but thou readest my +heart,--thou seest that I love thee!'" + +From this moment, Aurore gave herself up to the passion of devotion, +which, in natures like hers, is often the first to unclose. There are +all sorts of religious experiences,--some poor and shallow, some rich +and deep, with every variety of shade between. But wherever Love is +capable of being heroic, Religion will also find room to work its larger +miracles. Aurore's devotion was not likely to be a frigid recognition of +doctrine, nor to consist in the minute care of an infinitesimal soul, +whose salvation could be of small avail to any save its possessor. Her +religion could only be a sympathetic and contagious flame, running from +soul to soul, as beacon-fires catch at night and illuminate a whole +tract of country. From this time she became patient, thorough, and +laborious in all the duties of her age and place. A closer sympathy now +drew her to the nuns, with several of whom she formed happy and intimate +relations. The convent life became for the time her ideal of existence, +and she formed the plan, so common among young girls educated in this +manner, of taking the veil herself, when such a step should become +possible. This hidden purpose she carried with her, when, at the age of +sixteen, she quitted the convent with bitter regret, fearing the strange +world, fearing a conventional marriage, and looking back to the pleasant +restraints of tutelage, whose thorn hedges are always in blossom when we +view them from the dusty ways and traffic of real, responsible life. + +Aurore exchanged her convent for a life of equal retirement; for her +grandmother, fearing lest the pietistic influences to which she had been +subjected should awake too dominant a chord in the passionate nature of +her pupil, brought her to Nohant at once, where, for a few days, she +realized the delight of a greater freedom from rule and surveillance. It +was pleasant for once, she says, to sleep into _la grasse matinée_, to +wear a bright gingham instead of her dress of purple serge, and to comb +her hair without being reminded that it was indecent for a young girl to +uncover her temples. The projects of marriage which had alarmed her were +abandoned for the present, and she was left to enjoy, unmolested, the +pleasure of finding again the friends and playmates of her youth. It +soon appeared, however, that the convent education had left many a +_lacune_, and the grandmother felt that the result of the three years' +claustration in nowise corresponded to its expense. Aurore set +herself to work to fill up, in secret, the many blanks left by her +preceptresses,--wishing, as she says, to conceal, as far as she could, +their want of faith or of thoroughness. She sat at her books half the +night, being gifted, according to her own account, with a marvellous +power of sacrificing sleep to any other necessity. At this time she +learned to ride on horseback, her first exploit being to tame a colt of +four years, the after-companion of many a wild scramble, who grew old +and died in her service. Her grandmother becoming soon after disabled by +a paralytic stroke, the alternation of this new exercise enabled Aurore +to bear the fatigues of the sick-room without serious inconvenience. Of +this period of her life our heroine speaks as follows:-- + +"Had my destiny caused me to pass immediately from my grandmother's +control to that of a husband, or of a convent, it is possible that, +subjected always to influences already accepted, I should never have +been myself. But it was decided by Fate that at the age of seventeen +years I should experience a suspension of external authority, and that I +should belong wholly to myself for nearly a year, to become, for good or +evil, what I was to be for nearly all the rest of my life." + +Passing much of her time at the bedside of the invalid, now incapable of +giving any further direction to the young life so dear to her, Aurore +plunged into many studies which opened to her new worlds of thought +and observation. She read Châteaubriand with delight. The "Genie du +Christianisme" proved to her rather an intellectual than a religious +stimulant, and under its impulse she proceeded, as she says, to +encounter without ceremony the French and other authors most quoted +at that time, to wit: Locke, Bacon, Montesquieu, Leibnitz, Pascal, La +Bruyère, Pope, Milton, Dante, and others not below these in difficulty. +She studied them in a crude and hurried manner; but that wonderful +alembic of youth, with its fiery heat of ardor, enabled her to compose +these far and hastily gathered ingredients into a certain homogeneity of +knowledge. "The brain was young," she says, "the memory always fugitive; +but the sentiment was quick, and the will ever tense." From these +pursuits, interrupted by the cares of nursing, she broke loose only to +mount her favorite Colette, and accompany Deschartres in his hunting +expeditions. She attempted also to acquire some knowledge of Natural +History, Mineralogy, and so on; but science was always less congenial to +her than literature, and of Leibnitz, the "Théodicée" is the only work +of which she speaks with any familiarity. For convenience in riding and +hunting, she adopted, on occasion, the dress of a boy, a blouse, +cap, and trousers, to the great scandal of the neighborhood, already +indisposed towards her by reason of her eccentric reputation; since, as +one can imagine, a small French province is the last place in the world +where a young girl can display the lone-star banner of individuality +with impunity. + +Aurore had promised her aged relative that she would not read Voltaire +before the age of thirty; but her literary wanderings soon brought her +across the path of Rousseau. + +The French make the reading of the "Nouvelle Héloïse" one of the epochs +in the life of woman. According to its motto, "The mother will not +allow the daughter to read it," this critical act is by common consent +adjourned till after marriage, when, we suppose, it appears something in +the light of a Bill of Rights, a coming to the knowledge of what women +can do, if they will. But as all Julie's _divagations_ occur before +marriage, and as her subsequent life becomes a model of Puritanic duty +and piety, one does not understand the applicability of her example to +French life, in which this progress is reversed. In this, as in all +works of true genius, people of the most opposite ways of thinking +take what is congenial to themselves,--the ardent and passionate fling +themselves on the swollen stream of Saint Preux's stormy love, the +older and colder justify Julie's repentance, and the slow but certain +rehabilitation of her character. With all its magnificences, and even +with the added zest of a forbidden book, the "Nouvelle Héloïse" would be +very slow reading for our youth of today. Its perpetual balloon voyage +of sentiment was suited to other times, or finds sympathy to-day +with other races. With all this, there is a great depth of truth and +eloquence in its pages,--and its moral, which at first sight would seem +to be, that the blossom of vice necessarily contains the germ of virtue, +proves to be this wiser one, that you can tell the tree only by its +fruits, which slowly ripen with length of life. As a novel, it is out of +fashion,--for novels have fashion; as a development of the individuality +of passion, it has perhaps no equal. Be sure that Aurore saw in it its +fullest significance. It was strange reading for the disciple of the +convent, but she had laid her bold hand upon the tree of the knowledge +of good and of evil. She was not to be saved like a woman, through +ignorance, but like a man, through the wisdom which has its heavenly and +its earthly side. "Émile," the "Contrat Social," and the rest of the +series succeeded each other in her studies; but she does not speak of +the "Confessions," a book most cruel to those who love the merits of the +author, and to whom the nauseating vulgarity of his personal character +is a disgust scarcely to be recovered from. Taken at his best, however, +Rousseau was the Saint John of the Revolutionary Gospel, though the +bloody complement of its Apocalypse was left for other hands than his to +trace. To Aurore, stumbling almost unaided through fragmentary studies +of science and philosophy, his glowing, broad, synthetic statement was +indeed a revelation. It made an epoch in her life. She compared him to +Mozart. "In politics," she says, "I became the ardent disciple of this +master, and I followed him long without restriction. As to religion, +he seemed to me the most Christian of all the writers of his time. I +pardoned his abjuration of Catholicism the more easily because its +sacraments and title had been given to him in an irreligious manner, +well calculated to disgust him with them." But with Aurore, too, the day +of Catholicism was over,--its rites were become "heavy and unhealthy" to +her. Her faith in things divine was unshaken; but the confessional was +empty, the mass dull, the ceremonial ridiculous to her. She was glad to +pray alone, and in her own words. Hers was a nature beyond forms. By +a rapid intuition, she saw and appropriated what is intrinsic in all +religions,--faith in God and love to man. However wild and volcanic may +have been her creed in other matters, she has never lost sight of these +two cardinal points, which have been the consolation of her life and its +redemption. The year comprising these studies and this new freedom ended +sadly with the death of her grandmother. + +And now, her real protectress being removed, the discords of life broke +in upon her, and asserted themselves. Scarcely was the beloved form +cold, when Aurore's mother arrived, to wake the echoes of the chateau +with wild abuse of its late mistress. By testamentary disposition, +Madame Dupin had made Aurore her heir, and had named two of her own +relatives as guardians; but the mother now insisted on her own rights, +and, after much acrimonious dispute and comment, carried Aurore from her +beloved solitudes to her own quarters in Paris,--a journey of sorrow, +and the beginning of sorrows. In her childhood Aurore had often longed +for this mother's breast as her natural refuge, and the true home of her +childish affections. But it "was one of those characters of self-will +and passion which deteriorate in later life, and in which no new moral +beauties spring up to replace the impulsive graces of youth. Regarding +Aurore now as the work of another's hands, she made her the victim of +ceaseless and causeless petulance. Her gross abuse of her mother-in-law +gave Aurore many tears to shed in private, while her persecution of poor +Deschartres drove her daughter to the expedient of shielding him--with +a lie. The poor tutor had administered the affairs of Nohant for some +time. He was now called to account for every farthing with the most +malignant accuracy, and a sum of money, lost by ill-management, not +being satisfactorily accounted for, his new tormentor threatened him +with prison and trial. As he muttered to his late pupil that he would +not survive this disgrace, she stepped forward and shielded him after +the fashion of Consuelo. + +"I have received this money," said she. + +"You? Impossible! What have you done with it?" + +"No matter, I have received it." + +Deschartres was saved, and Aurore had only availed herself of the first +of a Frenchwoman's privileges. Nor will we reckon with her too harshly +for this lie, so benevolent in intention, so merciful in effect. A lie +sometimes seems the only refuge of the oppressed; but there is always +something better than a lie, if we could only find it out. Here is her +account of the scene itself:-- + +"To have gone through a series of lies and of false explanations would +not, perhaps, have been possible for me. But from the moment that it was +only necessary to persist in a 'yes' to save Deschartres, I thought that +I ought not to hesitate. My mother insisted:-- + +"'If M. Deschartres has paid you eighteen thousand francs, we can +easily find it out. You would not give your word of honor?' + +"I felt a shudder, and I saw Deschartres ready to speak out. + +"'I would give it!' I cried out + +"'Give it, then,' said my aunt. + +"'No, Mademoiselle,' said my mother's lawyer, 'don't give it.' + +"'She shall give it!' cried my mother, to whom I could scarcely pardon +this infliction of torture. + +"'I give it,' I replied;' and God is with me against you in this +matter.' + +"'She has lied! she lies!' cried my mother. 'A bigot, a +_philosophailleuse.' She is lying and defrauding herself.' + +"'Oh, as to that,' said the lawyer, laughing, 'she has the right to do +it, since she robs only herself.' + +"'I will take her with her Deschartres before the justice of the peace,' +said my mother. 'I will make her take oath by Christ, by the Gospel!' + +"'No, Madame,' said the lawyer, 'you will go no further in this matter; +and as for you, Mademoiselle, I beg your pardon for the annoyance I have +given you. Charged with your interests, I felt obliged to do so.'" + +Eternal shame to those who make use of any authority to force the +secrets of a generous heart, cutting off from it every alternative but +that of a loathed deceit, or still more hateful, and scarcely less +guilty, betrayal! + +Aurore now found herself in the hands of a woman of the people, ennobled +for a time by beauty and a true affection, but sinking, her good +inspiration gone, into the bitterest ill-temper and most vulgar +uncharity. Detesting her superiors in rank and position, she soon +managed to cut off Aurore from all intercourse with her father's family, +and thus to frustrate every prospect of her marriage in the sphere for +which she had been so carefully educated. She was even forbidden to +visit her old friends at the convent, and was eventually placed by her +mother with a family nearly unknown to both, whose pity had been excited +by her friendless condition and unhappy countenance. Aurore's mother +seems to us, _du reste_, the perfect type of a Parisian lorette, the +sort of woman so keenly attractive with the bloom of youth and the +eloquence of passion,--but when these have passed their day, the most +detestable of mistresses, the most undesirable of companions. Men of all +ranks and ages acknowledge their attraction, endure their tyranny, and +curse the misery it inflicts. Marriage and competency had protected this +one from the deteriorations which almost inevitably await those of +her class, but they could not save her from the natural process of an +undisciplined mind, an ungoverned temper, and a caprice verging on +insanity. This self-torment of caprice could be assuaged only by +constant change of circumstance and surroundings; her only resource was +to metamorphose things about her as often and as rapidly as possible. +She changed her lodgings, her furniture, her clothes, retrimmed her +bonnets continually, always finding them worse than before. Finally, she +grew weary of her black hair, and wore a blond periwig, which disgusting +her in turn, she finished by appearing in a different head of hair every +day in the week. + +Aurore's new friends proved congenial to her, and the influence of their +happy family-life dispersed, she says, her last dreams of the beatitudes +of the convent. It was in their company that she first met the man +destined to become her husband. Most of us would like to know the +impression he made upon her at first sight. We will give it in her own +words. + +"We were eating ices at Tortoni's, after the theatre, when my mother +Angèle [her new friend] said to her husband,--'See, there is Casimir.' + +"A slender young man, rather elegant, with a gay aspect and military +bearing, came to shake hands with them. He seated himself by Madame +Angèle, and asked her in a low voice who I was. + +"'It is my daughter,' she replied. + +"'Then,' whispered he, 'she is my wife. You know that you have promised +me the hand of your eldest daughter. I thought it would have been +Wilfrid; but as this one seems of an age more suitable to mine, I accept +her, if you will give her to me.' + +"Madame Angèle laughed at this, but the pleasantry proved a prediction." + +Aurore had given her new protectors the titles of Mother Angèle and +Father James, and they in turn called her their daughter. The period of +her residence with them at Plessis appears in her souvenirs as an +ideal interval of happiness and repose, a renewal of the freedom and +_insousiance_ of childhood, with the added knowledge of their value, a +suspension of the terrible demands and interests of life. Would that +this ideal period could be prolonged for women!--but the exigencies +of the race, or perhaps the fears of society, do not permit it. +The two-faced spectre of marriage awaits her, for good or ill. The +_aphelion_ of a woman's liberty is soon reached, the dark organic forces +bind her to tread the narrow orbit of her sex, and if, at the farthest +bound of her individual progress, the attraction could fail, and let her +slip from the eternal circle, chaos would be the result. + +Uninvited, therefore, but unrepulsed, Hymen approached our heroine in +the form of Casimir Dudevant, the illegitimate, but acknowledged son and +heir of Colonel Dudevant, an officer of good standing and reasonable +fortune. The only feeling he seems to have inspired in the bosom of his +future wife was one of mild good-will. His only recommendation was a +decent degree of suitableness in outward circumstances. For the true +wants of her nature he had neither fitness nor sympathy; but she did not +know herself then,--she was not yet George Sand. From the stand-point of +her later development, her marriage would seem to us a low one; but we +must remember that she started only from the plane, and not the highest +plane, of French society, in which a marriage of some sort is the +first necessity of a woman's life, and not the crowning point of her +experience. To compensate the rigor of such a requisition, a French +marriage, though civilly indissoluble, has yet a hundred modifications +which remove it far from the Puritan ideal which we of the Protestant +faith cherish. Hence the French novel, whose strained sentiment and +deeply logical immorality have wakened strange echoes among us of the +stricter rule and graver usage. + +Without passion, then, or tender affection on either side, but with a +tolerable harmony of views for the moment, and after long and causeless +opposition on the part of Aurore's mother, this marriage took place. +Aurore was but eighteen; her bridegroom was of suitable age. With dreams +of a peaceful family existence, and looking forward to maternity as the +great joy and office of the coming years, she brought her husband to +Nohant, whose inheritance had been settled by contract upon the children +of this marriage. + +But these dreams were not to be realized. Aurore was not born to be the +companion of a dull, narrow man, nor the Lady Bountiful of a little +village in the heart of France. Would she not have had it so? She tells +us that she would; and as honesty is one of her strong points, we may +believe her. She knew not the stormy ocean of life, nor the precious +freight she carried, when she committed the vessel of her fortunes to so +careless a hand as that of M. Dudevant. She throws no special blame or +odium upon him, nor does he probably deserve any. + +The recital of the events spoken of above brings us well into the eighth +volume of the "Histoire de ma Vie"; and as there are but ten in all, the +treatment of the things that follow is pursued with much less +detail, and with many a gap, which the malevolent among our author's +contemporaries would assure us that they know well how to fill up. +Between the extreme reserve of the last two volumes and the wild +assertions of so many we would gladly keep the _juste milieu_, if +we could; but we wish only truth, and it is not at the hands of the +scandalmongers of any society--is it?--that we seek that commodity. The +decree of the court which at a later day gave her the guardianship +of her children, and the friendship of many illustrious and of some +irreproachable men, must be accepted in favor of her of whom we +write,--and the known fanaticism of slander, and the love of the +marvellous, which craves, in stories of good or evil, such monstrous +forms for its gratification, cause us, on the other side, to deduct +a large average from the narrations current against her. But we +anticipate. + +Aurore, at first, was neither happy nor unhappy in her marriage. Her +surroundings were friendly and pleasant, and the birth of a son, a third +Maurice, soon brought to her experience the keenest joy of womanhood. +Before this child numbered two years, however, she began to feel a +certain blank in her household existence, an emptiness, a discouragement +as to all things, whose cause she could not understand. In this _ennui_, +she tells us, her husband sympathized, and by common consent they strove +to remedy it by frequent changes of abode. They visited Paris, Plessis, +returned to Nohant, made a journey in the Pyrenees, a visit to Guillery, +the château of Colonel Dudevant. Still the dark guest pursued them. +Aurore does not pretend that there was any special cause for her +suffering. It was but the void which her passionate nature found in a +conventional and limited existence, and for which as yet she knew no +remedy. The fervor of Catholic devotion had, as we have seen, long +forsaken her; her studies did not satisfy her; her children--she had by +this time a daughter--were yet in infancy; her husband was not unkind, +but indifferent, and the object of indifference. She occupied herself +with the business of her estate, and with the wants of the neighboring +poor; but she was unsuccessful in administering her expenses, and her +narrow revenue did not allow her to give large satisfaction to her +charitable impulses. After some years of seclusion and effort, she began +to dream of liberty, of wealth,--in a word, of trying her fortunes in +Paris. She felt a power within her for which she had found no adequate +task. She speaks vaguely, too, of a _Being_ platonically loved, and +loving in like manner, absent for most of the year, and seen only for +a few days at long intervals, whose correspondence had added a new +influence to her life. This attenuated relation was, however, broken +before she made her essay of a new life. Her half-brother, Hippolyte, +brought to Nohant a habit of joviality which soon degenerated into +chronic intemperance; and though she does not accuse her husband of +participation in this vice, or, indeed, of any wrong towards her, she +yet makes us understand that an occasional escape from Nohant became to +her almost a matter of necessity. She, therefore, made arrangements, +with her husband's free consent, to pass alternately three months in +Paris and three months at home, for an indefinite period; and leaving +Maurice in good hands, and the little Solange, her daughter, for a +short time only, she came to Paris in the winter with the intention of +writing. + +Her hopes and pretensions were at first very modest. It had been agreed +that her husband should pay her an annual pension of fifteen hundred +francs. She would have been well satisfied to earn a like sum by her +literary efforts. She established herself in a small _mansarde_, a sort +of garret, and managed by great economy to furnish it so that Solange +could be made comfortable. She washed and ironed her fine linen with +her own hands. Not finding literary employment at once, and her slender +salary running very low, she adopted male attire for a while, as she +says, because she was too poor to dress herself suitably in any other. +The fashion of the period was favorable to her design. Men wore long +square-skirted overcoats, down to the heels. With one of these, and +trousers to match, with a gray hat and large woollen cravat, she might +easily pass for a young student. + +"I cannot express the pleasure my boots gave me. I would gladly have +slept with them on. With these little iron-shod heels, I stood firm on +the pavement. I flew from one end of Paris to the other. I could have +made the circuit of the world, thus attired. Besides, my clothes did not +fear spoiling. I ran about in all weathers, I came back at all hours, +I went to the pit of every theatre. No one paid me any attention, or +suspected my disguise. Besides that, I wore it with ease; the entire +want of coquetry in my costume and physiognomy disarmed all suspicion. +I was too ill-dressed, and my manner was too simple, to attract or fix +attention. Women know little how to disguise themselves, even upon the +stage. They are unwilling to sacrifice the slenderness of their waists, +the smallness of their feet, the prettiness of their movements, the +brilliancy of their eyes; and it is by all these, nevertheless, it is +especially by the look, that they might avoid easy detection. There is a +way of gliding in everywhere without causing any one to turn round, and +of speaking in a low, unmodulated tone which does not sound like a +flute in the ears which may hear you. For the rest, in order not to +be remarked _as a man_, you must already have the habit of not making +yourself remarked _as a woman_." + +This travesty, our heroine tells us, was of short duration;--it answered +the convenience of some months of poverty and obscurity. Its traditions +did not pass away so soon;--ten years later, her son, in his beardless +adolescence, was often taken for her, and sometimes amused himself +by indulging the error in those who accosted him. But in the greatly +changed circumstances in which she soon found herself, the disguise +became useless and unavailing. Its economy was no longer needed, and the +face of its wearer was soon too well known to be concealed by hat or +coat-collar. + +We would not be understood as relaxing in any degree the rigor of +repudiation which such an act deserved. Yet it is imaginable, even to an +undepraved mind, that a woman might sometimes like to be on the other +side of the fence, to view the mad bull of publicity in its own pasture, +and feel that it cannot gore her. Poor George! running about in the +little boots, and wearing a great ugly coat and woollen choker,--it was +not through vanity that you did this. Strange sights you must have seen +in Paris!--none, perhaps, stranger than yourself! The would-be nun of +the English convent walking the streets in male attire, and even, as you +tell us, with your hands in your pockets! Yet when little Solange came +to live with you, as we understand, you put on your weeds of weakness +again;--your little daughter made you once more a woman! + +For she was George Sand now. Aurore Dupin was civilly dead, Aurore +Dudevant was uncivilly effaced. She had taken half a name from Jules +Sandeau,--she had wrought the glory of that name herself. Yes, a glory, +say what you will. Elizabeth Browning's hands were not too pure to +soothe that forehead, chiding while they soothed; and these hands, +not illustrious as hers, shall soil themselves with no mud flung at a +sister's crowned head. + +Every one knows the story of the name: how she and Jules Sandeau wrote a +novel together, and sought a _nom de plume_ which should represent their +literary union,--how soon she found that she could do much better alone, +and the weak work of Carl Sand was forgotten in the strong personality +of George Sand. Of Jules Sandeau she speaks only as of the associate of +a literary enterprise;--the world accords him a much nearer relation to +her; but upon this point she cannot, naturally, be either explicit or +implicit. One thing is certain: she was a hard worker, and did with +her might what her hand found to do. She wrote "Indiana," "Lelia," +"Valentine," and had fame and money at will. Neither, however, gave +her unmixed pleasure. The _éclat_ of her reputation soon destroyed her +_incognito_, while the sums of money she was supposed to receive for her +works attracted to her innumerable beggars and adventurers of all +sorts. To ascertain the real wants and character of those who in every +imaginable way claimed her assistance became one of the added labors of +her life. She visited wretched garrets or cellars, and saw miserable +families,--discovering often, too late, that both garret and family had +been hired for the occasion. It was now that she first saw the real +plagues and ulcers of society. Her convent had not shown her these, nor +her life amid the peasantry of Berry. Only great cities produce those +unhealthy and unnatural human growths whose monstrosities are their +stock in trade, whose power of life lies in their depravation. She tells +us that these horrors weighed upon her, and caused her to try various +solutions of the ills that are, and are permitted to be. She was never +tempted to become an atheist, never lost sight of the Divine in life, +yet the necessity of a terrible fatalism seemed to envelop her. With her +numerous friends, she sought escape from the dilemma through various +theories of social development; and they often sat or walked half +through the night, discussing the fortunes of the race, and the +intentions of God. With her most intimate set, this sometimes led to a +jest, and "It is time to settle the social question" became the formula +of announcing dinner. These considerations led the way to her adoption +of socialistic theories in later years, of which she herself informs +us, but hints at the same time at many important reservations in her +acceptance of them. + +In process of time she visited Italy with Alfred de Musset. The fever +seized on her at Genoa, and she saw the wonders of the fair land through +half-shut eyes, alternately shivering and burning. In the languor of +disease, she allowed the tossing of a coin to decide whether she should +visit Rome or Venice. Venice came uppermost ten times, and she chose to +consider it an affair of destiny. Her long stay in this city suggested +the themes of several of her romances, and the "Lettres d'un Voyageur" +might almost be pages from her own journal. Her companion was here +seized with a terrible illness. She nursed him day and night through all +its length, being so greatly fatigued at the time of his recovery that +she saw every object double, through want of sleep. Yet De Musset went +forth from his sick-room with a heart changed towards her. Hatred +had taken the place of love. Some say that this cruel change was the +punishment of as cruel a deception; others call it a mania of the fever, +perpetuating itself thenceforth in a brain sound as to all else. The +world does not know about this, and she herself tells us nothing. In +the "Lettres d'un Voyageur," however, she gives us to understand that +constancy is not her _forte_, and a sigh escapes with this confession, +"_Prie pour moi, ô Marguerite Le Conte!_" + +George Sand was now launched,--with brilliant success, in the world of +letters, unheeding the conventional restraints of domestic life. The +choicest spirits of the day gathered round her. She was the luminous +centre of a circle of light. She did not hold a _salon_, the mimic court +of every Frenchwoman of distinction,--nor were the worldly wits of +fashion her vain and supercilious satellites. But De Lamennais climbed +to her _mansarde_, and unfolded therein his theories of saintly and +visionary philosophy. Liszt and Chopin bound her in the enchantment +of their wonderful melodies. De Balzac feasted her in his fantastic +lodgings, and lighted her across the square with a silver-gilt flambeau, +himself attired in a flounced satin dressing-gown, of which he was +extremely proud. Pierre Leroux instructed her in the old and the new +religions, and taught her the history of secret societies. Louis Blanc, +Cavaignac, and Pauline Garcia were bound to her by ties of intimacy. +She knew Lablache, Quinet, Miekiewiez, whom she calls the equal of Lord +Byron. Her intimates in her own province were men of high character and +intelligence, nor were friends wanting among her own sex. Good-will +and sympathy, therefore, not ill-will and antipathy, inspired her best +works. Her views of parties were charitable and conciliatory, and her +revolutionism more reconstructive than destructive. Yet, with all this +array of good company, we cannot accord her a miraculous immunity from +the fatalities of her situation. Of the guilt we are not here called +upon to judge; of the suffering many pages in this record of her +life bear witness. Little as we know, however, of her own power of +self-protection against the tyranny of the selfish and the sensual, we +yet feel as if the really base could never have held her in other than +the briefest thraldom, and as if her nobler nature must have continually +asserted and reasserted itself, with a constant tendency towards that +higher liberty which she had sought in the abandonment of outward +restraints, but which can never be thus attained. Some great moral +safeguards she had in her tireless industry, her love of art, her +honesty and geniality of nature, and, above all, in her passionate love +for her children. Happily, these deep and solid forces of Nature are +calculated to outlast the heyday of the blood, and to redeem its errors. + +In connection with her domestic life, she gives some explanations which +must not be overlooked. She did not at first quit her husband's roof +with an intention of permanent absence, but with the intention of a +periodical return thither. In time, however, her presence there became +unwelcome, and she found those arrangements of which, as she says, she +had no right to complain, but which she could not recognize. Friends +intervened, advising an effectual reintegration of the broken marriage; +but against this, she says, her conscience, no less than her heart, +rebelled. There existed, indeed, no virtual bond between herself and +her late husband. Whatever may have been the beginning of their +estrangement, it seems certain that he acquiesced in her independence +with easy satisfaction. He wrote to her,--"I shall not put up at your +lodgings when I come to Paris, because I wish as little to be in your +way as I wish to have you in mine." At the same time, by visiting +her there, and appearing with her in public, he had given a certain +recognition to her position. There was, therefore, no room for penitence +on the one side, for forgiveness on the other, and, through these, for +a renewable moral relation between the two. The law took cognizance of +these facts, when, some years later, M. Dudevant brought an action +for civil divorce, wishing to recover possession of his children. His +complicity in what had taken place, and the amicable nature of the +separation, were so fully established, that the court, recognizing in +the parties neither husband nor wife, followed the pleadings of Nature, +and bestowed the children where, in the present instance, they were +likely to find the warmest cherishing. Under this decision, she gave +up the estate of Nohant to M. Dudevant, who, becoming weary of its +management, returned it to her, by a later compromise, in exchange for +other property, and the home of her childhood now shelters her declining +years. + +For the history draws near its close; more travels, more novels, more +successes, more sorrows, much fond talk of her friends, many of whom +death has endeared to her, a shadowy sketch of her seven years' intimacy +with Chopin, a sob over the untimely grave of her married daughter, and +the wonderful book is ended. Surely, it tells its own moral; and we, +who have woven into short measure the tissue of its relations, need not +appear either as the apologist of a very exceptional woman, or as the +vindicator of laws inevitable and universal, the mischief of whose +violation no human knowledge can justly fathom. The world knows that the +life before us is no example for women to follow; but it also knows, +we think, that she who led it was on the whole an earnest and sincere +person, of ardent imagination and large heart, loving the good as well +as the beautiful, even if often mistaken in both,--and above all, honest +in her errors and their acknowledgment. Gross injustice has, no doubt, +been done her. The creations of her powerful fancy have been taken for +images of herself, and the popular mind, delighting to elevate all +things beyond the bounds of Nature, has made her a monster. It is clear, +we think, that those who have represented her as plunged headlong in a +career of vice and dissipation, the companion of all that is low and +trivial, have slandered alike her acts and her intentions. Like the +rest of us, she is the child of her antecedents and surroundings. Her +education was as exceptional as her character. Her marriage brought no +moral influence to bear upon her. Her separation opened before her a new +and strange way, never to be trodden by any with impunity. Yet we do not +believe, that, in the most undesirable circumstances of her life, she +ever long lost sight of its ideal object. We do not doubt that her zeal +for human progress, her sympathy for the wrongs of the race, and her +distrust of existing institutions were deep and sincere. We do not doubt +that she was devoted in friendship, disinterested in love, ardent in +philanthropy. She has seen the poverty and insincerity of society; she +has quarrelled with what she calls the shams of sacred things, the +merely conventional marriage, the God of bigotry and hypocrisy, the +government of oppression and fraud; but she ends by recognizing and +demanding the marriage of heart, the God of enlightened faith, the +government of order and progress. Responding to the dominant chord +of the nineteenth century, she strove to exalt individuality above +sociality, and passion above decorum and usage. Nor would she allow any +World's Congress of morals to settle the delicate limits between these +opposing vital forces, between what we owe to ourselves and what we owe +to others. If there be a divine of passion for which it is noble to +suffer and sacrifice, there is also a deeper divine of duty, far +transcending the other both in sacrifice and in reward. To this divine, +too often obscured to all of us, her later life increasingly renders +homage; and to its gentle redemption, our loving, pitying hearts--the +more loving, the more pitying for her story--are glad to leave her. + +Ave, thou long laborious! Ave, thou worker of wonders, thou embalmer of +things most fleeting, most precious, so sealed in thy amber, + + "That Nature yet remembers + What was so fugitive!" + +Thou hast wrought many a picture of wild and guilty passion,--yet +methinks thou didst always paint the mean as mean, the generous as +generous. Nobler stories, too, thou hast told, and thy Consuelo is as +pure as holy charity and lofty art could make her. They complain, that, +in the world of thy creations, women are sublime and men weak; may not +these things, then, be seen and judged for once through woman's eyes? +Much harm hast thou done? Nay, that can only God know. They misquote +thee, who veil a life of low intrigue with high-flown _dicta_ borrowed +from thy works. Thou art not of their sort,--or, if it be indeed _thee_ +they seek to imitate, + + "Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile." + +Thy faults have attracted them, not the virtues that redeem them. Shake +thyself free of such, and with those who have loved much, and to whom +much has been forgiven, go in peace! The shades of the Poets will greet +thee as they greeted Dante and Virgil, when, thyself a shade, thou goest +towards them. The heart that fainted at Francesca's sorrows will not +refuse a throb to thine. For there is a gallery of great women, great +with and without sin, where thou must sit, between Sappho and Cleopatra, +the Magdalen thy neighbor,--nor yet removed wholly out of sight the +Mother of the Great Forgiveness of God. + + * * * * * + + +HAIR-CHAINS. + + +It was really a magnificent ball! The host had determined that his +entertainment should minister to all the senses of his guests, and had +succeeded so well that there was only room to regret there were but five +senses to be gratified. Only five gates in the fortified wall within +which the shy soul intrenches itself, where an attack may be made. And +even when these are all carried by storm, there are sometimes inner +citadels, impregnable to the magic torrent streaming through the +Beautiful Gates, where she may survey intruders with calm disdain. In +vain floods of delicious intoxication beat against her lofty retreat: +she calmly analyzes the sweet poison, (as she thinks it,) separates and +retains the solid fact whose solution had enriched the otherwise barren +stream, and indifferently suffers the rest to flow by. These are the +souls of philosophers and wise men, who never are drowned, never +surprised. But the bountiful host had not cared only for these grand +super-sensual people, but had striven perfectly to satisfy the eyes, the +ears, the noses, the palates of the more numerous throng of weaker folk, +whose inner fortifications were not so well defended. Hundreds of wax +candles illuminated the far-reaching saloons with soft lustre. The walls +were tinted with the most delicate hues, that afforded a pleasant cool +background to the blazing rooms, and relieved the rich colors of the +pictures. In all the pictures adorning the walls, the eye revelled in +the luxurious coloring, careless of the absence of distinctness of form +and grand pure outline. Scenes in the dark heart of tropical forests, +the dense green foliage here and there startlingly relieved by a bright +scarlet flower or the brilliant plumage of a songless bird,--gorgeous +sunsets on American prairies, where the rolling purple ground contrasted +with the crimson and golden glories of eventide,--vivid sketches along +the Mediterranean, the blue sea embracing the twin sky,--vineyards +ripening under the mellow Italian sun,--fields of yellow wheat bending +to the sickles of English reapers,--and sometimes, half hidden by the +folds of a heavy crimson curtain, one was startled to discover the +solemn icebergs and everlasting snows of the Arctic regions. The +wood-work of all the rooms was of dark oak, so that each appeared with +its brilliantly dressed company to be a flashing gem set in a rich +casket. A shadow of music wandered through the air, sometimes blended +with the sound of the falling fountain in the green-house, sometimes +almost absorbed in the fragrance of the flowers. + +For two hours the carriages had been steadily streaming under the +archway, and pouring their fair occupants, gauzy as summer, into the +blazing saloons. The flashing candelabra drew the poor little moths from +the outermost corners into the central vortex of light. Dazzled by the +hot radiance, they strove to retreat again into the cool conservatories +and side-rooms; but at that moment threads of music that had been +carelessly winding through the crowd were caught up by an unseen hand +and knotted,--and behold! already the moths found themselves imprisoned +in a strong net-work of sound, whose intricate meshes entangled the +rooms and the company, and the very light itself. The light, however, +was too subtile for long confinement; it slipped along the melodious +mazes, and melted into the rich odor that exhaled from the roses and +jessamines in the conservatory. The light was a welcome visitor to the +hyacinths and roses, obliged to hide in torturing silence in the still +green-house, pouring out their passionate dumb life in intensity of +fragrance. A life just hovering on the borders of the world, and yet +forbidden to enter! But, bathed in the glowing effulgence of the light, +this invisible fragrance could be born, and enter the visible world as +color. For the fragrance is the unborn soul of the flower; color, that +soul arrested in its restless wanderings,--_embodied_ fragrance. Then +the colors upon the purple hyacinths and white jessamines, and the +flashing gems that rested on white bosoms like glittering drops of ice +upon a snow-wreath, and the sheen of rustling silks, and the gilded +picture-frames, and the florid carpets, and the twinkling feet on the +carpets' roses, and the flushing of roses in the dancers' cheeks, and +the radiant heads of the white-robed girls, ran into one another, +blending into an intensity of color that dimmed itself. And the music +still kept spinning and spinning, and finally wove in the color and +fragrance and light with its subtile self; and the background of the +woof was the hum and murmur of voices, and the continual rustling of +feet. No wonder the poor moths were ensnared in such bewilderment! + +Do you pity the captives? But it is a delicious imprisonment, and its +fullest delights cannot be realized except by prisoners. In the vast +halls of Intellect and Reason one may indeed be master, marching (a +little chilled perhaps) with firm step and head erect. But on these +enchanted grounds there is no medium between a wretched clearness of +insight that reduces every curve to a number of straight lines, all +clouds to precipitated vapor, all rainbows to an oblique coincidence +between a sunbeam and a drop of water, and a total surrender of self to +the influences of the flitting moment. + +Away with these fellows, who would force their miserable microscopes +before the eyes of these happy gauzy moths!--to-night is only the time +for spinning cobwebs. Hold your breath, philosopher, lest you sweep them +away too rudely! Alas for the airy cobwebs! In that cool anteroom is a +philosopher's broom, hard at work, brushing them remorselessly into a +perplexing dilemma,--the frightful increase of the human race. + +"If," said the philosopher, emphatically, "if there were any prospect +of emigrating to the moon, there would be some hope; but in the present +state of affairs we shall soon be eating our own heads off, as the +proverb says. Europe is almost exhausted, the _ultima Thule_ of arable +territory in America has been reached, Asia barely supports her own +immense population; nothing is left but Africa, and she presents a +merely hopeful prospect for the future. In a hundred years, what will +society do for breadstuffs?" + +"Live on rice and potatoes," suggested Anthrops. + +"Rash boy, and check the advance of civilization! Have you not reflected +that the culture of wheat has been an inseparable adjunct to progress +and refinement? The difficulties required to be overcome in preparing +the ground and sowing the grain promote prudence, foresight, and care." + +"It is certainly hard work enough to dig potatoes," quoth Anthrops. + +The philosopher passed over the interruption with a dignified wave of +the hand, and continued:-- + +"The watching and waiting, during its progress to maturity, necessarily +produce that patience which is so essential to all scientific effort; +and the graceful loveliness of the plant in its various stages of growth +materially assists in developing that love for the beautiful which is a +necessary element in all harmonious individual or social character. Now +what aesthetic culture can you evolve from that stubbed, straggling weed +you call the potato?" + +The discomfited pupil meekly suggested that he had been considering the +dietetic, not the aesthetic properties of the despised vegetable. + +"Impossible to separate them, Sir!" cried the philosopher. "If, indeed, +you could fill the stomach without the intervention of any process of +brain or hand, they might be considered apart. But consider the position +of the stomach. Like a Persian monarch, it occupies the centre of the +system; despotic from its remote situation and the absolute power it +exercises, all parts of the external organism are its ministers: the +feet must run for its daily food, the hands must prepare that food with +cunning devices, the brain must direct the operations of feet and hands. +Now, unlearned youth, wilt thou contend that the degree of refinement +evinced by attention or indifference to the niceties of cooking, and so +forth, has no bearing upon the character of the man and the race? Take +as a standard the method of immediately conveying the food to the mouth, +as it has progressed from barbarism. First, fingers; then, pieces of +bark; then, rough wooden spoons, knives, two-pronged steel forks; +and lastly, an epitome of civilization in each one that is used, +five-pronged silver forks, evincing both the increased complexity of the +nature that devises the extra prongs, and the refinement of taste that +insists upon the silver. It is impossible to use wheat in any of its +preparations," ("With five-pronged forks," murmured his attentive pupil +parenthetically,) "without at least a piece of bark, for mixing and +cooking, if not for eating. But in devouring potatoes, we are--I shudder +to think of it--each moment upon the brink of being reduced to the +absolute savageness of fingers. No, Sir! the moon and wheat both failing +us, there is but one method of escaping universal famine,--peremptory +reduction of the population." + +Anthrops started; in that country murder was a capital offence. + +"I do not mean," continued the philosopher, serenely, "by any forcible +diminution of the existing populace: unfortunately, the vulgar +prejudices in favor of life are so strong, owing to the miserable +preponderance of the Egoistic over the Altruistic instincts, that such +an expedient would be unadvisable. I refer to the"-- + +"What splendid hair!" suddenly exclaimed his young companion, starting +forward with great animation to gain a nearer glimpse of its beauties. +The owner had stopped for a moment in passing the secluded couple, +and the rich chestnut head was presented in clear relief against the +confused mass of color and light that streamed through the doorway of +the saloon. The billows of hair rose from purple depths of shadow into +gleaming crests of golden light, and fell away again in long undulations +into the whirlpool of the knot. + +While Anthrops was feasting his rapt eyes on the lovely picture, some +treacherous fastening gave way, and the whole wavy mass overflowed upon +the white shoulders. Then there was bustling and officious assistance, +then there was flitting of maidens and crowding of men. They did not +care that the hair of the Naiads in the waterfall outside of the city +floated all day long over the glittering green waters, or that the +soughing grass in the marsh stream lazily swayed to and fro always in +sleepy ripples, or that the waving tresses of the weeping-willows were +even then sweeping dreamily through the colored air: they cared for none +of these things; but how eager and anxious were they to gain one glimpse +of her,--fairer in her blushing confusion than before in her stately +loveliness! She wound up the long tresses in her hand, and was +retreating to the dressing-room, when the music, which had paused for a +moment, renewed itself in an inspiriting waltz. Anthrops, forgetful of +wheat, potatoes, and universal famine, rushed forward to claim her hand +for the dance. The lady sighed, the waltz was so lovely, the young +man so attractive, but--her hair? She really must arrange that before +anything could be determined in any other direction. And she started +backwards in her embarrassment to reach the stairs, and slipped into a +little anteroom by mistake. There was but one door; so, when Anthrops +followed her in, she could not get out, without at least hearing an +additional reason for dancing. + +"The waltz will be finished," urged Anthrops. "Take this little dagger, +and wind your hair around that; it will be a fitting ornament for you." + +As he spoke, he drew from his pocket a small dagger, a toy, but richly +carved at the hilt, and offered it to the maiden. He had bought it that +day for a little nephew, and had happened to leave it in his pocket. +Doubtless, had the waltz been less enticing, or the youth less handsome, +or the little anteroom less secluded, Haguna would have rejected the odd +assistance. But, as it was, she accepted the jewelled toy, and in a few +minutes had dexterously hidden the tiny blade with the thick coils of +hair, just leaving the curiously carved face on the hilt to emerge from +its shadowy nestling-place. + +With the readjustment of her tresses, Haguna recovered the marvellously +defensive self-possession that had been momentarily disturbed. So +subtile and indefinable was the curious atmosphere that surrounded her, +that, while it could be almost destroyed by the consciousness of a +disordered toilet, yet the keenest eye could not penetrate beneath it, +the most confident demeanor could not impress it, once reestablished. + +Anthrops did not notice the change that had taken place in her aspect. +Was it not enjoyment enough to whirl through the maddening mazes of the +dance, into still deeper entanglements in the mysterious web that now +had immeshed the saloons, borne irresistibly along the rapid torrent of +music, through crowds swept in eddying circles by fresh gusts of sound, +like leaves blown about by the west wind,--at first in low, wide, slow +rounds, then whirling faster and faster, higher and higher, until the +spiral coil suddenly terminated, and the music and motion fell exhausted +together? + +It was quite another thing to return to his friend the philosopher, who +was now in a very bad humor. + +"Such fooling!" he cried, when Anthrops came back much exhilarated. +"That woman is the plague of my life! See," he continued, sarcastically, +"I picked up one of the ugly little pins that she fastens her hair with; +perhaps you might like it for a keepsake." + +Anthrops snatched eagerly at the little black thing his old friend held +contemptuously balanced on his fingers, but dropped it immediately. Such +a miserable thing to hold those glorious tresses! His dagger was better. +The recollection that it was his dagger that now confined them dispelled +the chill which the irate philosopher had thrown over his glowing +excitement; he submissively proposed a return to potatoes, piling up +famine and wheat over the one little thought that diffused such a +delicious warmth through his breast; as charcoal-burners heap dead ashes +over their fire, to hide it from the rough intrusion of chilling winds. + +The nest day Haguna sent back the dagger, with a little note, thanking +the owner in graceful terms. + +"Your graceful politeness last evening, Herr Anthrops, saved me much +perplexity, and procured me a delightful waltz. One should indeed be +well protected by fortune, to find so readily such a courteous little +sword," ("She does not know the difference between a sword and a +dagger," thought Anthrops, and he was pleased at her ignorance,) "to +supply one's awkward deficiencies." (Anthrops slightly winced as he +thought of the little black pins.) "The old man on the hilt is really +charming. I actually was obliged to kiss him at parting, he looked so +kindly and pleasantly at me. Besides, he was my true benefactor; and +my grandmother has often told me, that in her day maidens were very +properly more expressive in their gratitude than now." (Anthrops +fervently longed for a retrogression in the calendar.) "And I really +think my old friend must have been alive then, and have been changed +into wood, on purpose to preserve his looks till I could see him. It +would be a right pleasant destiny, when one begins to grow old and ugly, +to be transformed into wood, and carved as one would wish to appear +perpetually. And happier fate still, like Philemon and Baucis, to change +into living trees, and flourish for hundreds of years in youth and +vigor. There are willow-trees growing on the banks of the river that may +easily have been girls who wept themselves into trees, because their +hair would soon be gray, and they have exchanged it for tresses of +green. Near those willow-trees the princely stranger who has lately +occupied the castle will next week give a boating _fête_, to which I +am invited; I suppose you also, courteous Sir, will be present, a +knight-errant for distressed damsels? + +"HAGUNA." + +Anthrops kissed the little old man on the dagger's hilt again and again, +and made two equally firm, but entirely disconnected resolutions, +simultaneously: namely, never to give his nephew the intended present, +and by all means to be at the boat-_fête_ the following week. + +The day of the _fête_ arrived,--a clear, lovely day in early June. The +host had provided for the accommodation of his guests a number of boats +of different sizes, holding two, three, or a dozen people, according to +the fancy of the voyagers. Anthrops, descending the flight of steps that +led to the river, came unexpectedly upon his old friend the philosopher, +apparently emerging from the side of the hill. + +"I expected you here," said he; "are you going on the river?" + +Anthrops replied in the affirmative. + +"Haguna is here, and I have come to exact a promise that you will not +sail with her. You will repent it, if you do." + +"Better than starvation is a feast and repentance," cried the young man, +gayly. "What harm is there in the girl? Though, to be sure, I had no +particular intention of sailing with her." + +"It would be of no use to warn you explicitly," said his friend; "you +would not believe me. But you must not go." + +"Nay, good father," returned the youth, a little vexed,--"it is +altogether too unreasonable to expect me to obey like a child; give me +one good reason why I should avoid her as if she had the plague, and I +promise to be guided by you." + +"All women have some plague-spot," said the philosopher, sententiously. + +"Well, then, I may as well be infected by her as by any one," cried +Anthrops, lightly, and was rushing down the steps again, when the +philosopher caught him by the arm. + +"Follow me," he said; "you will not believe, but still you may see." + +He led the way down to the river, and, the youth still following, +entered one of the gayly trimmed row-boats and pushed from shore. The +boat seemed possessed by the will of its master, and, needing no other +guide or impetus, floated swiftly into the centre of the channel. +Obeying the same invisible helmsman, it there paused and rocked gently +backwards and forwards as over an unseen anchor. The philosopher drew +from his pocket a small cup and dipped up a little water. He then +handed it to the youth, and bade him look at it through a strong +magnifying-glass, which he also gave him. Anthrops was surprised to find +a white dust in the bottom of the cup. + +"Ah!" said his companion, answering his look of inquiry, "it is +bone-dust; and now you may see where it comes from." + +Anthrops looked through the magnifying-glass, as he was directed, at the +river itself, and found he could clearly see the sand at the bottom. +He was horrified at seeing the yellow surface strewn with human bones, +bleached by long exposure to the running water. + +"Alas!" he exclaimed, sorrowfully, "have so many noble youths perished +in these treacherous waters? That golden sand might be ruddy with the +blood of its numerous victims!" + +"Don't be blaming the innocent waters, simple boy!" half sneered +the philosopher. "Lay the blame where it is due, upon the artful +river-nixes. Since the creation of the world, the stream has flowed +tranquilly between these banks; and during that time do you not suppose +that these fair alluring sprites have had opportunity to entice such +silly boys as you into the cool green water there below?" + +Anthrops gazed long into the still, cruel depths of the river, held +spell-bound by a horrible fascination; at last he raised his head, and, +drawing a long sigh of relief, exclaimed,-- + +"Thank fortune, Haguna is no water-nix!" + +"What!" cried the angry philosopher, "your mind still running upon that +silly witch? Can you learn no wisdom from the fate of other generations +of fools, but must yourself add another to the catalogue? She is more +dangerous than the nixes: the snares which they laid for their victims +were cobwebs, compared to the one she is weaving for you. You admire her +hair, forsooth! The silk of the Indian corn is a fairer color, spiders' +webs are finer, and the back of the earth-mole is softer; yet in your +eyes nothing will compare with it." + +"The silk of the Indian corn is golden, but coarse and rough; the +threads of the spider's web are fine, but dull and gray; the satin hair +of the blind mole is lifeless and stiff. Let me go, old man! I care +nothing for your fancied dangers. I shall row her to-day; that is +pleasure enough." And he attempted to seize the unused oar. + +"Once more, pause! Reflect upon what you are leaving: the pleasures of +tranquil meditation, the keen excitements of science, the entrancing +delights of philosophy. All these you must abandon, if you leave me +now." + +Anthrops hesitated a moment. + +"How so?" he asked. + +"He who is devoted to philosophy must share his soul with no other +mistress. No restlessness, no longing after an unseen face, no feverish +anxiety for the love or approval of an earthly maiden must disturb the +balanced calm of his absorbed mind"-- + +"Herr Anthrops, Herr Anthrops, how you have forgotten your engagement!" + +She was in a boat that had pushed up close to them unawares. Some girls +and young men occupied the bows. Haguna was leaning over the stern and +waving her hand to Anthrops. So suddenly had she appeared, that it was +as if she had risen out of the rippling river, and the ripples still +seemed to undulate on her sunny hair and laughing dimpled face: so fresh +and bright and fair she seemed in that glad June morning. What did it +matter whether he reasoned rightly on any subject? + +"Let me go!" he exclaimed to his companion. "Farewell, philosophy! +farewell, science! I have chosen." + +To his surprise, he discovered that he was suddenly quite alone in the +boat. The philosopher had disappeared,--whether by waxen wings, or an +invisible cap, or any of the other numerous contrivances of many-wiled +philosophers, he did not stop to consider, but hastened to join Haguna +and her companions. + +"You are a welcome addition to our company," said Haguna, graciously +reaching out her white hand; "but you choose strange companions. An old +gray owl flew out of your boat a moment ago, scared to find himself +abroad in such a pleasant sunlight. I confess I don't altogether +admire your taste, not being an orni"-- + +She appealed in pretty perplexity to the student to help her out of the +difficulty into which she had fallen by her rash attempt at large words. + +--"Thologist," added Anthrops, much wondering at these new tricks of +the philosopher,--and then again he so much the more applauded his own +wisdom in exchanging for her society the company of an old owl. + +So all the day long he stayed by her, all the day long he followed her, +rowing or walking or dancing, or sitting by her under the willows on the +banks of the river. The soft breeze routed her shining hair from its +compact masses; it touched his cheek as he knelt beside her to pull +up the tough-rooted columbine that resisted her fingers; her fragrant +breath mingled with the odor of the sweet-scented violets that he +plucked for her; the trailing tresses of the mournful willow, swaying in +the breeze, brushed them both; the murmuring water at their feet heard a +new tale as it flowed past her, and babbled it to him, adding delicious +nonsense of its own, endless variations upon the same sweet theme. How +happy he was that day! It came to an end, of course; but its death +scattered the seeds of other days, that sprang up in gracious profusion, +yielding dear delights of flower and fruit. All over his garden these +bright plants grew, gradually triumphing over and expelling the coarser +and ruder vegetables. + +Nothing but flowers would he cultivate now,--and cared not even that +they should be perennials, if only the present blooming were gay and +gladsome. + +One June day, Anthrops joined a pleasure-seeking equestrian party, who +rode from the town to spend the day in the woods. What a lovely day it +was! The pure, fresh air seemed to contain the very essence of the life +it inspired, life drained of all impurity and sadness and foulness +by the early summer rains, the springing joyous life of the delicate +wood-flowers. The strong trees in the leafy woods trembled with +happiness in their boughs and tender sprays; the carolling birds poured +forth their brimming songs from full hearts. And upon the interlacing +greenery of the shrubbery, and the lichens upon the trees, and the soft +moss covering with jealous tenderness the bare places in the ground, +the slant sunbeams glittered in the early morning dew. As Anthrops rode +along silently by the side of Haguna, an inexpressible joyfulness filled +his heart; the light, round, white clouds nestling in the deep bosom of +the sky, the faint, delicious odor of the woods, the rustling, murmuring +presence that forever dwelt there, all made him unspeakably glad and +light-hearted. As he rode, he began to sing a little song that he had +learned awhile before. + + We rushed from the mountain, + The streamlet and I, + Restless, unquiet, + We scarcely knew why,-- + Till we met a dear maiden, + Whose beauty divine + Stilled with great quiet + This wild heart of mine; + And awed and astonished + To peacefulness sweet, + The fierce mountain-torrent + Lay still at her feet." + +"A right rare power for beauty to possess!" laughed Haguna. "Are you so +restless that you need this soothing, fair Sir?" + +A deep, sweet smile gushed out from his eyes and illumined his face. +He stretched out his arms lovingly into the warm air, as if he thus +infolded some rich joy, and answered, musingly,-- + +"In ordinary action, thought, and feeling,--we are too conscious of +ourselves, we are perplexed with the miserable little 'I,' that, by +claiming deed and thought for its own work, makes it little and mean. +But the wondrous Beautiful comes to us entirely from outside; our very +contemplation of it does not belong to us; we are overpowered +and conquered by the vast idea that broods over us. And so that +contemplation is pure happiness." + +Haguna laughed a little, and a little wondered what he meant; then +observed, lightly,-- + +"You must value yourself very modestly, to consider your greatest +happiness to consist in losing your self-consciousness,--unless, +indeed, like Polycrates, you hope to insure future prosperity by +sacrificing your most valuable possession." + +"If so, I, like Polycrates, am the gainer by my own precaution; for, in +your presence, dear lady, do I first truly find my right consciousness." + +She clapped her hands gleefully, wilfully misunderstanding his meaning. + +"Most complimentary of monarchs! So I am the haggard old fisherman who +replaced the lost bawble in the royal treasury! Pray, Sire, remember the +pension with which I should be rewarded!" And she bowed low, in mock +courtesy to her companion. + +"Nay," rejoined Anthrops, vexed that his earnest compliment should be so +mishandled,--"blame your own perversity for such an interpretation. At +your side I forget that I live for any other purpose than to look at +you, and lavish my whole soul in an intensity of gazing; and then the +presumptuous thought, that you like to have me near you, nay, are +sometimes even pleased to talk to me, gives my poor self a value in my +own eyes, for the kindness you show me." + +"I know all that well enough," said Haguna, quietly. "But in the mean +while, dear Anthrops, you must remember that it is really impolite to +stare so much." + +By this time they had ridden deep into the still woods. Following the +light current of their talking, they wound in and out among the green +trees, under their broad arching boughs,--now following the path, now +beating a new track over the short grass mixed with the crisp gray moss. +The sunlight glanced shyly through the fluttering leaves, weaving with +their delicate shadows a rare tracery on the grass. The pattern was so +intricate and yet so suggestive, they were sure that some strange legend +was written there in mysterious characters,--something holding a fateful +reason for their ride together in the green woods. But just as they had +almost deciphered the secret, the broidered shadow disappeared under a +bush, leaving them in new perplexity. They looked for the story in the +windings of the checkerberry-vine and blue-eyed periwinkle, on the +lichens curiously growing on the boles of aged trees; but for all these +they had no dictionary. So they strayed on and on, in the endless +mazes of the forest, till they became entirely separated from their +companions, and lost all clue for recovering the path. + +Anthrops looked in some perplexity at Haguna, to see if she were alarmed +at this position of affairs. He was rather surprised to find, that, far +from being discouraged, she seemed highly to enjoy the dilemma. She +leaned forward a little on her horse, her one gloved hand, dropping the +reins on his neck, nestled carelessly in his mane, while the forefinger +of the other hand rested on her lip, with a comical expression of mock +anxiety, as she looked inquiringly at Anthrops. + +"I think," finally exclaimed Anthrops, "that we had better push straight +through the woods. We cannot go far without discovering some road that +will lead us back to the city." + +"Nobly resolved, courageous Sir! But first tell me how we shall pass +this first barrier that besets our onward march." + +And she pointed the end of the riding-whip that hung at her wrist to a +mass of brambles which formed an impenetrable wall immediately in their +path. Anthrops rubbed his eyes, for he could scarce believe that this +thicket had been there before; it seemed to have grown up suddenly while +he turned his head. He then tried to retrace his steps, but was thrown +into fresh perplexity by discovering that the trees seemed to have +closed in around them, so that he could find no opening for a horse. + +"It seems evident to me," said Haguna, "that we must dismount, and find +our way on foot. If now we could have deciphered the hieroglyphs of the +shadows, we might have avoided this misfortune." + +As cool water upon the brow of a fevered man, fell the clear tones +of her voice upon Anthrops, bewildered and confused by the sudden +enchantment. She, indeed, called it a misfortune, but so cheerily and +gayly that her voice belied the term; and Anthrops insensibly plucked up +heart, and shook off somewhat of that paralyzing astonishment. + +He assisted her to dismount, and, leaving the horses to their fate, +they together hunted for some opening in the dense thicket. After much +search, Anthrops succeeded in discovering a small gap in the brambles, +through which he and Haguna crept, but only into fresh perplexity. They +gained a path, but with it no prospect of rejoining their companions; +for it wound an intricate course between ramparts of vine-covered +shrubbery, that shut it in on either side and intercepted all extended +view. The way was too narrow to admit of more than one person passing at +a time; and as Haguna happened to have emerged first from the thicket, +she boldly took the lead, following the path until they emerged into a +more open part of the forest, where the undulating ground was entirely +free from underbrush, and the eye roamed at pleasure through the wide +glades. Haguna followed some unseen waymarks with sure step, still +tacitly compelling Anthrops to follow her without inquiry. As she sped +lightly over the turf, she began to hum a little song:-- + + "Nodding flowers, and tender grass, + Bend and let the lady pass! + Lighter than the south-wind straying, + In the spring, o'er leaves decaying, + Seeking for his ardent kisses + One small flower that he misses, + Will I press your snowy bosoms, + Dainty, darling little blossoms!" + +Singing thus, she descended a little hill, and, gliding round its base, +disappeared under a thick grape-vine that swung across it from two lofty +elms on either side. A spider in conscious security had woven his web +across the archway formed by the drooping festoons of the vine; the +untrodden path was overgrown with moss. Haguna lifted up the vine +and passed under, beckoning Anthrops to follow. He heard her still +singing,-- + + "Quick unclasp your tendrils clinging, + Stealthily the trees enringing! + I have learnt your wily secret: + I will use it, I shall keep it! + Cunning spider, cease your spinning! + My web boasts the best beginning. + Yours is wan and pale and ashen: + After no such lifeless fashion + Mine is woven. Golden sunbeams + Prisoned in its meshes, light gleams + From its shadowest recesses. + Tell me, spider, made you ever + Web so strong no knife could sever + Woven of a maiden's tresses?" + +On the other side of the viny curtain, Anthrops discovered the entrance +to a large cavern hollowed out in a rock. The cavern was carpeted with +the softest moss of the most variegated shades, ranging from faintest +green to a rich golden brown. The rocky walls were of considerable +height, and curved gracefully around the ample space,--a woodland +apartment. But the most remarkable feature in the grotto was a +rose-colored cloud, that seemed to have been imprisoned in the farther +end, and, in its futile efforts to escape, shifted perpetually into +strange, fantastic figures. Now, the massive form of the Israelitish +giant appeared lying at the feet of the Philistine damsel; anon, the +kingly shoulders of the swift-footed Achilles towered helplessly above +the heads of the island girls. The noble head of Marcus Antoninus bowed +in disgraceful homage before his wife; the gaunt figure of the stern +Florentine trembled at the footsteps of the light Beatrice; the sister +of Honorius, from the throne of half the world, saluted the sister +of Theodosius, grasping the sceptre of the other half in her slender +fingers. Every instance of weak compliance with the whims, of devoted +subjection to the power, of destructive attention to the caprices of +women by men, since Eve ruined her lord with the fatal apple, was +whimsically represented by the rapid configurations of this strange +vapor. + +Anthrops presently discovered Haguna half reclining on a raised +moss-seat, and dreamily running her white fingers through her hair, +which now fell unchecked to her feet. He had lost sight of her but a +few minutes, yet in that short time a strange change had come over her. +Perhaps it was because her rippling hair, which, slightly stirred by the +faint air of the cavern, rose and fell around her in long undulations, +made her appear as if floating in a golden brown haze. Perhaps it was +the familiarity with which she had taken possession of the grotto, as if +it had been a palace that she had expected, prepared for her reception. +But for some reason she appeared a great way off,--no longer a simple +maiden, involved with him in a woodland adventure, but a subtle +enchantress, who, through all the seeming accidents of the day, had +been pursuing a deep-laid plot, and now was awaiting its triumphant +consummation. She did not at first notice Anthrops as he stood in +curious astonishment in the doorway; but presently, looking up, she +motioned him to another place beside herself. + +"This is a pleasant place to rest in for a while before we rejoin our +companions," she said; "we are fortunate in finding so pretty a spot." + +The natural tone of her frank, girlish voice somewhat dissipated +Anthrops's vague bewilderment, and he accepted the proffered seat at +her side. He for the first time looked attentively at Haguna, as he had +until now been gazing at the shifting diorama behind her. He noticed, to +his surprise, a number of bright shining points, somewhat like stars, +glistening in her hair, and with some hesitation inquired their +nature. Haguna laughed, a low musical laugh, yet with an indescribable +impersonality in it,--as if a spring brook had just then leaped over a +little hill, and were laughing mockingly to itself at its exploit. + +"They are souls," she said. + +"Dear me!" exclaimed Anthrops; "are souls no bigger than that?" + +"How do you know how large they are?" laughed Haguna, beginning to weave +her hair into a curiously intricate braid. "These are but the vital +germs of souls; but I hold them bound as surely by imprisoning these." + +"But surely every soul is not so weak; all cannot be so cruelly +imprisoned." + +Again she laughed, that strange laugh. + +"Strong and weak are merely relative terms. There is nothing you know +of so strong that it may not yield to a stronger, and anything can be +captured that is once well laid hold of. I will sing you a song by which +you may learn some of the ways in which other things beside souls are +caught." + +Still continuing her busy weaving, Haguna began to sing. Except the song +she had hummed in the woods that afternoon, he had never heard her voice +but in speaking, and was astonished at its richness and power; yet it +was a simple chant she sang, that seemed to follow the gliding motion of +her fingers. + + "Running waters swiftly flowing, + On the banks fair lilies growing + Watch the dancing sunbeams quiver, + Watch their faces in the river. + Round their long roots, in and out, + The supple river winds about,-- + Wily, oily, deep designing, + Their foundations undermining. + Fall the lilies in the river, + Smoothly glides the stream forever." + +The subtle song crept into Anthrops's brain, and seemed to spin a web +over it, which, though of lightest gossamer, confined him helplessly in +its meshes. Again she sang:-- + + "From the swamp the mist is creeping; + Fly the startled sunbeams weeping, + Up the mountain feebly flying, + Paling, waning, fainting, dying. + All their cheerful work undoing, + Crawls the cruel mist pursuing. + Shrouded in a purple dimness, + Quenched the sunlight is in shadow; + Over hill and wood and meadow + Broads the mist in sullen grimness." + +She had already woven a great deal of her shining hair into a curious +braid, so broad and intricate as to be almost a golden web. A strange +fascination held Anthrops spell-bound; it was as if her song were +weaving her web, and her fingers chanting her song, and as if both song +and web were made of the wavering cloud that still shifted into endless +dioramas. Once more she sang:-- + + "Drop by drop the charmed ear tingling, + Rills of music intermingling, + Murmuring in their mazy winding, + All the steeped senses blinding, + Their intricate courses wending, + Closer still the streams are blending. + Down the rapid channel rushing, + Floods of melody are gushing; + Flush the tender rills with gladness, + Drown the listener in sweet madness. + Onward sweeps the eddying singing, + Ever new enchantment bringing. + Break the bubbles on the river, + Faints the wearied sound in darkness; + But, as one that always hearkens, + Floats the charmed soul forever." + +As she finished the song, she arose, and threw over the youth the web +of her fatal hair. The charmed song had so incorporated itself with the +odorous air of the cavern, that every breath he drew seemed to be laden +with the subtle music. It oppressed, stifled him; he strove in vain to +escape its influence; and as he felt the soft hair brush his cheek, he +swooned upon the ground. + +The philosopher's study was a very different place from the green +wood,--perched up, as it was, on the summit of a bare, bleak mountain. +The room was fitted up with the frugality demanded by philosophic +indifference to luxury, and the abundance necessitated by a wide range +of study. The walls were hung with a number of pictures, in whose +subjects an observer might detect a remarkable similarity. A satirical +pencil had been engaged in depicting some of the most striking instances +of successful manly resistance to female tyranny, of manly contempt for +feminine weakness, of manly endurance of woman-inflicted injury. The +unfortunate Longinus turned with contemptuous pity from the trembling +Zenobia; the valiant Thomas Aquinas hurled his protesting firebrand +against the too charming interruption of his scholastic pursuits; the +redoubtable Conqueror beat his rebellious sweetheart into matrimony. +The flickering light of a wood fire served not merely to illuminate +the actual portraits, but almost to discover the sarcastic face of the +anonymous artist, smiling in triumph from the background. On the hearth +in front of the fire stood the philosopher in earnest conversation with +a venerable friend. + +"I am provoked beyond measure," exclaimed our friend, in an exceedingly +vexed tone. "So much as I had hoped from the boy,--that he, too, could +not keep from the silly snare! It is shameful, abominable;--she is +always in my way, upsetting all my plans, interfering with everything I +undertake. Would you believe it? at the death of one of her sisters, the +fools were not content with giving her a funeral good enough for a man, +but they must place her _hair_ in the sky for a constellation!" + +"That was indeed an insult to Orion," said his sympathizing friend, +soothingly. + +"My hands are absolutely tied," continued the irate philosopher. "I +bestow upon the boys the most careful education, enlarge their minds +by the study of the history and destiny of man, of the world, of the +stellar system, till I may hope that in the contemplation of the +vast universe they have lost their little prejudices and personal +preferences. I strengthen their judgment, assiduously exercise their +powers of ratiocination, fortify their minds with philosophy, train them +to habits of accuracy, patience, and perseverance by long scientific +research; and at the moment when I ought to find them useful as +philosophers, as seekers after eternal Truth, as lovers of imperishable +Wisdom, they degenerate into seekers after eyes and hair and cheeks, and +I know not what nonsense, lovers of frail, perishable women, who appear +to preserve an astonishing longevity on purpose to plague and thwart +rational people." + +His friend pondered deeply upon the vexatious problem. + +"You say," he remarked, "that this unfortunate attraction exists in +spite of philosophical training,--that it is exerted towards the +antipodes of their previous associations; that, as they have been +trained to yield only to well-grounded syllogisms, it is the illogical +mode of assault that vanquishes them unguarded; that their reasonable +minds have nothing to say to such, perfectly unreasonable fascinations; +that, in short, the enemy succeeds by supplying a vacuum, as the walls +of Visibis gave way under the pressure of the dammed-up river?" + +"Alas, friend, your observations are too true!" + +"Then my way becomes clearer. It surely cannot be unknown to you, sagest +of students, that in physical science we oppose a plenum to a vacuum, +in medicine we supply a deficiency of saline secretions by the common +expedient of salt. Wherefore not apply our knowledge painfully gleaned +from lower science to the study of these more complicated phenomena? The +coward who would flee the fire of the enemy may be kept at his post by +the equal dread of death from his commander. Open a double fire upon +these wayward youths. Make the Barbarians enlist in the Roman legions. +In short, teach Haguna and the others philosophy. There will then no +longer be an opposing force of entirely different nature, but merely an +influence of the same kind as he has been accustomed to, though vastly +inferior in power." + +The philosopher started,--the idea was so new to him. + +"But, my friend," he urged, doubtfully, "do you not remember, +that, after the Romans had painfully learnt ship-building from the +Carthaginians, they vanquished them with their own weapons? Might not +some such danger be apprehended in this case?" + +His companion reddened with indignation, then spoke in a tone of mildly +severe rebuke. + +"Are the girls Romans? Do you suppose that in ship-building the silly +little things would ever advance beyond scows? We shall have the double +advantage of the plenum, by their minds being turned in the same +direction as those of our students,--and of the defeat and shipwreck, +through fighting in unseaworthy vessels." + +"I have another idea also," observed the philosopher. "Even supposing, +as I must confess there seems to me a possibility, that in a +philosophical tournament, or trial of wits, they should occasionally +come off victorious," (his friend shook his head angrily,) "the effect +of separation that we desire would still be obtained. Haguna would no +longer be able to entangle silly boys in her treacherous hair. Your +suggestion is good; I will act upon it." + +After some deliberation, they agreed upon the method of procedure, which +the philosopher immediately began to put into practice. + +Shortly after this conversation, invitations were sent to a select +number of the inhabitants of the city to a new kind of entertainment to +be given by the recluse philosopher of the mountain. The entertainment +was to consist of astronomical and chemical exhibitions; the infinitely +great and infinitesimally little were to be conjoined to form an +evening's amusement. Such was the programme; and the eager curiosity +of the select few who were invited brought them punctually to the +philosopher's eyry. Haguna of course was there,--as unconsciously lovely +as if the disappearance of the unfortunate Anthrops were as much +a mystery to her as to the rest of the wondering citizens. The +philosopher, laying aside the brusqueness acquired in his solitude, +devoted himself with the utmost courtesy to the amusement of his guests, +--opened for them dusty cases of butterflies, shells, and rare stones, +which he had collected in his pursuit of the various sciences that +made them a specialty,--placed ponderous tomes open at some curious +or amusing story of otherwise forgotten ages, to arrest the fancy +of elegant literati,--exhibited rare and grotesque curiosities, the +glittering mica that he had picked up in his long researches, as toys +for these idlers of taste. + +The flashing gems and gay dresses of the brilliant assemblage +illuminated the dusky old study; the rustling of silks, and the merry +laughter, only a trifle subdued by the novelty of the circumstances, the +eager chattering, the tripping sound of girlish feet darting in and +out of every quaint nook and corner, the varied flow of sprightly +conversation, scared the solemn quiet of the library. Looming down +grimly from the shelves that lined the walls, stood ponderous volumes, +monuments over the graves in which their authors were buried. Oh, the +life's blood that had been wrung into those forgotten pages! Oh, the +eager hope and sickening disappointment, the vehement aspirations, +the intense longings, the bitter hatred, the scorn, the greater than +angelic, the human love and benevolence, the fortitude, the courage, the +whole strange life of hundreds of dead men, that burned between those +thick covers! Often books do not reveal their authors until many years +after their death. They are read at first for the mite of fuel that they +bring to some blazing controversy; the man is entirely forgotten in his +work. But when years, centuries, have passed away, and the fire that +threatened to consume the world has died out as quietly as any common +bonfire, then the "spirits of the mighty dead" come back calmly to their +world-work,--now doubtless seeing its little worth as clearly as their +modern critics, but also hallowing their mighty labors with regal +authority, as the living garment of a human soul. The marble tombs in +graveyards hold empty dust; the real men lie buried alive in quiet +libraries. + +The philosopher entertained his guests well. But underneath all the +polite suavity of his manner could be detected a curious satisfaction at +the contrast between the deep sea of still thought usually embosoming +his library, and this sparkling, shallow little stream now flowing into +it. The prominent popular tricks of science he played off for their +amusement, exhibited the standard stars, enlarged upon the most +wonder-striking and easily understood facts in the sublime science, and +bewildered them with a pleasant enthusiasm of acquisition, by a series +of brilliant chemical experiments. The labors of a lifetime were +concentrated on a few dazzling results: the long tedium of the +means, the painful training, the hard mathematical preparation, the +brain-sickness and heart-sickness of these years of solitude were +quietly ignored. + +But it was round Haguna that he plied the most subtle enchantments,--to +her he exhibited the most glittering decoys of Knowledge. She was +completely fascinated. Her cheeks grew pale, her large dark eyes deeper +and darker, with intense interest. She hung upon every word that fell +from the philosopher's lips, pored over the elegant trifles the scholar +had collected for the wondering ignorant, and stood abashed before the +studied unconsciousness of power,--the power of vast learning, that she +felt for the first time. When the guests were departing, she was still +reluctant to go,--she timidly followed the watchful philosopher to the +mighty telescope that had brought down stars for their playthings that +evening. + +"My ignorance and weakness overwhelm me," she exclaimed; "would that I +could spend my life in this awful library!" + +The philosopher repressed his exultation at this confession, and +replied,-- + +"Nothing is easier, Madam, than the gratification of your laudable +desire. I am in the habit of receiving pupils, and should be most happy +to admit you to my class." + +An eager light leaped into her lovely face as she earnestly thanked him +for his condescension, and engaged to begin the lessons on the very next +day. So, when the guests had all gone, and the scared quiet ventured to +brood again over its ancient nestling-place, the wily philosopher +threw himself back into his great chair, and laughed a long while with +solitary enjoyment. + +The next day Haguna wended her lonely way to the bleak hill. It was so +stony and bare and treeless,--jutting out against the gray cold sky +like a giant sentinel stripped naked, yet still with dogged obstinacy +clinging to his post. The hard path pushed up over jagged stones that +cut her tender feet, and they left bleeding waymarks on the difficult +ascent. Woe, woe to poor trembling Haguna! Uncouth birds whizzed in +circles round her head, clanging and clamoring with their shrill voices, +striving to beat her back with their flapping wings. The faint sweet +fragrance of brier-roses clustering at the foot of the mountain wafted +reproachfully upon the chill air an entreaty to return. Once, turning at +a sudden bend in the road, she spied a merry party of girls and children +crowning each other with quickly fading wreaths of clover-blossoms. A +rosy-cheeked child in the centre of the group, enjoying the glory of his +first coronation, accidentally pointed his fat fore-finger at her, as +if in derision of her undertaking. It was strange, that, although she +presently pressed forward eagerly again, she felt glad that none of +those laughing girls would leave the sunny valley to follow her example. +She had flung her whole soul into the scheme, as is the fashion with +girls, and could not recover it again now. It seemed absolutely +necessary that somewhere some woman like herself should be compelled +to scale this ascent, and she--one of those girls in the valley, for +instance, might not be nearly so well able as herself to face this +bleakness. Thus she might preserve those sportive triflers in their +everlasting childhood by the warning of her sad devotion. Faint shadows +of gigantic tasks to be conquered when the hill was surmounted swam +through her mind. And somewhat whimsically associated with these, a +portrait of the learned Hooker occurred vividly to her imagination,--his +face disfigured through his devotion to sedentary pursuits. +Involuntarily she smoothed her soft cheek with her little hand. It was +still round and velvet as an August peach. Nevertheless she threw this +possibility into the burden she was going to assume for humanity, +and felt happier as the burden waxed heavier. The innate hunger for +sacrifice was gratified, with only the definite prospect of suffering +from loss of complexion; a concrete living shape was given to the vague +longing that possessed her; and she cheerfully marched on, strong in the +hope of the love and reverence she was sure her devotion would gain. Ah, +sweet Haguna, Haguna! Sweating enough and toil enough already! Go back, +dear child, from a work thou canst not understand, and imprison sunbeams +for the panting world in flowery valleys! + +By this time she had reached the philosophic hermitage. Her future +master met her at the door, and, saluting her with grave courtesy, led +the way to a small unfurnished apartment, from whose windows nothing +could be seen but the distant sea and sky,--always a solemn monotone of +sea and sky. + +"And so," he said, with mild irony, "even the maidens must dim their +bright eyes with philosophy! Can they leave their dolls so long?" + +The hot blood rushed into Haguna's face, as she exclaimed, with intense +eagerness,-- + +"Is it my fault that I am a girl? I come to you to learn, to satisfy +the insatiable thirst for knowledge which you have awakened,--and you +reproach me with my ignorance! I have just discovered that the one thing +I have secretly needed always was to learn to exercise my mind cramped +with inaction, to share with you labor and toil." + +"Poor child," sighed the philosopher, excited to sudden pity by her +ardor, "you know little of the sweat of brain-toil! Do you know that it +takes years of painful study to arrive at a single valuable result? that +for a distant, doubtful advantage, all your bright, unfettered life must +be sacrificed? Each enjoyment must be stinted and weighed,--each day +valued only as another step to be climbed in the endless ladder,--all +simple, sweet enjoyment of earth and air and sky, the careless, golden +halo of each free day, must be given up. Everything must be squared +according to an inexorable plan; self must be despised, passions +restrained and clarified, till the life becomes thin and attenuated +through careful discipline,--all hopes and fears laid aside till the +soul becomes accustomed to its chilly atmosphere. Then body and mind +must be trained to endure a fearful weariness, to pass the days under +such a stern pressure of toil that all loving, graceful interests shall +be rooted out of the stony soil. You must be prepared to lose precious +truths in a gulf of delusion,--to leave all your old beacon-lights and +wander forth in an eternal dark. The troubles that beset weak souls +may be dissipated, but new strength brings dreadful trials. Tremendous +conflicts, undreamt-of in your innocence, will agitate your adventurous +Intellect, penetrating into vast regions of Doubt, where the mind made +for belief often reels into madness, goaded by harassing anxiety. +Often the lonely night-hours must be spent in sore battle with fearful +spectres revived by the roaming soul from their frequent graves. +All this and more must he dare who aspires to the lofty service of +philosophy." + +"All this and more would I gladly suffer," cried Haguna. "There is a +fire now in my brain; you have kindled it, and it must be fed. And, +moreover, I wish to endure this trial for its own sake; for it is not +fitting that men should suffer more than women. Perhaps, too,--am I +presumptuous in thinking so?--two workers may so lessen the toil of one +that this lonely trial maybe greatly helped by even my assistance." + +And her bosom heaved, and glorious tears welled up into her deep blue +eyes. The repentant philosopher placed his hand on her lovely head, and +lifted a tress of her soft hair. + +"Ah, child, child, you know little about it! What! will you sacrifice +these glorious tresses to a hard and joyless course of study? For none +can study Euclid with me with hair like this." + +"Willingly! willingly!" cried Haguna, impetuously, and pulled a pair of +scissors from her pocket to immediately make the beautiful offering. + +The reluctant philosopher arrested her hand. + +"Rash girl! consider yet a moment. You are exchanging a treasure whose +value you know for--you know not what. You will bitterly repent." + +But Haguna, would not consider. She impatiently tore away her hand, and +in a few minutes had closely shorn her head, and the neglected hair lay +in rich profusion on the floor. As it lay there, the warm golden brown +color faded and faded, and some glittering things entangled in its +abundant masses beamed forth for a moment like tiny stars, and then +disappeared. And had Haguna stepped into a cloud, that so great a change +had come over her? The fine contour of head and forehead, the soft +outline of face, the delicate moulding of the chin were the same +still,--the dark eyes glowed with even new lustre; but the graceful +throat and white arm were hidden in a dark muffling cloak, the delicious +blush had faded from the cheek, whose color was now firm and tranquil, +the well-cut lips had settled into almost too harsh lines, an air of +indescribably voluptuous grace had forever fled. Ah, hapless Haguna! + +The philosopher made no further remonstrance, but led her immediately +to the library, and, seating her at the table, opened a worn copy of +Euclid, and began at "Two straight lines," and so forth. + +A few moments after, Anthrops, released from his imprisonment, opened +the door of the upper room, walked quietly down-stairs, and returned to +the city, much to the joy of his friends and relations, who had long +mourned him as lost. + +About a year after this, Anthrops strolled into the philosopher's study, +to inquire the solution of a certain problem. + +"I will refer you," said his old instructor, "to my accomplished pupil"; +then raising his voice,--"Haguna!" + +Anthrops, startled at hearing her name in such a connection, awaited her +entrance with anxious curiosity. She speedily came in obedience to +the summons, bowed with an air of grave abstraction to Anthrops, and, +seating herself, composedly awaited the commands of her master. Her +former captive asked himself, wondering, if this could be the airy, +laughing, winsome maiden with whom in days past he had ridden into the +green forest. The billows of hair had ebbed away; the short, ungraceful, +and somewhat thin remnant was meant for use in covering the head, not +for luxurious beauty. All falling laces, all fluttering ribbons, all +sparkling jewels were discarded from the severe simplicity of the +scholastic gown; and with them had disappeared the glancing ripple that +before had sunnily flowed around her, like wavy undulations through a +field of corn. Very clear and still were the violet eyes, but their dewy +lustre had long ago dried up. Like a flowering tree whose blossoms have +been prematurely swept off by a cold wind was the maiden, as she sat +there, abstractedly drawing geometrical diagrams with her pencil. + +"Now, Sir," said the philosopher, "if you will state your difficulty, I +have no doubt my pupil can afford you assistance." + +So saying, he withdrew into a corner, that the discussion might have +free scope. + +Haguna now looking inquiringly at Anthrops. He cleared his throat with a +somewhat dictatorial "hem!" and began. + +"These circumstances, Madam, are really so unusual, that you must excuse +me, if I"-- + +"Proceed, Sir, to the point." + +"When, avoiding the barbarous edict of Justinian, which condemned to a +perpetual silence the philosophic loquacity of the Athenian schools, the +second heptacle of wise men undertook a perilous journey to implore the +protection of Persia, they undoubtedly must at some stages of their +travels have passed the night on the road. In this case, the method of +so passing the time becomes an interesting object of research. Did the +last of the Greeks provide themselves with tents,--effeminately impede +their progress with luggage? Did they, skirting the north of the Arabian +desert, repose under the scattered palm-trees,--or rather, wandering +among the mountains of Assyria, find surer and colder shade? The +importance of this inquiry becomes evident upon reflecting that the +characters of the great are revealed by their behavior in the incidental +events of their lives." + +"It is evident to my mind," returned Haguna, thoughtfully, "that the +seven sages, joyfully escaping from the frivolous necessities of +society, would return to the privileges of the children of eternal +Nature, and sleep confidingly under the blue welkin." + +"Rheumatism," suggested Anthrops. + +"Rheumatism!" echoed Haguna, disdainfully. "What is rheumatism? What are +any mere pains of the flesh, to the glorious content of the unshackled +spirit revelling in the freedom of its own nature? Thus the cultivated +Reason returns, with a touching appreciation of the Beautiful and the +Fit, to the simple couch of childish spontaneity. Mankind, after +long confinement in marble palaces, sepulchres of their inner being, +retrograde to the golden age. The wisdom of the world lies down to sleep +under the open sky. Such a beautiful comparison! It must be true." + +"Really, Madam, your conclusions, although attained with great rapidity +of reasoning, are hardly deducible from the premises. Let me remark"-- + +"Reduce Camenes to Celarent, and the argument is plainly irrefragable. +It requires a mind deeply toned to sympathy with the inner significance +of all things to"-- + +"Contemporary testimony is absolutely necessary, if not suspiciously +sullied by credulity or deceit,--in which case, the nearest trustworthy +historian, if not more than a hundred years from the specified time, is +incomparably preferable. But"-- + +Haguna again interrupted, her voice a little raised with excitement. The +dispute waxed warm, on either side authorities were quoted and rejected, +and how it terminated has never been recorded. But the philosopher in +the corner rubbed his hands with satisfaction, exclaiming,-- + +"Thank fortune, we may now have a little peace!" + + + + +THE FLOWER OF LIBERTY. + + + What flower is this that greets the morn, + Its hues from heaven so freshly born? + With burning star and flaming band + It kindles all the sunset land;-- + O, tell us what its name may be! + Is this the Flower of Liberty? + It is the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + In savage Nature's far abode + Its tender seed our fathers sowed; + The storm-winds rocked its swelling bud, + Its opening leaves were streaked with blood, + Till, lo! earth's tyrants shook to see + The full-blown Flower of Liberty! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + Behold its streaming rays unite + One mingling flood of braided light,-- + The red that fires the Southern rose, + With spotless white from Northern snows, + And, spangled o'er its azure, see + The sister Stars of Liberty! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + The blades of heroes fence it round; + Where'er it springs is holy ground; + From tower and dome its glories spread; + It waves where lonely sentries tread; + It makes the land as ocean free, + And plants an empire on the sea! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + Thy sacred leaves, fair Freedom's flower, + Shall ever float on dome and tower, + To all their heavenly colors true, + In blackening frost or crimson dew,-- + And GOD love us as we love thee, + Thrice holy Flower of Liberty! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry FLOWER OF LIBERTY! + + + + +ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE. + + +The memory of Alexis de Tocqueville belongs scarcely less to America +than to France. His book on "Democracy in America" was the foundation of +his fame. As a successful investigation by a foreigner of the nature and +working of institutions dissimilar from those of his own country, and +in many essential respects different from any which were elsewhere +established, it stands quite alone in political literature. It is still +further remarkable as the work of a very young man. Its merits were at +once acknowledged; and though twenty-six years have passed since it +appeared, it has been superseded by no later work. The book has a double +character, which has given to it an equal authority on both sides of +the Atlantic. For while it is a profound and sagacious analysis of the +spirit and methods of the American social and political system, it +is intended at the same time--more, however, by implied than open +comparison--to exhibit the relations of the principles established +here to the development of modern society and government in France and +elsewhere in Europe. It is a manual alike for the political theorist +and the practical statesman; and whatever changes our institutions may +undergo, its value will remain undiminished. + +The volumes of Tocqueville's Inedited Works and Correspondence, with a +Memoir by his friend M. Gustave de Beaumont, which have lately appeared +in Paris, have, therefore, a special claim to the attention of American +readers. Their intrinsic interest is great as illustrating the life and +character not only of one of the most original and independent thinkers +of this generation, but also of a man not less distinguished by the +elevation and integrity of his character than by the power of his +intellect. The race of such men has seemed of late years to be dying out +in France. In the long list of her public characters during the past +thirty years, there are few names which can share the honor with +Tocqueville's of being those neither of apostates nor of schemers. Men +who hold to their principles in the midst of revolutions, who for the +sake of honor resist the temptations of power, who have faith in liberty +and in progress even when their hopes are overthrown, are rare at all +times and in all lands. "France no longer produces such men," said the +Duke de Broglie, when he heard of Tocqueville's death. + +No book has been published of more importance than this in its +exhibition of the condition of thought and of society in France during +recent years. None has given more convincing evidence of the suppression +of intellectual liberty under the new Imperial rule. The reserves and +the omissions to which M. de Beaumont has been forced in the performance +of his work as editor display the oppressive nature of the censorship to +which the writings of the most honest and superior men are liable, +and the burdensome restraints by which such men are controlled and +disheartened. M. de Beaumont's notice of the life of Tocqueville, and +Tocqueville's own later correspondence, appear to a thoughtful reader as +accusations against Imperial despotism, as protests against the wrongs +from which freedom is now suffering in France. There is in them a +pervading tone of sadness, and, here and there, an expression of +bitterness of feeling, all the more effective for being conveyed in +restrained and unimpassioned words. There is no place for such men as +these in a system like that by which Louis Napoleon governs France. +The men of strong character, of incorruptible integrity, of thoughtful +moderation, and of fixed principles are more dangerous to the permanence +of despotic rule than the Victor Hugos, the Ledru Rollins, or the +Orsinis. It is the men with whom the love of liberty is founded upon +intellectual and moral convictions, not those with whom it is a hot and +reckless passion, that are the most to be feared by a ruler whose power +is based on the ignorance, the fears, the selfish ambitions, and the +material interests of the people whom he flatters and corrupts. + +Tocqueville was born a thinker. His physical organization was delicate, +but he had an energy of spirit which led him often to overtask his +bodily forces in long-continued mental exertions. Without brilliancy +of imagination and with little liveliness of fancy, he possessed the +faculty of acute and discriminating observation, and early acquired the +rare power of deep and continuous reflection. His mind was large and +calm. The candor of his intellect was never stained by passion. He had +not the faculties of an original discoverer in the domain of abstract +truth, but, as an investigator of the causes of political and social +conditions, of the relation between particular facts and general +theories, of the influence of systems and institutions upon the life of +communities, he has rarely been surpassed. His book on "Democracy in +America," and still more his later work on "The Old Régime and the +Revolution," display in a remarkable degree the union of philosophic +insight and practical good sense, of clearness of thought and +condensation of statement. + +But, however great the value of his writings may be, a still greater +value attaches to the character of the man himself, as it is displayed +in these volumes. M. de Beaumont's brief and affectionate memoir of his +friend, and Tocqueville's own letters, are not so much narratives of +events as evidences of character. His life was, indeed, not marked with +extraordinary incidents. It was the life of a man whose career was +limited both by his own temperament and by the public circumstances of +his times; of one who set more value upon ideas than upon events; who +sought intellectual satisfactions and distinctions rather than personal +advancement; who affected his contemporaries by his thought and his +integrity of principle more than by power of commanding position or +energy of resolute will. Although for many years in public life, he made +little mark on public affairs. But his influence, though indirect, +was perhaps not the less strong or permanent. The course of political +affairs is in the long run greatly modified, if not completely guided, +by the thinkers of a nation. Tocqueville's convictions kept him for the +most part in opposition to the successive governments of France during +the period of his public life. But his reputation and the weight of his +authority are continually increasing, and of the Frenchmen of the last +generation few have done so much as he to extend by his writings the +knowledge, and to strengthen by his example the love of those principles +by which liberty is maintained and secured, and upon which the real +advancement of society depends. The leading facts of his life may be +briefly told. + +Born in 1805, at Paris, of an old and honorable family, his early years +were passed at home. As a youth, he was for some time at the college of +Metz; but his education was irregular, and he was not distinguished for +scholarship. In 1826 and 1827 he travelled with one of his brothers in +Italy and Sicily, and on his return to France was attached to the Court +of Justice at Versailles, where his father, the Count de Tocqueville, +was then Prefect, in the quality of _Juge-Auditeur_, an office to which +there is none correspondent in our courts. It was at this time that his +friendship with M. Gustave de Beaumont began. + +For more than two years he performed the duties of this place with +marked fidelity and ability. But at the same time he pursued studies +less narrow and technical than the law, investigating with ardor the +general questions of politics, and laying the foundation of those +principles and opinions which he afterward developed in his writings and +his public life. He witnessed the Revolution of 1830 with regret, not +because he was personally attached to the elder branch of the Bourbons, +but because he dreaded the effect of a sudden and violent change of +dynasty upon the stability of those constitutional institutions which +were of too recent establishment to be firmly rooted in France, but to +which he looked as the safeguard of liberty. He gave his adhesion to the +new government without hesitation, but without enthusiasm; and having +little hope of advancement in his career as magistrate, he applied to +the Ministry of the Interior early in 1831 for an official mission to +America to examine the system of our prisons, which at that time was +exciting attention in France. But the real motive which led him +to desire to visit America was his wish to study the democratic +institutions of the United States with reference to their bearing upon +the political and social questions which underlay the violent changes +and revolutions of government in France, and of which a correct +appreciation was of continually increasing importance. It was plain that +the dominating principle in the modern development of society was that +of democratic equality; and this being the case, the question of prime +importance presenting itself for solution was, How is liberty to be +reconciled with equality and saved from the inevitable dangers to which +it is exposed? or in other words, Can equality, which, by dividing +men and reducing the mass to a common level, smooths the way for the +establishment of a despotism, either of an individual or of the mob, be +made to promote and secure liberty? For the study of this question, +and of others naturally connected with it, the United States afforded +opportunities nowhere else to be found. + +Accompanied by M. de Beaumont, Tocqueville passed a year in this +country, and the chief results of his visit appeared in the first two +volumes of his "Democracy in America," which were published in January, +1835. The success of the book was instant and extraordinary. His +publisher, who had undertaken it with reluctance, had ventured on a +first edition of but five hundred copies; and in one of his letters, +shortly after its publication, Tocqueville tells pleasantly of the +bookseller's ingenuous surprise at the interest which the work had +excited. "I went yesterday morning to Gosselin's [the publisher]; he +received me with the most beaming face in the world, saying to me, +'Well, now, so it seems you have made a _chef-d'oeuvre_.' Does not +that expression paint the complete man of business? I sat down, and we +talked of our second edition." + +From this time Tocqueville was famous. In the autumn of the same year, +1835, he married an English lady, Miss Mottley, who had long resided in +France, and the happiness of his private life was secured at the very +moment when he was entering upon the cares and anxieties of a public +career. In 1836 the French Academy decreed for his book an extraordinary +prize; in 1838 he was elected a member of the Institute; and in 1841, +a year after the publication of the last volumes of his work, he was +chosen member of the Academy. From 1839 to 1848, Tocqueville, elected +and reëlected from Valognes, sat without interruption in the Chamber of +Deputies, where he constantly voted with the constitutional opposition. +His nature was too sensitive and his health too delicate to enable him +to hold a foremost place as orator in the debates of this period. His +habits of mind were, moreover, those of a writer rather than of a public +speaker. But the firmness and moderation of his principles and the +clearness and justice of his opinions secured for him a general respect, +and gave weight and influence to his counsels. "In 1839, having been +named reporter on the proposition relative to the abolition of slavery +in the colonies, he succeeded," says his biographer, "not only in +tracing with an able and sure hand the great principles of justice and +of humanity which should lead on the triumph of this holy cause, but +also, by words full of respect for existing interests and acquired +rights, in preparing the government and the public mind for a +concession, and the colonists for a compromise." He was frequently +intrusted with the duty of reporting on other projects of the first +importance; but special labors of this sort did not prevent him from +taking broad and large views of the political and moral tendencies of +the time, and of forecasting with clear insight the results of the +measures of the government and of the influences at work upon the +people. On the 27th of January, 1848, he announced the Revolution, which +he saw to be at hand. A passage from his speech on this occasion is +given by M. de Beaumont. It is striking, when read by the light of +subsequent events, for the truth of its inferences, the force of its +statements, and its prophetic warnings. After speaking of the opinions +and ideas prevalent among the working classes, he said, "When such +opinions take root, when they spread themselves so widely, when they +strike down deeply into the masses, they must bring about, sooner or +later, I do not know when, I do not know how, but they must bring about, +sooner or later, the most formidable revolutions.... I believe that at +this moment we are asleep upon a volcano. (_Dissent_.) I am profoundly +convinced of it." + +Tocqueville, thus anticipating the Revolution, was more afflicted and +disappointed than surprised, when it overthrew the monarchy in February. +He had comprehended beforehand that its character was to be rather +social than simply political. He had determined to accept it as a +necessary evil. He measured from the first the risk to which the +principles to the maintenance of which he was devoted were exposed, the +peril which, threatened liberty itself. Believing that the Republic now +afforded the only and perhaps the last chance of liberty in France, and +that its downfall would result in throwing power into the hands of an +individual ruler, he determined to give all his support to the new +government, and to endeavor to work out the good of his country by means +which gave little encouragement or hope of success. He took part in the +Constituent Assembly, was one of the committee to form the Constitution, +and in the autumn of 1848 represented France as plenipotentiary at the +Conference held at Brussels, which had for its object the mediation of +France and England between Austria and Sardinia. The next year, having +just been elected a member of the Legislative Assembly, he was invited +by the President of the Republic to take the portfolio of Foreign +Affairs in the ministry of M. Barrot. He did not hold office long. +The ministry was too honest and too firm to suit the designs of the +President, and on the 31st of October Louis Napoleon announced, in a +message which took the Assembly by surprise, that it had been dismissed, +and a new set of ministers appointed. The President endeavored to retain +Tocqueville, and to win him over to his party; but Tocqueville already +presaged the fall of the Republic, and witnessed with anxiety and +discouragement the approach of the Empire. He remained a member of the +Assembly to the last. He was one of the deputies arrested on the 2d of +December, 1851, and was confined for a time at Vincennes. "Here ended +his political life. It ended with liberty in France." + +The remaining years of Tocqueville's life were spent in a retirement +which might have been happy, had he not felt too deeply for happiness +the despotism which weighed upon France. He engaged in the studies that +resulted in his masterly work on "The Old Régime and the Revolution"; +but these studies, instead of diverting him from the contemplation +of what France had lost, gave poignancy to the sorrow excited by her +present condition. All his hopes for the prevalence of the principles +which he had sought during life to confirm and establish, all his +personal ambitions as a public man, were completely broken down. But, +though thus defeated in hope and in desire, he was not overcome in +spirit. And the record of the closing years of his life shows, more than +that of any other portion of it, the firmness, the strength, and the +sweetness of his character. + +His health, which had never been vigorous, became from year to year more +and more uncertain, and the labor which he gave to the historical work +to which he now devoted himself was frequently followed by exhaustion. +He passed some time in England, where be had many warm friends, in +examining the collections in the British Museum concerning the French +Revolution; and in 1855 he made a visit of considerable length to +Germany for the purpose of studying the social institutions of the +country, so far as they might illustrate the condition of France under +the old regime. At the beginning of 1856 the first part of his great +work was published. The impression produced by it was extraordinary. It +was, as it were, a key that opened to men the secrets of a history with +the events of which they were so familiar that it had seemed to them +nothing more was to be learned concerning it. The book is one which, +though unfinished, is, so far as it advances, complete. It will retain +its place as an historical essay of the highest value; for it is a study +of the past, undertaken not merely with the intention of elucidating the +facts of a particular period of history, but also with the design of +investigating and establishing the general principles in politics and +government of which facts and events are but the external indications. +Tocqueville was too honest to write according to any predetermined +theory; but he also penetrated too deeply into the causes of things not +to arrive, at length, at definite conclusions as to the meaning and +teachings of history. + +Tocqueville had now reached the summit of fame as an author. He enjoyed +the harvest of success, and his ambition was urged by it to new +exertion. But in the summer of 1858 he had an alarming attack of +bleeding at the lungs, accompanied with a general prostration of +strength. In the autumn, his physicians ordered him to the South, and +early in November he arrived at Cannes, where he was to spend the +winter. But neither change of climate nor tender nursing was sufficient +to prevent his disease from progressing. He suffered much, but he still +hoped. He became worse as the spring came on, and on the 16th of April, +1859, he died. He was fifty-four years old, but he had lived a long +life, if life be measured by thought and moral progress. + +In his domestic life Tocqueville had been most happy, and it was in his +own home that his character appeared in its most delightful aspect. In +society he was a converser of extraordinary brilliancy. Few men were his +rivals in this art, so well practised in Paris. His flow of ideas was +not more remarkable than the choiceness and vigor of his expression. But +he was not a tyrant in talk, and he was as ready to listen as to seek +for listeners. His social powers were at the service of his friends. He +was not of a gay temper, but he had a peculiar thoughtfulness for others +which gave a charm to his manners far superior to that of careless +vivacity. M. de Beaumont speaks of him in his relations to his friends +in words full of feeling:-- + +"I have said that he had many friends; but he experienced a still +greater happiness, that of never losing one of them. He had also another +happiness: it was the knowing how to love them all so well, that none +ever complained of the share he received, even while seeing that of the +others. He was as ingenious as he was sincere in his attachments; and +never, perhaps, did example prove better than his how many charms +good-wit adds to good-will (_combien l'esprit ajoute de charmes à la +bonté_). + +"Good as he was," continues M. de Beaumont, "he aspired without ceasing +to become better; and it is certain that each day he drew nearer to that +moral perfection which seemed to him the only end worthy of man.... +Each day he brought into all his sentiments and all his actions +something of deeper piety, and stronger gratitude to God.... He was +more patient, more laborious, more watchful to lose nothing of that life +which he loved so well, and which he had the right to find beautiful, +he who made of it so noble a use! Finally, it may be said to his honor, +that at an epoch in which each man tends to concentrate his regard upon +himself, he had no other aim than that of seeking for truths useful to +his fellows, no other passion than that of increasing their well-being +and their dignity."--Vol. I. p. 124. + +The correspondence of a man about whom such--words may be said without +exaggeration has more than a merely literary interest. This book is +one of which the literary critic is not the final judge. Tocqueville's +letters, like every genuine series of letters written without thought +of publication, have the charm and more than the simplicity of +autobiography. Their merit lies not so much in grace of style, +picturesqueness of description, or familiar freedom of composition, +as in their exhibition of power of thought combined with delicacy +and refinement of feeling, and in the frequent expression of ardent +patriotism and strong personal sympathies with public or with private +interests. They are the letters of a man who took a grave view of life, +regarding it "as an affair with which we are charged, which must be +carried through and ended with honor to ourselves." They are the letters +also of a man of strong and faithful affections; and the long series of +them addressed during twenty-five years to the Count Louis de Kergorlay +has, in addition to its interest from its variety of topics, a special +moral value as the record of a close and confidential friendship +maintained in spite of the widest divergence of political opinion during +a period of unusual political excitement. Few men have the temper or the +sentiment requisite for the support of intimate relations under +such conditions. But his friendships occupied a very large place in +Tocqueville's life. In them he found happiness and repose. To one of his +friends he writes in 1844, "The remembrance of you is the more precious +to me because it calms in me all those troubles of the soul that +politics engender." And thus in the most trying passages of his life, +and especially in the discouragement of his later years, the thought +of his friends seems to have been constantly with him, and his +correspondence with them became almost a necessity for his spirit. +His letters, or rather that portion of them which M. de Beaumont has +published, and which must some day be succeeded by a fuller collection, +have thus a double character: they contain the judgments of a wide and +profound thinker on the subjects which interested him, while they show +him in the most amiable and attractive light as a generous and constant +friend. They are not to be compared in wit or elaborate finish with the +brilliant letters of Courier; they have not the striking originality and +terse vigor of those of De Maistre, but they have the grace of simple +and pure feeling, and the worth of clear, manly, high-toned thought. No +one capable of appreciating them can read them without learning to +feel toward their author not merely respect, but also a strong personal +regard. The two following extracts have a special appropriateness to +the present condition of our own country, while at the same time they +display the qualities most characteristic of Tocqueville's intellect. +They are both from letters addressed to one of the most distinguished +correspondents of his later years, Madame de Swetchine. + +"There are, it seems to me, two distinct divisions in morals, one as +important as the other in the eyes of God, but in which in our days his +ministers instruct us with very unequal ardor. One belongs to private +life: it embraces the relative duties of mankind as fathers, as sons, as +wives, as husbands. The other regards public life: the duties of every +citizen toward his country, and toward that human society of which he +forms a special part. Am I deceived in believing that the clergy of our +time are very much occupied with the first portion of morals, and very +little with the second? This appears to me especially observable in the +manner in which women think and feel. I see a great number of them who +have a thousand private virtues in which the direct and beneficent +action of religion manifests itself,--who, thanks to it, are most +faithful wives and excellent mothers, who show themselves just and +indulgent toward their domestics, charitable to the poor. But as to that +portion of duties which is connected with public life, they do not +seem to have even the idea of it. Not only they do not practise them +themselves, which is natural enough, but they do not seem even to have +the thought of inculcating them on those over whom they have influence. +It is a side of education that is, as it were, invisible to them. It +was not so under that old regime which, in the midst of many vices, +developed proud and manly virtues. I have often heard it told, that +my grandmother, who was a very religious (_très sainte_) woman, after +impressing upon her young son the exercise of all the duties of private +life, failed not to add,--'And then, my child, never forget that a man +owes himself above all to his country; that there is no sacrifice that +he ought not to make for her; that he cannot remain indifferent to her +fate; that God requires of him that he be always ready to consecrate, +if need be, his time, his fortune, even his life, to the service of the +State and of the king."--Vol. II. p. 341. + +"I do not ask of the priests to require of the men whose education is +committed to them, or over whom they exercise influence, I do not ask of +them to require of these men, as a duty of conscience, to support the +republic or the monarchy; but I avow that I desire that they should +oftener tell them, that, as they are Christians, so they belong to one +of those great human associations which God has established, without +doubt in order to render more visible and more sensible the bonds which +ought to unite individuals to each other,--associations which are named +the people, and whose territory is called the country. I desire that +they should cause the fact to penetrate more deeply into the souls of +men, that each man owes himself to this collective existence before +belonging to himself; that in regard to this existence no man is allowed +to be indifferent, still less to make of indifference a sort of feeble +virtue which enervates many of the most noble instincts that have been +given to us; that all are responsible for what happens to it, and that +all, according to their light, are bound to labor constantly for its +prosperity, to take care that it be submitted only to beneficent, +respectable, and lawful authorities.... This is what I wish should be +inculcated on men, and especially on women. Nothing has more struck me, +in an experience now of considerable length in public affairs, than the +influence that women always exercise in this matter,--influence so much +the greater as it is indirect. I do not doubt that it is they above all +who give to every nation a certain moral temperament, which shows itself +afterwards in politics."--Vol. II. p. 348. Tocqueville's services to +France, to liberty, did not end with his life. The example, no less than +the writings of such a man, bears fruit in later times. It belongs to no +one land. Wherever men are striving in thought or in action to support +the cause of freedom and of law, to strengthen institutions founded +on principles of equal justice, to secure established liberties by +defending the government in which they are embodied, his teachings will +be prized, and his memory be honored. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE MONK'S STRUGGLE. + + +The golden sunshine of the spring morning was deadened to a sombre tone +in the shadowy courts of the Capuchin convent. The reddish brown of the +walls was flecked with gold and orange spots of lichen; and here +and there, in crevices, tufts of grass, or even a little bunch of +gold-blooming flowers, looked hardily forth into the shadowy air. A +covered walk, with stone arches, inclosed a square filled with dusky +shrubbery. There were tall funereal cypresses, whose immense height and +scraggy profusion of decaying branches showed their extreme old age. +There were gaunt, gnarled olives, with trunks twisted in immense +serpent folds, and boughs wreathed and knotted into wild, unnatural +contractions, as if their growth had been a series of spasmodic +convulsions, instead of a calm and gentle development of Nature. There +were overgrown clumps of aloes, with the bare skeletons of former +flower-stalks standing erect among their dusky horns or lying rotting on +the ground beside them. The place had evidently been intended for the +culture of shrubbery and flowers, but the growth of the trees had long +since so intercepted the sunlight and fresh air that not even grass +could find root beneath their branches. The ground was covered with a +damp green mould, strewn here and there with dead boughs, or patched +with tufts of fern and lycopodium, throwing out their green hairy roots +into the moist soil. A few half-dead roses and jasmines, remnants of +former days of flowers, still maintained a struggling existence, but +looked wan and discouraged in the effort, and seemed to stretch and pine +vaguely for a freer air. In fact, the whole garden might be looked upon +as a sort of symbol of the life by which it was surrounded,--a life +stagnant, unnatural, and unhealthy, cut off from all those thousand +stimulants to wholesome development which are afforded by the open plain +of human existence, where strong natures grow distorted in unnatural +efforts, though weaker ones find in its lowly shadows a congenial +refuge. + +We have given the brighter side of conventual life in the days we are +describing: we have shown it as often a needed shelter of woman's +helplessness during ages of political uncertainty and revolution; we +have shown it as the congenial retreat where the artist, the poet, the +student, and the man devoted to ideas found leisure undisturbed to +develop themselves under the consecrating protection of religion. The +picture would be unjust to truth, did we not recognize, what, from our +knowledge of human nature, we must expect, a conventual life of far less +elevated and refined order. We should expect that institutions which +guarantied to each individual a livelihood, without the necessity of +physical labor or the responsibility of supporting a family, might in +time come to be incumbered with many votaries in whom indolence and +improvidence were the only impelling motives. In all ages of the world +the unspiritual are the majority,--the spiritual the exceptions. It was +to the multitude that Jesus said, "Ye seek me, not because ye saw the +miracles, but because ye did eat and were filled,"--and the multitude +has been much of the same mind from that day to this. + +The convent of which we speak had been for some years under the lenient +rule of the jolly Brother Girolamo,--an easy, wide-spread, loosely +organized body, whose views of the purpose of human existence were +decidedly Anacreontic. Fasts he abominated; night-prayers he found +unfavorable to his constitution; but he was a judge of olives and good +wine, and often threw out valuable hints in his pastoral visits on the +cooking of maccaroni, for which he had himself elaborated a savory +recipe; and the cellar and larder of the convent, during his pastorate, +presented so many urgent solicitations to conventual repose, as to +threaten an inconvenient increase in the number of brothers. The monks +in his time lounged in all the sunny places of the convent like so many +loose sacks of meal, enjoying to the full the _dolce far niente_ which +seems to be the universal rule of Southern climates. They ate and drank +and slept and snored; they made pastoral visits through the surrounding +community which were far from edifying; they gambled, and tippled, and +sang most unspiritual songs; and keeping all the while their own private +pass-key to Paradise tucked under their girdles, were about as jolly +a set of sailors to Eternity as the world had to show. In fact, the +climate of Southern Italy and its gorgeous scenery are more favorable +to voluptuous ecstasy than to the severe and grave warfare of the true +Christian soldier. The sunny plains of Capua demoralized the soldiers of +Hannibal, and it was not without a reason that ancient poets made those +lovely regions the abode of Sirens whose song maddened by its sweetness, +and of a Circe who made men drunk with her sensual fascinations, till +they became sunk to the form of brutes. Here, if anywhere, is the +lotos-eater's paradise,--the purple skies, the enchanted shores, the +soothing gales, the dreamy mists, which all conspire to melt the energy +of the will, and to make existence either a half-doze of dreamy apathy +or an awaking of mad delirium. + +It was not from dreamy, voluptuous Southern Italy that the religious +progress of the Italian race received any vigorous impulses. These came +from more northern and more mountainous regions, from the severe, clear +heights of Florence, Perugia, and Assisi, where the intellectual and the +moral both had somewhat of the old Etruscan earnestness and gloom. + +One may easily imagine the stupid alarm and helpless confusion of these +easy-going monks, when their new Superior came down among them hissing +with a white heat from the very hottest furnace-fires of a new religious +experience, burning and quivering with the terrors of the world to +come,--pale, thin, eager, tremulous, and yet with all the martial +vigor of the former warrior, and all the habits of command of a former +princely station. His reforms gave no quarter to right or left; sleepy +monks were dragged out to midnight-prayers, and their devotions +enlivened with vivid pictures of hell-fire and ingenuities of eternal +torment enough to stir the blood of the most torpid. There was to be +no more gormandizing, no more wine-bibbing; the choice old wines were +placed under lock and key for the use of the sick and poor in the +vicinity; and every fast of the Church, and every obsolete rule of the +order, were revived with unsparing rigor. It is true, they hated their +new Superior with all the energy which laziness and good living had left +them, but they every soul of them shook in their sandals before him; for +there is a true and established order of mastery among human beings, and +when a man of enkindled energy and intense will comes among a flock of +irresolute commonplace individuals, he subjects them to himself by a +sort of moral paralysis similar to what a great, vigorous gymnotus +distributes among a fry of inferior fishes. The bolder ones, who made +motions of rebellion, were so energetically swooped upon, and consigned +to the discipline of dungeon and bread-and-water, that less courageous +natures made a merit of siding with the more powerful party, mentally +resolving to carry by fraud the points which they despaired of +accomplishing by force. + +On the morning we speak of, two monks might have been seen lounging on +a stone bench by one of the arches, looking listlessly into the sombre +garden-patch we have described. The first of these, Father Anselmo, was +a corpulent fellow, with an easy swing of gait, heavy animal features, +and an eye of shrewd and stealthy cunning: the whole air of the man +expressed the cautious, careful voluptuary. The other, Father Johannes, +was thin, wiry, and elastic, with hands like birds' claws, and an eye +that reminded one of the crafty cunning of a serpent. His smile was a +curious blending of shrewdness and malignity. He regarded his companion +from time to time obliquely from the corners of his eyes, to see what +impression his words were making, and had a habit of jerking himself up +in the middle of a sentence and looking warily round to see if any one +were listening, which indicated habitual distrust. + +"Our holy Superior is out a good while this morning," he said, at +length. + +The observation was made in the smoothest and most silken tones, but +they carried with them such a singular suggestion of doubt and inquiry +that they seemed like an accusation. + +"Ah?" replied the other, perceiving evidently some intended undertone of +suspicion lurking in the words, but apparently resolved not to commit +himself to his companion. + +"Yes," said the first; "the zeal of the house of the Lord consumes him, +the blessed man!" + +"Blessed man!" echoed the second, rolling up his eyes, and giving a deep +sigh, which shook his portly proportions so that they quivered like +jelly. + +"If he goes on in this way much longer," continued Father Johannes, +"there will soon be very little mortal left of him; the saints will +claim him." + +Father Anselmo gave something resembling a pious groan, but darted +meanwhile a shrewd observant glance at the speaker. + +"What would become of the convent, were he gone?" said Father Johannes. +"All these blessed reforms which he has brought about would fall back; +for our nature is fearfully corrupt, and ever tends to wallow in the +mire of sin and pollution. What changes hath he wrought in us all! To be +sure, the means were sometimes severe. I remember, brother, when he had +you under ground for more than ten days. My heart was pained for you; +but I suppose you know that it was necessary, in order to bring you to +that eminent state of sanctity where you now stand." + +The heavy, sensual features of Father Anselmo flushed up with some +emotion, whether of anger or of fear it was hard to tell; but he gave +one hasty glance at his companion, which, if a glance could kill, would +have struck him dead, and then there fell over his countenance, like a +veil, an expression of sanctimonious humility, as he replied,-- + +"Thank you for your sympathy, dearest brother. I remember, too, how I +felt for you that week when you were fed only on bread and water, and +had to take it on your knees off the floor, while the rest of us sat at +table. How blessed it must be to have one's pride brought down in that +way! When our dear, blessed Superior first came, brother, you were as a +bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, but now what a blessed change! It must +give you so much peace! How you must love him!" + +"I think we love him about equally," said Father Johannes, his dark, +thin features expressing the concentration of malignity. "His labors +have been blessed among us. Not often does a faithful shepherd meet so +loving a flock. I have been told that the great Peter Abelard found far +less gratitude. They tried to poison him in the most holy wine." + +"How absurd!" interrupted Father Anselmo, hastily; "as if the blood of +the Lord, as if our Lord himself, could be made poison!" + +"Brother, it is a fact," insisted the former, in tones silvery with +humility and sweetness. + +"A fact that the most holy blood can be poisoned?" replied the other, +with horror evidently genuine. + +"I grieve to say, brother," said Father Johannes, "that in my profane +and worldly days I tried that experiment on a dog, and the poor brute +died in five minutes. Ah, brother," he added, observing that his obese +companion was now thoroughly roused, "you see before you the chief of +sinners! Judas was nothing to me; and yet, such are the triumphs +of grace, I am an unworthy member of this most blessed and pious +brotherhood; but I do penance daily in sackcloth and ashes for my +offence." + +"But, Brother Johannes, was it really so? did it really happen?" +inquired Father Anselmo, looking puzzled. "Where, then, is our faith?" + +"Doth our faith rest on human reason, or on the evidence of our senses, +Brother Anselmo? I bless God that I have arrived at that state where I +can adoringly say, 'I believe, because it is impossible.' Yea, brother, +I know it to be a fact that the ungodly have sometimes destroyed holy +men, like our Superior, who could not be induced to taste wine for +any worldly purpose, by drugging the blessed cup; so dreadful are the +ragings of Satan in our corrupt nature!" + +"I can't see into that," said Father Anselmo, still looking confused. + +"Brother," answered Father Johannes, "permit an unworthy sinner to +remind you that you must not try to see into anything; all that is +wanted of you in our most holy religion is to shut your eyes and +believe; all things are possible to the eye of faith. Now, humanly +speaking," he added, with a peculiarly meaning look, "who would believe +that you kept all the fasts of our order, and all the extraordinary ones +which it hath pleased our blessed Superior to lay upon us, as you surely +do? A worldling might swear, to look at you, that such flesh and color +must come in some way from good meat and good wine; but we remember how +the three children throve on the pulse and rejected the meat from the +king's table." + +The countenance of Father Anselmo expressed both anger and alarm at +this home-thrust, and the changes did not escape the keen eye of Father +Johannes, who went on. + +"I directed the eyes of our holy father upon you as a striking example +of the benefits of abstemious living, showing that the days of miracles +are not yet past in the Church, as some skeptics would have us believe. +He seemed to study you attentively. I have no doubt he will honor you +with some more particular inquiries,--the blessed saint!" + +Father Anselmo turned uneasily on his seat and stealthily eyed his +companion, to see, if possible, how much real knowledge was expressed by +his words, and then answered on quite another topic. + +"How this garden has fallen to decay! We miss old Father Angelo +sorely, who was always trimming and cleansing it. Our Superior is too +heavenly-minded to have much thought for earthly things, and so it +goes." + +Father Johannes watched this attempt at diversion with a glitter of +stealthy malice, and, seeming to be absorbed in contemplation, broke out +again exactly where he had left off on the unwelcome subject. + +"I mind me now, Brother Anselmo, that, when you came out of your cell to +prayers, the other night, your utterance was thick, and your eyes heavy +and watery, and your gait uncertain. One would swear that you had been +drunken with new wine; but we knew it was all the effect of fasting and +devout contemplation, which inebriates the soul with holy raptures, as +happened to the blessed Apostles on the day of Pentecost. I remarked the +same to our holy father, and he seemed to give it earnest heed, for +I saw him watching you through all the services. How blessed is such +watchfulness!" + +"The Devil take him!" said Father Anselmo, suddenly thrown off his +guard; but checking himself, he added, confusedly,--"I mean"-- + +"I understand you, brother," said Father Johannes; "it is a motion of +the old nature not yet entirely subdued. A little more of the discipline +of the lower vaults, which you have found so precious, will set all that +right." + +"You would not inform against me?" said Father Anselmo, with an +expression of alarm. + +"It would be my duty, I suppose," said Father Johannes, with a sigh; +"but, sinner that I am, I never could bring my mind to such proceedings +with the vigor of our blessed father. Had I been Superior of the +convent, as was talked of, bow differently might things have proceeded! +I should have erred by a sinful laxness. How fortunate that it was he, +instead of such a miserable sinner as myself!" + +"Well, tell me, then, Father Johannes,--for your eyes are shrewd as a +lynx's,--is our good Superior so perfect as he seems? or does he have +his little private comforts sometimes, like the rest of us? Nobody, +you know, can stand it to be always on the top round of the ladder to +Paradise. For my part, between you and me, I never believed all that +story they read to us so often about Saint Simon Stylites, who passed so +many years on the top of a pillar and never came down. Trust me, the old +boy found his way down sometimes, when all the world was asleep, and got +somebody to do duty for him meantime, while he took a little something +comfortable. Is it not so?" + +"I am told to believe, and I do believe," said Father Johannes, casting +down his eyes, piously; "and, dear brother, it ill befits a sinner like +me to reprove; but it seemeth to me as if you make too much use of the +eyes of carnal inquiry. Touching the life of our holy father, I cannot +believe the most scrupulous watch can detect anything in his walk or +conversation other than appears in his profession. His food is next to +nothing,--a little chopped spinach or some bitter herb cooked without +salt for ordinary days, and on fast days he mingles this with ashes, +according to a saintly rule. As for sleep, I believe he does without +it; for at no time of the night, when I have knocked at the door of +his cell, have I found him sleeping. He is always at his prayers or +breviary. His cell hath only a rough, hard board for a bed, with a log +of rough wood for a pillow; yet he complains of that as tempting to +indolence." + +Father Anselmo shrugged his fat shoulders, ruefully. + +"It's all well enough," he said, "for those that want to take this hard +road to Paradise; but why need they drive the flock up with them?" + +"True enough, Brother Anselmo," said Father Johannes; "but the flock +will rejoice in it in the end, doubtless. I understand he is purposing +to draw yet stricter the reins of discipline. We ought to be thankful." + +"Thankful? We can't wink but six times a week now," said Father Anselmo; +"and by-and-by he won't let us wink at all." + +"Hist! hush! here he comes," said Father Johannes, "What ails him? he +looks wild, like a man distraught." + +In a moment more, in fact, Father Francesco strode hastily through the +corridor, with his deep-set eyes dilated and glittering, and a vivid +hectic flush on his hollow cheeks. He paid no regard to the salutation +of the obsequious monks; in fact, he seemed scarcely to see them, but +hurried in a disordered manner through the passages and gained the room +of his cell, which he shut and locked with a violent clang. + +"What has come over him now?" said Father Anselmo. + +Father Johannes stealthily followed some distance, and then stood with +his lean neck outstretched and his head turned in the direction where +the Superior had disappeared. The whole attitude of the man, with +his acute glittering eye, might remind one of a serpent making an +observation before darting after his prey. + +"Something is working him," he said to himself; "what may it be?" + +Meanwhile that heavy oaken door had closed on a narrow cell,--bare of +everything which could be supposed to be a matter of convenience in +the abode of a human being. A table of the rudest and most primitive +construction was garnished with a skull, whose empty eyeholes and +grinning teeth were the most conspicuous objects in the room. Behind +this stood a large crucifix, manifestly the work of no common master, +and bearing evident traces in its workmanship of Florentine art: it was, +perhaps, one of the relics of the former wealth of the nobleman who +had buried his name and worldly possessions in this living sepulchre. A +splendid manuscript breviary, richly illuminated, lay open on the table; +and the fair fancy of its flowery letters, the lustre of gold and silver +on its pages, formed a singular contrast to the squalid nakedness of +everything else in the room. This book, too, had been a family heirloom; +some lingering shred of human and domestic affection sheltered itself +under the protection of religion in making it the companion of his +self-imposed life of penance and renunciation. + +Father Francesco had just returned from the scene in the confessional we +have already described. That day had brought to him one of those pungent +and vivid inward revelations which sometimes overset in a moment some +delusion that has been the cherished growth of years. Henceforth the +reign of self-deception was past,--there was no more self-concealment, +no more evasion. He loved Agnes,--he knew it,--he said it over and over +again to himself with a stormy intensity of energy; and in this hour +the whole of his nature seemed to rise in rebellion against the awful +barriers which hemmed in and threatened this passion. He now saw clearly +that all that he had been calling fatherly tenderness, pastoral zeal, +Christian unity, and a thousand other evangelical names, was nothing +more nor less than a passion that had gone to the roots of existence and +absorbed into itself all that there was of him. Where was he to look for +refuge? What hymn, what prayer had he not blent with her image? It was +this that he had given to her as a holy lesson,--it was that that she +had spoken of to him as the best expression of her feelings. This prayer +he had explained to her,--he remembered just the beautiful light in her +eyes, which were fixed on his so trustingly. How dear to him had been +that unquestioning devotion, that tender, innocent humility!--how dear, +and how dangerous! + +We have read of flowing rivulets wandering peacefully without ripple or +commotion, so long as no barrier stayed their course, suddenly chafing +in angry fury when an impassable dam was thrown across their waters. So +any affection, however genial and gentle in its own nature, may become +an ungovernable, ferocious passion, by the intervention of fatal +obstacles in its course. In the case of Father Francesco, the sense of +guilt and degradation fell like a blight over all the past that had been +so ignorantly happy. He thought he had been living on manna, but found +it poison. Satan had been fooling him, leading him on blindfold, and +laughing at his simplicity, and now mocked at his captivity. And how +nearly had he been hurried by a sudden and overwhelming influence to the +very brink of disgrace! He felt himself shiver and grow cold to think of +it. A moment more and he had blasted that pure ear with forbidden words +of passion; and even now he remembered, with horror, the look of grave +and troubled surprise in those confiding eyes, that had always looked +up to him trustingly, as to God. A moment more and he had betrayed the +faith he taught her, shattered her trust in the holy ministry, and +perhaps imperilled her salvation. He breathed a sigh of relief when he +thought of it,--he had not betrayed himself, he had not fallen in her +esteem, he still stood on that sacred vantage-ground where his power +over her was so great, and where at least he possessed her confidence +and veneration. There was still time for recollection, for self-control, +for a vehement struggle which should set all right again: but, alas! how +shall a man struggle who finds his whole inner nature boiling in furious +rebellion against the dictates of his conscience,--self against self? + +It is true, also, that no passions are deeper in their hold, more +pervading and more vital to the whole human being, than those that make +their first entrance through the higher nature, and, beginning with a +religious and poetic ideality, gradually work their way through the +whole fabric of the human existence. + +From grosser passions, whose roots lie in the senses, there is always a +refuge in man's loftier nature. He can cast them aside with contempt, +and leave them as one whose lower story is flooded can remove to a +higher loft, and live serenely with a purer air and wider prospect. But +to love that is born of ideality, of intellectual sympathy, of harmonies +of the spiritual and Immortal nature, of the very poetry and purity of +the soul, if it be placed where reason and religion forbid its exercise +and expression, what refuge but the grave,--what hope but that wide +eternity where all human barriers fall, all human relations end, and +love ceases to be a crime? A man of the world may struggle by change of +scene, place, and employment. He may put oceans between himself and the +things that speak of what he desires to forget. He may fill the void in +his life with the stirring excitement of the battlefield, or the whirl +of travel from city to city, or the press of business and care. But what +help is there for him whose life is tied down to the narrow sphere of +the convent,--to the monotony of a bare cell, to the endless repetition +of the same prayers, the same chants, the same prostrations, especially +when all that ever redeemed it from monotony has been that image and +that sympathy which conscience now bids him forget? + +When Father Francesco precipitated himself into his cell and locked +the door, it was with the desperation of a man who flies from a mortal +enemy. It seemed to him that all eyes saw just what was boiling within +him,--that the wild thoughts that seemed to scream their turbulent +importunities in his ears were speaking so loud that all the world would +hear. He should disgrace himself before the brethren whom he had so +long been striving to bring to order and to teach the lessons of holy +self-control. He saw himself pointed at, hissed at, degraded, by the +very men who had quailed before his own reproofs; and scarcely, when he +had bolted the door behind him, did he feel himself safe. Panting and +breathless, he fell on his knees before the crucifix, and, bowing his +head in his hands, fell forward upon the floor. As a spent wave melts at +the foot of a rock, so all his strength passed away, and he lay awhile +in a kind of insensibility,--a state in which, though consciously +existing, he had no further control over his thoughts and feelings. In +that state of dreamy exhaustion his mind seemed like a mirror, which, +without vitality or will of its own, simply lies still and reflects the +objects that may pass over it. As clouds sailing in the heavens cast +their images, one after another, on the glassy floor of a waveless sea, +so the scenes of his former life drifted in vivid pictures athwart his +memory. He saw his father's palace,--the wide, cool, marble halls,--the +gardens resounding with the voices of falling waters. He saw the fair +face of his mother, and played with the jewels upon her hands. He saw +again the picture of himself, in all the flush of youth and health, +clattering on horseback through the streets of Florence with troops of +gay young friends, now dead to him as he to them. He saw himself in the +bowers of gay ladies, whose golden hair, lustrous eyes, and siren wiles +came back shivering and trembling in the waters of memory in a thousand +undulating reflections. There were wild revels,--orgies such as Florence +remembers with shame to this day. There was intermingled the turbulent +din of arms,--the haughty passion, the sudden provocation, the swift +revenge. And then came the awful hour of conviction, the face of that +wonderful man whose preaching had stirred all souls,--and then those +fearful days of penance,--that darkness of the tomb,--that dying to the +world,--those solemn vows, and the fearful struggles by which they had +been followed. + +"Oh, my God!" he cried, "is it all in vain?--so many prayers? so many +struggles?--and shall I fail of salvation at last?" + +He seemed to himself as a swimmer, who, having exhausted his last gasp +of strength in reaching the shore, is suddenly lifted up on a cruel wave +and drawn back into the deep. There seemed nothing for him but to fold +his arms and sink. + +For he felt no strength now to resist,--he felt no wish to conquer,--he +only prayed that he might lie there and die. It seemed to him that +the love which possessed him and tyrannized over his very being was a +doom,--a curse sent upon him by some malignant fate with whose power it +was vain to struggle. He detested his work,--he detested his duties,--he +loathed his vows,--and there was not a thing in his whole future to +which he looked forward otherwise than with the extreme of aversion, +except one to which he clung with a bitter and defiant tenacity,--the +spiritual guidance of Agnes. Guidance!--he laughed aloud, in the +bitterness of his soul, as he thought of this. He was her guide,--her +confessor,--to him she was bound to reveal every change of feeling; +and this love that he too well perceived rising in her heart for +another,--he would wring from her own confessions the means to repress +and circumvent it. If she could not be his, he might at least prevent +her from belonging to any other,--he might at least keep her always +within the sphere of his spiritual authority. Had he not a right to do +this?--had he not a right to cherish an evident vocation,--a right to +reclaim her from the embrace of an excommunicated infidel, and present +her as a chaste bride at the altar of the Lord? Perhaps, when that +was done, when an irrevocable barrier should separate her from all +possibility of earthly love, when the awful marriage-vow should have +been spoken which should seal her heart for heaven alone, he might +recover some of the blessed calm which her influence once brought over +him, and these wild desires might cease, and these feverish pulses be +still. + +Such were the vague images and dreams of the past and future that +floated over his mind, as he lay in a heavy sort of lethargy on the +floor of his cell, and hour after hour passed away. It grew afternoon, +and the radiance of evening came on. The window of the cell overlooked +the broad Mediterranean, all one blue glitter of smiles and sparkles. +The white-winged boats were flitting lightly to and fro, like +gauzy-winged insects in the summer air,--the song of the fishermen +drawing their nets on the beach floated cheerily upward. Capri lay like +a half-dissolved opal in shimmering clouds of mist, and Naples +gleamed out pearly clear in the purple distance. Vesuvius, with its +cloud-spotted sides, its garlanded villas and villages, its silvery +crown of vapor, seemed a warm-hearted and genial old giant lying down +in his gorgeous repose and holding all things on his heaving bosom in a +kindly embrace. + +So was the earth flooded with light and glory, that the tide poured into +the cell, giving the richness of an old Venetian painting to its bare +and squalid furniture. The crucifix glowed along all its sculptured +lines with rich golden hues. The breviary, whose many-colored leaves +fluttered as the wind from the sea drew inward, was yet brighter in its +gorgeous tints. It seemed a sort of devotional butterfly perched before +the grinning skull, which was bronzed by the enchanted light into warmer +tones of color, as if some remembrance of what once it saw and felt came +back upon it. So also the bare, miserable board which served for +the bed, and its rude pillow, were glorified. A stray sunbeam, too, +fluttered down on the floor like a pitying spirit, to light up that +pale, thin face, whose classic outlines had now a sharp, yellow setness, +like that of swooning or death; it seemed to linger compassionately on +the sunken, wasted cheeks, on the long black lashes that fell over the +deep hollows beneath the eyes like a funereal veil. Poor man! lying +crushed and torn, like a piece of rockweed wrenched from its rock by a +storm and thrown up withered upon the beach! + +From the leaves of the breviary there depends, by a fragment of gold +braid, a sparkling something that wavers and glitters in the evening +light. It is a cross of the cheapest and simplest material, that once +belonged to Agnes. She lost it from her rosary at the confessional, and +Father Francesco saw it fall, yet would not warn her of the loss, for he +longed to posses something that had belonged to her. He made it a mark +to one of her favorite hymns; but she never knew where it had gone. +Little could she dream, in her simplicity, what a power she held over +the man who seemed to her an object of such awful veneration. Little did +she dream that the poor little tinsel cross had such a mighty charm with +it, and that she herself, in her childlike simplicity, her ignorant +innocence, her peaceful tenderness and trust, was raising such a +turbulent storm of passion in the heart which she supposed to be above +the reach of all human changes. + +And now, through the golden air, the Ave Maria is sounding from the +convent-bells, and answered by a thousand tones and echoes from the +churches of the old town, and all Christendom gives a moment's adoring +pause to celebrate the moment when an angel addressed to a mortal maiden +words that had been wept and prayed for during thousands of years. Dimly +they sounded through his ear, in that half-deadly trance,--not with +plaintive sweetness and motherly tenderness, but like notes of doom and +vengeance. He felt rebellious impulses within, which rose up in hatred +against them, and all that recalled to his mind the faith which seemed +a tyranny, and the vows which appeared to him such a hopeless and +miserable failure. + +But now there came other sounds nearer and more earthly. His quickened +senses perceive a busy patter of sandalled feet outside his cell, and a +whispering of consultation,--and then the silvery, snaky tones of Father +Johannes, which had that oily, penetrative quality which passes through +all substances with such distinctness. + +"Brethren," he said, "I feel bound in conscience to knock. Our blessed +Superior carries his mortifications altogether too far. His faithful +sons must beset him with filial inquiries." + +The condition in which Father Francesco was lying, like many abnormal +states of extreme exhaustion, seemed to be attended with a mysterious +quickening of the magnetic forces and intuitive perceptions. He felt +the hypocrisy of those tones, and they sounded in his ear like the +suppressed hiss of a deadly serpent. He had always suspected that this +man hated him to the death; and he felt now that he was come with his +stealthy-tread and his almost supernatural power of prying observation, +to read the very inmost secrets of his heart. He knew that he longed for +nothing so much as the power to hurl him from his place and to reign in +his stead; and the instinct of self-defence roused him. He started up +as one starts from a dream, waked by a whisper in the ear, and, raising +himself on his elbow, looked towards the door. + +A cautious rap was heard, and then a pause. Father Francesco smiled with +a peculiar and bitter expression. The rap became louder, more energetic, +stormy at last, intermingled with vehement calls on his name. + +Father Francesco rose at length, settled his garments, passed his +hands over his brow, and then, composing himself to an expression of +deliberate gravity, opened the door and stood before them. + +"Holy father," said Father Johannes, "the hearts of your sons have +been saddened. A whole day have you withdrawn your presence from our +devotions. We feared you might have fainted, your pious austerities so +often transcend the powers of Nature." + +"I grieve to have saddened the hearts of such affectionate sons," said +the Superior, fixing his eye keenly on Father Johannes; "but I have +been performing a peculiar office of prayer to-day for a soul in deadly +peril, and have been so absorbed therein that I have known nothing that +passed. There is a soul among us, brethren," he added, "that stands at +this moment so near to damnation that even the most blessed Mother of +God is in doubt for its salvation, and whether it can be saved at all +God only knows." + +These words, rising up from a tremendous groundswell of repressed +feeling, had a fearful, almost supernatural earnestness that made the +body of the monks tremble. Most of them were conscious of living but a +shabby, shambling, dissembling life, evading in every possible way the +efforts of their Superior to bring them up to the requirements of their +profession; and therefore, when these words were bolted out among them +with such a glowing intensity, every one of them began mentally feeling +for the key of his own private and interior skeleton-closet, and +wondering which of their ghastly occupants was coming to light now. + +Father Johannes alone was unmoved, because he had long since ceased to +have a conscience. A throb of moral pulsation had for years been an +impossibility to the dried and hardened fibre of his inner nature. He +was one of those real, genuine, thorough unbelievers in all religion and +all faith and all spirituality, whose unbelief grows only more callous +by the constant handling of sacred things. Ambition was the ruling +motive of his life, and every faculty was sharpened into such +acuteness under its action that his penetration seemed at times almost +preternatural. + + +While he stood with downcast eyes and hands crossed upon his breast, +listening to the burning words which remorse and despair wrung from his +Superior, he was calmly and warily studying to see what could be made of +the evident interior conflict that convulsed him. Was there some secret +sin? Had that sanctity at last found the temptation that was more than a +match for it? And what could it be? + +To a nature with any strong combative force there is no tonic like the +presence of a secret and powerful enemy, and the stealthy glances +of Father Johannes's serpent eye did more towards restoring Father +Francesco to self-mastery than the most conscientious struggles could +have done. He grew calm, resolved, determined. Self-respect was dear to +him,--and dear to him no less that reflection of self-respect which a +man reads in other eyes. He would not forfeit his conventual honor, or +bring a stain on his order, or, least of all, expose himself to the +scoffing eye of a triumphant enemy. Such were the motives that now came +to his aid, while as yet the whole of his inner nature rebelled at the +thought that he must tear up by the roots and wholly extirpate this love +that seemed to have sent its fine fibres through every nerve of his +being. "No!" he said to himself, with a fierce interior rebellion, +"_that_ I will not do! Right or wrong, come heaven, come hell, I _will_ +love her; and if lost I must be, lost I will be!" And while this +determination lasted, prayer seemed to him a mockery. He dared not pray +alone now, when most he needed prayer; but he moved forward with dignity +towards the convent-chapel to lead the vesper devotions of his brethren. +Outwardly he was calm and rigid as a statue; but as he commenced the +service, his utterance had a terrible meaning and earnestness that were +felt even by the most drowsy and leaden of his flock. It is singular +how the dumb, imprisoned soul, locked within the walls of the body, +sometimes gives such a piercing power to the tones of the voice during +the access of a great agony. The effect is entirely involuntary, and +often against the most strenuous opposition of the will; but one +sometimes hears another reading or repeating words with an intense +vitality, a living force, which tells of some inward anguish or conflict +of which the language itself gives no expression. + +Never were the long-drawn intonations of the chants and prayers of the +Church pervaded by a more terrible, wild fervor than the Superior that +night breathed into them. They seemed to wail, to supplicate, to combat, +to menace, to sink in despairing pauses of helpless anguish, and anon to +rise in stormy agonies of passionate importunity; and the monks quailed +and trembled, they scarce knew why, with forebodings of coming wrath and +judgment. + +In the evening exhortation, which it had been the Superior's custom to +add to the prayers of the vesper-hour, he dwelt with a terrible and +ghastly eloquence on the loss of the soul. + +"Brethren," he said, "believe me, the very first hour of a damned spirit +in hell will outweigh all the prosperities of the most prosperous life. +If you could gain the whole world, that one hour of hell would outweigh +it all; how much more such miserable, pitiful scraps and fragments of +the world as they gain who for the sake of a little fleshly ease neglect +the duties of a holy profession! There is a broad way to hell through a +convent, my brothers, where miserable wretches go who have neither the +spirit to serve the Devil wholly, nor the patience to serve God; there +be many shaven crowns that gnash their teeth in hell to-night,--many a +monk's robe is burning on its owner in living fire, and the devils call +him a fool for choosing to be damned in so hard a way. 'Could you not +come here by some easier road than a cloister?' they ask. 'If you must +sell your soul, why did you not get something for it?' Brethren, there +be devils waiting for some of us; they are laughing at your paltry +shifts and evasions, at your efforts to make things easy,--for they know +how it will all end at last. Rouse yourselves! Awake! Salvation is no +easy matter,--nothing to be got between sleeping and waking. Watch, +pray, scourge the flesh, fast, weep, bow down in sackcloth, mingle your +bread with ashes, if by any means ye may escape the everlasting fire!" + +"Bless me!" said Father Anselmo, when the services were over, casting +a half-scared glance after the retreating figure of the Superior as he +left the chapel, and drawing a long breath; "it's enough to make one +sweat to hear him go on. What has come over him? Anyhow, I'll give +myself a hundred lashes this very night: something must be done." + +"Well," said another, "I confess I did hide a cold wing of fowl in the +sleeve of my gown last fast-day. My old aunt gave it to me, and I was +forced to take it for relation's sake; but I'll do so no more, as I'm a +living sinner. I'll do a penance this very night." + +Father Johannes stood under one of the arches that looked into the +gloomy garden, and, with his hands crossed upon his breast, and his +cold, glittering eye fixed stealthily now on one and now on another, +listened with an ill-disguised sneer to these hasty evidences of fear +and remorse in the monks, as they thronged the corridor on the way to +their cells. Suddenly turning to a young brother who had lately joined +the convent, he said to him,-- + +"And what of the pretty Clarice, my brother?" + +The blood flushed deep into the pale cheek of the young monk, and his +frame shook with some interior emotion, as he answered,-- + +"She is recovering." + +"And she sent for thee to shrive her?" + +"My God!" said the young man, with an imploring, wild expression in his +dark eyes, "she did; but I would not go." + +"Then Nature is still strong," said Father Johannes, pitilessly eying +the young man. + +"When will it ever die?" said the stripling, with a despairing gesture; +"it heeds neither heaven nor hell." + +"Well, patience, boy! if you have lost an earthly bride, you have gained +a heavenly one. The Church is our espoused in white linen. Bless the +Lord, without ceasing, for the exchange." + +There was an inexpressible mocking irony in the tones in which this was +said, that made itself felt to the finely vitalized spirit of the youth, +though to all the rest it sounded like the accredited average pious talk +which is more or less the current coin of religious organizations. + +Now no one knows through what wanton deviltry Father Johannes broached +this painful topic with the poor youth; but he had a peculiar faculty, +with his smooth tones and his sanctimonious smiles, of thrusting red-hot +needles into any wounds which he either knew or suspected under the +coarse woollen robes of his brethren. He appeared to do it in all +coolness, in a way of psychological investigation. + +He smiled, as the youth turned away, and a moment after started as if a +thought had suddenly struck him. + +"I have it!" he said to himself. "There may be a woman at the bottom +of this discomposure of our holy father; for he is wrought upon by +something to the very bottom of his soul. I have not studied human +nature so many years for nothing. Father Francesco hath been much in the +guidance of women. His preaching hath wrought upon them, and perchance +among them.--Aha!" he said to himself, as he paced up and down, "I have +it! I'll try an experiment upon him!" + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE SERPENT'S EXPERIMENT. + + +Father Francesco sat leaning his head on his hand by the window of his +cell, looking out upon the sea as it rose and fell, with the reflections +of the fast coming stars glittering like so many jewels on its breast. +The glow of evening had almost faded, but there was a wan, tremulous +light from the moon, and a clearness, produced by the reflection of such +an expanse of water, which still rendered objects in his cell quite +discernible. + +In the terrible denunciations and warnings just uttered, he had been +preaching to himself, striving to bring a force on his own soul by which +he might reduce its interior rebellion to submission; but, alas! when +was ever love cast out by fear? He knew not as yet the only remedy +for such sorrow,--that there is a love celestial and divine, of which +earthly love in its purest form is only the sacramental symbol and +emblem, and that this divine love can by God's power so outflood human +affections as to bear the soul above all earthly idols to its only +immortal rest. This great truth rises like a rock amid stormy seas, and +many is the sailor struggling in salt and bitter waters who cannot yet +believe it is to be found. A few saints like Saint Augustin had reached +it,--but through what buffetings, what anguish! + +At this moment, however, there was in the heart of the father one of +those collapses which follow the crisis of some mortal struggle. He +leaned on the windowsill, exhausted and helpless. + +Suddenly, a kind of illusion of the senses came over him, such as is not +infrequent to sensitive natures in severe crises of mental anguish. He +thought he heard Agnes singing, as he had sometimes heard her when he +had called in his pastoral ministrations at the little garden and paused +awhile outside that he might hear her finish a favorite hymn, which, +like a shy bird, she sang all the more sweetly for thinking herself +alone. + +Quite as if they were sung in his ear, and in her very tones, he heard +the words of Saint Bernard, which we have introduced to our reader:-- + + Jesu dulcis memoria, + Dans vera cordi gaudia: + Sed super mel et omnia + Ejus dulcis praesentia. + + "Jesu, spes poenitentibus, + Quam pius es petentibus, + Quam bonus te quaerentibus, + Sed quis invenientibus!" + +Soft and sweet and solemn was the illusion, as if some spirit breathed +them with a breath of tenderness over his soul; and he threw himself +with a burst of tears before the crucifix. + +"O Jesus, where, then, art Thou? Why must I thus suffer? She is not the +one altogether lovely; it is Thou,--Thou, her Creator and mine! Why, +why cannot I find Thee? Oh, take from my heart all other love but Thine +alone!" + +Yet even this very prayer, this very hymn, were blent with the +remembrance of Agnes; for was it not she who first had taught him the +lesson of heavenly love? Was not she the first one who had taught him to +look upward to Jesus other than as an avenging judge? Michel Angelo has +embodied in a fearful painting, which now deforms the Sistine Chapel, +that image of stormy vengeance which a religion debased by force +and fear had substituted for the tender, good shepherd of earlier +Christianity. It was only in the heart of a lowly maiden that Christ had +been made manifest to the eye of the monk, as of old he was revealed to +the world through a virgin. And how could he, then, forget her, or cease +to love her, when every prayer and hymn, every sacred round of the +ladder by which he must climb, was so full of memorials of her? While +crying and panting for the supreme, the divine, the invisible love, he +found his heart still craving the visible one,--the one so well known, +revealing itself to the senses, and bringing with it the certainty of +visible companionship. + +As he was thus kneeling and wrestling with himself, a sudden knock at +his door startled him. He had made it a point, never, at any hour of the +day or night, to deny himself to a brother who sought him for counsel, +however disagreeable the person and however unreasonable the visit. He +therefore rose and unbolted the door, and saw Father Johannes standing +with folded arms and downcast head, in an attitude of composed humility. + +"What would you with me, brother?" he asked, calmly. + +"My father, I have a wrestling of mind for one of our brethren whose +case I would present to you." + +"Come in, my brother," said the Superior. At the same time he lighted a +little iron lamp, of antique form, such as are still in common use in +that region, and, seating himself on the board which served for his +couch, made a motion to Father Johannes to be seated also. + +The latter sat down, eying, as he did so, the whole interior of the +apartment, so far as it was revealed by the glimmer of the taper. + +"Well, my son," said Father Francesco, "what is it?" + +"I have my doubts of the spiritual safety of Brother Bernard," said +Father Johannes. + +"Wherefore?" asked the Superior, briefly. + +"Holy father, you are aware of the history of the brother, and of the +worldly affliction that drove him to this blessed profession?" + +"I am," replied the Superior, with the same brevity. + +"He narrated it to me fully," said Father Johannes. "The maiden he was +betrothed to was married to another in his absence on a long journey, +being craftily made to suppose him dead." + +"I tell you I know the circumstances," said the Superior. + +"I merely recalled them, because, moved doubtless by your sermon, he +dropped words to me to-night which led me to suppose that this sinful, +earthly love was not yet extirpated from his soul. Of late the woman was +sick and nigh unto death, and sent for him." + +"But he did not go?" interposed Father Francesco. + +"No, he did not,--grace was given him thus far,--but he dropped words +to me to the effect, that in secret he still cherished the love of this +woman; and the awful words your Reverence has been, speaking to us +to-night have moved me with fear for the youth's soul, of the which I, +as an elder brother, have had some charge, and I came to consult with +you as to what help there might be for him." + +Father Francesco turned away his head a moment and there was a pause; +at last he said, in a tone that seemed like the throb of some deep, +interior anguish,-- + +"The Lord help him!" + +"Amen!" said Father Johannes, taking keen note of the apparent emotion. + +"You must have experience in these matters, my father," he added, after +a pause,--"so many hearts have been laid open to you. I would crave to +know of you what you think is the safest and most certain cure for this +love of woman, if once it hath got possession of the heart." + +"Death!" said Father Francesco, after a solemn pause. + +"I do not understand you," said Father Johannes. + +"My son," said Father Francesco, rising up with an air of authority, +"you do not understand,--there is nothing in you by which you should +understand. This unhappy brother hath opened his case to me, and I have +counselled him all I know of prayer and fastings and watchings and +mortifications. Let him persevere in the same; and if all these fail, +the good Lord will send the other in His own time. There is an end to +all things in this life, and that end shall certainly come at last. Bid +him persevere and hope in this.--And now, brother," added the Superior, +with dignity, "if you have no other query, time flies and eternity comes +on,--go, watch and pray, and leave me to my prayers also." + +He raised his hand with a gesture of benediction, and Father Johannes, +awed in spite of himself, felt impelled to leave the apartment. + +"Is it so, or is it not?" he said. "I cannot tell. He did seem to wince +and turn away his head when I proposed the case; but then he made fight +at last. I cannot tell whether I have got any advantage or not; but +patience! we shall see!" + + * * * * * + + +HEALTH IN THE CAMP. + + +All the world has heard a great deal of the sufferings and mortality +of the English and French armies in the late Russian war; and in most +countries the story has been heard to some purpose. Reforms and new +methods have been instituted in almost every country in Europe,--so +strong has been the effect of the mere outline of the case, which is all +that has been furnished to the public. The broad facts of the singular +mortality first, and the singular healthfulness of the British army +afterwards, on the same spot and under the same military circumstances +as before, have interested all rulers of armies, and brought about great +benefits to the soldier, throughout the length and breadth of Europe. +Within these broad outlines there was a multitude of details which were +never recorded in a systematic way, or which, for good and sufficient +reasons, could not be made public at the time; and these details are the +part of the story most interesting to soldiers actually in the field +or likely to be called there soon. They are also deeply interesting to +every order of persons concerned in a civil war; for such a war summons +forth a citizen soldiery to form a system for themselves in regard to +the life of the march and the camp, and to do the best they can for that +life and health which they have devoted to their country. Under such +circumstances it cannot but be interesting to the patriots in the camp +and to their families at home to know some facts which they cannot have +heard before of the mistakes made at the beginning of the last Russian +war, and the repair of those mistakes before the end of it. The prompt +and anxious care exercised by the American Sanitary Commission, and the +benevolent diligence bestowed on the organization of hospitals for the +Federal forces, show that the lesson of the Crimean campaign has been +studied in the United States; and this is an encouragement to afford +further illustrations of the case, when new material is at command. + +I am thinking most of the volunteer forces at this moment, for the +obvious reason that their health is in greater danger than that of the +professional soldier. The regular troops live under a system which is +always at work to feed, clothe, lodge, and entertain them: whereas +the volunteers are quitting one mode of life for another, all the +circumstances of which had to be created at the shortest notice. To them +their first campaign must be very like what it was to British soldiers +who had never seen war to be sent to Turkey first, and then to the +Crimea, to live a new kind of life, and meet discomforts and dangers +which they had never dreamed of. I shall therefore select my details +with a view to the volunteers and their friends in the first place. + +The enthusiasm which started the volunteers of every Northern State on +their new path of duty could hardly exceed that by which the British +troops were escorted from their barrack-gates to the margin of the sea. +The war was universally approved (except by a clique of peace-men); and +there was a universal confidence that the troops would do their duty +well, though not one man in a thousand of them had ever seen war. As +they marched down to their ships, in the best mood, and with every +appearance of health and spirit, nobody formed any conception of what +would happen. Parliament had fulfilled the wishes of the people +by voting liberal sums for the due support of the troops; the +Administration desired and ordered that everything should be done for +the soldier's welfare; and as far as orders and arrangements went, the +scheme was thoroughly well intended and generous. Who could anticipate, +that, while the enemy never once gained a battle or obtained an +advantage over British or French, two-thirds of that fine stout British +force would perish in a few months? Of the twenty-five thousand who went +out, eighteen thousand were dead in a year; and the enemy was answerable +for a very small proportion of those deaths. Before me lie the returns +of six months of those twelve, showing the fate of the troops for that +time; and it furnishes the key to the whole story. + +In those six months, the admissions into hospital in the Crimea +(exclusive of the Santari Hospital) were 52,548. The number shows that +many must have entered the hospitals more than once, as well as that the +place of the dead was supplied by new comers from England. Of these, +nearly fifty thousand were absolutely untouched by the Russians. Only +3,806 of the whole number were wounded. Even this is not the most +striking circumstance. It is more impressive that three-fourths of the +sick suffered unnecessarily. Seventy-five per cent. of them suffered +from preventable diseases. That is, the naturally sick were 12,563; +while the needlessly sick were 36,179. When we look at the deaths from +this number, the case appears still more striking. The deaths were +5,359; and of these scarcely more than the odd hundreds were from +wounds,--that is, 373. Of the remainder, little more than one-tenth were +unavoidable deaths. The natural deaths, as we may call them, were only +521; while the preventable deaths were 4,465. Very different would have +been the spirit of the parting in England, if the soldiers' friends had +imagined that so small a number would fall by Russian gun or bayonet, or +by natural sickness, while the mortality from mismanagement would at one +season of the next year exceed that of London in the worst days of the +Great Plague. + +That the case was really what is here represented was proved by the +actual prevention of this needless sickness during the last year of the +war. In the same camp, and under the same circumstances of warfare, the +mortality was reduced, by good management, to a degree unhoped for by +all but those who achieved it. The deaths for the last half year were +one-third fewer than at home! And yet the army that died was composed of +fine, well-trained troops; while the army that lived and flourished was +of a far inferior material when it came out,--raw, untravelled, and +unhardened to the military life. + +How did these things happen? There can be no more important question for +Americans at this time. + +I will not go into the history of the weaknesses and faults of the +administration of departments at home. They have been abundantly +published already; and we may hope that they bear no relation to the +American case. It is more interesting to look into the circumstances of +the march and the camp, for illustration of what makes the health or the +sickness of the soldier. + +Wherever the men were to provide themselves with anything to eat or to +wear out of their pay, they were found to suffer. There is no natural +market, with fair prices, in the neighborhood of warfare; and, on the +one hand, a man cannot often get what he wishes, and, on the other, +he is tempted to buy something not so good for him. If there are +commissariat stores opened, there is an endless accumulation of +business,--a mass of accounts to keep of the stoppages from the men's +pay. On all accounts it is found better for all parties that the wants +of the soldier should be altogether supplied in the form of rations of +varied food and drink, and of clothing varying with climate and season. + +In regard to food, which comes first in importance of the five heads of +the soldier's wants, the English soldier was remarkably helpless till +he learned better. The Russians cut that matter very short. Every man +carried a certain portion of black rye bread and some spirit. No cooking +was required, and the men were very independent. But the diet is bad; +and the Russian regiments were composed of sallow-faced men, who died +"like flies" under frequently recurring epidemics. The Turks were in +their own country, and used their accustomed diet. The French are the +most apt, the most practised, and the most economical managers of food +of any of the parties engaged in the war. Their campaigns in Algeria had +taught them how to help themselves; and they could obtain a decent meal +where an Englishman would have eaten nothing, or something utterly +unwholesome. The Sardinians came next, and it was edifying to see how +they could build a fire-place and obtain a fire in a few minutes to boil +their pot. In other ways both French and Sardinians suffered miserably +when the British had surmounted their misfortunes. The mortality from +cholera and dysentery in the French force, during the last year, was +uncalculated and unreported. It was so excessive as, in fact, to close +the war too soon. The Sardinians were ravaged by disease from their huts +being made partly under ground. But, so far as the preparation of their +food went, both had the advantage of the British, in a way which will +never happen again. I believe the Americans and the English are bad +cooks in about the same degree; and the warning afforded by the one may +be accepted by the other. + +At the end of a day, in Bulgaria or the Crimea, what happened was this. + +The soldiers who did not understand cooking or messing had to satisfy +their hunger any way they could. They were so exhausted that they were +sure to drink up their allowance of grog the first moment they could lay +hands on it. Then there was hard biscuit, a lump of very salt pork or +beef, as hard as a board, and some coffee, raw. Those who had no touch +of scurvy (and they were few) munched their biscuit while they poked +about everywhere with a knife, digging up roots or cutting green wood to +make a fire. Each made a hole in the ground, unless there was a bank +or great stone at hand, and there he tried, for one half-hour after +another, to kindle a fire. When he got up a flame, there was his salt +meat to cook: it ought to have been soaked and stewed for hours; but he +could not wait; and he pulled it to pieces, and gnawed what he could of +it, when it was barely warm. Then he had to roast his coffee, which he +did in the lid of his camp-kettle, burning it black, and breaking it as +small as he could, with stones or anyhow. Such coffee as it would make +could hardly be worth the trouble. It was called by one of the doctors +charcoal and water. Such a supper could not fit a man for outpost duty +for the night, nor give him good sleep after the toils of the day. + +The Sardinians, meantime, united in companies, some members of which +were usually on the spot to prepare supper for the rest. They knew how +to look for or provide a shelter for their fire, if only a foot high; +and how to cut three or four little trenches, converging at the fire, so +as to afford a good draught which would kindle even bad fuel. They had +good stews and porridge and coffee ready when wanted. The French always +had fresh bread. They carried portable ovens and good bakers. The +British had flour, after a time, but they did not know how to make +bread; and if men volunteered for the office, day after day, it usually +turned out that they had a mind for a holiday, and knew nothing of +baking; and their bread came out of the oven too heavy, or sour, or +sticky, or burnt, to be eaten. As scurvy spread and deepened, the +doctors made eager demands on Government for lime-juice, and more +lime-juice. Government had sent plenty of lime-juice; but it was somehow +neglected among the stores for twenty-four days when it was most wanted, +as was the supply of rice for six weeks when dysentery was raging. All +the time, the truth was, as was acknowledged afterwards, that the thing +really wanted was good food. The lime-juice was a medicine, a specific; +but it could be of no real use till the frame was nourished with proper +food. + +When flour, and preserved vegetables, and fresh meat were served out, +and there were coffee-mills all through the camp, the men were still +unable to benefit by the change as their allies did. They could grind +and make their coffee; but they were still without good fresh bread and +soup. They despised the preserved vegetables, not believing that those +little cakes could do them any good. When they learned at last how two +ounces of those little cakes were equal, when well cooked, to eight +ounces of fresh vegetables, and just as profitable for a stew or with +their meat, they duly prized them, and during the final healthy period +those pressed vegetables were regarded in the camp as a necessary of +life. By that time, Soyer's zeal had introduced good cookery into the +camp. Roads were made by which supplies were continually arriving. Fresh +meat abounded; and it was brought in on its own legs, so that it was +certain that beef was beef, and mutton mutton, instead of goat's flesh +being substituted, as in Bulgaria. By that time it was discovered that +the most lavish orders at home and the profusest expenditure by the +commissariat will not feed and clothe an army in a foreign country, +unless there is some agency, working between the commissariat and the +soldiers, to take care that the food is actually in their hands in an +eatable form, and the clothes on their backs. + +It is for American soldiers to judge how much of this applies to their +case. The great majority of the volunteers must be handy, self-helping +men; and bands of citizens from the same towns or villages must be +disposed and accustomed to concerted action; but cooking is probably the +last thing they have any of them turned their hand to. Much depends on +the source of their food-supply. I fear they live on the country they +are in,--at least, when in the enemy's country. This is very easy +living, certainly. To shoot pigs or fowls in road or yard is one way of +getting fresh meat, as ravaging gardens is a short way of feasting on +vegetables. But supposing the forces fed from a regular commissariat +department, is there anything to be learned from the Crimean campaigns? + +The British are better supplied with the food of the country, wherever +they are, than the French, because it is their theory and practice to +pay as they go; whereas it is the French, or at least the Bonapartist +theory and practice, to "make the war support itself," that is, to live +upon the people of the country. In the Peninsular War, the French often +found themselves in a desert where they could not stay; whereas, when +Wellington and his troops followed upon their steps, the peasants +reappeared from all quarters, bringing materials for a daily market. In +the Crimea, the faithful and ready payments of the English commissariat +insured plenty of food material, in the form of cattle and flour, +biscuit and vegetables. The defect was in means of transport for +bringing provisions to the camp. The men were trying to eat hard salt +meat and biscuit, when scurvy made all eating difficult, while herds +of cattle were waiting to be slaughtered, and ship-loads of flour were +lying seven miles off. Whole deck-loads of cabbages and onions were +thrown into the sea, while the men in camp were pining for vegetable +food. An impracticable track lay between; and the poor fellows died by +thousands before the road could be made good, and transport-animals +obtained, and the food distributed among the tents and huts. Experience +taught the officers that the food should be taken entire charge of by +departments of the army till it was actually smoking in the men's hands. +There were agents, of course, in all the countries round, to buy up the +cattle, flour, and vegetables needed. The animals should be delivered +at appointed spots, alive and in good condition, that there might be no +smuggling in of joints of doubtful character. There should be a regular +arrangement of shambles, at a proper distance from the tents, and +provided with a special drainage, and means of disposing instantly of +the offal. Each company in the camp should have its kitchen, and one +or two skilled cooks,--one to serve on each day, with perhaps two +assistants from the company. After the regular establishment of the +kitchens, there was always food ready and coffee procurable for the +tired men who came in from the trenches or outpost duty; and it was a +man's own fault, if he went without a meal when off duty. + +It was found to be a grave mistake to feed the soldiers on navy salt +beef and pork. Corned beef and pork salted for a fortnight have far more +nourishment and make much less waste in the preparation than meat which +is salted for a voyage of months. After a time, very little of the hard +salted meat was used at all. When it was, it was considered essential +to serve out peas with the pork, and flour, raisins, and suet, for a +pudding, on salt-beef days. In course of time there were additions +which made considerable variety: as rice, preserved potatoes, pressed +vegetables, cheese, dried fruits and suet for puddings, sugar, coffee +properly roasted, and malt liquor. Beer and porter answer much better +than any kind of spirit, and are worth pains and cost to obtain. With +such variety as this, with portable kitchens in the place of the +cumbersome camp-kettle per man, with fresh bread, well-cooked meat and +vegetables, and well-made coffee, the soldiers will have every chance +of health that diet can afford. Whereas hard and long-kept salt meat, +insufficiently soaked and cooked, and hastily broiled meat or fowls, +just killed, and swallowed by hungry men unskilled in preparing food, +help on diseases of the alimentary system as effectually as that +intemperance in melons and cucumbers and unripe grapes and apples which +has destroyed more soldiers than all the weapons of all enemies. + +So much for the food. Next in order come the clothing, and care of the +person. + +The newspapers have a great deal to say, as we have all seen, about the +badness of much of the clothing furnished to the Federal troops. There +is no need to denounce the conduct of faithless contractors in such a +case; and the glorious zeal of the women, and of all who can help to +make up clothing for the army, shows that the volunteers at least will +be well clad, if the good-will of society can effect it. Whatever the +form of dress, it is the height of imprudence to use flimsy material for +it. + +It seems to be everywhere agreed, in a general way, that the soldier's +dress should be of an easy fit, in the first place; light enough for hot +weather and noon service, with resources of warmth for cold weather and +night duty. In Europe, the blouse or loose tunic is preferred to every +other form of coat, and knickerbockers or gaiters to any form of +trousers. The shoe or boot is the weak point of almost all military +forces. The French are getting over it; and the English are learning +from them. The number of sizes and proportions is, I think, five to one +of what it used to be in the early part of the century, so that any +soldier can get fitted. The Duke of Wellington wrote home from the +Peninsula in those days,--"If you don't send shoes, the army can't +march." The enemy marched away to a long distance before the shoes +arrived; and when they came, they were all too small. Such things do not +happen now; but it often does happen that hundreds are made footsore, +and thrown out of the march, by being ill-shod; and there seems reason +to believe that much of the lagging and apparent desertion of stragglers +in the marches of the volunteers of the Federal army is owing to the +difficulty of keeping up with men who walk at ease. If the Southern +troops are in such want of shoes as is reported, that circumstance alone +is almost enough to turn the scale, provided the Northern regiments +attain the full use of their feet by being accurately fitted with stout +shoes or boots. During the darkest days in the Crimea, those who had +boots which would stick on ceased to take them off. They slept in them, +wet or dry, knowing, that, once off, they could never be got on again. +Such things cannot happen in the Northern States, where the stoppage of +the trade in shoes to the South leaves leather, skill, and time for the +proper shoeing of the army; but it may not yet be thoroughly understood +how far the practical value of every soldier depends on the welfare of +his feet, and how many sizes and proportions of shoe are needed for duly +fitting a thousand men. + +As for the rest, the conclusion after the Crimean campaign was that +flannel shirts answer better than cotton on the whole. If the shirt is +cotton, there must be a flannel waistcoat; and the flannel shirt answers +the purpose of both, while it is as easily washed as any material. Every +man should have a flannel bandage for the body, in case of illness, or +unusual fatigue, or sudden changes of temperature. The make and pressure +of the knapsack are very important, so that the weight may be thrown on +the shoulders, without pressure on the chest or interference with the +arms. The main object is the avoidance of pressure everywhere, from the +toe-joints to the crown of the head. For this the head-covering should +be studied, that it may afford shelter and shade from heat and light, +and keep on, against the wind, without pressure on the temples or +forehead. For this the neck-tie should he studied, and the cut of the +coat-chest and sleeve, when coats must be worn: and every man must have +some sort of overcoat, for chilly and damp hours of duty. There is great +danger in the wearing of water-proof fabrics, unless they are so loose +as to admit of a free circulation of air between them and the body. + +With the clothing is generally connected the care of the person. It +is often made a question, With whom rests the responsibility of the +personal cleanliness of the soldier? The medical men declare that they +do what they can, but that there is nothing to be said when the men are +unsupplied with water; and all persuasions are thrown away when the poor +fellows are in tatters, and sleeping on dirty straw or the bare ground. +The indolent ones, at least, go on from day to day without undressing, +combing, or washing, till they are swarming with vermin; and then they +have lost self-respect. But if, before it is too late, there is an issue +of new shirts, boots, stockings, comforters, or woollen gloves, the +event puts spirit into them; they will strip and wash, and throw out +dirt and rags from their sleeping-places, and feel respectable again. + +Perhaps the first consideration should be on the part of the +quartermaster, whose business it is to see to the supply of water; and +the sanitary officer has next to take care that every man gets his eight +or ten gallons per day. If the soldiers are posted near a stream which +can be used for bathing and washing clothes, there ought to be no +difficulty; and every man may fairly be required to be as thoroughly +washed from head to foot every days and as clean in his inner clothing, +as his own little children at home. If on high and dry ground, where the +water-supply is restricted, some method and order are needed; but no +pains should be spared to afford each man his eight or ten gallons. + +This cannot be done, unless the source of supply is properly guarded. +When unrestrained access is afforded to a spring-head or pond, the water +is fatally wasted and spoiled. In the Crimea, the English officers +had to build round the spring-heads, and establish a regular order in +getting supplied. Where there is crowding, dirt gets thrown in, the +water is muddied, or animals are brought to drink at the source. This +ruins everything; for animals will not drink below, when the mouth +of horse, mule, or cow has touched the water above. The way is for +guardians to take possession, and board over the source, and make a +reservoir with taps, allowing water to be taken first for drinking and +washing purposes, a flow being otherwise provided by spout and troughs +for the animals, and for cleansing the camp. The difference on the same +spot was enormous between the time when a British sergeant wrote that he +was not so well as at home, and could not expect it, not having had his +shoes or any of his clothes off for five months, and the same time the +next year, when every respectable soldier was fresh and tidy, with his +blood flowing healthfully under a clean skin. The poor sergeant said, in +his days of discomfort: "I wonder what our sweethearts would think of +us, if they were to see us now,--unshaved, unwashed, and quite old men!" +Cut in a year, those who survived had grown young again,--not shaven, +perhaps, for their beards were a great natural comfort on winter duty, +but brushed and washed, in vigorous health, and gay spirits. + +The next consideration is the soldier's abode,--whether tent, or hut, or +quarters. + +I have shown certain British doctors demanding lime-juice when food was +necessary first. In the same way, there was a cry from the same quarter +for peat charcoal, instead of preventing the need of disinfectants. +Wherever men are congregated in large numbers,--in a caravan, at a +fair in the East or a protracted camp-meeting in the far West, or as a +military force anywhere, there is always animal refuse which should +not be permitted to lie about for a day or an hour. Dead camels among +Oriental merchants, dead horses among Western soldiers, are the cause of +plague. It is to be hoped that there will never be a military encampment +again without the appointment of officers whose business it shall be to +see that all carrion, offal, and dirt of every kind is put away into +its proper place instantly. For those receptacles, and for stables and +shambles, peat charcoal is a great blessing; but it ought not to be +needed in or about the abodes of the men. The case is different in +different armies. The French have a showy orderliness in their way of +settling themselves on new ground,--forming their camp into streets, +with names painted up, and opening post-office, _cafés_, and bazaars of +camp-followers; but they are not radically neat in their ways. In a few +days or weeks their settlement is a place of stench, turning to disease; +and thus it was, that, notwithstanding their fresh bread, and good +cookery, and clever arrangements, they were swept away by cholera and +dysentery, to an extent unrevealed to this day, while the British force, +once well fed and clothed, had actually only five per cent sick from all +causes, in their whole force. + +The Sardinians suffered, as I have already observed, from their way of +making their huts. They excavated a space, to the depth of three or four +feet, and used the earth they threw out to embank the walls raised upon +the edge of the excavation. This procured warmth in winter and coolness +in hot weather; but the interior was damp and ill-ventilated; and as +soon as there was any collection of refuse within, cholera and fever +broke out. It is essential to health that the dwelling should be above +ground, admitting the circulation of air from the base to the ridge of +the roof, where there should be an escape for it at all hours of the day +and night. + +Among volunteer troops in America, the difficulty would naturally seem +to be the newness of the discipline, the strangeness of the requisite +obedience. Something must be true of all that is said of the scattering +about of food, and other things which have no business to lie about on +the ground. A soldier is out of his duty who throws away a crust of +bread or meat, or casts bones to dogs, or in any way helps to taint the +air or obstruct the watercourses or drains. It may be troublesome to +obey the requisitions of the sanitary authorities; but it is the only +chance for escaping camp-disease. + +On the other hand, in fixing on a spot for encampment, it is due to +the soldier to avoid all boggy places, and all places where the air is +stagnant from inclosure by woods, or near burial-grounds, or where the +soil is unfavorable to drainage. The military officer must admit the +advice of the sanitary officer in the case, though he may not be +always able to adopt it. When no overwhelming military considerations +interfere, the soldiers have a right to be placed on the most dry and +pervious soil that may offer, in an airy situation, removed from swamps +and dense woods, and admitting of easy drainage. Wood and water used to +be the quartermaster's sole demands; now, good soil and air are added, +and a suitable slope of the ground, and other minor requisites. + +It depends on the character of the country whether quarters in towns and +villages are best, or huts or tents. In Europe, town quarters are found +particularly fatal; and the state of health of the inmates of tents and +huts depends much on the structure and placing of either. Precisely the +same kind of hut in the Crimea held a little company of men in perfect +health, or a set of invalids, carried out one after another to their +graves. Nay, the same hut bore these different characters, according to +its position at the top of a slope, or half-way down, so as to collect +under its floor the drainage from a spring. American soldiers, however, +are hardly likely to be hutted, I suppose; so I need say no more than +that in huts and tents alike it is indispensable to health that there +should be air-holes,--large spaces, sheltered from rain,--in the highest +part of the structure, whether the entrance below be open or closed. The +sanitary officers no doubt have it in charge to see that every man has +his due allowance of cubic feet of fresh air,--in other words, to take +care that each tent or other apartment is well ventilated, and not +crowded. The men's affair is to establish such rules among comrades as +that no one shall stop up air-holes, or overcrowd the place with guests, +or taint the air with unwholesome fumes. In the British army, bell-tents +are not allowed at all as hospital tents. Active, healthy men may use +them in their resting hours; but their condemnation as abodes for the +sick shows how pressing is the duty of ventilating them for the use of +the strongest and healthiest. + +A sound and airy tent being provided, the next consideration is of +bedding. + +The surgeons of the British force were always on the lookout for straw +and hay, after being informed at the outset that the men could not have +bedding, though it was hoped there was enough for the hospitals. A few +nights in the dust, among the old bones and rubbish of Gallipoli, and +then in the Bulgarian marshes, showed that it would be better to bestow +the bedding before the men went into hospital, and sheets of material +were obtained for some of them to lie upon. A zealous surgeon pointed +out to the proper officer that this bedding consisted in fact of double +ticking, evidently intended as _paillasses_, to be stuffed with straw. +The straw not being granted, he actually set to work to make hay; and, +being well aided by the soldiers, he soon saw them sleeping on +good mattresses. It was understood in England, and believed by the +Government, that every soldier in camp had three blankets; and after a +time, this came true: but in the interval, during the damp autumn and +bitter winter, they had but one. Lying on wet ground, with one damp and +dirty blanket over them, prepared hundreds for the hospital and the +grave. The mischief was owing to the jealousy of some of the medical +authorities, in the first place, who would not see, believe, or allow to +be reported, the fact that the men were in any way ill-supplied, because +these same doctors had specified the stores that would be wanted,--and +next, to the absence of a department for the actual distribution of +existing stores. With the bedding the case was the same as with the +lime-juice and the rice: there was plenty; but it was not served out +till too late. When the huts were inhabited, in the Crimea, and the +wooden platforms had a dry soil beneath, and every man had a bed of some +sort and three blankets, there was no more cholera or fever. + +The American case is radically unlike that of any of the combatants in +the Crimean War, because they are on the soil of their own country, +within reach of their own railways, and always in the midst of the +ordinary commodities of life. In such a position, they can with the +utmost ease be supplied with whatever they really want,--so profuse as +are the funds placed at the command of the authorities. Considering +this, and the well-known handiness of Americans, there need surely be no +disease and death from privation. This may be confidently said while we +have before us the case of the British in the Crimea during the second +winter of the war. A sanitary commission had been sent out; and +under their authority, and by the help of experience, everything was +rectified. The healthy were stronger than ever; there was scarcely any +sickness; and the wounded recovered without drawback. As the British +ended, the Americans ought to begin. + +On the last two heads of the soldier's case there is little to be said +here, because the American troops are at home, and not in a perilous +foreign climate, and on the shores of a remote sea. Their drill can +hardly be appointed for wrong hours, or otherwise mismanaged. In regard +to transport, they have not the embarrassment of crowds of sick and +wounded, far away in the Black Sea, without any adequate supply of +mules and carriages, after the horses had died off, and without any +organization of hospital ships at all equal to the demand. Neither do +they depend for clothing and medicines on the arrival of successive +ships through the storms of the Euxine; and they will never see the +dreary spectacle of the foundering of a noble vessel just arriving, in +November, with ample stores of winter clothing, medicines, and comforts, +which six hours more would have placed in safety. Under the head of +transport, they ought to have nothing to suffer. + +Having gone through the separate items, and looking at the case as a +whole, we may easily perceive that in America, as in England and France +and every other country, the responsibility of the soldier's health in +camp is shared thus. + +The authorities are bound so to arrange their work as that there shall +be no hitch through which disaster shall reach the soldiery. The +relations between the military and medical authorities must be so +settled and made clear as that no professional jealousy among the +doctors shall keep the commanding officers in the dark as to the +needs--of their men, and that no self-will or ignorance in commanding +officers shall neutralize the counsels of the medical men. The military +authorities must not depend on the report of any doctor who may be +incompetent as to the provision made for the men's health, and the +doctor must be authorized to represent the dangers of a bad encampment +without being liable to a recommendation to keep his opinion to himself +till he is asked for it. These particular dangers are best obviated by +the appointment of sanitary officers, to attend the forces, and take +charge of the health of the army, as the physicians and surgeons take +charge of its sickness. If, besides, there is a separate department +between the commissariat and the soldiery, to see that the comforts +provided are actually brought within every man's grasp, the authorities +will have done their part. + +The rest is the soldier's own concern. When cruelly pressed by hardship, +the soldiers in Turkey and the Crimea took to drinking; and what they +drank was poison. The vile raid with which they intoxicated themselves +carried hundreds to the grave as surely as arsenic would have done. +When, at last, they were well fed, warm, clean, and comfortable, and +well amused in the coffee-houses opened for them, there was an end, or +a vast diminution, of the evil of drunkenness. Good coffee and harmless +luxuries were sold to them at cost price; and books and magazines and +newspapers, chess, draughts, and other games, were at their command. The +American soldiery are a more cultivated set of men than these, and are +in proportion more inexcusable for any resort to intemperance. They +ought to have neither the external discomfort nor the internal vacuity +which have caused drunkenness in other armies. The resort to strong +drinks so prevalent in the Americans is an ever-lasting mystery to +Europeans, who recognize in them a self-governing people, universally +educated up to a capacity for intellectual interests such as are +elsewhere found to be a safeguard against intemperance in drink. If the +precautions instituted by the authorities are well supported by the +volunteers themselves, the most fatal of all perils will be got rid of. +If not, the army will perish by a veritable suicide. But such a fate +cannot be in store for such an army. + +There is something else almost as indispensable to the health of +soldiers as sobriety, and that is subordination. The true, magnanimous, +patriotic spirit of subordination is not more necessary to military +achievement than it is to the personal composure and the trustworthiness +of nerve of the individual soldier. A strong desire and fixed habit of +obedience to command relieve a man of all internal conflict between +self-will and circumstance, and give him possession of his full powers +of action and endurance. If absolute reliance on authority is a +necessity to the great majority of mankind, (which it is,) it is to the +few wisest and strongest a keen enjoyment when they can righteously +indulge in it; and the occasion on which it is supremely a duty--in the +case of military or naval service--is one of privilege. Americans are +less accustomed than others to prompt and exact obedience, being a +self-governing and unmilitary nation: and they may require some time to +become aware of the privileges of subordination to command. But time +will satisfy them of the truth; and those who learn the lesson most +quickly will be the most sensible of the advantage to health of body, +through ease of mind. The abdication of self-will in regard to the +ordering of affairs, the repose of reliance upon the responsible +parties, the exercise of silent endurance about hardships and fatigues, +the self-respect which relishes the honor of cooperation through +obedience, the sense of patriotic devotedness which glows through every +act of submission to command,--all these elevated feelings tend to +composure of the nerves, to the fortifying of brain and limb, and the +genial repose and exaltation of all the powers of mind and body. I +need not contrast with this the case of the discontented and turbulent +volunteer, questioning commands which he is not qualified to judge of, +and complaining of troubles which cannot be helped. It is needless to +show what wear-and-tear is caused by such a spirit, and how nerve and +strength must, in such a case, fail in the hour of effort or of crisis, +and give way at once before the assault of disease. By the aid of +sobriety and the calm and cheerful subordination of the true military +character, the health of the Federal army may be equal to its high +mission: and all friends of human freedom, in all lands, must heartily +pray that it may be so. + +There is another department of the subject which I propose to treat of +another month: "Health in the Military Hospital." + + + + +"THE STORMY PETREL." + + + Where the gray crags beat back the northern main, + And all around, the ever restless waves, + Like white sea-wolves, howl on the lonely sands, + Clings a low roof, close by the sounding surge. + If, in your summer rambles by the shore, + His spray-tost cottage you may chance espy, + Enter and greet the blind old mariner. + + Full sixty winters he has watched beside + The turbulent ocean, with one purpose warmed: + To rescue drowning men. And round the coast-- + For so his comrades named him in his youth-- + They know him as "The Stormy Petrel" still. + + Once he was lightning-swift, and strong; his eyes + Peered through the dark, and far discerned the wreck + Plunged on the reef. Then with bold speed he flew, + The life-boat launched, and dared the smiting rocks. + + 'T is said by those long dwelling near his door, + That hundreds have been storm-saved by his arm; + That never was he known to sleep, or lag + In-doors, when danger swept the seas. His life + Was given to toil, his strength to perilous blasts. + In freezing floods when tempests hurled the deep, + And battling winds clashed in their icy caves, + Scared housewives, waking, thought of him, and said, + "'The Stormy Petrel' is abroad to-night, + And watches from the cliffs." + + He could not rest + When shipwrecked forms might gasp amid the waves, + And not a cry be answered from the shore. + + Now Heaven has quenched his sight; but when he hears + By his lone hearth the sullen sea-winds clang, + Or listens, in the mad, wild, drowning night, + As younger footsteps hurry o'er the beach + To pluck the sailor from his sharp-fanged death,-- + The old man starts, with generous impulse thrilled, + And, with the natural habit of his heart, + Calls to his neighbors in a cheery tone, + Tells them he'll pilot toward the signal guns, + And then, remembering all his weight of years, + Sinks on his couch, and weeps that he is blind. + + + + +A STORY OF TO-DAY. + + +Margaret stood looking down in her quiet way at the sloping moors and +fog. She, too, had her place and work. She thought that night she saw it +clearly, and kept her eyes fixed on it, as I said. They plodded steadily +down the wide years opening before her. Whatever slow, unending work +lay in them, whatever hungry loneliness they held for her heart, or +coarseness of deed, she saw it all, shrinking from nothing. She +looked at the tense blue-corded veins in her wrist, full of fine +pure blood,--gauged herself coolly, her lease of life, her power of +endurance,--measured it out against the work waiting for her. The work +would be long, she knew. She would be old before it was finished, quite +an old woman, hard, mechanical, worn out. But the day would be so +bright, when it came, it would atone for all: the day would be bright, +the home warm again; it would hold all that life had promised her of +good. + +All? Oh, Margaret, Margaret! Was there no sullen doubt in the brave +resolve? Was there no shadow rose just then, dark, ironical, blotting +out father and mother and home, coming nearer, less alien to your soul +than these, than even your God? + +If any such cold, masterful shadow rose out of years gone, and clutched +at the truest life of her heart, she stifled it, and thrust it down. +And yet, leaning on the gate, and thinking drearily, vacantly, she +remembered a time when God came nearer to her than He did now, and came +through that shadow,--when, by the help of that dead hope, He of whom +she read to-night came close, an infinitely tender Helper, who, with the +human love that was in her heart to-day, had loved his mother and John +and Mary. Now, struggle as she would for healthy hopes and warmth, the +world was gray and silent. Her defeated woman's nature called it so, +bitterly. Christ was a dim ideal power, heaven far-off. She doubted if +it held anything as real as that which she had lost. + +As if to bring back the old times more vividly to her, there happened +one of those curious little coincidences with which Fate, we think, has +nothing to do. She heard a quick step along the clay road, and a muddy +little terrier jumped up, barking, beside her. She stopped with a +suddenness strange in her slow movements. _"Tiger!"_ she said, stroking +its head with passionate eagerness. The dog licked her hand, smelt her +clothes to know if she were the same: it was two years since he had seen +her. She sat there, softly stroking him. Presently there was a sound of +wheels jogging down the road, and a voice singing snatches of some song, +one of those cheery street-songs that the boys whistle. It was a low, +weak voice, but very pleasant. Margaret heard it through the dark; she +kissed the dog with a strange paleness on her face, and stood up, quiet, +attentive as before. Tiger still kept licking her hand, as it hung by +her side: it was cold, and trembled as he touched it. She waited a +moment, then pushed the dog from her, as if his touch, even, caused her +to break some vow. He whined, but she hurried away, not waiting to know +how he came, or with whom. Perhaps, if Dr. Knowles had seen her face as +she looked back at him, he would have thought there were depths in her +nature which his probing eyes had never reached. + +The wheels came close, and directly a cart stopped at the gate. It was +one of those little wagons that hucksters drive; only this seemed to be +a home-made affair, patched up with wicker-work and bits of board. It +was piled up with baskets of vegetables, eggs, and chickens, and on a +broken bench in the middle sat the driver, a woman. You could not +help laughing, when you looked at the whole turn-out, it had such a +make-shift look altogether. + +The reins were twisted rope, the wheels uneven. It went jolting along in +such a careless, jolly way, as if it would not care in the least, should +it go to pieces any minute just there in the road. The donkey that drew +it was bony and blind of one eye; but he winked the other knowingly at +you, as if to ask if you saw the joke of the thing. Even the voice of +the owner of the establishment, chirruping some idle song, as I told +you, was one of the cheeriest sounds you ever heard. Joel, up at the +barn, forgot his dignity to salute it with a prolonged "Hillo!" and +presently appeared at the gate. + +"I'm late, Joel," said the weak voice. It sounded like a child's near at +hand. + +"We can trade in the dark, Lois, both bein' honest," he responded, +graciously, hoisting a basket of tomatoes into the cart, and taking out +a jug of vinegar. + +"Is that Lois?" said Mrs. Howth, coming to the gate. "Sit still, child. +Don't get down." + +But the child, as she called her, had scrambled off the cart, and stood +beside her, leaning on the wheel, for she was helplessly crippled. + +"I thought you would be down tonight. I put some coffee on the stove. +Bring it out, Joel." + +Mrs. Howth never put up the shield between herself and this member of +"the class,"--because, perhaps, she was so wretchedly low in the social +scale. However, I suppose she never gave a reason for it even to +herself. Nobody could help being kind to Lois, even if he tried. Joel +brought the coffee with more readiness than he would have waited on Mrs. +Howth. + +"Barney will be jealous," he said, patting the bare ribs of the old +donkey, and glancing wistfully at his mistress. + +"Give him his supper, surely," she said, taking the hint. + +It was a real treat to see how Lois enjoyed her supper, sipping and +tasting the warm coffee, her face in a glow, like an epicure over some +rare Falernian. You would be sure, from, just that little thing, that no +sparkle of warmth or pleasure in the world slipped by her which she did +not catch and enjoy and be thankful for to the uttermost. You would +think, perhaps, pitifully, that not much pleasure or warmth would ever +go down so low, within her reach. Now that she stood on the ground, she +scarcely came up to the level of the wheel; some deformity of her legs +made her walk with a curious rolling jerk, very comical to see. She +laughed at it, when other people did; if it vexed her at all, she never +showed it. She had turned back her calico sun-bonnet, and stood looking +up at Mrs. Howth and Joel, laughing as they talked--with her. The face +would have startled you on so old and stunted a body. It was a child's +face, quick, eager, with that pitiful beauty you always see in deformed +people. Her eyes, I think, were the kindliest, the hopefullest I ever +saw. Nothing but the pale thickness of her skin betrayed the fact that +set Lois apart from even the poorest poor,--the taint in her veins of +black blood. + +"Whoy! be n't this Tiger?" said Joel, as the dog ran yelping about him. +"How comed yoh with him, Lois?" + +"Tiger an' his master's good friends o' mine,--you remember they allus +was. An' he's back now, Mr. Holmes,--been back for a month." + +Margaret, walking in the porch with her father, stopped. + +"Are you tired, father? It is late." + +"And you are worn out, poor child! It was selfish in me to forget. +Good-night, dear!" + +Margaret kissed him, laughing cheerfully, as she led him to his +room-door. He lingered, holding her dress. + +"Perhaps it will be easier for you tomorrow than it was to-day?" +hesitating. + +"I am sure it will. To-morrow will be sure to be better than to-day." + +She left him, and went away with a slow step that did not echo the +promise of her words. + +Joel, meanwhile, consulted apart with his mistress. + +"Of course," she said, emphatically.--"You must stay until morning, +Lois. It is too late. Joel will toss you up a bed in the loft." + +The queer little body hesitated. + +"I can stay," she said, at last. "It's his watch at the mill to-night." + +"Whose watch?" demanded Joel. + +Her face brightened. + +"Father's. He's back, mum." + +Joel caught himself in a whistle. + +"He's very stiddy, Joel,--as stiddy as yuh." + +"I am very glad he has come back, Lois," said Mrs. Howth, gravely. + +At every place where Lois had been that day she had told her bit of good +news, and at every place it had been met with the same kindly smile and +"I'm glad he's back, Lois." + +Yet Joe Yare, fresh from two years in the penitentiary, was not exactly +the person whom society usually welcomes with open arms. Lois had a +vague suspicion of this, perhaps; for, as she hobbled along the path, +she added to her own assurance of his "stiddiness" earnest explanations +to Joel of how he had a place in the Croft Street woollen-mills, and +how Dr. Knowles had said he was as ready a stoker as any in the +furnace-rooms. + +The sound of her weak, eager voice was silent presently, and nothing +broke the quiet and cold of the night. Even the morning, when it came +long after, came quiet and cool,--the warm red dawn helplessly smothered +under great waves of gray cloud. Margaret, looking out into the thick +fog, lay down wearily again, closing her eyes. What was the day to her? + +Very slowly the night was driven back. An hour after, when she lifted +her head again, the stars were still glittering through the foggy arch, +like sparks of brassy blue, and the sky and hills and valleys were one +drifting, slow-heaving mass of ashy damp. Off in the east a stifled red +film groped through. It was another day coming; she might as well get +up, and live the rest of her life out;--what else had she to do? + +Whatever this night had been to the girl, it left one thought sharp, +alive, in the exhausted quiet of her brain: a cowardly dread of the +trial of the day, when she would see him again. Was the old struggle of +years before coming back? Was it all to go over again? She was worn out. +She had been quiet in these--two years: what had gone before she never +looked back upon; but it made her thankful for even this stupid quiet. +And now, when she had planned her life, busy and useful and contented, +why need God have sent the old thought to taunt her? A wild, sickening +sense of what might have been struggled up: she thrust it down,--she had +kept it down all night; the old pain should not come back,--it should +not. She did not think of the love she had given up as a dream, as +verse-makers or sham people do; she knew it to be the reality of her +life. She cried for it even now, with all the fierce strength of her +nature; it was the best she knew; through it she came nearest to God. +Thinking of the day when she had given it up, she remembered it with a +vague consciousness of having fought a deadly struggle with her fate, +and that she had been conquered,--never had lived again. Let it be; she +could not bear the struggle again. + +She went on dressing herself in a dreary, mechanical way. Once, a bitter +laugh came on her face, as she looked into the glass, and saw the dead, +dull eyes, and the wrinkle on her forehead. Was that the face to be +crowned with delicate caresses and love? She scorned herself for the +moment, grew sick of herself, balked, thwarted in her true life as she +was. Other women whom God has loved enough to probe to the depths of +their nature have done the same,--saw themselves as others saw them: +their strength drying up within them, jeered at, utterly alone. It is +a trial we laugh at. I think the quick fagots at the stake were fitter +subjects for laughter than the slow gnawing hunger in the heart of many +a slighted woman or a selfish man. They come out of the trial as out of +martyrdom, according to their faith: you see its marks sometimes in a +frivolous old age going down with tawdry hopes and starved eyes to the +grave; you see its victory in the freshest, fullest lives in the earth. +This woman had accepted her trial, but she took it up as an inflexible +fate which she did not understand; it was new to her; its solitude, its +hopeless thirst were freshly bitter. She loathed herself as one whom God +had thought unworthy of every woman's right,--to love and be loved. + +She went to the window, looking blankly out into the gray cold. Any +one with keen analytic eye, noting the thin muscles of this woman, the +childish, scarlet lips, the eyes deep, concealing, would have foretold +that she would conquer in the trial, that she would force her soul +down,--but that the forcing down would leave the weak, flaccid body +spent and dead. One thing was certain: no curious eyes would see the +struggle; the body might be nerveless or sickly, but it had the great +power of reticence; the calm with which she faced the closest gaze was +natural to her,--no mask. When she left her room and went down, the +same unaltered quiet that had baffled Knowles steadied her step and +cooled her eyes. + +After you have made a sacrifice of yourself for others, did you ever +notice how apt you were to doubt, as soon as the deed was irrevocable, +whether, after all, it were worth while to have done it? How poor seems +the good gained! How new and unimagined the agony of empty hands and +stifled wish! Very slow the angels are, sometimes, that are sent to +minister! + +Margaret, going down the stairs that morning, found none of the +chivalric unselfish glow of the night before in her home. It was an old, +bare house in the midst of dreary moors, in which her life was slowly to +be worn out: that was all. It did not matter; life was short: she could +thank God for that at least. + +She opened the house-door. A draught of cold morning air struck her +face, sweeping from the west; it had driven the fog in great gray banks +upon the hills, or in shimmering broken swamps into the cleft hollows: +a vague twilight filled the space left bare. Tiger, asleep in the hall, +rushed out into the meadow, barking, wild with the freshness and cold, +then back again to tear round her for a noisy good-morning. The touch of +the dog seemed to bring her closer to his master; she put him away; she +dared not suffer even that treachery to her purpose: because, in fact, +the very circumstances that had forced her to give him up made it weak +cowardice to turn again. It was a simple story, yet one which she dared +not tell to herself; for it was not altogether for her father's sake she +had made the sacrifice. She knew, that, though she might be near to +this man Holmes as his own soul, she was a clog on him,--stood in his +way,--kept him back. So she had quietly stood aside, taken up her own +solitary burden, and left him with his clear self-reliant life,--with +his Self, dearer to him than she had ever been. Why should it not be? +she thought,--remembering the man as he was, a master among men. He was +back again; she must see him. So she stood there with this persistent +dread running through her brain. + +Suddenly, in the lane by the house, she heard a voice talking to +Joel,--the huckster-girl. What a weak, cheery sound it was in the cold +and fog! It touched her curiously: broke through her morbid thought as +anything true and healthy would have done. "Poor Lois!" she thought, +with an eager pity, forgetting her own intolerable future for the +moment, as she gathered up some breakfast and went with it down the +lane. Morning had come; great heavy bars of light fell from behind the +hills athwart the banks of gray and black fog; there was shifting, +uneasy, obstinate tumult among the shadows; they did not mean to yield +to the coming dawn. The hills, the massed woods, the mist opposed their +immovable front, scornfully. Margaret did not notice the silent contest +until she reached the lane. The girl Lois, sitting in her cart, was +looking, quiet, attentive, at the slow surge of the shadows, and the +slower lifting of the slanted rays. + +"T' mornin' comes grand here, Miss Marg'et!" she said, lowering her +voice. + +Margaret said nothing in reply; the morning, she thought, was gray +and cold, as her own life. She stood leaning on the low cart; +some strange sympathy drew her to this poor wretch, dwarfed, +alone in the world,--some tie of equality, which the odd childish +face, nor the quaint air of content about the creature, did +not lessen. Even when Lois shook down the patched skirt of her flannel +frock straight, and settled the heaps of corn and tomatoes about her, +preparatory for a start, Margaret kept her hand on the side of the cart, +and walked slowly by it down the road. Once, looking at the girl, she +thought with a half smile how oddly clean she was. The flannel skirt she +arranged so complacently had been washed until the colors had run madly +into each other in sheer desperation; her hair was knotted with a +relentless tightness into a comb such as old women wear. The very cart, +patched as it was, had a snug, cozy look; the masses of vegetables, +green and crimson and scarlet, were heaped with a certain reference to +the glow of color, Margaret noticed, wondering if it were accidental. +Looking up, she saw the girl's brown eyes fixed on her face. They were +singularly soft, brooding brown. + +"Ye'r' goin' to th' mill, Miss Marg'et?" she asked, in a half whisper. + +"Yes. You never go there now, Lois?" + +"No, 'm." + +The girl shuddered, and then tried to hide it in a laugh. Margaret +walked on beside her, her hand on the cart's edge. Somehow this +creature, that Nature had thrown impatiently aside as a failure, so +marred, imperfect, that even the dogs were kind to her, came strangely +near to her, claimed recognition by some subtile instinct. + +Partly for this, and partly striving to forget herself, she glanced +furtively at the childish face of the distorted little body, wondering +what impression the shifting dawn made on the unfinished soul that was +looking out so intently through the brown eyes. What artist sense had +she,--what could she know--the ignorant huckster--of the eternal laws +of beauty or grandeur? Nothing. Yet something in the girl's face made +her think that these hills, this air and sky, were in fact alive to +her,--real; that her soul, being lower, it might be, than ours, lay +closer to Nature, knew the language of the changing day, of these +earnest-faced hills, of the very worms crawling through the brown mould. +It was an idle fancy; Margaret laughed at herself for it, and turned +to watch the slow morning-struggle which Lois followed with such eager +eyes. + +The light was conquering, growing stronger. Up the gray arch the soft, +dewy blue crept gently, deepening, broadening; below it, the level bars +of light struck full on the sullen black of the west, and worked there +undaunted, tinging it with crimson and imperial purple. Two or three +coy mist-clouds, soon converted to the new allegiance, drifted giddily +about, mere flakes of rosy blushes. The victory of the day came slowly, +but sure, and then the full morning flushed out, fresh with moisture and +light and delicate perfume. The bars of sunlight fell on the lower earth +from the steep hills like pointed swords; the foggy swamp of wet vapor +trembled and broke, so touched, rose at last, leaving patches of damp +brilliance on the fields, and floated majestically up in radiant victor +clouds, led by the conquering wind. Victory: it was in the cold, pure +ether filling the heavens, in the solemn gladness of the hills. The +great forests thrilling in the soft light, the very sleepy river +wakening under the mist, chorded in with a grave bass to the rising +anthem of welcome to the new life which God had freshly given to the +world. From the sun himself, come forth as a bridegroom from his +chamber, to the flickering raindrops on the road-side mullein, the world +seemed to rejoice exultant in victory. Homely, cheerier sounds broke the +outlined grandeur of the morning, on which Margaret looked wearily. Lois +lost none of them; no morbid shadow of her own balked life kept their +meaning from her. + +The light played on the heaped vegetables in the old cart; the bony legs +of the donkey trotted on with fresh vigor. There was not a lowing cow in +the distant barns, nor a chirping swallow on the fence-bushes, that +did not seem to include the eager face of the little huckster in their +morning greetings. Not a golden dandelion on the road-side, not a gurgle +of the plashing brown water from the well-troughs, which did not give +a quicker pleasure to the glowing face. Its curious content stung the +woman walking by her side. What secret of recompense had this poor +wretch found? + +"Your father is here, Lois," she said carelessly, to break the silence. +"I saw him at the mill yesterday." + +Her face kindled instantly. + +"He's home, Miss Marg'et,--yes. An' it's all right wid him. Things allus +do come right, some time," she added, in a reflective tone, brushing a +fly off Sawney's ear. + +Margaret smiled. + +"Always? Who brings them right for you, Lois?" + +"The Master," she said, turning with an answering smile. + +Margaret was touched. The owner of the mill was not a more real +verity to this girl than the Master of whom she spoke with such quiet +knowledge. + +"Are things right in the mill?" she said, testing her. + +A shadow came on her face; her eyes wandered uncertainly, as if her weak +brain were confused,--only for a moment. + +"They'll come right!" she said, bravely. "The Master'll see to it!" + +But the light was gone from her eyes; some old pain seemed to be surging +through her narrow thought; and when she began to talk, it was in a +bewildered, doubtful way. + +"It's a black place, th' mill," she said, in a low voice. "It was a good +while I was there: frum seven year old till sixteen. 'T seemed longer t' +me 'n 't was. 'T seemed as if I'd been there allus,--jes' forever, yoh +know. 'Fore I went in, I had the rickets, they say: that's what ails me. +'T hurt my head, they've told me,--made me different frum other folks." + +She stopped a moment, with a dumb, hungry look in her eyes. After a +while she looked at Margaret furtively, with a pitiful eagerness. + +"Miss Marg'et, I think there _is_ something wrong in my head. Did yoh +ever notice it?" + +Margaret put her hand kindly on the broad, misshapen forehead. + +"Something is wrong everywhere, Lois," she said, absently. + +She did not see the slow sigh with which the girl smothered down +whatever hope had risen just then, nor the wistful look of the brown +eyes that brightened into bravery after a while. + +"It'll come right," she said, steadily, though her voice was lower than +before. + +"But the mill,"--Margaret recalled her. + +"Th' mill,--yes. There was three of us,--father 'n' mother 'n' me,--'n' +pay was poor. They said times was hard. They _was_ hard times, Miss +Marg'et!" she said, with a nervous laugh, the brown eyes strangely +wandering. + +"Yes, hard,"--she soothed her, gently. + +"Pay was poor, 'n' many things tuk money." (Remembering the girl's +mother, Margaret knew gin would have covered the "many things.") "Worst +to me was th' mill. I kind o' grew into that place in them years: seemed +to me like as I was part o' th' engines, somehow. Th' air used to be +thick in my mouth, black wi' smoke 'n' wool 'n' smells. It 's better +now there. I got stunted then, yoh know. 'N' th' air in th' alleys was +worse, where we slep'. I think mebbe as 't was then I went wrong in my +head. Miss Marg'et!" + +Her voice went lower. + +"'T isn't easy to think o' th' Master--down _there_, in them cellars. +Things comes right--slow there,--slow." + +Her eyes grew stupid, as if looking down into some dreary darkness. + +"But the mill?" + +The girl roused herself with a sharp sigh. + +"In them years I got dazed in my head, I think. 'T was th' air 'n' th' +work. I was weak allus. 'T got so that th' noise o' th' looms went on in +my head night 'n' day,--allus thud, thud. 'N' hot days, when th' hands +was chaffin' 'n' singin', th' black wheels 'n' rollers was alive, +starin' down at me, 'n' th' shadders o' th' looms was like snakes +creepin',--creepin' anear all th' time. They was very good to me, th' +hands was,--very good. Ther' 's lots o' th' Master's people down there, +out o' sight, that's so low they never heard His name: preachers don't +go there. But He'll see to't. He'll not min' their cursin' o' Him, +seein' they don't know His face, 'n' thinkin' He belongs to th' gentry. +I knew it wud come right wi' me, when times was th' most bad. I knew"-- + +The girl was trembling now with excitement, her hands working together, +her eyes set, all the slow years of ruin that had eaten into her brain +rising before her, all the tainted blood in her veins of centuries of +slavery and heathenism struggling to drag her down. But above all, the +Hope rose clear, simple: the trust in the Master: and shone in her +scarred face,--through her marred senses. + +"I knew it wud come right, allus. I was alone then: mother was dead, and +father was gone, 'n' th' Lord thought 't was time to see to me,--special +as th' overseer was gettin' me an enter to th' poorhouse. So He sent Mr. +Holmes along. Then it come right!" + +Margaret did not speak. Even this mill-girl could talk of him, pray for +him; but she never must take his name on her lips! + +"He got th' cart fur me, 'n' this blessed old donkey, 'n' my room. Did +yoh ever see my room, Miss Marg'et?" + +Her face lighted suddenly with its peculiar childlike smile. + +"No? Yoh'll come some day, surely? It's a pore place, yoh'll think; but +it's got th' air,--th' air." + +She stopped to breathe the cold morning wind, as if she thought to find +in its fierce freshness the life and brains she had lost. + +"Ther' 's places in them alleys 'n' dark holes, Miss Marg'et, like th' +openin's to hell, with th' thick smells 'n' th' sights yoh'd see." + +She went back with a terrible clinging pity to the Gehenna from which +she had escaped. The ill of life was real enough to her,--a hungry devil +down in those alleys and dens. Margaret listened, waking to the sense +of a different pain in the world from her own,--lower deeps from which +women like herself draw delicately back, lifting their gauzy dresses. + +"Openin's to hell, they're like. People as come down to preach in them +think that, 'pears to me,--'n' think we've but a little way to go, bein' +born so near. It's easy to tell they thinks it,--shows in their looks. +Miss Marg'et!" + +Her face flashed. + +"Well, Lois?" + +"Th' Master has His people 'mong them very lowest, that's not for such +as yoh to speak to. He knows 'em: men 'n' women starved 'n' drunk into +jails 'n' work-houses, that'd scorn to be cowardly or mean,--that shows +God's kindness, through th' whiskey 'n' thievin', to th' orphints +or--such as me. Ther 's things th' Master likes in them, 'n' it'll +come right," she sobbed, "it'll come right at last; they'll have a +chance--somewhere." + +Margaret did not speak; let the poor girl sob herself into quiet. What +had she to do with this gulf of pain and wrong? Her own higher life was +starved, thwarted. Could it be that the blood of these her brothers +called against _her_ from the ground? No wonder that the huckster-girl +sobbed, she thought, or talked heresy. It was not an easy thing to see +a mother drink herself into the grave. And yet--was she to blame? Her +Virginian blood was cool, high-bred; she had learned conservatism in her +cradle. Her life in the West had not yet quickened her pulse. So she put +aside whatever social mystery or wrong faced her in this girl, just as +you or I would have done. She had her own pain to bear. Was she her +brother's keeper? It was true, there was wrong; this woman's soul lay +shattered by it; it was the fault of her blood, of her birth, and +Society had finished the work. Where was the help? She was free,--and +liberty, Dr. Knowles said, was the cure for all the soul's diseases, +and---- + +Well, Lois was quiet now,--ready with her childish smile to be drawn +into a dissertation on Barney's vices and virtues, or a description of +her room, where "th' air was so strong, 'n' the fruit 'n' vegetables +allus stayed fresh,--best in _this_ town," she said, with a bustling +pride. + +They went on down the road, through the corn-fields sometimes, or on +the riverbank, or sometimes skirting the orchards or barn-yards of the +farms. The fences were well built, she noticed,--the barns wide and +snug-looking: for this county in Indiana is settled by New England +people, as a general thing, or Pennsylvanians. They both leave their +mark on barns or fields, I can tell you! The two women were talking all +the way. In all his life Dr. Knowles had never heard from this silent +girl words as open and eager as she gave to the huckster about paltry, +common things,--partly, as I said, from a hope to forget herself, and +partly from a vague curiosity to know the strange world which opened +before her in this disjointed talk. There were no morbid shadows in this +Lois's life, she saw. Her pains and pleasures were intensely real, like +those of her class. If there were latent powers in her distorted brain, +smothered by hereditary vice of blood, or foul air and life, she knew +nothing of it. She never probed her own soul with fierce self-scorn, +as this quiet woman by her side did;--accepted, instead, the passing +moment, with keen enjoyment. For the rest, childishly trusted "the +Master." + +This very drive, now, for instance,--although she and the cart and +Barney went through the same routine every day, you would have thought +it was a new treat for a special holiday, if you had seen the perfect +_abandon_ with which they all threw themselves into the fun of the +thing. Not only did the very heaps of ruby tomatoes, and corn in +delicate green casings, tremble and shine as though they enjoyed the +fresh light and dew, but the old donkey cocked his ears, and curved his +scraggy neck, and tried to look as like a high-spirited charger as he +could. Then everybody along the road knew Lois, and she knew everybody, +and there was a mutual liking and perpetual joking, not very refined, +perhaps, but hearty and kind. It was a new side of life for Margaret. +She had no time for thoughts of self-sacrifice, or chivalry, ancient or +modern, watching it. It was a very busy ride,--something to do at every +farmhouse: a basket of eggs to be taken in, or some egg-plants, maybe, +which Lois laid side by side, Margaret noticed,--the pearly white balls +close to the heap of royal purple. No matter how small the basket was +that she stopped for, it brought out two or three to put it in; for Lois +and her cart were the event of the day for the lonely farm-houses. The +wife would come out, her face ablaze from the oven, with an anxious +charge about that butter; the old man would hail her from the barn to +know "ef she'd thought toh look in th' mail yes'rday"; and one or the +other was sure to add, "Jes' time for breakfast, Lois." If she had no +baskets to stop for, she had "a bit o' business," which turned out to be +a paper she had brought for the grandfather, or some fresh mint for the +baby, or "jes' to inquire fur th' fam'ly." + +As to the amount that cart carried, it was a perpetual mystery to Lois. +Every day since she and the cart went into partnership, she had gone +into town with a dead certainty in the minds of lookers-on that it +would break down in five minutes, and a triumphant faith in hers in its +unlimited endurance. "This cart'll be right side up fur years to come," +she would assert, shaking her head. "It's got no more notion o' givin' +up than me nor Barney,--not a bit." Margaret had her doubts,--and so +would you, if you had heard how it creaked under the load,--how they +piled in great straw panniers of apples: black apples with yellow +hearts,--scarlet veined, golden pippin apples, that held the warmth and +light longest,--russet apples with a hot blush on their rough brown +skins,--plums shining coldly in their delicate purple bloom,--peaches +with the crimson velvet of their cheeks aglow with the prisoned heat of +a hundred summer days. + +I wish with all my heart some artist would paint me Lois and her cart! +Mr. Kitts, the artist in the city then, used to see it going past his +room out by the coal-pits every day, and thought about it seriously. But +he had his grand battle-piece on hand then,--and after that he went the +way of all geniuses, and died down into colorer for a photographer. He +met them, that day, out by the stone quarry, and touched his hat as he +returned Lois's "Good-morning," and took a couple of great papaws from +her. She was a woman, you see, and he had some of the schoolmaster's +old-fashioned notions about women. He was a sickly-looking soul. One day +Lois had heard him say that there were papaws on his mother's place in +Ohio; so after that she always brought him some every day. She was one +of those people who must give, if it is nothing better than a Kentucky +banana. + +After they passed the stone quarry, they left the country behind them, +going down the stubble-covered hills that fenced in the town. Even in +the narrow streets, and through the warehouses, the strong, dewy air had +quite blown down and off the fog and dust. Morning (town morning, to be +sure, but still morning) was shining in the red window-panes, in the +tossing smoke up in the frosty air, in the very glowing faces of people +hurrying from market with their noses nipped blue and their eyes +watering with cold. Lois and her cart, fresh with country breath hanging +about them, were not so out of place, after all. House-maids left the +steps half-scrubbed, and helped her measure out the corn and beans, +gossiping eagerly; the newsboys "Hi-d!" at her in a friendly, +patronizing way; women in rusty black, with sharp, pale faces, hoisted +their baskets, in which usually lay a scraggy bit of flitch, on to the +wheel, their whispered bargaining ending oftenest in a low "Thank ye, +Lois!"--for she sold cheaper to some people than they did in the market. + +Lois was Lois in town or country. Some subtile power lay in the coarse, +distorted body, in the pleading child's face, to rouse, wherever they +went, the same curious, kindly smile. Not, I think, that dumb, pathetic +eye, common to deformity, that cries, "Have mercy upon me, O my friend, +for the hand of God hath touched me!"--a deeper, mightier charm, rather: +a trust down in the fouled fragments of her brain, even in the bitterest +hour of her bare, wretched life,--a faith, faith in God, faith in her +fellow-man, faith in herself. No human soul refused to answer its +summons. Down in the dark alleys, in the very vilest of the black and +white wretches that crowded sometimes about her cart, there was an +undefined sense of pride in protecting this wretch whose portion of life +was more meagre and low than theirs. Something in them struggled up to +meet the trust in the pitiful eyes,--something which scorned to betray +the trust,--some Christ-like power, smothered, dying, under the filth of +their life and the terror of hell. Not lost. If the Great Spirit of love +and trust lives, not lost! + +Even in the cold and quiet of the woman walking by her side the homely +power of the poor huckster was not weak to warm or to strengthen. +Margaret left her, turning into the crowded street leading to the part +of the town where the factories lay. The throng of anxious-faced men and +women jostled and pushed, but she passed through them with a different +heart from yesterday's. Somehow, the morbid fancies were gone; she was +keenly alive; the homely real life of this huckster had fired her, +touched her blood with a more vital stimulus than any tale of crusader. +As she went down the crooked maze of dingy lanes, she could hear Lois's +little cracked bell far off: it sounded like a Christmas song to her. +She half smiled, remembering how sometimes in her distempered brain +the world had seemed a gray, dismal Dance of Death. How actual it +was to-day,--hearty, vigorous, alive with honest work and tears and +pleasure! A broad, good world to live and work in, to suffer or die, if +God so willed it,--God, the good! She entered the vast, dingy factory; +the woollen dust, the clammy air of copperas were easier to breathe in; +the cramped, sordid office, the work, mere trifles to laugh at; and she +bent over the ledger with its hard lines in earnest good-will, +through the slow creeping hours of the long day. She noticed that the +unfortunate chicken was making its heart glad over a piece of fresh +earth covered with damp moss. Dr. Knowles stopped to look at it when he +came, passing her with a surly nod. + +"So your master's not forgotten you," he snarled, while the blind old +hen cocked her one eye up at him. + +Pike, the manager, had brought in some bills. + +"Who's its master?" he said, curiously, stopping by the door. + +"Holmes,--he feeds it every morning." + +The Doctor drawled out the words with a covert sneer, watching the +quiet, cold face bending over the desk, meantime. + +Pike laughed. + +"Bah! it's the first thing he ever fed, then, besides himself. Chickens +must lie nearer his heart than men." + +Knowles scowled at him; he had no fancy for Pike's scurrilous gossip. + +The quiet face was unmoved. When he heard the manager's foot on the +ladder without, he tested it again. He had a vague suspicion which he +was determined to verify. + +"Holmes," he said, carelessly, "has an affinity for animals. No wonder. +Adam must have been some such man as he, when the Lord gave him +'dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air.'" + +The hand paused courteously a moment, then resumed its quick, cool +movement over the page. He was not baffled. + +"If there were such a reality as mastership, that man was born to rule. +Pike will find him harder to cheat than me, when he takes possession +here." + +She looked up now, attentive. + +"He came here to take my place in the mills,--buy me out,--articles will +be signed in a day or two. I know what you think,--no,--not worth +a dollar. Only brains and a soul, and he's sold them at a high +figure,--threw his heart in,--the purchaser being a lady. It was light, +I fancy,--starved out, long ago." + +The old man's words were spurted out in the bitterness of scorn. The +girl listened with a cool incredulity in her eyes, and went back to her +work. + +"Miss Herne is the lady,--my partner's daughter. Herne and Holmes +they'll call the firm. He is here every day, counting future profit." + +Nothing could be read on the cold still face; so he left her, cursing, +as he went, men who put themselves up at auction,--worse than Orleans +slaves. Margaret laughed to herself at his passion; as for the story he +hinted, it was absurd. She forgot it in a moment. + +Two or three gentlemen down in one of the counting-rooms, just then, +looked at the story from another point of view. They were talking low, +out of hearing from the clerks. + +"It's a good thing for Holmes," said one, a burly, farmer-like man, who +was choosing specimens of wool. + +"Cheap. And long credit. Just half the concern he takes." + +"There is a lady in the case?" suggested a young doctor, who, by virtue +of having spent six months in the South, dropped his _r_-s, and talked +of "niggahs" in a way to make a Georgian's hair stand on end. + +"A lady in the case?" + +"Of course. Only child of Herne's. _He_ comes down with the dust as +dowry. Good thing for Holmes. 'Stonishin' how he's made his way up. If +money's what he wants in this world, he's making a long stride now to +'t." + +The young doctor lighted his cigar, asserting that-- + +"Ba George, some low people did get on, re-markably! Mary Herne, now, +was best catch in town." + +"Do you think money is what he wants?" said a quiet little man, sitting +lazily on a barrel,--a clergyman, whom his clerical brothers shook their +heads when they named, but never argued with, and bowed to with uncommon +deference. + +The wool-buyer hesitated with a puzzled look. + +"No," he said, slowly; "Stephen Holmes is not miserly. I've knowed him +since a boy. To buy place, power, perhaps, eh? Yet not that, neither," +he added, hastily. "We think a sight of him out our way, (self-made, you +see,) and would have had him the best office in the State before this, +only he was so cursedly indifferent." + +"Indifferent, yes. No man cares much for stepping-stones in themselves," +said the clergyman, half to himself. + +"Great fault of American society, especially in West," said the young +aristocrat. "Stepping-stones lie low, as my reverend friend suggests; +impudence ascends; merit and refinement scorn such dirty paths,"--with a +mournful remembrance of the last dime in his waistcoat-pocket. + +"But do you," exclaimed the farmer, with sudden solemnity, "do you +understand this scheme of Knowles's? Every dollar he owns is in this +mill, and every dollar of it is going into some castle in the air that +no sane man can comprehend." + +"Mad as a March hare," contemptuously muttered the doctor. + +His reverend friend gave him a look,--after which he was silent. + +"I wish to the Lord some one would persuade him out of it," persisted +the wool-man, earnestly looking at the quiet face of his listener. "We +can't spare old Knowles's brain or heart while he ruins himself. It's +something of a Communist fraternity: I don't know the name, but I know +the thing." + +Very hard common-sense shone out of his eyes just then at the clergyman, +whom he suspected of being one of Knowles's abettors. + +"There's two ways for 'em to end. If they're made out of the top of +society, they get so refined, so idealized, that every particle flies +off on its own special path to the sun, and the Community's broke; and +if they're made of the lower mud, they keep going down, down together, +--they live to drink and eat, and make themselves as near the brutes as +they can. It isn't easy to believe, Sir, but it's true. I have seen it. +I've seen every one of them the United States can produce. It's _facts_, +Sir; and facts, as Lord Bacon says, are the basis of every sound +speculation.'" + +The last sentence was slowly brought out, as quotations were not exactly +his _forte_, but, as he said afterwards,--"You see, that nailed the +parson." + +The parson nodded gravely. + +"You'll find no such experiment in the Bible," threw in the young +doctor, alluding to "serious things" as a peace-offering to his reverend +friend. + +"One, I believe," dryly. + +"Well," broke in the farmer, folding up his wool, "that's neither here +nor there. This experiment of Knowles's is like nothing known since +the Creation. Plan of his own. He spends his days now hunting out the +gallows-birds out of the dens in town here, and they're all to be +transported into the country to start a new Arcadia. A few men and women +like himself, but the bulk is from the dens, I tell you. All start fair, +level ground, perpetual celibacy, mutual trust, honor, rise according to +the stuff that's in them,--pah! it makes me sick!" + +"Knowles's inclination to that sort of people is easily explained," +spitefully lisped the doctor. "Blood, Sir. His mother was a half-breed +Creek, with all the propensities of the redskins to fire-water and +'itching palms.' Blood will out." + +"Here he is," maliciously whispered the wool-man. "No, it's Holmes," he +added, after the doctor had started into a more respectful posture, and +glanced around frightened. + +He, the doctor, rose to meet Holmes's coming footstep,--"a low fellah, +but always sure to be the upper dog in the fight, goin' to marry the +best catch," etc., etc. The others, on the contrary, put on their hats +and sauntered away into the street. + +So the day broadened hotly; the shadows of the Lombardy poplars curdling +up into a sluggish pool of black at their roots along the dry gutters. +The old schoolmaster in the shade of the great horse-chestnuts (brought +from the homestead in the Piedmont country, every one) husked corn for +his wife, composing, meanwhile, a page of his essay on the "Sirventes +de Bertrand de Born." The day passed for him as did his life, half in +simple-hearted deed, half in vague visions of a dead world, never to be +real again. Joel, up in the barn by himself, worked through the long day +in the old fashion,--pondering gravely (being of a religious turn) upon +a sermon by the Reverend Mr. Clinche, reported in the "Gazette"; wherein +that disciple of the meek Teacher invoked, as he did once a week, the +curses of the law upon his political opponents, praying the Lord to +sweep them immediately from the face of the earth. Which rendering of +Christian doctrine was so much relished by Joel, and the other leading +members of Mr. Clinche's church, that they hinted to him it might be as +well to continue choosing his texts from Moses and the Prophets +until the excitement of the day was over. The New Testament +was,--well,--hardly suited for the emergency; did not, somehow, chime in +with the lesson of the hour. I may remark, in passing, that this course +of conduct so disgusted the High-Church rector of the parish, that he +not only ignored all new devils, (as Mr. Carlyle might have called +them,) but talked as if the millennium, were _un fait accompli_, and he +had leisure to go and hammer at the poor dead old troubles of Luther's +time. One thing, though, about Joel: while he was joining in Mr. +Clinche's prayer for the "wiping out" of some few thousands, he was +using up all the fragments of the hot day in fixing a stall for a +half-dead old horse he had found by the road-side. Let us hope, that, +even if the listening angel did not grant the prayer, he marked down the +stall at least, as a something done for eternity. + +Margaret, through the heat and stifling air, worked steadily alone in +the dusty office, the cold, homely face bent over the books, never +changing but once. It was a trifle then; yet, when she looked back +afterwards, the trifle was all that gave the day a name. The room shook, +as I said, with the thunderous, incessant sound of the engines and the +looms; she scarcely heard it, being used to it. Once, however, another +sound came between,--a slow, quiet tread, passing through the long +wooden corridor,--so firm and measured that it sounded like the +monotonous beatings of a clock. She heard it through the noise in the +far distance; it came slowly nearer, up to the door without,--passed it, +going down the echoing plank walk. The girl sat quietly, looking out at +the dead brick wall. The slow step fell on her brain like the sceptre of +her master; if Knowles had looked in her face then, he would have seen +bared the secret of her life. Holmes had gone by, unconscious of who was +within the door. She had not seen him; it was nothing but a step she +heard. Yet a power, the power of the girl's life, shook off all outward +masks, all surface cloudy fancies, and stood up in her with a terrible +passion at the sound; her blood burned fiercely; her soul looked out +from her face, her soul as it was, as God knew it,--God and this man. No +longer a cold, clear face; you would have thought, looking at it, what a +strong spirit the soul of this woman would be, if set free in heaven +or in hell. The man who held it in his power went on carelessly, not +knowing that the mere sound of his step had raised it as from the +dead. She, and her right, and her pain, were nothing to him now, she +remembered, staring out at the taunting hot sky. Yet so vacant was the +sudden life opened before her when he was gone, that, in the desperation +of her weakness, her mad longing to see him but once again, she would +have thrown herself at his feet, and let the cold, heavy step crush her +life out,--as he would have done, she thought, choking down the icy +smother in her throat, if it had served his purpose, though it cost his +own heart's life to do it. He would trample her down, if she kept him +back from his end; but be false to her, false to himself, that he would +never be! + +So the hot, long day wore on,--the red bricks, the dusty desk covered +with wool, the miserable chicken peering out, growing sharper and more +real in the glare. Life was no morbid nightmare now; her weak woman's +heart found it actual and near. There was not a pain nor a want, from +the dumb hunger in the dog's eyes that passed her on the street, to her +father's hopeless fancies, that did not touch her sharply through her +own loss, with a keen pity, a wild wish to help to do something to save +others with this poor life left in her hands. + +So the hot day wore on in the town and country; the old sun glaring down +like some fierce old judge, intolerant of weakness or shams,--baking the +hard earth in the streets harder for the horses' feet, drying up the +bits of grass that grew between the boulders of the gutter, scaling off +the paint from the brazen faces of the interminable brick houses. He +looked down in that city as in every American town, as in these where +you and I live, on the same countless maze of human faces going day by +day through the same monotonous routine. Knowles, passing through the +restless crowds, read with keen eye among them strange meanings by this +common light of the sun,--meanings such as you and I might read, if our +eyes were clear as his,--or morbid, it may be. A commonplace crowd +like this in the street without: women with cold, fastidious faces, +heavy-brained, bilious men, dapper 'prentices, draymen, prize-fighters, +negroes. Knowles looked about him as into a seething caldron, in which +the people I tell you of were atoms, where the blood of uncounted races +was fused, but not mingled,--where creeds, philosophies, centuries old, +grappled hand to hand in their death-struggle,--where innumerable aims +and beliefs and powers of intellect, smothered rights and triumphant +wrongs, warred together, struggling for victory. + +Vulgar American life? He thought it a life more potent, more tragic in +its history and prophecy, than any that has gone before. People called +him a fanatic. It may be that he was one: yet the uncouth old man, sick +in soul from some gnawing pain of his own life, looked into the depths +of human loss with a mad desire to set it right. On the very faces +of those who sneered at him he found some traces of failure or pain, +something that his heart carried up to God with a loud and exceeding +bitter cry. The voice of the world, he thought, went up to heaven a +discord, unintelligible, hopeless,--the great blind world, astray since +the first ages! Was there no hope, no help? + +The hot sun shone down, as it had done for six thousand years; it shone +on open problems in the lives of these men and women who walked the +streets, problems whose end and beginning no eye could read. There were +places where it did not shine: down in the fetid cellars, in the slimy +cells of the prison yonder: what riddles of human life lay there he +dared not think of. God knows how the man groped for the light,--for any +voice to make earth and heaven clear to him. + +So the hot, long day wore on, for all of them. There was another light +by which the world was seen that day, rarer than the sunshine, purer. It +fell on the dense crowds,--upon the just and the unjust. It went into +the fogs of the fetid dens from which the coarser light was barred, into +the deepest mires where a human soul could wallow, and made them clear. +It lighted the depths of the hearts whose outer pain and passion men +were keen to read in the unpitying sunshine, and bared in those depths +the feeble gropings for the right, the loving hope, the unuttered +prayer. No kindly thought, no pure desire, no weakest faith in a God and +heaven somewhere could be so smothered under guilt that this subtile +light did not search it out, glow about it, shine through it, hold it up +in full view of God and the angels,--lighting the world other than the +sun had done for six thousand years. We have no name for the light: it +has a name,--yonder. Not many eyes were clear to see its shining that +day; and if they did, it was as through a glass, darkly. Yet it belonged +to us also, in the old time, the time when men could "hear the voice of +the Lord God in the garden in the cool of the day." It is God's light +now alone. + +Yet poor Lois caught faint glimpses, I think, sometimes, of its heavenly +clearness. I think it was this light that made the burning of Christmas +fires warmer for her than for others, that showed her all the love and +outspoken honesty and hearty frolic which her eyes saw perpetually in +the old warm-hearted world. That evening, as she sat on the step of her +brown frame shanty, knitting at a great blue stocking, her scarred face +and misshapen body very pitiful to the passers-by, it was this light +that gave to her face its homely, cheery smile. It made her eyes quick +to know the message in the depths of color in the evening sky, or even +the flickering tints of the green creeper on the wall with its crimson +cornucopias filled with hot sunshine. She liked clear, vital colors, +this girl,--the crimsons and blues. They answered her, somehow. They +could speak. There were things in the world that like herself were +marred,--did not understand,--were hungry to know: the gray sky, the +mud swamps, the tawny lichens. She cried sometimes, looking at them, +hardly knowing why: she could not help it, with a vague sense of loss. +It seemed at those times so dreary for them to be alive,--or for her. +Other things her eyes were quicker to see than ours: delicate or grand +lines, which she perpetually sought for unconsciously,--in the homeliest +things, the very soft curling of the woollen yarn in her fingers, as +in the eternal sculpture of the mountains. Was it the disease of her +injured brain that made all things alive to her,--that made her watch, +in her ignorant way, the grave hills, the flashing, victorious rivers, +look pitifully into the face of some dingy mushroom trodden in the mud +before it scarce had lived, just as we should look into human faces to +know what they would say to us? Was it the weakness and ignorance that +made everything she saw or touched nearer, more human to her than to you +or me? She never got used to living as other people do; these sights and +sounds did not come to her common, hackneyed. Why, sometimes, out in the +hills, in the torrid quiet of summer noons, she had knelt by the +shaded pools, and buried her hands in the great slumberous beds of +water-lilies, her blood curdling in a feverish languor, a passioned +trance, from which she roused herself, weak and tired. + +She had no self-poised artist sense, this Lois,--knew nothing of +Nature's laws. Yet sometimes, watching the dun sea of the prairie rise +and fall in the crimson light of early morning, or, in the farms, +breathing the blue air trembling up to heaven exultant with the life of +bird and forest, she forgot the poor coarse thing she was, some coarse +weight fell off, and something within, not the sickly Lois of the town, +went out, free, like an exile dreaming of home. + +You tell me, that, doubtless, in the wreck of the creature's brain, +there were fragments of some artistic insight that made her thus rise +above the level of her daily life, drunk with the mere beauty of form +and color. I do not know,--not knowing how sham or real a thing you mean +by artistic insight. But I do know that the clear light I told you of +shone for this girl dimly through this beauty of form and color; and +ignorant, with no words for her thoughts, she believed in it as the +Highest that she knew. I think it came to her thus an imperfect +language, (not an outward show of tints and lines, as to some +artists,)--a language, the same that Moses heard when he stood alone, +with nothing between his naked soul and God, but the desert and the +mountain and the bush that burned with fire. I think the weak soul +of the girl staggered from its dungeon, and groped through these +heavy-browed hills, these color-dreams, through even the homely kind +faces on the street, to find the God that lay behind. So the light +showed her the world, and, making its beauty and warmth divine and near +to her, the warmth and beauty became real in her, found their homely +shadows in her daily life. So it showed her, too, through her vague +childish knowledge, the Master in whom she believed,--showed Him to her +in everything that lived, more real than all beside. The waiting earth, +the prophetic sky, the coarsest or fairest atom that she touched was but +a part of Him, something sent to tell of Him,--she dimly felt; though, +as I said, she had no words for such a thought. Yet even more real than +this. There was no pain nor temptation down in those dark cellars where +she went that He had not borne,--not one. Nor was there the least +pleasure came to her or the others, not even a cheerful fire, or kind +words, or a warm, hearty laugh, that she did not know He sent it and was +glad to do it. She knew that well! So it was that He took part in her +humble daily life, and became more real to her day by day. Very homely +shadows her life gave of His light, for it was His: homely, because of +her poor way of living, and of the depth to which the heavy foot of the +world had crushed her. Yet they were there all the time, in her cheery +patience, if nothing more. To-night, for instance, how differently the +surging crowd seemed to her from what it did to Knowles! She looked down +on it from her high wood-steps with an eager interest, ready with her +weak, timid laugh to answer every friendly call from below. She had no +power to see them as types of great classes; they were just so many +living people, whom she knew, and who, most of them, had been kind to +her. Whatever good there was in the vilest face, (and there was always +something,) she was sure to see it. The light made her poor eyes strong +for that. + +She liked to sit there in the evenings, being alone, yet never growing +lonesome; there was so much that was pleasant to watch and listen to, as +the cool brown twilight came on. If, as Knowles thought, the world was +a dreary discord, she knew nothing of it. People were going from their +work now,--they had time to talk and joke by the way,--stopping, or +walking slowly down the cool shadows of the pavement; while here and +there a lingering red sunbeam burnished a window, or struck athwart the +gray boulder-paved street. From the houses near you could catch a faint +smell of supper: very friendly people those were in these houses; she +knew them all well. The children came out with their faces washed, to +play, now the sun was down: the oldest of them generally came to sit +with her and hear a story. + +After it grew darker, you would see the girls in their neat blue +calicoes go sauntering down the street with their sweethearts for +a walk. There was old Polston and his son Sam coming home from the +coal-pits, as black as ink, with their little tin lanterns on their +caps. After a while Sam would come out in his suit of Kentucky jean, his +face shining with the soap, and go sheepishly down to Jenny Ball's, and +the old man would bring his pipe and chair out on the pavement, and his +wife would sit on the steps. Most likely they would call Lois down, +or come over themselves, for they were the most sociable, coziest old +couple you ever knew. There was a great stopping at Lois's door, as +the girls walked past, for a bunch of the flowers she brought from the +country, or posies, as they called them, (Sam never would take any to +Jenny but "old man" and pinks,) and she always had them ready in broken +jugs inside. They were good, kind girls, every one of them,--had taken +it in turn to sit up with Lois last winter all the time she had the +rheumatism. She never forgot that time,--never once. + +Later in the evening you would see an old man coming along, close by the +wall, with his head down,--a very dark man, with gray, thin hair,--Joe +Yare, Lois's old father. No one spoke to him,--people always were +looking away as he passed; and if old Mr. or Mrs. Polston were on the +steps when he came up, they would say, "Good-evening, Mr. Yare," very +formally, and go away presently. It hurt Lois more than anything else +they could have done. But she bustled about noisily, so that he would +not notice it. If they saw the marks of the ill life he had lived on his +old face, she did not; his sad, uncertain eyes may have been dishonest +to them, but they were nothing but kind to the misshapen little soul +that he kissed so warmly with a "Why, Lo, my little girl!" Nobody else +in the world ever called her by a pet name. + +Sometimes he was gloomy and silent, but generally he told her of all +that had happened in the mill, particularly any little word of notice or +praise he might have received, watching her anxiously until she laughed +at it, and then rubbing his hands cheerfully. He need not have doubted +Lois's faith in him. Whatever the rest did, she believed in him; she +always had believed in him, through all the dark, dark years, when he +was at home, and in the penitentiary. They were gone now, never to come +back. It had come right. She, at least, thought his repentance sincere. +If the others wronged him, and it hurt her bitterly that they did, that +would come right some day too, she would think, as she looked at the +tired, sullen face of the old man bent to the window-pane, afraid to go +out. They had very cheerful little suppers there by themselves in the +odd, bare little room, as homely and clean as Lois herself. + +Sometimes, late at night, when he had gone to bed, she sat alone in the +door, while the moonlight fell in broad patches over the quiet square, +and the great poplars stood like giants whispering together. Still the +far sounds of the town came up cheerfully, while she folded up her +knitting, it being dark, thinking how happy an ending this was to a +happy day. When it grew quiet, she could hear the solemn whisper of the +poplars, and sometimes broken strains of music from the cathedral in the +city floated through the cold and moonlight past her, far off into the +blue beyond the hills. All the keen pleasure of the day, the warm, +bright sights and sounds, coarse and homely though they were, seemed to +fade into the deep music, and make a part of it. + +Yet, sitting there, looking out into the listening night, the poor +child's face grew slowly pale as she heard it. It humbled her. It made +her meanness, her low, weak life so real to her! There was no pain nor +hunger she had known that did not find a voice in its inarticulate cry. +She! what was she? All the pain and wants of the world must be going up +to God in that sound, she thought. There was something more in it,--an +unknown meaning that her shattered brain struggled to grasp. She could +not. Her heart ached with a wild, restless longing. She had no words +for the vague, insatiate hunger to understand. It was because she was +ignorant and low, perhaps; others could know. She thought her Master was +speaking. She thought the unknown meaning linked all earth and heaven +together, and made it plain. So she hid her face in her hands, and +listened while the low harmony shivered through the air, unheeded by +others, with the message of God to man. Not comprehending, it may +be,--the poor girl,--hungry still to know. Yet, when she looked up, +there were warm tears in her eyes, and her scarred face was bright with +a sad, deep content and love. + +So the hot, long day was over for them all,--passed as thousands of days +have done for us, gone down, forgotten: as that long, hot day we call +life will be over some time, and go down into the gray and cold. Surely, +whatever of sorrow or pain may have made darkness in that day for you or +me, there were countless openings where we might have seen glimpses of +that other light than sunshine: the light of the great Tomorrow, of the +land where all wrongs shall be righted. If we had but chosen to see +it,--if we only had chosen! + + + + +CONCERNING PEOPLE WHO CARRIED WEIGHT IN LIFE. + +WITH SOME THOUGHTS ON THOSE WHO NEVER HAD A CHANCE. + + +You drive out, let us suppose, upon a certain day. To your surprise and +mortification, your horse, usually lively and frisky, is quite dull +and sluggish. He does not get over the ground as he is wont to do. The +slightest touch of whip-cord, on other days, suffices to make him dart +forward with redoubled speed; but upon this day, after two or three +miles, he needs positive whipping, and he runs very sulkily with it +all. By-and-by his coat, usually smooth and glossy and dry through all +reasonable work, begins to stream like a water-cart. This will not do. +There is something wrong. You investigate; and you discover that your +horse's work, though seemingly the same as usual, is in fact immensely +greater. The blockheads who oiled your wheels yesterday have screwed up +your patent axles too tightly; the friction is enormous; the hotter +the metal gets, the greater grows the friction; your horse's work is +quadrupled. You drive slowly home, and severely upbraid the blockheads. + +There are many people who have to go through life at an analogous +disadvantage. There is something in their constitution of body or mind, +there is something in their circumstances, which adds incalculably to +the exertion they must go through to attain their ends, and which holds +them back from doing what they might otherwise have done. Very probably +that malign something exerted its influence unperceived by those around +them. They did not get credit for the struggle they were going through. +No one knew what a brave fight they were making with a broken right arm; +no one remarked that they were running the race, and keeping a fair +place in it, too, with their legs tied together. All they do, they do at +a disadvantage. It is as when a noble race-horse is beaten by a sorry +hack; because the race-horse, as you might see, if you look at the list, +is carrying twelve pounds additional. But such men, by a desperate +effort, often made silently and sorrowfully, may (so to speak) run in +the race, and do well in it, though you little think with how heavy a +foot and how heavy a heart. There are others who have no chance at all. +_They_ are like a horse set to run a race, tied by a strong rope to a +tree, or weighted with ten tons of extra burden. _That_ horse cannot run +even poorly. The difference between their case and that of the men who +are placed at a disadvantage is like the difference between setting a +very near-sighted man to keep a sharp look-out and setting a man who is +quite blind to keep that sharp look-out. Many can do the work of life +with difficulty; some cannot do it at all. In short, there are PEOPLE +WHO CARRY WEIGHT IN LIFE, and there are some WHO NEVER HAVE A CHANCE. + +And you, my friend, who are doing the work of life well and +creditably,--you who are running in the front rank, and likely to do so +to the end, think kindly and charitably of those who have broken down +in the race. Think kindly of him who, sadly overweighted, is struggling +onwards away half a mile behind you; think more kindly yet, if that be +possible, of him who, tethered to a ton of granite, is struggling hard +and making no way at all, or who has even sat down and given up the +struggle in dumb despair. You feel, I know, the weakness in yourself +which would have made you break down, if sorely tried like others. You +know there is in your armor the unprotected place at which a well-aimed +or a random blow would have gone home and brought you down. Yes, you are +nearing the winning-post, and you are among the first; but six pounds +more on your back, and you might have been nowhere. You feel, by your +weak heart and weary frame, that, if you had been sent to the Crimea in +that dreadful first winter, you would certainly have died. And you feel, +too, by your lack of moral stamina, by your feebleness of resolution, +that it has been your preservation from you know not what depths of +shame and misery, that you never were pressed very hard by temptation. +Do not range yourself with those who found fault with a certain great +and good Teacher of former days, because he went to be guest with a man +that was a sinner. As if He could have gone to be guest with any man who +was not! + + * * * * * + +There is no reckoning up the manifold _impedimenta_ by which human +beings are weighted for the race of life; but all may be classified +under the two heads of unfavorable influences arising out of the mental +or physical nature of the human beings themselves, and unfavorable +influences arising out of the circumstances in which the human beings +are placed. You have known men who, setting out from a very humble +position, have attained to a respectable standing, but who would have +reached a very much higher place but for their being weighted with a +vulgar, violent, wrong-headed, and rude-spoken wife. You have known men +of lowly origin who had in them the makings of gentlemen, but whom this +single malign influence has condemned to coarse manners and a frowzy, +repulsive home for life. You have known many men whose powers are +crippled and their nature soured by poverty, by the heavy necessity +for calculating how far each shilling will go, by a certain sense of +degradation that comes of sordid shifts. How can a poor parson write an +eloquent or spirited sermon when his mind all the while is running upon +the thought how he is to pay the baker or how he is to get shoes for his +children? It will be but a dull discourse which, under that weight, will +be produced even by a man who, favorably placed, could have done very +considerable things. It is only a great genius here and there who can do +great things, who can do his best, no matter at what disadvantage he may +be placed; the great mass of ordinary men can make little headway with +wind and tide dead against them. Not many trees would grow well, if +watered daily (let us say) with vitriol. Yet a tree which would +speedily die under that nurture might do very fairly, might even do +magnificently, if it had fair play, if it got its chance of common +sunshine and shower. Some men, indeed, though always hampered by +circumstances, have accomplished much; but then you cannot help thinking +how much more they might have accomplished, had they been placed more +happily. Pugin, the great Gothic architect, designed various noble +buildings; but I believe he complained that he never had fair play with +his finest,--that he was always weighted by considerations of expense, +or by the nature of the ground he had to build on, or by the number +of people it was essential the building should accommodate. And so he +regarded his noblest edifices as no more than hints of what he could +have done. He made grand running in the race; but, oh, what running he +could have made, if you had taken off those twelve additional pounds! I +dare say you have known men who labored to make a pretty country-house +on a site which had some one great drawback. They were always battling +with that drawback, and trying to conquer it; but they never could quite +succeed. And it remained a real worry and vexation. Their house was on +the north side of a high hill, and never could have its due share of +sunshine. Or you could not reach it but by climbing a very steep ascent; +or you could not in any way get water into the landscape. When Sir +Walter was at length able to call his own a little estate on the banks +of the Tweed he loved so well, it was the ugliest, bleakest, and least +interesting spot upon the course of that beautiful river; and the public +road ran within a few yards of his door. The noble-hearted man made a +charming dwelling at last; but he was fighting against Nature in the +matter of the landscape round it; and you can see yet, many a year after +he left it, the poor little trees of his beloved plantations contrasting +with the magnificent timber of various grand old places above and below +Abbotsford. There is something sadder in the sight of men who carried +weight within themselves, and who, in aiming at usefulness or at +happiness, were hampered and held back by their own nature. There are +many men who are weighted with a hasty temper; weighted with a nervous, +anxious constitution; weighted with an envious, jealous disposition; +weighted with a strong tendency to evil speaking, lying, and slandering; +weighted with a grumbling, sour, discontented spirit; weighted with a +disposition to vaporing and boasting; weighted with a great want of +common sense; weighted with an undue regard to what other people may be +thinking or saying of them; weighted with many like things, of which +more will be said by-and-by. When that good missionary, Henry Martyn, +was in India, he was weighted with an irresistible drowsiness. He could +hardly keep himself awake. And it must have been a burning earnestness +that impelled him to ceaseless labor, in the presence of such a +drag-weight as that. I am not thinking or saying, my friend, that it is +wholly bad for us to carry weight,--that great good may not come of the +abatement of our power and spirit which may be made by that weight. I +remember a greater missionary than even the sainted Martyn, to whom the +Wisest and Kindest appointed that he should carry weight, and that he +should fight at a sad disadvantage. And the greater missionary tells us +that he knew why that weight was appointed him to carry; and that he +felt he needed it all to save him from a strong tendency to undue +self-conceit. No one knows, now, what the burden was which he bore; but +it was heavy and painful; it was "a thorn in the flesh." Three times +he earnestly asked that it might be taken away; but the answer he got +implied that he needed it yet, and that his Master thought it a better +plan to strengthen the back than to lighten the burden. Yes, the blessed +Redeemer appointed that St. Paul should carry weight in life; and I +think, friendly reader, that we shall believe that it is wisely and +kindly meant, if the like should come to you and me. + +We all understand what is meant, when we hear it said that a man is +doing very well, or has done very well, _considering_. I do not know +whether it is a Scotticism to stop short at that point of the sentence. +We do it, constantly, in this country. The sentence would be completed +by saying, _considering the weight he has to carry_, or _the +disadvantage at which he works_. And things which are _very good, +considering_, may range very far up and down the scale of actual merit. +A thing which is _very good, considering_, may be very bad, or may be +tolerably good. It never can be absolutely very good; for, if it +were, you would cease to use the word _considering_. A thing which is +absolutely very good, if it have been done under extremely unfavorable +circumstances, would not be described as _very good, considering_; it +would be described as _quite wonderful, considering_, or as _miraculous, +considering_. And it is curious how people take a pride in accumulating +unfavorable circumstances, that they may overcome them, and gain the +glory of having overcome them. Thus, if a man wishes to sign his name, +he might write the letters with his right hand; and though he write them +very clearly and well and rapidly, nobody would think of giving him any +credit. But if he write his name rather badly with his left hand, people +would say it was a remarkable signature, considering; and if he write +his name very ill indeed with his foot, people would say the writing was +quite wonderful, considering. If a man desire to walk from one end of a +long building to the other, he might do so by walking along the floor; +and though he did so steadily, swiftly, and gracefully, no one would +remark that he had done anything worth notice. But if he choose for his +path a thick rope, extended from one end of the building to the other, +at a height of a hundred feet, and if he walk rather slowly and +awkwardly along it, he will be esteemed as having done something very +extraordinary: while if, in addition to this, he is blindfolded, and has +his feet placed in large baskets instead of shoes, he will, if in any +way he can get over the distance between the ends of the building, be +held as one of the most remarkable men of the age. Yes, load yourself +with weight which no one asks you to carry; accumulate disadvantages +which you need not face, unless you choose; then carry the weight in any +fashion, and overcome the disadvantages in any fashion; and you are a +great man, considering: that is, considering the disadvantages and the +weight. Let this be remembered: if a man is so placed that he cannot do +his work, except in the face of special difficulties, then let him be +praised, if he vanquish these in some decent measure, and if he do his +work tolerably well. But a man deserves no praise at all for work which +he has done tolerably or done rather badly, because he chose to do it +under disadvantageous circumstances, under which there was no earthly +call upon him to do it. In this case he probably is a self-conceited +man, or a man of wrong-headed independence of disposition; and in this +case, if his work be bad absolutely, don't tell him that it is good, +considering. Refuse to consider. He has no right to expect that you +should. There was a man who built a house entirely with his own hands. +He had never learned either mason-work or carpentry: he could quite well +have afforded to pay skilled workmen to do the work he wanted; but he +did not choose to do so. He did the whole work himself. The house was +finished; its aspect was peculiar. The walls were off the perpendicular +considerably, and the windows were singular in shape; the doors fitted +badly, and the floors were far from level. In short, it was a very bad +and awkward-looking house: but it was a wonderful house, considering. +And people said that it was so, who saw nothing wonderful in the +beautiful house next it, perfect in symmetry and finish and comfort, but +built by men whose business it was to build. Now I should have declined +to admire that odd house, or to express the least sympathy with its +builder. He chose to run with a needless hundred-weight on his back: he +chose to walk in baskets instead of in shoes. And if, in consequence +of his own perversity, he did his work badly, I should have refused +to recognize it as anything but bad work. It was quite different with +Robinson Crusoe, who made his dwelling and his furniture for himself, +because there was no one else to make them for him. I dare say his cave +was anything but exactly square; and his chairs and table were cumbrous +enough; but they were wonderful, considering certain facts which he was +quite entitled to expect us to consider. Southey's _Cottonian Library_ +was all quite right; and you would have said that the books were very +nicely bound, considering; for Southey could not afford to pay the +regular binder's charges; and it was better that his books should be +done up in cotton of various hues by the members of his own family than +that they should remain not bound at all. You will think, too, of the +poor old parson who wrote a book which he thought of great value, but +which no publisher would bring out. He was determined that all his +labor should not be lost to posterity. So he bought types and a +printing-press, and printed his precious work, poor man: he and his +man-servant did it all. It made a great many volumes; and the task +took up many years. Then he bound the volumes with his own hands; and +carrying them to London, he placed a copy of his work in each of the +public libraries. I dare say he might have saved himself his labor. How +many of my readers could tell what was the title of the work, or what +was the name of its author? Still, _there_ was a man who accomplished +his design, in the face of every disadvantage. + +There is a great point of difference between our feeling towards the +human being who runs his race much overweighted and our feeling towards +the inferior animal that does the like. If you saw a poor horse gamely +struggling in a race, with a weight of a ton extra, you would pity it. +Your sympathies would all be with the creature that was making the best +of unfavorable circumstances. But it is a sorrowful fact, that the +drag-weight of human beings not unfrequently consists of things which +make us angry rather than sympathetic. You have seen a man carrying +heavy weight in life, perhaps in the form of inveterate wrong-headedness +and suspiciousness; but instead of pitying him, our impulse would rather +be to beat him upon that perverted head. We pity physical malformation +or unhealthiness; but our bent is to be angry with intellectual and +moral malformation or unhealthiness. We feel for the deformed man, who +must struggle on at that sad disadvantage; feeling it, too, much more +acutely than you would readily believe. But we have only indignation for +the man weighted with far worse things, and things which, in some cases +at least, he can just as little help. You have known men whose extra +pounds, or even extra ton, was a hasty temper, flying out of a sudden +into ungovernable bursts: or a moral cowardice leading to trickery and +falsehood: or a special disposition to envy and evil-speaking: or a +very strong tendency to morbid complaining about their misfortunes and +troubles: or an invincible bent to be always talking of their sufferings +through the derangement of their digestive organs. Now, you grow angry +at these things. You cannot stand them. And there is a substratum of +truth to that angry feeling. A man _can_ form his mind more than he can +form his body. If a man be well-made, physically, he will, in ordinary +cases, remain so: but he may, in a moral sense, raise a great hunchback +where Nature made none. He may foster a malignant temper, a grumbling, +fretful spirit, which by manful resistance might be much abated, if not +quite put down. But still, there should often be pity, where we are +prone only to blame. We find a person in whom a truly disgusting +character has been formed: well, if you knew all, you would know that +the person had hardly a chance of being otherwise: the man could not +help it. You have known people who were awfully unamiable and repulsive: +you may have been told how very different they once were,--sweet-tempered +and cheerful. And surely the change is a far sadder one than +that which has passed upon the wrinkled old woman who was once (as you +are told) the loveliest girl of her time. Yet many a one who will look +with interest upon the withered face and the dimmed eyes, and try to +trace in them the vestiges of radiant beauty gone, will never think of +puzzling out in violent spurts of petulance the perversion of a quick +and kind heart; or in curious oddities and pettinesses the result of +long and lonely years of toil in which no one sympathized; or in cynical +bitterness and misanthropy an old disappointment never got over. There +is a hard knot in the wood, where a green young branch was lopped away. +I have a great pity for old bachelors. Those I have known have for the +most part been old fools. But the more foolish and absurd they are, the +more pity is due them. I believe there is something to be said for even +the most unamiable creatures. The shark is an unamiable creature. It +is voracious. It will snap a man in two. Yet it is not unworthy of +sympathy. Its organization is such that it is always suffering the most +ravenous hunger. You can hardly imagine the state of intolerable famine +in which that unhappy animal roams the ocean. People talk of its awful +teeth and its vindictive eye. I suppose it is well ascertained that the +extremity of physical want, as reached on rafts at sea, has driven human +beings to deeds as barbarous as ever shark was accused of. The worse a +human being is, the more he deserves our pity. Hang him, if _that_ be +needful for the welfare of society; but pity him even as you hang. Many +a poor creature has gradually become hardened and inveterate in guilt +who would have shuddered at first, had the excess of it ultimately +reached been at first presented to view. But the precipice was sloped +off: the descent was made step by step. And there is many a human being +who never had a chance of being good: many who have been trained, and +even compelled, to evil from very infancy. Who that knows anything of +our great cities, but knows how the poor little child, the toddling +innocent, is sometimes sent out day by day to steal, and received in his +wretched home with blows and curses, if he fail to bring back enough? +Who has not heard of such poor little things, unsuccessful in their +sorry work, sleeping all night in some wintry stair, because they durst +not venture back to their drunken, miserable, desperate parents? I could +tell things at which angels might shed tears, with much better reason +for doing so than seems to me to exist in some of those more imposing +occasions on which bombastic writers are wont to describe them as +weeping. Ah, there is One who knows where the responsibility for all +this rests! Not wholly with the wretched parents: far from _that_. +_They_, too, have gone through the like: they had as little chance as +their children. _They_ deserve our deepest pity, too. Perhaps the deeper +pity is not due to the shivering, starving child, with the bitter wind +cutting through its thin rags, and its blue feet on the frozen pavement, +holding out a hand that is like the claw of some beast; but rather to +the brutalized mother who could thus send out the infant she bore. +Surely the mother's condition, if we look at the case aright, is the +more deplorable. Would not you, my reader, rather endure any degree of +cold and hunger than come to this? Doubtless, there is blame somewhere, +that such things should be: but we all know that the blame of the +most miserable practical evils and failures can hardly be traced to +particular individuals. It is through the incapacity of scores of public +servants that an army is starved. It is through the fault of millions of +people that our great towns are what they are: and it must be confessed +that the actual responsibility is spread so thinly over so great a +surface that it is hard to say it rests very blackly upon any one spot. +Oh that we could but know whom to hang, when we find some flagrant, +crying evil! Unluckily, hasty people are ready to be content, if they +can but hang anybody, without minding much whether that individual be +more to blame than many beside. Laws and kings have something to do +here: but management and foresight on the part of the poorer classes +have a great deal more to do. And no laws can make many persons managing +or provident. I do not hesitate to say, from what I have myself seen +of the poor, that the same short-sighted extravagance, the same +recklessness of consequences, which are frequently found in them, would +cause quite as much misery, if they prevailed in a like degree among +people with a thousand a year. But it seems as if only the tolerably +well-to-do have the heart to be provident and self-denying. A man with a +few hundreds annually does not marry, unless he thinks he can afford it: +but the workman with fifteen shillings a week is profoundly indifferent +to any such calculation. I firmly believe that the sternest of all +self-denial is that practised by those who, when we divide mankind into +rich and poor, must be classed (I suppose) with the rich. But I turn +away from a miserable subject, through which I cannot see my way +clearly, and on which I cannot think but with unutterable pain. It is an +easy way of cutting the knot, to declare that the rich are the cause of +all the sufferings of the poor; but when we look at the case in all its +bearings, we shall see that that is rank nonsense. And on the other +hand, it is unquestionable that the rich are bound to do something. But +what? I should feel deeply indebted to any one who would write out, in +a few short and intelligible sentences, the practical results that are +aimed at in the "Song of the Shirt." The misery and evil are manifest: +but tell us whom to hang; tell us what to do! + +One heavy burden with which many men are weighted for the race of life +is depression of spirits. I wonder whether this used to be as common in +former days as it is now. There was, indeed, the man in Homer who walked +by the seashore in a very gloomy mood; but his case seems to have been +thought remarkable. What is it in our modern mode of life and our +infinity of cares, what little thing is it about the matter of the brain +or the flow of the blood, that makes the difference between buoyant +cheerfulness and deep depression? I begin to think that almost all +educated people, and especially all whose work is mental rather than +physical, suffer more or less from this indescribable gloom. And +although a certain amount of sentimental sadness may possibly help the +poet, or the imaginative writer, to produce material which may be very +attractive to the young and inexperienced, I suppose it will be admitted +by all that cheerfulness and hopefulness are noble and healthful +stimulants to worthy effort, and that depression of spirits does (so to +speak) cut the sinews with which the average man must do the work of +life. You know how lightly the buoyant heart carries people through +entanglements and labors under which the desponding would break down, +or which they never would face. Yet, in thinking of the commonness of +depressed spirits, even where the mind is otherwise very free from +anything morbid, we should remember that there is a strong temptation to +believe that this depression is more common and more prevalent than it +truly is. Sometimes there is a gloom which overcasts all life, like +that in which James Watt lived and worked, and served his race so +nobly,--like that from which the gentle, amiable poet, James Montgomery, +suffered through his whole career. But in ordinary cases the gloom is +temporary and transient. Even the most depressed are not always so. +Like, we know, suggests like powerfully. If you are placed in some +peculiar conjuncture of circumstances, or if you pass through some +remarkable scene, the present scene or conjuncture will call up before +you, in a way that startles you, something like itself which you had +long forgotten, and which you would never have remembered but for this +touch of some mysterious spring. And accordingly, a man depressed in +spirits thinks that he is always so, or at least fancies that such +depression has given the color to his life in a very much greater +degree than it actually has done so. For this dark season wakens up the +remembrance of many similar dark seasons which in more cheerful days are +quite forgot; and these cheerful days drop out of memory for the time. +Hearing such a man speak, if he speak out his heart to you, you think +him inconsistent, perhaps you think him insincere. You think he is +saying more than he truly feels. It is not so; he feels and believes +it all at the time. But he is taking a one-sided view of things; he is +undergoing the misery of it acutely for the time, but by-and-by he will +see things from quite a different point. A very eminent man (there can +be no harm in referring to a case which he himself made so public) +wrote and published something about his _miserable home_. He was quite +sincere, I do not doubt. He thought so at the time. He _was_ miserable +just then; and so, looking back on past years, he could see nothing but +misery. But the case was not really so, one could feel sure. There +had been a vast deal of enjoyment about his home and his lot; it was +forgotten then. A man in very low spirits, reading over his diary, +somehow lights upon and dwells upon all the sad and wounding things; he +involuntarily skips the rest, or reads them with but faint perception +of their meaning. In reading the very Bible, he does the like thing. +He chances upon that which is in unison with his present mood. I think +there is no respect in which this great law of the association of ideas +holds more strictly true than in the power of a present state of mind, +or a present state of outward circumstances, to bring up vividly before +us all such states in our past history. We are depressed, we are +worried; and when we look back, all our departed days of worry and +depression appear to start up and press themselves upon our view to the +exclusion of anything else; so that we are ready to think that we have +never been otherwise than depressed and worried all our life. But when +more cheerful times come, they suggest only such times of cheerfulness, +and no effort will bring back the depression vividly as when we felt +it. It is not selfishness or heartlessness, it is the result of an +inevitable law of mind, that people in happy circumstances should +resolutely believe that it is a happy world after all; for, looking +back, and looking around, the mind refuses to take distinct note of +anything that is not somewhat akin to its present state. And so, if any +ordinary man, who is not a distempered genius or a great fool, tells you +that he is always miserable, don't believe him. He feels so now, but he +does not always feel so. There are periods of brightening in the darkest +lot. Very, very few live in unvarying gloom. Not but that there is +something very pitiful (by which I mean deserving of pity) in what +may be termed the Micawber style of mind,--in the stage of hysteric +oscillations between joy and misery. Thoughtless readers of "David +Copperfield" laugh at Mr. Micawber, and his rapid passages from the +depth of despair to the summit of happiness, and back again. But if you +have seen or experienced that morbid condition, you would know that +there is more reason to mourn over it than to laugh at it. There +is acute misery felt now and then; and there is a pervading, +never-departing sense of the hollowness of the morbid mirth. It is but +a very few degrees better than "moody madness, laughing wild, amid +severest woe." By depression of spirits I understand a dejection without +any cause that could be stated, or from causes which in a healthy mind +would produce no such degree of dejection. No doubt, many men can +remember seasons of dejection which was not imaginary, and of anxiety +and misery whose causes were only too real. You can remember, perhaps, +the dark time in which you knew quite well what it was that made it so +dark. Well, better days have come. That sorrowful, wearing time, which +exhausted the springs of life faster than ordinary living would have +done, which aged you in heart and frame before your day, dragged over, +and it is gone. You carried heavy weight, indeed, while it lasted. It +was but poor running you made, poor work you did, with that feeble, +anxious, disappointed, miserable heart. And you would many a time have +been thankful to creep into a quiet grave. Perhaps that season did you +good. Perhaps it was the discipline you needed. Perhaps it took out your +self-conceit, and made you humble. Perhaps it disposed you to feel for +the griefs and cares of others, and made you sympathetic. Perhaps, +looking back now, you can discern the end it served. And now that it has +done its work, and that it only stings you when you look back, let that +time be quite forgotten! + + * * * * * + +There are men, and very clever men, who do the work of life at a +disadvantage, through _this_, that their mind is a machine fitted for +doing well only one kind of work,--or that their mind is a machine +which, though doing many things well, does some one thing, perhaps a +conspicuous thing, very poorly. You find it hard to give a man credit +for being possessed of sense and talent, if you hear him make a speech +at a public dinner, which speech approaches the idiotic for its +silliness and confusion. And the vulgar mind readily concludes that he +who does one thing extremely ill can do nothing well, and that he who is +ignorant on one point is ignorant on all. A friend of mine, a country +parson, on first going to his parish, resolved to farm his glebe for +himself. A neighboring farmer kindly offered the parson to plough one +of his fields. The farmer said that he would send his man John with a +plough and a pair of horses, on a certain day. "If ye're goin' about," +said the farmer to the clergyman, "John will be unco' weel pleased, if +you speak to him, and say it's a fine day, or the like o' that; but +dinna," said the farmer, with much solemnity, "dinna say onything to him +aboot ploughin' and sawin'; for John," he added, "is a stupid body, but +he has been ploughin' and sawin' all his life, and he'll see in a minute +that _ye_ ken naething aboot ploughin' and sawin'. And then," said the +sagacious old farmer, with extreme earnestness, "if he comes to think +that ye ken naething aboot ploughin' and sawin', he'll think that ye ken +naething aboot onything!" Yes, it is natural to us all to think, that, +if the machine breaks down at that work in which we are competent to +test it, then the machine cannot do any work at all. + +If you have a strong current of water, you may turn it into any channel +you please, and make it do any work you please. With equal energy and +success it will flow north or south; it will turn a corn-mill, or a +threshing-machine, or a grindstone. Many people live under a vague +impression that the human mind is like that. They think,--Here is so +much ability, so much energy, which may be turned in any direction, and +made to do any work; and they are surprised to find that the power, +available and great for one kind of work, is worth nothing for another. +A man very clever at one thing is positively weak and stupid at another +thing. A very good judge may be a wretchedly bad joker; and he must go +through his career at this disadvantage, that people, finding him silly +at the thing they are able to estimate, find it hard to believe that he +is not silly at everything. I know, for myself, that it would not be +right that the Premier should request me to look out for a suitable +Chancellor. I am not competent to appreciate the depth of a man's +knowledge of equity; by which I do not mean justice, but chancery law. +But, though quite unable to understand how great a Chancellor Lord Eldon +was, I am quite able to estimate how great a poet he was, also how great +a wit. Here is a poem by that eminent person. Doubtless he regarded it +as a wonder of happy versification, as well as instinct with the most +convulsing fun. It is intended to set out in a metrical form the career +of a certain judge, who went up as a poor lad from Scotland to England, +but did well at the bar, and ultimately found his place upon the bench. +Here is Lord Chancellor Eldon's humorous poem:-- + + "James Allan Parke + Came naked stark + From Scotland: + But he got clothes, + Like other beaux, + In England!" + +Now the fact that Lord Eldon wrote that poem, and valued it highly, +would lead some folk to suppose that Lord Eldon was next door to an +idiot. And a good many other things which that Chancellor did, such as +his quotations from Scripture in the House of Commons, and his attempts +to convince that assemblage (when Attorney-General) that Napoleon I. was +the Apocalyptic Beast or the Little Horn, certainly point towards the +same conclusion. But the conclusion, as a general one, would be +wrong. No doubt, Lord Eldon was a wise and sagacious man as judge and +statesman, though as wit and poet he was almost an idiot. So with other +great men. It is easy to remember occasions on which great men have +done very foolish things. There never was a truer hero nor a greater +commander than Lord Nelson; but in some things he was merely an awkward, +overgrown midshipman. But then, let us remember that a locomotive +engine, though excellent at running, would be a poor hand at flying. +_That_ is not its vocation. The engine will draw fifteen heavy carriages +fifty miles in an hour; and _that_ remains as a noble feat, even though +it be ascertained that the engine could not jump over a brook which +would be cleared easily by the veriest screw. We all see this. + +But many of us have a confused idea that a great and clever man is (so +to speak) a locomotive that can fly; and when it is proved that he +cannot fly, then we begin to doubt whether he can even run. We think he +should be good at everything, whether in his own line or not. And he is +set at a disadvantage, particularly in the judgment of vulgar and stupid +people, when it is clearly ascertained that at some things he is very +inferior. I have heard of a very eminent preacher who sunk considerably +(even as regards his preaching) in the estimation of a certain family, +because it appeared that he played very badly at bowls. And we all know +that occasionally the Premier already mentioned reverses the vulgar +error, and in appointing men to great places is guided by an axiom which +amounts to just this: this locomotive can run well, therefore it will +fly well. This man has filled a certain position well, therefore let us +appoint him to a position entirely different; no doubt, he will do +well there too. Here is a clergyman who has edited certain Greek plays +admirably; let us make him a bishop. + +It may be remarked here, that the men who have attained the greatest +success in the race of life have generally carried weight. _Nitor in +adversum_ might be the motto of many a man besides Burke. It seems to +be almost a general rule, that the raw material out of which the finest +fabrics are made should look very little like these, to start with. It +was a stammerer, of uncommanding mien, who became the greatest orator +of graceful Greece. I believe it is admitted that Chalmers was the most +effective preacher, perhaps the most telling speaker, that Britain has +seen for at least a century; yet his aspect was not commanding, his +gestures were awkward, his voice was bad, and his accent frightful. He +talked of an _oppning_ when be meant an _opening_, and he read out the +text of one of his noblest sermons, "He that is fulthy, let him be +fulthy stall." Yet who ever thought of these things after hearing the +good man for ten minutes? Ay, load Eclipse with what extra pounds you +might, Eclipse would always be first! And, to descend to the race-horse, +_he_ had four white legs, white to the knees; and he ran more awkwardly +than racer ever did, with his head between his forelegs, close to the +ground, like a pig. Alexander, Napoleon, and Wellington were all little +men, in places where a commanding presence would have been of no small +value. A most disagreeably affected manner has not prevented a barrister +with no special advantages from rising with general approval to the +highest places which a barrister can fill. A hideous little wretch has +appeared for trial in a criminal court, having succeeded in marrying +seven wives at once. A painful hesitation has not hindered a certain +eminent person from being one of the principal speakers in the British +Parliament for many years. Yes, even disadvantages never overcome +have not sufficed to hold in obscurity men who were at once able and +fortunate. But sometimes the disadvantage was thoroughly overcome. +Sometimes it served no other end than to draw to one point the attention +and the efforts of a determined will; and that matter in regard to which +Nature seemed to have said that a man should fall short became the thing +in which he attained unrivalled perfection. + +A heavy drag-weight upon the powers of some men is the uncertainty of +their powers. The man has not his powers at command. His mind is a +capricious thing, that works when it pleases, and will not work except +when it pleases. I am not thinking now of what to many is a sad +disadvantage: that nervous trepidation which cannot be reasoned away, +and which often deprives them of the full use of their mental abilities +just when they are most needed. It is a vast thing in a man's favor, +that whatever he can do he should be able to do at any time, and to +do at once. For want of coolness of mind, and that readiness which +generally goes with it, many a man cannot do himself justice; and in a +deliberative assembly he may be entirely beaten by some flippant person +who has all his money (so to speak) in his pocket, while the other must +send to the bank for his. How many people can think next day, or even +a few minutes after, of the precise thing they ought to have said, but +which would not come at the time! But very frequently the thing is of no +value, unless it come at the time when it is wanted. Coming next day, it +is like the offer of a thick fur great-coat on a sweltering day in July. +You look at the wrap, and say, "Oh, if I could but have had you on the +December night when I went to London by the limited mail, and was nearly +starved to death!" But it seems as if the mind must be, to a certain +extent, capricious in its action. Caprice, or what looks like it, +appears of necessity to go with complicated machinery, even material. +The more complicated a machine is, the liker it grows to mind, in the +matter of uncertainty and apparent caprice of action. The simplest +machine--say a pipe for conveying water--will always act in precisely +the same way. And two such pipes, if of the same dimensions, and +subjected to the same pressure, will always convey the self-same +quantities. But go to more advanced machines. Take two clocks or two +locomotive engines, and though these are made in all respects exactly +alike, they will act (I can answer at least for the locomotive engines) +quite differently. One locomotive will swallow a vast quantity of water +at once; another must be fed by driblets; no one can say why. One engine +is a _fac-simile_ of the other; yet each has its character and its +peculiarities as truly as a man has. You need to know your engine's +temper before driving it, just as much as you need to know that of your +horse, or that of your friend. I know, of course, there is a mechanical +reason for this seeming caprice, if you could trace the reason. But not +one man in a thousand could trace out the reason. And the phenomenon, as +it presses itself upon us, really amounts to this: that very complicated +machinery appears to have a will of its own,--appears to exercise +something of the nature of choice. But there is no machine so capricious +as the human mind. The great poet who wrote those beautiful verses could +not do _that_ every day. A good deal more of what he writes is poor +enough; and many days he could not write at all. By long habit the mind +may be made capable of being put in harness daily for the humbler task +of producing prose; but you cannot say, when you harness it in the +morning, how far or at what rate it will run that day. + +Go and see a great organ of which you have been told. Touch it, and you +hear the noble tones at once. The organ can produce them at any time. +But go and see a great man; touch _him_,--that is, get him to begin to +talk. You will be much disappointed, if you expect, certainly, to hear +anything like his book or his poem. A great man is not a man who is +always saying great things, or who is always able to say great things. +He is a man who on a few occasions has said great things; who on the +coming of a sufficient occasion may possibly say great things again; +but the staple of his talk is commonplace enough. Here is a point of +difference from machinery, with all machinery's apparent caprice. You +could not say, as you pointed to a steam-engine, "The usual power of +that engine is two hundred horses; but once or twice it has surprised us +all by working up to two thousand." No; the engine is always of nearly +the power of two thousand horses, if it ever is. But what we have been +supposing as to the engine is just what many men have done. Poe wrote +"The Raven"; he was working then up to two thousand horse power. But +he wrote abundance of poor stuff, working at about twenty-five. Read +straight through the volumes of Wordsworth, and I think you will find +traces of the engine having worked at many different powers, varying +from twenty-five horses or less up two thousand or more. Go and hear a +really great preacher, when he is preaching in his own church upon a +common Sunday, and possibly you may hear a very ordinary sermon. I have +heard Mr. Melvill preach very poorly. You must not expect to find people +always at their best. It is a very unusual thing that even the ablest +men should be like Burke, who could not talk with an intelligent +stranger for five minutes without convincing the stranger that he had +talked for five minutes with a great man. And it is an awful thing, when +some clever youth is introduced to some local poet who has been told how +greatly the clever youth admires him, and what vast expectations +the clever youth has formed of his conversation, and when the local +celebrity makes a desperate effort to talk up to the expectations formed +of him. I have witnessed such a scene; and I can sincerely say that I +could not previously have believed that the local celebrity could have +made such a fool of himself. He was resolved to show that he deserved +his fame, and to show that the mind which had produced those lovely +verses in the country newspaper could not stoop to commonplace things. + + * * * * * + +Undue sensitiveness, and a too lowly estimate of their own powers, hang +heavily upon some men,--probably upon more men than one would imagine. +I believe that many a man whom you would take to be ambitious, +pushing, and self-complacent, is ever pressed with a sad conviction of +inferiority, and wishes nothing more than quietly to slip through life. +It would please and satisfy him, if he could but be assured that he is +just like other people. You may remember a touch of nature (that is, of +some people's nature) in Burns; you remember the simple exultation of +the peasant mother, when her daughter gets a sweetheart: she is "well +pleased to see _her_ bairn respeckit _like the lave_," that is, like the +other girls round. And undue humility, perhaps even befitting humility, +holds back sadly in the race of life. It is recorded that a weaver in a +certain village in Scotland was wont daily to offer a singular petition; +he prayed daily and fervently for a better opinion of himself. Yes, a +firm conviction of one's own importance is a great help in life. It +gives dignity of bearing; it does (so to speak) lift the horse over many +a fence at which one with a less confident heart would have broken down. +But the man who estimates himself and his place humbly and justly will +be ready to shrink aside, and let men of greater impudence and not +greater desert step before him. I have often seen, with a sad heart, in +the case of working people that manner, difficult to describe, which +comes of being what we in Scotland sometimes call _sair hadden down_. I +have seen the like in educated people, too. And not very many will take +the trouble to seek out and to draw out the modest merit that keeps +itself in the shade. The energetic, successful people of this world are +too busy in pushing each for himself to have time to do _that_. You will +find that people with abundant confidence, people who assume a good +deal, are not unfrequently taken at their own estimate of themselves. I +have seen a Queen's Counsel walk into court, after the case in which he +was engaged had been conducted so far by his junior, and conducted +as well as mortal could conduct it. But it was easy to see that the +complacent air of superior strength with which the Queen's Counsel took +the management out of his junior's hands conveyed to the jury, (a common +jury,) the belief that things were now to be managed in quite different +and vastly better style. And have you not known such a thing as that a +family, not a whit better, wealthier, or more respectable than all +the rest in the little country town or the country parish, do yet, by +carrying their heads higher, (no mortal could say why,) gradually elbow +themselves into a place of admitted social superiority? Everybody knows +exactly what they are, and from what they have sprung; but somehow, +by resolute assumption, by a quiet air of being better than their +neighbors, they draw ahead of them, and attain the glorious advantage +of one step higher on the delicately graduated social ladder of the +district. Now it is manifest, that, if such people had sense to see +their true position, and the absurdity of their pretensions, they would +assuredly not have gained that advantage, whatever it may be worth. + +But sense and feeling are sometimes burdens in the race of life; that +is, they sometimes hold a man back from grasping material advantages +which he might have grasped, had he not been prevented by the possession +of a certain measure of common sense and right feeling. I doubt not, my +friend, that you have acquaintances who can do things which you could +not do for your life, and who by doing these things push their way in +life. They ask for what they want, and never let a chance go by them. +And though they may meet many rebuffs, they sometimes make a successful +venture. Impudence sometimes attains to a pitch of sublimity; and at +that point it has produced a very great impression upon many men. The +incapable person who started for a professorship has sometimes got it. +The man who, amid the derision of the county, published his address to +the electors, has occasionally got into the House of Commons. The vulgar +half-educated preacher, who without any introduction asked a patron for +a vacant living in the Church, has now and then got the living. And +however unfit you may be for a place, and however discreditable may have +been the means by which you got it, once you have actually held it for +two or three years people come to acquiesce in your holding it. They +accept the fact that you are there, just as we accept the fact that any +other evil exists in this world, without asking why, except on very +special occasions. I believe, too, that, in the matter of worldly +preferment, there is too much fatalism in many good men. They have a +vague trust that Providence will do more than it has promised. They are +ready to think, that, if it is God's will that they are to gain such a +prize, it will be sure to come their way without their pushing. That is +a mistake. Suppose you apply the same reasoning to your dinner. Suppose +you sit still in your study and say, "If I am to have dinner to-day, it +will come without effort of mine; and if I am not to have dinner to-day, +it will not come by any effort of mine; so here I sit still and do +nothing." Is not _that_ absurd? Yet that is what many a wise and good +man practically says about the place in life which would suit him, and +which would make him happy. Not Turks and Hindoos alone have a tendency +to believe in their _Kismet_. It is human to believe in that. And we +grasp at every event that seems to favor the belief. The other evening, +in the twilight, I passed two respectable-looking women who seemed like +domestic servants; and I caught one sentence which one said to the other +with great apparent faith. "You see," she said, "if a thing's to come +your way, it'll no gang by ye!" It was in a crowded street; but if +it had been in my country parish, where everyone knew me, I should +certainly have stopped the women, and told them, that, though what they +said was quite true, I feared they were understanding it wrongly, and +that the firm belief we all hold in God's Providence which reaches to +all events, and in His sovereignty which orders all things, should be +used to help us to be resigned, after we have done our best and failed, +but should never be used as an excuse for not doing our best. When we +have set our mind on any honest end, let us seek to compass it by every +honest means; and if we fail after having used every honest means, +_then_ let us fall back on the comfortable belief that things are +ordered by the Wisest and Kindest; _then_ is the time for the _Fiat +Voluntas Tua_. + +You would not wish, my friend, to be deprived of common sense and of +delicate feeling, even though you could be quite sure that once _that_ +drag-weight was taken off, you would spring forward to the van, and make +such running in the race of life as you never made before. Still, you +cannot help looking with a certain interest upon those people who, by +the want of these hindering influences, are enabled to do things and +say things which you never could. I have sometimes looked with no small +curiosity upon the kind of man who will come uninvited, and without +warning of his approach, to stay at another man's house: who will stay +on, quite comfortable and unmoved, though seeing plainly he is not +wanted: who will announce, on arriving, that his visit is to be for +three days, and who will then, without farther remark, and without +invitation of any kind, remain for a month or six weeks: and all +the while sit down to dinner every day with a perfectly easy and +unembarrassed manner. You and I, my reader, would rather live on much +less than sixpence a day than do all this. We _could not_ do it. But +some people not merely can do it, but can do it without any appearance +of effort. Oh, if the people who are victimized by these horse-leeches +of society could but gain a little of the thickness of skin which +characterizes the horse-leeches, and bid them be off, and not return +again till they are invited! To the same pachydermatous class belong +those individuals who will put all sorts of questions as to the private +affairs of other people, but carefully shy off from any similar +confidence as to their own affairs: also those individuals who borrow +small sums of money and never repay them, but go on borrowing till the +small sums amount to a good deal. To the same class may be referred +the persona who lay themselves out for saying disagreeable things, the +"candid friends" of Canning, the "people who speak their mind," who form +such pests of society. To find fault is to right-feeling men a very +painful thing; but some take to the work with avidity and delight. And +while people of cultivation shrink, with a delicate intuition, from +saying any thing which may give pain or cause uneasiness to others, +there are others who are ever painfully treading upon the moral corns of +all around them. Sometimes this is done designedly: as by Mr. Snarling, +who by long practice has attained the power of hinting and insinuating, +in the course of a forenoon call, as many unpleasant things as may +germinate into a crop of ill-tempers and worries which shall make the +house at which he called uncomfortable all that day. Sometimes it +is done unawares, as by Mr. Boor, who, through pure ignorance and +coarseness, is always bellowing out things which it is disagreeable +to some one, or to several, to hear. Which was it, I wonder, Boor or +Snarling, who once reached the dignity of the mitre, and who at prayers +in his house uttered this supplication on behalf of a lady visitor who +was kneeling beside him: "Bless our friend, Mrs. ----: give her a little +more common sense; and teach her to dress a little less like a tragedy +queen than she does at present"? + + * * * * * + +But who shall reckon up the countless circumstances which lie like a +depressing burden on the energies of men, and make them work at that +disadvantage which we have thought of under the figure of _carrying +weight in life?_ There are men who carry weight in a damp, marshy +neighborhood, who, amid bracing mountain air might have done things +which now they will never do. There are men who carry weight in an +uncomfortable house: in smoky chimneys: in a study with a dismal +look-out: in distance from a railway-station: in ten miles between them +and a bookseller's shop. Give another hundred a year of income, and the +poor struggling parson who preaches dull sermons will astonish you +by the talent he will exhibit when his mind is freed from the dismal +depressing influence of ceaseless scheming to keep the wolf from the +door. Let the poor little sick child grow strong and well, and with +how much better heart will its father face the work of life! Let the +clergyman who preached, in a spiritless enough way, to a handful of +uneducated rustics, be placed in a charge where weekly he has to address +a large cultivated congregation, and, with the new stimulus, latent +powers may manifest themselves which no one fancied he possessed, and he +may prove quite an eloquent and attractive preacher. A dull, quiet +man, whom you esteemed as a blockhead, may suddenly be valued very +differently when circumstances unexpectedly call out the solid qualities +he possesses, unsuspected before. A man devoid of brilliancy may on +occasion show that he possesses great good sense, or that he has the +power of sticking to his task in spite of discouragement. Let a man be +placed where dogged perseverance will stand him in stead, and you may +see what he can do when he has but a chance. The especial weight which +has held some men back, the thing which kept them from doing great +things and attaining great fame, has been just this: that they were not +able to say or to write what they have thought and felt. And, indeed, +a great poet is nothing more than the one man in a million who has the +gift to express that which has been in the mind and heart of multitudes. +If even the most commonplace of human beings could write all the poetry +he has felt, he would produce something that would go straight to the +hearts of many. + +It is touching to witness the indications and vestiges of sweet and +admirable things which have been subjected to a weight which has +entirely crushed them down,--things which would have come out into +beauty and excellence, if they had been allowed a chance. You may +witness one of the saddest of all the losses of Nature in various old +maids. What kind hearts are there running to waste! What pure and gentle +affections blossom to be blighted! I dare say you have heard a young +lady of more than forty sing, and you have seen her eyes fill with tears +at the pathos of a very commonplace verse. Have you not thought that +there was the indication of a tender heart which might have made some +good man happy, and, in doing so, made herself happy, too? But it was +not to be. Still, it is sad to think that sometimes upon cats and dogs +there should be wasted the affection of a kindly human being! And you +know, too, how often the fairest promise of human excellence is never +suffered to come to fruit. You must look upon gravestones to find the +names of those who promised to be the best and noblest specimens of +the race. They died in early youth,--perhaps in early childhood. Their +pleasant faces, their singular words and ways, remain, not often talked +of, in the memories of subdued parents, or of brothers and sisters now +grown old, but never forgetting how _that_ one of the family, that +was as the flower of the flock, was the first to fade. It has been a +proverbial saying, you know, even from heathen ages, that those whom the +gods love die young. It is but an inferior order of human beings that +makes the living succession to carry on the human race. + + * * * * * + + +WHY HAS THE NORTH FELT AGGRIEVED WITH ENGLAND? + + +We have chosen a guarded and passionless wording for a topic on which +we wish to offer a few frankly spoken, but equally passionless remarks. +With the bitterness and venom and exaggeration of statement which both +English and American papers have interchanged in reference to matters of +opinion and matters of feeling connected with our national troubles we +do not now intermeddle. We would not imitate it: we regret it, and +on our own side we are ashamed of it. We have read editorials and +communications in our own papers so grossly vituperative and stinging in +the rancor of their spirit, that it would not have surprised us, if some +Englishmen, of a certain class, had organized a hostile association +against us in revenge for our truculent defiance. The real spirit of +bullyism, of the cockpit and the pugilistic ring, has been exhibited in +this interchange of newspaper opinion. The more is the reason why we +should not overlook or be blind to the real grievances in the case, nor +fail to give expression to them in the strongest way of which their +emphatic, but unembittered, statement will admit. Whether the London +"Times" is or is not an authoritative vehicle for the utterance of +average English opinion, and an index, in its general tone, of the +prevailing sentiment of that people, is a question which, so far from +wishing to decide, we must decline to entertain, as mainly irrelevant to +our present purpose. As a matter of fact, however, if we did accept that +print as an authority and a standard in English opinion, we should throw +more of temper than we hope to prevent escaping through our words into +the remarks which are to follow. That paper evidently represents the +opinion of one class, perhaps of more than one class of Englishmen. An +intelligent American reader of its comments on our affairs can always +read it, as even the best-informed Englishman cannot, with the skill and +ability to discern its spirit, often covertly mean, and to detect its +misrepresentations, some of the grossest of which are made the basis of +its arguments and inferences. From the very opening of our strife to the +last issue of that print which has crossed the water, its comments and +records relating to our affairs have presented a most ingenious and +mischievous combination of everything false, ill-tempered, malignant, +and irritating. It is at present exercising itself upon the financial +arrangements of our Government, and uttering prophecies, falsified +before they have come to our knowledge, about the inability or the +unwillingness of our loyal people to furnish the necessary money. + +But enough of the London "Times." We have in view matters not identified +with the spirit and comments of a single newspaper, however influential. +We have in view graver and more comprehensive facts,--facts, too, more +significant of feelings and opinion. Stating our point in general terms, +which we shall reduce to some particulars before we close, we affirm +frankly and emphatically, that the North, we might even say this Nation, +as a government standing in solemn treaty relations with Great Britain, +has just cause of complaint and offence at the prevailing tone and +spirit of the English people, and press, and mercantile classes, towards +us, in view of the rebellion which is convulsing our land. That tone +and spirit have not been characterized by justice, magnanimity, or +true sympathy with a noble and imperilled cause; they have not been in +keeping with the professions and avowed principles of that people; they +have not been consistent with the former intimations of English opinion +towards us, as regards our position and our duty; and they have sadly +disappointed the hopes on whose cheering support we had relied when the +dark hours which English influence had helped to prepare for us should +come. + +Before we proceed to our specifications, let us meet the suggestion +often thrown out, that we have been unduly and morbidly sensitive to +English opinion in this matter; and let us gratefully allow for the +exceptions that may require to be recognized in the application of our +charges against the English people or press as a whole. It has been +said that we have shown a timid and almost craven sensitiveness to the +opinions pronounced abroad upon our national struggle, especially those +pronounced by our own kinsfolk of England. It is urged, that a strong +and prosperous and united people, if conscious of only a rightful cause, +and professing the ability to maintain it, should be self-reliant, +independent of foreign judgment, and ready to trust to time and the sure +candor and fulness of the expositions which it brings with it, to set us +right before the eyes of the world. But what if another nation, supposed +to be friendly, known even to have recommended and urged upon us +the very cause for which we are contending, represents it in such a +contumelious and disheartening way as to show us that we have not even +her sympathy? Further, what if there is a spirit and a tone of treatment +towards us which suggests the possibility that at some critical moment +she may interfere in a way that will embarrass us and encourage our +enemies? The sensitiveness of a people to the possible power of mischief +that may lie against them in the hands of a jealous neighbor, ready to +be used at the will or caprice of its possessor, may indicate timidity +or weakness. But Great Britain, knowing very well what the feeling is, +ought to understand that it may consist with real strength, courage, and +right purposes. It is notorious now to all the civilized world, as +a fact often ludicrously and sometimes lugubriously set forth, that +millions of sturdy English folk have lived for many years, and live at +this hour, in a state of quaking trepidation as to the designs of a +single man of "ideas" across their Channel. What bulletin have the +English people ever read from day to day with such an intermittent pulse +as that with which they peruse quotations from the "Moniteur"? The +English people, whatever might have been true of them once, are now +the last people in the world--matched and overawed as they are by the +French--to charge upon another people a timid sensitiveness for even the +slightest intimations of foreign feeling and possible intentions. + +We must allow also for exceptions to the sweep of the specific charges +under which we shall express our grievances at the general course of +English treatment towards us. There have been messages in many private +letters from Englishmen and Englishwomen of high public and of dignified +private station, there have been editorials and communications in a few +English papers, there have been brief utterances in Parliament, and +from leading speakers at political, mercantile, literary, and religious +assemblies, which have shown a full appreciation of the import of our +present strife, and have conveyed to us in words of most precious and +grateful encouragement the assurance that many hearts are beating with +ours across the sea. That the truculence and venom of some of our own +papers may have repressed the feeling and the utterance of this same +sympathy in many individuals and ways where it might otherwise have +manifested itself is not unnatural, and is very probable. We acknowledge +most gratefully the cheer and the inspiration which have come to us from +every word, wish, and act from abroad that has recognized the stake of +our conflict; and we will take for granted the real existence and the +glowing heartiness of much of the same which has not been expressed, or +has not reached us. Farther even than this we will go in tempering or +qualifying the utterance of our grievances. We will take for granted +that very much of the coldness, or antipathy, or contemptuousness, or +misrepresentation which we have recognized in the general treatment of +us and our cause by Englishmen is to be accounted to actual ignorance +or a very partial understanding of our real circumstances and of the +conditions of the conflict, and of the relations of parties to it. De +Tocqueville is universally regarded among us as the only foreigner +who ever divined the theoretical and the practical method of our +institutions. Englishmen, English statesmen even, have never penetrated +to the mystery of them. Many intelligent British travellers have seemed +to wish to do so, and to have tried to do so. But the study bothers +them, the secret baffles them. They give it up with a gruff impatience +which writes on their features the sentence, "You have no right to have +such complicated and unintelligible arrangements in your governments, +State and Federal: they are quite un-English." Our foreign kinsfolk seem +unwilling to realize the extent of our domain, and the size of some +of our States as compared with their own island, and incapable of +understanding how different institutions, forms, limitations, and +governmental arrangements may exist in the several States, independently +of, or in subordination to, the province and administration of the +Federal Government. Nearly every English journal which undertakes +to refer to our affairs will make ludicrous or serious blunders, +if venturing to enter into details. The "Edinburgh Review" kindly +volunteered to be the champion of American institutions and products in +opposition to the extreme Toryism of the "Quarterly." Sydney Smith took +us, our authors and early enterprises, under his special patronage, +and he wrote many favorable articles of that character. One would have +supposed, that, in the necessary preparation for such labors, he would +have acquired some geographical, statistical, and other rudimentary +knowledge about us, enough to have kept him from gross blunders. +Unluckily, for him and for us, for the sake of getting here on his money +double the interest which he could get at home, and not considering +that the greater the promised profit the greater the risk, he made +investments in some of our stock companies and bonds. When these +investments proved disastrous, he raved and fumed, calling upon our +Government--which had nothing more to do with the matter than had the +English Parliament--to make good his losses. + +We are tempted for a moment to drop the graver thread of our theme to +relate an anecdote in illustration of our present point. It happened a +few years ago that we had as a household guest for two or three weeks an +English gentleman, well-informed, courteous, and excellent, who had been +for several years the editor of a London paper. On the day after his +domestication with us, which was within the first week of his arrival +at New York, sitting where we are now writing, after breakfast, he +announced that "he had a commission to execute for a friend, with a +person residing in Springfield." Opening his note-book, he handed us a +slip of paper bearing the gentleman's name and address, "Springfield, +Ohio." Furnishing him with writing-materials, we were about turning to +our own occupation, when, suddenly, with a quick exclamation, as if +recalling something, he said, "Sure, I have been in Springfield. I +remember a short, a very short time was allowed for dinner, as I came +from New York." We explained, or tried to explain to him, that the +Springfield through which he had passed and the Springfield to which he +was writing were in different States widely separated, and that there +were also several other "Springfields." To this he demurred, protesting +that it made matters quite confusing to foreigners to have the same +names repeated in different parts of the Country. In vain did we suggest +that all confusion was avoided by adding the abbreviated name of the +State. No! "It was very confusing." Suddenly, a thought occurred to +us, and, refreshing our memory by a glance at the Index of our English +"Road-Book," we suggested triumphantly that names were repeated for +different localities in England: thus, there are four Ashfords, two +Dorchesters, six Hortons, seven Newports, etc., etc. Our guest, with an +air and vehemence that quite outvied our triumph, exclaimed,--"Oh! but +they are in different shi_rrr_hes, in different shi_rrr_hes!" Sure +enough, one of his own _shires_ is a larger thing to an Englishman than +one of our States. He lives on an island which is to him larger than all +the rest of the world, though any one starting from the centre of it, on +a fast horse, unless he crossed the border into Scotland, could scarcely +ride in any direction twenty-four hours without getting overboard. + +To the actual ignorance or obfuscation of mind of the majority of the +English people, as regards our country and its institutions, we are +doubtless to refer much of the ill-toned and seemingly unfriendly +comments made upon our affairs in their organs. Thus, it is intimated +to us by many English writers, that they regard the North now as +simply undertaking to patch up a Union founded and sustained by mean +compromises, an object which has already led us into many humiliating +concessions,--and that the moment we announce that we are striking a +blow for Liberty, we shall have their sympathy without stint or measure. +No Englishman who really understood our affairs would talk in that way. +One of the chief lures which instigated and encouraged the Southern +rebellion was the assurance, adroitly insinuated by the leading traitors +into their duped followers, that opposition by the rest of the country +to their schemes would take the form of an anti-slavery crusade, in +which form the opposition would be put down by the combined force of +those who did not belong to the Republican party. They were deceived. +Opposition to them took the form of a rallying by all parties to the +defence of the Constitution, the maintenance of the Union. For any +anti-slavery zeal to have attempted to divert the aroused patriotism of +the land to a breach of one of its fundamental constitutional provisions +would have been treacherous and futile. The majority of our enlisted +patriotic soldiers would have laid down their arms. If the leadings of +Providence shall direct the thickening strife into an exterminating +crusade against slavery, doubtless our patriots will wait on Providence. +But we could not have started in our stern work avowing that as an +object of our own. And as to the meanness of our concessions and +compromises for Union, we have to consider what woes and wrongs that +Union has averted. Has England no discreditable passages in her own +Parliamentary history? Have her attempts at governing large masses of +men, Christian and heathen, Roman Catholic and Protestant, and of all +sects, privileged and oppressed, never led her into any truckling or +tyrannical legislation, any concessions or compromises of ideal or +abstract right? + +But we must come to our specifications, introducing them with but a +single other needful suggestion. We have not to complain of any acts or +formal measures of the English Government against us,--nor even of the +omission of any possible public manifestation which might have turned +to our encouragement or service. But it will be admitted that we have +grievances to complain of, if the tone and the strain of English opinion +and sentiment have been such as to inspirit the South and to dispirit +the North. If English comments have palliated or justified the original +and the incidental measures of the Rebellion,--if they have been zealous +to find or to exaggerate excuses for it, to overstate the apparent or +professed grounds of it, to wink at the meannesses and outrages by which +it has thriven,--if they have perverted or misrepresented the real +issue, have ridiculed or discouraged the purposes of its patriotic +opponents, have embarrassed or impeded their hopes of success, or have +prejudged or foreclosed the probable result,--it will be admitted, we +say, that we have grievances against those who have so dealt by us in +the hour of our dismay and trial. And it is an enormous aggravation of +the disappointment or the wrong which we are bearing, that it is visited +upon us by England just as we have initiated measures for at least +restraining and abating the dominant power of that evil institution for +our complicity in the support of which she has long been our unsparing +censor. We complain generally of the unsympathizing and contemptuous +tone of England towards us,--of the mercurial standard by which she +judges our strife,--of the scarcely qualified delight with which she +parades our occasional ill-successes and discomfitures,--of the baste +which she has made to find tokens of a rising despotism or a military +dictatorship in those measures of our Government which are needful +and consistent with the exigencies of a state of warfare, such as the +suspension, on occasions, of the _habeas corpus_, the suppression of +disloyal publications, the employment of spies, and the requisition of +passports,--and finally, of the contemptible service to which England +has tried to put our last tariff, and of her evident unwillingness to +have us find or furnish the finances of our war. Not to deal, however, +with generalities, we proceed to make three distinct points of an +argument that crowds us with materials. + +Foremost among the grievances which we at the North may allege against +our brethren across the water--foremost, both in time and in the harmful +influence of its working--we may specify this fact, that the English +press, with scarce an exception, made haste, in the very earliest stages +of the Southern Rebellion, to judge and announce the hopeless partition +of our Union, as an event accomplished and irrevocable. The way in which +this judgment was reached and pronounced, the time and circumstances of +its utterance, and the foregone conclusions which were drawn from it, +gave to it a threatening and mischievous agency, only less prejudicial +to our cause, we verily believe, than would have been an open alliance +between England and the enemies of the Republic. This haste to announce +the positive and accomplished dissolution of our National Union was +forced most painfully upon our notice in the darkest days of our opening +strife. Those who undertook to guide and instruct English opinion in +the matter had easy means of informing themselves about the strangely +fortuitous and deplorable, though most opportune and favoring +combination of circumstances under which "Secession" was initiated and +strengthened. They knew that the Administration, then in its last days +of power, was half-covertly, half-avowedly in sympathy and in active +cooperation with the cause of rebellion. The famous "Ostend Conference" +had had its doings and designs so thoroughly aired in the columns of the +English press, that we cannot suppose either the editors or the readers +ignorant of the spirit or intentions of those who controlled the policy +of that Administration. Early information likewise crossed the water to +them of the discreditable and infamous doings and plottings of members +of the Cabinet, evidently in league with the fomenting treachery. They +knew that the head of the Navy Department had either scattered our +ships of war to the ends of the earth, or had moored them in helpless +disability at our dockyards,--that the head of the War Department had +been plundering the arsenals of loyal States to furnish weapons for +intended rebellion,--that the head of the Treasury Department was +purloining its funds,--and that the President himself, while allowing +national forts to be environed by hostile batteries, had formally +announced that both Secession itself and all attempts to resist it were +alike unconstitutional,--the effect of which grave opinion was to +let Secession have its way till _Coercion_ would seem to be not only +unconstitutional, but unavailing. Our English kinsfolk also knew that +our prominent diplomatic agents abroad, representing solemn treaty +relations with them of this nation as a unit, under sacred oaths of +loyalty to it, and living on generous grants from its Treasury, were +also in more or less of active sympathy with traitorous schemes. So far, +it must be owned, there was little in the promise of whatever might grow +from these combined enormities to engage the confidence or the good +wishes of true-hearted persons on either side of the water. + +But whatever power of mischief lay in this marvellous combination of +evil forces, so malignly working together, the Administration in which +they found their life and whose agencies they employed was soon to yield +up its fearfully desecrated trust. A new order of things, representing +at least the spirit and purpose of that philanthropy and public +righteousness to which our English brethren had for years been prompting +us, was to come in with a new Administration, already constitutionally +recognized, but not as yet put into power. It was asking but little of +intelligent foreigners of our own blood and language, that they should +make due allowance for that recurring period in the terms of our +Government--as easily turned to mischievous influences as is an +interregnum in a monarchy--by which there is a lapse of four months +between the election and the inauguration of our Chief Magistrate. A +retiring functionary may work and plan and provide an immense amount of +disabling, annoying, and damaging experience to be encountered by his +successor. That successor may at a distance, or close at hand, be an +observer of all this influence; but whether it be simply of a partisan +or of a malignant character, he is powerless to resist it, and good +taste and the proprieties of his position seem to suggest that he make +no public recognition of it. Every Chief Magistrate of this Republic, +before its present head, acceded to office with its powers and dignities +and facilities and trusts unimpaired by his predecessor. We have thought +that among the thorns of the pillow on which a certain "old public +functionary" lays his head, as he watches the dismal working of elements +which he had more power than any other to have dispelled, not the +least sharp one must be that which pierces him with the thought of the +difference between the position which his predecessors prepared for him +and that which he prepared for his successor. Not among the least of +the claims which that successor has upon the profound and respectful +sympathy of all good men everywhere is the fact that there has been no +public utterance of complaining or reproachful words from his lips, +reflecting upon his predecessor, or even asking indulgence on the score +of the shattered and almost wrecked fabric of which we have put him in +charge. We confess that we have looked through the English papers for +months for some magnanimous and high-souled tribute of this sort to the +Man who thus nobly represents a sacred and imperilled cause. If such +tribute has been rendered, it has escaped our notice. + +Now, as we are reflecting upon the tone and spirit of the English press +at the opening of the Rebellion, we have to recall to the minds of our +readers the fact, that in all its early stages, even down to and almost +after the proclamation of the President summoning a volunteer force to +resist it, we ourselves, at the North, utterly refused to consider the +Seceders as in earnest. We may have been stupid, besotted, infatuated +even, in our blindness and incredulity. But none the less did we, that +is, the great majority of us, regard all the threats and measures of the +South as something less formidable and actual than open war and probable +or threatening revolution. We were persuaded that the people of the +South had been wrought up by artful and ambitious leaders to wild alarm +that the new Administration would visit outrages upon them and try to +turn them into a state of vassalage. Utterly unconscious as we were of +any purpose to trespass upon or reduce their fullest constitutional +rights, we knew how grossly our intentions were misrepresented to them. +We applied the same measure to the distance between their threats and +the probability that they would carry them out which we knew ought to be +applied to the difference between our supposed and our real +intentions. In a word,--for this is the simple truth,--we regarded the +manifestations of the seceding and rebelling States--or rather of the +leaders and their followers in them--as in part bluster and in part a +warning of what might ensue, though it would not be likely to ensue when +their eyes were open to the truth. We were met by bold defiance, by +outrageous abuse, and with an almost overwhelming venting of falsehoods. +There was boastfulness, arrogance, assured claims of sufficient +strength, and daring prophecies of success, enough to have made any +cause triumphant, if triumph comes through such means. Still we were +incredulous, perhaps foolishly and culpably so,--but incredulous, and +unintimidated, and confident, none the less. We believed that wise, +forbearing, and temperate measures of the new Administration would +remove all real grievances, dispel all false alarms, and at least leave +open the way to bloodless methods of preserving the Union. Part of our +infatuation consisted in our seeing so plainly the infatuation of the +South, while we did not allow for the lengths of wild and reckless folly +into which it might drive them. We could see most plainly that either +success in their schemes, or failure through a struggle to accomplish +them, would be alike ruinous to them; that no cause standing on the +basis and contemplating the objects recognized by them could possibly +prosper, so long as the throne of heaven had a sovereign seated upon it. +Full as much, then, from our conviction that the South would not insist +upon doing itself such harm as from any fear of what might happen to +us, did we refuse to regard Secession as a fixed fact. At the period of +which we are speaking, there was probably not a single man at the North, +of well-furnished and well-balanced mind--who stood clear in heart +and pocket of all secret or interested bias toward the South--that +deliberately recognized the probability of the dissolution of the Union. +Very few such men will, indeed, recognize that possibility now, except +as they recognize the possibility of the destruction of an edifice of +solid blocks and stately columns by the grinding to powder of each large +mass of the fabric, so that no rebuilding could restore it. + +This was the state of mind and feeling with which we, who had so much at +stake and could watch every pulsation of the excitement, contemplated +the aspect of our opening strife. But with the first echo from abroad of +its earliest announcements here came the most positive averments in the +English papers, with scarcely a single exception, that the knell of this +Union had struck. We had fallen asunder, our bond was broken, we had +repudiated our former league or fellowship, and henceforth what had been +a unit was to be two or more fragments, in peaceful or hostile relations +as the case might be, but never again One. It would but revive for us +the first really sharp and irritating pangs of this dismal experience, +to go over the files of papers for those extracts which were like +vinegar to our eyes as we first read them. Their substance is repeated +to us in the sheets which come by every steamer. There were, of course, +variations of tone and spirit in these evil prognostications and these +raven-like croaks. Sometimes there was a vein of pity, and of that kind +of sorrow which we feel and of that other kind which we express for +other people's troubles. Sometimes there was a start of surprise, an +ejaculation of amazement, or even profound dismay, at the calamity which +had come upon us. In others of these newspaper comments there was +that unmistakable superciliousness, that goading contemptuousness +of self-conceit and puffy disdain, which John Bull visits on all +"un-English" things, especially when they happen under their unfortunate +aspects. In not a few of these same comments there was a tone of +exultation, malignant and almost diabolical, as at the discomfiture of +a hated and dangerous rival. We have read at least three English +newspapers for each week that has passed since our troubles began; we +have been readers of these papers for a score of years. In not one of +them have we met the sentence or the line which pronounces hopefully, +with bold assurance, for the renewed life of our Union. In by far the +most of them there is reiterated the most positive and dogged averment +that there is no future for us. We are not unmindful of the manliness +and stout cheer with which a very few of them have avowed their wish and +faith that the Rebels may be utterly discomfited and held up before the +world in their shame and friendlessness, and have coupled with these +utterances words of warm sympathy and approval for the North. But these +ill-wishes for the one party and these good wishes for the other +party are independent of anything but utter hopelessness as to the +preservation or the restoration of the Union. + +Now some may suggest that we make altogether too much of what so far +is but the expression of an opinion, and, at worst, of an unfavorable +opinion,--an opinion, too, which may yet prove to be correct. But the +giving of an opinion on some matters has all the effect of taking a +side, and often helps much to decide the stake. On very many accounts, +this expression of English opinion, at the time it was uttered and with +such emphasis, was most unwarranted and most mischievous. It is very +easy to distribute its harmful influence upon our interests and +prospects into three very different methods, all of which combined to +injure or obstruct the Northern cause,--the National cause. Thus, this +opinion of the hopelessness of our resistance of the men of our +Union was of great value to the Rebels as an encouragement under any +misgivings they might have; it was calculated to prejudice our position +in the eyes of the world; and it had a tendency to dispirit many among +ourselves. A word upon each of these points.--How quickening must it +have been to the flagging hopes or determination of the Rebels to read +in the English journals that they were sure of success, that the result +was already registered, that they had gained their purpose simply by +proposing it! Nor was it possible to regard this opinion as not carrying +with it some implication that the cause of the Rebels was a just one, +and was sure of success, if for other reasons, for this, too, among +them, namely, that it was just. Why else were the Rebels so sure of a +triumph? Was it because of their superior strength or resources? A very +little inquiry would have set aside that suggestion. Was it because +of the nobleness of their cause? A very frank avowal from the +Vice-President of the assumed Confederacy announced to liberty-loving +Englishmen that that cause was identified with a slavocracy. Or was +the Rebel cause to succeed through the dignity and purity of the means +enlisted in its service? It was equally well known on both sides of the +water by what means and appliances of fraud, perfidy, treachery, and +other outrages, the schemes of the Rebellion were initiated and pursued. +If, in spite of all these negatives, the English press prophesies +success to the Rebels, was not the prophecy a great comfort and spur +to them?--Again, this prophecy of our sure discomfiture prejudiced us +before the world. It gave a public character and aspect of hopelessness +to our cause; it invited coldness of treatment towards us; it seemed to +warn off all nations from giving us aid or comfort; and it virtually +affirmed that any outlay of means or life by us in a cause seen to be +impracticable would be reckless, sanguinary, cruel, and inhuman.--And, +once more, to those among ourselves who are influenced by evil +prognostications, it was most dispiriting to be told, as if by cool, +unprejudiced observers from outside, that no uprising of patriotism, no +heroism of sacrifice, no combination of wisdom and power would be of any +avail to resist a foreordained catastrophe.--In these three harmful +ways of influence, the ill-omened opinion reiterated from abroad had +a tendency to fulfil itself. The whole plea of justification offered +abroad for the opinion is given in the assertion that those who have +once been bitterly alienated can never be brought into true harmony +again, and that it is impossible to govern the unwilling as equals. +England has but to read the record of her own strifes and battles and +infuriated passages with Scotland and Ireland,--between whom and herself +alienations of tradition, prejudice, and religion seemed to make harmony +as impossible as the promise of it is to these warring States,--England +has only to refresh her memory on these points, in order to relieve us +of the charge of folly in attempting an impossibility. So much for the +first grievance we allege against our English brethren. + +Another of our specifications of wrong is involved in that already +considered. If English opinion decided that our nationality must +henceforth be divided, it seemed also to imply that we ought to divide +according to terms dictated by the Seceders. This was a precious +judgment to be pronounced against us by a sister Government which +was standing in solemn treaty relations with us as a unit in our +nationality! What did England suppose had become of our Northern +manhood, of the spirit of which she herself once felt the force? There +was something alike humiliating and exasperating in this implied advice +from her, that we should tamely and unresistingly submit to a division +of continent, bays, and rivers, according to terms defiantly and +insultingly proposed by those who had a joint ownership with ourselves. +How would England receive such advice from us under like circumstances? +But we must cut short the utterance of our feelings on this point, that +we may make another specification,-- + +Which is, that our English critics see only, or chiefly, in the fearful +and momentous conflict in which we are engaged, "a bursting of the +bubble of Democracy"! Shall we challenge now the intelligence or the +moral principle, the lack of one or the other of which is betrayed +in this sneering and malignant representation--this utter +misrepresentation--of the catastrophe which has befallen our nation? +Intelligent Englishmen know full well that the issue raised among us +does not necessarily touch or involve at a single point the principles +of Democracy, but stands wide apart and distinct from them. We might +with as much propriety have said that the Irish Rebellion and the Indian +Mutiny showed "the bursting of the bubble of Monarchy." The principles +of Democracy stand as firm and find our people as loyal to them in every +little town-meeting and in every legislature of each loyal State in the +Union as they did in the days of our first enthusiastic and successful +trial of them. Supposing even that the main assumption on which so many +Englishmen have prematurely vented their scorn were a fact; we cannot +but ask if the nation nearest akin to us, and professing to be guided +in this century by feelings which forbid a rejoicing over others' great +griefs, has no words of high moral sympathy, no expressions of regretful +disappointment in our calamities? Is it the first or the most emphatic +thing which it is most fitting for Christian Englishmen to say over the +supposed wreck of a recently noble and promising country, the prospered +home of thirty millions of God's children,--that "a bubble has burst"? +We might interchange with our foreign "comforters" a discussion by +arguments and facts as to whether a monarchy or a democracy has about it +more of the qualities of a bubble, but the debate would be irrelevant +to our present purpose. We believe that Democracy in its noblest and +all-essential and well-proved principles will survive the shock which +has struck upon our nation, whatever the result of that shock may yet +prove to be. We believe, further, that the principles of Democracy will +come out of the struggle which is trying, not themselves, but something +quite distinct from them, with a new affirmation and vindication. But +let that be as it may, we are as much ashamed for England's sake as +we are aggrieved on our own account that from the vehicles of public +sentiment in "the foremost realm in the world for all true culture, +advanced progress, and the glorious triumphs of liberty and religion," +what should be a profoundly plaintive lament over our supposed ruin +is, in reality, a mocking taunt and a hateful gibe over our failure in +daring to try an "un-English" experiment.[A] + +[Footnote A: The following precious utterances of John Bull moralizing, +which might have been spoken of the Thugs in India, or some provincial +Chinese enterprise, are extracted from the cotton circular of Messrs. +Neill, Brothers, addressed to their correspondents, and dated, +Manchester, Aug. 21. We find the circular copied in a _religious_ +newspaper published in London, without any rebuke. "The North will have +to learn the limited extent of her powers as compared with the +gigantic task she has undertaken. One and perhaps two defeats will be +insufficient to reverse the false education of a lifetime. Many lessons +will probably be necessary, and, meantime, any success the Northern +troops may obtain will again inflame the national vanity, and the +lessons of adversity will need to be learned over again. More effect +will probably be produced by sufferings at home, by the ruin of the +higher classes and pauperization of the lower, and by the general +absorption of the floating capital of the country"! There, good reader, +what think you of the cotton moralizing of a comfortable factor, +dwelling in immaculate England, dealing with us in cotton, and with the +Chinese in opium?] + +The stately "Quarterly Review," in its number for July, uses a little +more of dignity in wording the title of an article upon our affairs +thus,--"Democracy on its Trial"; but it makes up for the waste of +refinement upon its text by a lavish indulgence in scurrility and +falsehood in its comments. As a specimen, take the following. Living +here in this goodly city of Boston, and knowing and loving well its +ways and people, we are asked to credit the following story, which the +Reviewer says he heard from "a well-known traveller." The substance of +the story is, that a Boston merchant proposed to gild the lamp over his +street-door, but was dissuaded from so doing by the suggestion of a +friend, that by savoring of aristocracy the ornamented gas-burner would +offend the tyrannical people and provoke violence against it! This, the +latest joke in the solemn Quarterly, has led many of its readers here to +recall the days of Madame Trollope and the Reverend Mr. Fiddler, those +veracious and "well-known travellers." There are, we are sorry to say, +many gilded street-lamps, burnished and blazing every night, in Boston. +But instead of standing before the houses of our merchants, they +designate quite a different class of edifices. Our merchants, as a +general thing, would object, both on the score of good taste and on +grounds of disagreeable association with the signal, to raise such an +ornament before the doors of their comfortable homes. The common people, +however, so far from taking umbrage at the spectacle, would be rather +gratified by the generosity of our grandees in being willing to show +some of their finery out of doors. This would be the feeling especially +of that part of our population which is composed of foreigners, who have +been used to the sight of such demonstrations in their native countries, +which are not democracies. In fact, we suspect that the reason why +English "flunkeys" hate American "flunkeyism," with its laced coachmen, +etc., is because mere money, by aping the insignia of rank, its gewgaws +and trumpery, shows too plainly how much of the rank itself depends upon +the fabrics and demonstrations through which it sets itself forth. We +can conceive that an English nobleman travelling in this country, who +might chance in one of our cities to see a turn-out with its outriders, +tassels, and crests, almost or quite as fine as his own, if he were +informed that it belonged to a plebeian who had grown vastly rich +through some coarse traffic, might resolve to reduce all the display +of his own equipage the moment he reached home. The labored and +mean-spirited purpose of the writer of the aforesaid article in the +Quarterly, and of other writers of like essays, is to find in our +democracy the material and occasion of everything of a discreditable +sort which occurs in our land. Now we apprehend, not without some means +of observation and inquiry, that the state and features of society in +Great Britain and in all our Northern regions are almost identically the +same, or run in parallelisms, by which we might match every phenomenon, +incident, prejudice, and folly, every good and every bad trait and +manifestation in the one place with something exactly like it in the +other. During a whole score of years, as we have read the English +journals and our own, the thought has over and over again suggested +itself to us that any one who had leisure and taste for the task might +cut out from each series of papers respectively, for a huge commonplace +book, matters of a precisely parallel nature in both countries. A simple +difference in the names of men and of places would be all that would +appear or exist. Every noble and every mean and every mixed exhibition +of character,--every act of munificence and of baseness,--every +narrative of thrilling or romantic interest,--every instance and example +of popular delusion, humbug, man-worship, breach of trust, domestic +infelicity, and of cunning or astounding depravity and hypocrisy,--every +religious, social, and political excitement,--every panic,--and every +accident even, from carelessness or want of skill,--each and all these +have their exact parallels, generally within the same year of time in +Great Britain and in our own country. The crimes and the catastrophes, +in each locality, have seemed almost repetitions of the same things on +either continent. Munificent endowments of charitable institutions, zeal +in reformatory enterprises and in the correction of abuses, have shown +that the people of both regions stand upon the same plane of humanity +and practical Christian culture. The same great frauds have indicated +in each the same amount of rottenness in men occupying places of trust. +Both regions have had the same sort of unprincipled "railway kings" and +bankers, similar railroad disasters, similar cases of the tumbling +down of insecure walls, and of wife-poisoning. A Chartist insurrection +enlists a volunteer police in London, and an apprehended riot among +foreigners is met by a similar precaution in one of our cities. An +intermittent controversy goes on in England about the interference of +religion with common education, and Boston or New York is agitated at +the same time with the question about the use of the Bible in the public +schools. Boston rowdies mob an English intermeddler with the ticklish +matters of our national policy, and English rowdies mob an Austrian +Haynau. England goes into ecstasies over the visit of a Continental +Prince, and our Northern States repeat the demonstration over the visit +of a British Prince. The Duke of Wellington alarms his fellow-subjects +by suggesting that their national defences would all prove insufficient +against the assaults of a certain terrible Frenchman, and an American +cabinet official echoes the suggestion that England may, perhaps, try +her strength in turn against us. There are evidently a great many +bubbles in this world, and, for all that we know to the contrary, they +are all equally liable to burst. Some famous ones, bright in royal +hues, have burst within the century. Some more of the same may, not +impossibly, suffer a collapse before the century has closed. So that, +for this matter, "the bubble of Democracy" must take its chance with the +rest. + +We have one more specification to make under our general statement +of reasons why the North feels aggrieved with the prevailing tone of +sentiment and comment in the English journals in reference to our great +calamity. We protest against the verdict which finds expression in all +sorts of ways and with various aggravations, that, in attempting to +rupture our Union, and to withdraw from it on their own terms, at their +own pleasure, the seceding States are but repeating the course of the +old Thirteen Colonies in declaring themselves independent, and sundering +their ties to the mother country. There is evidently the rankling of an +old smart in this plea for rebels, which, while it is not intended to +justify rebellion in itself, is devised as a vindication of rebels +against rebels. There is manifest satisfaction and a high zest, and +something of the morally awful and solemnly remonstrative, in the way in +which the past is evoked to visit its ghostly retribution upon us. The +old sting rankles in the English breast. She is looking on now to see us +hoist by our own petard. These pamphlet pages, with their circumscribed +limits and their less ambitious aims, do not invite an elaborate dealing +with the facts of the case, which would expose the sophistical, if not +the vengeful spirit of this English plea, as for rebels against rebels. +A thorough exposition of the relations which the present Insurrection +bears to the former Revolution would demand an essay. The relations +between them, however, whether stated briefly or at length, would be +found to be simply relations of difference, without one single point +of resemblance, much less of coincidence. We can make but the briefest +reference to the points of contrast and unlikeness between the two +things, after asserting that they have no one common feature. It might +seem evasive in us to suggest to our English critics that they should +refresh their memories about the causes and the justification of our +Revolution by reading the pages of their own Burke. We are content to +rest our case on his argument, simply affirming that on no one point +will it cover the alleged parallelism of the Southern Rebellion. + +The relations of our States to each other and to the Union are quite +unlike those in which the Colonies stood to England. England claimed by +right of discovery and exploration the soil on which her Colonies here +were planted, though she had rival claimants from the very first. A +large number of the Colonists never had any original connection with +England, and owed her no allegiance. Holland, Sweden, and other +countries furnished much of the first stock of our settlers, who thought +they were occupying a wild part of God's earth rather than a portion of +the English dominions. The Colonies were not planted at public charge, +by Government cost or enterprise. The English exiles, with but slender +grounds of grateful remembrance of the land they had left, brought with +them their own private means, subdued a wilderness, extinguished the +aboriginal titles, and slowly and wearily developed the resources of the +country. Often in their direst straits did they decline to ask aid from +England, lest they might thereby furnish a plea for her interference +with their internal affairs. Several of the Colonies from the first +acted upon their presumed independence, and resolved on the frank +assertion of it as soon as they might dare the venture. That time for +daring happened to be contemporaneous with a tyrannical demand upon them +for tribute without representation. Thus the relations of the Colonies +to England were of a hap-hazard, abnormal, incidental, and always +unsettled character. They might be modified or changed without any +breach of contract. They might be sundered without perjury or perfidy. + +How unlike in all respects are the relations of these States to each +other and to the Union! Drawn together after dark days and severe +trials,--solemnly pledged to each other by the people whom the Union +raised to a full citizenship in the Republic,--bound by a compact +designed to be without limitation of time,--lifted by their +consolidation to a place and fame and prosperity which they would never +else have reached,--mutually necessary to each other's thrift and +protection,--making a nation adapted by its organic constitution to the +region of the earth which it occupies,--and now, by previous memories +and traditions, by millions of social and domestic alliances, knit by +heart-strings the sundering of which will be followed by a flow of the +life-blood till all is spent,--these terms are but a feeble setting +forth of the relations of these States to each other and to the Union. +Some of these States which have been voted out of the Union by lawless +Conventions owe their creation to the Union. Their very soil has been +paid for out of the public treasury. Indeed, the Union is still in debt +under obligations incurred by their purchase. + +How striking, too, is the contrast between the character and method of +the proceedings which originated and now sustain the Rebellion, and +those which initiated and carried through the Revolution! The Rebellion +exhibits to us a complete inversion of the course of measures which +inaugurated the Revolution. "Secession" was the invention of ambitious +leaders, who overrode the forms of law, and have not dared to submit +their votes and their doings to primary meetings of the people whom +they have driven with a despotic tyranny. In the Revolution the +people themselves were the prime movers. Each little country town and +municipality of the original Colonies, that has a hundred years of +history to be written, will point us boastfully to entries in its +records showing how it _instructed_ its representatives first to +remonstrate against tyranny, and then to resist it by successive +measures, each of which, with its limitations and its increasing +boldness, was dictated by the same people. The people of Virginia, +remembering the ancient precedent which won them their renown, +_intended_ to follow it in an early stage of our present strife. They +allowed a Convention to assemble, under the express and rigid condition, +that, if it should see fit to advise any measure which would affect the +relations of their State to the Union, a reference should be made of it, +prior to any action, to the will of the people. The Convention covertly +and treacherously abused its trust. In secret session it authorized +measures on the strength of which the Governor of the State proceeded +to put it into hostile relations with the Union. When the foregone +conclusion was at last farcically submitted to the people, a perjured +Senator of the National Congress notified such of them as would not +ratify the will of the Convention, that they must leave the State. + +Once more, in our Revolution, holders of office and of lucrative trusts +in the interest of England were to a man loyal to the Home Government, +and our independence was effected without any base appliances. In the +work of secession and rebellion, the very officials and sworn guardians +of our Government have been the foremost plotters. They have used their +opportunities and their trusts for the most perfidious purposes. Nothing +but perjury in the very highest places could have initiated secession +and rebellion, and to this very moment they derive all their vigor in +the council-chamber and on the field from forsworn men, most of whom +have been trained from their childhood, nurtured, instructed, and fed, +and all of whom have been fostered in their manhood, and gifted with +their whole power for harming her, by the kindly mother whose life they +are assailing. If the Man with the Withered Hand had used the first +thrill of life and vigor coming into it by the word of the Great +Physician to aim a blow at his benefactor, his ingratitude would have +needed to stand recorded only until this year of our Lord, to have been +matched by deeds of men who have thrown this dear land of ours into +universal mourning. Yet our English brethren would try to persuade +us that these men are but repeating the course and the deeds of the +American Revolution! + + * * * * * + + +THE WILD ENDIVE. + + + Only the dusty common road, + The glaring weary heat; + Only a man with a soldier's load, + And the sound of tired feet. + + Only the lonely creaking hum + Of the Cicada's song; + Only a fence where tall weeds come + With spikèd fingers strong. + + Only a drop of the heaven's blue + Left in a way-side cup; + Only a joy for the plodding few + And eyes that look not up. + + Only a weed to the passer-by, + Growing among the rest;-- + Yet something clear as the light of the sky + It lodges in my breast. + + + + +THE CONTRABANDS AT FORTRESS MONROE. + + +In the month of August, 1620, a Dutch man-of-war from Guinea entered +James River and sold "twenty negars." Such is the brief record left by +John Rolfe, whose name is honorably associated with that of Pocahontas. +This was the first importation of the kind into the country, and the +source of existing strifes. It was fitting that the system which from +that slave-ship had been spreading over the continent for nearly two +centuries and a half should yield for the first time to the logic of +military law almost upon the spot of its origin. The coincidence may not +inappropriately introduce what of experience and reflection the writer +has to relate of a three-months' soldier's life in Virginia. + +On the morning of the 22d of May last, Major-General Butler, welcomed +with a military salute, arrived at Fortress Monroe, and assumed the +command of the Department of Virginia. Hitherto we had been hemmed up in +the peninsula of which the fort occupies the main part, and cut off from +communication with the surrounding country. Until within a few days our +forces consisted of about one thousand men belonging to the Third and +Fourth Regiments of Massachusetts militia, and three hundred regulars. +The only movement since our arrival on the 20th of April had been +the expedition to Norfolk of the Third Regiment, in which it was +my privilege to serve as a private. The fort communicates with the +main-land by a dike or causeway about half a mile long, and a wooden +bridge, perhaps three hundred feet long, and then there spreads out a +tract of country, well wooded and dotted over with farms. Passing from +this bridge for a distance of two miles northwestward, you reach a creek +or arm of the bay spanned by another wooden bridge, and crossing it you +are at once in the ancient village of Hampton, having a population +of some fifteen hundred inhabitants. The peninsula on which the fort +stands, the causeway, and the first bridge described, are the property +of the United States. Nevertheless, a small picket-guard of the +Secessionists had been accustomed to occupy a part of the bridge, +sometimes coming even to the centre, and a Secession flag waved in sight +of the fort. On the 13th of May, the Rebel picket-guard was driven from +the bridge, and all the Government property was taken possession of by a +detachment of two companies from the Fourth Regiment, accompanied by a +dozen regulars with a field-piece, acting under the orders of Colonel +Dimick, the commander of the post. They retired, denouncing vengeance +on Massachusetts troops for the invasion of Virginia. Our pickets then +occupied the entire bridge and a small strip of the main-land beyond, +covering a valuable well; but still there was no occupation in force of +any but Government property. The creation of a new military department, +to the command of which a major-general was assigned, was soon to +terminate this isolation. On the 13th of May the First Vermont Regiment +arrived, on the 24th the Second New York, and two weeks later our forces +numbered nearly ten thousand. + +On the 23d of May General Butler ordered the first reconnoitring +expedition, which consisted of a part of the Vermont Regiment, and +proceeded under the command of Colonel Phelps over the dike and bridge +towards Hampton. They were anticipated, and when in sight of the second +bridge saw that it had been set on fire, and, hastening forward, +extinguished the flames. The detachment then marched into the village. A +parley was held with a Secession officer, who represented that the men +in arms in Hampton were only a domestic police. Meanwhile the white +inhabitants, particularly the women, had generally disappeared. The +negroes gathered around our men, and their evident exhilaration was +particularly noted, some of them saying, "Glad to see you, Massa," +and betraying the fact, that, on the approach of the detachment, a +field-piece stationed at the bridge had been thrown into the sea. This +was the first communication between our army and the negroes in this +department. + +The reconnoissance of the day had more important results than were +anticipated. Three negroes, owned by Colonel Mallory, a lawyer of +Hampton and a Rebel officer, taking advantage of the terror prevailing +among the white inhabitants, escaped from their master, skulked during +the afternoon, and in the night came to our pickets. The next morning, +May 24th, they were brought to General Butler, and there, for the first +time, stood the Major-General and the fugitive slave face to face. Being +carefully interrogated, it appeared that they were field-hands, the +slaves of an officer in the Rebel service, who purposed taking them to +Carolina to be employed in military operations there. Two of them +had wives in Hampton, one a free colored woman, and they had several +children in the neighborhood. Here was a new question, and a grave one, +on which the Government had as yet developed no policy. In the absence +of precedents or instructions, an analogy drawn from international +law was applied. Under that law, contraband goods, which are directly +auxiliary to military operations, cannot in time of war be imported by +neutrals into an enemy's country, and may be seized as lawful prize when +the attempt is made so to import them. It will be seen, that, accurately +speaking, the term applies exclusively to the relation between a +belligerent and a neutral, and not to the relation between belligerents. +Under the strict law of nations, all the property of an enemy may be +seized. Under the Common Law, the property of traitors is forfeit. The +humaner usage of modern times favors the waiving of these strict rights, +but allows,--without question, the seizure and confiscation of all +such goods as are immediately auxiliary to military purposes. These +able-bodied negroes, held as slaves, were to be employed to build +breastworks, to transport or store provisions, to serve as cooks or +waiters, and even to bear arms. Regarded as property, according to their +master's claim, they could be efficiently used by the Rebels for the +purposes of the Rebellion, and most efficiently by the Government in +suppressing it. Regarded as persons, they had escaped from communities +where a triumphant rebellion had trampled on the laws, and only the +rights of human nature remained, and they now asked the protection of +the Government, to which, in prevailing treason, they were still loyal, +and which they were ready to serve as best they could. + +The three negroes, being held contraband of war, were at once set to +work to aid the masons in constructing a new bakehouse within the fort. +Thenceforward the term "contraband" bore a new signification, with which +it will pass into history, designating the negroes who had been held as +slaves, now adopted under the protection of the Government. It was used +in official communications at the fort. It was applied familiarly to the +negroes, who stared somewhat, inquiring, "What d' ye call us that +for?" Not having Wheaton's "Elements" at hand, we did not attempt an +explanation. The contraband notion was adopted by Congress in the Act +of July 6th, which confiscates slaves used in aiding the Insurrection. +There is often great virtue in such technical phrases in shaping public +opinion. They commend practical action to a class of minds little +developed in the direction of the sentiments, which would be repelled by +formulas of a broader and nobler import. The venerable gentleman, +who wears gold spectacles and reads a conservative daily, prefers +confiscation to emancipation. He is reluctant to have slaves declared +freemen, but has no objection to their being declared contrabands. His +whole nature rises in insurrection when Beecher preaches in a sermon +that a thing ought to be done because it is a duty, but he yields +gracefully when Butler issues an order commanding it to be done because +it is a military necessity. + +On the next day, Major John B. Cary, another Rebel officer, late +principal of an academy in Hampton, a delegate to the Charleston +Convention, and a seceder with General Butler from the Convention at +Baltimore, came to the fort with a flag of truce, and, claiming to act +as the representative of Colonel Mallory, demanded the fugitives. +He reminded General Butler of his obligations under the Federal +Constitution, under which he claimed to act. The ready reply was, that +the Fugitive-Slave Act could not be invoked for the reclamation of +fugitives from a foreign State, which Virginia claimed to be, and she +must count it among the infelicities of her position, if so far at least +she was taken at her word. + +The three pioneer negroes were not long to be isolated from their race. +There was no known channel of communication between them and their old +comrades, and yet those comrades knew, or believed with the certainty of +knowledge, how they had been received. If inquired of whether more were +coming, their reply was, that, if they were not sent back, others would +understand that they were among friends, and more would come the next +day. Such is the mysterious spiritual telegraph which runs through the +slave population. Proclaim an edict of emancipation in the hearing of a +single slave on the Potomac, and in a few days it will be known by his +brethren on the Gulf. So, on the night of the Big Bethel affair, a squad +of negroes, meeting our soldiers, inquired anxiously the way to "the +freedom fort." + +The means of communicating with the fort from the open country became +more easy, when, on the 24th of May, (the same day on which the first +movement was made from Washington into Virginia,) the Second New York +Regiment made its encampment on the Segar farm, lying near the bridge +which connected the fort with the main-land, an encampment soon enlarged +by the First Vermont and other New York regiments. On Sunday morning, +May 26th, eight negroes stood before the quarters of General Butler, +waiting for an audience. + +They were examined in part by the Hon. Mr. Ashley, M.C. from Ohio, then +a visitor at the fort. On May 27th, forty-seven negroes of both sexes +and all ages, from three months to eighty-five years, among whom were +half a dozen entire families, came in one squad. Another lot of a dozen +good field-hands arrived the same day; and then they continued to come +by twenties, thirties, and forties. They were assigned buildings outside +of the fort or tents within. They were set to work as servants to +officers, or to store provisions landed from vessels,--thus relieving +us of the fatigue duty which we had previously done, except that of +dragging and mounting columbiads on the ramparts of the fort, a service +which some very warm days have impressed on my memory. + +On the 27th of May, the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, the First +Vermont, and some New York regiments made an advance movement and +occupied Newport News, (a promontory named for Captain Christopher +Newport, the early explorer,) so as more effectually to enforce the +blockade of James River. There, too, negroes came in, who were employed +as servants to the officers. One of them, when we left the fort, more +fortunate than his comrades, and aided by a benevolent captain, eluded +the vigilance of the Provost Marshal, and is now the curiosity of a +village in the neighborhood of Boston. + +It was now time to call upon the Government for a policy in dealing with +slave society thus disrupted and disorganized. Elsewhere, even under +the shadow of the Capitol, the action of military officers had been +irregular, and in some cases in palpable violation of personal rights. +An order of General McDowell excluded all slaves from the lines. +Sometimes officers assumed to decide the question whether a negro was a +slave, and deliver him to a claimant, when, certainly in the absence of +martial law, they had no authority in the premises, under the Act of +Congress,--that power being confided to commissioners and marshals. As +well might a member of Congress or a State sheriff usurp the function. +Worse yet, in defiance of the Common Law, they made color a presumptive +proof of bondage. In one case a free negro was delivered to a claimant +under this process, more summary than any which the Fugitive-Slave Act +provides. The colonel of a Massachusetts regiment showed some practical +humor in dealing with a pertinacious claimant who asserted title to a +negro found within his lines, and had brought a policeman along with +him to aid in enforcing it. The shrewd colonel, (a Democrat he is,) +retaining the policeman, put both the claimant and claimed outside of +the lines together to try their fleetness. The negro proved to be the +better gymnast and was heard of no more. This capricious treatment of +the subject was fraught with serious difficulties as well as personal +injuries, and it needed to be displaced by an authorized system. + +On the 27th of May, General Butler, having in a previous communication +reported his interview with Major Cary, called the attention of the War +Department to the subject in a formal despatch,--indicating the hostile +purposes for which the negroes had been or might be successfully used, +stating the course he had pursued in employing them and recording +expenses and services, and suggesting pertinent military, political, and +humane considerations. The Secretary of War, under date of the 30th of +May, replied, cautiously approving the course of General Butler, and +intimating distinctions between interfering with the relations of +persons held to service and refusing to surrender them to their alleged +masters, which it is not easy to reconcile with well-defined views of +the new exigency, or at least with a desire to express them. The note +was characterized by diplomatic reserve which it will probably be found +difficult long to maintain. + +The ever-recurring question continued to press for solution. On the 6th +of July the Act of Congress was approved, declaring that any person +claiming the labor of another to be due to him, and permitting such +party to be employed in any military or naval service whatsoever against +the Government of the United States, shall forfeit his claim to such +labor, and proof of such employment shall thereafter be a full answer +to the claim. This act was designed for the direction of the civil +magistrate, and not for the limitation of powers derived from military +law. That law, founded on _salus republicae_, transcends all codes, +and lies outside of forms and statutes. John Quincy Adams, almost +prophesying as he expounded, declared, in 1842, that under it slavery +might be abolished. Under it, therefore, Major-General Fremont, in a +recent proclamation, declared the slaves of all persons within his +department, who were in arms against the Government, to be freemen, and +under it has given title-deeds of manumission. Subsequently President +Lincoln limited the proclamation to such slaves as are included in the +Act of Congress, namely, the slaves of Rebels used in directly hostile +service. The country had called for Jacksonian courage, and its first +exhibition was promptly suppressed. If the revocation was made in +deference to protests from Kentucky, it seems, that, while the loyal +citizens of Missouri appeared to approve the decisive measure, they were +overruled by the more potential voice of other communities who professed +to understand their affairs better than they did themselves. But if, as +is admitted, the commanding officer, in the plenitude of military power, +was authorized to make the order within his department, all human beings +included in the proclamation thereby acquired a vested title to their +freedom, of which neither Congress nor President could dispossess them. +No conclusive behests of law necessitating the limitation, it cannot +rest on any safe reasons of military policy. The one slave who carries +his master's knapsack on a march contributes far less to the efficiency +of the Rebel army than the one hundred slaves who hoe corn on his +plantation with which to replenish its commissariat. We have not yet +emerged from the fine-drawn distinctions of peaceful times. We may +imprison or slaughter a Rebel, but we may not unloose his hold on a +person he has claimed as a slave. We may seize all his other property +without question, lands, houses, cattle, jewels; but his asserted +property in man is more sacred than the gold which overlay the Ark of +the Covenant, and we may not profane it. This reverence for things +assumed to be sacred, which are not so, cannot long continue. The +Government can well turn away from the enthusiast, however generous his +impulses, who asks the abolition of slavery on general principles of +philanthropy, for the reason that it already has work enough on its +hands. It may not change the objects of the war, but it must of +necessity at times shift its tactics and its instruments, as the +exigency demands. Its solemn and imperative duty is to look every +issue, however grave and transcendent, firmly in the face; and having +ascertained upon mature and conscientious reflection what is necessary +to suppress the Rebellion, it must then proceed with inexorable purpose +to inflict the blows where Rebellion is the weakest and under which it +must inevitably fall. + +On the 30th of July, General Butler, being still unprovided with +adequate instructions,--the number of contrabands having now reached +nine hundred,--applied to the War Department for further directions. His +inquiries, inspired by good sense and humanity alike, were of the most +fundamental character, and when they shall have received a full answer +the war will be near its end. Assuming the slaves to have been the +property of masters, he considers them waifs abandoned by their +owners, in which the Government as a finder cannot, however, acquire a +proprietary interest, and they have therefore reverted to the normal +condition of those made in God's image, "if not free-born, yet +free-manumitted, sent forth from the hand that held them, never to +return." The author of that document may never win a victor's laurels +on any renowned field, but, depositing it in the archives of the +Government, he leaves a record in history which will outlast the +traditions of battle or siege. It is proper to add, that the answer of +the War Department, so far as its meaning is clear, leaves the General +uninstructed as to all slaves not confiscated by the Act of Congress. + +The documentary history being now completed, the personal narrative of +affairs at Fortress Monroe is resumed. + +The encampment of Federal troops beyond the peninsula of the fort and in +the vicinity of the village of Hampton was immediately followed by an +hegira of its white inhabitants, burning, as they fled, as much of the +bridge as they could. On the 28th of May, a detachment of troops entered +the village and hoisted the stars and stripes on the house of Colonel +Mallory. Picket-guards occupied it intermittently during the month of +June. It was not until the first day of July that a permanent encampment +was made there, consisting of the Third Massachusetts Regiment, which +moved from the fort, the Fourth, which moved from Newport News, and the +Naval Brigade, all under the command of Brigadier-General Pierce,--the +camp being informally called Camp Greble, in honor of the lieutenant of +that name who fell bravely in the disastrous affair of Big Bethel. +Here we remained until July 16th, when, our term of enlistment having +expired, we bade adieu to Hampton, its ancient relics, its deserted +houses, its venerable church, its trees and gardens, its contrabands, +all so soon to be wasted and scattered by the torch of Virginia Vandals. +We passed over the bridge, the rebuilding of which was completed the day +before, marched to the fort, exchanged our rifle muskets for an older +pattern, listened to a farewell address from General Butler, bade +good-bye to Colonel Dimick, and embarked for Boston. It was during this +encampment at Hampton, and two previous visits, somewhat hurried, while +as yet it was without a permanent guard, that my personal knowledge of +the negroes, of their feelings, desires, aspirations, capacities, and +habits of life was mainly obtained. + +A few words of local history and description may illustrate the +narrative. Hampton is a town of considerable historic interest. First +among civilized men the illustrious adventurer Captain John Smith with +his comrades visited its site in 1607, while exploring the mouth of +James River to find a home for the first colonists. Here they smoked the +calumet of peace with an Indian tribe. To the neighboring promontory, +where they found good anchorage and hospitality, they gave the name of +Point Comfort, which it still bears. Hampton, though a settlement was +commenced there in 1610, did not become a town until 1705. Hostile +fleets have twice appeared before it. The first time was in October, +1775, when some tenders sent by Lord Dunmore to destroy it were repulsed +by the citizens, aided by the Culpepper riflemen. Then and there was the +first battle of the Revolution in Virginia. Again in June, 1813, it was +attacked by Admiral Cockburn and General Beckwith, and scenes of pillage +followed, dishonorable to the British soldiery. Jackson, in his address +to his army just before the Battle of New Orleans, conjured his soldiers +to remember Hampton. Until the recent conflagration, it abounded in +ancient relics. Among them was St. John's Church, the main body of which +was of imported brick, and built at the beginning of the eighteenth +century. The fury of Secession irreverently destroyed this memorial of +antiquity and religion, which even a foreign soldiery had spared. One +inscription in the graveyard surrounding the church is as early as 1701, +and even earlier dates are found on tombstones in the fields a mile +distant. The Court-House, a clumsy old structure, in which was the +law-office of Colonel Mallory, contained judicial records of a very +early colonial period. Some, which I examined, bore date of 1634. +Several old houses, with spacious rooms and high ornamented ceilings, +gave evidence that at one time they had been occupied by citizens of +considerable taste and rank. A friend of mine found among the rubbish of +a deserted house an English illustrated edition of "Paradise Lost," +of the date of 1725, and Boyle's Oxford edition of "The Epistles of +Phalaris," famous in classical controversy, printed in 1718. The +proximity of Fortress Monroe, of the fashionable watering-place of Old +Point, and of the anchorage of Hampton Roads, has contributed to the +interest of the town. To this region came in summer-time public men +weary of their cares, army and navy officers on furlough or retired, and +the gay daughters of Virginia. In front of the fort, looking seaward, +was the summer residence of Floyd; between the fort and the town was +that of John Tyler. President Jackson sought refuge from care and +solicitation at the Rip Raps, whither he was followed by his devoted +friend, Mr. Blair. So at least a contraband informed me, who said he had +often seen them both there. + +Nevertheless, the town bore no evidence of thrift. It looked as though +it were sleepy and indolent in the best of times, having oysters for its +chief merchandise. The streets were paved, but the pavements were of +large irregular stones, and unevenly laid. Few houses were new, and, +excepting St. John's Church, the public edifices were mean. All these +have been swept away by the recent conflagration, a waste of property +indefensible on any military principles. The buildings might have +furnished winter-quarters for our troops, but in that climate they were +not necessary for that purpose, perhaps not desirable, or, if required, +could be easily replaced by temporary habitations constructed of +lumber imported from the North by sea. But the Rebel chiefs had thrown +themselves into heroic attitudes, and while playing the part of +incendiaries, they fancied their action to be as sublime as that of the +Russians at Moscow. With such a precedent of Vandalism, no ravages of +our own troops can hereafter be complained of. + +The prevailing exodus, leaving less than a dozen white men behind, +testifies the political feelings of the people. Only two votes were +thrown against the ordinance of Secession. Whatever of Union sentiment +existed there had been swept away by such demagogues as Mallory, Cary, +Magruder, Shiels, and Hope. Hastily as they left, they removed in most +cases all their furniture, leaving only the old Virginia sideboard, too +heavy to be taken away. In a few exceptional cases, from the absence of +the owner or other cause, the house was still furnished; but generally +nothing but old letters, torn books, newspapers, cast-off clothing, +strewed the floors. Rarely have I enjoyed the hours more than when +roaming from cellar to garret these tenantless houses. A deserted +dwelling! How the imagination is fascinated by what may have there +transpired of human joy or sorrow,--the solitary struggles of the soul +for better things, the dawn and the fruition of love, the separations +and reunions of families, the hearth-stone consecrated by affection and +prayer, the bridal throng, the birth of new lives, the farewells to the +world, the funeral train. + +But more interesting and instructive were the features of slave-life +which here opened to us. The negroes who remained, of whom there may +have been three hundred of all ages, lived in small wooden shanties, +generally in the rear of the master's house, rarely having more than one +room on the lower floor, and that containing an open fireplace where the +cooking for the master's family was done, tables, chairs, dishes, and +the miscellaneous utensils of household life. The masters had taken with +them, generally, their waiting-maids and house-servants, and had +desired to carry all their slaves with them. But in the hasty +preparations,--particularly where the slaves were living away from +their master's close, or had a family,--it was difficult to remove them +against their will, as they could skulk for a few hours and then go +where they pleased. Some voluntarily left their slaves behind, not +having the means to provide for them, or, anticipating a return at no +distant day, desired them to stay and guard the property. The slaves who +remained lived upon the little pork and corn-meal that were left and the +growing vegetables. They had but little to do. The women looked after +their meagre household concerns, but the men were generally idle, +standing in groups, or sitting in front of the shanties talking with the +women. Some began to serve our officers as soon as we were quartered in +the town,--while a few others set up cake-stands upon the street. + +It was necessary for the protection of the post that some breastworks +should be thrown up, and a line was planned extending from the old +cemetery northward to the new one, a quarter of a mile distant. Our own +troops were disinclined to the labor, their time being nearly expired, +and they claiming that they had done their share of fatigue duty both +at the fort and at Newport News. A member of Brigadier-General Pierce's +staff--an efficient officer and a humane gentleman--suggested the +employment of the contrabands and the furnishing of them with rations, +an expedient best for them and agreeable to us. He at once dictated +a telegram to General Butler in these words:--"Shall we put the +contrabands to work on the intrenchments, and will you furnish them with +rations?" An affirmative answer was promptly received on Monday morning, +July 8th, and that was the first day in the course of the war in which +the negro was employed upon the military works of our army. It therefore +marks a distinct epoch in its progress and in its relations to the +colored population. The writer--and henceforth his narrative must +indulge in the frequent use of the first person--was specially detailed +from his post as private in Company L of the Third Regiment to collect +the contrabands, record their names, ages, and the names of their +masters, provide their tools, superintend their labor, and procure their +rations. My comrades smiled, as I undertook the novel duty, enjoying +the spectacle of a Massachusetts Republican converted into a Virginia +slave-master. To me it seemed rather an opportunity to lead them from +the house of bondage never to return. For, whatever may be the general +duty to this race, to all such as we have in any way employed to aid our +armies our national faith and our personal honor are pledged. The +code of a gentleman, to say nothing of a higher law of rectitude, +necessitates protection to this extent. Abandoning one of these faithful +allies, who, if delivered up, would be reduced to severer servitude +because of the education he had received and the services he had +performed, probably to be transported to the remotest slave region as +now too dangerous to remain near its borders, we should be accursed +among the nations of the earth. I felt assured that from that hour, +whatsoever the fortunes of the war, every one of those enrolled +defenders of the Union had vindicated beyond all future question, for +himself, his wife, and their issue, a title to American citizenship, and +become heir to all the immunities of Magna Charta, the Declaration of +Independence, and the Constitution of the United States. + +Passing through the principal streets, I told the contrabands that when +they heard the court-house bell, which would ring soon, they must go to +the court-house yard, where a communication would be made to them. In +the mean time I secured the valuable services of some fellow-privates, +one for a quarter-master, two others to aid in superintending at the +trenches, and the orderly-sergeant of my own company, whose expertness +in the drill was equalled only by his general good sense and business +capacity. Upon the ringing of the bell, about forty contrabands came to +the yard. A second exploration added to the number some twenty or +more, who had not heard the original summons. They then came into the +building, where they were called to order and addressed. I had argued to +judges and juries, but I had never spoken to such auditors before in a +court-room. I told them that the colored men had been employed on the +breastworks of the Rebels, and we needed their aid,--that they would +be required to do only such labor as we ourselves had done,--that they +should be treated kindly, and no one should be obliged to work beyond +his capacity, or if unwell,--and that they should be furnished in a day +or two with full soldiers' rations. I told them that their masters +had said they were an indolent people,--that I did not believe the +charge,--that I was going home to Massachusetts soon and should be glad +to report that they were as industrious as the whites. They generally +showed no displeasure, some even saying, that, not having done much for +some time, it was the best thing for them to be now employed. Four or +five men over fifty years old said that they suffered from rheumatism, +and could not work without injury. Being confirmed by the by-standers, +they were dismissed. Other old men said they would do what they could, +and they were assured that no more would be required of them. Two of +them, provided with a bucket and dipper, were detailed to carry water +all the time along the line of laborers. Two young men fretted a little, +and claimed to be disabled in some way. They were told to resume their +seats, and try first and see what they could do,--to the evident +amusement of the rest, who knew them to be indolent and disposed to +shirk. A few showed some sulkiness, but it all passed away after the +first day, when they found that they were to be used kindly. One +well-dressed young man, a carpenter, feeling a little better than his +associates, did not wear a pleasant face at first. Finding out his +trade, we set him to sawing the posts for the intrenchments, and he was +entirely reconciled. Free colored men were not required to work; but +one volunteered, wishing, as he said, to do his part. The contrabands +complained that the free colored men ought to be required to work on the +intrenchments as well as they. I thought so too, but followed my orders. +A few expressed some concern lest their masters should punish them for +serving us, if they ever returned. One inquired suspiciously why we took +the name of his master. My reply was, that it was taken in order to +identify them,--an explanation with which he was more satisfied than I +was myself. Several were without shoes, and said that they could not +drive the shovel into the earth. They were told to use the picks. The +rest of the forenoon being occupied in registering their names and ages, +and the names of their masters, they were dismissed to come together on +the ringing of the bell, at two, P.M. + +It had been expressly understood that I was to have the exclusive +control and supervision of the negroes, directing their hours of labor +and their rests, without interference from any one. The work itself was +to be planned and superintended by the officers of the Third and Fourth +Regiments. This exclusive control of the men was necessarily confided +to one, as different lieutenants detailed each day could not feel a +responsibility for their welfare. One or two of these, when rests were +allowed the negroes, were somewhat disgusted, saying that negroes +could dig all the time as well as not. I had had some years before an +experience with the use of the shovel under a warm sun, and knew better, +and I wished I could superintend a corps of lieutenants and apply their +own theory to themselves. + +At two, P.M., the contrabands came together, answered to their names, +and, each taking a shovel, a spade, or a pick, began to work upon the +breastworks farthest from the village and close to the new cemetery. The +afternoon was very warm, the warmest we had in Hampton. Some, used only +to household or other light work, wilted under the heat, and they were +told to go into the cemetery and lie down. I remember distinctly a +corpulent colored man, down whose cheeks the perspiration rolled and who +said he felt badly. He also was told to go away and rest until he was +better. He soon came back relieved, and there was no more faithful +laborer among them all during the rest of the time. Twice or three times +in the afternoon an intermission of fifteen minutes was allowed to all. +Thus they worked until six in the evening, when they were dismissed for +the day. They deposited their tools in the court-house, where each one +of his own accord carefully put his pick or shovel where he could find +it again,--sometimes behind a door and sometimes in a sly corner or +under a seat, preferring to keep his own tool. They were then informed +that they must come together on the ringing of the bell the next morning +at four o'clock. They thought that too early, but they were assured +that the system best for their health would be adopted, and they would +afterwards be consulted about changing it. The next morning we did not +rise quite so early as four, and the bell was not rung till some minutes +later. The contrabands were prompt, their names had been called, and +they had marched to the trenches, a quarter of a mile distant, and were +fairly at work by half-past four or a quarter before five. They did +excellent service during the morning hours, and at seven were dismissed +till eight. The roll was then called again, absences, if any, noted, +and by half-past eight they were at their post. They continued at the +trenches till eleven, being allowed rests, and were then dismissed until +three, P.M., being relieved four hours in the middle of the day, when, +the bell being rung and the roll called, they resumed their work and +continued till six, when they were dismissed for the day. Such were the +hours and usual course of their labor. Their number was increased some +half dozen by fugitives from the back-country, who came in and asked to +be allowed to serve on the intrenchments. + +The contrabands worked well, and in no instance was it found necessary +for the superintendents to urge them. There was a public opinion among +them against idleness, which answered for discipline. Some days they +worked with our soldiers, and it was found that they did more work, and +did the nicer parts--the facings and dressings--better. Colonels Packard +and Wardrop, under whose direction the breastworks were constructed, and +General Butler, who visited them, expressed satisfaction at the work +which the contrabands had done. On the 14th of July, Mr. Russell, of the +London "Times," and Dr. Bellows, of the Sanitary Commission, came to +Hampton and manifested much interest at the success of the experiment. +The result was, indeed, pleasing. A subaltern officer, to whom I had +insisted that the contrabands should be treated with kindness, had +sneered at the idea of applying philanthropic notions in time of war. It +was found then, as always, that decent persons will accomplish more when +treated at least like human beings. The same principle, if we will but +credit our own experience and Mr. Rarey, too, may with advantage be +extended to our relations with the beasts that serve us. + +Three days after the contrabands commenced their work, five days' +rations were served to them,--a soldier's ration for each laborer, and +half a ration for each dependant. The allowance was liberal,--as a +soldier's ration, if properly cooked, is more than he generally needs, +and the dependant for whom a half-ration was received might be a wife +or a half-grown child. It consisted of salt beef or pork, hard bread, +beans, rice, coffee, sugar, soap, and candles, and where the family was +large it made a considerable pile. The recipients went home, appearing +perfectly satisfied, and feeling assured that our promises to them would +be performed. On Sunday fresh meat was served to them in the same manner +as to the troops. + +There was one striking feature in the contrabands which must not be +omitted. I did not hear a profane or vulgar word spoken by them during +my superintendence, a remark which it will be difficult to make of any +sixty-four white men taken together anywhere in our army. Indeed, the +greatest discomfort of a soldier, who desires to remain a gentleman in +the camp, is the perpetual reiteration of language which no decent lips +would utter in a sister's presence. But the negroes, so dogmatically +pronounced unfit for freedom, were in this respect models for those who +make high boasts of civility of manners and Christian culture. Out of +the sixty-four who worked for us, all but half a dozen were members of +the Church, generally the Baptist. Although without a pastor, they held +religious meetings on the Sundays which we passed in Hampton, which were +attended by about sixty colored persons and three hundred soldiers. The +devotions were decorously conducted, bating some loud shouting by one +or two excitable brethren, which the better sense of the rest could not +suppress. Their prayers and exhortations were fervent, and marked by a +simplicity which is not infrequently the richest eloquence. The soldiers +behaved with entire propriety, and two exhorted them with pious unction, +as children of one Father, ransomed by the same Redeemer. + +To this general propriety of conduct among the contrabands intrusted to +me there was only one exception, and that was in the case of Joe ----; +his surname I have forgotten. He was of a vagrant disposition, and an +inveterate shirk. He had a plausible speech and a distorted imagination, +and might be called a demagogue among darkies. He bore an ill +physiognomy,--that of one "fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils." He +was disliked by the other contrabands, and had been refused admission to +their Church, which he wished to join in order to get up a character. +Last, but not least, among his sins, he was accustomed to boat his wife, +of which she accused him in my presence; whereupon he justified himself +on the brazen assumption that all husbands did the same. There was no +good reason to believe that he had already been tampered with by Rebels; +but his price could not be more than five dollars. He would be a +disturbing element among the laborers on the breastworks, and he was a +dangerous person to be so near the lines; we therefore sent him to the +fort. The last I heard of him, he was at the Rip Raps, bemoaning his +isolation, and the butt of our soldiers there, who charged him with +being a "Secesh," and confounded him by gravely asserting that they were +such themselves and had seen him with the "Secesh" at Yorktown. This was +the single goat among the sheep. + +On Monday evening, July 15th, when the contrabands deposited their tools +in the court-house, I requested them to stop a moment in the yard. I +made each a present of some tobacco, which all the men and most of the +women use. As they gathered in a circle around me, head peering over +head, I spoke to them briefly, thanking them for their cordial work and +complimenting their behavior, remarking that I had heard no profane or +vulgar word from them, in which they were an example to us,--adding that +it was the last time I should meet them, as we were to march homeward in +the morning, and that I should bear to my people a good report of their +industry and morals. There was another word that I could not leave +without speaking. Never before in our history had a Northern man, +believing in the divine right of all men to their liberty, had an +opportunity to address an audience of sixty-four slaves and say what the +Spirit moved him to utter,--and I should have been false to all that is +true and sacred, if I had let it pass. I said to them that there was one +more word for me to add, and that was, that every one of them was as +much entitled to his freedom as I was to mine, and I hoped they would +all now secure it. "Believe you, boss," was the general response, and +each one with his rough gravelly hand grasped mine, and with tearful +eyes and broken utterances said, "God bless you!" "May we meet in +Heaven!" "My name is Jack Allen, don't forget me!" "Remember me, Kent +Anderson!" and so on. No,--I may forget the playfellows of my childhood, +my college classmates, my professional associates, my comrades in arms, +but I will remember you and your benedictions until I cease to breathe! +Farewell, honest hearts, longing to be free! and may the kind Providence +which for-gets not the sparrow shelter and protect you! + +During our encampment at Hampton, I occupied much of my leisure time +in conversations with the contrabands, both at their work and in their +shanties, endeavoring to collect their currents of thought and feeling. +It remains for me to give the results, so far as any could be arrived +at. + +There were more negroes of unmixed African blood than we expected +to find. But many were entirely bleached. One man, working on the +breastworks, owned by his cousin, whose name he bore, was no darker than +white laborers exposed by their occupation to the sun, and could not be +distinguished as of negro descent. Opposite our quarters was a young +slave woman who had been three times a mother without ever having been +a wife. You could not discern in her three daughters, either in color, +feature, or texture of hair, the slightest trace of African lineage. +They were as light-faced and fair-haired as the Saxon slaves whom the +Roman Pontiff, Gregory the Great, met in the markets of Rome. If they +were to be brought here and their pedigree concealed, they could readily +mingle with our population and marry white men, who would never suspect +that they were not pure Caucasians. + +From the best knowledge I could obtain, the negroes in Hampton had +rarely been severely whipped. A locust-tree in front of the jail had +been used for a whipping-post, and they were very desirous that it +should be cut down. It was used, however, only for what are known +there as flagrant offences, like running away. Their masters, when in +ill-temper, had used rough language and inflicted chance blows, but no +one ever told me that he had suffered from systematic cruelty or been +severely whipped, except Joe, whose character I have given. Many of them +bore testimony to the great kindness of their masters and mistresses. + +Separations of families had been frequent. Of this I obtained definite +knowledge. When I was registering the number of dependants, preparatory +to the requisition for rations, the answer occasionally was, "Yes, I +have a wife, but she is not here." "Where is she?" "She was sold off two +years ago, and I have not heard of her since." The husband of the woman +who took care of the quarters of General Pierce had been sold away from +her some years before. Such separations are regarded as death, and the +slaves re-marry. In some cases the bereft one--so an intelligent negro +assured me--pines under his bereavement and loses his value; but so +elastic is human nature that this did not appear to be generally the +case. The same answer was given about children,--that they had been sold +away. This, in a slave-breeding country, is done when they are about +eight years old. Can that be a mild system of servitude which permits +such enforced separations? Providence may, indeed, sunder forever those +dearest to each other, and the stricken soul accepts the blow as the +righteous discipline of a Higher Power; but when the bereavement is +the arbitrary dictate of human will, there are no such consolations to +sanctify grief and assuage agony. + +There is a universal desire among the slaves to be free. Upon this point +my inquiries were particular, and always with the same result. When +we said to them, "You don't want to be free,--your masters say you +don't,"--they manifested much indignation, answering, "We do want to be +free,--we want to be for ourselves." We inquired further, "Do the house +slaves who wear their master's clothes want to be free?" "We never heard +of one who did not," was the instant reply. There might be, they said, +some half-crazy one who did not care to be free, but they had never seen +one. Even old men and women, with crooked backs, who could hardly walk +or see, shared the same feeling. An intelligent Secessionist, Lowry by +name, who was examined at head-quarters, admitted that a majority of the +slaves wanted to be free. The more intelligent the slave and the better +he had been used, the stronger this desire seemed to be. I remember one +such particularly, the most intelligent one in Hampton, known as "an, +influential darky" ("darky" being the familiar term applied by the +contrabands to themselves). He could read, was an exhorter in the +Church, and officiated in the absence of the minister. He would have +made a competent juryman. His mistress, he said, had been kind to him, +and had never spoken so harshly to him as a captain's orderly in the +Naval Brigade had done, who assumed one day to give him orders. She had +let him work where he pleased, and he was to bring her a fixed sum, and +appropriate the surplus to his own use. She pleaded with him to go away +with her from Hampton at the time of the exodus, but she would not force +him to leave his family. Still he hated to be a slave, and he talked +like a philosopher about his rights. No captive in the galleys of +Algiers, not Lafayette in an Austrian dungeon, ever pined more for free +air. He had saved eighteen hundred dollars of his surplus earnings in +attending on visitors at Old Point, and had spent it all in litigation +to secure the freedom of his wife and children, belonging to another +master, whose will had emancipated them, but was contested on the ground +of the insanity of the testator. He had won a verdict, but his lawyers +told him they could not obtain a judgment upon it, as the judge was +unfavorable to freedom. + +The most frequent question asked of one who has had any means of +communication with the contrabands during the war is in relation to +their knowledge of its cause and purposes, and their interest in it. One +thing was evident,--indeed, you could not talk with a slave who did not +without prompting give the same testimony,--that their masters had been +most industrious in their attempts to persuade them that the Yankees +were coming down there only to get the land,--that they would kill the +negroes and manure the ground with them, or carry them off to Cuba or +Hayti and sell them. An intelligent man who had belonged to Colonel +Joseph Segar--almost the only Union man at heart in that region, and who +for that reason, being in Washington at the time the war began, had not +dared to return to Hampton--served the staff of General Pierce. He bore +the highest testimony to the kindness of his master, who, he said, told +him to remain,--that the Yankees were the friends of his people, and +would use them well. "But," said David,--for that was his name,--"I +never heard of any other master who talked that way, but they all told +the worst stories about the Yankees, and the mistresses were more +furious even than the masters." David, I may add, spite of his good +master, longed to be free. + +The masters, in their desperation, had within a few months resorted +to another device to secure the loyalty of their slaves. The colored +Baptist minister had been something of a pet among the whites, and had +obtained subscriptions from some benevolent citizens to secure the +freedom of a handsome daughter of his who was exposed to sale on an +auction block, where her beauty inspired competition. Some leading +Secessionists, Lawyer Hope for one, working somewhat upon his gratitude +and somewhat upon his vanity, persuaded him to offer the services of +himself and his sons, in a published communication, to the cause of +Virginia and the Confederate States. The artifice did not succeed. He +lost his hold on his congregation, and could not have safely remained +after the whites left. He felt uneasy about his betrayal, and tried to +restore himself to favor by saying that he meant no harm to his people; +but his protestations were in vain. His was the deserved fate of those +in all ages who, victims of folly or bribes, turn their backs on their +fellows. + +Notwithstanding all these attempts, the negroes, with rare exceptions, +still believed that the Yankees were their friends. They had learned +something in Presidential elections, and they thought their masters +could not hate us as they did, unless we were their friends. They +believed that the troubles would somehow or other help them, although +they did not understand all that was going on. They may be pardoned +for their want of apprehension, when some of our public men, almost +venerable, and reputed to be very wise and philosophical, are bewildered +and grope blindly. They were somewhat perplexed by the contradictory +statements of our soldiers, some of whom, according to their wishes, +said the contest was for them, and others that it did not concern them +at all and they would remain as before. If it was explained to them, +that Lincoln was chosen by a party who were opposed to extending +slavery, but who were also opposed to interfering with it in +Virginia,--that Virginia and the South had rebelled, and we had come to +suppress the rebellion,--and although the object of the war was not to +emancipate them, yet that might be its result,--they answered, that they +understood the statement perfectly. They did not seem inclined to fight, +although willing to work. More could not be expected of them while +nothing is promised to them. What latent inspirations they may have +remains to be seen. They had at first a mysterious dread of fire-arms, +but familiarity is rapidly removing that. + +The religious element of their life has been noticed. They said they +had prayed for this day, and God had sent Lincoln in answer to their +prayers. We used to overhear their family devotions, somewhat loud +according to their manner, in which they prayed earnestly for our +troops. They built their hopes of freedom on Scriptural examples, +regarding the deliverance of Daniel from the lions' den, and of the +Three Children from the furnace, as symbolic of their coming freedom. +One said to me, that masters, before they died, by their wills sometimes +freed their slaves, and he thought that a _type_ that they should become +free. + +One Saturday evening one of them asked me to call and see him at his +home the next morning. I did so, and he handed me a Bible belonging +to his mistress, who had died a few days before, and whose bier I had +helped to carry to the family vault. He wanted me to read to him the +eleventh chapter of Daniel. It seemed, that, as one of the means of +keeping them quiet, the white clergymen during the winter and spring +had read them some verses from it to show that the South would prevail, +enforcing passages which ascribed great dominion to "the king of the +South," and suppressing those which subsequently give the supremacy to +"the king of the North." A colored man who could read had found the +latter passages and made them known. The chapter is dark with mystery, +and my auditor, quite perplexed as I read on, remarked, "The Bible is a +very mysterious book." I read to him also the thirty-fourth chapter of +Jeremiah, wherein the sad prophet of Israel records the denunciations +by Jehovah of sword, pestilence, and famine against the Jews for not +proclaiming liberty to their servants and handmaids. He had not known +before that there were such passages in the Bible. + +The conversations of the contrabands on their title to be regarded as +freemen showed reflection. When asked if they thought themselves fit for +freedom, and if the darkies were not lazy, their answer was, "Who +but the darkies cleared all the land round here? Yes, there are lazy +darkies, but there are more lazy whites." When told that the free blacks +had not succeeded, they answered that the free blacks have not had a +fair chance under the laws,--that they don't dare to enforce their +claims against white men,--that a free colored blacksmith had a thousand +dollars due to him from white men, but he was afraid to sue for any +portion of it. One man, when asked why he ought to be free, replied,--"I +feed and clothe myself and pay my master one hundred and twenty dollars +a year; and the one hundred and twenty dollars is just so much taken +from me, which ought to be used to make me and my children comfortable." +Indeed, broken as was their speech and limited as was their knowledge, +they reasoned abstractly on their rights as well as white men. Locke or +Channing might have fortified the argument for universal liberty from +their simple talk. So true is it that the best thoughts which the human +intellect has produced have come, not from affluent learning or ornate +speech, but from the original elements of our nature, common to all +races of men and all conditions in life; and genius the highest and most +cultured may bend with profit to catch the lowliest of human utterances. + +There was a very general desire among the contrabands to know how to +read. A few had learned; and these, in every instance where we inquired +as to their teacher, had been taught on the sly in their childhood by +their white playmates. Others knew their letters, but could not "put +them together," as they said. I remember of a summer's afternoon seeing +a young married woman, perhaps twenty-five years old, seated on a +door-step with her primer before her, trying to make progress. + +In natural tact and the faculty of getting a livelihood the contrabands +are inferior to the Yankees, but quite equal to the mass of the Southern +population. It is not easy to see why they would be less industrious, if +free, than the whites, particularly as they would have the encouragement +of wages. There would be transient difficulties at the outset, but no +more than a bad system lasting for ages might be expected to leave +behind. The first generation might be unfitted for the active duties and +responsibilities of citizenship; but this difficulty, under generous +provisions for education, would not pass to the next. Even now they are +not so much behind the masses of the whites. Of the Virginians who took +the oath of allegiance at Hampton, not more than one in fifteen could +write his name, and the rolls captured at Hatteras disclose an equally +deplorable ignorance. The contrabands might be less addicted than the +now dominant race to bowie-knives and duels, think less of the value +of bludgeons as forensic arguments, be less inhospitable to innocent +sojourners from Free States, and have far inferior skill in robbing +forts and arsenals, plundering the Treasury, and betraying the country +at whose crib they had fattened; but mankind would forgive them for not +acquiring these accomplishments of modern treason. As a race, they may +be less vigorous and thrifty than the Saxon, but they are more social, +docile, and affectionate, fulfilling the theory which Channing held in +relation to them, if advanced to freedom and civilization. + +If in the progress of the war they should be called to bear arms, there +need be no reasonable apprehension that they would exhibit the ferocity +of savage races. Unlike such, they have been subordinated to civilized +life. They are by nature a religious people. They have received an +education in the Christian faith from devout teachers of their own and +of the dominant race. Some have been taught (let us believe it) by +the precepts of Christian masters, and some by the children of those +masters, repeating the lessons of the Sabbath-school. The slaveholders +assure us that they have all been well treated. If that be so, they have +no wrongs to avenge. Associated with our army, they would conform to +the stronger and more disciplined race. Nor is this view disproved by +servile insurrections. In those cases, the insurgents, without arms, +without allies, without discipline, but throwing themselves against +society, against government, against everything, saw no other escape +than to devastate and destroy without mercy in order to get a foothold. +If they exterminated, it was because extermination was threatened +against them. In the Revolution, in the army at Cambridge, from the +beginning to the close of the war, against the protests of South +Carolina by the voice of Edward Rutledge, but with the express sanction +of Washington,--ever just, ever grateful for patriotism, whencesoever +it came,--the negroes fought in the ranks with the white men, and they +never dishonored the patriot cause. So also at the defence of New +Orleans they received from General Jackson a noble tribute to their +fidelity and soldier-like bearing. Weighing the question historically +and reflectively, and anticipating the capture of Richmond and New +Orleans, there need be more serious apprehension of the conduct of +some of our own troops recruited in large cities than of a regiment of +contrabands officered and disciplined by white men. + +But as events travel faster than laws or proclamations, already in +this war with Rebellion the two races have served together. The same +breastworks have been built by their common toil. True and valiant, they +stood side by side in the din of cannonade, and they shared as comrades +in the victory of Hatteras. History will not fail to record that on the +28th day of August, 1861, when the Rebel forts were bombarded by the +Federal army and navy, under the command of Major-General Butler and +Commodore Stringham, fourteen negroes, lately Virginia slaves, now +contraband of war, faithfully and without panic worked the after-gun of +the upper deck of the Minnesota, and hailed with a victor's pride the +Stars and Stripes as they again waved on the soil of the Carolinas. + + + + + +THE WASHERS OF THE SHROUD. + + + Along a river-side, I know not where, + I walked last night in mystery of dream; + A chill creeps curdling yet beneath my hair, + To think what chanced me by the pallid gleam + Of a moon-wraith that waned through haunted air. + + Pale fire-flies pulsed within the meadow mist + Their halos, wavering thistle-downs of light; + The loon, that seemed to mock some goblin tryst, + Laughed; and the echoes, huddling in affright, + Like Odin's hounds, fled baying down the night. + + Then all was silent, till there smote my ear + A movement in the stream that checked my breath: + Was it the slow plash of a wading deer? + But something said, "This water is of Death! + The Sisters wash a Shroud,--ill thing to hear!" + + I, looking then, beheld the ancient Three, + Known to the Greek's and to the Norseman's creed, + That sit in shadow of the mystic Tree, + Still crooning, as they weave their endless brede, + One song: "Time was, Time is, and Time shall be." + + No wrinkled crones were they, as I had deemed, + But fair as yesterday, to-day, to-morrow, + To mourner, lover, poet, ever seemed; + Something too deep for joy, too high for sorrow, + Thrilled in their tones and from their faces gleamed. + + "Still men and nations reap as they have strawn,"-- + So sang they, working at their task the while,-- + "The fatal raiment must be cleansed ere dawn: + For Austria? Italy? the Sea-Queen's Isle? + O'er what quenched grandeur must our shroud be drawn? + + "Or is it for a younger, fairer corse, + That gathered States for children round his knees, + That tamed the wave to be his posting-horse, + The forest-feller, linker of the seas, + Bridge-builder, hammerer, youngest son of Thor's? + + "What make we, murmur'st thou, and what are we? + When empires must be wound, we bring the shroud, + The time-old web of the implacable Three: + Is it too coarse for him, the young and proud? + Earth's mightiest deigned to wear it; why not he?" + + "Is there no hope?" I moaned. "So strong, so fair! + Our Fowler, whose proud bird would brook erewhile + No rival's swoop in all our western air! + Gather the ravens, then, in funeral file, + For him, life's morn-gold bright yet in his hair? + + "Leave me not hopeless, ye unpitying dames! + I see, half-seeing. Tell me, ye who scanned + The stars, Earth's elders, still must noblest aims + Be traced upon oblivious ocean-sands? + Must Hesper join the wailing ghosts of names?" + + "When grass-blades stiffen with red battle-dew, + Ye deem we choose the victors and the slain: + Say, choose we them that shall be leal and true + To the heart's longing, the high faith of brain? + Yet here the victory is, if ye but knew. + + "Three roots bear up Dominion: Knowledge, Will,-- + These two are strong, but stronger yet the third,-- + Obedience, the great tap-root, that still, + Knit round the rock of Duty, is not stirred, + Though the storm's ploughshare spend its utmost skill. + + "Is the doom sealed for Hesper? 'T is not we + Denounce it, but the Law before all time: + The brave makes danger opportunity; + The waverer, paltering with the chance sublime, + Dwarfs it to peril: which shall Hesper be? + + "Hath he let vultures climb his eagle's seat + To make Jove's bolts purveyors of their maw? + Hath he the Many's plaudits found more sweet + Than wisdom? held Opinion's wind for law? + Then let him hearken for the headsman's feet! + + "Rough are the steps, slow-hewn in flintiest rock, + States climb to power by; slippery those with gold + Down which they stumble to eternal mock: + No chafferer's hand shall long the sceptre hold, + Who, given a Fate to shape, would sell the block. + + "We sing old sagas, songs of weal and woe, + Mystic because too cheaply understood; + Dark sayings are not ours; men hear and know, + See Evil weak, see only strong the Good, + Yet hope to balk Doom's fire with walls of tow. + + "Time Was unlocks the riddle of Time Is, + That offers choice of glory and of gloom; + The solver makes Time Shall Be surely his.-- + But hasten, Sisters! for even now the tomb + Grates its slow hinge and calls from the abyss." + + "But not for him," I cried, "not yet for him, + Whose large horizon, westering, star by star + Wins from the void to where on ocean's rim + The sunset shuts the world with golden bar,-- + Not yet his thews shall fail, his eye grow dim! + + "His shall be larger manhood, saved for those + That walk unblenching through the trial-fires; + Not suffering, but faint heart is worst of woes, + And he no base-born son of craven sires, + Whose eye need droop, confronted with his foes. + + "Tears may be ours, but proud, for those who win + Death's royal purple in the enemy's lines: + Peace, too, brings tears; and 'mid the battle-din, + The wiser ear some text of God divines; + For the sheathed blade may rust with darker sin. + + "God, give us peace!--not such as lulls to sleep, + But sword on thigh, and brow with purpose knit! + And let our Ship of State to harbor sweep, + Her ports all up, her battle-lanterns lit, + And her leashed thunders gathering for their leap!" + + So said I, with clenched hands and passionate pain, + Thinking of dear ones by Potomac's side: + Again the loon laughed, mocking; and again + The echoes bayed far down the night, and died, + While waking I recalled my wandering brain. + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Sermons preached in the Chapel of Harvard College._ By JAMES WALKER, +D.D. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. + +The great reputation which Dr. Walker has long enjoyed, as one of the +most impressive pulpit orators of the country, will suffer little +diminution by the publication of these specimens of his rare powers of +statement, argument, and illustration. To the general reader, they are, +to be sure, deprived of the fascination of his voice and manner; but +as the peculiarities of his elocution have their source in the +peculiarities of his mental and moral organization, it will be found +that the style and structure of these printed sermons suggest the mule +of their delivery, which is simply the emphatic utterance of emphatic +thought. The Italicized words, with which the volume abounds, palpably +mark the results of thinking, and arrest attention because they are not +less emphasized by the intellect than by the type. In reflecting Dr. +Walker's mind, the work at the same time reflects his manner. + +Every reader of these sermons will be struck by their thorough +reasonableness,--a reasonableness which does not exclude, but includes, +the deepest and warmest religious sensibility. Moral and religious +feeling pervades every statement; but the feeling is still confined +within a flexible framework of argument, which, while it enlarges with +every access of emotion, is always an outlying boundary of thought, +beyond which passion does not pass. Light continually asserts itself as +more comprehensive in its reach than heat; and the noblest spiritual +instincts and impulses are never allowed unchecked expression as +sentiments, but have to submit to the restraints imposed by principles. +Even in the remarkable sermon entitled, "The Heart more than the Head," +it will be found that it is the head which legitimates the action of +the heart. The sentiments are exalted above the intellect by a process +purely intellectual, and the inferiority of the reason is shown to be +a principle essentially reasonable. Thus, throughout the volume, the +author's mental insight into the complex phenomena of our spiritual +nature is always accompanied by a mental oversight of its actual and +possible aberrations. A sound, large, "round-about" common sense, keen, +eager, vigilant, sagacious, encompasses all the emotional elements of +his thought. He has a subtile sense of mystery, but he is not a mystic. +The most marvellous workings of the Divine Spirit he apprehends under +the conditions of Law, and even in the raptures of devotion he never +forgets the relation of cause and effect. + +The style of these sermons is what might be expected from the character +of the mind it expresses. If Dr. Walker were not a thinker, it is plain +that he could never have been a rhetorician. He has no power at all as +a writer, if writing be considered an accomplishment which can be +separated from earnest thinking. Words are, with him, the mere +instruments for the expression of things; and he hits on felicitous +words only under that impatient stress of thought which demands exact +expression for definite ideas. All his words, simple as they are, are +therefore fairly earned, and he gives to them a force and significance +which they do not bear in the dictionary. The mind of the writer is felt +beating and burning beneath his phraseology, stamping every word with +the image of a thought. Largeness of intellect, acute discrimination, +clear and explicit statement, masterly arrangement of matter, an +unmistakable performance of the real business of expression,--these +qualities make every reader of the sermons conscious that a mind of +great vigor, breadth, and pungency is brought into direct contact +with his own. The almost ostentatious absence of "fine writing" only +increases the effect of the plain and sinewy words. + +If we pass from the form to the substance of Dr. Walker's teachings, we +shall find that his sermons are especially characterized by practical +wisdom. A scholar, a moralist, a metaphysician, a theologian, learned +in all the lore and trained in the best methods of the schools, he is +distinguished from most scholars by his broad grasp of every-day life. +It is this quality which has given him his wide influence as a preacher, +and this is a prominent charm of his printed sermons. He brings +principles to the test of facts, and connects thoughts with things. The +conscience which can easily elude the threats, the monitions, and the +appeals of ordinary sermonizers, finds itself mastered by his mingled +fervor, logic, and practical knowledge. Every sermon in the present +volume is good for use, and furnishes both inducements and aids to the +formation of manly Christian character. There is much, of course, to +lift the depressed and inspire the weak; but the great peculiarity of +the discourses is the resolute energy with which they grapple with the +worldliness and sin of the proud and the strong. + + +_The Monks of the West, from St. Benedict to St. Bernard_. By the COUNT +DE MONTALEMBERT, Member of the French Academy. Authorized Translation. +Volumes I. and II. Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons. 1861. 8vo. +pp. xii. and 515, 549. + +These volumes form the first instalment of a work in which one of the +great lights of the Romish Church in our day proposes to recount the +glories of Western Monasticism, and to narrate the lives of some of the +remarkable men who successively passed from the cloister to the Papal +throne, or in positions scarcely less conspicuous permanently affected +the history of the Church. His original design, however, does not appear +to have extended beyond writing the life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, +which he intended to make in some measure a complement to his life of +St. Elizabeth of Hungary. But he judged rightly, that, in order to +exhibit the character and influence of that remarkable man under all +their various aspects, it was needful at the outset to retrace the early +history of monastic institutions in the West, and to show how far +they tended to prepare the way for such a man. Only a part of this +preliminary task has been accomplished as yet; but enough has been done +to show in what spirit the historian has approached his subject, how +thoroughly he has explored the original sources of information, and +what will probably be the real worth of his labors. For such a +work Montalembert possesses adequate and in some respects peculiar +qualifications. His learning, eloquence, and candor will be conceded by +every one who is familiar with his previous writings or with his public +life; and at the same time he unites a passionate love of liberty, +everywhere apparent in his book, with a zeal for the Church, worthy of +any of the monks whom he commemorates. While his narrative is always +animated and picturesque, and often rises into passages of fervid +eloquence, he has conducted his researches with the unwearied +perseverance of a mere antiquary, and has exhausted every source of +information. "Every word which I have written," he says, "has been drawn +from original and contemporary sources; and if I have quoted facts +or expressions from second-hand authors, it has never been without +attentively verifying the original or completing the text. A single +date, quotation, or note, apparently insignificant, has often cost me +hours and sometimes days of labor. I have never contented myself with +being approximately right, nor resigned myself to doubt until every +chance of arriving at certainty was exhausted." To the spirit and temper +in which the book is written no well-founded exception can be taken; but +considerable abatement must be made from the author's estimate of +the services rendered by the monks to Christian civilization, and no +Protestant will accept his views as to the permanent worth of monastic +institutions. With this qualification, and with some allowance for +needless repetitions, we cannot but regard his work as a most attractive +and eloquent contribution to ecclesiastical history. + +About half of the first volume is devoted to a General Introduction, +explanatory of the origin and design of the work, but mainly intended to +paint the character of monastic institutions, to describe the happiness +of a religious life, and to examine the charges brought against the +monks. These topics are considered in ten chapters, filled with curious +details, and written with an eloquence and an earnestness which it is +difficult for the reader to resist. Following this we have a short and +brilliant sketch of the social and political condition of the Roman +Empire after the conversion of Constantine, exhibiting by a few masterly +touches its wide-spread corruption, the feebleness of its rulers, and +the utter degradation of the people. The next two books treat of the +Monastic Precursors in the East as well as in the West, and present a +series of brief biographical sketches of the most famous monks, from +St. Anthony, the father of Eastern monasticism, to St. Benedict, +the earliest legislator for the monasteries of the West. Among the +illustrious men who pass before us in this review, and all of whom are +skilfully delineated, are Basil of Caesarea and his friend Gregory +Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, Athanasius, Martin of Tours, +and the numerous company of saints and doctors nurtured in the great +monastery of Lerins. And though an account of the saintly women who have +led lives of seclusion would scarcely seem to be included under the +title of Montalembert's work, he does not neglect to add sketches of the +most conspicuous of them,--Euphrosyne, Pelagia, Marcella, Furia, and +others. These preliminary sketches fill the last half of the first +volume. + +The Fourth Book comprises an account of the Life and Rule of St. +Benedict, and properly opens the history which Montalembert proposes +to narrate. It presents a sufficiently minute sketch of the personal +history of Benedict and his immediate followers; but its chief merit is +in its very ample and satisfactory exposition of the Benedictine Rule. +The next book traces the history of monastic institutions in Italy and +Spain during the sixth and seventh centuries, and includes biographical +notices of Cassiodorus, the founder of the once famous monastery of +Viviers in Calabria, of St. Gregory the Great, of Leander, Bishop of +Seville, and his brother Isidore, of Ildefonso of Toledo, and of many +others of scarcely less renown in the early monastic records. The Sixth +Book is devoted to the monks under the first Merovingians, and is +divided into five sections, treating respectively of the conquest +of Gaul by the Franks, of the arrival of St. Maur in Anjou and the +propagation of the Benedictine rule there, of the relations previously +existing between the monks and the Merovingians, of St. Radegund and her +followers, and of the services of the monks in clearing the forests +and opening the way for the advance of civilization. The Seventh Book +records the life of St. Columbanus, and describes at much length his +labors in Gaul, as well as those of his disciples, both in the great +monastery of Luxeuil and in the numerous colonies which issued from it +and spread over the whole neighborhood, bringing the narrative down +to the close of the seventh century. At this point the portion of +Montalembert's work now published terminates, leaving, we presume, +several additional volumes to follow. For their appearance we shall look +with much interest. If the remainder is executed in the same spirit as +the portion now before us, and is marked by the same diligent study of +the original authorities and the same persuasive eloquence, it will form +one of the most valuable of the many attractive monographs which we +owe to the French historians of our time, and will be read with equal +interest by Catholics and Protestants. + + +_Eighty Years' Progress of the United States, showing the Various +Channels of Industry and Education through which the People of the +United States have arisen from a British Colony to their Present +National Importance_. Illustrated with over Two Hundred Engravings. New +York: 51 John Street. Worcester: L. Stebbins. Two Volumes. 8vo. + +A vast amount of useful information is treasured up in these two +national volumes. Agriculture, commerce and trade, the cultivation of +cotton, education, the arts of design, banking, mining, steam, the +fur-trade, etc., are subjects of interest everywhere, and the present +writers seem to be specially competent for the task they have assumed. +If the household library should possess such books more frequently, less +ignorance would prevail on topics concerning which every American ought +to be well-informed. Woful silence usually prevails when a foreigner +asks for statistics on any point connected with our industrial progress, +and very few take the trouble to get at facts which are easy enough +to be had with a little painstaking. We are glad to see so much good +material brought together as we find in these two well-filled volumes. + + +_Electro-Physiology and Electro-Therapeutics: Showing the Rules and +Methods for the Employment of Galvanism in Nervous Diseases_, etc. +Second Edition, with Additions. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1861. + +At a time when the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile of the medical +world is pretty thoroughly breached, if not thrown down, and quackery +and imposture are tolerated as necessary evils, it is agreeable to meet +with a real work of science, emanating from the labors of a regular +physician, concerning the influences exerted by electricity on the human +body, both in health and disease. + +Electricity is one of the great powers of Nature, pervading all matter, +existing in all mineral, vegetable, and animal bodies, not only acting +in the combinations of the elements and molecules, but also serving as a +means for their separation from each other. This imponderable fluid or +power, whatever it may be, whether one or two, or a polarization of one +force into the states + and -, is one of the most active agencies known +to man, and although not capable of being weighed in the balance, is not +found wanting anywhere in Nature. It courses in great currents beneath +our feet, in the solid rocks of the earth, penetrating to the very +interior of the globe, while it also rushes through our atmosphere in +lurid flashes, and startles us with the crash and roar of heaven's +artillery. It gives magnetic polarity to the earth, and directs the +needle by its influence; for magnetic attraction is only an effect of +the earth's thermo-electricity, excited by the sun's rays acting in +a continuous course. Both animal and vegetable life are dependent on +electric forces for their development; and many of their functions, +directly or indirectly, result from their agency. + +If this force controls to a great degree the living functions of our +organs in their healthy action, it must be that it is concerned in those +derangements and lesions which constitute disease and abnormal actions +or disorders. It must have a remedial and the opposite effect, according +as it is applied. + +Is such a gigantic power to be left in the hands of charlatans, or shall +it be reserved for application by scientific physicians? This is a +question we must meet and answer practically. + +It may be asked why a force of this nature has been so long neglected by +practising physicians. The answer is very simple, and will be recognized +as true by all middle-aged physicians in this country. + +For the past fifty years it has been customary to state in lectures in +our medical colleges, that "chemistry has nothing to do with medicine"; +and since our teachers knew nothing of the subject themselves, they +denounced such knowledge as unnecessary to the physician. Electricity, +the great moving power in all chemical actions, shared the fate of +chemistry in general, and met with condemnation without trial. A young +physician did not dare to meddle with chemicals or with any branch of +natural or experimental science for fear of losing his chance of medical +employment by sinking the doctor among his gallipots. + +Electricity, thus neglected, fell into the hands of irregular +practitioners, and was as often used injuriously as beneficially, and +more frequently without any effect. The absurd pretensions of galvanic +baths for the extraction of mercury from the system will be remembered +by most of our citizens, and the shocking practice of others is not +forgotten. + +It was therefore earnestly desired by medical practitioners who +themselves were not by education competent to manage electric and +galvanic machinery, that some medical man of good standing, who had +made a special study of this subject, should undertake the treatment of +diseases requiring the use of electricity. Dr. Garratt was induced +to undertake this important duty, and he has prepared a work on this +practice which embraces all that has appeared in the writings of others, +both in this country and Europe, while he has, from his own researches +and rich experience, added much new matter of great practical value. +Among his original contributions we note,-- + +1st. A definite, systematic method for the application of Galvanic and +Faradaic currents of electricity to the human organism, for curing or +aiding in the cure of given classes of diseases. (See pages 475, 479, +and 669 to 706; also Chap. 5, p. 280.) + +2d. Improvements in the methods of applying electricity, as stated on +pages 293 to 296, and 300, 329, and 332, which we have not room to copy. + +3d. He has introduced the term Faradaic current to represent the induced +current, first discovered by Professor Henry, and so much extended in +application by Faraday. + +4th. The determination of several definite points in sentient and +mixed nerves, often the seats of neuralgic pain,--thus correcting Dr. +Valleix's painful points. + +5th. The treatment of uterine, and some other female disorders, by means +of the induced galvanic current (pages 612 to 621). + +A careful examination of this book shows it to contain a very full +_résumé_ of the best which have been written on the subjects embraced +under the medical applications of electricity in its various modes of +development, and a careful analysis of the doctrines of others; while +the author has given frankly an account of cases in which he has failed, +as of those in which he has been successful. He does not offer electric +treatment as a panacea for "all the ills which flesh is heir to," but +shows how far and in what cases it proves beneficial. He has shown that +there is a right and a wrong way of operating, and that mischief may be +done by an unskilful hand, while one who is well qualified by scientific +knowledge and practical experience may do much good, and in many +diseases,--more especially in those of the nerves, such as neuralgia +and partial paralysis, in which remarkable cures have been effected. We +commend this work to the attention of medical gentlemen, and especially +to students of medicine who wish to be posted up in the novel methods +of treating diseases. It is also a book which all scientific men may +consult with advantage, and which will gratify the curiosity of the +general scholar. + + +_Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S., Late Regius Professor of Natural +History in the University of Edinburgh_. By GEORGE WILSON, M.D., +F.R.S.E., and ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S.E., etc. Cambridge and London: +MacMillan & Co. + +Dr. Wilson did not live to finish the memoir which he so ably began. +The great naturalist, Edward Forbes, deserved the best from his +contemporaries, and we are glad to have the combined labors of such +distinguished men as Wilson and Geikie put forth in commemoration of +him. The chair of Natural History at Edinburgh was honored by him +whose biography is now before us. His advent to that eminent post was +everywhere hailed with a unanimity that augured well for his career, and +no one could have been chosen to succeed the illustrious Jameson for +whom there could have been more enthusiasm. His admitted genius and the +range of his acquirements fully entitled him to the office, and all who +know him looked forward to brilliant accomplishments in his varied paths +of science. Death closed the brief years of this earnest student at the +early age of thirty-nine. Cut off in the prime of his days, with his +powers and purposes but partially unfolded, he yet shows grandly among +the best men of his time. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Laws of Massachusetts relating to Individual Rights and Liabilities, +compiled from the General Statutes. Boston. Benj. B. Russell. 16mo. +paper. pp. 131. 25 cts. + +Chambers's Encyclopedia. A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the +People. Part XXXIV. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. +47. 15 cts. + +A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle; to which +is added a Lecture on Platinum. By Michael Faraday. New York. Harper & +Brothers. 24mo. pp. 217. 50 cts. + +Great Expectations. By Charles Dickens. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & +Brothers. 8vo. pp. 266. $1.50. + +Latin Accidence and Primary Lesson-Book, containing a full Exhibition of +the Forms of Words, and First Lessons in Reading. By George W. 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With a Discourse on the +Life, Genius, and Writings of the Author, by William Cullen Bryant. +Illustrated from Drawings by F.O.C. Darley. New York. W.A. Townsend & +Co. 12mo. pp. 485. $1.50. + +Eighty Years' Progress of the United States, showing the Various +Channels of Industry and Education through which the People of the +United States have arisen from a British Colony to their Present +National Importance. Illustrated with over Two Hundred Engravings. New +York and Worcester. L. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/11415-8.zip b/old/11415-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8d62a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11415-8.zip diff --git a/old/11415.txt b/old/11415.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eee24f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11415.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9292 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, Issue 49, +November, 1861, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, Issue 49, November, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 3, 2004 [eBook #11415] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 8, ISSUE +49, NOVEMBER, 1861*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VIII.--NOVEMBER, 1861.--NO. XLIX. + + + + + + + +GEORGE SAND. + + "Deduci superbo + Non humilis mulier triumpho." + + +These words are applied by Horace to the great Cleopatra, whose heroic +end he celebrates, even while exulting in her overthrow. We apply them +to another woman of royal soul, who, capitulating with the world of her +contemporaries, does not allow them the ignoble triumph of plundering +the secrets of her life. They have long clamored at its gates, long +shouted at its windows, in defamation and in glorification. Ready now +for their admission, she lets the eager public in; but what they were +most intent to find still eludes them. In the "Histoire de ma Vie" are +the records of her parentage, birth, education. Here are detailed the +subtile influences that aided or hindered Nature in one of her most +lavish pieces of work; here are study, religion, marriage, maternity, +authorship, friendship, travel, litigation: but the passionate loving +woman, and whom she loved, are not here. To the world's triumph they +belong not, and we honor the decency and self-respect which consign them +to oblivion. Nor shall we endeavor to lift the veil which she has thus +thrown over the most intimate portion of her private life. We will not +ask any _Chronique Scandaleuse_, of which there are plenty, to supply +any hiatus in the _dramatis personae_ of her life. We shall take her as +she gives herself to us, bringing out the full significance of what she +says, but not interpolating with it what other people say. For she has +been generous in telling us all that it imports us most to know. +The itching curiosity of the spiteful or the vicious must seek its +gratification at other hands than ours: we will not be its ministers. +With all this, we are not obliged to shut our eyes to the true +significance of what she tells us, or to assume that in the account +she gives us of herself there is necessarily less self-deception than +self-judgment generally exhibits. If she mistakes the selfish for the +heroic, exalts a gratification into a duty, and preaches to her sex as +from the standpoint of a morality superior to theirs, we shall set it +down as it seems to us. But, for the sake of manhood as well as of +womanhood, we would not that any mean or malignant hand should endeavor +to show where she failed, and how. + +Was she not to all of us, in our early years, a name of doubt, dread, +and enchantment? Did not all of us feel, in our young admiration for +her, something of the world's great struggle between conservative +discipline and revolutionary inspiration? We knew our parents would not +have us read her, _if they knew_. We knew they were right. Yet we read +her at stolen hours, with waning and still entreated light; and as we +read, in a dreary wintry room, with the flickering candle warning us +of late hours and confiding expectations, the atmosphere grew warm and +glorious about us,--a true human company, a living sympathy crept near +us,--the very world seemed not the same world after as before. She had +given us a real gift; no criticism could take it away. The hands might +be sinful, but the box they broke contained an exceeding precious +ointment. + +At a later day we saw these things rather differently. The electric +intoxication over, which book or being gives but once to the same +person, its elements were viewed with some distrust. Passing from ideal +to real life, as all pass, who live on, we shook our heads over the +books, sighed, ceased to read them. Grown mothers ourselves, we quietly +removed them as far as possible from the young hands about us, and would +rather have deprived them of the noble French language altogether than +have allowed it to bring them such lessons as Jacques and Valentine. +Yet we retain the old love for her; the world of literature still seems +brighter for her footsteps; and should we live to learn her death, tears +must follow it, and the sense of void left by the loss of a true friend, +noble and loyal-hearted, if mistaken. With this confession of sympathy +with the woman, we begin the critical consideration of the memoirs of +herself she has given to the world. + +These memoirs begin at the earliest possible period, including the lives +of her parents and grandparents. The latter were illustrious on +one side, obscure on the other. She tells us that by her paternal +grandmother she was allied to the kings of France, and by her maternal +grandfather to the lowest of the people. The grandmother in question +was the natural daughter of the famous Marechal de Saxe, recognized and +educated, but finally left with slender resources, and married to M. +Dupin de Francueil, an accomplished person of good family and fortune, +greatly her senior. To him she bore one child, a son named Maurice, +after the great soldier. As might have been expected, her widowhood was +early and long, for her aged partner soon dropped from her side, beloved +and regretted. George tells us that her grandmother was wont to insist +that an old man can be more agreeable in the marital relation than a +young one, and that M. Dupin de Francueil, elegant, accomplished, +and devoted to her happiness, had in his life left nothing for her +imagination to desire or her heart to regret. + +As this lady is one of the heroines of the "Histoire de ma Vie," we +cannot do it justice without lingering a little over her portraiture. +She is described as tall, fair, and of a Saxon type of beauty. Her +manners would seem to have been _de haute ecole_, and her culture was +on a large and noble scale. Austere in her morals, her faith was the +deistic philosophy of the ante-revolutionary period; but, like other +people of noble mind, instead of making doubt a pretext for license, she +brought up virtue to justify the latitude of her creed, that the solid +results of conscience should entitle her to the free interpretation of +doctrine. She was chaste, benevolent, and sincere. Her mother had been a +singer of merit and celebrity, and she, the daughter, had both inherited +her musical talent, and had received one of those thorough musical +educations which alone make the possession of the art a pleasure and +resource. It must often occur to those who hear our young ladies sing +and play, that the accomplishment is little valued by them, save as an +outward social adornment. + +Hence those ambitious and perfectly uninteresting performances with +which we are constantly bored in the fashionable musical world. It is +self-love which gives us those flat, empty _adagios_, those cold, +keen runs and embellishments. Love of the art has more modesty in the +undertaking, and more warmth in the execution. George says that she +has heard all the greatest singers of modern times, but that her +grandmother, in her old age, singing fragments of the operas of her own +time in a cracked and trembling voice, and accompanying herself on an +old harpsichord with three fingers of a palsied hand, always remained to +her a type of art above all others. + +The first volume of these memoirs gives interesting notice of the +friendships which surrounded Madame Dupin during her married life. These +embraced various celebrities, historical and literary. Her husband was +the congenial friend of the best minds of the day, and was able, among +other things, to procure her the difficult pleasure of an interview +with Jean Jacques Rousseau, then living near her in great spleen and +retirement. We cannot do better than to give the relation of this in +her own words, as preserved by her grand-daughter. It is highly +characteristic of the parties and of the times. + +"Before I had seen Rousseau, I had read the 'Nouvelle Heloise' in one +breath, and at the last pages I found myself so overcome that I wept and +sobbed. My husband gently rallied me for this; but that day I could only +cry from morning till evening. During this, M. de Francueil, with the +address and the grace which he knew how to put into everything, ran to +find Jean Jacques. I do not know how he managed it, but he carried him +off, he brought him, without having communicated to me his intention. + +"I, unconscious of all this, was not hastening my toilet. I was with +Madame d'Esparbes de Lussan, my friend, the most amiable woman in +the world, and the prettiest, _though she squinted a little, and was +slightly deformed._ M. de Francueil had come several times to see if I +was ready. I did not observe any marks of haste in my husband, and did +not hurry myself, never suspecting that he was there, the sublime Bear, +in my parlor. He had entered, looking partly foolish and partly cross, +and had seated himself in a corner, showing no other impatience than +that about dinner, in order to get away very soon. + +"Finally, my toilet finished, and my eyes still red and swollen, I go +to the parlor. I see a little man, ill-dressed and scowling, who rose +clumsily, who _chewed out_ some confused words. I look, and I guess who +it is,--I try to speak,--I burst into tears. Francueil tries to put +us in tune by a pleasantry, and bursts into tears. We could not say +anything to each other. Rousseau pressed my hand without addressing me a +single word. We tried to dine, to cut short all these sobs. But I could +eat nothing. M. de Francueil could not be witty that day, and +Rousseau escaped directly on leaving the table, without having said a +word,--displeased, perhaps, with having found a new contradiction to +his claim of being the most persecuted, the most hated, and the most +calumniated of men." + +The simplicity of this narration justifies its quotation here, as +illustrative of the taste and manners that prevailed a hundred years +ago. The lively emotion provoked by the "Nouvelle Heloise" is scarcely +more foreign to our ideas and experience than the triangular fit of +weeping in the parlor, and the dinner, silent through excess of feeling, +that followed it. + +M. Dupin de Francueil lived with great, but generous extravagance, and, +as his widow averred, "ruined himself in the most amiable manner in the +world." He died, leaving large estates in great confusion, from which +his widow and young son were compelled to "accept the poverty" of +seventy-five thousand livres of annual income,--a sum which the +Revolution, at a later day, greatly reduced. Till its outbreak, Madame +Dupin lived in peace and affluence, though not on the grand scale of +earlier days,--devoting herself chiefly to the care and education of her +son, Maurice, in which latter task she secured the services of a young +abbe, who afterwards prudently became the _Citizen_ Deschartres, and who +continued in the service of the family during the rest of a tolerably +long life. This personage plays too important a part in the memoirs to +be passed over without special notice. He continued to be the faithful +teacher and companion of Maurice, until the exigencies of military life +removed the latter from his control. He was also the man of business of +Madame Dupin, and, at a later day, the preceptor of George herself, who, +with childish petulance, bestowed on him the sobriquet of _grand homme_, +in consequence, she tells us, of his _omnicompetence_ and his air of +importance. "My grandmother," she says, "had no presentiment, that, in +confiding to him the education of her son, she was securing the tyrant, +the saviour, and the friend of her whole remaining life." We would +gladly give here in full George's portrait of her tutor; but if we +should stop to sketch all the admirable photography of this work, our +review would become a volume. We can only borrow a trait or two, and +pass on to the consideration of other matters. + +"He had been good-looking; but I am sure that no one, even in his best +days, could have looked at him without laughing, so clearly was the word +_pedant_ written in all the lines of his face and in every movement of +his person. To be complete, he should have been ignorant, _gourmand_, +and cowardly. But, far from this, he was very learned, temperate, and +madly courageous. He had all the great qualities of the soul, joined +to an insufferable disposition, and a self-satisfaction which amounted +almost to delirium. But what devotion, what zeal, what a tender and +generous soul!" + +In the intervals of his necessary occupations he studied medicine and +surgery, in the latter of which he attained considerable skill. In the +many subsequent years of his country life, he made these accomplishments +very useful to the village folk. No stress of weather or +unseasonableness of hours could detain him from attending the sick, when +summoned; but being obliged, as George says, to be ridiculous as well as +sublime in all things, he was wont to beat his patients when they were +bold enough to offer him money for their cure, and even made missile +weapons of the poultry and game which they brought him in acknowledgment +of his services, assailing them with blows and harder words, till they +fled, amused or angry. Maurice, his first pupil, was a delicate and +indolent child, and showed little robustness of character till his early +manhood, when the necessity of a career forced him into the ranks of the +great army. + +The first threatenings of the Revolution found in Madame Dupin an +unalarmed observer. As a disciple of Voltaire and Rousseau, she could +not but detest the abuses of the Court; she shared, too, the general +personal alienation of the aristocracy from the _German woman_, as they +called Marie Antoinette. She admired, in turn, the probity of Necker and +the genius of Mirabeau; but the current of disorder finally found its +way to her, and swept away her household peace among the innumerable +wrecks that marked its passage. Implicated as the depository of some +papers supposed to be of treasonable character, she was arrested and +imprisoned in Paris, her son and Deschartres being officially separated +from her and detained at Passy. The imprisonment lasted some months, and +its tedium was beguiled by the most fervent love-letters between the boy +of sixteen and his mother. The sorrow of this separation, George says, +metamorphosed the sickly, spoiled child into a fervent and resolute +youth, whose subsequent career was full of courage and self-denial. Of +the Revolution she writes:-- + +"In my eyes, it is one of the phases of evangelical life: a tumultuous, +bloody life, terrible at certain moments, full of convulsions, of +delirium, and of sobbing. It is the violent contest of the principle of +equality preached by Jesus, and passing, now like a radiant light, now +like a burning torch, from hand to hand, to our own days, against the +old pagan world, which is not destroyed, which will not be for a long +time yet, in spite of the mission of Christ, and so many other divine +missions, in spite of so many stakes, scaffolds, and martyrs. What is +there, then, to astonish us in the vertigo which seized all minds at +the period of the inextricable _melee_ into which France precipitated +herself in '93? When everything went by retaliation, when every one +became, by deed or intention, victim and executioner in turn, and when +between the oppression endured and the oppression exercised there was +no time for reflection or liberty of choice, how could passion have +abstracted itself in action, or impartiality have dictated quiet +judgments? Passionate souls were judged by others as passionate, and the +human race cried out as in the time of the ancient Hussites,--'This is a +time of mourning, of zeal, and of fury.'" + +The tone of our author concerning this and subsequent revolutions which +have come within her own observation is throughout temperate, hopeful, +and charitable. The noblest side of womanhood comes out in this; and +however her fiery youth might have counselled, in the pages now under +consideration she appears as the apologist of humankind, the world's +peacemaker. + +George loves to linger over the details of her father's early life. +They are, indeed, all she possesses of him, as she was still in early +childhood when he died. So much and such charming narrations has she +to give us of his military life, his musical ability, his courage and +disinterestedness, that she herself does not manage to get born until +nearly the end of the third volume, and that through a series of +concatenations which we must hastily review. + +The imprisonment of Madame Dupin was not long; after some months of +detention, she was allowed to rejoin her son at Passy, and the whole +family-party speedily removed to Nohant, in the heart of Berry, which +henceforth figures as the homestead in the pages of these volumes. But +Maurice is soon obliged to adopt a profession. His mother's revenues +have been considerably diminished by the political troubles. He feels in +himself the power, the determination, to carve out a career for +himself, and gallantly enters, as a simple soldier, the armies of the +Republic,--Napoleon Bonaparte being First Consul. Although he soon saw +service, his promotion seems to have been slow and difficult. He was +full of military ardor, and laborious in acquiring the science of his +profession; but there were already so many candidates for every smallest +distinction, and Maurice was no courtier, to help out his deserts with a +little fortunate flattery. He complains in his letters that the tide has +already turned, and that even in the army diplomacy fares better than +real bravery. Still, he soon rose from the ranks, served with honor on +the Rhine and in Italy, and became finally attached to the _personnel_ +of Murat, during the occupation of the Peninsula. His title of grandson +of the Marechal de Saxe was sometimes helpful, sometimes hurtful. In the +eyes of his comrades it won him honor; but Napoleon, on hearing his high +descent urged as a claim to consideration, is said to have replied, +brusquely,--"I don't want any of those people." In his letters to +his mother, he recounts his adventures, military and amorous, with +frankness, but without boasting; but his confidences soon become very +partial, and before she knows it the poor mother has a dangerous rival. +We will let him give his own account of the origin of this new relation. + +"You know that I was in love in Milan. You guessed it, because I did not +tell you of it. At times I fancied myself beloved in return, and then I +saw, or thought I saw, that I was not. I wished to divert my thoughts; I +went away, desiring to think no more of it. + +"This charming woman is here, and we have hardly spoken to each other. +We scarcely exchanged a look. I felt a little vexation, though that is +scarcely in my nature. She was proud towards me, although her heart is +tender and passionate. This morning, during breakfast, we heard distant +cannon. The General ordered me to mount at once, and go to see what it +was. I rise, take the staircase in two bounds, and run to the stable. +At the very moment of mounting my horse I turned and saw behind me this +dear woman, blushing, embarrassed, and casting on me a lingering look, +expressive of fear, interest, love." + +This fatal look, as the experienced will readily conceive, did the +business. The young soldier dreamed only of a love affair like twenty +others which had made the pastime of his oft-changing quarters; but this +"dear woman," Sophie Victoire Antoinette Delaborde, daughter of an old +bird-fancier, was destined to become his wife, and the mother of his +daughter, Aurore Dupin, whom the world knows as George Sand. The +circumstances of her youth had been untoward. She was at this period +already the mother of one child, born out of marriage, and seems to have +been making the campaign of Italy under the so-called protection of some +rich man, whose name is not given us. This protection she hastened to +leave, following thenceforward with devotion the precarious fortunes +of the young soldier, and gaining her own subsistence, until their +marriage, by the toil of the needle, to which she had been bred. Of +course, Maurice's confidences to his mother under this head soon cease. +An amour with a person in Victoire's position could be admitted; but +a serious, solid affection, leading to marriage, this would break his +mother's heart, and indeed not without reason. The reader must remember +that this is a chapter out of French society, on which account we +suppress all hysterical comment upon a state of things universally +received and acknowledged therein. Maurice's trivial, and _we_ should +say, unprincipled pursuit of Victoire would be considered perfectly +legitimate in the sphere which made the world to him. The sequel, +perhaps, would not have been considered differently here and there; for, +however we may recognize the sacredness of true affection, a marriage +so unequal and with such sinister antecedents would be regarded in all +society with little approbation, or hope of good. His mother soon grew +alarmed, as various symptoms of an enduring and carefully concealed +attachment became evident to her keen observation. In the years that +followed, she left no means untried to break off this dangerous +connection;--her remonstrances were by turns tender and violent,--her +reasonings, no doubt, in great part just; but Maurice defended the woman +of his choice from all accusations, from every annoyance, on the ground +of her devoted and honorable attachment to him. After four years of +continued trouble and irresolution, in which, George tells us, he had +again and again made the endeavor to sacrifice Victoire to his mother's +happiness, and after the birth of several children, who soon ceased +to live, he wedded her by civil rite. The birth of his daughter soon +followed. "And thus it was," says George, "that I was born legitimate." + +"My mother had on a pretty pink dress that day, and my father was +playing some _contredanses_ on his faithful Cremona (I have it yet, that +old instrument by the sound of which I first saw the light). My mother +left the dance and passed into her own room. As she went out very +quietly, the dance continued. At the last _chassez all round_, my Aunt +Lucy went into my mother's room, and immediately cried,-- + +"Come, come here, Maurice! You have a daughter!" + +"She shall be named Aurore, for my poor mother, who is not here to bless +her, but who will bless her one day," said my father, receiving me in +his arms. + +"She was born in music and in pink," said my aunt. "She will be happy." + +Not eminent, perhaps, has been the realization of this augury. + +The young couple were so poor, at this moment of their marriage, that a +slender thread of gold was forced to serve for the nuptial ring; it was +not until some days later that they were able to expend six francs in +the purchase of that indispensable ornament. The act once consummated, +Maurice gave himself up to some hours of bitter suffering, made +inevitable by what he considered a grave act of disobedience against the +best of mothers. His conscience, however, on the whole, justified +him. He had obeyed the Scripture precept, forsaking the old for the +inevitable new relation, and surrounding her who was really his wife +with the immunities of civil recognition. The marriage was concealed for +some months from his mother,--who at a subsequent period left no stone +unturned to prove its nullity. The religious ceremony, which Catholicism +considers as the indissoluble tie, had not yet been performed, and +Mme. Dupin hoped to prove some informality in the civil rite. In +this, however, she did not succeed, and after long resistance, and +ill-concealed displeasure, she concluded by acknowledging the unwelcome +alliance. It was the little Aurore herself whose unconscious hand +severed the Gordian knot of the family difficulties. Introduced by a +stratagem into her grandmother's presence, and seated in her lap as the +child of a stranger, the family traits were suddenly recognized, and the +little one (eight months old) effected a change of heart which neither +lawyer nor priest could have induced. St. Childhood is fortunately +always in the world, working ever these miracles of reconciliation. + +George speaks with admirable candor of the inevitable relations between +these two women. She does full justice to the legitimacy of the +grandmother's objections to the marriage, and her fears for its result, +which were founded much more on moral than on social considerations. At +the same time she nobly asserts her mother's claim to rehabilitation +through a passionate and disinterested attachment, a faithful devotion +to the duties of marriage and maternity, and a widowhood whose sorrow +ended only with her life. She says,--"The doctrine of redemption is the +symbol of the principle of expiation and of rehabilitation"; but she +adds,--"Our society recognizes this principle in religious theory, +but not in practice; it is too great, too beautiful for us." She says +farther,--"There still exists a pretended aristocracy of virtue, which, +proud of its privileges, does not admit that the errors of youth are +susceptible of atonement. This condemnation is the more absurd, because, +for what is called the World, it is hypocritical. It is not only women +of really irreproachable life, nor matrons truly respected, who are +called upon to decide upon the merits of their misled sisters. It is not +the company of the excellent of the earth who make opinion. That is all +a dream. The great majority of women of the world is really a majority +of _lost women_." We must understand these remarks as applying to French +society, in respect even of which we are not inclined to admit their +truth. Yet there is a certain justice in the inference that women +are often most severely condemned by those who are no better than +themselves; and this insincerity of uncharity is far more to be dreaded +than the over-zeal of virtuous hearts, which oftenest helps and heals +where it has been obliged to wound. + +At the risk of unduly multiplying quotations, we will quote here what +George says of her mother in this, the flower of her days. At a later +day, the ill-regulated character suffered and made others suffer with +its own discords, which education and moral training had done nothing to +reconcile. The manly support, too, of the nobler nature was wanting, +and the best half of her future and its possibilities was buried in the +untimely grave of her husband. Here is what she was when she was at her +best:-- + +"My mother never felt herself either humiliated or honored by the +company of people who might have considered themselves her superiors. +She ridiculed keenly the pride of fools, the vanity of _parvenus_, and, +feeling herself of the people to her very finger-ends, she thought +herself more noble than all the patricians and aristocrats of the earth. +She was wont to say that those of her race had redder blood and larger +veins than others,--which I incline to believe; for, if moral and +physical energy constitute in reality the excellence of races, we cannot +deny that this energy is compelled to diminish in those who lose the +habit of labor and the courage of endurance. This aphorism is certainly +not without exception, and we may add that excess of labor and of +endurance enervates the organization as much as the excess of luxury and +idleness. But it is certain, in general, that life rises from the bottom +of society, and loses itself in measure as it rises to the top, like the +sap in plants. + +"My mother was not one of those bold _intrigantes_ whose secret passion +is to struggle against the prejudices of their time, and who think to +make themselves greater by clinging, at the risk of a thousand affronts, +to the false greatness of the world. She was far too proud to expose +herself even to coldness. Her attitude was so reserved that she passed +for a timid person; but if one attempted to encourage her by airs of +protection, she became more than reserved, she showed herself cold and +taciturn. With people who inspired her with respect, she was amiable and +charming; but her real disposition was gay, petulant, active, and, above +all, opposed to constraint. Great dinners, long _soirees_, commonplace +visits, balls themselves, were odious to her. She was the woman of the +fireside or of the rapid and frolicking walk; but in her interior, as in +her goings abroad, intimacy, confidence, relations of entire sincerity, +absolute freedom in her habits and the employment of her time, were +indispensable to her. She, therefore, always lived in a retired manner, +more anxious to avoid unpleasant acquaintances than eager to make +advantageous ones. Such, too, was the foundation of my father's +character, and in this respect never was couple better assorted. They +were never happy out of their little household. And they have bequeathed +me this secret _sauvagerie_, which has always rendered the [fashionable] +world insupportable to me, and home indispensable." + +In referring back to these volumes, we are led into continual loiterings +by the way. The style of our heroine is so magical, that we are +constantly tempted to let her tell her own story, and to give to the +gems of hers which we insert in these pages the slightest possible +setting of our own. But it is not our business to anticipate for any one +a reading from which no student of modern literature, or, indeed, of +modern mind, will excuse himself. We must give only so much as shall +make it sure that others will seek more at the fountain-head; but for +this purpose we must turn less to the book, and trust for our narration +to a sufficiently recent perusal still vividly remembered. + +Aurore could scarcely have passed out of her third year when she +accompanied her mother to Madrid, where her father was already in +attendance upon Murat. She remembers their quarters in the palace, +magnificently furnished, and the half-broken toys of the royal +children, whose destruction she was allowed to complete. To please his +commander-in-chief, her father caused her to assume a miniature uniform, +like those of the Prince's aide-de-camps, whose splendid discomfort she +still recalls. This would seem a sort of prophecy of that assuming +of male attire in later years which was to constitute a capital +circumstance in her life. The return from the Peninsula was weary and +painful to the mother and child, and made more so by the disgust with +which the Spanish roadside bill-of-fare inspired the more civilized +French stomach. They were forced to make a part of the journey in wagons +with the common soldiery and camp-retainers, and Aurore in this manner +took the itch, to her mother's great mortification. Arrived at Nohant, +however, the care of Deschartres, joined to a self-imposed _regime_ of +green lemons, which the little girl devoured, skins, seeds, and all, +soon healed the ignominious eruption. Here the whole family passed some +months of happy repose, too soon interrupted by the tragical death of +Maurice. He had brought back from Spain a formidable horse, which he had +christened the _terrible_ Leopardo, and which, brave cavalier as he was, +he never mounted without a certain indefinable misgiving. He often said, +"I ride him badly, because I am afraid of him, and he knows it." +Dining with some friends in the neighborhood, one day, he was late in +returning. His wife and mother passed the evening together, the first +jealous and displeased at his protracted absence, the second occupied in +calming the irritation and rebuking the suspicions of her companion. The +wife at last yielded, and retired to rest. But the mother's heart, more +anxious, watched and watched. Towards midnight, a slight confusion in +the house augmented her alarm. She started at once, alone and thinly +dressed, to go and meet her son. The night was dark and rainy; the +terrible Leopardo had fulfilled the prophetic forebodings of his rider. +The poor lady, brought up in habits of extreme inactivity, had taken but +two walks in all her life. The first had been to surprise her son at +Passy, when released from the Revolutionary prison. The second was to +meet and escort back his lifeless body, found senseless by the roadside. + +We have done now with Aurore's ancestry, and must occupy our remaining +pages with accounts of herself. Much time is given by her to the record +of her early childhood, and the explanation of its various phases. She +loves children; it is perhaps for this reason that she dwells longest on +this period of her life, describing its minutest incidents with all the +poetry that is in her. One would think that her childhood seemed to +her that actual flower of her life which it is to few in their own +consciousness. Despite the loss of her father, and the vexed relations +between her mother and grandmother which followed his death, her +infancy was joyous and companionable, passed mostly with the country +surroundings and out-door influences which act so magically on the +young. It soon became evident that she was to be confided chiefly to her +grandmother's care; and this, which was at first a fear, soon came to be +a sorrow. Still her mother was often with her, and her time was divided +between the plays of her village-friends and the dreams of romantic +incident which early formed the main feature of her inner life. Already +at a very early age her mother used to say to those who laughed at the +little romancer,--"Let her alone; it is only when she is making her +novels between four chairs that I can work in peace." This habit of +mind grew with her growth. Her very dolls played grandiose parts in her +child-drama. The paper on the wall became animated to her at night, and +in her dreams she witnessed strange adventures between its Satyrs and +Bacchantes. Soon she imagined for herself a sort of angel-companion, +whose name was Corambe. His presence grew to be more real to her than +reality itself, and in her quiet moments she wove out the mythology of +his existence, as Bhavadgheetas and Mahabraatus have been dreamed. In +process of time, she built, or rather entwisted, for him a little shrine +in the woods. All pretty things the child could gather were brought +together there, to give him pleasure. But one day the foot of a little +playmate profaned this sanctuary, and Aurore sought it no more, while +still Corambe was with her everywhere. + +Although she seems to have always suffered from her mother's +inequalities of temper, yet for many years she clung to her, and to the +thought of her, with jealous affection. The great difference of age +which separated her from her grandmother inspired fear, and the grand +manners and careful breeding of the elder lady increased this effect. +When left with her, the child fell into a state of melancholy, with +passionate reactions against the chilling, penetrating influence, +which yet, having reason on its side, was destined to subdue her. "Her +chamber, dark and perfumed, gave me the headache, and fits of spasmodic +yawning. When she said to me, '_Amuse yourself quietly_,' it seemed +to me as if she shut me up in a great box with her." What sympathetic +remembrances must this phrase evoke in all who remember the _gene_ of +similar constraints! George draws from this inferences of the wisdom of +Nature in confiding the duties of maternity to young creatures, whose +pulses have not yet lost the impatient leap of early pleasure and +energy, and to whom repose and reflection have not yet become the primal +necessities of life. This want of the nearness and sympathy of age +she was to experience more, as, by the consent of both parties, +her education was to be conducted under the superintendence of her +grandmother, from whom the mother derived her pension, and whose estate +the child was to inherit. The separation from her mother, gradually +effected, was the great sorrow of her childhood. She revolted from it +sometimes openly, sometimes in secret; and the project of escaping and +joining her mother in Paris, where, with her half-sister Caroline, +they would support themselves by needle-work, was soon formed and +long cherished. For the expenses of this intended journey, the child +carefully gathered and kept her little treasures, a coral comb, a ring +with a tiny brilliant, etc., etc. In contemplating these, she consoled +many a heartache; as who is there of us who has not often effectually +beguiled _ennui_ and privation by dreams of joys that never were to have +any other reality? The mother seems to have entered into this plan only +for the moment; it soon escaped her remembrance altogether, and the +little girl waited and waited to be sent for, till finally the whole +vision faded into a dream. + +Deschartres, the tutor of Maurice, and of Hippolyte, his illegitimate +son, became also the instructor of the little Aurore. With all her +passion for out-door life, she felt always, she tells us, an invincible +necessity of mental cultivation, and perpetually astonished those +who had charge of her by her ardor alike in work and in play. Her +grandmother soon found that the child was never ill, so long as +sufficient freedom of exercise was permitted; so she was soon allowed to +run at will, dividing her time pretty equally between the study and the +fields. Thus she grew in mind and body from seven to twelve, promising +to be tall and handsome, though not in after-years fulfilling this +promise; for of her stature she tells us that it did not exceed that of +her mother, whom she calls a _petite femme_,--and of her appearance +she simply says that in her youth "with eyes, hair, and a robust +organization," she was neither handsome nor ugly. At the age of twelve, +a social necessity compelled her to go through the form of confession +and the first communion. Her grandmother was divided between the +convictions of her own liberalism, and the desire not to place her +cherished charge in direct opposition to the imperious demands of a +Catholic community. The laxity of the period allowed the compromise to +be managed in a merely formal and superficial manner. The grandmother +tried to give the rite a certain significance, at the same time +imploring the child "not to suppose that she was about to _eat her +Creator_." The confessor asked none of those questions which our author +simply qualifies as infamous, and, with a very mild course of catechism +and slight dose of devotion, that Rubicon of maturity was passed. Not +far beyond it waited a terrible trial, perhaps as great a sorrow as the +whole life was to bring. Aurore's diligence in her studies was marred +by the secret intention, long cherished, of escaping to her mother, and +adopting with her her former profession of dress-maker. Having one day +answered reproof with a petulant assertion of her desire to rejoin her +mother at all hazards, the grandmother determined to put an end to such +projects by a severe measure. Aurore was banished from her presence +during a certain number of days. Neither friend nor servant spoke to +her. She describes naturally enough this lonely, uncomforted condition, +in which, more than ever, she meditated upon the wished-for return to +her mother, and the beginning with her of a new life of industry and +privation. Summoned at last to her grandmother's bedside, and kneeling +to ask for reconciliation, she is forced to stay there, and to listen +to the most cruel and literal account of her mother's life, its early +errors, and their inevitable consequences. + +"All that she narrated was true in point of fact, and attested by +circumstances whose detail admitted of no doubt. But this terrible +history might have been unveiled to me without injury to my respect +and love for my mother, and, thus told, it would have been much more +probable and more true. It would have sufficed to tell all the causes of +her misfortunes,--loneliness and poverty from the age of fourteen years, +the corruption of the rich, who are there to lie in wait for hunger and +to blight the flower of innocence, the pitiless rigorism of opinion, +which allows no return and accepts no expiation. They should also have +told me how my mother had redeemed the past, how faithfully she had +loved my father, how, since his death, she had lived humble, sad, and +retired. Finally, my poor grandmother let fall the fatal word. My mother +was a lost woman, and I a blind child rushing towards a precipice." + +The horror of this disclosure did not work the miracle anticipated. +Aurore submitted indeed outwardly, but a spell of hardness and +hopelessness was drawn around her young heart, which neither tears nor +tenderness could break. The blow struck at the very roots of life and +hope in her. Self-respect was wounded in its core. If the mother who +bore her was vile, then she was vile also. All object in life seemed +gone. She tried to live from day to day without interest, without hope. +From her dark thoughts she found refuge only in extravagant gayety, +which brought physical weariness, but no repose of mind. She, who +had been on the whole a docile, manageable child, became so riotous, +unreasonable, and insupportable, that the only alternative of utter +waste of character seemed to be the discipline and seclusion of +the convent. She was accordingly taken to Paris, and received as a +_pensionnaire_ in the Convent des Anglaises, which had been, in the +Revolution, her grandmother's prison. To Aurore it was rather a place of +refuge than a place of detention. The chords of life had been cruelly +jarred in her bosom, and the discords in her character thence resulting +agonized her more than they displeased others. As for the extraordinary +communication which had led to this disorder of mind, we do not +hesitate, under the circumstances, to pronounce it an act of gratuitous +cruelty. Of all pangs that can assail a human heart, none transcends +that of learning the worthlessness of those we love; and to lay this +burden, which has crushed and crazed the strongest natures, upon the +tender heart of a child, was little less than murderous. Nor can +the motive assigned justify an act so cruel; since modern morality +increasingly teaches that the means must justify themselves, as well as +the end. In spite of these odious revelations, the child felt that her +love for her mother was undiminished, and a pitying comprehension of the +natural differences between the two nearest to her on earth slowly arose +in her mind, allowing her to do justice to the intentions of both. + +Aurore wandered at first about the convent with only a vague feeling +of loneliness. The young girls, French and English, who composed its +classes, surveyed her in the beginning with distrust. Soon the youngest +and wildest set, called _Diables_, accorded her affiliation, and in +their company she managed to increase tolerably the anxieties and +troubles of the under-mistresses. + +She was early initiated into the _great secret_, the traditionary legend +of the convent. This pointed at the existence, in some subterranean +dungeon, of a wretched prisoner, or perhaps of several, cut off from +liberty and light; and to _deliver the victim_ became the object of a +hundred wild expeditions, by day and by night, through the uninhabited +rooms and extensive vaults of the ancient edifice. The little ladies +hoarded with care their candle-ends,--they tumbled up and down ruinous +staircases, listened for groans and complaints, tried to undermine walls +and partitions, fortunately with little success. The victim was never +found, but her story was bequeathed from class to class, and her +deliverance was always the object and excuse of the _Diables_. + +After much time wasted in these pursuits, attended by a mediocre +progress in the ordinary course of study and what the French call +_lecons d'agrement_, and we accomplishments, a critical moment came for +Aurore. She was weary of frolic and mischief,--she had tormented the +nuns to her heart's content. She knew not what new comedy to invent. She +thought of putting ink in the holy water,--it had been done already; of +hanging the parrot of the under-mistress,--but they had given her so +many frights, there would be nothing new in that. She saw, one +evening, the door of the little chapel open;--its quiet, its exquisite +cleanliness and simplicity attracted her. She had followed thither to +mock at the awkward motions of a little hunch-backed sister at her +devotions,--but once within she forgot this object. A veiled nun was +kneeling in her stall at prayer,--a single lamp feebly illuminated the +white walls,--a star looked in at her through the dim window. The nun +slowly rose and departed. Aurore was left alone. A calm, such as she had +never known, took possession of her,--a sudden light seemed to envelop +her,--she heard the mystical sentence vouchsafed to Saint Augustin: +"_Toile, lege!_" Turning to see who whispered it, she found herself +alone. + +"I cherished no vain illusion. I did not believe in a miraculous voice. +I understood perfectly the sort of hallucination into which I had +fallen. I was neither elated nor frightened at it. Only, I felt that +Faith was taking possession of me, as I had wished, through the heart. I +was so grateful, in such delight, that a torrent of tears inundated my +face. 'Yes, yes, the veil is torn!' I said, 'I see the light of heaven! +I will go! But, before all, let me render thanks. To whom? how? What is +thy name?' said I to the unknown God who called me to him. 'How shall I +pray to thee? What language worthy of thee and capable of expressing +its love can my soul speak to thee? I know not; but thou readest my +heart,--thou seest that I love thee!'" + +From this moment, Aurore gave herself up to the passion of devotion, +which, in natures like hers, is often the first to unclose. There are +all sorts of religious experiences,--some poor and shallow, some rich +and deep, with every variety of shade between. But wherever Love is +capable of being heroic, Religion will also find room to work its larger +miracles. Aurore's devotion was not likely to be a frigid recognition of +doctrine, nor to consist in the minute care of an infinitesimal soul, +whose salvation could be of small avail to any save its possessor. Her +religion could only be a sympathetic and contagious flame, running from +soul to soul, as beacon-fires catch at night and illuminate a whole +tract of country. From this time she became patient, thorough, and +laborious in all the duties of her age and place. A closer sympathy now +drew her to the nuns, with several of whom she formed happy and intimate +relations. The convent life became for the time her ideal of existence, +and she formed the plan, so common among young girls educated in this +manner, of taking the veil herself, when such a step should become +possible. This hidden purpose she carried with her, when, at the age of +sixteen, she quitted the convent with bitter regret, fearing the strange +world, fearing a conventional marriage, and looking back to the pleasant +restraints of tutelage, whose thorn hedges are always in blossom when we +view them from the dusty ways and traffic of real, responsible life. + +Aurore exchanged her convent for a life of equal retirement; for her +grandmother, fearing lest the pietistic influences to which she had been +subjected should awake too dominant a chord in the passionate nature of +her pupil, brought her to Nohant at once, where, for a few days, she +realized the delight of a greater freedom from rule and surveillance. It +was pleasant for once, she says, to sleep into _la grasse matinee_, to +wear a bright gingham instead of her dress of purple serge, and to comb +her hair without being reminded that it was indecent for a young girl to +uncover her temples. The projects of marriage which had alarmed her were +abandoned for the present, and she was left to enjoy, unmolested, the +pleasure of finding again the friends and playmates of her youth. It +soon appeared, however, that the convent education had left many a +_lacune_, and the grandmother felt that the result of the three years' +claustration in nowise corresponded to its expense. Aurore set +herself to work to fill up, in secret, the many blanks left by her +preceptresses,--wishing, as she says, to conceal, as far as she could, +their want of faith or of thoroughness. She sat at her books half the +night, being gifted, according to her own account, with a marvellous +power of sacrificing sleep to any other necessity. At this time she +learned to ride on horseback, her first exploit being to tame a colt of +four years, the after-companion of many a wild scramble, who grew old +and died in her service. Her grandmother becoming soon after disabled by +a paralytic stroke, the alternation of this new exercise enabled Aurore +to bear the fatigues of the sick-room without serious inconvenience. Of +this period of her life our heroine speaks as follows:-- + +"Had my destiny caused me to pass immediately from my grandmother's +control to that of a husband, or of a convent, it is possible that, +subjected always to influences already accepted, I should never have +been myself. But it was decided by Fate that at the age of seventeen +years I should experience a suspension of external authority, and that I +should belong wholly to myself for nearly a year, to become, for good or +evil, what I was to be for nearly all the rest of my life." + +Passing much of her time at the bedside of the invalid, now incapable of +giving any further direction to the young life so dear to her, Aurore +plunged into many studies which opened to her new worlds of thought +and observation. She read Chateaubriand with delight. The "Genie du +Christianisme" proved to her rather an intellectual than a religious +stimulant, and under its impulse she proceeded, as she says, to +encounter without ceremony the French and other authors most quoted +at that time, to wit: Locke, Bacon, Montesquieu, Leibnitz, Pascal, La +Bruyere, Pope, Milton, Dante, and others not below these in difficulty. +She studied them in a crude and hurried manner; but that wonderful +alembic of youth, with its fiery heat of ardor, enabled her to compose +these far and hastily gathered ingredients into a certain homogeneity of +knowledge. "The brain was young," she says, "the memory always fugitive; +but the sentiment was quick, and the will ever tense." From these +pursuits, interrupted by the cares of nursing, she broke loose only to +mount her favorite Colette, and accompany Deschartres in his hunting +expeditions. She attempted also to acquire some knowledge of Natural +History, Mineralogy, and so on; but science was always less congenial to +her than literature, and of Leibnitz, the "Theodicee" is the only work +of which she speaks with any familiarity. For convenience in riding and +hunting, she adopted, on occasion, the dress of a boy, a blouse, +cap, and trousers, to the great scandal of the neighborhood, already +indisposed towards her by reason of her eccentric reputation; since, as +one can imagine, a small French province is the last place in the world +where a young girl can display the lone-star banner of individuality +with impunity. + +Aurore had promised her aged relative that she would not read Voltaire +before the age of thirty; but her literary wanderings soon brought her +across the path of Rousseau. + +The French make the reading of the "Nouvelle Heloise" one of the epochs +in the life of woman. According to its motto, "The mother will not +allow the daughter to read it," this critical act is by common consent +adjourned till after marriage, when, we suppose, it appears something in +the light of a Bill of Rights, a coming to the knowledge of what women +can do, if they will. But as all Julie's _divagations_ occur before +marriage, and as her subsequent life becomes a model of Puritanic duty +and piety, one does not understand the applicability of her example to +French life, in which this progress is reversed. In this, as in all +works of true genius, people of the most opposite ways of thinking +take what is congenial to themselves,--the ardent and passionate fling +themselves on the swollen stream of Saint Preux's stormy love, the +older and colder justify Julie's repentance, and the slow but certain +rehabilitation of her character. With all its magnificences, and even +with the added zest of a forbidden book, the "Nouvelle Heloise" would be +very slow reading for our youth of today. Its perpetual balloon voyage +of sentiment was suited to other times, or finds sympathy to-day +with other races. With all this, there is a great depth of truth and +eloquence in its pages,--and its moral, which at first sight would seem +to be, that the blossom of vice necessarily contains the germ of virtue, +proves to be this wiser one, that you can tell the tree only by its +fruits, which slowly ripen with length of life. As a novel, it is out of +fashion,--for novels have fashion; as a development of the individuality +of passion, it has perhaps no equal. Be sure that Aurore saw in it its +fullest significance. It was strange reading for the disciple of the +convent, but she had laid her bold hand upon the tree of the knowledge +of good and of evil. She was not to be saved like a woman, through +ignorance, but like a man, through the wisdom which has its heavenly and +its earthly side. "Emile," the "Contrat Social," and the rest of the +series succeeded each other in her studies; but she does not speak of +the "Confessions," a book most cruel to those who love the merits of the +author, and to whom the nauseating vulgarity of his personal character +is a disgust scarcely to be recovered from. Taken at his best, however, +Rousseau was the Saint John of the Revolutionary Gospel, though the +bloody complement of its Apocalypse was left for other hands than his to +trace. To Aurore, stumbling almost unaided through fragmentary studies +of science and philosophy, his glowing, broad, synthetic statement was +indeed a revelation. It made an epoch in her life. She compared him to +Mozart. "In politics," she says, "I became the ardent disciple of this +master, and I followed him long without restriction. As to religion, +he seemed to me the most Christian of all the writers of his time. I +pardoned his abjuration of Catholicism the more easily because its +sacraments and title had been given to him in an irreligious manner, +well calculated to disgust him with them." But with Aurore, too, the day +of Catholicism was over,--its rites were become "heavy and unhealthy" to +her. Her faith in things divine was unshaken; but the confessional was +empty, the mass dull, the ceremonial ridiculous to her. She was glad to +pray alone, and in her own words. Hers was a nature beyond forms. By +a rapid intuition, she saw and appropriated what is intrinsic in all +religions,--faith in God and love to man. However wild and volcanic may +have been her creed in other matters, she has never lost sight of these +two cardinal points, which have been the consolation of her life and its +redemption. The year comprising these studies and this new freedom ended +sadly with the death of her grandmother. + +And now, her real protectress being removed, the discords of life broke +in upon her, and asserted themselves. Scarcely was the beloved form +cold, when Aurore's mother arrived, to wake the echoes of the chateau +with wild abuse of its late mistress. By testamentary disposition, +Madame Dupin had made Aurore her heir, and had named two of her own +relatives as guardians; but the mother now insisted on her own rights, +and, after much acrimonious dispute and comment, carried Aurore from her +beloved solitudes to her own quarters in Paris,--a journey of sorrow, +and the beginning of sorrows. In her childhood Aurore had often longed +for this mother's breast as her natural refuge, and the true home of her +childish affections. But it "was one of those characters of self-will +and passion which deteriorate in later life, and in which no new moral +beauties spring up to replace the impulsive graces of youth. Regarding +Aurore now as the work of another's hands, she made her the victim of +ceaseless and causeless petulance. Her gross abuse of her mother-in-law +gave Aurore many tears to shed in private, while her persecution of poor +Deschartres drove her daughter to the expedient of shielding him--with +a lie. The poor tutor had administered the affairs of Nohant for some +time. He was now called to account for every farthing with the most +malignant accuracy, and a sum of money, lost by ill-management, not +being satisfactorily accounted for, his new tormentor threatened him +with prison and trial. As he muttered to his late pupil that he would +not survive this disgrace, she stepped forward and shielded him after +the fashion of Consuelo. + +"I have received this money," said she. + +"You? Impossible! What have you done with it?" + +"No matter, I have received it." + +Deschartres was saved, and Aurore had only availed herself of the first +of a Frenchwoman's privileges. Nor will we reckon with her too harshly +for this lie, so benevolent in intention, so merciful in effect. A lie +sometimes seems the only refuge of the oppressed; but there is always +something better than a lie, if we could only find it out. Here is her +account of the scene itself:-- + +"To have gone through a series of lies and of false explanations would +not, perhaps, have been possible for me. But from the moment that it was +only necessary to persist in a 'yes' to save Deschartres, I thought that +I ought not to hesitate. My mother insisted:-- + +"'If M. Deschartres has paid you eighteen thousand francs, we can +easily find it out. You would not give your word of honor?' + +"I felt a shudder, and I saw Deschartres ready to speak out. + +"'I would give it!' I cried out + +"'Give it, then,' said my aunt. + +"'No, Mademoiselle,' said my mother's lawyer, 'don't give it.' + +"'She shall give it!' cried my mother, to whom I could scarcely pardon +this infliction of torture. + +"'I give it,' I replied;' and God is with me against you in this +matter.' + +"'She has lied! she lies!' cried my mother. 'A bigot, a +_philosophailleuse.' She is lying and defrauding herself.' + +"'Oh, as to that,' said the lawyer, laughing, 'she has the right to do +it, since she robs only herself.' + +"'I will take her with her Deschartres before the justice of the peace,' +said my mother. 'I will make her take oath by Christ, by the Gospel!' + +"'No, Madame,' said the lawyer, 'you will go no further in this matter; +and as for you, Mademoiselle, I beg your pardon for the annoyance I have +given you. Charged with your interests, I felt obliged to do so.'" + +Eternal shame to those who make use of any authority to force the +secrets of a generous heart, cutting off from it every alternative but +that of a loathed deceit, or still more hateful, and scarcely less +guilty, betrayal! + +Aurore now found herself in the hands of a woman of the people, ennobled +for a time by beauty and a true affection, but sinking, her good +inspiration gone, into the bitterest ill-temper and most vulgar +uncharity. Detesting her superiors in rank and position, she soon +managed to cut off Aurore from all intercourse with her father's family, +and thus to frustrate every prospect of her marriage in the sphere for +which she had been so carefully educated. She was even forbidden to +visit her old friends at the convent, and was eventually placed by her +mother with a family nearly unknown to both, whose pity had been excited +by her friendless condition and unhappy countenance. Aurore's mother +seems to us, _du reste_, the perfect type of a Parisian lorette, the +sort of woman so keenly attractive with the bloom of youth and the +eloquence of passion,--but when these have passed their day, the most +detestable of mistresses, the most undesirable of companions. Men of all +ranks and ages acknowledge their attraction, endure their tyranny, and +curse the misery it inflicts. Marriage and competency had protected this +one from the deteriorations which almost inevitably await those of +her class, but they could not save her from the natural process of an +undisciplined mind, an ungoverned temper, and a caprice verging on +insanity. This self-torment of caprice could be assuaged only by +constant change of circumstance and surroundings; her only resource was +to metamorphose things about her as often and as rapidly as possible. +She changed her lodgings, her furniture, her clothes, retrimmed her +bonnets continually, always finding them worse than before. Finally, she +grew weary of her black hair, and wore a blond periwig, which disgusting +her in turn, she finished by appearing in a different head of hair every +day in the week. + +Aurore's new friends proved congenial to her, and the influence of their +happy family-life dispersed, she says, her last dreams of the beatitudes +of the convent. It was in their company that she first met the man +destined to become her husband. Most of us would like to know the +impression he made upon her at first sight. We will give it in her own +words. + +"We were eating ices at Tortoni's, after the theatre, when my mother +Angele [her new friend] said to her husband,--'See, there is Casimir.' + +"A slender young man, rather elegant, with a gay aspect and military +bearing, came to shake hands with them. He seated himself by Madame +Angele, and asked her in a low voice who I was. + +"'It is my daughter,' she replied. + +"'Then,' whispered he, 'she is my wife. You know that you have promised +me the hand of your eldest daughter. I thought it would have been +Wilfrid; but as this one seems of an age more suitable to mine, I accept +her, if you will give her to me.' + +"Madame Angele laughed at this, but the pleasantry proved a prediction." + +Aurore had given her new protectors the titles of Mother Angele and +Father James, and they in turn called her their daughter. The period of +her residence with them at Plessis appears in her souvenirs as an +ideal interval of happiness and repose, a renewal of the freedom and +_insousiance_ of childhood, with the added knowledge of their value, a +suspension of the terrible demands and interests of life. Would that +this ideal period could be prolonged for women!--but the exigencies +of the race, or perhaps the fears of society, do not permit it. +The two-faced spectre of marriage awaits her, for good or ill. The +_aphelion_ of a woman's liberty is soon reached, the dark organic forces +bind her to tread the narrow orbit of her sex, and if, at the farthest +bound of her individual progress, the attraction could fail, and let her +slip from the eternal circle, chaos would be the result. + +Uninvited, therefore, but unrepulsed, Hymen approached our heroine in +the form of Casimir Dudevant, the illegitimate, but acknowledged son and +heir of Colonel Dudevant, an officer of good standing and reasonable +fortune. The only feeling he seems to have inspired in the bosom of his +future wife was one of mild good-will. His only recommendation was a +decent degree of suitableness in outward circumstances. For the true +wants of her nature he had neither fitness nor sympathy; but she did not +know herself then,--she was not yet George Sand. From the stand-point of +her later development, her marriage would seem to us a low one; but we +must remember that she started only from the plane, and not the highest +plane, of French society, in which a marriage of some sort is the +first necessity of a woman's life, and not the crowning point of her +experience. To compensate the rigor of such a requisition, a French +marriage, though civilly indissoluble, has yet a hundred modifications +which remove it far from the Puritan ideal which we of the Protestant +faith cherish. Hence the French novel, whose strained sentiment and +deeply logical immorality have wakened strange echoes among us of the +stricter rule and graver usage. + +Without passion, then, or tender affection on either side, but with a +tolerable harmony of views for the moment, and after long and causeless +opposition on the part of Aurore's mother, this marriage took place. +Aurore was but eighteen; her bridegroom was of suitable age. With dreams +of a peaceful family existence, and looking forward to maternity as the +great joy and office of the coming years, she brought her husband to +Nohant, whose inheritance had been settled by contract upon the children +of this marriage. + +But these dreams were not to be realized. Aurore was not born to be the +companion of a dull, narrow man, nor the Lady Bountiful of a little +village in the heart of France. Would she not have had it so? She tells +us that she would; and as honesty is one of her strong points, we may +believe her. She knew not the stormy ocean of life, nor the precious +freight she carried, when she committed the vessel of her fortunes to so +careless a hand as that of M. Dudevant. She throws no special blame or +odium upon him, nor does he probably deserve any. + +The recital of the events spoken of above brings us well into the eighth +volume of the "Histoire de ma Vie"; and as there are but ten in all, the +treatment of the things that follow is pursued with much less +detail, and with many a gap, which the malevolent among our author's +contemporaries would assure us that they know well how to fill up. +Between the extreme reserve of the last two volumes and the wild +assertions of so many we would gladly keep the _juste milieu_, if +we could; but we wish only truth, and it is not at the hands of the +scandalmongers of any society--is it?--that we seek that commodity. The +decree of the court which at a later day gave her the guardianship +of her children, and the friendship of many illustrious and of some +irreproachable men, must be accepted in favor of her of whom we +write,--and the known fanaticism of slander, and the love of the +marvellous, which craves, in stories of good or evil, such monstrous +forms for its gratification, cause us, on the other side, to deduct +a large average from the narrations current against her. But we +anticipate. + +Aurore, at first, was neither happy nor unhappy in her marriage. Her +surroundings were friendly and pleasant, and the birth of a son, a third +Maurice, soon brought to her experience the keenest joy of womanhood. +Before this child numbered two years, however, she began to feel a +certain blank in her household existence, an emptiness, a discouragement +as to all things, whose cause she could not understand. In this _ennui_, +she tells us, her husband sympathized, and by common consent they strove +to remedy it by frequent changes of abode. They visited Paris, Plessis, +returned to Nohant, made a journey in the Pyrenees, a visit to Guillery, +the chateau of Colonel Dudevant. Still the dark guest pursued them. +Aurore does not pretend that there was any special cause for her +suffering. It was but the void which her passionate nature found in a +conventional and limited existence, and for which as yet she knew no +remedy. The fervor of Catholic devotion had, as we have seen, long +forsaken her; her studies did not satisfy her; her children--she had by +this time a daughter--were yet in infancy; her husband was not unkind, +but indifferent, and the object of indifference. She occupied herself +with the business of her estate, and with the wants of the neighboring +poor; but she was unsuccessful in administering her expenses, and her +narrow revenue did not allow her to give large satisfaction to her +charitable impulses. After some years of seclusion and effort, she began +to dream of liberty, of wealth,--in a word, of trying her fortunes in +Paris. She felt a power within her for which she had found no adequate +task. She speaks vaguely, too, of a _Being_ platonically loved, and +loving in like manner, absent for most of the year, and seen only for +a few days at long intervals, whose correspondence had added a new +influence to her life. This attenuated relation was, however, broken +before she made her essay of a new life. Her half-brother, Hippolyte, +brought to Nohant a habit of joviality which soon degenerated into +chronic intemperance; and though she does not accuse her husband of +participation in this vice, or, indeed, of any wrong towards her, she +yet makes us understand that an occasional escape from Nohant became to +her almost a matter of necessity. She, therefore, made arrangements, +with her husband's free consent, to pass alternately three months in +Paris and three months at home, for an indefinite period; and leaving +Maurice in good hands, and the little Solange, her daughter, for a +short time only, she came to Paris in the winter with the intention of +writing. + +Her hopes and pretensions were at first very modest. It had been agreed +that her husband should pay her an annual pension of fifteen hundred +francs. She would have been well satisfied to earn a like sum by her +literary efforts. She established herself in a small _mansarde_, a sort +of garret, and managed by great economy to furnish it so that Solange +could be made comfortable. She washed and ironed her fine linen with +her own hands. Not finding literary employment at once, and her slender +salary running very low, she adopted male attire for a while, as she +says, because she was too poor to dress herself suitably in any other. +The fashion of the period was favorable to her design. Men wore long +square-skirted overcoats, down to the heels. With one of these, and +trousers to match, with a gray hat and large woollen cravat, she might +easily pass for a young student. + +"I cannot express the pleasure my boots gave me. I would gladly have +slept with them on. With these little iron-shod heels, I stood firm on +the pavement. I flew from one end of Paris to the other. I could have +made the circuit of the world, thus attired. Besides, my clothes did not +fear spoiling. I ran about in all weathers, I came back at all hours, +I went to the pit of every theatre. No one paid me any attention, or +suspected my disguise. Besides that, I wore it with ease; the entire +want of coquetry in my costume and physiognomy disarmed all suspicion. +I was too ill-dressed, and my manner was too simple, to attract or fix +attention. Women know little how to disguise themselves, even upon the +stage. They are unwilling to sacrifice the slenderness of their waists, +the smallness of their feet, the prettiness of their movements, the +brilliancy of their eyes; and it is by all these, nevertheless, it is +especially by the look, that they might avoid easy detection. There is a +way of gliding in everywhere without causing any one to turn round, and +of speaking in a low, unmodulated tone which does not sound like a +flute in the ears which may hear you. For the rest, in order not to +be remarked _as a man_, you must already have the habit of not making +yourself remarked _as a woman_." + +This travesty, our heroine tells us, was of short duration;--it answered +the convenience of some months of poverty and obscurity. Its traditions +did not pass away so soon;--ten years later, her son, in his beardless +adolescence, was often taken for her, and sometimes amused himself +by indulging the error in those who accosted him. But in the greatly +changed circumstances in which she soon found herself, the disguise +became useless and unavailing. Its economy was no longer needed, and the +face of its wearer was soon too well known to be concealed by hat or +coat-collar. + +We would not be understood as relaxing in any degree the rigor of +repudiation which such an act deserved. Yet it is imaginable, even to an +undepraved mind, that a woman might sometimes like to be on the other +side of the fence, to view the mad bull of publicity in its own pasture, +and feel that it cannot gore her. Poor George! running about in the +little boots, and wearing a great ugly coat and woollen choker,--it was +not through vanity that you did this. Strange sights you must have seen +in Paris!--none, perhaps, stranger than yourself! The would-be nun of +the English convent walking the streets in male attire, and even, as you +tell us, with your hands in your pockets! Yet when little Solange came +to live with you, as we understand, you put on your weeds of weakness +again;--your little daughter made you once more a woman! + +For she was George Sand now. Aurore Dupin was civilly dead, Aurore +Dudevant was uncivilly effaced. She had taken half a name from Jules +Sandeau,--she had wrought the glory of that name herself. Yes, a glory, +say what you will. Elizabeth Browning's hands were not too pure to +soothe that forehead, chiding while they soothed; and these hands, +not illustrious as hers, shall soil themselves with no mud flung at a +sister's crowned head. + +Every one knows the story of the name: how she and Jules Sandeau wrote a +novel together, and sought a _nom de plume_ which should represent their +literary union,--how soon she found that she could do much better alone, +and the weak work of Carl Sand was forgotten in the strong personality +of George Sand. Of Jules Sandeau she speaks only as of the associate of +a literary enterprise;--the world accords him a much nearer relation to +her; but upon this point she cannot, naturally, be either explicit or +implicit. One thing is certain: she was a hard worker, and did with +her might what her hand found to do. She wrote "Indiana," "Lelia," +"Valentine," and had fame and money at will. Neither, however, gave +her unmixed pleasure. The _eclat_ of her reputation soon destroyed her +_incognito_, while the sums of money she was supposed to receive for her +works attracted to her innumerable beggars and adventurers of all +sorts. To ascertain the real wants and character of those who in every +imaginable way claimed her assistance became one of the added labors of +her life. She visited wretched garrets or cellars, and saw miserable +families,--discovering often, too late, that both garret and family had +been hired for the occasion. It was now that she first saw the real +plagues and ulcers of society. Her convent had not shown her these, nor +her life amid the peasantry of Berry. Only great cities produce those +unhealthy and unnatural human growths whose monstrosities are their +stock in trade, whose power of life lies in their depravation. She tells +us that these horrors weighed upon her, and caused her to try various +solutions of the ills that are, and are permitted to be. She was never +tempted to become an atheist, never lost sight of the Divine in life, +yet the necessity of a terrible fatalism seemed to envelop her. With her +numerous friends, she sought escape from the dilemma through various +theories of social development; and they often sat or walked half +through the night, discussing the fortunes of the race, and the +intentions of God. With her most intimate set, this sometimes led to a +jest, and "It is time to settle the social question" became the formula +of announcing dinner. These considerations led the way to her adoption +of socialistic theories in later years, of which she herself informs +us, but hints at the same time at many important reservations in her +acceptance of them. + +In process of time she visited Italy with Alfred de Musset. The fever +seized on her at Genoa, and she saw the wonders of the fair land through +half-shut eyes, alternately shivering and burning. In the languor of +disease, she allowed the tossing of a coin to decide whether she should +visit Rome or Venice. Venice came uppermost ten times, and she chose to +consider it an affair of destiny. Her long stay in this city suggested +the themes of several of her romances, and the "Lettres d'un Voyageur" +might almost be pages from her own journal. Her companion was here +seized with a terrible illness. She nursed him day and night through all +its length, being so greatly fatigued at the time of his recovery that +she saw every object double, through want of sleep. Yet De Musset went +forth from his sick-room with a heart changed towards her. Hatred +had taken the place of love. Some say that this cruel change was the +punishment of as cruel a deception; others call it a mania of the fever, +perpetuating itself thenceforth in a brain sound as to all else. The +world does not know about this, and she herself tells us nothing. In +the "Lettres d'un Voyageur," however, she gives us to understand that +constancy is not her _forte_, and a sigh escapes with this confession, +"_Prie pour moi, o Marguerite Le Conte!_" + +George Sand was now launched,--with brilliant success, in the world of +letters, unheeding the conventional restraints of domestic life. The +choicest spirits of the day gathered round her. She was the luminous +centre of a circle of light. She did not hold a _salon_, the mimic court +of every Frenchwoman of distinction,--nor were the worldly wits of +fashion her vain and supercilious satellites. But De Lamennais climbed +to her _mansarde_, and unfolded therein his theories of saintly and +visionary philosophy. Liszt and Chopin bound her in the enchantment +of their wonderful melodies. De Balzac feasted her in his fantastic +lodgings, and lighted her across the square with a silver-gilt flambeau, +himself attired in a flounced satin dressing-gown, of which he was +extremely proud. Pierre Leroux instructed her in the old and the new +religions, and taught her the history of secret societies. Louis Blanc, +Cavaignac, and Pauline Garcia were bound to her by ties of intimacy. +She knew Lablache, Quinet, Miekiewiez, whom she calls the equal of Lord +Byron. Her intimates in her own province were men of high character and +intelligence, nor were friends wanting among her own sex. Good-will +and sympathy, therefore, not ill-will and antipathy, inspired her best +works. Her views of parties were charitable and conciliatory, and her +revolutionism more reconstructive than destructive. Yet, with all this +array of good company, we cannot accord her a miraculous immunity from +the fatalities of her situation. Of the guilt we are not here called +upon to judge; of the suffering many pages in this record of her +life bear witness. Little as we know, however, of her own power of +self-protection against the tyranny of the selfish and the sensual, we +yet feel as if the really base could never have held her in other than +the briefest thraldom, and as if her nobler nature must have continually +asserted and reasserted itself, with a constant tendency towards that +higher liberty which she had sought in the abandonment of outward +restraints, but which can never be thus attained. Some great moral +safeguards she had in her tireless industry, her love of art, her +honesty and geniality of nature, and, above all, in her passionate love +for her children. Happily, these deep and solid forces of Nature are +calculated to outlast the heyday of the blood, and to redeem its errors. + +In connection with her domestic life, she gives some explanations which +must not be overlooked. She did not at first quit her husband's roof +with an intention of permanent absence, but with the intention of a +periodical return thither. In time, however, her presence there became +unwelcome, and she found those arrangements of which, as she says, she +had no right to complain, but which she could not recognize. Friends +intervened, advising an effectual reintegration of the broken marriage; +but against this, she says, her conscience, no less than her heart, +rebelled. There existed, indeed, no virtual bond between herself and +her late husband. Whatever may have been the beginning of their +estrangement, it seems certain that he acquiesced in her independence +with easy satisfaction. He wrote to her,--"I shall not put up at your +lodgings when I come to Paris, because I wish as little to be in your +way as I wish to have you in mine." At the same time, by visiting +her there, and appearing with her in public, he had given a certain +recognition to her position. There was, therefore, no room for penitence +on the one side, for forgiveness on the other, and, through these, for +a renewable moral relation between the two. The law took cognizance of +these facts, when, some years later, M. Dudevant brought an action +for civil divorce, wishing to recover possession of his children. His +complicity in what had taken place, and the amicable nature of the +separation, were so fully established, that the court, recognizing in +the parties neither husband nor wife, followed the pleadings of Nature, +and bestowed the children where, in the present instance, they were +likely to find the warmest cherishing. Under this decision, she gave +up the estate of Nohant to M. Dudevant, who, becoming weary of its +management, returned it to her, by a later compromise, in exchange for +other property, and the home of her childhood now shelters her declining +years. + +For the history draws near its close; more travels, more novels, more +successes, more sorrows, much fond talk of her friends, many of whom +death has endeared to her, a shadowy sketch of her seven years' intimacy +with Chopin, a sob over the untimely grave of her married daughter, and +the wonderful book is ended. Surely, it tells its own moral; and we, +who have woven into short measure the tissue of its relations, need not +appear either as the apologist of a very exceptional woman, or as the +vindicator of laws inevitable and universal, the mischief of whose +violation no human knowledge can justly fathom. The world knows that the +life before us is no example for women to follow; but it also knows, +we think, that she who led it was on the whole an earnest and sincere +person, of ardent imagination and large heart, loving the good as well +as the beautiful, even if often mistaken in both,--and above all, honest +in her errors and their acknowledgment. Gross injustice has, no doubt, +been done her. The creations of her powerful fancy have been taken for +images of herself, and the popular mind, delighting to elevate all +things beyond the bounds of Nature, has made her a monster. It is clear, +we think, that those who have represented her as plunged headlong in a +career of vice and dissipation, the companion of all that is low and +trivial, have slandered alike her acts and her intentions. Like the +rest of us, she is the child of her antecedents and surroundings. Her +education was as exceptional as her character. Her marriage brought no +moral influence to bear upon her. Her separation opened before her a new +and strange way, never to be trodden by any with impunity. Yet we do not +believe, that, in the most undesirable circumstances of her life, she +ever long lost sight of its ideal object. We do not doubt that her zeal +for human progress, her sympathy for the wrongs of the race, and her +distrust of existing institutions were deep and sincere. We do not doubt +that she was devoted in friendship, disinterested in love, ardent in +philanthropy. She has seen the poverty and insincerity of society; she +has quarrelled with what she calls the shams of sacred things, the +merely conventional marriage, the God of bigotry and hypocrisy, the +government of oppression and fraud; but she ends by recognizing and +demanding the marriage of heart, the God of enlightened faith, the +government of order and progress. Responding to the dominant chord +of the nineteenth century, she strove to exalt individuality above +sociality, and passion above decorum and usage. Nor would she allow any +World's Congress of morals to settle the delicate limits between these +opposing vital forces, between what we owe to ourselves and what we owe +to others. If there be a divine of passion for which it is noble to +suffer and sacrifice, there is also a deeper divine of duty, far +transcending the other both in sacrifice and in reward. To this divine, +too often obscured to all of us, her later life increasingly renders +homage; and to its gentle redemption, our loving, pitying hearts--the +more loving, the more pitying for her story--are glad to leave her. + +Ave, thou long laborious! Ave, thou worker of wonders, thou embalmer of +things most fleeting, most precious, so sealed in thy amber, + + "That Nature yet remembers + What was so fugitive!" + +Thou hast wrought many a picture of wild and guilty passion,--yet +methinks thou didst always paint the mean as mean, the generous as +generous. Nobler stories, too, thou hast told, and thy Consuelo is as +pure as holy charity and lofty art could make her. They complain, that, +in the world of thy creations, women are sublime and men weak; may not +these things, then, be seen and judged for once through woman's eyes? +Much harm hast thou done? Nay, that can only God know. They misquote +thee, who veil a life of low intrigue with high-flown _dicta_ borrowed +from thy works. Thou art not of their sort,--or, if it be indeed _thee_ +they seek to imitate, + + "Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile." + +Thy faults have attracted them, not the virtues that redeem them. Shake +thyself free of such, and with those who have loved much, and to whom +much has been forgiven, go in peace! The shades of the Poets will greet +thee as they greeted Dante and Virgil, when, thyself a shade, thou goest +towards them. The heart that fainted at Francesca's sorrows will not +refuse a throb to thine. For there is a gallery of great women, great +with and without sin, where thou must sit, between Sappho and Cleopatra, +the Magdalen thy neighbor,--nor yet removed wholly out of sight the +Mother of the Great Forgiveness of God. + + * * * * * + + +HAIR-CHAINS. + + +It was really a magnificent ball! The host had determined that his +entertainment should minister to all the senses of his guests, and had +succeeded so well that there was only room to regret there were but five +senses to be gratified. Only five gates in the fortified wall within +which the shy soul intrenches itself, where an attack may be made. And +even when these are all carried by storm, there are sometimes inner +citadels, impregnable to the magic torrent streaming through the +Beautiful Gates, where she may survey intruders with calm disdain. In +vain floods of delicious intoxication beat against her lofty retreat: +she calmly analyzes the sweet poison, (as she thinks it,) separates and +retains the solid fact whose solution had enriched the otherwise barren +stream, and indifferently suffers the rest to flow by. These are the +souls of philosophers and wise men, who never are drowned, never +surprised. But the bountiful host had not cared only for these grand +super-sensual people, but had striven perfectly to satisfy the eyes, the +ears, the noses, the palates of the more numerous throng of weaker folk, +whose inner fortifications were not so well defended. Hundreds of wax +candles illuminated the far-reaching saloons with soft lustre. The walls +were tinted with the most delicate hues, that afforded a pleasant cool +background to the blazing rooms, and relieved the rich colors of the +pictures. In all the pictures adorning the walls, the eye revelled in +the luxurious coloring, careless of the absence of distinctness of form +and grand pure outline. Scenes in the dark heart of tropical forests, +the dense green foliage here and there startlingly relieved by a bright +scarlet flower or the brilliant plumage of a songless bird,--gorgeous +sunsets on American prairies, where the rolling purple ground contrasted +with the crimson and golden glories of eventide,--vivid sketches along +the Mediterranean, the blue sea embracing the twin sky,--vineyards +ripening under the mellow Italian sun,--fields of yellow wheat bending +to the sickles of English reapers,--and sometimes, half hidden by the +folds of a heavy crimson curtain, one was startled to discover the +solemn icebergs and everlasting snows of the Arctic regions. The +wood-work of all the rooms was of dark oak, so that each appeared with +its brilliantly dressed company to be a flashing gem set in a rich +casket. A shadow of music wandered through the air, sometimes blended +with the sound of the falling fountain in the green-house, sometimes +almost absorbed in the fragrance of the flowers. + +For two hours the carriages had been steadily streaming under the +archway, and pouring their fair occupants, gauzy as summer, into the +blazing saloons. The flashing candelabra drew the poor little moths from +the outermost corners into the central vortex of light. Dazzled by the +hot radiance, they strove to retreat again into the cool conservatories +and side-rooms; but at that moment threads of music that had been +carelessly winding through the crowd were caught up by an unseen hand +and knotted,--and behold! already the moths found themselves imprisoned +in a strong net-work of sound, whose intricate meshes entangled the +rooms and the company, and the very light itself. The light, however, +was too subtile for long confinement; it slipped along the melodious +mazes, and melted into the rich odor that exhaled from the roses and +jessamines in the conservatory. The light was a welcome visitor to the +hyacinths and roses, obliged to hide in torturing silence in the still +green-house, pouring out their passionate dumb life in intensity of +fragrance. A life just hovering on the borders of the world, and yet +forbidden to enter! But, bathed in the glowing effulgence of the light, +this invisible fragrance could be born, and enter the visible world as +color. For the fragrance is the unborn soul of the flower; color, that +soul arrested in its restless wanderings,--_embodied_ fragrance. Then +the colors upon the purple hyacinths and white jessamines, and the +flashing gems that rested on white bosoms like glittering drops of ice +upon a snow-wreath, and the sheen of rustling silks, and the gilded +picture-frames, and the florid carpets, and the twinkling feet on the +carpets' roses, and the flushing of roses in the dancers' cheeks, and +the radiant heads of the white-robed girls, ran into one another, +blending into an intensity of color that dimmed itself. And the music +still kept spinning and spinning, and finally wove in the color and +fragrance and light with its subtile self; and the background of the +woof was the hum and murmur of voices, and the continual rustling of +feet. No wonder the poor moths were ensnared in such bewilderment! + +Do you pity the captives? But it is a delicious imprisonment, and its +fullest delights cannot be realized except by prisoners. In the vast +halls of Intellect and Reason one may indeed be master, marching (a +little chilled perhaps) with firm step and head erect. But on these +enchanted grounds there is no medium between a wretched clearness of +insight that reduces every curve to a number of straight lines, all +clouds to precipitated vapor, all rainbows to an oblique coincidence +between a sunbeam and a drop of water, and a total surrender of self to +the influences of the flitting moment. + +Away with these fellows, who would force their miserable microscopes +before the eyes of these happy gauzy moths!--to-night is only the time +for spinning cobwebs. Hold your breath, philosopher, lest you sweep them +away too rudely! Alas for the airy cobwebs! In that cool anteroom is a +philosopher's broom, hard at work, brushing them remorselessly into a +perplexing dilemma,--the frightful increase of the human race. + +"If," said the philosopher, emphatically, "if there were any prospect +of emigrating to the moon, there would be some hope; but in the present +state of affairs we shall soon be eating our own heads off, as the +proverb says. Europe is almost exhausted, the _ultima Thule_ of arable +territory in America has been reached, Asia barely supports her own +immense population; nothing is left but Africa, and she presents a +merely hopeful prospect for the future. In a hundred years, what will +society do for breadstuffs?" + +"Live on rice and potatoes," suggested Anthrops. + +"Rash boy, and check the advance of civilization! Have you not reflected +that the culture of wheat has been an inseparable adjunct to progress +and refinement? The difficulties required to be overcome in preparing +the ground and sowing the grain promote prudence, foresight, and care." + +"It is certainly hard work enough to dig potatoes," quoth Anthrops. + +The philosopher passed over the interruption with a dignified wave of +the hand, and continued:-- + +"The watching and waiting, during its progress to maturity, necessarily +produce that patience which is so essential to all scientific effort; +and the graceful loveliness of the plant in its various stages of growth +materially assists in developing that love for the beautiful which is a +necessary element in all harmonious individual or social character. Now +what aesthetic culture can you evolve from that stubbed, straggling weed +you call the potato?" + +The discomfited pupil meekly suggested that he had been considering the +dietetic, not the aesthetic properties of the despised vegetable. + +"Impossible to separate them, Sir!" cried the philosopher. "If, indeed, +you could fill the stomach without the intervention of any process of +brain or hand, they might be considered apart. But consider the position +of the stomach. Like a Persian monarch, it occupies the centre of the +system; despotic from its remote situation and the absolute power it +exercises, all parts of the external organism are its ministers: the +feet must run for its daily food, the hands must prepare that food with +cunning devices, the brain must direct the operations of feet and hands. +Now, unlearned youth, wilt thou contend that the degree of refinement +evinced by attention or indifference to the niceties of cooking, and so +forth, has no bearing upon the character of the man and the race? Take +as a standard the method of immediately conveying the food to the mouth, +as it has progressed from barbarism. First, fingers; then, pieces of +bark; then, rough wooden spoons, knives, two-pronged steel forks; +and lastly, an epitome of civilization in each one that is used, +five-pronged silver forks, evincing both the increased complexity of the +nature that devises the extra prongs, and the refinement of taste that +insists upon the silver. It is impossible to use wheat in any of its +preparations," ("With five-pronged forks," murmured his attentive pupil +parenthetically,) "without at least a piece of bark, for mixing and +cooking, if not for eating. But in devouring potatoes, we are--I shudder +to think of it--each moment upon the brink of being reduced to the +absolute savageness of fingers. No, Sir! the moon and wheat both failing +us, there is but one method of escaping universal famine,--peremptory +reduction of the population." + +Anthrops started; in that country murder was a capital offence. + +"I do not mean," continued the philosopher, serenely, "by any forcible +diminution of the existing populace: unfortunately, the vulgar +prejudices in favor of life are so strong, owing to the miserable +preponderance of the Egoistic over the Altruistic instincts, that such +an expedient would be unadvisable. I refer to the"-- + +"What splendid hair!" suddenly exclaimed his young companion, starting +forward with great animation to gain a nearer glimpse of its beauties. +The owner had stopped for a moment in passing the secluded couple, +and the rich chestnut head was presented in clear relief against the +confused mass of color and light that streamed through the doorway of +the saloon. The billows of hair rose from purple depths of shadow into +gleaming crests of golden light, and fell away again in long undulations +into the whirlpool of the knot. + +While Anthrops was feasting his rapt eyes on the lovely picture, some +treacherous fastening gave way, and the whole wavy mass overflowed upon +the white shoulders. Then there was bustling and officious assistance, +then there was flitting of maidens and crowding of men. They did not +care that the hair of the Naiads in the waterfall outside of the city +floated all day long over the glittering green waters, or that the +soughing grass in the marsh stream lazily swayed to and fro always in +sleepy ripples, or that the waving tresses of the weeping-willows were +even then sweeping dreamily through the colored air: they cared for none +of these things; but how eager and anxious were they to gain one glimpse +of her,--fairer in her blushing confusion than before in her stately +loveliness! She wound up the long tresses in her hand, and was +retreating to the dressing-room, when the music, which had paused for a +moment, renewed itself in an inspiriting waltz. Anthrops, forgetful of +wheat, potatoes, and universal famine, rushed forward to claim her hand +for the dance. The lady sighed, the waltz was so lovely, the young +man so attractive, but--her hair? She really must arrange that before +anything could be determined in any other direction. And she started +backwards in her embarrassment to reach the stairs, and slipped into a +little anteroom by mistake. There was but one door; so, when Anthrops +followed her in, she could not get out, without at least hearing an +additional reason for dancing. + +"The waltz will be finished," urged Anthrops. "Take this little dagger, +and wind your hair around that; it will be a fitting ornament for you." + +As he spoke, he drew from his pocket a small dagger, a toy, but richly +carved at the hilt, and offered it to the maiden. He had bought it that +day for a little nephew, and had happened to leave it in his pocket. +Doubtless, had the waltz been less enticing, or the youth less handsome, +or the little anteroom less secluded, Haguna would have rejected the odd +assistance. But, as it was, she accepted the jewelled toy, and in a few +minutes had dexterously hidden the tiny blade with the thick coils of +hair, just leaving the curiously carved face on the hilt to emerge from +its shadowy nestling-place. + +With the readjustment of her tresses, Haguna recovered the marvellously +defensive self-possession that had been momentarily disturbed. So +subtile and indefinable was the curious atmosphere that surrounded her, +that, while it could be almost destroyed by the consciousness of a +disordered toilet, yet the keenest eye could not penetrate beneath it, +the most confident demeanor could not impress it, once reestablished. + +Anthrops did not notice the change that had taken place in her aspect. +Was it not enjoyment enough to whirl through the maddening mazes of the +dance, into still deeper entanglements in the mysterious web that now +had immeshed the saloons, borne irresistibly along the rapid torrent of +music, through crowds swept in eddying circles by fresh gusts of sound, +like leaves blown about by the west wind,--at first in low, wide, slow +rounds, then whirling faster and faster, higher and higher, until the +spiral coil suddenly terminated, and the music and motion fell exhausted +together? + +It was quite another thing to return to his friend the philosopher, who +was now in a very bad humor. + +"Such fooling!" he cried, when Anthrops came back much exhilarated. +"That woman is the plague of my life! See," he continued, sarcastically, +"I picked up one of the ugly little pins that she fastens her hair with; +perhaps you might like it for a keepsake." + +Anthrops snatched eagerly at the little black thing his old friend held +contemptuously balanced on his fingers, but dropped it immediately. Such +a miserable thing to hold those glorious tresses! His dagger was better. +The recollection that it was his dagger that now confined them dispelled +the chill which the irate philosopher had thrown over his glowing +excitement; he submissively proposed a return to potatoes, piling up +famine and wheat over the one little thought that diffused such a +delicious warmth through his breast; as charcoal-burners heap dead ashes +over their fire, to hide it from the rough intrusion of chilling winds. + +The nest day Haguna sent back the dagger, with a little note, thanking +the owner in graceful terms. + +"Your graceful politeness last evening, Herr Anthrops, saved me much +perplexity, and procured me a delightful waltz. One should indeed be +well protected by fortune, to find so readily such a courteous little +sword," ("She does not know the difference between a sword and a +dagger," thought Anthrops, and he was pleased at her ignorance,) "to +supply one's awkward deficiencies." (Anthrops slightly winced as he +thought of the little black pins.) "The old man on the hilt is really +charming. I actually was obliged to kiss him at parting, he looked so +kindly and pleasantly at me. Besides, he was my true benefactor; and +my grandmother has often told me, that in her day maidens were very +properly more expressive in their gratitude than now." (Anthrops +fervently longed for a retrogression in the calendar.) "And I really +think my old friend must have been alive then, and have been changed +into wood, on purpose to preserve his looks till I could see him. It +would be a right pleasant destiny, when one begins to grow old and ugly, +to be transformed into wood, and carved as one would wish to appear +perpetually. And happier fate still, like Philemon and Baucis, to change +into living trees, and flourish for hundreds of years in youth and +vigor. There are willow-trees growing on the banks of the river that may +easily have been girls who wept themselves into trees, because their +hair would soon be gray, and they have exchanged it for tresses of +green. Near those willow-trees the princely stranger who has lately +occupied the castle will next week give a boating _fete_, to which I +am invited; I suppose you also, courteous Sir, will be present, a +knight-errant for distressed damsels? + +"HAGUNA." + +Anthrops kissed the little old man on the dagger's hilt again and again, +and made two equally firm, but entirely disconnected resolutions, +simultaneously: namely, never to give his nephew the intended present, +and by all means to be at the boat-_fete_ the following week. + +The day of the _fete_ arrived,--a clear, lovely day in early June. The +host had provided for the accommodation of his guests a number of boats +of different sizes, holding two, three, or a dozen people, according to +the fancy of the voyagers. Anthrops, descending the flight of steps that +led to the river, came unexpectedly upon his old friend the philosopher, +apparently emerging from the side of the hill. + +"I expected you here," said he; "are you going on the river?" + +Anthrops replied in the affirmative. + +"Haguna is here, and I have come to exact a promise that you will not +sail with her. You will repent it, if you do." + +"Better than starvation is a feast and repentance," cried the young man, +gayly. "What harm is there in the girl? Though, to be sure, I had no +particular intention of sailing with her." + +"It would be of no use to warn you explicitly," said his friend; "you +would not believe me. But you must not go." + +"Nay, good father," returned the youth, a little vexed,--"it is +altogether too unreasonable to expect me to obey like a child; give me +one good reason why I should avoid her as if she had the plague, and I +promise to be guided by you." + +"All women have some plague-spot," said the philosopher, sententiously. + +"Well, then, I may as well be infected by her as by any one," cried +Anthrops, lightly, and was rushing down the steps again, when the +philosopher caught him by the arm. + +"Follow me," he said; "you will not believe, but still you may see." + +He led the way down to the river, and, the youth still following, +entered one of the gayly trimmed row-boats and pushed from shore. The +boat seemed possessed by the will of its master, and, needing no other +guide or impetus, floated swiftly into the centre of the channel. +Obeying the same invisible helmsman, it there paused and rocked gently +backwards and forwards as over an unseen anchor. The philosopher drew +from his pocket a small cup and dipped up a little water. He then +handed it to the youth, and bade him look at it through a strong +magnifying-glass, which he also gave him. Anthrops was surprised to find +a white dust in the bottom of the cup. + +"Ah!" said his companion, answering his look of inquiry, "it is +bone-dust; and now you may see where it comes from." + +Anthrops looked through the magnifying-glass, as he was directed, at the +river itself, and found he could clearly see the sand at the bottom. +He was horrified at seeing the yellow surface strewn with human bones, +bleached by long exposure to the running water. + +"Alas!" he exclaimed, sorrowfully, "have so many noble youths perished +in these treacherous waters? That golden sand might be ruddy with the +blood of its numerous victims!" + +"Don't be blaming the innocent waters, simple boy!" half sneered +the philosopher. "Lay the blame where it is due, upon the artful +river-nixes. Since the creation of the world, the stream has flowed +tranquilly between these banks; and during that time do you not suppose +that these fair alluring sprites have had opportunity to entice such +silly boys as you into the cool green water there below?" + +Anthrops gazed long into the still, cruel depths of the river, held +spell-bound by a horrible fascination; at last he raised his head, and, +drawing a long sigh of relief, exclaimed,-- + +"Thank fortune, Haguna is no water-nix!" + +"What!" cried the angry philosopher, "your mind still running upon that +silly witch? Can you learn no wisdom from the fate of other generations +of fools, but must yourself add another to the catalogue? She is more +dangerous than the nixes: the snares which they laid for their victims +were cobwebs, compared to the one she is weaving for you. You admire her +hair, forsooth! The silk of the Indian corn is a fairer color, spiders' +webs are finer, and the back of the earth-mole is softer; yet in your +eyes nothing will compare with it." + +"The silk of the Indian corn is golden, but coarse and rough; the +threads of the spider's web are fine, but dull and gray; the satin hair +of the blind mole is lifeless and stiff. Let me go, old man! I care +nothing for your fancied dangers. I shall row her to-day; that is +pleasure enough." And he attempted to seize the unused oar. + +"Once more, pause! Reflect upon what you are leaving: the pleasures of +tranquil meditation, the keen excitements of science, the entrancing +delights of philosophy. All these you must abandon, if you leave me +now." + +Anthrops hesitated a moment. + +"How so?" he asked. + +"He who is devoted to philosophy must share his soul with no other +mistress. No restlessness, no longing after an unseen face, no feverish +anxiety for the love or approval of an earthly maiden must disturb the +balanced calm of his absorbed mind"-- + +"Herr Anthrops, Herr Anthrops, how you have forgotten your engagement!" + +She was in a boat that had pushed up close to them unawares. Some girls +and young men occupied the bows. Haguna was leaning over the stern and +waving her hand to Anthrops. So suddenly had she appeared, that it was +as if she had risen out of the rippling river, and the ripples still +seemed to undulate on her sunny hair and laughing dimpled face: so fresh +and bright and fair she seemed in that glad June morning. What did it +matter whether he reasoned rightly on any subject? + +"Let me go!" he exclaimed to his companion. "Farewell, philosophy! +farewell, science! I have chosen." + +To his surprise, he discovered that he was suddenly quite alone in the +boat. The philosopher had disappeared,--whether by waxen wings, or an +invisible cap, or any of the other numerous contrivances of many-wiled +philosophers, he did not stop to consider, but hastened to join Haguna +and her companions. + +"You are a welcome addition to our company," said Haguna, graciously +reaching out her white hand; "but you choose strange companions. An old +gray owl flew out of your boat a moment ago, scared to find himself +abroad in such a pleasant sunlight. I confess I don't altogether +admire your taste, not being an orni"-- + +She appealed in pretty perplexity to the student to help her out of the +difficulty into which she had fallen by her rash attempt at large words. + +--"Thologist," added Anthrops, much wondering at these new tricks of +the philosopher,--and then again he so much the more applauded his own +wisdom in exchanging for her society the company of an old owl. + +So all the day long he stayed by her, all the day long he followed her, +rowing or walking or dancing, or sitting by her under the willows on the +banks of the river. The soft breeze routed her shining hair from its +compact masses; it touched his cheek as he knelt beside her to pull +up the tough-rooted columbine that resisted her fingers; her fragrant +breath mingled with the odor of the sweet-scented violets that he +plucked for her; the trailing tresses of the mournful willow, swaying in +the breeze, brushed them both; the murmuring water at their feet heard a +new tale as it flowed past her, and babbled it to him, adding delicious +nonsense of its own, endless variations upon the same sweet theme. How +happy he was that day! It came to an end, of course; but its death +scattered the seeds of other days, that sprang up in gracious profusion, +yielding dear delights of flower and fruit. All over his garden these +bright plants grew, gradually triumphing over and expelling the coarser +and ruder vegetables. + +Nothing but flowers would he cultivate now,--and cared not even that +they should be perennials, if only the present blooming were gay and +gladsome. + +One June day, Anthrops joined a pleasure-seeking equestrian party, who +rode from the town to spend the day in the woods. What a lovely day it +was! The pure, fresh air seemed to contain the very essence of the life +it inspired, life drained of all impurity and sadness and foulness +by the early summer rains, the springing joyous life of the delicate +wood-flowers. The strong trees in the leafy woods trembled with +happiness in their boughs and tender sprays; the carolling birds poured +forth their brimming songs from full hearts. And upon the interlacing +greenery of the shrubbery, and the lichens upon the trees, and the soft +moss covering with jealous tenderness the bare places in the ground, +the slant sunbeams glittered in the early morning dew. As Anthrops rode +along silently by the side of Haguna, an inexpressible joyfulness filled +his heart; the light, round, white clouds nestling in the deep bosom of +the sky, the faint, delicious odor of the woods, the rustling, murmuring +presence that forever dwelt there, all made him unspeakably glad and +light-hearted. As he rode, he began to sing a little song that he had +learned awhile before. + + We rushed from the mountain, + The streamlet and I, + Restless, unquiet, + We scarcely knew why,-- + Till we met a dear maiden, + Whose beauty divine + Stilled with great quiet + This wild heart of mine; + And awed and astonished + To peacefulness sweet, + The fierce mountain-torrent + Lay still at her feet." + +"A right rare power for beauty to possess!" laughed Haguna. "Are you so +restless that you need this soothing, fair Sir?" + +A deep, sweet smile gushed out from his eyes and illumined his face. +He stretched out his arms lovingly into the warm air, as if he thus +infolded some rich joy, and answered, musingly,-- + +"In ordinary action, thought, and feeling,--we are too conscious of +ourselves, we are perplexed with the miserable little 'I,' that, by +claiming deed and thought for its own work, makes it little and mean. +But the wondrous Beautiful comes to us entirely from outside; our very +contemplation of it does not belong to us; we are overpowered +and conquered by the vast idea that broods over us. And so that +contemplation is pure happiness." + +Haguna laughed a little, and a little wondered what he meant; then +observed, lightly,-- + +"You must value yourself very modestly, to consider your greatest +happiness to consist in losing your self-consciousness,--unless, +indeed, like Polycrates, you hope to insure future prosperity by +sacrificing your most valuable possession." + +"If so, I, like Polycrates, am the gainer by my own precaution; for, in +your presence, dear lady, do I first truly find my right consciousness." + +She clapped her hands gleefully, wilfully misunderstanding his meaning. + +"Most complimentary of monarchs! So I am the haggard old fisherman who +replaced the lost bawble in the royal treasury! Pray, Sire, remember the +pension with which I should be rewarded!" And she bowed low, in mock +courtesy to her companion. + +"Nay," rejoined Anthrops, vexed that his earnest compliment should be so +mishandled,--"blame your own perversity for such an interpretation. At +your side I forget that I live for any other purpose than to look at +you, and lavish my whole soul in an intensity of gazing; and then the +presumptuous thought, that you like to have me near you, nay, are +sometimes even pleased to talk to me, gives my poor self a value in my +own eyes, for the kindness you show me." + +"I know all that well enough," said Haguna, quietly. "But in the mean +while, dear Anthrops, you must remember that it is really impolite to +stare so much." + +By this time they had ridden deep into the still woods. Following the +light current of their talking, they wound in and out among the green +trees, under their broad arching boughs,--now following the path, now +beating a new track over the short grass mixed with the crisp gray moss. +The sunlight glanced shyly through the fluttering leaves, weaving with +their delicate shadows a rare tracery on the grass. The pattern was so +intricate and yet so suggestive, they were sure that some strange legend +was written there in mysterious characters,--something holding a fateful +reason for their ride together in the green woods. But just as they had +almost deciphered the secret, the broidered shadow disappeared under a +bush, leaving them in new perplexity. They looked for the story in the +windings of the checkerberry-vine and blue-eyed periwinkle, on the +lichens curiously growing on the boles of aged trees; but for all these +they had no dictionary. So they strayed on and on, in the endless +mazes of the forest, till they became entirely separated from their +companions, and lost all clue for recovering the path. + +Anthrops looked in some perplexity at Haguna, to see if she were alarmed +at this position of affairs. He was rather surprised to find, that, far +from being discouraged, she seemed highly to enjoy the dilemma. She +leaned forward a little on her horse, her one gloved hand, dropping the +reins on his neck, nestled carelessly in his mane, while the forefinger +of the other hand rested on her lip, with a comical expression of mock +anxiety, as she looked inquiringly at Anthrops. + +"I think," finally exclaimed Anthrops, "that we had better push straight +through the woods. We cannot go far without discovering some road that +will lead us back to the city." + +"Nobly resolved, courageous Sir! But first tell me how we shall pass +this first barrier that besets our onward march." + +And she pointed the end of the riding-whip that hung at her wrist to a +mass of brambles which formed an impenetrable wall immediately in their +path. Anthrops rubbed his eyes, for he could scarce believe that this +thicket had been there before; it seemed to have grown up suddenly while +he turned his head. He then tried to retrace his steps, but was thrown +into fresh perplexity by discovering that the trees seemed to have +closed in around them, so that he could find no opening for a horse. + +"It seems evident to me," said Haguna, "that we must dismount, and find +our way on foot. If now we could have deciphered the hieroglyphs of the +shadows, we might have avoided this misfortune." + +As cool water upon the brow of a fevered man, fell the clear tones +of her voice upon Anthrops, bewildered and confused by the sudden +enchantment. She, indeed, called it a misfortune, but so cheerily and +gayly that her voice belied the term; and Anthrops insensibly plucked up +heart, and shook off somewhat of that paralyzing astonishment. + +He assisted her to dismount, and, leaving the horses to their fate, +they together hunted for some opening in the dense thicket. After much +search, Anthrops succeeded in discovering a small gap in the brambles, +through which he and Haguna crept, but only into fresh perplexity. They +gained a path, but with it no prospect of rejoining their companions; +for it wound an intricate course between ramparts of vine-covered +shrubbery, that shut it in on either side and intercepted all extended +view. The way was too narrow to admit of more than one person passing at +a time; and as Haguna happened to have emerged first from the thicket, +she boldly took the lead, following the path until they emerged into a +more open part of the forest, where the undulating ground was entirely +free from underbrush, and the eye roamed at pleasure through the wide +glades. Haguna followed some unseen waymarks with sure step, still +tacitly compelling Anthrops to follow her without inquiry. As she sped +lightly over the turf, she began to hum a little song:-- + + "Nodding flowers, and tender grass, + Bend and let the lady pass! + Lighter than the south-wind straying, + In the spring, o'er leaves decaying, + Seeking for his ardent kisses + One small flower that he misses, + Will I press your snowy bosoms, + Dainty, darling little blossoms!" + +Singing thus, she descended a little hill, and, gliding round its base, +disappeared under a thick grape-vine that swung across it from two lofty +elms on either side. A spider in conscious security had woven his web +across the archway formed by the drooping festoons of the vine; the +untrodden path was overgrown with moss. Haguna lifted up the vine +and passed under, beckoning Anthrops to follow. He heard her still +singing,-- + + "Quick unclasp your tendrils clinging, + Stealthily the trees enringing! + I have learnt your wily secret: + I will use it, I shall keep it! + Cunning spider, cease your spinning! + My web boasts the best beginning. + Yours is wan and pale and ashen: + After no such lifeless fashion + Mine is woven. Golden sunbeams + Prisoned in its meshes, light gleams + From its shadowest recesses. + Tell me, spider, made you ever + Web so strong no knife could sever + Woven of a maiden's tresses?" + +On the other side of the viny curtain, Anthrops discovered the entrance +to a large cavern hollowed out in a rock. The cavern was carpeted with +the softest moss of the most variegated shades, ranging from faintest +green to a rich golden brown. The rocky walls were of considerable +height, and curved gracefully around the ample space,--a woodland +apartment. But the most remarkable feature in the grotto was a +rose-colored cloud, that seemed to have been imprisoned in the farther +end, and, in its futile efforts to escape, shifted perpetually into +strange, fantastic figures. Now, the massive form of the Israelitish +giant appeared lying at the feet of the Philistine damsel; anon, the +kingly shoulders of the swift-footed Achilles towered helplessly above +the heads of the island girls. The noble head of Marcus Antoninus bowed +in disgraceful homage before his wife; the gaunt figure of the stern +Florentine trembled at the footsteps of the light Beatrice; the sister +of Honorius, from the throne of half the world, saluted the sister +of Theodosius, grasping the sceptre of the other half in her slender +fingers. Every instance of weak compliance with the whims, of devoted +subjection to the power, of destructive attention to the caprices of +women by men, since Eve ruined her lord with the fatal apple, was +whimsically represented by the rapid configurations of this strange +vapor. + +Anthrops presently discovered Haguna half reclining on a raised +moss-seat, and dreamily running her white fingers through her hair, +which now fell unchecked to her feet. He had lost sight of her but a +few minutes, yet in that short time a strange change had come over her. +Perhaps it was because her rippling hair, which, slightly stirred by the +faint air of the cavern, rose and fell around her in long undulations, +made her appear as if floating in a golden brown haze. Perhaps it was +the familiarity with which she had taken possession of the grotto, as if +it had been a palace that she had expected, prepared for her reception. +But for some reason she appeared a great way off,--no longer a simple +maiden, involved with him in a woodland adventure, but a subtle +enchantress, who, through all the seeming accidents of the day, had +been pursuing a deep-laid plot, and now was awaiting its triumphant +consummation. She did not at first notice Anthrops as he stood in +curious astonishment in the doorway; but presently, looking up, she +motioned him to another place beside herself. + +"This is a pleasant place to rest in for a while before we rejoin our +companions," she said; "we are fortunate in finding so pretty a spot." + +The natural tone of her frank, girlish voice somewhat dissipated +Anthrops's vague bewilderment, and he accepted the proffered seat at +her side. He for the first time looked attentively at Haguna, as he had +until now been gazing at the shifting diorama behind her. He noticed, to +his surprise, a number of bright shining points, somewhat like stars, +glistening in her hair, and with some hesitation inquired their +nature. Haguna laughed, a low musical laugh, yet with an indescribable +impersonality in it,--as if a spring brook had just then leaped over a +little hill, and were laughing mockingly to itself at its exploit. + +"They are souls," she said. + +"Dear me!" exclaimed Anthrops; "are souls no bigger than that?" + +"How do you know how large they are?" laughed Haguna, beginning to weave +her hair into a curiously intricate braid. "These are but the vital +germs of souls; but I hold them bound as surely by imprisoning these." + +"But surely every soul is not so weak; all cannot be so cruelly +imprisoned." + +Again she laughed, that strange laugh. + +"Strong and weak are merely relative terms. There is nothing you know +of so strong that it may not yield to a stronger, and anything can be +captured that is once well laid hold of. I will sing you a song by which +you may learn some of the ways in which other things beside souls are +caught." + +Still continuing her busy weaving, Haguna began to sing. Except the song +she had hummed in the woods that afternoon, he had never heard her voice +but in speaking, and was astonished at its richness and power; yet it +was a simple chant she sang, that seemed to follow the gliding motion of +her fingers. + + "Running waters swiftly flowing, + On the banks fair lilies growing + Watch the dancing sunbeams quiver, + Watch their faces in the river. + Round their long roots, in and out, + The supple river winds about,-- + Wily, oily, deep designing, + Their foundations undermining. + Fall the lilies in the river, + Smoothly glides the stream forever." + +The subtle song crept into Anthrops's brain, and seemed to spin a web +over it, which, though of lightest gossamer, confined him helplessly in +its meshes. Again she sang:-- + + "From the swamp the mist is creeping; + Fly the startled sunbeams weeping, + Up the mountain feebly flying, + Paling, waning, fainting, dying. + All their cheerful work undoing, + Crawls the cruel mist pursuing. + Shrouded in a purple dimness, + Quenched the sunlight is in shadow; + Over hill and wood and meadow + Broads the mist in sullen grimness." + +She had already woven a great deal of her shining hair into a curious +braid, so broad and intricate as to be almost a golden web. A strange +fascination held Anthrops spell-bound; it was as if her song were +weaving her web, and her fingers chanting her song, and as if both song +and web were made of the wavering cloud that still shifted into endless +dioramas. Once more she sang:-- + + "Drop by drop the charmed ear tingling, + Rills of music intermingling, + Murmuring in their mazy winding, + All the steeped senses blinding, + Their intricate courses wending, + Closer still the streams are blending. + Down the rapid channel rushing, + Floods of melody are gushing; + Flush the tender rills with gladness, + Drown the listener in sweet madness. + Onward sweeps the eddying singing, + Ever new enchantment bringing. + Break the bubbles on the river, + Faints the wearied sound in darkness; + But, as one that always hearkens, + Floats the charmed soul forever." + +As she finished the song, she arose, and threw over the youth the web +of her fatal hair. The charmed song had so incorporated itself with the +odorous air of the cavern, that every breath he drew seemed to be laden +with the subtle music. It oppressed, stifled him; he strove in vain to +escape its influence; and as he felt the soft hair brush his cheek, he +swooned upon the ground. + +The philosopher's study was a very different place from the green +wood,--perched up, as it was, on the summit of a bare, bleak mountain. +The room was fitted up with the frugality demanded by philosophic +indifference to luxury, and the abundance necessitated by a wide range +of study. The walls were hung with a number of pictures, in whose +subjects an observer might detect a remarkable similarity. A satirical +pencil had been engaged in depicting some of the most striking instances +of successful manly resistance to female tyranny, of manly contempt for +feminine weakness, of manly endurance of woman-inflicted injury. The +unfortunate Longinus turned with contemptuous pity from the trembling +Zenobia; the valiant Thomas Aquinas hurled his protesting firebrand +against the too charming interruption of his scholastic pursuits; the +redoubtable Conqueror beat his rebellious sweetheart into matrimony. +The flickering light of a wood fire served not merely to illuminate +the actual portraits, but almost to discover the sarcastic face of the +anonymous artist, smiling in triumph from the background. On the hearth +in front of the fire stood the philosopher in earnest conversation with +a venerable friend. + +"I am provoked beyond measure," exclaimed our friend, in an exceedingly +vexed tone. "So much as I had hoped from the boy,--that he, too, could +not keep from the silly snare! It is shameful, abominable;--she is +always in my way, upsetting all my plans, interfering with everything I +undertake. Would you believe it? at the death of one of her sisters, the +fools were not content with giving her a funeral good enough for a man, +but they must place her _hair_ in the sky for a constellation!" + +"That was indeed an insult to Orion," said his sympathizing friend, +soothingly. + +"My hands are absolutely tied," continued the irate philosopher. "I +bestow upon the boys the most careful education, enlarge their minds +by the study of the history and destiny of man, of the world, of the +stellar system, till I may hope that in the contemplation of the +vast universe they have lost their little prejudices and personal +preferences. I strengthen their judgment, assiduously exercise their +powers of ratiocination, fortify their minds with philosophy, train them +to habits of accuracy, patience, and perseverance by long scientific +research; and at the moment when I ought to find them useful as +philosophers, as seekers after eternal Truth, as lovers of imperishable +Wisdom, they degenerate into seekers after eyes and hair and cheeks, and +I know not what nonsense, lovers of frail, perishable women, who appear +to preserve an astonishing longevity on purpose to plague and thwart +rational people." + +His friend pondered deeply upon the vexatious problem. + +"You say," he remarked, "that this unfortunate attraction exists in +spite of philosophical training,--that it is exerted towards the +antipodes of their previous associations; that, as they have been +trained to yield only to well-grounded syllogisms, it is the illogical +mode of assault that vanquishes them unguarded; that their reasonable +minds have nothing to say to such, perfectly unreasonable fascinations; +that, in short, the enemy succeeds by supplying a vacuum, as the walls +of Visibis gave way under the pressure of the dammed-up river?" + +"Alas, friend, your observations are too true!" + +"Then my way becomes clearer. It surely cannot be unknown to you, sagest +of students, that in physical science we oppose a plenum to a vacuum, +in medicine we supply a deficiency of saline secretions by the common +expedient of salt. Wherefore not apply our knowledge painfully gleaned +from lower science to the study of these more complicated phenomena? The +coward who would flee the fire of the enemy may be kept at his post by +the equal dread of death from his commander. Open a double fire upon +these wayward youths. Make the Barbarians enlist in the Roman legions. +In short, teach Haguna and the others philosophy. There will then no +longer be an opposing force of entirely different nature, but merely an +influence of the same kind as he has been accustomed to, though vastly +inferior in power." + +The philosopher started,--the idea was so new to him. + +"But, my friend," he urged, doubtfully, "do you not remember, +that, after the Romans had painfully learnt ship-building from the +Carthaginians, they vanquished them with their own weapons? Might not +some such danger be apprehended in this case?" + +His companion reddened with indignation, then spoke in a tone of mildly +severe rebuke. + +"Are the girls Romans? Do you suppose that in ship-building the silly +little things would ever advance beyond scows? We shall have the double +advantage of the plenum, by their minds being turned in the same +direction as those of our students,--and of the defeat and shipwreck, +through fighting in unseaworthy vessels." + +"I have another idea also," observed the philosopher. "Even supposing, +as I must confess there seems to me a possibility, that in a +philosophical tournament, or trial of wits, they should occasionally +come off victorious," (his friend shook his head angrily,) "the effect +of separation that we desire would still be obtained. Haguna would no +longer be able to entangle silly boys in her treacherous hair. Your +suggestion is good; I will act upon it." + +After some deliberation, they agreed upon the method of procedure, which +the philosopher immediately began to put into practice. + +Shortly after this conversation, invitations were sent to a select +number of the inhabitants of the city to a new kind of entertainment to +be given by the recluse philosopher of the mountain. The entertainment +was to consist of astronomical and chemical exhibitions; the infinitely +great and infinitesimally little were to be conjoined to form an +evening's amusement. Such was the programme; and the eager curiosity +of the select few who were invited brought them punctually to the +philosopher's eyry. Haguna of course was there,--as unconsciously lovely +as if the disappearance of the unfortunate Anthrops were as much +a mystery to her as to the rest of the wondering citizens. The +philosopher, laying aside the brusqueness acquired in his solitude, +devoted himself with the utmost courtesy to the amusement of his guests, +--opened for them dusty cases of butterflies, shells, and rare stones, +which he had collected in his pursuit of the various sciences that +made them a specialty,--placed ponderous tomes open at some curious +or amusing story of otherwise forgotten ages, to arrest the fancy +of elegant literati,--exhibited rare and grotesque curiosities, the +glittering mica that he had picked up in his long researches, as toys +for these idlers of taste. + +The flashing gems and gay dresses of the brilliant assemblage +illuminated the dusky old study; the rustling of silks, and the merry +laughter, only a trifle subdued by the novelty of the circumstances, the +eager chattering, the tripping sound of girlish feet darting in and +out of every quaint nook and corner, the varied flow of sprightly +conversation, scared the solemn quiet of the library. Looming down +grimly from the shelves that lined the walls, stood ponderous volumes, +monuments over the graves in which their authors were buried. Oh, the +life's blood that had been wrung into those forgotten pages! Oh, the +eager hope and sickening disappointment, the vehement aspirations, +the intense longings, the bitter hatred, the scorn, the greater than +angelic, the human love and benevolence, the fortitude, the courage, the +whole strange life of hundreds of dead men, that burned between those +thick covers! Often books do not reveal their authors until many years +after their death. They are read at first for the mite of fuel that they +bring to some blazing controversy; the man is entirely forgotten in his +work. But when years, centuries, have passed away, and the fire that +threatened to consume the world has died out as quietly as any common +bonfire, then the "spirits of the mighty dead" come back calmly to their +world-work,--now doubtless seeing its little worth as clearly as their +modern critics, but also hallowing their mighty labors with regal +authority, as the living garment of a human soul. The marble tombs in +graveyards hold empty dust; the real men lie buried alive in quiet +libraries. + +The philosopher entertained his guests well. But underneath all the +polite suavity of his manner could be detected a curious satisfaction at +the contrast between the deep sea of still thought usually embosoming +his library, and this sparkling, shallow little stream now flowing into +it. The prominent popular tricks of science he played off for their +amusement, exhibited the standard stars, enlarged upon the most +wonder-striking and easily understood facts in the sublime science, and +bewildered them with a pleasant enthusiasm of acquisition, by a series +of brilliant chemical experiments. The labors of a lifetime were +concentrated on a few dazzling results: the long tedium of the +means, the painful training, the hard mathematical preparation, the +brain-sickness and heart-sickness of these years of solitude were +quietly ignored. + +But it was round Haguna that he plied the most subtle enchantments,--to +her he exhibited the most glittering decoys of Knowledge. She was +completely fascinated. Her cheeks grew pale, her large dark eyes deeper +and darker, with intense interest. She hung upon every word that fell +from the philosopher's lips, pored over the elegant trifles the scholar +had collected for the wondering ignorant, and stood abashed before the +studied unconsciousness of power,--the power of vast learning, that she +felt for the first time. When the guests were departing, she was still +reluctant to go,--she timidly followed the watchful philosopher to the +mighty telescope that had brought down stars for their playthings that +evening. + +"My ignorance and weakness overwhelm me," she exclaimed; "would that I +could spend my life in this awful library!" + +The philosopher repressed his exultation at this confession, and +replied,-- + +"Nothing is easier, Madam, than the gratification of your laudable +desire. I am in the habit of receiving pupils, and should be most happy +to admit you to my class." + +An eager light leaped into her lovely face as she earnestly thanked him +for his condescension, and engaged to begin the lessons on the very next +day. So, when the guests had all gone, and the scared quiet ventured to +brood again over its ancient nestling-place, the wily philosopher +threw himself back into his great chair, and laughed a long while with +solitary enjoyment. + +The next day Haguna wended her lonely way to the bleak hill. It was so +stony and bare and treeless,--jutting out against the gray cold sky +like a giant sentinel stripped naked, yet still with dogged obstinacy +clinging to his post. The hard path pushed up over jagged stones that +cut her tender feet, and they left bleeding waymarks on the difficult +ascent. Woe, woe to poor trembling Haguna! Uncouth birds whizzed in +circles round her head, clanging and clamoring with their shrill voices, +striving to beat her back with their flapping wings. The faint sweet +fragrance of brier-roses clustering at the foot of the mountain wafted +reproachfully upon the chill air an entreaty to return. Once, turning at +a sudden bend in the road, she spied a merry party of girls and children +crowning each other with quickly fading wreaths of clover-blossoms. A +rosy-cheeked child in the centre of the group, enjoying the glory of his +first coronation, accidentally pointed his fat fore-finger at her, as +if in derision of her undertaking. It was strange, that, although she +presently pressed forward eagerly again, she felt glad that none of +those laughing girls would leave the sunny valley to follow her example. +She had flung her whole soul into the scheme, as is the fashion with +girls, and could not recover it again now. It seemed absolutely +necessary that somewhere some woman like herself should be compelled +to scale this ascent, and she--one of those girls in the valley, for +instance, might not be nearly so well able as herself to face this +bleakness. Thus she might preserve those sportive triflers in their +everlasting childhood by the warning of her sad devotion. Faint shadows +of gigantic tasks to be conquered when the hill was surmounted swam +through her mind. And somewhat whimsically associated with these, a +portrait of the learned Hooker occurred vividly to her imagination,--his +face disfigured through his devotion to sedentary pursuits. +Involuntarily she smoothed her soft cheek with her little hand. It was +still round and velvet as an August peach. Nevertheless she threw this +possibility into the burden she was going to assume for humanity, +and felt happier as the burden waxed heavier. The innate hunger for +sacrifice was gratified, with only the definite prospect of suffering +from loss of complexion; a concrete living shape was given to the vague +longing that possessed her; and she cheerfully marched on, strong in the +hope of the love and reverence she was sure her devotion would gain. Ah, +sweet Haguna, Haguna! Sweating enough and toil enough already! Go back, +dear child, from a work thou canst not understand, and imprison sunbeams +for the panting world in flowery valleys! + +By this time she had reached the philosophic hermitage. Her future +master met her at the door, and, saluting her with grave courtesy, led +the way to a small unfurnished apartment, from whose windows nothing +could be seen but the distant sea and sky,--always a solemn monotone of +sea and sky. + +"And so," he said, with mild irony, "even the maidens must dim their +bright eyes with philosophy! Can they leave their dolls so long?" + +The hot blood rushed into Haguna's face, as she exclaimed, with intense +eagerness,-- + +"Is it my fault that I am a girl? I come to you to learn, to satisfy +the insatiable thirst for knowledge which you have awakened,--and you +reproach me with my ignorance! I have just discovered that the one thing +I have secretly needed always was to learn to exercise my mind cramped +with inaction, to share with you labor and toil." + +"Poor child," sighed the philosopher, excited to sudden pity by her +ardor, "you know little of the sweat of brain-toil! Do you know that it +takes years of painful study to arrive at a single valuable result? that +for a distant, doubtful advantage, all your bright, unfettered life must +be sacrificed? Each enjoyment must be stinted and weighed,--each day +valued only as another step to be climbed in the endless ladder,--all +simple, sweet enjoyment of earth and air and sky, the careless, golden +halo of each free day, must be given up. Everything must be squared +according to an inexorable plan; self must be despised, passions +restrained and clarified, till the life becomes thin and attenuated +through careful discipline,--all hopes and fears laid aside till the +soul becomes accustomed to its chilly atmosphere. Then body and mind +must be trained to endure a fearful weariness, to pass the days under +such a stern pressure of toil that all loving, graceful interests shall +be rooted out of the stony soil. You must be prepared to lose precious +truths in a gulf of delusion,--to leave all your old beacon-lights and +wander forth in an eternal dark. The troubles that beset weak souls +may be dissipated, but new strength brings dreadful trials. Tremendous +conflicts, undreamt-of in your innocence, will agitate your adventurous +Intellect, penetrating into vast regions of Doubt, where the mind made +for belief often reels into madness, goaded by harassing anxiety. +Often the lonely night-hours must be spent in sore battle with fearful +spectres revived by the roaming soul from their frequent graves. +All this and more must he dare who aspires to the lofty service of +philosophy." + +"All this and more would I gladly suffer," cried Haguna. "There is a +fire now in my brain; you have kindled it, and it must be fed. And, +moreover, I wish to endure this trial for its own sake; for it is not +fitting that men should suffer more than women. Perhaps, too,--am I +presumptuous in thinking so?--two workers may so lessen the toil of one +that this lonely trial maybe greatly helped by even my assistance." + +And her bosom heaved, and glorious tears welled up into her deep blue +eyes. The repentant philosopher placed his hand on her lovely head, and +lifted a tress of her soft hair. + +"Ah, child, child, you know little about it! What! will you sacrifice +these glorious tresses to a hard and joyless course of study? For none +can study Euclid with me with hair like this." + +"Willingly! willingly!" cried Haguna, impetuously, and pulled a pair of +scissors from her pocket to immediately make the beautiful offering. + +The reluctant philosopher arrested her hand. + +"Rash girl! consider yet a moment. You are exchanging a treasure whose +value you know for--you know not what. You will bitterly repent." + +But Haguna, would not consider. She impatiently tore away her hand, and +in a few minutes had closely shorn her head, and the neglected hair lay +in rich profusion on the floor. As it lay there, the warm golden brown +color faded and faded, and some glittering things entangled in its +abundant masses beamed forth for a moment like tiny stars, and then +disappeared. And had Haguna stepped into a cloud, that so great a change +had come over her? The fine contour of head and forehead, the soft +outline of face, the delicate moulding of the chin were the same +still,--the dark eyes glowed with even new lustre; but the graceful +throat and white arm were hidden in a dark muffling cloak, the delicious +blush had faded from the cheek, whose color was now firm and tranquil, +the well-cut lips had settled into almost too harsh lines, an air of +indescribably voluptuous grace had forever fled. Ah, hapless Haguna! + +The philosopher made no further remonstrance, but led her immediately +to the library, and, seating her at the table, opened a worn copy of +Euclid, and began at "Two straight lines," and so forth. + +A few moments after, Anthrops, released from his imprisonment, opened +the door of the upper room, walked quietly down-stairs, and returned to +the city, much to the joy of his friends and relations, who had long +mourned him as lost. + +About a year after this, Anthrops strolled into the philosopher's study, +to inquire the solution of a certain problem. + +"I will refer you," said his old instructor, "to my accomplished pupil"; +then raising his voice,--"Haguna!" + +Anthrops, startled at hearing her name in such a connection, awaited her +entrance with anxious curiosity. She speedily came in obedience to +the summons, bowed with an air of grave abstraction to Anthrops, and, +seating herself, composedly awaited the commands of her master. Her +former captive asked himself, wondering, if this could be the airy, +laughing, winsome maiden with whom in days past he had ridden into the +green forest. The billows of hair had ebbed away; the short, ungraceful, +and somewhat thin remnant was meant for use in covering the head, not +for luxurious beauty. All falling laces, all fluttering ribbons, all +sparkling jewels were discarded from the severe simplicity of the +scholastic gown; and with them had disappeared the glancing ripple that +before had sunnily flowed around her, like wavy undulations through a +field of corn. Very clear and still were the violet eyes, but their dewy +lustre had long ago dried up. Like a flowering tree whose blossoms have +been prematurely swept off by a cold wind was the maiden, as she sat +there, abstractedly drawing geometrical diagrams with her pencil. + +"Now, Sir," said the philosopher, "if you will state your difficulty, I +have no doubt my pupil can afford you assistance." + +So saying, he withdrew into a corner, that the discussion might have +free scope. + +Haguna now looking inquiringly at Anthrops. He cleared his throat with a +somewhat dictatorial "hem!" and began. + +"These circumstances, Madam, are really so unusual, that you must excuse +me, if I"-- + +"Proceed, Sir, to the point." + +"When, avoiding the barbarous edict of Justinian, which condemned to a +perpetual silence the philosophic loquacity of the Athenian schools, the +second heptacle of wise men undertook a perilous journey to implore the +protection of Persia, they undoubtedly must at some stages of their +travels have passed the night on the road. In this case, the method of +so passing the time becomes an interesting object of research. Did the +last of the Greeks provide themselves with tents,--effeminately impede +their progress with luggage? Did they, skirting the north of the Arabian +desert, repose under the scattered palm-trees,--or rather, wandering +among the mountains of Assyria, find surer and colder shade? The +importance of this inquiry becomes evident upon reflecting that the +characters of the great are revealed by their behavior in the incidental +events of their lives." + +"It is evident to my mind," returned Haguna, thoughtfully, "that the +seven sages, joyfully escaping from the frivolous necessities of +society, would return to the privileges of the children of eternal +Nature, and sleep confidingly under the blue welkin." + +"Rheumatism," suggested Anthrops. + +"Rheumatism!" echoed Haguna, disdainfully. "What is rheumatism? What are +any mere pains of the flesh, to the glorious content of the unshackled +spirit revelling in the freedom of its own nature? Thus the cultivated +Reason returns, with a touching appreciation of the Beautiful and the +Fit, to the simple couch of childish spontaneity. Mankind, after +long confinement in marble palaces, sepulchres of their inner being, +retrograde to the golden age. The wisdom of the world lies down to sleep +under the open sky. Such a beautiful comparison! It must be true." + +"Really, Madam, your conclusions, although attained with great rapidity +of reasoning, are hardly deducible from the premises. Let me remark"-- + +"Reduce Camenes to Celarent, and the argument is plainly irrefragable. +It requires a mind deeply toned to sympathy with the inner significance +of all things to"-- + +"Contemporary testimony is absolutely necessary, if not suspiciously +sullied by credulity or deceit,--in which case, the nearest trustworthy +historian, if not more than a hundred years from the specified time, is +incomparably preferable. But"-- + +Haguna again interrupted, her voice a little raised with excitement. The +dispute waxed warm, on either side authorities were quoted and rejected, +and how it terminated has never been recorded. But the philosopher in +the corner rubbed his hands with satisfaction, exclaiming,-- + +"Thank fortune, we may now have a little peace!" + + + + +THE FLOWER OF LIBERTY. + + + What flower is this that greets the morn, + Its hues from heaven so freshly born? + With burning star and flaming band + It kindles all the sunset land;-- + O, tell us what its name may be! + Is this the Flower of Liberty? + It is the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + In savage Nature's far abode + Its tender seed our fathers sowed; + The storm-winds rocked its swelling bud, + Its opening leaves were streaked with blood, + Till, lo! earth's tyrants shook to see + The full-blown Flower of Liberty! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + Behold its streaming rays unite + One mingling flood of braided light,-- + The red that fires the Southern rose, + With spotless white from Northern snows, + And, spangled o'er its azure, see + The sister Stars of Liberty! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + The blades of heroes fence it round; + Where'er it springs is holy ground; + From tower and dome its glories spread; + It waves where lonely sentries tread; + It makes the land as ocean free, + And plants an empire on the sea! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry Flower of Liberty! + + Thy sacred leaves, fair Freedom's flower, + Shall ever float on dome and tower, + To all their heavenly colors true, + In blackening frost or crimson dew,-- + And GOD love us as we love thee, + Thrice holy Flower of Liberty! + Then hail the banner of the free, + The starry FLOWER OF LIBERTY! + + + + +ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE. + + +The memory of Alexis de Tocqueville belongs scarcely less to America +than to France. His book on "Democracy in America" was the foundation of +his fame. As a successful investigation by a foreigner of the nature and +working of institutions dissimilar from those of his own country, and +in many essential respects different from any which were elsewhere +established, it stands quite alone in political literature. It is still +further remarkable as the work of a very young man. Its merits were at +once acknowledged; and though twenty-six years have passed since it +appeared, it has been superseded by no later work. The book has a double +character, which has given to it an equal authority on both sides of +the Atlantic. For while it is a profound and sagacious analysis of the +spirit and methods of the American social and political system, it +is intended at the same time--more, however, by implied than open +comparison--to exhibit the relations of the principles established +here to the development of modern society and government in France and +elsewhere in Europe. It is a manual alike for the political theorist +and the practical statesman; and whatever changes our institutions may +undergo, its value will remain undiminished. + +The volumes of Tocqueville's Inedited Works and Correspondence, with a +Memoir by his friend M. Gustave de Beaumont, which have lately appeared +in Paris, have, therefore, a special claim to the attention of American +readers. Their intrinsic interest is great as illustrating the life and +character not only of one of the most original and independent thinkers +of this generation, but also of a man not less distinguished by the +elevation and integrity of his character than by the power of his +intellect. The race of such men has seemed of late years to be dying out +in France. In the long list of her public characters during the past +thirty years, there are few names which can share the honor with +Tocqueville's of being those neither of apostates nor of schemers. Men +who hold to their principles in the midst of revolutions, who for the +sake of honor resist the temptations of power, who have faith in liberty +and in progress even when their hopes are overthrown, are rare at all +times and in all lands. "France no longer produces such men," said the +Duke de Broglie, when he heard of Tocqueville's death. + +No book has been published of more importance than this in its +exhibition of the condition of thought and of society in France during +recent years. None has given more convincing evidence of the suppression +of intellectual liberty under the new Imperial rule. The reserves and +the omissions to which M. de Beaumont has been forced in the performance +of his work as editor display the oppressive nature of the censorship to +which the writings of the most honest and superior men are liable, +and the burdensome restraints by which such men are controlled and +disheartened. M. de Beaumont's notice of the life of Tocqueville, and +Tocqueville's own later correspondence, appear to a thoughtful reader as +accusations against Imperial despotism, as protests against the wrongs +from which freedom is now suffering in France. There is in them a +pervading tone of sadness, and, here and there, an expression of +bitterness of feeling, all the more effective for being conveyed in +restrained and unimpassioned words. There is no place for such men as +these in a system like that by which Louis Napoleon governs France. +The men of strong character, of incorruptible integrity, of thoughtful +moderation, and of fixed principles are more dangerous to the permanence +of despotic rule than the Victor Hugos, the Ledru Rollins, or the +Orsinis. It is the men with whom the love of liberty is founded upon +intellectual and moral convictions, not those with whom it is a hot and +reckless passion, that are the most to be feared by a ruler whose power +is based on the ignorance, the fears, the selfish ambitions, and the +material interests of the people whom he flatters and corrupts. + +Tocqueville was born a thinker. His physical organization was delicate, +but he had an energy of spirit which led him often to overtask his +bodily forces in long-continued mental exertions. Without brilliancy +of imagination and with little liveliness of fancy, he possessed the +faculty of acute and discriminating observation, and early acquired the +rare power of deep and continuous reflection. His mind was large and +calm. The candor of his intellect was never stained by passion. He had +not the faculties of an original discoverer in the domain of abstract +truth, but, as an investigator of the causes of political and social +conditions, of the relation between particular facts and general +theories, of the influence of systems and institutions upon the life of +communities, he has rarely been surpassed. His book on "Democracy in +America," and still more his later work on "The Old Regime and the +Revolution," display in a remarkable degree the union of philosophic +insight and practical good sense, of clearness of thought and +condensation of statement. + +But, however great the value of his writings may be, a still greater +value attaches to the character of the man himself, as it is displayed +in these volumes. M. de Beaumont's brief and affectionate memoir of his +friend, and Tocqueville's own letters, are not so much narratives of +events as evidences of character. His life was, indeed, not marked with +extraordinary incidents. It was the life of a man whose career was +limited both by his own temperament and by the public circumstances of +his times; of one who set more value upon ideas than upon events; who +sought intellectual satisfactions and distinctions rather than personal +advancement; who affected his contemporaries by his thought and his +integrity of principle more than by power of commanding position or +energy of resolute will. Although for many years in public life, he made +little mark on public affairs. But his influence, though indirect, +was perhaps not the less strong or permanent. The course of political +affairs is in the long run greatly modified, if not completely guided, +by the thinkers of a nation. Tocqueville's convictions kept him for the +most part in opposition to the successive governments of France during +the period of his public life. But his reputation and the weight of his +authority are continually increasing, and of the Frenchmen of the last +generation few have done so much as he to extend by his writings the +knowledge, and to strengthen by his example the love of those principles +by which liberty is maintained and secured, and upon which the real +advancement of society depends. The leading facts of his life may be +briefly told. + +Born in 1805, at Paris, of an old and honorable family, his early years +were passed at home. As a youth, he was for some time at the college of +Metz; but his education was irregular, and he was not distinguished for +scholarship. In 1826 and 1827 he travelled with one of his brothers in +Italy and Sicily, and on his return to France was attached to the Court +of Justice at Versailles, where his father, the Count de Tocqueville, +was then Prefect, in the quality of _Juge-Auditeur_, an office to which +there is none correspondent in our courts. It was at this time that his +friendship with M. Gustave de Beaumont began. + +For more than two years he performed the duties of this place with +marked fidelity and ability. But at the same time he pursued studies +less narrow and technical than the law, investigating with ardor the +general questions of politics, and laying the foundation of those +principles and opinions which he afterward developed in his writings and +his public life. He witnessed the Revolution of 1830 with regret, not +because he was personally attached to the elder branch of the Bourbons, +but because he dreaded the effect of a sudden and violent change of +dynasty upon the stability of those constitutional institutions which +were of too recent establishment to be firmly rooted in France, but to +which he looked as the safeguard of liberty. He gave his adhesion to the +new government without hesitation, but without enthusiasm; and having +little hope of advancement in his career as magistrate, he applied to +the Ministry of the Interior early in 1831 for an official mission to +America to examine the system of our prisons, which at that time was +exciting attention in France. But the real motive which led him +to desire to visit America was his wish to study the democratic +institutions of the United States with reference to their bearing upon +the political and social questions which underlay the violent changes +and revolutions of government in France, and of which a correct +appreciation was of continually increasing importance. It was plain that +the dominating principle in the modern development of society was that +of democratic equality; and this being the case, the question of prime +importance presenting itself for solution was, How is liberty to be +reconciled with equality and saved from the inevitable dangers to which +it is exposed? or in other words, Can equality, which, by dividing +men and reducing the mass to a common level, smooths the way for the +establishment of a despotism, either of an individual or of the mob, be +made to promote and secure liberty? For the study of this question, +and of others naturally connected with it, the United States afforded +opportunities nowhere else to be found. + +Accompanied by M. de Beaumont, Tocqueville passed a year in this +country, and the chief results of his visit appeared in the first two +volumes of his "Democracy in America," which were published in January, +1835. The success of the book was instant and extraordinary. His +publisher, who had undertaken it with reluctance, had ventured on a +first edition of but five hundred copies; and in one of his letters, +shortly after its publication, Tocqueville tells pleasantly of the +bookseller's ingenuous surprise at the interest which the work had +excited. "I went yesterday morning to Gosselin's [the publisher]; he +received me with the most beaming face in the world, saying to me, +'Well, now, so it seems you have made a _chef-d'oeuvre_.' Does not +that expression paint the complete man of business? I sat down, and we +talked of our second edition." + +From this time Tocqueville was famous. In the autumn of the same year, +1835, he married an English lady, Miss Mottley, who had long resided in +France, and the happiness of his private life was secured at the very +moment when he was entering upon the cares and anxieties of a public +career. In 1836 the French Academy decreed for his book an extraordinary +prize; in 1838 he was elected a member of the Institute; and in 1841, +a year after the publication of the last volumes of his work, he was +chosen member of the Academy. From 1839 to 1848, Tocqueville, elected +and reelected from Valognes, sat without interruption in the Chamber of +Deputies, where he constantly voted with the constitutional opposition. +His nature was too sensitive and his health too delicate to enable him +to hold a foremost place as orator in the debates of this period. His +habits of mind were, moreover, those of a writer rather than of a public +speaker. But the firmness and moderation of his principles and the +clearness and justice of his opinions secured for him a general respect, +and gave weight and influence to his counsels. "In 1839, having been +named reporter on the proposition relative to the abolition of slavery +in the colonies, he succeeded," says his biographer, "not only in +tracing with an able and sure hand the great principles of justice and +of humanity which should lead on the triumph of this holy cause, but +also, by words full of respect for existing interests and acquired +rights, in preparing the government and the public mind for a +concession, and the colonists for a compromise." He was frequently +intrusted with the duty of reporting on other projects of the first +importance; but special labors of this sort did not prevent him from +taking broad and large views of the political and moral tendencies of +the time, and of forecasting with clear insight the results of the +measures of the government and of the influences at work upon the +people. On the 27th of January, 1848, he announced the Revolution, which +he saw to be at hand. A passage from his speech on this occasion is +given by M. de Beaumont. It is striking, when read by the light of +subsequent events, for the truth of its inferences, the force of its +statements, and its prophetic warnings. After speaking of the opinions +and ideas prevalent among the working classes, he said, "When such +opinions take root, when they spread themselves so widely, when they +strike down deeply into the masses, they must bring about, sooner or +later, I do not know when, I do not know how, but they must bring about, +sooner or later, the most formidable revolutions.... I believe that at +this moment we are asleep upon a volcano. (_Dissent_.) I am profoundly +convinced of it." + +Tocqueville, thus anticipating the Revolution, was more afflicted and +disappointed than surprised, when it overthrew the monarchy in February. +He had comprehended beforehand that its character was to be rather +social than simply political. He had determined to accept it as a +necessary evil. He measured from the first the risk to which the +principles to the maintenance of which he was devoted were exposed, the +peril which, threatened liberty itself. Believing that the Republic now +afforded the only and perhaps the last chance of liberty in France, and +that its downfall would result in throwing power into the hands of an +individual ruler, he determined to give all his support to the new +government, and to endeavor to work out the good of his country by means +which gave little encouragement or hope of success. He took part in the +Constituent Assembly, was one of the committee to form the Constitution, +and in the autumn of 1848 represented France as plenipotentiary at the +Conference held at Brussels, which had for its object the mediation of +France and England between Austria and Sardinia. The next year, having +just been elected a member of the Legislative Assembly, he was invited +by the President of the Republic to take the portfolio of Foreign +Affairs in the ministry of M. Barrot. He did not hold office long. +The ministry was too honest and too firm to suit the designs of the +President, and on the 31st of October Louis Napoleon announced, in a +message which took the Assembly by surprise, that it had been dismissed, +and a new set of ministers appointed. The President endeavored to retain +Tocqueville, and to win him over to his party; but Tocqueville already +presaged the fall of the Republic, and witnessed with anxiety and +discouragement the approach of the Empire. He remained a member of the +Assembly to the last. He was one of the deputies arrested on the 2d of +December, 1851, and was confined for a time at Vincennes. "Here ended +his political life. It ended with liberty in France." + +The remaining years of Tocqueville's life were spent in a retirement +which might have been happy, had he not felt too deeply for happiness +the despotism which weighed upon France. He engaged in the studies that +resulted in his masterly work on "The Old Regime and the Revolution"; +but these studies, instead of diverting him from the contemplation +of what France had lost, gave poignancy to the sorrow excited by her +present condition. All his hopes for the prevalence of the principles +which he had sought during life to confirm and establish, all his +personal ambitions as a public man, were completely broken down. But, +though thus defeated in hope and in desire, he was not overcome in +spirit. And the record of the closing years of his life shows, more than +that of any other portion of it, the firmness, the strength, and the +sweetness of his character. + +His health, which had never been vigorous, became from year to year more +and more uncertain, and the labor which he gave to the historical work +to which he now devoted himself was frequently followed by exhaustion. +He passed some time in England, where be had many warm friends, in +examining the collections in the British Museum concerning the French +Revolution; and in 1855 he made a visit of considerable length to +Germany for the purpose of studying the social institutions of the +country, so far as they might illustrate the condition of France under +the old regime. At the beginning of 1856 the first part of his great +work was published. The impression produced by it was extraordinary. It +was, as it were, a key that opened to men the secrets of a history with +the events of which they were so familiar that it had seemed to them +nothing more was to be learned concerning it. The book is one which, +though unfinished, is, so far as it advances, complete. It will retain +its place as an historical essay of the highest value; for it is a study +of the past, undertaken not merely with the intention of elucidating the +facts of a particular period of history, but also with the design of +investigating and establishing the general principles in politics and +government of which facts and events are but the external indications. +Tocqueville was too honest to write according to any predetermined +theory; but he also penetrated too deeply into the causes of things not +to arrive, at length, at definite conclusions as to the meaning and +teachings of history. + +Tocqueville had now reached the summit of fame as an author. He enjoyed +the harvest of success, and his ambition was urged by it to new +exertion. But in the summer of 1858 he had an alarming attack of +bleeding at the lungs, accompanied with a general prostration of +strength. In the autumn, his physicians ordered him to the South, and +early in November he arrived at Cannes, where he was to spend the +winter. But neither change of climate nor tender nursing was sufficient +to prevent his disease from progressing. He suffered much, but he still +hoped. He became worse as the spring came on, and on the 16th of April, +1859, he died. He was fifty-four years old, but he had lived a long +life, if life be measured by thought and moral progress. + +In his domestic life Tocqueville had been most happy, and it was in his +own home that his character appeared in its most delightful aspect. In +society he was a converser of extraordinary brilliancy. Few men were his +rivals in this art, so well practised in Paris. His flow of ideas was +not more remarkable than the choiceness and vigor of his expression. But +he was not a tyrant in talk, and he was as ready to listen as to seek +for listeners. His social powers were at the service of his friends. He +was not of a gay temper, but he had a peculiar thoughtfulness for others +which gave a charm to his manners far superior to that of careless +vivacity. M. de Beaumont speaks of him in his relations to his friends +in words full of feeling:-- + +"I have said that he had many friends; but he experienced a still +greater happiness, that of never losing one of them. He had also another +happiness: it was the knowing how to love them all so well, that none +ever complained of the share he received, even while seeing that of the +others. He was as ingenious as he was sincere in his attachments; and +never, perhaps, did example prove better than his how many charms +good-wit adds to good-will (_combien l'esprit ajoute de charmes a la +bonte_). + +"Good as he was," continues M. de Beaumont, "he aspired without ceasing +to become better; and it is certain that each day he drew nearer to that +moral perfection which seemed to him the only end worthy of man.... +Each day he brought into all his sentiments and all his actions +something of deeper piety, and stronger gratitude to God.... He was +more patient, more laborious, more watchful to lose nothing of that life +which he loved so well, and which he had the right to find beautiful, +he who made of it so noble a use! Finally, it may be said to his honor, +that at an epoch in which each man tends to concentrate his regard upon +himself, he had no other aim than that of seeking for truths useful to +his fellows, no other passion than that of increasing their well-being +and their dignity."--Vol. I. p. 124. + +The correspondence of a man about whom such--words may be said without +exaggeration has more than a merely literary interest. This book is +one of which the literary critic is not the final judge. Tocqueville's +letters, like every genuine series of letters written without thought +of publication, have the charm and more than the simplicity of +autobiography. Their merit lies not so much in grace of style, +picturesqueness of description, or familiar freedom of composition, +as in their exhibition of power of thought combined with delicacy +and refinement of feeling, and in the frequent expression of ardent +patriotism and strong personal sympathies with public or with private +interests. They are the letters of a man who took a grave view of life, +regarding it "as an affair with which we are charged, which must be +carried through and ended with honor to ourselves." They are the letters +also of a man of strong and faithful affections; and the long series of +them addressed during twenty-five years to the Count Louis de Kergorlay +has, in addition to its interest from its variety of topics, a special +moral value as the record of a close and confidential friendship +maintained in spite of the widest divergence of political opinion during +a period of unusual political excitement. Few men have the temper or the +sentiment requisite for the support of intimate relations under +such conditions. But his friendships occupied a very large place in +Tocqueville's life. In them he found happiness and repose. To one of his +friends he writes in 1844, "The remembrance of you is the more precious +to me because it calms in me all those troubles of the soul that +politics engender." And thus in the most trying passages of his life, +and especially in the discouragement of his later years, the thought +of his friends seems to have been constantly with him, and his +correspondence with them became almost a necessity for his spirit. +His letters, or rather that portion of them which M. de Beaumont has +published, and which must some day be succeeded by a fuller collection, +have thus a double character: they contain the judgments of a wide and +profound thinker on the subjects which interested him, while they show +him in the most amiable and attractive light as a generous and constant +friend. They are not to be compared in wit or elaborate finish with the +brilliant letters of Courier; they have not the striking originality and +terse vigor of those of De Maistre, but they have the grace of simple +and pure feeling, and the worth of clear, manly, high-toned thought. No +one capable of appreciating them can read them without learning to +feel toward their author not merely respect, but also a strong personal +regard. The two following extracts have a special appropriateness to +the present condition of our own country, while at the same time they +display the qualities most characteristic of Tocqueville's intellect. +They are both from letters addressed to one of the most distinguished +correspondents of his later years, Madame de Swetchine. + +"There are, it seems to me, two distinct divisions in morals, one as +important as the other in the eyes of God, but in which in our days his +ministers instruct us with very unequal ardor. One belongs to private +life: it embraces the relative duties of mankind as fathers, as sons, as +wives, as husbands. The other regards public life: the duties of every +citizen toward his country, and toward that human society of which he +forms a special part. Am I deceived in believing that the clergy of our +time are very much occupied with the first portion of morals, and very +little with the second? This appears to me especially observable in the +manner in which women think and feel. I see a great number of them who +have a thousand private virtues in which the direct and beneficent +action of religion manifests itself,--who, thanks to it, are most +faithful wives and excellent mothers, who show themselves just and +indulgent toward their domestics, charitable to the poor. But as to that +portion of duties which is connected with public life, they do not +seem to have even the idea of it. Not only they do not practise them +themselves, which is natural enough, but they do not seem even to have +the thought of inculcating them on those over whom they have influence. +It is a side of education that is, as it were, invisible to them. It +was not so under that old regime which, in the midst of many vices, +developed proud and manly virtues. I have often heard it told, that +my grandmother, who was a very religious (_tres sainte_) woman, after +impressing upon her young son the exercise of all the duties of private +life, failed not to add,--'And then, my child, never forget that a man +owes himself above all to his country; that there is no sacrifice that +he ought not to make for her; that he cannot remain indifferent to her +fate; that God requires of him that he be always ready to consecrate, +if need be, his time, his fortune, even his life, to the service of the +State and of the king."--Vol. II. p. 341. + +"I do not ask of the priests to require of the men whose education is +committed to them, or over whom they exercise influence, I do not ask of +them to require of these men, as a duty of conscience, to support the +republic or the monarchy; but I avow that I desire that they should +oftener tell them, that, as they are Christians, so they belong to one +of those great human associations which God has established, without +doubt in order to render more visible and more sensible the bonds which +ought to unite individuals to each other,--associations which are named +the people, and whose territory is called the country. I desire that +they should cause the fact to penetrate more deeply into the souls of +men, that each man owes himself to this collective existence before +belonging to himself; that in regard to this existence no man is allowed +to be indifferent, still less to make of indifference a sort of feeble +virtue which enervates many of the most noble instincts that have been +given to us; that all are responsible for what happens to it, and that +all, according to their light, are bound to labor constantly for its +prosperity, to take care that it be submitted only to beneficent, +respectable, and lawful authorities.... This is what I wish should be +inculcated on men, and especially on women. Nothing has more struck me, +in an experience now of considerable length in public affairs, than the +influence that women always exercise in this matter,--influence so much +the greater as it is indirect. I do not doubt that it is they above all +who give to every nation a certain moral temperament, which shows itself +afterwards in politics."--Vol. II. p. 348. Tocqueville's services to +France, to liberty, did not end with his life. The example, no less than +the writings of such a man, bears fruit in later times. It belongs to no +one land. Wherever men are striving in thought or in action to support +the cause of freedom and of law, to strengthen institutions founded +on principles of equal justice, to secure established liberties by +defending the government in which they are embodied, his teachings will +be prized, and his memory be honored. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE MONK'S STRUGGLE. + + +The golden sunshine of the spring morning was deadened to a sombre tone +in the shadowy courts of the Capuchin convent. The reddish brown of the +walls was flecked with gold and orange spots of lichen; and here +and there, in crevices, tufts of grass, or even a little bunch of +gold-blooming flowers, looked hardily forth into the shadowy air. A +covered walk, with stone arches, inclosed a square filled with dusky +shrubbery. There were tall funereal cypresses, whose immense height and +scraggy profusion of decaying branches showed their extreme old age. +There were gaunt, gnarled olives, with trunks twisted in immense +serpent folds, and boughs wreathed and knotted into wild, unnatural +contractions, as if their growth had been a series of spasmodic +convulsions, instead of a calm and gentle development of Nature. There +were overgrown clumps of aloes, with the bare skeletons of former +flower-stalks standing erect among their dusky horns or lying rotting on +the ground beside them. The place had evidently been intended for the +culture of shrubbery and flowers, but the growth of the trees had long +since so intercepted the sunlight and fresh air that not even grass +could find root beneath their branches. The ground was covered with a +damp green mould, strewn here and there with dead boughs, or patched +with tufts of fern and lycopodium, throwing out their green hairy roots +into the moist soil. A few half-dead roses and jasmines, remnants of +former days of flowers, still maintained a struggling existence, but +looked wan and discouraged in the effort, and seemed to stretch and pine +vaguely for a freer air. In fact, the whole garden might be looked upon +as a sort of symbol of the life by which it was surrounded,--a life +stagnant, unnatural, and unhealthy, cut off from all those thousand +stimulants to wholesome development which are afforded by the open plain +of human existence, where strong natures grow distorted in unnatural +efforts, though weaker ones find in its lowly shadows a congenial +refuge. + +We have given the brighter side of conventual life in the days we are +describing: we have shown it as often a needed shelter of woman's +helplessness during ages of political uncertainty and revolution; we +have shown it as the congenial retreat where the artist, the poet, the +student, and the man devoted to ideas found leisure undisturbed to +develop themselves under the consecrating protection of religion. The +picture would be unjust to truth, did we not recognize, what, from our +knowledge of human nature, we must expect, a conventual life of far less +elevated and refined order. We should expect that institutions which +guarantied to each individual a livelihood, without the necessity of +physical labor or the responsibility of supporting a family, might in +time come to be incumbered with many votaries in whom indolence and +improvidence were the only impelling motives. In all ages of the world +the unspiritual are the majority,--the spiritual the exceptions. It was +to the multitude that Jesus said, "Ye seek me, not because ye saw the +miracles, but because ye did eat and were filled,"--and the multitude +has been much of the same mind from that day to this. + +The convent of which we speak had been for some years under the lenient +rule of the jolly Brother Girolamo,--an easy, wide-spread, loosely +organized body, whose views of the purpose of human existence were +decidedly Anacreontic. Fasts he abominated; night-prayers he found +unfavorable to his constitution; but he was a judge of olives and good +wine, and often threw out valuable hints in his pastoral visits on the +cooking of maccaroni, for which he had himself elaborated a savory +recipe; and the cellar and larder of the convent, during his pastorate, +presented so many urgent solicitations to conventual repose, as to +threaten an inconvenient increase in the number of brothers. The monks +in his time lounged in all the sunny places of the convent like so many +loose sacks of meal, enjoying to the full the _dolce far niente_ which +seems to be the universal rule of Southern climates. They ate and drank +and slept and snored; they made pastoral visits through the surrounding +community which were far from edifying; they gambled, and tippled, and +sang most unspiritual songs; and keeping all the while their own private +pass-key to Paradise tucked under their girdles, were about as jolly +a set of sailors to Eternity as the world had to show. In fact, the +climate of Southern Italy and its gorgeous scenery are more favorable +to voluptuous ecstasy than to the severe and grave warfare of the true +Christian soldier. The sunny plains of Capua demoralized the soldiers of +Hannibal, and it was not without a reason that ancient poets made those +lovely regions the abode of Sirens whose song maddened by its sweetness, +and of a Circe who made men drunk with her sensual fascinations, till +they became sunk to the form of brutes. Here, if anywhere, is the +lotos-eater's paradise,--the purple skies, the enchanted shores, the +soothing gales, the dreamy mists, which all conspire to melt the energy +of the will, and to make existence either a half-doze of dreamy apathy +or an awaking of mad delirium. + +It was not from dreamy, voluptuous Southern Italy that the religious +progress of the Italian race received any vigorous impulses. These came +from more northern and more mountainous regions, from the severe, clear +heights of Florence, Perugia, and Assisi, where the intellectual and the +moral both had somewhat of the old Etruscan earnestness and gloom. + +One may easily imagine the stupid alarm and helpless confusion of these +easy-going monks, when their new Superior came down among them hissing +with a white heat from the very hottest furnace-fires of a new religious +experience, burning and quivering with the terrors of the world to +come,--pale, thin, eager, tremulous, and yet with all the martial +vigor of the former warrior, and all the habits of command of a former +princely station. His reforms gave no quarter to right or left; sleepy +monks were dragged out to midnight-prayers, and their devotions +enlivened with vivid pictures of hell-fire and ingenuities of eternal +torment enough to stir the blood of the most torpid. There was to be +no more gormandizing, no more wine-bibbing; the choice old wines were +placed under lock and key for the use of the sick and poor in the +vicinity; and every fast of the Church, and every obsolete rule of the +order, were revived with unsparing rigor. It is true, they hated their +new Superior with all the energy which laziness and good living had left +them, but they every soul of them shook in their sandals before him; for +there is a true and established order of mastery among human beings, and +when a man of enkindled energy and intense will comes among a flock of +irresolute commonplace individuals, he subjects them to himself by a +sort of moral paralysis similar to what a great, vigorous gymnotus +distributes among a fry of inferior fishes. The bolder ones, who made +motions of rebellion, were so energetically swooped upon, and consigned +to the discipline of dungeon and bread-and-water, that less courageous +natures made a merit of siding with the more powerful party, mentally +resolving to carry by fraud the points which they despaired of +accomplishing by force. + +On the morning we speak of, two monks might have been seen lounging on +a stone bench by one of the arches, looking listlessly into the sombre +garden-patch we have described. The first of these, Father Anselmo, was +a corpulent fellow, with an easy swing of gait, heavy animal features, +and an eye of shrewd and stealthy cunning: the whole air of the man +expressed the cautious, careful voluptuary. The other, Father Johannes, +was thin, wiry, and elastic, with hands like birds' claws, and an eye +that reminded one of the crafty cunning of a serpent. His smile was a +curious blending of shrewdness and malignity. He regarded his companion +from time to time obliquely from the corners of his eyes, to see what +impression his words were making, and had a habit of jerking himself up +in the middle of a sentence and looking warily round to see if any one +were listening, which indicated habitual distrust. + +"Our holy Superior is out a good while this morning," he said, at +length. + +The observation was made in the smoothest and most silken tones, but +they carried with them such a singular suggestion of doubt and inquiry +that they seemed like an accusation. + +"Ah?" replied the other, perceiving evidently some intended undertone of +suspicion lurking in the words, but apparently resolved not to commit +himself to his companion. + +"Yes," said the first; "the zeal of the house of the Lord consumes him, +the blessed man!" + +"Blessed man!" echoed the second, rolling up his eyes, and giving a deep +sigh, which shook his portly proportions so that they quivered like +jelly. + +"If he goes on in this way much longer," continued Father Johannes, +"there will soon be very little mortal left of him; the saints will +claim him." + +Father Anselmo gave something resembling a pious groan, but darted +meanwhile a shrewd observant glance at the speaker. + +"What would become of the convent, were he gone?" said Father Johannes. +"All these blessed reforms which he has brought about would fall back; +for our nature is fearfully corrupt, and ever tends to wallow in the +mire of sin and pollution. What changes hath he wrought in us all! To be +sure, the means were sometimes severe. I remember, brother, when he had +you under ground for more than ten days. My heart was pained for you; +but I suppose you know that it was necessary, in order to bring you to +that eminent state of sanctity where you now stand." + +The heavy, sensual features of Father Anselmo flushed up with some +emotion, whether of anger or of fear it was hard to tell; but he gave +one hasty glance at his companion, which, if a glance could kill, would +have struck him dead, and then there fell over his countenance, like a +veil, an expression of sanctimonious humility, as he replied,-- + +"Thank you for your sympathy, dearest brother. I remember, too, how I +felt for you that week when you were fed only on bread and water, and +had to take it on your knees off the floor, while the rest of us sat at +table. How blessed it must be to have one's pride brought down in that +way! When our dear, blessed Superior first came, brother, you were as a +bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, but now what a blessed change! It must +give you so much peace! How you must love him!" + +"I think we love him about equally," said Father Johannes, his dark, +thin features expressing the concentration of malignity. "His labors +have been blessed among us. Not often does a faithful shepherd meet so +loving a flock. I have been told that the great Peter Abelard found far +less gratitude. They tried to poison him in the most holy wine." + +"How absurd!" interrupted Father Anselmo, hastily; "as if the blood of +the Lord, as if our Lord himself, could be made poison!" + +"Brother, it is a fact," insisted the former, in tones silvery with +humility and sweetness. + +"A fact that the most holy blood can be poisoned?" replied the other, +with horror evidently genuine. + +"I grieve to say, brother," said Father Johannes, "that in my profane +and worldly days I tried that experiment on a dog, and the poor brute +died in five minutes. Ah, brother," he added, observing that his obese +companion was now thoroughly roused, "you see before you the chief of +sinners! Judas was nothing to me; and yet, such are the triumphs +of grace, I am an unworthy member of this most blessed and pious +brotherhood; but I do penance daily in sackcloth and ashes for my +offence." + +"But, Brother Johannes, was it really so? did it really happen?" +inquired Father Anselmo, looking puzzled. "Where, then, is our faith?" + +"Doth our faith rest on human reason, or on the evidence of our senses, +Brother Anselmo? I bless God that I have arrived at that state where I +can adoringly say, 'I believe, because it is impossible.' Yea, brother, +I know it to be a fact that the ungodly have sometimes destroyed holy +men, like our Superior, who could not be induced to taste wine for +any worldly purpose, by drugging the blessed cup; so dreadful are the +ragings of Satan in our corrupt nature!" + +"I can't see into that," said Father Anselmo, still looking confused. + +"Brother," answered Father Johannes, "permit an unworthy sinner to +remind you that you must not try to see into anything; all that is +wanted of you in our most holy religion is to shut your eyes and +believe; all things are possible to the eye of faith. Now, humanly +speaking," he added, with a peculiarly meaning look, "who would believe +that you kept all the fasts of our order, and all the extraordinary ones +which it hath pleased our blessed Superior to lay upon us, as you surely +do? A worldling might swear, to look at you, that such flesh and color +must come in some way from good meat and good wine; but we remember how +the three children throve on the pulse and rejected the meat from the +king's table." + +The countenance of Father Anselmo expressed both anger and alarm at +this home-thrust, and the changes did not escape the keen eye of Father +Johannes, who went on. + +"I directed the eyes of our holy father upon you as a striking example +of the benefits of abstemious living, showing that the days of miracles +are not yet past in the Church, as some skeptics would have us believe. +He seemed to study you attentively. I have no doubt he will honor you +with some more particular inquiries,--the blessed saint!" + +Father Anselmo turned uneasily on his seat and stealthily eyed his +companion, to see, if possible, how much real knowledge was expressed by +his words, and then answered on quite another topic. + +"How this garden has fallen to decay! We miss old Father Angelo +sorely, who was always trimming and cleansing it. Our Superior is too +heavenly-minded to have much thought for earthly things, and so it +goes." + +Father Johannes watched this attempt at diversion with a glitter of +stealthy malice, and, seeming to be absorbed in contemplation, broke out +again exactly where he had left off on the unwelcome subject. + +"I mind me now, Brother Anselmo, that, when you came out of your cell to +prayers, the other night, your utterance was thick, and your eyes heavy +and watery, and your gait uncertain. One would swear that you had been +drunken with new wine; but we knew it was all the effect of fasting and +devout contemplation, which inebriates the soul with holy raptures, as +happened to the blessed Apostles on the day of Pentecost. I remarked the +same to our holy father, and he seemed to give it earnest heed, for +I saw him watching you through all the services. How blessed is such +watchfulness!" + +"The Devil take him!" said Father Anselmo, suddenly thrown off his +guard; but checking himself, he added, confusedly,--"I mean"-- + +"I understand you, brother," said Father Johannes; "it is a motion of +the old nature not yet entirely subdued. A little more of the discipline +of the lower vaults, which you have found so precious, will set all that +right." + +"You would not inform against me?" said Father Anselmo, with an +expression of alarm. + +"It would be my duty, I suppose," said Father Johannes, with a sigh; +"but, sinner that I am, I never could bring my mind to such proceedings +with the vigor of our blessed father. Had I been Superior of the +convent, as was talked of, bow differently might things have proceeded! +I should have erred by a sinful laxness. How fortunate that it was he, +instead of such a miserable sinner as myself!" + +"Well, tell me, then, Father Johannes,--for your eyes are shrewd as a +lynx's,--is our good Superior so perfect as he seems? or does he have +his little private comforts sometimes, like the rest of us? Nobody, +you know, can stand it to be always on the top round of the ladder to +Paradise. For my part, between you and me, I never believed all that +story they read to us so often about Saint Simon Stylites, who passed so +many years on the top of a pillar and never came down. Trust me, the old +boy found his way down sometimes, when all the world was asleep, and got +somebody to do duty for him meantime, while he took a little something +comfortable. Is it not so?" + +"I am told to believe, and I do believe," said Father Johannes, casting +down his eyes, piously; "and, dear brother, it ill befits a sinner like +me to reprove; but it seemeth to me as if you make too much use of the +eyes of carnal inquiry. Touching the life of our holy father, I cannot +believe the most scrupulous watch can detect anything in his walk or +conversation other than appears in his profession. His food is next to +nothing,--a little chopped spinach or some bitter herb cooked without +salt for ordinary days, and on fast days he mingles this with ashes, +according to a saintly rule. As for sleep, I believe he does without +it; for at no time of the night, when I have knocked at the door of +his cell, have I found him sleeping. He is always at his prayers or +breviary. His cell hath only a rough, hard board for a bed, with a log +of rough wood for a pillow; yet he complains of that as tempting to +indolence." + +Father Anselmo shrugged his fat shoulders, ruefully. + +"It's all well enough," he said, "for those that want to take this hard +road to Paradise; but why need they drive the flock up with them?" + +"True enough, Brother Anselmo," said Father Johannes; "but the flock +will rejoice in it in the end, doubtless. I understand he is purposing +to draw yet stricter the reins of discipline. We ought to be thankful." + +"Thankful? We can't wink but six times a week now," said Father Anselmo; +"and by-and-by he won't let us wink at all." + +"Hist! hush! here he comes," said Father Johannes, "What ails him? he +looks wild, like a man distraught." + +In a moment more, in fact, Father Francesco strode hastily through the +corridor, with his deep-set eyes dilated and glittering, and a vivid +hectic flush on his hollow cheeks. He paid no regard to the salutation +of the obsequious monks; in fact, he seemed scarcely to see them, but +hurried in a disordered manner through the passages and gained the room +of his cell, which he shut and locked with a violent clang. + +"What has come over him now?" said Father Anselmo. + +Father Johannes stealthily followed some distance, and then stood with +his lean neck outstretched and his head turned in the direction where +the Superior had disappeared. The whole attitude of the man, with +his acute glittering eye, might remind one of a serpent making an +observation before darting after his prey. + +"Something is working him," he said to himself; "what may it be?" + +Meanwhile that heavy oaken door had closed on a narrow cell,--bare of +everything which could be supposed to be a matter of convenience in +the abode of a human being. A table of the rudest and most primitive +construction was garnished with a skull, whose empty eyeholes and +grinning teeth were the most conspicuous objects in the room. Behind +this stood a large crucifix, manifestly the work of no common master, +and bearing evident traces in its workmanship of Florentine art: it was, +perhaps, one of the relics of the former wealth of the nobleman who +had buried his name and worldly possessions in this living sepulchre. A +splendid manuscript breviary, richly illuminated, lay open on the table; +and the fair fancy of its flowery letters, the lustre of gold and silver +on its pages, formed a singular contrast to the squalid nakedness of +everything else in the room. This book, too, had been a family heirloom; +some lingering shred of human and domestic affection sheltered itself +under the protection of religion in making it the companion of his +self-imposed life of penance and renunciation. + +Father Francesco had just returned from the scene in the confessional we +have already described. That day had brought to him one of those pungent +and vivid inward revelations which sometimes overset in a moment some +delusion that has been the cherished growth of years. Henceforth the +reign of self-deception was past,--there was no more self-concealment, +no more evasion. He loved Agnes,--he knew it,--he said it over and over +again to himself with a stormy intensity of energy; and in this hour +the whole of his nature seemed to rise in rebellion against the awful +barriers which hemmed in and threatened this passion. He now saw clearly +that all that he had been calling fatherly tenderness, pastoral zeal, +Christian unity, and a thousand other evangelical names, was nothing +more nor less than a passion that had gone to the roots of existence and +absorbed into itself all that there was of him. Where was he to look for +refuge? What hymn, what prayer had he not blent with her image? It was +this that he had given to her as a holy lesson,--it was that that she +had spoken of to him as the best expression of her feelings. This prayer +he had explained to her,--he remembered just the beautiful light in her +eyes, which were fixed on his so trustingly. How dear to him had been +that unquestioning devotion, that tender, innocent humility!--how dear, +and how dangerous! + +We have read of flowing rivulets wandering peacefully without ripple or +commotion, so long as no barrier stayed their course, suddenly chafing +in angry fury when an impassable dam was thrown across their waters. So +any affection, however genial and gentle in its own nature, may become +an ungovernable, ferocious passion, by the intervention of fatal +obstacles in its course. In the case of Father Francesco, the sense of +guilt and degradation fell like a blight over all the past that had been +so ignorantly happy. He thought he had been living on manna, but found +it poison. Satan had been fooling him, leading him on blindfold, and +laughing at his simplicity, and now mocked at his captivity. And how +nearly had he been hurried by a sudden and overwhelming influence to the +very brink of disgrace! He felt himself shiver and grow cold to think of +it. A moment more and he had blasted that pure ear with forbidden words +of passion; and even now he remembered, with horror, the look of grave +and troubled surprise in those confiding eyes, that had always looked +up to him trustingly, as to God. A moment more and he had betrayed the +faith he taught her, shattered her trust in the holy ministry, and +perhaps imperilled her salvation. He breathed a sigh of relief when he +thought of it,--he had not betrayed himself, he had not fallen in her +esteem, he still stood on that sacred vantage-ground where his power +over her was so great, and where at least he possessed her confidence +and veneration. There was still time for recollection, for self-control, +for a vehement struggle which should set all right again: but, alas! how +shall a man struggle who finds his whole inner nature boiling in furious +rebellion against the dictates of his conscience,--self against self? + +It is true, also, that no passions are deeper in their hold, more +pervading and more vital to the whole human being, than those that make +their first entrance through the higher nature, and, beginning with a +religious and poetic ideality, gradually work their way through the +whole fabric of the human existence. + +From grosser passions, whose roots lie in the senses, there is always a +refuge in man's loftier nature. He can cast them aside with contempt, +and leave them as one whose lower story is flooded can remove to a +higher loft, and live serenely with a purer air and wider prospect. But +to love that is born of ideality, of intellectual sympathy, of harmonies +of the spiritual and Immortal nature, of the very poetry and purity of +the soul, if it be placed where reason and religion forbid its exercise +and expression, what refuge but the grave,--what hope but that wide +eternity where all human barriers fall, all human relations end, and +love ceases to be a crime? A man of the world may struggle by change of +scene, place, and employment. He may put oceans between himself and the +things that speak of what he desires to forget. He may fill the void in +his life with the stirring excitement of the battlefield, or the whirl +of travel from city to city, or the press of business and care. But what +help is there for him whose life is tied down to the narrow sphere of +the convent,--to the monotony of a bare cell, to the endless repetition +of the same prayers, the same chants, the same prostrations, especially +when all that ever redeemed it from monotony has been that image and +that sympathy which conscience now bids him forget? + +When Father Francesco precipitated himself into his cell and locked +the door, it was with the desperation of a man who flies from a mortal +enemy. It seemed to him that all eyes saw just what was boiling within +him,--that the wild thoughts that seemed to scream their turbulent +importunities in his ears were speaking so loud that all the world would +hear. He should disgrace himself before the brethren whom he had so +long been striving to bring to order and to teach the lessons of holy +self-control. He saw himself pointed at, hissed at, degraded, by the +very men who had quailed before his own reproofs; and scarcely, when he +had bolted the door behind him, did he feel himself safe. Panting and +breathless, he fell on his knees before the crucifix, and, bowing his +head in his hands, fell forward upon the floor. As a spent wave melts at +the foot of a rock, so all his strength passed away, and he lay awhile +in a kind of insensibility,--a state in which, though consciously +existing, he had no further control over his thoughts and feelings. In +that state of dreamy exhaustion his mind seemed like a mirror, which, +without vitality or will of its own, simply lies still and reflects the +objects that may pass over it. As clouds sailing in the heavens cast +their images, one after another, on the glassy floor of a waveless sea, +so the scenes of his former life drifted in vivid pictures athwart his +memory. He saw his father's palace,--the wide, cool, marble halls,--the +gardens resounding with the voices of falling waters. He saw the fair +face of his mother, and played with the jewels upon her hands. He saw +again the picture of himself, in all the flush of youth and health, +clattering on horseback through the streets of Florence with troops of +gay young friends, now dead to him as he to them. He saw himself in the +bowers of gay ladies, whose golden hair, lustrous eyes, and siren wiles +came back shivering and trembling in the waters of memory in a thousand +undulating reflections. There were wild revels,--orgies such as Florence +remembers with shame to this day. There was intermingled the turbulent +din of arms,--the haughty passion, the sudden provocation, the swift +revenge. And then came the awful hour of conviction, the face of that +wonderful man whose preaching had stirred all souls,--and then those +fearful days of penance,--that darkness of the tomb,--that dying to the +world,--those solemn vows, and the fearful struggles by which they had +been followed. + +"Oh, my God!" he cried, "is it all in vain?--so many prayers? so many +struggles?--and shall I fail of salvation at last?" + +He seemed to himself as a swimmer, who, having exhausted his last gasp +of strength in reaching the shore, is suddenly lifted up on a cruel wave +and drawn back into the deep. There seemed nothing for him but to fold +his arms and sink. + +For he felt no strength now to resist,--he felt no wish to conquer,--he +only prayed that he might lie there and die. It seemed to him that +the love which possessed him and tyrannized over his very being was a +doom,--a curse sent upon him by some malignant fate with whose power it +was vain to struggle. He detested his work,--he detested his duties,--he +loathed his vows,--and there was not a thing in his whole future to +which he looked forward otherwise than with the extreme of aversion, +except one to which he clung with a bitter and defiant tenacity,--the +spiritual guidance of Agnes. Guidance!--he laughed aloud, in the +bitterness of his soul, as he thought of this. He was her guide,--her +confessor,--to him she was bound to reveal every change of feeling; +and this love that he too well perceived rising in her heart for +another,--he would wring from her own confessions the means to repress +and circumvent it. If she could not be his, he might at least prevent +her from belonging to any other,--he might at least keep her always +within the sphere of his spiritual authority. Had he not a right to do +this?--had he not a right to cherish an evident vocation,--a right to +reclaim her from the embrace of an excommunicated infidel, and present +her as a chaste bride at the altar of the Lord? Perhaps, when that +was done, when an irrevocable barrier should separate her from all +possibility of earthly love, when the awful marriage-vow should have +been spoken which should seal her heart for heaven alone, he might +recover some of the blessed calm which her influence once brought over +him, and these wild desires might cease, and these feverish pulses be +still. + +Such were the vague images and dreams of the past and future that +floated over his mind, as he lay in a heavy sort of lethargy on the +floor of his cell, and hour after hour passed away. It grew afternoon, +and the radiance of evening came on. The window of the cell overlooked +the broad Mediterranean, all one blue glitter of smiles and sparkles. +The white-winged boats were flitting lightly to and fro, like +gauzy-winged insects in the summer air,--the song of the fishermen +drawing their nets on the beach floated cheerily upward. Capri lay like +a half-dissolved opal in shimmering clouds of mist, and Naples +gleamed out pearly clear in the purple distance. Vesuvius, with its +cloud-spotted sides, its garlanded villas and villages, its silvery +crown of vapor, seemed a warm-hearted and genial old giant lying down +in his gorgeous repose and holding all things on his heaving bosom in a +kindly embrace. + +So was the earth flooded with light and glory, that the tide poured into +the cell, giving the richness of an old Venetian painting to its bare +and squalid furniture. The crucifix glowed along all its sculptured +lines with rich golden hues. The breviary, whose many-colored leaves +fluttered as the wind from the sea drew inward, was yet brighter in its +gorgeous tints. It seemed a sort of devotional butterfly perched before +the grinning skull, which was bronzed by the enchanted light into warmer +tones of color, as if some remembrance of what once it saw and felt came +back upon it. So also the bare, miserable board which served for +the bed, and its rude pillow, were glorified. A stray sunbeam, too, +fluttered down on the floor like a pitying spirit, to light up that +pale, thin face, whose classic outlines had now a sharp, yellow setness, +like that of swooning or death; it seemed to linger compassionately on +the sunken, wasted cheeks, on the long black lashes that fell over the +deep hollows beneath the eyes like a funereal veil. Poor man! lying +crushed and torn, like a piece of rockweed wrenched from its rock by a +storm and thrown up withered upon the beach! + +From the leaves of the breviary there depends, by a fragment of gold +braid, a sparkling something that wavers and glitters in the evening +light. It is a cross of the cheapest and simplest material, that once +belonged to Agnes. She lost it from her rosary at the confessional, and +Father Francesco saw it fall, yet would not warn her of the loss, for he +longed to posses something that had belonged to her. He made it a mark +to one of her favorite hymns; but she never knew where it had gone. +Little could she dream, in her simplicity, what a power she held over +the man who seemed to her an object of such awful veneration. Little did +she dream that the poor little tinsel cross had such a mighty charm with +it, and that she herself, in her childlike simplicity, her ignorant +innocence, her peaceful tenderness and trust, was raising such a +turbulent storm of passion in the heart which she supposed to be above +the reach of all human changes. + +And now, through the golden air, the Ave Maria is sounding from the +convent-bells, and answered by a thousand tones and echoes from the +churches of the old town, and all Christendom gives a moment's adoring +pause to celebrate the moment when an angel addressed to a mortal maiden +words that had been wept and prayed for during thousands of years. Dimly +they sounded through his ear, in that half-deadly trance,--not with +plaintive sweetness and motherly tenderness, but like notes of doom and +vengeance. He felt rebellious impulses within, which rose up in hatred +against them, and all that recalled to his mind the faith which seemed +a tyranny, and the vows which appeared to him such a hopeless and +miserable failure. + +But now there came other sounds nearer and more earthly. His quickened +senses perceive a busy patter of sandalled feet outside his cell, and a +whispering of consultation,--and then the silvery, snaky tones of Father +Johannes, which had that oily, penetrative quality which passes through +all substances with such distinctness. + +"Brethren," he said, "I feel bound in conscience to knock. Our blessed +Superior carries his mortifications altogether too far. His faithful +sons must beset him with filial inquiries." + +The condition in which Father Francesco was lying, like many abnormal +states of extreme exhaustion, seemed to be attended with a mysterious +quickening of the magnetic forces and intuitive perceptions. He felt +the hypocrisy of those tones, and they sounded in his ear like the +suppressed hiss of a deadly serpent. He had always suspected that this +man hated him to the death; and he felt now that he was come with his +stealthy-tread and his almost supernatural power of prying observation, +to read the very inmost secrets of his heart. He knew that he longed for +nothing so much as the power to hurl him from his place and to reign in +his stead; and the instinct of self-defence roused him. He started up +as one starts from a dream, waked by a whisper in the ear, and, raising +himself on his elbow, looked towards the door. + +A cautious rap was heard, and then a pause. Father Francesco smiled with +a peculiar and bitter expression. The rap became louder, more energetic, +stormy at last, intermingled with vehement calls on his name. + +Father Francesco rose at length, settled his garments, passed his +hands over his brow, and then, composing himself to an expression of +deliberate gravity, opened the door and stood before them. + +"Holy father," said Father Johannes, "the hearts of your sons have +been saddened. A whole day have you withdrawn your presence from our +devotions. We feared you might have fainted, your pious austerities so +often transcend the powers of Nature." + +"I grieve to have saddened the hearts of such affectionate sons," said +the Superior, fixing his eye keenly on Father Johannes; "but I have +been performing a peculiar office of prayer to-day for a soul in deadly +peril, and have been so absorbed therein that I have known nothing that +passed. There is a soul among us, brethren," he added, "that stands at +this moment so near to damnation that even the most blessed Mother of +God is in doubt for its salvation, and whether it can be saved at all +God only knows." + +These words, rising up from a tremendous groundswell of repressed +feeling, had a fearful, almost supernatural earnestness that made the +body of the monks tremble. Most of them were conscious of living but a +shabby, shambling, dissembling life, evading in every possible way the +efforts of their Superior to bring them up to the requirements of their +profession; and therefore, when these words were bolted out among them +with such a glowing intensity, every one of them began mentally feeling +for the key of his own private and interior skeleton-closet, and +wondering which of their ghastly occupants was coming to light now. + +Father Johannes alone was unmoved, because he had long since ceased to +have a conscience. A throb of moral pulsation had for years been an +impossibility to the dried and hardened fibre of his inner nature. He +was one of those real, genuine, thorough unbelievers in all religion and +all faith and all spirituality, whose unbelief grows only more callous +by the constant handling of sacred things. Ambition was the ruling +motive of his life, and every faculty was sharpened into such +acuteness under its action that his penetration seemed at times almost +preternatural. + + +While he stood with downcast eyes and hands crossed upon his breast, +listening to the burning words which remorse and despair wrung from his +Superior, he was calmly and warily studying to see what could be made of +the evident interior conflict that convulsed him. Was there some secret +sin? Had that sanctity at last found the temptation that was more than a +match for it? And what could it be? + +To a nature with any strong combative force there is no tonic like the +presence of a secret and powerful enemy, and the stealthy glances +of Father Johannes's serpent eye did more towards restoring Father +Francesco to self-mastery than the most conscientious struggles could +have done. He grew calm, resolved, determined. Self-respect was dear to +him,--and dear to him no less that reflection of self-respect which a +man reads in other eyes. He would not forfeit his conventual honor, or +bring a stain on his order, or, least of all, expose himself to the +scoffing eye of a triumphant enemy. Such were the motives that now came +to his aid, while as yet the whole of his inner nature rebelled at the +thought that he must tear up by the roots and wholly extirpate this love +that seemed to have sent its fine fibres through every nerve of his +being. "No!" he said to himself, with a fierce interior rebellion, +"_that_ I will not do! Right or wrong, come heaven, come hell, I _will_ +love her; and if lost I must be, lost I will be!" And while this +determination lasted, prayer seemed to him a mockery. He dared not pray +alone now, when most he needed prayer; but he moved forward with dignity +towards the convent-chapel to lead the vesper devotions of his brethren. +Outwardly he was calm and rigid as a statue; but as he commenced the +service, his utterance had a terrible meaning and earnestness that were +felt even by the most drowsy and leaden of his flock. It is singular +how the dumb, imprisoned soul, locked within the walls of the body, +sometimes gives such a piercing power to the tones of the voice during +the access of a great agony. The effect is entirely involuntary, and +often against the most strenuous opposition of the will; but one +sometimes hears another reading or repeating words with an intense +vitality, a living force, which tells of some inward anguish or conflict +of which the language itself gives no expression. + +Never were the long-drawn intonations of the chants and prayers of the +Church pervaded by a more terrible, wild fervor than the Superior that +night breathed into them. They seemed to wail, to supplicate, to combat, +to menace, to sink in despairing pauses of helpless anguish, and anon to +rise in stormy agonies of passionate importunity; and the monks quailed +and trembled, they scarce knew why, with forebodings of coming wrath and +judgment. + +In the evening exhortation, which it had been the Superior's custom to +add to the prayers of the vesper-hour, he dwelt with a terrible and +ghastly eloquence on the loss of the soul. + +"Brethren," he said, "believe me, the very first hour of a damned spirit +in hell will outweigh all the prosperities of the most prosperous life. +If you could gain the whole world, that one hour of hell would outweigh +it all; how much more such miserable, pitiful scraps and fragments of +the world as they gain who for the sake of a little fleshly ease neglect +the duties of a holy profession! There is a broad way to hell through a +convent, my brothers, where miserable wretches go who have neither the +spirit to serve the Devil wholly, nor the patience to serve God; there +be many shaven crowns that gnash their teeth in hell to-night,--many a +monk's robe is burning on its owner in living fire, and the devils call +him a fool for choosing to be damned in so hard a way. 'Could you not +come here by some easier road than a cloister?' they ask. 'If you must +sell your soul, why did you not get something for it?' Brethren, there +be devils waiting for some of us; they are laughing at your paltry +shifts and evasions, at your efforts to make things easy,--for they know +how it will all end at last. Rouse yourselves! Awake! Salvation is no +easy matter,--nothing to be got between sleeping and waking. Watch, +pray, scourge the flesh, fast, weep, bow down in sackcloth, mingle your +bread with ashes, if by any means ye may escape the everlasting fire!" + +"Bless me!" said Father Anselmo, when the services were over, casting +a half-scared glance after the retreating figure of the Superior as he +left the chapel, and drawing a long breath; "it's enough to make one +sweat to hear him go on. What has come over him? Anyhow, I'll give +myself a hundred lashes this very night: something must be done." + +"Well," said another, "I confess I did hide a cold wing of fowl in the +sleeve of my gown last fast-day. My old aunt gave it to me, and I was +forced to take it for relation's sake; but I'll do so no more, as I'm a +living sinner. I'll do a penance this very night." + +Father Johannes stood under one of the arches that looked into the +gloomy garden, and, with his hands crossed upon his breast, and his +cold, glittering eye fixed stealthily now on one and now on another, +listened with an ill-disguised sneer to these hasty evidences of fear +and remorse in the monks, as they thronged the corridor on the way to +their cells. Suddenly turning to a young brother who had lately joined +the convent, he said to him,-- + +"And what of the pretty Clarice, my brother?" + +The blood flushed deep into the pale cheek of the young monk, and his +frame shook with some interior emotion, as he answered,-- + +"She is recovering." + +"And she sent for thee to shrive her?" + +"My God!" said the young man, with an imploring, wild expression in his +dark eyes, "she did; but I would not go." + +"Then Nature is still strong," said Father Johannes, pitilessly eying +the young man. + +"When will it ever die?" said the stripling, with a despairing gesture; +"it heeds neither heaven nor hell." + +"Well, patience, boy! if you have lost an earthly bride, you have gained +a heavenly one. The Church is our espoused in white linen. Bless the +Lord, without ceasing, for the exchange." + +There was an inexpressible mocking irony in the tones in which this was +said, that made itself felt to the finely vitalized spirit of the youth, +though to all the rest it sounded like the accredited average pious talk +which is more or less the current coin of religious organizations. + +Now no one knows through what wanton deviltry Father Johannes broached +this painful topic with the poor youth; but he had a peculiar faculty, +with his smooth tones and his sanctimonious smiles, of thrusting red-hot +needles into any wounds which he either knew or suspected under the +coarse woollen robes of his brethren. He appeared to do it in all +coolness, in a way of psychological investigation. + +He smiled, as the youth turned away, and a moment after started as if a +thought had suddenly struck him. + +"I have it!" he said to himself. "There may be a woman at the bottom +of this discomposure of our holy father; for he is wrought upon by +something to the very bottom of his soul. I have not studied human +nature so many years for nothing. Father Francesco hath been much in the +guidance of women. His preaching hath wrought upon them, and perchance +among them.--Aha!" he said to himself, as he paced up and down, "I have +it! I'll try an experiment upon him!" + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE SERPENT'S EXPERIMENT. + + +Father Francesco sat leaning his head on his hand by the window of his +cell, looking out upon the sea as it rose and fell, with the reflections +of the fast coming stars glittering like so many jewels on its breast. +The glow of evening had almost faded, but there was a wan, tremulous +light from the moon, and a clearness, produced by the reflection of such +an expanse of water, which still rendered objects in his cell quite +discernible. + +In the terrible denunciations and warnings just uttered, he had been +preaching to himself, striving to bring a force on his own soul by which +he might reduce its interior rebellion to submission; but, alas! when +was ever love cast out by fear? He knew not as yet the only remedy +for such sorrow,--that there is a love celestial and divine, of which +earthly love in its purest form is only the sacramental symbol and +emblem, and that this divine love can by God's power so outflood human +affections as to bear the soul above all earthly idols to its only +immortal rest. This great truth rises like a rock amid stormy seas, and +many is the sailor struggling in salt and bitter waters who cannot yet +believe it is to be found. A few saints like Saint Augustin had reached +it,--but through what buffetings, what anguish! + +At this moment, however, there was in the heart of the father one of +those collapses which follow the crisis of some mortal struggle. He +leaned on the windowsill, exhausted and helpless. + +Suddenly, a kind of illusion of the senses came over him, such as is not +infrequent to sensitive natures in severe crises of mental anguish. He +thought he heard Agnes singing, as he had sometimes heard her when he +had called in his pastoral ministrations at the little garden and paused +awhile outside that he might hear her finish a favorite hymn, which, +like a shy bird, she sang all the more sweetly for thinking herself +alone. + +Quite as if they were sung in his ear, and in her very tones, he heard +the words of Saint Bernard, which we have introduced to our reader:-- + + Jesu dulcis memoria, + Dans vera cordi gaudia: + Sed super mel et omnia + Ejus dulcis praesentia. + + "Jesu, spes poenitentibus, + Quam pius es petentibus, + Quam bonus te quaerentibus, + Sed quis invenientibus!" + +Soft and sweet and solemn was the illusion, as if some spirit breathed +them with a breath of tenderness over his soul; and he threw himself +with a burst of tears before the crucifix. + +"O Jesus, where, then, art Thou? Why must I thus suffer? She is not the +one altogether lovely; it is Thou,--Thou, her Creator and mine! Why, +why cannot I find Thee? Oh, take from my heart all other love but Thine +alone!" + +Yet even this very prayer, this very hymn, were blent with the +remembrance of Agnes; for was it not she who first had taught him the +lesson of heavenly love? Was not she the first one who had taught him to +look upward to Jesus other than as an avenging judge? Michel Angelo has +embodied in a fearful painting, which now deforms the Sistine Chapel, +that image of stormy vengeance which a religion debased by force +and fear had substituted for the tender, good shepherd of earlier +Christianity. It was only in the heart of a lowly maiden that Christ had +been made manifest to the eye of the monk, as of old he was revealed to +the world through a virgin. And how could he, then, forget her, or cease +to love her, when every prayer and hymn, every sacred round of the +ladder by which he must climb, was so full of memorials of her? While +crying and panting for the supreme, the divine, the invisible love, he +found his heart still craving the visible one,--the one so well known, +revealing itself to the senses, and bringing with it the certainty of +visible companionship. + +As he was thus kneeling and wrestling with himself, a sudden knock at +his door startled him. He had made it a point, never, at any hour of the +day or night, to deny himself to a brother who sought him for counsel, +however disagreeable the person and however unreasonable the visit. He +therefore rose and unbolted the door, and saw Father Johannes standing +with folded arms and downcast head, in an attitude of composed humility. + +"What would you with me, brother?" he asked, calmly. + +"My father, I have a wrestling of mind for one of our brethren whose +case I would present to you." + +"Come in, my brother," said the Superior. At the same time he lighted a +little iron lamp, of antique form, such as are still in common use in +that region, and, seating himself on the board which served for his +couch, made a motion to Father Johannes to be seated also. + +The latter sat down, eying, as he did so, the whole interior of the +apartment, so far as it was revealed by the glimmer of the taper. + +"Well, my son," said Father Francesco, "what is it?" + +"I have my doubts of the spiritual safety of Brother Bernard," said +Father Johannes. + +"Wherefore?" asked the Superior, briefly. + +"Holy father, you are aware of the history of the brother, and of the +worldly affliction that drove him to this blessed profession?" + +"I am," replied the Superior, with the same brevity. + +"He narrated it to me fully," said Father Johannes. "The maiden he was +betrothed to was married to another in his absence on a long journey, +being craftily made to suppose him dead." + +"I tell you I know the circumstances," said the Superior. + +"I merely recalled them, because, moved doubtless by your sermon, he +dropped words to me to-night which led me to suppose that this sinful, +earthly love was not yet extirpated from his soul. Of late the woman was +sick and nigh unto death, and sent for him." + +"But he did not go?" interposed Father Francesco. + +"No, he did not,--grace was given him thus far,--but he dropped words +to me to the effect, that in secret he still cherished the love of this +woman; and the awful words your Reverence has been, speaking to us +to-night have moved me with fear for the youth's soul, of the which I, +as an elder brother, have had some charge, and I came to consult with +you as to what help there might be for him." + +Father Francesco turned away his head a moment and there was a pause; +at last he said, in a tone that seemed like the throb of some deep, +interior anguish,-- + +"The Lord help him!" + +"Amen!" said Father Johannes, taking keen note of the apparent emotion. + +"You must have experience in these matters, my father," he added, after +a pause,--"so many hearts have been laid open to you. I would crave to +know of you what you think is the safest and most certain cure for this +love of woman, if once it hath got possession of the heart." + +"Death!" said Father Francesco, after a solemn pause. + +"I do not understand you," said Father Johannes. + +"My son," said Father Francesco, rising up with an air of authority, +"you do not understand,--there is nothing in you by which you should +understand. This unhappy brother hath opened his case to me, and I have +counselled him all I know of prayer and fastings and watchings and +mortifications. Let him persevere in the same; and if all these fail, +the good Lord will send the other in His own time. There is an end to +all things in this life, and that end shall certainly come at last. Bid +him persevere and hope in this.--And now, brother," added the Superior, +with dignity, "if you have no other query, time flies and eternity comes +on,--go, watch and pray, and leave me to my prayers also." + +He raised his hand with a gesture of benediction, and Father Johannes, +awed in spite of himself, felt impelled to leave the apartment. + +"Is it so, or is it not?" he said. "I cannot tell. He did seem to wince +and turn away his head when I proposed the case; but then he made fight +at last. I cannot tell whether I have got any advantage or not; but +patience! we shall see!" + + * * * * * + + +HEALTH IN THE CAMP. + + +All the world has heard a great deal of the sufferings and mortality +of the English and French armies in the late Russian war; and in most +countries the story has been heard to some purpose. Reforms and new +methods have been instituted in almost every country in Europe,--so +strong has been the effect of the mere outline of the case, which is all +that has been furnished to the public. The broad facts of the singular +mortality first, and the singular healthfulness of the British army +afterwards, on the same spot and under the same military circumstances +as before, have interested all rulers of armies, and brought about great +benefits to the soldier, throughout the length and breadth of Europe. +Within these broad outlines there was a multitude of details which were +never recorded in a systematic way, or which, for good and sufficient +reasons, could not be made public at the time; and these details are the +part of the story most interesting to soldiers actually in the field +or likely to be called there soon. They are also deeply interesting to +every order of persons concerned in a civil war; for such a war summons +forth a citizen soldiery to form a system for themselves in regard to +the life of the march and the camp, and to do the best they can for that +life and health which they have devoted to their country. Under such +circumstances it cannot but be interesting to the patriots in the camp +and to their families at home to know some facts which they cannot have +heard before of the mistakes made at the beginning of the last Russian +war, and the repair of those mistakes before the end of it. The prompt +and anxious care exercised by the American Sanitary Commission, and the +benevolent diligence bestowed on the organization of hospitals for the +Federal forces, show that the lesson of the Crimean campaign has been +studied in the United States; and this is an encouragement to afford +further illustrations of the case, when new material is at command. + +I am thinking most of the volunteer forces at this moment, for the +obvious reason that their health is in greater danger than that of the +professional soldier. The regular troops live under a system which is +always at work to feed, clothe, lodge, and entertain them: whereas +the volunteers are quitting one mode of life for another, all the +circumstances of which had to be created at the shortest notice. To them +their first campaign must be very like what it was to British soldiers +who had never seen war to be sent to Turkey first, and then to the +Crimea, to live a new kind of life, and meet discomforts and dangers +which they had never dreamed of. I shall therefore select my details +with a view to the volunteers and their friends in the first place. + +The enthusiasm which started the volunteers of every Northern State on +their new path of duty could hardly exceed that by which the British +troops were escorted from their barrack-gates to the margin of the sea. +The war was universally approved (except by a clique of peace-men); and +there was a universal confidence that the troops would do their duty +well, though not one man in a thousand of them had ever seen war. As +they marched down to their ships, in the best mood, and with every +appearance of health and spirit, nobody formed any conception of what +would happen. Parliament had fulfilled the wishes of the people +by voting liberal sums for the due support of the troops; the +Administration desired and ordered that everything should be done for +the soldier's welfare; and as far as orders and arrangements went, the +scheme was thoroughly well intended and generous. Who could anticipate, +that, while the enemy never once gained a battle or obtained an +advantage over British or French, two-thirds of that fine stout British +force would perish in a few months? Of the twenty-five thousand who went +out, eighteen thousand were dead in a year; and the enemy was answerable +for a very small proportion of those deaths. Before me lie the returns +of six months of those twelve, showing the fate of the troops for that +time; and it furnishes the key to the whole story. + +In those six months, the admissions into hospital in the Crimea +(exclusive of the Santari Hospital) were 52,548. The number shows that +many must have entered the hospitals more than once, as well as that the +place of the dead was supplied by new comers from England. Of these, +nearly fifty thousand were absolutely untouched by the Russians. Only +3,806 of the whole number were wounded. Even this is not the most +striking circumstance. It is more impressive that three-fourths of the +sick suffered unnecessarily. Seventy-five per cent. of them suffered +from preventable diseases. That is, the naturally sick were 12,563; +while the needlessly sick were 36,179. When we look at the deaths from +this number, the case appears still more striking. The deaths were +5,359; and of these scarcely more than the odd hundreds were from +wounds,--that is, 373. Of the remainder, little more than one-tenth were +unavoidable deaths. The natural deaths, as we may call them, were only +521; while the preventable deaths were 4,465. Very different would have +been the spirit of the parting in England, if the soldiers' friends had +imagined that so small a number would fall by Russian gun or bayonet, or +by natural sickness, while the mortality from mismanagement would at one +season of the next year exceed that of London in the worst days of the +Great Plague. + +That the case was really what is here represented was proved by the +actual prevention of this needless sickness during the last year of the +war. In the same camp, and under the same circumstances of warfare, the +mortality was reduced, by good management, to a degree unhoped for by +all but those who achieved it. The deaths for the last half year were +one-third fewer than at home! And yet the army that died was composed of +fine, well-trained troops; while the army that lived and flourished was +of a far inferior material when it came out,--raw, untravelled, and +unhardened to the military life. + +How did these things happen? There can be no more important question for +Americans at this time. + +I will not go into the history of the weaknesses and faults of the +administration of departments at home. They have been abundantly +published already; and we may hope that they bear no relation to the +American case. It is more interesting to look into the circumstances of +the march and the camp, for illustration of what makes the health or the +sickness of the soldier. + +Wherever the men were to provide themselves with anything to eat or to +wear out of their pay, they were found to suffer. There is no natural +market, with fair prices, in the neighborhood of warfare; and, on the +one hand, a man cannot often get what he wishes, and, on the other, +he is tempted to buy something not so good for him. If there are +commissariat stores opened, there is an endless accumulation of +business,--a mass of accounts to keep of the stoppages from the men's +pay. On all accounts it is found better for all parties that the wants +of the soldier should be altogether supplied in the form of rations of +varied food and drink, and of clothing varying with climate and season. + +In regard to food, which comes first in importance of the five heads of +the soldier's wants, the English soldier was remarkably helpless till +he learned better. The Russians cut that matter very short. Every man +carried a certain portion of black rye bread and some spirit. No cooking +was required, and the men were very independent. But the diet is bad; +and the Russian regiments were composed of sallow-faced men, who died +"like flies" under frequently recurring epidemics. The Turks were in +their own country, and used their accustomed diet. The French are the +most apt, the most practised, and the most economical managers of food +of any of the parties engaged in the war. Their campaigns in Algeria had +taught them how to help themselves; and they could obtain a decent meal +where an Englishman would have eaten nothing, or something utterly +unwholesome. The Sardinians came next, and it was edifying to see how +they could build a fire-place and obtain a fire in a few minutes to boil +their pot. In other ways both French and Sardinians suffered miserably +when the British had surmounted their misfortunes. The mortality from +cholera and dysentery in the French force, during the last year, was +uncalculated and unreported. It was so excessive as, in fact, to close +the war too soon. The Sardinians were ravaged by disease from their huts +being made partly under ground. But, so far as the preparation of their +food went, both had the advantage of the British, in a way which will +never happen again. I believe the Americans and the English are bad +cooks in about the same degree; and the warning afforded by the one may +be accepted by the other. + +At the end of a day, in Bulgaria or the Crimea, what happened was this. + +The soldiers who did not understand cooking or messing had to satisfy +their hunger any way they could. They were so exhausted that they were +sure to drink up their allowance of grog the first moment they could lay +hands on it. Then there was hard biscuit, a lump of very salt pork or +beef, as hard as a board, and some coffee, raw. Those who had no touch +of scurvy (and they were few) munched their biscuit while they poked +about everywhere with a knife, digging up roots or cutting green wood to +make a fire. Each made a hole in the ground, unless there was a bank +or great stone at hand, and there he tried, for one half-hour after +another, to kindle a fire. When he got up a flame, there was his salt +meat to cook: it ought to have been soaked and stewed for hours; but he +could not wait; and he pulled it to pieces, and gnawed what he could of +it, when it was barely warm. Then he had to roast his coffee, which he +did in the lid of his camp-kettle, burning it black, and breaking it as +small as he could, with stones or anyhow. Such coffee as it would make +could hardly be worth the trouble. It was called by one of the doctors +charcoal and water. Such a supper could not fit a man for outpost duty +for the night, nor give him good sleep after the toils of the day. + +The Sardinians, meantime, united in companies, some members of which +were usually on the spot to prepare supper for the rest. They knew how +to look for or provide a shelter for their fire, if only a foot high; +and how to cut three or four little trenches, converging at the fire, so +as to afford a good draught which would kindle even bad fuel. They had +good stews and porridge and coffee ready when wanted. The French always +had fresh bread. They carried portable ovens and good bakers. The +British had flour, after a time, but they did not know how to make +bread; and if men volunteered for the office, day after day, it usually +turned out that they had a mind for a holiday, and knew nothing of +baking; and their bread came out of the oven too heavy, or sour, or +sticky, or burnt, to be eaten. As scurvy spread and deepened, the +doctors made eager demands on Government for lime-juice, and more +lime-juice. Government had sent plenty of lime-juice; but it was somehow +neglected among the stores for twenty-four days when it was most wanted, +as was the supply of rice for six weeks when dysentery was raging. All +the time, the truth was, as was acknowledged afterwards, that the thing +really wanted was good food. The lime-juice was a medicine, a specific; +but it could be of no real use till the frame was nourished with proper +food. + +When flour, and preserved vegetables, and fresh meat were served out, +and there were coffee-mills all through the camp, the men were still +unable to benefit by the change as their allies did. They could grind +and make their coffee; but they were still without good fresh bread and +soup. They despised the preserved vegetables, not believing that those +little cakes could do them any good. When they learned at last how two +ounces of those little cakes were equal, when well cooked, to eight +ounces of fresh vegetables, and just as profitable for a stew or with +their meat, they duly prized them, and during the final healthy period +those pressed vegetables were regarded in the camp as a necessary of +life. By that time, Soyer's zeal had introduced good cookery into the +camp. Roads were made by which supplies were continually arriving. Fresh +meat abounded; and it was brought in on its own legs, so that it was +certain that beef was beef, and mutton mutton, instead of goat's flesh +being substituted, as in Bulgaria. By that time it was discovered that +the most lavish orders at home and the profusest expenditure by the +commissariat will not feed and clothe an army in a foreign country, +unless there is some agency, working between the commissariat and the +soldiers, to take care that the food is actually in their hands in an +eatable form, and the clothes on their backs. + +It is for American soldiers to judge how much of this applies to their +case. The great majority of the volunteers must be handy, self-helping +men; and bands of citizens from the same towns or villages must be +disposed and accustomed to concerted action; but cooking is probably the +last thing they have any of them turned their hand to. Much depends on +the source of their food-supply. I fear they live on the country they +are in,--at least, when in the enemy's country. This is very easy +living, certainly. To shoot pigs or fowls in road or yard is one way of +getting fresh meat, as ravaging gardens is a short way of feasting on +vegetables. But supposing the forces fed from a regular commissariat +department, is there anything to be learned from the Crimean campaigns? + +The British are better supplied with the food of the country, wherever +they are, than the French, because it is their theory and practice to +pay as they go; whereas it is the French, or at least the Bonapartist +theory and practice, to "make the war support itself," that is, to live +upon the people of the country. In the Peninsular War, the French often +found themselves in a desert where they could not stay; whereas, when +Wellington and his troops followed upon their steps, the peasants +reappeared from all quarters, bringing materials for a daily market. In +the Crimea, the faithful and ready payments of the English commissariat +insured plenty of food material, in the form of cattle and flour, +biscuit and vegetables. The defect was in means of transport for +bringing provisions to the camp. The men were trying to eat hard salt +meat and biscuit, when scurvy made all eating difficult, while herds +of cattle were waiting to be slaughtered, and ship-loads of flour were +lying seven miles off. Whole deck-loads of cabbages and onions were +thrown into the sea, while the men in camp were pining for vegetable +food. An impracticable track lay between; and the poor fellows died by +thousands before the road could be made good, and transport-animals +obtained, and the food distributed among the tents and huts. Experience +taught the officers that the food should be taken entire charge of by +departments of the army till it was actually smoking in the men's hands. +There were agents, of course, in all the countries round, to buy up the +cattle, flour, and vegetables needed. The animals should be delivered +at appointed spots, alive and in good condition, that there might be no +smuggling in of joints of doubtful character. There should be a regular +arrangement of shambles, at a proper distance from the tents, and +provided with a special drainage, and means of disposing instantly of +the offal. Each company in the camp should have its kitchen, and one +or two skilled cooks,--one to serve on each day, with perhaps two +assistants from the company. After the regular establishment of the +kitchens, there was always food ready and coffee procurable for the +tired men who came in from the trenches or outpost duty; and it was a +man's own fault, if he went without a meal when off duty. + +It was found to be a grave mistake to feed the soldiers on navy salt +beef and pork. Corned beef and pork salted for a fortnight have far more +nourishment and make much less waste in the preparation than meat which +is salted for a voyage of months. After a time, very little of the hard +salted meat was used at all. When it was, it was considered essential +to serve out peas with the pork, and flour, raisins, and suet, for a +pudding, on salt-beef days. In course of time there were additions +which made considerable variety: as rice, preserved potatoes, pressed +vegetables, cheese, dried fruits and suet for puddings, sugar, coffee +properly roasted, and malt liquor. Beer and porter answer much better +than any kind of spirit, and are worth pains and cost to obtain. With +such variety as this, with portable kitchens in the place of the +cumbersome camp-kettle per man, with fresh bread, well-cooked meat and +vegetables, and well-made coffee, the soldiers will have every chance +of health that diet can afford. Whereas hard and long-kept salt meat, +insufficiently soaked and cooked, and hastily broiled meat or fowls, +just killed, and swallowed by hungry men unskilled in preparing food, +help on diseases of the alimentary system as effectually as that +intemperance in melons and cucumbers and unripe grapes and apples which +has destroyed more soldiers than all the weapons of all enemies. + +So much for the food. Next in order come the clothing, and care of the +person. + +The newspapers have a great deal to say, as we have all seen, about the +badness of much of the clothing furnished to the Federal troops. There +is no need to denounce the conduct of faithless contractors in such a +case; and the glorious zeal of the women, and of all who can help to +make up clothing for the army, shows that the volunteers at least will +be well clad, if the good-will of society can effect it. Whatever the +form of dress, it is the height of imprudence to use flimsy material for +it. + +It seems to be everywhere agreed, in a general way, that the soldier's +dress should be of an easy fit, in the first place; light enough for hot +weather and noon service, with resources of warmth for cold weather and +night duty. In Europe, the blouse or loose tunic is preferred to every +other form of coat, and knickerbockers or gaiters to any form of +trousers. The shoe or boot is the weak point of almost all military +forces. The French are getting over it; and the English are learning +from them. The number of sizes and proportions is, I think, five to one +of what it used to be in the early part of the century, so that any +soldier can get fitted. The Duke of Wellington wrote home from the +Peninsula in those days,--"If you don't send shoes, the army can't +march." The enemy marched away to a long distance before the shoes +arrived; and when they came, they were all too small. Such things do not +happen now; but it often does happen that hundreds are made footsore, +and thrown out of the march, by being ill-shod; and there seems reason +to believe that much of the lagging and apparent desertion of stragglers +in the marches of the volunteers of the Federal army is owing to the +difficulty of keeping up with men who walk at ease. If the Southern +troops are in such want of shoes as is reported, that circumstance alone +is almost enough to turn the scale, provided the Northern regiments +attain the full use of their feet by being accurately fitted with stout +shoes or boots. During the darkest days in the Crimea, those who had +boots which would stick on ceased to take them off. They slept in them, +wet or dry, knowing, that, once off, they could never be got on again. +Such things cannot happen in the Northern States, where the stoppage of +the trade in shoes to the South leaves leather, skill, and time for the +proper shoeing of the army; but it may not yet be thoroughly understood +how far the practical value of every soldier depends on the welfare of +his feet, and how many sizes and proportions of shoe are needed for duly +fitting a thousand men. + +As for the rest, the conclusion after the Crimean campaign was that +flannel shirts answer better than cotton on the whole. If the shirt is +cotton, there must be a flannel waistcoat; and the flannel shirt answers +the purpose of both, while it is as easily washed as any material. Every +man should have a flannel bandage for the body, in case of illness, or +unusual fatigue, or sudden changes of temperature. The make and pressure +of the knapsack are very important, so that the weight may be thrown on +the shoulders, without pressure on the chest or interference with the +arms. The main object is the avoidance of pressure everywhere, from the +toe-joints to the crown of the head. For this the head-covering should +be studied, that it may afford shelter and shade from heat and light, +and keep on, against the wind, without pressure on the temples or +forehead. For this the neck-tie should he studied, and the cut of the +coat-chest and sleeve, when coats must be worn: and every man must have +some sort of overcoat, for chilly and damp hours of duty. There is great +danger in the wearing of water-proof fabrics, unless they are so loose +as to admit of a free circulation of air between them and the body. + +With the clothing is generally connected the care of the person. It +is often made a question, With whom rests the responsibility of the +personal cleanliness of the soldier? The medical men declare that they +do what they can, but that there is nothing to be said when the men are +unsupplied with water; and all persuasions are thrown away when the poor +fellows are in tatters, and sleeping on dirty straw or the bare ground. +The indolent ones, at least, go on from day to day without undressing, +combing, or washing, till they are swarming with vermin; and then they +have lost self-respect. But if, before it is too late, there is an issue +of new shirts, boots, stockings, comforters, or woollen gloves, the +event puts spirit into them; they will strip and wash, and throw out +dirt and rags from their sleeping-places, and feel respectable again. + +Perhaps the first consideration should be on the part of the +quartermaster, whose business it is to see to the supply of water; and +the sanitary officer has next to take care that every man gets his eight +or ten gallons per day. If the soldiers are posted near a stream which +can be used for bathing and washing clothes, there ought to be no +difficulty; and every man may fairly be required to be as thoroughly +washed from head to foot every days and as clean in his inner clothing, +as his own little children at home. If on high and dry ground, where the +water-supply is restricted, some method and order are needed; but no +pains should be spared to afford each man his eight or ten gallons. + +This cannot be done, unless the source of supply is properly guarded. +When unrestrained access is afforded to a spring-head or pond, the water +is fatally wasted and spoiled. In the Crimea, the English officers +had to build round the spring-heads, and establish a regular order in +getting supplied. Where there is crowding, dirt gets thrown in, the +water is muddied, or animals are brought to drink at the source. This +ruins everything; for animals will not drink below, when the mouth +of horse, mule, or cow has touched the water above. The way is for +guardians to take possession, and board over the source, and make a +reservoir with taps, allowing water to be taken first for drinking and +washing purposes, a flow being otherwise provided by spout and troughs +for the animals, and for cleansing the camp. The difference on the same +spot was enormous between the time when a British sergeant wrote that he +was not so well as at home, and could not expect it, not having had his +shoes or any of his clothes off for five months, and the same time the +next year, when every respectable soldier was fresh and tidy, with his +blood flowing healthfully under a clean skin. The poor sergeant said, in +his days of discomfort: "I wonder what our sweethearts would think of +us, if they were to see us now,--unshaved, unwashed, and quite old men!" +Cut in a year, those who survived had grown young again,--not shaven, +perhaps, for their beards were a great natural comfort on winter duty, +but brushed and washed, in vigorous health, and gay spirits. + +The next consideration is the soldier's abode,--whether tent, or hut, or +quarters. + +I have shown certain British doctors demanding lime-juice when food was +necessary first. In the same way, there was a cry from the same quarter +for peat charcoal, instead of preventing the need of disinfectants. +Wherever men are congregated in large numbers,--in a caravan, at a +fair in the East or a protracted camp-meeting in the far West, or as a +military force anywhere, there is always animal refuse which should +not be permitted to lie about for a day or an hour. Dead camels among +Oriental merchants, dead horses among Western soldiers, are the cause of +plague. It is to be hoped that there will never be a military encampment +again without the appointment of officers whose business it shall be to +see that all carrion, offal, and dirt of every kind is put away into +its proper place instantly. For those receptacles, and for stables and +shambles, peat charcoal is a great blessing; but it ought not to be +needed in or about the abodes of the men. The case is different in +different armies. The French have a showy orderliness in their way of +settling themselves on new ground,--forming their camp into streets, +with names painted up, and opening post-office, _cafes_, and bazaars of +camp-followers; but they are not radically neat in their ways. In a few +days or weeks their settlement is a place of stench, turning to disease; +and thus it was, that, notwithstanding their fresh bread, and good +cookery, and clever arrangements, they were swept away by cholera and +dysentery, to an extent unrevealed to this day, while the British force, +once well fed and clothed, had actually only five per cent sick from all +causes, in their whole force. + +The Sardinians suffered, as I have already observed, from their way of +making their huts. They excavated a space, to the depth of three or four +feet, and used the earth they threw out to embank the walls raised upon +the edge of the excavation. This procured warmth in winter and coolness +in hot weather; but the interior was damp and ill-ventilated; and as +soon as there was any collection of refuse within, cholera and fever +broke out. It is essential to health that the dwelling should be above +ground, admitting the circulation of air from the base to the ridge of +the roof, where there should be an escape for it at all hours of the day +and night. + +Among volunteer troops in America, the difficulty would naturally seem +to be the newness of the discipline, the strangeness of the requisite +obedience. Something must be true of all that is said of the scattering +about of food, and other things which have no business to lie about on +the ground. A soldier is out of his duty who throws away a crust of +bread or meat, or casts bones to dogs, or in any way helps to taint the +air or obstruct the watercourses or drains. It may be troublesome to +obey the requisitions of the sanitary authorities; but it is the only +chance for escaping camp-disease. + +On the other hand, in fixing on a spot for encampment, it is due to +the soldier to avoid all boggy places, and all places where the air is +stagnant from inclosure by woods, or near burial-grounds, or where the +soil is unfavorable to drainage. The military officer must admit the +advice of the sanitary officer in the case, though he may not be +always able to adopt it. When no overwhelming military considerations +interfere, the soldiers have a right to be placed on the most dry and +pervious soil that may offer, in an airy situation, removed from swamps +and dense woods, and admitting of easy drainage. Wood and water used to +be the quartermaster's sole demands; now, good soil and air are added, +and a suitable slope of the ground, and other minor requisites. + +It depends on the character of the country whether quarters in towns and +villages are best, or huts or tents. In Europe, town quarters are found +particularly fatal; and the state of health of the inmates of tents and +huts depends much on the structure and placing of either. Precisely the +same kind of hut in the Crimea held a little company of men in perfect +health, or a set of invalids, carried out one after another to their +graves. Nay, the same hut bore these different characters, according to +its position at the top of a slope, or half-way down, so as to collect +under its floor the drainage from a spring. American soldiers, however, +are hardly likely to be hutted, I suppose; so I need say no more than +that in huts and tents alike it is indispensable to health that there +should be air-holes,--large spaces, sheltered from rain,--in the highest +part of the structure, whether the entrance below be open or closed. The +sanitary officers no doubt have it in charge to see that every man has +his due allowance of cubic feet of fresh air,--in other words, to take +care that each tent or other apartment is well ventilated, and not +crowded. The men's affair is to establish such rules among comrades as +that no one shall stop up air-holes, or overcrowd the place with guests, +or taint the air with unwholesome fumes. In the British army, bell-tents +are not allowed at all as hospital tents. Active, healthy men may use +them in their resting hours; but their condemnation as abodes for the +sick shows how pressing is the duty of ventilating them for the use of +the strongest and healthiest. + +A sound and airy tent being provided, the next consideration is of +bedding. + +The surgeons of the British force were always on the lookout for straw +and hay, after being informed at the outset that the men could not have +bedding, though it was hoped there was enough for the hospitals. A few +nights in the dust, among the old bones and rubbish of Gallipoli, and +then in the Bulgarian marshes, showed that it would be better to bestow +the bedding before the men went into hospital, and sheets of material +were obtained for some of them to lie upon. A zealous surgeon pointed +out to the proper officer that this bedding consisted in fact of double +ticking, evidently intended as _paillasses_, to be stuffed with straw. +The straw not being granted, he actually set to work to make hay; and, +being well aided by the soldiers, he soon saw them sleeping on +good mattresses. It was understood in England, and believed by the +Government, that every soldier in camp had three blankets; and after a +time, this came true: but in the interval, during the damp autumn and +bitter winter, they had but one. Lying on wet ground, with one damp and +dirty blanket over them, prepared hundreds for the hospital and the +grave. The mischief was owing to the jealousy of some of the medical +authorities, in the first place, who would not see, believe, or allow to +be reported, the fact that the men were in any way ill-supplied, because +these same doctors had specified the stores that would be wanted,--and +next, to the absence of a department for the actual distribution of +existing stores. With the bedding the case was the same as with the +lime-juice and the rice: there was plenty; but it was not served out +till too late. When the huts were inhabited, in the Crimea, and the +wooden platforms had a dry soil beneath, and every man had a bed of some +sort and three blankets, there was no more cholera or fever. + +The American case is radically unlike that of any of the combatants in +the Crimean War, because they are on the soil of their own country, +within reach of their own railways, and always in the midst of the +ordinary commodities of life. In such a position, they can with the +utmost ease be supplied with whatever they really want,--so profuse as +are the funds placed at the command of the authorities. Considering +this, and the well-known handiness of Americans, there need surely be no +disease and death from privation. This may be confidently said while we +have before us the case of the British in the Crimea during the second +winter of the war. A sanitary commission had been sent out; and +under their authority, and by the help of experience, everything was +rectified. The healthy were stronger than ever; there was scarcely any +sickness; and the wounded recovered without drawback. As the British +ended, the Americans ought to begin. + +On the last two heads of the soldier's case there is little to be said +here, because the American troops are at home, and not in a perilous +foreign climate, and on the shores of a remote sea. Their drill can +hardly be appointed for wrong hours, or otherwise mismanaged. In regard +to transport, they have not the embarrassment of crowds of sick and +wounded, far away in the Black Sea, without any adequate supply of +mules and carriages, after the horses had died off, and without any +organization of hospital ships at all equal to the demand. Neither do +they depend for clothing and medicines on the arrival of successive +ships through the storms of the Euxine; and they will never see the +dreary spectacle of the foundering of a noble vessel just arriving, in +November, with ample stores of winter clothing, medicines, and comforts, +which six hours more would have placed in safety. Under the head of +transport, they ought to have nothing to suffer. + +Having gone through the separate items, and looking at the case as a +whole, we may easily perceive that in America, as in England and France +and every other country, the responsibility of the soldier's health in +camp is shared thus. + +The authorities are bound so to arrange their work as that there shall +be no hitch through which disaster shall reach the soldiery. The +relations between the military and medical authorities must be so +settled and made clear as that no professional jealousy among the +doctors shall keep the commanding officers in the dark as to the +needs--of their men, and that no self-will or ignorance in commanding +officers shall neutralize the counsels of the medical men. The military +authorities must not depend on the report of any doctor who may be +incompetent as to the provision made for the men's health, and the +doctor must be authorized to represent the dangers of a bad encampment +without being liable to a recommendation to keep his opinion to himself +till he is asked for it. These particular dangers are best obviated by +the appointment of sanitary officers, to attend the forces, and take +charge of the health of the army, as the physicians and surgeons take +charge of its sickness. If, besides, there is a separate department +between the commissariat and the soldiery, to see that the comforts +provided are actually brought within every man's grasp, the authorities +will have done their part. + +The rest is the soldier's own concern. When cruelly pressed by hardship, +the soldiers in Turkey and the Crimea took to drinking; and what they +drank was poison. The vile raid with which they intoxicated themselves +carried hundreds to the grave as surely as arsenic would have done. +When, at last, they were well fed, warm, clean, and comfortable, and +well amused in the coffee-houses opened for them, there was an end, or +a vast diminution, of the evil of drunkenness. Good coffee and harmless +luxuries were sold to them at cost price; and books and magazines and +newspapers, chess, draughts, and other games, were at their command. The +American soldiery are a more cultivated set of men than these, and are +in proportion more inexcusable for any resort to intemperance. They +ought to have neither the external discomfort nor the internal vacuity +which have caused drunkenness in other armies. The resort to strong +drinks so prevalent in the Americans is an ever-lasting mystery to +Europeans, who recognize in them a self-governing people, universally +educated up to a capacity for intellectual interests such as are +elsewhere found to be a safeguard against intemperance in drink. If the +precautions instituted by the authorities are well supported by the +volunteers themselves, the most fatal of all perils will be got rid of. +If not, the army will perish by a veritable suicide. But such a fate +cannot be in store for such an army. + +There is something else almost as indispensable to the health of +soldiers as sobriety, and that is subordination. The true, magnanimous, +patriotic spirit of subordination is not more necessary to military +achievement than it is to the personal composure and the trustworthiness +of nerve of the individual soldier. A strong desire and fixed habit of +obedience to command relieve a man of all internal conflict between +self-will and circumstance, and give him possession of his full powers +of action and endurance. If absolute reliance on authority is a +necessity to the great majority of mankind, (which it is,) it is to the +few wisest and strongest a keen enjoyment when they can righteously +indulge in it; and the occasion on which it is supremely a duty--in the +case of military or naval service--is one of privilege. Americans are +less accustomed than others to prompt and exact obedience, being a +self-governing and unmilitary nation: and they may require some time to +become aware of the privileges of subordination to command. But time +will satisfy them of the truth; and those who learn the lesson most +quickly will be the most sensible of the advantage to health of body, +through ease of mind. The abdication of self-will in regard to the +ordering of affairs, the repose of reliance upon the responsible +parties, the exercise of silent endurance about hardships and fatigues, +the self-respect which relishes the honor of cooperation through +obedience, the sense of patriotic devotedness which glows through every +act of submission to command,--all these elevated feelings tend to +composure of the nerves, to the fortifying of brain and limb, and the +genial repose and exaltation of all the powers of mind and body. I +need not contrast with this the case of the discontented and turbulent +volunteer, questioning commands which he is not qualified to judge of, +and complaining of troubles which cannot be helped. It is needless to +show what wear-and-tear is caused by such a spirit, and how nerve and +strength must, in such a case, fail in the hour of effort or of crisis, +and give way at once before the assault of disease. By the aid of +sobriety and the calm and cheerful subordination of the true military +character, the health of the Federal army may be equal to its high +mission: and all friends of human freedom, in all lands, must heartily +pray that it may be so. + +There is another department of the subject which I propose to treat of +another month: "Health in the Military Hospital." + + + + +"THE STORMY PETREL." + + + Where the gray crags beat back the northern main, + And all around, the ever restless waves, + Like white sea-wolves, howl on the lonely sands, + Clings a low roof, close by the sounding surge. + If, in your summer rambles by the shore, + His spray-tost cottage you may chance espy, + Enter and greet the blind old mariner. + + Full sixty winters he has watched beside + The turbulent ocean, with one purpose warmed: + To rescue drowning men. And round the coast-- + For so his comrades named him in his youth-- + They know him as "The Stormy Petrel" still. + + Once he was lightning-swift, and strong; his eyes + Peered through the dark, and far discerned the wreck + Plunged on the reef. Then with bold speed he flew, + The life-boat launched, and dared the smiting rocks. + + 'T is said by those long dwelling near his door, + That hundreds have been storm-saved by his arm; + That never was he known to sleep, or lag + In-doors, when danger swept the seas. His life + Was given to toil, his strength to perilous blasts. + In freezing floods when tempests hurled the deep, + And battling winds clashed in their icy caves, + Scared housewives, waking, thought of him, and said, + "'The Stormy Petrel' is abroad to-night, + And watches from the cliffs." + + He could not rest + When shipwrecked forms might gasp amid the waves, + And not a cry be answered from the shore. + + Now Heaven has quenched his sight; but when he hears + By his lone hearth the sullen sea-winds clang, + Or listens, in the mad, wild, drowning night, + As younger footsteps hurry o'er the beach + To pluck the sailor from his sharp-fanged death,-- + The old man starts, with generous impulse thrilled, + And, with the natural habit of his heart, + Calls to his neighbors in a cheery tone, + Tells them he'll pilot toward the signal guns, + And then, remembering all his weight of years, + Sinks on his couch, and weeps that he is blind. + + + + +A STORY OF TO-DAY. + + +Margaret stood looking down in her quiet way at the sloping moors and +fog. She, too, had her place and work. She thought that night she saw it +clearly, and kept her eyes fixed on it, as I said. They plodded steadily +down the wide years opening before her. Whatever slow, unending work +lay in them, whatever hungry loneliness they held for her heart, or +coarseness of deed, she saw it all, shrinking from nothing. She +looked at the tense blue-corded veins in her wrist, full of fine +pure blood,--gauged herself coolly, her lease of life, her power of +endurance,--measured it out against the work waiting for her. The work +would be long, she knew. She would be old before it was finished, quite +an old woman, hard, mechanical, worn out. But the day would be so +bright, when it came, it would atone for all: the day would be bright, +the home warm again; it would hold all that life had promised her of +good. + +All? Oh, Margaret, Margaret! Was there no sullen doubt in the brave +resolve? Was there no shadow rose just then, dark, ironical, blotting +out father and mother and home, coming nearer, less alien to your soul +than these, than even your God? + +If any such cold, masterful shadow rose out of years gone, and clutched +at the truest life of her heart, she stifled it, and thrust it down. +And yet, leaning on the gate, and thinking drearily, vacantly, she +remembered a time when God came nearer to her than He did now, and came +through that shadow,--when, by the help of that dead hope, He of whom +she read to-night came close, an infinitely tender Helper, who, with the +human love that was in her heart to-day, had loved his mother and John +and Mary. Now, struggle as she would for healthy hopes and warmth, the +world was gray and silent. Her defeated woman's nature called it so, +bitterly. Christ was a dim ideal power, heaven far-off. She doubted if +it held anything as real as that which she had lost. + +As if to bring back the old times more vividly to her, there happened +one of those curious little coincidences with which Fate, we think, has +nothing to do. She heard a quick step along the clay road, and a muddy +little terrier jumped up, barking, beside her. She stopped with a +suddenness strange in her slow movements. _"Tiger!"_ she said, stroking +its head with passionate eagerness. The dog licked her hand, smelt her +clothes to know if she were the same: it was two years since he had seen +her. She sat there, softly stroking him. Presently there was a sound of +wheels jogging down the road, and a voice singing snatches of some song, +one of those cheery street-songs that the boys whistle. It was a low, +weak voice, but very pleasant. Margaret heard it through the dark; she +kissed the dog with a strange paleness on her face, and stood up, quiet, +attentive as before. Tiger still kept licking her hand, as it hung by +her side: it was cold, and trembled as he touched it. She waited a +moment, then pushed the dog from her, as if his touch, even, caused her +to break some vow. He whined, but she hurried away, not waiting to know +how he came, or with whom. Perhaps, if Dr. Knowles had seen her face as +she looked back at him, he would have thought there were depths in her +nature which his probing eyes had never reached. + +The wheels came close, and directly a cart stopped at the gate. It was +one of those little wagons that hucksters drive; only this seemed to be +a home-made affair, patched up with wicker-work and bits of board. It +was piled up with baskets of vegetables, eggs, and chickens, and on a +broken bench in the middle sat the driver, a woman. You could not +help laughing, when you looked at the whole turn-out, it had such a +make-shift look altogether. + +The reins were twisted rope, the wheels uneven. It went jolting along in +such a careless, jolly way, as if it would not care in the least, should +it go to pieces any minute just there in the road. The donkey that drew +it was bony and blind of one eye; but he winked the other knowingly at +you, as if to ask if you saw the joke of the thing. Even the voice of +the owner of the establishment, chirruping some idle song, as I told +you, was one of the cheeriest sounds you ever heard. Joel, up at the +barn, forgot his dignity to salute it with a prolonged "Hillo!" and +presently appeared at the gate. + +"I'm late, Joel," said the weak voice. It sounded like a child's near at +hand. + +"We can trade in the dark, Lois, both bein' honest," he responded, +graciously, hoisting a basket of tomatoes into the cart, and taking out +a jug of vinegar. + +"Is that Lois?" said Mrs. Howth, coming to the gate. "Sit still, child. +Don't get down." + +But the child, as she called her, had scrambled off the cart, and stood +beside her, leaning on the wheel, for she was helplessly crippled. + +"I thought you would be down tonight. I put some coffee on the stove. +Bring it out, Joel." + +Mrs. Howth never put up the shield between herself and this member of +"the class,"--because, perhaps, she was so wretchedly low in the social +scale. However, I suppose she never gave a reason for it even to +herself. Nobody could help being kind to Lois, even if he tried. Joel +brought the coffee with more readiness than he would have waited on Mrs. +Howth. + +"Barney will be jealous," he said, patting the bare ribs of the old +donkey, and glancing wistfully at his mistress. + +"Give him his supper, surely," she said, taking the hint. + +It was a real treat to see how Lois enjoyed her supper, sipping and +tasting the warm coffee, her face in a glow, like an epicure over some +rare Falernian. You would be sure, from, just that little thing, that no +sparkle of warmth or pleasure in the world slipped by her which she did +not catch and enjoy and be thankful for to the uttermost. You would +think, perhaps, pitifully, that not much pleasure or warmth would ever +go down so low, within her reach. Now that she stood on the ground, she +scarcely came up to the level of the wheel; some deformity of her legs +made her walk with a curious rolling jerk, very comical to see. She +laughed at it, when other people did; if it vexed her at all, she never +showed it. She had turned back her calico sun-bonnet, and stood looking +up at Mrs. Howth and Joel, laughing as they talked--with her. The face +would have startled you on so old and stunted a body. It was a child's +face, quick, eager, with that pitiful beauty you always see in deformed +people. Her eyes, I think, were the kindliest, the hopefullest I ever +saw. Nothing but the pale thickness of her skin betrayed the fact that +set Lois apart from even the poorest poor,--the taint in her veins of +black blood. + +"Whoy! be n't this Tiger?" said Joel, as the dog ran yelping about him. +"How comed yoh with him, Lois?" + +"Tiger an' his master's good friends o' mine,--you remember they allus +was. An' he's back now, Mr. Holmes,--been back for a month." + +Margaret, walking in the porch with her father, stopped. + +"Are you tired, father? It is late." + +"And you are worn out, poor child! It was selfish in me to forget. +Good-night, dear!" + +Margaret kissed him, laughing cheerfully, as she led him to his +room-door. He lingered, holding her dress. + +"Perhaps it will be easier for you tomorrow than it was to-day?" +hesitating. + +"I am sure it will. To-morrow will be sure to be better than to-day." + +She left him, and went away with a slow step that did not echo the +promise of her words. + +Joel, meanwhile, consulted apart with his mistress. + +"Of course," she said, emphatically.--"You must stay until morning, +Lois. It is too late. Joel will toss you up a bed in the loft." + +The queer little body hesitated. + +"I can stay," she said, at last. "It's his watch at the mill to-night." + +"Whose watch?" demanded Joel. + +Her face brightened. + +"Father's. He's back, mum." + +Joel caught himself in a whistle. + +"He's very stiddy, Joel,--as stiddy as yuh." + +"I am very glad he has come back, Lois," said Mrs. Howth, gravely. + +At every place where Lois had been that day she had told her bit of good +news, and at every place it had been met with the same kindly smile and +"I'm glad he's back, Lois." + +Yet Joe Yare, fresh from two years in the penitentiary, was not exactly +the person whom society usually welcomes with open arms. Lois had a +vague suspicion of this, perhaps; for, as she hobbled along the path, +she added to her own assurance of his "stiddiness" earnest explanations +to Joel of how he had a place in the Croft Street woollen-mills, and +how Dr. Knowles had said he was as ready a stoker as any in the +furnace-rooms. + +The sound of her weak, eager voice was silent presently, and nothing +broke the quiet and cold of the night. Even the morning, when it came +long after, came quiet and cool,--the warm red dawn helplessly smothered +under great waves of gray cloud. Margaret, looking out into the thick +fog, lay down wearily again, closing her eyes. What was the day to her? + +Very slowly the night was driven back. An hour after, when she lifted +her head again, the stars were still glittering through the foggy arch, +like sparks of brassy blue, and the sky and hills and valleys were one +drifting, slow-heaving mass of ashy damp. Off in the east a stifled red +film groped through. It was another day coming; she might as well get +up, and live the rest of her life out;--what else had she to do? + +Whatever this night had been to the girl, it left one thought sharp, +alive, in the exhausted quiet of her brain: a cowardly dread of the +trial of the day, when she would see him again. Was the old struggle of +years before coming back? Was it all to go over again? She was worn out. +She had been quiet in these--two years: what had gone before she never +looked back upon; but it made her thankful for even this stupid quiet. +And now, when she had planned her life, busy and useful and contented, +why need God have sent the old thought to taunt her? A wild, sickening +sense of what might have been struggled up: she thrust it down,--she had +kept it down all night; the old pain should not come back,--it should +not. She did not think of the love she had given up as a dream, as +verse-makers or sham people do; she knew it to be the reality of her +life. She cried for it even now, with all the fierce strength of her +nature; it was the best she knew; through it she came nearest to God. +Thinking of the day when she had given it up, she remembered it with a +vague consciousness of having fought a deadly struggle with her fate, +and that she had been conquered,--never had lived again. Let it be; she +could not bear the struggle again. + +She went on dressing herself in a dreary, mechanical way. Once, a bitter +laugh came on her face, as she looked into the glass, and saw the dead, +dull eyes, and the wrinkle on her forehead. Was that the face to be +crowned with delicate caresses and love? She scorned herself for the +moment, grew sick of herself, balked, thwarted in her true life as she +was. Other women whom God has loved enough to probe to the depths of +their nature have done the same,--saw themselves as others saw them: +their strength drying up within them, jeered at, utterly alone. It is +a trial we laugh at. I think the quick fagots at the stake were fitter +subjects for laughter than the slow gnawing hunger in the heart of many +a slighted woman or a selfish man. They come out of the trial as out of +martyrdom, according to their faith: you see its marks sometimes in a +frivolous old age going down with tawdry hopes and starved eyes to the +grave; you see its victory in the freshest, fullest lives in the earth. +This woman had accepted her trial, but she took it up as an inflexible +fate which she did not understand; it was new to her; its solitude, its +hopeless thirst were freshly bitter. She loathed herself as one whom God +had thought unworthy of every woman's right,--to love and be loved. + +She went to the window, looking blankly out into the gray cold. Any +one with keen analytic eye, noting the thin muscles of this woman, the +childish, scarlet lips, the eyes deep, concealing, would have foretold +that she would conquer in the trial, that she would force her soul +down,--but that the forcing down would leave the weak, flaccid body +spent and dead. One thing was certain: no curious eyes would see the +struggle; the body might be nerveless or sickly, but it had the great +power of reticence; the calm with which she faced the closest gaze was +natural to her,--no mask. When she left her room and went down, the +same unaltered quiet that had baffled Knowles steadied her step and +cooled her eyes. + +After you have made a sacrifice of yourself for others, did you ever +notice how apt you were to doubt, as soon as the deed was irrevocable, +whether, after all, it were worth while to have done it? How poor seems +the good gained! How new and unimagined the agony of empty hands and +stifled wish! Very slow the angels are, sometimes, that are sent to +minister! + +Margaret, going down the stairs that morning, found none of the +chivalric unselfish glow of the night before in her home. It was an old, +bare house in the midst of dreary moors, in which her life was slowly to +be worn out: that was all. It did not matter; life was short: she could +thank God for that at least. + +She opened the house-door. A draught of cold morning air struck her +face, sweeping from the west; it had driven the fog in great gray banks +upon the hills, or in shimmering broken swamps into the cleft hollows: +a vague twilight filled the space left bare. Tiger, asleep in the hall, +rushed out into the meadow, barking, wild with the freshness and cold, +then back again to tear round her for a noisy good-morning. The touch of +the dog seemed to bring her closer to his master; she put him away; she +dared not suffer even that treachery to her purpose: because, in fact, +the very circumstances that had forced her to give him up made it weak +cowardice to turn again. It was a simple story, yet one which she dared +not tell to herself; for it was not altogether for her father's sake she +had made the sacrifice. She knew, that, though she might be near to +this man Holmes as his own soul, she was a clog on him,--stood in his +way,--kept him back. So she had quietly stood aside, taken up her own +solitary burden, and left him with his clear self-reliant life,--with +his Self, dearer to him than she had ever been. Why should it not be? +she thought,--remembering the man as he was, a master among men. He was +back again; she must see him. So she stood there with this persistent +dread running through her brain. + +Suddenly, in the lane by the house, she heard a voice talking to +Joel,--the huckster-girl. What a weak, cheery sound it was in the cold +and fog! It touched her curiously: broke through her morbid thought as +anything true and healthy would have done. "Poor Lois!" she thought, +with an eager pity, forgetting her own intolerable future for the +moment, as she gathered up some breakfast and went with it down the +lane. Morning had come; great heavy bars of light fell from behind the +hills athwart the banks of gray and black fog; there was shifting, +uneasy, obstinate tumult among the shadows; they did not mean to yield +to the coming dawn. The hills, the massed woods, the mist opposed their +immovable front, scornfully. Margaret did not notice the silent contest +until she reached the lane. The girl Lois, sitting in her cart, was +looking, quiet, attentive, at the slow surge of the shadows, and the +slower lifting of the slanted rays. + +"T' mornin' comes grand here, Miss Marg'et!" she said, lowering her +voice. + +Margaret said nothing in reply; the morning, she thought, was gray +and cold, as her own life. She stood leaning on the low cart; +some strange sympathy drew her to this poor wretch, dwarfed, +alone in the world,--some tie of equality, which the odd childish +face, nor the quaint air of content about the creature, did +not lessen. Even when Lois shook down the patched skirt of her flannel +frock straight, and settled the heaps of corn and tomatoes about her, +preparatory for a start, Margaret kept her hand on the side of the cart, +and walked slowly by it down the road. Once, looking at the girl, she +thought with a half smile how oddly clean she was. The flannel skirt she +arranged so complacently had been washed until the colors had run madly +into each other in sheer desperation; her hair was knotted with a +relentless tightness into a comb such as old women wear. The very cart, +patched as it was, had a snug, cozy look; the masses of vegetables, +green and crimson and scarlet, were heaped with a certain reference to +the glow of color, Margaret noticed, wondering if it were accidental. +Looking up, she saw the girl's brown eyes fixed on her face. They were +singularly soft, brooding brown. + +"Ye'r' goin' to th' mill, Miss Marg'et?" she asked, in a half whisper. + +"Yes. You never go there now, Lois?" + +"No, 'm." + +The girl shuddered, and then tried to hide it in a laugh. Margaret +walked on beside her, her hand on the cart's edge. Somehow this +creature, that Nature had thrown impatiently aside as a failure, so +marred, imperfect, that even the dogs were kind to her, came strangely +near to her, claimed recognition by some subtile instinct. + +Partly for this, and partly striving to forget herself, she glanced +furtively at the childish face of the distorted little body, wondering +what impression the shifting dawn made on the unfinished soul that was +looking out so intently through the brown eyes. What artist sense had +she,--what could she know--the ignorant huckster--of the eternal laws +of beauty or grandeur? Nothing. Yet something in the girl's face made +her think that these hills, this air and sky, were in fact alive to +her,--real; that her soul, being lower, it might be, than ours, lay +closer to Nature, knew the language of the changing day, of these +earnest-faced hills, of the very worms crawling through the brown mould. +It was an idle fancy; Margaret laughed at herself for it, and turned +to watch the slow morning-struggle which Lois followed with such eager +eyes. + +The light was conquering, growing stronger. Up the gray arch the soft, +dewy blue crept gently, deepening, broadening; below it, the level bars +of light struck full on the sullen black of the west, and worked there +undaunted, tinging it with crimson and imperial purple. Two or three +coy mist-clouds, soon converted to the new allegiance, drifted giddily +about, mere flakes of rosy blushes. The victory of the day came slowly, +but sure, and then the full morning flushed out, fresh with moisture and +light and delicate perfume. The bars of sunlight fell on the lower earth +from the steep hills like pointed swords; the foggy swamp of wet vapor +trembled and broke, so touched, rose at last, leaving patches of damp +brilliance on the fields, and floated majestically up in radiant victor +clouds, led by the conquering wind. Victory: it was in the cold, pure +ether filling the heavens, in the solemn gladness of the hills. The +great forests thrilling in the soft light, the very sleepy river +wakening under the mist, chorded in with a grave bass to the rising +anthem of welcome to the new life which God had freshly given to the +world. From the sun himself, come forth as a bridegroom from his +chamber, to the flickering raindrops on the road-side mullein, the world +seemed to rejoice exultant in victory. Homely, cheerier sounds broke the +outlined grandeur of the morning, on which Margaret looked wearily. Lois +lost none of them; no morbid shadow of her own balked life kept their +meaning from her. + +The light played on the heaped vegetables in the old cart; the bony legs +of the donkey trotted on with fresh vigor. There was not a lowing cow in +the distant barns, nor a chirping swallow on the fence-bushes, that +did not seem to include the eager face of the little huckster in their +morning greetings. Not a golden dandelion on the road-side, not a gurgle +of the plashing brown water from the well-troughs, which did not give +a quicker pleasure to the glowing face. Its curious content stung the +woman walking by her side. What secret of recompense had this poor +wretch found? + +"Your father is here, Lois," she said carelessly, to break the silence. +"I saw him at the mill yesterday." + +Her face kindled instantly. + +"He's home, Miss Marg'et,--yes. An' it's all right wid him. Things allus +do come right, some time," she added, in a reflective tone, brushing a +fly off Sawney's ear. + +Margaret smiled. + +"Always? Who brings them right for you, Lois?" + +"The Master," she said, turning with an answering smile. + +Margaret was touched. The owner of the mill was not a more real +verity to this girl than the Master of whom she spoke with such quiet +knowledge. + +"Are things right in the mill?" she said, testing her. + +A shadow came on her face; her eyes wandered uncertainly, as if her weak +brain were confused,--only for a moment. + +"They'll come right!" she said, bravely. "The Master'll see to it!" + +But the light was gone from her eyes; some old pain seemed to be surging +through her narrow thought; and when she began to talk, it was in a +bewildered, doubtful way. + +"It's a black place, th' mill," she said, in a low voice. "It was a good +while I was there: frum seven year old till sixteen. 'T seemed longer t' +me 'n 't was. 'T seemed as if I'd been there allus,--jes' forever, yoh +know. 'Fore I went in, I had the rickets, they say: that's what ails me. +'T hurt my head, they've told me,--made me different frum other folks." + +She stopped a moment, with a dumb, hungry look in her eyes. After a +while she looked at Margaret furtively, with a pitiful eagerness. + +"Miss Marg'et, I think there _is_ something wrong in my head. Did yoh +ever notice it?" + +Margaret put her hand kindly on the broad, misshapen forehead. + +"Something is wrong everywhere, Lois," she said, absently. + +She did not see the slow sigh with which the girl smothered down +whatever hope had risen just then, nor the wistful look of the brown +eyes that brightened into bravery after a while. + +"It'll come right," she said, steadily, though her voice was lower than +before. + +"But the mill,"--Margaret recalled her. + +"Th' mill,--yes. There was three of us,--father 'n' mother 'n' me,--'n' +pay was poor. They said times was hard. They _was_ hard times, Miss +Marg'et!" she said, with a nervous laugh, the brown eyes strangely +wandering. + +"Yes, hard,"--she soothed her, gently. + +"Pay was poor, 'n' many things tuk money." (Remembering the girl's +mother, Margaret knew gin would have covered the "many things.") "Worst +to me was th' mill. I kind o' grew into that place in them years: seemed +to me like as I was part o' th' engines, somehow. Th' air used to be +thick in my mouth, black wi' smoke 'n' wool 'n' smells. It 's better +now there. I got stunted then, yoh know. 'N' th' air in th' alleys was +worse, where we slep'. I think mebbe as 't was then I went wrong in my +head. Miss Marg'et!" + +Her voice went lower. + +"'T isn't easy to think o' th' Master--down _there_, in them cellars. +Things comes right--slow there,--slow." + +Her eyes grew stupid, as if looking down into some dreary darkness. + +"But the mill?" + +The girl roused herself with a sharp sigh. + +"In them years I got dazed in my head, I think. 'T was th' air 'n' th' +work. I was weak allus. 'T got so that th' noise o' th' looms went on in +my head night 'n' day,--allus thud, thud. 'N' hot days, when th' hands +was chaffin' 'n' singin', th' black wheels 'n' rollers was alive, +starin' down at me, 'n' th' shadders o' th' looms was like snakes +creepin',--creepin' anear all th' time. They was very good to me, th' +hands was,--very good. Ther' 's lots o' th' Master's people down there, +out o' sight, that's so low they never heard His name: preachers don't +go there. But He'll see to't. He'll not min' their cursin' o' Him, +seein' they don't know His face, 'n' thinkin' He belongs to th' gentry. +I knew it wud come right wi' me, when times was th' most bad. I knew"-- + +The girl was trembling now with excitement, her hands working together, +her eyes set, all the slow years of ruin that had eaten into her brain +rising before her, all the tainted blood in her veins of centuries of +slavery and heathenism struggling to drag her down. But above all, the +Hope rose clear, simple: the trust in the Master: and shone in her +scarred face,--through her marred senses. + +"I knew it wud come right, allus. I was alone then: mother was dead, and +father was gone, 'n' th' Lord thought 't was time to see to me,--special +as th' overseer was gettin' me an enter to th' poorhouse. So He sent Mr. +Holmes along. Then it come right!" + +Margaret did not speak. Even this mill-girl could talk of him, pray for +him; but she never must take his name on her lips! + +"He got th' cart fur me, 'n' this blessed old donkey, 'n' my room. Did +yoh ever see my room, Miss Marg'et?" + +Her face lighted suddenly with its peculiar childlike smile. + +"No? Yoh'll come some day, surely? It's a pore place, yoh'll think; but +it's got th' air,--th' air." + +She stopped to breathe the cold morning wind, as if she thought to find +in its fierce freshness the life and brains she had lost. + +"Ther' 's places in them alleys 'n' dark holes, Miss Marg'et, like th' +openin's to hell, with th' thick smells 'n' th' sights yoh'd see." + +She went back with a terrible clinging pity to the Gehenna from which +she had escaped. The ill of life was real enough to her,--a hungry devil +down in those alleys and dens. Margaret listened, waking to the sense +of a different pain in the world from her own,--lower deeps from which +women like herself draw delicately back, lifting their gauzy dresses. + +"Openin's to hell, they're like. People as come down to preach in them +think that, 'pears to me,--'n' think we've but a little way to go, bein' +born so near. It's easy to tell they thinks it,--shows in their looks. +Miss Marg'et!" + +Her face flashed. + +"Well, Lois?" + +"Th' Master has His people 'mong them very lowest, that's not for such +as yoh to speak to. He knows 'em: men 'n' women starved 'n' drunk into +jails 'n' work-houses, that'd scorn to be cowardly or mean,--that shows +God's kindness, through th' whiskey 'n' thievin', to th' orphints +or--such as me. Ther 's things th' Master likes in them, 'n' it'll +come right," she sobbed, "it'll come right at last; they'll have a +chance--somewhere." + +Margaret did not speak; let the poor girl sob herself into quiet. What +had she to do with this gulf of pain and wrong? Her own higher life was +starved, thwarted. Could it be that the blood of these her brothers +called against _her_ from the ground? No wonder that the huckster-girl +sobbed, she thought, or talked heresy. It was not an easy thing to see +a mother drink herself into the grave. And yet--was she to blame? Her +Virginian blood was cool, high-bred; she had learned conservatism in her +cradle. Her life in the West had not yet quickened her pulse. So she put +aside whatever social mystery or wrong faced her in this girl, just as +you or I would have done. She had her own pain to bear. Was she her +brother's keeper? It was true, there was wrong; this woman's soul lay +shattered by it; it was the fault of her blood, of her birth, and +Society had finished the work. Where was the help? She was free,--and +liberty, Dr. Knowles said, was the cure for all the soul's diseases, +and---- + +Well, Lois was quiet now,--ready with her childish smile to be drawn +into a dissertation on Barney's vices and virtues, or a description of +her room, where "th' air was so strong, 'n' the fruit 'n' vegetables +allus stayed fresh,--best in _this_ town," she said, with a bustling +pride. + +They went on down the road, through the corn-fields sometimes, or on +the riverbank, or sometimes skirting the orchards or barn-yards of the +farms. The fences were well built, she noticed,--the barns wide and +snug-looking: for this county in Indiana is settled by New England +people, as a general thing, or Pennsylvanians. They both leave their +mark on barns or fields, I can tell you! The two women were talking all +the way. In all his life Dr. Knowles had never heard from this silent +girl words as open and eager as she gave to the huckster about paltry, +common things,--partly, as I said, from a hope to forget herself, and +partly from a vague curiosity to know the strange world which opened +before her in this disjointed talk. There were no morbid shadows in this +Lois's life, she saw. Her pains and pleasures were intensely real, like +those of her class. If there were latent powers in her distorted brain, +smothered by hereditary vice of blood, or foul air and life, she knew +nothing of it. She never probed her own soul with fierce self-scorn, +as this quiet woman by her side did;--accepted, instead, the passing +moment, with keen enjoyment. For the rest, childishly trusted "the +Master." + +This very drive, now, for instance,--although she and the cart and +Barney went through the same routine every day, you would have thought +it was a new treat for a special holiday, if you had seen the perfect +_abandon_ with which they all threw themselves into the fun of the +thing. Not only did the very heaps of ruby tomatoes, and corn in +delicate green casings, tremble and shine as though they enjoyed the +fresh light and dew, but the old donkey cocked his ears, and curved his +scraggy neck, and tried to look as like a high-spirited charger as he +could. Then everybody along the road knew Lois, and she knew everybody, +and there was a mutual liking and perpetual joking, not very refined, +perhaps, but hearty and kind. It was a new side of life for Margaret. +She had no time for thoughts of self-sacrifice, or chivalry, ancient or +modern, watching it. It was a very busy ride,--something to do at every +farmhouse: a basket of eggs to be taken in, or some egg-plants, maybe, +which Lois laid side by side, Margaret noticed,--the pearly white balls +close to the heap of royal purple. No matter how small the basket was +that she stopped for, it brought out two or three to put it in; for Lois +and her cart were the event of the day for the lonely farm-houses. The +wife would come out, her face ablaze from the oven, with an anxious +charge about that butter; the old man would hail her from the barn to +know "ef she'd thought toh look in th' mail yes'rday"; and one or the +other was sure to add, "Jes' time for breakfast, Lois." If she had no +baskets to stop for, she had "a bit o' business," which turned out to be +a paper she had brought for the grandfather, or some fresh mint for the +baby, or "jes' to inquire fur th' fam'ly." + +As to the amount that cart carried, it was a perpetual mystery to Lois. +Every day since she and the cart went into partnership, she had gone +into town with a dead certainty in the minds of lookers-on that it +would break down in five minutes, and a triumphant faith in hers in its +unlimited endurance. "This cart'll be right side up fur years to come," +she would assert, shaking her head. "It's got no more notion o' givin' +up than me nor Barney,--not a bit." Margaret had her doubts,--and so +would you, if you had heard how it creaked under the load,--how they +piled in great straw panniers of apples: black apples with yellow +hearts,--scarlet veined, golden pippin apples, that held the warmth and +light longest,--russet apples with a hot blush on their rough brown +skins,--plums shining coldly in their delicate purple bloom,--peaches +with the crimson velvet of their cheeks aglow with the prisoned heat of +a hundred summer days. + +I wish with all my heart some artist would paint me Lois and her cart! +Mr. Kitts, the artist in the city then, used to see it going past his +room out by the coal-pits every day, and thought about it seriously. But +he had his grand battle-piece on hand then,--and after that he went the +way of all geniuses, and died down into colorer for a photographer. He +met them, that day, out by the stone quarry, and touched his hat as he +returned Lois's "Good-morning," and took a couple of great papaws from +her. She was a woman, you see, and he had some of the schoolmaster's +old-fashioned notions about women. He was a sickly-looking soul. One day +Lois had heard him say that there were papaws on his mother's place in +Ohio; so after that she always brought him some every day. She was one +of those people who must give, if it is nothing better than a Kentucky +banana. + +After they passed the stone quarry, they left the country behind them, +going down the stubble-covered hills that fenced in the town. Even in +the narrow streets, and through the warehouses, the strong, dewy air had +quite blown down and off the fog and dust. Morning (town morning, to be +sure, but still morning) was shining in the red window-panes, in the +tossing smoke up in the frosty air, in the very glowing faces of people +hurrying from market with their noses nipped blue and their eyes +watering with cold. Lois and her cart, fresh with country breath hanging +about them, were not so out of place, after all. House-maids left the +steps half-scrubbed, and helped her measure out the corn and beans, +gossiping eagerly; the newsboys "Hi-d!" at her in a friendly, +patronizing way; women in rusty black, with sharp, pale faces, hoisted +their baskets, in which usually lay a scraggy bit of flitch, on to the +wheel, their whispered bargaining ending oftenest in a low "Thank ye, +Lois!"--for she sold cheaper to some people than they did in the market. + +Lois was Lois in town or country. Some subtile power lay in the coarse, +distorted body, in the pleading child's face, to rouse, wherever they +went, the same curious, kindly smile. Not, I think, that dumb, pathetic +eye, common to deformity, that cries, "Have mercy upon me, O my friend, +for the hand of God hath touched me!"--a deeper, mightier charm, rather: +a trust down in the fouled fragments of her brain, even in the bitterest +hour of her bare, wretched life,--a faith, faith in God, faith in her +fellow-man, faith in herself. No human soul refused to answer its +summons. Down in the dark alleys, in the very vilest of the black and +white wretches that crowded sometimes about her cart, there was an +undefined sense of pride in protecting this wretch whose portion of life +was more meagre and low than theirs. Something in them struggled up to +meet the trust in the pitiful eyes,--something which scorned to betray +the trust,--some Christ-like power, smothered, dying, under the filth of +their life and the terror of hell. Not lost. If the Great Spirit of love +and trust lives, not lost! + +Even in the cold and quiet of the woman walking by her side the homely +power of the poor huckster was not weak to warm or to strengthen. +Margaret left her, turning into the crowded street leading to the part +of the town where the factories lay. The throng of anxious-faced men and +women jostled and pushed, but she passed through them with a different +heart from yesterday's. Somehow, the morbid fancies were gone; she was +keenly alive; the homely real life of this huckster had fired her, +touched her blood with a more vital stimulus than any tale of crusader. +As she went down the crooked maze of dingy lanes, she could hear Lois's +little cracked bell far off: it sounded like a Christmas song to her. +She half smiled, remembering how sometimes in her distempered brain +the world had seemed a gray, dismal Dance of Death. How actual it +was to-day,--hearty, vigorous, alive with honest work and tears and +pleasure! A broad, good world to live and work in, to suffer or die, if +God so willed it,--God, the good! She entered the vast, dingy factory; +the woollen dust, the clammy air of copperas were easier to breathe in; +the cramped, sordid office, the work, mere trifles to laugh at; and she +bent over the ledger with its hard lines in earnest good-will, +through the slow creeping hours of the long day. She noticed that the +unfortunate chicken was making its heart glad over a piece of fresh +earth covered with damp moss. Dr. Knowles stopped to look at it when he +came, passing her with a surly nod. + +"So your master's not forgotten you," he snarled, while the blind old +hen cocked her one eye up at him. + +Pike, the manager, had brought in some bills. + +"Who's its master?" he said, curiously, stopping by the door. + +"Holmes,--he feeds it every morning." + +The Doctor drawled out the words with a covert sneer, watching the +quiet, cold face bending over the desk, meantime. + +Pike laughed. + +"Bah! it's the first thing he ever fed, then, besides himself. Chickens +must lie nearer his heart than men." + +Knowles scowled at him; he had no fancy for Pike's scurrilous gossip. + +The quiet face was unmoved. When he heard the manager's foot on the +ladder without, he tested it again. He had a vague suspicion which he +was determined to verify. + +"Holmes," he said, carelessly, "has an affinity for animals. No wonder. +Adam must have been some such man as he, when the Lord gave him +'dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air.'" + +The hand paused courteously a moment, then resumed its quick, cool +movement over the page. He was not baffled. + +"If there were such a reality as mastership, that man was born to rule. +Pike will find him harder to cheat than me, when he takes possession +here." + +She looked up now, attentive. + +"He came here to take my place in the mills,--buy me out,--articles will +be signed in a day or two. I know what you think,--no,--not worth +a dollar. Only brains and a soul, and he's sold them at a high +figure,--threw his heart in,--the purchaser being a lady. It was light, +I fancy,--starved out, long ago." + +The old man's words were spurted out in the bitterness of scorn. The +girl listened with a cool incredulity in her eyes, and went back to her +work. + +"Miss Herne is the lady,--my partner's daughter. Herne and Holmes +they'll call the firm. He is here every day, counting future profit." + +Nothing could be read on the cold still face; so he left her, cursing, +as he went, men who put themselves up at auction,--worse than Orleans +slaves. Margaret laughed to herself at his passion; as for the story he +hinted, it was absurd. She forgot it in a moment. + +Two or three gentlemen down in one of the counting-rooms, just then, +looked at the story from another point of view. They were talking low, +out of hearing from the clerks. + +"It's a good thing for Holmes," said one, a burly, farmer-like man, who +was choosing specimens of wool. + +"Cheap. And long credit. Just half the concern he takes." + +"There is a lady in the case?" suggested a young doctor, who, by virtue +of having spent six months in the South, dropped his _r_-s, and talked +of "niggahs" in a way to make a Georgian's hair stand on end. + +"A lady in the case?" + +"Of course. Only child of Herne's. _He_ comes down with the dust as +dowry. Good thing for Holmes. 'Stonishin' how he's made his way up. If +money's what he wants in this world, he's making a long stride now to +'t." + +The young doctor lighted his cigar, asserting that-- + +"Ba George, some low people did get on, re-markably! Mary Herne, now, +was best catch in town." + +"Do you think money is what he wants?" said a quiet little man, sitting +lazily on a barrel,--a clergyman, whom his clerical brothers shook their +heads when they named, but never argued with, and bowed to with uncommon +deference. + +The wool-buyer hesitated with a puzzled look. + +"No," he said, slowly; "Stephen Holmes is not miserly. I've knowed him +since a boy. To buy place, power, perhaps, eh? Yet not that, neither," +he added, hastily. "We think a sight of him out our way, (self-made, you +see,) and would have had him the best office in the State before this, +only he was so cursedly indifferent." + +"Indifferent, yes. No man cares much for stepping-stones in themselves," +said the clergyman, half to himself. + +"Great fault of American society, especially in West," said the young +aristocrat. "Stepping-stones lie low, as my reverend friend suggests; +impudence ascends; merit and refinement scorn such dirty paths,"--with a +mournful remembrance of the last dime in his waistcoat-pocket. + +"But do you," exclaimed the farmer, with sudden solemnity, "do you +understand this scheme of Knowles's? Every dollar he owns is in this +mill, and every dollar of it is going into some castle in the air that +no sane man can comprehend." + +"Mad as a March hare," contemptuously muttered the doctor. + +His reverend friend gave him a look,--after which he was silent. + +"I wish to the Lord some one would persuade him out of it," persisted +the wool-man, earnestly looking at the quiet face of his listener. "We +can't spare old Knowles's brain or heart while he ruins himself. It's +something of a Communist fraternity: I don't know the name, but I know +the thing." + +Very hard common-sense shone out of his eyes just then at the clergyman, +whom he suspected of being one of Knowles's abettors. + +"There's two ways for 'em to end. If they're made out of the top of +society, they get so refined, so idealized, that every particle flies +off on its own special path to the sun, and the Community's broke; and +if they're made of the lower mud, they keep going down, down together, +--they live to drink and eat, and make themselves as near the brutes as +they can. It isn't easy to believe, Sir, but it's true. I have seen it. +I've seen every one of them the United States can produce. It's _facts_, +Sir; and facts, as Lord Bacon says, are the basis of every sound +speculation.'" + +The last sentence was slowly brought out, as quotations were not exactly +his _forte_, but, as he said afterwards,--"You see, that nailed the +parson." + +The parson nodded gravely. + +"You'll find no such experiment in the Bible," threw in the young +doctor, alluding to "serious things" as a peace-offering to his reverend +friend. + +"One, I believe," dryly. + +"Well," broke in the farmer, folding up his wool, "that's neither here +nor there. This experiment of Knowles's is like nothing known since +the Creation. Plan of his own. He spends his days now hunting out the +gallows-birds out of the dens in town here, and they're all to be +transported into the country to start a new Arcadia. A few men and women +like himself, but the bulk is from the dens, I tell you. All start fair, +level ground, perpetual celibacy, mutual trust, honor, rise according to +the stuff that's in them,--pah! it makes me sick!" + +"Knowles's inclination to that sort of people is easily explained," +spitefully lisped the doctor. "Blood, Sir. His mother was a half-breed +Creek, with all the propensities of the redskins to fire-water and +'itching palms.' Blood will out." + +"Here he is," maliciously whispered the wool-man. "No, it's Holmes," he +added, after the doctor had started into a more respectful posture, and +glanced around frightened. + +He, the doctor, rose to meet Holmes's coming footstep,--"a low fellah, +but always sure to be the upper dog in the fight, goin' to marry the +best catch," etc., etc. The others, on the contrary, put on their hats +and sauntered away into the street. + +So the day broadened hotly; the shadows of the Lombardy poplars curdling +up into a sluggish pool of black at their roots along the dry gutters. +The old schoolmaster in the shade of the great horse-chestnuts (brought +from the homestead in the Piedmont country, every one) husked corn for +his wife, composing, meanwhile, a page of his essay on the "Sirventes +de Bertrand de Born." The day passed for him as did his life, half in +simple-hearted deed, half in vague visions of a dead world, never to be +real again. Joel, up in the barn by himself, worked through the long day +in the old fashion,--pondering gravely (being of a religious turn) upon +a sermon by the Reverend Mr. Clinche, reported in the "Gazette"; wherein +that disciple of the meek Teacher invoked, as he did once a week, the +curses of the law upon his political opponents, praying the Lord to +sweep them immediately from the face of the earth. Which rendering of +Christian doctrine was so much relished by Joel, and the other leading +members of Mr. Clinche's church, that they hinted to him it might be as +well to continue choosing his texts from Moses and the Prophets +until the excitement of the day was over. The New Testament +was,--well,--hardly suited for the emergency; did not, somehow, chime in +with the lesson of the hour. I may remark, in passing, that this course +of conduct so disgusted the High-Church rector of the parish, that he +not only ignored all new devils, (as Mr. Carlyle might have called +them,) but talked as if the millennium, were _un fait accompli_, and he +had leisure to go and hammer at the poor dead old troubles of Luther's +time. One thing, though, about Joel: while he was joining in Mr. +Clinche's prayer for the "wiping out" of some few thousands, he was +using up all the fragments of the hot day in fixing a stall for a +half-dead old horse he had found by the road-side. Let us hope, that, +even if the listening angel did not grant the prayer, he marked down the +stall at least, as a something done for eternity. + +Margaret, through the heat and stifling air, worked steadily alone in +the dusty office, the cold, homely face bent over the books, never +changing but once. It was a trifle then; yet, when she looked back +afterwards, the trifle was all that gave the day a name. The room shook, +as I said, with the thunderous, incessant sound of the engines and the +looms; she scarcely heard it, being used to it. Once, however, another +sound came between,--a slow, quiet tread, passing through the long +wooden corridor,--so firm and measured that it sounded like the +monotonous beatings of a clock. She heard it through the noise in the +far distance; it came slowly nearer, up to the door without,--passed it, +going down the echoing plank walk. The girl sat quietly, looking out at +the dead brick wall. The slow step fell on her brain like the sceptre of +her master; if Knowles had looked in her face then, he would have seen +bared the secret of her life. Holmes had gone by, unconscious of who was +within the door. She had not seen him; it was nothing but a step she +heard. Yet a power, the power of the girl's life, shook off all outward +masks, all surface cloudy fancies, and stood up in her with a terrible +passion at the sound; her blood burned fiercely; her soul looked out +from her face, her soul as it was, as God knew it,--God and this man. No +longer a cold, clear face; you would have thought, looking at it, what a +strong spirit the soul of this woman would be, if set free in heaven +or in hell. The man who held it in his power went on carelessly, not +knowing that the mere sound of his step had raised it as from the +dead. She, and her right, and her pain, were nothing to him now, she +remembered, staring out at the taunting hot sky. Yet so vacant was the +sudden life opened before her when he was gone, that, in the desperation +of her weakness, her mad longing to see him but once again, she would +have thrown herself at his feet, and let the cold, heavy step crush her +life out,--as he would have done, she thought, choking down the icy +smother in her throat, if it had served his purpose, though it cost his +own heart's life to do it. He would trample her down, if she kept him +back from his end; but be false to her, false to himself, that he would +never be! + +So the hot, long day wore on,--the red bricks, the dusty desk covered +with wool, the miserable chicken peering out, growing sharper and more +real in the glare. Life was no morbid nightmare now; her weak woman's +heart found it actual and near. There was not a pain nor a want, from +the dumb hunger in the dog's eyes that passed her on the street, to her +father's hopeless fancies, that did not touch her sharply through her +own loss, with a keen pity, a wild wish to help to do something to save +others with this poor life left in her hands. + +So the hot day wore on in the town and country; the old sun glaring down +like some fierce old judge, intolerant of weakness or shams,--baking the +hard earth in the streets harder for the horses' feet, drying up the +bits of grass that grew between the boulders of the gutter, scaling off +the paint from the brazen faces of the interminable brick houses. He +looked down in that city as in every American town, as in these where +you and I live, on the same countless maze of human faces going day by +day through the same monotonous routine. Knowles, passing through the +restless crowds, read with keen eye among them strange meanings by this +common light of the sun,--meanings such as you and I might read, if our +eyes were clear as his,--or morbid, it may be. A commonplace crowd +like this in the street without: women with cold, fastidious faces, +heavy-brained, bilious men, dapper 'prentices, draymen, prize-fighters, +negroes. Knowles looked about him as into a seething caldron, in which +the people I tell you of were atoms, where the blood of uncounted races +was fused, but not mingled,--where creeds, philosophies, centuries old, +grappled hand to hand in their death-struggle,--where innumerable aims +and beliefs and powers of intellect, smothered rights and triumphant +wrongs, warred together, struggling for victory. + +Vulgar American life? He thought it a life more potent, more tragic in +its history and prophecy, than any that has gone before. People called +him a fanatic. It may be that he was one: yet the uncouth old man, sick +in soul from some gnawing pain of his own life, looked into the depths +of human loss with a mad desire to set it right. On the very faces +of those who sneered at him he found some traces of failure or pain, +something that his heart carried up to God with a loud and exceeding +bitter cry. The voice of the world, he thought, went up to heaven a +discord, unintelligible, hopeless,--the great blind world, astray since +the first ages! Was there no hope, no help? + +The hot sun shone down, as it had done for six thousand years; it shone +on open problems in the lives of these men and women who walked the +streets, problems whose end and beginning no eye could read. There were +places where it did not shine: down in the fetid cellars, in the slimy +cells of the prison yonder: what riddles of human life lay there he +dared not think of. God knows how the man groped for the light,--for any +voice to make earth and heaven clear to him. + +So the hot, long day wore on, for all of them. There was another light +by which the world was seen that day, rarer than the sunshine, purer. It +fell on the dense crowds,--upon the just and the unjust. It went into +the fogs of the fetid dens from which the coarser light was barred, into +the deepest mires where a human soul could wallow, and made them clear. +It lighted the depths of the hearts whose outer pain and passion men +were keen to read in the unpitying sunshine, and bared in those depths +the feeble gropings for the right, the loving hope, the unuttered +prayer. No kindly thought, no pure desire, no weakest faith in a God and +heaven somewhere could be so smothered under guilt that this subtile +light did not search it out, glow about it, shine through it, hold it up +in full view of God and the angels,--lighting the world other than the +sun had done for six thousand years. We have no name for the light: it +has a name,--yonder. Not many eyes were clear to see its shining that +day; and if they did, it was as through a glass, darkly. Yet it belonged +to us also, in the old time, the time when men could "hear the voice of +the Lord God in the garden in the cool of the day." It is God's light +now alone. + +Yet poor Lois caught faint glimpses, I think, sometimes, of its heavenly +clearness. I think it was this light that made the burning of Christmas +fires warmer for her than for others, that showed her all the love and +outspoken honesty and hearty frolic which her eyes saw perpetually in +the old warm-hearted world. That evening, as she sat on the step of her +brown frame shanty, knitting at a great blue stocking, her scarred face +and misshapen body very pitiful to the passers-by, it was this light +that gave to her face its homely, cheery smile. It made her eyes quick +to know the message in the depths of color in the evening sky, or even +the flickering tints of the green creeper on the wall with its crimson +cornucopias filled with hot sunshine. She liked clear, vital colors, +this girl,--the crimsons and blues. They answered her, somehow. They +could speak. There were things in the world that like herself were +marred,--did not understand,--were hungry to know: the gray sky, the +mud swamps, the tawny lichens. She cried sometimes, looking at them, +hardly knowing why: she could not help it, with a vague sense of loss. +It seemed at those times so dreary for them to be alive,--or for her. +Other things her eyes were quicker to see than ours: delicate or grand +lines, which she perpetually sought for unconsciously,--in the homeliest +things, the very soft curling of the woollen yarn in her fingers, as +in the eternal sculpture of the mountains. Was it the disease of her +injured brain that made all things alive to her,--that made her watch, +in her ignorant way, the grave hills, the flashing, victorious rivers, +look pitifully into the face of some dingy mushroom trodden in the mud +before it scarce had lived, just as we should look into human faces to +know what they would say to us? Was it the weakness and ignorance that +made everything she saw or touched nearer, more human to her than to you +or me? She never got used to living as other people do; these sights and +sounds did not come to her common, hackneyed. Why, sometimes, out in the +hills, in the torrid quiet of summer noons, she had knelt by the +shaded pools, and buried her hands in the great slumberous beds of +water-lilies, her blood curdling in a feverish languor, a passioned +trance, from which she roused herself, weak and tired. + +She had no self-poised artist sense, this Lois,--knew nothing of +Nature's laws. Yet sometimes, watching the dun sea of the prairie rise +and fall in the crimson light of early morning, or, in the farms, +breathing the blue air trembling up to heaven exultant with the life of +bird and forest, she forgot the poor coarse thing she was, some coarse +weight fell off, and something within, not the sickly Lois of the town, +went out, free, like an exile dreaming of home. + +You tell me, that, doubtless, in the wreck of the creature's brain, +there were fragments of some artistic insight that made her thus rise +above the level of her daily life, drunk with the mere beauty of form +and color. I do not know,--not knowing how sham or real a thing you mean +by artistic insight. But I do know that the clear light I told you of +shone for this girl dimly through this beauty of form and color; and +ignorant, with no words for her thoughts, she believed in it as the +Highest that she knew. I think it came to her thus an imperfect +language, (not an outward show of tints and lines, as to some +artists,)--a language, the same that Moses heard when he stood alone, +with nothing between his naked soul and God, but the desert and the +mountain and the bush that burned with fire. I think the weak soul +of the girl staggered from its dungeon, and groped through these +heavy-browed hills, these color-dreams, through even the homely kind +faces on the street, to find the God that lay behind. So the light +showed her the world, and, making its beauty and warmth divine and near +to her, the warmth and beauty became real in her, found their homely +shadows in her daily life. So it showed her, too, through her vague +childish knowledge, the Master in whom she believed,--showed Him to her +in everything that lived, more real than all beside. The waiting earth, +the prophetic sky, the coarsest or fairest atom that she touched was but +a part of Him, something sent to tell of Him,--she dimly felt; though, +as I said, she had no words for such a thought. Yet even more real than +this. There was no pain nor temptation down in those dark cellars where +she went that He had not borne,--not one. Nor was there the least +pleasure came to her or the others, not even a cheerful fire, or kind +words, or a warm, hearty laugh, that she did not know He sent it and was +glad to do it. She knew that well! So it was that He took part in her +humble daily life, and became more real to her day by day. Very homely +shadows her life gave of His light, for it was His: homely, because of +her poor way of living, and of the depth to which the heavy foot of the +world had crushed her. Yet they were there all the time, in her cheery +patience, if nothing more. To-night, for instance, how differently the +surging crowd seemed to her from what it did to Knowles! She looked down +on it from her high wood-steps with an eager interest, ready with her +weak, timid laugh to answer every friendly call from below. She had no +power to see them as types of great classes; they were just so many +living people, whom she knew, and who, most of them, had been kind to +her. Whatever good there was in the vilest face, (and there was always +something,) she was sure to see it. The light made her poor eyes strong +for that. + +She liked to sit there in the evenings, being alone, yet never growing +lonesome; there was so much that was pleasant to watch and listen to, as +the cool brown twilight came on. If, as Knowles thought, the world was +a dreary discord, she knew nothing of it. People were going from their +work now,--they had time to talk and joke by the way,--stopping, or +walking slowly down the cool shadows of the pavement; while here and +there a lingering red sunbeam burnished a window, or struck athwart the +gray boulder-paved street. From the houses near you could catch a faint +smell of supper: very friendly people those were in these houses; she +knew them all well. The children came out with their faces washed, to +play, now the sun was down: the oldest of them generally came to sit +with her and hear a story. + +After it grew darker, you would see the girls in their neat blue +calicoes go sauntering down the street with their sweethearts for +a walk. There was old Polston and his son Sam coming home from the +coal-pits, as black as ink, with their little tin lanterns on their +caps. After a while Sam would come out in his suit of Kentucky jean, his +face shining with the soap, and go sheepishly down to Jenny Ball's, and +the old man would bring his pipe and chair out on the pavement, and his +wife would sit on the steps. Most likely they would call Lois down, +or come over themselves, for they were the most sociable, coziest old +couple you ever knew. There was a great stopping at Lois's door, as +the girls walked past, for a bunch of the flowers she brought from the +country, or posies, as they called them, (Sam never would take any to +Jenny but "old man" and pinks,) and she always had them ready in broken +jugs inside. They were good, kind girls, every one of them,--had taken +it in turn to sit up with Lois last winter all the time she had the +rheumatism. She never forgot that time,--never once. + +Later in the evening you would see an old man coming along, close by the +wall, with his head down,--a very dark man, with gray, thin hair,--Joe +Yare, Lois's old father. No one spoke to him,--people always were +looking away as he passed; and if old Mr. or Mrs. Polston were on the +steps when he came up, they would say, "Good-evening, Mr. Yare," very +formally, and go away presently. It hurt Lois more than anything else +they could have done. But she bustled about noisily, so that he would +not notice it. If they saw the marks of the ill life he had lived on his +old face, she did not; his sad, uncertain eyes may have been dishonest +to them, but they were nothing but kind to the misshapen little soul +that he kissed so warmly with a "Why, Lo, my little girl!" Nobody else +in the world ever called her by a pet name. + +Sometimes he was gloomy and silent, but generally he told her of all +that had happened in the mill, particularly any little word of notice or +praise he might have received, watching her anxiously until she laughed +at it, and then rubbing his hands cheerfully. He need not have doubted +Lois's faith in him. Whatever the rest did, she believed in him; she +always had believed in him, through all the dark, dark years, when he +was at home, and in the penitentiary. They were gone now, never to come +back. It had come right. She, at least, thought his repentance sincere. +If the others wronged him, and it hurt her bitterly that they did, that +would come right some day too, she would think, as she looked at the +tired, sullen face of the old man bent to the window-pane, afraid to go +out. They had very cheerful little suppers there by themselves in the +odd, bare little room, as homely and clean as Lois herself. + +Sometimes, late at night, when he had gone to bed, she sat alone in the +door, while the moonlight fell in broad patches over the quiet square, +and the great poplars stood like giants whispering together. Still the +far sounds of the town came up cheerfully, while she folded up her +knitting, it being dark, thinking how happy an ending this was to a +happy day. When it grew quiet, she could hear the solemn whisper of the +poplars, and sometimes broken strains of music from the cathedral in the +city floated through the cold and moonlight past her, far off into the +blue beyond the hills. All the keen pleasure of the day, the warm, +bright sights and sounds, coarse and homely though they were, seemed to +fade into the deep music, and make a part of it. + +Yet, sitting there, looking out into the listening night, the poor +child's face grew slowly pale as she heard it. It humbled her. It made +her meanness, her low, weak life so real to her! There was no pain nor +hunger she had known that did not find a voice in its inarticulate cry. +She! what was she? All the pain and wants of the world must be going up +to God in that sound, she thought. There was something more in it,--an +unknown meaning that her shattered brain struggled to grasp. She could +not. Her heart ached with a wild, restless longing. She had no words +for the vague, insatiate hunger to understand. It was because she was +ignorant and low, perhaps; others could know. She thought her Master was +speaking. She thought the unknown meaning linked all earth and heaven +together, and made it plain. So she hid her face in her hands, and +listened while the low harmony shivered through the air, unheeded by +others, with the message of God to man. Not comprehending, it may +be,--the poor girl,--hungry still to know. Yet, when she looked up, +there were warm tears in her eyes, and her scarred face was bright with +a sad, deep content and love. + +So the hot, long day was over for them all,--passed as thousands of days +have done for us, gone down, forgotten: as that long, hot day we call +life will be over some time, and go down into the gray and cold. Surely, +whatever of sorrow or pain may have made darkness in that day for you or +me, there were countless openings where we might have seen glimpses of +that other light than sunshine: the light of the great Tomorrow, of the +land where all wrongs shall be righted. If we had but chosen to see +it,--if we only had chosen! + + + + +CONCERNING PEOPLE WHO CARRIED WEIGHT IN LIFE. + +WITH SOME THOUGHTS ON THOSE WHO NEVER HAD A CHANCE. + + +You drive out, let us suppose, upon a certain day. To your surprise and +mortification, your horse, usually lively and frisky, is quite dull +and sluggish. He does not get over the ground as he is wont to do. The +slightest touch of whip-cord, on other days, suffices to make him dart +forward with redoubled speed; but upon this day, after two or three +miles, he needs positive whipping, and he runs very sulkily with it +all. By-and-by his coat, usually smooth and glossy and dry through all +reasonable work, begins to stream like a water-cart. This will not do. +There is something wrong. You investigate; and you discover that your +horse's work, though seemingly the same as usual, is in fact immensely +greater. The blockheads who oiled your wheels yesterday have screwed up +your patent axles too tightly; the friction is enormous; the hotter +the metal gets, the greater grows the friction; your horse's work is +quadrupled. You drive slowly home, and severely upbraid the blockheads. + +There are many people who have to go through life at an analogous +disadvantage. There is something in their constitution of body or mind, +there is something in their circumstances, which adds incalculably to +the exertion they must go through to attain their ends, and which holds +them back from doing what they might otherwise have done. Very probably +that malign something exerted its influence unperceived by those around +them. They did not get credit for the struggle they were going through. +No one knew what a brave fight they were making with a broken right arm; +no one remarked that they were running the race, and keeping a fair +place in it, too, with their legs tied together. All they do, they do at +a disadvantage. It is as when a noble race-horse is beaten by a sorry +hack; because the race-horse, as you might see, if you look at the list, +is carrying twelve pounds additional. But such men, by a desperate +effort, often made silently and sorrowfully, may (so to speak) run in +the race, and do well in it, though you little think with how heavy a +foot and how heavy a heart. There are others who have no chance at all. +_They_ are like a horse set to run a race, tied by a strong rope to a +tree, or weighted with ten tons of extra burden. _That_ horse cannot run +even poorly. The difference between their case and that of the men who +are placed at a disadvantage is like the difference between setting a +very near-sighted man to keep a sharp look-out and setting a man who is +quite blind to keep that sharp look-out. Many can do the work of life +with difficulty; some cannot do it at all. In short, there are PEOPLE +WHO CARRY WEIGHT IN LIFE, and there are some WHO NEVER HAVE A CHANCE. + +And you, my friend, who are doing the work of life well and +creditably,--you who are running in the front rank, and likely to do so +to the end, think kindly and charitably of those who have broken down +in the race. Think kindly of him who, sadly overweighted, is struggling +onwards away half a mile behind you; think more kindly yet, if that be +possible, of him who, tethered to a ton of granite, is struggling hard +and making no way at all, or who has even sat down and given up the +struggle in dumb despair. You feel, I know, the weakness in yourself +which would have made you break down, if sorely tried like others. You +know there is in your armor the unprotected place at which a well-aimed +or a random blow would have gone home and brought you down. Yes, you are +nearing the winning-post, and you are among the first; but six pounds +more on your back, and you might have been nowhere. You feel, by your +weak heart and weary frame, that, if you had been sent to the Crimea in +that dreadful first winter, you would certainly have died. And you feel, +too, by your lack of moral stamina, by your feebleness of resolution, +that it has been your preservation from you know not what depths of +shame and misery, that you never were pressed very hard by temptation. +Do not range yourself with those who found fault with a certain great +and good Teacher of former days, because he went to be guest with a man +that was a sinner. As if He could have gone to be guest with any man who +was not! + + * * * * * + +There is no reckoning up the manifold _impedimenta_ by which human +beings are weighted for the race of life; but all may be classified +under the two heads of unfavorable influences arising out of the mental +or physical nature of the human beings themselves, and unfavorable +influences arising out of the circumstances in which the human beings +are placed. You have known men who, setting out from a very humble +position, have attained to a respectable standing, but who would have +reached a very much higher place but for their being weighted with a +vulgar, violent, wrong-headed, and rude-spoken wife. You have known men +of lowly origin who had in them the makings of gentlemen, but whom this +single malign influence has condemned to coarse manners and a frowzy, +repulsive home for life. You have known many men whose powers are +crippled and their nature soured by poverty, by the heavy necessity +for calculating how far each shilling will go, by a certain sense of +degradation that comes of sordid shifts. How can a poor parson write an +eloquent or spirited sermon when his mind all the while is running upon +the thought how he is to pay the baker or how he is to get shoes for his +children? It will be but a dull discourse which, under that weight, will +be produced even by a man who, favorably placed, could have done very +considerable things. It is only a great genius here and there who can do +great things, who can do his best, no matter at what disadvantage he may +be placed; the great mass of ordinary men can make little headway with +wind and tide dead against them. Not many trees would grow well, if +watered daily (let us say) with vitriol. Yet a tree which would +speedily die under that nurture might do very fairly, might even do +magnificently, if it had fair play, if it got its chance of common +sunshine and shower. Some men, indeed, though always hampered by +circumstances, have accomplished much; but then you cannot help thinking +how much more they might have accomplished, had they been placed more +happily. Pugin, the great Gothic architect, designed various noble +buildings; but I believe he complained that he never had fair play with +his finest,--that he was always weighted by considerations of expense, +or by the nature of the ground he had to build on, or by the number +of people it was essential the building should accommodate. And so he +regarded his noblest edifices as no more than hints of what he could +have done. He made grand running in the race; but, oh, what running he +could have made, if you had taken off those twelve additional pounds! I +dare say you have known men who labored to make a pretty country-house +on a site which had some one great drawback. They were always battling +with that drawback, and trying to conquer it; but they never could quite +succeed. And it remained a real worry and vexation. Their house was on +the north side of a high hill, and never could have its due share of +sunshine. Or you could not reach it but by climbing a very steep ascent; +or you could not in any way get water into the landscape. When Sir +Walter was at length able to call his own a little estate on the banks +of the Tweed he loved so well, it was the ugliest, bleakest, and least +interesting spot upon the course of that beautiful river; and the public +road ran within a few yards of his door. The noble-hearted man made a +charming dwelling at last; but he was fighting against Nature in the +matter of the landscape round it; and you can see yet, many a year after +he left it, the poor little trees of his beloved plantations contrasting +with the magnificent timber of various grand old places above and below +Abbotsford. There is something sadder in the sight of men who carried +weight within themselves, and who, in aiming at usefulness or at +happiness, were hampered and held back by their own nature. There are +many men who are weighted with a hasty temper; weighted with a nervous, +anxious constitution; weighted with an envious, jealous disposition; +weighted with a strong tendency to evil speaking, lying, and slandering; +weighted with a grumbling, sour, discontented spirit; weighted with a +disposition to vaporing and boasting; weighted with a great want of +common sense; weighted with an undue regard to what other people may be +thinking or saying of them; weighted with many like things, of which +more will be said by-and-by. When that good missionary, Henry Martyn, +was in India, he was weighted with an irresistible drowsiness. He could +hardly keep himself awake. And it must have been a burning earnestness +that impelled him to ceaseless labor, in the presence of such a +drag-weight as that. I am not thinking or saying, my friend, that it is +wholly bad for us to carry weight,--that great good may not come of the +abatement of our power and spirit which may be made by that weight. I +remember a greater missionary than even the sainted Martyn, to whom the +Wisest and Kindest appointed that he should carry weight, and that he +should fight at a sad disadvantage. And the greater missionary tells us +that he knew why that weight was appointed him to carry; and that he +felt he needed it all to save him from a strong tendency to undue +self-conceit. No one knows, now, what the burden was which he bore; but +it was heavy and painful; it was "a thorn in the flesh." Three times +he earnestly asked that it might be taken away; but the answer he got +implied that he needed it yet, and that his Master thought it a better +plan to strengthen the back than to lighten the burden. Yes, the blessed +Redeemer appointed that St. Paul should carry weight in life; and I +think, friendly reader, that we shall believe that it is wisely and +kindly meant, if the like should come to you and me. + +We all understand what is meant, when we hear it said that a man is +doing very well, or has done very well, _considering_. I do not know +whether it is a Scotticism to stop short at that point of the sentence. +We do it, constantly, in this country. The sentence would be completed +by saying, _considering the weight he has to carry_, or _the +disadvantage at which he works_. And things which are _very good, +considering_, may range very far up and down the scale of actual merit. +A thing which is _very good, considering_, may be very bad, or may be +tolerably good. It never can be absolutely very good; for, if it +were, you would cease to use the word _considering_. A thing which is +absolutely very good, if it have been done under extremely unfavorable +circumstances, would not be described as _very good, considering_; it +would be described as _quite wonderful, considering_, or as _miraculous, +considering_. And it is curious how people take a pride in accumulating +unfavorable circumstances, that they may overcome them, and gain the +glory of having overcome them. Thus, if a man wishes to sign his name, +he might write the letters with his right hand; and though he write them +very clearly and well and rapidly, nobody would think of giving him any +credit. But if he write his name rather badly with his left hand, people +would say it was a remarkable signature, considering; and if he write +his name very ill indeed with his foot, people would say the writing was +quite wonderful, considering. If a man desire to walk from one end of a +long building to the other, he might do so by walking along the floor; +and though he did so steadily, swiftly, and gracefully, no one would +remark that he had done anything worth notice. But if he choose for his +path a thick rope, extended from one end of the building to the other, +at a height of a hundred feet, and if he walk rather slowly and +awkwardly along it, he will be esteemed as having done something very +extraordinary: while if, in addition to this, he is blindfolded, and has +his feet placed in large baskets instead of shoes, he will, if in any +way he can get over the distance between the ends of the building, be +held as one of the most remarkable men of the age. Yes, load yourself +with weight which no one asks you to carry; accumulate disadvantages +which you need not face, unless you choose; then carry the weight in any +fashion, and overcome the disadvantages in any fashion; and you are a +great man, considering: that is, considering the disadvantages and the +weight. Let this be remembered: if a man is so placed that he cannot do +his work, except in the face of special difficulties, then let him be +praised, if he vanquish these in some decent measure, and if he do his +work tolerably well. But a man deserves no praise at all for work which +he has done tolerably or done rather badly, because he chose to do it +under disadvantageous circumstances, under which there was no earthly +call upon him to do it. In this case he probably is a self-conceited +man, or a man of wrong-headed independence of disposition; and in this +case, if his work be bad absolutely, don't tell him that it is good, +considering. Refuse to consider. He has no right to expect that you +should. There was a man who built a house entirely with his own hands. +He had never learned either mason-work or carpentry: he could quite well +have afforded to pay skilled workmen to do the work he wanted; but he +did not choose to do so. He did the whole work himself. The house was +finished; its aspect was peculiar. The walls were off the perpendicular +considerably, and the windows were singular in shape; the doors fitted +badly, and the floors were far from level. In short, it was a very bad +and awkward-looking house: but it was a wonderful house, considering. +And people said that it was so, who saw nothing wonderful in the +beautiful house next it, perfect in symmetry and finish and comfort, but +built by men whose business it was to build. Now I should have declined +to admire that odd house, or to express the least sympathy with its +builder. He chose to run with a needless hundred-weight on his back: he +chose to walk in baskets instead of in shoes. And if, in consequence +of his own perversity, he did his work badly, I should have refused +to recognize it as anything but bad work. It was quite different with +Robinson Crusoe, who made his dwelling and his furniture for himself, +because there was no one else to make them for him. I dare say his cave +was anything but exactly square; and his chairs and table were cumbrous +enough; but they were wonderful, considering certain facts which he was +quite entitled to expect us to consider. Southey's _Cottonian Library_ +was all quite right; and you would have said that the books were very +nicely bound, considering; for Southey could not afford to pay the +regular binder's charges; and it was better that his books should be +done up in cotton of various hues by the members of his own family than +that they should remain not bound at all. You will think, too, of the +poor old parson who wrote a book which he thought of great value, but +which no publisher would bring out. He was determined that all his +labor should not be lost to posterity. So he bought types and a +printing-press, and printed his precious work, poor man: he and his +man-servant did it all. It made a great many volumes; and the task +took up many years. Then he bound the volumes with his own hands; and +carrying them to London, he placed a copy of his work in each of the +public libraries. I dare say he might have saved himself his labor. How +many of my readers could tell what was the title of the work, or what +was the name of its author? Still, _there_ was a man who accomplished +his design, in the face of every disadvantage. + +There is a great point of difference between our feeling towards the +human being who runs his race much overweighted and our feeling towards +the inferior animal that does the like. If you saw a poor horse gamely +struggling in a race, with a weight of a ton extra, you would pity it. +Your sympathies would all be with the creature that was making the best +of unfavorable circumstances. But it is a sorrowful fact, that the +drag-weight of human beings not unfrequently consists of things which +make us angry rather than sympathetic. You have seen a man carrying +heavy weight in life, perhaps in the form of inveterate wrong-headedness +and suspiciousness; but instead of pitying him, our impulse would rather +be to beat him upon that perverted head. We pity physical malformation +or unhealthiness; but our bent is to be angry with intellectual and +moral malformation or unhealthiness. We feel for the deformed man, who +must struggle on at that sad disadvantage; feeling it, too, much more +acutely than you would readily believe. But we have only indignation for +the man weighted with far worse things, and things which, in some cases +at least, he can just as little help. You have known men whose extra +pounds, or even extra ton, was a hasty temper, flying out of a sudden +into ungovernable bursts: or a moral cowardice leading to trickery and +falsehood: or a special disposition to envy and evil-speaking: or a +very strong tendency to morbid complaining about their misfortunes and +troubles: or an invincible bent to be always talking of their sufferings +through the derangement of their digestive organs. Now, you grow angry +at these things. You cannot stand them. And there is a substratum of +truth to that angry feeling. A man _can_ form his mind more than he can +form his body. If a man be well-made, physically, he will, in ordinary +cases, remain so: but he may, in a moral sense, raise a great hunchback +where Nature made none. He may foster a malignant temper, a grumbling, +fretful spirit, which by manful resistance might be much abated, if not +quite put down. But still, there should often be pity, where we are +prone only to blame. We find a person in whom a truly disgusting +character has been formed: well, if you knew all, you would know that +the person had hardly a chance of being otherwise: the man could not +help it. You have known people who were awfully unamiable and repulsive: +you may have been told how very different they once were,--sweet-tempered +and cheerful. And surely the change is a far sadder one than +that which has passed upon the wrinkled old woman who was once (as you +are told) the loveliest girl of her time. Yet many a one who will look +with interest upon the withered face and the dimmed eyes, and try to +trace in them the vestiges of radiant beauty gone, will never think of +puzzling out in violent spurts of petulance the perversion of a quick +and kind heart; or in curious oddities and pettinesses the result of +long and lonely years of toil in which no one sympathized; or in cynical +bitterness and misanthropy an old disappointment never got over. There +is a hard knot in the wood, where a green young branch was lopped away. +I have a great pity for old bachelors. Those I have known have for the +most part been old fools. But the more foolish and absurd they are, the +more pity is due them. I believe there is something to be said for even +the most unamiable creatures. The shark is an unamiable creature. It +is voracious. It will snap a man in two. Yet it is not unworthy of +sympathy. Its organization is such that it is always suffering the most +ravenous hunger. You can hardly imagine the state of intolerable famine +in which that unhappy animal roams the ocean. People talk of its awful +teeth and its vindictive eye. I suppose it is well ascertained that the +extremity of physical want, as reached on rafts at sea, has driven human +beings to deeds as barbarous as ever shark was accused of. The worse a +human being is, the more he deserves our pity. Hang him, if _that_ be +needful for the welfare of society; but pity him even as you hang. Many +a poor creature has gradually become hardened and inveterate in guilt +who would have shuddered at first, had the excess of it ultimately +reached been at first presented to view. But the precipice was sloped +off: the descent was made step by step. And there is many a human being +who never had a chance of being good: many who have been trained, and +even compelled, to evil from very infancy. Who that knows anything of +our great cities, but knows how the poor little child, the toddling +innocent, is sometimes sent out day by day to steal, and received in his +wretched home with blows and curses, if he fail to bring back enough? +Who has not heard of such poor little things, unsuccessful in their +sorry work, sleeping all night in some wintry stair, because they durst +not venture back to their drunken, miserable, desperate parents? I could +tell things at which angels might shed tears, with much better reason +for doing so than seems to me to exist in some of those more imposing +occasions on which bombastic writers are wont to describe them as +weeping. Ah, there is One who knows where the responsibility for all +this rests! Not wholly with the wretched parents: far from _that_. +_They_, too, have gone through the like: they had as little chance as +their children. _They_ deserve our deepest pity, too. Perhaps the deeper +pity is not due to the shivering, starving child, with the bitter wind +cutting through its thin rags, and its blue feet on the frozen pavement, +holding out a hand that is like the claw of some beast; but rather to +the brutalized mother who could thus send out the infant she bore. +Surely the mother's condition, if we look at the case aright, is the +more deplorable. Would not you, my reader, rather endure any degree of +cold and hunger than come to this? Doubtless, there is blame somewhere, +that such things should be: but we all know that the blame of the +most miserable practical evils and failures can hardly be traced to +particular individuals. It is through the incapacity of scores of public +servants that an army is starved. It is through the fault of millions of +people that our great towns are what they are: and it must be confessed +that the actual responsibility is spread so thinly over so great a +surface that it is hard to say it rests very blackly upon any one spot. +Oh that we could but know whom to hang, when we find some flagrant, +crying evil! Unluckily, hasty people are ready to be content, if they +can but hang anybody, without minding much whether that individual be +more to blame than many beside. Laws and kings have something to do +here: but management and foresight on the part of the poorer classes +have a great deal more to do. And no laws can make many persons managing +or provident. I do not hesitate to say, from what I have myself seen +of the poor, that the same short-sighted extravagance, the same +recklessness of consequences, which are frequently found in them, would +cause quite as much misery, if they prevailed in a like degree among +people with a thousand a year. But it seems as if only the tolerably +well-to-do have the heart to be provident and self-denying. A man with a +few hundreds annually does not marry, unless he thinks he can afford it: +but the workman with fifteen shillings a week is profoundly indifferent +to any such calculation. I firmly believe that the sternest of all +self-denial is that practised by those who, when we divide mankind into +rich and poor, must be classed (I suppose) with the rich. But I turn +away from a miserable subject, through which I cannot see my way +clearly, and on which I cannot think but with unutterable pain. It is an +easy way of cutting the knot, to declare that the rich are the cause of +all the sufferings of the poor; but when we look at the case in all its +bearings, we shall see that that is rank nonsense. And on the other +hand, it is unquestionable that the rich are bound to do something. But +what? I should feel deeply indebted to any one who would write out, in +a few short and intelligible sentences, the practical results that are +aimed at in the "Song of the Shirt." The misery and evil are manifest: +but tell us whom to hang; tell us what to do! + +One heavy burden with which many men are weighted for the race of life +is depression of spirits. I wonder whether this used to be as common in +former days as it is now. There was, indeed, the man in Homer who walked +by the seashore in a very gloomy mood; but his case seems to have been +thought remarkable. What is it in our modern mode of life and our +infinity of cares, what little thing is it about the matter of the brain +or the flow of the blood, that makes the difference between buoyant +cheerfulness and deep depression? I begin to think that almost all +educated people, and especially all whose work is mental rather than +physical, suffer more or less from this indescribable gloom. And +although a certain amount of sentimental sadness may possibly help the +poet, or the imaginative writer, to produce material which may be very +attractive to the young and inexperienced, I suppose it will be admitted +by all that cheerfulness and hopefulness are noble and healthful +stimulants to worthy effort, and that depression of spirits does (so to +speak) cut the sinews with which the average man must do the work of +life. You know how lightly the buoyant heart carries people through +entanglements and labors under which the desponding would break down, +or which they never would face. Yet, in thinking of the commonness of +depressed spirits, even where the mind is otherwise very free from +anything morbid, we should remember that there is a strong temptation to +believe that this depression is more common and more prevalent than it +truly is. Sometimes there is a gloom which overcasts all life, like +that in which James Watt lived and worked, and served his race so +nobly,--like that from which the gentle, amiable poet, James Montgomery, +suffered through his whole career. But in ordinary cases the gloom is +temporary and transient. Even the most depressed are not always so. +Like, we know, suggests like powerfully. If you are placed in some +peculiar conjuncture of circumstances, or if you pass through some +remarkable scene, the present scene or conjuncture will call up before +you, in a way that startles you, something like itself which you had +long forgotten, and which you would never have remembered but for this +touch of some mysterious spring. And accordingly, a man depressed in +spirits thinks that he is always so, or at least fancies that such +depression has given the color to his life in a very much greater +degree than it actually has done so. For this dark season wakens up the +remembrance of many similar dark seasons which in more cheerful days are +quite forgot; and these cheerful days drop out of memory for the time. +Hearing such a man speak, if he speak out his heart to you, you think +him inconsistent, perhaps you think him insincere. You think he is +saying more than he truly feels. It is not so; he feels and believes +it all at the time. But he is taking a one-sided view of things; he is +undergoing the misery of it acutely for the time, but by-and-by he will +see things from quite a different point. A very eminent man (there can +be no harm in referring to a case which he himself made so public) +wrote and published something about his _miserable home_. He was quite +sincere, I do not doubt. He thought so at the time. He _was_ miserable +just then; and so, looking back on past years, he could see nothing but +misery. But the case was not really so, one could feel sure. There +had been a vast deal of enjoyment about his home and his lot; it was +forgotten then. A man in very low spirits, reading over his diary, +somehow lights upon and dwells upon all the sad and wounding things; he +involuntarily skips the rest, or reads them with but faint perception +of their meaning. In reading the very Bible, he does the like thing. +He chances upon that which is in unison with his present mood. I think +there is no respect in which this great law of the association of ideas +holds more strictly true than in the power of a present state of mind, +or a present state of outward circumstances, to bring up vividly before +us all such states in our past history. We are depressed, we are +worried; and when we look back, all our departed days of worry and +depression appear to start up and press themselves upon our view to the +exclusion of anything else; so that we are ready to think that we have +never been otherwise than depressed and worried all our life. But when +more cheerful times come, they suggest only such times of cheerfulness, +and no effort will bring back the depression vividly as when we felt +it. It is not selfishness or heartlessness, it is the result of an +inevitable law of mind, that people in happy circumstances should +resolutely believe that it is a happy world after all; for, looking +back, and looking around, the mind refuses to take distinct note of +anything that is not somewhat akin to its present state. And so, if any +ordinary man, who is not a distempered genius or a great fool, tells you +that he is always miserable, don't believe him. He feels so now, but he +does not always feel so. There are periods of brightening in the darkest +lot. Very, very few live in unvarying gloom. Not but that there is +something very pitiful (by which I mean deserving of pity) in what +may be termed the Micawber style of mind,--in the stage of hysteric +oscillations between joy and misery. Thoughtless readers of "David +Copperfield" laugh at Mr. Micawber, and his rapid passages from the +depth of despair to the summit of happiness, and back again. But if you +have seen or experienced that morbid condition, you would know that +there is more reason to mourn over it than to laugh at it. There +is acute misery felt now and then; and there is a pervading, +never-departing sense of the hollowness of the morbid mirth. It is but +a very few degrees better than "moody madness, laughing wild, amid +severest woe." By depression of spirits I understand a dejection without +any cause that could be stated, or from causes which in a healthy mind +would produce no such degree of dejection. No doubt, many men can +remember seasons of dejection which was not imaginary, and of anxiety +and misery whose causes were only too real. You can remember, perhaps, +the dark time in which you knew quite well what it was that made it so +dark. Well, better days have come. That sorrowful, wearing time, which +exhausted the springs of life faster than ordinary living would have +done, which aged you in heart and frame before your day, dragged over, +and it is gone. You carried heavy weight, indeed, while it lasted. It +was but poor running you made, poor work you did, with that feeble, +anxious, disappointed, miserable heart. And you would many a time have +been thankful to creep into a quiet grave. Perhaps that season did you +good. Perhaps it was the discipline you needed. Perhaps it took out your +self-conceit, and made you humble. Perhaps it disposed you to feel for +the griefs and cares of others, and made you sympathetic. Perhaps, +looking back now, you can discern the end it served. And now that it has +done its work, and that it only stings you when you look back, let that +time be quite forgotten! + + * * * * * + +There are men, and very clever men, who do the work of life at a +disadvantage, through _this_, that their mind is a machine fitted for +doing well only one kind of work,--or that their mind is a machine +which, though doing many things well, does some one thing, perhaps a +conspicuous thing, very poorly. You find it hard to give a man credit +for being possessed of sense and talent, if you hear him make a speech +at a public dinner, which speech approaches the idiotic for its +silliness and confusion. And the vulgar mind readily concludes that he +who does one thing extremely ill can do nothing well, and that he who is +ignorant on one point is ignorant on all. A friend of mine, a country +parson, on first going to his parish, resolved to farm his glebe for +himself. A neighboring farmer kindly offered the parson to plough one +of his fields. The farmer said that he would send his man John with a +plough and a pair of horses, on a certain day. "If ye're goin' about," +said the farmer to the clergyman, "John will be unco' weel pleased, if +you speak to him, and say it's a fine day, or the like o' that; but +dinna," said the farmer, with much solemnity, "dinna say onything to him +aboot ploughin' and sawin'; for John," he added, "is a stupid body, but +he has been ploughin' and sawin' all his life, and he'll see in a minute +that _ye_ ken naething aboot ploughin' and sawin'. And then," said the +sagacious old farmer, with extreme earnestness, "if he comes to think +that ye ken naething aboot ploughin' and sawin', he'll think that ye ken +naething aboot onything!" Yes, it is natural to us all to think, that, +if the machine breaks down at that work in which we are competent to +test it, then the machine cannot do any work at all. + +If you have a strong current of water, you may turn it into any channel +you please, and make it do any work you please. With equal energy and +success it will flow north or south; it will turn a corn-mill, or a +threshing-machine, or a grindstone. Many people live under a vague +impression that the human mind is like that. They think,--Here is so +much ability, so much energy, which may be turned in any direction, and +made to do any work; and they are surprised to find that the power, +available and great for one kind of work, is worth nothing for another. +A man very clever at one thing is positively weak and stupid at another +thing. A very good judge may be a wretchedly bad joker; and he must go +through his career at this disadvantage, that people, finding him silly +at the thing they are able to estimate, find it hard to believe that he +is not silly at everything. I know, for myself, that it would not be +right that the Premier should request me to look out for a suitable +Chancellor. I am not competent to appreciate the depth of a man's +knowledge of equity; by which I do not mean justice, but chancery law. +But, though quite unable to understand how great a Chancellor Lord Eldon +was, I am quite able to estimate how great a poet he was, also how great +a wit. Here is a poem by that eminent person. Doubtless he regarded it +as a wonder of happy versification, as well as instinct with the most +convulsing fun. It is intended to set out in a metrical form the career +of a certain judge, who went up as a poor lad from Scotland to England, +but did well at the bar, and ultimately found his place upon the bench. +Here is Lord Chancellor Eldon's humorous poem:-- + + "James Allan Parke + Came naked stark + From Scotland: + But he got clothes, + Like other beaux, + In England!" + +Now the fact that Lord Eldon wrote that poem, and valued it highly, +would lead some folk to suppose that Lord Eldon was next door to an +idiot. And a good many other things which that Chancellor did, such as +his quotations from Scripture in the House of Commons, and his attempts +to convince that assemblage (when Attorney-General) that Napoleon I. was +the Apocalyptic Beast or the Little Horn, certainly point towards the +same conclusion. But the conclusion, as a general one, would be +wrong. No doubt, Lord Eldon was a wise and sagacious man as judge and +statesman, though as wit and poet he was almost an idiot. So with other +great men. It is easy to remember occasions on which great men have +done very foolish things. There never was a truer hero nor a greater +commander than Lord Nelson; but in some things he was merely an awkward, +overgrown midshipman. But then, let us remember that a locomotive +engine, though excellent at running, would be a poor hand at flying. +_That_ is not its vocation. The engine will draw fifteen heavy carriages +fifty miles in an hour; and _that_ remains as a noble feat, even though +it be ascertained that the engine could not jump over a brook which +would be cleared easily by the veriest screw. We all see this. + +But many of us have a confused idea that a great and clever man is (so +to speak) a locomotive that can fly; and when it is proved that he +cannot fly, then we begin to doubt whether he can even run. We think he +should be good at everything, whether in his own line or not. And he is +set at a disadvantage, particularly in the judgment of vulgar and stupid +people, when it is clearly ascertained that at some things he is very +inferior. I have heard of a very eminent preacher who sunk considerably +(even as regards his preaching) in the estimation of a certain family, +because it appeared that he played very badly at bowls. And we all know +that occasionally the Premier already mentioned reverses the vulgar +error, and in appointing men to great places is guided by an axiom which +amounts to just this: this locomotive can run well, therefore it will +fly well. This man has filled a certain position well, therefore let us +appoint him to a position entirely different; no doubt, he will do +well there too. Here is a clergyman who has edited certain Greek plays +admirably; let us make him a bishop. + +It may be remarked here, that the men who have attained the greatest +success in the race of life have generally carried weight. _Nitor in +adversum_ might be the motto of many a man besides Burke. It seems to +be almost a general rule, that the raw material out of which the finest +fabrics are made should look very little like these, to start with. It +was a stammerer, of uncommanding mien, who became the greatest orator +of graceful Greece. I believe it is admitted that Chalmers was the most +effective preacher, perhaps the most telling speaker, that Britain has +seen for at least a century; yet his aspect was not commanding, his +gestures were awkward, his voice was bad, and his accent frightful. He +talked of an _oppning_ when be meant an _opening_, and he read out the +text of one of his noblest sermons, "He that is fulthy, let him be +fulthy stall." Yet who ever thought of these things after hearing the +good man for ten minutes? Ay, load Eclipse with what extra pounds you +might, Eclipse would always be first! And, to descend to the race-horse, +_he_ had four white legs, white to the knees; and he ran more awkwardly +than racer ever did, with his head between his forelegs, close to the +ground, like a pig. Alexander, Napoleon, and Wellington were all little +men, in places where a commanding presence would have been of no small +value. A most disagreeably affected manner has not prevented a barrister +with no special advantages from rising with general approval to the +highest places which a barrister can fill. A hideous little wretch has +appeared for trial in a criminal court, having succeeded in marrying +seven wives at once. A painful hesitation has not hindered a certain +eminent person from being one of the principal speakers in the British +Parliament for many years. Yes, even disadvantages never overcome +have not sufficed to hold in obscurity men who were at once able and +fortunate. But sometimes the disadvantage was thoroughly overcome. +Sometimes it served no other end than to draw to one point the attention +and the efforts of a determined will; and that matter in regard to which +Nature seemed to have said that a man should fall short became the thing +in which he attained unrivalled perfection. + +A heavy drag-weight upon the powers of some men is the uncertainty of +their powers. The man has not his powers at command. His mind is a +capricious thing, that works when it pleases, and will not work except +when it pleases. I am not thinking now of what to many is a sad +disadvantage: that nervous trepidation which cannot be reasoned away, +and which often deprives them of the full use of their mental abilities +just when they are most needed. It is a vast thing in a man's favor, +that whatever he can do he should be able to do at any time, and to +do at once. For want of coolness of mind, and that readiness which +generally goes with it, many a man cannot do himself justice; and in a +deliberative assembly he may be entirely beaten by some flippant person +who has all his money (so to speak) in his pocket, while the other must +send to the bank for his. How many people can think next day, or even +a few minutes after, of the precise thing they ought to have said, but +which would not come at the time! But very frequently the thing is of no +value, unless it come at the time when it is wanted. Coming next day, it +is like the offer of a thick fur great-coat on a sweltering day in July. +You look at the wrap, and say, "Oh, if I could but have had you on the +December night when I went to London by the limited mail, and was nearly +starved to death!" But it seems as if the mind must be, to a certain +extent, capricious in its action. Caprice, or what looks like it, +appears of necessity to go with complicated machinery, even material. +The more complicated a machine is, the liker it grows to mind, in the +matter of uncertainty and apparent caprice of action. The simplest +machine--say a pipe for conveying water--will always act in precisely +the same way. And two such pipes, if of the same dimensions, and +subjected to the same pressure, will always convey the self-same +quantities. But go to more advanced machines. Take two clocks or two +locomotive engines, and though these are made in all respects exactly +alike, they will act (I can answer at least for the locomotive engines) +quite differently. One locomotive will swallow a vast quantity of water +at once; another must be fed by driblets; no one can say why. One engine +is a _fac-simile_ of the other; yet each has its character and its +peculiarities as truly as a man has. You need to know your engine's +temper before driving it, just as much as you need to know that of your +horse, or that of your friend. I know, of course, there is a mechanical +reason for this seeming caprice, if you could trace the reason. But not +one man in a thousand could trace out the reason. And the phenomenon, as +it presses itself upon us, really amounts to this: that very complicated +machinery appears to have a will of its own,--appears to exercise +something of the nature of choice. But there is no machine so capricious +as the human mind. The great poet who wrote those beautiful verses could +not do _that_ every day. A good deal more of what he writes is poor +enough; and many days he could not write at all. By long habit the mind +may be made capable of being put in harness daily for the humbler task +of producing prose; but you cannot say, when you harness it in the +morning, how far or at what rate it will run that day. + +Go and see a great organ of which you have been told. Touch it, and you +hear the noble tones at once. The organ can produce them at any time. +But go and see a great man; touch _him_,--that is, get him to begin to +talk. You will be much disappointed, if you expect, certainly, to hear +anything like his book or his poem. A great man is not a man who is +always saying great things, or who is always able to say great things. +He is a man who on a few occasions has said great things; who on the +coming of a sufficient occasion may possibly say great things again; +but the staple of his talk is commonplace enough. Here is a point of +difference from machinery, with all machinery's apparent caprice. You +could not say, as you pointed to a steam-engine, "The usual power of +that engine is two hundred horses; but once or twice it has surprised us +all by working up to two thousand." No; the engine is always of nearly +the power of two thousand horses, if it ever is. But what we have been +supposing as to the engine is just what many men have done. Poe wrote +"The Raven"; he was working then up to two thousand horse power. But +he wrote abundance of poor stuff, working at about twenty-five. Read +straight through the volumes of Wordsworth, and I think you will find +traces of the engine having worked at many different powers, varying +from twenty-five horses or less up two thousand or more. Go and hear a +really great preacher, when he is preaching in his own church upon a +common Sunday, and possibly you may hear a very ordinary sermon. I have +heard Mr. Melvill preach very poorly. You must not expect to find people +always at their best. It is a very unusual thing that even the ablest +men should be like Burke, who could not talk with an intelligent +stranger for five minutes without convincing the stranger that he had +talked for five minutes with a great man. And it is an awful thing, when +some clever youth is introduced to some local poet who has been told how +greatly the clever youth admires him, and what vast expectations +the clever youth has formed of his conversation, and when the local +celebrity makes a desperate effort to talk up to the expectations formed +of him. I have witnessed such a scene; and I can sincerely say that I +could not previously have believed that the local celebrity could have +made such a fool of himself. He was resolved to show that he deserved +his fame, and to show that the mind which had produced those lovely +verses in the country newspaper could not stoop to commonplace things. + + * * * * * + +Undue sensitiveness, and a too lowly estimate of their own powers, hang +heavily upon some men,--probably upon more men than one would imagine. +I believe that many a man whom you would take to be ambitious, +pushing, and self-complacent, is ever pressed with a sad conviction of +inferiority, and wishes nothing more than quietly to slip through life. +It would please and satisfy him, if he could but be assured that he is +just like other people. You may remember a touch of nature (that is, of +some people's nature) in Burns; you remember the simple exultation of +the peasant mother, when her daughter gets a sweetheart: she is "well +pleased to see _her_ bairn respeckit _like the lave_," that is, like the +other girls round. And undue humility, perhaps even befitting humility, +holds back sadly in the race of life. It is recorded that a weaver in a +certain village in Scotland was wont daily to offer a singular petition; +he prayed daily and fervently for a better opinion of himself. Yes, a +firm conviction of one's own importance is a great help in life. It +gives dignity of bearing; it does (so to speak) lift the horse over many +a fence at which one with a less confident heart would have broken down. +But the man who estimates himself and his place humbly and justly will +be ready to shrink aside, and let men of greater impudence and not +greater desert step before him. I have often seen, with a sad heart, in +the case of working people that manner, difficult to describe, which +comes of being what we in Scotland sometimes call _sair hadden down_. I +have seen the like in educated people, too. And not very many will take +the trouble to seek out and to draw out the modest merit that keeps +itself in the shade. The energetic, successful people of this world are +too busy in pushing each for himself to have time to do _that_. You will +find that people with abundant confidence, people who assume a good +deal, are not unfrequently taken at their own estimate of themselves. I +have seen a Queen's Counsel walk into court, after the case in which he +was engaged had been conducted so far by his junior, and conducted +as well as mortal could conduct it. But it was easy to see that the +complacent air of superior strength with which the Queen's Counsel took +the management out of his junior's hands conveyed to the jury, (a common +jury,) the belief that things were now to be managed in quite different +and vastly better style. And have you not known such a thing as that a +family, not a whit better, wealthier, or more respectable than all +the rest in the little country town or the country parish, do yet, by +carrying their heads higher, (no mortal could say why,) gradually elbow +themselves into a place of admitted social superiority? Everybody knows +exactly what they are, and from what they have sprung; but somehow, +by resolute assumption, by a quiet air of being better than their +neighbors, they draw ahead of them, and attain the glorious advantage +of one step higher on the delicately graduated social ladder of the +district. Now it is manifest, that, if such people had sense to see +their true position, and the absurdity of their pretensions, they would +assuredly not have gained that advantage, whatever it may be worth. + +But sense and feeling are sometimes burdens in the race of life; that +is, they sometimes hold a man back from grasping material advantages +which he might have grasped, had he not been prevented by the possession +of a certain measure of common sense and right feeling. I doubt not, my +friend, that you have acquaintances who can do things which you could +not do for your life, and who by doing these things push their way in +life. They ask for what they want, and never let a chance go by them. +And though they may meet many rebuffs, they sometimes make a successful +venture. Impudence sometimes attains to a pitch of sublimity; and at +that point it has produced a very great impression upon many men. The +incapable person who started for a professorship has sometimes got it. +The man who, amid the derision of the county, published his address to +the electors, has occasionally got into the House of Commons. The vulgar +half-educated preacher, who without any introduction asked a patron for +a vacant living in the Church, has now and then got the living. And +however unfit you may be for a place, and however discreditable may have +been the means by which you got it, once you have actually held it for +two or three years people come to acquiesce in your holding it. They +accept the fact that you are there, just as we accept the fact that any +other evil exists in this world, without asking why, except on very +special occasions. I believe, too, that, in the matter of worldly +preferment, there is too much fatalism in many good men. They have a +vague trust that Providence will do more than it has promised. They are +ready to think, that, if it is God's will that they are to gain such a +prize, it will be sure to come their way without their pushing. That is +a mistake. Suppose you apply the same reasoning to your dinner. Suppose +you sit still in your study and say, "If I am to have dinner to-day, it +will come without effort of mine; and if I am not to have dinner to-day, +it will not come by any effort of mine; so here I sit still and do +nothing." Is not _that_ absurd? Yet that is what many a wise and good +man practically says about the place in life which would suit him, and +which would make him happy. Not Turks and Hindoos alone have a tendency +to believe in their _Kismet_. It is human to believe in that. And we +grasp at every event that seems to favor the belief. The other evening, +in the twilight, I passed two respectable-looking women who seemed like +domestic servants; and I caught one sentence which one said to the other +with great apparent faith. "You see," she said, "if a thing's to come +your way, it'll no gang by ye!" It was in a crowded street; but if +it had been in my country parish, where everyone knew me, I should +certainly have stopped the women, and told them, that, though what they +said was quite true, I feared they were understanding it wrongly, and +that the firm belief we all hold in God's Providence which reaches to +all events, and in His sovereignty which orders all things, should be +used to help us to be resigned, after we have done our best and failed, +but should never be used as an excuse for not doing our best. When we +have set our mind on any honest end, let us seek to compass it by every +honest means; and if we fail after having used every honest means, +_then_ let us fall back on the comfortable belief that things are +ordered by the Wisest and Kindest; _then_ is the time for the _Fiat +Voluntas Tua_. + +You would not wish, my friend, to be deprived of common sense and of +delicate feeling, even though you could be quite sure that once _that_ +drag-weight was taken off, you would spring forward to the van, and make +such running in the race of life as you never made before. Still, you +cannot help looking with a certain interest upon those people who, by +the want of these hindering influences, are enabled to do things and +say things which you never could. I have sometimes looked with no small +curiosity upon the kind of man who will come uninvited, and without +warning of his approach, to stay at another man's house: who will stay +on, quite comfortable and unmoved, though seeing plainly he is not +wanted: who will announce, on arriving, that his visit is to be for +three days, and who will then, without farther remark, and without +invitation of any kind, remain for a month or six weeks: and all +the while sit down to dinner every day with a perfectly easy and +unembarrassed manner. You and I, my reader, would rather live on much +less than sixpence a day than do all this. We _could not_ do it. But +some people not merely can do it, but can do it without any appearance +of effort. Oh, if the people who are victimized by these horse-leeches +of society could but gain a little of the thickness of skin which +characterizes the horse-leeches, and bid them be off, and not return +again till they are invited! To the same pachydermatous class belong +those individuals who will put all sorts of questions as to the private +affairs of other people, but carefully shy off from any similar +confidence as to their own affairs: also those individuals who borrow +small sums of money and never repay them, but go on borrowing till the +small sums amount to a good deal. To the same class may be referred +the persona who lay themselves out for saying disagreeable things, the +"candid friends" of Canning, the "people who speak their mind," who form +such pests of society. To find fault is to right-feeling men a very +painful thing; but some take to the work with avidity and delight. And +while people of cultivation shrink, with a delicate intuition, from +saying any thing which may give pain or cause uneasiness to others, +there are others who are ever painfully treading upon the moral corns of +all around them. Sometimes this is done designedly: as by Mr. Snarling, +who by long practice has attained the power of hinting and insinuating, +in the course of a forenoon call, as many unpleasant things as may +germinate into a crop of ill-tempers and worries which shall make the +house at which he called uncomfortable all that day. Sometimes it +is done unawares, as by Mr. Boor, who, through pure ignorance and +coarseness, is always bellowing out things which it is disagreeable +to some one, or to several, to hear. Which was it, I wonder, Boor or +Snarling, who once reached the dignity of the mitre, and who at prayers +in his house uttered this supplication on behalf of a lady visitor who +was kneeling beside him: "Bless our friend, Mrs. ----: give her a little +more common sense; and teach her to dress a little less like a tragedy +queen than she does at present"? + + * * * * * + +But who shall reckon up the countless circumstances which lie like a +depressing burden on the energies of men, and make them work at that +disadvantage which we have thought of under the figure of _carrying +weight in life?_ There are men who carry weight in a damp, marshy +neighborhood, who, amid bracing mountain air might have done things +which now they will never do. There are men who carry weight in an +uncomfortable house: in smoky chimneys: in a study with a dismal +look-out: in distance from a railway-station: in ten miles between them +and a bookseller's shop. Give another hundred a year of income, and the +poor struggling parson who preaches dull sermons will astonish you +by the talent he will exhibit when his mind is freed from the dismal +depressing influence of ceaseless scheming to keep the wolf from the +door. Let the poor little sick child grow strong and well, and with +how much better heart will its father face the work of life! Let the +clergyman who preached, in a spiritless enough way, to a handful of +uneducated rustics, be placed in a charge where weekly he has to address +a large cultivated congregation, and, with the new stimulus, latent +powers may manifest themselves which no one fancied he possessed, and he +may prove quite an eloquent and attractive preacher. A dull, quiet +man, whom you esteemed as a blockhead, may suddenly be valued very +differently when circumstances unexpectedly call out the solid qualities +he possesses, unsuspected before. A man devoid of brilliancy may on +occasion show that he possesses great good sense, or that he has the +power of sticking to his task in spite of discouragement. Let a man be +placed where dogged perseverance will stand him in stead, and you may +see what he can do when he has but a chance. The especial weight which +has held some men back, the thing which kept them from doing great +things and attaining great fame, has been just this: that they were not +able to say or to write what they have thought and felt. And, indeed, +a great poet is nothing more than the one man in a million who has the +gift to express that which has been in the mind and heart of multitudes. +If even the most commonplace of human beings could write all the poetry +he has felt, he would produce something that would go straight to the +hearts of many. + +It is touching to witness the indications and vestiges of sweet and +admirable things which have been subjected to a weight which has +entirely crushed them down,--things which would have come out into +beauty and excellence, if they had been allowed a chance. You may +witness one of the saddest of all the losses of Nature in various old +maids. What kind hearts are there running to waste! What pure and gentle +affections blossom to be blighted! I dare say you have heard a young +lady of more than forty sing, and you have seen her eyes fill with tears +at the pathos of a very commonplace verse. Have you not thought that +there was the indication of a tender heart which might have made some +good man happy, and, in doing so, made herself happy, too? But it was +not to be. Still, it is sad to think that sometimes upon cats and dogs +there should be wasted the affection of a kindly human being! And you +know, too, how often the fairest promise of human excellence is never +suffered to come to fruit. You must look upon gravestones to find the +names of those who promised to be the best and noblest specimens of +the race. They died in early youth,--perhaps in early childhood. Their +pleasant faces, their singular words and ways, remain, not often talked +of, in the memories of subdued parents, or of brothers and sisters now +grown old, but never forgetting how _that_ one of the family, that +was as the flower of the flock, was the first to fade. It has been a +proverbial saying, you know, even from heathen ages, that those whom the +gods love die young. It is but an inferior order of human beings that +makes the living succession to carry on the human race. + + * * * * * + + +WHY HAS THE NORTH FELT AGGRIEVED WITH ENGLAND? + + +We have chosen a guarded and passionless wording for a topic on which +we wish to offer a few frankly spoken, but equally passionless remarks. +With the bitterness and venom and exaggeration of statement which both +English and American papers have interchanged in reference to matters of +opinion and matters of feeling connected with our national troubles we +do not now intermeddle. We would not imitate it: we regret it, and +on our own side we are ashamed of it. We have read editorials and +communications in our own papers so grossly vituperative and stinging in +the rancor of their spirit, that it would not have surprised us, if some +Englishmen, of a certain class, had organized a hostile association +against us in revenge for our truculent defiance. The real spirit of +bullyism, of the cockpit and the pugilistic ring, has been exhibited in +this interchange of newspaper opinion. The more is the reason why we +should not overlook or be blind to the real grievances in the case, nor +fail to give expression to them in the strongest way of which their +emphatic, but unembittered, statement will admit. Whether the London +"Times" is or is not an authoritative vehicle for the utterance of +average English opinion, and an index, in its general tone, of the +prevailing sentiment of that people, is a question which, so far from +wishing to decide, we must decline to entertain, as mainly irrelevant to +our present purpose. As a matter of fact, however, if we did accept that +print as an authority and a standard in English opinion, we should throw +more of temper than we hope to prevent escaping through our words into +the remarks which are to follow. That paper evidently represents the +opinion of one class, perhaps of more than one class of Englishmen. An +intelligent American reader of its comments on our affairs can always +read it, as even the best-informed Englishman cannot, with the skill and +ability to discern its spirit, often covertly mean, and to detect its +misrepresentations, some of the grossest of which are made the basis of +its arguments and inferences. From the very opening of our strife to the +last issue of that print which has crossed the water, its comments and +records relating to our affairs have presented a most ingenious and +mischievous combination of everything false, ill-tempered, malignant, +and irritating. It is at present exercising itself upon the financial +arrangements of our Government, and uttering prophecies, falsified +before they have come to our knowledge, about the inability or the +unwillingness of our loyal people to furnish the necessary money. + +But enough of the London "Times." We have in view matters not identified +with the spirit and comments of a single newspaper, however influential. +We have in view graver and more comprehensive facts,--facts, too, more +significant of feelings and opinion. Stating our point in general terms, +which we shall reduce to some particulars before we close, we affirm +frankly and emphatically, that the North, we might even say this Nation, +as a government standing in solemn treaty relations with Great Britain, +has just cause of complaint and offence at the prevailing tone and +spirit of the English people, and press, and mercantile classes, towards +us, in view of the rebellion which is convulsing our land. That tone +and spirit have not been characterized by justice, magnanimity, or +true sympathy with a noble and imperilled cause; they have not been in +keeping with the professions and avowed principles of that people; they +have not been consistent with the former intimations of English opinion +towards us, as regards our position and our duty; and they have sadly +disappointed the hopes on whose cheering support we had relied when the +dark hours which English influence had helped to prepare for us should +come. + +Before we proceed to our specifications, let us meet the suggestion +often thrown out, that we have been unduly and morbidly sensitive to +English opinion in this matter; and let us gratefully allow for the +exceptions that may require to be recognized in the application of our +charges against the English people or press as a whole. It has been +said that we have shown a timid and almost craven sensitiveness to the +opinions pronounced abroad upon our national struggle, especially those +pronounced by our own kinsfolk of England. It is urged, that a strong +and prosperous and united people, if conscious of only a rightful cause, +and professing the ability to maintain it, should be self-reliant, +independent of foreign judgment, and ready to trust to time and the sure +candor and fulness of the expositions which it brings with it, to set us +right before the eyes of the world. But what if another nation, supposed +to be friendly, known even to have recommended and urged upon us +the very cause for which we are contending, represents it in such a +contumelious and disheartening way as to show us that we have not even +her sympathy? Further, what if there is a spirit and a tone of treatment +towards us which suggests the possibility that at some critical moment +she may interfere in a way that will embarrass us and encourage our +enemies? The sensitiveness of a people to the possible power of mischief +that may lie against them in the hands of a jealous neighbor, ready to +be used at the will or caprice of its possessor, may indicate timidity +or weakness. But Great Britain, knowing very well what the feeling is, +ought to understand that it may consist with real strength, courage, and +right purposes. It is notorious now to all the civilized world, as +a fact often ludicrously and sometimes lugubriously set forth, that +millions of sturdy English folk have lived for many years, and live at +this hour, in a state of quaking trepidation as to the designs of a +single man of "ideas" across their Channel. What bulletin have the +English people ever read from day to day with such an intermittent pulse +as that with which they peruse quotations from the "Moniteur"? The +English people, whatever might have been true of them once, are now +the last people in the world--matched and overawed as they are by the +French--to charge upon another people a timid sensitiveness for even the +slightest intimations of foreign feeling and possible intentions. + +We must allow also for exceptions to the sweep of the specific charges +under which we shall express our grievances at the general course of +English treatment towards us. There have been messages in many private +letters from Englishmen and Englishwomen of high public and of dignified +private station, there have been editorials and communications in a few +English papers, there have been brief utterances in Parliament, and +from leading speakers at political, mercantile, literary, and religious +assemblies, which have shown a full appreciation of the import of our +present strife, and have conveyed to us in words of most precious and +grateful encouragement the assurance that many hearts are beating with +ours across the sea. That the truculence and venom of some of our own +papers may have repressed the feeling and the utterance of this same +sympathy in many individuals and ways where it might otherwise have +manifested itself is not unnatural, and is very probable. We acknowledge +most gratefully the cheer and the inspiration which have come to us from +every word, wish, and act from abroad that has recognized the stake of +our conflict; and we will take for granted the real existence and the +glowing heartiness of much of the same which has not been expressed, or +has not reached us. Farther even than this we will go in tempering or +qualifying the utterance of our grievances. We will take for granted +that very much of the coldness, or antipathy, or contemptuousness, or +misrepresentation which we have recognized in the general treatment of +us and our cause by Englishmen is to be accounted to actual ignorance +or a very partial understanding of our real circumstances and of the +conditions of the conflict, and of the relations of parties to it. De +Tocqueville is universally regarded among us as the only foreigner +who ever divined the theoretical and the practical method of our +institutions. Englishmen, English statesmen even, have never penetrated +to the mystery of them. Many intelligent British travellers have seemed +to wish to do so, and to have tried to do so. But the study bothers +them, the secret baffles them. They give it up with a gruff impatience +which writes on their features the sentence, "You have no right to have +such complicated and unintelligible arrangements in your governments, +State and Federal: they are quite un-English." Our foreign kinsfolk seem +unwilling to realize the extent of our domain, and the size of some +of our States as compared with their own island, and incapable of +understanding how different institutions, forms, limitations, and +governmental arrangements may exist in the several States, independently +of, or in subordination to, the province and administration of the +Federal Government. Nearly every English journal which undertakes +to refer to our affairs will make ludicrous or serious blunders, +if venturing to enter into details. The "Edinburgh Review" kindly +volunteered to be the champion of American institutions and products in +opposition to the extreme Toryism of the "Quarterly." Sydney Smith took +us, our authors and early enterprises, under his special patronage, +and he wrote many favorable articles of that character. One would have +supposed, that, in the necessary preparation for such labors, he would +have acquired some geographical, statistical, and other rudimentary +knowledge about us, enough to have kept him from gross blunders. +Unluckily, for him and for us, for the sake of getting here on his money +double the interest which he could get at home, and not considering +that the greater the promised profit the greater the risk, he made +investments in some of our stock companies and bonds. When these +investments proved disastrous, he raved and fumed, calling upon our +Government--which had nothing more to do with the matter than had the +English Parliament--to make good his losses. + +We are tempted for a moment to drop the graver thread of our theme to +relate an anecdote in illustration of our present point. It happened a +few years ago that we had as a household guest for two or three weeks an +English gentleman, well-informed, courteous, and excellent, who had been +for several years the editor of a London paper. On the day after his +domestication with us, which was within the first week of his arrival +at New York, sitting where we are now writing, after breakfast, he +announced that "he had a commission to execute for a friend, with a +person residing in Springfield." Opening his note-book, he handed us a +slip of paper bearing the gentleman's name and address, "Springfield, +Ohio." Furnishing him with writing-materials, we were about turning to +our own occupation, when, suddenly, with a quick exclamation, as if +recalling something, he said, "Sure, I have been in Springfield. I +remember a short, a very short time was allowed for dinner, as I came +from New York." We explained, or tried to explain to him, that the +Springfield through which he had passed and the Springfield to which he +was writing were in different States widely separated, and that there +were also several other "Springfields." To this he demurred, protesting +that it made matters quite confusing to foreigners to have the same +names repeated in different parts of the Country. In vain did we suggest +that all confusion was avoided by adding the abbreviated name of the +State. No! "It was very confusing." Suddenly, a thought occurred to +us, and, refreshing our memory by a glance at the Index of our English +"Road-Book," we suggested triumphantly that names were repeated for +different localities in England: thus, there are four Ashfords, two +Dorchesters, six Hortons, seven Newports, etc., etc. Our guest, with an +air and vehemence that quite outvied our triumph, exclaimed,--"Oh! but +they are in different shi_rrr_hes, in different shi_rrr_hes!" Sure +enough, one of his own _shires_ is a larger thing to an Englishman than +one of our States. He lives on an island which is to him larger than all +the rest of the world, though any one starting from the centre of it, on +a fast horse, unless he crossed the border into Scotland, could scarcely +ride in any direction twenty-four hours without getting overboard. + +To the actual ignorance or obfuscation of mind of the majority of the +English people, as regards our country and its institutions, we are +doubtless to refer much of the ill-toned and seemingly unfriendly +comments made upon our affairs in their organs. Thus, it is intimated +to us by many English writers, that they regard the North now as +simply undertaking to patch up a Union founded and sustained by mean +compromises, an object which has already led us into many humiliating +concessions,--and that the moment we announce that we are striking a +blow for Liberty, we shall have their sympathy without stint or measure. +No Englishman who really understood our affairs would talk in that way. +One of the chief lures which instigated and encouraged the Southern +rebellion was the assurance, adroitly insinuated by the leading traitors +into their duped followers, that opposition by the rest of the country +to their schemes would take the form of an anti-slavery crusade, in +which form the opposition would be put down by the combined force of +those who did not belong to the Republican party. They were deceived. +Opposition to them took the form of a rallying by all parties to the +defence of the Constitution, the maintenance of the Union. For any +anti-slavery zeal to have attempted to divert the aroused patriotism of +the land to a breach of one of its fundamental constitutional provisions +would have been treacherous and futile. The majority of our enlisted +patriotic soldiers would have laid down their arms. If the leadings of +Providence shall direct the thickening strife into an exterminating +crusade against slavery, doubtless our patriots will wait on Providence. +But we could not have started in our stern work avowing that as an +object of our own. And as to the meanness of our concessions and +compromises for Union, we have to consider what woes and wrongs that +Union has averted. Has England no discreditable passages in her own +Parliamentary history? Have her attempts at governing large masses of +men, Christian and heathen, Roman Catholic and Protestant, and of all +sects, privileged and oppressed, never led her into any truckling or +tyrannical legislation, any concessions or compromises of ideal or +abstract right? + +But we must come to our specifications, introducing them with but a +single other needful suggestion. We have not to complain of any acts or +formal measures of the English Government against us,--nor even of the +omission of any possible public manifestation which might have turned +to our encouragement or service. But it will be admitted that we have +grievances to complain of, if the tone and the strain of English opinion +and sentiment have been such as to inspirit the South and to dispirit +the North. If English comments have palliated or justified the original +and the incidental measures of the Rebellion,--if they have been zealous +to find or to exaggerate excuses for it, to overstate the apparent or +professed grounds of it, to wink at the meannesses and outrages by which +it has thriven,--if they have perverted or misrepresented the real +issue, have ridiculed or discouraged the purposes of its patriotic +opponents, have embarrassed or impeded their hopes of success, or have +prejudged or foreclosed the probable result,--it will be admitted, we +say, that we have grievances against those who have so dealt by us in +the hour of our dismay and trial. And it is an enormous aggravation of +the disappointment or the wrong which we are bearing, that it is visited +upon us by England just as we have initiated measures for at least +restraining and abating the dominant power of that evil institution for +our complicity in the support of which she has long been our unsparing +censor. We complain generally of the unsympathizing and contemptuous +tone of England towards us,--of the mercurial standard by which she +judges our strife,--of the scarcely qualified delight with which she +parades our occasional ill-successes and discomfitures,--of the baste +which she has made to find tokens of a rising despotism or a military +dictatorship in those measures of our Government which are needful +and consistent with the exigencies of a state of warfare, such as the +suspension, on occasions, of the _habeas corpus_, the suppression of +disloyal publications, the employment of spies, and the requisition of +passports,--and finally, of the contemptible service to which England +has tried to put our last tariff, and of her evident unwillingness to +have us find or furnish the finances of our war. Not to deal, however, +with generalities, we proceed to make three distinct points of an +argument that crowds us with materials. + +Foremost among the grievances which we at the North may allege against +our brethren across the water--foremost, both in time and in the harmful +influence of its working--we may specify this fact, that the English +press, with scarce an exception, made haste, in the very earliest stages +of the Southern Rebellion, to judge and announce the hopeless partition +of our Union, as an event accomplished and irrevocable. The way in which +this judgment was reached and pronounced, the time and circumstances of +its utterance, and the foregone conclusions which were drawn from it, +gave to it a threatening and mischievous agency, only less prejudicial +to our cause, we verily believe, than would have been an open alliance +between England and the enemies of the Republic. This haste to announce +the positive and accomplished dissolution of our National Union was +forced most painfully upon our notice in the darkest days of our opening +strife. Those who undertook to guide and instruct English opinion in +the matter had easy means of informing themselves about the strangely +fortuitous and deplorable, though most opportune and favoring +combination of circumstances under which "Secession" was initiated and +strengthened. They knew that the Administration, then in its last days +of power, was half-covertly, half-avowedly in sympathy and in active +cooperation with the cause of rebellion. The famous "Ostend Conference" +had had its doings and designs so thoroughly aired in the columns of the +English press, that we cannot suppose either the editors or the readers +ignorant of the spirit or intentions of those who controlled the policy +of that Administration. Early information likewise crossed the water to +them of the discreditable and infamous doings and plottings of members +of the Cabinet, evidently in league with the fomenting treachery. They +knew that the head of the Navy Department had either scattered our +ships of war to the ends of the earth, or had moored them in helpless +disability at our dockyards,--that the head of the War Department had +been plundering the arsenals of loyal States to furnish weapons for +intended rebellion,--that the head of the Treasury Department was +purloining its funds,--and that the President himself, while allowing +national forts to be environed by hostile batteries, had formally +announced that both Secession itself and all attempts to resist it were +alike unconstitutional,--the effect of which grave opinion was to +let Secession have its way till _Coercion_ would seem to be not only +unconstitutional, but unavailing. Our English kinsfolk also knew that +our prominent diplomatic agents abroad, representing solemn treaty +relations with them of this nation as a unit, under sacred oaths of +loyalty to it, and living on generous grants from its Treasury, were +also in more or less of active sympathy with traitorous schemes. So far, +it must be owned, there was little in the promise of whatever might grow +from these combined enormities to engage the confidence or the good +wishes of true-hearted persons on either side of the water. + +But whatever power of mischief lay in this marvellous combination of +evil forces, so malignly working together, the Administration in which +they found their life and whose agencies they employed was soon to yield +up its fearfully desecrated trust. A new order of things, representing +at least the spirit and purpose of that philanthropy and public +righteousness to which our English brethren had for years been prompting +us, was to come in with a new Administration, already constitutionally +recognized, but not as yet put into power. It was asking but little of +intelligent foreigners of our own blood and language, that they should +make due allowance for that recurring period in the terms of our +Government--as easily turned to mischievous influences as is an +interregnum in a monarchy--by which there is a lapse of four months +between the election and the inauguration of our Chief Magistrate. A +retiring functionary may work and plan and provide an immense amount of +disabling, annoying, and damaging experience to be encountered by his +successor. That successor may at a distance, or close at hand, be an +observer of all this influence; but whether it be simply of a partisan +or of a malignant character, he is powerless to resist it, and good +taste and the proprieties of his position seem to suggest that he make +no public recognition of it. Every Chief Magistrate of this Republic, +before its present head, acceded to office with its powers and dignities +and facilities and trusts unimpaired by his predecessor. We have thought +that among the thorns of the pillow on which a certain "old public +functionary" lays his head, as he watches the dismal working of elements +which he had more power than any other to have dispelled, not the +least sharp one must be that which pierces him with the thought of the +difference between the position which his predecessors prepared for him +and that which he prepared for his successor. Not among the least of +the claims which that successor has upon the profound and respectful +sympathy of all good men everywhere is the fact that there has been no +public utterance of complaining or reproachful words from his lips, +reflecting upon his predecessor, or even asking indulgence on the score +of the shattered and almost wrecked fabric of which we have put him in +charge. We confess that we have looked through the English papers for +months for some magnanimous and high-souled tribute of this sort to the +Man who thus nobly represents a sacred and imperilled cause. If such +tribute has been rendered, it has escaped our notice. + +Now, as we are reflecting upon the tone and spirit of the English press +at the opening of the Rebellion, we have to recall to the minds of our +readers the fact, that in all its early stages, even down to and almost +after the proclamation of the President summoning a volunteer force to +resist it, we ourselves, at the North, utterly refused to consider the +Seceders as in earnest. We may have been stupid, besotted, infatuated +even, in our blindness and incredulity. But none the less did we, that +is, the great majority of us, regard all the threats and measures of the +South as something less formidable and actual than open war and probable +or threatening revolution. We were persuaded that the people of the +South had been wrought up by artful and ambitious leaders to wild alarm +that the new Administration would visit outrages upon them and try to +turn them into a state of vassalage. Utterly unconscious as we were of +any purpose to trespass upon or reduce their fullest constitutional +rights, we knew how grossly our intentions were misrepresented to them. +We applied the same measure to the distance between their threats and +the probability that they would carry them out which we knew ought to be +applied to the difference between our supposed and our real +intentions. In a word,--for this is the simple truth,--we regarded the +manifestations of the seceding and rebelling States--or rather of the +leaders and their followers in them--as in part bluster and in part a +warning of what might ensue, though it would not be likely to ensue when +their eyes were open to the truth. We were met by bold defiance, by +outrageous abuse, and with an almost overwhelming venting of falsehoods. +There was boastfulness, arrogance, assured claims of sufficient +strength, and daring prophecies of success, enough to have made any +cause triumphant, if triumph comes through such means. Still we were +incredulous, perhaps foolishly and culpably so,--but incredulous, and +unintimidated, and confident, none the less. We believed that wise, +forbearing, and temperate measures of the new Administration would +remove all real grievances, dispel all false alarms, and at least leave +open the way to bloodless methods of preserving the Union. Part of our +infatuation consisted in our seeing so plainly the infatuation of the +South, while we did not allow for the lengths of wild and reckless folly +into which it might drive them. We could see most plainly that either +success in their schemes, or failure through a struggle to accomplish +them, would be alike ruinous to them; that no cause standing on the +basis and contemplating the objects recognized by them could possibly +prosper, so long as the throne of heaven had a sovereign seated upon it. +Full as much, then, from our conviction that the South would not insist +upon doing itself such harm as from any fear of what might happen to +us, did we refuse to regard Secession as a fixed fact. At the period of +which we are speaking, there was probably not a single man at the North, +of well-furnished and well-balanced mind--who stood clear in heart +and pocket of all secret or interested bias toward the South--that +deliberately recognized the probability of the dissolution of the Union. +Very few such men will, indeed, recognize that possibility now, except +as they recognize the possibility of the destruction of an edifice of +solid blocks and stately columns by the grinding to powder of each large +mass of the fabric, so that no rebuilding could restore it. + +This was the state of mind and feeling with which we, who had so much at +stake and could watch every pulsation of the excitement, contemplated +the aspect of our opening strife. But with the first echo from abroad of +its earliest announcements here came the most positive averments in the +English papers, with scarcely a single exception, that the knell of this +Union had struck. We had fallen asunder, our bond was broken, we had +repudiated our former league or fellowship, and henceforth what had been +a unit was to be two or more fragments, in peaceful or hostile relations +as the case might be, but never again One. It would but revive for us +the first really sharp and irritating pangs of this dismal experience, +to go over the files of papers for those extracts which were like +vinegar to our eyes as we first read them. Their substance is repeated +to us in the sheets which come by every steamer. There were, of course, +variations of tone and spirit in these evil prognostications and these +raven-like croaks. Sometimes there was a vein of pity, and of that kind +of sorrow which we feel and of that other kind which we express for +other people's troubles. Sometimes there was a start of surprise, an +ejaculation of amazement, or even profound dismay, at the calamity which +had come upon us. In others of these newspaper comments there was +that unmistakable superciliousness, that goading contemptuousness +of self-conceit and puffy disdain, which John Bull visits on all +"un-English" things, especially when they happen under their unfortunate +aspects. In not a few of these same comments there was a tone of +exultation, malignant and almost diabolical, as at the discomfiture of +a hated and dangerous rival. We have read at least three English +newspapers for each week that has passed since our troubles began; we +have been readers of these papers for a score of years. In not one of +them have we met the sentence or the line which pronounces hopefully, +with bold assurance, for the renewed life of our Union. In by far the +most of them there is reiterated the most positive and dogged averment +that there is no future for us. We are not unmindful of the manliness +and stout cheer with which a very few of them have avowed their wish and +faith that the Rebels may be utterly discomfited and held up before the +world in their shame and friendlessness, and have coupled with these +utterances words of warm sympathy and approval for the North. But these +ill-wishes for the one party and these good wishes for the other +party are independent of anything but utter hopelessness as to the +preservation or the restoration of the Union. + +Now some may suggest that we make altogether too much of what so far +is but the expression of an opinion, and, at worst, of an unfavorable +opinion,--an opinion, too, which may yet prove to be correct. But the +giving of an opinion on some matters has all the effect of taking a +side, and often helps much to decide the stake. On very many accounts, +this expression of English opinion, at the time it was uttered and with +such emphasis, was most unwarranted and most mischievous. It is very +easy to distribute its harmful influence upon our interests and +prospects into three very different methods, all of which combined to +injure or obstruct the Northern cause,--the National cause. Thus, this +opinion of the hopelessness of our resistance of the men of our +Union was of great value to the Rebels as an encouragement under any +misgivings they might have; it was calculated to prejudice our position +in the eyes of the world; and it had a tendency to dispirit many among +ourselves. A word upon each of these points.--How quickening must it +have been to the flagging hopes or determination of the Rebels to read +in the English journals that they were sure of success, that the result +was already registered, that they had gained their purpose simply by +proposing it! Nor was it possible to regard this opinion as not carrying +with it some implication that the cause of the Rebels was a just one, +and was sure of success, if for other reasons, for this, too, among +them, namely, that it was just. Why else were the Rebels so sure of a +triumph? Was it because of their superior strength or resources? A very +little inquiry would have set aside that suggestion. Was it because +of the nobleness of their cause? A very frank avowal from the +Vice-President of the assumed Confederacy announced to liberty-loving +Englishmen that that cause was identified with a slavocracy. Or was +the Rebel cause to succeed through the dignity and purity of the means +enlisted in its service? It was equally well known on both sides of the +water by what means and appliances of fraud, perfidy, treachery, and +other outrages, the schemes of the Rebellion were initiated and pursued. +If, in spite of all these negatives, the English press prophesies +success to the Rebels, was not the prophecy a great comfort and spur +to them?--Again, this prophecy of our sure discomfiture prejudiced us +before the world. It gave a public character and aspect of hopelessness +to our cause; it invited coldness of treatment towards us; it seemed to +warn off all nations from giving us aid or comfort; and it virtually +affirmed that any outlay of means or life by us in a cause seen to be +impracticable would be reckless, sanguinary, cruel, and inhuman.--And, +once more, to those among ourselves who are influenced by evil +prognostications, it was most dispiriting to be told, as if by cool, +unprejudiced observers from outside, that no uprising of patriotism, no +heroism of sacrifice, no combination of wisdom and power would be of any +avail to resist a foreordained catastrophe.--In these three harmful +ways of influence, the ill-omened opinion reiterated from abroad had +a tendency to fulfil itself. The whole plea of justification offered +abroad for the opinion is given in the assertion that those who have +once been bitterly alienated can never be brought into true harmony +again, and that it is impossible to govern the unwilling as equals. +England has but to read the record of her own strifes and battles and +infuriated passages with Scotland and Ireland,--between whom and herself +alienations of tradition, prejudice, and religion seemed to make harmony +as impossible as the promise of it is to these warring States,--England +has only to refresh her memory on these points, in order to relieve us +of the charge of folly in attempting an impossibility. So much for the +first grievance we allege against our English brethren. + +Another of our specifications of wrong is involved in that already +considered. If English opinion decided that our nationality must +henceforth be divided, it seemed also to imply that we ought to divide +according to terms dictated by the Seceders. This was a precious +judgment to be pronounced against us by a sister Government which +was standing in solemn treaty relations with us as a unit in our +nationality! What did England suppose had become of our Northern +manhood, of the spirit of which she herself once felt the force? There +was something alike humiliating and exasperating in this implied advice +from her, that we should tamely and unresistingly submit to a division +of continent, bays, and rivers, according to terms defiantly and +insultingly proposed by those who had a joint ownership with ourselves. +How would England receive such advice from us under like circumstances? +But we must cut short the utterance of our feelings on this point, that +we may make another specification,-- + +Which is, that our English critics see only, or chiefly, in the fearful +and momentous conflict in which we are engaged, "a bursting of the +bubble of Democracy"! Shall we challenge now the intelligence or the +moral principle, the lack of one or the other of which is betrayed +in this sneering and malignant representation--this utter +misrepresentation--of the catastrophe which has befallen our nation? +Intelligent Englishmen know full well that the issue raised among us +does not necessarily touch or involve at a single point the principles +of Democracy, but stands wide apart and distinct from them. We might +with as much propriety have said that the Irish Rebellion and the Indian +Mutiny showed "the bursting of the bubble of Monarchy." The principles +of Democracy stand as firm and find our people as loyal to them in every +little town-meeting and in every legislature of each loyal State in the +Union as they did in the days of our first enthusiastic and successful +trial of them. Supposing even that the main assumption on which so many +Englishmen have prematurely vented their scorn were a fact; we cannot +but ask if the nation nearest akin to us, and professing to be guided +in this century by feelings which forbid a rejoicing over others' great +griefs, has no words of high moral sympathy, no expressions of regretful +disappointment in our calamities? Is it the first or the most emphatic +thing which it is most fitting for Christian Englishmen to say over the +supposed wreck of a recently noble and promising country, the prospered +home of thirty millions of God's children,--that "a bubble has burst"? +We might interchange with our foreign "comforters" a discussion by +arguments and facts as to whether a monarchy or a democracy has about it +more of the qualities of a bubble, but the debate would be irrelevant +to our present purpose. We believe that Democracy in its noblest and +all-essential and well-proved principles will survive the shock which +has struck upon our nation, whatever the result of that shock may yet +prove to be. We believe, further, that the principles of Democracy will +come out of the struggle which is trying, not themselves, but something +quite distinct from them, with a new affirmation and vindication. But +let that be as it may, we are as much ashamed for England's sake as +we are aggrieved on our own account that from the vehicles of public +sentiment in "the foremost realm in the world for all true culture, +advanced progress, and the glorious triumphs of liberty and religion," +what should be a profoundly plaintive lament over our supposed ruin +is, in reality, a mocking taunt and a hateful gibe over our failure in +daring to try an "un-English" experiment.[A] + +[Footnote A: The following precious utterances of John Bull moralizing, +which might have been spoken of the Thugs in India, or some provincial +Chinese enterprise, are extracted from the cotton circular of Messrs. +Neill, Brothers, addressed to their correspondents, and dated, +Manchester, Aug. 21. We find the circular copied in a _religious_ +newspaper published in London, without any rebuke. "The North will have +to learn the limited extent of her powers as compared with the +gigantic task she has undertaken. One and perhaps two defeats will be +insufficient to reverse the false education of a lifetime. Many lessons +will probably be necessary, and, meantime, any success the Northern +troops may obtain will again inflame the national vanity, and the +lessons of adversity will need to be learned over again. More effect +will probably be produced by sufferings at home, by the ruin of the +higher classes and pauperization of the lower, and by the general +absorption of the floating capital of the country"! There, good reader, +what think you of the cotton moralizing of a comfortable factor, +dwelling in immaculate England, dealing with us in cotton, and with the +Chinese in opium?] + +The stately "Quarterly Review," in its number for July, uses a little +more of dignity in wording the title of an article upon our affairs +thus,--"Democracy on its Trial"; but it makes up for the waste of +refinement upon its text by a lavish indulgence in scurrility and +falsehood in its comments. As a specimen, take the following. Living +here in this goodly city of Boston, and knowing and loving well its +ways and people, we are asked to credit the following story, which the +Reviewer says he heard from "a well-known traveller." The substance of +the story is, that a Boston merchant proposed to gild the lamp over his +street-door, but was dissuaded from so doing by the suggestion of a +friend, that by savoring of aristocracy the ornamented gas-burner would +offend the tyrannical people and provoke violence against it! This, the +latest joke in the solemn Quarterly, has led many of its readers here to +recall the days of Madame Trollope and the Reverend Mr. Fiddler, those +veracious and "well-known travellers." There are, we are sorry to say, +many gilded street-lamps, burnished and blazing every night, in Boston. +But instead of standing before the houses of our merchants, they +designate quite a different class of edifices. Our merchants, as a +general thing, would object, both on the score of good taste and on +grounds of disagreeable association with the signal, to raise such an +ornament before the doors of their comfortable homes. The common people, +however, so far from taking umbrage at the spectacle, would be rather +gratified by the generosity of our grandees in being willing to show +some of their finery out of doors. This would be the feeling especially +of that part of our population which is composed of foreigners, who have +been used to the sight of such demonstrations in their native countries, +which are not democracies. In fact, we suspect that the reason why +English "flunkeys" hate American "flunkeyism," with its laced coachmen, +etc., is because mere money, by aping the insignia of rank, its gewgaws +and trumpery, shows too plainly how much of the rank itself depends upon +the fabrics and demonstrations through which it sets itself forth. We +can conceive that an English nobleman travelling in this country, who +might chance in one of our cities to see a turn-out with its outriders, +tassels, and crests, almost or quite as fine as his own, if he were +informed that it belonged to a plebeian who had grown vastly rich +through some coarse traffic, might resolve to reduce all the display +of his own equipage the moment he reached home. The labored and +mean-spirited purpose of the writer of the aforesaid article in the +Quarterly, and of other writers of like essays, is to find in our +democracy the material and occasion of everything of a discreditable +sort which occurs in our land. Now we apprehend, not without some means +of observation and inquiry, that the state and features of society in +Great Britain and in all our Northern regions are almost identically the +same, or run in parallelisms, by which we might match every phenomenon, +incident, prejudice, and folly, every good and every bad trait and +manifestation in the one place with something exactly like it in the +other. During a whole score of years, as we have read the English +journals and our own, the thought has over and over again suggested +itself to us that any one who had leisure and taste for the task might +cut out from each series of papers respectively, for a huge commonplace +book, matters of a precisely parallel nature in both countries. A simple +difference in the names of men and of places would be all that would +appear or exist. Every noble and every mean and every mixed exhibition +of character,--every act of munificence and of baseness,--every +narrative of thrilling or romantic interest,--every instance and example +of popular delusion, humbug, man-worship, breach of trust, domestic +infelicity, and of cunning or astounding depravity and hypocrisy,--every +religious, social, and political excitement,--every panic,--and every +accident even, from carelessness or want of skill,--each and all these +have their exact parallels, generally within the same year of time in +Great Britain and in our own country. The crimes and the catastrophes, +in each locality, have seemed almost repetitions of the same things on +either continent. Munificent endowments of charitable institutions, zeal +in reformatory enterprises and in the correction of abuses, have shown +that the people of both regions stand upon the same plane of humanity +and practical Christian culture. The same great frauds have indicated +in each the same amount of rottenness in men occupying places of trust. +Both regions have had the same sort of unprincipled "railway kings" and +bankers, similar railroad disasters, similar cases of the tumbling +down of insecure walls, and of wife-poisoning. A Chartist insurrection +enlists a volunteer police in London, and an apprehended riot among +foreigners is met by a similar precaution in one of our cities. An +intermittent controversy goes on in England about the interference of +religion with common education, and Boston or New York is agitated at +the same time with the question about the use of the Bible in the public +schools. Boston rowdies mob an English intermeddler with the ticklish +matters of our national policy, and English rowdies mob an Austrian +Haynau. England goes into ecstasies over the visit of a Continental +Prince, and our Northern States repeat the demonstration over the visit +of a British Prince. The Duke of Wellington alarms his fellow-subjects +by suggesting that their national defences would all prove insufficient +against the assaults of a certain terrible Frenchman, and an American +cabinet official echoes the suggestion that England may, perhaps, try +her strength in turn against us. There are evidently a great many +bubbles in this world, and, for all that we know to the contrary, they +are all equally liable to burst. Some famous ones, bright in royal +hues, have burst within the century. Some more of the same may, not +impossibly, suffer a collapse before the century has closed. So that, +for this matter, "the bubble of Democracy" must take its chance with the +rest. + +We have one more specification to make under our general statement +of reasons why the North feels aggrieved with the prevailing tone of +sentiment and comment in the English journals in reference to our great +calamity. We protest against the verdict which finds expression in all +sorts of ways and with various aggravations, that, in attempting to +rupture our Union, and to withdraw from it on their own terms, at their +own pleasure, the seceding States are but repeating the course of the +old Thirteen Colonies in declaring themselves independent, and sundering +their ties to the mother country. There is evidently the rankling of an +old smart in this plea for rebels, which, while it is not intended to +justify rebellion in itself, is devised as a vindication of rebels +against rebels. There is manifest satisfaction and a high zest, and +something of the morally awful and solemnly remonstrative, in the way in +which the past is evoked to visit its ghostly retribution upon us. The +old sting rankles in the English breast. She is looking on now to see us +hoist by our own petard. These pamphlet pages, with their circumscribed +limits and their less ambitious aims, do not invite an elaborate dealing +with the facts of the case, which would expose the sophistical, if not +the vengeful spirit of this English plea, as for rebels against rebels. +A thorough exposition of the relations which the present Insurrection +bears to the former Revolution would demand an essay. The relations +between them, however, whether stated briefly or at length, would be +found to be simply relations of difference, without one single point +of resemblance, much less of coincidence. We can make but the briefest +reference to the points of contrast and unlikeness between the two +things, after asserting that they have no one common feature. It might +seem evasive in us to suggest to our English critics that they should +refresh their memories about the causes and the justification of our +Revolution by reading the pages of their own Burke. We are content to +rest our case on his argument, simply affirming that on no one point +will it cover the alleged parallelism of the Southern Rebellion. + +The relations of our States to each other and to the Union are quite +unlike those in which the Colonies stood to England. England claimed by +right of discovery and exploration the soil on which her Colonies here +were planted, though she had rival claimants from the very first. A +large number of the Colonists never had any original connection with +England, and owed her no allegiance. Holland, Sweden, and other +countries furnished much of the first stock of our settlers, who thought +they were occupying a wild part of God's earth rather than a portion of +the English dominions. The Colonies were not planted at public charge, +by Government cost or enterprise. The English exiles, with but slender +grounds of grateful remembrance of the land they had left, brought with +them their own private means, subdued a wilderness, extinguished the +aboriginal titles, and slowly and wearily developed the resources of the +country. Often in their direst straits did they decline to ask aid from +England, lest they might thereby furnish a plea for her interference +with their internal affairs. Several of the Colonies from the first +acted upon their presumed independence, and resolved on the frank +assertion of it as soon as they might dare the venture. That time for +daring happened to be contemporaneous with a tyrannical demand upon them +for tribute without representation. Thus the relations of the Colonies +to England were of a hap-hazard, abnormal, incidental, and always +unsettled character. They might be modified or changed without any +breach of contract. They might be sundered without perjury or perfidy. + +How unlike in all respects are the relations of these States to each +other and to the Union! Drawn together after dark days and severe +trials,--solemnly pledged to each other by the people whom the Union +raised to a full citizenship in the Republic,--bound by a compact +designed to be without limitation of time,--lifted by their +consolidation to a place and fame and prosperity which they would never +else have reached,--mutually necessary to each other's thrift and +protection,--making a nation adapted by its organic constitution to the +region of the earth which it occupies,--and now, by previous memories +and traditions, by millions of social and domestic alliances, knit by +heart-strings the sundering of which will be followed by a flow of the +life-blood till all is spent,--these terms are but a feeble setting +forth of the relations of these States to each other and to the Union. +Some of these States which have been voted out of the Union by lawless +Conventions owe their creation to the Union. Their very soil has been +paid for out of the public treasury. Indeed, the Union is still in debt +under obligations incurred by their purchase. + +How striking, too, is the contrast between the character and method of +the proceedings which originated and now sustain the Rebellion, and +those which initiated and carried through the Revolution! The Rebellion +exhibits to us a complete inversion of the course of measures which +inaugurated the Revolution. "Secession" was the invention of ambitious +leaders, who overrode the forms of law, and have not dared to submit +their votes and their doings to primary meetings of the people whom +they have driven with a despotic tyranny. In the Revolution the +people themselves were the prime movers. Each little country town and +municipality of the original Colonies, that has a hundred years of +history to be written, will point us boastfully to entries in its +records showing how it _instructed_ its representatives first to +remonstrate against tyranny, and then to resist it by successive +measures, each of which, with its limitations and its increasing +boldness, was dictated by the same people. The people of Virginia, +remembering the ancient precedent which won them their renown, +_intended_ to follow it in an early stage of our present strife. They +allowed a Convention to assemble, under the express and rigid condition, +that, if it should see fit to advise any measure which would affect the +relations of their State to the Union, a reference should be made of it, +prior to any action, to the will of the people. The Convention covertly +and treacherously abused its trust. In secret session it authorized +measures on the strength of which the Governor of the State proceeded +to put it into hostile relations with the Union. When the foregone +conclusion was at last farcically submitted to the people, a perjured +Senator of the National Congress notified such of them as would not +ratify the will of the Convention, that they must leave the State. + +Once more, in our Revolution, holders of office and of lucrative trusts +in the interest of England were to a man loyal to the Home Government, +and our independence was effected without any base appliances. In the +work of secession and rebellion, the very officials and sworn guardians +of our Government have been the foremost plotters. They have used their +opportunities and their trusts for the most perfidious purposes. Nothing +but perjury in the very highest places could have initiated secession +and rebellion, and to this very moment they derive all their vigor in +the council-chamber and on the field from forsworn men, most of whom +have been trained from their childhood, nurtured, instructed, and fed, +and all of whom have been fostered in their manhood, and gifted with +their whole power for harming her, by the kindly mother whose life they +are assailing. If the Man with the Withered Hand had used the first +thrill of life and vigor coming into it by the word of the Great +Physician to aim a blow at his benefactor, his ingratitude would have +needed to stand recorded only until this year of our Lord, to have been +matched by deeds of men who have thrown this dear land of ours into +universal mourning. Yet our English brethren would try to persuade +us that these men are but repeating the course and the deeds of the +American Revolution! + + * * * * * + + +THE WILD ENDIVE. + + + Only the dusty common road, + The glaring weary heat; + Only a man with a soldier's load, + And the sound of tired feet. + + Only the lonely creaking hum + Of the Cicada's song; + Only a fence where tall weeds come + With spiked fingers strong. + + Only a drop of the heaven's blue + Left in a way-side cup; + Only a joy for the plodding few + And eyes that look not up. + + Only a weed to the passer-by, + Growing among the rest;-- + Yet something clear as the light of the sky + It lodges in my breast. + + + + +THE CONTRABANDS AT FORTRESS MONROE. + + +In the month of August, 1620, a Dutch man-of-war from Guinea entered +James River and sold "twenty negars." Such is the brief record left by +John Rolfe, whose name is honorably associated with that of Pocahontas. +This was the first importation of the kind into the country, and the +source of existing strifes. It was fitting that the system which from +that slave-ship had been spreading over the continent for nearly two +centuries and a half should yield for the first time to the logic of +military law almost upon the spot of its origin. The coincidence may not +inappropriately introduce what of experience and reflection the writer +has to relate of a three-months' soldier's life in Virginia. + +On the morning of the 22d of May last, Major-General Butler, welcomed +with a military salute, arrived at Fortress Monroe, and assumed the +command of the Department of Virginia. Hitherto we had been hemmed up in +the peninsula of which the fort occupies the main part, and cut off from +communication with the surrounding country. Until within a few days our +forces consisted of about one thousand men belonging to the Third and +Fourth Regiments of Massachusetts militia, and three hundred regulars. +The only movement since our arrival on the 20th of April had been +the expedition to Norfolk of the Third Regiment, in which it was +my privilege to serve as a private. The fort communicates with the +main-land by a dike or causeway about half a mile long, and a wooden +bridge, perhaps three hundred feet long, and then there spreads out a +tract of country, well wooded and dotted over with farms. Passing from +this bridge for a distance of two miles northwestward, you reach a creek +or arm of the bay spanned by another wooden bridge, and crossing it you +are at once in the ancient village of Hampton, having a population +of some fifteen hundred inhabitants. The peninsula on which the fort +stands, the causeway, and the first bridge described, are the property +of the United States. Nevertheless, a small picket-guard of the +Secessionists had been accustomed to occupy a part of the bridge, +sometimes coming even to the centre, and a Secession flag waved in sight +of the fort. On the 13th of May, the Rebel picket-guard was driven from +the bridge, and all the Government property was taken possession of by a +detachment of two companies from the Fourth Regiment, accompanied by a +dozen regulars with a field-piece, acting under the orders of Colonel +Dimick, the commander of the post. They retired, denouncing vengeance +on Massachusetts troops for the invasion of Virginia. Our pickets then +occupied the entire bridge and a small strip of the main-land beyond, +covering a valuable well; but still there was no occupation in force of +any but Government property. The creation of a new military department, +to the command of which a major-general was assigned, was soon to +terminate this isolation. On the 13th of May the First Vermont Regiment +arrived, on the 24th the Second New York, and two weeks later our forces +numbered nearly ten thousand. + +On the 23d of May General Butler ordered the first reconnoitring +expedition, which consisted of a part of the Vermont Regiment, and +proceeded under the command of Colonel Phelps over the dike and bridge +towards Hampton. They were anticipated, and when in sight of the second +bridge saw that it had been set on fire, and, hastening forward, +extinguished the flames. The detachment then marched into the village. A +parley was held with a Secession officer, who represented that the men +in arms in Hampton were only a domestic police. Meanwhile the white +inhabitants, particularly the women, had generally disappeared. The +negroes gathered around our men, and their evident exhilaration was +particularly noted, some of them saying, "Glad to see you, Massa," +and betraying the fact, that, on the approach of the detachment, a +field-piece stationed at the bridge had been thrown into the sea. This +was the first communication between our army and the negroes in this +department. + +The reconnoissance of the day had more important results than were +anticipated. Three negroes, owned by Colonel Mallory, a lawyer of +Hampton and a Rebel officer, taking advantage of the terror prevailing +among the white inhabitants, escaped from their master, skulked during +the afternoon, and in the night came to our pickets. The next morning, +May 24th, they were brought to General Butler, and there, for the first +time, stood the Major-General and the fugitive slave face to face. Being +carefully interrogated, it appeared that they were field-hands, the +slaves of an officer in the Rebel service, who purposed taking them to +Carolina to be employed in military operations there. Two of them +had wives in Hampton, one a free colored woman, and they had several +children in the neighborhood. Here was a new question, and a grave one, +on which the Government had as yet developed no policy. In the absence +of precedents or instructions, an analogy drawn from international +law was applied. Under that law, contraband goods, which are directly +auxiliary to military operations, cannot in time of war be imported by +neutrals into an enemy's country, and may be seized as lawful prize when +the attempt is made so to import them. It will be seen, that, accurately +speaking, the term applies exclusively to the relation between a +belligerent and a neutral, and not to the relation between belligerents. +Under the strict law of nations, all the property of an enemy may be +seized. Under the Common Law, the property of traitors is forfeit. The +humaner usage of modern times favors the waiving of these strict rights, +but allows,--without question, the seizure and confiscation of all +such goods as are immediately auxiliary to military purposes. These +able-bodied negroes, held as slaves, were to be employed to build +breastworks, to transport or store provisions, to serve as cooks or +waiters, and even to bear arms. Regarded as property, according to their +master's claim, they could be efficiently used by the Rebels for the +purposes of the Rebellion, and most efficiently by the Government in +suppressing it. Regarded as persons, they had escaped from communities +where a triumphant rebellion had trampled on the laws, and only the +rights of human nature remained, and they now asked the protection of +the Government, to which, in prevailing treason, they were still loyal, +and which they were ready to serve as best they could. + +The three negroes, being held contraband of war, were at once set to +work to aid the masons in constructing a new bakehouse within the fort. +Thenceforward the term "contraband" bore a new signification, with which +it will pass into history, designating the negroes who had been held as +slaves, now adopted under the protection of the Government. It was used +in official communications at the fort. It was applied familiarly to the +negroes, who stared somewhat, inquiring, "What d' ye call us that +for?" Not having Wheaton's "Elements" at hand, we did not attempt an +explanation. The contraband notion was adopted by Congress in the Act +of July 6th, which confiscates slaves used in aiding the Insurrection. +There is often great virtue in such technical phrases in shaping public +opinion. They commend practical action to a class of minds little +developed in the direction of the sentiments, which would be repelled by +formulas of a broader and nobler import. The venerable gentleman, +who wears gold spectacles and reads a conservative daily, prefers +confiscation to emancipation. He is reluctant to have slaves declared +freemen, but has no objection to their being declared contrabands. His +whole nature rises in insurrection when Beecher preaches in a sermon +that a thing ought to be done because it is a duty, but he yields +gracefully when Butler issues an order commanding it to be done because +it is a military necessity. + +On the next day, Major John B. Cary, another Rebel officer, late +principal of an academy in Hampton, a delegate to the Charleston +Convention, and a seceder with General Butler from the Convention at +Baltimore, came to the fort with a flag of truce, and, claiming to act +as the representative of Colonel Mallory, demanded the fugitives. +He reminded General Butler of his obligations under the Federal +Constitution, under which he claimed to act. The ready reply was, that +the Fugitive-Slave Act could not be invoked for the reclamation of +fugitives from a foreign State, which Virginia claimed to be, and she +must count it among the infelicities of her position, if so far at least +she was taken at her word. + +The three pioneer negroes were not long to be isolated from their race. +There was no known channel of communication between them and their old +comrades, and yet those comrades knew, or believed with the certainty of +knowledge, how they had been received. If inquired of whether more were +coming, their reply was, that, if they were not sent back, others would +understand that they were among friends, and more would come the next +day. Such is the mysterious spiritual telegraph which runs through the +slave population. Proclaim an edict of emancipation in the hearing of a +single slave on the Potomac, and in a few days it will be known by his +brethren on the Gulf. So, on the night of the Big Bethel affair, a squad +of negroes, meeting our soldiers, inquired anxiously the way to "the +freedom fort." + +The means of communicating with the fort from the open country became +more easy, when, on the 24th of May, (the same day on which the first +movement was made from Washington into Virginia,) the Second New York +Regiment made its encampment on the Segar farm, lying near the bridge +which connected the fort with the main-land, an encampment soon enlarged +by the First Vermont and other New York regiments. On Sunday morning, +May 26th, eight negroes stood before the quarters of General Butler, +waiting for an audience. + +They were examined in part by the Hon. Mr. Ashley, M.C. from Ohio, then +a visitor at the fort. On May 27th, forty-seven negroes of both sexes +and all ages, from three months to eighty-five years, among whom were +half a dozen entire families, came in one squad. Another lot of a dozen +good field-hands arrived the same day; and then they continued to come +by twenties, thirties, and forties. They were assigned buildings outside +of the fort or tents within. They were set to work as servants to +officers, or to store provisions landed from vessels,--thus relieving +us of the fatigue duty which we had previously done, except that of +dragging and mounting columbiads on the ramparts of the fort, a service +which some very warm days have impressed on my memory. + +On the 27th of May, the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, the First +Vermont, and some New York regiments made an advance movement and +occupied Newport News, (a promontory named for Captain Christopher +Newport, the early explorer,) so as more effectually to enforce the +blockade of James River. There, too, negroes came in, who were employed +as servants to the officers. One of them, when we left the fort, more +fortunate than his comrades, and aided by a benevolent captain, eluded +the vigilance of the Provost Marshal, and is now the curiosity of a +village in the neighborhood of Boston. + +It was now time to call upon the Government for a policy in dealing with +slave society thus disrupted and disorganized. Elsewhere, even under +the shadow of the Capitol, the action of military officers had been +irregular, and in some cases in palpable violation of personal rights. +An order of General McDowell excluded all slaves from the lines. +Sometimes officers assumed to decide the question whether a negro was a +slave, and deliver him to a claimant, when, certainly in the absence of +martial law, they had no authority in the premises, under the Act of +Congress,--that power being confided to commissioners and marshals. As +well might a member of Congress or a State sheriff usurp the function. +Worse yet, in defiance of the Common Law, they made color a presumptive +proof of bondage. In one case a free negro was delivered to a claimant +under this process, more summary than any which the Fugitive-Slave Act +provides. The colonel of a Massachusetts regiment showed some practical +humor in dealing with a pertinacious claimant who asserted title to a +negro found within his lines, and had brought a policeman along with +him to aid in enforcing it. The shrewd colonel, (a Democrat he is,) +retaining the policeman, put both the claimant and claimed outside of +the lines together to try their fleetness. The negro proved to be the +better gymnast and was heard of no more. This capricious treatment of +the subject was fraught with serious difficulties as well as personal +injuries, and it needed to be displaced by an authorized system. + +On the 27th of May, General Butler, having in a previous communication +reported his interview with Major Cary, called the attention of the War +Department to the subject in a formal despatch,--indicating the hostile +purposes for which the negroes had been or might be successfully used, +stating the course he had pursued in employing them and recording +expenses and services, and suggesting pertinent military, political, and +humane considerations. The Secretary of War, under date of the 30th of +May, replied, cautiously approving the course of General Butler, and +intimating distinctions between interfering with the relations of +persons held to service and refusing to surrender them to their alleged +masters, which it is not easy to reconcile with well-defined views of +the new exigency, or at least with a desire to express them. The note +was characterized by diplomatic reserve which it will probably be found +difficult long to maintain. + +The ever-recurring question continued to press for solution. On the 6th +of July the Act of Congress was approved, declaring that any person +claiming the labor of another to be due to him, and permitting such +party to be employed in any military or naval service whatsoever against +the Government of the United States, shall forfeit his claim to such +labor, and proof of such employment shall thereafter be a full answer +to the claim. This act was designed for the direction of the civil +magistrate, and not for the limitation of powers derived from military +law. That law, founded on _salus republicae_, transcends all codes, +and lies outside of forms and statutes. John Quincy Adams, almost +prophesying as he expounded, declared, in 1842, that under it slavery +might be abolished. Under it, therefore, Major-General Fremont, in a +recent proclamation, declared the slaves of all persons within his +department, who were in arms against the Government, to be freemen, and +under it has given title-deeds of manumission. Subsequently President +Lincoln limited the proclamation to such slaves as are included in the +Act of Congress, namely, the slaves of Rebels used in directly hostile +service. The country had called for Jacksonian courage, and its first +exhibition was promptly suppressed. If the revocation was made in +deference to protests from Kentucky, it seems, that, while the loyal +citizens of Missouri appeared to approve the decisive measure, they were +overruled by the more potential voice of other communities who professed +to understand their affairs better than they did themselves. But if, as +is admitted, the commanding officer, in the plenitude of military power, +was authorized to make the order within his department, all human beings +included in the proclamation thereby acquired a vested title to their +freedom, of which neither Congress nor President could dispossess them. +No conclusive behests of law necessitating the limitation, it cannot +rest on any safe reasons of military policy. The one slave who carries +his master's knapsack on a march contributes far less to the efficiency +of the Rebel army than the one hundred slaves who hoe corn on his +plantation with which to replenish its commissariat. We have not yet +emerged from the fine-drawn distinctions of peaceful times. We may +imprison or slaughter a Rebel, but we may not unloose his hold on a +person he has claimed as a slave. We may seize all his other property +without question, lands, houses, cattle, jewels; but his asserted +property in man is more sacred than the gold which overlay the Ark of +the Covenant, and we may not profane it. This reverence for things +assumed to be sacred, which are not so, cannot long continue. The +Government can well turn away from the enthusiast, however generous his +impulses, who asks the abolition of slavery on general principles of +philanthropy, for the reason that it already has work enough on its +hands. It may not change the objects of the war, but it must of +necessity at times shift its tactics and its instruments, as the +exigency demands. Its solemn and imperative duty is to look every +issue, however grave and transcendent, firmly in the face; and having +ascertained upon mature and conscientious reflection what is necessary +to suppress the Rebellion, it must then proceed with inexorable purpose +to inflict the blows where Rebellion is the weakest and under which it +must inevitably fall. + +On the 30th of July, General Butler, being still unprovided with +adequate instructions,--the number of contrabands having now reached +nine hundred,--applied to the War Department for further directions. His +inquiries, inspired by good sense and humanity alike, were of the most +fundamental character, and when they shall have received a full answer +the war will be near its end. Assuming the slaves to have been the +property of masters, he considers them waifs abandoned by their +owners, in which the Government as a finder cannot, however, acquire a +proprietary interest, and they have therefore reverted to the normal +condition of those made in God's image, "if not free-born, yet +free-manumitted, sent forth from the hand that held them, never to +return." The author of that document may never win a victor's laurels +on any renowned field, but, depositing it in the archives of the +Government, he leaves a record in history which will outlast the +traditions of battle or siege. It is proper to add, that the answer of +the War Department, so far as its meaning is clear, leaves the General +uninstructed as to all slaves not confiscated by the Act of Congress. + +The documentary history being now completed, the personal narrative of +affairs at Fortress Monroe is resumed. + +The encampment of Federal troops beyond the peninsula of the fort and in +the vicinity of the village of Hampton was immediately followed by an +hegira of its white inhabitants, burning, as they fled, as much of the +bridge as they could. On the 28th of May, a detachment of troops entered +the village and hoisted the stars and stripes on the house of Colonel +Mallory. Picket-guards occupied it intermittently during the month of +June. It was not until the first day of July that a permanent encampment +was made there, consisting of the Third Massachusetts Regiment, which +moved from the fort, the Fourth, which moved from Newport News, and the +Naval Brigade, all under the command of Brigadier-General Pierce,--the +camp being informally called Camp Greble, in honor of the lieutenant of +that name who fell bravely in the disastrous affair of Big Bethel. +Here we remained until July 16th, when, our term of enlistment having +expired, we bade adieu to Hampton, its ancient relics, its deserted +houses, its venerable church, its trees and gardens, its contrabands, +all so soon to be wasted and scattered by the torch of Virginia Vandals. +We passed over the bridge, the rebuilding of which was completed the day +before, marched to the fort, exchanged our rifle muskets for an older +pattern, listened to a farewell address from General Butler, bade +good-bye to Colonel Dimick, and embarked for Boston. It was during this +encampment at Hampton, and two previous visits, somewhat hurried, while +as yet it was without a permanent guard, that my personal knowledge of +the negroes, of their feelings, desires, aspirations, capacities, and +habits of life was mainly obtained. + +A few words of local history and description may illustrate the +narrative. Hampton is a town of considerable historic interest. First +among civilized men the illustrious adventurer Captain John Smith with +his comrades visited its site in 1607, while exploring the mouth of +James River to find a home for the first colonists. Here they smoked the +calumet of peace with an Indian tribe. To the neighboring promontory, +where they found good anchorage and hospitality, they gave the name of +Point Comfort, which it still bears. Hampton, though a settlement was +commenced there in 1610, did not become a town until 1705. Hostile +fleets have twice appeared before it. The first time was in October, +1775, when some tenders sent by Lord Dunmore to destroy it were repulsed +by the citizens, aided by the Culpepper riflemen. Then and there was the +first battle of the Revolution in Virginia. Again in June, 1813, it was +attacked by Admiral Cockburn and General Beckwith, and scenes of pillage +followed, dishonorable to the British soldiery. Jackson, in his address +to his army just before the Battle of New Orleans, conjured his soldiers +to remember Hampton. Until the recent conflagration, it abounded in +ancient relics. Among them was St. John's Church, the main body of which +was of imported brick, and built at the beginning of the eighteenth +century. The fury of Secession irreverently destroyed this memorial of +antiquity and religion, which even a foreign soldiery had spared. One +inscription in the graveyard surrounding the church is as early as 1701, +and even earlier dates are found on tombstones in the fields a mile +distant. The Court-House, a clumsy old structure, in which was the +law-office of Colonel Mallory, contained judicial records of a very +early colonial period. Some, which I examined, bore date of 1634. +Several old houses, with spacious rooms and high ornamented ceilings, +gave evidence that at one time they had been occupied by citizens of +considerable taste and rank. A friend of mine found among the rubbish of +a deserted house an English illustrated edition of "Paradise Lost," +of the date of 1725, and Boyle's Oxford edition of "The Epistles of +Phalaris," famous in classical controversy, printed in 1718. The +proximity of Fortress Monroe, of the fashionable watering-place of Old +Point, and of the anchorage of Hampton Roads, has contributed to the +interest of the town. To this region came in summer-time public men +weary of their cares, army and navy officers on furlough or retired, and +the gay daughters of Virginia. In front of the fort, looking seaward, +was the summer residence of Floyd; between the fort and the town was +that of John Tyler. President Jackson sought refuge from care and +solicitation at the Rip Raps, whither he was followed by his devoted +friend, Mr. Blair. So at least a contraband informed me, who said he had +often seen them both there. + +Nevertheless, the town bore no evidence of thrift. It looked as though +it were sleepy and indolent in the best of times, having oysters for its +chief merchandise. The streets were paved, but the pavements were of +large irregular stones, and unevenly laid. Few houses were new, and, +excepting St. John's Church, the public edifices were mean. All these +have been swept away by the recent conflagration, a waste of property +indefensible on any military principles. The buildings might have +furnished winter-quarters for our troops, but in that climate they were +not necessary for that purpose, perhaps not desirable, or, if required, +could be easily replaced by temporary habitations constructed of +lumber imported from the North by sea. But the Rebel chiefs had thrown +themselves into heroic attitudes, and while playing the part of +incendiaries, they fancied their action to be as sublime as that of the +Russians at Moscow. With such a precedent of Vandalism, no ravages of +our own troops can hereafter be complained of. + +The prevailing exodus, leaving less than a dozen white men behind, +testifies the political feelings of the people. Only two votes were +thrown against the ordinance of Secession. Whatever of Union sentiment +existed there had been swept away by such demagogues as Mallory, Cary, +Magruder, Shiels, and Hope. Hastily as they left, they removed in most +cases all their furniture, leaving only the old Virginia sideboard, too +heavy to be taken away. In a few exceptional cases, from the absence of +the owner or other cause, the house was still furnished; but generally +nothing but old letters, torn books, newspapers, cast-off clothing, +strewed the floors. Rarely have I enjoyed the hours more than when +roaming from cellar to garret these tenantless houses. A deserted +dwelling! How the imagination is fascinated by what may have there +transpired of human joy or sorrow,--the solitary struggles of the soul +for better things, the dawn and the fruition of love, the separations +and reunions of families, the hearth-stone consecrated by affection and +prayer, the bridal throng, the birth of new lives, the farewells to the +world, the funeral train. + +But more interesting and instructive were the features of slave-life +which here opened to us. The negroes who remained, of whom there may +have been three hundred of all ages, lived in small wooden shanties, +generally in the rear of the master's house, rarely having more than one +room on the lower floor, and that containing an open fireplace where the +cooking for the master's family was done, tables, chairs, dishes, and +the miscellaneous utensils of household life. The masters had taken with +them, generally, their waiting-maids and house-servants, and had +desired to carry all their slaves with them. But in the hasty +preparations,--particularly where the slaves were living away from +their master's close, or had a family,--it was difficult to remove them +against their will, as they could skulk for a few hours and then go +where they pleased. Some voluntarily left their slaves behind, not +having the means to provide for them, or, anticipating a return at no +distant day, desired them to stay and guard the property. The slaves who +remained lived upon the little pork and corn-meal that were left and the +growing vegetables. They had but little to do. The women looked after +their meagre household concerns, but the men were generally idle, +standing in groups, or sitting in front of the shanties talking with the +women. Some began to serve our officers as soon as we were quartered in +the town,--while a few others set up cake-stands upon the street. + +It was necessary for the protection of the post that some breastworks +should be thrown up, and a line was planned extending from the old +cemetery northward to the new one, a quarter of a mile distant. Our own +troops were disinclined to the labor, their time being nearly expired, +and they claiming that they had done their share of fatigue duty both +at the fort and at Newport News. A member of Brigadier-General Pierce's +staff--an efficient officer and a humane gentleman--suggested the +employment of the contrabands and the furnishing of them with rations, +an expedient best for them and agreeable to us. He at once dictated +a telegram to General Butler in these words:--"Shall we put the +contrabands to work on the intrenchments, and will you furnish them with +rations?" An affirmative answer was promptly received on Monday morning, +July 8th, and that was the first day in the course of the war in which +the negro was employed upon the military works of our army. It therefore +marks a distinct epoch in its progress and in its relations to the +colored population. The writer--and henceforth his narrative must +indulge in the frequent use of the first person--was specially detailed +from his post as private in Company L of the Third Regiment to collect +the contrabands, record their names, ages, and the names of their +masters, provide their tools, superintend their labor, and procure their +rations. My comrades smiled, as I undertook the novel duty, enjoying +the spectacle of a Massachusetts Republican converted into a Virginia +slave-master. To me it seemed rather an opportunity to lead them from +the house of bondage never to return. For, whatever may be the general +duty to this race, to all such as we have in any way employed to aid our +armies our national faith and our personal honor are pledged. The +code of a gentleman, to say nothing of a higher law of rectitude, +necessitates protection to this extent. Abandoning one of these faithful +allies, who, if delivered up, would be reduced to severer servitude +because of the education he had received and the services he had +performed, probably to be transported to the remotest slave region as +now too dangerous to remain near its borders, we should be accursed +among the nations of the earth. I felt assured that from that hour, +whatsoever the fortunes of the war, every one of those enrolled +defenders of the Union had vindicated beyond all future question, for +himself, his wife, and their issue, a title to American citizenship, and +become heir to all the immunities of Magna Charta, the Declaration of +Independence, and the Constitution of the United States. + +Passing through the principal streets, I told the contrabands that when +they heard the court-house bell, which would ring soon, they must go to +the court-house yard, where a communication would be made to them. In +the mean time I secured the valuable services of some fellow-privates, +one for a quarter-master, two others to aid in superintending at the +trenches, and the orderly-sergeant of my own company, whose expertness +in the drill was equalled only by his general good sense and business +capacity. Upon the ringing of the bell, about forty contrabands came to +the yard. A second exploration added to the number some twenty or +more, who had not heard the original summons. They then came into the +building, where they were called to order and addressed. I had argued to +judges and juries, but I had never spoken to such auditors before in a +court-room. I told them that the colored men had been employed on the +breastworks of the Rebels, and we needed their aid,--that they would +be required to do only such labor as we ourselves had done,--that they +should be treated kindly, and no one should be obliged to work beyond +his capacity, or if unwell,--and that they should be furnished in a day +or two with full soldiers' rations. I told them that their masters +had said they were an indolent people,--that I did not believe the +charge,--that I was going home to Massachusetts soon and should be glad +to report that they were as industrious as the whites. They generally +showed no displeasure, some even saying, that, not having done much for +some time, it was the best thing for them to be now employed. Four or +five men over fifty years old said that they suffered from rheumatism, +and could not work without injury. Being confirmed by the by-standers, +they were dismissed. Other old men said they would do what they could, +and they were assured that no more would be required of them. Two of +them, provided with a bucket and dipper, were detailed to carry water +all the time along the line of laborers. Two young men fretted a little, +and claimed to be disabled in some way. They were told to resume their +seats, and try first and see what they could do,--to the evident +amusement of the rest, who knew them to be indolent and disposed to +shirk. A few showed some sulkiness, but it all passed away after the +first day, when they found that they were to be used kindly. One +well-dressed young man, a carpenter, feeling a little better than his +associates, did not wear a pleasant face at first. Finding out his +trade, we set him to sawing the posts for the intrenchments, and he was +entirely reconciled. Free colored men were not required to work; but +one volunteered, wishing, as he said, to do his part. The contrabands +complained that the free colored men ought to be required to work on the +intrenchments as well as they. I thought so too, but followed my orders. +A few expressed some concern lest their masters should punish them for +serving us, if they ever returned. One inquired suspiciously why we took +the name of his master. My reply was, that it was taken in order to +identify them,--an explanation with which he was more satisfied than I +was myself. Several were without shoes, and said that they could not +drive the shovel into the earth. They were told to use the picks. The +rest of the forenoon being occupied in registering their names and ages, +and the names of their masters, they were dismissed to come together on +the ringing of the bell, at two, P.M. + +It had been expressly understood that I was to have the exclusive +control and supervision of the negroes, directing their hours of labor +and their rests, without interference from any one. The work itself was +to be planned and superintended by the officers of the Third and Fourth +Regiments. This exclusive control of the men was necessarily confided +to one, as different lieutenants detailed each day could not feel a +responsibility for their welfare. One or two of these, when rests were +allowed the negroes, were somewhat disgusted, saying that negroes +could dig all the time as well as not. I had had some years before an +experience with the use of the shovel under a warm sun, and knew better, +and I wished I could superintend a corps of lieutenants and apply their +own theory to themselves. + +At two, P.M., the contrabands came together, answered to their names, +and, each taking a shovel, a spade, or a pick, began to work upon the +breastworks farthest from the village and close to the new cemetery. The +afternoon was very warm, the warmest we had in Hampton. Some, used only +to household or other light work, wilted under the heat, and they were +told to go into the cemetery and lie down. I remember distinctly a +corpulent colored man, down whose cheeks the perspiration rolled and who +said he felt badly. He also was told to go away and rest until he was +better. He soon came back relieved, and there was no more faithful +laborer among them all during the rest of the time. Twice or three times +in the afternoon an intermission of fifteen minutes was allowed to all. +Thus they worked until six in the evening, when they were dismissed for +the day. They deposited their tools in the court-house, where each one +of his own accord carefully put his pick or shovel where he could find +it again,--sometimes behind a door and sometimes in a sly corner or +under a seat, preferring to keep his own tool. They were then informed +that they must come together on the ringing of the bell the next morning +at four o'clock. They thought that too early, but they were assured +that the system best for their health would be adopted, and they would +afterwards be consulted about changing it. The next morning we did not +rise quite so early as four, and the bell was not rung till some minutes +later. The contrabands were prompt, their names had been called, and +they had marched to the trenches, a quarter of a mile distant, and were +fairly at work by half-past four or a quarter before five. They did +excellent service during the morning hours, and at seven were dismissed +till eight. The roll was then called again, absences, if any, noted, +and by half-past eight they were at their post. They continued at the +trenches till eleven, being allowed rests, and were then dismissed until +three, P.M., being relieved four hours in the middle of the day, when, +the bell being rung and the roll called, they resumed their work and +continued till six, when they were dismissed for the day. Such were the +hours and usual course of their labor. Their number was increased some +half dozen by fugitives from the back-country, who came in and asked to +be allowed to serve on the intrenchments. + +The contrabands worked well, and in no instance was it found necessary +for the superintendents to urge them. There was a public opinion among +them against idleness, which answered for discipline. Some days they +worked with our soldiers, and it was found that they did more work, and +did the nicer parts--the facings and dressings--better. Colonels Packard +and Wardrop, under whose direction the breastworks were constructed, and +General Butler, who visited them, expressed satisfaction at the work +which the contrabands had done. On the 14th of July, Mr. Russell, of the +London "Times," and Dr. Bellows, of the Sanitary Commission, came to +Hampton and manifested much interest at the success of the experiment. +The result was, indeed, pleasing. A subaltern officer, to whom I had +insisted that the contrabands should be treated with kindness, had +sneered at the idea of applying philanthropic notions in time of war. It +was found then, as always, that decent persons will accomplish more when +treated at least like human beings. The same principle, if we will but +credit our own experience and Mr. Rarey, too, may with advantage be +extended to our relations with the beasts that serve us. + +Three days after the contrabands commenced their work, five days' +rations were served to them,--a soldier's ration for each laborer, and +half a ration for each dependant. The allowance was liberal,--as a +soldier's ration, if properly cooked, is more than he generally needs, +and the dependant for whom a half-ration was received might be a wife +or a half-grown child. It consisted of salt beef or pork, hard bread, +beans, rice, coffee, sugar, soap, and candles, and where the family was +large it made a considerable pile. The recipients went home, appearing +perfectly satisfied, and feeling assured that our promises to them would +be performed. On Sunday fresh meat was served to them in the same manner +as to the troops. + +There was one striking feature in the contrabands which must not be +omitted. I did not hear a profane or vulgar word spoken by them during +my superintendence, a remark which it will be difficult to make of any +sixty-four white men taken together anywhere in our army. Indeed, the +greatest discomfort of a soldier, who desires to remain a gentleman in +the camp, is the perpetual reiteration of language which no decent lips +would utter in a sister's presence. But the negroes, so dogmatically +pronounced unfit for freedom, were in this respect models for those who +make high boasts of civility of manners and Christian culture. Out of +the sixty-four who worked for us, all but half a dozen were members of +the Church, generally the Baptist. Although without a pastor, they held +religious meetings on the Sundays which we passed in Hampton, which were +attended by about sixty colored persons and three hundred soldiers. The +devotions were decorously conducted, bating some loud shouting by one +or two excitable brethren, which the better sense of the rest could not +suppress. Their prayers and exhortations were fervent, and marked by a +simplicity which is not infrequently the richest eloquence. The soldiers +behaved with entire propriety, and two exhorted them with pious unction, +as children of one Father, ransomed by the same Redeemer. + +To this general propriety of conduct among the contrabands intrusted to +me there was only one exception, and that was in the case of Joe ----; +his surname I have forgotten. He was of a vagrant disposition, and an +inveterate shirk. He had a plausible speech and a distorted imagination, +and might be called a demagogue among darkies. He bore an ill +physiognomy,--that of one "fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils." He +was disliked by the other contrabands, and had been refused admission to +their Church, which he wished to join in order to get up a character. +Last, but not least, among his sins, he was accustomed to boat his wife, +of which she accused him in my presence; whereupon he justified himself +on the brazen assumption that all husbands did the same. There was no +good reason to believe that he had already been tampered with by Rebels; +but his price could not be more than five dollars. He would be a +disturbing element among the laborers on the breastworks, and he was a +dangerous person to be so near the lines; we therefore sent him to the +fort. The last I heard of him, he was at the Rip Raps, bemoaning his +isolation, and the butt of our soldiers there, who charged him with +being a "Secesh," and confounded him by gravely asserting that they were +such themselves and had seen him with the "Secesh" at Yorktown. This was +the single goat among the sheep. + +On Monday evening, July 15th, when the contrabands deposited their tools +in the court-house, I requested them to stop a moment in the yard. I +made each a present of some tobacco, which all the men and most of the +women use. As they gathered in a circle around me, head peering over +head, I spoke to them briefly, thanking them for their cordial work and +complimenting their behavior, remarking that I had heard no profane or +vulgar word from them, in which they were an example to us,--adding that +it was the last time I should meet them, as we were to march homeward in +the morning, and that I should bear to my people a good report of their +industry and morals. There was another word that I could not leave +without speaking. Never before in our history had a Northern man, +believing in the divine right of all men to their liberty, had an +opportunity to address an audience of sixty-four slaves and say what the +Spirit moved him to utter,--and I should have been false to all that is +true and sacred, if I had let it pass. I said to them that there was one +more word for me to add, and that was, that every one of them was as +much entitled to his freedom as I was to mine, and I hoped they would +all now secure it. "Believe you, boss," was the general response, and +each one with his rough gravelly hand grasped mine, and with tearful +eyes and broken utterances said, "God bless you!" "May we meet in +Heaven!" "My name is Jack Allen, don't forget me!" "Remember me, Kent +Anderson!" and so on. No,--I may forget the playfellows of my childhood, +my college classmates, my professional associates, my comrades in arms, +but I will remember you and your benedictions until I cease to breathe! +Farewell, honest hearts, longing to be free! and may the kind Providence +which for-gets not the sparrow shelter and protect you! + +During our encampment at Hampton, I occupied much of my leisure time +in conversations with the contrabands, both at their work and in their +shanties, endeavoring to collect their currents of thought and feeling. +It remains for me to give the results, so far as any could be arrived +at. + +There were more negroes of unmixed African blood than we expected +to find. But many were entirely bleached. One man, working on the +breastworks, owned by his cousin, whose name he bore, was no darker than +white laborers exposed by their occupation to the sun, and could not be +distinguished as of negro descent. Opposite our quarters was a young +slave woman who had been three times a mother without ever having been +a wife. You could not discern in her three daughters, either in color, +feature, or texture of hair, the slightest trace of African lineage. +They were as light-faced and fair-haired as the Saxon slaves whom the +Roman Pontiff, Gregory the Great, met in the markets of Rome. If they +were to be brought here and their pedigree concealed, they could readily +mingle with our population and marry white men, who would never suspect +that they were not pure Caucasians. + +From the best knowledge I could obtain, the negroes in Hampton had +rarely been severely whipped. A locust-tree in front of the jail had +been used for a whipping-post, and they were very desirous that it +should be cut down. It was used, however, only for what are known +there as flagrant offences, like running away. Their masters, when in +ill-temper, had used rough language and inflicted chance blows, but no +one ever told me that he had suffered from systematic cruelty or been +severely whipped, except Joe, whose character I have given. Many of them +bore testimony to the great kindness of their masters and mistresses. + +Separations of families had been frequent. Of this I obtained definite +knowledge. When I was registering the number of dependants, preparatory +to the requisition for rations, the answer occasionally was, "Yes, I +have a wife, but she is not here." "Where is she?" "She was sold off two +years ago, and I have not heard of her since." The husband of the woman +who took care of the quarters of General Pierce had been sold away from +her some years before. Such separations are regarded as death, and the +slaves re-marry. In some cases the bereft one--so an intelligent negro +assured me--pines under his bereavement and loses his value; but so +elastic is human nature that this did not appear to be generally the +case. The same answer was given about children,--that they had been sold +away. This, in a slave-breeding country, is done when they are about +eight years old. Can that be a mild system of servitude which permits +such enforced separations? Providence may, indeed, sunder forever those +dearest to each other, and the stricken soul accepts the blow as the +righteous discipline of a Higher Power; but when the bereavement is +the arbitrary dictate of human will, there are no such consolations to +sanctify grief and assuage agony. + +There is a universal desire among the slaves to be free. Upon this point +my inquiries were particular, and always with the same result. When +we said to them, "You don't want to be free,--your masters say you +don't,"--they manifested much indignation, answering, "We do want to be +free,--we want to be for ourselves." We inquired further, "Do the house +slaves who wear their master's clothes want to be free?" "We never heard +of one who did not," was the instant reply. There might be, they said, +some half-crazy one who did not care to be free, but they had never seen +one. Even old men and women, with crooked backs, who could hardly walk +or see, shared the same feeling. An intelligent Secessionist, Lowry by +name, who was examined at head-quarters, admitted that a majority of the +slaves wanted to be free. The more intelligent the slave and the better +he had been used, the stronger this desire seemed to be. I remember one +such particularly, the most intelligent one in Hampton, known as "an, +influential darky" ("darky" being the familiar term applied by the +contrabands to themselves). He could read, was an exhorter in the +Church, and officiated in the absence of the minister. He would have +made a competent juryman. His mistress, he said, had been kind to him, +and had never spoken so harshly to him as a captain's orderly in the +Naval Brigade had done, who assumed one day to give him orders. She had +let him work where he pleased, and he was to bring her a fixed sum, and +appropriate the surplus to his own use. She pleaded with him to go away +with her from Hampton at the time of the exodus, but she would not force +him to leave his family. Still he hated to be a slave, and he talked +like a philosopher about his rights. No captive in the galleys of +Algiers, not Lafayette in an Austrian dungeon, ever pined more for free +air. He had saved eighteen hundred dollars of his surplus earnings in +attending on visitors at Old Point, and had spent it all in litigation +to secure the freedom of his wife and children, belonging to another +master, whose will had emancipated them, but was contested on the ground +of the insanity of the testator. He had won a verdict, but his lawyers +told him they could not obtain a judgment upon it, as the judge was +unfavorable to freedom. + +The most frequent question asked of one who has had any means of +communication with the contrabands during the war is in relation to +their knowledge of its cause and purposes, and their interest in it. One +thing was evident,--indeed, you could not talk with a slave who did not +without prompting give the same testimony,--that their masters had been +most industrious in their attempts to persuade them that the Yankees +were coming down there only to get the land,--that they would kill the +negroes and manure the ground with them, or carry them off to Cuba or +Hayti and sell them. An intelligent man who had belonged to Colonel +Joseph Segar--almost the only Union man at heart in that region, and who +for that reason, being in Washington at the time the war began, had not +dared to return to Hampton--served the staff of General Pierce. He bore +the highest testimony to the kindness of his master, who, he said, told +him to remain,--that the Yankees were the friends of his people, and +would use them well. "But," said David,--for that was his name,--"I +never heard of any other master who talked that way, but they all told +the worst stories about the Yankees, and the mistresses were more +furious even than the masters." David, I may add, spite of his good +master, longed to be free. + +The masters, in their desperation, had within a few months resorted +to another device to secure the loyalty of their slaves. The colored +Baptist minister had been something of a pet among the whites, and had +obtained subscriptions from some benevolent citizens to secure the +freedom of a handsome daughter of his who was exposed to sale on an +auction block, where her beauty inspired competition. Some leading +Secessionists, Lawyer Hope for one, working somewhat upon his gratitude +and somewhat upon his vanity, persuaded him to offer the services of +himself and his sons, in a published communication, to the cause of +Virginia and the Confederate States. The artifice did not succeed. He +lost his hold on his congregation, and could not have safely remained +after the whites left. He felt uneasy about his betrayal, and tried to +restore himself to favor by saying that he meant no harm to his people; +but his protestations were in vain. His was the deserved fate of those +in all ages who, victims of folly or bribes, turn their backs on their +fellows. + +Notwithstanding all these attempts, the negroes, with rare exceptions, +still believed that the Yankees were their friends. They had learned +something in Presidential elections, and they thought their masters +could not hate us as they did, unless we were their friends. They +believed that the troubles would somehow or other help them, although +they did not understand all that was going on. They may be pardoned +for their want of apprehension, when some of our public men, almost +venerable, and reputed to be very wise and philosophical, are bewildered +and grope blindly. They were somewhat perplexed by the contradictory +statements of our soldiers, some of whom, according to their wishes, +said the contest was for them, and others that it did not concern them +at all and they would remain as before. If it was explained to them, +that Lincoln was chosen by a party who were opposed to extending +slavery, but who were also opposed to interfering with it in +Virginia,--that Virginia and the South had rebelled, and we had come to +suppress the rebellion,--and although the object of the war was not to +emancipate them, yet that might be its result,--they answered, that they +understood the statement perfectly. They did not seem inclined to fight, +although willing to work. More could not be expected of them while +nothing is promised to them. What latent inspirations they may have +remains to be seen. They had at first a mysterious dread of fire-arms, +but familiarity is rapidly removing that. + +The religious element of their life has been noticed. They said they +had prayed for this day, and God had sent Lincoln in answer to their +prayers. We used to overhear their family devotions, somewhat loud +according to their manner, in which they prayed earnestly for our +troops. They built their hopes of freedom on Scriptural examples, +regarding the deliverance of Daniel from the lions' den, and of the +Three Children from the furnace, as symbolic of their coming freedom. +One said to me, that masters, before they died, by their wills sometimes +freed their slaves, and he thought that a _type_ that they should become +free. + +One Saturday evening one of them asked me to call and see him at his +home the next morning. I did so, and he handed me a Bible belonging +to his mistress, who had died a few days before, and whose bier I had +helped to carry to the family vault. He wanted me to read to him the +eleventh chapter of Daniel. It seemed, that, as one of the means of +keeping them quiet, the white clergymen during the winter and spring +had read them some verses from it to show that the South would prevail, +enforcing passages which ascribed great dominion to "the king of the +South," and suppressing those which subsequently give the supremacy to +"the king of the North." A colored man who could read had found the +latter passages and made them known. The chapter is dark with mystery, +and my auditor, quite perplexed as I read on, remarked, "The Bible is a +very mysterious book." I read to him also the thirty-fourth chapter of +Jeremiah, wherein the sad prophet of Israel records the denunciations +by Jehovah of sword, pestilence, and famine against the Jews for not +proclaiming liberty to their servants and handmaids. He had not known +before that there were such passages in the Bible. + +The conversations of the contrabands on their title to be regarded as +freemen showed reflection. When asked if they thought themselves fit for +freedom, and if the darkies were not lazy, their answer was, "Who +but the darkies cleared all the land round here? Yes, there are lazy +darkies, but there are more lazy whites." When told that the free blacks +had not succeeded, they answered that the free blacks have not had a +fair chance under the laws,--that they don't dare to enforce their +claims against white men,--that a free colored blacksmith had a thousand +dollars due to him from white men, but he was afraid to sue for any +portion of it. One man, when asked why he ought to be free, replied,--"I +feed and clothe myself and pay my master one hundred and twenty dollars +a year; and the one hundred and twenty dollars is just so much taken +from me, which ought to be used to make me and my children comfortable." +Indeed, broken as was their speech and limited as was their knowledge, +they reasoned abstractly on their rights as well as white men. Locke or +Channing might have fortified the argument for universal liberty from +their simple talk. So true is it that the best thoughts which the human +intellect has produced have come, not from affluent learning or ornate +speech, but from the original elements of our nature, common to all +races of men and all conditions in life; and genius the highest and most +cultured may bend with profit to catch the lowliest of human utterances. + +There was a very general desire among the contrabands to know how to +read. A few had learned; and these, in every instance where we inquired +as to their teacher, had been taught on the sly in their childhood by +their white playmates. Others knew their letters, but could not "put +them together," as they said. I remember of a summer's afternoon seeing +a young married woman, perhaps twenty-five years old, seated on a +door-step with her primer before her, trying to make progress. + +In natural tact and the faculty of getting a livelihood the contrabands +are inferior to the Yankees, but quite equal to the mass of the Southern +population. It is not easy to see why they would be less industrious, if +free, than the whites, particularly as they would have the encouragement +of wages. There would be transient difficulties at the outset, but no +more than a bad system lasting for ages might be expected to leave +behind. The first generation might be unfitted for the active duties and +responsibilities of citizenship; but this difficulty, under generous +provisions for education, would not pass to the next. Even now they are +not so much behind the masses of the whites. Of the Virginians who took +the oath of allegiance at Hampton, not more than one in fifteen could +write his name, and the rolls captured at Hatteras disclose an equally +deplorable ignorance. The contrabands might be less addicted than the +now dominant race to bowie-knives and duels, think less of the value +of bludgeons as forensic arguments, be less inhospitable to innocent +sojourners from Free States, and have far inferior skill in robbing +forts and arsenals, plundering the Treasury, and betraying the country +at whose crib they had fattened; but mankind would forgive them for not +acquiring these accomplishments of modern treason. As a race, they may +be less vigorous and thrifty than the Saxon, but they are more social, +docile, and affectionate, fulfilling the theory which Channing held in +relation to them, if advanced to freedom and civilization. + +If in the progress of the war they should be called to bear arms, there +need be no reasonable apprehension that they would exhibit the ferocity +of savage races. Unlike such, they have been subordinated to civilized +life. They are by nature a religious people. They have received an +education in the Christian faith from devout teachers of their own and +of the dominant race. Some have been taught (let us believe it) by +the precepts of Christian masters, and some by the children of those +masters, repeating the lessons of the Sabbath-school. The slaveholders +assure us that they have all been well treated. If that be so, they have +no wrongs to avenge. Associated with our army, they would conform to +the stronger and more disciplined race. Nor is this view disproved by +servile insurrections. In those cases, the insurgents, without arms, +without allies, without discipline, but throwing themselves against +society, against government, against everything, saw no other escape +than to devastate and destroy without mercy in order to get a foothold. +If they exterminated, it was because extermination was threatened +against them. In the Revolution, in the army at Cambridge, from the +beginning to the close of the war, against the protests of South +Carolina by the voice of Edward Rutledge, but with the express sanction +of Washington,--ever just, ever grateful for patriotism, whencesoever +it came,--the negroes fought in the ranks with the white men, and they +never dishonored the patriot cause. So also at the defence of New +Orleans they received from General Jackson a noble tribute to their +fidelity and soldier-like bearing. Weighing the question historically +and reflectively, and anticipating the capture of Richmond and New +Orleans, there need be more serious apprehension of the conduct of +some of our own troops recruited in large cities than of a regiment of +contrabands officered and disciplined by white men. + +But as events travel faster than laws or proclamations, already in +this war with Rebellion the two races have served together. The same +breastworks have been built by their common toil. True and valiant, they +stood side by side in the din of cannonade, and they shared as comrades +in the victory of Hatteras. History will not fail to record that on the +28th day of August, 1861, when the Rebel forts were bombarded by the +Federal army and navy, under the command of Major-General Butler and +Commodore Stringham, fourteen negroes, lately Virginia slaves, now +contraband of war, faithfully and without panic worked the after-gun of +the upper deck of the Minnesota, and hailed with a victor's pride the +Stars and Stripes as they again waved on the soil of the Carolinas. + + + + + +THE WASHERS OF THE SHROUD. + + + Along a river-side, I know not where, + I walked last night in mystery of dream; + A chill creeps curdling yet beneath my hair, + To think what chanced me by the pallid gleam + Of a moon-wraith that waned through haunted air. + + Pale fire-flies pulsed within the meadow mist + Their halos, wavering thistle-downs of light; + The loon, that seemed to mock some goblin tryst, + Laughed; and the echoes, huddling in affright, + Like Odin's hounds, fled baying down the night. + + Then all was silent, till there smote my ear + A movement in the stream that checked my breath: + Was it the slow plash of a wading deer? + But something said, "This water is of Death! + The Sisters wash a Shroud,--ill thing to hear!" + + I, looking then, beheld the ancient Three, + Known to the Greek's and to the Norseman's creed, + That sit in shadow of the mystic Tree, + Still crooning, as they weave their endless brede, + One song: "Time was, Time is, and Time shall be." + + No wrinkled crones were they, as I had deemed, + But fair as yesterday, to-day, to-morrow, + To mourner, lover, poet, ever seemed; + Something too deep for joy, too high for sorrow, + Thrilled in their tones and from their faces gleamed. + + "Still men and nations reap as they have strawn,"-- + So sang they, working at their task the while,-- + "The fatal raiment must be cleansed ere dawn: + For Austria? Italy? the Sea-Queen's Isle? + O'er what quenched grandeur must our shroud be drawn? + + "Or is it for a younger, fairer corse, + That gathered States for children round his knees, + That tamed the wave to be his posting-horse, + The forest-feller, linker of the seas, + Bridge-builder, hammerer, youngest son of Thor's? + + "What make we, murmur'st thou, and what are we? + When empires must be wound, we bring the shroud, + The time-old web of the implacable Three: + Is it too coarse for him, the young and proud? + Earth's mightiest deigned to wear it; why not he?" + + "Is there no hope?" I moaned. "So strong, so fair! + Our Fowler, whose proud bird would brook erewhile + No rival's swoop in all our western air! + Gather the ravens, then, in funeral file, + For him, life's morn-gold bright yet in his hair? + + "Leave me not hopeless, ye unpitying dames! + I see, half-seeing. Tell me, ye who scanned + The stars, Earth's elders, still must noblest aims + Be traced upon oblivious ocean-sands? + Must Hesper join the wailing ghosts of names?" + + "When grass-blades stiffen with red battle-dew, + Ye deem we choose the victors and the slain: + Say, choose we them that shall be leal and true + To the heart's longing, the high faith of brain? + Yet here the victory is, if ye but knew. + + "Three roots bear up Dominion: Knowledge, Will,-- + These two are strong, but stronger yet the third,-- + Obedience, the great tap-root, that still, + Knit round the rock of Duty, is not stirred, + Though the storm's ploughshare spend its utmost skill. + + "Is the doom sealed for Hesper? 'T is not we + Denounce it, but the Law before all time: + The brave makes danger opportunity; + The waverer, paltering with the chance sublime, + Dwarfs it to peril: which shall Hesper be? + + "Hath he let vultures climb his eagle's seat + To make Jove's bolts purveyors of their maw? + Hath he the Many's plaudits found more sweet + Than wisdom? held Opinion's wind for law? + Then let him hearken for the headsman's feet! + + "Rough are the steps, slow-hewn in flintiest rock, + States climb to power by; slippery those with gold + Down which they stumble to eternal mock: + No chafferer's hand shall long the sceptre hold, + Who, given a Fate to shape, would sell the block. + + "We sing old sagas, songs of weal and woe, + Mystic because too cheaply understood; + Dark sayings are not ours; men hear and know, + See Evil weak, see only strong the Good, + Yet hope to balk Doom's fire with walls of tow. + + "Time Was unlocks the riddle of Time Is, + That offers choice of glory and of gloom; + The solver makes Time Shall Be surely his.-- + But hasten, Sisters! for even now the tomb + Grates its slow hinge and calls from the abyss." + + "But not for him," I cried, "not yet for him, + Whose large horizon, westering, star by star + Wins from the void to where on ocean's rim + The sunset shuts the world with golden bar,-- + Not yet his thews shall fail, his eye grow dim! + + "His shall be larger manhood, saved for those + That walk unblenching through the trial-fires; + Not suffering, but faint heart is worst of woes, + And he no base-born son of craven sires, + Whose eye need droop, confronted with his foes. + + "Tears may be ours, but proud, for those who win + Death's royal purple in the enemy's lines: + Peace, too, brings tears; and 'mid the battle-din, + The wiser ear some text of God divines; + For the sheathed blade may rust with darker sin. + + "God, give us peace!--not such as lulls to sleep, + But sword on thigh, and brow with purpose knit! + And let our Ship of State to harbor sweep, + Her ports all up, her battle-lanterns lit, + And her leashed thunders gathering for their leap!" + + So said I, with clenched hands and passionate pain, + Thinking of dear ones by Potomac's side: + Again the loon laughed, mocking; and again + The echoes bayed far down the night, and died, + While waking I recalled my wandering brain. + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Sermons preached in the Chapel of Harvard College._ By JAMES WALKER, +D.D. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. + +The great reputation which Dr. Walker has long enjoyed, as one of the +most impressive pulpit orators of the country, will suffer little +diminution by the publication of these specimens of his rare powers of +statement, argument, and illustration. To the general reader, they are, +to be sure, deprived of the fascination of his voice and manner; but +as the peculiarities of his elocution have their source in the +peculiarities of his mental and moral organization, it will be found +that the style and structure of these printed sermons suggest the mule +of their delivery, which is simply the emphatic utterance of emphatic +thought. The Italicized words, with which the volume abounds, palpably +mark the results of thinking, and arrest attention because they are not +less emphasized by the intellect than by the type. In reflecting Dr. +Walker's mind, the work at the same time reflects his manner. + +Every reader of these sermons will be struck by their thorough +reasonableness,--a reasonableness which does not exclude, but includes, +the deepest and warmest religious sensibility. Moral and religious +feeling pervades every statement; but the feeling is still confined +within a flexible framework of argument, which, while it enlarges with +every access of emotion, is always an outlying boundary of thought, +beyond which passion does not pass. Light continually asserts itself as +more comprehensive in its reach than heat; and the noblest spiritual +instincts and impulses are never allowed unchecked expression as +sentiments, but have to submit to the restraints imposed by principles. +Even in the remarkable sermon entitled, "The Heart more than the Head," +it will be found that it is the head which legitimates the action of +the heart. The sentiments are exalted above the intellect by a process +purely intellectual, and the inferiority of the reason is shown to be +a principle essentially reasonable. Thus, throughout the volume, the +author's mental insight into the complex phenomena of our spiritual +nature is always accompanied by a mental oversight of its actual and +possible aberrations. A sound, large, "round-about" common sense, keen, +eager, vigilant, sagacious, encompasses all the emotional elements of +his thought. He has a subtile sense of mystery, but he is not a mystic. +The most marvellous workings of the Divine Spirit he apprehends under +the conditions of Law, and even in the raptures of devotion he never +forgets the relation of cause and effect. + +The style of these sermons is what might be expected from the character +of the mind it expresses. If Dr. Walker were not a thinker, it is plain +that he could never have been a rhetorician. He has no power at all as +a writer, if writing be considered an accomplishment which can be +separated from earnest thinking. Words are, with him, the mere +instruments for the expression of things; and he hits on felicitous +words only under that impatient stress of thought which demands exact +expression for definite ideas. All his words, simple as they are, are +therefore fairly earned, and he gives to them a force and significance +which they do not bear in the dictionary. The mind of the writer is felt +beating and burning beneath his phraseology, stamping every word with +the image of a thought. Largeness of intellect, acute discrimination, +clear and explicit statement, masterly arrangement of matter, an +unmistakable performance of the real business of expression,--these +qualities make every reader of the sermons conscious that a mind of +great vigor, breadth, and pungency is brought into direct contact +with his own. The almost ostentatious absence of "fine writing" only +increases the effect of the plain and sinewy words. + +If we pass from the form to the substance of Dr. Walker's teachings, we +shall find that his sermons are especially characterized by practical +wisdom. A scholar, a moralist, a metaphysician, a theologian, learned +in all the lore and trained in the best methods of the schools, he is +distinguished from most scholars by his broad grasp of every-day life. +It is this quality which has given him his wide influence as a preacher, +and this is a prominent charm of his printed sermons. He brings +principles to the test of facts, and connects thoughts with things. The +conscience which can easily elude the threats, the monitions, and the +appeals of ordinary sermonizers, finds itself mastered by his mingled +fervor, logic, and practical knowledge. Every sermon in the present +volume is good for use, and furnishes both inducements and aids to the +formation of manly Christian character. There is much, of course, to +lift the depressed and inspire the weak; but the great peculiarity of +the discourses is the resolute energy with which they grapple with the +worldliness and sin of the proud and the strong. + + +_The Monks of the West, from St. Benedict to St. Bernard_. By the COUNT +DE MONTALEMBERT, Member of the French Academy. Authorized Translation. +Volumes I. and II. Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons. 1861. 8vo. +pp. xii. and 515, 549. + +These volumes form the first instalment of a work in which one of the +great lights of the Romish Church in our day proposes to recount the +glories of Western Monasticism, and to narrate the lives of some of the +remarkable men who successively passed from the cloister to the Papal +throne, or in positions scarcely less conspicuous permanently affected +the history of the Church. His original design, however, does not appear +to have extended beyond writing the life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, +which he intended to make in some measure a complement to his life of +St. Elizabeth of Hungary. But he judged rightly, that, in order to +exhibit the character and influence of that remarkable man under all +their various aspects, it was needful at the outset to retrace the early +history of monastic institutions in the West, and to show how far +they tended to prepare the way for such a man. Only a part of this +preliminary task has been accomplished as yet; but enough has been done +to show in what spirit the historian has approached his subject, how +thoroughly he has explored the original sources of information, and +what will probably be the real worth of his labors. For such a +work Montalembert possesses adequate and in some respects peculiar +qualifications. His learning, eloquence, and candor will be conceded by +every one who is familiar with his previous writings or with his public +life; and at the same time he unites a passionate love of liberty, +everywhere apparent in his book, with a zeal for the Church, worthy of +any of the monks whom he commemorates. While his narrative is always +animated and picturesque, and often rises into passages of fervid +eloquence, he has conducted his researches with the unwearied +perseverance of a mere antiquary, and has exhausted every source of +information. "Every word which I have written," he says, "has been drawn +from original and contemporary sources; and if I have quoted facts +or expressions from second-hand authors, it has never been without +attentively verifying the original or completing the text. A single +date, quotation, or note, apparently insignificant, has often cost me +hours and sometimes days of labor. I have never contented myself with +being approximately right, nor resigned myself to doubt until every +chance of arriving at certainty was exhausted." To the spirit and temper +in which the book is written no well-founded exception can be taken; but +considerable abatement must be made from the author's estimate of +the services rendered by the monks to Christian civilization, and no +Protestant will accept his views as to the permanent worth of monastic +institutions. With this qualification, and with some allowance for +needless repetitions, we cannot but regard his work as a most attractive +and eloquent contribution to ecclesiastical history. + +About half of the first volume is devoted to a General Introduction, +explanatory of the origin and design of the work, but mainly intended to +paint the character of monastic institutions, to describe the happiness +of a religious life, and to examine the charges brought against the +monks. These topics are considered in ten chapters, filled with curious +details, and written with an eloquence and an earnestness which it is +difficult for the reader to resist. Following this we have a short and +brilliant sketch of the social and political condition of the Roman +Empire after the conversion of Constantine, exhibiting by a few masterly +touches its wide-spread corruption, the feebleness of its rulers, and +the utter degradation of the people. The next two books treat of the +Monastic Precursors in the East as well as in the West, and present a +series of brief biographical sketches of the most famous monks, from +St. Anthony, the father of Eastern monasticism, to St. Benedict, +the earliest legislator for the monasteries of the West. Among the +illustrious men who pass before us in this review, and all of whom are +skilfully delineated, are Basil of Caesarea and his friend Gregory +Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, Athanasius, Martin of Tours, +and the numerous company of saints and doctors nurtured in the great +monastery of Lerins. And though an account of the saintly women who have +led lives of seclusion would scarcely seem to be included under the +title of Montalembert's work, he does not neglect to add sketches of the +most conspicuous of them,--Euphrosyne, Pelagia, Marcella, Furia, and +others. These preliminary sketches fill the last half of the first +volume. + +The Fourth Book comprises an account of the Life and Rule of St. +Benedict, and properly opens the history which Montalembert proposes +to narrate. It presents a sufficiently minute sketch of the personal +history of Benedict and his immediate followers; but its chief merit is +in its very ample and satisfactory exposition of the Benedictine Rule. +The next book traces the history of monastic institutions in Italy and +Spain during the sixth and seventh centuries, and includes biographical +notices of Cassiodorus, the founder of the once famous monastery of +Viviers in Calabria, of St. Gregory the Great, of Leander, Bishop of +Seville, and his brother Isidore, of Ildefonso of Toledo, and of many +others of scarcely less renown in the early monastic records. The Sixth +Book is devoted to the monks under the first Merovingians, and is +divided into five sections, treating respectively of the conquest +of Gaul by the Franks, of the arrival of St. Maur in Anjou and the +propagation of the Benedictine rule there, of the relations previously +existing between the monks and the Merovingians, of St. Radegund and her +followers, and of the services of the monks in clearing the forests +and opening the way for the advance of civilization. The Seventh Book +records the life of St. Columbanus, and describes at much length his +labors in Gaul, as well as those of his disciples, both in the great +monastery of Luxeuil and in the numerous colonies which issued from it +and spread over the whole neighborhood, bringing the narrative down +to the close of the seventh century. At this point the portion of +Montalembert's work now published terminates, leaving, we presume, +several additional volumes to follow. For their appearance we shall look +with much interest. If the remainder is executed in the same spirit as +the portion now before us, and is marked by the same diligent study of +the original authorities and the same persuasive eloquence, it will form +one of the most valuable of the many attractive monographs which we +owe to the French historians of our time, and will be read with equal +interest by Catholics and Protestants. + + +_Eighty Years' Progress of the United States, showing the Various +Channels of Industry and Education through which the People of the +United States have arisen from a British Colony to their Present +National Importance_. Illustrated with over Two Hundred Engravings. New +York: 51 John Street. Worcester: L. Stebbins. Two Volumes. 8vo. + +A vast amount of useful information is treasured up in these two +national volumes. Agriculture, commerce and trade, the cultivation of +cotton, education, the arts of design, banking, mining, steam, the +fur-trade, etc., are subjects of interest everywhere, and the present +writers seem to be specially competent for the task they have assumed. +If the household library should possess such books more frequently, less +ignorance would prevail on topics concerning which every American ought +to be well-informed. Woful silence usually prevails when a foreigner +asks for statistics on any point connected with our industrial progress, +and very few take the trouble to get at facts which are easy enough +to be had with a little painstaking. We are glad to see so much good +material brought together as we find in these two well-filled volumes. + + +_Electro-Physiology and Electro-Therapeutics: Showing the Rules and +Methods for the Employment of Galvanism in Nervous Diseases_, etc. +Second Edition, with Additions. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1861. + +At a time when the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile of the medical +world is pretty thoroughly breached, if not thrown down, and quackery +and imposture are tolerated as necessary evils, it is agreeable to meet +with a real work of science, emanating from the labors of a regular +physician, concerning the influences exerted by electricity on the human +body, both in health and disease. + +Electricity is one of the great powers of Nature, pervading all matter, +existing in all mineral, vegetable, and animal bodies, not only acting +in the combinations of the elements and molecules, but also serving as a +means for their separation from each other. This imponderable fluid or +power, whatever it may be, whether one or two, or a polarization of one +force into the states + and -, is one of the most active agencies known +to man, and although not capable of being weighed in the balance, is not +found wanting anywhere in Nature. It courses in great currents beneath +our feet, in the solid rocks of the earth, penetrating to the very +interior of the globe, while it also rushes through our atmosphere in +lurid flashes, and startles us with the crash and roar of heaven's +artillery. It gives magnetic polarity to the earth, and directs the +needle by its influence; for magnetic attraction is only an effect of +the earth's thermo-electricity, excited by the sun's rays acting in +a continuous course. Both animal and vegetable life are dependent on +electric forces for their development; and many of their functions, +directly or indirectly, result from their agency. + +If this force controls to a great degree the living functions of our +organs in their healthy action, it must be that it is concerned in those +derangements and lesions which constitute disease and abnormal actions +or disorders. It must have a remedial and the opposite effect, according +as it is applied. + +Is such a gigantic power to be left in the hands of charlatans, or shall +it be reserved for application by scientific physicians? This is a +question we must meet and answer practically. + +It may be asked why a force of this nature has been so long neglected by +practising physicians. The answer is very simple, and will be recognized +as true by all middle-aged physicians in this country. + +For the past fifty years it has been customary to state in lectures in +our medical colleges, that "chemistry has nothing to do with medicine"; +and since our teachers knew nothing of the subject themselves, they +denounced such knowledge as unnecessary to the physician. Electricity, +the great moving power in all chemical actions, shared the fate of +chemistry in general, and met with condemnation without trial. A young +physician did not dare to meddle with chemicals or with any branch of +natural or experimental science for fear of losing his chance of medical +employment by sinking the doctor among his gallipots. + +Electricity, thus neglected, fell into the hands of irregular +practitioners, and was as often used injuriously as beneficially, and +more frequently without any effect. The absurd pretensions of galvanic +baths for the extraction of mercury from the system will be remembered +by most of our citizens, and the shocking practice of others is not +forgotten. + +It was therefore earnestly desired by medical practitioners who +themselves were not by education competent to manage electric and +galvanic machinery, that some medical man of good standing, who had +made a special study of this subject, should undertake the treatment of +diseases requiring the use of electricity. Dr. Garratt was induced +to undertake this important duty, and he has prepared a work on this +practice which embraces all that has appeared in the writings of others, +both in this country and Europe, while he has, from his own researches +and rich experience, added much new matter of great practical value. +Among his original contributions we note,-- + +1st. A definite, systematic method for the application of Galvanic and +Faradaic currents of electricity to the human organism, for curing or +aiding in the cure of given classes of diseases. (See pages 475, 479, +and 669 to 706; also Chap. 5, p. 280.) + +2d. Improvements in the methods of applying electricity, as stated on +pages 293 to 296, and 300, 329, and 332, which we have not room to copy. + +3d. He has introduced the term Faradaic current to represent the induced +current, first discovered by Professor Henry, and so much extended in +application by Faraday. + +4th. The determination of several definite points in sentient and +mixed nerves, often the seats of neuralgic pain,--thus correcting Dr. +Valleix's painful points. + +5th. The treatment of uterine, and some other female disorders, by means +of the induced galvanic current (pages 612 to 621). + +A careful examination of this book shows it to contain a very full +_resume_ of the best which have been written on the subjects embraced +under the medical applications of electricity in its various modes of +development, and a careful analysis of the doctrines of others; while +the author has given frankly an account of cases in which he has failed, +as of those in which he has been successful. He does not offer electric +treatment as a panacea for "all the ills which flesh is heir to," but +shows how far and in what cases it proves beneficial. He has shown that +there is a right and a wrong way of operating, and that mischief may be +done by an unskilful hand, while one who is well qualified by scientific +knowledge and practical experience may do much good, and in many +diseases,--more especially in those of the nerves, such as neuralgia +and partial paralysis, in which remarkable cures have been effected. We +commend this work to the attention of medical gentlemen, and especially +to students of medicine who wish to be posted up in the novel methods +of treating diseases. It is also a book which all scientific men may +consult with advantage, and which will gratify the curiosity of the +general scholar. + + +_Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S., Late Regius Professor of Natural +History in the University of Edinburgh_. By GEORGE WILSON, M.D., +F.R.S.E., and ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S.E., etc. Cambridge and London: +MacMillan & Co. + +Dr. Wilson did not live to finish the memoir which he so ably began. +The great naturalist, Edward Forbes, deserved the best from his +contemporaries, and we are glad to have the combined labors of such +distinguished men as Wilson and Geikie put forth in commemoration of +him. The chair of Natural History at Edinburgh was honored by him +whose biography is now before us. His advent to that eminent post was +everywhere hailed with a unanimity that augured well for his career, and +no one could have been chosen to succeed the illustrious Jameson for +whom there could have been more enthusiasm. His admitted genius and the +range of his acquirements fully entitled him to the office, and all who +know him looked forward to brilliant accomplishments in his varied paths +of science. Death closed the brief years of this earnest student at the +early age of thirty-nine. Cut off in the prime of his days, with his +powers and purposes but partially unfolded, he yet shows grandly among +the best men of his time. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Laws of Massachusetts relating to Individual Rights and Liabilities, +compiled from the General Statutes. Boston. Benj. B. Russell. 16mo. +paper. pp. 131. 25 cts. + +Chambers's Encyclopedia. A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the +People. Part XXXIV. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. +47. 15 cts. + +A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle; to which +is added a Lecture on Platinum. By Michael Faraday. New York. Harper & +Brothers. 24mo. pp. 217. 50 cts. + +Great Expectations. By Charles Dickens. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & +Brothers. 8vo. pp. 266. $1.50. + +Latin Accidence and Primary Lesson-Book, containing a full Exhibition of +the Forms of Words, and First Lessons in Reading. By George W. Collord, +A.M. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 348. $1.00. + +Life and Adventures in the South Pacific. By a Roving Printer. New York. +Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 354. $1.25. + +The Southern Rebellion, and The War for the Union. A History of the Rise +and Progress of the Rebellion, and Consecutive Narrative of Events and +Incidents. New York. James D. Torrey. 8vo. paper. pp. 32. 10 cts. + +Positive Facts without a Shadow of Doubt. By Michael George Duignan. New +York. Printed for the Publisher. 8vo. pp. 1103. $2.50. + +The House on the Moor. By the Author of "Margaret Maitland," etc. New +York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 405. $1.00. + +Learning to Read, to Write, and to Compose,--all at the Same Time. By +J.A. Jacobs, A.M. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 18mo. pp. 330. 50 cts. + +First Lessons in Greek: the Beginner's Companion-Book to Hadley's +Grammar. By James Morris Whiton. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. +120. 75 cts. + +Precaution. A Novel. By J. Fenimore Cooper. With a Discourse on the +Life, Genius, and Writings of the Author, by William Cullen Bryant. +Illustrated from Drawings by F.O.C. Darley. New York. W.A. Townsend & +Co. 12mo. pp. 485. $1.50. + +Eighty Years' Progress of the United States, showing the Various +Channels of Industry and Education through which the People of the +United States have arisen from a British Colony to their Present +National Importance. Illustrated with over Two Hundred Engravings. New +York and Worcester. L. Stebbins. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 457, 455. $5.00. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 8, ISSUE +49, NOVEMBER, 1861*** + + +******* This file should be named 11415.txt or 11415.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/4/1/11415 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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